Did Sweden and Norway earlier this year and now plan to do Piedmont and lake garda in September. Was checking out some of the threads here over the weekend.
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Piedmont and Lake Garda sound is a great combo, great wine, food, and scenery. Are you planning to rent a car and visit wineries, or stay more centrally? I’ve been looking into a trip to Vietnam this year, so going a different direction for now. Came across this breakdown on tourism there recently Tourism In Vietnam Statistics 2024: Your All-In-One Travel Guide | GoWithGuide
Curious what threads you found most useful while planning, any standout food or town recs?
Several recommendations for Europe……….
Been to Norway to see the Northern lights and Morocco.
August to Australia
Heading to the Oktoberfest in Munich then Austria/Slovokia/Slovenia followed by a meetup with
some friends for Burgundy/Troisgros in Ouches and the opening of Truffle Season in Alba This is late September/October
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Sounds amazing, truffle season in Alba was incredible. You couldn’t escape the smell of truffles everywhere.
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Just got back from two weeks in Europe. Everywhere, we drank local, fresh white wines. Trip was not about food and wine but was filled with joy.
1 night Milan (Park Hyatt) - I’d never been and didn’t have high expectations. But I liked it a lot. I’d love to return and spend a bit more time.
7 nights Lake Como (villa above Sala Comancina) - One of the few iconic Euro vacation destinations that is not totally overrun and lives up to the hype. No cruise ships or tour buses means that Lake Como remains lovely and beautiful. Only Bellagio feels overrun. Maybe Varenna a little bit. But there is a whole ton of lake that’s not. A beautiful week, with a day trip to Lugano (which is also lovely)
2 nights Santorini (Andronis Arcadia) - My first time in Greece and it didn’t disappoint. I feel like it’s cool these days to hate on Santorini. And yeah, the morning we left the cruise ships were docked and it was slammed. But the day before was reasonably serene. And it’s so unique and beautiful–I’ve never seen anything remotely like the caldera landscape. One of the more stunning places we’ve been. EDIT: I just read an article that Santorini travel is down 30% from recent years, likely due to the earthquakes. Perhaps that’s why I found it less insane than expected.
2 nights Mykonos (Airbnb in old town) - Beautiful town and waterfront. Lives up to its party billing, but I quite liked the energy. Very much worth a visit but my least favorite of the three islands.
2 nights Paros (Cosme) - LOVED Paros, as everyone apparently does. All the best parts of Mykonos without the all-hour-of-the-night noise. Spectacular water and coastline.
2 nights Athens (Bretagne) - Like Milan, surprised me to the upside. Loved the ancient sites and history. Wish I had more time there.
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South Carolina (Palmetto bluff) was awesome. Highly recommend for families. Rebooked for next year.
South of France I put some dining notes on another thread. Will add more. Amazing amazing trip.
Caribbean cruise we bailed.
Aruba soon.
Adding in a short trip to Paris over Christmas. Hopefully will find a few good restaurants still open. If anyone has any favorite Christmas markets/things to do/etc….ice skating in the grand palais looks awesome.
Japan (12th time) this Thursday and I’ll be back in Sapporo (Biei/Furano too), Tokyo, and Nagoya for 2 days.
Nagoya was a last second addition to the trip before heading back to the Philippines to be with my wife and newborn for 7 weeks.
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On Aruba - if you dive, Antilla really is awesome.
Agree . Even good to see snorkeling via this:
Via “regular snorkeling” it’s cool to see but a little too deep IMO.
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Good feedback on Greece. We had almost an identical trip booked for last year that I had to cancel (including the same hotels you stayed at on Santorini and Paros).
Agree on Palmetto Bluff. Was there a couple years ago for 2 nights with the wife ahead of a conference and we’ve talked about going back and bringing the family out. A long weekend in May there sounds great. Some pool time, good food, good golf.
You should go. Re the hotels, Andronis Arcadia was absolutely first-rate, with some of the best, most personal, and most proactive service I’ve had anywhere. Not quite Mandarin/FS-level luxury, but our room was gorgeous, the location is great, and it was hard to find fault. My wife and kids particularly loved it.
