Memorial Day Weekend Travel: Or How I Struggled Picking a Destination
/ Lauren
I have Memorial Day Monday off, since my SO is away working, I decided a mini-weekend vacation is in order. Easier said than done when you're indecisive.
At first, I thought Quebec. I've never been, it has beautiful Old World charm, good food...and unfortunately no good plane itinerary from Bay Area that would work for me to get there and have actual time to do things, and it meant 6am or around there in way too early in morning flights. No. Sadly, pass for now.
Then I thought New Orleans. I have 30k Virgin Elevates points in my account, I could use points and fly SFO to Dallas and then Southwest to New Orleans, right? Well, same problem with itineraries and the cost just wasn't where I needed it to be.
So after mulling it over, one of my friends and elite grade travel hacker Tuan suggested Portland. I have wanted to visit, I know a few people who live there, it's a short haul, my Virgin points could get me there, it's really walkable...
So I will be going to Portland, OR over Memorial Day for some food, booze, and taking it the local sights. It's also a good excuse to test drive out the Tortuga Air backpack I've just bought. And because I'm a planning nerd, I have itemized out loosely what I want to do in TripIt, which is a very useful travel app for storing itineraries and travel info, and you can share itineraries with other users.
Here is my game plan of places to check out:
Coming up next on blog with Portland on the agenda- Hilton Portland & Executive Towers review, Tortuga Air review, and 36 Hours in Portland travelogue.
We departed lovely Rothenberg after a brief overnight and decided to help for the Alps to go look at the very famous Neuwanschtein Castle. My bestie is a big Disney fan, so really, when in Germany...you take the Romantic Road there of course! Maybe it's hyped up marketing, maybe it's cliched, but I liked the drive as we buzzed along surface roads and took a break from the Autobahn.
I have longed to go to Rothenberg ob der Tauber for a very long time, mostly due to a single image of a beautifully quaint little yellow house set against what looked to be a village straight out of a storybook.
It was, literally, planes, trains, and automobiles for me to get from San Francisco to Heidelberg. After some mixups with Air Berlin where they had eliminated a leg in my outbound itinerary and never actually told me, I changed my routing and instead of landing in Frankfurt and taking an easy train ride or hour-long shuttle, I ended up landing in Dusseldorf and taking 3 train connections without a seat. Fun times!
But getting to Heidelberg was worth it. Once I got to the main station and on the bus taking me the short drive over to the Aldstadt area, I was pleased to find the routing takes you along the Neckar River. Once I got off the bus, I was in love.
I went to Germany for the first in the end of May, visiting the college town of Heidelberg, the super charming, fairy-tale town of Rothenberg ob der Tauber, a quick afternoon on the Romantic Road down to Schwangau, and then ending in Munich. I wasn't sure what to expect from Germany, and a few very minor language barrier issues and my awful pronunciation of käse aside, Germany proved to be pretty incredible although not without a few frustrations with some rental car woes (always check if there's a deposit hold when using a debit card and always take photo and video of where you parked when you return the car). But that aside, me and my best friend saw and experienced some awesome things.
Lately life has been so busy that it's felt a bit like struggling to keep my head above water. So when feels like they're drowning with the everyday pressures of life, what better way to destress than take a plunge under the sea? I don't know about you, but it's hard to be completely full of despair in the face of otters being cute and adorable.
Disneyland's first Festival of Holidays is well underway and appearing at California Adventure through January 8th. As a fan of Epcot Food & Wine at Disney World, I wanted to see how these holiday booth small plate offerings compared to the ones at International Showcase.
There are 14 booths featured in the festival, all with different holiday-themed foods and some featuring special cocktails and wines. They're laid out over one stretch of walkway just past the entrance of California Adventure as you walk towards the direction of Paradise Pier. And don't worry, a big sign for the event will make sure you know where it is.
So is this new offering a success? Well.....yes and no. Disneyland has some things they need to tweak if they want to do future holiday festivals like this. But first, the food.
With round two of London accomplished, I thought I'd share my Top London Travel Tips for those who might be first or second-time goers to this amazing town. It might be some familiar bits for the veteran world wanderers, but hopefully there's a few nuggets of wisdom you might not have heard yet or will inspire your future travels to what is, basically, my current favorite city in the world.
Before you think about dropping a lot of quid on a black cab, or think you absolutely must fly into London Heathrow, take a pause and read on, because you might not necessarily require either things for a great trip, but you should probably still bring an umbrella.
Once, it was the most powerful and important city in the world; before New York, before London, and and anywhere else, Rome was a bonafide powerhouse. From its fabled beginnings as a town formed by two brothers nursed by a she-wolf, this settlement along the Tiber river soon grew into the epicenter of one of the most sprawling empires the world would ever know. Kings gave way to Emperors, a Senate was born, and much of current practices, law, business, and governments to name a few can be tied back to to this place and its people.
As they say, when in Rome.
With the weather hot and this ancient city before us, it was time for Roaming Holiday to finally have a Roman holiday.
When you think of Florence, it's impossible not to think of the beautiful, massive Duomo and Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Of Ponte Vecchio and Piazza della Repubblica. Of Uffizi Gallery and all the lingering presence of Renaissance Tuscany. These are the familiar touchstones for tourists flocking to see pieces of beautiful history and perhaps imagining just for a moment that at any moment they might pass Michelangelo in the streets.
It is a city easy to see in a single day, but worth spending more in.
We arrived after our brief Alpine adventure to Munich, staying at Schiller5 Hotel, a rather great and affordable option on a side street across from the main train station in an area that is, frankly, not great. It's just a bit shabby and a bit too modern is a brutally ugly way. But needs (and budgets) must and despite the neighborhood not being utterly idyllic, the hotel itself was really nice and the staff really friendly. So if you're looking for budget, convenience to public transport (which LOL WE WILL GET TO IN A BIT), but without sacrificing quality, then Schiller5 is a good bet.
Anyways, I'm not sure what I expected of fair München. Maybe it was being based in a less historical, kind of iffy neighborhood. Maybe it was that Rothenberg, Heidelberg, and the Alps were so freaking charming and quaint, but I found myself a bit disenchanted with Munich, maybe unfairly so.