Vacation Thread

[Gurgie]

Noticed we didn't have one of these, guessing that people post in the "happy" thread?

Anyways, I'm Alberta bound this coming Sunday with 3 buddies. Flying out to Calgary & then driving up to Panorama for 5 nights & 4 days of skiing, hoping we get some snow while we're there, forecast is looking good temps wise, but not much snow in the forecast. They had an outstanding December with record like snow, but January has been pretty dry as has much of February so far. Even if we can get 10cms one night, that'll be enough for us to find some fresh tracks for a few days. We're spending Friday night in Calgary before flying back on Saturday, so we'll look to hit the town Friday night.

[Firm]

Sounds like a good trip...4 full days of skiing is a lot, I'd be burnt out, lol.
We're driving back up to Mississauga for a few days over March break, see the family and take care of a few things that are easier done in-person. We'll do a week or two in our usual spot in Pensacola Beach in June/July, and I recently booked a 4-day weekend for Mrs.Firm and a girlfriend of hers in NYC in May....She's never been and wants to see it, I've been plenty for work and have no desire to spend more time there, and I had enough Delta & Marriot points to cover the flight & hotel. She doesn't get away from the kids much, so she's pretty excited to go.

[RRocket]

Sounds like a good trip...4 full days of skiing is a lot, I'd be burnt out, lol.

I don't think the skiing would burn you out.

It's the "festivities" after the day of skiing that would be problematic! LOL 😆

[Firm]

My tolerance for those activities is better than for skiing 

[Oliver]

Heading to Mexico in less than two weeks with some friends. Staying in the same Airbnb we stayed in two years ago with the exact same group. This will be our fifth time going to that area. Not much is planned aside from an afternoon on a sailboat. Have done that a couple times in the past and it's a lot of fun.

Gonna have to use up a lot of vacation time this year. Also planning to go to Italy in July (we have tickets to see My Chemical Romance in Florence) and then heading to Buenos Aires and Uruguay with my dad and brothers for two weeks in November.

Already planning some 2027 stuff too, looking like I may go to Munich for Oktoberfest with some friends who are then going golfing in Ireland. I'll be skipping the golf but I might join them in Dublin for a couple nights and then meet up with my dad in Berlin and then go to Poland so I can see where his family is from (his parents grew up outside of Gdansk).

[Gurgie]

Sounds like a good trip...4 full days of skiing is a lot, I'd be burnt out, lol.

I don't think the skiing would burn you out.

It's the "festivities" after the day of skiing that would be problematic! LOL 😆

Yeah, the apres ski can be the dangerous part... but with a serious day out, might be too bagged to go too hard at apres

The buddies I'm going with aren't super hard core (not like when I went with Vman & Evil Twin to Utah, fuck me!) so the skiing won't be too intense unless I take off on my own for a few runs... which I probably will do when the legs are fresh still   Cool part in Panorama is they have complimentary tours with their "Mountain Friends" program where you ski with a local that guide you around for a couple of hours, so I'll probably take part in that at least once, if not twice if my buddies pull the chute early one day.

[Gurgie]

Heading to Mexico in less than two weeks with some friends. Staying in the same Airbnb we stayed in two years ago with the exact same group. This will be our fifth time going to that area. Not much is planned aside from an afternoon on a sailboat. Have done that a couple times in the past and it's a lot of fun.

Gonna have to use up a lot of vacation time this year. Also planning to go to Italy in July (we have tickets to see My Chemical Romance in Florence) and then heading to Buenos Aires and Uruguay with my dad and brothers for two weeks in November.

Already planning some 2027 stuff too, looking like I may go to Munich for Oktoberfest with some friends who are then going golfing in Ireland. I'll be skipping the golf but I might join them in Dublin for a couple nights and then meet up with my dad in Berlin and then go to Poland so I can see where his family is from (his parents grew up outside of Gdansk).

WOW, that's planning way out in advance, awesome!!!

Bella & I are looking at Italy/Croatia this summer, probably 3 weeks starting late August. We're looking at flying into Venice from Montreal & then renting a car & heading to Ljubljana Slovenia for a night & then off towards Zagreb Croatia after. Then tour around Croatia for a while, my buddy has a place about 40mins from Zagreb, then my Aunt has a place on the coast close to Split, so we'll head there as well. Good chance my aunt will be there, as well as her daughter who lives in New Zealand, so it would be nice to see her. Hard to plan that far out, but kinda have to with these bigger trips I guess.

[Tortoise]

I don't think the skiing would burn you out.

Oh yeah. A few days of skiing hard out west will fry your legs. After 3 days I usually liked a day off to recover.

Cool part in Panorama is they have complimentary tours with their "Mountain Friends" program where you ski with a local that guide you around for a couple of hours, so I'll probably take part in that at least once, if not twice if my buddies pull the chute early one day.

Great call, we did that at Big Mountain Montana on the first day when we were there for a few days. We were shown all kinds of lines that we never would have discovered. This is my eldest's last year of racing, REALLY hoping to get out west next year.

[Oliver]

Heading to Mexico in less than two weeks with some friends. Staying in the same Airbnb we stayed in two years ago with the exact same group. This will be our fifth time going to that area. Not much is planned aside from an afternoon on a sailboat. Have done that a couple times in the past and it's a lot of fun.

Gonna have to use up a lot of vacation time this year. Also planning to go to Italy in July (we have tickets to see My Chemical Romance in Florence) and then heading to Buenos Aires and Uruguay with my dad and brothers for two weeks in November.

