Travel

I've always been puzzled by the wonder of travel. This is really just notes for my own references of travels I've done or planning to do.

Tools

Travellogs

• Legal Nomads - Former lawyer currently eating her way around the world - twitter @legalnomads
• Chris Guillebeau - Pursuing world domination - twitter @chrisguillebeau
• Everything Everywhere - Travel adventurer posting daily photography - twitter @everywheretrip Reddit AMA
• Road Trip Rally - Rally across the America
• The Adventurists - Adventures to be found in the world, check Mongol rally [1]
• EatingAsia - Travel writer and photographer exploring food in Malaysia, Pengang, Thailand
• Gadling - Passionate travelers and writers, Huffington Post subsidiary
• A Little Adrift - List of RTW travel logs
• What's Dave Doing? - Traveller and backpacker for a decade
• The Aussie Nomad - Living and working the world over
• Mature Traveler - Captivating tails from China, Nepal, India, Malaysia and more
• Living the Dreal - RTW - Massive list of resources and travel blogs
• As We Travel - A couple traveling and working with local travel agencies to improve the experience
• Answering Oliver - Girl from Seattle setting out to conquer the world
• fearfuladventurer.com - exploring the world one terrufued step at a time

Adventure inspiration

• gadventures.com - Offers tours and adventures in all regions of the world, good for inspiration
• Most exciting city destinations - List of the top 50 travel destinations, annual awards [2]

Exploration

• wikitravel.org - Lots of recommendations and listings of places to check out
• maps.google.com - Explore cities using street view
• 360cities.com - Get to know the places beforehand to save time navigating
• tripadvisor.com - Reviews and discover places where to go
• Rough Guides - Alternative to the other travel guide series
• Lonely Planet - Legendary travel guides, use as indirect reference for exploration
• Twitter hashtag, e.g. #amsterdam for everything happening in that city

Flight - Wordwide

Use a well known airliner for continental flights and low price domestic airliners for shorter hops around the continent or country.

• skyscanner.net - Combines independent flights into otherwise not obvious ones
• lowcostroutes.com - Instantly figure out all the low-cost airlines covering a flight or region, perfect for city hopping, replaces airninja.com [3]
• rome2rio.com - View the differnet options available, on a clean interface with a map and price points [4]
• kayak.com - Flight search, map explore feature to discover price differentials, car rental search
• hipmunk.com - Map-based interface with color-coded bar graphs to find the ideal flight
• expedia.com - Search for single or return flights, deals
• orbitz.com - Option for multi-city flight search
• travelocity.com - Combine multi-city and airline flight, save money
• Flight deals blog - Great updates of bargins

Flight - Norway

Only search for flights on Tuesdays after 15:00, the airlines are then done updating the prices after the weekend rush and competing airfairs

• finn.no - Broad norwegian search portal, includes most airlines, except RyanAir
• ebookers.no - Simple search for flights
• restplass.no - Charter and flight search
• Website of airlines:
  • Norwegian
  • KLM
  • RyanAir
  • SAS

Resources

• worldnodmads.com - Advice on safety, insurance, questions and answers, other handy tips
• CDC - Medical advice for most countries including vaccines and medications to bring
• apotek1.no - Map overview and list of recommended vaccinations for different countries (Norwegian)
• reisemedisin.no - Tips on food, hygiene, malaria and recommendations of essential kit to bring (Norwegian)
• whatsdavedoing.com - Excellent advice for backpacking in South-east Asia
• seatguru.com - Makes it easy to pick the most comfortable seat on a long flight
• flightstats.com - Watch your flight for changes or stats, or discover other possible airline connections
• seat61.com - Train and rail resource for any itinerary around the world, great tips on how to find the cheapest deals
• ihatetaxis.com - Every detail you need when arriving at an airport, from basic information about the airport to the best trains, bus and car rental options
• airtreks.com - Create your entire itinerary and get a real quote from an actual person
• tripbase.com - Cool widgets for calculating travel cost per city and weather prediction
• Travel full-time List of excellent tips on saving money while traveling
• flightradar24.com - Get a live overview of all flights in a region on a map, find other potential flights
• Google's people also searched - handy tool to get a quick outline of a place or a spot, also references to other nearby points of interest

