Oso planning to go pro
Makes sense. And I didn't personally feel worried. Ive traveled enough, in far dicier places in Asia or Mexico or Athens, to always keep my head on a swivel and actively avoid looking like a tourist. Hell, years ago, before I travelled 100K+ miles a year for work, I remember visiting London for the first time and taking pictures of maps on my phone because I knew I wouldn't have to look at a physical map. That was as much for pride as it was for safety. Its just something I keep in mind when I recommend places for less experienced travelers.Abso-fricken-lutely. By happenstance, I had 2 BPs there within a year and change. One we rented a house in Marigny, which is the neighborhood just east of the French Quarter, and the other we stayed near the casino. Both were walking distance which was key.Biggest reco for me, rent a balcony on Bourbon St. Variety of companies and ways to do it. We got one for 3-4 hours one night. Its basically a big open space with a bar and your own private balcony. Ours was combo BYOB and stocked, with a bartender. Amazing way to drink, hang out, observe the street, etc... We had 10 guys, space for probably 40 people up there, so we ended up inviting people we met up and having a mini party. Great time.One of the trips, we did a airboat bayou tour. That was awesome, saw a bunch of gators, heard some cool stories from a great Cajun tour guide, beat the summer heat in NO and got away from the hustle and bustle for a few hours.
Chick and I stay in Marigny nearly every year. Love it.
Uber to Vaughan's in the Bywater District for a true New Orleans dive bar experience. They are cracking down on AirBnB type places in the Marigny district. May be harder soon.
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Chick and I are well traveled throughout the Caribbean although it's been years since we did all-inclusive. Make sure that's what you want to do and research the various AI brands. Personally, we went to Cancun for our honeymoon many years ago. I remember thinking it was so exotic because it was my first time outside the country with the exception of Canada.Agree that for 5 days you want air travel to be efficient, which means US based jet only service. But I'm going to encourage you to dig just a bit deeper than the standard Mexico or Jamaica all-inclusive if you are a touch more adventurous. Two easy access air destinations I'll point to are St. Thomas via STT and St. Maarten via SXM. If a little research of those places and something slightly more exotic like that floats your boat after some reading let me know. I can make some suggestions.You may also consider a 5-6 day cruise on a variety of lines. It's wonderful to hop a beautiful ship in Florida and sail away to some really nice cruiseport destinations. And you'd be hard pressed to spend your budget even on a very nice line with a beautiful cabin even including your excursion and bar bill. Plus it would give you a sampling of places to visit on future land based vacations.
Glow, I'm not a big fan of St. Thomas. Had some really bad experiences there. The USVI is way too touristy and it has its problems. If you're going that way, I'd do the BVI instead.I'm also not a big fan of AI. When I go to someplace like Cabo San Lucas (which I love), I want to get into the community and find neat little bars, restaurants and artistic shops. We've done that in Mexico a lot (before we settled on a second home in Florida). AI takes away some of the incentive for going to local spots.And for the Italy discussion, we're going to be there for 12 days. My wife and I done the "do all you can do" tours of Europe in our lives before and I agree that they can be exhausting and you tend to miss things that are just under the surface. Our current thought is, land in Rome and recover from jet lag there. Go to Florence and Tuscany and, if time permits, the Amalfi Coast. We acknowledge that's an awful lot and we probably will cut back somewhat. We'll fly back via Rome, her to Florida and me to Chicago.
Glow, I'm not a big fan of St. Thomas. Had some really bad experiences there. The USVI is way too touristy and it has its problems. If you're going that way, I'd do the BVI instead.
Wow, I'm very concerned for Benny. Being able to mimic Myron Medcalf's writing so closely implies an oncoming case of dementia.
All else equal, don't underestimate the benefit of having the American justice system at your back. Obviously, it doesn't immunize you to crime and/or getting screwed over, but realistically, the prospect of recourse is a lot stronger for a US citizen in a US territory than it is elsewhere.
Brother Benny:What exactly do you do on vacation that you have to worry about this stuff?LOL!!!!!
Great suggestions. Travel Agent has been recommending a few couples resorts on 7 mile beach in Negril, Jamaica. Fits the budget perfectly and gives us a free day for an extended honeymoon. Definitely favoring all-inclusive as we have a little bit of travel for the actual wedding (where we live v where family lives) so we don't want to plan on anything. Any input on 7 mile beach?
Somewhat off topic, but on topic...With the coronavirius impact, I wonder how the airlines/hotels are going to respond. Obviously the stock market has been pummeled, but travel and leisure stocks especially have been taken to the woodshed. I'm curious if companies will make 2020 an exception for elite status, I realize that's probably the least of anyone's concerns right now (rightfully so), but I can see all types of unintended consequences happening here for the travel industry. I know there's a lot of folks on here who travel internationally regularly for their jobs, and I'd be curious if you can't fly for a quarter/half the year to those destinations, you're probably going to have a tough time hitting certain status levels. I understand this post isn't for everyone here looking for travel advice, but I think it's going to be interesting to see how travel companies respond.
I'll just do a different twist on this Dish. I'm expecting vacation companies (let's take cruise lines as an example) to have to discount their product. I, for one, can't wait to take my $39 737 MAX flight to my $299 week-long cruise.I mean seriously. Princess is going to have to take the Diamond out to the middle of the Pacific and scuttle it.
I'd be shocked to be honest. I'm a bit jaded, but I think airlines are actively trying to rid themselves of the burden of status'd fliers, that aren't the Global Services types. You used to be able to get the status based on miles, then they factored in spend, and now its more spend dependent than anything. They would rather have the Apple Executive who flies business class to China 2-3x a year at $8-10K a pop round trip, than someone who flies 125K miles in economy.
United is catching a lot of flack from 1Ks who make it on miles but low spends. But there are two things to note. First, I'm not sure I care if I have 1K status anymore, as long as I can still fly first. There's just not that many perks to 1K as it exists today, which is why Global Services was created. Second, I suspect that the real reason United is getting tougher is to put more value back in the 1K status.Ultimately, too many of us are UDPs -- Unprofitable Domestic Passengers. United reminds us of that status with its often crappy service.