Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


https://twitter.com/seatsixtyone/status/1522470265082589189?t=m49r1Zoa5lNu3v02e-QakA&s=19

At half price it goes from marginal to a pretty good deal! Not long left though

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

by Fluffdaddy
Just came in to post this. Never looked at it as a sensible option but now this is pretty decent. The problem of course is that accommodation in western Europe for three months will still bankrupt you.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
I want to try haggis and even more so I want to like it. Between Edinburgh and Glasgow, can anyone tell me where to try it for the first time ever?

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
Has anyone been around a fair amount of the Balkans, particularly the less known places like northern Albania? My wife and I are meeting up with two friends for two weeks in August and would like to go somewhere with nice scenery, hiking, swimming, and that feels appreciably different from Switzerland. In my first look through stuff I was thinking either Durmitor or the Accursed Mountains for like 5 days, like 5 days somewhere on the Northern Albanian or Montenegrin coast, and then maybe 3-4 days in a cute town, ideally not overwhelmed with tourists (i.e. not Dubrovnik, probably not Kotor but not sure?). I don't really mind lots of tourists around in principle, but rather I hate towns where every third shop sells fridge magnets and shot glasses. So I guess if it's a tourist hotspot but too new for the Fridge Magnet Mafia to have taken over the city, then I'd be happy with it too.

None of us have ever been anywhere vaguely in that region - nowhere between Athens and Ljubljana - so I'm also open to like Macedonia or wherever. We get direct flights pretty much everywhere in the Balkans. I picked up and read an entire guide on Montenegro and it looks cool, and I've flipped through the Wikivoyage articles for the rest of the countries in the region, but it's hard to actually do any comparisons. I did spend some time looking at Croatia and the mountains there, and I was not particularly wowed by the Google Streetview photos I could find -- the mountains are a lot smaller and they're also not quite close enough to the coast to yield a good view of the sea. And also since they're like 1500 meters smaller, they'll also be proportionately that much hotter in August and hiking in > 25° weather is not especially fun.

Basically, mountains/hiking, swimming, cute towns, no fridge magnet stores, somewhere in the Balkans, mid-August?

Chikimiki
May 14, 2009

Saladman posted:

Has anyone been around a fair amount of the Balkans, particularly the less known places like northern Albania? My wife and I are meeting up with two friends for two weeks in August and would like to go somewhere with nice scenery, hiking, swimming, and that feels appreciably different from Switzerland. In my first look through stuff I was thinking either Durmitor or the Accursed Mountains for like 5 days, like 5 days somewhere on the Northern Albanian or Montenegrin coast, and then maybe 3-4 days in a cute town, ideally not overwhelmed with tourists (i.e. not Dubrovnik, probably not Kotor but not sure?). I don't really mind lots of tourists around in principle, but rather I hate towns where every third shop sells fridge magnets and shot glasses. So I guess if it's a tourist hotspot but too new for the Fridge Magnet Mafia to have taken over the city, then I'd be happy with it too.

None of us have ever been anywhere vaguely in that region - nowhere between Athens and Ljubljana - so I'm also open to like Macedonia or wherever. We get direct flights pretty much everywhere in the Balkans. I picked up and read an entire guide on Montenegro and it looks cool, and I've flipped through the Wikivoyage articles for the rest of the countries in the region, but it's hard to actually do any comparisons. I did spend some time looking at Croatia and the mountains there, and I was not particularly wowed by the Google Streetview photos I could find -- the mountains are a lot smaller and they're also not quite close enough to the coast to yield a good view of the sea. And also since they're like 1500 meters smaller, they'll also be proportionately that much hotter in August and hiking in > 25° weather is not especially fun.

Basically, mountains/hiking, swimming, cute towns, no fridge magnet stores, somewhere in the Balkans, mid-August?

I've been a little around the region in the past few years, so here's my 2 cents on the different countries:

- Montenegro is really good for hiking, it may not be as dramatic as the Alps but it is worth the trip. Quite small so easy to get around too. The coast has some quaint little towns & cities sitting in fjords (technically not but quite close), Kotor being the biggest one. Of course word has gone around and you'll see some fridge magnet stores in Kotor, but it's no Costa Brava.

- Croatia is definitely a popular tourist spot, but there are so many islands and cute cities that you can easily escape the crowds. I don't know about any popular hiking trails there so I'd peg it as more of a swimming destination.

