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

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

  1. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    Got back Saturday after a week. Man, I love that place and am definitely looking to go back. We rented a house at the very top of the mountain with 270 degree views. Cinnamon/Maho/Francis Bays to the northwest, Coral Bay to the southeast, and Tortola to the east. Absolutely stunning, but there was a volcanic eruption on St. Vincent a couple weeks ago so it was a bit more hazy in the distance than what is usual, or so we heard. It was about 20-25 minutes to Cruz Bay. I might stay a bit closer next time, but we couldn't pass up the views.

    We did a different beach each day. My favorites were Francis and Lameshur because they were a bit more off the beaten path and less crowded. Maho, Trunk, and others with food and drink options were fun but a bit more crowded.

    We rented a boat and captain for a day that took us around to a bunch of places, such as snorkeling off Little Saint James (Epstein's island). Every BVI island was basically closed due to quarantine rules so we weren't able to go to any of those.

    A couple notable restaurants were Extra Virgin (amazing) and Morgan's Mango.

    We were sitting on Francis and this $100 million yacht pulled up: https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/archimedes/ Then the yacht tender delivers 68th-richest-person-in-the-world James Simons to the beach, he walks 20 feet in front of me, goes on a hike for an hour, then comes back, gets in the tender, and goes back to his $100 million yacht. Just a whole different world.
     
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  2. pianoman

    pianoman my drinks are free
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    Just hit up Lameshur today. Definitely my favorite we’ve been to here so far.
     
  3. DuffandMuff

    DuffandMuff Well-Known Member
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    I flew through Frankfurt to get to Istanbul back in October and Germany didn’t require a negative test for a layover. Just had to show my boarding pass to turkey. Same thing for my return flight.
     
  4. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    Very nice. Are you staying on St. John?
     
  5. pianoman

    pianoman my drinks are free
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    No, we’ve got our 14 month old with us. And having the shops and the resort amenities they have on St Thomas makes it easier for us. We took the first ferry this morning over from Red Hook and the 4 o’clock one back. St John > St Thomas though. We’ll definitely be coming back when our son is older and stay on St John.
     
  6. Virgil Caine

    Virgil Caine Well-Known Member
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    Just booked ATL-LAX roundtrip direct on Delta for $303 in July. Gonna hit LA and San Diego over about a six day span.
     
  7. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    Would it kill the state of Hawaii to update their safe travels website to say that everybody 16 and older needs to make an account with them and upload the requisite covid tests there? That was a fun and exceedingly hectic 20 minutes at the airport when they told us we had to do that even though the website says otherwise

    Drinking mai tais in the surf and nothing seems all that bad anymore
     
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  8. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Flying Delta One ATL to SLC. My seat doesn’t have access to entertainment. Can’t watch a movie on my phone either. Said they can’t give me a username and password to access internet. Had to pay for it. So pissed.

    I got 15,000 miles out it but been staring at my wife’s screen just wondering what they’re saying.

    Flight to Maui is the same plane. TVs broken and no WiFi either. Going to be a long flight.
     
    #22858 Lawnole23, Apr 27, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2021
  9. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
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    Had a bad Delta One tv too last week. Oh well, I came prepped and felt good to just travel again.
     
  10. two

    two Hello
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    Have a couple drinks and sleep ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
  11. THEBLUERAIDER

    THEBLUERAIDER Well-Known Member
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    How is Kahana Village?
     
  12. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    I demand more than 15k miles for 12 hours of flying time with no entertainment.

    Especially in Business class seats
     
  13. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    16195751541721384982038.jpg
    liking it a lot so far. Sitting on the spacious lanai 30 feet from the lapping surf listening to an extended family introduce their young child to the ocean. Parking lot isn't full, maybe 2/3, so there are probably a lot of empty units. Water's a little on the cold side and it's been partly cloudy and breezy, so nobody's gone all the way in yet. Spent the day walking Lahaina, which was more crowded than I expected. S pent a fair amount at Hilo Hatties on touristy garb for the family.

    tomorrow is snorkeling at Kahekili as soon as the youngest finishes zooming his classes

    Edit: just saw several whalespouts and a huge tail
     
    #22863 AptosDuck, Apr 27, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2021
  14. The B1G Kucktis

    The B1G Kucktis 2 years, VARSITY!!
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  15. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    We did the Dragons Teeth hike in 2018; we were going to do Haleakala that day but I got stung by a box jellyfish on my morning swim so we decided to stay close to medical facilities in case I got a bad reaction
     
  16. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Been up since since 3am. Still completely on eastern time zone.
     
  17. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    Moonset has been beautiful the last couple days
     
  18. CoastalOrange

    CoastalOrange Well-Known Member
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    Anyone been to St. Martin/Sint Maarten, St. Barts, or Saba? Starting to do some research for the month of working remotely there but not really finding a lot of good information out there.
     
  19. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    got a 5 hour wait time callback on delta customer service, supposedly people getting 10+ hour estimates

    got my companion pass reused but man delta having a bad day
     
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  20. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Kualoa Ranch on Oahu is fucking incredible.

