Where are you going on Vacation this year?

[Blackpaw]

Oooh everyone's holidays sound amazing Maisie that b&b looks amazing, i hope its haunted, ive always wanted to stay somewhere haunted!

Justginger, your trip sounds fantastic, id love to get to switzerland in the next couple of years! Re Ireland, if you have time/inclination id recommend stopping in Kinsale in Cork and maybe going up to County Clare to the Cliffs of Moher, and maybe even into Mayo...easy additions to the ring of kerry.

I went to Turkey and made it to Pamukkale a few years ago and loved it, make sure you wear your bathers so you can swim in the pools and in the hierapolis ruins, they're pretty cool too

SO and i are hoping to do a bit of travel this year, though we had to go home to Aust for a visit for a couple of weeks in Feb. Still we have nearly six weeks in central america booked from July, ive got a girls weekend in San Francisco booked for the end of June (ive never been, very excited!), and we have a few weekends away planned in the Canadian Rockies - pretty awesome summer ahead

*IF* we get the go ahead for a week off at the beginning of November we'll go to Churchill to see the polar bears. Im really hoping that comes off, it should be pretty amazing.

Haven, are you out there? i figured you might be going somewhere in Europe this summer?!

 

[April20]

We're gping to an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic for nine days at the end of September. Cannot wait!

 

[April20]

Beautiful place, Maisie - looks very relaxing.

Our trip is quickly approaching now. We depart Oz at midnight on the 31st of May, arrive in London the 1st of June. We're meeting my parents (I've purchased their airfare from the States as their Christmas present) on the 2nd. 2 days in London (I've honestly had my fill of it in the past, but it will be my parents' first time visiting), then headed to SW Ireland on the 4th. 8 days driving around the Ring of Kerry/Dingle Peninsula, then flying to Paris. 5 days in Paris, still with DH and my parents. At that point my parents fly home via London, we're continuing on. 5 days in the Swiss Alps (Jungfrau region), then flying to Izmir and doing 16 days in Turkey.

I've been to France and Switzerland before, Ireland and Turkey are both new to me. I am especially excited for Turkey. It looks so stunning and I'm looking forward to seeing all of the different landscapes from hiking trails, and horseback, and an obligatory hot air balloon!

I've wanted to see the travertines at Pamukkale since I saw a travel show as a child:



Edited: spelling, and adding the photo.

Ginger, we did 11 days in Turkey last year and it was AMAZING. We did not make it to Pamakkale, wish we had. Ephesus is particularly amazing amd if you are headed to the Cappadocia region (Goreme), do take a hot air balloon ride. So worth it! I also really liked the underground city at Kaymakli, also in Cappadocia region. The people are so friendly and welcoming. It's truly an amazing place! Oh, and dont forget to go see all the diamonds at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul!

 

[Matata]

Slovenia -- Ljubljana, Kobarid, Piran. Most of the time in Kobarid where we'll be hiking in those mountains shown in the picture. And I'm afraid of heights. Gonna be interesting.

 

[zoebartlett]

Vc, you'll have so much fun!

I'll give you a few names of things along the way to Portland. The towns I listed aren't too far from 95, so if you do decide to stop along the way, it shouldn't take you long to find the highway again. Route 1 parallels 95, and the things I listed are on or near Route 1. If you like antiques shopping, Route 1 has a number of great shops.

Kittery: outlet shopping on Route 1 (http://www.thekitteryoutlets.com/)

Cape Neddick/York (Cape Neddick is a section of York): Nubble Light (a beautiful lighthouse/park on Route 1A, which winds through the village of York near the water.) Route 1A is right off Route 1. There's a restaurant called Fox's at the park, which is great for a lobster roll. (http://www.foxslobster.com/)

Ogunquit: shopping and art galleries, and a great restaurant called Bintliff's. We go there often for lunch and brunch. It's right on Route 1. (http://www.bintliffsogunquit.com/)

