English is the official language of Belize, though it probably does help to speak Spanish there. Mar-Apr might be good for south of the equator. Buenos Aires is pretty awesome for museums, parks, etc. No scuba diving to speak of there. I hear Egypt has fantastic diving.
So, I’m mulling over my options for a big road trip this year and one of the ideas is to do a Alaskan / Yukon circle. Basically I have 3-4 weeks and am fine with driving a lot (travelling on my own).
Has anyone done a trip in either region with some tips or suggestions?
An alternative thats STILL on my bucket list is a coast to coast US trip that I remember discussing on Qt3 a decade ago. So yeah, perhaps its time to get on to that one instead? Though right now the remoteness of Alaska appeals to me a bit more…
I’ve done relative coast-to-coast twice and my wife has done it twice as well prior to us meeting. For both of us it is something we talk about frequently as very enlightening and scenic. This is especially true if you can take your time and wander off the path a bit as you travel. There’s nothing quite like seeing the scope of change across the U.S.
I’ve driven coast to coast twice (once each way). Driving east was during the winter, so we took the southern route on I-40 through Texas and Oklahoma. (Boooorrrrring.) The westbound trip was from Boston to San Diego and we visited friends and family in the midwest along the way, but also saw Niagara Falls, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Arches, Zion, and Bryce, and the Grand Canyon.
If I were doing it today, I’d head up through Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, nab Bryce and Zion on my way up to Salt Lake City, veer east through the Wasatch and Uinta mountains, then north to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Continue north to Glacier NP and finally turn east, driving across northern MT, ND, MN, the UP of Michigan, cross into Canada and either come down through Toronto and Buffalo or continue east to Ottawa and Montreal.
I haven’t done coast to coast, since I live in the Midwest. But I’ve gone from St Louis to the Richmond, VA (and then on to Washington DC, Philly, Newark, NJ on that same trip). Kentucky and Tennessee and West Virginia and Virginia are so beautiful on that journey. And I’ve gone from St Louis to Denver (and Colorado Springs) multiple times (drive across Kansas is soooooooo boring), and I’ve gone from Kansas City to Seattle multiple times, stopping at Badlands, SD, Black Hills, SD, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. Just an amazing trip. South Dakota, Western Montana, Northern Idaho, and Eastern and Western Washington are amazing (Washington gets kind of boring in the middle on I-90).
I’ve also gone done the trip from Kansas City and St. Louis to Birmingham, AL and Atlanta GA multiple ways, going through Memphis or Nashville. And I’ve gone further east from Atlanta to Savannah GA and Charleston, SC (beautiful city) and Myrtle Beach, SC (mini-golf capital of the world, surely? At least back in the late 90s when I went there. I’ve never seen so many mini-golf places in the rest of the U.S. put together).
I really need to do the trip into Utah and the Grand Canyon in AZ. And I need to visit Florida sometime too.
Thanks for the input, though like I said my current idea was Alaska. I gather its not all that popular as a travel destination, though its “remoteness” is part of what makes it interesting to me right now.
Let’s talk Rome!
Going in early March with Wife’s Company. All expense paid (mostly), 5 star hotel, planned excursions/etc. 7 day trip and here is what we have signed up for or planned on our on so far. We are staying here:
Company Dime:
- Private Evening Tour Vatican museum/St. Peter’s
- Classics tour (Forum, Colosseum, etc.)
- E Bike tour down some famous street? Don’t have paperwork in front of me but about a 3 hour thing. Looks fun.
- Fancy dinner night two at hotel overlooking glass floor with ruins underneath or something.
- (we might do this one) Tuscany Wine tour thing. Its an all day one.
- Happy hour daily
- killer breakfast daily
Our dime:
- Pompei day trip, train, lunch etc.
- Catacombs tours. Wife is obsessed, prolly do a couple as I believe there are multiple. 1 is part of the E bike tour iirc.
- Food tour with her work group (amybe lunch thing or dinner thing)
They are giving us a $1500 stipend to pay for excursions and then a check for what is left over. We’ll have about 900 leftover to pay for our stuff before coming out of pocket. I am 100% willing/expecting to come out of pocket more. What else do we need to hit? Great Restaurants? Best place for a drink? Fun nigthlife place maybe? Any other day trips worth hitting? Tips? Tricks? Warnings? :)
Dang, that company must really like your wife! Congrats!
Are you limited to Rome and the day trip to Pompei?
That sounds awesome! I’ve been to Rome 3 times, including a trip this last summer for a few days. Pompeii is neat, but while you’re in Naples I recommend taking a ferry out to Capri and also eating at least a couple of meals in Naples: try pizza in a cup. I stayed at a fantastic AirBnb there last June. FWIW Florence is also an easy train-ride away from Rome and worth seeing if you played Assassin’s Creed 2 at all:
- Trastevere is the place to go for nightlife. Great restaurants. Outdoor performances. Very busy.
- There are no bars in Rome. Not in the American style at least. As in there’s no place where you sit at a counter next to strangers and order drinks. You order alcohol to your table at a restaurant. I’ve observed that Romans drink coffee like we drink beer and vice versa.
- On that note, it’s common to stop at a sidewalk stand with barstools to grab a quick espresso on your way to wherever. You’ll get it demitasse style with cold water on the side. Order a cornetto (croissant) to go with it.