     
  21. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    We’ll be there in 3 weeks.
     
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  22. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Do the two hour Raptor tour if you can. Worth every penny.
     
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  23. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    the atv tour here is so perfectly stereotypically tourist

    and its so great
     
  24. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Oh yeah, those raptors are fun, as long as you get to be the driver. I’ve done most of the tours and we got married there.
     
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  25. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    didn't see it on cursory glance on the site but i'm sure they still do single person atv's

    person leading ours i guess judged us as highly proficient so took us on a back route to end the trip and id have preferred he didn't. some serious steep edges and squeezing past the giant bulls/cows/etc on the land. a slip or too much acceleration and you'd have been in trouble.
     
  26. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Pretty sure they don’t do the regular atvs anymore unfortunately, just the raptors.
     
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  27. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    They said they don’t do the single person tours any longer.
     
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  28. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    wild, we only went 2-3 years ago

    wonder what happened
     
  29. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Pretty sure it was a liability thing mostly. The raptors are much safer than letting some person free on an atv.
     
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  30. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Yeah I was shocked they let people do one person tours after some of those sharp downhill turns.
     
  31. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    not a bad day, this is from a coworker three weeks ago.

    they scaled down their customer service agents during COVID and haven’t brought them back
    5989B2C8-2DF8-46B4-8234-8D1C43BB4E66.jpeg
     
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  32. Lawnole23

    Lawnole23 FSU Seminoles 2020 National Champions
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    Okay that makes sense. I’m platinum medallion and still get like 1 hour wait times at the shortest.
     
  33. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    Drove to the summit of Haleakala Saturday. Was prepared for the temperature drop, but not the steady 30mph winds
     
  34. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    My dad tried to call the other day and got the same message. He couldn't figure out how to use a voucher, so I had to help a boomer out on a zoom call. smh

    On those companion passes. Are they extended? I think I have like 4 between my wife and I and they expire this year. Not sure I'm gonna be taking that many domestic fiights.
     
  35. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    my last years companion pass was extended to 12/21, just look on your profile and it'll show you

    i'd used it but refunded the ticket so HAD to call unfortunately
     
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  36. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    We have a family member trying to give us a timeshare as they are old. Through marriott and 2k yearly fees.

    Anyone been in this situation? Worth?
     
  37. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Don't most people pay money to get out of timeshares nowadays?
     
  38. Nole0515

    Nole0515 Well-Known Member
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    Anyone been to Kalispell or Whitefish Montana?
     
  39. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    yes
     
  40. Nole0515

    Nole0515 Well-Known Member
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    tell me about it
     
  41. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    I was supposed to spend several weeks on location in Kalispell in 1993 for Beethoven's 2nd but missed out on the trip because I spent a few extra days in DC interviewing at Langley
     
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  42. Nole0515

    Nole0515 Well-Known Member
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    Basically going for a music fest but have 2 days with nothing planned
     
  43. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    cancelled my iceland trip when covid hit and have it re set up for this august

    forgot how much a mess renting a car over there is, all the weird insurances, the odd cars, the wild prices. probably just end up spending more with national and using the CSR primary coverage.

    but god damn at the WIND STORM INSURANCE, CDW, TP, CDWG, FYI all included shit
     
  44. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Not sure what you are looking for but I’ll just give my basic opinion. Whitefish has a lot of money pumped into it, one of the founders of Google bought several restaurants in town and renovated them. Didn’t really go with the vibe I had in my head. Lake access was pretty minor besides on small beach. We were there in late August so riding the ski lift to the top and enjoying the views with a drink was nice. Its a nice jump off point to go to Glacier which is a top tier national park in my opinion. Rented a guide/raft and went fishing with my lady down the Middle Fork of the Flathead. Think fishing or white water rafting is a good way to spend a day if you are into that sort of thing. Picking which depends on the time of year you are going.
     
  45. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    We had a discussion about that area (Flathead Lake) in the camping thread earlier this week. Wife and I went last summer but we spent the pretty much the entire time in and around Glacier, which is phenomenal
     
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  46. Nole0515

    Nole0515 Well-Known Member
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    main thing was restaurants and bar recs to go along w/ some outdoor activities
     
  47. RJF-GUMP

    RJF-GUMP Daubert Qualified in Cooler Thermodynamics
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    Looks like Italy is opening to Us tourist that are fully vacinated by end of May or definitely mid June. EU is having difficulties with bloc wide technology and agreement on vaccine passports so countries are just moving forward individually with their own systems. I’d guess by the fall the EU will have uniformity on vaccine certification/credentialing
     
  48. hood b. goode

    hood b. goode with the mandem
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    Hope spain opens up too
     
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  49. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    No, but they just sound shitty unless you really want to go to huge resorts for every vacation.
     
  50. letan

    letan Just looking for the gator board
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    rented a car in Iceland a couple years ago and had a rock fly up and put a little crack in the windshield. returned it during a snowstorm tho so the place didn’t say anything. had my csr as primary coverage but glad I didn’t have to test that out
     
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