Ogunquit: Perkins Cove and the Marginal Way: Lots of shops and restaurants in Perkins Cove, which is an area of Ogunquit. The Marginal Way is a cliff walk along the water. It's not too long and it's beautiful. (http://raisingmaine.mainetoday.com/blogentry.html?id=58884)

Kennebunkport: It's a great town with lots of galleries, shops, and restaurants in the downtown area. (http://kennebunkport.org/)The Colony Hotel is a gorgeous hotel right on the water. We've been for breakfast and lunch a few times and have never been disappointed. http://www.thecolonyhotel.com/maine/index.html

 

[zoebartlett]

To answer Maisie's original question, we actually aren't going to a major vacation this summer. We're moving locally at some point, so we're saving for that expense. We'll do a few day trips to Maine and Boston but that's about it.

 

[Maisie]

Slovenia -- Ljubljana, Kobarid, Piran. Most of the time in Kobarid where we'll be hiking in those mountains shown in the picture. And I'm afraid of heights. Gonna be interesting.

That will definitely be interesting. And even if you never climb another mountain you will have seen true beauty up there and it will be worth it!

 

[Maisie]

We're gping to an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic for nine days at the end of September. Cannot wait!

I bet thats going to be lovely. I would love to go further away from home but I can't be that far from the children. One day though... one day!

 

[Enerchi]

There are a lot of amazing trips planned! I think the Scandinavian and Eastern Europe ones sound amazing! But so does the Maine and Dominican trips. I wish I could just do nothing but travel - too bad the whole work thing gets in the way!

Maisie, how old are your children that the 19 year old will be looking after?

 

[Maisie]

We are doing two mini trips this years sans the kids! Asheville to drop DD at a three week camp and then a trip to Boston over the Fourth of July.

This isn't a vacation but it will use up some of our vacation time as we are returning to DC to attend the funeral of a friend's father who died in a plane crash in the Vietnam War. His remains were recovered I can't imagine how I emotional this trip is going to be but we are looking forward to being there for our friends.

I'm sure it will be very sad but at least you are supporting your friends. They must be relieved that they have his remains after such a long time.

 

[Maisie]

There are a lot of amazing trips planned! I think the Scandinavian and Eastern Europe ones sound amazing! But so does the Maine and Dominican trips. I wish I could just do nothing but travel - too bad the whole work thing gets in the way!

Maisie, how old are your children that the 19 year old will be looking after?

James will be almost 8, Sam almost 14 and Lucia will be 16. We will only be 4 hours from home so it anything goes wrong we will be able to get home quickly enough

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

DH and I are heading up to Niagra Falls in August. We live on Long Island so it will just be a long weekend for us. I'm really looking forward to driving through the mountains to get there. We will also be stopping at the renaissance fair on the way!

 

[Enerchi]

DH and I are heading up to Niagra Falls in August. We live on Long Island so it will just be a long weekend for us. I'm really looking forward to driving through the mountains to get there. We will also be stopping at the renaissance fair on the way!

If you get to Niagara Falls, hop over to Niagara on the Lake and do some wine tasting. They are an ever growing and expanding area that produces some very good Canadian wines (Canadian wines not necessarily always being the same as those from Europe/Australia/California... but not bad overall!) There is also the Niagara College and if you have the chance to book a lunch at their hospitality restaurant, you will be impressed with what the students can do!

 

[Porridge]

Barcelona! Can't wait, just booked it last week.

 

[jaysonsmom]

We have been going to far off places in the last 2 years, so this year we're keeping it local, and less expensive. We are planning a Sequoia National Forest camping trip (July), and a Vegas trip (August), but I've just been told I may have to go to China for business in July....so we'll see....dh would love to come with me to China. Neither of us have been there!

 

[KaeKae]

Everyone's trips sound great, whether going near or far. We will be going yo the same place we've gone for the last five years, since moving to the west coast: the Jersey Shore to see family and friends. We look forward to it every year.

 

[artdecogirl]

Justginger, That trip sounds amazing! We just booked maui for december and a few weekend camping trips for this summer and fall.

