<p>I have to stay at a nice hotel, or I would rather stay home. I can’t be hurried to have to go see a sight. I have been known to book a tour to the Great Wall, drove 2 hours there, and wanted to leave after 15 minutes (it all looked the same after a while). I could eat cheaply breakfast/lunch, but I would need a sit down dinner. Sometimes I would rather take a nap than to go to a museum. I like to go to supermarkets to see what they are selling and what people are buying. I take public transportation sometimes just so I could see how people get about their live. I shop a lot and love to watch local TVs. H is the person with culture in our family. He takes our girls to museums and see the sights.</p>
<p>A good place for me to visit is where there is good food/hotel, shopping, safe, clean (I won’t sick from food). No organized tours for me - I went on one in Australia, when the tour guide told me we had to wait for 2 people who were late getting back to the bus, I told the bus driver to leave them behind because we were late in getting back to Sydney.</p>
<p>So what do you like to do when you go to a foreign country/city?</p>
<p>Nice hotel…good food with the light breakfast. We will book a tour for a few hours, but never If This is Tuesday It Must Be Belgium. (Now we can tell how old all of us are who know that reference!) We go for a week or more to a city…like London for 10 days. HATE being rushed through.</p>
<p>I research…and rarely take underground/public transportation. We did take the Metro in Paris. All was well until the pickpocket girl with her mom. (We won…but it was VERY upsetting…Never saw Mr. Ellebud behave that way…but then again, we had never had a pickpocket incident before…)</p>
<p>My sister is a planner. When we go on vacation with her, she would have everything planned out, and we would be so exhausted by the end of it. After few trips with her, we only do beach vacations with her.</p>
<p>We’re campers/hikers or anything outdoors (scuba, etc). When we need a motel, we look for inexpensive, but safe, so sometimes mid-range. We feel much safer at a campground though. We’ll probably do hostels once our kids are all out of the house. If we’re staying somewhere where we aren’t camping (say, Hawaii), then we’re oceanfront condos types of people.</p>
<p>When we go to museums we take a LONG time to go through them as we want to read/see everything.</p>
<p>National/state/provincial parks or great sights will win out over anything city though. </p>
<p>We’re up early, then early to bed. One of our fondest memories with our young kids was 3 days at the Dry Tortugas camping on the beach. We told the youngsters they had the run of the island, but had to snorkel with a buddy. No cell phones, no internet, no artificial lights - a great time. It sure beat Disney World (though we did enjoy Disney when they were young too).</p>
<p>We plan when we have to since it’s a must for many popular places, but love spontaneity when we can.</p>
<p>My kids could set up and take down a campsite all on their own long before they were teens. They were scuba certified as soon as they were old enough (middle was 12, youngest was 10).</p>
<p>I used to be able take down a campsite or build one growing up. My dad would make us bring an electric wok/rice cooker so he could have Chinese food even when we were camping. He would then take my brothers fishing while my mom and I cooked.</p>
<p>I don’t like to ‘relax’ - I want to see things, whether it’s the historical buildings/streets, a nice waterfall or canyon, or fish in a lagoon. I don’t go shopping and consider it an utter waste of otherwise good vacation time. </p>
<p>I don’t care about fancy restaurants and would rather eat more as the locals eat with the exception that I don’t want to eat what some locals eat when it’s weird (to me) stuff like organ meat, unusual parts of monkeys, live fish, and the like. I like a decent hotel but it doesn’t have to be a 4 or 5 star place since I won’t spend much time in it while on vacation. At times my hotel is a tent if I’m camping.</p>
<p>I’ve taken local public transport in a number of places including London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. but it’s more for convenience since it’s just sitting/standing there and not much different regardless of what country you’re in. I suppose it was a little interesting to see the ‘pushers’ packing people onto the trains in Tokyo. </p>
<p>I don’t get a big kick out of purposely ‘people watching’ - I see enough of them in my normal day of touring without having to sit at some coffee shop for hours sipping some drink staring at people. I also work with people from international countries all the time and at the end of the day they’re all about the same whether they’re from Asia, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, the USA.</p>
<p>I like to maximize my time and go go go. By not shopping and spending hours eating/drinking I can see a lot more.</p>
