Planning our next vacation

I need some help TI
Going to Europe soon! Need some assistance on travel plans/Restaurant dining

Venice
Rome

Anything you guys recommend?  Price isn't an issue.  Restaurants with a view a plus  ;D
 
https://www.mlife.com/en/offers/royal-offer.html
(for Royal Caribbean's crown and anchor members, free to join!  They don't ask at check in though)

Mentioned this in a separate thread, in case it was missed.  Just booked Delano again for our next mini vacation.  A 700 sq ft suite for around $100-150 is a decent price for Vegas.  And you also get the $150 resort credit.  At check in you'll probably get offered upgrades if they're slow... know the pricing for the upgrades ahead of time and pounce if you sense they are desperate. Penthouse 1600 sq ft suite goes for around $500/night regular price.

Delano/Mandalay Bay suits our family well, it's not as busy as the main part of the strip and we enjoy the fake beach pool they have.  There's a tram that goes to Monte Carlo if you get cravings for Shakeshack.  The $150 resort credit will be going to Stripsteak again at Mandalay Bay, our vote for best fries in the world.

I also signed up for the M Life credit card by first bank.  It automatically upgrades you to pearl class which means free self parking (grumble grumble).  You also get priority line at buffets, which is probably the most significant benefit.  We were at the Bellagio buffet recently and the regular line and priority line was about an hour apart in wait times.  Another perk is priority check in, but usually no line at Delano, might be significant at the other busier casinos.  No annual fee for the card, and we Vegas frequently so a no brainer for us. 
 
Was considering a trip to Jackson Hole August 19 to 21st to see the Eclipse. The city is right in the path of totality and figured a day there, then on to Yellowstone for a week. Pretty much all cities with great views of the Eclipse are booked now.  Price per night in JH on August 21st in some spots? $2,400. YOW-ZA! So now a likely Portland Oregon or Denver Colorado stay with a 1-2 hr drive on August 21 to the best viewing area for the Eclipse. Depends on if either City has a high likelihood of clouds that day.

Anyone else considering this trip? 


My .02c
 
Soylent Green Is People said:
Anyone else considering this trip? 
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Interesting.

Mr. SoCal has mentioned wanting to do this trip. He's into that kind of thing.

I honestly had no idea it would be that popular or that costly. I thought he was the only one who cared. It seemed weird to me. haha.
 
A rare or even a once-in-a-lifetime experience is not necessarily worth that kind of $.  I've experienced an eclipse...camped out with my gf at the time on an extinct volcano that I had access to because I worked there.  It was very brief.  Cool and surreal, and obviously memorable, but if I lived in Jackson Hole and had people offering me enough money to take the family to Disney World while they stayed in my house, we would be off to Florida...and I don't even like Florida that much.  I know it's easy for me to say that now, because I've seen it, but I recall thinking "was that it?", and I only had to drive to work to see it.
 
I keep wanting to plan an Amtrak train hopper pass vacation out to Chicago or New Orleans or someplace, even Seattle.  Unfortunately, with a young kid, I don't think that's an option since there's no real way to get around the over night train runs since the cross country trains are all once a day.

Trying to book any kind of the bedroom units for a family makes flying look dirt cheap.

Anybody find a way to do affordable long distance Amtrak?
 
zubs said:
i'm in maui for easter.  I heard it's boring..Is hana worth it?  I heard it takes 4 hours there and 4 hours back to see a restaurant that isn't very good.
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It amazes me that there are people in this world that have a low opinion of Hawaii (IrvineHomeOwner is another).  Granted, I've never been to Honolulu and not sure I want to go, but the other islands are paradise.  Maui has amazing adventures if you want action, or you can relax on a beach sipping Mai Tai's for a week.  Some people would call that boring I guess, but I would call it heavenly.

I'm headed back to Maui this Easter too, and last time I was there was my honeymoon 11 years ago.  If you absolutely hate the outdoors, I guess you would find it boring, but we did a snorkel cruise, did an extreme hike through a rain forest, horseback riding in a volcano, dinner on the beach, a comedy/magic show, a luau, etc.

You guys must lead pretty exciting lives to find such a world-renowned vacation spot so boring.
 
Just found out our family vacation will be in Zion/Bryce and then Moab.  Not looking forward to all the driving, hope it's worth it.  Anybody did 4 national parks in a week?  Tips?
 
