Archived threads in /trv/ - Travel - 506. page

Costa Rica is like Hawaii light and has better whores than Mexico

>>1067356
The "fun" of costa rica costs a little bit of money, because of the hiking, moving around between sites, national parks. I'd absolutely snorkel, cloud walk, river raft, and other stuff there. The food is deliciously more caribbean, than say mexican (think s.american quality steaks, and rice with delicious Lizano steak sauce) vs salsa and more low end chopped up meat of mexico.

The only thing going for mexico would be prix fixe, where you're going to get the most competitive airfare, resort all inclusive cost control, but nothing much to do outside of your actual resort.

So, if price is your ultimate concern, pay attention to what you actually want to do on the ground. Just add it up daily. Costa Rica has a coast, and various cities and tours and food is ultra-cheap, but you'll be doing it a la carte. If you just want to visit one beach and stay there like you would in Mexico, that's fine too. You can always go back and see the rest. For the ultimate in cost control, you cruise, but it's not always cheapest when it's 1 per cabin. Talk a friend into going with you so you split the nightly rates.

>>1066896
That's not how miles work.
They're for frequent flyer that do at least 30+ continental flights per year to get some rewards/more comfort. For anyone else it's just to get a cheap upgrade once upon time or buy some gadgets..
If you want to start collecting miles there're only two real options, Miles&More and OneWorld (for the US Delta is also an option)

I use Miles&More as example
With the basic credit card you earn 0.5 premium miles per USD spent and the cheapest flights start at 10k miles (discount) normal price is about 30k miles. So that's spending $20-60k on your CC for one flight for one person.

If you don't fly a lot anyway it would be better to get a CC with 1% cashback.

1. Get the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card. It gives 50k AA miles when you spend $3k in the first 3 months. They fly between BWI and PDX though not directly.[0] The annual fee is waived for the first year, cancel the card within 11 months and you'll pay no fees. You won't lose your miles.

2. Get the Chase Southwest Premier card. It gives 50k Southwest points for $2k spend in the first 3 months. You'll pay a $99 annual fee the first month, you can't waive this one. It's worth it for 2 free RT flights. Cancel as soon as your points post if you want, you won't lose your points.

Space these out if you don't spend much money, put all your spend on them (pay them off as soon as you get the statement, don't need to pay them before that).

The 50k AA miles is enough for you to book 2 round trip tickets anywhere in the US on mostly AA flights. You can check for award availability now on aa.com before you spend much time on this. You are looking for the Mile Saaver tickets, if those are sold out it will be more than 25k RT per person.

The 50k Southwest points will probably get you 2 RTs or more. I generally spend an average of like 12,000 per round trip so you may have a few left over after booking, maybe a ton (booked some for 3500). Unlike AA theirs is not a fixed chart.[1]

[0] You can fly nonstop from DCA to PDX if you want on Alaska. Alaska has a credit card as well from Bank of America. It doesn't have a minimum spend requirement, just use the card once and you'll get 25k Alaska miles. Not nearly as good of a deal.

[1] You might also want to look into booking your flights with Spirit (shitty airline but cheap as fuck for this route) or Southwest with straight cash. It's a cheap, direct route from BWI so it might make more sense to get a credit card to earn hotel points for the stay instead - hotel stays can add up like crazy.

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>>1067461
this
Another fun tidbit of information worth knowing is that there are only a few actual "flight companies" or whatever you want to call them. Think of it like how Sierra Mist, Gatorade, and Lays are all different brands, but Pepsico is their parent company. It;s the same way with flights.

What I mean by that is some points are transferable to other airlines on your CC's website, i.e. Delta to British Air (I'm not sure if that is a real trade you can do, just for the sake of the example). So if you are booking a flight from New York to London, it might be 47,697 points if you book on Delta, but the same flight could be 37,398 points if you book with British Air, so obviously you can get more out of your points by booking with British Air. You can only transfer points in certain increments, and once you transfer that particular amount once you can't transfer them back or to another airline, so check and plan accordingly.

If you have a wife or gf don't go to bali
You will get cucked by a Aussie.
Women can't resist the combination of beer gut and Bintang singlet

>>1067357
Top kek
Also if you want to experience Indonesia just skip Bali. It's way to touristic imo.

