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    1. I'm going to Thailand next week. Looking for advice on clothing.

      I'm very excited to be taking a trip to Thailand with my wife for our honeymoon. I'm going to do some clothes shopping this week and keen to take advice from those who live in or have travelled to...

      I'm very excited to be taking a trip to Thailand with my wife for our honeymoon.

      I'm going to do some clothes shopping this week and keen to take advice from those who live in or have travelled to SEA or specifically Thailand before.

      I'm going for a minimal approach, so I'll be taking as few clothes as possible and having them laundered whilst I'm there.

      For underwear, I'm settled on stocking up on Uniqlo's airism boxers as they're already the most comfortable I've ever owned and I'm certain they'll hold up well to the tropics.

      In that vein, I'm not sure if I should also go for the airism t-shirts, or if there's an obviously better choice. I hear lots of mixed opinions on cotton vs merino vs synthetics. I sweat too much for cotton, and have never got on that well with merino (outside of jumpers/sweaters). Given I'll only be there for a couple of weaks, I'm feeling that synthetics are the way to go. But I'm happy to be convinced otherwise.

      For footwear I'm going to wear my Altra Escalantes. I'm currently training for a marathon and will have to do at least a few runs while I'm out there, so these will serve as my running shoes and for anywhere I might appreciate plain black shoes (or something more supportive than sandals). Otherwise, I'll be living in my Birkenstock arizonas.

      I'll be packing two linen shirts, one linen trousers and then a couple of very lightweight shorts. Again, I'm avoiding cotton with the shorts. I have some ABC WovenAir pull-on shorts from Lululemon that I think will be very comfortable, but I'd be keen for recommendation for another pair or two. I've been told the pacebreakers from Lululemon are great, but not sure if an order from there will arrive on time.

      I'm based in the UK, so any recommendations would ideally before for shops we have here, or international brands like Decathlon, Uniqlo, H&M etc.

      I understand this is all very personal, but I like hearing different preferences.

      18 votes
    2. Is anyone here in or familiar with Tokyo? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist...

      A new entry to go with my previous two posts in the same vein NYC and Denver, but this time in... TOKYO! The "Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist..." isn't entirely true...

      A new entry to go with my previous two posts in the same vein NYC and Denver, but this time in...

      TOKYO!


      The "Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist..." isn't entirely true like it was in my post about NYC as anyone that has seen me talk about sumo can imagine, but everyone was extremely helpful and threw out suggestions I wouldn't have even thought about looking for in previous posts. So here I am again to bug you wonderful people for Tildes Travel Guide III: Tokyo Trilogy Part Minus One

      The overarching details:

      • 7 days in Tokyo from Friday, January 9th to Friday, January 16th.
      • Except for Jan 9, I am completely solo for the entire trip.
      • There are two specific events I will be attending, one is Friday the 9th, the other is TBD but can be nearly any day during the trip.
      • I don't know where I'm staying yet. Where is kinda dependent on what I decide to do/be regularly near, am open for accommodation recommendations. I would prefer to stay in one place the entire trip, not real interested in packing up all of my things to move to another part of Tokyo (or another city) unless I can be convinced to do so.
      • I'm not the sightseeing tourist-y type so there's little interest in the things that are on every "Tokyo Top 10" list.

      And so I beseech you fellow Tilderinos, as someone that doesn't care about being a tourist and doesn't have a social media presence to feed I'm-here-and-you're-not selfies to, what should someone with nearly a week entirely alone with nothing but free time in Tokyo actually do?

      If you're reading this and thinking there's not much to go on interest-wise...

      ...that's the point.
      I know what I like.
      I know what I don't like.
      I don't know what I don't know about and experimenting and trying new things is paramount to life.

      30 votes
    3. Seeking guidance on a week long LA to Bay Area trip

      Hello Tildes travelers, I'm sure questions like this get asked often, but I'm having a hard time cutting through the SEO spam and AI BS about travel and feeling a bit overwhelmed at the options. I...

      Hello Tildes travelers,

      I'm sure questions like this get asked often, but I'm having a hard time cutting through the SEO spam and AI BS about travel and feeling a bit overwhelmed at the options.

