Most Unique Holday Experiences

Wattle

Jimoslimos wrote: »

North Korea. No, seriously I'd love to go for a morbid sense of curiosity.

Failing that I'd highly recommend Japan, fantastic blend of culture and modernity with plenty of craziness. Definitely go again if I had half a chance

Of all the places I've been Japan was my absolute favourite. We travelled south from Tokyo. Would love to go back and travel north. Also would love to see Okinawa. The only drawback with Japan is how insanely expensive it is.

Jimoslimos

Wattle wrote: »

Of all the places I've been Japan was my absolute favourite. We travelled south from Tokyo. Would love to go back and travel north. Also would love to see Okinawa. The only drawback with Japan is how insanely expensive it is.

I travelled from Australia so didn't notice the expense quite as much. Contrary to popular belief it is possible to do it on a reasonable budget (not SE Asia cheap though).

Travelled from Sapporo in the north down to Nagasaki, bonus highlight was being there during cherry-blossom. Would also love to go back and see Okinawa.

Corkbah

hmmm... unique holiday experiences.

where do I start.

walked on lava in Hawaii (Big Island) - its an illegal trek but if you are clever enough you can find how to do it with a local guide.... we were approx 20feet from flowing lava and once it got dark the glow of lava was beneath our feet...soles of the runners were a little bit melted when we got back to normal ground.

helicopter over lava fields (no doors :eek:) ...helicopter under the golden gate bridge, visited ancient ruins in thailand, cambodia, scuba dived in a shark tank in Maui, visited the monkeys of Gibraltar.

have had hundreds of different experiences over the years, planning to swim with humpback whales and their babies in September, and maybe feed Sharks and Rays and swim with dolphins. (travelling to Moorea and Rarotonga...for my honeymoon)

if you want something different OP - you have to make it happen ! .... do the research, find out the costs involved and ensure you can afford it.... Hawaii, Maui and such places are expensive but are certainly an experience which you will be unlikely to get elsewhere.

A couple of suggestions of places to visit are
http://www.theboot.co.nz,
palau - google about the "jellyfish lake", belize (mainly for diving), South Africa (to go cage diving with great whites or to witness Great White Sharks breeching - best time of year is April - I Think) ...and speaking of April in Thailand Songkran is the Thai new year and is a fantastic water festival, or india has the festival of colour.

ok... my suggestions are mainly aimed at people who like/love diving .... Koh Samui (Thailand) is fantastic for relaxing and diving Koh Tao is nearby...actually Thailand would be a great experience for someone who has mainly done "lads" holidays.... mix of culture with parties...and relaxing !

ibarelycare

lazygal wrote: »

Barcelona is a kip.

Really? Is that not just some parts of it? I've heard so many good reports about Barcelona in the past couple of years that I'm looking to go there this year. My housemate (who is pretty well-travelled) has been there 4 times and absolutely loves it.

power101

Nicest Places

1) Island of Elba- Incredible place, absolutely beautiful - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elba

2) Hamilton Island - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Island_(Queensland)

3) Fraser Island - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Island

4) Krakow in Poland is very nice and lots of places to visit there.

Wattle

Jimoslimos wrote: »

I travelled from Australia so didn't notice the expense quite as much. Contrary to popular belief it is possible to do it on a reasonable budget (not SE Asia cheap though).

Travelled from Sapporo in the north down to Nagasaki, bonus highlight was being there during cherry-blossom. Would also love to go back and see Okinawa.

I got lucky in that I travelled with Imaginative Traveller who had one (expensive) Japan tour that wasn't selling. They dramatically dropped the price and I was just about able to afford to go.

dr strangelove

have a look here: The Adventurists

Personally i've done the Mongol Rally and the Rickshaw Rally, both of which are flippin' awsome in a trouser ruining kind of way.

