Let me know what you experience in Madrid as I might be there in Sept. Trying to decide if it's worth staying in Madrid for a few days or landing, hanging for a day then heading out.
It's a pretty cool place. Not anywhere near my favorite but there's plenty of stuff to do for a couple of days. And the train south to Seville is easy as fuck and runs a lot so transitioning there can be done whenever
Hell yea! Still plenty of good options out there in regards to accommodations. I know nothing about Keramas as neither the fiancé nor I surf, but I have done a decent amount of research into the other three areas. Every thing that Ive read is that Ubud is a must. Some people stay in one place and treat it like a home base, but I much rather stay in each individual area. You can get private drivers for the day to take you wherever you want to go on the island for $40-$50. We plan on utilizing this a few times, especially to go see some of the waterfalls. Lastly, there is a Facebook group called “Bali Life” that has been extremely helpful in putting together our trip. Tons of information and easy to search old questions/comments.
Keramas is one of the few right hand breaking wave on Bali, but it's a world class point break. Yeah Ubud seems dope, kind of like Chaing Mai if you've been to Thailand. TLAU spent a good bit of time there I believe. Trip might have been pushed to September now. Shits all up in the air
Only get a private driver to take you on a "temple tour" day. They know the best times to go to avoid crowds/lines bc the 15-20 people bus tours have set schedules that the local drivers are aware of and avoid. They also are knowledgable as hell about the areas because they've lived there forever. In one day we learned about the entire country's culture/history/etc just from making conversation inbetween stops. Also helpful to have someone familiar with the religious culture when going to temples to make sure you're not doing anything disrespectful or whatnot. Best to do this day early on in the trip because they can take your itinerary and tell you what of it is Instagram/Travel Blog bullshit and what's real if you're more about exploring the culture over trying to get social media points. The rest of the trip do your getting around via scooter. It's like $7/day for a 2-seater and anywhere you're going from ubud will be an hour or less drive. For the driver - Welcome to Mario Kart. For the passenger - take a xanax. Driving a scooter in the Ubud area was one of the most fun things I've done as an adult. NC Wolfpack for a waterfall day I'd actually use GoJek or rent a scooter. Just my you wouldn't be able to do many in one day. 3 max unless you're just gonna go hike to the waterfall, take a picture and leave. The best waterfall is a local one ~20min east of ubud. The rest are very underwhelming and not really worth the time to go see unless you plan on making an afternoon of it. Padang Bai is worth an entire day. Especially if you're into snorkeling it's beautiful and there's a ton of awesome fish in the bays.
planning a 3-dude trip to Thailand for mid-january. Not looking to party with ladyboys or whore-house it up so no desire to spend any time at all in Bangkok... just flying in and out of there. Any posts ITT have a rough guide for this type trip? Preferably beaches and country side. Getting scuba certified in September.
Appreciate the information. I’ve been hesitant to go the scooter route as I know my travel insurance doesnt cover it, I’ve never driven one before, and most importantly, my fiancé will have a heart attack riding as a passenger. Almost worth paying the extra money to not have to deal with that. Only have heard good things though.
Riding a bike/scooter in Asia is one of life's greatest pleasures. It's insane and pretty dangerous, but be smart about it and you'll be fine. I've wiped out 4-5x and I'm still here to talk about it.
Most common rec ITT will be Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai (in the North, Countryside, my favorite city in the country), then down to the islands (eastern or western side of peninsula, each side has perks). Ko Phagnan/Koh Tao (latter is one of the best diving spots in the world) on the east side, Phi Phi and stuff on the west side. Plenty of Thai info here
Yeah, we are currently debating whether we want to do Madrid, Seville, and/or Granada. Open to any other suggestions though. My vote is 1.5 days in Madrid then down to Sevilla for 3 days before Granada for 3 days then back to Madrid to fly back.
Same boat about scooters. Wife wouldn't let me get one in THAILAND. Hopefully Gojek or whatever it is is easy enough
We have done scooters in several foreign countries, but always in the countryside. My wife doesn't want to ride her own and just wants to be a passenger, so that's extra stress for me that I don't need in a city, especially a place like Hanoi or Bangkok. Riding solo I'd probably be more adventurous. Almost drove off a cliff in Santorini because I got dust in my eye, and got chased by an aggressive stray dog in Phong Nha but otherwise our rides have been non-eventful
It's a weird place. We made the mistake of staying in the main touristy spot (Anjuna). You have a lot of Indian teenagers from dry states that have, literally, never been drunk before--a bunch of 15-16 year olds drunk for the first time = not great. Also very catered to Westerners. On the other hand, the beaches and scenery are incredible. Food is very good, and different from the rest of India. Cool trance parties that you won't find many other places in India. I think I would have a much better experience the 2nd time around with a little more knowledge about the layout. Just don't stay in Anjuna, head north to Arambol or south to Vasco de Gama.
