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[Travel] Travel to exotic places and get stuck in the airport.
Thomamelas
Only one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered User regular
Only one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered User regular
Some people do it for fun and leisure. They go to fun, exotic places like Bali:
[img][/img]
Other people do it for work. And they go to places like Lubbock:
This is a thread for everything travel related. From suggestions about places to go, to what kind of luggage to use, to which Airline/Hotel/Car Rental Loyalty programs are best.* And of course all of the joys that come from being in an airport. So let's cover some basic topics.
Frequent Flyer/Loyalty Programs, how do they work?
For airlines:
It's a combination of a couple of things. Almost all use mileage as part of it. Different airlines have different names for it, but for the sake of simplicity we're gonna call them ass in seat miles. These are miles flown. What is the flight distance from point A to point B. If your numbers don't match the Airlines, make sure you're using a great circle route calculator, not Google maps. Other things that may be counted or required are dollars spent, and segments. Segments are every time you plan to get on and off a plane. So if my flight goes RDU to CLT where I change planes and go to SFO, that is two segments. It's generally really hard to earn status on most airlines via segments. So what do you get for making airline status? Generally you get baggage fees waived. You can board earlier, thus giving you better access to rare overhead space. At higher tiers you may get the extra legroom seats free. Rarely you might get a first class upgrade. Some have some other perks. Frequent flyer miles can be turned into free flights. Credit card miles can be used for this as well but generally don't count toward status, and when they do the programs will be capped well before you get to a status tier.
For hotels:
It's usually the number of nights you stay or the total number of stays. So what do you get for hotel status? Honestly not a lot. Upgraded rooms in the US and Europe are rare. For some hotels it gets access to free breakfast and wi-fi. Note that if you're traveling at all, join the hotel loyalty program for that chain. The lowest tier on most of them will give you free wi-fi. You might also get some bottled water/drinks and a snack. But the big draw is the points, which you turn into free hotel stays.
For Rental Cars:
It will be the days renting or number of rentals. This will get you either airline miles, hotel points or free car rental days. The one exception is business traveller focused. And that's National. Status tiers with them give you access to the Emerald isle or the Executive isle. The big draw being the ability to pick out the car you want, not the shitbox the rental clerk hands you because they have been abused by people abused by the airlines all day and that vicious cycle is gonna continue god damn it.
What kind of luggage should I get?
I'm not a big roller bag guy, but the Kirkland brand stuff seems to be the choice for the cheap end, and Rimowa seems to be the higher end consensus. My boss swears by his Tumi bags, and people also speak well of Briggs and Riley. I tend to prefer soft sided bags, and personally I use Red Oxx. While their bags are over built, they may be a bit informal for some people. Other popular choices are Tom Bihn and Victorinox.
What Airport Sucks The Most?
Atlanta.
How should I book my travel?
Honestly, the only travel website I use is Concur. If someone wants to do a write up for travel sites, let me know.
What things can help make my travel experience more pleasant?
A big spare battery for your phone/tablet. Flights are much more pleasant if you can spend the whole thing watching the movie you downloaded from Netflix to your phone or tablet. Or play games on your phone or table. Perhaps read a nice book on your phone or tablet. Water is pretty great too. Flying is a great way to get dehydrated. Lots of water helps. Noise cancelling headphones. Airplanes are loud. Noise cancelling headphones make it much easier to hear your movie or TV show.
Where should I go?
This is gonna be asked in the thread. Please tell us the following. What kind of places do you want to go? Do you want winter sports or lush jungles? Do you want to climb mountains or sit on the beach drinking fruity drinks? How much do you want to spend?
[img][/img]
Other people do it for work. And they go to places like Lubbock:
This is a thread for everything travel related. From suggestions about places to go, to what kind of luggage to use, to which Airline/Hotel/Car Rental Loyalty programs are best.* And of course all of the joys that come from being in an airport. So let's cover some basic topics.
Frequent Flyer/Loyalty Programs, how do they work?
For airlines:
It's a combination of a couple of things. Almost all use mileage as part of it. Different airlines have different names for it, but for the sake of simplicity we're gonna call them ass in seat miles. These are miles flown. What is the flight distance from point A to point B. If your numbers don't match the Airlines, make sure you're using a great circle route calculator, not Google maps. Other things that may be counted or required are dollars spent, and segments. Segments are every time you plan to get on and off a plane. So if my flight goes RDU to CLT where I change planes and go to SFO, that is two segments. It's generally really hard to earn status on most airlines via segments. So what do you get for making airline status? Generally you get baggage fees waived. You can board earlier, thus giving you better access to rare overhead space. At higher tiers you may get the extra legroom seats free. Rarely you might get a first class upgrade. Some have some other perks. Frequent flyer miles can be turned into free flights. Credit card miles can be used for this as well but generally don't count toward status, and when they do the programs will be capped well before you get to a status tier.
