I like Ballast Point in Little Italy. If you feel like a bit of a short drive then the Stone Brewing world gardens in Escondido is worth a stop. Excellent beers at bith places. There’s a Stone Brewing at Liberty station thats great too.
5 Likes
We usually head out to Stone, as it’s not too far from my Aunt’s house. Not a huge fan of Ballast, especially given all the great micros around. Coronado Brewing on West Morena is near an old friend’s house, and Dan Diego’s and Harland is up the street. I’ll probably spend free time up that way.
Would love some restaurant suggestions, especially near Petco. That who area is so different now.
2 Likes
Getting a taste of the desert might be fun. Some people fall in love with the big empty spaces, some are overwhelmed and need to leave. Years ago, I met a guy who did 4wd tours of the desert, and said he’d given up guessing which people would fall into the “love it” or “gotta leave now” categories.
Broken Hill is an amazing town. Plenty of artists have set up there over the years because of the desert light. And if you stay a few km out of town and sit under the stars, it’s pretty breath-taking.
Uluru - Kata Tjuta is awesome, and I’ve heard good things about King’s Canyon.
And if you can time it right (and actually get tickets), and you like singing, going to the Big Sing in the Desert is on my bucket list.
8 Likes
8 Likes
Even their wait list is full this year, but that’s definitely something to put on the bucket list!
7 Likes
If you find yourself in Perth, with decent weather (overcast but not rainy is best), this is also pretty amazing. The dirt road portion can be rough; ride is smoothest in a 4WD. I went there on a dual-sport motorbike, which I can also recommend.
And Kalgoorlie is just as weird as you imagine. The mining museum was pretty good when I was there.
ETA: Definitely check the weather. February is the southern hemisphere equivalent of August, and if the weather wants to be “frying eggs on the dashboard” hot, it’ll do exactly that.
7 Likes
Will be in Northern Europe with Kiddo (young teen) end of May. The only fixed “appointment” is Stockholm on 31 May, everything else is wide open.
Most trips have focused either on visiting the Verwandschaft in the greater Hamburg area or, back in the day, were work-related in the Stuttgart/Sindelfingen area. This time we are going for ourselves, and my brain is seizing up—I don’t know how to tourist.
Vague ideas so far:
- circling the Baltic, finally checking out Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania, waving across the border from the Polish side at the village in the Kaliningrad Oblast where my mother’s family fled from in the late 1800s
- finally go to München and the Alps (I think I am the only American who has spent any time in DE who has not been there)
- Rheinland because Kiddo wrote a paper on Hildegard of Bingen this fall, and also castles
- stay in the Nordics because that’s all new to me, maybe Kiddo can go rock-climbing somewhere amazing there too
- Berlin, because it’s been soooo long since I was there, but I almost feel like that it needs its own trip
Help?
14 Likes
I don’t know if it’s too far out of your way, but I really loved Prague, and unlike Berlin, as you note, you can get a really good feel for the place in a day or two.
But I’m also a huge fan of Berlin. If you go, and it’s been a while, it might be worth checking out the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauerstr. They added some really compelling exhibits and features a few years ago. And the Opera House restorations would’ve been completed since your last visit. It’s beautiful!
8 Likes
2nd query re: my upcoming trip. I asked a while ago, but I hadn’t much of an idea where we’d be. I have a better sense now. Looking for any and all tips (fun memories also count) about these Western European spots and anywhere along the way:
Lisbon
Porto
Rec’s on anywhere to stay for a few days in the Basque region on our way from Porto to France
La Rochelle
Le Havre
Ferries from France to England (we’re thinking we’ll go from Le Havre, but it’s still uncertain)
Where to get the best kidney and steak pudding in Southampton, England.
5 Likes
Lisbon & Porto: do not bring wheeled luggage. DO bring shoes with very good arch support and wide stability.
The cobblestones EVERYWHERE are beautiful, but deadly.
13 Likes
And slippery! I think I still have bruises on my ass!
10 Likes
Friends who recently traveled to Lisbon quite liked Cerveja Canil. Here:
https://bier-traveller.com/portugal/lisboa/cerveja-canil-lisboa/
Good food, good beer and wine. They were in there when Portugal was knocked out of the World Cup, and if you’ve got to be somewhere, that was fun, they said.
8 Likes
Oh, I thought of something else about Portugal:
Not only is the wine excellent, for pennies (until recently, they didn’t export much, just keeping it all for their own use), and of course the port, but the traditional aperitif is actually quite tasty and worth trying as well:
14 Likes
5 Likes
Didn’t click the embedded link in the article, but what was missing from the CNN story were the words “round trip.” Just an oversight, I’m sure…
9 Likes
From the fine print:
“All Tickets are round-trip tickets to/from Hong Kong, subject to restrictions and terms and conditions as imposed by the airlines. Please contact the airlines concerned for further details and ticket arrangements.”
4 Likes
Thanks, that’s a relief. Lure can be a loaded term! 
The same goes for “free,” when it comes to travel promotions. I’m curious to see if this one works as a strategy.
5 Likes
From what I understand, the local government bought up the tickets at the height of the pandemic to bail out the airlines. They still seem to be working out the details (they first announced this back in September), but it looks like a lot of the specifics will be left up to the airlines.
With 500k tickets available, I like the odds.
4 Likes
Currently in Stockholm so I can recommend some things to do here, but that depends on your interests.
April-May you can watch the cherry blossoms in Kungstradgarden
Walk around Gamla stan
The Vassa Museum is definitely worth a visit.
For less than the price of a hotel room you can take an overnight boat ride to Helsinki and then a ferry to Tallink in Estonia.
In Tallink I would recommend The olde Hansa inn
11 Likes
And don’t forget the vinho verde (green wine) a dry, slightly petillant young wine. Usually quite low in alcohol, cheap, and a great aperitif. They also do white port which is not chocolate and treacle like the dark stuff but more like Spanish fino sherrry (and do go to some small town in Andalucía some time and have the local fino, pungently smelling of wax and roast nuts in a way that export stuff never will!) I haven’t had one as tasty to me as fino but I’ve never been to Portugal so I’m sure that’s the reason.
13 Likes
