We were there for one day, two nights and it ended up raining in the afternoon, so the only activity we did was a boat tour out of Elgol. It was nice but somehow we missed there were two different ones; we went to Loch Coriusk and back, but there is another one that goes to a near island that is better for spotting wildlife. Skip the Fairy Pools for the similar but much less crowded and much easier to get to Sligachan Waterfalls. Lots of good hikes around the Trotternish Peninsula north of Portree that we would have done with an extra day. It’s mostly B&B type accommodations on the island which makes it kinda hard to choose. The island isn’t that big but the driving is so difficult (one main two-lane highway and a lot of single track roads) that the distance is a lot longer time wise than you’d expect. We stayed in Portree and that was not a great place to see Elgol from, but the B&B was great (view below). Reservations at restaurants if you go to a sit down place are highly recommended because of how packed it is. We didn’t the first night but found a legitimately good pizza place in Portree set up out of a food truck. Spoiler
re: Alaska (for others, not for the one tmb'er from alaska) This is more of a write up for people that aren't super focused on hunting/fishing and just want to experience it. You'll either need 8-9 days or skip one of the coastal towns. You also need to go between mid-May to early September. A lot of the local stuff closes for the winter season on Labor Day. It felt (vibe wise) like early September was end of their fall season and winter was only a few weeks away. People kept saying "you're our last customers!" Day 1: Travel all day....6 hour flight from Chicago....Sleep in Anchorage (49th street brewery, cheap massages, whiskey ramen, simon and seafort rest, or moose pizza). First real day- -Drive to Alyeska Resort and pay to take the tram/ski lift up. All together this only takes an hour and is worth it for the views, pictures, etc. Basically a welcome to Alaska moment. -Leave there and then swing by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. You pay at the gate and then you can stay in your car. This is quick. These are rescued animals but it puts you in a great spot to see brown bears, ox, bison, etc etc before you really head off into the wild. I hesitated to do this and it was great. -Now drive to the city of Homer, but take a detour that again puts you in a spot to see more wildlife (Russian River). While on the "highway" you'll be taking a left. Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area...Turn Left onto Skilak Road off HWY1. Look for Skilak Lookout Trailhead For GPS, the left is a half mile past: 12455 Sterling Hwy, Cooper Landing, AK 99572. This detour runs parallel with your original route. -Another address (on the way) would be a grocery store. It made for a good stop (bear spray!). 43843 Sterling Hwy, Soldotna, AK 99669 -Find and eat reindeer hotdogs (and red king crab for $60 a pound). -Pull into Homer in the evening. Next couple days in Homer (either 2 night or 3 nights)- -Homer is a fishing village. It has 1-2 commercial spots and then a big area called the spit (peninsula/island). -I took a water taxi over to a glacier and then hiked up. $60 for the ride. -Halibut fished. It was fun, but a long day. $200. -You could kayak -Restaurants: fresh catch, broken oar, green can -Bars: Salty Dog or Kharacters Breakfast at Uncle Herbs is right next to the Homer Farmer's Market which is the best place to hang on Saturday morning, lots of hot food, baked goods and coffee, craft booths, local products like honey and wild jam, music...and vegetables. Next couple days in Seward (either 1-2 nights)- Drive early from Homer to Seward. Book a boat tour one day (whales, glaciers) and kayaking tour the next day. -I used Major Marine Boat Cruise –Glaciers and Wildlife for the boat (6 hour). $100. -Eat at the cookery Head to Denali for 2-3 nights- Long drive that goes through Anchorage and then up into Denali. I stayed at Denali Bluffs Hotel. Had some dinner and went to bed. Next day you can hike or bus tour or do a plane ride up to the top of Denali (highest mountain in north america). I used Denali Air 907-683-2261 50-70 minute flight $400 per head. Back to Anchorage. Luckily your flight will most likely be a red-eye leaving at 9pm. I think for some trips it can be fun to be surprised and learn/see stuff on the fly - not over plan. Alaska I believe it pays to be educated. Based on the month I knew what to expect fish, bird wise, map/road wise etc etc Lots of reading to do and then you will hit the ground running (I was in a minivan).
Thank you! I've driven the highlands/back roads of Scotland before so I feel pretty decent about the driving. It's a matter of picking the right activities, so this is perfect.
