Travel

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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

Adventure ideas

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.

  • airninja.com - Instantly figure out all the low-cost airlines covering a flight or region, perfect for city hopping [3]
  • skyscanner.net - Combines independent flights into otherwise not obvious ones
  • 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
  • kayak.com - Flight search, map explore feature to discover price differentials, car rental search

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

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
  • 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

Gear/packing

Budget

Hostel/Hotel

  • finn.no - Norwegian search portal
  • expedia.com - Easy to spot deals
  • tripadvisor.com - Great independent visitor reviews
  • hostelworld.com - Easy to read overview of hostels in a city/country, use in conjunction with TripAdvisor
  • The website of hostel or hotel of interest

Apartments/bed

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

Other

  • Eric Fischer - Heatmaps created out of geotagged photos, useful to figure out the (more interesting) side streets

Travels

Next travels

  • Things to remember for next London trip Ask Slashdot [5] [6]:
    • DJ shops - Phoncia, BM Soho, Rough Trade
    • Bletchley Park - Enigma codebreaking and early computing
    • Science Museum
    • British Museum
    • Hummus Bros [7]
    • Just Falafels [8]
    • Adadgio Teas Regent Street
    • Mildreds Vegetarian Restaurant, Soho [9]
    • Spuntino, Soho - Eat around a big bar [10]
    • Cycle around Camden, Hampstead Heath, West End, Oxford street
  • United States trip:
    • Route 66 - Original highway from Chicago to Los Angeles
  • California trip:
    • Pacific Coast Highway [11]
  • 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 [12]
    • Pick-a-peck - marinated carrots, asparagus, and green beans [13]
    • Computer History Museum, Mountain View - not your regular type museum [14]
  • Norway things:
    • Svolvær wedged stone [15]
    • Hellersvann, biketrail on smooth rock face [16]
  • New York trip:
    • Gray's Papaya - Hot Dog specialists
  • Wisconsin trip:
    • House on the Rock [17]
  • Trip to Japan (English friendly japan):
    • Experience Golden Week - A FULL week of vacation for Japanese people [18]
  • 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 [19]
    • Midori Sushi, apparently best sushi restaurant ever, queue [20]
      • 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 [21]
    • The Three Towers, Torres Del Paine National Park[22]
  • Trip to France:
    • The Great Dune of Pyla - Gigantic sand dune at the coast stretching 3 km [23]
    • Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix - Mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, cable car from 1035 m to 3842 m [24]
  • Trip to Spain:
    • Caminito del Rey - Old walkway used for maintenance of a hydroelectric power plant, epic heights and deterioration [25]
    • 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 [26]
  • 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 [27]
      • Old Hutongs of Beijing - back lanes of the city
      • Made in China a.k.a. Grand Hyatt - Perfect Pekin' duck, reservation recommended [28]
      • Shanghai’s Wet Market on Lianhua Lu in the Minhang District [29] - Guide service [30]
    • The Bridge of Immortals, Huangshan, China [31]
  • Trip to Canada:
    • Biosphère in Quebec - unique and spectacular structure [32]
    • Vancouver - Lovely city
    • Poutine - French fries and cheese curds [33]
  • Trip to Switzerland:
    • Zermatt, hike up to Hörnli Hut, 3260 m, try the Goulash [34]
    • Karwendel, lovely valley on the border of Swiss and Germany [35]
  • Next trip to Amsterdam:
    • Cycle around the old town and the outer sticks
  • Trip to Croatia:
    • Zadar - City on the Adriatic coast [36]
  • Trip to Latvia:
    • Riga - Check out LIDO, marked, old town
  • Trip to Kuala Lumpur:
  • Utah trip:
  • Colorado trip:
    • Uncompahgre Peak [39]
  • Trip to Bulgaria:
    • Buzludzha, abandoned momument on top of mountain range [40] [41]
  • Trip to Sabah:
    • Borneo Treeforest Lodge - Walkway hung between canopys, 300m long [42] [43]
  • Trip to Singapore:
    • SkyPark, Marina Bay Sands - Pool and observation deck on top of a casino
    • Sim Lim Square, 1 Rochor Canal Rd - Singapore's Akihabara [44]
    • Tasty dishes on sheet stalls and markets [45]
  • Trip to Australia:
    • Uluru - large sandstone rock formation in the middle of the country
  • Trip to Sidney:
    • EEVblog Dave [46]
    • Bondi Beach - iconic breach, ferry trip to Watsons Bay and a bus to Bondi [47]
    • Walking from Tamarama Beach to Coogee Bay [48] [49]
    • Fish&chips at Watsons Bay [50]
    • Woolloomooloo - For the sake of it, what a name! [51]
  • 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 [52]
    • Kokoda - fish or other seafood marinated in lemon and coconut milk [53]
    • Anything cooked in a lovo or pit oven
    • Kava - famous peppery, earthy tasting drink made from the root of the pepper plant, mildly intoxicating [54]
    • See a local rugby match
    • Take the local bus to get around the largest Viti Levu island - cheap, safe [55]
    • Stay at Bamboo hostel in Nadi - spacious, clean, free wifi [56] [57]
  • Trip to Los Angeles:
    • Amoeba Music - Independent record shop, vinyl! [58]
    • In 'n Out Burger - Some higher grade hamburgers and milkshakes [59]
    • Trader Joe's - Many organic products with no preservatives [60]
    • Hollywood Wax Museum - Longest running wax museum in the US [61]
    • Griffith Observatory - Extensive array of space and science-related displays, great views over Hollywood and LA [62] [63]
    • Walk of Fame - Homage to thousands of famous movie, radio, theatre, and TV personalities [64]
    • Mulholland Drive - Breathtaking views across Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley [65]
    • Pink's Hot Dogs - Servin' the most famous hot dogs in Los Angeles since 1939, try their chili dog [66]
    • Pinkberry - Frozen yogurt chain, choose from vanilla or green tea yoghurt [67]
  • Trip to Italia:
    • Cinque Terre - Amazing place along the Italian rivera [68]
  • Trip to Bolivia:
    • Salt flats in Uyuni - World's largest surface made of salt [69]