Visiting somewhere other than Japan

[Kang Seung Jae]

Originally Posted by Vexx

You'd have to kind of put blinders on and imagine PRE-motorboat Venice.

Yes.

Venice today.... has lost a lot of its appeal.

[Cut-Tongue]

My to-see list is, in order:

Madagascar
South Africa
India
Mongolia
China (moreso Hong Kong and Tibet)
Thailand

Some for the insects, some for the cultural aspects, some for the religious aspects.

[Smithsky]

Mm.. where I would like to go except Japan.. lets see ;p

Spain, Greece, Italy, New Zealand

[Satsuki Yuuhi Ramius]

I want go to England

[Vinak]

I seem to be rather lucky. I've been to many places already.
Florida
Washington D.C
Yellowstone
Hawaii

I'm actually about to go on my first Cruise in a few days. (may 3rd ) So this will be my first time actually leaving the United States...sorta

Places i would like to visit besides Japan would have to be.

China, Germany, Italy, and Korea.

[ZeRoGravity]

New Zealand. Ever since doing projects for it in my grade 10 travel and tourism class I've been interested in visiting that country. Pictures I've seen from NZ is breath taking.

Other countries/city on my list are: Egypt, Greece and Venice. Egypt and Greece for the ruins and monuments. Venice because of Aria.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

You know, given how AnimeSuki is supposed to be an American forum, I'm surprised there were no requests for information about the US on this particular thread.

All right, the flights have been booked, the budget set aside and a rough itinerary's been drawn up. I'll be in the United States from Oct 12 to 31, with the intention of visiting the Boston area, New York and Washington DC. Truth be told, I'm going mainly for the autumn foliage and New York. Everything else will be extra, to make the most out of the hugely expensive plane tickets.

At this point, my greatest challenge comes from arranging transportation between cities and various outlying areas. The travel guides haven't been terribly helpful, but thankfully, there are websites to fill the gap. I've discovered that train or bus routes between the major cities aren't as sparse as I thought (how necessary will it be for me to book ahead?), but I'm still relatively clueless about how car rentals work. Advice would be greatly appreciated, starting perhaps with what rates you'd consider reasonable around Massachusetts/Connecticut. Which companies would you recommend? Better yet, point me to their websites if you can.

Accomodation is the next concern, but I'm not too picky. As long as the room/building is not a total dive, I probably won't mind. But do warn me about any particular hostel to avoid in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, since I'll be checking those mainly. When it comes to accomodation, I've learnt the hard way not to trust guide books — they always tend to oversell the establishment. Once again, websites are the way to go, but personal recommendations will, of course, be taken heavily into consideration. My accomodation budget is around US$80 per night, up to US$100 if need be.

Rough itinerary:
1st week (Oct 12 to 18)
(I reckon I need a car only for this week)
- Connecticut: "The Last Green Valley"
- Cape Cod (starting from Plymouth)

2nd week (Oct 19 to 25)
- Boston, Concord, Salem (I'll keep Gloucester in mind, but I don't think I'll have enough time)
- Philadelphia

3rd week (Oct 26 to 31)
- Washington DC (mainly for the Smithsonian)
- New York

Lastly, anyone who'd like to meet, drop me a PM. I know Ledgem offered (hurhurhur). And oh yeah, coming as I do from a place where tipping is not a norm, do I really have to do so? I mean, can I pretend to be a clueless traveller who didn't know better?

[DarkHonour]

Here are a few countries I wouldn't mind visiting:

1) France

2) Canada, perhaps Newfoundland

3) Spain (mainly Ceuta because I'm intrigued by the narrow strait splitting Africa & Europe)

4) New England region

Some random regions that popped up in my mind.

[tenken627]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Rough itinerary:
1st week (Oct 12 to 18)
(I reckon I need a car only for this week)
- Connecticut: "The Last Green Valley"
- Cape Cod (starting from Plymouth)

2nd week (Oct 19 to 25)
- Boston, Concord, Salem (I'll keep Gloucester in mind, but I don't think I'll have enough time)
- Philadelphia

3rd week (Oct 26 to 31)
- Washington DC (mainly for the Smithsonian)
- New York

I'm curious. Why such an odd travel route?

