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

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

  1. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    good stuff, thanks both

    Regarding flights, since we’ll be using my flight benefits we’ll have to fly to Bangkok, Hong Kong, or Singapore first and we can get to either city easily from there.
     
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  2. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Yea, you can definitely get a non-stop to Hanoi from most anywhere in SE Asia.
     
  3. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    Seems like Hong Kong is the no brainer
     
  4. Spontaneous Cumbustion

    Spontaneous Cumbustion Well-Known Member
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    Any thoughts on Koh Lipe?
     
  5. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    Don't know much about it besides where it is, that it's tiny (entirely walkable), and there's not much to do. Always looked beautiful in pictures though
     
  6. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    TO:

    Belize City (BZE)

    FROM:

    Albuquerque (ABQ) - $315
    Austin (AUS) - $311
    Birmingham (BHM) - $285
    Boston (BOS) - $295
    Buffalo (BUF) - $353
    Charleston (CHS) - $297
    Chicago (ORD) - $344 *
    Denver (DEN) - $332
    El Paso (ELP) - $316
    Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) - $257 *
    Greenville (GSP) - $280
    Houston (IAH) - $316 *
    Indianapolis (IND) - $324
    Louisville (SDF) - $331
    Miami (MIA) - $216 *
    Montreal (YUL) - $438 CAD
    Nashville (BNA) - $280
    New Orleans (MSY) - $280
    Oklahoma City (OKC) - $316
    Omaha (OMA) - $316
    Orlando (MCO) - $327
    Pensacola (PNS) - $285
    Pittsburgh (PIT) - $333
    Raleigh (RDU) - $288
    Sacramento (SMF) - $331
    San Antonio (SAT) - $316
    St. Louis (STL) - $316
    Tampa (TPA) - $320
    Toronto (YYZ) - $367 CAD
    Tucson (TUS) - $316
    Tulsa (TUL) - $288

    * - nonstop / direct
    WHEN: Varies greatly by route. Generally January through May 2019. Some routes such as BOS and DEN have additional availability through November 2019.
     
  7. Weedlord420

    Weedlord420 Well-Known Member
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    BamaNug the first poke you should get in Hawaii is at a foodland.
     
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  8. Arkadin

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    Our friends from the trip are in bariloche right now. Looks fucking awesome IMG-20190110-WA0002.jpg IMG-20190110-WA0001.jpg IMG-20190110-WA0000.jpg
     
  9. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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  10. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    That looks to be a supermarket, but there is one in Princeville :like:
     
  11. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Gin Buckets and southside like this.
  12. Weedlord420

    Weedlord420 Well-Known Member
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    Poke takes the place of cold cuts at grocery stores. Big pots bought by weight. It’s the OG poke before the fad.
     
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  13. rezy

    rezy Member
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    Dalat is incredible, I honestly took too long getting to the north so most of my trip was in the south of Vietnam. I really liked Hoi An and Dalat. You can do Saigon in a day or two tops. You should definitely do Phong Nha in the north if you can.
     
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  14. Jimmy the Saint

    Jimmy the Saint The future is a benevolent black hole
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    Going to Seattle for a wedding/long weekend next weekend. First time there besides the airport; staying at an Airbnb in Belltown.

    Friday: land late morning, Pike Place Market, Taylor Shellfish for some oysters, Ooink for ramen, Cloudburst Brewing, walk around UDub, reservation at Junebaby, bars somewhere TBD
    Saturday: brunch near Belltown, wedding in Snohomish, Umi Sake House for dinner if we get back in time and maybe a Belltown bar or two
    Sunday: going to try to get up somewhat early, get high, and go to Olympic Sculpture Park, brunch at RockCreek, Fremont Brewing, check out Gasworks Park, brewery crawl around the Ballard area, Walrus and the Carpenter for some oysters and such, Kedai Makan for dinner, hit some Capitol Hill bars
    Monday: Pike Place Market again (gf wants to go to the original Starbucks...), Space Needle, lunch TBD, fly home mid-afternoon

    Anything glaring I'm missing?
     
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  15. Jean-Ralphio

    Jean-Ralphio A real toe-tapper
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    In Saigon right now. Sweating my tits off. thats all i got.
     
  16. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    That covers a ton, but is also aggressive AF. Add 'Le Pichet' for a breakfast, it's in front of Pike Place on 1st street. Awesome french restaurant, Anthony Bourdain made it pretty famous. It's legit

    Cloudburst is one of my favorite breweries. Holy Mountain is another lesser known one. 'Some Random Bar' is a really good spot in Belltown. So is Screwdriver. Shorty's is my favorite dive bar. If you're staying in Belltown, 'No Anchor' is an awesome restaurant and beer bar.