- Bosnia-Herzegovina has a few interesting cities like Sarajevo or Mostar, the latter being quite close to Croatia, but I don't know about hiking; apparently some remote corners are still mined.

- Macedonia & Bulgaria I haven't been to, but I've heard some good things related to hiking etc.

- Lastly, Albania is rather special: it is a lot less developed than former Yugoslavia (which is normal given that it was Europe's North Korea until the 90s) so infrastructure is very poor: roads suddenly vanish, anarchic construction everywhere - especially along the coast... The locals are friendly but in my experience not as outgoing as in the other countries around, and english is seldom spoken as well. Despite this, , there are some beautiful mountains (but you'll have to drive a few hours along bumpy roads) and some quaint cities like Berat or Gjirokaster. There is a sort of scruffiy charm there and we've had some great moments, but it is not for everybody.

Feel free should you have any further questions!

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Rolo posted:

I want to try haggis and even more so I want to like it. Between Edinburgh and Glasgow, can anyone tell me where to try it for the first time ever?
Haggis is, on a basic level, good. If you see a restaurant and trust it to serve you any other dish, it'll probably not have bad haggis, either. Whenever I'm in Scotland I have it at a few places and it's always good. What I'm trying to say is I don't think it needs a highly specialized kitchen that's a rare find to get it right. :)

That being said personally I really liked the Whiski Rooms in Edinburgh a few years back.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Chikimiki posted:


- Montenegro is really good for hiking, i

- Croatia is ... more of a swimming destination.

- Bosnia-Herzegovina has a few interesting cities like Sarajevo or Mostar, the latter being quite close to Croatia, but I don't know about hiking; apparently some remote corners are still mined.

- Macedonia & Bulgaria I haven't been to, but I've heard some good things related to hiking etc.

- Lastly, Albania is rather special:

Feel free should you have any further questions!

Thanks! Albania sounds like it's up my alley, but I'll have to see how it goes for everyone else who might not enjoy driving along bad mountain roads for hours to get to a farm selling mountain cheese as much as I do. Guess I'll grab a guidebook for Albania and check it out, since probably we'll go somewhere in that N Albania/Macedonia/S Croatia area since water is a must for my wife for summer. Although maybe Lake Ohrid and Prespa would count since they look pretty huge and dramatic. We might also do two weeks with my friends and then spend a week doing something else afterwards just the two of us.

Do people frequently speak anything besides Albanian in Albania? We speak several other languages, maybe most pertinently to the area German and Italian, but not Serbo-Montenegro-Croato-Bosnian. Anyway I'm fine pointing at things and miming so language barrier isn't a big deal. Google turns up results that are dubious with wiggle words like "many" Albanians speak French, German, Italian, etc.

I'm not sure why but for some reason Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania have never even entered my imagination in the slightest, and I probably couldn't name 5 tourist sites discounting large cities among all of them put together. I guess maybe that's a good reason to flip through their Wikivoyage. I don't think I've ever seen them mentioned in this thread.

Cheese Thief
Oct 30, 2020
I was recommended the Amalfi coast, by a business associate. Would the fridge magnet mafia have taken over this region too? I just want a chill place that isn’t too expensive, specifically in Italy would be great.
Sarajevo is sounding pretty nice.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Saladman posted:

I'm not sure why but for some reason Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania have never even entered my imagination in the slightest, and I probably couldn't name 5 tourist sites discounting large cities among all of them put together. I guess maybe that's a good reason to flip through their Wikivoyage. I don't think I've ever seen them mentioned in this thread.

I haven't visited Serbia yet, but I spent about 6 weeks across Bulgaria and Romania a couple of years back. There's definitely some great stuff in both countries, and aside from a couple of spots in Romania they're still moderately far off the tourist trail.

In Romania, Bucharest is okay? I guess? There's a few interesting things to see but it's not great compared to other Eastern European cities. Sighisoara is pretty cool, with a massive old medieval citadel that people still live in. Hunedoara castle is another seriously cool fortress that has a super dramatic entrance. If you're after something a bit quieter, there's some superbly painted Orthodox churches in the north and east of the country. And there's the Danube Delta which has quaint and relaxing nature. There are intercity trains in Romania, but you can drive as well if you're a confident driver. The cities are intense (not as bad as Sicily!), and on country roads you'll be sharing with horses, donkeys etc, while the locals charge along way too fast.

