Heading to the UK. Wife has never been. I lived there my teen years. Was planning 2 days in Paris, BUT the rail worker are on major strikes! Great timing!

Yeah, our train from Aix to Barcelona was cancelled. Had to hire a driver / van to take us - $pendy. Turned out our driver was friends with my Winery partner cousin’s son. Small world, and a good story.

Looks like Switzerland and Germany are on the agenda for wife and daughter. I may join them in Germany for a week. India trip at some point.

Instead of starting a new thread I am going to post questions here.

In September 2019 my wife and I celebrate our 30th anniversary.


Mrs5543 has expressed her desire to vacation in Santorini Greece we are now gathering info on the location, we plan on spending 3-4 days on the Island.

I am asking if anyone has been there and can give suggestions regarding lodging, sights and dining that we should look into.

We are VERY freestyle people, we hate schedules and itineraries we prefer to wander and take things as they come to us. We did this in Ireland last year having no idea where we would end up or where we would sleep and it was unforgettable.

We had a few spots we knew we wanted to hit, then everything else we just winged it.

That said, any input would be welcome. We are not party type people (hence skipping Mykanos) we prefer a more laid back local scene.

Yes we are already boning up on some Greek so we may be somewhat able to communicate in native tongue when we get there 1.5 years from now.

I was there recently and absolutely LOVED my hotel and its location. Give me a bit to dig up hotel name. Santorini is cool.... lots of walking to explore the cliff-side towns. Take the local bus to other cities, including getting a shot of the most famous spot on the island, with the blue-domed churches.

Dana Villas and Suites. Very reasonably priced and a good location. There are better spots, but expect to pay much, much more.

Thank you!

Wife read the buses are unreliable and to expect to wait 30+ mins past scheduled time for one to eventually show up.

We are not afraid of walking, we just walked the dog 4 miles this morning to breakfast downtown then around downtown then back.

She read you can rent a Quad runner ATV style vehicle to run around the Island on.

I, personally prefer to walk.. a lot.

Thanks for the info nonetheless we are looking into the Dana Villas.

Only there on a cruise ship stopover. Loved it. Can see most by walking, maybe a bus from the ferry dock north to where those blue domed churches are. (Ferry dock and airport approx in the middle of the island. About 8 miles to each end) Great local beer named "FIX"........Enjoy

Santorini is beautiful - and very walkable. Walked down to see a winery I was interested in - Domaine Siglas - this is years before they became trendy. My kids still complain about the "Death March" in the heat for an hour behind a donkey (seriously) so dad could see a winery. Good times.

http://plumley.org/photos/trips/euro...s/image044.jpg

This is almost 11 years ago. I note that compared to the pics above, Beth hasn't aged at all:
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We had lunch on Kamari beach, wished we spent more time there.

Enjoy!

Started off looking at a New York city break, then narrowed it down to Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka :confused:

Now booked flights to Oman for end of May for our family holiday :cool:

We'll hire a 4x4 and go exploring, mountains, beaches, desert driving, souq's, forts, oasis, luxury hotels, basic guest houses, good food, friendly people etc etc

Really enjoy the contrasting culture this part of the world offers, self driving around Jordan was one of our favourite holidays so I've got high hopes Oman will offer a similar experience

Will be sure to report back

In reading this thread, this appears to be a popular itinerary--heading to Scotland/England in September. (1) week of hunting roe deer/pheasant in Ballater, then (1) week of touring England.

Trying to squeeze in a pheasant hunt to either S Dakota or Nebraska in October as well--anyone have suggestions for a lodge with true wild birds?

We spent a month last year driving around Greece, driving from Athens to Thessaloniki and then doing the Cyclyade Islands: For Santorini I would recommend staying in Oia to get the classic views, if you have time take the fgerry to other islands. Here are some snaps I took on the islands plus one from the rock top monasteries in Meteora.

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We went to Santorini 4 years ago and loved it. We stayed at Delfini Villas in Oia and really liked it. Oia's at the far end of the island and seems less populated than other tourist areas at least when the cruise ships are gone which fit our desires perfectly. There is more interesting night life (and younger folks) around Faros I think if that's your thing.

We did a lot of walking, took a wine tour, a tour a Akrotiri, a day sail with dinner, and we rented a convertible for a day to explore the beachs and a couple of restaurants on the other side of the island. I don't think we had bad meal in the week or so we were there.

It's the most memorable places I've ever been.




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I spent 2 weeks on a boat in the Amazon in 2013. It was right after the rainy season so the water level was 40-50 feet up from what it is in Nov/Dec right before the rainy season starts. I'd love to go back one day, but at the low water mark.

I bought a new camera and lens. I took about 7500 photos. I trimmed it down to ~1500.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62319060@N05/collections/72157634889161015/

I just got back from Portugal. It was a great trip and I highly recommend it. It's beautiful, the people are nice and the roads are incredible. We drove about 2,000 km in two weeks so my one regret is not spending more to rent a BMW or some other better handling car than our diesel Nissan SUV. We did some driving on really rutted dirt roads near the beach so it's good we didn't get something too low. The food was really good but not on par with Spain, France or Italy in my opinion. Hard to beat the low food and wine prices tho.

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Those pictures are amazing. Too bad I can't get the wife on a boat longer than a couple hours.

Guatemala for a week....

First few days in Antigua. Beautiful 900 year-old colonial city. Wonderful people, food, architecture. Active volcanoes puffing smoke on three corners. Stayed at Posada del Angel, a wonderfully small (6 suites) boutique property that was simply amazing.

A couple of days in Guatemala City, then flew to Flores for the drive to Tikal. We stayed at the Coppola property there called La Lancha. Again, an amazingly small boutique on Lake Peten Itza, with secluded individual lodges nestled into the jungle above the lake. Just beyond description really--and Tikal was a bucket list visit. We had a private local guide, which made a difference.

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Stunning!

Absolutely no way to see the Amazon without a lot of boating, whether it's the dry or wet season, that's for sure.

Those were also some great shots that you put up of Portugal.

I've spent a weekend in Portugal with my parents when I was between two years of college. I think it was Albufeira, a small coastal town on the south coast a little east of Faro. My dad was stationed in Rota, Spain which is near Jerez and Cadiz. Portugal was very cool, similar to Spain, but also different. Spain was also a fantastic place. Gibraltar was great. Tangier, meh, didn't really do anything for me.

All the bkreigsr's last week.

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