TO: Hong Kong (HKG) Boston (BOS) - $600 Cincinnati (CVG) - $571 Dayton (DAY) - $586 Pittsburgh (PIT) - $578 Raleigh (RDU) - $580 Sarasota (SRQ) - $652 Vancouver (YVR) - $656 CAD Washington DC (DCA) - $555 Washington DC (IAD) - $555 TO: Taipei (TPE) Denver (DEN) - $606 Las Vegas (LAS) - $588 Los Angeles (LAX) - $475 New York City (JFK) - $627* Portland (PDX) - $626 San Diego (SAN) - $564 San Francisco (SFO) - $578* Seattle (SEA) - $616 Vancouver (YVR) - $648 CAD* * - nonstop / direct WHEN: Varies greatly by route. Generally September 2019 through early April 2020, some routes including Thanksgiving but all excluding Xmas/NYE
A nice deal to make this Friday even better. No bag fees, etc. All prices are for roundtrip flights and in USD unless otherwise stated. TO: Singapore (SIN) FROM: Chicago (ORD) - $639 Honolulu (HNL) - $640 Houston (IAH) - $654 New York City (JFK) - $589 Newark (EWR) - $596 Phoenix (PHX) - $676 WHEN: Varies by route. Generally September 2019 through early June 2020, some including Thanksgiving, but all excluding Xmas/NYE
God damn FROM: Los Angeles (LAX) Changsha (CSX) - $349 Chengdu (CTU) - $371 Chongqing (CKG) - $354 Guiyang (KWE) - $365 Hangzhou (HGH) - $316 Hefei (HFE) - $408 Jinan (TNA) - $432 Nanchang (KHN) - $398 Nanjing (NKG) - $334 Nanning (NNG) - $432 Ningbo (NGB) - $398 Qingdao (TAO) - $419 Shanghai (SHA) - $398 Singapore (SIN) - $354 Wenzhou (WNZ) - $370 Wuhan (WUH) - $384 Xi'an (XIY) - $354 Xiamen (XMN) - $430 Zhengzhou (CGO) - $405 FROM: New York City (JFK) Chengdu (CTU) - $388 Chongqing (CKG) - $429 Dalian (DLC) - $429 Fuzhou (FOC) - $405 Guiyang (KWE) - $413 Hangzhou (HGH) - $464 Harbin (HRB) - $441 Kunming (KMG) - $432 Wenzhou (WNZ) - $398 Xi'an (XIY) - $388 FROM: San Francisco (SFO) Bangkok (BKK) - $413 Changsha (CSX) - $444 Dalian (DLC) - $391 Hangzhou (HGH) - $410 Harbin (HRB) - $403 Kunming (KMG) - $395 Mae Hong Son (HGN) - $430 Manila (MNL) - $417 Nanchang (KHN) - $430 Ningbo (NGB) - $436 Phuket (HKT) - $450 WHEN: Varies by route. Generally September through early December 2019
I'm in need of some help. I decided to be insanely irresponsible and fly to Paris tomorrow on a whim. The thing is, I've never been to Europe so I have no idea what I'm doing. Couple of questions. 1) Money. Do I need to get euros before I leave tomorrow or should I wait and just use an ATM in Paris. I figure I'll put most everything on the credit card but it's probably good to have some cash handy. 2) How much French do I need to learn on the flight over? 3) I have no idea what to do in Paris. Any suggestions that is off the beaten path and not super touristy? Like I said, I have no idea what I'm doing so if there's anything you think I might overlook with only 24 hours to plan this trip let me know.
Have no advice but I love it. Generally what I do when I go to a new place: Search this thread for recommendations Google “travel blog Paris” and read a few. I seem to agree more with those than general trip advisor.
you can get euros when there, use xecurrency converter to make sure you're getting a good rate. bring like a $100usd just as in case shit money. check your debit cards to see if any have international ATM credits/all free (Schwab does and is great but it's too late now). you can manage with nothing, download google translate and the french dictionary, can type shit in, use camera and it'll translate signs/menus, even in a pinch use the conversation function. it's france though, most people will have decent english. where you staying? 11th arrondissement is the hipster food area.
really good deal if based in any of these areas TO: Amsterdam (AMS) Atlanta (ATL) - $444* Detroit (DTW) - $444* Minneapolis (MSP) - $482* TO: Paris (CDG) Atlanta (ATL) - $476* Detroit (DTW) - $476* Minneapolis (MSP) - $514* * - nonstop / direct WHEN: October 2019 through March 2020, most routes including Thanksgiving but all excluding Xmas/NYE NORMAL PRICE: $1,000+ for nonstop AIRLINE(S): Delta, KLM BUY BY: We think these fares will last less than 24 hours
booked flights ten days ago and now if i booked the same tickets today it'd be $250 less per ticket reeee
You're fine. Don't need french, can get money wherever. Just do your thing and have fun. Good for you
Finally worked through all my GoPro footage from South Africa. Lots of good safari footage. Song was longer than I wanted, so added some Afrikaburn shots.
