"Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

the open air food courts are great. Though being smack on the equator, plan on sweating copiously and hydrate accordingly with Tiger lager.

Heading for Singapore on 26th April for roughly a week...partly because there is a lot to see there, but mainly as a reason to try Qatar Airways for the first time (do they really live up to their '5-star' notices?). I'm also going to try Emirates next year (now that they're using the A380 aircraft on their daily run from Dulles - an excellent aircraft from my experiences with it on British Airways)

[Natsinpwc]

the open air food courts are great. Though being smack on the equator, plan on sweating copiously and hydrate accordingly with Tiger lager.

You are correct; was there for business so didn't do much other than walk around some but needed to change clothes and shower like 3 times a day.  Walked through some botanic gardens one day but don't remember the name.

[wj73]

I used to live in San Antonio. There's enough tourist stuff for 2-3 action-packed days, but after that you start pushing it unless you rent a car and do a couple day trips into the TX Hill Country or even Austin (both of which I HIGHLY recommend). Hit me up for visit & especially food suggestions, when it's time!

We're only doing a long weekend, so 2-3 days worth of activities is perfect. And this group never turns down a good food recommendation.  Thanks for the offer of suggestions - will definitely let you know when our plans firm up.

[Natsinpwc]

Heading for Singapore on 26th April for roughly a week...partly because there is a lot to see there, but mainly as a reason to try Qatar Airways for the first time (do they really live up to their '5-star' notices?). I'm also going to try Emirates next year (now that they're using the A380 aircraft on their daily run from Dulles - an excellent aircraft from my experiences with it on British Airways)

It's coming back to me now. Have a cocktail or two at the Raffles Hotel.

[tomterp]

too close to corolla, it won't fly.

Is it miles you're looking for, or a different experience?  Corolla is a sterile, high $ enclave of new, high end mega mansions on the beach. 

If you want to rent a 16 bedroom house on the beach with a pool, it's a great option.

Ocracoke is a polar opposite.  A small village on an isolated island accessible only by ferry, the trip there itself is an adventure.  Blackbeard's lair, a wonderful place to take a boat out for reds or tarpon, and a southern exposure with a warmer climate than Corolla.  It's nothing like Corolla, really. 

[OldChelsea]

the open air food courts are great. Though being smack on the equator, plan on sweating copiously and hydrate accordingly with Tiger lager.

Duly noted, along with the need for mosquito repellent (dengue fever is still a problem there).

[DPMOmaha]

Going on a bit of a roadie in early April. Anyone have a good place to research scenic drives?

[imref]

Is it miles you're looking for, or a different experience?  Corolla is a sterile, high $ enclave of new, high end mega mansions on the beach. 

If you want to rent a 16 bedroom house on the beach with a pool, it's a great option.

Ocracoke is a polar opposite.  A small village on an isolated island accessible only by ferry, the trip there itself is an adventure.  Blackbeard's lair, a wonderful place to take a boat out for reds or tarpon, and a southern exposure with a warmer climate than Corolla.  It's nothing like Corolla, really. 

we ended up picking St. Augustine, thanks for the input everyone.

[GburgNatsFan]

Going on a bit of a roadie in early April. Anyone have a good place to research scenic drives?

Google?

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/the-most-scenic-drive-in-all-50-states-america-s-best-roads-pacific-coast-highway-pikes-peak-route-66

[BrandonK]

Going on a bit of a roadie in early April. Anyone have a good place to research scenic drives?

If there's good weather, nothing beats driving through the Rockies. While I didn't drive as much, the trip north through Maine is pretty cool too. OR/WA would be a nice trip

[HalfSmokes]

The green/white mountains are always nice- less spectacular than the rockies, but lots of old new england towns is you plan it right

[mitlen]

Ridin' the Pacific Coash Highway from Cannery Row south and NE away from I95 are two winning road trips.    Try Route 1 N. out of Brunswick, ME as well.   Bar Harbor and Cadillac MT. are pretty cool.    Lots of lighthouses along that coast.

PS   If you're a golfer, stop by the 17 Mile Drive near Monterey.

[imref]

Closer to home - Great Smokey Mountains in eastern TN to Asheville NC.

[houston-nat]

SOOO jealous you're seeing Hamilton!!!