For hotels:
It's usually the number of nights you stay or the total number of stays. So what do you get for hotel status? Honestly not a lot. Upgraded rooms in the US and Europe are rare. For some hotels it gets access to free breakfast and wi-fi. Note that if you're traveling at all, join the hotel loyalty program for that chain. The lowest tier on most of them will give you free wi-fi. You might also get some bottled water/drinks and a snack. But the big draw is the points, which you turn into free hotel stays.
For Rental Cars:
It will be the days renting or number of rentals. This will get you either airline miles, hotel points or free car rental days. The one exception is business traveller focused. And that's National. Status tiers with them give you access to the Emerald isle or the Executive isle. The big draw being the ability to pick out the car you want, not the shitbox the rental clerk hands you because they have been abused by people abused by the airlines all day and that vicious cycle is gonna continue god damn it.
What kind of luggage should I get?
I'm not a big roller bag guy, but the Kirkland brand stuff seems to be the choice for the cheap end, and Rimowa seems to be the higher end consensus. My boss swears by his Tumi bags, and people also speak well of Briggs and Riley. I tend to prefer soft sided bags, and personally I use Red Oxx. While their bags are over built, they may be a bit informal for some people. Other popular choices are Tom Bihn and Victorinox.
What Airport Sucks The Most?
Atlanta.
How should I book my travel?
Honestly, the only travel website I use is Concur. If someone wants to do a write up for travel sites, let me know.
What things can help make my travel experience more pleasant?
A big spare battery for your phone/tablet. Flights are much more pleasant if you can spend the whole thing watching the movie you downloaded from Netflix to your phone or tablet. Or play games on your phone or table. Perhaps read a nice book on your phone or tablet. Water is pretty great too. Flying is a great way to get dehydrated. Lots of water helps. Noise cancelling headphones. Airplanes are loud. Noise cancelling headphones make it much easier to hear your movie or TV show.
Where should I go?
This is gonna be asked in the thread. Please tell us the following. What kind of places do you want to go? Do you want winter sports or lush jungles? Do you want to climb mountains or sit on the beach drinking fruity drinks? How much do you want to spend?
+7
Posts
That's the Odd Fellow Palæet, Copenhagen. God I wish my club fought in a palace ballroom built in 1751...
This summer we'll be going to Paris for about a week. Any suggestions on things to do? We're thinking of going to Amsterdam for some of that time and maybe other places in between or in the area. What do ppl recommend?
How are you getting to Paris? Direct? We'd like to go to Paris but it involves some stupid connections from the west coast and is just as expensive as longer flights to more exotic locales.
Every 6 months or so we like to take a big vacation somewhere. Last one was Tahiti/Bora Bora and in a few months it's Cambodia/Thailand. Incredibly excited.
Also going to be in Amsterdam for Liberation Day so that should be pretty cool. Will take any suggestions for restaurants.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
The one rule I know is to not use your personal cell phone because international calls will kill you in bills. Thankfully I have a work cell phone.
Verizon lets me pay them some fee per day to just use my regular old data plan and not pay the exorbitant fees. In Mexico and Canada it was 2$ or something a day. In Europe I seem to remember 10$/day?
I went to dinner at the restaurant that's co-located with the Rijksmuseum. It was fantastic.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I live in nyc, so there are a lot of flight options. Paris is nonstop. I've noticed flights to Europe are very cheap this year/summer, especially if your dates are flexible.
Where in Cambodia/Thailand are you going? I love SE Asia...
Re: cellphones. I usually just buy sim card at the airport or something similar. If I were getting my own cell phone provider fresh, I would either get Google Fi or T-Mobile with the free int'l roaming.
In the past I've bought local sim cards, but my recent trip to Denmark & Sweden, I just relied on Sprint's international roaming, and it was fine. There's so much going on that you never really surf the web when out and about, as you'll have already researched nearly everything you want to do on any given day. It was problematic only once, when I was trying to figure out what train ticket to buy to get myself from Copenhagen to Ystad, so I improvised by getting myself to Copenhagen Central Station where I could ask someone in person.
