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I'm headed to San Sebastian, Spain for 5 days next week with nothing planned other than to hang out on the beach, surf, and eat/drink a lot. I'd like to check out some stuff outside of San Sebastian in the surrounding area, places feasible for a days trip. Any recommendations?
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Jul 19, 2010 18:19
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Currently coming to the end of my trip in Europe. I'm heading to Prague tomorrow for 2/3 days. After that, I have no plans. I fly home on sept 15 from Dublin. I've been traveling fairly relaxed until now, basically spent the past 2 months in Spain and Portugal only, and the past week in a rural Czech town. Also, due to some generous people letting me crash on couches and general cheapness, I've come out significantly under my budget. Here's what I'm thinking for the rest of my time and could use some thoughts on it: Also, while I enjoy seeing sights and all that, I'm more into eating local foods, drinks (Beer!) and meeting people. I'm also a very last minute planner, in case you can't tell. Aug 27-29: Prague Aug 30: Vienna - was planning on staying here longer but it doesn't seem that recommended here, so I'm thinking of shooting to get in early morning and leaving early the next day. Aug 31-3: Bratislava (have a friend here, but is it worth this much time?) Sept 4-6: Budapest, from here I will fly to either Amsterdam or Brussels Sept 6-14: Amsterdam/Belgium (mostly in Antwerp because I can crash at a friends) Sept 15: get an early flight to Dublin, I leave in the evening. or maybe the night before if I have to. For the last part, I'm thinking 2/3 days in Amsterdam and the rest in Belgium. My goal for Belgium is to drink as many fine beers as possible as I am a huge belgian beer fan. My ultimate goal is to make it to Westvleteren Abby (the best beer in the world, according to most), and St Bernardus (my personal favorite) but they are kinda in the middle of nowhere so I don't know. I realize this is quite a bit of stuff in a short time, but it's the end of my trip and I'm ok with getting a little burnt out.
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Aug 26, 2010 10:50
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I'm heading to San Sebastian in the end of June for several days. I've been there before and had a great time just hanging on the beach and popping into the old town for pintxos. This time I want to try to get out of the town and explore the surrounding region a little more. I'd be interested in checking out wineries, ciderias, hiking, farms, fishing, really anything. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm flying in and out of Bilbao if that makes a difference, but didn't plan on spending any time there as I've spent a day there before to check out the museum and didn't really find it to be overly interesting otherwise. I was considering renting a car from Bilbao if it will help me get to some cool places. Really interested in checking out some restaurants like http://asadoretxebarri.com/en/ that are a bit off the beaten path. Concerned about parking in San sebastian though (my airbnb def doesn't have any) Also, the last time I was there I met some guys who took me to a sort of cider house (big barrels of cider) and got drunk as gently caress on cider and ate a massive steak. I'd love to do that again, but I can't seem to find specifics anywhere online. Any one know where the hell I went and how I can go back?
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Apr 21, 2015 17:32
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PT6A posted:I'm headed there on May 19-23, if I come across any must-dos I'll let you know. awesome, thanks! FaceEater posted:Is it possible you went to Sidreria Petretegi? http://petritegi.com/en.html hmm, I don't think it was that exact place, but seemed similar. Thanks for the link.
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Apr 24, 2015 04:00
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Heading to London soon and looking for some recommendations for neighborhoods to get an airbnb in. Will be doing some standard touristy stuff (among other things), but don't mind not being near that as long as it's accessible. Friends recommended Shoreditch, but thought I'd get some opinions.
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Apr 27, 2015 21:27
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freebooter posted:It really depends on what kind of neighbourhood you'd like to be in. Shoreditch and surrounds are the hipster/poor/cresting wave of gentrification neighbourhoods, if that's what you're into. Cool thanks for the info. I posted on another forum and someone offered me a pretty nice discount on their place in King's cross. Any opinions on that area? From googling a bit it seems like it maybe was a bit lovely in the 80s/90s but is fine now.
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Apr 29, 2015 23:14
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I'm planning on renting a car in Spain this June. Particularly to explore the region around San Sebastian. I'm flying in and out of Bilbao and it's looking pretty cheap to rent from there. Renting right from San Sebastian is a bit more expensive, but will save a couple days of rental time since I won't need it the whole time, though I was looking forward to doing one way along the coast. Anyone have any experience parking in San Sebastian? I've read that parking is basically limited to several underground garages and that they are quite expensive (20-30 euro/day). Do they fill up? Does the daily rate cover coming/going whenever? Info available online is pretty mixed. My airbnb is right in the middle of the old town, but I'm fine with walking a bit to park as I will mostly just be doing a couple day trips and not coming and going. What about driving in the region in general?
