That's enough for Portland. We spent 3.5 days there and it was plenty for sightseeing and shit, although not nearly enough for all of the amazing restaurants and breweries.
We are active and like to stay busy and see as much as we can mixed in with a little R&R. Do you have any recommendations on places to stay? Ive noticed hotels are mighty expensive so bnb will most likely be the route. Yes I wasn't expecting to be able to hit all of the good food and drink but wanted enough time to explore what Portland and the surrounding area has to offer. Thanks for the insight. Sure I love checking out college towns. Not sure if we have enough time to make it down there though. What makes you say Eugene is worth going to?
Did Airbnb in Portland. We stayed in Southeast Portland. It was pretty easy to get around from there and there's plenty in that area as well (our place was under a 20 minute walk to Pok Pok, for reference). Paid about $100/night 2 years ago.
I've gotten good deals on hotels downtown both times I've been but I also searched Airbnb quite a bit. If you're going to keep your rental car the whole time then you'll likely want to avoid downtown and look on the east side of the river, the southeast side that Jimmy mentioned is a great area. Their public transit is extremely useful and a day pass is only $5 so you could use that to get to downtown easily. Division Street has a ton of really popular places on the SE side and it's an easy walk from there north to Belmont Street so any place in there would be good
Thought my flight was at 11:40 last night, turns out it was 10:40. Show up to Seattle airport around 10 pretty hammered to learn we’re boarding in 5 min. Perfect start. Ethiopian Airlines is a pleasant surprise so far. 14 hour flight lets goooo
I would 100% do it. But you need to use the points by dec 1 so I need to see if there's a good route for me to be able to fit in before like June 2019. Will check tomorrow
I follow these food guide Instagram accounts for cologne and Munich. I end up following all of the Asian restaurants they post about and it's looking likely I'm going to eat nothing but Asian food in Germany
Booked a flight from Barcelona to Lisbon for the following day while out on a pub crawl. Thought it was 7:40PM, not AM. Didn’t realize that until I tried to check in the next afternoon.
Wife and I are keeping it relatively low key this year and going to a little over a week in British Columbia and maybe sneaking down PNW. Any Vancouver recommendations? Didn’t find much on the board. Seattle seems covered.
So Addis Ababa is crazy—in a good way. Least amount of westerners I’ve ever seen, but other than kids, the locals hardly give you a 2nd glance. I’ve walked around the city for the past 2 days and have seen maybe 5 white ppl. Just finished a yoga class and massage, and from how excited they were I may have been the first white person to ever come in. The slums and pollution are comparable to India and Nepal, but it’s not reflected by the population. Well dressed, not many beggars. Seattle has a significantly larger homeless population, which is absurd in its own right. The kids can be aggressive and try to stick their hands in your pocket, but a stern no scares them away. The people are so friendly, and the food is fucking amazing. Have watched the World Cup every night, was pretty rowdy last night with Senegal playing. Really good beer, surprisingly, and theyre like 50 cents. But gatdamn the food is incredible. Didn’t think it was possible because my expectations were really high, but the coffee is also amazing. Pulled a big dumb idiot move within an hour of arriving. Ethiopia just had a new PM appointed, and he’s super progressive and inclusive. Very popular. The Saturday morning I get here there is a huge rally for his support, estimates are 2-3 million ppl in the streets and I don’t doubt it. Obviously, it’s a good idea as a westerner to stay away from all local things political, whether it be positive or negative. Arrive at the hostel, and a group of folks were going to check out the rally. Not participate, just observe. Of course I tag along. We were on tbe outskirts of the main square, where the PM was giving his speech, maybe 2-300 yards out. As soon as he finished, the grenade attack happened right next to his podium. Was so loud, you knew immediately what happened. Just fucking mass chaos, but not to run away, to make sure the PM was safe and ensure the perp was caught. From a distance, saw the perp caught and beaten by a mob. Police show up shortly and take the female away (allegedly, it was a female anarchist dressed as a police officer). Shit was wild. Pros: food, coffee, people, beer Cons: pollution and much colder than expected. 8,000 feet above sea level, rainy season, gets down to about 45-50 at night. Last night in Addis, head to the north tomorrow to hike in the desert to a volcano. Everyone I’ve talked to said it’s amazing, but you’re not going to sleep—camping outside on a cot in 90-100 degrees for 2 nights.
Goes to Ethiopia and it's just a coincidence that he's there the same day as a political rally. Just a coincidence that there is an assassination attempt. And then he throws some poor innocent girl under the bus while he gets away scott free. Typical BamaNug
I have friend that flew into Turkey and stayed over night on the day of their Election (yesterday) That was risky
I haven’t been to Nha Trang but sounds good to me. Hanoi >>> Saigon so depending on how much time you have give more to Hanoi than Saigon. Only do one night if you do a halong cruise. 2nd night is an exact repeat of the first on most boats.
Heard good things about Nha Trang, but I didn’t make it. If you do 3 days/2 nights in Halong, be sure the 2nd night is on Cat Ba, which is a gorgeous island. Need 2-3 days in Hanoi. It’s up there with Chiang Mai/Pai as my favorite SE Asian cities.
Want to visit New Zealand. Sometime between October-December. South Island (that's the good one right?). Cheapest flights I can find are for just under $1400 round trip. Does that seem about right?
Buddy of mine and his wife just got back from living in NZ for 10 months. They preferred the north island, despite the hype the south island receives.
I booked a trip recently. 72,000 total AA miles for my wife and I from Tucson to Sydney (we are leaving for a New Zealand cruise from Sydney). The return trip from Auckland to LAX was only $480 dollars. I don't know what the mileage is worth, but $1,400 seems high. I could be wrong, though.
72k AA miles is about $1k if you use the Points Guy's valuations to ballpark it. So you ended up about there for two, which seems like a pretty damned good deal.
Getting to Australia or NZ is very expensive unless you are super flexible flying and even then it's tricky
Will be in Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes, Split, Hvar, and Dubrovnik in August. I know there are a ton of posts in this thread already about these places, but if anyone wants to relive their memories by giving recommendations, I'm all ears.