[Homeira]

New in this forum! Just wondering if anyone else here likes to travel? My favorite way to see a new place is to stay away from the big hotels and the tourist-crowds. Gets to be cheaper that way also. This year I have to skip on traveling anywhere though. Cant afford it... but that doesnt keep me from dreaming about it!

[Nammu]

The only way I get to travel is though books, both fiction and nonfiction. Would love to actually travel and I would do it your way. Why bother to go somewhere new if you stay in big hotels or chains?

[Homeira]

True. And traveling your way can be just as enlightening as well. I have read some books by Arundathi Roy, and I felt like I was in India! Have no idea when I will have the opportunity to go anywhere, but I always have some ideas about where I would like to go....

Hi Homeira,

When I was in the Navy, I traveled to IL, CT, VA, CA, WA, and FL.

Outside of the Navy, I have been fortunate to travel Key West, FL (five times--I love it there), twice to San Diego, CA (beautiful), and many times to NYC and the east end of Long Island (I have family there).

I have never been to San Francisco, CA, but I am planning a trip there before this year ends.

[stuck1978]

I enjoy traveling. I live in the US, but have traveled to a number of places in Europe and Canada. I enjoy staying at bed and breakfasts, or airbnb places these days because it's a more personable experience. You get to meet people more easily (especially for those of us who are socially anxious), and get advice on things to do. My last trip was to Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco. I enjoy the process of traveling itself also. I know many people hate flights, trains, buses, but I actually enjoy them all. They all add up to the overall experience. E.g. I took a train from Portalnd to San Francisco and met these interesting French tourists (I speak some French) that were visiting the US, so we had a lovely talk.

[Homeira]

Last time I stayed in a hotel I got bitten by a whole army of bed bugs. Must be my worst travel-experience to date! And every time I stay in b&b, I have had very nice experiences. I find it to be more personable. But when I travel I am always on a budget, so I end up staying where the best deals are. Travel takes a lot out of me though, and that can bring on depression... so I take it easy and dont make a lot of plans.

[Homeira]

Originally Posted by kindness

Hi Homeira,

When I was in the Navy, I traveled to IL, CT, VA, CA, WA, and FL.

Outside of the Navy, I have been fortunate to travel Key West, FL (five times--I love it there), twice to San Diego, CA (beautiful), and many times to NYC and the east end of Long Island (I have family there).

I have never been to San Francisco, CA, but I am planning a trip there before this year ends.

One thing I always wondered about was how it is when you are in the Navy, do you get a chance to see a little bit of the places you go to?

[Nihil]

I've traveled a bit, internationally I've been to the Bahamas, Canada and Israel. I plan on traveling internationally more, though that'll probably take a while, and I might stick to within the states for now.

[Homeira]

I have been to several places in Europe, to Turkey, and being that I live in Norway now, I travel around a bit here as well. In Norway I love to go on road-trips. Also when I am in the us I like to take road-trips.

i don't travel,

but, 1 thing i love doing is getting others to describe to me what it's like for them where they are going.

so, say if someone went to i don't know... texas. and then when they came back, i ask them.. so how was your vacation in texas?

and they tell me.. well, i did this, then this, then this, then this, i have a way of visualising what's being said to me, and it feels like i'm actually their as it's being described

[Homeira]

Originally Posted by shattered sanity

i don't travel,

but, 1 thing i love doing is getting others to describe to me what it's like for them where they are going.

so, say if someone went to i don't know... texas. and then when they came back, i ask them.. so how was your vacation in texas?

and they tell me.. well, i did this, then this, then this, then this, i have a way of visualising what's being said to me, and it feels like i'm actually their as it's being described

I get to travel a bit, but I still love to hear others tell me about their trips. Not about the hotel and the beach, but the other stuff. The museums, the scenery, the people, the food...

[Nammu]

Originally Posted by Homeira

I get to travel a bit, but I still love to hear others tell me about their trips. Not about the hotel and the beach, but the other stuff. The museums, the scenery, the people, the food...

The museums, yeah I could live in some of those. Decades ago when I was at the smithsonian a day was not nearly enough and that was just one of their buildings. It would take me over a year just to see everything they have just the the DC area.

[MuseumGhost]

I adore any chance I can get to travel. Near, far, I love seeing new sites and experiencing new things. And museums are big on the list!

