Playground's Travel Thread

[Jon_Dahl]

All right, since people are either having or about to have their vacations all over the world, it would be nice to share experiences and thoughts about travelling, whether domestic or abroad. Please feel free to advertise your own home country as a travel destination, but it would be polite tell us if you have a strong bias when you talk about a given country :)

I came back from Malta two days ago and I'd like to share some of my experiences. Please click the spoiler if you are interested in my opinions.
Weather - Very hot and dry. I was positively surprised that nights weren't hellishly hot, though.
Urban Malta - Cities are a mix of modern buildings or old sandstone buildings. Some of the buildings in Valletta are beautiful. General outlook is a bit blast from the past with giant television antennas. Pedestrians paths are very narrow. Streets are a bit confusing at times. Traffic isn't too hectic.
Shopping in Malta - In Valletta you can buy nice souveniers and clothes. Mdina has a great selection of glass art.
Sights - Azure Window in Gozo is amazing!! I saw just one of the stone temples and it didn't look very impressive. They were doing renovations and the construction supports ruined the sight. Beaches look nice. The old churches are beautiful.
Activities - Swimming was ok, but the large quantities of sea urchins was problematic. When you swim, the colourful sealife comes alive around you and the little fishies love to come close to you. Taking a ferry to Gozo is a must.
People - Very serious and reserved, but helpful. I was somewhat disappointed with their level of English. The official language of Malta is Maltese and English, and their command of English was highly acclaimed all over the Internet. I found it to be a bit limited and their Arabic accent and intonation was challenging for me. On two occasions I noticed that people in service professions didn't understand the sentence "Can you repeat, please?". The problem wasn't with me, because my travel companion understood my question perfectly. They do understand English, but you have to use very specific sentences like "I beg your pardon?" if you wish to make yourself understood. Saying "Huh?" is even better.
Malta is a very Catholic country and this is constantly evident.
Other tourists - Relatively there is a massive amount of other tourists. You hear British English, Italian and Spanish all the time. Without a shadow of doubt, Malta is a popular tourist destination.
Hygiene and cleanliness - Almost always in a nearly perfect condition. The Maltese people take good care of their island, including streets and beaches. Tap water is drinkable.
Sense of history - There are plenty of museums and historical sights which you can visit. It's easy to dwell in the history of knights and medieval Europe in Malta. Maritime museum was my personal favourite.

Summa summarum:
I didn't fall in love with the country, but hordes of tourists cannot be wrong: Malta is a great travel destination. I recommend one week stay because it will be more than enough to see everything.

[Serpentine]

Relevant thread is relevant. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227152)

I love travelling, and can't wait until I can do it again.
I had a Britlandish Playgrounder come visit me the other week. 'twas pretty great! If you're travelling here, I'd probably recommend picking a particular area and focussing on it. Australia is big. Very very big. And very very spread out. And also quite expensive. So yeah, best to decide what you most want out of your trip, and pick one or two specific places based on that. I recommend "seeing me", and "where I am" :smallwink:

[Totally Guy]

I was about to say!

I've had some good holidays recently.

Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. Cool places. Was surprised that Brisbane didn't have a major beach itself, Sunshine and Gold coasts being the nearest ones. Enjoyed Sydney's naturist beaches. Saw caves and odd shaped mountains. Went to a proper waterpark (not like the knock offs in the UK). Spent time with Serp, listened to Triple J, ate "notdogs" (I'm sure Serp will help me out here) and drank milo.

I wish I'd gone for a scuba session up north but there were more appealing things down south.

A friend of mine just got back from the west coast. It sound like a more extreme version where all the good and bad stuff about the east coast is heightened. Or maybe she just tells her stories that way.


Maui in Hawaii is an amazing place too. Crystal clear waters, loads of tropical fish. I don't know anyone else who's been before but I wasn't disapponted, loads of rainbows.

I love New York too. Except when Hurricane Sandy blows through and ruins everything and you end up crashing a few nights on a minor minor celebrity's couch.