      I digress, as the title states, my wife and I are heading to California in early June for a wedding in the bay area. Neither of us have been to California and wanted to make a big trip out of it, roughly eight-ish days with two being dedicated to wedding activities. We both are from the Midwest and really want to see what California has to offer. Ideally we would love some help with making an itinerary of things to do and places to see since its such a big state and with so much to do. A Few things we'd love to try and do: see Palm Springs (wife is an architect), explore LA, drive the coast, explore the bay area and finally see some giant sequoia trees. It sounds like a lot so I'm not sure how that all might shake out, or even if its possible in the given time frame. Which is why I am appealing to you all for some help.

      Roughly, and I mean roughly our plan is this:

      • Day 1: Fly into California
        • Arrive in Palm Springs (if we can) spend evening and the next day exploring the city
      • Day 3: Drive into LA
        • Explore the city for the day and spend the evening in LA
      • Day 4: Drive up the coast
        • Spend the day driving up the coast and end the evening staying in a coastal town (Stopping in Santa Barbra and staying Arroyo Grande or some similar town halfway to San Fran)
      • Day 5: Arrive in San Fran
        • Spend the morning driving the rest of the coast and arrive in the bay area
        • Spend the early part of the day exploring San Fran then drive to Pleasanton (location of wedding)
        • Spend evening doing wedding things
      • Day 6: Day of the wedding
        • Wedding stuff (woo!)
      • Day 7: Drive from Fremont to Calaveras Big Trees State Park
        • Spend the day exploring some of the inner portion of California and get our big tree fix
        • Spend the evening driving home
      • Day 8: Flyout of San Jose or Oakland

      Does this seem doable? Is this stupid? Any thing you would change? Really we don't have anything done yet minus the RSVP and the dates specifically. I'm not looking for anything crazy specific, minute by minute to hour by hour. That is asking a lot for a random internet stranger but any help would be really appreciated.

      15 votes
    4. Upcoming solo trip to San Diego - any advice?

      Hey, I'm headed to San Diego in March after getting selected for a work conference. The last time I was in California was San Francisco more than a decade ago with my dad, so I'm excited to be...

      Hey, I'm headed to San Diego in March after getting selected for a work conference. The last time I was in California was San Francisco more than a decade ago with my dad, so I'm excited to be visiting again.

      The first few days will be the conference (which includes a recreational afternoon for networking, I picked the San Diego Zoo). I purposely scheduled my plane flight to be a few days after the conference ends to I can explore the city, but it'll be my first real solo trip; originally, my sister was going to tag along in my hotel room, but she had an injury and needed to drop out.

      I fly in on March 18th, check out from the conference is the morning of Saturday the 21st, and I fly back home on the morning of the 24th. That gives me almost all of Saturday, and all of Sunday and Monday to explore the city.

      Definitely, one of the things I want to check out is Balboa Park, though I would appreciate advice on specific museums, since I can't imagine it's possible to see even half of them in a day.

      Another thing I've considered is a day trip to Tijuana to walk around. It's been a while since I had a good opportunity to practice my Spanish. Worst case scenario I can get a dental cleaning if I can't come up with any other ideas 😂.

      Eating out alone isn't really something I've done before either. I think I want to do a nice sushi bar Omakase one night just to treat myself, if people have suggestions on where, and I'd love other suggestions for places to try where it wouldn't be too weird eating solo.

      Does anyone have any suggestions for other things to do, places to see? Where I should stay after leaving the Marriott Marquis, since at >$500/night it's a little expensive for me? I won't be renting a car, so ideally, something either in walking distance or easily accessible via transit. I'll probably do a mix of ride shares and public transit for travel.

      I'd love to hear ideas, along with what anyone else here has done in San Diego. Worst case scenario, I'm sure I'll figure it all out, but it's nice to poll the crowd sometimes.

      15 votes
    5. Food place recommendations in Paris?

      Me and my girlfriend will be in Paris for 2 nights soon. Since this is such a short trip, we'll mostly be visiting the most popular "essential" tourist attractions - so we will generally be around...