Liar Loan said:
zubs said:
i'm in maui for easter.  I heard it's boring..Is hana worth it?  I heard it takes 4 hours there and 4 hours back to see a restaurant that isn't very good.
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It amazes me that there are people in this world that have a low opinion of Hawaii (IrvineHomeOwner is another).
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Oh, I'm pretty sure Zubs was just being his usual sarcastic & funny self! It's his trademark.

I think Iho was serious, though, and that worries me.... not about his judgement but about Hawaii. I was leaning towards going, with some slight hesitations myself, until I read his comments. Now, I don't know. I trust Iho. I have planned some of my trips based off of his trip posts before. He's a good picker & a competent judge. SoCal Approved. Guess it just depends upon a person's tastes, though. I'm glad you did enjoy yourself, especially with how much money goes into these things. It's important to enjoy it. Good for you.
 
Ok, that makes sense.  I haven't interacted with zubs much, so that flew right over my head.

But ponder this:  How can anybody from IRVINE accuse another place of being boring?  :D
 
Liar Loan said:
Ok, that makes sense.  I haven't interacted with zubs much, so that flew right over my head.

But ponder this:  How can anybody from IRVINE accuse another place of being boring?  :D
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I heard Maui is boring.  The reader is suppose to defend Maui and tell me why it's not boring.  Perhaps I wrote it in a trollish way, but that's just the way I like to write here.

I did not say Maui is boring.  I have never been.

 
I just think Hawaii is too much like SoCal (the location, not the person).

I've been to different islands during different times of the year and after about the 5th time, I'm thinking "I flew 4 hours for this when I can travel 20 minutes for the same thing" (yet we still went several times after... not because of my desire).

If you haven't been, then you should go at least once or twice to Maui and/or Honolulu (or skip Honolulu and go to the Big Island) but after that, there are way more interesting places to visit in the Continental US that are more historic (esp for your kids).

It's sort of like when people ask me if I've been to my homeland Austria recently... I've gone once many years ago... and once is enough because if I'm going to travel that far... there are many more places to visit.
 
The natural beauty in Hawaii far exceeds what we have in SoCal.  I suppose if you don't have any appreciation for that, there's no point in going.  It sounds like you look for something different from your vacations than what Hawaii has to offer.  There is a lot of interesting history all over the islands about the transition from pre-Western contact until now, but maybe that's not the type of history you are interested in.  Most of the Western United States isn't particularly packed with history either.  The North East and South is where most of the US history that we learned about in school took place.
 
Like everyone has said, everyone has their own cup of tea of what they want a vacation to be.  Some may want the natural beauty and love Maui and feel sipping those mai tais on the beach is bliss, but others may feel it's "boring" as it's not as commercialized as Honolulu esp wakiki.  I'm more of the natural beauty but the gf loves having high end premium shops at wakiki for 4% tax rate and often Asia pricing for Chanel etc (not sure if still true)  There's others who love "all inclusive" resorts at Cancun, but there's people like me who wouldn't go since there's not much "history" there.  So for someone like me, I prefer the history I can find in Europe (Versailles/Vatican) etc vs a nice "inclusive" resort at Cancun.  There's also people like my parents who just want to gamble all day and that's their "vacation" so dropping them off at Vegas is their preference.  I think as long as a vacation gives you a different "pace" than your own normal 9/5 job then it qualifies. 

Speaking of which, going to Europe soon and all these recent terrorist attacks have me a bit worried, wishing for the best  :)
 
Liar Loan said:
The natural beauty in Hawaii far exceeds what we have in SoCal.  I suppose if you don't have any appreciation for that, there's no point in going.
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As I said, the first 4 times it was great... but after that, you want to see something other than island beauty.
It sounds like you look for something different from your vacations than what Hawaii has to offer.  There is a lot of interesting history all over the islands about the transition from pre-Western contact until now, but maybe that's not the type of history you are interested in.  Most of the Western United States isn't particularly packed with history either.  The North East and South is where most of the US history that we learned about in school took place.
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I agree with this. Our most interesting trips were NY, Boston and even Chicago. We went to FL but for DisneyWorld which I did not enjoy very much.

We went to Seattle a few years ago and that was actually fun too. I didn't even know about the whole Underground history.

Our other West Coast excursions involved mountains and hiking (which you can also get in HI) so that's why I actually don't feel that the islands have much more over Cali in ways of stuff to do... other than visit a volcano. :)
 
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