Tagged With "Fort King George State Historic Site"
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Re: Trains in Cuba
Great question...and possibly not an easy clear answer. Cuba's trains have generally been in poor shape in recent years as older equipment has run down and spares not available. However, according to Mark Smith (The Man in Seat 61), that's changing with the arrival of a fleet of new Chinese-built locomotives. On his site ( Seat61.com ) he has an extensive update of recent changes in schedules, routes and locations (that's important because Havana's main station is closed for a 3-year...
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Re: Trains in Cuba
Thanks for the info. I too love Mark's site. I will try my damnedest to do a train journey if I can so I can send you details. Wilbur.
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
That's good news, Mac! OK...the leaves start turning first in the north, moving south as the weather changes...but timing is always tricky because it depends on each year's combination of temperature and humidity. Here's a link to a site I've found useful in the past...it's from Yankee magazine, and includes a live map of the progress of the leaves as well as itineraries and more. http://www.yankeefoliage.com/ We haven't had a good leaf-peeping piece on Gumbo yet, so I'm looking forward to...
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
Agree with PHeymont. Plan your trips around the leaf watching. Lots of pretty small towns around New England, although many will be pretty booked. I'd leave at least 3-4 days for Boston. Lots to see and do there, including many items relating to the rebellious Yankees throwing off the ties with old King George. And great museums and restaurants and such. We can get into more details if you'd like, but you'll definitely want a good guide book. Many people find a day in Salem (famous for its...
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
Mac. I'll be in Pennsylvania - Delaware - Maryland - Virginia later this month through September. Although a good way south of your expedition the colours of winter arrive gradually and the days are still warm enough to enjoy walking the empty State Parks. Only a leisurely days drive south of Boston. I love that warm gap between the end of an English summer and getting back home for that first chill of winter. LATE SEPTEMBER
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
Regarding hotels, Mac, I think I'd spend a few days in Boston to begin with, presuming that's where you are flying into. This will let you get over your jet lag and also give you a chance to see the state of the colors and plot out where you want to go. I would NOT go without having at least a night's reservation booked ahead because you'll waste too much time looking for a place to stay and will end up paying rack rate. Things will be busy and pretty filled up in the small towns of New...
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Re: Wonders of the Modern World
The Soviets have never been completely transparent about Chernobyl, but this is the story as best as I was able to synthesize it: It seems that the alarm system was malfunctioning (going off all the time) so it was turned off by the tech monitoring the system. He had the fuel rods pulled out of their cooling chambers for maintenance work, was distracted (remember, the alarms are off), then by the time he focused back on the task at hand the rods had begun to melt and couldn't be reinserted...
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Re: Experience Lalgarh Palace with Palace on Wheels Train
Without doubt this mode of travel appeals to some people. However, on our travels through Rajasthan we encountered tour groups from the Palace on Wheels on a couple of occasions and felt that going by road, with a car and driver, suited us much better. You simply saw a hell of a lot more, had much more contact with the local people, and were not tied to any schedule. We stayed at the Laxmi Niwas Palace, which is part of the Lalgarh site, and it was very pleasant indeed. (Whilst there are...
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Re: How'd We Live Without Travel Apps?
A lot to be said for what might be the ultimate travel app category: Maps and GPS. I know people have their favorites (Google's not the only one, according to my wife...) but almost everyone uses some version on their phone or tablet. Another good one is local transit. Most big cities have a route-finder on their transit site, but you have to find it. But Google Maps and HopStop and some others have transit info for most big cities. One downside: Apple is as bad as Google about business;...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Hi Hank, I've actually found the UK a pretty reasonable destination in recent years, especially outside of London.(My budget was way under yours for a month long trip to Europe last June.)A lot of museums are free. Transportation costs within the country can be reasonable too.Not only do they have advance cheap train tickets but they have bus and budget air choices.And of course there are some good budget hotel chains as well, such as Travelodge and the Tune Hotel Have fun and keep watching...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Staying in the UK is no more expensive than being a tourist in the USA. You wont get a month in London. Same as me travelling from the UK to New York. Silly Prices ! So decide on what you want to do over here and start planning, Have a look at the YHA web site. Youth Hostels Association. Forget the Youth reference. My Kids aren't Youths anymore. And I use them too! They are used by Travellers like yourself - and me - across Europe. They are Family groups and Ramblers ( Countryside Walkers)...
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Re: Finishing college. Need help planning trip to U.K,
Getting around the UK is very easy using Public Transport. Students travel around the country all the time - going to Uni and back home for the weekend. Friends going to weddings and folks going to London. London - like big Cities in the US - is a Traffic Nightmare ! Fortunately the UK is about the same size as a US State. Maybe Florida ? So its only a few hours by road. Trains are much faster - but more expensive, You're choice. So... look at http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx They're...
