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

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by Jax Teller, Apr 8, 2015.

  1. 941Gator

    941Gator TMB's resident beach bum
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    Convicted of a crime nonetheless, criminal!
     
  2. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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    C02A0684-66BA-41F6-9844-99BE6E1E0FB6.gif
     
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  3. two

    two Hello
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    Florence - Positano - Capri - Rome in 3 weeks wooooo
     
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  4. Gin Buckets

    Gin Buckets Well-Known Member
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    @ksim14 did you go to the Serengeti yet?

    Not sure why tagging isn't working.
     
  5. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    Sets google flight alert
    Next day: It's now 200 more
    Next few days: its now 500 more.

    What the fuck Qatar. I want to go to Bali. Stop this shit
     
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  6. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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    As a newly single person, if anyone is heading some place cool in the near future, and you don't mind a rando TMB'er tagging along, let me know. Had to cancel the trip to Madrid since it didn't feel like a good idea to be sitting on the same plane back and forth with the ex and her friend. Thankfully Delta gave me a credit for the entire amount of the flight. Now have a $490 credit for Delta and a $550 credit for AA.
     
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  7. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    Japan bros--I need recs for Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Going to do 3.5 days in Tokyo, 2.5 in Kyoto and another 1.5 in Tokyo.

    My hotel in Tokyo can get me a reservation at Jiro but not sure I wanna take it. Reviews have gone down and I'm holding out hope I can get into Saito. Anyone been to Jiro? Is it even close to worth the cost? We're doing plenty of hole-in-the-wall places but want to have some splurge meals as well.
     
  8. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    i expect a write up

    when you going? doing a similar trip in March but it'll be 3-4 days in Kyoto and 4-5 days in Tokyo. leaning 3-5 since people say Kyoto/Osaka is good but for what we like Tokyo is basically heaven.
     
  9. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    Going in mid September for my honeymoon. 6 days in Maui then a week in Japan. I've been to Tokyo before but that was like 5 years ago and I had no clue what I was doing
     
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  10. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    congrats on the nuptials
     
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  11. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    Thanks Fran but not official until Sept 7
     
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  12. Cooler

    Cooler A mans gotta eat
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    Doing Japan for my honeymoon also, but I still have around a year to plan it all out. Congrats on the upcoming nuptials also.
     
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  13. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Been there brother--but instead I tore up her ticket and did the trip solo. Head on a solo trip and whore yourself out at hostels.
     
  14. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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    There are a few good write-ups itt so do a search and you should find some good stuff. I didn't get to do it but ohhaithur (I believe) suggested a baseball game and the pictures looked amazing.

    What I did do that I would suggest:
    Tokyo
    - Mario Kart ride through the city
    - Borderless Lab- Digital Museum

    Kyoto
    - Fushimi Inari Shrine- get there early and then walk farther up than most of the crowds and you can have some amazing views
    - Arashiyama- Monkey mountain area; Bamboo grove- get there early or else the crowds are brutal

    Be warned, I did not find the sushi to be as amazing as everyone claims. Still good, but not out-of-this-world either. Trains are wildly efficient and always on-time, so don't be late or you will be left. Osaka is apparently known for being a Chinese tourist destination so it will be packed. I would suggest some place else, but I'm sure you will still enjoy Osaka regardless.
     
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  15. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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  16. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    Thank you. I have a pretty robust list I've compiled but was more looking for the standouts from TMB to cross reference. I've decided against Jiro and will focus on Den/Narisawa for Fancy meal.

    Appreciate the recs and the warning about Osaka. We're treating it as a day trip from Kyoto so hopefully we like it and then can just head back.
     
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  17. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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    We spent a few days in Kanazawa on the recommendation of a number of Japanese ex-pats at my company. Every time we told someone in Japan that we were heading there they would get really excited for us. Unfortunately we did not spend enough time there and the weather sucked while we were there but our ryokan was absolutely unbelievable.

