Archived threads in /trv/ - Travel - 443. page

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>>1095397
>this thread again
REEEEEEEEEE why isn't this in the sticky yet

Meeting people and making friends is easy af. Solo travel is the way to go because there's literally no strings attached, or that's how I feel about it at least.

Here's what I usually do:
stay in a hostel and take a guided walking tour they're recommending/offering, and at the end of the tour ask some people if they want to go grab a beer

voila, you've now made friends!

The fact that this sounds like a stupid question merely convinces me even further that I am socially retarded; I can't even wrap my head around the idea that travel might be better with someone else.

>>1095397
>Does it not get boring?
It's as exciting as you make it. You have no reason not to do precisely what you want. If you want to go to Sunny Beach and spend twelve hours sitting on the sand, you can. If you want to go hiking, you can. If you want to visit a Mongolian cattle farm, you can. If it's boring it's nobodies fault but yours but fortunately you don't have to consult anybody to change that.

>Is it not weird...?
No. Different, uncomfortable, surreal, relaxing, pleasant... You could describe it any number of ways. I don't know how you are on your own but you can change that.

>Can you make friends easily?
Of course. It's easier if you go places where English is still spoken but tourists aren't as common because they will be much more interested in you. Going to Majorca as a Brit will probably be met with indifference, but Tehran? You will be the talk of the town.

>What do you do to enjoy everything?
The things you enjoy. I know that sharing a trip is half the fun sometimes, but of you aren't enjoying what you're doing then you're doing something wrong.

Safety is too varied to comment on. Back alleys in Rio De Janeiro at 2am? Probably not a good idea. Midnight in the middle of Prague? No better or worse than any other city, just be sensible.

I can't tell you if it's better or worse because I don't know you. Going to Vegas alone would be dull, but going to a remote island in the Philippines could be quite cathartic.

>>1095164
If you dont care for looks, you can get a us army duffle bag for about 30$. Get the newer version that opens on the side as well as the end. Its sturdy, cheap, and and you can carry it by the handles, with a shoulder strap, or with the backpack straps.

>>1095175
That looks good for camping and as a hand luggage on airplane but seems a little too much for urban environment. Isn't organization an issue on this bag? Also I still don't know where to go for army surplus where I am.

>>1095308
There are some sites you can try for buying milsurp online. And yeah, as someone who has been issue a couple of standard army duffels, they're just a big empty bag with no compartments. They're bigger than the look, and durable as hell, but they're mainly good for getting a large amount of stuff from point A to point B and not needing to get anything out of the bag in between. For what you want, I'd recommend getting a rucksack.

1.) Vdara is a non-gaming hotel. Closest casino would be the Cosmopolitan right in front.
2.) "Next door" is still a 10 minute walk from your room.
3.) The strip proper is 5 miles long
4.) Play table games and you can get drinks and then just tip the waitress. Sportsbook wagering requires a minimum amount bet before you get drink tickets. Comps are getting more and more hard to come by unless you're playing/winning some crazy $$$. Most of the time if you consistently play at the same casino, they'll at least throw you a free buffet if you play enough.
> I stay at the Encore when I go to Vegas and play at the Wynn sportsbook. I'm no high roller by any means but from just staying there they gave me some drink tickets right off the bat with my players card. Then I hit a few times and they gave me a whole stack of them for the remainder of my trip.
4.) Fremont Street is hit or miss depending on your personal preferences. It's like Vegas's "Bourbon Street" in New Orleans with a giant projector screen ceiling.
5.) People will hassle you on the street to buy shit and want to hand out hooker calling cards. I like to collect them all like they're Pokemon cards.
6.) Food is as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it. Just remember that all nice casinos on the strip will not be cheap for any meals really.
7.) Catch a show or two depending on your tastes. There's something for everyone.
8.) You will see an inordinate amount of Asian tourists who do not speak English and are very pushy. They travel in packs.

>>1096055
Thanks for the reply Anon. Any thoughts on Vdara as a whole? Do you know of any other places that offer extended (30 day) stays? My options are pretty much to rent a condo in Trump Tower or Palms Place through AirBNB or book through Vdara at this point.

I'm not looking to go too extravagant but I want my girlfriend and I to be comfortable. Vdara is going to run me about 4 grand. My AirBNB options are between 3 and 5.5k I'd like to stay in that window.

>>1096165

The Vdara is a great place and it's quiet since there is no casino. For an extended stay I'd say it's a good deal honestly and I think it'd be a better bet than an airBnB crapshoot.

They have a nice spa, but if you really want to treat your gf, go to the one at the Encore. Check it out online, it's totally on point.

You can take a trip to the north end of the Grand Canyon on a tour for about 125pp and the glass skywalk is another 30pp if I remember correctly. The bus will pick you up around 7AM and you'll be back in your room by 5PM. It's not the "true" Grand Canyon, but for a day trip I'd say it's better than driving the 8 hours to the actual national park.

