So, I’m planning to go on vacation for a week with my mom in January or February, and I’m looking for ideas. Anyone been anyplace cool you’d recommend?
Potentially relevant info:
Nothing with much strenuous physical activity required–Mom’s 60.
We like to eat new cuisines and looking at museums and architecture and pretty nature.
I’d like to go someplace warm after freezing through three months of Chicago winter.
We both know a bit of Spanish.
I was thinking, I dunno, Argentina? Spain? Puerto Rico? Greece? Costa Rica?
Moscow. I was there three years ago, and apparently the place has become rather less pleasant since (the whole burgeoning dictatorship thing seems to put people off), but it’s the most beautiful, most impressive city I’ve seen. The language thing is going to be a bitch, but I think it’s worth it.
Architecture? Check. See the one good thing that can be said about totalitarianism: fucking impressive buildings and statues.
Museums? Check. Spend a few days in the Pushkin Museum, but be sure to get there early. Russians like their culture.
New cuisines? Check. Restaurants from every part of the world. Eat Ukrainian, Belarussian, Siberian, Romanian, Hungarian, and that’s just the entrées.
Warm? Well… no. Not even close. Really flipping, arsicle-building, breath-solidifying cold, actually.
I can only speak for Barcelona, but you can check off “new cuisines”, “museums”, and “architecture” with that city alone !
Other high points:
weather. I was in Barcelona after Christmas, and it wasn’t “tropical”, but it was very comfortable. Easily high 60’s most days. If you go to Madrid or further south, it will likely be warmer
cheap. Of all the countries in western europe, Spain is one of the cheapest for food, hotels, etc.
not too strenuous. You will probably do a good bit of walking for sightseeing.
you said you speak some spanish.
(Maine or Moscow in Jan./Feb. ??? You’ve got to be kidding !)
I was going to say Kyoto, Japan, but it doesn’t fit with the Spanish nor the weather req. It has everything else though, the cuisine, architecture, musuems, etc and so forth.
Greece would be nice, a day or two in Athens, then off to some islands. My aunt just got back from Turkey and says it is one of the best vacations she has ever been on (she’s been all over the world from China to Norway and pretty much every place inbetween).
I would say anywhere but Moscow. It’s an interesting city and there are some wonderful people there, but it’s not going to be a relaxing place for a vacation.
It’s become increasingly polluted. In Jan/ Feb - unless you get lucky and have a real cold snap - it’s going to be covered in dirty slush over an unvenly packed layer of slick ice. The air quality on some days in some districts is enough to make you vomit.
The restaurants vary from pretty good (and over-priced, often with indifferent service) to pretty gross (with actively hostile service). No consistency - you may go to a place, have near perfect shishkebab, go back the same day and find its transmogrified into a place serving half cooked, gristly lumps of mystery meat.
Hotel accommodation anywhere vaguely central suffers from ridiculously high prices, thanks to the Mayor’s delusions of grandeur and his practice of pulling down anywhere affordable in order to replace in with a five star hotel.
Some of the architecture is still pretty impressive, and there are some lovely parks but if it’s freezing cold/ the city has turned into a huge slush-pit, you’re not going to want to spend that much time outside.
Getting around - if you’re with someone who’s not physically active or has mobility problems, that’s going to mean you’re pretty much confined to taxis. Which means ordering them from the hotel front desk, where they’ll charge you an arm and a leg.
In short, don’t even think about it. I’ve spent six winters in Moscow. I know (more or less) whereof I speak.
Go to Spain instead. You’ll have a much better time.
Argentina is fantastic and dirt cheap as well. When I was there in 2005, a top shelf hotel in BA was about $70 a night. If you like meat, you will love the food. As I recall, a steak dinner with wine and all the fixings was about 10 bucks. A buddy of mine just got back and bought about 5 cows worth of custom leather goods for a silly low price. A cab ride will be about 5 bucks anyplace in BA.
The architecture in BA is really neat; it felt a lot like Paris, which I think was the idea. BA used to be one of the fanciest cities in the world.
I didn’t do any museums, as I was there last for dove hunting, but I’m sure they have that kind of thing.
I spent a little time in Moscow a couple years back. It was interesting, but I wouldn’t go on vacation there, considering the Marriott was about $400 a night. The night clubs are full of hookers and very few people speak English, except said hookers. Also, the subway would be a nightmare for someone with mobility issues.
One of the tropical locales near the top of my list has always been French Polynesia. The lagoons of Bora Bora look like heaven on earth to me. It looks like something out of a fairy tale. Those little Y-shaped piers are bungalows suspended over the brilliant cyan water, which is only three or four feet deep before it turns a rich azure blue as it drops off into the lagoon further out. The island is far-removed from civilization and about as majestic as your wildest dreams of a Pacific paradise could ever be. There are colors in the flora and fauna that you don’t see produced by nature in any other part of the world. You’d be hard-pressed to find a place with more natural beauty, IMO. Only thing holding me back from going is a lack of funds (it’s on the expensive side) and the fact that I don’t have a girl willing to tag along. They all seem to want to take a charter to Cancun or Aruba anyway. :rolleyes:
It may not be the place to go if you want to experience endless cultural options, as it is quite a small and remote place, but winter is the slow season there and you could probably get a decent deal (and fewer “fellow” vacationers) if you try to go in February or March.