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Arizona is a huge state, EyeWonder. Where exactly were you going to be home-based during your Christmas vacation? It would help to know so that we could better advise you.
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Re: Renting an apartment in Europe
Hi Dreamer I can only tell you about my experiences... 1) How long? It depends. Apartment rental have been around in Europe for a long time. It used to be mostly for a week from Saturday to Saturday, but mostly anything goes now. 2) Buyer beware - It will be up to you to research the neighbourhood. You can do that many ways. Perhaps the easiest is using google streetmaps 3) There is no one way to check in. Sometimes you meet the owner or manager and they will give you the key. Sometimes...
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Re: Renting an apartment in Europe
AirBnb, and the other major rental agencies, have cancellation policies upfront that give you some choice. AirBnb has several levels ...one allows you to cancel almost up to the last minute, others have shorter deadlines. An advantage of using an agency that works this way...pretty much like a hotel booking site...is that the intermediary is holding your deposit and that can save hassles. Obviously, rules about dissatisfaction vary also, but usually if it can't be ironed out, you'll get at...
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Re: Welcome to The Golden State.
Currently estimated at 32,00 acres in size, the Butte Fire is now burning 1 mile from Mokelumne Hill. While I have no doubt the tiny town will be saved, your best view of it at the moment may be here , on TravelGumbo. More details on the CalFire site.
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Re: Air Miles vs Low Fare Airline
The carry-on limits are posted on the site. Still we were a little worried but there were no problems. We each took a carry-on and a personal bag on for free. A note that my same carry-on was too big for Air China so Norwegian had decent limits.
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Re: London- multiple questions
I can only help with one of the questions...but GarryRF, one of the TG Gurus, lives in Liverpool and can certainly help with that part. For Stonehenge without a car, there are really two main options. There are a number of tour operators who run coach tours from London to the site; or you can take a train from London to Salisbury and take a bus from the station to the Stonehenge visitor center. The visitor center is new since I was there; it's about 10 minutes by shuttle from the stones...
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Re: Airbnb Questions
1. "...is payment for Airbnb places always processed in the US even for stays overseas?" Airbnb processes reservations for guests in their own currency, pays out in the currency of the host. So you, in the US, will always pay in US dollars, a UK resident will pay in £s, etc. The host posts prices in their home currency and when a guest in another country logs in and searches/books, the price is converted by the website at the current exchange rate and they always see the rate in their own...
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Re: World's most attractive libraries
A followup to attractive libraries are great bookstores. Fodors just released 16 of their favorites in the USA, which you can find here . I've visited a number of these and enjoyed them. I would like to add two other stores that I know of. 1) Univ. of Washington bookstore. While mostly a student store aimed at textbooks and supplies and such, it has an excellent collection of fiction and non-fiction as well as frequent author readings and book signings. 2) Auntie's books in Spokane,...
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Re: Liverpool and Manchester
Trains run every hour between the two Cities Paul. You need to add Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King. We have two.The Anglican one was the worlds largest - but I think St Johns in NY had to beat it. Speke Hall. Chester. Here's a list to peruse at your leisure. Meanwhile I'll put a reserved in my diary. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/A...seyside_England.html Liverpool Cathedral 360' tour: http://www.liverpoolcathedral360.com/tour/ Liverpool World Museum
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
I never trusted travel agents before the freedom of the internet gave us access to cost information, and I would need a great excuse to trust them now. Online travel purchasing gives us the freedom to have price information come directly to us, rather than to a middle man who may or may not have our best interests in mind. So flights I'll buy either through Expedia or from the airline directly (esp if they are having a "sale"). Rooms I almost get through booking.com, my favorite site because...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
I'd definitely agree about booking.com They generally seem to have a much deeper inventory than Expedia, including the small local hotels I like. I also appreciate the fact that most of the bookings don't expect me to pay in advance and allow free cancellation. Often, too, the price I pay through booking.com with those privileges is the same that Expedia offers as a "special" that must be pre-paid! I would also be less than honest if I didn't mention that TravelGumbo receives a small but...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
Interesting topic and rather timely as I am in the midst of finalizing my plans for my upcoming trip. Hotels: This upcoming trip the first I've used Booking.com. I have used a variety of sources in the past (i.e. Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) and have also found that booking directly through the hotel is sometimes cheaper...sometimes. But, I love the option to be able to change or cancel my reservation, if needed. Flights: I prefer to book directly through the airline. Have never used a...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
Hi TravelGirlJenn, I've used Expedia to buy tickets a number of times, only once or twice with Priceline, never with Kayak. The big advantage is that you get to see often hundreds of competitive prices, not just the few the airline sites directly show you. And often they are cheaper than directly buying from the airline. Whether or not you can pick your seat in advance is completely up to the airline, not to the online travel site (eg. Expedia). Some airlines (eg. United, Alaska) do let you...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
A reminder I used to post on other sites...when you book through an agency, with OTA or brick-and-mortar, the next step is to ask them for the airline locator number (that 6-digit string that goes on your reservation). With that code, go to the airline's site and search for your reservation...doesn't matter if you didn't book it with them directly, you'll be able to find it with the code and your name. If not, call the airline! The reason for all this is to make sure that the agency did its...
