GRcade Travel Topic

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SandyCoin
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by SandyCoin » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:32 am

Floex wrote:Off to Berlin in a couple of weeks, anyone got any places to visit?

Probably going to do a graffiti & Bowie walk, seen some abandon theme parks and maybe head to Berghain/Panorama Bar one night to see what it's about.

This place looks great but not sure what will be on when we're there http://www.kraftwerkberlin.de/en/location.html


Go back a page or 2 and I put some recommendations down. If you search Berlin in this thread quite a lot should pop up actually as I know I wrote a lot a few years ago here about it.

My gf went back a few weeks ago and said the East Side Gallery is gooseberry fool now as some idiots have been tagging over the artwork, so there is now railings around it. Sad!

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Bunni
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Bunni » Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:18 am

Look out for the Wee photoautomats. Old school 4 frame photo booths for €2.

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Floex
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Floex » Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:17 pm

Cheers for Berlin recommendation guys.

Berlin, I will be in you tomorrow, let's see what you have to offer.

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BTB
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by BTB » Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:56 am

I'm thinking of doing two weeks in Vietnam/Singapore in October. Got a mate who lives in China who i'll go to Vietnam with, then go to Singapore where my old flatmate now lives.

Has anyone done a similar sort of trip? And for Vietnam, is it possible to do both Hanoi and Saigon in 6/7 days?

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No:1 Final Fantasy Fan
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by No:1 Final Fantasy Fan » Sat Jun 10, 2017 12:28 am

Anyone upgraded to premium economy before and was it worth it for you personally? Im considering it for my 11hr flight to Hong Kong next month. Only the outward journey though as I want to be refreshed and less jet lagged when I arrive so that I can start my holiday off asap.
Lufthansa are charging £235 for an upgrade each way.

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SandyCoin
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by SandyCoin » Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:13 am

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Anyone upgraded to premium economy before and was it worth it for you personally? Im considering it for my 11hr flight to Hong Kong next month. Only the outward journey though as I want to be refreshed and less jet lagged when I arrive so that I can start my holiday off asap.
Lufthansa are charging £235 for an upgrade each way.


Not for a long time, but I don't actually really remember a difference. Certainly not enough for over £200. Someone with more recent experience may have a better idea though.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by 7256930752 » Sat Jun 10, 2017 7:18 pm

It all depends on how new it is which will likely depend on the plane. Most modern premium economy products are far superior to economy and depending on how big you are is well worth the extra on a flight of that length.

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No:1 Final Fantasy Fan
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by No:1 Final Fantasy Fan » Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:36 pm

Thanks. I'll probably wail until I'm at the airport to ask for an upgrade and see how much it costs. Just bought a new TV today so I am not less willing to spend more.
It is at the front of the A380 though so it has its own cabin area separated from economy and its own toilets.

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Parksey
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PostGRcade Travel Topic
by Parksey » Sun Jun 11, 2017 3:22 am

BTB wrote:I'm thinking of doing two weeks in Vietnam/Singapore in October. Got a mate who lives in China who i'll go to Vietnam with, then go to Singapore where my old flatmate now lives.

Has anyone done a similar sort of trip? And for Vietnam, is it possible to do both Hanoi and Saigon in 6/7 days?


You're going to spend a week in Singapore? I've been to both (albeit not on the same trip) and while Singapore is a nice city and would be a really clean, comfortable place to live, as a tourist destination it lacks "must see" or "must do" things, in my eyes. It's essentially just a small, modern city-state. I reckon three nights would be enough time.

Obviously you're probably flying a longer distance to get to SE Asia, but I would probably shorten the time in Singapore and add a day or so extra onto Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh.

As for business economy, I don't bother. My main problem on flights is I struggle to sleep sitting up, so only Business would really help there. I'm not particularly tall either so don't really have any problems with the leg room.

It depends how much value you place on comfort. For me, often Premium Economy on long haul is approaching double the price, so I'd rather use that money for an extra trip. It depends which airline you're using too, and how early you can reserve a seat. I regularly fly Cathay Pacific to the UK or around Asia/Australia/America. If you can reserve an economy seat in the forward, smaller compartment and, for me, on the aisle, I don't see much point upgrading to Premium Economy.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Floex » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:12 pm

Back from Berlin, wow what a city. Great culture, nightlife and food.