I really enjoy books about different places, too. Travel docs and specials help me go places I could never hope to see in real life. As does hearing another person's take on where they've been. It comprises a big part of the stuff life is made of, I feel.

I feel that off the beaten track is better than huge tourist draws, too. Although, I actually really DID enjoy a visit to Santa Fe (which is very small, and which another artist friend warned me would be "too touristy and kitschy", for me). I found it charming and special, and would even go back there again, given the chance, and still do some more discovering.

In the States, I've been to New England (many times), New York City (four times), the Adirondacks (twice), Colorado (3 times), Kentucky (twice), Pennsylvania (lived there for a year), New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and N. Carolina.

In Canada, I've been to Northern Ontario (Algonquin Park), and New Brunswick, as well as Toronto---and many trips back and forth to Niagara Falls.

I was able to spend 3 months in Greece when I was rather young, and stayed at the home of some very good friends. I was treated to 2 weeks in Athens, and will never forget it. That was a magical trip.

I would love to do more travelling. I'd especially love to hit the British Isles, and select places in Europe.

Finances have been tricky and prohibitive for a long time, though.

The dream of getting out and doing more does help keep me going, however.

[Homeira]

My finances have hit an economical crisis all of its own, actually. But last year I was in North Carolina, California, Denmark and in Oslo... so I am actually not complaining! Never traveled that much within the space of a year before. It was to do with family-stuff

Originally Posted by Homeira

I get to travel a bit, but I still love to hear others tell me about their trips. Not about the hotel and the beach, but the other stuff. The museums, the scenery, the people, the food...

i just like the whole deal,

even being told about the hotel is a good thing for me having never stayed in one before.

and i love hearing about what it's like on a plain- and what movies people have seen and what food people have eaten, etc

the whole 100 miles as it were.

lol

[Spiriks]

I was in the US in 2009 and 2010. I been visited in NYC, Boston, all part of east side and include a middle, its Kansas, ST Louis, Detroit. Also i was in Houston TX, Orlando FL. I ve got a nice time and kept myself in positive way.

[eskielover]

I love to travel......think it started when I was 5 years old. I was born & raised in Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley). My parents didn't have much money but my grandparents helped my mom & I travel back to Topeka Kansas every summer to visit them & stay for the summer. They loved to drive around & see the country back there so I got to see it too......all the historical mid-west places along with the Eisenhower museum when it was first built (yep, I'm that old)......will never forget my first summer there we were driving out in the country & we stopped to watch a farmer with his columbine harvesting his wheat crop......he actually came up to our car & gave me a ride several times up & back on the huge columbine machine.....what a thrill that was for this city girl. I spent my summers from the age of 5 until I was 16 in Kansas & one time we actually took a trip up to Nebraska to visit some of my Dad's family on their farms.....after that, I never wanted to live in the city again.....but my parents wouldn't move away from where my Dad was finally working.

I think we took one road trip up to San Francisco but mostly growing up the only traveling I did was back to Kansas.

That travel bug never went away however. One of the first trips I went on after I was married was to Italy....it was a business trip for my H & I tagged along realizing that I would NEVER get an opportunity like that again since I was still working on my degree & we didn't have a family started yet.....I was totally free to wander around Rome for 5 weeks. I investigated every little place I could find to wander into & talked to as many of the local's as I could given that I was able to speak spanish & only a few words of Italian, I got by very well. We took one long weekend & drove to Sienna & stayed in a quaint little hotel with the bathroom down the hall. We had planned on going south for a long weekend to see Pompeii, but H got a bug in his rear that he wanted to get back to the states because he couldn't stand missing Thanksgiving dinner with his parents.......I had such bad jet lag on my return home that I couldn't even go to the thanksgiving dinner & I was angry with him for being such a jerk anyway (I now understand what made him the jerk he was....but that's a whole other novel to write)

Skiing became our winter 2 week vacation & we purchased a time share condo in Jackson Hole Wyoming......we spent every winter there for almost 20 years & we took my parents & our daughter along & ended up having a few friends that lived there that we met over the years.

Every once in awhile we would trade the time share for another place. Spent a week in Sedona Arizona just before Thanksgiving one year.....it snowed & we took a hot air balloon ride over the indian ruins......very fascinating & on the drive home....the Grand Canyon was gorgeous all snow covered.

