Random trip/vacation by myself

[Vigilia]

Oh forgot to mention, in some places like Spain, car rental during off-tourist-peak times is pretty damn cheap because there are a lot of car rental companies to cater for all the tourists during summer months and they still have to make a living rest of the year. My sister did this couple of years ago, went in the spring just before the big rush starts, March or April I think it was and took out a car for two weeks driving herself from Madrid to Barcelona and from there literally around the country staying in hostels and camping at couple of places before flying back from Madrid. Pretty much everywhere in West/North Europe the roads are good and safe if you want to get a car for a few days. If you do I would strongly advice against driving in older cities though (London and any British down that wasn't flattened by the Blitz and rebuilt in the last 50 years, Paris, Rome etc.), they're a nightmare with one-way streets and narrow roads since the grid was set up in the medieval ages for donkey carts. Many of them nowadays have a wonderful thing called "congestion charge" as well or locals have novel concepts on road safety and parking rules. Leave the car outside city, most have very good park&ride car parks with bus/train/metro services.

[Mohoss]

jesus, $10k?...

Go to Europe. Go to Amsterdam. Smoke so much weed for a week.
Then go around the rest of Europe for the other 3 weeks.

[wop]

jesus, $10k?...

Go to Europe. Go to Amsterdam. Smoke so much weed for a week.
Then go around the rest of Europe for the other 3 weeks.

Are you retarded? $10k won't go far if he does not CAREFULLY plan it.
If he flies business class like me, $4-5k would be gone just on flights to UK, not to mention to other destinations and HOTELS.

Can't shop much too. If he's not the shopping kind of person, don't mind staying in 3 star shabby hotels and eat McD every meal, then sure by all means.

To OP, don't listen to this guy. PLAN CAREFULLY according to your budget. London is not cheap.

[Amelya]

I've been to Europe a couple of times and by far my favorite place was Greece, with Italy a close second. I think it takes like 6 weeks to get a passport if you don't have one though.

[aduidarnenye]

If you want to relax, try some yoga in India.

Right out of Eat, Pray, Love.

[Vigilia]

Can't shop much too. If he's not the shopping kind of person, don't mind staying in 3 star shabby hotels and eat McD every meal, then sure by all means.

To OP, don't listen to this guy. PLAN CAREFULLY according to your budget. London is not cheap.

McD's isn't even necessarily the cheapest food you can eat either unless you stick to Happy Meals. Lot of pubs [outside of London, everything in London is more expensive, Wop's not joking] for example do midweek carvery for £5.95, it's basically a couple of slabs of meat with all the extras (vegs, spuds in various shapes/forms, gravies, etc.) you can eat for about a pound more than a burger meal. Local small restaurants/pubs all over do better food for roughly same prices as the big fast food chains. If you go to places like Scandinavia, McD's and other fast food often is even more expensive; a burger alone is close to 5 euros in Finland while an all-you-can-eat pizza place only charges you 6.99 or thereabouts to stuff your face from their salad bar and pizza/pasta selection. Everything to do with the large chains' high delivery costs and the taxes on junk food that can vary a lot within the EU. And if you're really travelling on a budget or start to run out of money there are always ramen noodles everywhere.

[solanis]

no matter where you go, don't buy things to bring back that you could get at home. for example, when I go to Istanbul next week, I'm not going to even look in the windows of any European designer when i could be spending my time on a Turkish one. I like to buy articles of unique clothing on trips, like cashmere in Venice or street fashion in japan. every time you put it on, fond memories come rushing back. plus bitches love international flavor in your wardrobe.

ps. don't fly business unless your company is footing it. even when money is no object, it's just a huge fucking waste. a few hours of truly marginal comfort (I'm almost six feet tall too) won't be worth more than the unrestricted lavishness with food or a private car that money would otherwise buy.

[Boyiee]

Europe is looking good then, probably the highest population of english speaking places as well. If I were to go to florida I would only have stayed with family or used my brothers vacation house I think in/around summerfield(?). I hate driving around florida, the only place I maybe would have went to would have been gainesville.

I'm a little bit of a shopping person, but I wouldn't be doing the trip for shopping and don't want to bring a ton of shit back. I want to drink real, dark beers, and have a good time. Just need to find the right places for my single language. I can't remember the last time I did any drugs or had weed... 5, 6yrs? I'm going to end up dead in a hostel lol, but I'll do my best to make the most of it until then.

An ex girlfriend of mine wanted us to go backpacking through europe for a month or more until she got sick. It's something I've always considered doing but never alone.

Time to start planning. Thanks for the help. A friend of mine got back from greece and egypt recently (before shit hit the fan) and he really sold greece as a place to go.

[wop]

ps. don't fly business unless your company is footing it. even when money is no object, it's just a huge fucking waste. a few hours of truly marginal comfort (I'm almost six feet tall too) won't be worth more than the unrestricted lavishness with food or a private car that money would otherwise buy.

Wrong. Long distance travel, > 7 hours+ it's best to go for business if you can afford it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind going economy for short trips, or even budget airlines. But if I'm flying for 13 hours+ direct say from London to Tokyo, I would like to have a good rest and be refreshed by the time I land.

Don't even bother with going for stopovers too. It's just NOT worth it.
I've learned my lesson 2 years ago.

I flew Qatar Airways business, as it was the cheapest business from London to Thailand. The stopover in Doha, although I could shower there, in business class lounge etc... it's still a fucking waste of time, and I ended up being tired too when I landed as the long journey was being cut into two; thus interrupting my sleep pattern.

Penny wise, pound foolish. Go for direct flights; interconnecting flights even if it's business or first, just doesn't work for me.

[Pyro]

That's the thing, "if you can afford it". 95% of passengers can't afford to pay 3k+ per flight leg.

