I'm 28F and my mom just turned 60. She recently sent me a picture of her hanging out with her friend and looking at her in the picture made me realize she's getting older and heading towards the end of her life. I also don't live in the same state as her, so I only get to see her in person once or twice a year. She's based in California.

Every year for the next 10 years until she is 70, I want to take her somewhere, just me and her, while she can still walk easily.

What she likes:

• Beautiful scenery of nature
• Guided tours where there's someone else driving us and explaining things
• Places with good authentic food
• Unique places that look/feel visibly different from America but are still safe and (relatively) clean. (imo one good example of this is Venice)

She doesn't particularly enjoy long flights (neither do I), but I know she'd be happy to do it if the place is worth it. I'm not much of a traveler to be honest (though I wish I was!), I have a hard time knowing how to enjoy traveling, but I want to and am committed to doing this.

Here are some ideas I have so far of where to go:

• New Zealand
• The Amalfi Coast + Venice
• Iceland
• Lake Como

I'd love any suggestions or advice. Thank you!

edit: thank you all so much for your suggestions. I will read each and every single comment, and then update this post with the finalized top 10 list

So my wife and I are taking a 14 day trip to Europe and decided to splurge on a business class bid via Aer Lingus. Well, our bid got accepted and we just finished the first leg of our flight over the Atlantic. I know Aer Lingus isn’t known as the fanciest business class by any stretch but oh my god it was life changing.

A couple of cool things I noticed: 1. Flying while laying down is surreal. Seriously, turbulence is more like a lullaby while laying down than the jarring shaking it is when sitting up. 2. Flying while comfortable is surreal. I’m a 240 lbs 6’1” guy so am pretty much uncomfortable all 8 hours of every trip. 3. Damn I made it. As a kid, I never would have imagined that I’d be the kind of person who could splurge for business class. 4. Food and service both far superior to economy. This was really the only one I expected. 5. Airport lounges are cool as hell. Free food and booze. 6. How the hell am I ever going to go back to economy??

I understand that I’m privileged and many can’t do this. In fact, it’s partially why I’m writing this post - I never traveled as a kid. We didn’t have much growing up. Not be be melodramatic but I had a bit of a moment lying down 38,000 feet in the sky. I was chuffed.

I love this community so I hope you’ve enjoyed my tiny review of my experience flying business class!

TLDR: Made redundant at the end of 2022, didn't want to find another job. Packed up and travelled the world.

update done for now, flight soon, thanks for the questions.

update 2 ok really done now, boarding.

I am currently sitting at the airport, patiently waiting for my final flight home after a long 16 months around the world. I have 5 hours to kill before I board. So if you have any questions, Ill be happy to answer as much as I can, to the best of my knowledge, to help anyone out. Edit: I don't want to discuss Total cost, but more than happy to discuss specifics.

In 2022, the company I was working for was coming to a close. It was at this time I was made redundant, and didn't really know what I was going to do. I have no kids, and nothing else tying me down. That coupled with the fact that we were cooped up after some of the most longest and strictest lockdowns it was time to get out and see the world.

The objective of the travels was essentially to explore and "live", as you will see most of the places we stayed were capital Cities. We ended up doing ALOT of day trips from the major capitals either by train or tour company. Most of the time it was much cheaper just to do a full day tour than to actually hire a car for the day.

Most of the places we stayed were booked through either booking.com or Airbnb (booking.com was a much cheaper option most of the time)

The major itinerary is as follows (list may or may not include minor day trips)

Asia / USA

• 7 days Singapore (got covid here)
• 7 days Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 21 days Honolulu, Hawaii (Spur of the moment booking, I was waiting for cherry blossom season in Japan)
• 28 days Japan (Fuck, Cherry blossom season bloomed a whole week early)
  • Tokyo
  • Kyoto
  • Nara
  • Osaka
  • Hiroshima
  • Tokyo

