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OT: Vacations

WellPlayed said:
Puerto Vallarta - I know ME has alot of experience here. Best areas of town to stay in? Things to do? Does it make sense to rent out a place or better off to just stay at a resort? This looks like it could be decent value if done right.
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I'm a condo guy when I'm there. Food is so cheap and generally outstanding that eating resort food for a week there is missing a big part of the charm the city has. My three favourite areas to stay are:

- The hotel zone north (specifically the 3 big condo complexes there: Grand Venetian, Peninsula, and Icon)

- Right near the malecon on the south side of the rio cuale between the river and the los muertos pier in the older part of the city (also way more nightlife down that way). Molina de Agua is a really nice condo building right there that I've stayed in, but anything nice in that general vicinity (preferably with a view of the ocean, perfect sunsets every night).

- The puerto vallarta marina and marina golf course area. A little older and cheaper than the other two I just mentioned, but really nice as well.

Things to do depend almost entirely on your bag. Kick it on different beaches up and down the coast for the week. Whale watching tours are easy and cheap. Jungle excursion tours with zip lining and all of that. Para glide, jump out of a perfectly good mexican airplane, dive. Hang around old town and party until 4 am every night, whatever. Really versatile spot.
 
zeke said:
Bali is great but Kuta is Cancun for australians. Which can be fun but is what it is. It's a party if that's what you're after.

If you want something quieter youu can head up to Ubud in the interior (hippie town turned spa town) which is gorgeous quiet and relaxing with great restos and spas (no beach tho) or head up to the north of the island for more relaxing beaches.

I'd actually suggest trying to hop over an island to Lombok and head up to the Gilli islands, which are gorgeous. Have some mushroom shakes and go swimming with the phosphorescence. it's about as magical an experience as you can get on this planet. It's not really hard to get there and the trip there is great too

Or you can just keep island hopping east and it gets more remote and more interesting the further you go. Indonesia is an amazing place.
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Thanks for the advice, zeke.

Definitely want to check out the Gilli Islands.
 
yeah Bali is... a bizarro world. the flight in is cool, I'd grad a window if you can.

Kuta is a shithole, but if you want any type of drugs or are searching for a party, its the place to go. And it has a nice beach. and watch out for the drunk Aussies.

Ubud I did like - prepare to encounter cheeky monkeys everywhere. the monkeys will legit take things from you (we saw a monkey steal a person's eyeglasses, then hold them hostage for snacks, and then decide to just mangle them anyways)

The Bukit peninsula is the biggest bizarro world I have ever traveled to. There are cool sites and attractions to see (two temples of note - Tanah Lot and Uluwatu (I'm not sure if both are on Bukit, but at least one is); Padang-Padang beach is a surfers/backpackers haven, and tons of little bnbs and whatnot. but for a place that sees so many tourists, the tourist infrastructure is absolutely not in place. there are no sidewalks, hardly any restaurants, and I have never in my life had a harder time trying to get a bloody taxi. be warned that there is some kind of taxi racket going on and it is nearly impossible to flag one down.

and unless the infrastructure has improved since I visited (which was in 2013 granted) prepare for absolutely atrocious traffic. we spent a day rafting, another day we hired a driver and visited a bunch of cultural sites. the coffee place where the lemurs eat the beans and then poop them out was really amazing. there are also cooking classes that my friends did and enjoyed, and of course beaches to lounge at if that's your thing. but it's mostly two lane roads on the whole island, and they get right backed up.

however, I will echo zeke's sentiment that Lombok is great. I didn't make it to the Gilis but we summited Mt Rinjani (~3700 m). I'm not sure how accessible Rinjani is following the recent earthquakes, but if you like climbing mountains, you should definitely climb this one (you can get up in a day or two, we did a three day guided trip and spent two nights camping on the edge of a volcanic crater). from the summit on a clear day you can see basically all of Lombok, the Gilis, and Bali. you can even see Mt Agung (tallest on Bali).
 
MindzEye said:
I'm a condo guy when I'm there. Food is so cheap and generally outstanding that eating resort food for a week there is missing a big part of the charm the city has. My three favourite areas to stay are:

- The hotel zone north (specifically the 3 big condo complexes there: Grand Venetian, Peninsula, and Icon)

- Right near the malecon on the south side of the rio cuale between the river and the los muertos pier in the older part of the city (also way more nightlife down that way). Molina de Agua is a really nice condo building right there that I've stayed in, but anything nice in that general vicinity (preferably with a view of the ocean, perfect sunsets every night).

- The puerto vallarta marina and marina golf course area. A little older and cheaper than the other two I just mentioned, but really nice as well.

Things to do depend almost entirely on your bag. Kick it on different beaches up and down the coast for the week. Whale watching tours are easy and cheap. Jungle excursion tours with zip lining and all of that. Para glide, jump out of a perfectly good mexican airplane, dive. Hang around old town and party until 4 am every night, whatever. Really versatile spot.
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Thank you sir, helpful as always.