>I'm guessing if I find cheaper flights to New York it's cheap to fly within the USA?
not really. we don't really have cheap hop around flights like europe.

>How easy is it to rent a car?
you have to be 25, have an international driver's licence and a credit card

>How much money (on average) does it cost to sleep in a motel per night or it is better to get a tent and stick to camping sites?
depending on the season and location at least $70-120 for a non-murder hotel. LOTS of camping options on that route if you're okay with that, but popular stuff fills up early. like way early-up to 6 months for really popular places. don't expect to get a site in yosemite 2 weeks ahead. but if you look around at state parks and stuff you can often squeeze something in.

>Is 3 weeks enough to take in all the glory of the west coast?
yes. or at least enough for a good highlights tour of the glory.

>What would be the most recommended places to visit?
what do you like? cities? wilderness?
if cities, seattle, portland and sf are all going to have the most character. san diego if you just want to channel your inner jersey shore. wilderness the national parks will be the most crowded, but almost always worth sharing with other people.

>Anything else I need to be aware of before making the plunge?
probably, but not that i can come up with off the top of my head.

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>>1064843
>I've never been to the US before and I'm having doubts if I can afford it, I've saved up about 3k. I know flying can be expensive. I'm guessing if I find cheaper flights to New York it's cheap to fly within the USA?

>How easy is it to rent a car?

>How much money (on average) does it cost to sleep in a motel per night or it is better to get a tent and stick to camping sites?
Anon above me hit the nail on the head. If you're in a coastal city, it'll cost on the upper end of the $70-120.

>Is 3 weeks enough to take in all the glory of the west coast?
You'll see a great deal of it, but there's always ways to spend more time on the glorious US Best Coast. You have the Cascade range in the north end of your trip and the Sierra Nevada on the south end of your trip. Don't count the California border as the end of what you can see.

>What would be the most recommended places to visit?
I know your picture doesn't include Utah, but if you can swing a visit to canyon country do it.

>Anything else I need to be aware of before making the plunge?
You say Seattle to San Diego, but you don't specifically mention desert or rural areas. There is a lot of them on that route and they're all worth checking out.

Pic related - Joshua Tree National Park east of L.A.

>>1064843
>How much money (on average) does it cost to sleep in a motel per night or it is better to get a tent and stick to camping sites?
It's expensive these days. But if you look around long enough you can still find deals. You can find places for around $45 that are decent enough, not great but also no blood stains on the floors either.

Camping sites might be a better option but you'd need to bring your tent.

>Is 3 weeks enough to take in all the glory of the west coast?
It would be enough to see the main sights.

>What would be the most recommended places to visit?
There's lots of places, what exactly are you into?

>Anything else I need to be aware of before making the plunge?
Yes. Don't go Seattle to San Diego. When renting a car, unless you return it to the same location you picked it up from, you'll be paying one-way fees. Basically these are fees companies charge to drive the car back to where it's from. I just looked up car rentals for 3 weeks Seattle to San Diego and you'll be paying around 1000 pounds for those 3 weeks, if you just rent a car in San Diego and return it there you'll only be paying around 350 pounds.

Instead of going along the whole coast I would instead fly to San Diego, rent a car there, go to Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, and down the coast to LA and San Diego area. California is huge, remember this because a lot of European don't realize how big the distances are. If you go down the coast it's 900km from San Fran to San Diego. You don't want to spend 2 out of the 3 weeks in your car.

Depends on the season -- much of the Sierras (including Yosemite) are basically impossible during the winter. Do, when are you planning to go?

>>1064093
Sometime between now and summer, most likely February.. Good to know that though, maybe we will save the sierras for next time.

>>1064095

February is pretty iffy; you'll need chains on your tires to go on a lot of the Sierra roads. With that said, Yosemite (the main area only, i.e. the Valley) will be open, but I'm not sure how much you can do there as there will be a lot of snow. I suppose a few of the day-tourist bus-tour "trails" will have been plowed out, but these are generally a 10-minute-long "hike" only.

I'd stick to the coast all the way up to SF (and beyond, it's pretty nice). You might want to stop in Ano Nuevo SP (a bit north of Santa Cruz); elephant seal breeding season is around then. You can take an escorted tour around and get pretty close to the seals -- very interesting if you're into wildlife.