 

[sillyberry]

We don't have anything big planned. Probably a long weekend in NYC (DH has never been) and we're hoping to get to South Carolina (probably Charleston). I keep using my vacation days one or two at a time!

 

[movie zombie]

the plan was china and walking the great wall. reality is the vet bills.......

 

[mrs jam]

Kauai for Anniversary #3! We just booked it last week, but I have quite a while to wait. We don't leave until the day after Christmas. I've already started my packing list, though! I can't wait!

 

[Mayk]

Justginer, that looks so awesome!

Maisie what a beautiful B&B!

Mayk, I love Asheville, are you going to the Biltmore?Lydia, yay for Maui!


We are renting a house in Colorado with my family!!! Next year we hope to go to Hawaii! Oh and in the fall we are going to PHX for some relaxing!

I hope so.. that is in the plan.. but first priority will be to drop DD at camp and get her settled in... I love the winery over there. We are planning to say at Grove Park Inn which I also LOVE.... Asheville is such a nice town...

 

[justginger]

April, I'm glad to hear that you loved your time in Turkey. We'll be landing in Izmir, then staying for various amounts of time in Selcuk, Pamukkale, Oludeniz, Kas, Goreme, and Istanbul. We'll definitely do a balloon ride, but the prices brought me up short. For a place where you can get a nice hotel room for 40 euro, charging 180 euro for a 90 minute balloon ride is a bit extreme! Gotta do it though, it's not to be missed.

And of course I'll take lots of photos to share. I'd really like to see people starting threads on places they've visited, with lots of photos and tips, maybe in ATW. Then when I'm trying to decide where to go I can just browse through to find next year's holiday!

 

[April20]

April, I'm glad to hear that you loved your time in Turkey. We'll be landing in Izmir, then staying for various amounts of time in Selcuk, Pamukkale, Oludeniz, Kas, Goreme, and Istanbul. We'll definitely do a balloon ride, but the prices brought me up short. For a place where you can get a nice hotel room for 40 euro, charging 180 euro for a 90 minute balloon ride is a bit extreme! Gotta do it though, it's not to be missed.

And of course I'll take lots of photos to share. I'd really like to see people starting threads on places they've visited, with lots of photos and tips, maybe in ATW. Then when I'm trying to decide where to go I can just browse through to find next year's holiday!

The hot air balloon ride was the single most expensive thing we did. But worth it! The other thing we did was skip all the 40 Euro "tours". When we wanted to go to the underground city, it was a so expensive. I googled "how do I get from Goreme to Kaymakli by public transportation" and then looked for travel blogs. I found someone's blog that told us exactly what buses to get on and when to transfer buses. It worked like a charm and cost us 4 lira each!

Where are you staying in Goreme? We stayed at Spelunca Cave Hotel- it was wonderful. I've also heard really good things about Kelebek Cave Hotel.

The good thing is that food is SUPER cheap everywhere, so that can make up for your crazy expensive balloon ride.

 

[vintagelover229]

Everyone's vacations sound AMAZING!

Maisie: that B&B looks BEAUTIFUL! I know you'll have a great time

Justginger-Turkey sounds amazing too! Your trip sounds AWESOME-I wish we could take that long of trips but my DH work would fall apart if he was gone that long

We are currently in the final planning stages of our honeymoon trip

We are going to British Columbia for 15 days and renting a car. Thankfully we have quite a few hook ups since we just bought a house and with a little one on the way this trip wouldn't have been possible for the few thousand that we are swinging it with!

We are spending 2 nights at a B&B in Tofino (northern part of Vancouver Island)-hitting a hot springs/whale watching tour and might do a kayaking tour as well.
http://www.tofinowhalecentre.com/hot-springs

I'm most excited about the local organic chocolate shop that also has local home made gelato!
http://www.chocolatetofino.com/about-us/

We will be spending a week at a resort near parksville and branching out from there for the rest of the time on the island. We will be hitting Victoria and checking out the castle
http://www.thecastle.ca/

We also will be doing a caving tour that has a underground waterfall (if I wasn't pregnant we'd be doing the repelling tour but alas an 18" crawl space + repelling gear + 6 months pregnant = not a good idea

http://hornelake.com/portfolios/3-hour-cave-tour/

I'm looking into both hot air balloon rides and zip lining but it appears since I'm expecting that we probably will have to pass on those
I'm really bummed since I also scuba dive-I would love to have seen some of the reefs they've sunk off the coast even though it's colder than I'm used to.