Call your card companies and let them know you’ll be out of the country. Some don’t require it, but it can give you a small panic attack if you land and none of them work. Also check your phone plan if you’re not going to use a European SIM. I know Verizon let’s you purchase an international plan for like $5-$10/day automatically as long as you have the option enabled for your account before you go. That usually works fine for me and I just keep the phone on airline/WiFi mode for the days I don’t want to use cellular.
What Why?Pokes said about alerting your credit card companies and checking your phone plan. We did Paris at the end of June. The Verizon plan cost me $10 a day, but was open roaming everywhere and I had no problems. The train system is pretty easy to figure out in Paris. We used it to go everywhere. You will need to buy advance tickets to most attractions. You can’t just show up at the Louvre or Versailles and buy a ticket this time of year because it’s always sold out. Go online and see what’s available.
Bump for this. Any recommendations for Lisbon? Going to be there for three nights be only one in Madrid.
I stayed at Hotel Komune in Keramas for a night. I don’t surf so it was a random stopover, but the hotel was nice.
For the whiney bitch boys TO: Brussels (BRU) - $450* Düsseldorf (DUS) - $488* Madrid (MAD) - $444* Munich (MUC) - $497* Rome (FCO) - $463* Stuttgart (STR) - $485* FROM: Atlanta (ATL) * - nonstop / direct WHEN: Varies by destination. Generally October 2019 through April 2020, including Thanksgiving. Some destinations include NYE and/or have availability to travel and return by/on Xmas Eve but all destinations exclude flights over Xmas
I'm suddenly getting huge discounts on Uber for whatever reason. Last week I got 20% off every ride and when I opened the app this morning it told me I get 40% off every ride this week. My ride to work this morning (since I'm flying out at the end of the day and my office is near the airport) cost $19 plus tip for a 45 minute 20 mile trip in rush hour traffic. Quite nice.
i basically always have 40% off up to $6 per ride offer I assume it's trying to squeeze out the paltry Lyft presence we have here
TO: Madrid (MAD) Allentown (ABE) - $579 Burbank (BUR) - $408 Charlottesville (CHO) - $579 Chicago (ORD) - $488 Cincinnati (CVG) - $512 Corpus Christi (CRP) - $535 Denver (DEN) - $459 Detroit (DTW) - $459 El Paso (ELP) - $535 Fargo (FAR) - $583 Fayetteville (XNA) - $535 Harrisburg (MDT) - $579 Houston (IAH) - $481 Islip (ISP) - $438 McAllen (MFE) - $535 Minneapolis (MSP) - $438 Oklahoma City (OKC) - $535 Omaha (OMA) - $583 Phoenix (PHX) - $545 Rapid City (RAP) - $583 Richmond (RIC) - $579 Roanoke (ROA) - $579 Salt Lake City (SLC) - $521 San Antonio (SAT) - $535 Santa Ana (SNA) - $408 Shreveport (SHV) - $535 Sioux Falls (FSD) - $583 Tulsa (TUL) - $535 Westchester (HPN) - $438 Wichita (ICT) - $583 Yuma (YUM) - $585 TO: Paris (CDG) Cincinnati (CVG) - $543 Denver (DEN) - $479 Indianapolis (IND) - $496* Islip (ISP) - $431 Minneapolis (MSP) - $474 Portland (PDX) - $469 Salt Lake City (SLC) - $543 Toronto (YYZ) - $543 CAD Westchester (HPN) - $461 * - nonstop / direct WHEN: Varies by route. Generally October 2019 through early April 2020. Some routes include Thanksgiving but all exclude Xmas/NYE
i'm really close to booking a flight in to Madrid and home from Barcelona, train to San Sebastian then to Barcelona late March into early April tell me why I shouldn't besides americas long haul product being traasshhh, although I could take a connection with Iberian but they seem to use slimline seats which are also trasaashh
I flew clt to Madrid on American and it was the best international flight I've had from them. But that doesn't help you