We managed to get into one of the big Berlin clubs, Tresor (the abandoned Powerplant one), I've never been so nervous queuing for a club before :slol: Doing a little reading about these German clubs where if they didn't like the look of you they would simply say you're not allowed in and it was exactly that! People were getting chucked out of the queue for the tiniest of reasons. There was a group in front of us, the girl on the door asked a couple of questions and said nope, you're not coming in. We're next hearing this thinking we're not getting in. The club gods must have been looking down and she allowed us through. Pretentious and exclusive as strawberry float but can't deny it was a great time once in.

Would love to go back to Berlin at some point. Probably one of the best cities I can remember visiting.

GR Berlin meet, sign me up

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Victor Mildew » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:15 pm

I loved Berlin

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BTB
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by BTB » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:37 pm

Parksey wrote:
BTB wrote:I'm thinking of doing two weeks in Vietnam/Singapore in October. Got a mate who lives in China who i'll go to Vietnam with, then go to Singapore where my old flatmate now lives.

Has anyone done a similar sort of trip? And for Vietnam, is it possible to do both Hanoi and Saigon in 6/7 days?


You're going to spend a week in Singapore? I've been to both (albeit not on the same trip) and while Singapore is a nice city and would be a really clean, comfortable place to live, as a tourist destination it lacks "must see" or "must do" things, in my eyes. It's essentially just a small, modern city-state. I reckon three nights would be enough time.

Obviously you're probably flying a longer distance to get to SE Asia, but I would probably shorten the time in Singapore and add a day or so extra onto Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh.

As for business economy, I don't bother. My main problem on flights is I struggle to sleep sitting up, so only Business would really help there. I'm not particularly tall either so don't really have any problems with the leg room.

It depends how much value you place on comfort. For me, often Premium Economy on long haul is approaching double the price, so I'd rather use that money for an extra trip. It depends which airline you're using too, and how early you can reserve a seat. I regularly fly Cathay Pacific to the UK or around Asia/Australia/America. If you can reserve an economy seat in the forward, smaller compartment and, for me, on the aisle, I don't see much point upgrading to Premium Economy.


Cool, I'm thinking maybe try Kualar Lumpur and Singapore for the 2nd part of the trip. Wary of trying to fit too much in and being tired, but also don't want to be bored in one location.

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Parksey
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Parksey » Tue Jun 13, 2017 1:56 am

It depends what you like to do, really.

If you like being in a big city, eating, drinking, shopping, then Singapore would be fine. It's a really nice city.

Last September my girlfriend and did a short holiday round that area and we did 3 nights in KL and 3/4 nights in Singapore. I felt like that was enough for Singapore and, while I'd be happy to go back, there's nothing urgently I want to go back for.

Conversely, my girlfriend really like Malaysia and wanted to go back, plus there are a few days trips (to Malacca for example) that you can do from KL. I was quite impressed with KL too - it's quite similar to Singapore but also not as expensive.

It's only an hour flight between the two, and there are plenty of cheap Air Asia/Jetstar ones available too. The overground train is supposed to be interesting but takes a while.

For Singapore, we did:

Singapore Zoo/Night Safari
Marina Bay Sands Mall/Hotel/Rooftop
Gardens by the Bay
Chinatown
General Bay Area
Raffles/few other places for Singapore Slings

If it's your first trip in Asia, just a word of warning - for me (and I realise this is highly subjective) Singapore doesn't feel like Asia. For me it felt a lot like an Australian city, so I think mixing it up with another city in SE Asia is a good idea.

As I said, Malaysia is a little bit cheaper (especially for hotels) and Vietnam is cheaper still. Could live like a king there.

I'm biased too as if I'm traveling a long way, I always try and squeeze two or three cities in just to see as much as possible. I try and fight through the tiredness, though I never really get jet lag when traveling to SE Asia due to only being about five hours/two time zones away, so there's that to consider.

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Rightey
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Rightey » Tue Jun 13, 2017 4:54 am

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Thanks. I'll probably wail until I'm at the airport to ask for an upgrade and see how much it costs. Just bought a new TV today so I am not less willing to spend more.
It is at the front of the A380 though so it has its own cabin area separated from economy and its own toilets.


A cheaper alternative might be to get a bulkhead seat, that way you still have loads of leg room and can move around whenever you like. You will also be close to the washroom which I see as a bonus, but some people don't like that as they are worried about smells. Personally I've never been in a situation where I could smell anything coming from there and I always try to go for bulkhead seats.

