I have some time during September to travel (maybe a week), and

>>1286999
Yeah I had this crazy algorithm that I use everytime I am plannig a trip, pay attention.

I see a place I would like to go to, then I go to it. I look at photos and youtube videos of the place, then I book a plane ticket and go.

>>1287033
>I see a place I would like to go to
But you decide you want to go there based on some criteria, Anon, otherwise your decision on where to go is arbitrary. I want to know how you make that decision - what makes you want to go someplace in the first place?

>>1287033
>I see a place I would like to go to, then I go to it. I look at photos and youtube videos of the place, then I book a plane ticket and go.
This is pretty much true, OP.

Honestly, don't overthink it. I would like to think you have some kind of bucket list of things that might interest you nearly everywhere. For instance, that time you took world history in school, and you oohd at the dawn of civilation, or Constantinople, or the roman empire ruins in...oh say Israel. Or maybe you are a geology nut and would find Iceland cool, or maybe you were a medieval kind of person and would enjoy intact villages. Literary person? Shakespeare, the sagas, the pub crawling stompin grounds of various authors of a country, from tangiers to paris. Maybe you are younger than me, and you find your inspiration from modern art, architecture or popular media like musicians, or you have key paintings you want to see at museums from Vienna to London.

Take your 3-4 ideas, and know that September is a great time to get some shoulder season deals, and maybe run the prices on airfare/hotel/cars for more than one place and realize, woah, theyre giving away iceland that week. Then decide if you're going to do a rental car drive vacation, or expect to stay in a city the whole time in public transport and narrow it down.. Once you pick the place, get "studying" on the highlights you'll see and why they are cool. I always read up a bit of history or even watch a movie that used it as a setting.

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>>1287041
I see a picture and think, "that place looks beautiful/fun/historical/unique" and I go. You are severly overthinking this whole thing. Like I just got back from Colmar, France, i saw all the half timbered houses and learned about the French and German culture in Alsace, then I booked a plane ticket and went. Loved every second of it, pic related, it's sideways because phonefag, but it is a good pic

>>1287047
I don't mean to sound ungrateful for your post, but none of those things interest me - it's not that I don't know about history, but it doesn't excite me enough to warrant going around an old town and take pictures of the WWII blitz-burnt houses, or spend hours in a museum looking at Greek marble sculptures and classic oil paintings, or go to a graveyard where a famous figure was buried and go, "huh, this is where he's buried, yup, still dead".

I'm the first to admit I'm a boring person that doesn't get easily moved by history and art, but I'm also not hedonistic enough to make drug/prostitution/gambling my main goal. People like you >>1287033 >>1287047 >>1287122 can literally book a flight to a random location that leaves tomorrow morning, land and just go with the flow and enjoy yourselves doing whatever. I can't; I'm a boring stuck-up fart who needs to plan his vacation in advance. Part of my nature.

What would you do if you were me, then - how would you decide on a location?

>>1287149
>>1286999
I can relate a lot to you OP, I'm pretty similar.

I have two weeks of holidays in about one month. I started browsing this board about two weeks ago because I have no idea where to go. There's a nice poem by Gottfried Benn about travel being overrated (http://home.bn-ulm.de/~ulschrey/literatur/benn/benn_reisen.html, it's german).

But the monotony here is also killing me and I can't sit alone in my flat for two weeks. I feel I need to go somewhere and if only to attest that I'm normal. Also to have something to talk about, although I hate travel bragging.

So far I thought about going to Vietnam and doing a motorcycle tour although I've never driven a motorcycle. Someone here said it's Thailand's Mexico, that sounds appealing.

As for the algorithm, it's more that you start searching and thinking and excluding lots of stuff, I also look at google street view and google images and look at recommended activities at tripadvisor, then I also ask friends and colleagues but they seem more enchanted by sensations and experiences, I'm more interested in books and skill-based activities. All of that's not been too reassuring so far.

>>1287170
>I can't sit alone in my flat for two weeks
I can. But I really shouldn't, so I'm doing what you're about to do for very much the same reasons! I haven't taken such a long vacation in a long time and I wouldn't want to look back at it and feel like I didn't do enough to make the most out of it. Didn't think about street view, that's a good idea to prepare for the trip.

Are you from Germany? Austria? If so would you recommend traveling there? Can I live in your house?

>>1287177
That's pretty adventurous for how you described your personality in previous posts.

I'm from Western Austria, lots of mountains here if that's your thing. Don't know whether I would recommend it but we have the world's best something something premium tourism going from what some friends that work in tourism tell me.

I do have a spare room but I'd be wary to accept someone from this site into my house and in particular would not I think technically be able to know whether it's the OP that would reply to any burner email.

So tell me about yourself. What do you do, where do you come from?