      Me and my girlfriend will be in Paris for 2 nights soon. Since this is such a short trip, we'll mostly be visiting the most popular "essential" tourist attractions - so we will generally be around the center of the city. However, most advice I found online seems to agree that you probably shouldn't just enter a random restaurant in the center of Paris, because it is very likely to be a tourist trap with very high prices and relatively low quality.

      So, if any of you have suggestions on good places to eat for a reasonable price, I would really appreciate that!

      Also, the end of our trip happens to fall on valentine's day, and we were thinking about having a nice early dinner (late lunch? around 15:00) before we leave, preferably in a pretty place. I'm fine with spending a bit more (~50€ per person) on that one. So if you know any places that fit, please suggest those as well.

      Thanks!

      21 votes
    6. Regarding travel agency exoticca.com

      So the Mrs. and I are planning on a trip to Japan for June of this year. I received a tip to take a look at the deals found on said travel agency and I was impressed. I made a cursory research on...

      So the Mrs. and I are planning on a trip to Japan for June of this year. I received a tip to take a look at the deals found on said travel agency and I was impressed. I made a cursory research on the legitimacy of the service and found that it does deliver. I took the dive and got myself booked--with an additional fee to cancel and have my deposit fully refunded. Since then I've been looking more and more into their services and find that way too many reviews are overwhelmingly negative. The corresponding Reddit board screams "don't do it!" (though most of the posts there are a bit dated, admittedly)
      And now that I'm finally a member of this fine community at Tildes, I figured that I'd ask you kind people for your feedback and discussion. What do you all say? Is there any consensus on any particular travel agency? Or is it best that I engage in the grunt work to book all the hotels ahead of time? We're looking to hit Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto at the very least. My total cost so far is less than $5000 for 9 days, FYI. And travelling from USA, if that makes any difference.
      This is my first post on Tildes prompting discussion, btw. Glad to be here! 🤞

      17 votes
    7. Seeking recommendations for a solo journey to London

      Some background: this trip was originally my 40th birthday present from my now ex-wife. We've since divorced and I'm insistent on going by myself, as something always seems to come up and ruin my...

      Some background: this trip was originally my 40th birthday present from my now ex-wife. We've since divorced and I'm insistent on going by myself, as something always seems to come up and ruin my overseas travel plans. So, I want to treat this as a sort of growth/healing/looking forward trip.

      About me: I've traveled quite a bit but I've never been outside of North America. Europe is completely new to me. I am very fond of football, food, beer, hiking, history, and new experiences. I prefer to stay away from tourist traps and I'd rather find hole in the wall type places that are recommended to me by locals. When I travel somewhere, I want to immerse myself.

      I'll be there for ~9 days and I have the first 5 days fully worked out. What I need help with is figuring out what I want to do in London for the last 3 days of the trip before I head back to the airport. Other than going to a Fulham game next Saturday, I'm completely wide open. I would prefer to stay in the greater London area since the first half of the trip already involves quite a bit of travel.

      I'd love to hear your recommendations do's/don'ts, or general guidance. I'm open to pretty much anything.

      21 votes
    8. In Tokyo for a couple of days, inviting recommendations

      My wife and I are in Tokyo for a couple of days, before moving on to Kyoto. We have a few restaurants booked already, and have a friend or two in the city who will show us around, but I wanted to...

      My wife and I are in Tokyo for a couple of days, before moving on to Kyoto. We have a few restaurants booked already, and have a friend or two in the city who will show us around, but I wanted to solicit some recommendations from people here too. We are staying in Ginza area but happy to walk/use metro to explore other parts of the city.

      Any recommendations for good shopping or good food? I’m interested in vintage/second hand clothes, kitchen equipment, etc but honestly open to any suggestions of things to check out!

      EDIT:

      Well, I’m back stateside now, and I want to avoid bumping this thread too much by going through and thanking people, but I found all of these comments really useful! We ended up having a great time and ate some great food, most of the time by popping in places that looked good when walking by. Did some nice shopping as well (I managed to pick up my dream watch from a small store in Omote-sando!) Thanks everyone for the great recommendations, it was useful to get my bearings, and now I just can’t wait to go back.