    On Sundays both Fremont and Ballard have farmers markets with a bunch of food trucks, highly recommend.
     
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  17. Jimmy the Saint

    Jimmy the Saint The future is a benevolent black hole
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    Yea I know it’s a bit much. I prefer to over plan and chop stuff if necessary so we’ll see how it plays out.

    Some Random Bar is the one I have in mind for Saturday actually.
     
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  18. rezy

    rezy Member
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    Same as Bangkok
     
  19. Tigers

    Tigers Admin of the Year 2011-2014
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    Going to Italy. Starting in Rome then heading to Siena and ending trip in Venice.

    Having trouble figuring out how to get from city to city. Don’t want to rent a car since you cant drive in Siena for the most part. Bus seems to be the easiest per all websites but all the bus websites are super shitty and hours of googling and reading are not helping.

    Train also an option but wife will probably have 1000 bags and no direct trains means lugging those bags all over the place.

    Anyone have any suggestions? If I found a bus website that worked that would be great.
     
  20. Jimmy the Saint

    Jimmy the Saint The future is a benevolent black hole
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    You know anything about Little Uncle BamaNug ? Might bump Ooink for that Friday.
     
  21. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    Anyone have any hard opinions on using UR points for rental cars??

    They are the $0.015 per point equivalent. Was wondering if there was any reason to not use them or major reason against it.

    Wish I could use UR points for an Air BnB or VBRO
     
  22. 941Gator

    941Gator TMB's resident beach bum
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    You need to give her a speech about packing then, she should only need 1 bag.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079L91D2J/ref=sspa_mw_detail_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1
     
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  23. Gin Buckets

    Gin Buckets Well-Known Member
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    Heading to Chamonix, France in a couple weeks. Anyone been?
     
  24. Fran Tarkenton

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    Ive Driven and done Train in Italy. And Id rather Train whenever possible.

    Only Bus I took was from Treviso to Padua to get to a Train....and it was an interesting experience. Had a drunk guy from Ethiopia pull his junk out and caused a fight with the locals.
     
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  25. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    We just went from Rome to Siena in late November by train. One transfer, at Chiusi-chianciano Terme. 20 minute layover, but the train from Rome was 25 minutes late. The second train waited for us, since just about everybody taking that puddle-jumper to Siena was coming from Rome on that particular train. Chiusi is a small station, so it was just down one flight of stairs, under the track, then up another flight of stairs and we were at the second train. I got the impression that most of the trains that go to Siena from Rome Termini go off of the two ancillary tracks off to the side of Tracks 1 and 2 (they're also called 1 and 2, but they have a prefix before the number). You walk to the left of Tracks 1 and 2, then along the tracks for several hundred meters to get to the ancillary tracks that get you to your train. It's well marked, but you have to know what your'e looking for. At any rate, that's the long walk - it's in Rome Termini, not at the transfer station; the transfer was easy and quick by comparison.

    We took a taxi from the train station into Siena to our airbnb across from the Duomo Baptistery. You certainly don't want to drive in downtown Siena, especially if you're unfamiliar with the winding streets. The bus station is about halfway between Il Campo and the strain station, IIRC. Depending on where you stay, you'd probably want to taxi from the bus station too, if you decided to travel by bus.

    As an aside, we decided to walk from our place to the train station on our way out of town, and the wife didn't realize how far it was, and how hilly the town can be. We walked because we didn't want to have to order a taxi since you don't just find them in town, but in retrospect it probably would have been the better play.
     
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  26. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    in rome currently

    got pooped on by a bird

    other than that great town
     
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  27. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    Fucking seagulls woke us up with their noise every day at 4:30am.
     
  28. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Get the chicken wings.
    Haven't been to Little Uncle, but Ooink is amazing.
     
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  29. xec

    xec Well-Known Member
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    When are you going? I’m spending October in Italy and Siena is on the itinerary.
     
  30. rezy

    rezy Member
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    Is a 5 hour layover long enough for me to get out of the airport in singapore? Or should I just stay in the lounge, stuff my face, drink, and go back another time?
     
