What's your travel "style"?? friendly questionnaire

[audreyh1]

For those that travel to countries and don't speak or understand the local language how do you find this fun and exciting?
I dealt with tons of people in my prior j*bs that didn't speak english and I don't speak any foreign language I found it to be stress inducing. So why would I wan't a stressful vacation? Because of this I limit my travels to where english is the primary language.

Somehow we've managed very well in German and Austria even though we can't do much more than order a beer, count to five, and say please and thank you in German. Major tourist areas there are a lot of German speakers.

My French is expanding and I used it more on this past trip.

My Spanish is pretty good.

Italian - limited, but better than my German!

 

[bclover]

You should take a stab at staying somewhere else.

 

[HFWR]

You should take a stab at staying somewhere else.

Mother wouldn't like that...

 

[HFWR]

HIX is a five star hotel by my standards. I usually stay at small locally owned hotels like the Broken Tumbleweed Motel or the Leaks-A-Lot Inn.



Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

Been there, done that. Getting soft in my dotage!

 

[pullmyfinger]

We are in the process of adjusting our travel style. While I had sick cats I didn't spend a night away from my house for 10 years! We have now taken 4 trips to Europe in the past 2 years which were 2 weeks each. We have another 2 weeks in Germany booked for next spring.

Because we are in our late 40's and feel like we are not wealthy we have taken very budget minded trips. Budget is probably a generous word, more like downright cheap. Economy class airfare with miles when possible, staying at Ibis hotels - which I am happy with, using regional train deals in Germany, buying most meals from grocery stores - not always happy with this, etc. A few of our flights have been rather painful, flying way out of our way to get good deals on airfare, only to be totally exhausted when we get home. I have never been able to sleep on a plane, but DH can. After this last trip I told DH that I really can't do 24hrs of travel to get home from Europe with the long flights and layovers. He can still look for deals but they have to be either direct, or with one layover along the way that makes sense, such as stopping at JFK.

I would like to explore taking some road trips in North America.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I think that the only thing that I can say about my traveling is that I don't like to be places where other people fuss over me. An example for you golfers out there - I LOVED Bandon Dunes, but really didn't like Whistling Straits/Kohler. At Bandon they are perfectly willing to leave you alone and let you play golf - at Kohler there is ALWAYS someone doing something for you, whether you want them to or not.

This is true for me as well- I prefer not to stay in super ritzy places as someone always seems to be HOVERING... I like to soak up the local culture- so we never stay in all-inclusives. We prefer boutique hotels- as long as its clean, I'm pretty adaptable. Also I am cheap- prefer to stay longer or do more things than spend extra dollars on luxury hotels and first class flights.

I like learning languages- I speak French, some Spanish and a little Italian- I find it makes a trip more fun to be able to speak the language, but it certainly wouldn't stop me from going if I didn't. We are planning to take the kids scalloping in Steinhatchee Florida next summer- are vaguely planning a trip to Disney (Ugh), and DC and a road trip up the east coast to Acadia National Park are on our list- also Ireland but not sure when. We LOVE national parks.

I am looking forward to spending more time at each location and not having to hurry to see everything- though my husband is not as much a traveler and is worried about how long I will want to stay gone when work constraints are gone.

 

[Sunset]

We are in the process of adjusting our travel style. While I had sick cats I didn't spend a night away from my house for 10 years! We have now taken 4 trips to Europe in the past 2 years which were 2 weeks each. We have another 2 weeks in Germany booked for next spring.

Because we are in our late 40's and feel like we are not wealthy we have taken very budget minded trips. Budget is probably a generous word, more like downright cheap. Economy class airfare with miles when possible, staying at Ibis hotels - which I am happy with, using regional train deals in Germany, buying most meals from grocery stores - not always happy with this, etc. A few of our flights have been rather painful, flying way out of our way to get good deals on airfare, only to be totally exhausted when we get home. I have never been able to sleep on a plane, but DH can. After this last trip I told DH that I really can't do 24hrs of travel to get home from Europe with the long flights and layovers. He can still look for deals but they have to be either direct, or with one layover along the way that makes sense, such as stopping at JFK.

I would like to explore taking some road trips in North America.

Due to another poster mentioning the QE2, I looked up fares, and sometimes you can get a NY to UK QE2 for $549 pp. It takes 8 days, but the food is free.
Unfortunately one would have to stay in Europe/UK for ~21 days to catch a return QE2 trip, otherwise it's a flight.

 

[fasteddie911]

Wife and I are still young, no kids, have been to Europe a couple times and domestic traveled quite a bit. Some of my peers treat travel as a fad, doing random locations or "adventure" tours just to say they've done it, kind of keeping up with the jones' feel to it. Not our cup of tea, not interested in spending time and money doing something we're not legitimately interested in, even though people talk it up. We have a relatively short list of places we want to visit, typically due to historic (europe) or scenic interest (national parks), and a few places in Asia due to our ancestry. We like to stay in well-rated middle to upper-middle hotels/inns, we make enough money now and have had enough bad experiences in cheap places, sometimes splurging on fancier hotels for my wife, which I can't fully disagree with as it is vacation and it doesn't hurt to feel pampered and luxurious once in awhile. We did airb&b once and probably won't do it again, just didn't have a good experience.

We're fairly quick travelers, we don't linger much and aren't museum people, I would consider ourselves sightseers. We like to see the sights, walk around a lot and eat food, I get bored/antsy if we spend too much time in one place (unless we're there for a specific reason). 3 days in Rome was just right for us, which some people would scoff at, but I can't see gaining anything more by staying longer in the city itself. Having lived in a tourist destination, I disagree when people tell me to stay longer at a location to live/feel like a local. IMO, you actually have to live there to know what it truly is like to be a local.

 

[DrRoy]

For those that travel to countries and don't speak or understand the local language how do you find this fun and exciting?
I dealt with tons of people in my prior j*bs that didn't speak english and I don't speak any foreign language I found it to be stress inducing. So why would I wan't a stressful vacation? Because of this I limit my travels to where english is the primary language.

In Norway virtually everyone spoke English.

 

[travelover]

In Norway virtually everyone spoke English.

I ran into the same thing in Scotland.

 

[Nemo2]

In Norway virtually everyone spoke English.

I ran into the same thing in Scotland.

How could you tell?

 

[braumeister]

I ran into the same thing in Scotland.

Try Yorkshire some time. The only place in the UK I've ever been totally unable to understand people.

 

[kcowan]

Having lived in a tourist destination, I disagree when people tell me to stay longer at a location to live/feel like a local. IMO, you actually have to live there to know what it truly is like to be a local.

We are slow travellers. We like to go back to Nice and rent a 2BR condo near the main market. With our good friends, we go to buy food for the day and cook it at "home". We check the local calendar for special events to go and see. That is our idea of a splendid vacation.

 

[fasteddie911]

We are slow travellers. We like to go back to Nice and rent a 2BR condo near the main market. With our good friends, we go to buy food for the day and cook it at "home". We check the local calendar for special events to go and see. That is our idea of a splendid vacation.

If you're renting I already might consider you a local! Unfortunately I'm still working and can't afford the time to travel slowly, a simple visit has to suffice. Would love to one day slow travel like that through France or Italy.