Cosme was a Jekyll and Hyde situation. Killer location and great beach club, which was as picturesque as Nammos in Mykonos and free for guests (and thus about $1,000 cheaper). But our room kinda sucked (despite being expensive), and the AC was broken for most of our stay. Still, I’d probably stay there again (or go Airbnb) because of the location and the lack of better options.
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Planning our first trip to Japan next spring. Will definitely seek input from folks here and read through the various travel threads.
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my family got back from 2+ weeks in Africa. Had an absolute blast and it was exactly what it was supposed to be: a once-in-a-lifetime* splurge vacation to make great family memories while celebrating important life milestones. I put a lot of effort into planning so if anyone wants advice, message me. We went to Vic Falls, Zambezi river, Cape Town, and Sabi Sands / Kruger National Park.
- well I say once-in-a-lifetime but I already am scheming how to go again
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Earlier trips this year to Budapest and San Sebastián, as well as a week in Sicily, this month I’ve had a quick weekend in Champagne and a long weekend in Dublin. Still have a long weekend in Ibiza and a short weekend in Florence coming up, and my wife is planning a surprise weekend for me in the fall.
This is absolutely why I moved from the US to London, not just for the big trips but sneaking in weekends here and there in a way I’d just never be able to do I from the US.
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Nice, what did you think of Capetown and any specific memories from the safari portion?
Africa is to this day probably my favorite trip. Before we had kids we went 4 times over a 5 year period. We did safari on almost all of it except for one beach stop in Mozambique. I’ve heard some people say they get bored after 3 days on safari; that wasn’t my experience, I could do it again and again. Definitely want to do Capetown someday and the wine country.
We loved Cape Town. Definitely were predesposed to appreciate the creature comforts after 4 days tenting on a river island, but nonetheless, it exceeded expectations. The people were friendly and generous, we felt safe while keeping our city smarts about us, the culture and history was a good experience for the kids, and the food and wine scene was off the charts good. Fine dining was extraordinary value- I won’t say inexpensive, but what you got for yoru $ vs NYC or Boston - fantastic.
We had a ton of great safari memories. Seeing a cheetah is very difficult in the section we were in (our guide sees 1/yr) and seeing a kill (of any type) is considered safari gold medal (not for my wife and daughter, btw; nor for the killed). I got to see a cheetah take down an impala, which my guide had never seen in 15 years. I don’t think he was just saying that to excite me- other vehicles arrived to watch the aftermath adn were equally excited. Our car was the only to see the actual attack. I took video and the guide was so jazzed he posted it to the lodge’s instagram. Other less gruesome highlights were a den of hyena pups, some amazing hippo interactions, and babies (everyone loves babies!) - elephant with baby, hippo with baby, and leopard with baby. In the “interesting” category, we saw two lions mating (“there’s no privacy expectation in the wild” our guide told us) which I don’t need to see again (google lion barbed penis if you can’t resist).
Lastly, we did have a pretty horrific incident where our guide while walking on foot back to the car and was sprung on by a male lion out of the bush- with a huge roar and charge. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, and after convincing my family for a year how safe this was going to be, it really rattled us all. Our guide said that’s one of only two times in 15 years he’s come close to dying, because I needed some context about whether we were overreacting or whether that was truly scary. It was the latter. He had to sit and smoke a cigarette after escaping before we proceeded on. Luckily that was our last night before coming home because it really put a damper on things.
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Action packed! Sex and violence!
That does sound like a very close call with that Lion. Luckily never had anything like that. Most nervous I got was sitting on the right side of the totally open Landrover one evening in a wide open plain as a large pride of female lions slowly sauntered by us one by one. They walked probably within 3 feet of the right side of my body (I could have reached out and petted them), and a couple of them made eye contact with me. Heart picked up its pace a bit
Vic Falls will always be a special place to me. I actually met my wife at a hostel bar there.
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