It's been years since I went but yea you should be fine without a car. We did do a drive along the Great Ocean Road which was nice to have your own car and go at your own pace. Maybe rent one for a day if you plan to do that.
Will provide a write up after my trip but here’s another update. Hiked a good 1,500 feet of elevation to get up here but it was well worth it.
So the bad news is that we got on the wrong train to go from Bologna to Florence and we're now on an express train to Rome so now we're paying €100 to go back to Florence. The good news is now I'll have been to Rome (for about 40 minutes)
Flights/hotels booked and visas approved, Australia is a go for November. Hyatt Regency in Sydney then the Hilton Little Queen Street in Melbourne. Golf clubs will be in tow so that is now my priority
Not a huge fan of Florence so far, especially after Bologna. Much less walkable because of the traffic, amount of people, and narrow footpaths. Bologna is pretty much all wide covered walkways so the change is pretty abrupt. And about 30% of the people here are loud drunk American tourists, and another 20% are loud drunk tourists from somewhere else. This may have been more my scene in my 20s but Bologna is a lot more fun in my mid30s. We’re trying not do judge to harshly though given that getting near became incredibly frustrating because of the train mistake, and it’s just blazing hot so that’s putting us on edge. That said we went to this place called La Buchetta and had a lovely time, and had a medium rare filet with shaved truffles that was deeeeeeelightful.
We found Florence at night was much better. You have the roads to yourself and much less people. also this restaurant was amazing, get a seat on the patio and grab gelato afterwards from the spot across the street: Trattoria 4 Leoni
Leave for Rome and Florence next month and I just got my High Speed Rail tickets back and forth. Is it really that easy to get on the wrong train without someone seeing your ticket?
In my (lived in Europe a few years) and my wife’s (from UK) experience, they almost always check your ticket after the train is moving. That said, usually the the trains are well labeled so it’s not really an issue. What happened with us is there was a train that was supposed to leave at 930 from Platform 19 in Bologna with stops only in Rome and Naples. We were supposed to get on a train that left at 1015, also leaving from Platform 19, also final destination as Naples, but stopping in Florence and a number of other places in addition to Rome, and a very similar train number to the one that was supposed to leave at 0930. However, the 0930 train got delayed and so when we got to the platform, with a train there, with a final destination as Naples, we assumed it was ours and didn’t realize we were on the wrong train until it departed 15 minutes before our train was supposed to depart. It was a very unusual set of circumstances and I don’t expect you’ll have any trouble. The Florence and Rome stations for HSR is set up a lot better as well.
Germans and Italians not so great at this. The Swiss are extremely punctual when it comes to trains and I love it. Until I miss one…
We got rerouted on a trip through Switzerland and the locals were unbelievably nice helping us understand the train switch info, that we caught only bits because we weren’t fluent. Its like they were truly embarrassed some American tourists with their kids might leave with a bad impression of them.
My tickets weren’t checked on either of the train rides I took earlier this year. Don’t think they ever check until the train goes off
In Florence currently. While it is hot and there are lots of tourists in the tourist areas, it’s a pretty cool place IMO.
Best bar-type areas for a group in their early 30s staying in San Francisco? We’re staying at the corner of Van Ness and California if that helps.
