I travel to the US once a year with work, we haven't travelled yet internationally as a family, I'd really like to hear some stories, not just a list of cities and maybe highlight a particular one or two that were really special.
I've been sick in bed since Friday and looking for some nice biographical length reading so write your hearts out!
You could get the ball rolling but then it would just end up being one of those topics you enter and the first 500 comments are greyed out
Only been out of the country once and that was to NZ, Travelled the whole south island in a campa and really loved Queenstown. Climbing up to go on the luge's down the snowy mountain with family was a great memory as well as going up the next day to do some paragliding, Was a damn long trek but was worth it seeing everyone smiling. Icy mountains ment everyone was falling (I found it quite hilarious) not many others did though lol. Would love to go back there again with the family.
Ah Queenstown, I have fond memories of the Sofitel breakfasts and fergberger (size of my head, took me 45 mins to eat). We made custom jumpers, went on the shot over jet, gave a hitchhiker a ride to Alexandria, visited Milford sound (which was hard because of poor weather for the plans and then a bit of a let down compared to Queenstown).
I loved Queenstown, some very fond memories of the place, we will definitely be taking the kids when they are older.
You made me hungry, You'll defiantly have to take them there. However would love to visit other places, Love to see what other people write. Following this thread!
Hope it catches on!
5:30am at 32 meters underwater with Thresher sharks swimming around me, so close I could have touched them if I'd reached out. It was at Monad Shoal, off Malapascua Island in the Philippines and was one of the most incredibly serene moments of my life.
The only thing that comes close to that was jumping out of a perfectly good plane from 15,000ft.
I could think of nothing more terrifying, all I would have seen would have been bubbles from my muffled screaming.
I have been skydiving (another Queenstown one) - the climb is far more frightening than the jump or fall I think
What do you think?
Haha. I agree skydiving was most scary up until the point that you fall out of the plane. It's all the build up that messes with your head. Once you're falling, the world is rushing by so fast you don't have time to process it and feel fear, then suddenly it's silence after the chute goes off and you just float. I'd do it again for the right occasion
As for the sharks, I am in love with them. I've had a few more chances in the last few months, most recently with Grey Nurse Sharks off Maroubra (Sydney). They're more scared of us than we are of them.
Aside from the unpickable wedgie and awkward broner from the tandem instructor, the floating down and seeing the view slowly was my favourite part
@toristo, Tandem or solo jump?
New Zealand. Not far and so easy to do independently. Hire a car and drive all those 2 lane roads with no visual pollution. Driving over the hill and seeing the magnificent blue of Lake Tekapo. Glacial icebergs around Mt Cook. They are so prepared for tourists… every town you enter has its "i-site" with info and maps. Most motels had guest laundries.
Turkey and a few other countries last year but Turkey was a stand out. Would recommend doing an organised tour. The tour guides work very hard and are so knowledgeable.Great value for money holiday but you must do the hot air balloon flight over the Cappadoccia region.
South Africa a couple of years ago. Loved Capetown and the Garden Route. Food and wine were fantastic. Game parks in Tanzania and Kenya. Very expensive but on my bucket list for a long time.
Did a Bill Peach "aircruise" of northern Australia with my Dad…. I was the youngest and he was the oldest. It's a type of travel that I could certainly get used to. Fly everywhere but you never go inside an airport terminal or wait. Your coach takes you right to your aircraft steps for every flight, so no airport security either.
That's just the past 6 years or so. Our son is moving to San Diego next month for a couple of years so that will be the next destination.
Hope you are feeling better. There's nothing like the anticipation of a forthcoming holiday to pass your time
ill love to hear of your exploits in San Diego, I'll be going to Washington, D.C. and I'm thinking San Francisco when I head over in January.
I love Florida, bit of a Disney freak but I did really enjoy the Everglades and Key Largo.
I was in Orlando this January and stayed at the Disney swan and dolphin if you know that one. The boardwalk was quite entertaining but the standout was the transformers right at universal studios, the 3D and mechanics was just mind blowing on that particular ride.
I watched the behind the scenes video on Youtube to see how it was done, very interesting.