We plan on staying 2 nights in downtown Vancouver-hitting up the aquarium-the suspension bridge and the other sites around the city. We will be there over Canada day so we'll get to hopefully see some amazing fireworks

Then we head up to Whistler and we'll be staying at the Delta for a few nights. Our friend works there and hooked us up with a suite for 79.00 a night

We'll be doing a tour of their local brewery (yay groupon for 13.00!)
http://www.whistlerbeer.com/

Probably doing their Gondola up the mountain
http://ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/p2pg/


We will be doing a ton of hiking/swimming/etc but one of the places I'm looking forward to seeing is the ancient cedars near Whistler-they are 1000 years old!
http://www.whistlereh.com/whistler-parks/ancient-cedars.html

We originally planned on doing some camping but since we are flying and had to pack all of our stuff we decided that wasn't the best idea pregnant. Thankfully we used points to book 3 different hotels while downtown (hilton, hampton, holiday inn) and the B&B in Tofino isn't expensive (79.00 a night) got the hook up at the Delta and the resort was a wedding gift. The flights we just had to pay taxes since we used points and I'm keeping my eye out for groupon/coupons for the things we want to do. There is a city passport coupon book for 2 of the 3 places we will be going so we will probably get those too.

As you can see I'm pretty excited about this trip. Neither of us have been on one like this before-we've traveled in the US/Canada together but nothing this long-this detailed or event filled and we feel very blessed to be able to do something like this before our family expands

I can't wait to see pictures from everyone's trips! We should have a travel 2012 thread so that way when people come back they can post all their pictures and share them with everyone!

 

[Phdecorate]

We're gping to an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic for nine days at the end of September. Cannot wait!

Can you share which one? I was looking into the DR for Oct...but hadn't researched much yet...

 

[nkarma]

Everyone's trips sound awesome!!!

This year I have spent 4 days in Sayulita, Mexico which was so relaxing and wonderfully laid back Mexican and a week in a 6 person boat sailing in the Grenadines. I am going to my heaven for 5 days in yucatan, mexico for labor day weekend. Two trips to Vegas, one couples about eating and the other girlfriends about dancing. The next trip is a girls memorial weekend in my friend's sweet house in Carmel. We also have 3 days in Austin (my first time!) to hubby's bf's weddding. I also want to do 3 days to Lake Tahoe this summer and just chill by the lake with a beer. And then we usually try to take a trip with points somewhere in US between Xmas and New Years.

I also heart to travel. That and food are what I spend my extra money on. We are going to Columbia for a wedding next year and then if all works out, 3 months in SE Asia.

 

[tammy77]

Nothing exotic, going to visit MIL and DH's extended family on the east coast in early August. We're in California though and his family lives right outside of Niagara Falls, so we'll make the most of it. I can't wait!!!

 

[star sparkle]

We already went to the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this year, but other than that I think we're going to crack down on vacations this year. We frequently do weekend trips to Napa, but I don't really count those as "vacation." We're expecting to go to Fiji and Palau next year on separate trips, so I think we'll be pinching our vacation pennies to save for those two!!

 

[Astra]

Scotland, Aberdeen - 10 days

Back home - Croatia, Dubrovnik - 7 days

After that...hm...don't know, still haven't decided yet

 

[purselover]

I love a good B&B hope you have lots of fun Maisie!

In July DH and I are spending a week in Nicaragua with another couple we are best friends with, and then we will take a long weekend alone in August. For our solo trip we are thinking of either going back to LI wine country or Canada I can't wait!