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Re: A kind word for Booking.com
That's good to know. Many companies don't understand how important good customer service is. Booking.com is my preferred hotel booking site when I travel abroad because they do such a good job describing the accommodations. You'll pretty much know exactly what kind of room to expect. Also, if you are a frequent user you qualify for your their "genius" discounts from select hotels -- an extra 10% off. Nice! For example, when we visited Palermo, we stayed at a top quality hotel with excellent...
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Re: A kind word for Booking.com
Another thing I like about booking.com is that the site only accepts reviews from those who have actually stayed...you don't get a link to review until you've been.
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Re: Just wondering....
Hi PortMoresby, and welcome! We are a new website, and it takes a while for the search engines to detect traffic patterns. Yahoo, it seems, is quicker than Google. But no worries about that. This will change with time and traffic. We came up with the name TravelGumbo independently of the other website. We see this site as an interesting mix of travel tidbits and photos -- like a good Gumbo should be. We own the domain www.travelgumbo.com and have a trademark pending for the name TravelGumbo.
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Re: Just wondering....
We developed the concept for this website over many months, and we are TravelGumbo, not Travel Gumbo. There is a difference. The other is a personal diary-type of site that, so far as I can tell, has not been active for over a year. This website is very different in its scope and content. We are not in the same business. Nothing has been copied here except by consent of our contributors.
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Re: Weekend getaways. Where's your favorite spot
There is always something to do here in Redding. This part of California is known for its natural setting and Gold Rush history. We like to picnic at Shasta Lake or visit the Gold Rush ghost town at Shasta State Historic Park. Hiking at Lassen Volcanic park is always invigorating. In the Spring, you cannot beat a visit to the 220 acre arboretum at Turtle Bay.
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Re: Weekend getaways. Where's your favorite spot
Haven't gotten into West Coast stuff yet, but back east I had a few favorites I'd suggest to anyone. One is Lancaster County, PA. I know it's overflowing with fake Amish stuff and all, but behind that there's a real local history and culture (and some real Amish culture as well)...and the Strasburg Rail Road, a steam road that's an afternoon's fun...and the Pennsylvania State Railroad museum...and the National Toy Train Museum (which could take up a whole day if your companions share your...
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Re: California road trip ideas
That helps me figure out what to tell you, Mrs. Briggs OK, so I'd suggest you fly into LAX. You'll need a car rental to get around LA. Spend three or four days here, may go see Disneyland, maybe go see Universal Studios, maybe go to Knott's Berry Farm. Maybe see the making of a TV show. You could easily spend 10 days in LA, but you've got 10 days for the whole trip, I guess, so that's all you'll have time for. Then head out of the city. You'll want to head out on Hwy 101, which takes you...
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Re: California road trip ideas
I wish I could remember where, but somewhere not too long before SF, there's a state park on a beach that the elephant seals are on. They are huge and they are incredibly funny when they move, but also fast, It's worth a stop for a while. And just a little further north was a state or county park with redwoods. Maybe someone here will know where I'm talking about!
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Re: I get to Boomerang to Spain ! Cheap !
Originally Posted by PortMoresby: .... can these stopovers be scheduled on the AA website or must you speak to an AAdvantage customer service person and pay the ($25?) fee? I scheduled my flights using the website. When you go to the AAdvantage booking site there are three choices: round-trip, one-way and multi-city. When you choose your flights you see boxes showing the number of miles per leg. The leg between Dallas and San Francisco showed no miles. There was also some kind of comment to...
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Re: Planning a Road Trip
That is a very good suggestion to think in terms of planning your trip as a connection of national (and state !) parks. The parks tend to be, by definition, in the scenic places, which are along the scenic drives. What a coincidence ! How handy ! The champions of finding scenic drives off of the interstates and shunways are the RVers. Check the sites used by RVers for ideas. Here is a good one: http://drivecrosscountry.net/T...r/Trip_Planning.html
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Re: Spain or Portugal?
Portugal's rail system feels a bit worn in places, and some trains look terrible from outside...but the interiors are clean and the system seems to work. Not a terribly large country, so that time between the two largest cities (Lisbon and Porto) is about 3.5 hours. If you add in getting to the airport early and getting in from the airport at the other end, it's probably faster than flying. Other significant points in Portugal also have reasonable rail service, including Coimbra, the...
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Re: Spain or Portugal?
Right here on Travel Gumbo is a great way to keep in touch. The Gumbo Gurus keep a close eye on our site, and asking here also involves the whole community and all their knowledge.
