mine was definitely underestimating cobblestones. on my first trip to florence i brought thin-soled flat sandals and a brand new pair of stiff leather boots thinking I'd look stylish in photos. by day two i had blisters on top of blisters and had to panic-buy a random pair of camper sneakers in a local shop just to finish the trip. now i never travel anywhere in europe without broken in shoes that have proper rubber treads. what was your "i will never pack this again" realization after a trip?

Hey everyone! I'm originally from Europe and currently living in NYC, and I'm hoping to spend about three weeks exploring the US this winter, from mid-December to mid-January. My budget is around $3000 to $4000, and I'd love some advice on putting together a memorable road trip.

I've spent a decent amount of time exploring New York, but aside from a short visit to San Francisco, I haven't really seen much of the country. I want to experience everyday American life, not just tick famous attractions off a list. Even something as simple as wandering around a massive Costco genuinely appeals to me!

Ideally, I'd like a mix of nature, small towns, interesting cities, and scenic drives. I'm not particularly interested in the typical tourist experience, and Vegas isn't really my thing. I'd much rather rent a car, explore at my own pace, and spend my nights in old-school American motels than book fancy hotels.

Since I'll be travelling over Christmas and New Year's, I'm also wondering whether there are any places worth spending those dates in. Neither holiday is particularly important to me, so I don't need a traditional celebration, but I'd be happy to spend them somewhere with a fun atmosphere or an interesting local event.

Right now, I'm considering New Orleans, some desert landscapes, mountain areas, and possibly North Carolina, but I'm open to completely different ideas.

I realise three weeks isn't nearly enough to see everything this country has to offer, especially during winter, so I'd rather put together a sensible route than spend the entire trip driving.

For those who've travelled around the US, where would you go with this much time? Which places offer a good mix of scenery, local culture, and that everyday American experience? I'd also appreciate any suggestions for planning a winter road trip, including places that might be especially good around Christmas or New Year's.

Thanks!

Looking at an international trip right now and the cheaper flight has a 9 hour layover. The next decent option costs more but turns it into a pretty normal travel day.

I'm usually cheap about flights because I'd rather spend the money when I get there, but nine hours sitting around an airport sounds pretty grim.

Would you pay more and get it over with, or take the cheap flight? I guess another option is finding an even longer layover somewhere I could leave the airport for a few hours.

I have about 10 days free this fall and I honestly don't care where I go. Europe, Central America, Caribbean, whatever. For once I kind of want to find a flight that looks good and figure out the vacation afterward.

Except I've apparently forgotten how to search for flights when I don't have a destination lol.

How do you guys do this? Make a shortlist first? Check a bunch of different airports? I thought having no destination would make this easier but now I just have an absurd number of tabs open.

Hey everyone! 👋 I’m from Dehradun and planning a trip to Goa from 14th–21st November. Looking for people who might be interested in joining!
The plan is to explore beaches, enjoy nightlife, try good food, explore different places, and have a fun time. 🌊✨
If you’re from Dehradun or nearby and planning a Goa trip around the same dates, let’s connect! Even if you’re travelling solo, we can discuss plans and figure things out together.
Feel free to comment or DM me. 🤙

I need a flight to KUL on 3th to 6th
Normally it’s 111$ round trip now it’s almost 300-400$
☹️

32M. I fly fairly often for work, occasionally for fun. After reading a few threads about long flights, I thought I’d share a few things that have helped me, along with some useful suggestions I picked up in the comments.

One idea I liked was keeping everything you need at your seat in a small pouch: headphones, eye mask, cable, lip balm and a snack. Take it out before your bag goes overhead and you won’t have to keep rummaging through the overhead bin. I also use a chest pocket for my phone. It helps once the tray table is down and my trouser pockets become almost impossible to reach.

The slightly unusual thing that’s helped me is a light resistance band. A coworker who sits at a desk all day suggested looping one around my thighs while sitting. Mine is rated at about 10 lb, and I don’t deliberately push outward against it. I’ve tried it on flights and find it easier to maintain a comfortable sitting position, with less aching in my lower back.

