Finally got our flights booked for Europe in May. Get to London early on 5/19, we'll catch a flight up to Iceland on probably 5/22, then to Edinburgh on 5/26, finally coming home on 5/29. Only 60k miles on United for the two long-haul flights and the flights between Iceland and the UK are looking around $120 each leg. We're going to spend a day at St Andrews while in Scotland and I'm already giddy about that
Going to play one of the courses? I think you can get on a standby for the old course, but are unlikely to get on unless booked months before, but theres 4-5 other courses there you should be able to get on.
I'd like to think of myself as someone willing to try most things, but I was fucking freezing watching this. Even if I were into the sport, I just can't imagine how effing cold these guys were.
I would love to but I don't know yet if it's going to happen. We were thinking about going to St Andrews on Sunday as the Old Course is closed for play and is basically a public park that day so I could walk the entire course which would be awesome
Probably a good compromise. But definitely try to play one of the other courses if you can. I got to play old course and the jubilee, and the jubilee was still fantastic.
I saw it in person from on the slopes of Irazu. It was pretty damn cool. Apparently it was erupting even more in the afternoon which I didn't get to see.
Yeah it was awesome, we were in transit from San Jose to the pacuare that morning and rafted it that day, back to San Jose that night
Costa Rica was awesome. Went to Arenal, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, and a day in San Jose. Manuel Antonio and Monteverde were awesome, saw a ton of wildlife at each one. Manuel Antonio has incredible beaches and ziplining near Monteverde was cool. Arenal was nice too but it was raining/cloudy so we couldn't actually see the volcano. Hot springs were sweet. Also, like someone mentioned earlier, car rentals were an absolute shitshow. We got a tiny car instead of the one we had reserved; got the actual one the next day which was lucky since we would not have made it to Monteverde without it.
Spring is shaping up to be quite nice. First trip with the lady Feb 12- Fiji Feb 16- Auckland, Renting a car for 2 weeks and driving down to Queenstown. 2nd trip with 4 other buddies Mar 2nd fly from Auckland to Tokyo for the weekend Mar 6th Tokyo to Manila, check out El Nido/Palawan Mar 21 Ho Chi Minh city meander over to Cambodia and potentially northern thailand Apr 24 fly home to SFO Anybody have any recommendations/cool places to check out/dope hostels etc for any of those locations? Went to Colombia two years ago and stayed at Happy Buddah per this threads recommendation and gracias for that it was a blast.
Anyone ever been to Lake Placid, NY? Randomly thought it might be a good place for a summer weekend trip.
44 days until India-->Nepal-->KL-->Myanmar-->Vietnam Looks like I'm going to be in Mumbai for the Holi Festival, or Festival of Colors. Should be quite the experience.
Doing a short trip to San Francisco at the end of April. Converting UR to SW got 2 round trip tickets from PHX to SFO for about $140. Went two years ago so we've already done Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, wine tour in Napa, etc. Any recommendations for some lesser known things to do? Planning on hitting up State Bird Provisions, Brenda's French Soul Food, and Rosamunde Sausages for sure. And Toronado for beers in Haight-Asbury. Went through the SF food thread last night but any restaurant/bar/brewery suggestions are welcome.
Tartine bakery is awesome but will be insanely busy. State Bird will assuredly be absurdly busy. Went for my honeymoon and both our favorite parts of the city was just walking around the Mission. Not all of it has been hyper gentrified yet. Lucca Ravioli to grab a sub, meander up to Dolores Park to sit on the hill overlooking the city. Flour + Water and Foreign Cinema were two of the better meals I've had in ages. La Taqueria + El Farolito were good stops, Rosamunde is right by these joints. Sitting on Rosamundes deck drinking a beer people watching was fun. Coit tower is up in North Beach but was neat if the weather is clear.
Just drove from Queenstown to Nelson in December. Some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. We did it over a couple days, but would love to go back and take longer and camp along the way. Didn't get to spend really any time there, but Wanaka seemed like a really cool town.
Gonna try to make a reservation for State Bird; have to wait until the end of February when it's 60 days out though. Went last time and enjoyed it. Trying my best to avoid repeating things but would go back if it fits into the plan.
Around Auckland (~30-45 min drive?) there's a black sand beach called Piha. The beach is alright, but the hiking around it is fantastic. There are waterfalls and all kinds of cool shit to see and places to swim. I loved it. Also, eat before you go, because there isn't shit around there. Spoiler: Piha Photo You'll get essentially this exact photo, it's from the road as you're driving in. There are lots of things to do in Queenstown, the only thing I'd say is a must do would be to eat at Fergburger, and stay as close to that location as possible so you can walk everywhere. I think the rest of the options will depend on what you want to do. Ho Chi Minh City -- Let me start by saying, it's been over 10 years, but one of my all time fav tours was the Mekong Delta tour. I am not sure which tour exactly we did, but it involved riding in wagons carried by donkeys, held snakes, river rides, ate local fruit, drank local alcohol and the like. Amazing. Spoiler: Mekong Delta Tour The Viet Cong tour is a must as well... Pretty self explanatory, but I thought it was really interesting. Also, I got to shoot a machine gun. Spoiler: Viet Cong Tour Don't miss the Vietnam War Museum -- I think it used to be called "The Museum of American Atrocities" The drive between Vietnam and Cambodia is pretty nuts. We rode on a bus. The customs on that danky ass road was ridiculous. Chickens were running around. Locals would constantly try to steal your place in line, etc. Ridiculous. Finally, and I know you didn't mention this, but if anyone itt goes to Beijing the Pearl Market is a must stop. I don't think I've ever mentioned that on TMB before.