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Re: Romania-top 10 destinations of 2014
If you want to visit Europe, you can also visit Romania and try the Transylvania Citadels itinerary which you can find on the site of Expert Travel agency http://experttravel.ro/hotel-2...i-transilvanene.html I'll recommend this one because is kinda cheap and you'll learn new things about Romania and the medieval times. The itinerary consists in 3 days of travel with bus transport, accommodation in 3* guesthouse or hotel and a tour-guide. Also this tour will be made in group of 20-40 people.
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Re: ZHANGJIAJIE Visit
Hi Tahir, If you are not a local, join a guided tour is the easier way of visiting. There are many choices of packages from abroad or from the Zangjiajie, depending on how many sites you would like to visit, as well as hotel, meal and transportation selection. At least three days are needed to visit the area. "C-trip" is a very popular and reliable web site to book the China trip, I have done few times. Enjoy and have fun. Dr. Y
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Re: Agritourism Bed and Breakfast in Normandy
I can't recommend an agrotourismo, but I'd suggest you consider staying in Bayeux. Very small town, charming medieval core, great cathedral and of course its famous tapestry. We stayed at a nice B&B which was near the heart of the historic town core, very convenient to everything. Owned by a wonderful couple who were great hosts and were fascinating to talk to. And they helped us outline highlights of what to see in the area. An elegant home -- maybe larger than you need and not quite...
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Renting an apartment in Europe
I saw the news item on TravelGumbo yesterday that Expedia is going to rent apartments on its site with some other company. I kind of like the idea, because cheap hotel rooms only seem to have enough room for me, my GF and suitcases...but I don't know...
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Most overrated travel destinations
I recently came across this short piece on escapehere.com, in which the author provides his perspective on the 10 most overrated travel destinations in the world. It's worth a quick look. While I agree with a few of them, I'm surprised to...
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3 Alternatives To b&b Accommodation In France
With reliably warm weather, beautiful scenery and gastronomic delights; France is a very popular holiday destination. As parts of the country are only hours away, it is a hit with both those looking for long summer vacations or short weekends away. France offers a huge variety of holiday and accommodation options, so there is something for everyone. While hotels and B&B’s are a very popular choice, if you’re after something a little different on your holiday to France then here are three...
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Three historical cities to visit in the winters for travel enthusiasts
The chilling weather of India glorifies the beauty of many cities. The three top cities are calling you to experience their beauty. These towns can be an escape from the spine-chilling weather or the thrust to kiss the warmth of the sun. Jaipur: Jal Mahal The capital of the royal state of India, Rajasthan, Jaipur is best suited to visit in winters. The city was founded in 1726 by Maharaja Jai Singh II and is popularly known as Fort City of India. Amber Fort, the Star attraction of the city,...
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Some cool images from a lovely resort in Jaipur
I recently shared a post on some amazing tourist sites in Jaipur, along with a few pink city resorts. So, one of them, Lohagarh Fort Resort share some amazing pictures, which were takes from their guests and they are amazing. Have a look at them and judge whether they are awesome or not.
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October - A perfect month to explore Udaipur and nearby sites
Udaipur, which is also known as the lake city of India, is a beautiful and romantic tourist destination, in the state of Rajasthan (INDIA). Udaipur has been the home of the Mewar Kingdom, which has built a strong empire from 11th to 20th century and has not surrender to major empires in India like the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal, etc. Now as said in the title, October is the best month for a couple (or family traveler) to explore Udaipur, as the weather is quite good (not hot or too cold). And...
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Now this is how you explore the sites of New Delhi
Around 7 million travelers from all over the world visit India every year. Most of them land at New Delhi Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport), and from here they hire cabs or catch a train to starts their holidays in India. Along with this many travelers also give a day or two in Delhi to explore the tourist monuments of the city and observe the life at India's capital. In this post, I've tried to present a typical tour itinerary on how a traveler can enjoy a fantastic week (or max...
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Five outdoor activities to enjoy in Rajasthan
The monotonous routine life is full of boredom and stress. Outdoor adventurous activities are ultimate stress busters and fill your life with fun and excitement. Just slather your skin with a suntan and enjoy the out life under the open sky and sun. Rajasthan is a popular outdoor activity destination, and the major attractions are hot air balloon rides, paragliding, water sports, desert and camel safari. A few favorite destinations are: Desert safari at the Thar Desert The sand dunes in...
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Top 5 island destinations to revisit in 2017
Dreaming of distant oceans, white, sandy beaches, a Mojito in your hand, while a gentle breeze is just ruffling the waters lounging a few feet from your feet? Waking with the sounds of exotic beats trumpeting the air while you lie in a hammock, munch on a coconut and daydream the day away? Might be it’s high time to take a vacation. If you equate vacation with island , paradise and offline , stick with us. We know there are about seven hundred and forty one thousand articles on the best...