I'm in the planning a 2 week trip for September with my girlfriend. We have a budget of around $5000. We're flying out of LAX. Where should we go?
We're into beaches, castles, cobblestone streets, biking, kayaking, nice restaurants, exploring on foot, train rides. I wouldn't be opposed to a place with beautiful women who give cheap massages while she sleeps off her wine.
My list of possible places so far are:
Croatia
MonteBlack
Lisbon and Porto Portugal
Athens Greece
Slovenia
Bavaria, Heidelburg etc.
Phuket Thailand
Any suggestions?
Just avoid Croatia like the plague. Thieves, rude cold strange people.
The rest is great especially Phuket!
everyone ive ever talked to who went to croatia loved it. Ive never heard any stories about crime being a problem there.
Portugal seems to fit your desires the best.
Spain.
>Porto
>beaches
yes, the one in Matosinhos is great
>castles
while there are a couple forts in the city itself, there are plenty more in the region and neighbouring Minho
>cobblestone streets
yes, plenty of them in the city centre, with medieval buildings in the old cathedral area
>biking
you can do that in a lot of areas around Porto, depends what you want most, but i'm sure there is something like that nearby
>kayaking
Minho river is great for that (about 1h30 away)
>nice restaurants
more than plenty of those and among the best cuisine in the world is the portuguese
>exploring on foot
the city is great for that, there are also other towns and cities relatively close you cant do that in, and even a national park
>train rides
there is the historic train ride along the Douro Valley, where you see all the Port wine vineyards
>cheap massages
don't know of any places, but i'm sure they exist and that you'll find them cheap
>wine
Port wine, come on
Porto is great for all that you want, but don't limit yourself just to the city, get a car and explore around, especially in Minho
Awesome post! I'm making a possible itinerary now and looking at the map.
great
anything more you want just (you) me
What smaller cities are wirth visiting between Lisbon and Porto. I want to add some stops. Should we drive up and see the Santiago church?
i would rather recommend you spend more time in the north of the country than between Porto and lisbon
especially if you want to go up to Compostela and do a lot of the more nature things you said in the op, and that i recommended for in
but for in between Porto and lisbon you have:
>Coimbra
major city and oldest university
>Tomar
templar town with convent
>Sintra and Cascais
lots of palaces, just by lisbon
>Mafra and Alcobaça
huge convents, near by lisbon
>Batalha
battle of Aljubarrota location (local holiday on the 14th of August btw)
huge monastery with the remains of the Inclita Geração (the king and decendants of the time, which are also the ones that started the age of discovery)
>Óbidos
town inside castle
>Peniche, Caldas da Rainha, Nazaré, Figueira da Foz
prime beach destinations, all in decent or quaint towns
Peniche has a fort and a dictatorship museum
Caldas is our porcelain capital
Nazaré has fish markets
Figueira has a casino
>Mealhada region
lots of quaint towns and great delicacy in piglet (leitão) and the local sparkling wine
also mata do Buçaco (natural park) is very nice to visit
>Aveiro
often called the portuguese Venice, lots of canals, and art nouveau, doce de ovos sweets like ovos moles, and salt spas
this covers the basics, and more along the coast, if you go more inland there is also Viseu which is a nice city to visit, Santarém for bullfighting, and Covilhã for Serra da Estrela (highest peak and natural park)
also Leiria is a big city with a caslte and Torres Vedras has the fortification lines that saved lisbon during the Napoleonic wars (built by Wellington)
if you do instead want to focus more in the north i can say things about it as well
and no matter where you go always ask and search for the local cuisine, we unironically have the best in the world
That's a lot of good info. I'm adding all of this to my map. Thx!
cheers lads
I'm visiting next week, thank you for the info anon.
this is great anon, thanks. before i saw this thread i was thinking of taking an impromptu trip and this helps solidify things. like the other anon i'd do lisbon porto and elsewhere
what are perhaps the best dating apps to meet girls? i'm not a coomer but it would be nice to go on a date or two even just to make a friend
South-western France would be a good fit.
Lots of castles and wine near Bordeaux, cute villages, kayaking on the Dordogne, visiting the markets of Bergerac or Perigueux, and plenty of good restaurants. The ocean and the long atlantic beaches are also pretty close to Bordeaux
Bordeaux looks beautiful, but a little too multicultural for my taste. I'm not looking to be culturally enriched by an African man with a knife in an alley. What else you got?
>doesnt want to see africans
>go to Lisboa
Fucking KEK
Lisbon is less than 1 percent black and they have one of the lowest violent crime rates of any major European city. Bordeaux is a shithole. It's not safe to walk around at night.
>Lisbon is less than 1 percent black
lmao no its not, its between 5 and 10%
the country as a whole is like 2% black, and any city outside the lisbon area will be less than 1% but not lisbon
also they might be less dangerous than many other cities, but pickpockets run rampant there, and lots of areas arent even safe during the day, let alone at night
granted, those areas arent touristic, except for the beaches, but the train route to Sintra or Cascais is notoriously dangerous
You post incorrect information in like every thread. Do 2 minutes of research next time. Blacks are less than 1 percent of the population in Lisbon.
>Bordeaux is a shithole. It's not safe to walk around at night.
Says who? Where do you live?
> beaches, castles, cobblestone streets
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Op here, Dubrovnik is literally on the top of the list. Portugal is a very close second. It really depends on the cost of a plane ticket. I can usually find roundtrip for less than $600 to Portugal and about $750 to Croatia, but it's double that right now.
this is solely about how many foreigners they have
you saw they have less than 1% cape verdians and were content
what about the nearly 3% brazilians, you think they're all white? what abou the 5% remaining you think there are no angolans and the like?
and what about the 90+% portuguese, you think they're all white?
in a country that hands out citizenships like chocolates on easter?
and that had african provinces until the 1970s?
also this is quite literally just the lisbon municipality, nothing about the metro area, with plenty of shitholes and black infested ghettos like Amadora and Almada
don't act so knowledgeable next time, you're far too fucking retarded for it