# Places to travel?



## trewq (Aug 27, 2014)

Hey everyone,


So I have a month off work at the start of February and I want to go travelling.


London, New York and France are on my list of places I want to go currently but I should be able to fit a couple more in.


Looking at North America and Europe regions.


Any places you have been that you enjoyed? Think your home country is spectacular? I want to know.


Wouldn't mind doing a data centre tour either 


Thanks!


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## AThomasHowe (Aug 27, 2014)

Amsterdam was fun but to be honest if beer, weed, tulips or the Anne Frank museum isn't your thing I bet that the rest of Holland/The Netherlands is pretty nice too. The people there were very nice.

I live in Wales (a little country in the UK on the side of England) which isn't the nicest place to live but I know we get quite a lot of German tourists in bits. It's a lot like England but there is a lot more countryside everywhere. The nature here is very nice. You could hop on a train from London too (we're connected by a land border, I don't think you'd have any trouble either travelling). Oh, and hows the biggest data centre in the EU for ya? 

Some other places I'd like to visit are Prague, Venice (and Italy in general), I've heard Estonia is a pretty cool low cost holiday, I wouldn't mind going back to the sun (haven't been anywhere like that in years) - maybe not in February but there's lots of places in and around Spain that fit the bill. There's also a Universal Studios (PortAdventura) in Spain, haven't heard great things about it though.

Loads of places I'd like to visit in South Asia too but I don't think you want to go that far! I would have loved to visit some places like Afghanistan and Nepal when they were more peaceful. Egypt too.


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## Jade (Aug 27, 2014)

+1 to Italy. Would love to travel and vacation there.


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## HalfEatenPie (Aug 27, 2014)

Oh man....

I just came back from a two-month work+travel+fun adventure back in the States.  What can I say???

Austin, Texas is absolutely fantastic.  No major Datacenters there but a ton of fun stuff to do!  There's Kayaking and Paddleboating down the river, there's the awesome BBQ place a good friend of mine took me to, there's hiking, etc....  It's an absolute blast.  I also met up with @ryanarp, @jarland, and the guys from Incero while I was there!  Definitely worth the time if you're into all the outdoors stuff!  

New York City, New York is fun while it lasts, but it's incredibly expensive (at least for me...).  1.75 L of whiskey was 90 USD while in New Jersey (short ride on the bus) was around 40 USD.  Minimum beer costs was around 5 dollars a beer (although averaged to 9 dollars a beer if you include the decent ones that don't taste like cat-pee), and mixed drinks frequently being a minimum cost of 15 USD.  The nightlife is absolutely insane and so much fun, I'd definitely recommend it just for the parties (rooftop bars are expensive as hell but *so awesome during the night*, like we're talking 300/400 dollars in an hour).  As far as non-alcoholic tourism goes, it has great places to visit in addition to the Freedom Tower now.  Honestly I've been to NYC so frequently that I've stopped really caring about the tourism aspect of the city, but I always visit Time Square while I'm there.  It's lost its luster but it's always fun to look at the big screens and... *topless women with body paint*!  Booyah! 

Washington DC, USA is actually really awesome for tourism.  Being a guy from academia, I could spend weeks at the Smithsonian Museums there (which most of them are free!!!).  Their space exhibit is absolutely amazing and really shows the achievements of mankind.   I'm not a big "check out the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial!" guy, but the White House is always an awesome building to see.... from far away (since heightened security)...  

Just... oh man... the States.


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## Schultz (Aug 27, 2014)

Italy, U.K, Netherlands (Amsterdam) & make sure to visit Serbia & Bosnia, amazing anicent things to see, if you're heading to the U.S aswell, make sure to check out California, Hollywood & New York. 

Also suggest you make a trip out to Thailand, amazing country


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## MannDude (Aug 27, 2014)

Just stay away from cruise ship destinations. If you're a clear tourist, people will think you just got off a random boat and are only there for a few hours so they'll treat you as such. (Try to sell you stuff aggressively, may make you a target of crime with the assumption you have to leave the location soon and won't report it, etc).