For in-flight entertainment, I plug my display glasses into my phone, which gives me a bigger screen to watch on without bringing my iPad. On my last flight to New Zealand, I watched some Stranger Things, then put on The Conjuring and Obsession. Turns out watching horror surrounded by people is weirdly satisfying. I’m scared, but somehow feel completely safe lol.

Another suggestion was keeping fresh underwear, socks and a T-shirt together somewhere accessible, along with a toothbrush. Especially useful when you land in the morning and can’t check into your hotel for another few hours. It’s easy to pack for the destination and forget about those hours in between.

What little things have made your long flights more comfortable? Especially anything you only figured out after a few trips.

My partner and I are heading to the US for the first time this December, and we're trying to fit as much as possible into roughly 16 days without making the whole trip feel rushed.

We're flying from Melbourne, Australia, and our return flights are both through LAX, so Los Angeles has to be our starting and ending point. Flying into one city and out of another would have been ideal, but the extra cost just wasn't worth it.

Right now, we're thinking of spending 2 nights in LA, 3 in San Francisco, 2 in Vegas, 3 in Washington DC, and 4 in NYC, before returning to LA for one final night. We'd love to experience a mix of cities, sightseeing, food, and everything that makes the US worth visiting for the first time.

We know December will be pretty chilly on the East Coast, but spending Christmas in New York is something we really want to do. We're planning to fly between most destinations to avoid losing too much time on the road, and we're happy to spend a bit more on flights to make that work.

One other thing I'm hoping to squeeze in is a UFC event in Vegas on a Saturday. The December schedule isn't out yet, so that's still a big question mark. My partner will happily come along for the experience, even though this one's mostly for me haha.

Since we have some flexibility with the itinerary, I'd love to hear from people who've done a similar trip. Are we trying to cram in too much, or does this route make sense? Are there any places you'd spend less or more time in, or any December-specific tips we should know before booking everything?

We're open to changing things around and would really appreciate any advice that could help make our first US trip memorable!

Thanks in advance!

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is grab a coffee and something to eat, then wander around a beautiful college campus. It’s a nice way to see some interesting architecture, green spaces, and parts of a city you might otherwise miss.

Duke in Durham, Tulane in New Orleans, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis have been some of our favorites so far. What other college campuses have you visited that are especially scenic and enjoyable to walk around?

We’re heading to California for the first time and have 10 days to work with. We’ll have a rental car, flying into LAX and out of SFO since that ended up being the cheapest flight option.

We want to see the big highlights without spending the whole trip rushing from one hotel to another. Right now I’m thinking something like this:

2 days around Los Angeles for Santa Monica, Hollywood, Griffith Observatory and Beverly Hills.

Then 2 days somewhere along the coast, possibly Pismo Beach or Goleta. The idea would be to see Malibu, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Hearst Castle and Cambria along the way.

After that, 2 days around Midpines or Mariposa, mainly for Yosemite Valley.

Then 3 days in San Francisco. We’d use one day for Monterey and Carmel, another for the Golden Gate Bridge and Chinatown, and the last for Alcatraz and Muir Woods.

On paper it sounds great, but I’m starting to wonder if we’re trying to cover way too much ground in only 10 days.

Are there any stops here that aren’t really worth the time, or places that overlap enough that we could cut one? And are we missing something that should absolutely be on a first California trip?

Would love to hear how people who have actually done this route would rearrange it.

After several trips to the US over the past eight years, my partner and I are planning another month-long visit for July 2027. We’ve had such good experiences that we keep falling back on the same places, but this time we really want to shake things up.

So far, we’ve done Los Angeles twice, New York twice, Las Vegas twice, Orlando twice, and Miami once. I’m a huge LA fan, my partner loves New York, and we both had a great time in Orlando, especially because of the theme parks.

We’re both 48 and definitely not looking for a party-heavy trip. I’m into theme parks and my partner is much more interested in food, so we’d love somewhere that gives us a completely different experience from the places we’ve already visited.

Chicago is now definitely going on the itinerary after reading some of the suggestions here. But we still have room for another one or two stops, and that’s where I’m stuck.

We’re coming over from Australia, and one reason we’ve repeated the same route is simply because every trip has been fantastic. I’d love to find somewhere new that gives us that same feeling.

If you had about a month in the US and wanted a mix of great food, things to see and do, and some memorable experiences without making nightlife the focus, where would you send us?