I really want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but not sure if I want it to be a mexican one.
 
WellPlayed said:
Thank you sir, helpful as always.

I really want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but not sure if I want it to be a mexican one.
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I imagine that jumping out of it would be safer than staying in it. Though if the parachute is also Mexican, all bets are off.

There's apparently a few really good skydive operators in the area if that's your flavour. Timmy was down for my wedding last month and when my best man mentioned that he wanted to jump out of an airplane, I checked online to see what the odds of needing a backup best man was. One of the busier drop zones is right on the beach out front of the condos in the north hotel zone that I mentioned. Was hanging out on my balcony watching them come in all afternoon the one day.
 
UWHabs said:
Florence was fun, although definitely I would spend most of that part outside of the city. You can probably see everything there is to see in the city itself in 3 days. All' Antico Vinaio sandwich shop is a must to stop in for. Long lineup, but worth the wait.

I did a day-long bus trip that stopped in at Sienna, San Gignimango, and Pisa. Not cheap, but well worth it, despite Pisa being such a tourist trap. It stopped at a vineyard for a lunch, and oh, the wine there was so damn good. And at like 8 euro for a bottle of organic wine, I came so close to ordering a crate for home. If you do want to get away, everyone raves about Cinque Terre - I didn't make it there on my trip, but you can easily spend a handful of days there, and I think it's certainly a more relaxing spot than Rome.

But for what it's worth, my 11 days in Italy was basically 4 days in Rome, and then 3 each in Naples and Florence (with some travel time in between), and while I was rushing parts, it really wasn't as hectic as trips could be. Lots of down time to enjoy restaurants, drink wine, take a boat trip to Capri, etc... Although if you just want to take it easy, there's a lot of little towns in Tuscany that are each worth a visit, so you can definitely take a tour around to visit them all and take a relaxed time in the region.
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This post was from ages ago (and I'm not even sure if UWHabs is still a poster here, haven't seen him around) but I was going through this thread looking for some travel ideas for my next trip and realized how great all of this advice was.

We ended up doing 9 days in Florence and two nights in Cinque Terre (favourite part of the trip) with a day trip to Venice (day trip was enough, wasn't impressed) and the same day tour of Tuscany you suggested. All' Antico Vinaio was worth the line.

Thanks!
 
hockeylover said:
This post was from ages ago (and I'm not even sure if UWHabs is still a poster here, haven't seen him around) but I was going through this thread looking for some travel ideas for my next trip and realized how great all of this advice was.

We ended up doing 9 days in Florence and two nights in Cinque Terre (favourite part of the trip) with a day trip to Venice (day trip was enough, wasn't impressed) and the same day tour of Tuscany you suggested. All' Antico Vinaio was worth the line.

Thanks!
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I'm still here! :seeya:

Glad you enjoyed it all! Since that trip, I did another one to Italy again last year to Cinque Terre and agreed that it was fantastic. I spent 4 nights there, and probably could have stayed longer just relaxing in those towns all day.
 
Leafin' said:
Anyone been to Aruba? Thinking of making a last minute trip to one of the islands. Never been.
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Yes. It's a pretty cool place. Small so you can see everything that is to be seen. It's not a lush Carribean Island but rather a desert island. You'll see cacti everywhere. Food is pretty good. Pretty much always sunny and hot.
 
Small is what I'm looking for. A few years ago I went to Bermuda and was able to zip around on a scooter to see the island. Looking for more of the same. Any places you'd recommend to see? Things to avoid? Thanks
 
I've been to Aruba a couple of times, though the most recent time was probably well over 10 years ago now. But yeah, from my experience there's not really a whole lot to see there.

The appeal of Aruba is moreso that they have beautiful beaches, good clean food whether you're on a resort or off it and it's 30 degrees and sunny with a breeze about 99.9% of the time. As far as restaurants go, I'd recommend checking out any of the Brazilian steakhouses you stumble across there if you're a meat lover.
 
Leafin' said:
Small is what I'm looking for. A few years ago I went to Bermuda and was able to zip around on a scooter to see the island. Looking for more of the same. Any places you'd recommend to see? Things to avoid? Thanks
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The roads aren’t great in Aruba, so I’d rent a car, just fyi
 
Now I'm in a toss up between Aruba and Barbados. Similar cost. I'm a no complain traveller. Going with the gf. Were gunna be beach bums for a week. I'm sure id like both and intend on seeing both at some point. Forecast for both says it'll be cloudy which is a bit concerning. TripAdvisor forums say that I shouldn't worry about the weather as the rain comes and goes with plenty of sunshine. We're doing the whole airbnb thing.

Legit might flip a coin. Habsy what made Barbados> for you?
 
I just went to Cuba for a relaxin' beach week. It was good. Had not been there in a long time. My last 3 trips were to busy Euro cities, so I wax missing a week of doing nothing for vacay.
 
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