Finally back home after 2 weeks on the road in mexico. CDMX was amazing. I'll be coming back in february. What an incredibly fun place.
I’m going to the Navy - Army game and looking at flights. Plan is to stay in the city somewhere (probably Manhattan) and then get out to the Meadowlands for the game. I haven’t been to NYC since I was in HS and looking at flights. Best flight I can find out of Orange County goes into Newark. Is that a good airport to fly into even if we are staying in Manhattan?
Yeah, it'll be an annoyance no matter what. If you stay in the Garment District (between Penn Station and Port Authority, you'll be fine. There's a direct train from EWR to Penn Station and a direct bus from Port Authority to MetLife
Cool. I’m going with my uncle who’s been to NYC a bunch, but figured I would ask here since you guys know what’s up. I’ll be in here asking for recs on restaurants and all. Don’t plan on doing any touristy bullshit.
Follow it up in the actual NYC thread imo. To reiterate the differences between JFK and EWR for getting to Manhattan are negligible. LGA is a little less desirable.
The Newark experience depends upon your airline as well. It varies depending upon how many flights each airline has for gate access. The United flight from Newark to Cincinnati was the most delayed daily flight in the US for two years straight a few years ago, a fact I found out after flying it. You can see Manhattan from the ground on one of their gates.
It’s a United flight but at 7:45 am out of SNA which is one of the early flight out. We don’t get weather delays in SoCal. ***Knocks on wood***
I’ve been waiting about 10 years for a question on Moldova travel!! I have a business interest there and prior to covid, traveled at least 8 times a year there so I can confidently tell you, there ain’t much going on there but your trip to Odessa will find you bordering the officially not recognized country (very loosely) of Transnistria. With just an American passport there is a 50% chance they will let you in to this fucking weird place but it’s worth a try. I have a Russian visa that allows me entry but one time, trying to enter with some shit faced Romanians, we got detained for about an hour so they are also able to be asshats if they want. Trying to reach Chisinau I can also tell you is not worth it, not much to see and the roads are some of the worst in Europe by far. Try Transnistria, as you will be able to say you visited a place that technically doesn’t exist.
How strange that it's taken so long for there to be a question on this, based on the info you've offered here
Why exactly do you want visit Moldova? My uncle was a missionary there and about 12 years ago we visited. At that time there was not much in existence in terms of tourism, as far as I could tell anyway. It was almost like traveling back in time. Chisinau felt like it was stuck in the 70s, and where he lived in the south had barely made it into the industrial revolution. There were as many carts pulled by donkeys on the roads as there were cars. At one point driving down the "highway" someone had left a dump truck load of dirt across both lanes of traffic. This forced people to try to go around or over the top in haphazard fashion. That was one of the better roads. Some of the country side was scenic, but totally undeveloped. But maybe that has changed in the last decade. Maybe the most interesting part of that trip was Moldova Air. Our gate at the Frankfurt Airport was underground, which seems counterintuitive for air travel. So we got on a bus to get on the plane. We drove past every commercial airplane, past every cargo plane, past every military plane, until there is one plane next to the airport fence. It is a solid white plane with no markings, no tail number, nothing. This is the oldest jet-propelled aircraft I have seen. It looked like the DB Cooper plane, complete with stairs in the tail where we entered. Once in the plane roughly 1/3 of the seats were missing. Like they had been unbolted and taken out. Sometimes whole rows, sometimes just one seat on a row. But you could see the marks in the carpet, or cutouts in the carpet where the seats used to be. My seat did not have a seat belt. At one point we hit some turbulence and, speaking my best high school German, I had to do my best to reassure the panicked Russian lady next to me that we were not going to crash. I was not confident we were not going to crash. But it was a very memorable flight.
I just got back from Croatia and Montenegro and I bought a policy from hth travel insurance for like $68. It covered medical expenses and everything, but I was most concerned about testing positive and getting stuck. This policy provided $100 per day, per person if you were stranded due to COVID. Fortunately I didn't have to use it, but I certainly felt more at ease having it.
anyone spent time in Germany and/or Switzerland? wife and I leaving tomorrow for a fairly spontaneous 2.5 week campervan trip roundtrip from Berlin.
I chiseled a hole in the Berlin Wall about 100 yards from the Brandenburg Gate in June 1990 Got pics and two wall pieces to prove it
When we did Switzerland, we had to skip Lauterbrunnen because we didn’t have enough time. Definitely wish we would have went there. There are 72 waterfalls in the valley.
If you go to Chisinau, they have a pretty cool underground wine company tour, apparently the world largest https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/03/12/wine-cellar-in-moldova/
Europe is on Holiday in August. It might be unnecessary, but you may want to consider contacting a couple of the campgrounds to check the availability of spaces.
Welp https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...discuss-reimposing-travel-restrictions-on-u-s (If your party is vaxxed you are still likely to get in, but...) Duck70
Just got back from a quick 24 hr in Cabo (venue hunting for wedding) and it seems the paperwork to get back into US is constantly changing. If you are going to Mex and flying out I would recommend going prob 30 minutes earlier than you are planning IF it's a weekend
Just got back from a road trip: Dusseldorf Munster Heidelberg Munich Innsbruck, Austria Lichtenstein Interlaken, Switzerland Austria and Switzerland were beautiful. Plenty of hikes and outdoor activities. Seemed like there was some degree of precipitation every day I was over there.
