The Holiday Thread

[Nate]

I need a holiday, I want you all to list your favourite holidays and what you did, who you went with, where you stayed and credit card details. Ok just stories will do.

To start, heres a bit from my travel blog, yes I'm a twat with a travel blog. No it's not that big of a deal really.

New Zealand south Island

22.8.11
On to Franz Josef, the home of the fastest moving glacier in the world. We made a stop at a bush hunters museum, paid $4 to watch a film which had lots of top gun themes with helicopters and people jumping out of them using “kiwi ingenuity” to land on Deer. It’s apparent that Kiwi’s like jumping out, on, in or off of things. They’ve managed to find many ways to make money out of doing that. Sky diving, bungee jumping, jumping out of helicopters to catch deer, etc. The guy who owned the museum/café(which was called Roadkill Café iirc – You kill it, we grill it) seemed to be a controversial figure head for nz. He’d been on TV and a few people weren’t happy with the way he was glorifying hunting. He was doing that, with all the stuffed heads and skulls of animals he’d caught hanging on his walls. Bit unnecessary. He’d been banned from selling possum pies, which is a pest in the country.

When we got to Franz Josef we were dropped off for a view of the glacier and then booked in for tomorrow’s hikes. I went for a full day one which has received a few awards. The hostel we stayed in was great, compared to the one we stayed in before. I think the owner must have had a few tourists passing through telling stories of how nasty their last place of stay was. He gave a free glass of wine to a girl and a free pint of beer to a bloke. Not many hostels do that when you first arrive, very well played. He told us how we’d get a chance to bathe in his hot tub for free after our long hikes tomorrow.

I went to a hot pool place which was just down the road. It had three pools of 36-40 degrees. Was nice and relaxing and had some great views.

23.8.11
Today I went on the Franz Josef Glacier. Our guide was a crazy Australian bird called Davina, we were the first group and she had to make our path safe by creating steps. Half the steps were already there so it just meant a little bit of de-chunking. It was really good fun and took up pretty much the whole day. We went through caves, tunnels, lots of crevaces and eventually reached our high point, which was a height of…pretty damn high. It took a lot less time to get down since we weren’t zig-zagging to see the interesting parts. It also wasn’t that cold. I jumped in the hot tub after to rest my weary body. Then we went to play a paper, scissors, stone contest. I lost in the quarter finals. Hadn’t been practicing enough, but saw through a few opponents. One decided to try and make me think he wasn’t going to go scissors by gesturing with some scissors before our match. I saw through his plans and destroyed him with my rock of doom.

24.8.11
It rained.

Thanks.

Nate.

 

[Everz]

Oh. Nice.

A few months spent traveling the length of America was my 'highlight holiday'. We planned out a simple route following the trains as it was cheaper, simply put. I don't know if anyone will care to read but I'm going to list the places in order and the specific highlights of each city.

New York City, New York -- What can you not say to compliment this fantastic city? The melting pot and what is seen as the iconic image of America with all of it's interconnecting boroughs. We based ourselves in my cousins' apartment in Brooklyn and bought a £100 New York City Pass, this enabled us to do every tourist attraction possible without paying a penny more then we already have, included in this was queue jumps. Did all the usual Empire State, Rockafella, Ground Zero (though was near rebuilt at the time) and such. My highlight however was taking a speedboat to head up the Hudson, it was amazing fun and on a red hot summer day after suffering for hours in the subway it was a welcome relief. Brilliant.

Washington D.C -- Uhhh yeh? It's an 'alright' place I guess, the White House is ridiculously small, as is the Washington Mall and the statue of Lincoln.. not surprisingly overblown in size by American film producers.. but still aside from that their wasn't much to do in this city. However, the huge plus was meeting my other cousin who was on placement here, hadn't seen her in 2-3 years so it was good to catch up and introduce her to the missus. Took us to a place not to far out called Georgetown (cerb?) which was great, nice little place some what hidden away. Had the greatest cupcake ever from the Wired Bakery (sp?). Would I recommend here though? Not really, walk 5 blocks away from the main buildings and it turns into a ghetto dump. Shared a hostel with a few Brazilians who were a great laugh.