[Jon_Dahl]

Playgrounders don't travel / find it boring / don't want to talk about it?

I'm a bit surprised why this thread is so dead... I've seen travel threads with almost 10,000 posts (and not in a travel-related forum either), so I'm confused why people aren't posting. Wrong timing? Poor OP? :smalleek:

Edit:
These are some of the countries that I wish to see some day:
- Turkey (my friend wants to visit Turkey, I could go with her)
- Ethiopia (I've been dreaming about this for years)
- Japan (only because my former colleague lives there)
- Mexico (my friend dreams of traveling there, I could accompany him)
- Russia (the most realistic choice)
- Portugal! Almost forget! I must visit Portugal one day.

[Totally Guy]

Playgrounders don't travel / find it boring / don't want to talk about it?

I'm a bit surprised why this thread is so dead...

Tell me about it! This is the most interesting topic posted in weeks!

Sure I'm a bit self focussed when I post mine but I read them!

[KuReshtin]

I like travelling, but I rarely get to do a whole lot of it.
Usually, I just go to see my family inSweden a week or two each year, and then do short weekend trips down into Englandshire for gaming conventions.

I do remember fondly my trip to the US about 15 years ago, though, and I'd very much like to go back there to visit people and travel round a bit.

When the NFL (American Football) seasn is released each year, I tend to dream up a 4-month trip with all the home venues of all the NFL teams are included to make a 'grand Slam Season Trip' where I see all teams in their home stadium during the same season.
Obviously, that kind of planning would cost a hell of a lot of money, so it's just a thought-exercise, but it's always good to dream.

I like driving, though, so a lot of the trips i undertake down south includes me driving, and I'd very much like to drive along old Route 66 in the US and visit old towns and smaller, out-the-way places.

[Feytalist]

- Ethiopia (I've been dreaming about this for years)


If you can manage, do go. Ethiopia is an amazing country to visit. Out of all the countries in Africa, Ethiopia is almost unique. It was never colonized, so the country's culture, cuisine, music etc. has very little outside influence. (It was annexed for a while by Italy, though. The people sort-of speak Italian and there's a bunch of Italian restaurants in the cities.)

Speaking of the cities, Addis Ababa is a prosperous, bustling city. Its shopping district/bazaar thing is a nice touristy thing to do. It's not quite Marrakesh, but it's pretty diverse in its own right.

The countryside is lush, verdant and very pretty in places. The persisting idea of Ethiopia as a poverty-stricken, starving, dry and dusty country is very much erroneous. The whole country is very definitely picking up. And, like most of Africa, the people in general are very friendly.

One thing though: again, like most of Africa, the road networks are horrible. It's generally agreed that the road linking Kenya and Ethiopia is the worst road in Africa. And that's a high bar for terribleness.


Edit: And since I'm on a roll, come visit South Africa! We've got sun! (Only not right now, it's raining now.) We've got wildlife! (In fact, hunting season just opened. Heh.) We've got a large range of biomes, from some very pretty forests to the Highveld/Lowveld grasslands. Great swimming, pretty okay surfing, and amazing hiking trails and similar, if you're into that. Also the historical sites and rock paintings and Cradle of Humankind (which, honestly, is a bit of a dump). And of course there's the game drives and wildlife parks, which is what everyone comes to do, and can be pretty spectacular if you strike it lucky.

Then there's the cities. Johannesburg is a pit, whereas Cape Town is pretty, historical, a cultural hotspot and is in the middle of the Cape Wine District (check out that locational bias, heheh). The Winelands also make for very picturesque drives and visits, with many wine farms and such along the way to stop at. (A wine tour or wine tasting is incidentally a favourite weekend activity for my friends and me.)

Cons: Crime. Yeah, South Africa has the second highest crime rate in the world. And depending on where you go, theft will be an issue. But, honestly, if you take precautions, it shouldn't be an issue. Also, as much as I hate to say it, my countrymen doesn't have the same track record of friendliness and helpfulness as the rest of Africa. Probably not enough to put anyone off from visiting, but there you have it.