If you're going to Amsterdam for the reasons @AThomasHowe mentioned... just come to the USA and go to Colorado... Has all the stuff you want plus has mountains and beautiful scenery... Can go skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, or whatever floats your boat... because there is also rivers with rapids! Colorado rocks!

But the real question is, what do you want to do? My idea of a vacation and yours may differ. I want tune out. I want to relax. I want to sit on a beach and stare into nothingness as I sip rum from a coconut without a worry in the world. I want to see old ruins of yesteryear and see someplace scenic. I want to go camping and be without internet so I can relax. Cities don't really interest me all that much.

With that said, in the USA, places of notable interest would be of course: The Grand Canyon, Colorado Rockies, Smokey Mountain National Park (In Tennessee), I love the desert... so, the American south west is amazing. Go book a room in Vegas, party on the strip, rent a car and hit up the Valley of Fire national park, drive across the Hoover Dam and have some fun.

NYC and LA, never really interested me that much but people seem to like them. I may plan a NYC trip one day just to say I've been and to see the normal monument stuff like the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and what not.

Personally haven't spent much time outside of the US... but last year spent a couple weeks in Nassau which was alright, but see what I mentioned above about cruise ship destinations... Beautiful island and beaches, but I could do without the non-stop harassment and people trying to sell me shit.

Despite not liking 'cruise ship destinations'... as in, flying or staying in one for any amount of time... I actually _do_ like cruises. You get fed well, you get to lay out in the sun drinking liquour and just relaxing. Then you wake up the next morning and you're docked in some nice place, you get off and walk around for a few hours, buy some shot glasses and shirts and take some pictures and get back on the boat and just relax until the next destination. It's great.

I've been wanting to do a SE Asia trip for a while myself. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. To me, it appears to offer pretty much what I look for in a travel destination. Nice beaches to relax by. Beautiful nature to submerge myself in. Cheap food and transportation once there. Amazing old temples and architectural ruins. In fact I was previously looking at getting my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification simply so I could live in Thailand in Chiang Mai (I'm not a big fan of big cities, so Bangkok I'd likely avoid) where I could teach English, live cheap, earn extra money doing internet stuff and just use my teaching job as a means of having a work visa to stay there as long as possible. 

Other places of interest: New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, etc (really any island in the south pacific that wasn't a test site for nuclear missiles). Spain, Chile, Peru (Machu Picchu), etc.

Though if you pass through Indiana or take a wrong turn and find yourself here for some odd reason, hit me up. We'll go to the shooting range and do other American things like eat burgers and drink beers!


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## DomainBop (Aug 28, 2014)

Nauru is relatively close to you (disclosure: as a young child I always found Nauru fascinating.  Yeah, I was a typical 10 year old with a warped senses of humor..._"Nauru, they make their money mining bird poop (phosphates), hee hee"_..)



> New York City,


I've never understood why anyone would want to visit here, and most people I know who live in other places like London that tourists gravitate to tend to have similar feelings.  Luckily the places where tourists congregate are places where the average resident never goes  so I'm able to avoid the annoying tourists with their F##$ing clicking cameras for the most part. 



> Looking at North America and Europe regions.
> 
> Any places you have been that you enjoyed?


I'd look at South America instead, specifically Recife.



> Then you wake up the next morning and you're docked in some nice place,


Not always.  When I was 9 my parents took me on a cruise and one of the stops was La Guaira: extreme poverty, people living in tin shacks in shantytowns at that time.  Not nice.


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## rds100 (Aug 28, 2014)

I am afraid February is not the best month for traveling around Europe. I  would choose some destinations in the southern hemisphere.


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## Alex U (Aug 28, 2014)

I realize it's North America and Europe, but this is for everyone who is reading this post.

Come to New Zealand 

There are so many things to do, such as going speed boat racing, we've got awesome forests to do paintball/airsoft, white water rafting, visiting the Skytower.  And apparently NZ has really clean air (If you care about that) 

If you, or anyone comes to NZ, let me know because I'd love to meet you all and shout you a coffee 

Some pics of Auckland (And they're not just tourist photos, this is what NZ actually looks like).


