Other Vancouver shit: Granville Island BC Lions game (did this, had a blast) or Whitecaps match Surprising number of breweries around, ranging from nice taprooms to tasting counters
Every time I go through a European security checkpoint, it blows my mind how TSA can be so unbelievably inefficient. Venice airport is great and the lounge for PP is incredible
Atlanta has the new Belt machines that auto bring bins to people waiting at stations. I'm pretty sure most European airports have had these for a while and they work smoothly and easily. What ever TSA did to change the flow made it amazingly horrible with TSA agents constantly yell and ppl. I don't get it
Those are essentially what I was referring to. It is so nice, the Venice airport was fortunately small enough to not have a long line but even when I've stood in line in London it moved quickly thanks to those and arrows telling people exactly where to stand for the next open spot
Well, the girlfriend's paranoia about bags actually paid off on this trip. Our bags that we normally carry on for domestic flights fit easily in domestic overheads but would've been tight on Lufthansa and not fit on Austrian at all. Furthermore, when going through the Austrian counters to get to security, they have everyone coming through set their bag on a scale. Mine came in at 9kg and the attendant just said "next time under 8" so they were still relaxed about it but our other bags definitely would not have passed. The smaller bag size also made us pack more efficiently so they were well worth it
Lots of the smaller foreign airlines have a kilo limit that I've seen enforced like once when southside was waaaayyy over. They just made him take some shit out so he was only like 50% over and not 100%
The Asian airlines always sketch me out with their carry on rules. They seem so convoluted. But I've never had an issue.
I've had them take my carry on when I boarded smaller Asian airlines but they didnt check it. It was always on the tarmac when I deplaned
K, Imma try to go to Sumatra, Indonesia when my wife has to go to China this year. Seen some sub 1,000 flights in United to Jakarta.... Who's been?
Yeah I was wondering how well we'd do with packing but it really wasn't a big deal, we just did some laundry at the Airbnb. We both could've easiky been below the 8kg limit by stuffing stuff in her tote bag too like Ark mentioned but fortunately it didn't come to that. Austrian is a great airline btw, great experience on both legs with them
Portland is fantastic. Pok Pok is the best Thai I've had outside of Thailand. So many good breweries. Mississippi Ave reminds me a lot of Ballard/Fremont area of Seattle, really liked it.
Thinking about getting the girlfriend the AwayTravel hard-shell carry-on, any thoughts on that bag? Also, booked a ticket for Austin, TX in June and know little to nothing about the city so I am open for any recommendations (haven't searched the thread yet, just trying to help turn it back to travel talk).
It's a few months before I have to buy her another gift (thank God. Christmas, V-Day and B-day all within 3 months) so that is part of the game plan. Currently making a list of items to purchase using a new CC.
Should've been more clear. Looking for a card to take that will let me pull out cash while abroad (doing a few trips this summer - Spain/Portugal, SE Asia, Chile) and not have to pay transaction fees.
I have always been a proponent of not spending a lot on luggage as it gets beat to hell. I can usually get 1.5 - 2 years out of a $70 SwissGear, American Tourister, or similar carry-on before it needs to be replaced, and since I take 20-25 trips a year I don't think I could get 3 times the durability out of a bag that costs more than 3 times as much. That said, I have heard good things about these bags. My biggest question would be how that outside shell looks after a year of travel. It may be unbreakable but that doesn't mean it won't look like it's been drug behind a bus.
Anyone done Niagara Falls? What's the closest/cheapest airport to fly into? I may travel up there for business (on the NY side) but trying to keep costs down if possible. Would obviously like to also see the Falls while I'm there.
