2024 Travel Plans

[audreyh1]

I can’t even imagine my DW packing for a trip like that! Sounds amazing. Let me know when you will be giving “packing for long trips” class!

Not me. There are folks here who do carry-on only and still travel for months. I just take enough for 2-3 weeks and expect to use laundromats. We don’t take any dressy clothes.

 

[audreyh1]

Fun!

I did the opposite direction from Copenhagen to Prague with DD two years ago. We stopped at the same places, except for Dresden/Leipzig since we didn’t have time. Also by train, which is my preferred way to travel.

Dresden - visiting the Meissen Porcelain factory about an hour away was one main reason.
Leipzig - mainly to visit the Bach sites.

I notice Rick Steves includes both Dresden and Leipzig on his Germany tour so there is obviously more there.

 

[Lsbcal]

I sometimes read the RS Tour itinerary details to get some ideas for our route. Also the RS Forum for different countries can be really helpful.

 

[grasshopper]

February: Loveland, Grand Junction, Colorado. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 3 week-long airbnbs. Exploring and ruling in/out possible places for eventual relocation. Staying in condos to get a feel for what that would be like also.


March: Bisbee, AZ area. A repeat Airbnb but a longer stay for the whole month. Lots of hiking planned in southern Arizona.

Chiricahua National Monument, may be a National Park by than check it out.

 

[treeofpain]

10 night cruise to the Southern Caribbean in the spring.

 

[Mountain Climber]

Norwegian Cruise Sydney to Auckland 12 days January 2024.

Treasure Island FL in May with DS, DDIL, and 3 grandkids.

Paris, Normandy, and Brittany with DBIL, DSIL, and others in September.

Also hoping to add 2 mountain climbing trips in Colorado in July and August (while I still can!)

 

[Retired Expat]

Will start with a 2 week Antártica cruise in February…March to Brazil to baby sit the grandson for a week. April/May head to our vacation house in New England. While there grab a flight to Paris to visit the Loire valley and some museums in Paris. Home for June-August and Sept/October likely back to our vacation home which fortunately pays for itself as an AirBnB when we aren’t there. Hopefully take a 2 week New England tour by car with our daughter and her husband.

Going to stay busy with the gym and Pilates classes when home but trying to get more traveling in while we still can. Being based in South America means our cost of living is low enough to allow for lots of travel. If however the location is not really convenient for travel!

 

[Lsbcal]

Wow, people here are really going everywhere. I'm impressed.

 

[RetireEarly50s]

Just got back from a road trip of the Big Sur/PCH area in our campervan.

February- Laughlin & Palm Springs
March- Doing a road trip to the Bourbon trail
May- Montana/Wyoming
June- Santa Fe

Many other small trips in between but that’s the first half of the year, will start working on second half of the year in the spring, having a campervan and working remotely makes the planning pretty easy.

 

[Jenna]

Spain-just got back from a 3 week trip. So amazing. Have you done Portugal yet?

 

[rodi]

This.

Leaving in a few weeks for a 4 week trip that includes Singapore, Cambodia, and Thailand.

March has us camping at Pinnacles NP.

Early stages of planning for a 2+ month trip in the fall to Florence for language school and livello B1 exam towards my dual citizenship goal.

Added an april trip to Saguero NP. Camping in the scooby van. I guess this could have gone in the road trip or the national park threads.

 

[brett]

Spain-just got back from a 3 week trip. So amazing. Have you done Portugal yet?

We have been to Portugal several times. Last time we were on Madeira for a week and then on the mainland for three weeks.

It is one of our favorites. People are so friendly. Still lots to see. Hoping to stop in Azores for a week or so on our next trip...whenever it happens to be.

 

[Scrapr]

Planning a longer trip to Tuscany in Sept-Oct. Normally there would be a Paris or France visit tacked on but the Olympics & ParaOlympics are going on this summer. Watching flights right now. My preferred flight out of PDX just jumped 25%. Ouch. I was hoping it would drop. Ohhh well...BTD. One thing we are changing this time is to not use connections to be more rested & in the moment. Typical trip would be PDX-AMS-MXP. About a 15-17 hour slog. So instead we are going to stay a few days in Amsterdam & then travel on to Milan. Same on the way back. It about 10 hours PDX-AMS & flying Business so get a little sleep.

San Diego trip in February ...because Oregon is dreary in the Winter. Possibly a DFW trip a little later for a college baseball tournament.

 

[Lsbcal]

Planning a longer trip to Tuscany in Sept-Oct. Normally there would be a Paris or France visit tacked on but the Olympics & ParaOlympics are going on this summer. Watching flights right now. My preferred flight out of PDX just jumped 25%. Ouch. I was hoping it would drop. Ohhh well...BTD. One thing we are changing this time is to not use connections to be more rested & in the moment. Typical trip would be PDX-AMS-MXP. About a 15-17 hour slog. So instead we are going to stay a few days in Amsterdam & then travel on to Milan. Same on the way back. It about 10 hours PDX-AMS & flying Business so get a little sleep.

San Diego trip in February ...because Oregon is dreary in the Winter. Possibly a DFW trip a little later for a college baseball tournament.

Staying at your first stop for awhile is our choice too. For us the 10.5 hr 1st leg is the last leg. We are flying SAS to Copenhagen and staying there 5 days before heading down to Milan.

You probably know about Google Flight tracking. I was using it to track a few flight choices. One sees the flight pop up one day and then a few days later it's on sale. Tricky computer algorithms. For flexible flight day choices there is a matrix you can bring up on Google Flight.