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May 12, 2015 22:42
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mich posted:I don't have the answer to most your questions, but I'm going to Spain in July and San Sebastian is on our route. We lucked out finding an apartment for rent that has a private garage but before we found that one I was looking into parking too. I found there are a couple free garages that are farther out and you can also park for free at the universities, then take a bus back into town. For a closer garage, the name that came up as the cheapest option is Txofre, which is I think 12 euros a day or less with longer stays. Not sure about how likely they are to be full though. Cool thanks for the info. Going look into the university parking.
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May 14, 2015 17:13
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PT6A posted:Donostia is teetering right on the brink for me right now. On one hand, it seems like a colder, less friendly, more expensive version of Logroņo, but it's admittedly a beautiful city and area, there are flashes of brilliance where you come across them. Whoever was planning to rent a car and explore the surrounding area probably has the best idea (I did see public parking, but there's much less of it than in other cities, so I'd bank on it being expensive -- there's a public car-park on the west side of the Rio Urumea by the old town). That would be me planning on renting a car. I've managed to find some info on parking and it seems that unless you want to be a bus ride away you can plan on paying around ~20 euro/day. And tripadvisor... I have gotten good info from it, but you really need to have the right mindset when going there. I place the typical user to be 40-60, from suburbs of wherever, on their second real "trip" anywhere. Getting anything useful just takes a lot of time and work. I once saw a terrible review for a well known and amazing pizza place simply because they didn't have ranch dressing to slather on the pizza.  That being said, any particular things that you found terrible in San sebastian?
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May 20, 2015 20:15
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PT6A posted:I don't want to get down on Donostia right now, since I know other people have plans to come here... but I've retyped this post three times and I still have no idea where to go after that opening sentence. So, I'm going to stay positive: I think a lot of the reason people find it grating (or disappointing) there is just expectation. It's a holiday spot on the ocean first and foremost. If you are searching for authenticity that's not the type of place to go. Anyway... Just got a res at Asador Etxebarri. I think that might be my one michelin splurge. Unless you can convince me otherwise... I'll have a car for 3 days, so perhaps I will take your suggestion on Logrono. Anyone have any recommendations for wineries in the general area? or other similar things. Maybe within ~2 hours max of Donostia. Searching seems to yield a lot of premade tours, but since I'll have a car wouldn't mind just diy-ing it.
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May 27, 2015 22:52
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PT6A posted:Go to Bodegas Lopez de Heredia in Haro. The tour is very good, and they make some of the very best wine in the entire world. According to Google Maps it's about 90 minutes from San Sebastian, or about 40-60 minutes from Logrono. There are also a number of other bodegas in that area, as well as very close to Logrono itself. awesome, thanks for the bodega recommendations. I think I'm definitely going to go to Lopez and maybe a couple others.
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May 28, 2015 18:04
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PT6A posted:Good to hear. I just had the bottle of wine I got there (included in the price of the tour, 30) and it is off the charts. Just remember: it's a bodega so special that Akelarre literally had a separate heading on the wine list for their wines. You'll be walking on hallowed ground, and you're going to love it! hmmm cool. I don't know much about wine, but always nice to have some of the good stuff around. I might have to ship back some boxes then. Already planning on shipping some beer back from other parts of the trip (Cantillon)
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May 29, 2015 16:55
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Looking for some advice on getting mobile phone coverage. I'm going to be in the UK, Spain, and Denmark. I would love to have some kind of cell service that isn't ridiculously priced. Mainly for navigation, confirming things with airbnb hosts and the like. I have access to a few different phones here in the US. An android on Verizon (has a micro sim). An iPhone 5s on ATT. and an iPhone 6 on Verizon. From checking with verizon, it seems like their coverage is not great and it's extremely expensive (25$ gets 100mb only). ATT is about the same, but it looks like my ATT iphone is much more compatible for europe. Is the best bet just to buy a plan from a shop when I land (in London) and put the sim in my iphone? Is there a particular mobile provider I should use that will work well across the UK, Spain and Denmark? Any particular chain of shops to get a sim from? I can't imagine using many sms or call minutes, but I would like to have a decent amount of data.