Mandalay Bay has an aquarium, and an ice bar. Monte Carlo has an ice bar too. If you're into clubs, there's multiple in each major hotel, along with pool clubs during the day. Cosmo has Marquee which is crazy popular and close to the Vdara.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Germany

Hard to say, depends on cities/regions, etc. - there's quite a range, the following are in my opinion "normal" prices for a city. There are places (Munich, Heidelberg) which tend to be a bit more expensive, though. On the other hand, rural areas and Eastern Germany can be much cheaper.

Breakfast: I'd say 7 to 14 EUR, depending on what, where and how much. You can go to a bakery and get a coffee and a bread roll for c. 3,50 EUR though

Lunch: 6 to 10 EUR in simple restaurants. A Döner Kebab is around 4 EUR. McDonald's menu c. 7 EUR.

Dinner: 15 EUR buys you a pizza and a beer. Meat main courses around 15 EUR in a normal restaurant.

>>1094893
I can confirm. I live in Heidelberg though, and you can eat for the same low prices, you just have to know where to find them. But the trick is not to hard, just leave the tourist road and go two blocks in a random direction.

1. Don't be black
2. Buy a track suit
3. Learn to squat
4. Start playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tonight

>>1094054
>1. Don't be black
I'm not.
>2. Buy a track suit
I have one.
>3. Learn to squat
I can.
>4. Start playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tonight
I played through that game in high school.

This was easy.

бyмп

>>1092493
I'm going in December. Can't wait. I've heard the museum of communism is cool.

>>1092653
What did you hear about it? Sounds interesting, but I could imagine it being very similar to the DDR museum in Berlin.

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There's plenty to do in Prague. I was there for about 5-6 days and saw a hockey game (hockey is HUGE is the Czech Republic), visited Charles Bridge, Prage Castle, St Vitus Cathedral (which is gorgeous, pic related), Karlstejn Castle (not IN Prague but well within day trip distance), saw a movie (in English and subbed in Czech which seems common), saw a play, went to Pruhonice Park (a huge and very scenic park very close to Prague), did a walking tour that included a trip to a cold war bunker and gave some history on the Prague Spring and Czech's eventual independance. That was even before going out most nights.

Now I had the advantage of staying with and being shown around by a local but there's plenty you can organise to do by yourself. I'd definitely recommend doing the walking tour and getting some of the history of the city and seeing some of the tourist stuff like the Astronomical Clock and the Castle.

Most people in Prague itself spoke English but once we ventured out of the city for day trips it got a lot less English speaking so be aware of that.

A very obvious piece of advice but Czech doesn't use the Euro, it's Czech Coruna (Crowns).

While a lot of Czech beers and pilsners have made their way to foreign shores, the favourite of every Czech guy I know is one that hasn't made it out of the country to my knowledge and that is Radaghast. It is the sponsor of the Czech Extraliga (their hockey league) so if you go to a game it is easy to find.

If you go in December then there are stalls all around the main part of the city (around Wenceslas Square) selling mulled wine and a delicious kind of ring donut/pastry thing called Trdlo.

>>1091706
How do you plan to spend your time when not riding?

>>1091706
I'll likely do this trip in about 3-4 years time. Doing a motorcycle road trip this year in the States before leaving for Australia when the weather cools off on this side of the equator.

I just made this journey. Flew into Hanoi, weather sucked to flew to Hué, bought a bike there, rode down to Saigon over 3 weeks.

I'm no stranger to adventure but this time has been some of the craziest days of my life. Definitely my best experiences traveling so far were here.

My biggest recommendation is to avoid the main highway like everyone else - highway 1 - but also consider avoiding most of the standard backpacker route. When you're away from places that foreigners go you're treated like a celebrity everywhere. It's so intense that it gets really overwhelming when you're tired from riding and just want a beer or food.

All that said I would strongly recommend against doing this unless you have a really good amount of riding experience. Even with that, about half of our group got hurt to some degree. Road conditions and the unpredictable traffic makes it difficult. I saw a guy that got hit by a bus because he wasn't expecting a bus to be coming at him in the wrong lane (as he went around a corner). It was bad.

If I were you, I'd just use DuoLingo myself, and then teach the kid what the messen I learned on DuoLingo the day before.

>>1080192
I'm moving to Vietnam in June to teach english to kids. Has anyone here ever taught in Vietnam? How was it? I don't have a degree, only a tefl but I talked to a bunch of people on the Expats in Saigon group and they told me its super easy to find a good job in Saigon even without a degree. Anybody have any thoughts or opinions on this?

>>1080480

People told me it's hard to find jobs or that you'll have issues with the visa come up if you teach there without a degree.

It's good to hear you can land a job without one, as I'm also considering going there.

Do you plan to use a fake degree? Will your school get you a work visa with the fake degree? Or will you work on a tourist visa or whatever

>>1095305
is that you m cuckerberg

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2014

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>>1095311
Is that the nurburgerkinger? Bucket list place for sure.

Pic related: Royal Enfield factory in Chennai India

>>1097343
>choose one of Barcalona/Madrid and go to Amsterdam or Porto instead
>I'd go to Florence instead of Rome unless you're a christian and want to visit the Vatican.
>by 'transit', do you mean train ?