Yes I know that one, I have timeshare so never stayed there though.
There's always something different in Orlando, some interesting projects going on and just about to start. The new Star Wars attraction sounds interesting.
I'm not so sure about "Disney Springs", seems to be more a shopping "thing". I miss Pleasure Island, that was really something.
Haven't seen the transformers at Universal Studios but I can imagine how it'd be.
Around Christmas in the parks is amazing, all sorts going on.
Last time we went (for 3 and a half weeks) was back in 2010 for best part of December. What a disaster!!!! It was the worst winter they'd had for years!!!! Normally it's around 20-25c during the day, 10c at night with occasional frost. BUT, that winter, they had mainly 10c's during the day and frost most nights. I was totally p'd off!!! Our daughter was only 7 and had never been so I booked one of the Marriott resorts with a fantastic water park………they kept it closed because it was so cold and frosty :/
Sorry to hear that, it really sucks you got caught out by the weather. I'm going to look up the Star Wars thing, sounds interesting.
Time share? Like buying a place with a bunch of strangers?
@clickship: Yes, very disappointing. My dad flew from UK to join us for a couple of weeks, he had a bad journey because of all the snow. Airports closing all over the place! He had to stay over in Amsterdam on the return journey because of closures.
Here's some info on the Star Wars project: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-star-wars…
Timeshare: You buy into a week's ownership of a resort. Some are only leasehold and not worth it but if you pick right it's well worth it.
I bought into mainly Floridian ones as they're popular. Also because they have something called "lock-off". Fairly big units you can "break" in 2 by having a door locked. This gives you 2 weeks for the price of 1 (smaller area but it's only for sleeping!)
You do pay maintenance every year, which covers everything in the resort but when you break it down to 2 weeks accommodation per year it's pretty good. The first one I bought years ago, Club Sevilla, costs about US$700 a year in maintenance so that works out as $350 a week for really good accommodation. You never have to stay there if you don't want to either. You can "bank" those weeks with an exchange company. It does cost you to exchange to another resort but still worth it. We've stayed all over the place. At the moment, Club Sevilla is selling off remaining units for US$1,000 which is a really good price. I'm thinking about getting another!
I have dozens of stories. just a few here:
whilst living in Japan - leaving the Ichikawa fireworks festival (they had a firework so large that they used a helicopter to drop it as they couldn't use a "rocket" to launch it). My wife was sick of fireworks after over an hour of nonstop explosions , whilst I loved it. I had dinked her there on the back of my bike along the river side track from our house to the festival. mrs altomic therefore had to ride through the crowds on the way home whilst I sat facing backwards as the fireworks continued to explode.
In Russia (Vladisvostock) - 14 years ago - we had prebooked a room in a canadian owned hotel for only a couple of nights and then had assumed it would be easy to find another hotel in the city centre. it quickly turned out we guessed wrong. every hotel we went to was booked up. we asked ever so politely and were turned back by blank faced staff. finally returning to the first hotel we had tried (a glorious tribute to soviet architecture) I marched up to the counter and demanded a room. straight faced and extremely stern (like when you're really telling off your kids). The staffs attitude immediately changed and they found us a room and were then extremely polite. downstairs they had a ballroom where we went that night and listened to opera.
Hitchhiking from Vienna into Hungary - this guy in a BMW 3M picked us up. it was my first experience on an autobahn. it was bizarre going 170kms for the first time. the guy didn't speak a word of english. He dropped us off in Gyor and we caught a train to Budapest.
That sounds awesome, I wish your Russia trip was more recent but in case memories fresh. What time of year did you go? Is it freezing there?
Coldest I've been was Atlanta, Georgia, -6 i think and that was too cold to leave the hotel for me
-6 is cold.
Vladisvostock was in August. it was a great time of the year. when it's cold there then it is very cold. it was sort bizarre travelling there as my wife and I had been living in Japan for a couple of years already and had travelled to pretty much every asian country. So everything was different and we stood out for being different. a few years prior to Japan we had both separately travelled around Europe (especially eastern europe). Vladisvostock was like eastern europe dropped into Asia. architecture, food, people and attitudes were exactly the same - but it was only 2 hours from our house in Japan!! Sapporo in Northern Japan was the coldest I experienced with -14 (not counting the wind chill).