Aka, you'll mainly use your data plan for texts with traveling companions and navigation data for your offline maps. The web surfing you normally do back home just won't happen as frequently, because you'll be too busy enjoying the moment, and when it does happen, you'll be taking a break someplace that invariably has a wifi hotspot.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
the downside is now you have this intermediary step if there's a problem- i guess you can't directly modify the reservation anymore. you have to call autoslash.
but renting just compact/intermediate cars, i never need to pay more than like 20-30 bucks a day after taxes and fees.
You're packing a lot in there? How long are you planning on staying in each location?
I love travelling, but I struggle with choosing a destination. There's just too many variables and so little time (and money)!
Upstairs Pannenkoekenhuis for the best lunch pancakes you'll ever eat (yes, lunch, they open at noon), and
Brouwerij 't IJ for a great local brewpub on the eastern side of Amsterdam, located in a windmill.
Dinner-wise, I suggest the Jordaan neighborhood on the northwest side. I pretty much ate at random restaurants in that neighborhood and came away satisfied every time.
And I don't know what potato variety grows near Amsterdam, but it's the best tasting variety I've had in my entire life, anywhere, by a significant margin.
Excellent, we're for sure hitting up the Rijksmuseum so that works out perfectly.
4 days each for Amsterdam/Bruges/Arras, 2 days for Paris. We kind of have a war theme for this trip, so that informed the locations and sightseeing. I imagine if we were just going on a kind of general Europe trip it would be a bit harder to narrow things down.
We also went through a travel agent so everything came in a lot cheaper than I expected. We haven't booked all our tours yet, but flight/hotels/rail passes have come in at about ~3500 CAD per person.
This is my first overseas trip, but now that I know what kind of expense I'm looking at and what's involved, I'm really hoping to do a lot more traveling in the future. I want to do a month long training camp in Thailand next year.
Oh my god, that pancake place sounds amazing. I have to go to there.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
I don't know when exactly you are traveling, but 27th April is Kingsday, the biggest national holiday of the Netherlands. Depending on what you like, you either really want to be, or really do not want to be in Amsterdam (On average about 500k people visit the 1m city that day) It is is a silly place on that day.
May 5th is Liberation Day, which is more localised, but still has festivals pop up around the country.
We're going to do a day trip to Brussels, but I'll add Antwerp to the list too, it looks really nice. We don't have a whole lot planned out for Bruges but my mom really likes the little museums and shops and stuff, and especially all the history (then again, anywhere you go in Europe you're tripping over history).
We land in Amsterdam on the 3rd and will leave on the 7th, so we're definitely going to check out the Liberation Day stuff. We're from Canada so it seemed fitting to be there for it.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Worthwhile stop to begin with, and it also helps to break up the flight.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
I just felt like this deserved a quote for emphasis. Especially since it seems like no matter where I'm flying to and from, if one of them is in the east coast, I'm laying over in fucking Altlanta. Pittsburgh to Minneapolis? You bet I'm flying the extra 2 hours south to Atlanta before heading west to MSP. It's gotten to the point I've started planning my trips around how I can layover in Midway instead despite Atlanta being the cheaper option.
DELTA: Duh, Everyone Leaves Through Atlanta.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My favorite airport stateside is Burbank, California, because they roll up stairs to both the fore and aft plane stairwells, letting you debark the plane in record time, with the baggage carousel so close by that you can see the baggage handlers put the luggage onto the carousel bin, just as you arrive in the baggage area.
DFW is also decent but a bigger hub. Only flown through a few times but it's just big more than anything, which is fine when you don't have to worry about picking people up or using it as a main airport.
Austin-Bergstrom apparently operates on the idea that yeah, we have multiple lines to ease busy times, but we will never use it for anything because you don't tell me what to do, dad. Which is just the Austin way. Never done anything during SXSW pretentious smug time, so maybe they fake efficiency for those two weeks to impress the dickheads from LA.
And on that note LAX is such a joke and it all has to do with their screeners and complete disdain and contempt for every person flying and just general lack of care. LAX is probably the worst I've flown out of (haven't been through ATL)
Newark is a hole, but Atlanta is a circle of hell. Mostly because of the way it's laid out. The domestic terminals run about two miles long. So if you have to change terminals, it can be a hell of a hike. It's not run down like Newark but making connections there is an interesting experience. Other airports can be bad, like transferring from Eagle's Nest other terminals in Charlotte can be interesting. But Atlanta size and poor layout is also combined with being the busiest airport in the world. It serves 25 million more people a year than O'Hare. So that long layout becomes a mine field of people who mean well but do assholish things unthinkingly. Like blocking the moving walkways. Or stopping at random in areas with high walking traffic. So it's an obstacle course too.