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## SGC-Hosting (Aug 28, 2014)

What do you want to do on your trip? Sightseeing? Nightlife?

Croatia, Czech Republic, and Switzerland were my favorite places that I've visited the past few years.  I really enjoyed the sightseeing in France far more than in Italy.  I usually only travel in the summer -- when I was in Croatia, everyone said to come back to Zagreb in the winter.  I'd imagine Switzerland would be nice in the Winter as well -- my luggage was lost during a flight the day after my wallet was stolen in Rome, so when I was in Switzerland I had no money and no other clothes (ok, the airline gave me an undershirt to use) and I still had a great time.

Holland is beautiful - if you go there, don't waste your time and money in the teenage tourist trap of Amsterdam (though their variation of marble cake was really, really good).

I'm from New York and I would recommend Boston over visiting NYC (unless there is something in particular you want to see).  I would also recommend Texas!  If you want to go see a datacenter - there are tons in Dallas.  Different states in the US can very just as much as the countries across europe -- so go visit a few all around.  If I had to recommend 4 it would be Boston, MA, Texas, California, and NYC (if time/money permits).

Where are you from?  It'd be silly if we're telling you to go visit your home


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## pcan (Aug 28, 2014)

I suggest Venice and Rome. Both of them are world-class destinations, so I don't need to explain why you need to see them at least once.

Venice airport is well connected to Paris, London and Rome with many flight options. The Venice Carnival will be from 31th january to 17th february 2015. This is the most popular event in Venice: if you want to sleep in Venice itself, you need to be quick to reserve the hotel (and you already have a limited selection now). Venice is always crowded; during the Carnival is even more so. Stay away if you don't like. My personal idea of a pleasent stay in Venice is on a sunny day in june, sipping a expresso coffe in St Mark's Square while listening the small orchestra that plays Vivaldi.

If you go to Rome in february, local people will complain about the cold wheater. But it rarely drops below +10 Celsius during the day, it is just fine for most people. February is a low season for tourism and there will be less crowd at museums (some may eventually be closed, so check beforehand). The stay will depend of the number of museums you plan to visit. A quick tour may be done in 3 days: Vatican city museum with the Sistine chapel, a smaller museum such as Galleria Borghese, a few churches such as St. John Lateran, and a tour on the ancient city with the Colosseum. I personally have been there 5 days and they weren't enough.


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## AThomasHowe (Aug 28, 2014)

MannDude said:


> If you're going to Amsterdam for the reasons @AThomasHowe mentioned... just come to the USA and go to Colorado... Has all the stuff you want plus has mountains and beautiful scenery... Can go skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, or whatever floats your boat... because there is also rivers with rapids! Colorado rocks!


Amsterdam isn't a bad day or two trip for drinkers either. Lots of bars, Heineken factory etc - not to mention the canals in-between every street. The architecture there is quite a sight too, plenty of weird tall houses because you're taxed on the width of your house. If you're in Europe and have time it's probably worth going to say you did.


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## TekStorm - Walter (Aug 28, 2014)

Wow, a month i would love that, but feb where i live would be still cold, but if i could i would hit Miami, LA, Texas, every place that is warm get the chill out of my bones, but if you come here in the summer, i would suggest B.C the coast is amazing, and rocky mountains are not to bad as well, well that is my 2 cent. I hope it helps, later!


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## jago25_98 (Aug 30, 2014)

Come to the canaries. Beaches, climbing, wind surfing, women (not legal... Doesn't seem that way... Since we mentioned Amsterdam), weed clubs, cheap beer, best reliable weather in the world?, diving, climbing, FIBA world cup, painting, salsa, fishing,sailing, spear fishing, skydiving, trekking, stargazing dark sky sanctuary .

- sent from phone. please excuse my brevity


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## drmike (Aug 30, 2014)

Travel? I went outside today, for a walk


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