I travel extensively in Croatia for business but have been known to get across the Danube to Serbia on occasion.
I went to Split a couple of years ago, it’s beautiful. There’s a music festival in Novi Sad I have my eye on next year. What’s Serbia like? Cool to travel alone? Beer cheap? Any unexploded NATO ordinance left over?
Landing in Lima 11/20 @ 630 AM and have to be in Rio 11/28-29, so that gives me 8-9 full days in between to fill. You guys have talked me into the taking the Salkantay Trek, which will take up 4 or 5 days. (BamaNug Room 15 - Which company did you guys go with? Did you wait to get to Cusco to book? How much should I expect to pay? Would you recommend the 4 or 5 day trek? If I land in Lima at 630 am should I look to get to Cusco the same day?) Assuming I start the trek on 11/21, I'll finish on 11/25 at the latest. That leaves me with essentially 3-4 days to fill. I'm considering two options currently, let me know if you have another suggestion. Traveling Solo as a 33 year old dude. 1) Salt flats in Bolivia - Gin Buckets - I this feasible or is more time needed? Quick Google flights search has total airfare at 700 for Lima > La Paz > Rio 2) Iguazu Falls - BamaNug - This sounds possible but flights are around 1k for Lima > Iguazu > Rio.
What are you looking to do? Maui is the kitesurfing center of the world. Half the island is one giant hikeable volcano
Will be going to the Maui invitational tournament for parts of three of the days, probably a day in Honolulu to see the city and go to Pear Harbor and already have a luau planned on Thanksgiving. Since we won't have a ton of free full days I'm just looking for any recommendations to bring to the group and seeing what everyone likes the best. I know there's lots of outdoors options like hiking, snorkeling, surfing, biking, catamaran, helicopter, ect. Just seeing if there are any must do's from those who have been there. Also any recommendations for restaurants and bars since we have nothing planned at night so far besides the luau.
For Salkantay, I booked in Cusco (2 days before I think, but know people that booked the day before). There are about 2 million booking agencies, and they sell your booking to one of the 300 or so tour companies. I booked through Wonderland tours, they were the cheapest I could find for the complete package (they even gave you a small pack to carry which was nice for me) and it was around $175 for the 5 day 4 night trek. Stupid cheap. If you go down to 4 day/3 night on Salkantay, you just miss out on some of the fun activities like hot springs and ziplining. They were nice, but if you're in a hurry, you wouldn't be missing anything. We had 2 people go the shorter route, and it was kinda weird that they just left our group halfway through. I would recommend getting to Cusco at least a day early, maybe two, to acclimate to the elevation a little bit. I also liked Lima more than most so would recommend a day there. Maybe your extra time could be a day in Lima, a few extra days exploring Cusco and the surrounding ruins. Would be a slower paced and cheaper way to allocate extra time. Going down to the salt flats in that time would be really tough I think, but they were incredible.
Agree with message above with the exception of Lima. Thought it was skippable. Some cool art installations on the beach but overall meh to me. Def spend 1-2 days in Cusco to acclimate, one guy in our group was laid out with headaches the 1st day (I was fine though). There are also things to do there - Saqsaquoman (butchering the spelling) and the Nazi Jesus statue above Cusco is a great 6 hour excursion worth doing. I’ve also heard bungee jumping is around there. I did the 5 day/4night hike with LlamaPath and booked a month in advance - I thought the guides were high quality and good value for the money. Make sure your boots are worn in and you bring a ton of foot care materials and high quality socks (Smart wool is a great brand - somewhat pricey but your feet are worth the investment) - days 1-2 are mostly uphill and days 3-5 mostly downhill so the rub on the feet is substantial. I limped in to Aguas Calientes and suffered climbing the mountain behind Macchu Picchu - Huaynapicchu (butchering the spelling) but had to suck it up because it is a must do. My feet were chewed up due to not being prepared. Finally - save it for the night you get back to Cusco but stay at Loki Hostel. Well known as a the place to party for hikers/tourists, they light the bar on fire - crazy shit - you’ll definitely get laid but resist the urge to drink heavily before the hike. Not a good mix with altitude. Enjoy man! I’ll be Rio in early November, will update how it is.
We're going to Honolulu for a day to see Pearl Harbor and whatever else we can get in. Will be flying there and back to Maui in the same day so will only be there for like 8-10 hours.
