Travel thread

Hi everyone,

I hope 2024 is treating you all kind so far. I thought about putting a thread together about travel. I love hearing travel stories or learning what to do/not to do in certain countries. Who better to ask than those from around the world!!

Here are some questions that can get this thread started:

What countries have you travelled to so far? If you can, include highlights, pros/cons, advice you’d give to others wanting to travel there. Would love pics if you are happy to share x

Do you have some exciting travel booked for 2024? Where will you be heading to and is there anything you’re interesting in seeing/doing? Someone that is from there or has been there may be able to give some tips!

Are there countries you would like to visit in the future? What has sparked your interest?

If you have any tips or advice for anyone travelling to your country, feel free to share :) You never know, if something is overrated or disappointing in reality, you may save someone their time and money!!

What you share is totally up to you. It can even be about your experience with airlines, airports, touring companies, the locals, expenses.

 

What countries have you travelled to so far? If you can, include highlights, pros/cons, advice you’d give to others wanting to travel there.

Spoiler: Red I've visited

Highlights:

• Andalusia (Spain), Sevilla is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited and the whole region is so laid relax and laid back. The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba is also one of the most wonderful places I've ever visited, representing the old Arabic heritage of the region.

(Setas de Sevilla)

• Iceland, absolute natural beauty. Unfortunately I was sick as shit when I visited so I couldn't fully enjoy, I'd wanna revisit eventually.

(Gullfoss)

• Deep South (USA), love the culture of the Southern USA--I loved Memphis, Birmingham and Atlanta. Good food, great people, and the stereotypes are definitely false about this place (no hate, no violence). I would also wanna see more of the Mississippi valley as I've only driven through the state.

(View from on top of the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, Memphis, TN. Mississippi river on the right.)

• Black Forest (Germany), an absolutely gorgeous region. Freiburg-im-Breisgau is a masterpiece of urbanism, hike trails esp. Ravennaschlucht are some of the most enjoyable I've walked thru. Taking the train line which goes to Neustadt is an amazing experience, and each little village has its own personality and beauty.

(Hinterzarten)

• L'Île-d'Orléans (Québec), I consider this place to be my spiritual homeland. I get emotional just thinking about its ineffable beauty. A virtually untouched rural island next to Quebec city. Shouldn't talk about it too much as we're all collectively trying to gatekeep it from too much tourism, but if you're ever in the region, go visit it...respectfully.

(Shores of the Saint-Lawrence river, near Sainte-Pétronille).

Do you have some exciting travel booked for 2024? Where will you be heading to and is there anything you’re interesting in seeing/doing?

• Louisiana (USA), I am planning to go visit New Orleans in May, as well as visit old Cajun country (Lafayette and rural areas/bayous around it). I am also planning to go visit a small rural French immersion school (to this day, Louisiana has public French language schools in almost every parish, and still has roughly 100k French speakers. I'm studying to become an FSL teacher so I'm really hoping I get to live this experience). I am really looking forward to try to get to know more about Cajun and Creole culture around this part of the country.
• Mexico, going to visit my girlfriend's family in Mexico, near Guadalajara in Jalisco. Also planning to visit Mexico DF, which will be my biggest visited city so far (my biggest visited city is NYC rn). It will also be my first non-Western/non-"white" country so I am very excited to get to go there.

Are there countries you would like to visit in the future? What has sparked your interest?

• Haiti, a friend of mine owns schools in Port-au-Prince and I would love to go visit this country if the security situation ever becomes safer. I grew up in a city with a significant Haitian diaspora so I've always had a significant interest for their language and culture.
• Myanmar, another very unsafe country I have a significant interest for. Just generally very beautiful in terms of religion, cultures, and has some absolutely beautiful temples. Other countries like Laos or Bhutan also have that kind of religious and cultural beauty, but Myanmar just seems to have a special spice to it (more diversity? idk).
• Cuba, Havanna seems like a gorgeous city. Most people in Quebec tend to just go to the beach in Cuba and I would like to actually explore the city, the culture and the parts of it most tourists don't get to see. I am in a privileged position to be able to easily and safely get into Cuba (rip americans) so I really want to take advantage of this privilege at some point.
• Russia, I was actually supposed to go visit it, but then Covid hit... and then they invaded Ukraine. I learned Russian for a while and I would like to get to practice it--Moscow and Saint-Petersburg both seem like wonderful historic cities, and taking the trans-siberian train has always been a dream of mine.
• Ethiopia, probably the African country I'm the most attracted to. I want to get to drink the coffee, feel the spirituality, eat the good food, listen to the funky jazz and get to explore Addis-Ababa.
• India, would be an immense cultural shock for me, but I've always appreciated Indian food and religion. I feel like I would come out of this country a changed person.