    Lyrtch is the guru on fine dining, I am more of a low class foodie. However, I would highly suggest getting shabu-shabu and sukiyaki at some point. Osaka is known for their fried foods.
     
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  18. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    good to know about Osaka and chinese tourists

    I am an absolute novice with japanese food, comically so
     
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  19. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    and he's so modest, too!
     
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  20. Gin Buckets

    Gin Buckets Well-Known Member
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    The best advice :respek:
     
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  21. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Do sumo if its going on (only 4x a year in tokyo) and a baseball game. If baseball games are sold out you can get standing room tickets in the concourse. We had to do this for a giants vs tigers game as its the biggest game of the year. Highly recommend Andy’s shin hinomoto in Ginza for dinner. Was the best meal I ate on my entire trip. Kyoto as far as sights theres tons, but my favorite was Fushimi Inari Tashi. It gets a lot less crowded when you hike all the way to the top. For good cheap eats in Kyoto I loved Musashi Sushi off Sanjo dori. Cheap but very high quality conveyor belt place.
     
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  22. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    i don't really want to move between kyoto/osaka if I can help it, just do day trips one way or the other

    a hot topic on travel forums seems to be whether to stay in kyoto or osaka as a base for that area, what does tmb say
     
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  23. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    Will be interested in thoughts on le Barra if that's where you ended up going. Starting to look at restaurants in Barcelona and that's one that interested me.
     
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  24. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    anyone have the CoolLife luggage? seems to get the best reviews on amazon

    decade old samsonite bag finally had two feels explode on the trip back from chicago
     
  25. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Whichever city's vibe interests you more

    Kyoto runs from 6am to 6pm. If you want to do the cool Kyoto stuff you're dumb if you base in Osaka. I was asleep by 10pm every night

    Osaka is lively and better at night. If you want that, stay there but don't expect to do much in Kyoto

    Kyoto is far more unique. It was an easy choice for me
     
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  26. Fancy

    Fancy thanks, i hate it
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    I'm doing Kyoto and a day trip to Osaka
     
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  27. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    Kyoto seems more classically touristy, historical, etc. Mikey Chen(good youtuber for those who don't know) seemed to not really like Osaka much either. Seems like Kyoto base with day trip to Osaka to go on a food crawl once might be the play.
     
  28. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    That's what I did

    Kyoto feels like a different world. Osaka reminds me of every other cool little city or big city district. A baseball game and food tour was enough for me
     
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  29. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    I imagine i'll get enough of what Osaka brings to the table wandering different neighborhoods in Tokyo
     
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  30. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    i made a hellacious day of travel on the front end of my trip, MSP to HND to ITM

    then potentially a train or limobus ride to Kyoto, maybe just spend that night in Osaka
     
  31. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    kyoto. I didn’t care for Osaka
     
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  32. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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    The train system in Japan was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was clean. People were nice. It was always on time. Just don't be THAT guy and make sure your phone is on silent when on the subway. I was there for 2 weeks and rode the subway constantly and only once did I hear a phone go off and the guy was terrified that it did and even more terrified that he had to take it. He basically ostracized himself in the corner, spoke very quietly, then got off at the next stop. It is all about not inconveniencing everyone else.
     
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  33. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    i'm oddly looking forward to the shinkansen ride from Kyoto to Tokyo

    train ride in vietnam was a trip
     
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  34. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Japan is fairly expensive, right?

    What's a comparable spot re: price? Western Europe?
     
  35. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Yeah I'd say so
     
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  36. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    It was more reasonable than I expected. Same as a major coastal US city.
     
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  37. WC

    WC Bad Company, ‘til the day I die.
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    now that's a fucking honeymoon.
     