I believe Toronto is only an hour or two away. I think there's an airport in Buffalo or somewhere possibly closer but I'd imagine it's more expensive. Couple the trip with a short stay in Toronto imo, loved that city
Using the map trick BamaNug showed me it appears Dublin is consistently the cheapest European city to fly into from east coast
Kayak and Google flights have modes where you put in your departure airport and it'll show you prices all over the world
Generally that'll be the case--London and Ireland are shorter flight times. Copenhagen tends to have cheaper flights more often as well.
if you want to get to Europe cheap and have access to Condor or IcelandAir there's your move IcelandAir also allows up to I think 7 day stopovers on the same ticketed fare, so can add mini Iceland vacation
Stuck in a weather delay in Bozeman. Gonna miss my 50 min connection in SLC. Originally flew into MSP, but that flight was delayed too...so would have missed there too. The Delta app is pretty great. As soon as they announced the delay about 40ppl go up in line. I immediately get a text, then could open the app and change my flights without getting up. Pretty solid.
Put the airport you wanna leave from in departing then just put "Europe" in the arrival airport. Then click the option that lets you see the map and you'll see all the different possible destinations and their price for those dates
Italy writeup; a lot of it is probably redundant but I was really pleased with the way our planning worked out, I felt like it was a solid itinerary: Spoiler Rome: -We stayed here https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15579107 (address Via Parigi, 11 if you want to see where it is). Awesome place, about a 20 minute walk to the Colosseum and then easy to work your way back from there hitting other big sights. Really close to the main train station Termini and also an underground station even closer which is needed to get to the Vatican -We bought the 72 hour Roma Pass and thought it was way worth it. Didn't stand in line at all at the Colosseum, short line at the Forum. Underground is easy to use and nice to have that option if you wander further away. Beware that public transportation strikes happen regularly there though so use of the transport could get thrown off -First full day started at the Colosseum, then Forum, and slowly worked back by the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Avoid this area for meals, all very touristy and not very appealing. Also don't be afraid to be an asshole to the street vendors trying to sell you junk, gladiators trying to take pictures with you, and especially unsolicited help in the train stations. People approach you offering help or junk and often times I wouldn't even acknowledge them. I was happy that the weather was in the 50s the whole time because that meant we needed jackets which gave us internal pockets since everyone warns of pickpockets. Seems like this would be a much bigger issue over the summer -Second day was Vatican City. We waited too long to do this, but by all means book tickets in advance for the museums here http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html we waited in line just over an hour early in the morning to get in and reservations would avoid this. Also, do this museum first, see everything in it, then end your tour in the Sistine Chapel. Work your way toward the back of the chapel when you're ready to leave, bypassing the main exit door. There's a door in the back corner that will say "exit only for tours" and when the Chapel is crowded it'll likely be propped open. Wait for a tour guide to head through and follow them to get straight into St. Peter's, otherwise it's another stupid long line out front for the church. We climbed the dome first thing and it was very cool then toured the church. We spent most of the day here then worked back through the city the rest of the day and got to the Forum area at sunset which was cool. We went into the Capitoline Museums which were mostly forgettable but got the best view of the Forum as they cleared the crowds from there so I got one of my favorite pictures from the trip Florence: -Stayed here https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3810760 (address Via della Fonderia, 35). This was the cheapest place by far, right at $80 per night total, but it was a 25-30 minute walk to the Duomo area. It was nice to stay away from the touristy areas, much cheaper but also better dining/cafes. -On Mondays a lot of the big sights are closed, so we slept in which was much needed and then wandered the city. Followed Rick Steves "Renaissance Walk" audiotour which was nice and relaxed. We walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a really good view of the entire city. -Tuesday did a wine tour with Tuscany Grape Tours. A lot of fun if you're into learning a lot about wine. -Wednesday went to the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. Biggest thing for these is to book reservations in advance just like the Vatican here http://www.firenzemusei.it/ Venice: -Stayed here https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14498324 (search for Zattere waterbus stop for map) and easily one of the best Airbnb's I've ever had. Definitely worth it to pay a little more to stay on the island instead of the mainland and taking the bus in every day. -Venice has a special travel deal if you're 29 and younger for deeply discounted 72 hour waterbus passes which was great to have, otherwise you're better off walking because they're expensive. -We dealt with some high tide issues at night which meant flooding of the streets. High tide is typically only an issue in the winter so this was abnormal for late March. -We only had 1.5 days and that was fine for us. Saw the main sights and also just walked the alleys quite a bit. Even if you get lost in them, you're on an island so you can't go too far before you find a waterbus stop to get back. -The Priority Pass lounge in Venice airport is one of the best I've ever been in and the airport is very small so security was a breeze General thoughts: -Cash is the main form of payment throughout Italy which was annoying but only found a few places that didn't accept cards. Some smaller joints also don't like to make change for you, making it even more annoying paying cash. -Booking train tickets on TrenItalia to get between the cities in advance is easy and cheaper on their site. -A co-worker was over there the same time and they paid for a bunch of guided tours. They probably spent $500 per person minimum doing this and that sounds like a huge waste of money to me. Just book your tickets in advance and download some audiotours and you're set. That's a lot for now and I'm sure I left parts off so I'll try to think of anything I missed later
Then I'll blame Rick Steves since that's from his guide book. Also, St. Peter's is free admission, so really you're just cutting hundreds if not thousands of people in line
I also did that while at the Vatican. The hardest part is selling to the guards that you're part of the tour while not drawing the attention of the tour leaders.