I've also found that what you get in premium economy depends on the airline, I remember ANA's normal economy seemed to be better than United's Premium economy. :lol:

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Parksey
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Parksey » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:00 am

Rightey wrote:
No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Thanks. I'll probably wail until I'm at the airport to ask for an upgrade and see how much it costs. Just bought a new TV today so I am not less willing to spend more.
It is at the front of the A380 though so it has its own cabin area separated from economy and its own toilets.


A cheaper alternative might be to get a bulkhead seat, that way you still have loads of leg room and can move around whenever you like. You will also be close to the washroom which I see as a bonus, but some people don't like that as they are worried about smells. Personally I've never been in a situation where I could smell anything coming from there and I always try to go for bulkhead seats.

I've also found that what you get in premium economy depends on the airline, I remember ANA's normal economy seemed to be better than United's Premium economy. :lol:


American-based airlines, and air travel in America in general, is crap.

Conversely, Asian-based airlines tend to be pretty good. Especially the Japanese ones, Cathay Pacific, Singapore etc. I always fly Cathay (who along with perhaps Singapore are the only ones who still do 8 or 9 seats across as opposed to 10... for now) and find the level of service, cleanliness, entertainment, seat room etc. in economy to be perfectly fine.

Never actually flew with ANA though my girlfriend works for them, and if I put a ring on it, I get 90% off their flights. Going to literally go to the strawberry floating moon with them.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Moggy » Tue Jun 13, 2017 1:23 pm

I have flown with two Asian airlines before. Thai Air were ok, nothing spectacular but better than BA/AA/United.

Singapore Airlines I can't recommend highly enough, I thought they were excellent. Nice food as well, which is astonishing for an airline. :lol:

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by 7256930752 » Tue Jun 13, 2017 1:46 pm

Parksey wrote:
Rightey wrote:
No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Thanks. I'll probably wail until I'm at the airport to ask for an upgrade and see how much it costs. Just bought a new TV today so I am not less willing to spend more.
It is at the front of the A380 though so it has its own cabin area separated from economy and its own toilets.


A cheaper alternative might be to get a bulkhead seat, that way you still have loads of leg room and can move around whenever you like. You will also be close to the washroom which I see as a bonus, but some people don't like that as they are worried about smells. Personally I've never been in a situation where I could smell anything coming from there and I always try to go for bulkhead seats.

I've also found that what you get in premium economy depends on the airline, I remember ANA's normal economy seemed to be better than United's Premium economy. :lol:


American-based airlines, and air travel in America in general, is crap.

Conversely, Asian-based airlines tend to be pretty good. Especially the Japanese ones, Cathay Pacific, Singapore etc. I always fly Cathay (who along with perhaps Singapore are the only ones who still do 8 or 9 seats across as opposed to 10... for now) and find the level of service, cleanliness, entertainment, seat room etc. in economy to be perfectly fine.

Never actually flew with ANA though my girlfriend works for them, and if I put a ring on it, I get 90% off their flights. Going to literally go to the strawberry floating moon with them.

That's not entirely true. There are several American airlines that have international business class for internal flights which is far superior to short haul flights anywhere else in the world.

Flying in economy is pretty much the same whichever major airline you choose. As mentioned there are some modern airlines that are squeezing 10 across on newer planes (A380,787) so you'd actually be better off on an older plane. However, premium economy on most newer planes will be vastly superior to economy and IMO completely worth it for long haul flights.

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No:1 Final Fantasy Fan
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by No:1 Final Fantasy Fan » Tue Jun 13, 2017 8:10 pm

Thanks for all the replies. I upgraded my outbound flight the part Frankfurt to Hong Kong 11h30m to PE. Was able to immediately select my seat too :) Really looking forward to it now.

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Sat Jun 17, 2017 5:29 am

BTB wrote:I'm thinking of doing two weeks in Vietnam/Singapore in October. Got a mate who lives in China who i'll go to Vietnam with, then go to Singapore where my old flatmate now lives.

Has anyone done a similar sort of trip? And for Vietnam, is it possible to do both Hanoi and Saigon in 6/7 days?


It is possible, it would just mean flying between them and not doing too much else.

If you absolutely only have a week I'd say what would make more sense would be doing Hanoi/Ha Long Bay/Sapa.

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Eighthours
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Eighthours » Sun Jun 18, 2017 2:13 pm

I'm in Milan. The ladies here are :shock: :wub: :wub:


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