Gear/packing

• Legal Nomads Jodi's travel packing list
• Answering Oliver RTW packing list
• G and Q's RTW trip
• No luggage RTW trip packing list
• Globe Trooper - How to choose a backpack
• Dave's six things to consider when buying your first backpack

Budgets

• greatfamilyescape.com - Collection of travel budgets
• legalnomads.com - Another list of travel budgets, lower on the page
• budgetyourtrip.com - Tool to plan and view estimated and actual expenses

Hostel/Hotel

• hostelbookers.com - Great resource for comparison, special offers, refund option
• hostelworld.com - Easy to read overview of hostels in a city/country, use in conjunction with TripAdvisor
• hotline.com - Find last minute the-day-before deals
• tripadvisor.com - Great independent visitor reviews
• finn.no - Norwegian search portal
• expedia.com - Easy to spot deals
• The website of hostel or hotel of interest

Apartments/bed

• airbnb.com - Global community for sharing a space to stay
• homeaway.com - Similar to AirBnB [5]
• housetrip.com - Another new alternative to find good apartments [6]

Apps

Handy apps to get around, explore a location and keep in touch.

• TripAdvisor City Guides - Get offline version of major cities
• Tripso - Retrieve collection of travel information from Wikipedia, Wikitravel, World66 and other sources
• Hipmunk - Find the trip with the least hassel
• Google Maps - Extremely handy, in situations with wifi access (expensive over cell network)
• Photosynth - Create panoramas in a fling
• yr.no - Graphical weather details for any location
• DropBox - Access your travel notes and key information quickly
• Skype - Free calls over the Internet to other Skype users
• OpenRice - Great way to find restaurant and places to eat in Asia

Other

• Eric Fischer - Heatmaps created out of geotagged photos, useful to figure out the (more interesting) side streets
• Strava Labs Bike and Running heatmap - amazing map showing where there is much cycling and running, e.g Netherlands

Travels

• 2003 Sept. London - Trip with friends
• 2007 Oct. London - FOWA conference and Diggnation show
• 2008 Jan. Newcastle - UFC event
• 2008 July. Western Norway - Hardangerfjorden, Songefjorden, Jotunheimen, Geiranger, and Trollstigen
• 2009 Jan. Dublin - UFC event
• 2009 Apr. Cologne - Family
• 2009 May London - Surprise trip with friends
• 2009 Jul. Western Norway - Bergen, Hardangerfjorden, Sognefjorden, and old road over Lærdalstunnelen
• 2009 Oct. Oslo - Wozniak conference
• 2009 Dec. Berlin - CCC congress
• 2010 Jun. Denmark cycletour - North to south, 8 days
• 2010 Aug. Western/southern Norway - Twice, Lysebotn and Preikestolen
• 2010 Dec. Berlin - CCC congress
• 2011 Feb. Amsterdam - City centre, fighting seminar
• 2011 Jul. Western Norway - Kjeragbolten and Preikestolen
• 2011 Jul. Gaustatoppen - Highest mountain in the southern part of Norway
• 2011 Des. Europe - Two week exploration of Paris (Le Web event) and round-trip of Brussels, Brugges, Zürich, Vienna (transit) and Krakow
• 2011 Dec. Berlin - CCC congress
• 2012 Jun. Portugal - Roadtrip with family around the whole of Portugal
• 2012 Jun. Riga - Weekend trip with a friend
• 2012 Sept. Amsterdam and Cologne - Visiting family, rented a car in Amsterdam
• 2012 Oct. Europe - Exploring 10-cities-for-10k around Europe
• 2012 Dec. Hamburg - CCC congress - first time in Hamburg
• 2013 Jan. Åseral - Exploration for FPV spots
• 2013 Jul. New York City - Part of a east-cost roadtrip
• 2013 Sept. Europe - Another 3 weeks exploring around Europe tour
• 2013 Dec. Hamburg - Annual CCC congress
• 2014 Jun. Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Thailand - First time in Asia! Visiting electronics markets and tasting the food
• 2014 Dec. Amsterdam, Hamburg - Amsterdam Christmas hangout and annual CCC congress
• 2015 Jun. Flørlitrappene - A wooden staircase, 4444 steps and a short 10km return trail
• 2015 Sept. Warsawa - Adventuring in the polish capital
• 2015 Dec. South-Korea, Japan - Visiting Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima
• 2015 Dec. Hamburg, Groningen, Amsterdam - Annual CCC congress, return visit to Groningen and Amsterdam
• 2018 Jun. Portugal - Portugal trip to Montemuro, Viseu, Caramulinho, Coimbra