Marina/cow hollow is for the white frat professional type, Mission district for a little more gritty but way cooler scene, north beach for bars and strip clubs, Polk St is close to the Marina and a good scene…….but I think Marina is a good safe bet for y’all Im guessing your staying at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness your close to Polk St from there just head south towards the Marina
i would personally recommend a day at Dolores Park, great views of the City, it’s poppin out there then you can drink at the bars around there, or go grab drinks at El Techo nearby then you head out to 24th st in the Mission and really get down and dirty with a late night burrito at El Farrolito on 24th street
https://www.thrillist.com/amphtml/drink/san-francisco/best-san-francisco-breweries Any of these are pretty solid
Bbq/southern: Home Team BBQ, Warmouth, Palmetto Pig Cafe/Deli: Gourmet Shop, Drip, Diprato’s Brewery: Steel Hands (Cayce, SC)
http://columbiasgreekfestival.com/ One more rec — this festival is in town right now. Got food and beers from here last night, great stuff
A little Switzerland write up. Flew into and out of Frankfurt from NYC, $600 round trip flight plus extra leg room the way out. Train to Interlaken from Frankfurt 2 hours after we land. We arrive in Basel and the remainder of our journey is cancelled on our German train because apparently the Swiss don’t deal with late trains. We had to hop on an intercity train and then get on a Swiss train to Interlaken. Interlaken - I know it’s a ski town but what an amazingly beautiful place. The color of the water in the rivers was unlike anything I have ever seen. We traveled up to Grindelwald on our first full day and got an amazing lunch at Cafe 3692, went up to Grindelwald First, hiked a bit and did the cliff walk. We rode some trotti bikes down the last third of the mountain. Just amazingly beautiful views on Grindelwald. Stayed at Hotel Bellevue in Interlaken, I recommend it. Day 2 in Interlaken we took a train to Kanderstag and hiked up to Lake Oeschinensee. The hike was about 1,700ft of elevation and probably an hour and a half long but it was extremely worth while. Just a breath taking lake with snow capped mountains. We jumped in the lake in our under wear and it was probably 55 degrees but amazing. Day 3 morning in Interlaken and then a train journey to Lugano. The train journey was about 4 hours and for 2 of those hours we were on a four car train from Domodossala Italy to Lucarno and we were traveling on the edge on the Italian and Swiss mountain side. Really some incredible rail lines. Lugano, Switzerland is probably my favorite place I have been to so far. It is close to Lake Como and the Italian border but it’s a Swiss city so it’s very clean and safe. It has all of the things you would find in a major European city and it’s on a beautiful lake. It’s located in Ticino which is the Italian speaking region of Switzerland. Everyone lives an Italian life style, very laid back and nice. Kind of a best of both worlds situation. Day 1 we walked around, explored and relaxed. We stayed at Grand Hotel Villa Castalogna and it was superb. Would stay there every time. Day 2 was rainy so we jumped on a train to Milan since my gf had never been to Italy and wanted to shop a bit. Milan was cool but I would be ok not going back again. Had some good food and hopped back on a train to Lugano. Day 3 it was beautiful in Lugano so we hung out at the hotel’s lakeside area and swam around, hung out and relaxed. Next morning we walked around the city some more and had to leave for Zurich. Spent a few hours walking around Zurich, got dinner and called it a night. Woke up early in Zurich and headed back to Frankfurt via train, walked around Frankfurt a bit but mostly drank beer all day before heading home to sleep, had an 11am flight back to NYC the next day. Overall an amazing trip, will attach pictures here and attempt to do it in chronological order. Next time around I would fly direct to Milan and go straight to Lugano. Happy to answer any questions.
got back a few weeks ago so wasn't impacted at all thankfully. the weather when I was there was excellent. quick review for the excellence el carmen: I stayed in the excellence club beachfront honeymoon swim up suite and that was a really awesome room. I spent 90% of my time in the pool outside our room and the remainder of the time in the excellence club beach area. the main pool looked good too, but there were people throwing the football around, which I thought was a little weird for an adults only resort. food wise I thought everything was pretty good for an all inclusive. I recommend getting a reservation for the hibachi as that was a lot of fun and the food was decent (a step below a good hibachi place though, but you're in the DR). My favorite places outside of that was the Italian place (oregano) and the club restaurant (magna). room service was what you'd expect, but hammered in the middle of the day, it got the job done and was able to eat in the pool. the only problems that I had was pretty slow service and issues was with consistently getting the wrong drinks. I can't tell you how many times that my lady friend ordered a strawberry margarita and would get a different flavor or something different. eventually started to order simpler drinks directly off their menu or staples like a mojito or a beer. wasn't a trip ruiner, but was disappointing with how often it was happening for what you're paying. oh and I finished one of the bottles in the room and asked that they swap out one of the others for vodka and that never happened. let me know if you have any questions and happy to share more.
Thanks a lot. Glad you weren’t impacted by the recent weather. We are in a junior suite with a private pool, so hopefully our experience is as good as yours. Disappointing about the drink situation.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ci76haLjCi8/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= This is the DM I get today about Riyadh itinerary. Had no idea this was a thing.
Just got back from Cuixmala in Mexico. If you're looking for a place to go with a larger group & planned out activities, it's pretty special. Def not a quick weekend getaway place.
doing 4 nights in kyoto. plan was to skate to osaka for a day but contemplating just sticking to kyoto since I'll be there before the full reopening date. probably never have a chance to see Kyoto as empty as it will be. will I be making a mistake skipping osaka this time around? where my japan folks at