      24 votes
    9. The Airbnb/Hotel Gap: Private common spaces

      Once or twice a year, my friends and I do a "Friend Getaway" where we rent an Airbnb and all communally nerd out. Magic, D&D, videogames, tabletop stuff, etc. It's a great time. We look forward to...

      Once or twice a year, my friends and I do a "Friend Getaway" where we rent an Airbnb and all communally nerd out. Magic, D&D, videogames, tabletop stuff, etc. It's a great time. We look forward to it every year.

      Unfortunately, our experience with Airbnbs has progressively gotten worse over time (not that it was ever great), with this past weekend being our worst ever. We ended up leaving early and escalated a complaint with the platform (not that I actually think that will do anything, which is one of the problems with Airbnb in the first place).

      Unfortunately, we're kind of stuck with going with an Airbnb (or similar, like VRBO) if we want to keep doing this because they're the only thing that give us what we want: private common spaces.

      The reason we get an Airbnb in the first place isn't for the destination or the attractions around it. It's so we can all hang out together in the living room and dining room, and cook group meals in the kitchen. We retire to the beds to sleep, but 90% of our waking time is spent grouping ourselves up in the common areas by interest.

      If we could stay at a hotel and rent out a living room, dining room, and kitchen for the group, we absolutely would. Ever since Airbnbs became a thing, I was hoping hotels would move a little bit in the direction of offering similar setups, but it feels like at most you can simply get a regular hotel room with a kitchenette. They're not really conducive to groups at all.

      To me, there's currently a huge gap between what hotels offer and what Airbnb offers, and if you want the latter, you have to put up with a lot of awfulness that's just sort of embedded into their business model.

      I don't really have a point in posting this other than to highlight that and hope that it starts some discussion. I'm also hoping that someone tells me that I'm completely wrong and that there are hotels out there that actually do offer Airbnb-like stays/facilities and I just don't know about them.

      41 votes
    10. Moving to the other side of the Earth

      The company I work for just announced they want to open a new office abroad, in Australia to be specific. We’re based in Denmark, and they’re hoping to have one person from here moving there,...

      The company I work for just announced they want to open a new office abroad, in Australia to be specific. We’re based in Denmark, and they’re hoping to have one person from here moving there, working full time.
      We already have an office in the US, so it’s not an entirely new thing for us to open an office abroad.
      However, I’m really thinking about letting the company know that I would like to go, and I think there is a pretty good chance that they would let me. My wife is open to the idea too. We have one child (she would be just over 3 when we would have to move), so it’s really good timing too…

      Have any of you tried something like this? What was your experience like?

      31 votes
    11. Carbon offsets and the Nebula show "Jet Lag"

      Recently I've been watching the show Jet Lag on Nebula. It's an entertaining little reality show where people compete in contests which require a lot of travel, especially in commercial aircraft....

      Recently I've been watching the show Jet Lag on Nebula. It's an entertaining little reality show where people compete in contests which require a lot of travel, especially in commercial aircraft.

      I've noticed that they are really really traveling a lot for a frivolous reason and having a huge carbon footprint. (Yes I understand that the flights they go on are booked anyway and would fly if they weren't on them, sort of).

      During the show they sometimes use a graphic to show the travel distance and then also mention that they are using Gold Standard carbon offsets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Standard_(carbon_offset_standard)

      I've read a bit about carbon credits and carbon offsets before. I think it seems like a bit of a boondoggle to let people with money greenwash their activities. Has anyone here researched this and come up with a different conclusion?

      I think maybe this is a very newbie question to ask on this Tildes group.

      13 votes
    12. Advice for a day in London

      A pretty quick work trip has been planned. I will fly into Heathrow Saturday morning. I'll have until Sunday evening to get to Warwick. I'll be in Warwick for 5 days before flying back out the...

      A pretty quick work trip has been planned. I will fly into Heathrow Saturday morning. I'll have until Sunday evening to get to Warwick. I'll be in Warwick for 5 days before flying back out the next Saturday.

