The New Travel Thread: Now with write ups in the OP

When are you in Hvar?

 

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/04/deal-alert-new-york-africa-flights-for-under-500/

Incredible deal New York City to Kenya for December through February (the high season before it starts getting really rainy) for $400-$600. My girlfriend and I just booked today for February.

 

Also, I'd be interested in any fvel dvmping convos being had

 

add me on wechat antw0n3

 

Need some Seattle advice. How is transit around there if you stay in nearby cities such as Bellevue? Is it easy to get around or just stay downtown??

Similar question for Vancouver/Richmond.

 

I had a long ass write-up on Seattle in another thread that I'm assuming is deleted. Bellevue is nice, but not as cool as being in one of the neighborhoods. As with most cities the cool shit happens in the city limits.

Public buses are good if you take the time to learn the routes (doubt it's worth it if you don't live there), and the subway system is whack. I never used it a single time when I lived there. The good news is that there are a ton of Lyft and Uber drivers that will make shit a lot easier.

 

I've never used Uber because I live in backwards Alabama. Would you recommend Uber for getting around Seattle for just a long weekend? Can you use them to pick you up at the airport?

Guess I need to download the ap.

 

Yes on using them anywhere they have them... Much cheaper than cabs and efficient.

From the airport I dont know, because I never used them from there while living in Seattle. However, in Atlanta there is a city rule/law (Idk) that disallows them from being allowed to pick up passengers at the airport. It will be more expensive, but I'd just use a cab or the train (because that's literally all it's good for) if you want to save some money from the airport. Where you're planning on staying the train would actually work well I think.

 

july 14-18

 

Uber is the best invention of the past 5 years

 

Was talking to an Uber driver recently about the airport thing. Can't quite remember all the details(I was drunk) but the gist was that it's bullshit and they do it anyway. Would imagine it's pretty hard to enforce anyway since getting picked up by an Uber looks like your being picked up by a friend.

 

awesome...well great timing by me to ask the question.

for context its my wife and i and we are in seattle for 2 nights before driving to Canada. We arent major Buckhead Bros night people...but enjoy going out for good dinner and maybe a couple drinks. So being right 'in the action' isnt the biggest deal but want to be convenient as long as its an easy/shortish drive. Is downtown easy enough for parking if we just drove in during the day? Did space needle touristy things? If you stay in the city, is it even a walkable city or am i driving everywhere anyway?

basically is it worth 2x the hotel rate to stay in the city? Shits 'spensive

 

I'm staying in a hostel, but I saw a bunch of good airbnb spots in and around the city. Would be worth looking into.

 

Definitely a walkable city, and Bellevue is fine for that stuff. Make sure you get a good pic from Kerry Park, which is pretty close to the Space Needle. Best view of the skyline there is.



Also good views from Gasworks Park, and then the Fremont Troll and Ballard would be solid places to walk around as well.

 

Total novice with airbnb. Are they all BnBs or just spare rooms? I personally dont like BnBs because I feel obligated to eat there and be a guest and not stumble in too late.

Plus you never know if will make the whole house squeak and shit.

 

Ha, you're way off my man. You can essentially rent out entire condos/studios/apartments. Yes, there are 'shared rooms' or options where you basically live out of a person's spare bedrooms, but you can select 'entire home' as well (meaning you have the whole place to yourself). I use it all the time---used it in NOLA, London, Atlanta, etc. with no problems.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3449059?checkin=05/21/2015&checkout=05/24/2015&s=Mi7V

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3053237?checkin=05/21/2015&checkout=05/24/2015&s=Mi7V

Play around with it some. Awesome website/service

 

the amount of useful info i get from this site doesnt cease to amaze me

 

Gin Buckets TheChatch

Speak to me of golf courses in and around Seattle. How hard would it be to get a tee time at Chambers Bay approx 1 month in advance? Or am I out of luck?

 

Chambers Bay would be a giant pain to get to. Especially if you are staying anywhere near downtown Seattle, as its on the far side of Tacoma.

I understand its not the site of the US Open, but the Golf Club at Newcastle is way more accessible and incredible views/golf course.

 

it will be busy, there will be tourist hordes.

London is cool, but like NYC it is so big that it depends on what you choose to do.

