Vacation Thread

[wallus]

I thought we should have a vacation thread since hopefully it will be decent to travel again for a while.

Anyways, I am going to Vegas again in about a week. I have gone a few times and have done quite a bit of what is popular. Any tips on places to go/see/things to do? Last time we did the Neon Lights Museum (go at night). 

[GAME05]

Been to Las Vegas a bunch but all I know of it is that Binions and Golden Nugget are right across the street from each other and are the best places to play poker. Play the tournaments at the GN and play cash games at Binions while you wait. And tell your taxi to take the side roads instead of 15 because that's the faster route anywhere you want to go. MGM and the ones on the strip are far more comfortable places to play, but that attracts better players. Only time I hit those up is if there's a big convention finishing up nearby because all the convention-goers flood in and they're terrible.

[wallus]

3 hours ago, GAME05 said:

Been to Las Vegas a bunch but all I know of it is that Binions and Golden Nugget are right across the street from each other and are the best places to play poker. Play the tournaments at the GN and play cash games at Binions while you wait. And tell your taxi to take the side roads instead of 15 because that's the faster route anywhere you want to go. MGM and the ones on the strip are far more comfortable places to play, but that attracts better players. Only time I hit those up is if there's a big convention finishing up nearby because all the convention-goers flood in and they're terrible.

 

Yeah I am a poker player myself. When I went to downtown, I didn't find games at the stakes I like. I generally play 2/5 NL or 5/10 NL. This time we are staying at the Bellagio which I have wanted to check out.

[nate82]

I am kind of bored of Vegas.  Probably because I have been there so many times now.  I am planning on going to Mexico or somewhere else next spring.  

I want to go to Nashville but every time I look at the hotel and flight packages it is like $1500-2200 and it is like that year round so far.  

Any other places to go?  I can only travel in June of this year due to work commitments.  

I already have the money saved up for my trip next year and then some.  I forgot to go and get my passport or I would have went this year to Mexico.  

[stoutdude04]

I love both Vegas and Nashville.  The flight from Milwaukee to Nashville is short and sweet for a few hundred.  

A comedy show in Vegas is something that is relatively cheap and covers a few hours.  We generally try to take in one 'show' while we are there.  Try to hit the pool one day if weather permits, go to the old strip for a day, and then gamble the rest. I typically only get to the poker tables when the wife is asleep and im running on fumes, so I can't comment on the best tables there as I typically do pretty poorly.

[GAME05]

My best time in Vegas was at a tournament where I fell to 1.5x the BB within the hour, so I ended up playing all my chips once every 45 minutes and otherwise just sat there. I kept winning just enough to get me through the next 45 minutes and I didn't even realize how the tournament was going until I was moved to the final table. It was broadcast to a website and I got my picture taken. At the final table I held out as long as I could so that people could make their big moves and be kicked out ahead of me. Ended up taking 6th place and won $8.4k and I couldn't stop laughing at how absurd it was I would have lasted that long.

 

I also have a vacation scheduled late-April. I have an invite to go work at my friend's hostel for as long as I want, but I hesitate some considering gas prices in a truck that only gets 14 miles to the gallon. The other option is staying here and playing golf every day, which doesn't sound too bad, either. Camping would be cheap, too.

[homer]

Bad news: We were unable to honeymoon due to Covid. 

Good news: We've now saved up a ton of money to take a honeymoon.

What best vacation spot in the world? Bali? New Zealand? Argentina? Madagascar?

[GAME05]

Best honeymoon spots are probably in the Indian Ocean. Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius.

[LouisEly]

On 3/28/2022 at 4:01 PM, nate82 said:

I want to go to Nashville but every time I look at the hotel and flight packages it is like $1500-2200 and it is like that year round so far. 

This is why...

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm actually in San Diego right now, just went to Disneyland yesterday... but I'm here because I lived here for 17 years, I'm not even sure I'd recommend it for a vacation. Lots of people do but to me it's more of a place I lived than a vacation spot.

But @homer if you speak Spanish (or can fumble through it a bit), we went to Punta Caracol this winter and it was pretty amazing. Traveling in Panama is like traveling in most other Central American places - it's not really dangerous but certainly feels a bit dodgy at times - but relatively inexpensive and there are some truly amazing places to be found.

[LouisEly]

@nate82 how many people are you trying to take to Nashville and what is it that you would like to do?  I know that city very well, was just there two weekends ago.  One of my best friends has a couple of AirBnB apartments in the 12-South neighborhood.  In that neighborhood many people are building studio apartments above their garage and putting them on AirBnB.  If you're not going to the bars on Broadway and it's just you and one other person you can probably get a much better deal staying in the neighborhoods.  In fact, I would not recommend anyone over the age of 30 go anywhere near Broadway/2nd.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

@nate82 how many people are you trying to take to Nashville and what is it that you would like to do?  I know that city very well, was just there two weekends ago.  One of my best friends has a couple of AirBnB apartments in the 12-South neighborhood.  In that neighborhood many people are building studio apartments above their garage and putting them on AirBnB.  If you're not going to the bars on Broadway and it's just you and one other person you can probably get a much better deal staying in the neighborhoods.  In fact, I would not recommend anyone over the age of 30 go anywhere near Broadway/2nd.

Majority of my friends are 10-15 years younger than I am.  We decided on Vegas instead as it was cheaper.  It is for a bachelor party so about 5 or 8 of us.  

[stoutdude04]

We went to Nashville for my buddies bachelor party - had 8ish of us.  Got an Air bnb and just ubered to Broadway.  We had a great time.  All of us in our mid to late 30s.  The music was awesome and the atmosphere was great as well.

Did San Diego for the honeymoon and had a good time with the gal.

Go to Vegas about once a year or so and always enjoy it too.  Though I like to gamble.

[yourout]

If you're looking for a cheap midwinter getaway San Antonio is actually cheaper than Vegas at times.

The misses and I went there and stayed a few days in corpus Christi which is a couple hours away on the gulf and it was a pretty cheap nice trip

[wallus]

Vegas was a lot of fun this year. It was the busiest when we have gone and the weather was terrific. One thing that was shocking to me was how not busy the shows we went to were. The fullest was about half full even though (out of 4 we went to) they were all excellent. 

A gripe I had is that it smells like weed in too many places. I don't care if anyone smokes it but spray something on yourself so you don't reek.

[madbad2000]

Looking for tips on Asheville.  We are planning a meet up with some friends and would love some tips/ideas/things to avoid.  We both have young kids (5 and under), so a craft brew weekend is not in the cards.

[owbc]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:00 AM, homer said:

Bad news: We were unable to honeymoon due to Covid. 

Good news: We've now saved up a ton of money to take a honeymoon.

What best vacation spot in the world? Bali? New Zealand? Argentina? Madagascar?

My partner and I honeymooned in southeast Asia and spent about 5 days in Bali. We stayed at a resort near Ubud. Highly, highly recommend. The top notch hospitality in SE Asia pairs well with a honeymoon. We also went to 4 or 5 other cities which ended up burning us out by the end of the trip, we wish we would have spent more time in Bali.