Booked a flight earlier today to go up to Sun Valley, ID for a few days in 2 weeks. First vacation since February 2020.
My dad fully retired this year and him and my mom have talked about traveling all over forever, except they are the type of people that just talk about it. It’s a combination of things but yesterday saw good flight deals out of Raleigh to Key West. Booked them flights and rented an Airbnb right off Duval. No excuses now only thing to do is to go and have fun.
Already have two all inclusive trips booked for next winter. Hitting Dreams Onyx in PC with the family and two other families end of January. Then wifey and I are going to Cancun in April. Chance we might be doing a 4 day trip to Tulum in February.
I just did a two-week road trip through Idaho, and the drive from Sun Valley to Stanley is one of the best anywhere in the US. The Sawtooth Mountains are awesome. I would highly recommend going up to Redfish Lake to do some hiking. South of Sun Valley about 1:30 is Little City of Rocks. It's very much off of the beaten path and not very well known, but is a really nice hike with some very unique rock formations.
Does anyone know of or have any quality passport expediting services that still have pretty expedited windows? I used a 48 hour service back in 2011 when I needed to go to abroad for work quickly and it worked great, but checked and they are like ~4 week service right now. The government probably still hasn't increased the labor force back for the passport renewal services. A couple other expediters I looked into were similar though I found "PassportAndVisas.com" which does it in 15 business days. I need to update my passport and there's potential I need to go out of country around Labor Day so want to send it off this weekend and trust it will be back by then and some of these "4-6 week windows" scare me.
Was service would you use? I'd use FedEx / RushMyPassport which is offering 4-6 weeks just because of the FedEx brand but if PassportAndVisas.com does 15 business days or there's others that can do quicker I would.
Finally decided on the honeymoon, just booked 6 nights at the Hyatt Regency Maui all on points, $4,300 is the rate on the room I booked. I’m explorist with Hyatt (by that time might be globalist) so shouldn’t have any problem getting at least a small upgrade. Also used a club access award that I’ve got several of. First trip to Hawaii for both of us so pretty excited
If any of the west coasters have designs on Europe in the late summer to early fall there are some premium airfare steals right now between PDX and BCN, lots of different airline/route combos for under 2k RT.
Just got back from 4 nights in Belize (Ambergris Caye) and I do not think I'll ever go back. The seagrass problem is a mess & it's just so not what I expected it to be
Yep. This is easily my biggest point redemption at 150k but the value on that room is great. Also used 48k points earlier this year on a $1200 hotel stay. We started exclusively staying at Hyatts when I got the card so I’ve earned a good amount over the last couple years too
I'm headed to Europe in two weeks for a road trip and my friend got an International Driving Permit today. For those that have driven in Europe, did you get an IDP? It looks like some countries require them? We are renting the car in Paris and returning it there as well. Doing 4-6 countries.
I got one a few years ago to be safe because it was $20 and 15 minutes of my time, but I’ve never had to show it to anyone at any car rental place or border crossing.
I got one for a trip to Croatia in a couple of weeks. From my research you don't need one in most countries, but I needed one for Bosnia and Montenegro. I would go ahead an get one, just because it is so easy. It took 15 minutes at my AAA office. I think it was $20 for the permit and $8 for the photos. I've rented cars in Iceland and Norway without an IDP with no problem.
You can get one the same day at most AAA locations. I got one in 2019 and they asked for it in a rental in Milan, but they didn’t when we got a different car in Naples. Only the rental agency asked me for it. Also, we did not cross borders while driving.
Italy supposedly requires it, which is why I got one for our canceled trip last year. I think that if you're stopped and don't have one to show them, you might get fined if you can't cry your way out of it 10 minutes and $25 at AAA and you've got one in your hand
Very few things on this board do I know about but this is one of them. International drivers licenses are worthless pretty much UNLESS you want to rent a car in Europe or get pulled over by the police. Most major renters will want a IDL and again, if you get pulled over and IDL will get you released 99% of the time. The other 1% is if you have blow on your rental car dashboard.
So kind of in a pickle. Booked flights for wife and I to Paris October 22-29 with a ridiculous deal out of our small town airport. Due to a bunch of health issues (autoimmune crap), her doctors have advised her to not get vaccinated. Per French travel rules the US is considered a green country which for unvaccinated people means we just need a negative test within 72 hours no big deal. The issue comes if the US changes to an orange country (Countries where active viral circulation in controlled proportions has been reported, albeit with no spread of relevant variants. These include all countries not featured on the “green” and “red” lists.) then unvaccinated people can only travel to France if you have "pressing grounds for travel according to their list", a negative test, random testing while there, and a 7 day self isolation which obviously would force us to not be able to go and forfeit flights, accommodations, and anything else we booked. Am I missing something or should I just go ahead and cancel (less than 24 hours since booking) and get my money back now?