Dublin is ok. The airport is easy, makes a good hub for traveling internationally and around europe, but the city itself is nothing special, a little bit gimmicky / touristy. Rural or smaller-town Ireland probably deserves more consideration than Dublin.

Vienna is pretty, with great classical music and architecture, but the people are uptight and it isn't really a "fun" city.

I've never been to Lisbon, but it would be high on my list. I've heard from several sources that Portugal has the best-preserved castles in Europe, in the sense that the castles are actually integrated into the fabric of their cities' design.

i wouldn't.

if you live in raleigh you could fly nonstop from RDU to heathrow, but it's expensive, and heathrow sucks

www.google.com/flights/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Discount_airlines_in_Europe

i would fly Delta, United, whatever, into a small int'l airport like Dublin, Copenhagen, or Oslo, and then use the domestic low-cost carriers (or trains) to travel around europe.

personally i would pay extra money to (A) Not fly into the UK (its border control is like the US), (B) Not fly into a massive, complicated airport like Frankfurt or Paris.

I don't know about buying 2 one-way fares from 2 different airlines. Never tried that.

But you can book this kind of route on a single airline. i think you pay a small fare premium to do this , but overall it is a very good idea. But be sure to experiment with different airports, because the costs can vary tremendously.

for example, using the June dates I'm looking at, RDU to Krakow is $3,000, RDU to Warsaw is $1,500, and RDU to Copenhagen is $965.

if you do your research, and get lucky, you can get a really good fare on a route like this.

 

I think this is really what it comes down to re: finding a good flight anywhere. Sometimes it will be through one carrier and buying all at once, sometimes it will be cheaper buying 2 one-way tickets from separate airlines, I don't think you can conclusively say one will always be cheaper than the other option.. But you just gotta put in some work. I usually research for 3-4 weeks before I actually purchase a flight.

 

agreed

i will also add: airlines use software that tracks your searches across multiple sites. They have some byzantine method for increasing prices on routes you've searched for in the past. So clearing your browser cookies, or using a different PC, and/or trying again in a few days, can get you a different price.

google flights is probably the best way to bypass this

 

So here is the update on my trip.

Looks like we may fly into Rome and spend one day there and head to Split/Hvar next. It ends up being cheaper this way and the way the flight times were lining up it may be a push for us to make the ferry in time to get to Hvar. Plus, I get to see Rome for a day which will be cool. Then we will stay in Hvar for 3 days/nights (Lukas). From there were gonna head to Budapest and spend 2-3 nights there, can't decide if we would rather do 2 or 3. Looking to stay at either the Grandio Party Hostel or Retox Party Hostel, would appreciate any input on hostels in general in Budapest. From there we will head to Krakow and spend 3 nights there staying at Greg and Tom Party Hostel. Then were gonna hit up Copenhagen and think stay at the Generator party hostel for 3 nights and meet up with one of the guys I actually traveled with last summer who is working like 45 minutes outside of Copenhagen.

So the itinerary is shaping up to look something like this:

May 27: RDU> JFK >Rome
May 28: Rome
May 29: Rome > Hvar (Lukas)
May 30: Hvar (Lukas)
May 31: Hvar (Lukas)
June 1: Hvar > Budapest (Grandio/Retox party hostel)
June 2: Budapest (Grandio/Retox)
June 3: Budapest (Grandio/Retox)
June 4: Budapest> Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 5: Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 6: Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 7: Krakow > Copenhagen (Generator)
June 8: Copenhagen (Generator)
June 9: Copenhagen (Generator)
June 10: Copenhagen > JFK > RDU

Nothing has been booked so all if this is very subject to change. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

I wouldn't waste time playing golf in Seattle if you only had a long weekend -- wayyyy too much to see and do. I also can't really answer as I never once golfed while living there.

 

I stayed at Grandio... It's owned by the same people, but a lot smaller. Winter time I'd stay at Retox, but summer I'd go with Grandio because they have a sick outside bar that they only have set up during the summer time. It's also a really easy place to meet people. You can't go wrong with either though.

I stayed at Generator in Copenhagen as well... Nice spot. Very clean, hotel-esque hostel, and because of that it wasn't the easiest to meet people. That would be my sole gripe about it, because outside of that it's fantastic.