New Orleans, Louisiana -- Bourbon Street! Man, the French Quarter was simply amazing, good decor on the buildings and a road that was the ultimate sin. Never has been bladdered at 3 in the afternoon surrounded by strippers eating alligator balls been so fun, alongside the amazing jazz/brass bands that proceed throughout the quarter. Brilliant. Highlight however was going into the swamps, we caught a life to Baton Rogue and got a boat and proceeded to travel down.. and fuck me.. 'gators galore as well as literally millions of turtles and the most strangest region I have ever seen, simply amazing. For New Orleans itself? Abandoned is the best way to describe it, do I believe because the majority of the neighbourhoods were black that it has been left? Certainly. Where we stopped was in perpetual darkness because no one had bothered to switch the electric back on, their were houses with the numbers of the dead marked all around us, and this was considered to be quite a 'decent 'hood'. The people were clearly struggling here and it was a great shame to see the lasting effects and the lack of support from their own government. Oh, and our hostel was a rut, 24 people per room sharing 1 shower. Utterly fucking grim.

San Antonio, Texas -- This city is a little gem, home of the Alamo. It has a great river walk running through the whole of the downtown, with loads of bars, restaurants and other joy filled places. The weather was fantastic here and it was our first taste of stopping in a motel.. interesting experience after having a few cockroaches crawl out of the fridge, lovely. Girlfriend got to meet her extended family for the first time, great bunch they were as they had a BBQ for us and then later on took us to a traditional Mexican restaurant, served some of the finest food I have eaten.. I'd just go back their again for another round of those refried beans, they were sensational!

Dallas, Texas -- See where JFK got shot and eat a burger. Other then staying in a nice hotel I wouldn't come back here again. I jumped in the pool with my iPod in my pocket, I then walked for 2 hours in 45c heat to find a shop that sold rice to try and save it. A nice walk as I love such heat but that was the highlight.. boring place. Shoulda gone Austin.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Should have gone to Austin..

El Paso, Texas -- We got warned not to go here due to it's proximity to Ciudad de Juarez aka the Most Dangerous City In The World (tm). However it was a great visit, though no one spoke a word of English at all, the markets were insane at the prices you could get stuff and I witnessed my first ever electrical storm. Sirens went off and everything, sideways rain and massive lightning/thungder, one of the greatest things I have ever seen. I'd post up a video but my accent is full on thick of 'bludy 'ell, wuld yao luk at tha'!'. Best spaghetti and meatballs here as well, the meatballs were the size of my fist and there was three of them. Amazing. Though it is worth noting that this is a dangerous city for a reason, Breaking Bad doesn't lie, as we were leaving we heard that three headless corpses had been found just a few blocks from us in an obvious cartel killing. Interesting place.

Tucson, Arizona -- The place where you can crack an egg on the street and it'll fry.. it was ridiculously hot, borderline insane. True desert and the home of many westerns and you can see why. The highlight however was the national park, going through a place that although dry and desert like was pretty amazing to actually go through all the cactae and other shrubs. Hotel was pretty legit also, first place with a swimming pool so can't argue at all. Great stuff to do around the downtown and the surrounding area (we were miles outside) and the local College provided the night life. Great place and would return in a heartbeat.

Thus.. we reach a quarter of the way through.

 

[Madmaxx]

sounds pretty cool Everz I hope to do some kind of travel myself after Uni but....

Dallas, Texas -- Shoulda gone Austin.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Should have gone to Austin..

whats in Austin

 

[old.Tohtori]

Barcelona, bro worked there, not a party vacation just more of a sightseeing thing.

That's it, we saw sights, saw barcelona. Lovely place, if it weren't for the people

Also when i was a kid me and a friends family took a camper trip to eurodisney across europe. To be fair boring as f*ck to sit in a car day in and out, but there was this german camping place that i swear was straight from Psychoville(which we promptly left). No entry fee, park anywhere, middle of woods, nobody around and around 10 campers parked.