Badlands - absolutely gorgeous. This was a "hey, want to go here?" stop on a road trip, and was one of the highlights of it, as we went in not knowing what to expect. Breathtakingly beautiful, and if you're driving in western South Dakota, absolutely worth the detour even if you don't have much time.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison - Name pretty well describes it. Large canyon, some great views. I like the camping here - you're down at the bottom along the river, and it made for very pleasant atmosphere when going to bed. Less busy than many other parks, which was nice.
Bryce Canyon - one of the better parks for "drive up to see view, take pictures, and go on." The hiking is great too, but this is basically a really accessible park for people. Definitely worth a stop. I want to make it back in winter and see it with snow sometime.
Canyonlands - had a bit more time than Arches here. Wonderful view, really want to get into the backcountry sometime. Also, I knew someone who guided on the whitewater in this park - they highly recommended it, so I plan on going back and trying that out sometime.
Capitol Reef - the forgotten Utah park. Once more, quite beautiful. For this one, though, I'd actually say I prefer the monument which surrounds it - Grand Staircase-Escalante - my dad and I went backpacking here, and getting into the wilderness was great. Visiting the Park proper after that was a little bit of a let-down.
Carlsbad Caverns - must visit. Pictures simply do not do this place justice. The bat show is a bit of a letdown compared to what it used to be, apparently - drought has made them go elsewhere to look for food, so there's fewer bats than there used to be.
Channel Islands - Probably my least favorite of the CA parks. This one requires planning ahead. There's a number of islands, and they're only accessible via ferry or plane, both of which leave from different locations and only go to certain places on certain days of the week. To get to some of the islands requires proof of a camping permit. From what I understand, a lot of the neat stuff requires kayaking once you've gotten to the islands, and I didn't do that, so I can't speak to it - I had a nice hike, it was nice scenery, but just be prepared for more preparation ahead of time than is typical.
Crater Lake - beautiful views. If you've been to Tahoe a lot it may be slightly less impressive, but the sheer BLUE of the water is still fantastic. Smaller window of opportunity to access than a lot of other parks, so plan accordingly. The trip out to the center island is worth it.
Cuyahoga Valley - this shouldn't be a Park, it should be a Recreation Area. It's neat to have one so close to cities out that part of the country, but it just screams of some Ohio politician going "there should be a NP in our state" and tacking it on to some bill. Three Interstate highways pass through this park, and there's multiple towns and a golf course inside its limits. It just felt like being in a nice outdoor area, but nothing stunning like what you expect from a Park.
Death Valley - Beautiful, enormous park. Take time to go out on the dunes (and bring sunscreen!). Rent a jeep (or bring one) and do Titus Canyon - absolutely worth the effort. Racetrack is is a bit disappointing after going out there. The photos with the moving rocks make them look a lot larger than they actually are.
Glacier - Once more, beautiful scenery and hiking. I was unfortunately not able to do Going-to-the-Sun Road as it wasn't open at the time. Ran into some mountain goats while hiking out here, which was a bit of a standoff - we got off the trail, they eyed us and walked past, and then we could continue. Also, while you're here, it's worth crossing the border to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, too.
Grand Canyon - one of the few places in the world which it doesn't matter how much you talk it up, it will always impress. It's immense. it's SO immense. If you can, seriously take the time to raft down it. Just going down in and cutting yourself off from the world gives a completely different perspective. Also, the whitewater is a ton of fun.
Grand Teton - unfortunately was just a drive-through after Yellowstone. Beautiful scenery, I want to come back and do some hiking.
Great Basin - worth a visit, but not a whole lot going on here. Good hiking. There was a neat cave tour that I'd recommend checking out. But do it before something like Carlsbad - Carlsbad kinda makes most other caves pale in comparison.
Great Sand Dunes - went here after Death Valley, so it wasn't quite AS impressive (despite being more sand). Still definitely worth a visit. The fact that they allowed the surfing/boarding down the dunes bothered me more than it probably should have. Bring sunscreen - distances can be deceptive.
Great Smokey Mountains - once more, lovely scenery. This is a pretty heavily trafficked park, so expect crowds, unfortunately.
Guadalupe Mountains - nice hiking here. It's a bit tucked away from much, so it's pretty empty, which is nice if you like that. Not far from Carlsbad Caverns, but they're very different from one another. Pair 'em up.
Joshua Tree - Seeing this park is either a one day thing or a whole week thing. There's one main through highway, and most of the stops don't take much time unless you're planning on backpacking into the back country. Beautiful high desert distance viewing, though.
