GRcade Travel Topic

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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Rocsteady » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:35 am

Curls wrote:
Tomous wrote:
Curls wrote:I've got 3 weeks off in January and the world is quite literally my oyster.

Has anyone got any suggestions ? Here are my current ideas. Please bear in mind i'd be going as a solo traveller.

1 - Do a gooseberry fool load of skiing and snowboarding somewhere in europe and get as good as i can on the board.
2 - Go to Canada and do it there -> much more expensive though.
3- Vietnam / SE Asia, get on a guided group tour thing
4 - New zealand - again probably join up with a group.
5 - Maybe South America?

If anyone has suggestions on what they think would be best then I'd love to hear them, or you can throw something entirely different at me. I'm not on a budget but Ideally it'd be £1000-£1500. Willing to push up to £2000 for the right trip.



I think your budget might be a little light for a few of those options. Maybe start by looking into each option, deciding exactly what you'd like to do there, and price them up and see what that leaves. The guided group tour option, while good for meeting people and having fun along the way, definitely aren't the cheapest way of doing those trips.


Probably right. Whistler would cost like £10K haha. I think I'll research SE asia and NZ and get a bette ridea of what I want. I could push my budget to £3000, it happens to be when my Regular saver matures, thing is I'm a bit tight when it comes to spending on me :lol:

I was looking at doing a group tour this year but they’re so insanely overpriced, it’s ridiculous. Was willing to pay a few hundred more to remove the hassle of not being a solo traveler for once but some of them would work out at over double the cost.

For option 1 I’d recommend Sofia, a bus journey from the centre takes you to a good beginner snow route and it’s cheap as.

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:38 am

I went to Bansko in Bulgaria skiing in 2009. The infrastructure was still up and coming there but it was a fine alternative to the Alps, much cheaper at the time and I assume it still is now.

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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Rocsteady » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:39 am

Tomous wrote:
Rocsteady wrote:
Tomous wrote:Seeing as Vermillion requested, apart from one or two random posts, my Instagram mainly covers the 10 months off I took to travel in Asia and North America if anyone fancies a look:

https://www.instagram.com/tomr1912/

Punching. Great photos!

Assume you had a fair packet saved up for that?



Kinda. My original plan was to travel in South East Asia for 3-4 months (for which I had £5-6k saved up for everything) and then work in Hanoi teaching English for 6 months then do a couple more months travelling with the money saved up. But by the time I got to Vietnam, I didn't want to stop travelling, so I forgot the teaching idea and carried on (which was a brilliant idea). I financed it by building up a load of debt (about another £5-£6k) on an interest free credit card, which was due to start charging interest on this month, and I finally fully paid off last month.

Sounds class.

I’m planning to remote work from either Thailand or Vietnam from January then travel in that region as much as I can by using long weekends and holidays, really looking forward to it. Plus the apartments are so cheap I’m eyeing up the ones with infinity pools and gooseberry fool :shifty:

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:47 am

Rocsteady wrote:
Tomous wrote:
Rocsteady wrote:
Tomous wrote:Seeing as Vermillion requested, apart from one or two random posts, my Instagram mainly covers the 10 months off I took to travel in Asia and North America if anyone fancies a look:

https://www.instagram.com/tomr1912/

Punching. Great photos!

Assume you had a fair packet saved up for that?



Kinda. My original plan was to travel in South East Asia for 3-4 months (for which I had £5-6k saved up for everything) and then work in Hanoi teaching English for 6 months then do a couple more months travelling with the money saved up. But by the time I got to Vietnam, I didn't want to stop travelling, so I forgot the teaching idea and carried on (which was a brilliant idea). I financed it by building up a load of debt (about another £5-£6k) on an interest free credit card, which was due to start charging interest on this month, and I finally fully paid off last month.

Sounds class.

I’m planning to remote work from either Thailand or Vietnam from January then travel in that region as much as I can by using long weekends and holidays, really looking forward to it. Plus the apartments are so cheap I’m eyeing up the ones with infinity pools and gooseberry fool :shifty:



SE Asia is an amazing place. It's cheap to travel, the food is amazing and there's so much to see and do. You'll have plenty of long weekend and holiday options.

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Curls
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Curls » Mon Oct 07, 2019 12:08 pm

Aye I did Sofia and Bulgaria a few years back. Great place! And the accommodation cost like 10 quid a night.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Vermilion » Tue Oct 08, 2019 9:22 am

Have any of you ever been to Liechtenstein?