 

[TdC]

damn I really should type out my shit from NZ and Oz. the NZ trip iink is so faded I can barely read it 0o

 

[Chilly]

damn I really should type out my shit from NZ and Oz. the NZ trip iink is so faded I can barely read it 0o

Take a photograph before you lose them you numpty. Also, you can photoshop the ink to be more readable.

 

[DaGaffer]

What kind of holiday, for how long and what do you want to spend?

 

[TdC]

Take a photograph before you lose them you numpty. Also, you can photoshop the ink to be more readable.

excellent idea, although that said I find it part of the charm that the ink is fading

 

[caLLous]

Just scan them and whack the contrast up (among other things) to preserve a digital copy and then enjoy the fading ones until they are gone.

 

[DaGaffer]

I quite enjoy reading my old travel blogs now and then, although its a little depressing thinking how long it will be before I can write another one.

 

[Everz]

sounds pretty cool Everz I hope to do some kind of travel myself after Uni but....

whats in Austin

Cheers mate, it has a much more active vibe with a lot more things to do. The downtown in Austin is meant to be very lively as well, a good few music joints as I was told by the girlfriend's family. Dallas/Fort Worth were pretty much 'business' cities rather then anything of interest.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Want to go to Belize.

Don't want to spend enormous amounts of money on flights.

Not going to Belize.

 

[TdC]

offer to be a drug mule, your flight will be free!

 

[Nate]

Would like to do a cheap snowboarding holiday. Need to rent equipment too, seen some good ones in France. Anyone got the knowledge? ECA

 

[Job]

Vancouver to Inuvik via Alaska bears..trees..bears..trees unfuckingbelievable scenery.
Vegas to Colorado, Rockies to the desert..Injuns, giant craters, grand canyon, colorado dam.
Home to North Cape Norway..russians, Danes, reindeer, Swedish girls midnight sun.

 

[DaGaffer]

Want to go to Belize.

Don't want to spend enormous amounts of money on flights.

Not going to Belize.

Most expensive place in Central America. Go to Honduras, its better.

 

[DaGaffer]

Would like to do a cheap snowboarding holiday. Need to rent equipment too, seen some good ones in France. Anyone got the knowledge? ECA

I learned more on one snowboarding trip to Whistler than I learned in the previous three trips to Europe. Standard of instruction was on a different scale.

 

[Nate]

I learned more on one snowboarding trip to Whistler than I learned in the previous three trips to Europe. Standard of instruction was on a different scale.

That's gotta be luck of the draw surely though mate?

 

[DaGaffer]

That's gotta be luck of the draw surely though mate?

Dunno, but I do know my mate who I was with and had been on different snowboarding trips to Europe felt the same way. Maybe it was just a language thing.

 

[Job]

I'm so old I learnt to snowboard in Romania on a board that was basically two short skis held together by a mechanism that tilted them in unison as you tilted your feet, never seen them since.
Any ideas?

 

[sayward]

Once stayed at the Cipriani in Venice. Loved it.

 

[ECA]

Would like to do a cheap snowboarding holiday. Need to rent equipment too, seen some good ones in France. Anyone got the knowledge? ECA

With who/where, most of the tour companies offer rental+lift pass to book when you book or on the coach to the resort ( think 200-250 on top of the holiday offer price usually ).

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Most expensive place in Central America. Go to Honduras, its better.

This solves neither issue.

 

[DaGaffer]

This solves neither issue.

I might be able to solve one for you. Have looked at the price of flights to Cancun? You can actually go by bus to Belize from there in a few hours (I did it in reverse) and a guarantee you there's a shitload more price competition for Cancun than there is for Belize.

 

[Bahumat]

Canvey Island is a beauty to behold, however aim to go soon before it sinks :-(

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I might be able to solve one for you. Have looked at the price of flights to Cancun? You can actually go by bus to Belize from there in a few hours (I did it in reverse) and a guarantee you there's a shitload more price competition for Cancun than there is for Belize.

Quick glance suggests about the same if not more expensive.

I'll get there someday!