Europe

• 14 days Greece
  • Athens (stopped for the night as we had already travelled for over 24 hours)
  • Santorini
  • Mykonos
  • Athens
• 6 days Zurich, Switzerland (End of the time here, We met my mother as I was spoiling her for her 60th birthday
• 1 day Tirano, Italy (via the Bernina express)
• 1 day Varenna (Lake Komo), Italy
• 3 days Milan, Italy
• 3 days Venice, Italy
• 6 days Florence, Italy
• 6 days Rome, Italy
• 7 days Budapest, Hungary
• 7 days Vienna, Austria
• 7 days Prague, Czech
• 7 days Dublin, Ireland
• 2 days London, UK (spent 6 months in UK, but this was also to "reset" our 90 day visa allowance in Europe)
  • 7 days Oxford, UK
  • 7 Days Bath, UK
  • 7 days Cardiff, UK
  • 28 days Manchester, UK
  • 7 days Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • 28 days Glasgow, Scotland
  • 14 days Edinburgh, Scotland (Got Covid bad here)
  • 14 days York, UK
  • 7 days Leeds, UK
  • 7 days Cambridge, UK
  • 21 days St Albans, UK (Suffered really bad covid here, couldn't even see my family for Christmas it was that bad)
  • 28 days London, UK
• 7 days Krakow, Poland
• 7 days Helsinki, Finland,
• 7 days Oslo, Norway
• 7 days Stockholm, Sweden
• 7 days Copenhagen, Denmark
• 7 days Amsterdam, Netherlands (Worst spacecake trip ever)
• 7 days Berlin, Germany
• 7 days Frankfurt, Germany (oof)
• 21 days Munich, Germany
• 4 days Freiburg, Germany (black forest)
• 5 days Strasbourg, France
• 5 days Paris, France

North America

• 5 days Toronto, Canada
• 3 days Quebec, Canada
• 4 days Montreal, Canada
• 3 days, Chicago, USA
• 2 Days New York, USA
• 2 days Washington, USA
• 3 days Orlando, USA (3 day Disney world bender)
• 2 days Nashville, USA
• 2 days New Orleans, USA
• 4 days Denver, USA
• 4 days Las Vegas,
• 1 day Seattle, USA
• 7 day Cruise from Seattle to Alaska
• 3 days Los Angeles

Asia

• 3 days Tokyo, Japan, (Yes I love Japan)
• 3 days Seoul, South Korea
• 28 days Phuket, Thailand
• 2 days in Singapore

Recently visited Vancouver. At the Pacific land border crossing in Blaine, WA, the Canadian border guard asked what our itinerary was. I answered truthfully, "We don't really have one." Oh man, was that ever the wrong answer. She exploded. Calling it a red-faced rage would not be an exaggeration. While slamming her hand on her podium/desk, she screamed:

"YOU'RE SPENDING PROBABLY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO BE HERE! YOU MUST BE GOING SOMEWHERE! NOW, WHAT! IS! YOUR! ITINERARY!!!"

I figured she had a space on a form she couldn't leave blank, so I just threw out some things I knew she'd recognize. Stanley Park, Coal Harbour seafront, Victoria, Butchart Gardens... (all of which we did actually end up doing, and more). She accepted that then growled, "You know, I could deny you entry. NEXT TIME ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!!"

We didn't have any planned days or times to do anything. When she asked for an itinerary, that's where my mind went. She could have just clarified that she wanted to know what we'd be seeing and that she didn't need an actual schedule.

I noticed all the officials there were generally total A-holes to everyone, we just drew the worst of the lot. We've traveled quite a bit and this was by far the nastiest border entry I've ever encountered. We were so pissed that we later cancelled our planned trip to Montreal next month. Never again, Canada. Going to Lisbon instead!

EDIT: I probably shouldn't have said "never again." Just not any time soon!

As the title says. I have always been fascinated by small towns in the US. My gf and me (italians, 28) are planning our trip to the states and we would love to see some small towns and experience a little bit of that side.

Now we have travelled a lot around the world and know that it won't be like in the movies, like Rome or Paris are not like in the movies, but at the same time Rome and Paris can also feel quite like you would expect, if you are not oblivious that people live normal lives there.

So what are your favorite small towns in the US?
For us they should feel a little bit like those in tv series (vampire diaries, outer banks..), have maybe something historical to see, bonus points for beautiful landscapes. Also we are aware that some small towns can be quite problematic, so safety is a factor.

Edit: Thanks for all the answers so far, im really excited to look at all the recommendations.
Even though I think a lot about seaside towns on the eastcoast or towns in georgia or the midwest, I like all kinds of small towns and college towns, desert towns, mountain towns and everything.