If you have any tips or advice for anyone travelling to your country, feel free to share :)
Ottawa's boring as shit, Old Quebec city and Old Montreal has a lot of tourist traps. Also please learn basic French if you plan on visiting rural Quebec--too many entitled American and Canadian tourists are accusing these mostly monolingual French-speaking people of being "racist" for not wanting to speak English with them or whatever, when they actually just don't speak English. Respect local culture because there is significant cultural difference between French and English Canada and a lot of tourists don't seem to understand that.


(what about you, magical???)

 

thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice. I’ve learnt so much. Sounds like I need to add these places to my to-do list!

im sorry I didn’t mention my answers, mine are probably boring as its a bit of effort and expense to leave Australia. But I’ll share to be fair :)


What countries have you travelled to so far? If you can, include highlights, pros/cons, advice you’d give to others wanting to travel there.
So around 2010 I went to Vanuatu and New Caledonia and that’s it for overseas travel that I’ve experienced so far haha. It was really great overall. Champagne island and mystery island were the highlights. Beautiful beaches. Was drinking straight from a coconut. Port Vila is an unfortunate stop though, it’s very dirty. Overall I’d say you need to be vigilant, just like travelling to any country. But due to the different society (the not so wealthy kind), you can expect to see people even kids begging or people looking to take advantage of tourists. But this is like 15 years ago so some things may have changed since. The main way people go to these islands is via cruise, which is what I did with my family. Cruises are great value!


Do you have some exciting travel booked for 2024? Where will you be heading to and is there anything you’re interesting in seeing/doing?
I have actually just booked to go overseas this year! I’m touring from Japan to Singapore :) I’m really excited to eat the food of course, do shopping and get in touch with the culture.

Are there countries you would like to visit in the future? What has sparked your interest?
I would love to go all over Europe. It’s just pretty expensive to get there (It would also take me a day to travel there). Would pass through the main places like London, Paris, Switzerland, Rome. Would be interested in doing Italy in more depth including Sicily. Spain would be fantastic as well.
I’d love to go all over the world tbh. Africa, the Americas. There’s so much out there. If I had all the money in the world I would constantly be travelling.
I was hoping to do the US at some point but with the presidential election coming up I’m a bit too scared to plan anything in case of protests and riots. I will wait out to see how this election goes before booking anything.

If you have any tips or advice for anyone travelling to your country, feel free to share.
Australia has lots of beaches. You can’t go wrong by visiting a beach location. Airlie Beach/Whitsundays is a dream. Beautiful. Tasmania is a great state, a little bit different to the rest of Aus I’d say but it’s a breath of fresh air and their communities are lovely. If you’re up for a bit of a country escape, that might be up your alley.
Don’t be scared about wildlife. Like all countries have their animals. Yes we are known for kangaroos, snakes, spiders, koalas. But they’re usually outside of the cities so calm down you may not see a kangaroo when you first land lol. Let wild animals be free and don’t touch them is my best advice. Killing spiders if they are in your home is socially acceptable though.
If you dress up a bit, wear minimal clothing, may I recommend Melbourne, Sydney or Gold Coast. Minimal clothing acceptable at beaches. But everywhere else people are casual and tend to not dress up or wear much makeup. You may become a target if you go to a regional/rural place dolled up or wearing nice things. There’s a huge problem currently with crime - random attacks on people, homes being broken into and cars being stolen taken for joy rides.
Last thing I think that is worth noting is to read up on our history. We have an indigenous community, the traditional founders of our land before the English settled and took over. It’s still a huge sore spot for our nation. Lots of racism still. Some bad stuff happened a long time ago where basically the English tried to breed out the indigenous people…we are still closing the gap. The cities are very multicultural but you’ll notice more of the indigenous communities outside of the cities as they are usually on low income. Respect them and respect their culture and space and you won’t have a problem :)

 

Awesome. Travelling is my passion too, it was interesting to read.