[Totally Guy]

I've been to South Africa, I stayed in a country range with some student friends. At the age of 23 it was my first time on a plane and as nearly a whole week trip the longest I'd ever been abroad.

We did a day trip to the university of Pretoria and saw their camera obscura.
We went to Johannesberg but didn't see anything too exciting. Some kind of dutch museum.
We did a day trip down a mine to see all the industrial stuff. I'm a tiny white guy and the smallest safety gloves were huge on my hands.
And we went to a big themed casino. But I can't remember the name something like "Valuable thing" "geographic feature" Casino. But I didn't have the money to gamble at the time as I wanted to get by with just the Rand I'd brought with me.

[FinnLassie]

I have to say, I've travelled a lot but I find writing about it extremely frustrating. Even talking about it to friends gets tiring... Mostly I just show everyone photos of where I've been and explain all that I've done through them. There's also that sometimes I just don't feel like there's anything to tell although I've been to about 20 countries and experienced a lot of things.

[Ebon_Drake]

- Turkey (my friend wants to visit Turkey, I could go with her)

I've been to several Middle Eastern countries and found Turkey to be the nicest. I only stayed in and around Istanbul, but there were plenty of things to do there and I found the people far more friendly and less hassling than elsewhere in the region (I'm looking at you, Egypt).

My most recent holiday was in India for my mum's 60th birthday. It was beautiful, slightly madcap and absolutely charming. I'd recommend going there around March before it gets unbearably hot.

[nedz]

This year we did Florence. We also took in Ravenna, Pisa, Lucca and some village with lots of medieval towers. Excellent if you like Art and Architecture.

Last year we did part of the route of the Orient Express: Sofia (2 days) — Plovdiv (3 days) — Istanbul (4 days). We travelled by train, which was very cheap. Awesome Icons and Architecture.

[Helanna]

I've been thinking about travelling a lot lately. I'm exceedingly broke right now, so it would have to wait a couple of years, but I'm not sure where I'd go anyway. My coworker recently went to Germany and toured some old castles, that sounded pretty awesome. And I kind of want to visit Ireland, just because it seems really, really pretty there.

Alternatively, does anyone have any good/unusual destinations within the US? I might be able to squeeze in a road trip with my sister next year sometime. If we did go, I'm sure we'd hit the typical road trip destinations, but I'd be really interested in hearing about any cool places that might be less well-known.

[noparlpf]

Hmm, where have I been...
I'm from the New York/New England area, so I've been all around here, of course, including a day trip to Canada one of the times we were up in Maine. Used to go to Miami, FL regularly as my great-grandmother used to live down there. Went to Japan for my aunt and uncle's wedding when I was about six, and we toured around for a couple of weeks. (My aunt is Japanese.) Went to Mexico once for another relative's wedding, and various parts of California to see family/for weddings.

A friend and I are trying to work out how and when to go on a road trip, either up to Maine and Canada, or out west, as neither of us has been out that way before. Unfortunately, school is taking up my summer, next summer doesn't look much better, and I doubt he'd be willing to go to Canada over winter break...

[t209]

Burma
I visit Burma every year on summer (U.S Summer from June to August). Unfortuately, it is raining season currently and traffic is chaos after repeal of vehicle permit. However, you will enjoy food, Pagodas, and fruits. What I am currently saying is on Rangoon but other places have historical structures (mandalay) and nice beaches (Arakan beaches).

[DraPrime]

Travel? Well, I suppose I'm in the middle of traveling right now. I started out by spending a week in northern Italy, going from Milan to Venice. I think Verona was the prettiest of the cities that I saw (and being the prettiest on a list of Italian cities is no small feat). Venice might have been able to top Verona if it weren't so incredibly crowded, and if I'd had more time to check it out. Verona also got my admiration for not trying to exploit the Romeo and Juliet thing very much. You don't really see much mention of it as you walk around. There's parts of the world where every other bar would gladly take its name from that play in the hope of snagging some tourists.

