<p>Clean is all I need in a hotel. We eat at a mix of restaurants - everything from street food (love meat pies and fish and ships) and three star restaurants with tasting menus and wine pairings. I like both the stay put and get to know a city well, and the spend a different night everywhere. For the latter we are generally staying at bed and breakfasts. We used to never make reservations, but a few years ago we did a week in Scotland with the reservations organized. I missed being able to stay longer, but it did reduce the stress when reservations are hard to find. I like both hiking (though camping less so) and museuming. I don’t do much shopping. Speaking of liquor - the last trip to Scotland got us to finally enjoy single malt whiskey.</p>
<p>Oh swell, oldfort. I’ll be in Zurich Fri-Tue (ie leaving tue). Well, my DH has been there on business so hopefully he’ll have a few things planned for us. I guess Sunday will be a sleep in/go to the park kind of day.</p>
<p>I am a soak it all in and stay awhile traveler, a go against the crowds traveler, a happy to be there kind of person. I want the emphasis of the trip to be on being somewhere, not on anticipating the journey to the next destination. I like smaller, boutique hotels with personality in the “right” location with a helpful concierge. If in a city, I want it to be a neighborhood that I love to walk and explore, not necessarily next to “the” major tourist destination. If there is shopping nearby, I want it to be a bit unique to the location, not the universal big names that I wouldn’t spring for anyways-they seem to be the same the world over.</p>
<p>I love to savor fine dining, but would include lunch of a baguette and great cheese brought to a tiny hotel room with a bottle of wine in that category. We have enjoyed mid-winter trips to European cities, welcoming the chance to spend 5 minutes alone with “David” in Florence. I enjoy museums and art, but also walking miles and taking in vistas. I love to learn a bit of history while sightseeing. We have avoided group tours, but on occasion sprung for a private guide (without regret-tuition for the parental units, too). I enjoy outdoor focused vacations if the accommodations are comfortable and the scenery remarkable.I like the anticipation of a trip almost as much as going. Though, when I arrive, I love to play it by ear and see which possibilities beckon.</p>
<p>Fun thread- love to hear about what people are enjoying.</p>
<p>travelnut - I also like to go to places during off season. We have been to Florence over the Thanksgiving break, or to Paris in the winter. Those cities look completely different without a lot of tourists around.</p>
<p>The best guided tour we had was in Rome. We booked her for 3 days and got to see a lot of places that a lot of tourists wouldn’t get to see. </p>
<p>When kids were younger, we rented apartments rather than hotel rooms. We liked to cook, and sometimes just be able to enjoy a glass of wine with cheese in our room was nice (while kids had some down time in a larger space).</p>
<p>Give me an open road. No set plans. Time. No place in particular.
Give me a history book. An idea that maybe ancient ruins lie undiscovered.
Give me Greyhound too.
Give me Grand Canyons, zebras thick like cows, gulls on the bay, puffins in Ireland.
And I will finish off with a guinness or a zivania.
I have lived in Paris and London years ago.
I just pass through now to intrepid interests. Somewhere out there.
