Holidays & Travel

[icklekitty]

Seeing as Christmas is coming up and a lot of us will be travelling around, I thought it was a good time to set up this thread.

This year I've been to Berlin, Munich, Paris and Rome. Trips I have in the pipeline:

Between Xmas and New Year's: Paris
Late January: Leeds and Manchester
First week of February: Los Angeles, including
First weekend of February: Las Vegas
1-6 June: ?Lyon
"sometime in the fall": Paris


Et vous?

[slave2thewage]

Visiting you, my dear, basically. Except for Manchester for Rammstein and I'll probably stay a few extra days since I've oddly become close to that side of the family.

Apart from that, I'm thinking Berlin in November. I should be moving to Dublin in the middle of March so all my financial worries are more centred around that.

[Tea]

Sigh. Our honeymoon to Japan has fallen away from the possibility as a "honeymoon". Due to my husband getting a new job in Feburary, we planned on going in 2012 at some point. But now he got a new job again last month, and I can't see him having more than 6 days for it this year. I'm struggling to accept 6 days to Japan as an acceptable amount of time with the travel time and costs.

Anyway, our planned destinations- Tokyo for ~3-4 days at a modern western-style hotel, Studio Ghibli Museum, DragonQuest bar, then out to Kyoto for a few days at a traditional Japanese-style hotel, spend some time at a bath house, and then we'd like to travel out into the country in the southern islands for some true traditional experiences and castle-seeing. If we do go for more than a week or two we'll make it up to the snow monkey hot springs at some point. I know I won't be able to help focusing mainly on the cuisines; goal: eat as many tsukemono as possible.

[allegro]

Immediate plans for Christmas and 2012: Home to Detroit the day after Christmas. Hang with family and friends. Taking my doggy with me. My parents LOVE my dog. Tahoe in March, again. We're saving our major travel for when G retires in 4-5 years. I can't get away from my work long enough for any real travel (I can only go where I have steady and reliable wifi and GoToMyPC all day) and G has to bid vacation a year in advance.

[Rémy]

January: London, Manchester, Geneva.
February: Kabul, Lahore.
March: Kabul.
April: DC, Montréal, Kabul.

Still planning the rest of the year.

[Timinator]

This year I went to:

Darwin, Australia*
Melbourne, Australia* (twice)
Adelaide, Australia* (4 times)
Gold Coast, Australia*
Brisbane, Australia (twice)
Margaret River, Australia
Nova Scotia, Canada
London, UK
near Toulouse, France
Barcelona, Spain*

*For work.

I've got a week long driving trip across to Adelaide planned for March. That's it at the moment, but I'm hankering for some southeast Asia again soon.

[sukey]

This year I went skiing in France, taught English in Romania for a month (in a small town in the north, but I also went to Bucharest), and I went to Switzerland to visit a friend. I zipped about the UK a lot as well for gigs - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, London.

Going to Stockholm in two weeks for New Year, which I'm really excited about.

Trips in 2012:
Tenerife for a week for some February sun.
France to ski in April.
Finland in June.
And then I move to France for a year in September. Expat ahoy!

[Dra508]

Most of this was for work, but there is mix of pleasure travel in there:

For 2011:
Chicago - 5 or 6 times
Dallas and various Texas cities - 5 or 6 times
San Diego - 3 X
Palm Springs
San Francisco/Oakland - 2 X
Las Vegas
Puerto Rico
Tampa/Fort Lauderdale
Contiguous states Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut
New York
New Jersey

Truth be told one of the SFO trips was a bargain and was just a "mileage run". Yes, I needed those last miles to get Platinum status.

2012 - planned so far
Another Chicago
Another Dallas (twice)
Portland, Oregon
I'd really like to try to get a trip across the pond because I haven't been for about 6 years and American is giving double miles, but I actually don't have the time or money.

[allegro]

Aw, man, I really miss traveling for business. I used to love doing that.

[sentient02970]

Contiguous states Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut

Oh sure, just skip Vermont, I see how you are

Me? Company doesn't send us on trips like it used to. All my traveling seems to be recreational (running related).

Next year I plan my first trip to Austin to see my niece and run this for the first time. So psyched for that.

I'll likely go back to Philadelphia again next November to do that marathon but may add in DC for Marine Corps Marathon.

Outside of running, I so want to head back to Montana to do some more Glacier National Park hikes, camping and bear dodging. Love that place...if I ever stop having to work I want spend the rest of my life there.

[icklekitty]

And then I move to France for a year in September. Expat ahoy!

Haaate yooou. Where are you going to be?

[sukey]

Haaate yooou. Where are you going to be?

Well if it helps you hate me less, I didn't apply to Paris. Picked places in the bottom right hand corner of France - in order of preference: Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Besançon and Strasbourg. Won't find out exactly where I'm going till maybe February though.

[Dra508]

Oh sure, just skip Vermont, I see how you are

I knew you'd call me out for that. Listen, there are a couple more weeks left in the year, I have a friend who's never been - maybe I'll day trip it over to Manchester or something for a little shopping and I could put it on the list. Would that make you happy?