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May 31, 2015 18:02
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PT6A posted:Don't know about UK or Denmark, but in Spain it's super-easy to get a pre-paid SIM (whatever size). It's 6 for 500MB, plus maybe 5 for the SIM card or something, which includes a whole bunch of minutes. I bought mine from Orange because they had a kiosk right at the entrance to the metro station at the airport, and I haven't had any problems with them. The only thing is that you need a passport. Also, I'm going to have to buy a new one when I return with a new phone, because the passport I used to get this one is expired -- either that, or pre-paid numbers can't be transferred between different SIM cards in any circumstance. I'm not entirely sure. Not a big deal, though. hmm, cool thanks for the info. I was hoping there would be some sort of partnership between a few companies to at least get some sort of option for a one time buy. Is there any companies that come close to offering a sort of decent roaming? Willing to pay a bit extra to just do it once since my whole trip is under 3 weeks. Wouldn't mind buy several GB worth of data in one go even if it burned off faster roaming in another country, if that makes sense.
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Jun 2, 2015 00:20
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freebooter posted:So apparently to drive in Spain you need your home driver's license AND an international driver's permit (if you don't have an EU driver's license). I foolishly assumed that since the US and the UK reciprocally accept Australian licenses, it was just a general Western country thing and that all of Europe would be chill with it. Nope. can anyone confirm if this is true? first ive heard it... renting a car in Spain in 12 days from Hertz. Is that enough time to get this IDP? I'm from the US if that matters. Yossarian-22 posted:I'm looking to further my Spanish education in Spain sometime in late July or early August, but I don't have any friends who can travel with me so I'm either going to travel with my dad or with a group. Does anyone know of good language schools/available flights to Spain/groups to travel with? I just graduated college and I'm looking to travel there for 3 weeks to a month. I did this a few years ago, solo however. Really depends on what you want to do. A lot of schools are full of youngish students who are kinda using it as a sort of holiday more than learning experience, especially the ones around big cities where there are a lot of international people and english speakers. It's hard to learn there because it's so easy to just speak english. I ended up avoiding those and going here: http://ifspanish.com/es/ It's in Santiago de Compostela which is north of Portugal. It's not really on the traditional tourist circuit, though it is the end point for a major trek / pilgrimage. I picked it because it was out of the way and I'd heard there wouldn't be a lot of other Americans around. I had a great experience and thought it was very reasonably priced (I think 6 weeks + an apartment was just over 1k euro). There's a decent sized university in the town so there is plenty of young people around. My classes were a mix of students (18-22 on erasmus) and business people (30+). It Improved my skills a lot and did a lot of cool stuff that I never would have done as a tourist. It's a very unique region in Spain. This was a few years ago, but I can't imagine it has changed much. hbf fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 18:11
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DNova posted:I think you just go pay AAA $40 I just did some googling and it appears you need 2 passport sized photos and AAA office can do it on the spot. Some sites are saying it needs to be shipped, but I think they are referring to those who just mail in the form rather than go to an AAA location.
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Jun 7, 2015 18:41
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Looking for stuff to do in London outside of the painfully obvious tourist stuff. I came up with the Hunterian museum and visiting Highgate cemetery. Anyone ever visited these and have an opinion on them? If anyone has any other weird London recommendations would love to hear those too. Interested in things like old record shops, bookstores, tea sellers, antique stores, anything old and British really.
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Jun 11, 2015 18:50
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Thanks for all the London info Freebooter, PlantHead and elwood. Another question. I'm going to be there for 4 days and was planning on buying an Oyster card at Heathrow. Is it best just to load cash on it? Or should I buy daily passes? Or just go for a week? I'm guessing most of my travel will be in Zones 1-3 and it seems like a daily anytime pass for zones 1-4 is 12 pounds. Do i have to buy a daily pass every day? or can you buy multiple at a time, like buy the next 3 days at once?
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Jun 13, 2015 17:04
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freebooter posted:Is Spain as bad as Italy for driving? I'm doing a 10-day roadtrip there in August and haven't regularly been behind the wheel of a car for about five years. Also I come from a country where we drive on the left. Depends on where. I just rented a car in the Basque region and found it extremely easy. Roads were nice, not much traffic, and was very easy to get around. Saw a ton of stuff I would have never been able to by train/bus. Most difficult (and expensive) part was parking in San Sebastian (20e for a night, could have gotten free if I wanted to walk/wait a while for a bus). In Madrid or any other big city I wouldn't bother at all with how bad traffic is. If you already will have a car I'd think about parking somewhere in the outskirts and using a train or something to get in and not worry about it until you want to move on. The kicker with Spain is the tolls, at least coming from the US. All the new highways have a lot of tolls. If you look it up ahead of time you can avoid most of the pricey ones. Went from San Sebastian to a town called Haro one way and it was nearly 15e for 2 hours of driving. The way back I asked someone and did the same thing with like 1.10e and the road was a lot more interesting. If you are not deadset on road tripping its also very easy and cheap to rent a car, like 10e a day cheap. I don't drive regularly either.
