^^^ Impressive group of TGG itinerants. Like a ‘bespectacled elvis’ hi once said, travel broadens your mind till you can’t get your head out a door Antartica ^ (via Argentina / Chile ) Mexico Canada Bermuda Bahamas Mexico Iceland Ireland / Norway/Sweden/Finland (saw Russia ‘from a distance from ‘Suomi’ ) Denmark - Greenland Germany Switzerland France - Tahiti / Bora Bora Spain Morocco Indonesia Japan US (minus UT, WV, MN, OK, KS, MO, UT, AZ, ND, SD, NE)
My wife wants to go to Antarctica. What did you think? It's a long ass trip. Flying and then sailing into it.
bickety So nice to visit the place your great grandparents are from. Is this your first trip to Europe?
Super impressive list my friend. I want to do Australia and New Zealand in 2024. I hope it can work out.
No. I went to Scotland with my brother before he passed away. It was on his bucket list and he asked me to go. I very much enjoyed Scotland and would go back in a heartbeat. 2025 I'll be doing the UK/Ireland. 2026 I'll go back to Italy to do all the tourist stuff (Rome, Pompeii, Venice, etc.) All of my great-grandparents were born in Southern Italy and Sicily. It's why I'm short and have a good tan
Don't forget Florence - Rome is incredibly impressive, of course (I highly recommend taking the private evening tour of the Vatican if you can - it is very expensive, but so worth it), but Florence was my favorite of the "big three." Taormina is wonderful, but try to avoid being on Mount Etna when it erupts. And of course the food all over Italy is amazing.
Exactly the sort of info I'm looking for Barry. The things to decide are which season, narrowed it to Spring or Autumn. Love to get a little off the beaten track, less touristy. An Onsen would be great and your suggestion at the base of Mt Fuji sounds perfect.
I did a similar to Contiki back in the day, but I visit BeNeLux, Germany every year for work (UK every second year) and always try and see other countries to combine some leisure and sightseeing.
My in-laws have been to Italy over 20 times. It's their favorite country in Europe and they've visited many others (most recently Spain.) My father in-law is in his 80's and wanted to take his daughter and I who have never been. The plan is to go someplace not so touristy and after deciding it might be a bit cold up north, they suggested Taormina with 3 days in Amsterdam preceding it. They've been to Taormina before and they said it's beautiful. We rented a villa there for the week. My wife and I plan on going to Italy 2 more times. We will go the Perillo Tours route both times as my in-laws swear by them. I figured with 2 more trips I should be able to see most of Italy. And yes, they definitely recommend Florence!
Gents, first off remember that the southern hemisphere’s seasons are reversed so traveling would be between November and March (our winter/their summer). *** You’d start out flying to either Argentina (Buenos Aries) or Chile (Santiago). *** From there figure out how much of “pre-Antartica” you’d like to see. For example, Patagonia (Argentina/Chile) is the southern most portion of the South American continent and is spectacular in its own right and what I would highly recommend including in your trip. Argentine Patagonia (e.g. Tierra del Fuego) is more ‘civilized’ with towns etc. while Chilean Patagonia (e.g. Torres del Paine) while more remote is mysteriously and indescribably beautiful and my personal favorite fwiw. *** From there decide whether to cruise or fly. Cruising allows you to travel through the Drake Passage, South Georgia, etc. and once you reach Antartica you’re pretty much coastal while flying saves “time at sea” and allows for ‘interior’ access (e.g. South Pole). In short, you have options galore when planning your itinerary so long story short, first consult with Antartica-specific travel specialists. a previous reminisce vvv https://forums.theganggreen.com/threads/what-are-you-eating-for-lunch.83480/#post-3198708
If your tour includes the central eastern (Adriatic) coast (i.e., Rimini), you can easily add another country to your list - San Marino, the fifth-smallest country in the world, which is less than 10 miles from Rimini. It's not very easy to get to from Florence or Venice, so I've never been, but is supposed to be nice, both historically and in terms of scenery.
There are a lot of places to go off the beaten path in Japan, ultimately it boils down to how much time you have and what you value, with my wife being from there it gives me a better opportunity to see a little more each time but if I only had 10 days and might never go back it would make it a lot harder. Like if you're going to do Kyoto you could skip Kamakura but you def don't want to be there in the summer. The lakes in the autumn near Fuji are awesome and with the leaves changing it's spectacular. Like I would love to go here (Shirakawa Go) but it wouldn't even be on the radar for most people despite its unique look and Swiss village vibe. It's in a prefecture called Gifu which doesn't really get much tourism from non Japanese/Chinese but it's someplace we're gonna go. I also want to go here to a place called Onagawa which is in Nagano but these igloos are in an onsen resort town, they're actually a restaurant but there are special heaters in them that don't melt the snow but keep you warm but unless you really know as a tourist you'f probably never even know it exists
I'd never be able to convince my wife, she gets really bad motion sickness so the boat would be a non starter. I also had no idea how long the flight to Chile is even from Los Angeles. I've only been south of the equator once and I flew from NY which took 7 hours. It's even longer from LA to Santiago plus you'd have to add another flight to Patagonia I'm sure. Now I'm the idiot who wants to go cage diving with great whites in South Africa, I'm starting to get older so if I'm gonna do it I better do it soon
If you go cage diving with great whites you won't need to worry about getting older. The idea is you go inside the cage, they stay out - screw that togetherness crap.