Berlin is one of my favorite cities in Europe, but not sure how conducive it will be to campervan life. I liked it for the party scene. But it's also got some amazing museums and is a very walkable city. If you want to go to the Berghain, make sure you wear all black leather and don't look the bouncer in the eye. I would think Bavarian Germany would be more the campervan vibe.
Dillingham Definitely go to lauterbrunnen valley. We stayed in interlaken so it was like 5 minutes away. You can walk the valley. Walk up the main waterfall and look out from underneath it. Gondolas. Parachute.
Around towards Grindelwald you can zipline. We were supposed to do this in June last year https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/grindelwaldfirst/first-flyer/
That looks awesome. We did this ropes/zipline course in Interlaken https://seilpark-interlaken.ch/en/ Best part about the course is you’re on your own. No group guide or anything. Some unique engineering implementation made it so you hook on the ground and can’t unhook until you finish the course.
how different is innsbruck from switzerland? We want to cut down some of our driving, so are considering skipping Innsbruck and heading southwest into switzerland from Munich. I’m a big climber, so Innsbruck might be a separate trip entirely. yep, we’re in Bavaria now. Gonna get some climbing in the Frankenjura today and tomorrow. We are dropping the van back near berlin on the 24th and then spending a few days there before flying out, van-free.
Costa Rica bros -- how expensive are we talking here? Getting mixed reviews. I'm not doing resorts, etc. -- either camping or doing private rooms at hostels -- but looking at some stuff says it's comparable to big US cities, and that's is just shocking to me. Please tell me that's an exaggeration. Where Eagles Dare Oranjello 941Gator
Santa Teresa was cheaper. Not east Asia cheap. But cheaper than a large US city. Def cheaper than Atlanta. So Probs a decent bit vs Seattle. But I don't recall Seattle being much more expensive than Atlanta
I was only there a few days, but I don’t recall it being cheaper or more expensive than a US city. It’s not as cheap as Mexico but that’s about all I got
I can only compare Innsbruck to interlaken. Innsbruck seemed like the bigger town. Ample hiking/climbing/mountain biking opportunities. There’s an all access Innsbruck card you can buy (24hr/48hr/72hr) that was pretty cool. Gave you unlimited access to just about everything. Gondolas, tours, attractions, busses, etc. We used the pass for the top of Innsbruck gondola. Then top of the Olympic ski jump. Swarovski exhibit. Then another gondola on the other side of the valley for a hike. Interlaken was quieter/smaller. However, a ton of stuff to do during the day. Lauterbrunnen is must see. There’s hiking, paragliding, ATV tours, kayaking.
My 3-4 work trips per year to San Jose are cheaper than any US trip I take, but I don' t have any insight into how much a hostel would cost. I can tell you that when my wife joins and we explore the country we never pay more than $100/night for accommodations, and some include breakfast. Plus the more off the beaten path you go the cheaper it will be. btw one of the people I work with down there has hiked pretty much every mountain in central america and she's a great wealth of info so let me know if you get serious about planning a trip
I got flights booked dude Arrive October 23, ayahuasca retreat Oct 24 - 30 in San Ramon, like 1 hour NW of San Jose. I have a friend (tentatively) arriving November 4, and was going to meet him at SJO airport and then head to Santa Teresa. Looking for somewhere extremely chill from Oct 30 - Nov 4, preferably within a few hours of SJO. La Fortuna looks super touristy and expensive, but lots of small spots around it. Manuel Antonio looks a bit too far, but maybe not? Open to suggestions in that area. My flight out is November 22, so me and him will have 18 days to vagabond around. Wouldn't be surprised if we stay on the Nicoya peninsula the entire time. We'll hopefully have a car rented, so lots of freedom.
Flying to Austin tomorrow for a bachelor party. Anyone know if the Austin airport has a liquor store in it? Also anyone ever flown with liquor. According to the interwebs you can check a bag with like 5 L as long as they aren't opened. May uber to a liquor store once in town.
look into Corcovado National Park. You can't go to the national park without a guide because you're likely to get eaten by something, but it's awesome. Wife and I had a guide who was pure smoke, I'll see if I can remember her name/contact info. You'll want to have 4 wheel drive, and note that most rental car companies will make you sign a form that you are fully liable if you drive through rivers and lose the car. This is notable because around Corcovado there are no bridges. Canyoning is one of my favorite activities and you can do it all over Costa Rica, but if you're on the Osa Peninsula there's a guy in Golfito I highly recommend. He still hits me up on WhatsApp every now and then.
Don't know anything about Beaverton, but do know that Vancouver, WA sucks balls. Pre-covid I went there a lot for work.
Innsbruck and vicinity is beautiful. The Bernese Oberland is more beautiful. You can’t go wrong with either, but if I had to choose, I would choose Switzerland.
Yea definitely not US city expensive. But not Bolivia. If you rent a car read up about it in this thread. Helped a ton. Monteverde was a cool smaller town. Still touristy but it is what it is.
We went to the fort and some bar and then immediately went back to Portland. I can't imagine spending any more time in Vancouver than that.