Upcoming trips - vague intentions - half-done plans

[TravelMusings]

Can we have a general travel chat thread? Somewhere to discuss trips we're looking forward to or places on our radar that we've started to loosely plan for?

For me: Moldova is pretty well planned but waiting to see what happens in the elections next month then happy to go asap.
Monaco just needs to be booked for early summer.

Oh the list is endless. New Zealand. South America. Se Asia. Immersion in Japan. All of Europe. Alaska

DH and I are off to Costa Rica next March with free BA flights.
Earlier in the year I took voluntary redundancy and was job searching and the whole prospect of planning a holiday just seemed overwhelming so we were going to book an internal package. But now I've been in my new role for a couple of months my oomph has come back and I have planned a reasonable trip myself using shuttles as we don't want to hire a car.

Having just got back form Uzbekistan I can't recommend it highly enough. Fabulous sights, excellent food, friendly and charming people. Everything was very easy, and very reasonable too. Our entire holiday for the 2 of us for 2 weeks, flights, accommodation, train tickets and spending money has come in at 3K. I wish we had had more time to have gone into Kyrgyzstan and /or Kazakhstan - but definitely another trip to Central Asia is on the cards.

I’d love to know more detail about your trip

I'd love to go to Uzbekistan - it's definitely on my travel wish list and has been since I studied a term of Islamic art in uni and I saw all those beautiful tiled buildings. I remember seeing a slide of Registan Square in Samarkand and deciding then and there that I would definitely go there one day!

I've only been to one place in South America and that's Brazil. I loved it -amazing, vibrant, fabulous food and drink, but it felt quite scary at times and despite being good at languages I struggled to communicate because I don't speak Portuguese. I usually stick to safe destinations, but Brazil didn't feel safe. Amazing though and I would go back.

My travel wish list is long and constantly being tinkered with, much to DH's amusement. We tend to plan our travel at least a year in advance for big trips and about six months in advance for smaller ones. We have booked for the next year: Sicily, skiing at new year in Italy, and a much-anticipated and long-planned trip to Japan at Easter. Next summer we're thinking of a little driving trip in Europe, then visiting MIL in the US in Oct. Beyond that, I have an itinerary drawn up for Thailand, but we need to decide when to do it. Other wish list destinations include South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico, Argentina, back to Australia and lots of places in Europe that we've either never been to or love to go back to.

@Citygirlrurallife My DD went to Uzbekistan with Steppes travel. They did the main cities and the Fergana valley. It’s nice to do a bit of exploring of the cities yourself so they built in non guided time. Mostly the food was good but not plov. They also found the good restaurants get booked up very quickly.

Historically there’s been an issue with suppliers cancelling hotel bookings. She had 2 cancelled and finding alternatives can be a challenge. Hopefully this has improved. There was maybe an issue with welcoming too ms t visitors before the infrastructure wax ready. I’ve still got it on my list but Uzbek Air is a bit ? Hopefully newer planes on all routes now!

Next year we’ve booked Wyoming and Iceland. 2026 Norway.

Oh Wyoming! Where are you staying? Will you hike?

@Citygirlrurallife and @TizerorFizz we travelled independently and booked hotels through Booking.com - did not have any difficulty in all of our 2 weeks. We also booked trains via the Uzbekistan Railway website, again very straightforward. Booking for trips opens 40 days before travel and you get electronic tickets. Trains were clean efficient and ran on time. We caught a sleeper train from Tashkent to Bukhara, then hired a local driver to take us up to Nurata and the desert where we stayed in a yurt. Then back to Samarkand for 4 days, train to Ferghana Valley for 1 night (not too much to see there apart from silk making but very interesting all the same). The whole trip was very reasonable, cost about 1/3 of what you see advertised by the big travel companies.
Uzbeks were charming and incredibly helpful. It felt very safe.
Uzbekistan Airways were absolutely fine, new planes, efficient crew and the best safety briefing I've ever seen!
And I loved Plov! (Though not too much of it). We went to the Plov Centre renamed Central Asian Pilaf Centre and had a divine Sunday lunch. We did find restaurants got booked up in Bukhara but there was plenty of choice in Samarkand and Tashkent and very reasonable dinners - around £10-12 for 2.