<p>I’ve never done a ‘tour’ and don’t ever plan to. I usually rent a car where I go and just drive where I wish. I make hotel reservations for the landing and departure points but usually have no reservations in between and just stop where I feel like when I feel like. This makes for some of the more fun places and experiences but also can make for a couple of frustrating ones when all the hotels/B&Bs seem to be booked.</p>
<p>I’m willing to do museums but only to a certain point and then I’m ‘done’ with it and not appreciating it as much as I should. </p>
<p>After 2-3 weeks I’m ready to come home.</p>
<p>GGd - not to get personal, but what about your wife/family, do they go along with your style? Or do you leave them behind (at home or hotel)? H leaves me behind and we meet for dinner.</p>
<p>I am a lot like GladGladDad. I want to see things and hate sitting around. I do like to go to a market and do a little shopping but I never go to department stores or their like. I like to stay in B & B’s and would like to try a hostel. I want to meet the locals or other travelers. I don’t mind a nice meal once in a while but I also like eating street food too. I am also ready to come home after 2 weeks and then in 2 weeks I could go again but alas the budget does not allow that kind of life style.</p>
<p>Re shopping…there was no way I was leaving London without going to Harrods!</p>
<p>One of the highlights of my recent trip to Africa was shopping at a coop and the market.</p>
<p>Nice hotels, good breakfast (my favorite meal), no rushing around. If I’m rushing it does not feel like a vacation. I like to go to some museums, but I am not one who reads all of those little tiny signs. I like to plan some parts, but leave plenty of time for spontaneous activities. I do not like to go where it is cold unless it’s a very interesting place.</p>
<p>The kind of traveler I am has certainly changed over time in some respects and stayed the same in others.</p>
<p>In my youth I was the touring Europe, stay in hostels type. Then I started the camping across this country, Mexico and some Canada type. This lasted into young family age. Then
family trip stage began. Disney, cruises, etc.</p>
<p>Now!–It’s 4 or 5 star hotel time. No way I’m going to stay in a lower or mid- end place unless I absolutely have to. Also, I want to eat good food. It does not have to be an expensive restaurant, just good. An establishment mostly visited by locals is great if the food is good. If food isn’t great, I do not care if it’s where the locals go. Had a few of those experiences in recent travels.</p>
<p>What stayed the same? Not wanting to be on anyones but my, and my fellow personal travelers, schedule. So I have avoided tours telling you where you will be everyday. The exceptions are cruises and a college Europe trip I took. ( But you do, at least, have choices on side trips with cruises)</p>
<p>H likes educational things-forts, museums, battle fields, etc. I like activities like boating, hiking, snorkeling. The best is when we do both. It feels like a more complete vacation.</p>
<p>I’ve never taken a bad trip. I’ve loved them all whether I’m in a national park or a high-end resort or seeing historic sites in a city. </p>
<p>A bad day on the road is better than a nothing special day at home.</p>
<p>I am a rush-to-see-the-sights and stay-wherever-it’s-clean kind of person. I like to have a plan of at least all the potential things we might like to do and when the best time to do them would be… but then we play it by ear and decide which things we really want to do on the fly. I just hate it when you get to the end of the trip and realize you didn’t get to do something you wanted and would have preferred to do just because you prioritized your time poorly-- like realizing on the last day of your trip that the sight you were saving for last wasn’t open that day, etc. My last trip was a long weekend in Chicago, and after seeing the sights we’d gone to see, we relaxed in our hotel suite the whole day our last night there. I did like that we had that balance… I think our next trip is going to be a sit-around-at-the-beach-all-day kind of trip with a few activities and sight-seeing days mixed in. When I was growing up my parents took us to a rental condo in a florida retirement community every summer and it was D-U-L-L, even if there was a beach… I need something to do at least for a good part of the trip.</p>
<p>My boyfriend likes to do all the same kinds of stuff that I like, though he is happy to leave the planning up to me. He, on the other hand, will only stay in nice hotels. He gets really crazy deals on priceline, but if push came to shove, he’d pay the premium for a top of the line hotel.</p>