I’ll be going.</p>
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jym:
Tip - Remember that if you head out across the lake (in the heart of Zurich) in one of the pedal boats - you also need to pedal it back so don’t go to far (guess whose W got tired of pedaling at the turn-around point).</p>
<p>Zurich is in a nice setting with the lake.</p>
<p>There was a restaurant in the heart of Zurich I liked (I know what I said about restaurants earlier) that was in a hundreds of years old cellar with stone arches that had good wienerschnitzel but I can’t remember the name of it. </p>
<p>If you have time rent a car (or take a train) and head to someplace like Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn, if you’ve never been. It’s pretty spectacular IMO.</p>
<p>DW is the one who organizes travel at our family. Hotels somehow never were a big part of it - for a while we were doing cruises with overpriced day trips at each port of call. Last year was an East European group tour with a bunch of people from the Rotary club that one of her schoolmates was big in, and everything was taken care of.</p>
<p>I am very much a 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, where they are, and logistics between point A and B, etc. </p>
<p>I have almost completely been out of hotels the last 5 years, instead renting studio apartments, with never an issue. I can sleep in at home (on my off days), so sleeping in isn’t something I plan on. </p>
<p>I take public transportation, doing as much research as I can before leaving home (thank you world-wide-web!). </p>
<p>I would rather nibble from place to place instead of a sit-down meal, but I don’t even enjoy a sit-down meal at home. I am delighted to sit in a park and eat and people watch.</p>
<p>I look for 2 for 1 bargains (latest deal was 2 for 1 Circle Line river ‘tour’ in NYC, 3 hours going entirely around the island of Manhattan). </p>
<p>I learn when the museums are free (IE: MOMA in NYC is free on Friday starting at 4pm - just don’t take any bags - except your purse - and you can walk right in, otherwise you have to check things in, and that eats away good time - the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are ALWAYS free, as they are ‘pay as you can’). </p>
<p>I love to absorb as much as I can. This doesn’t mean running though sites and missing what I came to see. I absolutely take my time and thoroughly enjoy each moment!</p>
<p>Hard to say exactly WHAT kind of traveler I am. Am definitely into planning, and consequently get righteously ticked off when things don’t go accordingly to schedule. In the past, this has caused issues between myself and wife & daughters. </p>
<p>Oddly, though, a breakthrough of sorts for me was for wife & my 30th anniversary trip to Italy, our first trip abroad of any kind. I was amazed at the ease of online planning, and it was fun to start with the transportation and work my way in. But I did not do any specific planning in each city–Taormina (Sicily), Florence & Rome. I had detailed sheets with options (activities, restaurants, etc.) but did not firm anything up, deciding to do it ‘on the fly’ upon our arrival. This strategy worked out magnificently in that there was no schedule to live up to, thus no stress involved. I did schedule a couple of cooking classes, though.</p>
<p>For our next trip with the family–hopefully next year–I will employ a similar strategy, but instead of hotels I’ll do the vacation-rental-by-owner (VRBO) deal, since there will be 4 of us. But my REAL goal/dream for down the line, and something I should’ve done after college but had no money, is to only book flights over to Europe & back, either in/out of Heathrow London or Paris, and leave everything else up to spontaneity–hotels, countries, everything. You know, ‘let’s go to Austria today’. I think that would be killer. Of course, the way to avoid a disaster in this regard is to do it off-season, anytime from November to April. And definitely travel light!</p>
<p>We flew into Zurich but did not stay, took a train to Lucerne and then Interlakken. We did go up to the matterhorn too. Just beautiful!!!</p>
<p>jym,
You can take a lot of nice day trips from Zurich. </p>
<p>A very nice one is to go to Lucern, which is less than an hour from Zurich by train. The city itself is beautiful, and could easily be the whole trip, but if you really want to experience Switzerland, take the local from Lucerne to Stans (20 minutes or so) and then the funicular and gondola to the summit of Stanserhorn. You could hike all or part way up or down, too. Have a meal or drink in the revolving restaurant at the top. If you ask at the Zurich train station, they have a package deal for a day trip from Zurich.<br>
[SBB:</a> Enjoyment.](<a href=“http://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/day-trips/enjoyment.angebotdetail.tagesausfluege-plausch-berge-rondorama_45_stanserhorn.html]SBB:”>http://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/day-trips/enjoyment.angebotdetail.tagesausfluege-plausch-berge-rondorama_45_stanserhorn.html)</p>
<p>They have other day trips, too. The web site isn’t that great, but you can get better info in person once you are there.</p>