Bulgaria is probably even less touristed than Romania. Definitely don't miss Rila Monastery just outside Sofia! There's decent skiing I think down in the mountainous areas of the south, though we were there in summer and aren't skiers anyway. You've also got the Black Sea coast which is pretty good, especially Nessebar with its quaint old town.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Does anyone know if there's any cool things to see/do in Edinburgh that aren't the most popular tourist destinations?

I'll spend some time there in a couple months but I've already been there so I'm looking for anything I might have missed.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Cheese Thief posted:

I was recommended the Amalfi coast, by a business associate. Would the fridge magnet mafia have taken over this region too? I just want a chill place that isn’t too expensive, specifically in Italy would be great.
Sarajevo is sounding pretty nice.

Amalfi coast is really nice. It's super touristy but also with Italians. Sorrento (technically not on the Amalfi coast I guess) is a big enough tourist town to have normal city things too, and then Salerno is like an actual normal city. Everything on the Amalfi coast ranges from small to miniature, so I think Positano and Amalfi are the only two towns you could stay in there without needing a car to do basic things like buy groceries or go to a restaurant. I haven't spent a lot of time there though, just like 5 days over two visits, and I never made it to Capri.

I've spent a ton of time in Italy in general and I've found that while almost everywhere is mega touristy, there are only a few particular spots that are really utterly horrifyingly overwhelming, at least for my tastes. Florence, Venice, and that's it. Even smaller places like Cinque Terre, which are packed to the gills in summer, are actually totally fine even in summer from like 4pm until 9am the next morning. Florence however seems to be the city that never sleeps in terms of being packed with tour groups from 7am until 11pm every day. Many Italian cities have specific spots that are always terrible, like around Trevi Fountain in Rome is awful at any time of day, but there's always somewhere you can find that is more peaceful and where real local people would go. I think even Venice has nice spots that are further out like Murano and Lido although I've never been to those districts. I think Florence reserves a special place in my heart for the only city in Italy I would never go back to unless forced to by like a close friend's wedding or something.

Thanks for the Bulgaria/Romania mentions Webmeister.

Doctor Malaver
May 23, 2007

Ce qui s'est passé t'a rendu plus fort

Saladman posted:

Has anyone been around a fair amount of the Balkans, particularly the less known places like northern Albania? My wife and I are meeting up with two friends for two weeks in August and would like to go somewhere with nice scenery, hiking, swimming, and that feels appreciably different from Switzerland. In my first look through stuff I was thinking either Durmitor or the Accursed Mountains for like 5 days, like 5 days somewhere on the Northern Albanian or Montenegrin coast, and then maybe 3-4 days in a cute town, ideally not overwhelmed with tourists (i.e. not Dubrovnik, probably not Kotor but not sure?). I don't really mind lots of tourists around in principle, but rather I hate towns where every third shop sells fridge magnets and shot glasses. So I guess if it's a tourist hotspot but too new for the Fridge Magnet Mafia to have taken over the city, then I'd be happy with it too.

None of us have ever been anywhere vaguely in that region - nowhere between Athens and Ljubljana - so I'm also open to like Macedonia or wherever. We get direct flights pretty much everywhere in the Balkans. I picked up and read an entire guide on Montenegro and it looks cool, and I've flipped through the Wikivoyage articles for the rest of the countries in the region, but it's hard to actually do any comparisons. I did spend some time looking at Croatia and the mountains there, and I was not particularly wowed by the Google Streetview photos I could find -- the mountains are a lot smaller and they're also not quite close enough to the coast to yield a good view of the sea. And also since they're like 1500 meters smaller, they'll also be proportionately that much hotter in August and hiking in > 25° weather is not especially fun.

Basically, mountains/hiking, swimming, cute towns, no fridge magnet stores, somewhere in the Balkans, mid-August?

Croatian mountains do get you a sea view but I wouldn't recommend them in August. They are barren so very little shade and easy to get a heat stroke. Mljet and Lošinj are islands with forests and they gotta have some trails but generally people don't do much hiking on the Croatian coast in the summer. Maybe look into some places on the other side of the Velebit range - like Gospić, Slunj, Otočac. It's cooler, less touristy and better for hiking. The Plitvice lakes are very near, and the sea isn't far when you want to move from the hiking part of the trip to the swimming part.

I heard nice things about Durmitor and southern Serbia - Djavolja Varoš, Golija, lake Perućac, Goč - but I haven't visited.

Bosnia is almost entirely mountainous and underdeveloped and not that far from the Croatian sea. And people are nice. If you pointed a finger randomly at the map you'd probably discover something worth exploring.

