Niagara Falls is amazing. You can sit there for hours and move to another spot and sit there too.
Me love some of the sentiments here.
Bungle... You got it! Your way of travel is why I never have taken a cruise. Some people swear by it and that's OK. But to me, getting off the ship in the morning, shopping in some port of call, and getting back on the ship is no way to experience a country you've never seen before. To each their own, but I'd rather spend some time in a place, pick up the language, experience the people and the culture.
Of course, being at the tail end of the 20 year plan of raising a family puts a guy more into the mode of the 1-2 week vacation, but we still like to get to Cabo or the Caymans and just chill.
Having sailed over 30k miles at sea, I've been left with a dream of living on a sailboat (when the kids are both gone) and setting sail for wherever the wind may take us. There's nothing like spending a month stern-to the quay in places like Antigua or St. Tropez.
Yo, Met... thanks for the sig! GO DUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm looking to book my honeymoon tickets to Italy this week. My plan for that will be to meander a bit- hit the key cities but spend a lot of time in smaller, less touristy spots. That will be country # 19 for me:
USA- 37 States Canada Mexico Dominican Republic Costa Rica Brazil Argentina Uruguay Netherlands Belgium Spain Portugal Morocco England Wales Germany Czech Republic
I'm considering tacking a side trip to Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia onto the Italy trip, but it's my honeymoon and I'd rather enjoy the time than work on boosting my stats.
011472 wrote:I'm looking to book my honeymoon tickets to Italy this week.
Congrats on your upcoming wedding! We're going to try to hit Amalfi, Italy next year with my dad. His parents (my grandparents) are from there. It's supposedly a beautiful coastal town on the southwest coast with a ton of character.
"There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness." - Po (Kung Fu Panda)
bungle613 wrote:OK Joe, my wife and I are looking at Central or South America in the next 1-2 years. Will choose 3-5 countires to spend a year or so in each and then decide on where to buy something. Any insights on Panama? Why should it be a consideration for us?
I probably love Panama more than the other CENTAM countries because I've been there the longest, but here's what I love: the people are awesome; friendly, genuine - especially in the country side, but even in Panama City. In Bogota, Colombia for example, you get a lot of "criada" snobby people that don't accept Americans. Panamanians are more than a bit used to it with us having had a base down there for decades. I love Panama City. It's big enough, but not New York City big. The country side is awesome. Great coffee farms and we went white water rafting out there. There are beaches and fantastic scuba diving. Islands are only a prop plane away for vacationing. Then, there is the canal of course. It's non-touristy unlike Costa Rica. They use the U.S. dollar - that is a big plus. Finally, there are no guerilla groups active, so safey is pretty doggone good. Most of the crime in the 90s when I was there was nonviolent stuff (larcenies, B&E, theft, etc.)
A lot of the above may be true in other CENTAM/SOUTHAM countries, but like I said, I left my heart down there and would really love to retire there. Hope this helps.
"There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness." - Po (Kung Fu Panda)
Sorry guys, would have responded earlier to this thread but...I was on vacation!
This one was just our yearly trip out to a ski resort since she is learning to snowboard and I've been skiing for the last 26 years. We went to Whistler (which we actually did last year too) and had a great long weekend. It's really nice to be able to drive that one since Seattle is only about a 5 hour drive away.
Honestly I didn't get into traveling until about 3 years ago, but in that time have done:
Germany (Bavaria specifically) Czech Republic (mostly Cesky Krumlov and Prague) Puerto Rico Egypt (mostly along the Nile; Mt. Sinai ) Ecuador (Galapagos Islands) Belize (The Cayo District and the Cayes)
We have current plans for Paris and the Loire Valley as well as part of northern Italy, as well as Oktoberfest in 2010. There's also mild talks of Australia right now...
I'm a big believer in taking your time to see everything and that's why we have big plans to go back to places we've already been. I think we've decided that Italy is something we'll be able to cover on about 4 trips of 3 weeks each since we wouldn't be able to make a 3 month stretch without compromising our jobs (which are a huge reason why we can take so many vacations).
We're also big on seeing the things that may become restricted or disappear (the Galapagos Islands were a big one) which is why we're thinking Australia soon to see the Great Barrier Reef. I'm big on using the Unesco world heritage website to figure those kinds of things out.
I've been a nomad myself ever since, well, as far back as I can remember. My dad had the tradition of taking the family on vacation at least every other Summer to the old country (Catalonia, and again, we don't call it Spain). I think I inherited his love affair with road trips. A few times, we drove from Barcelona, took a detour through Basque country, across the Pyrenees, stopped over a few times in France, and ferried over to London where we visited his brother. My dad also had a penchant for doing the same thing Stateside like from here to the Bay Area, Oregon, Washington State, Las Vegas, Arizona, and of course my favorite, Baja. Last time I did a European road trip was six years ago when I lived in France. My girlfriend and I were three months out on the road on our Summer break, from our home base in Grenoble down to Provence to eventually visit my folks in Barcelona. From there, we traveled down the French and Italian Rivieras, the Cinque Terre, through Tuscany, down to Rome, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, before rounding out the boot to Sicily. Really cool trip and it exhausted our pocket books, but worth it.
I've basically been in about every corner of the States, some parts of Canada, and the entire Western half of Europe. I will say I've never been to Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia or the Eastern half of Europe (by that I mean nowhere east of Amsterdam), which is where I'd love to go real soon, though I'm comfortable going to the same places again, seeing how they're like a second home.
I've been to most continental states. Can't think of any that I haven't been in at some point, either actually visiting or passing through. Haven't been off shore much, just the Bahamas. Our lives are so busy we haven't been able to do that traveling vacation thing. Hope to begin doing that soon though.
Nfl Fan wrote:Having sailed over 30k miles at sea, I've been left with a dream of living on a sailboat (when the kids are both gone) and setting sail for wherever the wind may take us. There's nothing like spending a month stern-to the quay in places like Antigua or St. Tropez.
Right there with ya, mon. I'd love to spend my days sailing, diving, catching what's for dinner, and my evenings sailing into the sunset.
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