No I currently work seasonally for the state of California as a wildland firefighter. So one of the perks (or negatives depending how you look at it) is I get time off in the winter to travel.
Driving the west coast of the south island is probably the part of the trip I'm most excited about. We are going to try and wing it and camp/hostel anywhere we end up liking. I wanted to cage dive in Bluff, NZ but I think it will stretch the trip too much with no guarantee of seeing any sharks. Id rather relax and enjoy my time in NZ than being rushed about commitments.
Got the itinerary for my trip to Korea. We will be staying at the Grand Hotel Myeongdong. Su: Arrive in Seoul; walk around Myeongdong M: National Museum of Korea, Seoul Tower, Namsangol Hanok Village T: Changdeokgung Palace, Samcheong-dong Street, Insadong W: Hanyang University, Hyunda E & C, & Green Home Visit R: Bukchon Village and Cultural Center, Gyeongbokgung Palace F: Gangnam District, Samsung D'light, COEX Sa: DMZ excursion Su: Architectural tour of airport; depart Seoul Anything I should eat/drink/do while in these areas? I'm travelling with a group from school, but I'm hoping we'll get some degree of freedom. I know nothing of Korea, but I always enjoy local flare when travelling.
Korean war museum is a can't miss. Overall, my favorite area was Hongdae. Make sure to go out at night here. Pretty crazy as far as bars and clubs go. Tons of Korean BBQ places around which were awesome and cheap. Dongdaemun market at night was also a highlight of my trip. Most of the regular stalls were closed at night but all the food was still open. Went with another guy I met at the hostel and ate and drank our way through there one night. Everyone sitting with us didn't speak english but kept buying us drinks. Most people know Soju, but I perferred this other stuff they had called makgeoli. Get ready to drink. The Koreans love to get smashed and you'll have to keep up.
Anyone have any suggestions for Tokyo? Bars, good food, cool places to check out? We are stopping in for the weekend and that's probably the biggest ? In our trip
My number one place I usually tell people to eat at is Andy's Shin Hinomoto. You have to make a reservation. Andy is a english expat who just buys whats good at the fish market that morning and makes the menu. Popular among Japanese, which should say something. Best meal I had in all of Japan. Had an amazing meal. Crab, whole fish, blue fin tuna, yellow fin tuna, some sides with plenty of beer and whiskey for two for about $100. Other thing would be definitely do a baseball game if you can. Totally different than a US game experience. Even if a game is sold out, they often sell "standing room tickets" where you don't have a seat but can stand in the concourse. We got to see Giants vs Tigers which is one of the biggest games of the year. Seats were sold out months in advance but were able to walk up and get standing room tickets.
That baseball game idea is something I wasn't even thinking of but would be sweet to check out for even just a few innings. I've always heard tokyo is expensive, how bad is it in reality?
It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Don't remember anything being crazy expensive. Similar to like NYC or SF for eating/drinking. Some things you'll obviously get there much cheaper than the US though, like wagyu beef or bluefin tuna and you should eat as much of this as possible because its pretty incredible.
I actually had better sushi in Kyoto and Osaka. Tokyo we did more Izakayas, where most of the stuff was cooked. I think if you want to go high end sushi in Tokyo you'll spend a pretty penny.
I keep flight alerts on for Tokyo. Since its only a 10 hour flight from California, for a cheap enough fare I would seriously go for a long weekend just to stuff my face.
Anyone flown Iceland Air or Wow Air? Wondering how strict they are on their carry on policy. We're planning on using our normal luggage that we always carry on with Southwest/United but the gf thinks it is just outside the size limits they put on their website. I'm also planning on having a backpack and never have a problem fitting it under the seat on United so it's fine as a personal item, but didn't know if they were more strict on that part as well.
my friend flew London (don't know which airport) to KEF and had so much crap with him on board but he was fine, with that said YMMV.
I've read that those airlines don't include a backpack as a personal item, but I tend to think that means more the backpacks like people use just as their sole travel bag. I'm talking my small backpack that I used in college. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself unless told for sure otherwise
he had so much crap with him I asked him how he got it through....he told me he just swung his crap as best he could to the far side of the gate agent. I mean he brought a full blown duvet with him. T+P tbh.
I'd play it safe with any budget airlines. I had a dick of a security guy take my bag at the gate at JFK flying back after Christmas on AA. I fly with this bag on AA, SW, Delta flights all the time and know damn well it fits in overheads unless it's a bit overstuffed (happened going to Philly at Thanksgiving so I didn't argue). Fucker claimed it was like a quarter-inch above their checking device. I got huffy and he pulled the whole, "herp derp I'm a federal employee," bullshit so I said just fucking take it. Got to waste half an hour at PHX to get it back.
What time of the year are you planning to go? And how much time are you planning to spend at your destination? I've been living and working in Hong Kong the last twenty years. I've gotten soft living here so long, so I would probably avoid Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo in winter. If I could go to any of the places you mention in Asia at any time of the year I would try to hit Tokyo during the spring or fall.
Did you mention this is part of a group tour/travel? Is your hotel and travel from the airport into town already included? Actually the yen is pretty weak now, so hopefully not so expensive. Baseball is good, there are lots of teams around Tokyo. Also you can check if one of the sumo tournaments will be going on when you're there. Usually when my wife and I go to Tokyo we end up spending the most time in Shibuya and Shinjuku. It's not too expensive getting around town if you use the trains/subways, but do note they do not run all night. Dining out also there are options for all budgets, yakitori and ramen places can be very cheap and just check the online reviews to find some nearby with good flavor.