HAMILTON IS SO GOOD

Seriously, it's the real deal.

[skippy1999]

HAMILTON IS SO GOOD

Seriously, it's the real deal.

I saw one song from it on the Grammys and it was fantastic!! so glad to hear it's all that good!!

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I did a ride up from Phoenix to Denver in about 3 or 4 days that I think was far to fast but amazingly scenic.  Go up through Sedona, up Oak Creek Canyon (lots of switchbacks), up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon overnight.  Then, out through the Painted Desert up towards Monument Valley and Four Corners, into Durango for the next overnight.  Up the "Million Dollar Road towards Ouray, then over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, across Monarch Pass and the Continental Divide, and up to Boulder for the night.  Next night was up to Estes Park, across Rocky Mountain National Park (only spot on the trip where I felt the thin air after walking around a field), exiting on the other end of the road, and going down to Colorado Springs to take in Gallery of the G-ds.  Continued down to Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque the next night, back across NM and Arizona to Flagstaff (stopping at Painted Desert / Petrified Forest, Winslow, and the Giant Crater), then back down to Phoenix the next day with a stop at Montezuma's castle.

Far too rushed, but the sequence from Sedona to Denver was a real highlight.  There's more sites to mix in on the way (Canyon de Chelly, Pike's Peak), and some of these points could really justify a long stay (Grand Canyon for one).  I love Santa Fe and Taos.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

The drive up Mt Washington allows one to go through three seasons in an afternoon (sometimes four).

The green/white mountains are always nice- less spectacular than the rockies, but lots of old new england towns is you plan it right

[tomterp]

The drive up Mt Washington allows one to go through three seasons in an afternoon (sometimes four).

Anybody can drive up, it's the drive down that gets hairy.

Which reminds me of a story.   

Back circa 1984 my two early backpacking era friends and I headed off to the White Mountains for a backpacking trip.  We planned to hike the Presidential Range from Webster across to Mt Washington, but black flies were brutal at the peaks and, demoralized, we hiked out and happily reverted to Plan B - we car camped in a little state park and ate the wild trout we caught and drank beer.  It was good!

But we still hadn't made it up Washington, so the 3 of us and the cooler piled into my Honda Civic and headed up.  On the way we passed two women hiking up the road who we had met on the trail a few days earlier, both also U of Md grads, sturdy mountain women.  When we rendezvous'd at the top they asked for a ride back down as they were exhausted, so of course we agreed.      Then they asked if their friend Bob could also ride.   

So there we were, 6 of us plus the cooler, jammed into my Civic headed down Mount Washington in 1st gear.  After a minute or so I smelled a bad smell - it wasn't just Bob.  I pulled over and got out in the 40 degree, howling winds weather and looked at my front brakes - they were glowing red hot.         Crud.

So from then on, we did three turns and a stop, let the brakes cool, three more stops, etc.  The brake rotors warped a bit but still worked, we never got laid, Bob didn't drink all our beer and we still had a great vacation.  But I always thought those little "This car climbed Mount Washington" bumper stickers were such BS.  If people only knew.

[mitlen]

Anybody can drive up, it's the drive down that gets hairy.

Which reminds me of a story.   

Back circa 1984 my two early backpacking era friends and I headed off to the White Mountains for a backpacking trip.  We planned to hike the Presidential Range from Webster across to Mt Washington, but black flies were brutal at the peaks and, demoralized, we hiked out and happily reverted to Plan B - we car camped in a little state park and ate the wild trout we caught and drank beer.  It was good!

But we still hadn't made it up Washington, so the 3 of us and the cooler piled into my Honda Civic and headed up.  On the way we passed two women hiking up the road who we had met on the trail a few days earlier, both also U of Md grads, sturdy mountain women.  When we rendezvous'd at the top they asked for a ride back down as they were exhausted, so of course we agreed.      Then they asked if their friend Bob could also ride.   

So there we were, 6 of us plus the cooler, jammed into my Civic headed down Mount Washington in 1st gear.  After a minute or so I smelled a bad smell - it wasn't just Bob.  I pulled over and got out in the 40 degree, howling winds weather and looked at my front brakes - they were glowing red hot.         Crud.