<p>While staying in 5 star hotels is nice, I don’t need that. I’m ok with middle of the road unless most of the vacation IS that hotel/resort then I want nice (like a golf trip, etc.). I want to be doing ‘something’ even if that something is sitting on a beach reading or watching people play in the ocean. I like to plan but all of those plans are loose and usually change as we go but there are usually somethings I really want to see so I want to make sure those don’t get missed.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the reason for the vacation. If the reason is to sight see, then I will be doing that most of the day. If the reason is to sit on a beach and play in the ocean, that is what I will be doing.</p>
<p>jym:</p>
<p>One more thing about Switzerland in general - it’s expensive! (much more so than the neighboring countries)</p>
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<p>Same here. When in another country I want the see the interesting sights and places and eat the delicious local food. The last way I would want to spend precious vacation time would be lolling on some foreign beach. Heck, San Diego has over 70 miles of perfect beaches right here. If I want to waste time laying on a beach I can do that all I want for free by staying home. </p>
<p>Same with food. If I wanted to eat at McDonalds or KFC I sure wouldn’t fly to Europe or Asia to do it. I want to try the local cuisine. And this applies to traveling within the US too. I don’t want to go to the local mall or or eat at a chain restaurant. We have all those same things back home. I want to try what is native or unique to that area.</p>
<p>I don’t require a luxury hotel, but it needs to be at least respectable, not dirty or in a crime-ridden neighborhood.</p>
<p>I have been to a McD in HKG. They had better toys in their happy meals, and my kids were thrilled. London McDs were very cheap with their ketchup, only 1 or 2 per order, D1 was not happy about that. When kids were toddlers, we had to go to one of those places every once in a while just to keep them going.</p>
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<p>Sometimes, one can find menu items in foreign McDs or other fast food chains that could only be found abroad. Also, it’s natural to have need for familiar comfort food for many…especially young kids or adults with unadventurous palates. </p>
<p>There’s also something to be said for trying local fast food/mini-mart chains one can’t find easily in one’s hometown. Enjoyed my trips to Jack-in-the-box in Seattle and Wawa’s in Philly this past summer.</p>
<p>When I first went to HKG, Pizza Hut wasn’t there. When they opened their first outlet, the salad was “unlimited”, but you only had one shot at it - don’t know if they still have it that way there. It used to be interesting to watch different people using various strategies and spending a lot of time to neatly stack as much as they could in one bowl.</p>
<p>Need a somewhat working bathroom. I only like to shop in places like India and Africa. Thailand too. In Japan McD some interesting local dishes even 20+ years ago. Japan really is wonderful.</p>
<p>I don’t eat hamburgers, but was thrilled to try the sticky rice and pork patty with a lovely sauce in Bangkok McD. The locals tend to avoid beef. Though I patronize them in this country, I have appreciated McDs far more than I’d expect abroad, for morning coffee and bathrooms. </p>
<p>What kind of traveler? A go with the flow, love the moment traveler. Not much upsets me, as I just love anything new, for the most part. Smoky bars, drunks and loud music might put me over the edge. I am cheap, with occasional splurges on good meals. Being there is the gift, and don’t need luxury for a good time, though the few times luxury has come my way, I revel in it. </p>
<p>Cheapness in lodging has been a blessing, making me stay far out of Salzburg in a little town with amazing food in local restaurants and views of the Alps. Making me find the lovely caravan park on the coast of France, with a private cove filled with mussels to chip off the rocks. I use the money saved for a select few things really care about, the car rental, the Sound of Music tour, the opera, the view of Shanghai from one of the highest bars in the world. </p>
<p>When young, I saw much of Asia traveling alone, taking up with friends met along the way. These days, I relish visits to old friends and family, don’t care so much about specific destinations, as I like where those friends and family are located. </p>
<p>Overseas, I like your attitude about your anticipated adventures!</p>
<p>As I said, I like to eat the local foreign food and not McDonalds or other American fare. But that doesn’t meant I never go near one when abroad.</p>
<p>The main reason I’ve gone to a McDonalds in a foreign country is not to eat the food but to find someone who can speak English. Twice when I got lost (once in Dusseldorf and once in Florence) and couldn’t find the street or place I was looking for, I stopped into a McDonalds and bought a big diet coke and sat sipping it until I overheard other customers speaking English (usually an ex-pat Americans getting a taste of home). I approached and asked them for help in getting me where I was going. Worked like a charm both times.</p>