Another time my wife and I took a passenger ship from Osaka to Shanghai the day before christmas. it took 48 hours (slow boat to China). we were travelling on the cheap so we stayed in the huge segregated rooms -almost tennis court size room for men with futon bed rolls and a more private large dorm room for women and children. such a relaxing trip. we had worked 14 days straight to get the time off and were exhausted when we got on the ship. (combined with the fact that we had caught an overnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka). we slept most of the time as the gentle rolling of the ship upon the waves was extremely calming. nearly all of the passengers became sea sick. we were fine and enjoyed the food and strolling around and having naps. at one point we entered one of the lounges and most of the passengers (Japanese nationals) were crowded around the TV and pointing at the screen and talking in serious tones. The TV was showing the news which in turn showed a view of the sea, several helicopters and some ships from the Japanese self defence force. Turns out that a North Korean spy boat had been sunk 5 kms from where we were sailing.
Wow that's an amazing story, spy boat - I wonder what that even looks like
A good first place to visit as a family might be Singapore! Its got a bit of everything and its so dam safe. I know many people don't like it, buts that because the place is expensive lol. If you're not a complete stingy you will have a ball of a time.
Food to attractions is great.
I've been to Singapore several times and to be honest I don't rate the food across where I have been, maybe just be my taste. I do enjoy the humidity but I know for a fact my wife hates it. It's not a bad idea considering they are English speaking too making it easier
I also love Singapore, I can't get enough of it!
I love the cleanliness, safety, and the ease of getting around. People often say it is sterile and boring, but I don't see it that way. The MTR is fantastic, and it is the only place I trust taxi drivers not to rip me off, though I rarely use taxis.
Every time I go there are more new things to see and do. They have upped their game in that department, as tourism is important to them. They now see the need to be providing new things to see and do, to get people coming back. The Zoo, the new River Safari (which I will be seeing in a few weeks time), the Gardens by the Bay, Botanical Gardens, etc etc, are all fantastic.
Food wise, there is plenty of western stuff if you are not adventurous. On my last few trips I have ventured out to the hawker stalls for my meals without any problems. So much cheaper than Maccas, and better food. The satays are Lau Pa Sat are great.
I think it is an ideal place for first time travellers, to dip their toes in the water of international travel.
Having said that, I also enjoy Hong Kong and Malaysia. Not as clean, but vibrant and interesting.
Ive been to quite a few places but honesty my best memories are probably from new zealand. great value for money going to nz there is so much to do and suits really any age group.
Give us a list.
Prague - walking around in prague in the freezing cold (-15c) with only a jumper. what was meant to be a short walk from charles bridge to the town centre ended up being what felt like two hours. I left my jacket on the bus with the advice it was a short walk and the bus would meet us in the middle.
finding my mate sleeping in a dumpster because he got lost whilst drunk and rather than pass out and freeze to death he jumped into a dumpster.
having a panic attack in Amsterdam and not 'remembering' where i was staying because the street looked 'too dark' to walk down. Ending up debating for half an hour whether or not it was the correct street, which it was. Also standing on top of a 'very' steep stair case and not being able to force myself to walk down them.
kayaking in van vieng in Laos. I gave my safety helmet to a girl I was with because there weren't enough to go around. We overturned our kayak and during our rescue she got whacked in the head a few times by over head tree branches. lucky for her she was wearing a helmet.
So many more memories =D
Wow those were crazy stories. How did you find your friend in a random dumpster? That's amazing!
Where to start, and in no particular chronological order…
Flying into Queenstown, NZ, between the mountains that start at about 15000 feet, feeling like you are riding some kind of Airbus A320 roller coaster.
Driving a Toyota prototype on a German autobahn and watching the eyes of the drivers in the mirrors of their BMWs and Benzes, in the fast lane, see me coming and thinking, "No, that can't be right!" before they moved over. It was a turbocharged Yaris and it did 210kmh.