 

[Scrapr]

Staying at your first stop for awhile is our choice too. For us the 10.5 hr 1st leg is the last leg. We are flying SAS to Copenhagen and staying there 5 days before heading down to Milan.

You probably know about Google Flight tracking. I was using it to track a few flight choices. One sees the flight pop up one day and then a few days later it's on sale. Tricky computer algorithms. For flexible flight day choices there is a matrix you can bring up on Google Flight.

Yes I have about 10-12 flights saved in Google flights. One of them is SAS through CPH to Amsterdam. It's about 14 hours so not great. But it is the cheapest! And we like SAS. There is a Jet Blue flight out of SEA that is in the range of possibility. We could grab a commuter Alaska flight (eeekkk!?) to SEA in the morning.Staying in the connection city is a game changer for me. It allows us to see more places & not be so tired for a day or 3

What are your plans in Tuscany? We have a good friend in the Dragon boat world championships in Raveena that we are going to hit. Then 10-14 days in a couple of agriturismos. We are thinking about leaving like 5 days open so that we can just decide on the go.

 

[Lsbcal]

In Tuscany we will go to Cinque Terra (from Varenna) which we have not done before. That's for about 3 days. Hoping to do a hike or 2.

Then on to Florence for 5 days. Will visit Lucca from there,. Have been to Sienna which is very nice. We just use trains and maybe a bus or two so somewhat limited in our mobility. Driving would make me too nervous I think, and it's suppose to be a pleasure trip:

 

[Scrapr]

I'm a bit cautious about booking too many cities. I was looking at Vareena the other night. It looked nice & pretty too. We are going to book a car...hey..we got a car in Ireland! Couldn't be worse? I was not the driver but we had to stop a couple times to get me settled. Freeways & small towns were fine. The back streets & back roads were unnerving to me. We were in Sienna last year and I fell in love right there. Why we are returning

Your comment about the date grid made me look again. There is one flight combination that is right in our sweet spot. I'll wait for my wife to get home & if given approval I'm booking it. Thanks!

 

[Lsbcal]

Most of our bookings have reasonable cancel policies and we use a VIsa card that would take care of illness issues. We booked at Hotel du Lac in Varenna which is right on the lake and near the ferry. We stayed here before in 2019 and really enjoyed it. You can ferry to other Lake Como towns like Bellagio. There are a few walking and hiking places. See AllTrails for some of this.

 

[tulak]

We drove from Rome to Florence, stopping at Montepulciano and Sienna along the way, and it wasn't bad. I don't worry much about driving in Europe, but I understand sticking with trains/public transport. I did that for our last (short) trip to Spain and it was nice to not think about driving. Plus, no worries about having a glass of wine with lunch!

Tuscany is worth the drive though, since there are some places that would be hard to get to without a car. But be wary of Florence. I got a ticket from them months later for a traffic violation (driving in a restricted zone).

For Sienna, there's a parking lot close to the escalators that lead you up to the old part of town. We parked there overnight without any problems. We had instructions from our Airbnb on which car lot to use, but it's always good to do some preplanning of where to park, etc, when driving to make it easier. I'd also recommend creating your own guide in Apple/Google Maps for reference when you're traveling. It makes it a lot easier to get directions.

 

[CO-guy]

My better-half is going to Lisbon in April and Paris in May. Both trips are for business, but she'll have some days to explore on her own and visit with friends. Then we head to the Caribbean for a few week in June/July.

Is anyone else already making their 2025 plans? We have a few weeks in Japan planned for Feb'25 and a month in Italy June/July'25.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We spent 10 days in Sienna and rented a car. So every day we drove to a different town but it was nice to not have to change hotels. We also spent another 4 days in Florence. Of all the times I had been to Europe this was my favorite trip.

 

[Luvdogs]

Going to Japan for two weeks in March with my two 30/31 kids.
DD was just there in December and we all went there in 2019.
Having fun doing the planning, it's part of the trip! And playing the points game, we're getting five nights on points and will inch me toward the next level on Hyatt (just at the first level so far).

 

[oiseux]

Love the thread to see all the ideas. We haven't done any planning as we are trying to nail down freedom from w*ork days and a dog nearing the end of his expected lifespan. We tentatively have plans to return to France in late June and/or late August, tacked on with another trip to another destination in that part of the world. Potential locations include Corsica, Sardinia, Croatia, Crete, Norway. Later in the year, will decide on an Asian location.

On Italy driving, I find it very easy in the areas north of Roma except in the big cities.

 

[Scrapr]

Your comment about the date grid made me look again. There is one flight combination that is right in our sweet spot. I'll wait for my wife to get home & if given approval I'm booking it. Thanks!

We booked the flights the other night & boy am I glad we did. Fares went up $3k the next morning with other dates up $6k over our fares. Whew

 

[explanade]

In Tuscany we will go to Cinque Terra (from Varenna) which we have not done before. That's for about 3 days. Hoping to do a hike or 2.

Then on to Florence for 5 days. Will visit Lucca from there,. Have been to Sienna which is very nice. We just use trains and maybe a bus or two so somewhat limited in our mobility. Driving would make me too nervous I think, and it's suppose to be a pleasure trip:

Cinque Terre — Five Lands — is in Liguria, not Tuscany. They do offer day trips out of Florence but not ideal.

Varenna — Lake Como — is quite a bit away from Cinque Terre. There’s a train station there but I would think you’d need to do a lot of train changes.

Depending on where you’re staying in Cinque Terre, you might consider splurging for ferries instead of the train, which get full often in the summer.

The hikes in the CT are steep. There is the Lovers Lane hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola but that’s been closed almost 10 years due to mudslides.

That hike was the easiest, flat and very scenic, along the coast.