Preferences

• Classic Apartment - Great studio apartments with balcony in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin
• Metropolitan Hotel - Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin

Booking accommodation routine:

1. Check Hotwire for deals
2. Check Booking.com for deals

Building itinerary:

1. Read Wikivoyage and build points
2. See [7] gogobot.com]
3. See [8] tripadvisor.com]

Next travels

General recommendations:

• G Adventures 48 hours guides

Specific recommendations:

• Things to remember for next London trip Ask Slashdot [9] [10]:
  • DJ shops - Phoncia, BM Soho, Rough Trade
  • Bletchley Park - Enigma codebreaking and early computing
  • Science Museum
  • British Museum
  • Hummus Bros [11]
  • Just Falafels [12]
  • Adadgio Teas Regent Street
  • Mildreds Vegetarian Restaurant, Soho [13]
  • Spuntino, Soho - Eat around a big bar [14]
  • Cycle around Camden, Hampstead Heath, West End, Oxford street
  • Caffe Vergnano 1882 - Best hot chocolate [15]
  • Brick Lane Beigel Bake - great pastry [16]
  • Honest Burgers [17] [18]
  • Byron Burger [19]
  • Monmouth Coffee [20]
  • Nam-op! Vietnamese Paddington (green curry) [21]
  • Nando's London Bridge (edamame, sweet potato mash) [22]
  • Gourmet Burger Kitchen [23]
  • Dishoom indian [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWV2AbDqJ4Q&list=UUVrvnobbNGGMsS5n2mJwfOg
  • Tayyabs curry [24]
  • Paradise Slice Pizza [25]
• United States trip:
  • Use roadtrippers.com to plan
  • Route 66 - Original highway from Chicago to Los Angeles
  • Oceanspray Cranberry Trail Mix - Delicious chocolate covered berries [26]
  • Mario's Pizza, Greenville, IL - Twit
  • Post Corner Pizza, Darien, CT - Tom Merrit
  • Glenwood Canyon via train [27] [28]
  • Denver, Red Rock Amphitheater [29]
• California trip:
  • Pacific Coast Highway [30]
  • Redwood National Park - Scene location of the Return of the Jedi
• England trip:
  • Devils Dyke viewpoint, Brighton [31]
• San Francisco trip:
  • The Long Now museum - mechanical computing
  • Apex Electronics, Sun Valley - Surplus electronics store
  • TechShop - tinkerer's perfect playground
  • Amoeba Music - Large independent music store
  • Highway 1 - road close to the coast, lots of cliffs, best south of Carmel [32]
  • Pick-a-peck - marinated carrots, asparagus, and green beans [33]
  • Computer History Museum, Mountain View - not your regular type museum [34]
  • Urban Putt indoor crazy golf place [35]
• Norway things:
  • Svolvær wedged stone [36]
  • Hellersvann, biketrail on smooth rock face [37]
  • Stetinden [38]
• New York trip:
  • Gray's Papaya - Hot Dog specialists
  • Saint's Alp bubble tea [39]
  • 230 Fifth Rooftop Garden Lounge [40]
  • Perk Kafe [41]
  • Levain Bakery [42]
  • Big Daddy's Diner [43]
  • Beauty & Essex - Speak easy style nice restaurant, Essex st in the lower east side [44]
  • 16 Handles Frozen Yoghurt [45]
  • Captain Scott's Lobster Dock CT [46]
  • Juice Press [47]
  • The Press Lounge Rooftop Lounge [48]
  • Joe's Pizza - best in the city, Ben Affleck [49]
• Las Vegas trip:
  • Stay at Vdara - non-gaming, non-smoking [50]
• Wisconsin trip:
  • House on the Rock [51]
• Trip to Japan (English friendly japan):
  • Experience Golden Week - A FULL week of vacation for Japanese people [52]
  • Matcha Kit Kat chocolate
• Trip to Tokyo:
  • Find a good apartment near a metro line