Skip lima, get to cusco early and Alpaca Expeditions. I can't overstate how great they are and they're not expensive either
I spend a lot of time in Honolulu for work. I'd recommend trying to get to Pearl Harbor early. Traffic on the H-1 is a nightmare and there isn't really much else over by the Arizona Memorial to see. The roads surrounding the memorial are also under construction. If you have a car, I'd recommend Helena's for food. Me's Korean BBQ and Alicia's are also very good options in the Waikiki area. You can PM me if you want suggestions or anything. I just got back two weeks ago.
ohhaithur Harrison presidential site was cool. Had a good guide, probably an underwhelming thing if you have a shitty one. Went to the the museum at the war memorial. Easily one of the most astonishing free museums I’ve been in, shrine is incredible. Having an octopus sausage at Sun King. Not a bad day in Indy.
Serbia will be similar to rural Croatia as far as prices go and no issues with traveling alone from my experiences. English will be a bit hit or miss outside of Belgrade which I find on par with European cities of like size. I would even take Belgrade over Zagreb as far as nightlife etc.. You bring up NATO and I find it interesting that the border areas of Serbia / Croatia, still to this day have an underlying sense of uneasiness right below the surface. this is ONLY in the border areas and I don't feel this elsewhere. Those Serbs remember the US helping the Croatians.
I spent a couple days in Belgrade when I backpacked after B school. Loved it. Not the prettiest city by any means, but the night life is fantastic and the people are some of the best I've met traveling.
It wasn't the cheapest option, and maybe not the best option but we took an early flight from La Paz, did the full Salt Flats tour and flew back to La Paz that same night. I'd recommend staying at least one night, we made the flight home by the skin of our teeth. We were also dead tired when we got back. The salt flats themselves only need like one day to visit though.
Anyone been to Barbados? What did you like, what did you not like? How would you compare it to other places in the Caribbean?
Mexico City is incredible. Maybe the best food city I’ve ever been to. Crazy cheap, should be on everyone’s list.
leatherwood had a good pull/seal block on a josh jacobs 10 yard run early in the game. Leatherwood has good athletic ability , he's nimble for a big guy which is good for pulling.
Yup just got back. In 6 days I gained 7 lbs, all while walking 6+ miles a day. First vacation in a while where Ive gained weight. Thanks bRamonceTaylor for the restaurant recommendations. Ill do a short write up in a few days.
I need to do one as well. But yes, the food was the highlight. I also walked a ton, easy walkable city and felt safe the entire time. Went to a real luche libre show that was so damn fun
I tried, man. You gotta get reservations months in advance. I went to two nice places, but mainly did street food and taco stands. Three tacos or a quesadilla for 30 pesos (less than $2) is pretty hard to beat. Just had my last meal before the flight, shrimp quesadilla. Spoiler
that'll do one of my bucket list meals is Pujol and/or the new taco tasting menu at the bar they're doing
There’s an amazing mezcal bar called Bosforo that’s getting a ton of hype as well. I went twice, highly recommend.
I would have stolen a thing of their spicy honey if it wouldn't require checking my bag. That was a great recommendation, everyone loved it.
I always enjoy the San Angel Inn got to sit next to ex President Carlos Salinas last time I was there and took a pic with him
So thinking about becoming a premium scotts cheap flight member. Good idea or nah? I live in Baton Rouge so New Orleans and Houston are my airports.
i just did it its cheap enough you get one good deal a year and it's paid for i'd add other major airports that you could position yourself too like NYC and LA ones at a minimum
Absolutely. Saved my wife and I $400 a person for our flights to Kauai this year. Essentially paid for itself for the next twenty years.
Just got back from Iceland last night. I'll post a full review tonight, even though there are a couple here. In short: I very much recommend it.
Peru flights ended up being too expensive and had our hiking buddies back out so we decided on Iceland this weekend. Found flights non stop from Dallas for mid 500s, was too good to pass up. Going to need your tips and recommendations pls. We leave November 24th and will be there for a week. I’ve mapped out a rough itinerary and think we will mostly stay on the south side of the island making our way from Reykjavík east to Höfn and then back. Praying we get to see the Northern Lights.