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>>1097343
>Gif
>Doesnt move

u should spend at least a month in every country unless u wont see anything

>>1097096
Lots of hostels in Mexico City, you can find many for under $20 a night, even some for around $10 but never go for the cheapest options in town.

I suggest you spend about a week in Mexico City and then spend a week traveling to other towns close by. I went to San Miguel and Guanajuato but there are many others out there like Queretaro or Puebla. They're not really 1 day trip kind of places, you really need to spend at least a night in each one. The buses to Teotihuacan leave from the north bus terminal which is connected by a metro line.

Street food is really cheap and delicious, get your fill of tacos for under $5. As is transport in Mexico City, don't be afraid of using the metro.

Once you get to Mexico City you'll realize that it's not really a dangerous place like the media would have you believe. It's a huge city but if you stay in zones near to the center you will be fine. There's so much to see and do there that I ended up staying a couple of days longer than I planned on and still didn't really see everything I wanted. Make sure to see the archeological zone in the middle of Mexico City as well.

Bump, just looking from some other towns in the Greater Mexico City area to visit for maybe 2 days while I'm there

Toluca is ugly as fuck m8 not sure why you would want to go there.

Nice places to visit that are within a 4 hour bus ride are Puebla, Querétaro and San Miguel de Allende.

Regarding safety: Mexico City is pretty safe, just don't go to the ugly parts of town and you'll be fine, it's actually safer than major US cities like Chicago or Atlanta

I live in the area RPI is in. It's a fantastic school, but for a foreigner, it might be a bit boring. There's fuck all to do here, however, there are several schools in the area, so a lot of kids go to parties and get drunk every day of the week, which is possible thanks to the massive student population. Since you mentioned TAFE, I'm assuming you're from Australia, in which case I would to like to point out that it gets very, very cold here, much colder than it gets in Europe. We're actually colder than Northern Sweden. It's also overcast constantly, so you can go a few weeks without seeing the sun. If you have anymore specific questions feel free to ask.

Two questions that'll probably help not just me, but other people looking to answer

How important are academics?
A lot of people don't actually learn while abroad, they just take easy classes that don't affect their major. Is that going to be the case here?

What are you looking to get out of this?
Do you want a small, rural town? One that's average in about every way possible? A large city with tall buildings and attractions? You picked North America for a reason, I'd like to know what you had in mind.

>>1096849
Of the ones in Canada, Concordia would be good as it's in Montreal so you'd be right in the middle of a great city. My coworkers daughter is studying there right now and really likes it.

Don't pick KPU, it's in a shitty suburb. Okanagan College is in a small town that's really nice in the summers but not so great rest of the year. I don't know much about the other ones.

If I were you I'd just go to one of the choices in California. SF State would be awesome, right in the middle of San Fran. Loyola is right in the middle of LA. Cal Poly and Cal State Monterey are in small towns but close to the beach so you can go surfing a lot.

No one really gives a shit about what you study at these exchanges, they're all about enjoying the place you go to.

>>1096903
Yeah from Melbourne. I'm not really concerned with academics, just looking for a place with a great culture, hopefully go to a bunch of parties, pick up and get wasted etc etc, usual university fair. I'd prefer to steer towards a larger city just because I'm quite into music and would enjoy being able to go to gigs regularly and that's always easier when you're in a bigger city.

Europe

It'll get better. The bad people only do 50% of the harm; the rest is done by us westerners letting ourselves fall prey to fear and pessimism.

Yemen (Socotra), Mali, Crimea, Afghanistan/Pakistan

Tibet (sort of). It's definitely safe minus any political demonstration but it would be nice to travel there independently. Same with Iran but that feels like much less of an issue.

>>1096326
depends on the country

Africa is fucking enormous, man, it obviously varies from place to place, country to country, town to town within country, etc. Get more specific, you wouldn't ask "Is Asia worth visiting?"

>>1096358
OK, how about it this. WHERE in Africa is worth visiting?

>>1096202
Start with Tijuana?

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Are you me? Except nowhere SoCal. Anyway, the answer is no. It's love/hate half and half anywhere. So just travel.

I know how you feel OP.

I was in Hawaii a year ago and I ran into some locals at a natural pool as they were chilling and having drinks. I was kinda buzzed and ended up joining them after one of them offered me a beer.

Then out of nowhere one of those meatheaded island shitheads thought I was looking at his girlfriend the wrong way, which I denied. Then he got mad and threatened me saying "You need to get the fuck outta here you fucking haole." (Haole is Hawaiian for foreigner).

I tried to be civil about it but then his bitch girlfriend wanted to be bossbitch and threatened to throw a beer bottle at me outta nowhere.

Meanwhile their three friends were watching this go down not saying a word yet not exactly protesting the idea of me leaving either.

At that point, I realized how stupid this all was, so I just grabbed my shit and walked away.

Moral of the story is that locals can either be chill, or complete fucking assholes.

Don't be afraid to take the risk in befriending them, but if they start giving you shit, don't be ashamed to grab your shit and leave.

You're on vacation. Your goal is to have a good time.

If you're not having a good time when locals are being fucking assholes to you, you move on and find another opportunity to meet people and have fun.

Don't let a bunch of local shitheads ruin a trip for you.