So from then on, we did three turns and a stop, let the brakes cool, three more stops, etc.  The brake rotors warped a bit but still worked, we never got laid, Bob didn't drink all our beer and we still had a great vacation.  But I always thought those little "This car climbed Mount Washington" bumper stickers were such BS.  If people only knew.

 

Great story Tom.

[tomterp]

Great story Tom.

I can't tell you how much a couple of road trips with my college buddies have enriched my life experience. 

Someday I'll try to put together a few highlights from my very first backpacking trip, to the Smokies in 1981, in which we traveled in Kyle's '66 Mustang that we had to hot-wire because he'd lost his keys the night before at Merriweather when security beat him up because he was taking a leak along the back fence because he really had to go and the line was too long because there were women in the mens' room.  And when the gas gauge in a '66 Mustang says "E", the engine stops at that very moment.  And we didn't have any dope.  And we didn't know those girls were under 17.

[mitlen]

I can't tell you how much a couple of road trips with my college buddies have enriched my life experience. 

Someday I'll try to put together a few highlights from my very first backpacking trip, to the Smokies in 1981, in which we traveled in Kyle's '66 Mustang that we had to hot-wire because he'd lost his keys the night before at Merriweather when security beat him up because he was taking a leak along the back fence because he really had to go and the line was too long because there were women in the mens' room.  And when the gas gauge in a '66 Mustang says "E", the engine stops at that very moment.  And we didn't have any dope.  And we didn't know those girls were under 17.

Life isn't about what you own.    It's about the stories you can tell.

[tomterp]

Life isn't about what you own.    It's about the stories you can tell.

So few people get that.  I sometime get distracted by shiny things.  And we all like to live in the past, but shoot me when I lose the desire to go out and make new stories.

[GburgNatsFan]

There were always girls in the mens' room at Merriweather.

I can't tell you how much a couple of road trips with my college buddies have enriched my life experience. 

Someday I'll try to put together a few highlights from my very first backpacking trip, to the Smokies in 1981, in which we traveled in Kyle's '66 Mustang that we had to hot-wire because he'd lost his keys the night before at Merriweather when security beat him up because he was taking a leak along the back fence because he really had to go and the line was too long because there were women in the mens' room.  And when the gas gauge in a '66 Mustang says "E", the engine stops at that very moment.  And we didn't have any dope.  And we didn't know those girls were under 17.

[mitlen]

There were always girls in the mens' room at Merriweather.

How 'bout the old Cap Centre   ....   

[Natsinpwc]

Anybody can drive up, it's the drive down that gets hairy.

Which reminds me of a story.   

Back circa 1984 my two early backpacking era friends and I headed off to the White Mountains for a backpacking trip.  We planned to hike the Presidential Range from Webster across to Mt Washington, but black flies were brutal at the peaks and, demoralized, we hiked out and happily reverted to Plan B - we car camped in a little state park and ate the wild trout we caught and drank beer.  It was good!

But we still hadn't made it up Washington, so the 3 of us and the cooler piled into my Honda Civic and headed up.  On the way we passed two women hiking up the road who we had met on the trail a few days earlier, both also U of Md grads, sturdy mountain women.  When we rendezvous'd at the top they asked for a ride back down as they were exhausted, so of course we agreed.      Then they asked if their friend Bob could also ride.   

So there we were, 6 of us plus the cooler, jammed into my Civic headed down Mount Washington in 1st gear.  After a minute or so I smelled a bad smell - it wasn't just Bob.  I pulled over and got out in the 40 degree, howling winds weather and looked at my front brakes - they were glowing red hot.         Crud.

So from then on, we did three turns and a stop, let the brakes cool, three more stops, etc.  The brake rotors warped a bit but still worked, we never got laid, Bob didn't drink all our beer and we still had a great vacation.  But I always thought those little "This car climbed Mount Washington" bumper stickers were such BS.  If people only knew.

Cool story. I took a road trip out west with a friend back in 84. I had a fairly new Honda Prelude that apparently had some sort of vapor lock issue and conked out when it hit a certain altitude. So it died  about two thirds of the way up Pikes Peak. Had to turn around on the road. That was scary. It happened again a couple days later in another one of the parks. Never happened again so never figured out what it was.