Oh yes, one long weekend before I got married, I decided that I had never seen the Grand Canyon, one night when we had a thunder storm & it reminded me of the Grand canyon Suite....came home & told my mother I was going to take a plane trip to the Grand Canyon....she could come along if she wanted. We ended up taking the mule ride down to the plateau just above the river. The evenings were interesting as there were little skunks running all over the place, tipping over the trash cans.....it was a fun experience.

When first married, we did a lot of back packing into the Sierra's & when we first bought out time share in Jackson Hole, we spent a week backpacking into the Teton range.....gorgeous photos I got (before digital cameras)

We also traded our Time share for 2 weeks in Utah in September for my mother's birthday right after my Dad died......We gave her a beautiful hot air balloon ride over all the fall color changed trees out of Park City. The previous week we had spend in a very rustic time share cabin in another little town outside of Salt Lake up in the mountains.

We also traded our time share a couple of other times & ended up going into northern California's gold country....& we were at Calavaris county on the 4th of July.......fun watching their fire works...the brush was so dry that they actually started a fire on the mountain behind the fair grounds. While there we enjoyed doing a 500 foot repell into Moning Cavern & then spelunking through the caves at the bottom after doing the repell. I enjoyed doing that several times & our daughter enjoyed doing that with me. We did that 2 times once when our daughter was older & could join us with the repell.

Another wonderful ski trip we made was to Banff Canada & the little town just south of that where they had the cross country winter olympics. I loved to drive & wanted to see the country around Banff......ended up driving a long distance but wanted to see the Athabaska glacier......whad an experience.

One other travel experience was with a small group of people I worked with....we decided to take a long weekend trip down to Cabo San LUcas.....that was definitely an interesting trip to see how rough the Pacific ocean was & how calm the Sea of Cortez was. We were only there for 3 days but it was an interesting experience.....got eaten alive by sand fleas on the beach where everyone (other than me) went snorkeling.

My final trip.....the grand finale to my marriage, I purchased a farm 2100 miles away from California....& I ended up driving a medium size moving truck across the country....just me & my dog Leo.....that was 7 years ago. I haven't had money to travel since then....but I live in a place like I always had to vacation to. I have a friend who has 30 miles of horse riding trails on their farm which is only 20 minutes away from my farm. We take a few road trips around the local areas so that I can see the surrounding area. I have never seen the East coast....maybe some year....but right now there is no money other than for survival & for house repairs....& for the divorce......I may never get back to California to bring the things (including many of my cloths) that I left there when it feels like I escaped......life goes on & even if I don't travel like I used to, I'm so much happier than I ever was in that marriage & that's what really counts in life!!!!

[Fresia]

I used to love to travel, took every opportunity I could from the time I was little instilled by my folks into adulthood, but now I have resigned myself for the moment to being an armchair traveler. I have a list of places I would still love to see that have not been to yet, perhaps at some point.

[*Laurie*]

I love, love, love to travel. I've traveled around the States, in the mideast, Europe, Ireland. I am desperate to visit the UK (Wales included) and go back to Ireland. I enjoy driving (though not in traffic - love the open road) and enjoy being on a plane most of all.

[Fresia]

Originally Posted by PoppyRoad

I enjoy driving (though not in traffic - love the open road) and enjoy being on a plane most of all.

When I travel, it is nice getting places faster by plane, but I prefer driving to be able to go where I want, as you say, the open road is nice, that is when it is open . In Europe though especially, I really LOVE taking the trains, seeing the scenery, being able to walk around more, and is just as convenient.

[newday2020]

Originally Posted by eskielover

I love to travel......think it started when I was 5 years old. I was born & raised in Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley). My parents didn't have much money but my grandparents helped my mom & I travel back to Topeka Kansas every summer to visit them & stay for the summer. They loved to drive around & see the country back there so I got to see it too......all the historical mid-west places along with the Eisenhower museum when it was first built (yep, I'm that old)......will never forget my first summer there we were driving out in the country & we stopped to watch a farmer with his columbine harvesting his wheat crop......he actually came up to our car & gave me a ride several times up & back on the huge columbine machine.....what a thrill that was for this city girl. I spent my summers from the age of 5 until I was 16 in Kansas & one time we actually took a trip up to Nebraska to visit some of my Dad's family on their farms.....after that, I never wanted to live in the city again.....but my parents wouldn't move away from where my Dad was finally working.