Kings Canyon - connected to Sequoia, both might as well be the same. Don't bother with King's Canyon unless you're backpacking. There's only one small loop road in/out, and you get to see the entrance canyon, but like 90% of the park is completely inaccessible unless you're backpacking.
Lassen Volcanic - actually just got back from my second trip here, where we went snowshoeing! Another great "views and hiking" park.
Mesa Verde - didn't get into the outdoors in this one as much because I was SUPER sunburnt at the time, but I did get into the museums and the ruins some. Much more of a history buff's sort of place - lots of neat Native American ruins
Petrified Forest - very cool park. I wasn't sure what to expect as I was a little kid - I knew it would be trees as rocks, but I assumed they'd be standing. So no, don't expect that - lots of logs fallen over. But petrified wood looks super cool.
Pinnacles - I went when it was a monument, not a park. Lovely hiking. Didn't get to see any condors myself, though.
Redwood - Stunningly beautiful. Worth doing a little offroad to get to....I can't remember the name of the creek. That was a nice hike. Also some of the most beautiful campgrounds I've seen - waking up underneath these enormous trees is fantastic. Expect campsites to be more expensive though - this one's weird where the National Park is basically a combination of a bunch of state parks, and the campgrounds are managed by the state parks.
Rocky Mountain - this is great for both short and long visits. Long drives with amazing views, snow in July, great hiking. Just be aware of the weather (a few people were hit by lightning the day I left), and campgrounds can be VERY windy. I recommend hitting the trails really early to avoid crowds.
Saguaro - I was quite young the last time I went here, so I don't remember much other than huge cacti. They were cool.
Sequoia - Another nice views and hiking park. See King's Canyon. This one's a bit more accessible, but still not super accessible to everything in the park.
Shenandoah - beautiful views and hiking, but also real good for scenic byway driving. Worth a visit on the east coast. Another "expect crowds" park.
Theodore Roosevelt - didn't get as much time here as I wanted. Lovely views, but we didn't get much hiking (there was a storm with tornadoes coming in, and you DON'T want to be exposed). Not many people seem to have heard of this one, but it's totally worth visiting.
Yellowstone - Most everyone has heard of this one, but it's true. It's a fantastic place to visit. Keep your distance from the Bison though, don't be an idiot. Also, I found Old Faithful to be a bit lackluster. Still a wonderful visit. Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was impressive.
Yosemite - the most beautiful place on Earth. I mean just....fuck. The view from Glacier Point? The valley floor, seeing all these monoliths around you? The redwoods? Mirror Lake (when it's there?) Hiking Half Dome? I mean, just....fuck.
Zion - Another one which lives up to expectations. I need to make it back and hike angel's landing (my family had some stuff where we were canyoneering just outside the park), but the views throughout were outstanding
If folks want, I can go back and do the same for Monuments/Lakeshores/etc, but I haven't been to as high a percent of those.
Highest point in Texas, a member of God's chosen people (Texans) reaching such height, holding out his hand and touching fingertips with his Creator like the ninja turtle drew. It feels so transcending just typing it.
I like travel, and consider it a perk of the job. But seeing the travel schedule of some of the higher-ups, I realise it quickly becomes 'punishment' not 'perk'.
The food in Luanda wasn't good, but there were some plain boiled potatoes there that were the best I've ever tasted. Not sure what variety.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
12,645 miles flown.
12 nights in hotel rooms.
Cities visited:
Portland
Philly
San Francisco.
Are you in your early/mid 20's or just not beaten enough by the travel for work yet? At a certain point, it doesn't really matter how nice a hotel is, I dread the sight of it.
No, man, really not the case for me. I want my own bed, I want a conversation with somebody I actually like, I don't want to live out of a suitcase for a week and many, many other things. Traveling can be nice, traveling for work(assuming you are actually doing it regularly and not like every 3 months or something), requires a special kind of person and I'm not it anymore. It was easy when I was young, now the spark is not there.
And for my not travel weeks, my general requirement is my boss would like me to return any phone calls from him within 3 hours. I still have the odd thing to do but it's generally a few minutes paperwork or tasks like updating software on my training servers. But most of my downtime is my own. I've done frequent travel where I had to go back into the office afterwards and it's much more brutal.
This might be a somewhat dangerous way of thinking about the world, but when I saw that there was an attack at the Louvre this morning and people were held inside until things were sorted out, my reaction was along the lines of "Well, I suppose that there are far worse places in the world to be trapped for a few hours than one of the greatest museums on the planet."
On a related note, I'm looking forward to visiting Paris in the last week of March/first week of April.