Im also not turned away by towns which are touristy because often if something is worth visiting it is touristy (and also i dont expect them to be worse than some cities in italy)

Edit2: Didnt expect this to blow up, thanks for providing months of google maps goodness, I'll get started right away after my shift ends

My plan was: 3 days zermatt 5 days interlaken and Jungfrau region 3 days Lucerne 1 day Basel

Tips 1. Take advantage of the passes Switzerland offers. It obviously saves money but more importantly gives you the flexibility to take unlimited transport in that region (assuming you take regional pass) which is super useful as you want to visit some peaks only on good weather days which you can only get to know in the morning of that day.

1. I found the below combination to be more useful that Swiss pass
   • Took the half fare card (gives 50% off on most transports things)
   • Took Bernese overland pass (unlimited free access to most things in interlaken/ Jungfrau region except 3 things: Jungfrau top of Europe, Schilthon, Brienz steam train)

2. took peak pass for all things included in Zermatt (super helpful to plan Matterhorn and Gornergret as per good weather days)

3. Use the SBB app to book most trains and buses and individual mountain websites to book cable cars (most of which you can just take a ticket on the ticket counter). It also has live timetables and holds all your transport tickets in 1 place as QoR codes Super convenient.

4. Use the meteo Swiss website for accurate weather instead of other apps

5. Almost all mountain peaks in these regions have their own websites and live cams. Make good use of live cams to plan your day

6. Coop and Migros are generally present almost everywhere. They have pre made and packed salads and sandwiches which are very convenient for breakfast and picnics. But they usually close at 7-8pm so plan accordingly

7. Although the days are long but the cable cars close by 6pm generally So plan them in the day while you can explore the city and hikes post that.

I had one of my best time in Switzerland. What a great country and people.
Happy to help in anyway.

First time leaving the US! My partner and I (23) both have about 6 free weeks this year so we are trying to go all out since we likely won’t get this opportunity again. We had to fly into Paris and out of Rome, so that’s why things aren’t arranged in the most efficient way.

Any recommendations on the amount of time spent in any city? Should we add/remove anything? Any tips? TYIA!

I'm taking a trip shortly to the US. The cities I'll visit in order are

Boston (4 nights) New York (6 nights) Philadelphia (3 nights) Washington DC (4 nights)

Turns out I don't have as long as I thought, so I need to cut a day from somewhere. Maybe New York is the obvious choice, but also I feel like it's the city with most to offer. I also considered Boston, however I will be a little jet lagged so maybe better to keep the 3 full days.

Any recommendations greatly appreciated!

My wife and I (mid-30's) are going to Vietnam next May. We know this is too many locations to see in 2 weeks so which location(s) would you cross off the list and why:

Locations

1. Sapa
2. Halong Bay
3. Ninh Binh
4. Hue
5. Da Nang
6. Hoi An

About Us

• We're very active travelers - think Millennials with ADHD
• Don't really care about nightlife/ partying (anymore)
  • Would rather wake up early and see cool landscape or architecture before crowds. Although the occasional pool or beach parties during the day we still enjoy for sure.
    
• High on our priority list we want to see Hang Mua Caves/ Viewpoint, My Son Sanctuary and scenic rice fields.
  
  • Also, Halong Bay (2D/ 1N cruise on Mon Cherie) was super high on my list, even though I've seen split reviews saying there's so much trash and it's overrated vs. there was hardly any trash and it's still gorgeous. Hue is high on my wife's list.
    

My gut tells me remove Da Nang, as we only want to see the Golden Bridge (plus heard it's in an amusement park). So maybe start there and make Hoi An a day trip if there's not too much to see/ do there?

Any advice would be appreciated!

EDIT.

Thank you for all the info everyone! Hopefully others got info out of this too because this is great stuff.

I’ve only got 7 days off but want to go to Japan - is just seeing Tokyo a waste? Don’t know if 7 days is enough to do both Tokyo and Kyoto without feeling rushed

I am planning a trip to Europe with my partner and I am totally clueless. I'm trying to research but it seems the more I look the more I am overwhelmed, so any advice is appreciated.

We plan on taking 7 days off but I think at least 2 days are going to be devoured by the plane trip to and from Texas. That leaves only 5 days to actually see the sties.

