WillTravel

SeaUrchin and LoveItaly, it's a bit sad to hear about your less-successful Italian trips when you've had such wonderful times there. But they are good cautionary tales for sure.

I somehow doubt that anyone has an airport which they think they have spent too little time in, no matter how great it is . I for one have spent way too much time at Newark and Heathrow airports.

suze

Can't think of anywhere so far (as long as we're talking about foreign travel, not counting the office or the laundry matt or something). I even have fun in airports. I'm easily amused.

enroute

Las Vegas. Can't say it enough times. Sorry.

Haute Provence at the end of November. 2 weeks taking a French course. Too cold and at times dreary. About a week too long. What a difference in June though! 3 days - definitely not enough.

RondaTravels

I agree with Florence. Was there 4 days -- 2 or 3 would have been enough. Would have preferred more time in Venice and Rome.

And Vienna -- could have skipped it, but 4 days was way too long. Budapest was SOOOO much better.

LoveItaly

Hi WillTravel, enjoying your new trip report btw, travelling with a daughter is fun!

The week in Asolo was a disaster but the other 5 weeks were fantastic. I sort of had "bad vibes" about Asolo before I went there for some reason. But it certainly was an adventure. I giggled over SeaUrchins comments about having so many blankets on the bed she could hardly breath. Yes, that was my eperience also. I even put my coat on top of the blankets, LOL. Actually, thinking back on it, I should have worn my coat to bed!!


The friends that "insisted" I come to Asolo should not have. They were having a lot of problems in their household and the day I arrived the rain had flooded their garden, it was like a lake. I didn't feel like I could turn down their invitation, and I know they meant well, but I just wished I had stayed were I was. Oh well, live and learn. Take care!

schnauzer

Dallas, how boring is this city?

gb944

I once spent a week in Mexico in support of a race team doing the Carrera Panamericana (a recreation of the famous road race of the fifties). It was a week too long. Although we were hotelled in the nicer tourist parts of various towns, all one had to do was go two blocks outside those areas to see abject poverty with (literally) people living in cardboard huts.

For that reason, I will never visit Mexico again. I suppose that you could turn a blind eye, but I was unable.

GreenEyedCatWoman

Stonehenge

Sure, I'd always wanted to see it in person. And when I did it looked pretty much like every picture and postcard of it you've ever seen.

But my sister went bonkers! She had wanted to go to Stonehenge all her life, maybe even longer. And she had just finished reading "Sarum" which probably only made matters worse.

The woman was down on her knees, just to feel the hallowed soil and grass of the Salisbury Plain, I kid you not. Talk about your embarassing travel companions! :lol I kept a close eye on Sis, ready to restrain her in case she made a move to kiss the ground.

For crying out loud, my sister even VIDEOED those totally stationary standing stones, probably among the STILLEST things on Earth. I asked her if she thought those rocks were going to dance?

And you should see the video -
she zooooooooomed in,
she zooooooooomed out,
she s-l-o-w-l-y panned to the left,
then just as s-l-o-w-l-y panned to the right,
then repeated the sequence, over and over.

Yep, nothing beats a video of Stonehenge for pure bone-chilling excitement! (Aren't you getting shivers just imagining it?)

Anyway, with my sister so busy reveling in the wonders of Stonehenge and the surrounding empty fields, we missed the ONCE PER HOUR bus that goes back to the Salisbury train staion.
AAACCCCKKKKK!

JohnFitz

It was 1985 , Tanna Island , Vanuatu at a place called the Tanna Island Resort.Thatched huts on a jagged black volcanic rock beach that rendered it unswimmable unless you wore a titanium suit to avoid being injured and where they turned off the service after breakfast so you could get no drinks or food until dinner time and thus felt compelled to do day tours in order to eat . The owners ( Australian as am I )assured me and my travelling companions after 3 days of enduring this ,during which we had climbed to the rim of the active volcano and visited the John Frum Cult natives and admired their penis sheaths (extra large as a tribute to Prince Philip , Duke of Edinburgh who once visited the island ),that all flights out were fully booked but au contraire , speaking very bad 'pidgun'to a local at the gate , we found that 3 seats were on the flight that morning . We dashed to the plane and amidst the piglets and other livestock on board we secured our seats and fled back to the capital .The resort was subsequently blown away in a cyclone about 18 months later .We still refer to it as ''Escape from Tanna Island ''.

Dayle

Stonehenge and Tanna Island! Very funny descriptions, although we KNOW it was not funny at the time!

I guess everyone has a VFH story, just like TCFH stories!

CatFancier

Bakersfield, California...a strange mixture of smog, endless fields of cotton and produce, country music, large Basque population. Lived there for a year.

Okinawa, Japan - Lived there almost 2 years.

platzman

Frankfurt. 3 days. By my calculations, thats 2.5 days too long.

LoveItaly

Hi Platzman, I have a cousin whose wife was born and raised in Frankfurt. She went home every year to see her mother.

After her dear mother died I asked her "when will you go back to Frankfurt again?" She gave me the evil eye and replied "I will only when I am dead and if I am sent to h*ll, because that is how I think of Frankfurt", LOL. My immediate apologies to any residents of Frankfurt, but it wasn't my comment.

So many funny stories, although I know none of them were at the time.

Great thread WillTravel!

muskoka

Greoux-les-Bains. Mostly a very fit geriatric population come to "take the waters." Consequently, the streets were rolled up at 8 p.m. Live and learn.

marigross

How could I forget Las Vegas 8D!!! It was only a night, but it was horrible. We were coming from the silent beauty of several National Parks and the shock was overwhelming. Tachy, Tacky, Tacky!

I also selected the cheapest possible hotel that would take us on Friday for a single night - The Aladdin. The lobby and the video-ride area seemed to me like Dante's Hell.

Even though we enjoyed watching "O" and looking at the dolphins in MGM it was still nightmare stuff...even my 9yr old (at that time) hated the place. You should see her face anytime mentions Vegas.

Ira, I would have to add CDG to Heathrow.

Worktowander

LA.

Art_Vandelay

Muskoka, funny you should mention Gréoux les Bains! I too was forced to spend three weeks in this otherwise charming Provence village, but with two of the "fit geriatrics" (my folks! ), since I couldn't live on my 4th floor Parisian apartment with a broken foot. Ah, those mighty Alsatian grannies driving their Mercedes!

BabsB

First spot...home! Got that travel bug. Second spot...7 days in Florence. OMG was that too long. Took side trips to Sienna, Lucca and San Gimignano but still too much time in Florence. Might have been OK if were shoppers, but we are not. Should have moved on sooner but had hotel reservations set up and honestly we were a bit tired and it was too much effort to revise our plans.

pittsburgh

Regarding the 7 hour layover in Newark. When we had such a layover last year when flying to Israel, we got on the train from Newark that drops you right in the middle of Manhattan (across the street from Madison Square Garden). Had a nice french dinner in the city and made it back to newark with plenty of time to spare to catch our flight. Highly recommend that for killing time.

WillTravel

pittsburgh, that works well if you know it will be 7 hours. It doesn't work quite so well when a 4-hour layover turns into 7.