Basically you are going from Connecticut to up north to Cape Cod and Boston. Then you go back down through Connecticut again and go past New York City to go south to Philadelphia. Then you go from Philadelphia south again to Washington DC. And then you go from Washington DC back up north to New York City? That's a lot of traveling.

Why not start at Boston first? Then go south to Cape Cod. And from Cape Cod down into Connecticut. Connecticut right to New York. From New York south into Philadelphia. And then from Philly to Washington DC.

Basically north to south, without all the traveling back and forth, up and down, across the eastern seaboard of the US. That should save you more time to enjoy your stay at each city.

[Orchunter226]

Being from a poor family, I've never traveled a lot. I've only been around the southeast U.S (been in every part of Florida countless times).

But I would love to visit Ireland, England, and Italy. Those are my prime destinations once I graduate with my Aerospace Engineering degree.

I also will probably hit up the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

[Theowne]

Originally Posted by Cut-Tongue

My to-see list is, in order:

Madagascar
South Africa
India
Mongolia
China (moreso Hong Kong and Tibet)
Thailand

Some for the insects, some for the cultural aspects, some for the religious aspects.

Hmm, good list. I've been to a few of those places. My personal opinions: 1) Mongolia I found rather uninteresting. 2) Tibet was, in contrast, a very interesting place, Hong Kong not so much. 3) India - big country with plenty of great sights to see and experience.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by tenken627

I'm curious. Why such an odd travel route?

Because flying return to New York saves me more than S$1,800 (US$1,260).

And the going up and down the coast may not be a bad idea, if I use different routes each time. I intend to try out both bus and rail, to get a feel of what it's like. The travelling time has been factored in, and it won't be too rushed.

[Hari Michiru]

I wanna go back to China, notably Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Too scared to go back to the Mainland, hahaha.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Orchunter226

Being from a poor family, I've never traveled a lot. I've only been around the southeast U.S (been in every part of Florida countless times).

But I would love to visit Ireland, England, and Italy. Those are my prime destinations once I graduate with my Aerospace Engineering degree.

I also will probably hit up the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

I'll point you your misato quote in your signiture, in regards to the financial situation and not being able to travel.
Trust me, if you wanna go someone in like the summer break, even if it takes 1 year, you'll work whatever hours you have time to breathe, save up and go regardless.

As for you peeps, well those in Britain (or those in Europe with cheap options to get to london then flight out)
BA World Sale
No excuse, none, the travel dates are from this month onwards, if you click the +, you can see some periods are cheaper than others, eg:
NY = £299 (if you're a member or sign up then it becomes £280)

Tokyo:
£513 rtn -> 25 Oct 08 - 09 Dec 08
£513 rtn -> 25 Dec 08 - 31 Mar 08

To put this in perspective for you.
I went to Japan in 2004 = £550 (normal price)

I checked out prices for 4 airlines this year for Tokyo, BA = £745
Reason being cause of recession and lack of oil, as you can see airline companies are either going bankrupt or struggling real bad or merging to make ends meet.

As a result cause no one is flying, so BA this year have slashed prices to the Far East so stupidly far (like £513, i've never in my life seen anything like it)
You'd be insane to not take it.

If you've always said 'i wanna visit japan but no money' better book before September 23rd, borrow that £515 if you must *laughs*
You have until march 31st 2009 to fly out and return, you may be a little lucky to catch some sakura mid bloom or something if you leave at the end of March.