I think we took one road trip up to San Francisco but mostly growing up the only traveling I did was back to Kansas.

That travel bug never went away however. One of the first trips I went on after I was married was to Italy....it was a business trip for my H & I tagged along realizing that I would NEVER get an opportunity like that again since I was still working on my degree & we didn't have a family started yet.....I was totally free to wander around Rome for 5 weeks. I investigated every little place I could find to wander into & talked to as many of the local's as I could given that I was able to speak spanish & only a few words of Italian, I got by very well. We took one long weekend & drove to Sienna & stayed in a quaint little hotel with the bathroom down the hall. We had planned on going south for a long weekend to see Pompeii, but H got a bug in his rear that he wanted to get back to the states because he couldn't stand missing Thanksgiving dinner with his parents.......I had such bad jet lag on my return home that I couldn't even go to the thanksgiving dinner & I was angry with him for being such a jerk anyway (I now understand what made him the jerk he was....but that's a whole other novel to write)

Skiing became our winter 2 week vacation & we purchased a time share condo in Jackson Hole Wyoming......we spent every winter there for almost 20 years & we took my parents & our daughter along & ended up having a few friends that lived there that we met over the years.

Every once in awhile we would trade the time share for another place. Spent a week in Sedona Arizona just before Thanksgiving one year.....it snowed & we took a hot air balloon ride over the indian ruins......very fascinating & on the drive home....the Grand Canyon was gorgeous all snow covered.

Oh yes, one long weekend before I got married, I decided that I had never seen the Grand Canyon, one night when we had a thunder storm & it reminded me of the Grand canyon Suite....came home & told my mother I was going to take a plane trip to the Grand Canyon....she could come along if she wanted. We ended up taking the mule ride down to the plateau just above the river. The evenings were interesting as there were little skunks running all over the place, tipping over the trash cans.....it was a fun experience.

When first married, we did a lot of back packing into the Sierra's & when we first bought out time share in Jackson Hole, we spent a week backpacking into the Teton range.....gorgeous photos I got (before digital cameras)

We also traded our Time share for 2 weeks in Utah in September for my mother's birthday right after my Dad died......We gave her a beautiful hot air balloon ride over all the fall color changed trees out of Park City. The previous week we had spend in a very rustic time share cabin in another little town outside of Salt Lake up in the mountains.

We also traded our time share a couple of other times & ended up going into northern California's gold country....& we were at Calavaris county on the 4th of July.......fun watching their fire works...the brush was so dry that they actually started a fire on the mountain behind the fair grounds. While there we enjoyed doing a 500 foot repell into Moning Cavern & then spelunking through the caves at the bottom after doing the repell. I enjoyed doing that several times & our daughter enjoyed doing that with me. We did that 2 times once when our daughter was older & could join us with the repell.

Another wonderful ski trip we made was to Banff Canada & the little town just south of that where they had the cross country winter olympics. I loved to drive & wanted to see the country around Banff......ended up driving a long distance but wanted to see the Athabaska glacier......whad an experience.

One other travel experience was with a small group of people I worked with....we decided to take a long weekend trip down to Cabo San LUcas.....that was definitely an interesting trip to see how rough the Pacific ocean was & how calm the Sea of Cortez was. We were only there for 3 days but it was an interesting experience.....got eaten alive by sand fleas on the beach where everyone (other than me) went snorkeling.

My final trip.....the grand finale to my marriage, I purchased a farm 2100 miles away from California....& I ended up driving a medium size moving truck across the country....just me & my dog Leo.....that was 7 years ago. I haven't had money to travel since then....but I live in a place like I always had to vacation to. I have a friend who has 30 miles of horse riding trails on their farm which is only 20 minutes away from my farm. We take a few road trips around the local areas so that I can see the surrounding area. I have never seen the East coast....maybe some year....but right now there is no money other than for survival & for house repairs....& for the divorce......I may never get back to California to bring the things (including many of my cloths) that I left there when it feels like I escaped......life goes on & even if I don't travel like I used to, I'm so much happier than I ever was in that marriage & that's what really counts in life!!!!

We have a time share and have only used it once. The problem is we have 2 dogs. Do you think any of the places would let you bring dogs??
We're so attached to our dogs .