Lovely place this (Vaduz is my fifth capital city visited after London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam), the town centre is pristine, no rubbish, no graffiti, barely even a speck of dirt. If there was even so much as a rickety shed or a rusty car in the area, they had been quietly tidied away and hidden somewhere else.

The shops are neat too, you can get all sorts of interesting odds and ends that you wouldn't find anywhere else (like presentation packs of Liechtenstein postage stamps, pin badges, and commemorative coins).

Also, the tourist office offer a service where, for 3 francs (or 2.85 euro, both currencies are accepted in Liechtenstein, and widely in Switzerland for that matter), they will add a special souvenir stamp to your passport, which was an incredibly neat thing to do (never had a passport stamp before, as i've only ever had it scanned at the UK border).

It's well worth a look if you ever get the chance.

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SandyCoin
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by SandyCoin » Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:47 am

Tomous wrote:Seeing as Vermillion requested, apart from one or two random posts, my Instagram mainly covers the 10 months off I took to travel in Asia and North America if anyone fancies a look:

https://www.instagram.com/tomr1912/


Will take a better look at this, see if I can get some inspiration. I'm off to SE Asia in a week for about 6 months and have some plans, but it's obviously such a huge area there will be plenty I have missed on my research.

I'm still undecided about Indonesia. I mean it looks gorgeous, but from what I see if looks like it's not a very expensive resort area swarming with Instagram models.
Or a place for diving which isn't really my thing.

Aside from the obvious places like Bali and I think Lombok (sp?) did you venture anywhere else in Indonesia?

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:59 am

SandyCoin wrote:
Tomous wrote:Seeing as Vermillion requested, apart from one or two random posts, my Instagram mainly covers the 10 months off I took to travel in Asia and North America if anyone fancies a look:

https://www.instagram.com/tomr1912/


Will take a better look at this, see if I can get some inspiration. I'm off to SE Asia in a week for about 6 months and have some plans, but it's obviously such a huge area there will be plenty I have missed on my research.

I'm still undecided about Indonesia. I mean it looks gorgeous, but from what I see if looks like it's not a very expensive resort area swarming with Instagram models.
Or a place for diving which isn't really my thing.

Aside from the obvious places like Bali and I think Lombok (sp?) did you venture anywhere else in Indonesia?



We flew into Jakarta on Java but didn't stay there, instead went straight to Yogyakarta to visit the Prambanan and Borobudur temples which are kind of like Indonesia's Angkor Wat. Really beautiful places, the Borobudur day was particularly amusing because we made the mistake of going on a public holiday that meant a lot of school trips were visiting and all the kids wanted photos with me because I was white-I actually had to shout "OK NO MORE PHOTOS SORRY GUYS" at one point because we couldn't move round the site without being stopped and asked for another photo :lol:

After Yogyakarta we went east to hike to the Mount Bromo and Ijen volcanoes which were absolutely incredible and well worth visiting. Possibly two of the best things I've ever done.

Here's a photo of me walking round Bromo:

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And here's a photo of my missus looking out on Ijen:

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Can't recommend these enough.

Bali still has some cool sites away from the "Instagram resort" places, you just need to do abit of research. Ubud in the centre is cool, if a little busy thanks to Eat Pray Love. Lombok is a lot more chilled and untouched to explore though. Personally, I'd really recommend our route as after Bromo/Ijen on Java, you can get a short ferry over to Bali, explore there round there and then carry on to Lombok, maybe stopping at one of the Gili Islands if you fancy.

Last edited by Tomous on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:16 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Bunni
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Bunni » Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:59 am

If you’re wanting to go out in January on the cheap, you can get dirt cheap flights trough europe. You could easily do a tour of 5 cities with flights for £100. I’m looking at Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. Also dirt cheap when you get there and very interesting.

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SandyCoin
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by SandyCoin » Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:36 am

Tomous wrote:Bali still has some cool sites away from the "Instagram resort" places, you just need to do abit of research. Ubud in the centre is cool, if a little busy thanks to Eat Pray Love. Lombok is a lot more chilled and untouched to explore though. Personally, I'd really recommend our route as after Bromo/Ijen on Java, you can get a short ferry over to Bali, explore there round there and then carry on to Lombok, maybe stopping at one of the Gili Islands if you fancy.


Cheers. I'll do a bit of research into those areas. I do like a good volcano. How did you get around Java to each place? Pretty straight forward?