[wop]

That's the thing, "if you can afford it". 95% of passengers can't afford to pay 3k+ per flight leg.

ps. don't fly business unless your company is footing it. even when money is no object

Learn to read.

[Vigilia]

Just need to find the right places for my single language.

Really wouldn't stress about the language thing at all, pretty much everyone under the age of 60 in Scandinavia/Germany/Netherlands and few other countries has done years of English in school. France and the Med are a bit more hit and miss but most there would had done it too and in tourist places you're guaranteed to find someone to help you out. Even my English in-laws manage their summer hols in France and did a road trip last summer to Finland via Denmark/Sweden without problems and they're incapable of communicating in any other way than Queen's English. It's the universal language everyone gets by with.

[solanis]

Wrong. Long distance travel, > 7 hours+ it's best to go for business if you can afford it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind going economy for short trips, or even budget airlines. But if I'm flying for 13 hours+ direct say from London to Tokyo, I would like to have a good rest and be refreshed by the time I land.

Don't even bother with going for stopovers too. It's just NOT worth it.
I've learned my lesson 2 years ago.

I flew Qatar Airways business, as it was the cheapest business from London to Thailand. The stopover in Doha, although I could shower there, in business class lounge etc... it's still a fucking waste of time, and I ended up being tired too when I landed as the long journey was being cut into two; thus interrupting my sleep pattern.

Penny wise, pound foolish. Go for direct flights; interconnecting flights even if it's business or first, just doesn't work for me.

I agree with the direct flights. I don't think I've had a stopover since I went to boarding school in Montana, but I'm spoiled by flying out of NYC. my memories of sitting for hours in the SLC airport (which is gorg btw) aren't very fond.

that being said, on international flights the comfort in economy isn't bad in the slightest. this is coming from pretty extensive experience flying to and from a lot of the globe. I've never found myself wishing I spent an extra 300% so I could eat an equally terrible meal, drink sub-par alcohol, or lean back in my chair. there's a difference between luxury, and worthy luxury. having money doesn't meant that you should spend it on any status item you set eyes on. but if it's terribly important to you, by all means.

[Ksandra]

I did a direct flight from JFK to london like 8 years ago, and went economy class. Wasn't that serious. Those planes tend to be equipped for long flights so it was pretty nice. Might be better to just go with a nice airline and get economy vs. trying to find the cheapest business.

tbh, I'd rather save on the flight so you have more to spend on the actual trip, then worrying about the comfort. And it wasn't that much different imo (I've done business class before). Really economy class for international flights are pretty nice to begin with.

[saracrow]

I realize you are probably looking to go soon, and I would not recommend this vacation until summer (weather related) but here is something i would like to recommend. Head over to Washington State. Now I'm not a big fan of large cities and honestly, traffic in Seattle is enough to make me cry... But I would recommend spending a few days out in the San Juan Islands. These are non-tropical islands in some of the most beautiful country you can find. Rent a boat if you can, float around the Puget Sound. South of the San Juans is the Olympic National Forest, it's the largest rain forest in North America. Continue beyond that to the west coast of the state and find a town called La Push. The beaches of La Push have huge haystack rock formations that are just amazing to look at.

Also you can take a day trip to Mount Rainier. (FYI, for the last two years on the first day of summer I've had snowball fights on Mt. Rainier while wearing tee-shirts) And for a complete 180 to Western Washington, cross over the Snoqualmie pass and you've gone from the lush green forests of the state over to the desert. The John Wayne Trail is an amazing bike ride / hiking opportunity.

Also something I would also recommend... August 13th, is the night of the Perseids meteor shower. My husband and I drove out to the desert last year and camped out under the stars to watch it. The night sky is absolutely amazing when you take away all the light pollution from cities. I think it will be a full moon this year which may take away from that shower though, but still an amazing thing to enjoy.

At any rate, if you find the opportunity to be away from the lights of the cities, regardless of where you go the next meteor shower is the Lyrids on April 21st. These natural events are just amazing to watch imo.

Enough rambling here, have a fun vacation!

[Boyiee]

It's funny you mention washington because that was one of my choices if I were to stay in the US. That kind of trip though, would be all about the hiking, scenery, mountain climbing etc as possible; so I'd want to have someone with me and to bring our nicer cameras.

I'm mostly looking for a culture change, to feel out of place, and really just get far away. It's easier for me to do this kind of thing alone as well.

As far as flights - I've only ever flown non-business and that was maybe 10yrs ago, so I don't need much. I'd be departing from either newark or jfk probably and I couldn't do anything but non-stop.

[Thoronas]

If you travel to Europe don't limit yourself to places that speak English. I went backpacking years back across Germany, Italy, France and Spain and don't speak any of the languages. I managed to get by and had a blast. Barcelona was an amazing city, some of the architecture has to be seen to be believed, thought I was having an acid flashback.

Hostels are definitely the way to go. Meet great people, party and sleep with them and then move to the next city.

[wop]

Solanis, I bring you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller's_thrombosis

Deep Vein Thrombosis aka Economy class syndrome no thx.

It's not about luxury. I value my life a lot, come on, we only live once; hence my sig

[Oxyminus]

I still can't get over having 10K+ to spend on a trip. I just did 5 weeks in Ecuador and Peru, and even with hitting up their respective tourist draws in The Galapagos and Machu Picchu, I spent around 4-5k total. It's beautiful down there, and there's a lot of good mountainous/hiking/nature spots. But if you're going on your own, and this is your first trip like this, I'll second what everyone else says and stick to Europe. Being that far away from home and needing to guess your way through a conversation in another language can be a pretty overwhelming experience. Hell, I'm trying to get to Europe myself over the summer!

[Skeeto]

Come to South Florida.

These Hispanic women know how to booty pop.