- It’s worth climbing the Dome of St. Peter’s. If your tour doesn’t include this, I recommend going first thing in the morning when the basilica opens. You can avoid lines that way.
- Google Maps was pretty reliable for us at detailing transit directions: bus stops and times were more-or-less accurate.
- Piazza Navona (huge public square) is a fun place to walk through in the evening. Lots of street performers and great people watching. The restaurants surrounding it are way overpriced, but can be nice to sit and have a glass of wine.
- Campo de’ Fiori is another public square near Piazza Navona that has a big open air market every morning.
- You won’t be able to avoid getting gelato so you might as well try the interesting flavors
If you haven’t been to Italy before, I recommend a few more daytrips. The high speed rail system is good, so you could hit up Florence and Venice as well. If you like more off the beaten track there are a number of places in Tuscany that I really liked including Lucca, San Gimignano, etc.
And of course try the pizza in the different regions. Gelato as well.
She made them plenty of $ :) President’s club is a yearly trip for top earners. Second one for us in 8 years, last one was Whistler Ski trip two years ago and was freaking amazing. Last year was Aruba but we just missed it. We just missed out on another To Costa Rica. They do go all out for sure! I think its about 150 or so people so 60ish people made it, then execs, travel assistants/coordinators and then everyone’s +1. Company routinely wins best to place work at rewards and they don’t mess around on perks.
We have three open days; 1 for Pompei and then whatever we want to do for other 2. Rest of the days are planned or at least half the day is planned. Would like to limit it to day trips if possible.
Perfect! Just what I was looking for! Trastverse sounds great but No Bars? Ok that is a first for me…table service will be fine ;) I’ve been to Japan so weird flavored Gelato is amateur hour!
First time for us, super excited. Florence sounds like a definite but Venice may be too far unless we stay the night. Ill discuss with Wife.
Thanks everyone!
When you do Pompeii, I recommend getting an early train to Naples so you can catch the local out to the site in the morning. The site is truly huge. Wear good walking shoes and not flip-flops because you can easily walk miles and the roads are uneven 2000 year-old paving stones with deep cart tracks. Bring snacks and a water bottle; there are water bubblers for refilling water bottles throughout the site, but no food except near the entrance. There’s little shade except in some of the houses. I’m not sure what March weather will be like, but sunscreen is probably advised.
On that note, bring your own sunscreen. It’s hard to find and quite expensive in Italy. Italians like sunburn.
Wisconsin sense tingles
Oh, and if there are any Roman sites you want to see that aren’t included in your tour, be aware that you cannot get walk-on tickets for like the Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, etc. You have to reserve them ahead and they’re a pain to get.
Florence is beautiful. Michelangelo’s David was amazing. There is tons of great art in Florence but also in Rome. It’s easy to suffer from museum fatigue.
Get ready to hit the treadmill when you get back home. Food is great in Italy. Every block seems to have a gelato parlor. Their gelato is soooo good.
We enjoyed the hop on, hop off bus in Rome. It’s a relatively quick way to see a lot of the sights and it’s narrated so you get a brief description of what you are seeing. And of course you can hop off to explore and then catch a later bus to continue with the circuit. Sounds like you have some tours set up so may not need it.
The reality is there’s too much to do, so you have pick and choose. You could spend a couple of days just seeing the Vatican.
Luckily for me, I don’t really care for Renaissance art. There’s only so many variations of the birth of Jesus I can take. I did this like really long night tour of the Vatican museum on my last visit and was trying to find the Baroque pieces to feed my starving art sense, then at the very end of the tour we ended up rushing through the best part of the museum–the modern art section which has some Chagalls and Picassos and some others–on our way to the Sistine Chapel. So yeah, at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence the David is really amazing and I like a bunch of the other sculpture too, but there was little post-Renaissance art to hold my interest so I didn’t get overload :) Now Paris on the other hand…
Ha ha – yes, I remember walking through one of the musuems in Florence, the one with the famous Botticelli Birth of Venus at the end I believe, and painting after painting after painting was Madonna and Child. It was insane.
Then I finally got to a Raphael, and I remember just having to stop and stare, it was so different, so excellent. There were a couple of others too, and a Michelangelo oil painting (one of the only he ever did I think), and some other cool things.
It was great, but I certainly had enough of Madonna and Child.
More excellent tips!
Serious question?:
I was raised Catholic and am literally named after a great, great (maybe 1 more great) Uncle who was a Monsignor. My father was as well (i am a Jr.) and after he passed I am now in possession of the Monsignor’'s ring given to him when he got the title. Would it be bad form to wear it and try and high five the pope with it on? Or should I remove it before said High five?
If you’re a wine drinker, just get the carafe of wine at lunch/dinner (or half carafe if you prefer). The table wine there is fantastic and really cheap. It’s not worth the extra expense of a bottle.
Leave yourself a full day for Pompeii - it’s really worth it. And don’t pay for a tour - you’ll miss a lot of good stuff that way. Herculeum is also a great visit.
As for Rome, Trevi Fountain is cool, but it’s usually really crowded (watch those pickpockets!) Colosseum is worth it (IMO), as was the Roman Forum. If you played Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, there are plenty of sights you’ll recognize (that round castle near the Vatican being one). Also, if at all avoidable, don’t drive. The craziness of traffic there (particularly Naples) is second only to India in terms of places I want no part of driving. And I have no issue with Chicago rush hour traffic.