  31. Tigers

    Tigers Admin of the Year 2011-2014
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    In a few months
     
  32. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    That’d be cutting it close since its about a 30 min drive each way into the city. You’d probably have time to go grab some food and walk around for a bit. That being said Changi is probably one of the best airports in the world to have to kill a few hours at.
     
  33. xec

    xec Well-Known Member
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    Those of you who have been to/are in Rome, is it better to book guided tours to see the historical sites or is it easier to tackle it independently? We’ve never been there. Will have 5 days in Rome and the Lazia region.
     
  34. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    Plenty easy to do it yourself and also allows a little more flexibility. Book advance tickets to Vatican City on the website for a timed entry to skip that line (also follow previous instructions to go through the Vatican, end in Sistine Chapel, and blend in with groups for immediate access into St. Peter's). We also got the Roma Passes which gave expedited entry into your first two museums so we skipped the line to get into the Colosseum as well. Can't remember the exact issue but the pass did not apply to the Forum so we had to wait in a short line there. Girlfriend downloaded several Rick Steves podcasts in which he has guides for each of the major sites and those were interesting at times, although a little quirky. Gave you the guide experience for free and details about where you are that you might be unfamiliar with
     
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  35. rezy

    rezy Member
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    Thanks, yeah just really want to try that Michelin starred hawker stall, see marina bay and turn around and drink in the private lounge of Singapore
     
  36. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Ive heard the wait for that particular stall can be hours so thats out, but you certainly have time to grab a bite to eat at another place. Lau pau sat market has a ton of options and is right in central Singapore so you could see MBS as well.
     
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  37. AptosDuck

    AptosDuck Pedantic Hausfrau
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    We'd never been there, and we tackled it independently in November. We decided against the Roma Pass, but we got reservations to the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums. Walked into both, no line, no problem. We also had a bit of a line to get into the Forum, but we went in at the Arch of Titus right near the Colosseum, and I understand that if you want to walk around the Forum and use another entrance it's less crowded. We exited on the Via Dei Fori Imperiali, and there were no lines to get in there. I think Rick Steves says that there's another entrance near Palatine Hill, off to the south on Via Di San Gregorio, but we didn't see it. We did the Capitoline Museums the next day because after the Colosseum and Forum (and Trajan's Market and Imperial Forum across the street) we were all ruined out.

    I figure we missed out on some interesting and important stuff by doing it ourselves, but we also did things at our pace and not the tour guide's. We have three teenagers, and going at somebody else's pace probably wouldn't have gone over too well. But unless you do your homework and research beforehand, you probably risk missing out on things if you decide to do it yourself. We did a fair amount of research, but I recall getting burnt out just because there's so much to see that you can't possibly internalize everything without just getting there and immersing yourself.

    One regret is not getting to the Galleria Borghese. Another place where you need to book well in advance.
     
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  38. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    All those Michelin star street stalls are. There's one in Bangkok and the people hate owning it now lol
     
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  39. GGCD

    GGCD The most wasted of days is one without CUM
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    Anyone got Mexico City recommendations? Heading there in March.

    What neighborhoods should I be looking to stay in and which should I avoid?

    Likes: Mexican food, markets
    Dislikes: Beheadings
     
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  40. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
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    there was a really damn good writeup itt not too long ago

    think BP and another poster
     
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  41. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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  42. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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    Did you see he disliked beheadings tho?
     
  43. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Not all that bad, tbh
     
  44. rezy

    rezy Member
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    Any dish that is a must order? Once I realized I wasn’t going to have have much time there I didn’t do any research
     
  45. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Chicken rice is the thing Singapore is kinda known for so you should try that. Our cab driver told us we had to try Laksa, which was good as well. Satay street is right by Lau pa sat so you can just sit down and order sticks of meat and beer. Frankly pretty much everything is great, and theres too much to try, so just go with what looks good.
     
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  46. rezy

    rezy Member
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    I’ll be there in a few hours, thanks for the tips
    Edit: flight to Singapore delayed by 1.5 hours, going to stay at the lounge. Looks like I’ll have to do Singapore properly another time
     
    #15997 rezy, Jan 15, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2019
  47. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    bummer. Definitely worth a trip back, just for food. I have heard though that theres really good authentic Singaporean food in the airport, so may want to google and walk around to see what you can find.
     
  48. Lyrtch

    Lyrtch My second favorite meat is hamburger
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    anyone bring a chromecast/fire stick or whatever when they travel?

    thinking of snagging one but heard mixed things on chromecast and know some stuff is region locked
     
  49. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    Fire stick with a VPN is your best bet
     
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