potentially doing Key West/Miami in April, Iceland in June might sneak 3 days in Vegas in Janaury probably going to see family in Savannah in Feb this is the downside to doing Scotts, if I fill up I can't jump on any of the deals
Okay, so I carved out some time to lay all this out. Pardon the bullet points. It's basically just a stream of thoughts. This is everything we crammed into a 3.5 day trip. - We got roundtrip flights from Pittsburgh for $230 on WOW. Us being from Atlanta, we used SkyMiles for the Pittsburgh/Atlanta portion of the trip. I came away spending 10K SkyMiles and $250 total for my flights. The cheap flights were the reason we even went. It was too good to pass up. - We landed on Thursday at 4 AM local time and drove straight to Vik/Reynisfjara Beach. That was an absolute baptism in terms of being prepared for the elements. NONSTOP rain, gusts (20-25 MPH), and 35-45 degree temps. The waves are pretty violent here. It's a striking sight, though it's brutal if the weather isn't good. - At 11:00 AM, had a glacier hike/tour at Myrdalsjokull that cost $180 USD per person. Pricey, but absolutely worth it in hindsight. We met the group at a store in Vik and took a 12 passenger van off-roading for about 40 minutes inland to get to the glacier. Bear in mind, it's borderline sleeting and gusting at 25-30 MPH the whole time. You then take a nearly hour hike into the glacier. It's likely an experience I'll never forget and the weather conditions made it even more memorable. - Following that we stopped at both Skogafoss (which has a 500+ step hike to the top if you want to do it. We did. It sucked to walk up there.) and Seljalandsfoss. Both are cool waterfalls that are distinctly different from each other. You can walk right up to where Skogafoss crashes to the ground, whereas you can walk behind Seljalandsfoss. - We went to the grocery store for food that night. We stayed in a cabin near Hella, which was in the middle of nowhere, so that we could kind of experience it all. - Got up on Friday and drove to the Golden Circle, which is a close drive from Vik, Hella, etc. Went to Kerid (crater lake), Geysir, Gullfoss, and then Pingvellir to see the tectonic plates. The only part of those spots that costs money to go to was Kerid. - Stayed in Reykjavik on Friday and Saturday night. Reykjavik is New York City compared to the rest of the island, but yet it's small enough to where we parked our car at our AirBNB and never moved it again until we left on Sunday. - In terms of bars, we went to Lebowski Bar (college-type bar) and American Bar (same thing, but they had college football on). Both were crowded and basically anything you'd want from a bar scene. We ended up getting dragged to an upstairs bar called Petersen by some Icelandic chicks. It was cool, too. A little more...refined, I guess. - Food: I would suggest Icelandic Street Food. They do all you can eat style soups for around $17 USD. I got the Lamb/Meat Soup and you get free refills on everything. They own Icelandic Craft Bar, which is two doors down and has a laid-back, drink beer, and listen to live music vibe. They also do the fermented shark there. So if you want to try it, you can. We did. The famous hotdog stand is Baejarins Beztu. It's cheap. They're hotdogs. And they're open late as a post-bar option. - We got up Sunday morning and had a 9 AM check-in at the Blue Lagoon. Really, really cool experience. Is it expensive? Yes. It's $90 USD. Is it touristy? Oh yeah. But it's absolutely worth it. Also, do it either as soon as you get there or before you leave. It's out by the Keflavik airport. My biggest tips: - By going in October, we were told there'd be less tourists than summer/winter, but the weather would be more unpredictable. Go over-prepared. Bring as much warm and WET gear as possible. We underestimated the rain and wet gear needed to do the outdoorsy stuff. - Buy alcohol at the Keflavik airport duty free. We made the mistake of buying it at the designated alcohol stores in the country. A liter of Smirnoff and 10-pack of beers cost...$79 USD. No bullshit. - Gas is extremely expensive, as well. Just be prepared. - The airport is legitimately in another town. Keflavik is 45 minutes from Reykjavik. Consider that when scheduling your Blue Lagoon stop. - WOW Airlines was great. You pay for literally everything extra except a backpack/purse, but we knew that going in. It's basically Iceland's version of Frontier or Spirit. Also, the flight attendants...my heavens. - There are Americans EVERYWHERE. Not only does nearly every Icelander speaking English, there are American tourists everywhere you go. The language barrier will not be an issue at all. I'll answer any questions and see if I can remember anything I forgot here.
Agree with this. It’s a great resource, but to take advantage you really need to be in a position to buy within 1-2 days. Like you, I plan out my trips pretty far in advance. Will (hopefully) take a small trip in Jan/Feb, but nothing big until 2 weeks in South Africa in April/May.
I can do that part, it's just that since signing up for it which admittedly has been less than a week most deals are within a few months where I've likely already got everything planned.