Be careful with Montenegro if you have sensitive skin. Environmental standards are low and waste water is dumped into the sea as is. I heard from more than one person that they caught a rash after vacationing and swimming there.

Electric Wrigglies
Feb 6, 2015

webmeister posted:


Bulgaria is probably even less touristed than Romania. Definitely don't miss Rila Monastery just outside Sofia! There's decent skiing I think down in the mountainous areas of the south, though we were there in summer and aren't skiers anyway. You've also got the Black Sea coast which is pretty good, especially Nessebar with its quaint old town.

I really rated Rila Monastery. Aside from just being awesome in its own right, there was something about coming back after a two day hike in the surrounding hills with scattered snow drifts into the Monastery, straight to the tavern, ordering a flagon of wine and knuckle of pork to feel like Conan the Barbarian.

I love the Balkans overall. So Rila is just one of many great memories for me.

Chikimiki
May 14, 2009

Saladman posted:


Do people frequently speak anything besides Albanian in Albania? We speak several other languages, maybe most pertinently to the area German and Italian, but not Serbo-Montenegro-Croato-Bosnian. Anyway I'm fine pointing at things and miming so language barrier isn't a big deal. Google turns up results that are dubious with wiggle words like "many" Albanians speak French, German, Italian, etc.


In my experience Albanians often speak Italian, due to the close proximity (apparently you could receive Italian radio and TV at the coast during communism) and immigration. Those that speak English are often the youngsters in the cities.
Also, in all of Ex-Yugoslavia older people often speak German, due to immigration.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
Speaking of this thread's rental car prices topics, I can't find anything in Montenegro for less than like €60/day for August.

https://www.rentalcars.com/search-r...h=8&puYear=2022

There's one company renting out of Podgorica that's "only" €40/day for a basic Seat. I guess I've just been spoiled by the last two years of super cheap car rentals in Europe, and at least it's not Irish prices, but €60/day for a Golf is a lot. Also what's weird to me is that the miniature cars like the Golf are only like €1/day less than a a mid-sized crossover like the Dacia Duster. I guess I'll upgrade if it only changes the price from like €60/day for a Golf vs. €61/day for a Duster?!


I think we will end up focusing on Montenegro for mountains and then somewhere for swimming, maybe Dubrovnik or Split area. Kotor Bay looks incredible but kind of sketches me out for swimming; I don't really want to swim in a closed bay filled with cruise ship discharge. Maybe another time for Albania when it's just my wife and me.

Saladman fucked around with this message at 17:13 on May 14, 2022

Residency Evil
Jul 28, 2003

4/5 godo... Schumi

Saladman posted:

I think Florence reserves a special place in my heart for the only city in Italy I would never go back to unless forced to by like a close friend's wedding or something.

Funny, Venice holds this place in my mind. We did a trip to northern Italy one summer (Florence/Venice/Modena/Milan/Como) and Venice was the only city I absolutely hated. Just absolutely packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the middle of the day with cruise ship visitors. The entire experience felt like Disney. I understand things were better over the past 1-2 years due to COVID, but I'm in no rush to go back.

Florence at least seemed to have more space to spread people out.

kiimo
Jul 24, 2003

People hate Florence? That's news I loved it there.

art history major though

also I was there in late January so maybe the crowds weren't nearly as bad

kiimo fucked around with this message at 00:55 on May 15, 2022

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
I'm with Saladman, if I never have to visit Florence again it'll be too soon.

And I went in early May, not peak season either. I'm a big art history fan, but honestly it was underwhelming compared to how it's pushed at that, too. Like sure, David is very cool, but the Uffizi sucks and is not at all "equivalent to the Louvre" as people in Florence like to claim.

I like to say Florence is like European Disneyland, as said about Venice above. Everything is in English, is designed for tourists, and nothing feels like "real" Italy. And during the day, shoulder to shoulder indeed with no space at all in most of the old town. I can't begin to imagine the hell it would be in July or August.

I haven't been to Venice so I can't compare the two.

Ferdinand Bardamu
Apr 30, 2013
I lived in Italy for five years and would go to Florence for my birthday weekend (early February). Hardly any crowds, the only people that stood out to me were the American college students "studying" abroad for the semester.

