The holiday thread

[assfly]

Cheers all

Basel looks incredible, I'll look into that.

[Sandstorm]

Cheers all

Basel looks incredible, I'll look into that.

Eat, drink and stay overnight in Germany. Literally half the price of everything in Germany. Swiss prices will give you the shits.

[TedMaul]

Heading to Switzerland next month for work, but I've got a couple of days to myself to explore the place. Not sure what to do, I'll be close to Zurich.

Fantastic golf tournament on there 5-8 September, Omega European Masters. Usually has a decent field but the attraction is the location - the golf course is at Crans-Montana, up at the ski resort

https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-to ... ters-2024/

So you get views like this




P.S. it's usually in July, moved this year for the Olympic golf tournament, so can't guarantee the weather.

Great place. Don’t bother with Evian GC it’s oddly underwhelming

[assfly]

Eat, drink and stay overnight in Germany. Literally half the price of everything in Germany. Swiss prices will give you the shits.

I'll only end up drinking twice as much beer and eating twice as much pork

[C69]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

[Sards]

Just got the call that our October trip to the Breede has been confirmed. We also booked our trip in Jan to swartvllei. Tye charter operator is very popular because he gets results so you sometimes have to sit on a waiting list and be prepared to take a date that becomes available.

Extreme estuary adventures is a class outfit. Looking forward to my boys getting some good action. Leeries at Swartvlei and Kob, grunter and leeries on the Breede. I would recommend hum.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id ... tid=ZbWKwL

We have fished with him before. I love his boat. Local manufacturer in Kommetjie. Fusion boats. He has top of the line fishfinders that link to his very impressive trolling motor, off the front of his boat , that works on GPS to keep the boat at exactly the same spot without dropping anchor or starting his main motors. You can see it behind the 2 guys with the grunters. Also hardly any gunwhales so you need to be careful not to fall off the boat but it gives you 360 degree fishing. Which is great because he says that lure cast and retrieve fishing is becoming increasingly popular because of the skill involved and low gunwhales ensure little snagging when site casting to a fish. We have 3 sessions so will dedicate one session to that. The other 2 sessions will be bait fishing for the 20kg plus kob on fresh live bait and fresh prawns for Grunter.


Breede and swartvlei

The weekend has finally arrived....cant vokken wait for friday to leave in the morning.

Conditions are perfect with a waxing moon so still dark at night. So fish will eat sunrise and sunset before it gets dark.
28 to 30 degrees temperature during the weekend with minimum of 16 degrees and with light 7km winds which will be heaven on the boat.
Have loaded my inflatable into our trailer so we will be on 2 boats this weekend.
No excuses......just want the fish now

[Slick]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

Cool. Flying to Madeira from Manchester next week.

[lemonhead]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

Cool. Flying to Madeira from Manchester next week.

Manchester isn't an entirely fair comparison given they serve 30m people a year and Liverpool 4m.

But yep, fkin toilet of an airport. Understaffed, overcrowded, poor infrastructure and chronic underinvestment in previous years. No surprise everyone's pissed off by the experience and God help anyone who works there. Always go Liverpool or East Midlands if you can, the staff will actually smile at you.

Just assume it'll be shit with extremely long wait times, queues, security scanner impounds and general noise pollution and you might be fine on the day.

[inactionman]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

Cool. Flying to Madeira from Manchester next week.

If you're going back end of next week it should be OK as the English kids won't be on holidays yet.

Enjoy matey

[Slick]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

Cool. Flying to Madeira from Manchester next week.

If you're going back end of next week it should be OK as the English kids won't be on holidays yet.

Enjoy matey

Yeah, end of next week, but given Lemonheads post (thank you), might give it an extra hour and arrive at 3am...

[lemonhead]

Y'might be fine that hour of the morning, not all terminals are alike.

Enjoy your ponchas, and don't fall for the passionfruit scam at Funchal market!

[Slick]

Y'might be fine that hour of the morning, not all terminals are alike.

Enjoy your ponchas, and don't fall for the passionfruit scam at Funchal market!

Been a few times now as my wife’s parents have an apartment there, but really like the place.

In saying that, the most annoying family at school overheard me talking about it at drop off this morning and they are going at the same time. They had invited us to join a WhatsApp group about 10 minutes later so we could plan meeting up….. ffs

[Sandstorm]

Y'might be fine that hour of the morning, not all terminals are alike.

Enjoy your ponchas, and don't fall for the passionfruit scam at Funchal market!

Been a few times now as my wife’s parents have an apartment there, but really like the place.

