I just flew 11 hours in the middle seat, including next to a fatty. I’d pass my nude body across the security conveyor belt to not do that again.
I've only seen these in foreign airports. Middle East had extra security/xrays at the gates. Some have xrays at the doors just entering the airport Tbqh, I'm cool with that in these countries.
I’ve gone through extra scanners at gates in Istanbul, Cairo and Munich that I can remember off the top of my head. Buenos Aires just performed a manual search of every carry on bag at the gate. Never seen that before. Seemed like it was airline specific?
Nailed this post. Had all that bullshit on the way to Bali, and will go through it again tomorrow to Myanmar
I’m making an assumption that due to the extended length of your travel that you’re budgeting, but in case you are willing to spend more: We flew from Hanoi to Dong Hoi to get yo Phong Nha, and after Phong Nha we flew from Hue to Da Lat. For everything else we used a car service, including the 4 hour drive from Phong Nha to Hue. Our car service the entire trip was Vietnam Locals. They were fantastic and pretty cheap, with the benefit of being on our time schedule and taking us from door to door as opposed to the overnight buses. We communicated with them via WhatsApp and the drivers were always nice and professional and the cars new and clean
Went to Chamonix last February. Vallée Blanche was an incredible experience, and the town was amazing. That said, I prefer skiing the Rockies over the Alps.
I’ll be on the Italian side of the Alps. Did you fly over your sky attire (pants/bibs, jackets, etc) or did you rent there?
Flew it over, but rented boots versus taking my own, and I don't own skies. I would recommend flying it over -- it really wasn't a hassle other than needing to check my bag (which is free anyway) vs taking only a carry-on.
I’ll be over there for 10 days and only allocating 3 to ski so I was seeing how best to maximize luggage space.
Check a bag, then take a carry-on... That's what I would do. Check a bag with heavy/main stuff (I checked a backpack, and it only had ski stuff in it), and then I had a roll carry-on for my normal clothes, and then a regular work backpack for my computer and work related stuff.
Looking at doing an Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City road trip in late spring. Any recommendations on those? Used the search function and didn't see too much.
Going to Australia in a month.... I am spending some time in Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef. Looking for one other area to visit... any recommendations? I was thinking maybe Melbourne or the Gold Coast, but open to anything. Also thank you user PJP3 and all others for the New Zealand recs this past fall. Greatly helped my ability to plan a great trip- I wouldn't have had much of an idea of where to start without everyone's help.
I'll post more when I can but the food at this resort in Mexico has been absolutely unreal. I'd put every single dinner in my Top 25 meals I've ever had. Gecko Rock Resort.
4 rooms. 2 buildings with 2 mirror image rooms on either side of the building. Had a blast and, again, the food had me contemplating assuming Mike's identity.
Tulum write-up: Spoiler Exceeded my expectations. I knew it'd be beautiful and the food would be good, but was worried it'd be a little too commercialized and touristy for my tastes. Pretty much all of that was true, but in a good mix -- beaches were amazing, food was first-fucking-class, and while it was tourist and crowded, that didn't really detract from the setting. I've been to some beautiful beaches all over the world, and Tulum is right up there with the best. Was blown away. Biggest negative was the price, outside of food it was somewhat expensive, but that's to be expected with how much it's blown up. Arrived a night before the GF, so rented a car and drove to Chichen Itza. Where Eagles Dare is correct -- you can book cars for like $5-10/day, but then you're forced to pay $500+ for insurance. Big kick in the nuts on arrival. But the roads were super safe, about a 2 hour drive from Cancun airport. Stayed in a pretty nice hotel outside of Chichen, there are about 4-5 nice hotels that are legit. Checked out Cenote Ik Kil, just 1 mile away from Chichen Itza, which was phenomenal. Chilled that night and watched Clemson-OSU, woke up early for Chichen Itza. It was cool, takes like 1.5 hours. Something else to check off the list. Left around noon, drove to Cancun to pick up the GF and head to Tulum. Checked into our airbnb, went and grabbed a bite, but we were in bed before midnight. Next day we woke up early and hit the public beach, which was fine. You can rent public cabanas with tents for like 200 pesos (approx $10), and get served food and booze all day. I was surprised at how empty the beaches are before noon-1 PM. By early afternoon it gets SUPER crowded, but if you go in the AM it's very chill. Spent a few hours on the beach, went back and showered up, hit the beach route that evening. There's a famous South African artist/sculptor named Daniel Popper that does a bunch of wood projects for festivals, he's been to Afrikaburn a few times. He has one that's a permanent