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Jun 30, 2015 18:19
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PT6A posted:Out of curiosity, how did you end up liking Haro? Really liked the whole region. The town itself was pretty typical small spanish town, but there happened to be some sort of festival going on which was fun. I think it had something to do with high school graduation but I'm not sure. Visited a bunch of wineries and at most my gf and I were the only visitors. One of the guides sent us over to his friends farm outside town where they made goat cheese just because we said it would be cool. Drove from Haro to Lagrono and stopped at a couple of interesting little towns along the way. I know Laguardia was one. Totally full of old people wine tourists, but there was a bunch of cool wine caves. If I was to go back to Haro I'd totally spend a night there and just pop around to the different places drinking and buying bottles to ship home.
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Jul 2, 2015 03:10
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PT6A posted:Sweet! Good to know I didn't steer you wrong in recommending a visit to La Rioja. yeah thanks! I brought back some great wine too. The bottles made it through 4 flights within Europe and back to the US. Then, on my connection back home through Southwest, TSA decided open my bag, took off all of the padding on the bottles and put them back in the bag the dumbest way possible. I had had them in foam bottle mailers and then in the center of the bag surrounded by clothes. One broke of course, totally ruining a bunch of stuff. They didn't even put the foam back on the bottles, just crumbled it up and stuffed it into a corner of the bag. gently caress TSA.
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Jul 3, 2015 18:01
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Just bought a ticket to Milan for the first 2 weeks in June on a whim. Will probably spend a couple days in the city, and couple days around Lake Como, but other than that I have no plan what to do with the remaining 9 days. Anyone have suggestions for northern Italy? I'll be traveling with my GF, both 30, we tend to be into more nature-y hiking stuff than say, art museums/city stuff/shopping, which seems to be what draws most people to Milan. So we are definitely not opposed to visiting small towns or more rural areas. We are also really into the food/wine aspect of Italy too of course. For the main touristy stuff in the "region" It looks like Venice is reasonable distance away. Cinque Terre also seems reasonable, will it be extremely crowded in early June? Are most things reachable by train, or should we plan on renting a car for a bit?
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Apr 16, 2016 15:54
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Going to be in Florence for about 3 days (Sat afternoon > Tuesday afternoon). Plan on spending about half the time exploring the city, but was hoping to take at least a day trip to a surrounding town or area. Any recommendations for the best way to do this? I am particularly interested in visiting some vineyards as some pretty killer wine regions are right there. I'm ok with renting a car if needed (did it in Spain basque region last summer and it was a great decision). Would totally be open to spending a night elsewhere (a small town or something). Overall just looking for any recommendation for outside the city and stuff off the beaten path.
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May 17, 2016 22:52
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Omits-Bagels posted:My wife and I are visiting Italy for the first time in October. We're going to be in Rome 7th-11th and 15th-18th. I would recommend Florence for sure. Lots of cool stuff to do/see in the city plus pretty amazing food. I would also recommend renting a car and driving through Tuscany and staying somewhere for at least a night, especially if you are into wine at all. Very easy drive, just go directly out of Florence and it's pretty much simple highways and then country roads, all well marked and well mapped on google. I just got back, stayed in Montepulciano, and drove all over the region to visit wineries. It was without a doubt the highlight of my trip. It will be pretty busy in October, right at the end of the harvest, but it's pretty much the most ideal time to go. And one thing about using Airbnb in Italy. I would avoid using any run by a company rather than an individual. Most ads will be written in a way to hide this, but check the reviews/profile.
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Jun 29, 2016 17:52
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Imaduck posted:Are there parts of the city that aren't so crowded? I'm headed to Florence for a few days in August, and I know it's going to be crazy. I don't really want to see all the hot spots, and I hate sitting in lines and tourist crowds. Really, I just want to eat some good food, see some pretty sights, and get a feel for Italy. Any suggestions? If you don't care to see any of the sites in Florence then just go to some of the smaller towns in Tuscany. Siena would be the largest/most popular of those, but there are a lot. Most people just hit them up for day trips, so they are pretty empty in the evening. Food throughout Tuscany is pretty amazing. I didn't have a bad meal. This would involve renting a car ideally, half the fun is the drive and all the little places in between.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:12
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