      I'm looking for any general advice but also if there is anything specific to the following:

      • I'm going to book my own hotel in London the Saturday night I fly in. Saturday and Sunday are essentially my "tourist" days. Where is good to stay? Not too concerned with price.
      • I'm taking a train to Warwick and mostly have that figured out but is there an app or pass that I should add to my Apple wallet for transit around London?
      • I like museums of all types. Are there any in particular I should check out?
      • Any classic pubs or restaurants I should try to get to?
      • Once the week starts I don't think I'll have much time to do touristy stuff and I won't have a car. Any recommendations on things around Warwick/Birmingham that I can get to some evenings via train or bus?
      10 votes
    13. What is your favorite museum?

      Inspired by a recent conversation I had with a fellow museum lover: what is your favorite museum or favorite museums? Why? Curious to learn about some really interesting and unique places that...

      Inspired by a recent conversation I had with a fellow museum lover: what is your favorite museum or favorite museums? Why? Curious to learn about some really interesting and unique places that other users might have been to.

      33 votes
    14. Portable monitor recommendation?

      Hi Tildes, I am going to Vienna in November (and if anyone wants to meet up send me a message! but that's another topic), and this is only half vacation, half for a work-related conference, so I...

      Hi Tildes, I am going to Vienna in November (and if anyone wants to meet up send me a message! but that's another topic), and this is only half vacation, half for a work-related conference, so I want to be able to easily spend a couple hours on work even during the vacation part. To make this easier, I want to buy a portable 2nd monitor that I can plug into my laptop.

      I have ZERO experience using such an item, and wasn't even 100% sure they really exist until I searched just now, so I don't think I have any flat requirements. However, I would super like if it takes touch input and comes with a pen! (no i do not want a tablet, I want a 2nd screen for my laptop that I can drag windows & paste between etc). It also should either be super lightweight or be safe to put in my checked luggage (preferably the latter). Minimum 1080p resolution, I don't think the size matters THAT much but at least the size of a normal laptop screen (and not netbook) would be good.

      (oops I thought I was pressing enter on a tag but it sent the whole post! edited a bit to finish writing it)

      23 votes
    15. Travel recommendations for Japan

      Hey Everyone, My partner and I are headed on a spontaneous trip to Japan in a few weeks and looking for suggestions. We've heard some great things about Piss Alley and Golden Gai in tokyo, as well...

      Hey Everyone,

      My partner and I are headed on a spontaneous trip to Japan in a few weeks and looking for suggestions. We've heard some great things about Piss Alley and Golden Gai in tokyo, as well as the fish markets, and got really excited about the southern island of Kyushu after watching a video from Huckberry. We're hoping to get out of cities for the most part and into nature/sleepier towns, are able to rent a car but would love to explore as much as we can on trains/bikes, and are really excited about the culture/food/onsens. Really excited to hear about anything you'd recommend based on that or really anything that knocked your socks off!!! Thanks!

      25 votes
    16. Three days in England - Overwhelmed by options - Looking for ideas

      Looking for ideas - we're two adults in our mid-30's, no kids. We'll be leaving a wedding on a Monday in Ipswich but our flight home from London isn't until Friday. We'll be spending a week in...

      Looking for ideas - we're two adults in our mid-30's, no kids. We'll be leaving a wedding on a Monday in Ipswich but our flight home from London isn't until Friday. We'll be spending a week in London beforehand so we'd like to explore the countryside.

      The only thing we've (sort of) landed on is seeing/staying in the Cotswolds, and touring some castles (holy crap there's a ton to chose from). We're not big drinkers/partiers but I'd like to be able to go hang out in a real English pub and stay at a Lord-of-the-Rings kind of inn (I already found the inn that the Prancing Pony is based on - thought not sure if we want to stay there).

      Other random thoughts. Unfortunately our schedule doesn't seem like it'll line up with any Premier League games. Not planning on renting a car but can if we absolutely must. Would kind of like to stay in one spot since it's only 3 nights.

      18 votes