Not sure if there is one somewhere here. Haven't seen one.

Where? When? Who? Why?

For me, Brazil in June for 3 weeks before a cheeky one week in Buenos Aires. Gonna follow Australia around, still awaiting match tickets though. Hopeful that if worse comes to worse and we fail to acquire them, it will be easy enough to be able to attain them somehow. So yeah, therefore fly into Sao Paolo before heading to Cuiaba then down to Porto Alegre before finishing the "Australian leg" in Curitiba. Going to Florianopolis for a couple of days in between the last two games. Probably go to Iguassu Falls after Curitiba and then fly back up to Rio and spend some time there. At this stage will look to head to Buenos Aires in early July. Doing this with my brother and two cousins. We go our separate ways after South America before I head to London on July 6.

Begin a Contiki tour of Europe on July 8 with three mates, so in Europe for 3 months. Will do some Greek Islands after the month long tour, before doing a bit of Eastern Europe and then finishing off in Britain.

Looking forward to it. Hopefully all things go smooth sailing in the lead up.

Over to you. What have you done, what are you going to do etc.?

Edited by proud2becanberran: 10/2/2014 04:08:27 PM

Just got back from a trip with my mates through Asia. Hong Kong and Manila were unreal. I highly suggest both of them. Enjoyed Cambodia also.

Few countries in SE Asia. Favourite was spending 4 weeks in Northern Thailand/Laos. Did that with 2 mates, one of whom I would not travel with again. The other is a legend and I would follow him into Mordor.

Did USA alone for 6 weeks. Top place if you go to meet the right people.

Europe with the (soon-to-be) wifey next year. Northern Italian so accommodation and awesome food for free!

Nice!

I'm heading to the US in May, doing a lightning run through LA and then the east coast over the course of a week, then flying down to Rio for roughly a week prior to the cup. Head out to Cuiabá for the Chile match, straight to Porto Alegre (have venue tickets there) the next day, staying there until July 1 (aside from making a day trip to Curitiba for the Spain match). Then doing a jaunt around the north; 3 days fishing in the Amazon (around 100km from Manaus), 3 days in Jericoacoara (secluded beach spot in a heritage reserve north of Fortaleza), 4 days in Recife, a day in Brasilia (for the 3rd/4th playoff) and two days in São Paulo before jetting home. Doing all this with my Dad.

Only unconfirmed tickets are the Chile and Spain ones, hoping all goes well with the draw results for the phase just ended but like you I'm sure we could find a way to acquire tickets otherwise.

Golden rule for travellers: ALWAYS delete cookies or use a different browser immediately before settling on buying a flight online; the sites up the price if you search for them on those times, but if you delete the cookies it's like wiping their memory of you and the price may be lower.

Whereabouts? My family are from Trieste/Gorizia, top spots :)

Just to clarify, the Missus is Italian. Somewhere between Parma and Modena, small village I believe. They recently bought this new piece of tech called a toaster. Outrageous stuff I'm told hehe.

Not too sure on my Italian geography really. Have you ever been back?

Nobody has been anywhere until they have been here->

Is this for real? How can they charge you more for the same flight just because you searched for it instead of choosing it straight away?

Will be purchasing a return flight ticket tonight so am really interested :lol:

FTFY

Doing the 4 day hike to Machu Picchu is the best thing I've ever done with my life.

Nov-Dec last year the mrs & I, as well as my parents, did a cruise to NZ which was awesome. Even ran into IRL Merry&Pippin @ Hobbiton :lol:

Did Thailand & Singapore back in 2010.

I want to see more of Australia next.

NZ is most certainly on the must-do list. Anyone for a 442 trip?! Wellington v *****

;)

Yeah NZ was great. TBH the only place we visited that was underwhelming was Wellington :lol: but I think that was more to do with we got perfect weather everywhere except for Windy Wellington.

Sydcro & I have been talking about heading over to Wellington if rumours of Arsenal coming for preseason turn out to be true.

I've been to Canada and America 8 times and going again in June and stopping over in Fiji on the way back.

Did the Kokoda track in PNG in 2009

Last July I went to Tanzania and climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, stopped off in Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi on the way.

NZ twice

I think I'm pretty close to the 100 flight mark

I'm pretty happy with that and I'm only 21, I have a lot more traveling to come.



Edited by roar #1 : 11/2/2014 12:33:24 PM

Can you elaborate on this? I've been telling my old man for years I want to do the Kokoda Trail with him, as long as he gets fit enough for it (meant to be his motivation).

Tell me everything about it.

Yup, online providers will do this. Not all the time, but it is a known practice.

The other solution is to shop for airfares in incognito/private browsing mode

It is both physically and mentally draining. You would want to have a fairly good level of fitness to make the experience somewhat manageable. We covered the 96km track in 7 days and I'm not kidding in saying that the first 2 hours of walking was on the only flat piece of land for the whole trip. If you look at a map of the track you will see what I'm talking about, there are a number of peaks and ridges that you need to get over so you can be walking at a 50 degree angle for 4/5 hrs straight then you have to come down the other side and coming down is even harder at that angle. It is also quite hot and very humid, I was there in April and it was like 32 degrees and 90% humidity.