Asking to change notes for quarters at the counter of a laundrette in Denver, Colorado, and realising that the lady who ran the place was an Aussie war bride who moved there in 1946, before which she had lived a mile from where I grew up in Melbourne.
Walking into NYC's Grand Central Terminal when it opened at 5:20am on a Sunday to catch a train to Connecticut and having the whole main concourse to myself for about 4 seconds.
Sitting in a group spa in Denmark with my then-GF (and they do not bother with swimwear in Denmark) and making friends with a local couple. We didn't speak any Danish, they didn't speak any English. Had dinner together, communicating with a few words of German and hand signals, never laughed so much in my life.
Getting lost in Redondo Beach in LA, and getting picked up by a young guy in a Kombi — who had the same last name as me. Turned out his dad was a distant cousin and they put my mate and me up for 2 nights.
Walking into what I thought was a restaurant in Interlaken, Switzerland, to ask for a table, only to realise that it wasn't a restaurant, it was a family's home.
Riding the Maglev train between Shanghai and the airport. It does over 450kmh!
Playing soccer against about 20 kids in a park next to the Youth Hostel in Oslo, Norway. We played until it was dark — which in summer, is about 11pm.
Realising that the street vending machine in Osaka, Japan, sold tins of coffee either chilled or heated, both delish; and that the one next to it sold underpants (but none in my size).
Tapas and shots of I still don't know what at a tiny cafe inside a huge market in Barcelona, at 9am.
Sitting in a gazebo on the edge of the Mekong river in southern Vietnam, with my wife, eating a local speciality, a whole elephant fish wok friend in ginger. With beers, the bill was $12. Seems like only last week; hang on, it WAS last week!
haha I love the part about Switzerland. I was thinking about going to nyc next year but now I'm too scared about Morgan freemans grand daughter was stabbed to death!
Spain is getting higher on my list since the weather seems to be quite good from what I read online
Bad things happen everywhere and it is sad about that poor girl. But I have never felt in danger in NYC; in fact, I feel safer there than I do in Melbourne, and I have taken my wife and kids through Manhattan and Harlem (where we stayed for a week in an apartment in the 140s).
Go to NYC, you will never regret it.
Spain is great too!
Okay I might do it in January!!
@mskeggs: of course but I get sent to the US for work every January anyway so it's the most opportune to get a slice.
I have been to quite a few places in my travels over the last 45 odd years.
I love London and Singapore, but Boston in the US is another favourite place. New York is an experience! Disneyland, DisneyWorld and Universal Studios are all standout memories. I want to go back as there is so many new things now since I last went more than 20 years ago.
I have two major travel memories, but they are not places, but experiences I guess.
One was flying on the Concorde, something I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would ever be able to do. I flew from New York to London on Concorde, and it was fantastic.
Second great memory, sitting in the Cockpit of a Qantas 747 for the approach and landing into London Heathrow Airport. Yes, it was a long time ago, but it is something that no-one (other than flight crew) will be able to do again.
Where wouldn't I want to miss in New York?
It appears no one has replied to this comment! ;) I was just in the process of writing my own until I scrolled up. ahem
And of course, the typical tourist stuff like the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, etc etc ;)
Lots of fun stories here.
I'll just talk about trips I've taken with my kids.
My eldest daughter's first trip was to France when she was 4 months old, but that is cheating a bit as we were living in the UK. We took her to Australia before she was 1yro. I reckon long flights are ok for under 2yro, but they are a pain for most kids after that until 10yro or whenever you can reason with them (maybe 25yro for some!).
We hired a camper around NZ South Island when she was 5 and her little brother was 2. A great holiday for kids, as it has the fun or the camper and plenty of amazing nature etc. for adults. Standing on the lake outside Queenstown and looking across the still water to snowcapped mountains, good stuff.
Next was Phuket with 8, 5 and 2yro. We got an over night flight that works well for kids.
My big girl was old enough to start appreciating the difference in cultures. Rode an elephant which I now understand is a bit controversial, but a once in a life experience all the same.
Next Fiji with 4 kids now between 2yro and 10yro. We stayed in a beach resort and discovered the pleasure of a kids club while mum and dad lazed around.