Bologna was always a better place to spend a weekend to me. It doesn't hurt that it has all the music venues that Florence doesn't.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
We spent a few days in Florence in January 2018 and yeah it was pretty packed even then as well. I guess it's just a combination of being a fairly compact area (unlike say Rome/Paris/London or even Venice), and one that's just perennially popular as a place you "should" go. We visited the Uffizi first thing in the morning and avoided most of the crowds there, but I have a distinct memory of standing in front of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and hearing an old American man shuffle past saying "yeah Martha, I dunno what this is or who painted it but it's really famous". I also enjoyed the room with several Raphael paintings, mainly because it wasn't clearly signposted and was in a side room with a huge LEONARDO DA VINCI COLLECTION -----> directing people elsewhere, making it basically empty. Mind you, the Uffizi is also where I had the worst coffee I've ever had in Italy - absolute garbage water.

I think crowds can have such an oversized impact on your perception of a place, and sometimes they can be crazy variable as well. We stayed a week in Tallinn that summer, which has a similarly beautiful but compact historic core. The days with 1-2 cruise ships in town were fine, but the days with 10+ boats in port it was absolutely unbearable. I can imagine two people going to the same spot literally on alternate days, and having vastly different experiences purely due to factors outside of their control (aside from not getting on a cruise ship in the first place!).

I'm a bit more zen about things these days though; crowded/popular places are usually crowded and popular for a good reason, and nobody has more or less of a right to be there than I do. Even if they don't know who painted The Birth of Venus.

distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


Agree about the crowds being super variable and about Bologna being a great destination. I've never found Florence too bad, it's a decent size place and the tourist bits are fairly concentrated.

Venice and Verona were the worst imo for feeling fully catered towards tourists. Venice just because it is, Verona I think we went on a busy day. Even there though if you just walk 5 minutes away from the main streets you can have a nice time, we went to the Giadino Giusti and had a chill few hours plus got a nice view over the city.

distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


I think to a certain extent as well if you're from Europe already you are looking for some level of a tourist experience. Big crowds and noisy English speakers obviously spoil the mood, as do tacky and overpriced shops/restaurants, but "real" Italians/French/whatever don't live that differently from other euros day to day and if you've lived in a big city you could have got comparable food any day of the week, perhaps for a mark-up. Even if it's partially artificial (every restaurant has a target ambiance) it's still fun! And it's true that the locals will likely have better taste than the tourists.


I think this is sort of why Japan is such a great tourist destination. Their grocery stores and restaurants are genuinely quite different feeling to ones in europe, just going into a 7/11 is a lot of fun. Do the same in Italy and other than some lovely pastries it'll be the same as in London


e: along the same lines places which people from that country view as a holiday destination can also be good for international visitors I think. Say the peak district in the UK, Trento, an alpine spa hotel in austria, Basque country or some random old castle in france.

distortion park fucked around with this message at 07:07 on May 15, 2022

Bollock Monkey
Jan 21, 2007

The Almighty

Rolo posted:

Edinburgh. I love hiking, drinking, eating, history and history related drinking. My family is Scottish and I've never been so maybe I could connect with that a little.

You have to hike up to Arthur's Seat!
Eat at Indaba, Mimi's Bakehouse and Mosque Kitchen (of which there are two, make sure you go to the place on Nicolson Square).
Visit The National Museum of Scotland
Drink at The Hanging Bat and Rose Street Garden (decent street food type things here, including veggie haggis bonbons that were so good!). See if you can go to Brauhaus - I really wanted to but it was full when I tried.

Duodecimal
Dec 28, 2012

Still stupid

Thanks for that. Three days was plenty, though I do think I'll eventually come back with a loved one. Didn't do Pelligrino / Rosalia, but did hit the other big sights. Mostly walked the streets of central Palermo enjoying the graffiti and architectural jumble with the surrounding mountains looming behind them. The parks as well - Giardino l'inglese, Real, Garibaldi, Villa Giulia. All were not in the best shape but there are some really striking trees all over.

Only went to three restaurants for dinner, and of those my sole enthusiastic recommendation is Trattoria Ai Cascinari.

In Dublin now and am comparatively underwhelmed after night #1. Hitting the earlier recommendations starting tomorrow though, but desperately need to get to a laundromat.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Bollock Monkey posted:

You have to hike up to Arthur's Seat!
Eat at Indaba, Mimi's Bakehouse and Mosque Kitchen (of which there are two, make sure you go to the place on Nicolson Square).
Visit The National Museum of Scotland
Drink at The Hanging Bat and Rose Street Garden (decent street food type things here, including veggie haggis bonbons that were so good!). See if you can go to Brauhaus - I really wanted to but it was full when I tried.