There is a typo on the website but i tried and example for feb-march 09, and ended up with this:

Flight: Departing Heathrow (London), 23 Feb 2009
Total price (GB Pounds, GBP, £) £497.50
Flight itinerary
Outbound - Monday 23 Feb, 2009
Leave 12:35 23 Feb
Arrive 09:10 24 Feb
Heathrow (London) Narita (Tokyo) BA0005
British Airways World Traveller

Inbound - Tuesday 3 Mar, 2009
Leave 11:15 3 Mar
Arrive 14:25 3 Mar
Narita (Tokyo) Heathrow (London)

(i'm a member so its £20 off for me)
No i don't work for BA, lol.
Me and my friends tend to travel a lot so we always swap info on the latest deals, i just saw orchunter's post and decided to say something as inspiration, in case anyone has been debating with themselves for a while now, this is a little push for you

My final year of uni saw me take 2 part time jobs (i had one, i took another @ min wages) and try to finish my degree... i recommend you take 1, lol.
But I went to America for 3 weeks in two diff states for it and only had less than five months to make that money. (Accomodation, insuarance which is more exp than going anywhere in the world, US has its own class in the UK -.-, spending money for food, travel, souvieneers etc etc)

Like I said, if you really wanna go somewhere, you'll go.

[aolas]

of course to mecca & medina in saudi arabia

[m-mitten]

I so desperately want to visit Scotland, preferably the Scottish Highlands. The wish was imprinted into me since I was a young girl.. and not just the various romantic ideals after watching Braveheart. Some thing about Scotland, I don't know. I adore the Gaelic language, and I met some really great people from Scotland. The beauty of it really draws me toward it, too. It's all terribly appealing to me.

Secondly, Prague, because Prague is perhaps one of the most orgasmic options ever for a vacation. The culture, the architecture, the music-related liveliness.. I could go on.

Other places: Rural France, Iceland, Norway, Germany, and Cork (Ireland).

[wao]

Man, Theowne, I'm so jealous that you got to go to Mongolia, dull as it might have been. I've always had a very strange (albeit shallow) interest in all these tucked-away countries... Personally, I still want to visit Bhutan, but that's just an amusing thought I don't take seriously - it's not easy to go there.

And finally for once it might be my turn to "use" this thread! Thanks to my brother's frequent flyer miles, I will (barring any STUPID visa problems) be going to Seattle from mid-Dec to about mid-Jan for a holiday... I intend to visit San Francisco for a short, short while too.

I figure my friends in California and my brother in Seattle know the respective areas well enough to perhaps give me some private hints on where to go (although my brother's only lived there ~2 years), but any recommendations from readers in Seattle/California would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to have tons of free time...

I'm really excited about going, it'll be my first time seeing and touching any kind of snow (I've never even experienced "fake snow") and it'll be something completely different for once. I really could do with a change in environment. November needs to finish ASAP!

[Shadow Kira01]

For a place that is ancient and English-speaking, choose India.

For a place with beaches and coral reefs that is also English-speaking, it will be a choice between the well-known Australia or the United States.

Other great places: Britain, France, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Brazil and Canada.

[Kyuusai]

Well, my previous post here that I would be studying in Japan and Guatemala this year held half-true: My Japan trip has been pushed back to Spring, but throughout November and the first week of December, I will be in La Antigua, Guatemala. I leave early on the morning of November 1st to work on a one week mission, and then will have four weeks of full-time Spanish education. Our good WanderingKnight has often spoken of having learned English without having truly studied the language, and my experience with Spanish is much the same... but I'm at the limit of what I can learn simply from the very limited exposure I have here, so it's time to buckle down and study seriously, and no better place to do it than there. Full-time, one-on-one classes are affordable, the climate is entirely pleasant almost year-round, the city and surrounding areas are beautiful, it's tiny, quaint, and historic, and yet a small number of expatriates from around the world fund a stable local economy that provides marvelous diversity of restaurants and wide proliferation of internet access.

We have a grand total of two members that list their locations as being in Guatemala, neither of whom have I crossed paths with on the forums, and any Guatemala-residing members would likely be in Guatemala City rather than in La Antigua (not that it's very far) so I assume I won't have an opportunity to meet any board members.

If any one has been to the area and has any recommendations (I'm more partial to places of people and active culture than I am tourist attractions), I'd love to hear them. And, if any one will be in the area, I'll probably be up to meeting if my schedule isn't too crazy after I get settled into school and host family life.

[Amray]

I would really love to see and visit Italy, in such places as;
Rome, Tuscani, and also Florence. Maybe Turin too.