I'm considering putting Costa Rica on my list. http://www.pacuarelodge.com/ Oh yeah.

[sentient02970]

I knew you'd call me out for that. Listen, there are a couple more weeks left in the year, I have a friend who's never been - maybe I'll day trip it over to Manchester or something for a little shopping and I could put it on the list. Would that make you happy?

I'm considering putting Costa Rica on my list. http://www.pacuarelodge.com/ Oh yeah.

Happy? No. Thrilled? Yes. I've heard good things about Costa Rica. Do that too.

[Fixer808]

First week of February: Los Angeles, including
First weekend of February: Las Vegas

Possibly doing the Vegas thing as well that weekend, if I can scrape the dosh together. But it's dirt cheap to fly there.

[virushopper]

I'm avoiding this holiday travel period instead I'll take my vacation to Singapore and Tokyo in March.

[sublimaze]

I'm soooo jealous of all the travel you guys get in. My pathetically short list:

Puerto Rico (pleasure)
San Francisco (work)
Chicago (work)
Cleveland (for Thanksgiving)

Looks like we'll be sticking around at home for a while.

[icklekitty]

Possibly doing the Vegas thing as well that weekend, if I can scrape the dosh together. But it's dirt cheap to fly there.

My friend can get amazing hotels for $40 thanks to her work. She'll be booking next month, so I can put you in touch if you like?

Also YES EVERYONE COME TO LOS ANGELES OR LAS VEGAS

[konstantin]

2011:
South Beach, FL
Madrid, Spain
Cadiz, Spain
New Orleans, LA
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR

2012:
Caribbean cruise in March with thousands of homos (gotta work on my cruise body!)
Pittsburgh, PA in May (wedding)

ugh, it took me a while to realize that Holidays in Europe means vacation!

[icklekitty]

ugh, it took me a while to realize that Holidays in Europe means vacation!

Europe and the entire (english-speaking) world outside of America :P. If it helps menus on the continent say "zucchini" and "eggplant" - it's interesting to watch the waiter's face when you tell them that it's "courgette" and "aubergine" in England too.

[Tea]

I don't like the combined holiday/vacation term in the UK. Vacation is when you actually travel somewhere. Holidays are days/time that you have off from work or the nation officially gets off. It's nice to have the two separated, though this is probably needed more in America since there is less of a chance of travel on regular holidays.

[slave2thewage]

I miss Paris already

[Dra508]

In November, I'm going to Hawaii biotches! First class, frequent flyer miles and hotel points.

[Christo]

Iceland and Iraq. Both for work. Different ends of the spectrum I guess.

[Fixer808]

I may be going to Berlin in late November/early December, if I can save enough money. Either that or Spain in the spring.

[orestes]

Iceland

Jealous! (10 characters)

[Trains]

This question goes to anyone who has gone solo travelling, just need some basic advice seeing as I've never been travelling before. I've been thinking for a while about travelling to the States some time this year, hopefully sooner rather than later, hopefully for 3-4 weeks depending on budget. Thing is, seeing as I'm a complete n00b and am very wet behind the ears, I'm not sure where to start. Should I just book flights, arrange the first few nights in a hotel, and arm myself with a copy of Lonely Planet and wing it? Might it not end up being slightly lonely travelling solo? I'm kinda half thinking about going on one of these pre-arranged 'adventure tours' that places like Sta Travel offer. But at the same time, I wonder if that wouldn't feel a little too touristy. Cheers in advance.

[icklekitty]

This year: Sweden, Birmingham (lol), Cardiff, Amsterdam, Paris, Paris, Lake Garda, Paris.

[Fixer808]

I'm in the early planning stages (very early, like 'step 1, renew passport') for a trip to New York in September. Didn't make it to Berlin OR Spain like last year's plans were, but this one is right in the sweet spot of when I'm making decent money in the spring-fall season.

[mooney138]

What is it that you really want to see in the USA, and how much money do you want to spend? The US is freakin' huge and some cities are way way more expensive than others. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston are the largest cities. No car needed in NYC or Chicago because both have excellent public transport. LA and Houston have limited public transportation compared to the other two.

If I know someone in the location that I am traveling to, I ask them for all the locations that the tourists do not see. I do not expect them to be my tour guide, unless they want to be one and/or go with me. I use my iPhone even when outside the USA for the maps/text/email with an international data package (or take a screen shot of the map in advance).

This question goes to anyone who has gone solo travelling, just need some basic advice seeing as I've never been travelling before. I've been thinking for a while about travelling to the States some time this year, hopefully sooner rather than later, hopefully for 3-4 weeks depending on budget. Thing is, seeing as I'm a complete n00b and am very wet behind the ears, I'm not sure where to start. Should I just book flights, arrange the first few nights in a hotel, and arm myself with a copy of Lonely Planet and wing it? Might it not end up being slightly lonely travelling solo? I'm kinda half thinking about going on one of these pre-arranged 'adventure tours' that places like Sta Travel offer. But at the same time, I wonder if that wouldn't feel a little too touristy. Cheers in advance.