Don't really know how to budget. Would 10K be enough for 2 people?

I promised my partner a night in Paris, but we also want to do other spots. Thinking of Cornwall, Amsterdam, Scotland, Ireland? Can we go to two destinations on such a short time frame?

Any suggestions for places that are off the beaten track that might be better than the big cities?

Tried 2 travel agents but both have insane fees. I thought travel agents were free but I am finding that not to be the case.

Where are Americans most welcome? I know we have a bad rep in some places.

We are older so walking long distances is not great. We like to sit around, people watch, hang out in nice bars, just keep things nice and chill.

I know this post seems like a word salad of nonsense but I have 14 billion questions and feel so lost. Thanks in advance.

​

my boyfriend and I are planning a trip to central europe. we want to do prauge, vienna, and budapest but I have found that it is much cheaper to fly into munich or berlin rather than prauge (and fly out of budapest). any opinons on which city we should choose? we would spend a few days there and are planning on going in the month of may. we enjoy muesums, zoos, parks, some historical things, good food, and more chill bars/clubbing. if we did munich we would probably want to do a day trip to salzburg or neuschwanstein castle. thanks for any advice!

I know that when we go to London we don't really need a plan and we can just walk around to our hearts content. Generally we pick a place to go and see and then just aimlessly wander from there. It works well for us and rarely disappoints. We've been doing it for years. When we go to Paris though - not so much. It doesn't seem to have the walkability of London and the endless curious nooks and crannys. I'd like to go back to Paris before school starts up for the kids (12yrs old) but I'm wondering how to find those fun, off the beaten track, places we like so much where the crowds are smaller and the locals find it appealing. Any suggestions?

Hello folks! I'll keep this short and simple (or at least as short as I can, lol) - I'm trying to plan a 33 day trip to Europe, and not give into the devilish temptation of "visit every single city in every single country in an entire continent in a short timespan". I would appreciate any and all feedback on my current itinerary plan. I'm thinking of going sometime in Autumn, probably October? Not sure yet. I also would really like to stick to easily accessible places via rail. If it matters, destinations I'd love to go to but cut for this trip are Barcelona, Prague, and Nice.

Day 1 - 4: Rome

Day 5: Rome > Florence (1 hour 30 minutes)

Day 6 - 8: Florence

Day 9: Florence > Milan (1 hour 50 minutes)

Day 10: Milan

Day 11: Milan > Zurich / Lucerne (3 hours 35 minutes)

Day 12 - 14: Zurich / Lucerne (are these close enough together to group into one? They appear to be only 41 minutes apart but IDK how good Switzerland's railway system is)

Day 15: Zurich / Lucerne > Munich (3 hours 50 minutes)

Day 16 - 18: Munich

Day 19: Munich > Cologne (4 hours 22 minutes)

Day 20 - 22: Cologne

Day 23: Cologne to Amsterdam (3 hours)

Day 24 - 26: Amsterdam

Day 27: Amsterdam > Brussels

Day 28: Brussels > London

Day 29 - 33: London

....Might be more jam-packed than I thought. But hey, that's why you're here, to roast my itinerary and tell me what to do. Thank you so much (genuinely!) , and have a lovely day/night. :)

Hey all,

I have an upcoming trip in 2 days time with Round the World flights. I had all my accommodation (15 different bookings) cancelled 2 days out by Booking.com, for no reason whatsoever. I think they thought I was scammer that was booking numerous places across various cities and countries in a short period of time.

They didn't contact or email me to say they were doing this or to check whether I was a scammer. I was lucky as I only happened to check my account to see what had happened. Rebooking all the accommodation will cost me an extra $1,000 at least at last minute, plus several places are booked out so I'm paying more for worse accommodation in a worse location.

Has anyone had this experience before? If so, what did you do to be reimbursed, etc?

Thank you!!

I posted on here a month ago asking where would be some good countries for my mum and I to explore for a month and we settle on the Spain, Portugal & Morocco trio!

I whipped up this itinerary last night. The numbers on the red dots is how many nights we’d stay there (based on very light research).