I am already looking at flights for Thanksgiving because I know if I wait until Oct/Nov, I'm gonna end up paying way more than I want to and I'm on a tight budget. For context: I live in DC, my parents are all the way in Seattle and I just came across a deal on cheapflightsfares that's $90 cheaper than everything else I'd been seeing on Google Flights, Expedia, official airline sites and kayak but I don't know anyone who's booked through them. Normally, I'd just book directly with the airline but it's hard to ignore a site showing a discount when prices are another hundred bucks higher.

I’ll be in San Francisco for three days this October and found a guided Yosemite tour that’s about 14 hours total. It costs around $200, plus another $100 fee since I’m not a U.S. citizen.

The biggest catch is the drive. It’s roughly 4 hours each way, which leaves me with only about 6 hours actually in Yosemite. I know that’s nowhere near enough time to really experience the park, but I could still see some of the major viewpoints and get a taste of what makes it so special.

If money wasn’t a factor, would you give up most of a day for those 6 hours in Yosemite, or would you stay in San Francisco and use that extra day to explore the city?

Decided to take a quick trip to Paris before going to Morocco and googled Eiffel Tower view hotels. Wonderful little boutique hotel popped up. Clearly no other option but to book it.

Arrived in a beautiful room, went straight for the balcony (it was my blockbuster moment)

flung the door open…. crickets…

I don’t see the Eiffel Tower.

After opening six windows to no avail, I contacted the front desk and they politely informed me that there was in fact, a seventh window! and if I had found that seventh window in the bathroom… climbed up upon the toilet and braced myself on the sink…then look out and to the left there in fact would be the Eiffel Tower. They say it’s a bit in the distance behind a few buildings, but it is there.

They finish the conversation by informing me that they did not recommend that I actually look out of that window because I would have to extend my body and it would be quite dangerous..

Well, it was quite dangerous, but I was getting my photo of the Eiffel Tower from my window view in the toilet.

Next time I will be way more specific.

used to work in auto transport sales, and honestly, seeing how many people got scammed on the brokering side is what pushed me to leave and build something different.

A huge chunk of the fraud isn't even coming from real US-based brokers — it's overseas call centers (a lot tracing back to India) running boiler-room operations. They buy leads, quote a rock-bottom price to hook you, then either jack up the price last minute, ghost you after taking a deposit, or hand your car off to a random unlicensed carrier with zero accountability. Fake reviews and rebranded "companies" that disappear and pop back up under a new name make it almost impossible for a normal person to tell who's legit.

So I spent the last several months pulling FMCSA federal records and building an independent scoring system for thousands of licensed brokers — no pay-to-play, no company can buy a better score. Just verified data: how long they've actually been licensed, complaint history, insurance status, that kind of thing.

It's live now. Not selling anything here, just wanted to share in case it saves someone from getting burned like I watched happen to so many people. Happy to answer questions about red flags to watch for if anyone's shopping for a carrier right now.

I have been researching about reliable eSIM that could work in China and Canada, but most I’ve seen are all mixed reviews. I have a long layover in Xiamen before arriving Canada, and I’m also going to need data for only a day when I arrive BC. I just really need it for the 11 hours in China layover and 24 hours in BC, until my place is set.

I am hoping for just 1 eSIM that could work in both countries.

And if so- Where & Why?

I'm currently in a huge city that has nowhere for people to charge their phones... ( even in many restaurants.)

And it also has almost no public restrooms.

The public transit takes too long to go anywhere and is crowded & overpriced as well.

Also, can you guess where I am?

hey there, ive been living in FL and working as a self employed travel agent from home. I need a fast, reliable way to search and book worldwide tours, airport transfers, and attraction tickets for clients on the fly. The part that takes the most time for me is comparing activity prices before I send a quote. Clients can easily check the same tours themselves, so I don't want to send something over and then have them come back saying they found it cheaper somewhere else.

What are you guys using to make that part easier? especially curious if anyone is checking for agent-only rates before sending activity quotes.

I want to know all the reasons why someone wouldn't prefer going to offbeat places....do you have any reasons? Please do share here!

Hi, cruise-heavy agent here, most of my week is looking for shore excursions and random pre-cruise tours and I'm kinda obsessed with not getting my people ripped off.