Thanks! My plan is to do Arthur’s Seat when the weather gets a little worse. I’m the psycho that prefers rain over crowds.

Yesterday was my first full day here and I decided to just walk the city all day so I could sleep well that night. Edinburgh is gorgeous. The grass here is so green I’d believe you if you told me it glows in the dark. All of my phone pictures look like I cranked the saturation to 100.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Duodecimal posted:

Thanks for that. Three days was plenty, though I do think I'll eventually come back with a loved one. Didn't do Pelligrino / Rosalia, but did hit the other big sights. Mostly walked the streets of central Palermo enjoying the graffiti and architectural jumble with the surrounding mountains looming behind them. The parks as well - Giardino l'inglese, Real, Garibaldi, Villa Giulia. All were not in the best shape but there are some really striking trees all over.

Yeah the botanical gardens must have been amazing once upon a time. Just needs a lot of weeding and some urgently needed repairs on like, everything. They had some crazy plants that I’ve never seen elsewhere, including some that looked a lot like those Socotran dragon trees.

On Venice chat: last time i went was like 1999 with my family in November and it was fine. But yeah that’s almost 25 years ago and was in late November anyway. Every time I’ve been in the rough area as an adult I’ve skipped it. Florence I’ve stopped in a handful of times since it’s often right on the way from Switzerland to other parts of Italy and it’s been really crowded every time, and not just with people which is okay, but with cruise shippers hooked up to audio guides on headphones and in glacial clumps of 50 people at a time, and every 50 meters there’s another set of them. Wireless headsets have made tour groups even worse to pass as they’re even more oblivious than normal.

Agree that, at least as a European, the "local tourist" hotspots are often the best, unless you go way off season in which see the international tourist hotspots can be amazing. We went to Santorini a few years ago and stayed in Fira and LOVED it. It was last week of Oct or first of November so almost everything was still open but there was only line one cruise ship at a time in the caldera and generally few people around.

I think one of the things to adjust to most with having school-age kids is having to readjust and need to wait 15 more years before being able to go to spots like that at a time when they’re not as crowded as expansion packs to Disneyland Paris. Disneyland is generally my idea of a nightmare vacation, but that thread and the cruise ship to thread move a lot faster than this one, so I guess different strokes for different folks and all that. I have been to Disneyworld as an adult and I did think the fireworks and fire show at the end were pretty magical. The rest… eh. Worth a day since I was in Orlando but wouldn’t go back.

vanity slug
Jul 20, 2010

Residency Evil posted:

Funny, Venice holds this place in my mind. We did a trip to northern Italy one summer (Florence/Venice/Modena/Milan/Como) and Venice was the only city I absolutely hated. Just absolutely packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the middle of the day with cruise ship visitors. The entire experience felt like Disney. I understand things were better over the past 1-2 years due to COVID, but I'm in no rush to go back.

Florence at least seemed to have more space to spread people out.

I was in Venice last September during the film festival and it was amazing. No cruise ships, barely any mass tourism (most tourists were from Germany / Austria), you could just walk around Saint Peter's Square without a worry in the world.

It'll probably never get that good again.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Saladman posted:

Agree that, at least as a European, the "local tourist" hotspots are often the best, unless you go way off season in which see the international tourist hotspots can be amazing. We went to Santorini a few years ago and stayed in Fira and LOVED it. It was last week of Oct or first of November so almost everything was still open but there was only line one cruise ship at a time in the caldera and generally few people around.
LOL I'm staying in Santorini at Fira for four days in the first week of November this year so this owns to hear.

Entropist
Dec 1, 2007
I'm very stupid.
I was in Florence in August of 2019 (not my choice, work conference) and I didn't experience it as being that bad. It was super crowded but as someone who works in the center of Amsterdam I guess it wasn't too much of a change. I was also lucky in that it wasn't super hot, and this was during the Northern European heatwave when it was 40C in the Netherlands. I didn't do many touristic things there though, mostly walked to nice places outside the core center and had dinners with friends. It was good for that and there was plenty of good food to be found if you used Google Maps correctly.

After the conference I got myself to the Tuscan coast and touristed there, which was probably a good choice although it's a pretty touristic region too.

I did somewhat regret not trying the famous museums in Florence, but not so much any more after reading this thread..!

