Essential The Official Coli Travel Thread

[Idaeo]

****NEW PARADISE ALERT******

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
- on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, near the border of Panama
- a lot of the population in this region are of Afro-Caribbean decent..
- beautiful beaches, rainforest jungles, very underdeveloped (no major hotel chains)


beachside café in Puerto Viejo


at the Jaguar rescue


airbnb cottage I found on the way to the airport. was in the middle of jungle, monkeys playing in the trees right outside, the beach was only 10 min walk away..


at the Jaguar rescue


wild monkey in Cauita National Park


sounds of the jungle, from my front porch. the hoglike sound is actually a howler monkey.

 

[dc007]

Is there any nightlife to speak of in that part of the country @Idaeo

 

[Idaeo]

Is there any nightlife to speak of in that part of the country @Idaeo

there were a handful of bars in the "downtown" area of Puerto Viejo, but it wasn't really popping when I was there. It was the offseason though.

I stopped in Limon, CR on the way to PV and it looked like it may have more of a bar scene....but it was kind of rough, dirty, sketchy (banks had armed guards & metal detectors)

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

I have always wanted to do that, how has that experience been

It's been great. Time is flying and I'm blowing a lot of money but it's all good because I just got 3 job offers around $100K this week.

I'm very blessed and fortunate. I was never into traveling before but I owe it to myself to go explore before it's back to the 9-5 life.

 

[Idaeo]

Oh that part of Costa Rica had the rawest of the raw, straight from its nautical neighbor Columbia...for cheap

 

[International Playa]

anyone know any tricks and tips or websites to get cheaper flights and hotels?

I see people always on holidays on instagram, how do they do that, I can only afford once a year

 

[Sir]

No idea why I haven't been getting notifications from this thread Finally off to Italy today. Hype.

 

[BobbyBooshay]

Off to Berlin next week

 

[trick]

Just got back from my euro trip. Really a weird time to visit Paris and Brussels. I wanted to go to the soccer game that day but we got lost on the RER. Then I heard about the attacks. I visited my aunt in St.Denis and a day later they killed some of the co-conspirators there? Then I went to Versailles to visit the chateau. It was closed and guarded heavily. Then I heard gunshots and got outta there. A lot of places were closed from the 12th-16th, so I didn't get to see the inside of any of the places @Idaeo and @beejus recommended

Really interesting trip, definitely not what I was expecting

BTW, I've never experienced so much ever. I went to Berlin as well and I probably got looks from white folks 50 times a day

 

[beejus]

anyone know any tricks and tips or websites to get cheaper flights and hotels?

I see people always on holidays on instagram, how do they do that, I can only afford once a year

I posted this in another thread, but hopefully this can be put to use by some of the coli travelers.

@Azul has dropped some good knowledge in this thread. My secret for booking websites is a website called www.lastminutetravel.com

It's similar to hotwire in that you don't always know what the name of the hotel is. I search by the quality of the hotel (1-5 stars). Normally I look in the 4+ range of hotels. Lastminutetravel.com provides you pictures and general information about the secret hotel. I'll look through the pictures to see if by chance somewhere in the pictures I can spot the hotel name. Usually in a conference room picture on a projector screen. At the same time I'll open up Hotels.com and do the same search criteria (4+ stars, same general area of stay, days.)

I'll look at both sites and try to match the pictures Lastminutetravel has provided with the information that Hotels.com has provided. There is a small amount of research that you might have to do to match up hotels from the two sites, but in less then 4 minutes I was able to find this.

Same hotel in Vancouver, BC. Notice the pictures match up. Booking through lastminutetravel you get 2 nights for the price of 1 through hotels.com.

$172.00

$87.00

Keep in mind this does not always work. Depending on many factors sometimes the 2 sites will have similar sales prices. But it is the first place I look at when I'm looking to book a hotel.

24 hours after I book my hotel using Lastminutetravel I contact the hotel directly to make sure I am indeed booked at the hotel and see if I can get a room with a view.

 

[Rayzah]

Just got back from my euro trip. Really a weird time to visit Paris and Brussels. I wanted to go to the soccer game that day but we got lost on the RER. Then I heard about the attacks. I visited my aunt in St.Denis and a day later they killed some of the co-conspirators there? Then I went to Versailles to visit the chateau. It was closed and guarded heavily. Then I heard gunshots and got outta there. A lot of places were closed from the 12th-16th, so I didn't get to see the inside of any of the places @Idaeo and @beejus recommended

Really interesting trip, definitely not what I was expecting

BTW, I've never experienced so much ever. I went to Berlin as well and I probably got looks from white folks 50 times a day

So would you say you didn't enjoy your experience because of the got looks would you go back? because I heard that about Berlin, but at the same time everyone always says they enjoyed it anyway..

 

[trick]

So would you say you didn't enjoy your experience because of the got looks would you go back? because I heard that about Berlin, but at the same time everyone always says they enjoyed it anyway..

I'd probably go back anyways. I was only there for 2 days, I didn't get to see a lot besides a few landmarks. The people there definitely gave off a racist vibe though.

The only place I wouldn't recommend going to is Brussels. Pretty boring and tax is like 21% there so everything's expensive. And everything costs money. This cashier at a waffles place wanted to charge me 0.30 euro for extra napkins

 

[beejus]

I'd probably go back anyways. I was only there for 2 days, I didn't get to see a lot besides a few landmarks. The people there definitely gave off a racist vibe though.

The only place I wouldn't recommend going to is Brussels. Pretty boring and tax is like 21% there so everything's expensive. And everything costs money. This cashier at a waffles place wanted to charge me 0.30 euro for extra napkins

But how were the waffles?

 

[trick]

But how were the waffles?

Disappointing

 

[Idaeo]

I'm gonna be in Tokyo during NYE, I was kind of hype at first..thinking there would be a rack of parties around Shinjuku...or a countdown of some sort.


From what I'm reading it looks like the Japanese leave the cities for NYE and head to shrines and temples in the countryside to pray over the new year.