I'm brainstorming international vacation ideas with the wife for a summer/fall 2024 trip. Ideally 1-2 cities.
Things we're interested in: sense of history, museums, shows, festivals, fine dining.
Tentatively thought doing a Paris/Amsterdam or Paris/Geneva trip but I've heard a lot of negative things about Paris lately. Not sure how accurate it is.
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Also, doesn't have to necessarily be in Europe.
any major european capital city will have all of those things. paris london vienna berlin madrid etc. i'd say the uk is best for festivals but you'll have to get out of the city to get to the best ones.
also try to use sources other than SighSee for advice about the state of cities
>also try to use sources other than SighSee for advice about the state of cities
Wasn't using just SighSee. Heard a lot of stories about it being dirty, smelling of piss, etc. Last time I was there was in 2008 and it was nice at the time.
What UK festivals do you like the best?
paris has always been dirty. even before all the immigrants turned up, parisians were filthy people. the pavements were a minefield of dog shit and everywhere stank of stale cigarettes
as for uk festivals as
says there are festivals for just about every aspect of culture. literary, music, food, comedy, dance, art, fashion etc etc. from about may to september practically every town in the country has some kind of festival going on. personally i prefer smallish music festivals, never been a fan of massive things like glasto, download etc although those are the best places to see the most big acts in a short space of time
Prague/Vienna
Venice/Ljubljana
i dont know man
Toronto/Brampton easily
>Toronto
>sense of history,
Fort York, Castle Loma
>museums,
Bata Shoe Museum, Aga Khan Islamic Art Museum
>shows
Take your pick of drag shows
>festivals, fine dining.
Toronto Pride June 25,
>fine dining
multiple restaurants with with tatted up rude surly waitresses serving food cooked by tatted up rude surly tough guy cooks
Thanks for the suggestion but wasn't really interested in Canada. We wanted something outside of NA. Sorry for not being clearer earlier.
>UK festivals
while when i hear british people talking about festivals, i usually assume they are meaning music festivals like glastonbury (but also many smaller scale ones) as it seems to be a significant cultural experience for young people here.
glastonbury is the biggest one, it will have mainstream acts but also indie acts - there are still boomers that go if worried about the age. glastonbury the location rural area but some niche historical landmarks that have fun history like king arthur connections. neat areas nearby like Wells, Cheddar Gorge
Aldeburgh Festival - a classical music themed one. area is suffolk coast and heaths area of natural beauty. famed archeology site Sutton Hoo is near the town of melton - some rich ladys estate discovered anglosaxon burial around ww1 time. they made a netflix movie the dig about it.
Isle of Wight festival - mainstream music
WOMAD world of music arts and dance - next to charlton park stately home
but there are lots of other ones too. there will be quaint small town cultural things but there will be big ones:
notting hill carnival london - caribbean festival. if you're not sure about the things you read about paris, i dont think its for you. london has histroy, museums, fine dining but super crowded in the tourist bits, super expensive in general.
ediburgh fringe festival - august there are all types of artists and performers - music theatre comedy anything performance based - city will be crowded and expensive.. however you could stay in another city/area and visit during the day or for a short time. edinbrugh is very beautiful for a uk city.
perhaps too early for you but there are a few local May Day festivals. Hastings has the green man. cornwall has 'Obby 'Oss
Pick carefully if you're going in summer, as some European cities are pretty quiet in the summer as the locals head to the coast to avoid the heat.
I would definitely recommend going in the fall if they're in Southern Europe.
So hard to pin two down. I would say:
Athens/Rome
Athens/Budapest
or maybe
Barcelona/London
You're probably going to want to look at what festivals and shows are on to help you decide. You might want to go to Milan if there's something exceptional on at La Scala, for example.
Rome/Florence
I’ve been to 20 countries, and Rome is the most manic, sublime, gorgeous, disorganized, epic, historic, romantic, heavenly city I’ve ever been to.
A pink and purple pastel sunset as a flock of birds fly silently over monuments, ruins and landscaped hills. Behind is a newly wed couple leaving a chapel as their friends and family throw rice. From around the corner, a few people shout along to Miserlou.. and they’re doing it *right*. A young man sings Con te patiro in an alley. He takes a sip from his water bottle, “it’s vodka!” He jokes and the crowd laughs.
The flowers.. the flowers…
Rome/Vienna
I had a great time in Paris, didn't interact with any refugees or even see that many chocolate-faces, but the fact that it met all my expectations was kind of a disappointment. As an American all you're gonna do is visit museums, eat at a cafe on Montmartre, pat yourself on the back for being cultured when you ask a price in French, etc. Paris holds few surprises, if any.
>Things we're interested in: sense of history, museums, shows, festivals, fine dining.
Are you a white, millennial, skinnyfat, liberal with shitty tattoos? Just curious, because it seems like you are young enough to do festivals but old enough to care about history and museums. Maybe travelling for food is the defining aspect of your generation, as it is a more socially acceptable reason to travel for bodily pleasure than to travel for sex. Interest in history and museums says that you are college educated in a liberal arts school, which means that you are most likely a leftist. Instead of going into nature, you prefer the city, which makes you most likely skinnyfat. Shitty tattoos, especially in visible places like the arms and legs, are de rigueur for people of your generation and social class.
Not a criticism, just an observation. Who is to say how another man decided to travel.
jesus dude you sound like an utter twat
not a criticism, just an observation
Why do flyover burgers even bother coming on this board? I likely have no interest in your hobbies, so wouldn't waste my time talking about them - is your life so fricking boring you just spend it talking about things you don't like?
I'm impressed that nobody's said Southeast Asia considering this board is full of SEAophiles who love their ladyboys and 4 ft tall slim and ugly filipino brides
Seoul/Beijing. Easy flight, massive contrast, very exciting cities in different ways.
best places in europe probably are outside of the big city imo especially if not solo.
uk is great for sense of history + museums. subjective on fine dining - i like the fancy countryside pubs, i like the cuisine variety but actual fine dining outside of london there will be a handful - every region has some rich people.
if just considering cities.
London - expensive, crowded, diverse, not so relaxing imo, tons of historic landmarks, best museums, large amount of fine dining, night life of all sorts of shows. centrally connected - trains to almost every city available, popular tourist ones to visit maybe cambridge, oxford, bath. york is a great one very chilled small city with lots of historic landmarks.
can get to edinburgh or glasgow direct from london 5hours?
edinburgh to glasgow is 1hr (or is it 30min?) both cities have airports.
edinburgh has 2 unesco neighborhoods, the castle, has fringe festival in august, very historic feeling. has national scottish museums. glasgow if you're not from europe will feel a bit historic but it is not as pretty as edinburgh, has easier to find gritty areas. brits are abhorrent drunks in general but glasgow central on a weekend night is like a zoo of drunk people its quite funny.
edinburgh + york is nice combo, could visit durham if run out of stuff
Paris litteraly fits everything you want. Paris Amsterdam is a great combo. Otherwise an underrated combo is Budapest / Belgrade.