We carried our own back packs which added to the difficulty, next time I'd definitely pay extra and get a porter to carry my stuff, and I'd maybe look at doing an 8/9 day trek.

And there number of health risks. While we were on the track 2 Trekkers from other groups died, one I believe from an asthma attack and the other heart attack, and if I recall correctly they were in their 30's.

And from our group 2 guys had to get airlifted out after our whole group of 14 got violently sick and they weren't able to carry on.

But to sum up, it was a great experience and I'll probably do it again some day. Just don't underestimate how hard it is.

We went with a company called Kokoda Trekking if you wanted to have a look at their website.

I've been to Europe a few times but the place I really want to travel to is Georgia (the country not the US state). If anyone on here has been I'd love to hear about it

Edited by Cromulent: 11/2/2014 01:46:29 PM

Thanks for that Roar!

How much did it cost? Did you stay/travel around PNG any more than the trail, or just the trail?

Did you guys get sick from drinking the water or something? Most of our Inca Trail group got sick and we all blamed it on the water.

Do they pitch tents for you to sleep in, or is it housed accom?

It sounds very similar, yet a little more hectic and longer, than the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Anyone done both, and able to compare for me?

:lol:

[youtube]RR5otApDYRY[/youtube]

Without having done the Inca Trial, from what I've heard and read, it just doesn't come close to the difficulty of the Kokoda track. The inca trail is a stroll compared to the Kokoda track where you get muddy and sweaty and are physically pushed.

We slept in single/ 2 person tents.

We think it was the water that made us sick.

We didn't do any other travel around PNG other then the 1hr truck ride between the airport and our hotel, PNG is very much a developing country and the capital is fairly dangerous for white people ( mainly opportunistic crimes, mugging, car jacking). The day before and after our trek when we were at the hotel we were advised not to go out side of the compound which had large barbed wire fences and I counted 4/5 security guards manning the gates and surrounds.

And the fact that it is very common in port moresby to walk through the city with a machete in your hand didn't give me the urge to go exploring :lol:

I can't remember exactly but i think including 2 nights hotel, return flights from Brisbane- port moresby + port moresby to Kokoda village, plus the 7 day trek was $4k-4.5k

Edited by roar #1 : 11/2/2014 02:01:30 PM

Sweet, all awesome info. Cheers!

Yeah, the Inca Trail was as hard or easy as you wanted it to be. The Mrs, me, an American & a Brazilian (who became our closest friends) were always the very front of our group, and at times beat the last of our group by 2 hours to certain checkpoints. We challeneged ourselves at times to see if we could keep up with the porters (which we could only do once), and attempted to push ourselves to the limit.

The fxxxed thing about the Inca Trail, which IMO is heavily underappreciated/underbroadcasted is how high altitude it is. From memory the lowest point is at the start & end, which is 2.5km above sea level. And Dead Womans Pass, the peak, is 4.2km above sea level. Just the drain from the altitude royally fxxxs with your body.

Thanks again for the info. You've made me more keen to get my old man fit so we can do it. I'll hit you up in here or on PM if I have any more questions :lol:

Oh trust me I know about the affects of altitude, the top of Kilimanjaro is 5900m, although luckily I didn't have a head ache, having to stop to catch your breathe every 10 steps is not enjoyable

:lol: I hear you!

That's insane! Surely there are laws against this??

Yep a few times. Parma and Modena are more central, Trieste is a port city in the North East 1 hour east of Venice right by the Slovenian border.

Parma is famous for it's prosciutto and Modena is near the Ferrari factory :)

Haha yeah re: the toaster, they all buy this pre-toasted stuff over there. They're pretty crumbly and nice but much drier than toasting your own sliced bread.

Enjoy your trip!

Not planning any big trips atm but I think I'll lurk here on and off. Great thread.

Travel a fair bit due to family in Spain. Been to Europe 4 times now typically for 1 month stays, always try and see something new besides Spain, so seen a fair bit of Italy, France and a little of England and Germany.

Anyone have thoughts/advice about America? Wouldn't mind going someday

What happened to the 'around the world in 80 days: the travel thread' thread? :lol:
Either way, awesome to read people's thoughts, plans and experiences. Never gets old!

The U.S.A is ok for me I have family there .. but honestly what you see and on tv and what it's actually like are two differnet things obvisously depending where you go.. I found L.A and chicago a little dangerous at times but got to see the bulls and Lakers so wasn't complaining ... Had to spend a week in Detroit if you don't need to go there steer clear...

Although Denver, San Antonio & New York I didn't mind again though so much of the country is dangerous. Police are everywhere but will jump the gun and really minor issues( eg . A homeless guy asked for my left over food at a resteraunt and cops treated like he stabbed me)

It's also easy to see the gap in class wealthy people live in gated off communities etc it's kind of sad in a way. Canada is wonderful though and I do recommend it and the U.S.A just depending where you go I guess other people will have other opnions but happening been 3 times no rush to go back ..

Edited by thejollyvic: 13/2/2014 01:34:02 AM

Here's a Guardian article about it.

Incognito mode is a good idea as it doesn't save cookies.

Edited by paladisious: 13/2/2014 08:31:12 AM