<p>Stay in inexpensive hotels, stay near a Costco and enjoy their very inexpensive precooked meals (or near a grocery store and eat on the cheap) and overall, spend more on the sightseeing, culture/museums, and buying local art. We figure living in a 5 star home year round and enjoying home cooking (we’re both foodies) allows some leeway with the accommodations.</p>
<p>I do a lot of artistic photography and I am always in the look for something interesting. People watching (and, with the right camera gear, people-photoing :)), etc.</p>
<p>My mom and I are identical when it comes to traveling. We’re both fine with whatever accommodations. Don’t much care. If we’re traveling, we’re not traveling for the hotel. We could both easily travel with just a backpack and we do, often. We like “winging it” and just kinda doing whatever we feel like. We’re both planners about everything else in life, but not when it comes to vacations. </p>
<p>My dad is the exact opposite. Needs to stay in nice hotels and needs to go where they have “American” food. We’re traveling to Costa Rica next year as a graduation present. My mom and I are tempted to leave my dad at the hotel for the week while we travel the country. There’s a very real possibility of this happening lol.</p>
<p>When we were first married my husband, who’s family had a country house (rustic…electricity and plumbing…but no air) asked if I wanted to go camping. We compromised: a hotel in the mountains.</p>
<p>Once and we were done…he agreed: we weren’t the camping kind. I have a fear of heights so that was that. And, there was this thing with trees…</p>
<p>D1 is going out with a guy whose family is very much into camping. I asked her what she would do if she were asked to go on a family vacation. She said she would very politely decline.</p>
<p>My mobility is limited, and that impacts what I can/want to do. Which is difficult because it can be hard to plan for.
During our last trip, we took the wrong bus from one end of Vancouver BC trying to get to another hotel in the other end of town, so that pretty much wrecked me for the rest of the trip.
We still went out and explored the walk around English Bay/Stanley Park, but that was only made possible because there were lots of benches!</p>
<p>If I didn’t get so tired& could walk longer, I would much rather go camping/ hiking than anything else. Our family trips were always camping in the summer and skiing in the winter. H is the same way for the most part. We do go on city vacations as well, but considering how much we walk for that, I might as well be in the woods or at the beach.</p>
<p>We camped once shortly after we were married, for a few days, because we couldn’t afford to stay in even a cheap motel. We both decided then and there that it was our first and last time. Our financial situation is now, and has been for many years, at a point where we can stay wherever we want and we do stay in beautiful places when on vacation. I’m sure some people would think we were nuts to spend that much on a hotel but, for us, it’s an important part of our vacation and we like the nice room, the nice amenities, and the excellent service that comes with hotels like that. My H is actually pickier than I am, mainly because he cannot stand to sleep in the uncomfortable beds that many inexpensive hotels have.</p>
<p>As for what we do on vacation, well, it depends where we are. I’m more of a sitter and relaxer, while my H loves to sight-see. In London, I keep even him hopping because I want to see everything. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world, and I never tire of it. I do enjoy a museum now and then but I’d rather sit at an outdoor cafe and people watch. A little shopping is fun, and I never go anywhere without buying something for my granddaughter :). Oldfort, you and I would have fun together. I, too, enjoy visiting the local grocery stores. I’m actually pretty easy when it comes to what I like to eat. My H, again, is more picky. We usually have a really nice dinner, and a good breakfast. Often, we skip lunch. When I’m travelling alone, visiting one of my Ds, either in London, a favorite small cafe makes excellent scrambled eggs on toast (brunch) or usually NYC, a soft pretzel and a bottle of water from a street vendor is often my lunch.</p>
<p>Regardless of where I am, if there’s theatre, it’s always on my list of things to do.</p>
<p>Ellebud…I guess our house must be “rustic”…we don’t have AC.</p>
<p>I take a more relaxed approach. I like to have a mixture of planning and spontaneous. I like to soak up the feel of a place. My H has to have everything planned, when we went to a museum in London we had to go in the exact tour a guide book suggested. He didnt want to sit in a cafe in Paris people watching. He is always looking at a map. And frets if we get lost. I try to look at it that if he does the map then I dont have to. But I do get frustrated. I like a decent hotel. dont need fancy restaraunts, but prefer historical places. I travel well with my daughters, they are more like me.</p>