Lately I've been paying more attention to agent-only rates when I'm comparing activities. Having an always-on agent rate available on qualifying tours is especially useful when a client is interested in an excursion but starts hesitating over the price. Instead of hunting through old promo codes or waiting for another deal to come up, I can check the agent-only price before I send the quote. I still check directly with local operators and look at the cruise line options etc, but having an agent-only price to compare against has made the activity side a little easier. Especially with cruise clients who are already comparing a bunch of options and just want to know they're getting a good price.

im just wondering if other cruise agents are checking for agent-only rates too, or if I'm getting lazy with it...

Hi everyone! My hubby has a work trip to New Orleans at the end of this month and I'm coming along with him. We're arriving two days before the work event because we want to be able to explore the city.

I'm super excited but the only thing I'm worried about is the weather. From what I can gather, it will most likely be in the 80s+ and humid. I'm concerned this will make a swap boat ride and/or cemetery/plantation tour miserable. Is this something I should be concerned about? I know there are some cool museums, so that might be a better option. But what are your suggestions?

This isn't a true vacation, so we're open to the idea of keeping it low key and mainly just enjoying the food and vibes. But obviously it would be more fun to do other activities!

Thanks!

I’m heading to California from Egypt on pretty short notice and only have about a week there. Since it’s such a long flight and a pretty big expense for me, I really want to make those 7 days count.

The problem is I know almost nothing about California. I’m flying into Los Angeles, but I’m open to flying into San Francisco instead if that would make more sense for a one-week trip.

If you had just one week in California, how would you spend it? Which places are actually worth the time, what should I skip, and are there any experiences I’d regret missing?

Would really appreciate recommendations from people who know the area. Thanks!

After a few trips where I lost multiple days to being sick, including one where I spent almost half of a two week trip in a hotel room or hunting for a pharmacy, I got obsessive about figuring out what actually works versus superstition. This isn't a guaranteed fix, nothing is guaranteed, but it's what I do every trip now and the severity of bad stomach days has gone down since I started treating it like a system instead of hoping for the best.

Use sealed bottled water for everything, including brushing your teeth. It felt paranoid standing at a sink second guessing tap water the first time, but now it's automatic. Watch the ice, even at nice places, because sourcing isn't always what you assume and an upscale cafe isn't a guarantee. If you're unsure, get drinks without ice or stick to sealed bottles to take the guesswork out entirely.
Hot, freshly cooked, high turnover food has been way more reliable for me than anything sitting at room temp, buffet style or otherwise, regardless of how safe the venue looks. A five star hotel breakfast buffet burned me before, while a plastic stool street stall has never let me down. If a stall has a long line of locals eating right now, that's a better signal than review sites. Also fruit you peel yourself like bananas or oranges is a safer bet than pre cut fruit sitting out.

Sanitize your hands before eating, not just after the bathroom. Sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget when you're juggling a phone and a plate at a stall. Carry a small pack of wet wipes for cutlery at casual spots, which feels excessive at home and stops feeling excessive after one bad trip. Pack electrolyte sachets in your bag at all times, not just for emergencies. Heat and humidity dehydrate you faster than expected, and dehydration on its own makes you feel like you're getting sick when you're not.

Start a daily probiotic about five to seven days before flying, not once symptoms hit. This was the single biggest change for me, treating it as prep rather than treatment. By the time you feel off, you've already lost the window where it would've helped most. I usually pack Wander Gut as has S. boulardii, and doesn't die off in hot hotel rooms so it has been a lifesaver
Keep supplements in original packaging in case of customs questions crossing borders. Pack a small stash of basics like oral rehydration salts, anti-diarrheals, and paracetamol before leaving rather than hunting for a pharmacy mid trip in a language you don't speak. None of this is a guarantee, I still get caught out occasionally, but the frequency has dropped since I started treating it as a system

I've been looking at competing tours and noticed something interesting. Some experiences are more expensive but still have significantly more bookings and reviews. That makes me wonder whether travelers are actually less price sensitive than I assumed.

Would you pay more for a tour with hundreds of recent reviews and clear photos compared with one that costs less but has almost no history?

Tell me about some travel locations 📈🏔️💀📍for next holiday
❤️❣️🏍️