Ferdinand Bardamu
Apr 30, 2013

heh, I worked in Bolzano and lived there and in Trento.

distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


WaryWarren posted:

heh, I worked in Bolzano and lived there and in Trento.

Nice! I worked remotely from there for like a month, was my favourite place we stayed in Italy. Felt like a super high quality of life place to live

kiimo
Jul 24, 2003

I also loved Trento and wish I lived there as a college student. There or Innsbruck. In another multiverse life I spent a year abroad there in college skiing three times a week.

Entropist
Dec 1, 2007
I'm very stupid.
This thread has all been in Trento for some reason. I had two short stays in Rovereto for work, and also had been there before for a friends' graduation, so I've seen quite a bit of Trento, Bolzano and the whole valley too. It's a great place! If any Americans want to find out what cultural and linguistic borders and transition areas look like, I recommend to spend like a week or more on a trip up from Verona to Bolzano (or perhaps further up to the Reschenpass). It's a great journey from the Romance world to the Germanic world and you can see everything change as you go along.

kiimo
Jul 24, 2003

My train ride from Trento to Innsbruck during a blizzard was like right out of Frozen. Just magical.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
Yeah, I love that region, and it's like half the price of anywhere else in Austria. OK ok, Trento's not really Austria, but Merano and especially from Merano up the valley west basically is. We spent a week in that area just before the COVID lockdown -- like March 2020 -- and had a great time, although it might have been colored by everything after that being absolutely horrific. I've been to Lake Garda several times too and it's hands down my favorite big Alpine lake, and that's with a lot of experience in big Alpine lakes. Unfortunately the part of it that's accessible by public transport (Desenzano / Peschiera) kind of sucks. If you don't have a car then the eastern side of Lake Como is the best. There's just so much to do in Lake Garda, from hiking, to amazing climbing at Arco, to amazing sailing all over the northern part, to swimming in summer, to awesome Italian gelatos everywhere, to wild whacky fascist sites in Salo and Gardone Riveria, and everything you could ask of Italy and Austria. I think it's one of the view sites in Europe that I would hands down visit any time of the year, with absolutely no season where it's not incredible.

It's quite popular with European tourists but for some reason it Garda never makes it into listicles and Instagram advertisements, in the way that Como or Interlaken do.

Ferdinand Bardamu
Apr 30, 2013
It's funny that you all love Trentino/Alto Adige/Sudtirol so much. My Austrian/South Tyrolean and Italian coworkers mostly hated it and wished they could be in Austria/Switzerland or "real" Italy.

kiimo
Jul 24, 2003

lol my Italian grandfather who moved to the States from Udine is actually Tyrol. So his family did exactly that.

I can be a dual citizen in Italy and like both sides of my family are actually Tyrolean? I'm not sure if that's how you say that. Anyway I was obsessed with skiing and the mountains before I knew this so I guess it's in my blood.

Gonna go watch Third Man on the Mountain. Swiss? It'll have to suffice.

The Lobotomy Kid
Aug 27, 2011

and act like a nut.
I came in here to see if anyone had opinions about Florence before I head there next month and I guess I got my answer. Anyone have thoughts on Sorrento?

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

The Lobotomy Kid posted:

I came in here to see if anyone had opinions about Florence before I head there next month and I guess I got my answer. Anyone have thoughts on Sorrento?

I just posted a little bit about it in this thread. Since you have platinum you can also do a thread search for "Sorrento" and "Amalfi" and you might find something interesting.

I like it. I think I could spend easily 5 days based there without getting bored and with doing something new every day, even without a car, and I can only do maybe 1 day out of a week just sitting in one spot at the coast and eating gelato. It has a train station so you can get to Pompeii and Herculaneum and Villa Poppaea pretty easily in one (very long) full day, assuming you've never been there, you can get a ferry to Capri, you can hang out in Sorrento, etc. I think it would be hard to enjoy the Amalfi coast from Sorrento without a car. Maybe there are buses that are not too horrifically bad, but I wouldn't bet on intercity bus transport between small villages working reliably anywhere in Italy.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

PerilPastry
Oct 10, 2012
I'm going to London for three days and could use some advice.

Does this sound like a plan?

- Preorder tickets for one big attraction a day (like touring St. Paul's or going to the British Museum) and just play the rest of the day by ear? Like just buying an Oyster card and jumping on a bus and hopping off whenever we see something cool and just checking out the sights in the neighborhood we happen to get off at?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply