World Travel Thread

Croatia is a really beautiful country. Split and Debrovnik are probably the two biggest tourist spots, Debrovnik being a bit pricier. There are quite a few beautiful islands along the coast with amazing views, beaches, bike rides etc etc etc. The capitol, Zagreb, is pretty interesting, too. I only stayed there a night on the way to Split, but it has history and a very unique feel to it.
I say Croatia. The cost is pretty cheap, food very similar to Italy's, but cheaper. Everyone there was very nice, as well.

 

Any problems with communication? How did you travel around the country? Did you have a car while there?

 

Spoilered for ridiculous length.

Spoiler

I went to Munich and Berlin in 2009, and loved them both. Munich has got to be one of the best cities for pedestrians in the world - walk along picturesque boulevards (which are closed to traffic), stopping at the intermittent markets to browse, and the frequent beer gardens for refreshment. Stroll along the river watching surfers ride the 'endless wave', , if you have any luck at all they will be hot, naked, German women.

Berlin is fantastic. Every type of top-notch cuisine you can imagine, beautifully clean, and a huge range of entertainment options. The museum at Checkpoint Charlie is probably in my top 20 list of places I've been, and I am not a museum guy by any stretch of the imagination. Highly, highly recommended. There's an awesome art scene here, except instead of hipsters riding fixies while bitching about middle class problems, there are the products of a very talented group of subversives who have seen what happens when you put faith in your government and it betrays you. Absolutely fascinating counter-culture scene. Berlin is incredibly cosmopolitan, and well worth a look.

Croatia I've never been to personally, and it seems to polarize a lot of my people. My parents and brother absolutely love it, while my best friends describe it as overcrowded and touristy. (Although, my parents were out in the villages, not the cities, so I imagine that has an impact.)

Really, though, in my heart of hearts I have to recommend Spain. This is from a PM I sent someone else on a similar topic:

Barcelona, Spain:everyone should go here before they die. It has everything: amazing architecture and museums for sightseeing, awesome party culture at night, and beaches with stunningly hot topless women. Just sitting around people watching on Las Ramblas (main street in Barcelona) over tapas and a jug of Sangria can be an excellent experience - and when I went, I didn't even like tapas or Sangria. I've taken 3 different people here, and everyone has loved it. Although, if you play poker, be wary of the casino here - I played the lowest limits they had (2-4 Euros) and got absolutely schooled, lost about $800 in under 10 minutes. Oh, and Barcelona is the pickpocket capital of the world.

Sitges, Spain: I love this place. It is an incredibly laid-back beach town. It has 15+ beaches stretched over miles of coastline, so you can either chill out on your own empty beach or head to the main area, filled with top quality restaurants, to admire the stunning Spanish beauties - who are topless. (This is a theme for me in Spain - spanish women are uniformly gorgeous and don't have cultural taboos about nudity. It's basically heaven.) This place is a cultural mecca for a lot of people, and it is seriously queer - last time I was there they had a kilometer long bar erected on the beach for a Pride parade, $2 drinks on the beachfront with float after float of ridiculous gay icons travelling past. The place is just totally surreal. The people are incredibly friendly and everyone is there for a good time.

Oh, and honorable mention to Ibiza: if you are into the clubbing life at all, this place is amazing. The nightclubs here fit 10,000 people and have treetop walks between dance floors.

 

I have been to Barcelona and absolutely loved it. I went to every building Gaudi touched, ate dirty paella and tapas, drank sangria, got lost in the Gothis area. We stayed there for a week and really felt like we got a feel for the city. I am looking for that sort of environment again, to be honest. Tossing in a bit of nature/hiking/etc would be great too.

Ibiza doesn't interest me so much, I can't keep up with that type of environment!

I must say, I loved how you described Berlin.

 

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities I've ever been to. Amazing food, Gaudi's buildings are beautiful.
Communication wasn't bad in Croatia, most people speak at least a little english. I used trains and busses (and ferries for the islands) while there. The bus ride from Split to Debrovinik was amazing, the driver stopped at a road side stand to get a bag of oranges.
We took the "high speed" train from Zagreb to Split, very comfortable and beautiful countryside, but don't be fooled by the term high speed.

 

I went to Munich and Berlin last year. They're different, but great cities.

Munich is the city that you are imagining when you think of a stereotypical German city. They have maypoles, people actually wear lederhosen (the same way that Scots wear kilts) and people can be seen drinking beer at any time of morning or evening. The history there is amazing, the beer halls are filled with food and beer and ambiance that rival each other for excellence, and the people are actually quite friendly. In a beer hall, you basically sit on communal tables wherever there's space, and the people next to you (who are locals just as much as tourists, and sometimes more local than tourist depending on which one you go to) will try to strike up a conversation, even if they don't speak much English. And, being stereotypically German, the trains are impeccable. It's not too far to make a day trip to venture out to the mountains farther south, including Neuschwanstein Castle. The Dachau concentration camp is about 1/2 to 2/3rds of a day's trip, or longer, depending on how much time you spend. If you have the opportunity, you really should go.

I can't describe Berlin much better than AlmostGaunt did. It's a very bohemian city. Great food, more museums than you will ever know what to do with, and the arts scene is just amazing. It's become a centre for young people who travel there, love it so much, and decide not to leave, and they love it so much because of all of the artists who flock there. I wish I had spent more time there, and that I had taken advantage of the Saturday night pub crawl that I didn't go on. And there's a very real sense of history in Berlin that you just can't escape. Many major landmark buildings are covered in patches of repaired bullet holes from the Battle of Berlin; many East Berlin streets haven't changed much since pictures you find in a high school history textbook (except for the absence of Russian soldiers), and it's a little bit eerie to look at people you see on the streetcars and think that they lived through fascism. In Munich you have old buildings restored to exacting detail as it was in the 1600s, but in Berlin, you're walking through the scars of 20th century history. And did you know that directly across from the Brandenburg Gates is the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled that baby from? History.

 

I'm gonna be in Paris, Barcelona, and Lisbon - each for about 4 days. Any recommendations on stuff to do? I really enjoy architecture and am eager to hear any restaurant/bar/lounge/club suggestions.

Obviously going to the Louvre, Notre Dame, Gaudi buildings, Picasso museum, etc.

 

Anyone have any experience travelling in Venezuela? I'm gonna be making my way from the Colombian border to Angel Falls (via Merida, Caracas, and wherever else sounds cool) in a couple months, and I still need to learn more about the whole black-market-exchange thing for US dollars. Specifically, where will I get the best exchange rate, how much should I bring with me, etc. I've got a rough idea, but anything you guys can give me would be awesome. Thanks.

 

Any tips for a first timer in Atlantic City? The last of my group of friends just turned 21 and we're going down to AC for the weekend. I've never been but when I lived in Los Angeles I went to Vegas four or five times and always had a blast. I don't know too much about AC so any advice on what to do, where to stay, things to see would be greatly appreciated.

We're all 21 or 22 with decent disposable income and looking to drink and gamble and party our asses off all weekend. I've heard good things about the Harrah's pool party and i've also heard good things about some of the clubs but I don't know specific ones. Also two casino questions: can you smoke inside and do you drink for free while you gamble?

Thanks in advance sorry if I asked anything stupid I'm an AC rookie.

 

Just got to Dubrovnik today, and I'll be spending the next week or so in Croatia. I'll do my best to give you some information once I'm finished here. Won't be going out too much though, taking it pretty easy for the next week or two after Spain and Portugal punished my liver. I've also been to Munich, but you seem pretty set for information from everybody else for there. I can reiterate the positive comments though, and I'm actually going out of my way to go back there as I had so much fun in so little time.


If anyone could hit me up with a good bus/train website for the Eastern block of Europe that would be greatly appreciated. Spending time in countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany (Berlin) before visiting friends at Sweden. Any tips as to what form of transport is easiest/cheapest? Any general "do's and don'ts" for these countries would also be a massive help.

 

Eurail is excellent. You can buy multi-tickets of various kinds - 5 trips, 10 trips, unlimited travel within a month, etc - and just fill the relevant trip information in when you board the train. Highly cost effective and couldn't be simpler. Take a pack of cards, mini-speakers, and a bottle of booze, and you are set.

Also, and I take no responsibility for anything you do with this knowledge, there are no customs checkpoints between countries in the EU. So, hypothetically, one can take the train from Amsterdam to, say Germany / Switzerland, and have no problems.

 

I'm going to be in Oklahoma City this weekend to meet up with my parents who are there for a national car show. I need some recommendations mostly for restaurants and maybe some things to do if the car show gets boring.

 

YMMV, but in 2005, going from Amsterdam to Paris via train, police came on the train and talked to people, asking if they had pot. My buddy had bad allergies that day, bloodshot eyes, lethargy, etc., and they gave him an especially hard time. I have no idea what they can and can't do with regard to searching your stuff, but just thought I'd pass that along. I think this while the train was in Belgium.

 

I just remembered something I forgot to mention about Munich that may or may not affect you if you decide to go there. During the one night out, I was with group of American girls, probably about 6-7 in total. While we were trying to get into a bar/club, the bouncer actually refused us entry because they "didn't want any Americans tonight". At the next place we tried, we was a Mexican club from memory (they seemed to have a few of these around in Munich), again they expressed dislike at a group of Americans trying to enter there club, although we were allowed entry this time.

Like I said, it wasn't as with it was a large group of American guys. All Americans in our group were women, and our group had a significant girl to boy ratio. This could have just been a ridiculous one-off, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

A couple of things I can say about Dubrovnik during the one day I've been here is that everything is rather cheap compared to the other places I've been in Europe so far, although I guess that's what I've heard in general about the Eastern block anyway. The one beach we went to was incredibly busy, but I'm sure there's plenty of nicer less populated ones around, we weren't really in the mood for exploring/looking. The scenery here is definitely amazing and beautiful, and the town has an older sort of look/feel to it. English is spoken by generally everybody also.

Unfortunately I won't be able to provide much information on the nightlife here. We've decided this will be a country we step back on the going out. With Oktoberfest looming and a decrease in funds it's a sacrifice I'm going to have to make for a while. 5 euro bottles of vodka make things a little easier.

 

This may be a long shot, but has anyone ever been to Panama City? I decided to go there this morning, and I'm leaving tonight, and Panama as a whole was on a whim in general so I am pretty clueless about the city. I know the big touristy things - the canal, the old city, the ruins - and I'm going to go to Chinatown and see the food markets, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice about different neighborhoods to check out, places to see, where to eat etc. It seems like there's a surprisingly large art and jazz scene, so I'm especially curious about recommendations for that. Or if someone happens to know about cool shopping areas. The only information I'm finding online or in quick peeks in guide books is really broad and vague. I have 4 days there, and I'm on a pretty tight budget.

Thanks!

 

In two days I'm off to Europe for almost two months and will be traveling through most of western Europe. One last minute problem appeared with the tour that I booked towards the end of the trip. I picked a slightly shorter trip to cover most of the time the orginal trip took however I will be driving from Munich to Berlin over a few days to fill in time. Is there any suggestions to places along the way that would be worth stopping at.

 

Not near as exotic as manny of the places talked about here but, I'm going to Sedona AZ in October. I'm looking for suggestions on dining and things to do during the day.

 

Not sure if your itinerary will allow it, but I would definitely recommend checking out Praja a Mare. It's about 3 hours from Sorrento (according to google maps) and certainly worth the trip. <a class="postlink" href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Praja_a_Mare" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://wikitravel.org/en/Praja_a_Mare</a>

 

Anyone ever been on a Carribean cruise? I'm trying to plan one around Christmas-time for 3-5 guys in their mid-20s. I'm thinking about 5-6 days out of NOLA with stops in some combination of Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico (anywhere along that coast), and maybe Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands.

Are there any good booking sites other than the cruiseliners home pages? Im hoping for something like kayak or expedia, but for cruises. The costs look pretty cheap for what I've seen. Are these things all inclusive, or will we be paying out the ass for drinks/entertainment?