 

Exactly

 

Don't stay in Bellevue. traffic is a nightmare.

 

That's my hood.

 

Now that my eyes are open to airBnB im pretty sure thats what we will do.

Any top neighborhoods to look at?

 

If you're looking to experience the city, my recommendation would be Lower Queen Anne or Capitol Hill. The other districts like Fremont, Ballard, Wallingford, Greenlake are fun, but too far out of downtown. North Belltown/Denny Triangle is also ideal for visitors as the market is right there and lots of bars/clubs/restaurants. Lots of cool condos on airbb in Belltown with water views.

 

I started a thread on this earlier to mixed response and it was suggested I post here for the experienced travelers. I have an insurance agency and I won an incentive trip to Maui. The wife and I are going a couple of days early before the "official" trip. During the "official" trip we have activities that are covered, so we are going zip-lining, doing a snorkel/booze cruise, and playing golf, plus meals all day. The two days we will be on our own are the days I am trying to fill with activities. It was suggested that we rent a convertible and drive the road to Hana, which I think is definitely on the list now, but I am also looking for a couple of local type restaurants or food trucks plus other sites or cool stuff to do. Thanks in advance!

 

Aloha mixed plate in Lahaina. Little bit touristy, but solid food for a pretty cheap price. Loco Moco and chicken katsu.

 

Went to their website and yeah that looks freaking delicious and 1/3 price of the resort, lol.

 

Hostels wise its very hard to go wrong in Budapest. Tons of highly rated hostels. I've stayed at generator in Copenhagen. It's quite large but very clean and nice. There's a bar that's somewhat social but you're prob a bit better off leaving the hostel to meet people. Istegade is a good area to go get drinks in. Prefer that to the city center. There is a little place called basement bar right around the corner from Generator though that was really fun and the drinks were a lot cheaper than a lot of places around there.

 

I wasn't the biggest fan of Copenhagen but otherwise a solid itinerary

 

We went ahead and booked all our flights tonight. Here's how it's looking now:

June 2: RDU> JFK > Rome
June 3: Rome (TBD)
June 4: Rome > Hvar (Lukas)
June 5: Hvar (Lukas)
June 6: Hvar (Lukas)
June 7: Hvar > Budapest (Grandio party hostel)
June 8: Budapest (Grandio)
June 9: Budapest (Grandio)
June 10: Budapest> Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 11: Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 12: Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 13: Krakow (Greg and Tom)
June 14: Krakow > Copenhagen (TBD)
June 15: Copenhagen (TBD)
June 16: Copenhagen (TBD
June 17: Copenhagen > JFK > RDU

We are booking our hostels tomorrow. Looking for recommendations for hostels for Rome and Copenhagen. Also, advice on what to do with my 1 day in Rome and then things to do in other locations as well.

 

The Yellow Hostel in Rome is supposed to be great. For Budapest, Retox was nuts, but a little too close to a frat house and the girls tended to stay at the other 3 hostels from what I saw.

 

That's an awesome itinerary. Would like to do something like that, save for Hvar.

 

Yeah I didn't really want to go back, at least not this soon, but my buddy really wanted to (partly due to me hyping it up for a year). There's worst places to have to go to though that's forsure. This time I'll make sure to do the blue/green caves tour and make it out to Carpe Diem, so at least there is some bit of unfinished business for me.

 

What part? Florida's big. I live like 45 min away from a FL beach, near Pensacola. ANTWONE lives in SoFla I think? I can't really think of a bad beach to bring a dog to, other than like Miami. And Key West doesn't really have beaches

 

This is just me speculating, but I would guess almost every city, at least one worth visiting, has an ordinance like that. You could always go to a more secluded part of that specific beach/city. I take mine to the beach all he time, not even sure if there's a leash law. But it's a small town.

 

airbnb imo

You can search only places that allow pets

 

I mean there's a sweet dog beach down here in Naples, FL. Dogs are allowed on the beach in Jacksonville Beach after 5pm and anytime on Atlantic Beach.

 

what the fuck you guys are turning on hvar? and therefore me?

 

Just because I've been there before homie. It's still incredible. Have so many more places to visit before going to places a 2nd time