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:39 am

SandyCoin wrote:
Tomous wrote:Bali still has some cool sites away from the "Instagram resort" places, you just need to do abit of research. Ubud in the centre is cool, if a little busy thanks to Eat Pray Love. Lombok is a lot more chilled and untouched to explore though. Personally, I'd really recommend our route as after Bromo/Ijen on Java, you can get a short ferry over to Bali, explore there round there and then carry on to Lombok, maybe stopping at one of the Gili Islands if you fancy.


Cheers. I'll do a bit of research into those areas. I do like a good volcano. How did you get around Java to each place? Pretty straight forward?


I think we actually got a very cheap internal flight from Java to Yogkyakarta. Hired a scooter there for getting about and then used the train to go further east towards the volcanoes. There we booked a tour which took us to each one and finished by dropping us off at the port where we could get the boat to Bali.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Vermilion » Fri Oct 11, 2019 3:15 pm

Here's my final set of vids from the alpine tour, which were filmed across the border in Switzerland...







:D

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Bunni
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Bunni » Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:15 pm

I’m planning a big Switzerland trip next winter. Had planned to go to New York for our 10th but with the shooting and terrorism and Trumps batshit rule, we’ve decided to pass. I love Switzerland, and can’t wait to see it in the winter. I’ve been in summer and I want to go back to do more but gunna get my ski on next year.

This year we’re looking at Tallinn. It looks intimate and Christmassy and not overrun with tourists. Any tips?

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Corazon de Leon » Sat Oct 19, 2019 11:05 am

Vermilion wrote:Vaduz is my fifth capital city visited after London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam


That's a cool question - what's everyone's capital city count? I'm on eight:

London
Dublin
Paris
Amsterdam
Berlin
Warsaw
Washington D.C.
Tokyo

I count Belfast and Edinburgh as capital cities and have also been to them but for the purposes of being official-like that's my list.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Corazon de Leon » Sat Oct 19, 2019 11:06 am

Bunni wrote:I’m planning a big Switzerland trip next winter. Had planned to go to New York for our 10th but with the shooting and terrorism and Trumps batshit rule, we’ve decided to pass. I love Switzerland, and can’t wait to see it in the winter. I’ve been in summer and I want to go back to do more but gunna get my ski on next year.

This year we’re looking at Tallinn. It looks intimate and Christmassy and not overrun with tourists. Any tips?


You're in luck - his administration will be just ending next Christmas if everything goes to plan.

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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Rocsteady » Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:44 pm

Think I'm on 24 capitals, not including Edinburgh. Heading to Kyiv next month which will make it 25. Was thinking of visiting Tallinn as I skipped it when living in Riga but reckon Kyiv looks a little more interesting.

If anyone has any top tips for Kyiv let me know plz!

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Moggy
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Moggy » Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:56 pm

Rocsteady wrote:Think I'm on 24 capitals, not including Edinburgh. Heading to Kyiv next month which will make it 25. Was thinking of visiting Tallinn as I skipped it when living in Riga but reckon Kyiv looks a little more interesting.

If anyone has any top tips for Kyiv let me know plz!


Go to Chernobyl.

And if you do take photos and post them in a new thread on here. We need the publicity!

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Bunni
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Bunni » Sat Oct 19, 2019 10:06 pm

London
Edinburgh
Cardiff
Belfast/Dublin

Oslo
Amsterdam
Reykjavik
Paris
Brussels
Berlin
Tokyo
Seoul
Singapore
Hong Kong
Prague
Vienna
Bratislava
Sofia

I’ll hopefully have another 5 by spring.

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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Corazon de Leon » Sat Oct 19, 2019 11:00 pm

What a list that is tbf. I’ve been to Hong Kong as well actually, loved it.

Hoping to add Bucharest, Prague, Rome, Stockholm and Copenhagen to my list next year, we’ve got a few trips in the planning.

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Tomous
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PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic
by Tomous » Sun Oct 20, 2019 2:54 am

44 if you separate out U.K. capitals:

London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Reykjavik, Berlin, Rome, Zagreb, Budapest, Vienna, Copenhagen, Prague, Bratislava, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Delhi Colombo, Kathmandu, Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpar, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok, Vientiane, Phenom Penh, Hanoi, Manilla, Jakarta, Canberra, Mexico City, Bridgetown, Havana, Rio, Santiago, Buenos Aries, Lima, La Paz, Hong Kong

Last edited by Tomous on Sun Oct 20, 2019 3:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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