  • Akihabara, lots, lots of electronics shops videos of some of them
  • Tokyo tower
  • Shinkansen express train
  • Kyoto
  • Osaka
  • Green tea icecream
  • Eat on other than first floor, quieter, better food [53]
  • Midori Sushi, apparently best sushi restaurant ever, queue [54]
    • Shinjuku
  • Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
  • Komeda Coffe - Lots of small dishes, nice atmosphere
  • Nekobukuro - Pet cats for a fee
  • Nagashima Spaland - Amazing park with lightshow at night
• South America trip:
  • Rio De Janeiro
• Trip to Chile:
  • Atacama Desert - Explore the Very Large Telescope (VLT)
  • Las Barrancas, Coquimbo Region - Desert by the ocean [55]
  • The Three Towers, Torres Del Paine National Park[56]
• Trip to France:
  • The Great Dune of Pyla - Gigantic sand dune at the coast stretching 3 km [57]
  • Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix - Mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, cable car from 1035 m to 3842 m [58]
• Trip to Spain:
  • Caminito del Rey - Old walkway used for maintenance of a hydroelectric power plant, epic heights and deterioration [59]
  • Basílica De Montserrat, Barcelona - nestling in the towers and crags of the mountain
  • Mercat de la Boquería - Large public market in Barcelone
  • El Teide, Spain's highest mountain [60]
• Trip to China:
  • Beijing:
    • (Tourist traps) Forbidden palace and Tiananmen square, the temple of Heaven and the beautiful Beihai park, the Great Wall at Badaling [61]
    • Old Hutongs of Beijing - back lanes of the city
    • Made in China a.k.a. Grand Hyatt - Perfect Pekin' duck, reservation recommended [62]
    • Shanghai’s Wet Market on Lianhua Lu in the Minhang District [63] - Guide service [64]
  • Shenzhen:
    • Hau Qiang Bei, electronics marked [65]
  • The Bridge of Immortals, Huangshan, China [66]
• Trip to Canada:
  • Biosphère in Quebec - unique and spectacular structure [67]
  • Vancouver - Lovely city
  • Poutine - French fries and cheese curds [68]
  • Icefields Parkway - Very scenic route to Calgary [69]
• Trip to Switzerland:
  • Zermatt, hike up to Hörnli Hut, 3260 m, try the Goulash [70]
  • Karwendel, lovely valley on the border of Swiss and Germany [71]
  • Bernina Express - the highest railway in the Alps [72]
• Next trip to Amsterdam:
  • Cycle around the old town and the outer sticks
  • Mercan Patisserie - try lahmacun (Turkish pizza) [73]
  • Volkshotel - nice stylish hotel [74]
  • CT coffee & coconuts
• Trip to Croatia:
  • Zadar - City on the Adriatic coast [75]
  • Plitvice Lakes National Park - Beautiful forrest and lakes [76]
• Trip to Latvia:
  • Riga - Check out LIDO, marked, old town
• Trip to Kuala Lumpur:
  • Batu Caves [77]
• Utah trip:
  • Corona Arch [78]
• Colorado trip:
  • Uncompahgre Peak [79]
• Trip to Austin:
  • Schlotzsky's - Dark whole wheat sandwiches
• Trip to Bulgaria:
  • Buzludzha, abandoned momument on top of mountain range [80] [81]
• Trip to Sabah:
  • Borneo Treeforest Lodge - Walkway hung between canopys, 300m long [82] [83]
• Trip to Singapore:
  • SkyPark, Marina Bay Sands - Pool and observation deck on top of a casino
  • Sim Lim Square Electronics Market, 1 Rochor Canal Rd - Singapore's Akihabara [84] [85] Google map Maker Fair data layer
  • Hotel 81 Bugis - great hotel [86]
  • Tasty dishes on sheet stalls and markets [87]
