Accepted a job offer

[Dinner]

The pyramids. It's an impressive wonder of the world. And you might broaden your horizon in terms of how you view Arabs.

Crime is sky high in Egypt right now.

[ricketyclik]

Congrats HC

My family has a beach house on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, home of the best beaches in the world. US$30K will cover two month's rental at it nicely.

[C0ckney]

congrats HC

[loinburger]

75% of the places I've vacationed have been national parks, so let me know if you want any advice on them - in general your choice is between desert, mountains, and forest, with my preference being the desert although in summer you may want to stick to the mountains and forests. I've only ever camped at national parks, I don't know if they're any good for non-campers - IIRC Grand Canyon has a hotel.

Europe: A bit **** if you're going there for museums IMO, the Mona Lisa looks better in a browser window than it does behind a foot of safety glass. Cathedrals are nice to see in person. Italy's Amalfi Coast has fantastic scenery. Britain has good beer.

Went to Costa Rica for a few weeks as an "eco-tourist" (i.e. looking for sharks and sloths etc), I recommend it if you're into that

My next trip is going to Hawaii to see its volcanoes and leper colonies

[Jon Miller]

75% of the places I've vacationed have been national parks, so let me know if you want any advice on them - in general your choice is between desert, mountains, and forest, with my preference being the desert although in summer you may want to stick to the mountains and forests. I've only ever camped at national parks, I don't know if they're any good for non-campers - IIRC Grand Canyon has a hotel.

Europe: A bit **** if you're going there for museums IMO, the Mona Lisa looks better in a browser window than it does behind a foot of safety glass. Cathedrals are nice to see in person. Italy's Amalfi Coast has fantastic scenery. Britain has good beer.

Went to Costa Rica for a few weeks as an "eco-tourist" (i.e. looking for sharks and sloths etc), I recommend it if you're into that

My next trip is going to Hawaii to see its volcanoes and leper colonies

Lauterbrunnen (Switzerland) is really nice if you want to take a train up the mountain or to hike up and take a train down or to hike up and have a nice restaurant at the top. Also has very nice hotel/camping (with dishwashers at the camp site).

The British Museum is a great museum and I recommend it. In general, though, I prefer to just wander around and occasionally step into some museum that is next to me (means I have never gone to the Louvre). Cathedrals and churches are usually great to visit though. Only take tours in out of the way places.

I also generally go to random little cities in Europe (I went to Namur and not Bruge, although apparently I missed something by not going to Bruge).

JM

[loinburger]

If you go to Vegas, then in my experience the price of a titty show is inversely proportional to its quality - the cheap ones include jugglers and corny jokes and other fun stuff, whereas the more expensive ones include **** like Michael Jackson impersonators and other people who take themselves too seriously.

The best titty show I saw was Showgirls of Magic on opening night, where the topless performers screwed up half of the tricks and two of them burst into tears. Unfortunately they've probably improved since then (assuming the show is still open).

[Bereta_Eder]

I also generally go to random little cities in Europe (I went to Namur and not Bruge, although apparently I missed something by not going to Bruge).

JM

Just the venice of the north

[Bereta_Eder]

The thing with going to random cities is that most are the same anyway. Just the different old cow or the pleasantly bucolic villager may differ.
It's good IMHO to just wander aimlessly in a city (but if things start to look a bit shady you take the aristocratic turn back) but it's good to visit "tourist attractions" because there's a reason they have that title.

[Jon Miller]

Places I have visited in Europe:
Namur
Copenhagen
Lund
Gavle
Uppsala
Stockholm
Brussels
Paris
Trieste
Otranto
Florence
Lucca
Geneva
Lauterbrunnen
Aachen
Hamburg
Karlsruhr
London

I liked Lauterbrunnen better than Geneva and I liked Lucca better than Florence. I did like Hamburg better than Karlsruhr, so I guess I have low statistics.

JM

[Bereta_Eder]

Places I have visited in Europe:
Namur
Copenhagen -
Lund
Gavle
Uppsala
Stockholm
Brussels
Paris
Trieste
Otranto
Florence
Lucca
Geneva
Lauterbrunnen
Aachen
Hamburg
Karlsruhr
London

JM

This concludes by opinionated contribution

[Jon Miller]

Interesting things about Otranto:
The architecture/etc has strong Byztantine roots, the town was a major center until the Ottoman's captured it in 1480 (when a bunch of Catholics were killed, they were canonized last year). Until recently there were greek speaking communities in the area. The Cathedral has a really great mosaic and dates from ~1000 AD.

Interesting things about Lucca:
Lucca was a center for the Silk trade in Europe because one Italian stole some silk worms from China and brought them to Lucca. It was also the base of the sister of Napoleon during his rule of Italy. Most importantly, it is the site of the original "Black Jesus" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Face_of_Lucca).

Both are worth a tour.

JM

[Bereta_Eder]

Yeah ok I'm not disputing that they can be interesting and thanks for the info.
But you'll be hardpressed to find a city without having anything of interest (like mosaics or good cathedrals). If you're close to florence though or rome does it really compare to those places? I mean, why see where napoleon's sister was and not napoleon himself (assuming you didn't before) that's my point.

[Jon Miller]

Napoleon's sister ruled Italy for him.

During the Crusades, everyone who was anyone went to see the Cathedral of Otranto.

Everyone sees Florence/etc. But does it really matter if you see 3 days of Florence or 1 day of Florence?

JM

[Bereta_Eder]

[DaShi]

You ate dinner right next to the camels, rah? That had to stink.

HC, I recommend that you should cover the basics of Europe -- London, Paris, Rome, maybe a few other spots. For about $5k, you can have a pretty posh, minimal risk trip in an area where you won't look horribly out of place. Learn not to be the ugly American.

No way. I'm sure he's seen Taken and is well aware to stay away from Europe.