fixture at Ahau, had always wanted to see it. Super cool: There's amazing art/sculptures all along the beach road like this. Very cool vibe. Went and got drinks during sunset at Mateo's, a cool beach bar overlooking the jungle. Amazing sunset, saw some live music. Spent an hour or two there, then got into Azulik, one of the famous resorts/bars/clubs on the beach. They had a minimum spend of 500 pesos/person (like $25), so chilled there. It was really fucking cool. They had the hammocks overlooking the water, awesome architecture, and damn good drinks. It was Jan 30, so not a lot going on, chilled out. Rooms are like $6-700/night, though. Basically chilled here for most of the night: Walked down the street and grabbed dinner, back to our airbnb a little after midnight. Next day did the Tulum ruins overlooking the beach. It was alright, but there were no clouds and it was oppressively hot and humid. Probably didn't see all of it because we were both a little hungover, sweaty, and just wanted to chill. Walked to the public beach afterwards and chilled for a few hours, went back and showered to get ready for NYE. NYE went to a big techno rave in the jungle. Got super weird, made friends, had a blast, back to the airbnb just before sunrise. It was rough. January 1 we checked out of our airbnb and moved to a hotel about 10 miles north of Tulum in the jungle -- La Selva Mariposa (the butterfly jungle). Super fucking cool place, cannot recommend enough: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_R...a_Selva_Mariposa-Tulum_Yucatan_Peninsula.html It's a bit out of the way, like 20 minute drive to Tulum, but we were fine with that after going pretty hard for 2 nights. Was amazing to sleep in peace and quiet in the jungle after being in the city center. January 1 we slept, got an early dinner, and passed out while watching a movie. January 2 we woke up and drove to Coba, a small town about 1 hour north of Tulum. Has some much more rural ruins, but also has 3 really cool cenotes. We went kind of early and had all the cenotes to ourselves, was super cool. Can jump from platforms, lots of bats, down in caves. Kind of creepy, GF wasn't the biggest fan, but I really enjoyed it. Spent a few hours up there, then drove down to Tulum and beached it that afternoon. Drove back to our hotel, walked to a tiny Italian restaurant in the little town with our hotel, and got real wine drunk with the owners. Good night. Next day we did a private cabana at one of the resorts on the beach, which I wish we would've done more of. They're super booked up, so if you're going to Tulum I highly recommend booking ahead. I would imagine you can call/email a week or so before and reserve. We did Papaya Playa Project. Booked one of these right on the beach: 1,000 pesos per person, about $50, is the minimum spend. Between lunch, a snack, and several drinks, you hit that easily. Food was phenomenal. Was maybe the best day of our trip -- veg out, private cabana, good music, did yoga, went swimming in the ocean and a pool, private club so it's not crowded AT ALL. We spent like 10 AM - 4-5 PM there. We were pretty blitzed after a day of booze and sun, walked around the beach route some more, ate and drank some more, back to our hotel north of Tulum. Passed our fairly early. Woke up the next day, got lunch, drove to Cancun to catch our flight. Overall thoughts: -Hot and humid AF. Maybe it's because I'm not in the South anymore, but was not prepared for the heat. I cannot fucking imagine it during the summer -The talent is just stupid. Gorgeous women everywhere you look. -Much more expensive than I thought. 2-3x more expensive than Mexico City. Still, there are taco stands where you can get 2-3 tacos for less than 50 pesos, so it can be done cheap. Lodging and booze are $$$, though. -Food was amazing. Just awesome. -Didn't do Akumal after talking to people and reading more about it. Didn't want to see the touristy/turtles in captivity aspect. -Resort cabanas operate like Vegas pool cabanas -- have a minimum spend requirement, usually like 1,000 pesos, which is about $50/person. Easy to hit when you eat 1-2 meals and some booze. If I were to go back, I'd book 2-3 different resort cabanas to veg out. That was one of our best days. Plenty of options, all similarly priced. -Azulik was an amazing bar. Papaya Playa was a super cool setting. There are so many options, just do your research. Ahau is the one with the Daniel Popper piece. -Having said that, the public beaches are perfectly fine. Maybe because it's a younger crowd, but if you go before noon it will not be crowded at all. If you go after 1-2 PM, it's going to be slammed. -Tulum ruins -- meh -There are 2 parts -- downtown and the beach route. Downtown is a cool little hippy, backpacker vibe, but is definitely a city. Down by the beach are the resorts and beach bars/restaurants, much cooler vibe, just more expensive. -If I were to return, I'd probably just splurge and stay down on the beach route. A lot more expensive than anywhere else, but super cool. But you're probably looking at like $300/night on the low end. The resorts are like $500/night. -Beaches are picturesque. Fucking beautiful. Jungle is amazing as well.
