I’m taking some vacation probably in October and November and I’m unsure of the best place to go. Basically I’ve got about 17 days to travel and I’d like to go somewhere outside of Canada or the States. I realize it’s pretty short for a major trip so I’m hoping some of you can recommend some places where I’ll get the most bang for my buck. Basically I want to go to a place where as many of the following apply:
Reasonably priced flight
I want to backpack around and stay at hostels, rather than hotels
Somewhere warm (well, at least warmer than Alberta in the Fall/Winter, so that’s pretty much everywhere), although I’ll settle for somewhere that just doesn’t have snow
Somewhere where the conversion of the Canadian dollar works in my favour. But by no means am I ruling out Europe or the UK.
5)Somewhere with a lot of culture, history, “tourist” sites. Specific things such as Oktoberfest, The Running of the Bulls (which I just missed I believe), etc. would be a nice bonus.
Somewhere with a good night life. What can I say – I may be going for culture, but a good party is always a nice bonus.
Somewhere where I can minimize the time spent travelling between countries, cities, villages, etc. I want to limit the time I spend on buses, trains etc. and spend more time checking things out.
If any or all those things apply, then that’s a bonus. But if not, I’m open to anything else. Up til now my travelling has been limited to Australia for 2 months and various parts of Canada and the USA. So anywhere new would be great.
South East Asia will blow your mind if you haven’t been. Vietnam is an experience, Hong Kong has cheap flights from Canada, and Thailand has nightlife (and much of it surprisingly non-sleazy).
Dark One how about New Zealand…also look at www.freeloaders.com this is a website where you can find free accomodation to be had all over the world…pretty cool really I have already had international travellers stay with me here. NZ is what they call the adventure capital of the world. Everything from skiing, bungy jumping, para-ponting, white water rafting, jetboat rides etc etc etc good luck and have fun
Turkish Airlines is quite good and flies out of Chicago and perhaps Toronto.
Lots of cheap places to stay.
It will be warmer than Alberta esp. towards the south… weather should actually be very nice that time of year, though Istanbul does get cold in dec/Jan.
Turkey is perhaps the best value for money anywhere - great infrastructure and low prices. ($1USD = 1.6 million lira).
LOTS of things to see Istanbul is a great place with all kinds of history.
Less nightlife than some places in Europe, but still possible.
Istanbul has lots to see in a small area and the Agean coast is not far. Turkey has some of the best buses in the world and frequent departures to places you’d want to go.
Well, Spain would fulfill all your requirements except the Canadian dollar thing, and if you’re willing to splurge a bit, I think it would be just about perfect. It’s definitely got the culture, history, and nightlife in spades (and plenty of festivals besides the running of the bulls – I’m not sure what’s happening in October or November, but there’s bound to be something somewhere).
Well, IIRC, Alberta is on the Western side of Canada. That has some effect on the choices. In particular, European flights are more expensive and Asian flights are cheaper.
Given that, in Europe I would recommend Italy. You can take relatively short train rides everywhere, it’s Southern Europe so the weather is nice, there is a ton of stuff to see, and everyone loves Italy.
I’d second Southeast Asia (Thailand or Hong Kong). You certainly won’t be needing seventeen days in just one country though, have you thought about splitting your trip between two?
Have you considered southern Mexico? IIRC, round-trip tickets to Cancun can be bought pretty cheap. Cancun itself is probably not where you want to stay, but you can take a bus to Valladolid, a good base for checking out Chichen Itza, which I highly recommend. From there, you can head to a charming and very culturally spiffy city called Merida.
Or, you can take a bus from Cancun into Guatemala, and check out Mayan ruins and/or local culture there. I’ve been to Valladolid and Merida, but I haven’t gone to Guatemala. The people I’ve met who have, though, say it’s wonderful.
In Asia, I’ll add my vote for Hong Kong, an amazing place. Tokyo is also amazing but expensive as hell. Singapore is a great place to go shopping for a couple of days.
In Europe, you can buy a multi-country train ticket and take in 4 or 5 cities (such as Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, Madrid and Budapest). I believe these tickets are quite reasonably priced (they certainly used to be a lot cheaper than flying).
good luck and have fun