Already planning some 2027 stuff too, looking like I may go to Munich for Oktoberfest with some friends who are then going golfing in Ireland. I'll be skipping the golf but I might join them in Dublin for a couple nights and then meet up with my dad in Berlin and then go to Poland so I can see where his family is from (his parents grew up outside of Gdansk).

WOW, that's planning way out in advance, awesome!!!

Bella & I are looking at Italy/Croatia this summer, probably 3 weeks starting late August. We're looking at flying into Venice from Montreal & then renting a car & heading to Ljubljana Slovenia for a night & then off towards Zagreb Croatia after. Then tour around Croatia for a while, my buddy has a place about 40mins from Zagreb, then my Aunt has a place on the coast close to Split, so we'll head there as well. Good chance my aunt will be there, as well as her daughter who lives in New Zealand, so it would be nice to see her. Hard to plan that far out, but kinda have to with these bigger trips I guess.

If you enjoy prosecco it could be worth heading north from Venice for a bit and seeing the area around Valdobbiadene.

I'd highly recommend spending some time in the Istrian peninsula as well. We stayed in Trieste then drove down to Koper and then stuck close to the coastline on our way to stay in Rovinj which is a very neat little town. Pula is also cool, it has one of the largest Roman amphitheaters that is well preserved. Another interesting thing to see are the so-called hill towns which are these medieval towns built on top of hills. Motovun was the one we visited.

I believe most of the Istrian peninsula used to be part of the city-state of Venice so there is a lot of Italian influence, from multilingual road signs to the food.

We also really enjoyed the coastal drive from Rijeka to Zadar. Beautiful scenery that for me rivals Route 1 in California.

[Gurgie]

If you enjoy prosecco it could be worth heading north from Venice for a bit and seeing the area around Valdobbiadene.

I'd highly recommend spending some time in the Istrian peninsula as well. We stayed in Trieste then drove down to Koper and then stuck close to the coastline on our way to stay in Rovinj which is a very neat little town. Pula is also cool, it has one of the largest Roman amphitheaters that is well preserved. Another interesting thing to see are the so-called hill towns which are these medieval towns built on top of hills. Motovun was the one we visited.

I believe most of the Istrian peninsula used to be part of the city-state of Venice so there is a lot of Italian influence, from multilingual road signs to the food.

We also really enjoyed the coastal drive from Rijeka to Zadar. Beautiful scenery that for me rivals Route 1 in California.

Thanks for the pointers. We're still in the early stages of planning, but we're gonna spend a few days outside of Zagreb visiting with my friend & from there we'll do a couple of day trips to Zagreb & the small village where my parents were born. Then head to the coast, we plan to pretty much drive from Dubrovnik up to coast back to Venice, so we'll hit Split, Zibenik, Rijeka, Opatija, Trieste, etc... I want to hit Pula as well to see the amphitheater. My cousin & his family saw Lenny Kravitz there a few years back when they were visiting Croatia  Lots to see & do, but we're only gonna take 3 weeks in total and plan on spending our last couple of nights in Venice as well... feels like I need 6 weeks for this trip, LOL!!

[Johnnymac]

Got to say I'm a little jealous of all the great trips people have planned.  Not that I'm some big world traveler, but it is nice to get away from the norm and explore a new place. 

With our two pups being handfuls, and our puppy sitter stuck in NL (due to a dying husband), I don't see any trips for Johnnny this year, or if so just day stuff around NB. 

I sort of have a love hate relationship with travelling.  I get a lot of anxiety beforehand but am fine the day of.  I also find that I appreciate a trip a lot more after it's over and I reflect back on it, not sure if that's a normal thing or not.

[Blueprint]

Florence - oh soooo pretty! We spent 4 nights there, Fall 2023, before heading out to Tuscany by car.

This April we're doing 12 days in the Netherlands, renting a car for the final 24 hrs to explore the areas North of Amsterdam a bit, then drive straight to the airport. $100 CDN for 24 hrs, cheap by Euro standards and no need for a shuttle, taxi or whatever to the airport.

[GreatBigAbyss]

I sort of have a love hate relationship with travelling.  I get a lot of anxiety beforehand but am fine the day of.  I also find that I appreciate a trip a lot more after it's over and I reflect back on it, not sure if that's a normal thing or not.

I usually find it impossible to fall asleep the night before a major trip of any kind. 

[Johnnymac]

I sort of have a love hate relationship with travelling.  I get a lot of anxiety beforehand but am fine the day of.  I also find that I appreciate a trip a lot more after it's over and I reflect back on it, not sure if that's a normal thing or not.

I usually find it impossible to fall asleep the night before a major trip of any kind. 

I rarely have trouble sleeping, mind you my sleep "hygiene" and routine is pretty extensive.  But the night before a big trip is always hard, but never the night before going home.

[Oliver]

I sort of have a love hate relationship with travelling.  I get a lot of anxiety beforehand but am fine the day of.  I also find that I appreciate a trip a lot more after it's over and I reflect back on it, not sure if that's a normal thing or not.

I usually find it impossible to fall asleep the night before a major trip of any kind. 

Our flight next Saturday is at 5:45 AM which means getting up super early and then having a long day of travel ahead of us. Hopefully I'll have some energy to go out for dinner once we get to our Airbnb in Mexico... A mere 16 hours later.