First you didn't go to chimocos, shame on you. Agree food is amazing and it blew me away too. I was very apprehensive about going to a commercializrd place. You should have stayed on the beach. Had same experience at Tulum ruins. Jesus it was hot. Car insurance was a rip off.
We had planned on it, just couldn't fit it in. Always got too boozey and didn't want to drive. Will 100% stay on the beach if I return.
Which of these have you been to? If you've been to the country or state, but not the specific city it's naming then maybe don't count it. (Though I counted Put-In Bay for Great Lakes even though I've lived on Lake Michigan before. Full disclosure: I included Rome as well, though I don't remember that neighborhood since I went in over 20 years ago. https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/best-places-to-travel-in-2020 For me: 3. Asheville, NC 4. Austria 7. Beijing, China 10. Boston, MA 12. Caesarea, Israel (Weird choice imo... Not a whole lot to this place) 13. California's Central Coast 15. Costa Rica 18. Douro River (Had lots of beers with a local gal I'd met at a bar overlooking this river in Porto) 22. The Great Lakes (Lived on Lake Michigan, have been to Put-in-Bay several times, Grand Haven, and Muskegon) 23. Istanbul, Turkey 29. Maine, USA 32. Manchester, UK 34. North Island, New Zealand 36. Oklahoma City (lived here too yay) 40. Rome's EUR District And maybe 37, but I can't remember if we stopped in Paros for The Yacht Week Greece.
1. Addis Ababa -- really surprised it's #1. It was alright, but enjoyed other parts of Ethiopia much more 10. Boston 23. Istanbul 38. Quito 39. Rajasthan, India (favorite on the list) Weird list.
We spent a day in Rijeka, Croatia while driving from Postojna, Slovenia to Split and wondered why we didn't hear more about it. Really cool place and accessible to lots of that region. Piran, Slovenia is another hidden gem along that coast.
4 Austria 5 Baja Mx 6 Barbados 7 Beijing 8 Big Islsnd Hi 10 Boston 13 Ca central coast 15 Costa Rica 18 Douro River 22 Great Lakes 23 Istanbul 27 Kyoto 34 N Island NZ 40 Rome 43 Singapore Of that list the top places Id want to go would be Tbilisi and Malawi.
Can you still climb all over the temples? When I was there you had free reign and basically no rules; but there was a lot of talk it was about to end once UNESCO declared it a world-heritage site.
Nope. Everything is closed as of may 2019. Sucks. Have found a couple we could sneakily scale though. ETA: there's a black market that's arrived though. Locals have spots they'll approach you on your way to sunrise. Also some of the guys Manning gates around some of the tmples will just take a bribe to let you up.
I had a family friend tell me how Tulich was the best place in Mexico because it was nothing but white people. Very cool buddy.
That's unfortunate, but probably for the best. It was a free-for-all when I was there; but at the same time it was certainly causing damage to the sites and I'm sure everybody wasn't respectful. But it was awesome that you could go anywhere: Spoiler And it's still one of the most beautiful places I've been. Probably my favorite picture I've ever taken, hanging in my place: Spoiler
4. Austria 8. Big Island, HI 10. Boston 36. OKC feels bad man. Lots in Asia and my wife is illogically against traveling there currently...
For CR, are credit cards pretty widely accepted? Trying to figure out how much I need in my Schwab account vs. just using my sapphire card
Just got done sailing the BVI's over christmas and new years. This isn't my first time, but I always forget just how wonderful it is
Nope. We went private charter, I grew up with a boat down there so it was easy to put together. We ran into them a bunch though (and another company call bucketlust...have fun googling that one)
For those that have done France & Spain: Minimum days would you need to knock out Paris, Valencia, and Barcelona but you have to start and end in Paris? 8? 1: arrive in Paris 2: Paris 3: Fly to Barcelona 4: Barcelona 5: Train to Valencia 6: Valencia 7: Fly to Paris 8: Fly home