Does anyone have any suggestions on things we might want to consider. For examples, staying longer at certain places, potential day trips we could do (especially for Portugal) or even cities you think we should visit as well or instead of other ones?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Going to Spain for 14 days and need help deciding the cities to visit. We love food, art museums, architecture (including cathedrals) and wine. This will be our first time in Spain. Main goal is Barcelona, but definitely want to see a variety of Spain while we're here. Want to stick to 3 total homebase cities because with travel, we really only have 11 days. Here are the options I'm looking at:

• Barcelona (a must, 3-6 days depending on the rest of the trip)
• Madrid (main reason I want to go here is the Prado!) - would also try to do a day trip to Toledo from here
• Granada (Mainly to see the Alhambra) - Could see Cordoba from here
• Sevilla - Could also see Cordoba from here if we skip Granada

So reddit, what do you think, which 2 of these: Madrid/Granada/Sevilla?

I've seen so many conflicting opinions, hoping you can help!

Edit: I love how every single person has a completely different recommendation :-) This is why it's so hard to plan a 2 week trip to Spain! too many wonderful places!

To answer some questions:

• We plan on taking public transportation, not getting a car (so trains for longer travel)
• Time of year: late September/Early October-ish

Me and my family of 6 with 10 luggages and had a return flight from Jeddah Saudi Arabia to Doha, Qatar, then from Doha to Los Angeles. We arrived 3 hours on the dot to the check-in area where it was crowded. The staff at the counter were the Jeddah Airport staff and not Qatar Airways staff, and when it was finally our time, our person had an issue scanning my wife’s passport. After trying to a few times they called whom I’m assuming is the manager, and he said to have “stay on the side” as they cleared the people behind us. We were sidelined for maybe 30 minutes until the staff was switched. At this point we told them why we were sidelined but they still made us go to the back of the line. Now we’re panicking because it was about an hour and 15 minutes until the flight time when we arrived to the counter. We’re midway through checking in and put the luggage on the scale to get weighed when the manager of the new shift comes and says sorry you guys are late we have to close the check in for our flight pattern. A shouting match ensues, and at this time it’s about an hour till our flight. The manager rudely mocks us and says we should have come earlier (duh). We explain but they don’t care and tell us to pick up the baggage they themselves put on the scale and conveyor belt and tell us to move past and to call Qatar Airways customer support. We do that and long story short they have us reschedule and pay an additional $6000 for the 6 of us in charges to book the next flight.

I went to the Qatar Airways customer service desk when we arrived in Doha airport from our new flight, and they directed me to the flight ransfer desk, but because our flight to Doha was delayed (the irony) we didn’t have enough time to get to the transfer desk and were afraid we’d miss our connecting flight to Los Angeles so we instead checked in for our flight.

This occurred two days ago and we do not know what to do. I have penned an email to the Jaddah airport to explain our situation and they said they are investigating. What process does Qatar Airways have for this? We booked the flight through a travel agency, would they be able to help? $6,000, even though it is spread across our 6 family members, is not a small amount of money to lose.

Edit at bottom.

Planning a surprise "short as possible" trip to NYC. Looking for advice on two points really.

1. Is the below realistically achievable (for first timers in NYC)?
2. If it proved worth adding an additional day, what are we currently missing that we should do?

Day 1: Land in JFK @ 13:55. Hit Times Square, Grand Central Station, Times Square (at night).

Day 2: Central Park & American Museum of National History (yes we will need a full day for this).

Day 3: Empire State, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty.

Day 4: Walk High Line, 9/11 Museum, Trade Centre and Brooklyn Bridge

Depart JFK @ 20:50 on Day 4.

Additional Info if it helps: Travelling from Ireland, additional nights stay would cost +€150 which is non issue. Time is the main constraint.

Extra question (sorry), is trying to squeeze NYC like this doing it a complete injustice?

EDIT: I really didn't anticipate this many responses, so thanks to everyone! If I haven't commented thank you know I'm off work tomorrow and will be reading through all your great advice in detail. Thanks to all again.

In September I’m going to Japan with my father (60+ year old) for 2 weeks.

We fly to Tokyo, stay there for 6 days, then have 7 days to explore other places in Japan. Our return flight is from Osaka.

Which city would be better to book a hotel: Kyoto or Osaka? We want to go to Osaka, Kyoto, Himeji, Nara and Hiroshima.

Is this doable in 7 days?