Southwest devalued. From Reddit: Southwest has altered its redemption value per View From The Wing Southwest - Updated point valuation Math The change to a factor of 78 certainly affects what these points are worth on a go forward basis - here's illustrations at various price points (my cpp valuations exclude the $5.60 you pay OOP): $103 Fare = 6,443 points = 1.51 cpp $143 Fare = 9,345 points = 1.47 cpp $176 Fare = 11,739 points = 1.45 cpp $209 Fare = 14,133 points = 1.45 cpp It's always been generally understood that you get a higher cpp on lower cost flights. This certainly still holds true. Over numerous redemptions, I had decided personally that SW RR points were previously worth 1.61 cpp. Based on this update and my general flight cost of approx $130 I would say they are now worth about 1.48cpp. In simple terms what this means is 1,000 SW points used to be worth $16.10 and are now worth $14.80. While devaluations are never good news - it is understood in this game. If you hang around long enough these things happen to you, many times over. Southwest has had much worse devaluations than this in the past actually. If you have a lot of SW points (I have 559,738 to be exact) this does kind of stink. I had the value of those pegged at $9,012 entering today...and now they are worth $8,284...I lost $728. But you can't let yourself look at it that way, it's just part of the game. And $8k in free flights is still pretty great!
The shitty thing is that it's now cheaper to buy directly with Chase UR but you don't get the same refund protection (you'd get a certificate). This is a big one, imo
Some good Puerto Rico stuff TO: San Juan (SJU) FROM: Austin (AUS) - $244 Baltimore (BWI) - $233 Boston (BOS) - $250 Buffalo (BUF) - $268 Burlington (BTV) - $265 Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) - $155 * Jacksonville (JAX) - $241 Manchester (MHT) - $248 Memphis (MEM) - $245 Miami (MIA) - $175 * Montreal (YUL) - $364 CAD New Orleans (MSY) - $245 New York City (JFK) - $237 * New York City (LGA) - $245 Newark (EWR) - $237 * Orlando (MCO) - $232 * Phoenix (PHX) - $235 Pittsburgh (PIT) - $265 Portland ME (PWM) - $266 Providence (PVD) - $261 Raleigh (RDU) - $261 Rochester (ROC) - $269 St. Louis (STL) - $285 Syracuse (SYR) - $283 Tampa (TPA) - $206 Toronto (YYZ) - $315 CAD Washington DC (DCA) - $257 *
Wife and I want to do wine country but not sure where to start. Can't even decide if I want to go with a resort or Airbnb. Stay in napa or somewhere nearby as a base? Honestly have no idea.
not sure budget but last time there we stayed in a bnb thats walking distance to everything in yountville was great, was called Lavendar
Well, idk if it’s easier for me to read 258 pages or just ask: GF and I are going on an Alaskan Cruise in mid June. She was doing some research today and there was a drinking & internet pass for $70/day per person. I’ve never been on a cruise, what are drink prices usually? It seems pretty excessive, but I’m a noob.