@Bananabrioche is everyone's new tour guide!

I'm planning to go with my friend and I'm wondering about the trains. Not hard sleepers because I'm not 19 anymore. But it is safe enough to be two people of four berths in second class? Two women with two strangers would be unthinkable in some countries and fine in others.

We could book a 2-berth sleeper but I'm finding those hard to find on the websites.

@MrsTerryPratchett we travelled in a 2 berth sleeper overnight to Bukhara and the cost was only £23 each. There are also faster day trains. We also sampled Business class on the fast train which was £22 Samarkand to Tashkent and ordinary class for the 5 hrs to Margilan in the Ferghana Valley which was £10. We booked directly with the Uzbekistan Railway website which is very easy to navigate, shows you available train times, seat costs etc. The difference between Business and ordinary was minimal tbh, business class had slightly more comfortable seats and tinted windows but ordinary class was also clean, spacious and complimentary tea was offered. It all felt very safe

I think I was looking on Bookaway so I will look at the Uzbek Railway instead.

Thanks!

KSA plans are taking shape but I'm trying to decide if I want to dive in Yanbu as well as Jeddah and how many days, which sites and so on. Also need to renew my dive insurance which is much less fun than buying flights. So excited. Because of life it's been forever since I've been away!

Still dreaming of Moldova and the South Pacific!

Yanbu? That's funny considering where you are posting!!!

Funnily enough, I wanted to check how far a historical site was from Yanbu city centre. Google automatically assumed my departure point was home rather than central Yanbu. I thought Google was BU to suggest a nearly 4000-mile drive including a jaunt across Syria 😂

If you want any info on the Pacific feel free to post here or pm, I’ll try to help
i did a six year gap year sailing from Portsmouth to New Zealand, finished because due to Covid 🤦‍♀️

Well I have 2 trips in the bank for next year. One is a semi working trip in the US (Missouri, Vegas, Phoenix and Seattle) and one is a week in France for relaxation.
I'm currently looking into two trips - Mexico for Jan 26 (Oaxaca and Merida) and something to take all the family to next summer, post GCSEs. That's the one I'm struggling with the most as it all feels like a bit of a hassle, so I want something easy but then I don't warm to the very touristy options.

Whoever it was that mentioned Slovenia, do it. My favourite place I've visited I think.

@StoneColdAlibi it was me re Slovenia, any tips? I’m now thinking we should train it there then maybe hire a car to get more off the beaten track. I really would love to add on Croatia but again just exhausted by the thoughts of summer tourist hordes

I seem to be slowly growing lots of little trip plans for next year - a few days by train to Vienna with DH with Jan, a friend wants to do his 40th in Spain in May, another friend (who is actually Spanish and lives near València) is getting married in July and has invited me, and one of my closest mum friends is hoping to get the 4 of us who are still close over to where she lives in Europe post GCSEs

and then this family Slovenia trip!

@Citygirlrurallife ahh how wonderful! So much to look forward to.

We flew to Ljubljana, spent a couple of days there, hired a car and did Lake Bled area and then drove down to the Istrian coast of Croatia (Rovinj). I wholeheartedly recommend all of them.

Lake Bohinj is far less crowded than Bled and prettier in my opinion. Having a car means you can stay outside the main tourist area.

Rovinj was busier but it's so pretty. We stayed on an island a 10 min water ferry off the coast, which meant we got slightly away from the hustle and bustle at the end of each day.

Also, depending on your kids ages, we stayed at Garden Village Bled in a treehouse and it was amazing.

Stockholm with a smoking' hot man is great.
Not used to the strong booze they drink, I missed half the fun through a dreadful hangover. He was a perfect gent and we still keep in touch 😀

Has anyone else been moving vague plans towards concrete plans yet?

I'm ignoring the din of my many travel musings and this weekend I am focussing on KSA 😎 I booked a room in one Saudi city three weeks ago but have been working lots as well as seeing friends in Cork since then. Better sort out the rest of the trip!

YES! We have booked our lovely Central Asian friend to come and tell us where to go.

Also we have a vague Mexico/Caribbean idea forming as well. All months and months away but still.