A bit later, Singapore and Malaysia, youngest is 4yro. A cruddy sleeper train to Penang is probably my fondest memory, great and cheap, and waking up at Butterworth to catch the ferry to Georgetown as the sun rose.
A year ago we all went to Vietnam. A great spot, although my then 5yro daughter with almost waist length curly hair (imagine Nicole Kidman circa BMX bandits) got attention everywhere, to the point she was giving old ladies the evil eye and saying "hands off!" Ha Long Bay was magnificent, and eating noodles on a wood bench down by the river in Hoi An as the lanterns came alight was amazing.
In October we'll be off to Bali, which will come close to ticking off our neighbourhood countries. Maybe South America next…
In all those, we never had a medical issue worse than an ear ache (and my big girl carries a pretty serious peanut allergy). We had a few inconveniences like a flight cancelled, and a car bingle. We found people love to meet our kids and we get a great welcome wherever we go. In Vietnam I had more than one local shake my hand in congratulations for having a larger family ;-)
I have found taking my kids into a different culture has been awesome.
That's really encouraging as we have been thinking about taking out 2 ducks out for a wander. I think we are going to start with a slightly longer domestic to qld somewhere to maybe hop over to Bali.
I did a bit of a "midlife crisis" thing early a few years ago now,and traveled around Europe for 3 months.The best memory i have is when i was in Paris…i fantasised for three years of walking those cobbled streets in an amazing dress and heels at night after a going up the Eiffel Tower,and when i did i was bought to tears (made working two jobs for 2 years worthwhile).
Then,5 years later i returned (with hubby this time) and we did the same thing.This time though,i walked past a photo shoot for Vogue that was happening and i thought life was amazing (it's a girl thing).A trip to Austria to do whitewater rafting was also pretty darn cool (literally and metaphorically )
I am forever planning a month long July trip to France!!
Don't do it in July, I did last month and there were a ton of people with extreme heat. You will be queued at every attraction points, so better buy tickets well ahead. I guess the right time for Paris would be May-June or August-September.
Maybe August then, I want to go when the weather is perfect
I went in October last year. Cool but comfortable.
DO IT clickship.You will see life with new eyes (yes,it can be busy as all getout in July,BUT what price can you put on being there on July 14….worth every minute and personally,i didn't experience heaps of waiting or queues).
what is the significance of july 14?
I'm learning towards your advice as your username suits….
Bastille day.
Bastille Day.The nation's version of Australia day.
It marks the storming of the Bastille (prison) during the French Revolution.
It begins with a massive parade along the Champs in the morning(flyovers by the fighter jets and all) and ends in the most amazing fireworks,sound and light show over Madame Eiffel that night.Truly a sight to behold.
@parisienne: that sounds awesome - tell me, are savoury croissants common in Paris? Ham cheese tomato or alike
@clickship: Oui.They are around,but not as common as a baguette with those kind of fillings.
From my experience,croissants are more a brekky thing….and preferably covered in butter (Lurpak.I was never so happy as when i saw they got that here in Oz.Get some) or Nuttela (that stuff is literally everywhere in Europe.I like Nuttela,but couldn't look at it for weeks when i came home…but,if France is not on the agenda for a while,get some croissants,some Nuttela,Lurpak and watch the Ozsale site for when they get items from a Paris restaurant whose name escapes me right now)
I need to explore the world more often…only been as far as Asia…. Philippines is a nice place to visit albiet still a developing nation, you can see it on the streets in some of the areas I went to you see the beggars etc but the food, the drinks, the clothing is all really cheap…. Hong Kong is a very modern city with fast reliable transport, lots of major brand names around and such… Also visited Macao gamblers paradise… like Asia's Las Vegas it was full of casinos on every street corner… a few big department stores and for a small island very overcrowded as expected since it is part of China… Next on the list is NZ, England and the USA…
Taking my daughters to Both Disneyland and Disneyworld was incredible, their faces I will never forget.
Also Grand Canyon and Monument valley was some of the best views I have ever taken in. won't ever forget.
What ages were they when you took them?
There could be a really good mom joke here