In saying that, the most annoying family at school overheard me talking about it at drop off this morning and they are going at the same time. They had invited us to join a WhatsApp group about 10 minutes later so we could plan meeting up….. ffs

“Have you ever considered swinging on holiday? What goes on tour…..”

[lemonhead]

Sucks. Least if you join the chat & receive live intel on where they are it makes them easier to avoid.

[Slick]

Sucks. Least if you join the chat & receive live intel on where they are it makes them easier to avoid.

[C69]

Pray for slick

[sefton]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

We’ll always try and holiday somewhere that you can fly from Liverpool, knocks hours and pain out of the process.

[inactionman]

Off to a cottage in Strathtay a week on Saturday, and expecting the usual biblical rain and howling winds. Very jealous of everyone jetting off for some late-season sun.

Anyway, we've got tickets for the enchanted forest at Faskally Woods just outside Pitlochry, went last year and the kids loved it. Highly recommended.

[TB63]

Cheers and taking note. We actually fly into London and head down to Wales, mate is picking us up ,so hopefully we will make stops etc.
Just an add on mate is best mate from my time in Aus, we did a shit load of rugby watching together, travelled over to NZ for a lot of tests etc, Lions, we followed Welsh tour through here a few years back etc. He is also from Wales, so we are staying in his dads house in a ex-mining village in Wales, family still owns it.
We actually set off to do this about 4-5 years ago from Aus, stopped for in Italy with my son, and I managed to slip over and break ankle, so I had to head home. And now we get to here and early in year we chatting on phone, and I mentioned we never did get to club games in UK that Istarted our last trip idea , so voila , here we go. Mate and his Mrs were here in NZ a couple of years back about same time and we managed to catch a few NPC games, so understand we may have a rugby problem. Though I have assured Mrs a couple of game in UK will see me happy.
Also Bath has always seemed a place I would enjoy seeing, so will make sure it on list. And admit I will be happy if we get to a URC game in Wales, as I old enough to still remember Wales is just behind the Boks as a country we used to love playing in tests.
I will add would be happy to go to ground at Llanelli where the buggers beat us in '73

But great stuff fellas keep them coming.

Just saw this, shout me up if you want some off the beaten track places to visit, you're in my neck of the woods..

[Biffer]

Just booked a long weekend in June for baseball in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

[Sandstorm]

Just booked a long weekend in June for baseball in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

[C69]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

We’ll always try and holiday somewhere that you can fly from Liverpool, knocks hours and pain out of the process.

Yip took us 1 1/2 hours from landing to getting home last time I flew into Liverpool.
Truly painless and efficient.

[Sandstorm]

Noticed Liverpool Airport was top rated in the UK and Manchester at the bottom.
Must agree with the assessment, Manchester is a complete shambles and Liverpool is utterly painless and very well organised.

We’ll always try and holiday somewhere that you can fly from Liverpool, knocks hours and pain out of the process.

Yip took us 1 1/2 hours from landing to getting home last time I flew into Liverpool.
Truly painless and efficient.

Liverpool is regularly voted UK's favourite airport.

[Slick]

Happy to report Manchester airport was an absolute breeze.

Talking of breezes, the landing at Madeira was probably the 2nd worst I’ve had!

[Tichtheid]

Happy to report Manchester airport was an absolute breeze.

Talking of breezes, the landing at Madeira was probably the 2nd worst I’ve had!

That's a notorious airport for it, my wife's parents used to go there and they said it was the worst they ever flew into.

[Slick]

Happy to report Manchester airport was an absolute breeze.

Talking of breezes, the landing at Madeira was probably the 2nd worst I’ve had!

That's a notorious airport for it, my wife's parents used to go there and they said it was the worst they ever flew into.

Yeah we’ve been a few times as well but this was the worst by a long way. I had a very nervous lady next to me who asked as we descended “they say this is bad”, “oh, it’s exaggerated” I replied…. Fuck me

[Blackmac]

Had a brilliant trip to Seville and Malaga. I would say Malaga just edged it as it is a bit more vibrant, however we feel we only scratched the surface in both so will possibly go back.
Highlight was the Caminito del Rey which is absolutely sensational. Low point was the trains air con not working and then breaking down in the middle of nowhere, resulting in five and a half hours in 42 degree heat. It was amazing watching how animated and angry the Spanish get when thing go wrong and reassuring that public services seem to be shit everywhere.

[assfly]

Just back from Switzerland. I was there for work, but had time to explore.

Zurich is a beautiful city, one of the nicest I've ever been to. Stunning architecture, lovely clean river, lots of small winding streets. The only downside is the cost of everything, I found it eye-wateringly expensive.