You have Point Reyes on your list -- definitely worth it if you're into hiking and huge empty beaches. Bring food/drinks with you as there's nothing available in the park. The drives down to the southern end (lighthouse) and northern end (elk herds) are both worth it.

Farther north (hiking again), I'd recommend going to the lost coast. The coastal route north of Eureka and up to the Oregon border is great; lots of little towns and beautiful scenery.

South of SF, there's also San Luis Obispo (college town), the Hearst Castle (tours are hellishly expensive, but if you're into that kind of thing probably worth it), and Monterey. IMHO Monterey is an OK place to stay but not very nice; the aquarium there is worth a visit, though. The 17-mile drive is nearby; if you like looking at a lot of really expensive mansions and some pretty good scenery, it's a good choice.

>anything that is obscure and not mentioned very often on the internet?

Definitely the lighthouse at Point Sur (near Big Sur). It's a complete lighthouse/light station from the late 19th century on top of a huge volcanic rock. Tours are infrequent but really cheap (be sure to check schedules in advance) and 100% worth it if you're into history at all.

Lay over in Dubai or Bangkok. If you're flying from Perth, South Africa to Europe is doable too

>>1067418
Probably should have clarified, I live in Adelaide

But thanks I'll check out those routes

AirAsia to Kuala Lumpur, then either fly to Europe from there or hop to Bangkok first.

Dude, there are TWO TEFL/ESL threads ON THE FRONT PAGE

Cuales son los mejores lugares menos conocidos en Argentina? Fui a España el verano pasado y me encantaban ciudades pequeñas y tranquilas como Tarifa. Obviamente iria a Buenos Aires porque es imposible coger un vuelo a otra ciudad, pero yo no se que mas haria en Argentina.

(Castellano no es mi primer idioma)

>>1066993

you are taking a single trip and you want to get rewards? good luck.

Also, as much as I hate, hate, Norwegian Air their rewards program is actually pretty solid. But then again an awesome rewards program does not make a decent airline.

So unless you always fly one airline, doesn't it just make sense to get cashback?

>>1066825
what country are you from? you can get a visa if you're in the uk

>>1066825
It's worth it. It will be unlikely that you'll find a great job there but you will have a ton of fun. Basically you go for the fun and the fact that you'll be in another country for a year or two and will be able to earn money to support yourself as most people can't afford to travel for extended periods like this.

Any particular reason you want to go to NZ? Australia usually has better job opportunities and more things to do.

>>1066903
>Australia usually has better job opportunities
Really? Are you talking about farm work or normal jobs in the city?

Google.com

You go to an urban area and explore, idiot. Don't use known location if you want to be unique.

>>1067272
You have to have friends with you, I don't recommend doing this alone as many of these places can be dangerous.

For something easy that you can do alone, just walk along a railroad track or a river and see where it takes you. Your bound to find something interesting along the way, like graffiti, litter, or abandoned items.

Blagged a crew position on a yacht from Darwin to Timor Lester. From there I island hopped to Bali, I was going to keep going to Sumatra but I had overstayed my visa,
went to immigration to sort it out ,
copped a fine(expected ),
got banged up until they escorted me to the next plane I could get out of the country (unexpected )

>>1067274
Yeah yeah
I know
*Timor leste

>>1067275
It's OK, Tmor Lester is funnier.

Where are you from? Where have you been? What sort of stuff interests you? etc.

>>1066985
From Canada, only been to in the U.S.A. before, been through 13 states, visited Alaska for a good week or so. I like just about anything, willing to explore.

Eurofag who was recently in a third-world country here.

Go to Asia. No matter what, Europe's a sight-seeing destination, Asia you can have adventures cuz' a lot of it is third-world level and being white and having money is different than being in Europe, where the majority is white and has living money.

Rent a bike and go offriading, crash into some shit, then pay off the cops, have a story. Meet some girls and enjoy being on the desired side, instead of the chaser.

>>1066813
just renew it yearly ffs

>>1066813
Why do you want to immigrate to Africa? Africa is third world.

>>1066814
I want to be able to get a normal job which I can't now because I'm volunteering and not allowed to earn money there. I deejay now and freelance as a graphic designer atm.

One bump, just because I'm still curious about how common this is.

>>1066517
Fat cat bureaucracy at it's best.