Good to hear you had alot of good travels.

[hvert]

I am a travel addict. Every few years I'm overcome with some kind of wanderlust that drives me away from home for two months. I do a lot of short hops (car) during long weekends.

I live in a tent (mostly) when I am traveling stateside/CA and stay at dives in Europe. I find that as I get older, my patience for dives is wearing thin, almost to the point that I'm willing to cough up the extra money to stay somewhere a step above... but not quite

I have been traveling around the spiral of the Milky Way since I was born. Astronomically speaking I have not made much progress, but I have gone several times around the Sun. You might think it's boring going 'round in circles, but different events, places and people make it quite interesting.
I have been in all of the lower 48 United States, Western Europe and the Mediterranean from Morocco to Turkey. I am off for India in June. I have never been wealthy. I just follow my heart <3

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by susanemily

We have a time share and have only used it once. The problem is we have 2 dogs. Do you think any of the places would let you bring dogs??
We're so attached to our dogs .

Good to hear you had alot of good travels.

We always took 3 of our dogs with us to our condo. I don't remember if they charged us a cleaning fee (I think I remember it being something like $50 extra (for all 3). They were a very dog friendly condo group. We bought in at the very beginning & flew in the first few years (that was before we had our dogs).

After we got our dogs & we drove there from Calif, we ALWAYS took at least 3 of them. Usually Excell, Destiny, & one of the puppies from a current litter. That was when Leo got so attached to me. He rode on my lap the whole trip up there. The clutch on the Jeep went out around Salt Lake City. Leo was my lap puppy through all of that & then when we arrived at the condo, I got sick with pneumonia & ended up staying in the condo sick most of the 2 weeks & Leo wouldn't leave my side. He's had separation anxiety issues if I leave him from the beginning & it started with that vacation. I am so thankful that they allowed us to bring our babies as they learned to LOVE the snow. The first winter up there for Destiny, she couldn't figure out how to pee in the snow....lifted herself up on her 2 front feet. She got better as the years went by & grew to love the snow....& they all loved to go out Cross country skiing into the Teton park. My best memories were sharing my vacation with my eskies.....they enjoyed the vacation as much as we did.

I enjoy driving (though not in traffic - love the open road)

LOL...one of my most fun travels & most educational was spending 5 weeks in Rome. At first one of the guys my H was working with thought he was the only one who could drive over there....arrogant guy didn't think a woman was capable of driving in Rome (the traffic was very different even from Los Angeles traffic that I grew up in). I got to the point where I had seen most of the things that I could get to from the Metro......so I pushed to get a rental car......wow did I have fun driving around Rome & going to all the other places I couldn't get to. Finding parking places in the city was entertaining....you would park your car in back of another one & go about doing your business.....if you heard someone honking & you knew you were parked in back of someone....you always went out to see if it was you they were honking for.

I did get in one traffic circle near the Collesao that I had a hard time getting out of but managed without even getting in an accident. I had already learned how traffic worked with pedestrians when I was walking everywhere......the pedestrians just look ahead & walk....the drivers drive around them as they are crossing the street.....so I got good at that too.

It felt strange coming back to California after driving for so long over there....I couldn't drive crazy like I did over there....it was a challenge but fun. Loved the way you could park anywhere & mostly with 2 wheels on over the curbing & 2 on the street at almost any angle you could wedge your car into the spot.

I had more fun with all the new challenges. My dad had taught me to drive out in the Mojave desert when I was 13.....so I had already been driving for so many years it was more than second nature. Still that way today even with my huge truck.

I liked driving even to our Canada vacation or we wouldn't have been able to get to the Athabaska glacier. My vehicles have a mind of their own & always love to turn off into off road areas & roam around just to see the back country that we couldn't get to otherwise. It had snowed when we were in Sedona.....I wanted to check out a fire road with our jeep cherokee......the mud stuck to the tires & the jeep started sliding down the dirt fire road.....it was an experience especially since there was a very high drop off next to the fire road......but the most interesting things are always where the off roading is....especially in Sedona, found a lot of interesting indian ruins.....off roading gets you part way & waking the rest gets you the rest of the way to the interesting places you can't see otherwise.

[newday2020]

I'd better get out the time share book and start looking for places that take dogs. Especially in the winter it would be nice to get away.
Thanks for telling me about your travels with dogs.