3 weeks from tomorrow i'll be married in aruba for 2 weeks. i am excited supposed to have been married and in spain/portugal 1 year ago next week. and then in colombia 2 months ago. so it feels amazing to actually be getting ready to travel. we've got restaurants booked and i am looking forward to sitting on the beach all day. my overall point is fuck the last 18 months. let's go crazy with some great travel going forward
lunch or dinner? we have a dinner reservation at the flying fishbone which appears to be right next door. we're a 5 min walk from there our first 3 days (2 of which are all inclusive though...)
Lunch, it's really casual. Just a (large) seaside shack. If you're comfortable with taking the bus you could easily do lunch there, go down south a little further to Charlie's Bar/wander around San Nicolas, and go back up for dinner. Some of the freshest and best seafood I've ever eaten in my life. It's the one place I went to in Aruba I'd unequivocally recommend no matter what you're there for.
Awesome! yeah our first 3 days are down there then we head northwest to the Hilton and ritz. I think we’ll try and hit that up while we’re down that way
Flying fishbone Senses Lobby restaurant Kirchen table Ike’s bistro Elements We have a sunset cruise 2 fools and a bull Fred restaurant
Did you wind up going to Round Hill? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts and details of your experience.
You guys are living the high life. We did a sunset cruise on my now wife's birthday. Had a blast but it was open bar and then we went to dinner at Screaming Eagle that does "bed tables." She fell asleep and I ate two entrees. No regrets.
We’ve been saving and planning for this for over a year*, so we’re taking advantage of the trip. Fiancée is a big time planner and has spent literal countless hours on Instagram and travel blogs planning this all out. If it were entirely up to me, we’d have a few more days “open” but looking forward to it. We also have a couple of nights where we start or end at a “speakeasy” which will be fun *for the honeymoon. This is our third planned honeymoon at this point. Have a full 2 week trip to Spain/Portugal and Colombia planned that we’re looking forward to taking on the future
Aruba is a great time. You can really craft whatever you want out of being there. I don't know how much "open" time you need. The half day/day island tours cover everything if you're into that. But we met so many people who vacation there every year though and I guess I just don't get it. We're not big beach people. If someone told me I could go to Aruba or explore some random old Soviet bloc country/city, I'd take the latter.
Ah, got ya. Think we're going to go there later this year for a sort of anniversary trip maybe. Searched in this thread to see if anyone had been before.
Have a friends trip booked for Napa/Sonoma in October. Staying in Sonoma and doing the Napa wine train one day but would love recommendations on mist-hit wineries and transportation suggestions (private driver vs. rideshare). There will be a total of 6 of us.
Hard to go wrong but I went with a group of 7 a couple of years ago and my favorite of the places we visited was Cline Cellars. Do a vertical tasting at Silver Oak if your group is really into cabs. Lyfts were super plentiful, although I don’t think we priced out a driver. Crazy number of good food options, too.
Cool, thanks. We arrive Monday and redeye home on Friday. The wine train sounds pretty great but we’ll need stops for the other days, so I’ll share those with the group. Here’s the wine train itinerary: A legacy is handed down over time, through family and tradition. And lots and lots of wine. This incredible six-hour experience includes a taste and tour of two of the Valley’s most legendary wineries – The Estate of Charles Krug and V. Sattui Winery. The legacy of these Italian families represents a combined winemaking history of more than 250 years. And some very fine vintages. Some say this is where it all began. And this is where your journey begins. At a glance this 6-hour journey includes: 3-hour rail tour of Napa Valley, departing at 10:15 a.m. Welcome taste of sparkling wine 4-course wine country inspired meal 1-hour vineyard tasting & photo opportunities at the Napa Valley Sign 1-hour each, tour and tasting at Charles Krug and V. Sattui Duration of tour is 6 hours
1 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday bookends had a lot of travel time to and from SFO built in (and a long, awesome brunch at Auberge du Soleil on Sunday). We could have packed in a fourth on Saturday without overdoing it/getting sloppy. I’m super allergic to reds :(
The wife and I had dinner at The French Laundry last October. I used the concierge service with the Amex Plat to get reservations. It was incredible. Crazy expensive but definitely worth doing once.
Yeah we couldn’t get in there or Bouchon, and I couldn’t persuade the group to do ad hoc instead of Morimoto.