I was also in Rapperswil-Jona which was also lovely. Some nice restaurants on the lake with views of the snow-capped Alps.

Next time I'll be sure to explore further afield.

[Sandstorm]

Zurich is a beautiful city, one of the nicest I've ever been to. Stunning architecture, lovely clean river, lots of small winding streets. The only downside is the cost of everything, I found it eye-wateringly expensive.

Indeed, even Germans with Euros in their wallets don't like crossing the border and buying fondue in Switzerland.

[assfly]

Indeed, even Germans with Euros in their wallets don't like crossing the border and buying fondue in Switzerland.

I actually had some. 45 CHF for the most underwhelming meal I've ever head. Basically just bread dipped in cheese.

[TedMaul]

Booked 10 days at The Datai in Langkawi for Xmas/NY, appear to have neglected to mention it has a fab golf course to my gf…

[Sandstorm]

Indeed, even Germans with Euros in their wallets don't like crossing the border and buying fondue in Switzerland.

I actually had some. 45 CHF for the most underwhelming meal I've ever head. Basically just bread dipped in cheese.

I know what you mean. It's traditional for the Swiss to add schnapps to their fondue, which I think just ruins the cheese flavour.

[Jock42]

Absolutely loved Sicily, particularly being geeky and cutting about in Paddy Maynes footsteps at the Cape Murro di Porco and the view from the 51st HD memorial ar Sferro.

[dpedin]

Indeed, even Germans with Euros in their wallets don't like crossing the border and buying fondue in Switzerland.

I actually had some. 45 CHF for the most underwhelming meal I've ever head. Basically just bread dipped in cheese.

I know what you mean. It's traditional for the Swiss to add schnapps to their fondue, which I think just ruins the cheese flavour.

Kirsch isnt it, not schnapps?

[Slick]

Booked 10 days at The Datai in Langkawi for Xmas/NY, appear to have neglected to mention it has a fab golf course to my gf…

Posh

[SaintK]

I actually had some. 45 CHF for the most underwhelming meal I've ever head. Basically just bread dipped in cheese.

I know what you mean. It's traditional for the Swiss to add schnapps to their fondue, which I think just ruins the cheese flavour.

Kirsch isnt it, not schnapps?

Yes, usually just a dash. There will also be some Swiss dry white wine in the fondue.

[TedMaul]

Booked 10 days at The Datai in Langkawi for Xmas/NY, appear to have neglected to mention it has a fab golf course to my gf…

Posh

Free flights I might add, gf is ex BA

[Slick]

Booked 10 days at The Datai in Langkawi for Xmas/NY, appear to have neglected to mention it has a fab golf course to my gf…

Posh

Free flights I might add, gf is ex BA

It’s amazing

[S/Lt_Phillips]

Had a fortnight in Croatia last month, a week in a villa then a week sailing. The temperatures were disappointingly cold (although the sea was very warm due to the heatwaves earlier in the summer), but overall a very relaxing holiday. I've never sailed in Croatia before, mainly in Greece (or west coast of Scotland), so it was an interesting comparison. Some benefits (fewer fuckwits in catamarans), some things not as good (mooring fees, food).

We decided to travel back home overland rather than fly - a bit of an experiment to see how practical it would be to go on holiday in Europe without flying.

Quite a long journey: bus to Zagreb, sleeper to Stuttgart (which actually stopped at Munich for engineering work, so needed an extra S-Bahn across the city then an ICE to Stuttgart), TGV to Paris, Eurostar to London, then Aviva West Coast to Glasgow (instead of Edinburgh because of more engineering), the picked up by the kids for the drive home.

Most of the the journey was great, although the bus to Zagreb wasn't great (standard for a bus), but the worst bit by far was the Eurostar because there was a school party of teenage girls in the same carriage, who talked incessantly with increasing volume and additional shrieking. The train was full, so we couldn't move. I would happily have killed them all.

However, the experience was fine, so we will look at overland options for future trips where possible (train by preference, try and avoid buses for longer than 2 or 3 hours).

And the cost? We would have had to stay in Croatia an extra night if we had wanted to fly back, so factoring in an extra night's accommodation, it actually wasn't any more expensive (though we had a couchette rather than a private cabin on the sleeper). And it was a bit of an adventure, which we decided to treat as part of the holiday, rather than the usual misery of airports & immigration queues. Also, much lower CO2 impact, which was the main objective.

https://www.seat61.com/ is a great resource.

[epwc]

Seat61 is great