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>>1287181
I would not really stay at your house, that was a joke, you see - I love my privacy and I feel uncomfortable owing so much to a complete stranger, and I can never express my gratitude like I want, it's why I could never couch-surf; instead, I will get a hotel nearby and just come around once a day to eat your snacks and drink your alcohol, then leave. We can agree on where you'd leave the key so you don't have to open the door for me, it would be like a ghost finished your finest whiskey and oreo packs when you weren't looking. I nonetheless appreciate the hesitant offer, it shows great spirit! Not a lot of self-preservation, though.

In all seriousness, Austria sounds just as much of a tourist attraction to me as anywhere else, at the moment, since I know so little about it and have no preference. Nature is nice, I like a good view and that something something tourism thing is intriguing, but I still don't know anything about it except that the Austrian accent can be made fun of by Germans. What's there to do in Austria? If someone had to sum up in a 3-to-5 bullet point presentation, what would be the main tourist attractions?

As for myself, I'm programmer from Israel; I would say
"1) The dead sea
2) Old Jerusalem
3) Tel-Aviv night life
4) Bronze-age archeology
5) Get stabbed by an angry Palestinian"

>>1287181
>>1287188
Actually, that's a terrible terrible thing to look for in a location I think, a bullet-point list of objective. Fuck that, what do YOU like to do in west Austria?

OP you need to go to the south american rainforest find a shaman and take Ayahuasca brew to find out who you really are and what you enjoy cause it sounds like you got no idea. Also that would give you an interesting trip. Actually go to Machu Picchu cause you can do the ayahuasca near there and it would be a really cool place to visit.

>>1287188
Nice list. I hope those are truly Off The Beaten Path and not just what you would feed just any tourist.

For my region I'd say that the one thing you should come for is if you like skiing, hiking, rock climbing. All the other stuff is just taking money from Japanese tourists such as

1. A golden roof in the capital of the Tyrol.
2. A museum with bronze statues in it.
3. A diamond exposition of world-famous Swarovski diamonds.
4. A zoo with alpine animals in it that you can get to in a futuristic vertical railway.
5. A theme park themed after a famous mummy ("Oetzidorf").
6. A ski-jump that is part of some famous 4-part ski jump circle or something.
7. Traditional Tyrolean music performed by people dressed like traditional Tyroleans, appearing like a family.

So yeah mostly it's skiing for middle-aged families.

Also I like your response. The joke's not that funny but that's congruent, the bit about not wanting to have to be grateful and about self-preservation is right on it.

Also I have to go to sleep, good night Mr. Israeli programmer.

>>1287190
Just go backpacking through southeast asia and leave people that have a career alone.

>>1287149
Fuck mate why didn't you just say so, there are tons of threads related to what you want

But still do try to see wonders of places, it's nice to know you've did it, like seeing how big the basilica really is, getting fucked up with russians, or eating your way through the south US, to me it's all about finding the good shit and pleasure that life has to offer

>>1287149
But know that I do not enjoy all of my travels, i hate a lot of aspects about it, like flights, rude fuckers, bad food, being scared and loneliness, but traveling for me is little moments like >>1287210
Like I got invited into a home in switzerland during christmas and I celebrated with them, that was some of the coolest shit i have done to date. But I always aspire to do better and crazier things like https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D9TNjT_h70E, so i keep on traveling to get better stories and have cool times, so you aren't alone, not every part of traveling is fucking great, most of it sucks

>>1287204
All of those things you listed, apart from maybe the music, sound completely boring to me, and I thank you for summing it up so succinctly. I have never done ski before, so I will look into that as an option. If I ever come to Austria we may meet at a bar, if you see a lonely Israeli murmuring to himself about how no Austrian girl wants to have drinks with him come and say hello, I will buy you a beer. Good night!

>>1287210
>why didn't you just say so
Why didn't I say what?
>getting fucked up with russians
I have Russian relatives, that's a usual family get-together for me.
OK, let's say you have the money to go anywhere, and you don't have a planned destination; what do you do next?

>>1287217
>I got invited into a home in switzerland during christmas and I celebrated with them
Did you know these people? Were they relatives? I would feel so fucking uncomfortable. Maybe I'm not a warm enough person to take part in a stranger's holiday.

>>1287218
Unlimited money with any destination would be vegas for sure.

Also no, I was talking with the dude in the bar on christmas eve during the day after skiing, and I was telling him that it was my first christmas away from home, and he invited me, it was a couple families doing it together so it wasn't too bad, but I loved every second and it was so cool to see it in action, but I am a social person due to years of being a server/bartender

>>1287243
>Unlimited money with any destination would be vegas
That's not what I meant - I mean, if the price of the flight, hotel and transportation wasn't a limiting factor. Where would it be?