After Italy I went to a little town in France called Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to begin the Camino de Santiago. I started on May 28, and arrived in Santiago de Compostela on June 28, so that was a total of 32 days of walking, though that includes a few rest days and some moments that I had to use vehicular transport due to injuries. It was...difficult. Difficult, but spectacular. There is something incredible about looking at a map of Spain and realizing just how much distance was walked, and how it is very possible to cross a huge distance by just doing a little at a time. Once I finally reached Santiago my body just gave out the next day and I was barely had the energy to even get up and eat. I don't know if I just got sick due to my weakened state, or if this was intense exhaustion. Either way, I spent a lot of time sleeping.

Now I've arrived at my mom's home in Vienna where I'm taking a well deserved break. Until July 9 it will be nothing but lounging about on the couch and resting. After that I go to Warsaw to visit some relatives, and on the 14th I return home to the USA, thus ending my travels.


- Turkey (my friend wants to visit Turkey, I could go with her)

That is a very good choice. I was there about a year and a half ago. Went from Istanbul down to Ephesus along the coast, and then returned to Istanbul by going north through the Phrygian valley. Absolutely wonderful if you like kebabs (I do. A lot), Byzantine architecture, and ancient Greek stuff.

[Erloas]

Alternatively, does anyone have any good/unusual destinations within the US? I might be able to squeeze in a road trip with my sister next year sometime. If we did go, I'm sure we'd hit the typical road trip destinations, but I'd be really interested in hearing about any cool places that might be less well-known.
It really depends on the kinds of places you like to see and what you like to do. I've been to quite a few places on the west half of the country and a little bit around the east half of the country.

Personally I'm not a big fan of cities, I've been to Vegas quite a few times and I often wander around one evening wondering what there is for *me* to do and then just go to bed. Of course most of those stops are from when I was traveling from school to home during breaks. I just got back from almost 2 weeks in Europe and the last week was in Stockholm and 4 days of wandering around and I was pretty much out of things I wanted to do.

For me the outdoors places are where I want to be. I can easily spend a week or two camping.

Yellowstone is a great place to visit and it is set up so you can drive there and walk around a little and stay in a hotel if that is your thing but in that case you will always have a lot of other people around. If you want to camp you can get away from people a bit better (especially if you stay in a campground a bit outside the park, Teton National Forest is good). Then there is the backcountry hiking and camping where you can easily get away from everyone. It is pretty simple, the farther away you can get from where cars can go you will see exponentially less people.

As for the less well known areas, I'm sure they exist in most areas. For instance if you like high mountain forests like Yellowstone but want to avoid crowds there are a lot of places outside of but relatively close to Yellowstone. You just don't have the geothermal attractions like Yellowstone. Though there are a number of hot-springs around too. My personal favorite is Granite hot-springs which is a bit south of Jacksonm, Wy. Thermopolis, Wy is also good and there are areas close by with petroglyphs, it is also a small city instead of just a hot-springs by a camp ground like Granite is. Last year I invited a friend and her kids up for a week and we did a trip to Thermopolis and Yellowstone and that was a great trip, and pretty cheap for 4 people, most of which was food and gas, as we stayed in a tent. Only thing I would have changed about that trip was to spend one less day in Thermopolis and one more in Yellowstone, though we easily could have stayed much longer in Yellowstone if we had the time.

It has been a long time since I've been there but my mom has recently been saying how much she has enjoyed some recent trips to Lava Hotsprings, another small town, this time on the edge of Idaho.

Then there is the Green River Lakes area around Pinedale, Wy which are some more great places. Some of which require backpacking to, some can be driven to.

Of course it is all a bit relative to where you are. I think Yellowstone is worth the trip no matter where you live. A lot of the other areas are great for a few days but probably not worth driving 1000+ miles for on their own.