• Trip to Australia:
  • Uluru - large sandstone rock formation in the middle of the country
• Trip to Sidney:
  • EEVblog Dave [88]
  • Bondi Beach - iconic breach, ferry trip to Watsons Bay and a bus to Bondi [89]
  • Walking from Tamarama Beach to Coogee Bay [90] [91]
  • Fish&chips at Watsons Bay [92]
  • Woolloomooloo - For the sake of it, what a name! [93]
• Trip to Azores:
  • Nine volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean - Excellent for hiking and running
• Trip to Fiji:
  • Yasawa Islands - series of small islands, excellent for island-hopping
  • Paulsami - baked taro leaves marinated in lemon juice and coconut milk with some meat or fish filling, bit of onion or garlic [94]
  • Kokoda - fish or other seafood marinated in lemon and coconut milk [95]
  • Anything cooked in a lovo or pit oven
  • Kava - famous peppery, earthy tasting drink made from the root of the pepper plant, mildly intoxicating [96]
  • See a local rugby match
  • Take the local bus to get around the largest Viti Levu island - cheap, safe [97]
  • Stay at Bamboo hostel in Nadi - spacious, clean, free wifi [98] [99]
• Trip to Los Angeles:
  • Amoeba Music - Independent record shop, vinyl! [100]
  • In 'n Out Burger - Some higher grade hamburgers and milkshakes [101]
  • Trader Joe's - Many organic products with no preservatives [102]
  • Hollywood Wax Museum - Longest running wax museum in the US [103]
  • Griffith Observatory - Extensive array of space and science-related displays, great views over Hollywood and LA [104] [105]
  • Walk of Fame - Homage to thousands of famous movie, radio, theatre, and TV personalities [106]
  • Mulholland Drive - Breathtaking views across Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley [107]
  • Pink's Hot Dogs - Servin' the most famous hot dogs in Los Angeles since 1939, try their chili dog [108]
  • Pinkberry - Frozen yogurt chain, choose from vanilla or green tea yoghurt [109]
  • Buca di Peppos - Italian restaurant [110]
  • Tacos Manzano - 1 dollar tacos [111]
  • Republic of Pie - Cafe spot [112]
  • Randy's Donuts Inglewood [113]
  • Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament [114]
  • Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles [115]
• Trip to Italia:
  • Cinque Terre - Amazing place along the Italian rivera [116]
• Trip to Bolivia:
  • Salt flats in Uyuni - World's largest surface made of salt [117]
• Trip to Vietnam:
  • Ha Long Bay - Huge mountainous pillars [118]
  • Hang Son Doong - 4 km long underground cavern [119]
• Trip to Berlin:
  • Volkspark Friedrichshain - Berlin’s oldest public park, founded in 1840 [120]
  • Meta Mate Bar [121]
• Trip to Caribbean/Netherlands outpost:
  • Saint Maarten Airport beach [122]
• Trip to Hong Kong:
  • Hot Toys
  • Apliu Street Flea Electronics Market [123] [124]
• New Zealand trip:
  • Hot water beach
  • Mares Leg Cove - tunnel - Cathedral Cove [125]
  • Milford Sound [126]
  • Milford Track [127]
• Cape town trip:
  • Willoughby & Co sushi [128]
• Borneo trip:
  • Mount Kinabula [129]

Countries

1. Germany
2. Poland
3. Sweden
4. Denmark
5. United Kingdom
6. Ireland
7. Scotland
8. Latvia
9. Netherlands
10. France
11. Switzerland
12. Luxembourg
13. Austria
14. Italy
15. Spain
16. Portugal
17. Belgium
18. Hungary
19. United States
20. Thailand
21. Hong Kong
22. China
23. Taiwan
24. South-Korea
25. Japan