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  38. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    Some follow up to this. I went on United's feedback site and sent a pretty long message detailing all the issues with my flights. I also included how there was a couple on my flight into Denver on my same one to Anchorage and when they got off the plane, the woman immediately went to our gate agent and asked them to tell the other gate that we were on our way and the agent told her it was all taken care of. United customer service responded to my email apologizing for the issues and said "I see that your updated itinerary caused you to overnight in Denver. If you can provide receipts we will reimburse up to $200 of those unexpected expenses to help out. In the meantime, we will also send you a $200 travel voucher for use on future United flights to help make up some of the inconveniences you experienced." I was completely shocked as I didn't expect any response at all. Pretty pleased with how it all worked out
     
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  39. Killy Me Please

    Killy Me Please I lift things up and put people down.
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    Need help. Planning a Caribbean trip end of February. I've found a few awesome places in Mexico and DR and my old lady is being an absolute bitch about it. She's completely bought into the media stories about DR. As if there's some serial killer down there. The whole point of this trip is to relax and soak up the sun and I'm pulling out my hair picking a place.

    I need very few things. Prefer an all inclusive. But

    1. Beach
    2. Alcohol
    3. No
    4. Kids
    5. Allowed
     
  40. bwhit21

    bwhit21 Well-Known Member
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    Just avoid Tokyo taxis, which are insane. I’ve heard a taxi from Narita to Chiyoda-ku costs several hundred USD.

    Train, train, train.. all the way.
     
  41. bwhit21

    bwhit21 Well-Known Member
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    The main spots can be really crowded but thought it was a great place to visit. Recommend Nijo Castle and Finlandia bar in Gion. The latter is a converted Geisha house and good for a cocktail.

    I’ll look back at some of the other places I enjoyed and post again.
     
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  42. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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    Even if it’s not crazy to you, she won’t be at peace in DR so pick somewhere else.

    I enjoyed Aruba. Folks rave here and elsewhere about the BVIs
     
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  43. Whammy

    Whammy Donde es
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    Did an all inclusive once with the ex-gf at the Westin Puerto Vallarta...great hotel and Puerto Vallarta the town was really cool and safe.

    A lot of Canadians and Americans retire there
     
  44. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    I despise all inclusive resorts, so I might be of little help....

    But St John or the BVIs are amazing. I particularly like St John and day sailing trips to Jost Van Dyke.

    Every time I've been it's mostly adults, but so empty you'll be good. Only 1 beach is kinda crowded. And it's not really crowded at all.

    Buy beer and food in the AM. Go to one beach in your jeep. Get lunch and more beer, go to another beach in after noon..

    Repeat 5x and never hit the same beach twice
     
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  45. Jimmy the Saint

    Jimmy the Saint The future is a benevolent black hole
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    DIdn't do an all-inclusive but Aruba is really nice. Staying for 10 days was far, far too much but it has a very arid climate so it's definitely different than most of the Caribbean. Even if you want to do the all-inclusive thing I'd recommend taking half a day to do a tour of the island, it's not very large.
     
  46. two

    two Hello
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    Room 15 ended up on posts from 2017 in this thread and landed on your hostel ones. Did you ever end up opening one?
     
  47. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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    It’s in progress. Under contract on some land and then will build. Safe to say it’s taken longer than anticipated but it’s happening.

    I’ll post more in here once it gets closer to opening.
     
  48. Pasta88

    Pasta88 Canes, Bruins, Raps, Jays and Sunderland.
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    Where can I find the expected flight miles earned for a flight?

    The reason I ask is that I want to analyze if spending $100-$150 more for Star Alliance flights is worth it since that is where my points balance is (and the flight is long).
     
  49. enjj

    enjj Well-Known Member
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    Hitting Miami this week. Should we do a Marlins game or Dolphins pre season on Thursday?
     
  50. COVIDiskilingme79

    COVIDiskilingme79 Well-Known Member
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    Did a Marlins game this year. Beautiful stadium but everything else blows. I'd say to only do it if you're trying to see all of the stadiums.

    We got our ticket a few hours before the game. Sat right behind home plate maybe 15 rows up and paid $15 a ticket.
     
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