Corkbah

kingsenny wrote: »

Trying to decide where to go for the summer and do something exciting. Not really interested in going to Spain to lie on the beach

So what's the most exciting/unique holidays you've been on?

do you have a budget ? I could recommend hundreds of places but all depends on what you want to experience.... personally I'm hoping to win the Euromillions and can go on one of the Virgin Space flights (approx €200K per person) , I've done hundreds of different holidays over the years and am heading to French Polynesia/Cook Islands in September.

if you have the time/money you could do a USA tour ... visit New York, Washington, Florida, goto Niagara Falls ...or go west coast ... LA, San Fran, Vegas ... be prepared to hire a car if you are travelling to USA - while public transport is very reliable, you can see more and get lost and enjoy the countryside at your own pace while driving yourself.

Vegas and the Grand Canyon are worth a visit .... LA is very spread out and pretentious, San Francisco is completely the opposite - very laid back cultural experience, Yosemite National Park is huuuge and worth camping in for a week (if you like wildlife and nature...time it well to see bears hunting for salmon in the rivers)

What do you want to do OP ... do you want stuff to do while on holidays ? in spain you have the caves of nerja, or travel down to gibraltar, visit the cathedrals of barcelona or the wine valleys in spain.... as another person said - throw some tomatoes at the festival ...or run with the bulls at pamplona.*

* = must be fit and willing to risk your own life.

There are hundreds of countries to visit and thousands of things to see and do in each of those countries....all depends on what you want to do .... you could also go skiing during the summer !!

smash

lazygal wrote: »

Barcelona is a kip.

Agreed. It's a bit of a sh!thole.

jester77

Island hopping is great, lots to see and explore and being around the sea with beautiful weather is fantastic and that is from some one who hates sitting on a beach.

Greek islands are nice, Indonesian islands - Bali, Gilis, etc are great, Hawaiian islands - Maui, Big Island, Kawaii (my favorite), islands east of Thailand, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko tui. They are all worth doing and the great thing about these island groups is the islands are mostly unique within their own group with very different things to offer.

PizzamanIRL

Venice?

HillFarmer

One of my favourites was Egypt. Absolutely class experience. We stayed in typical all inclusive resort for 1 week then flew into Cairo for another week.
Things you'd see in Cairo is amazing. Pyramids obviously, antiquitiy musuem etc. Like somehting from indiany Jones.

Other places I liked, Venice, lake Garda and Barcelona, even though some people here thought it was a kip, i thought it was a beautifull city with beach on your doorstep plus Mr Gaudis buildings.

conorhal

HillFarmer wrote: »

One of my favourites was Egypt. Absolutely class experience. We stayed in typical all inclusive resort for 1 week then flew into Cairo for another week.
Things you'd see in Cairo is amazing. Pyramids obviously, antiquitiy musuem etc. Like somehting from indiany Jones.

Other places I liked, Venice, lake Garda and Barcelona, even though some people here thought it was a kip, i thought it was a beautifull city with beach on your doorstep plus Mr Gaudis buildings.

The best holiday I was ever on was Egypt, a bunch of us went on a cruise down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, we took the cheap and cheerful 3 star cruse option and that was a good choice, yeah it might have been short of the luxuries but the people on the boat were more fun then the geriatrics we saw on the expensive 5 star cruisers.
Best moment: Getting locked in the pool on the boat while smoking a hubbly-bubbly and watching with bemusement while traders in row boats tried to keep pace with the cruiser and flog you tat.
Worst moment: Everybody that shared the hubbly-bubbly came down with 'Tutankhamen’s revenge' and I shat myself on a horse riding through the desert....

BillyMitchel

Yamanoto wrote: »

The idea of travelling slow by Cargo ship really appeals. It's very doable too, typically working out at about €100 per day.

India to Malaysia, French Polynesia or even Long Beach to Japan are just some of the myriad routes available.

It's on the long finger for practical reasons but a little like the journey itself, I'll get there, eventually.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel

Sounds pretty interesting but would it not be a bit of a sausage fest? A month on a ship with nothing to look at but sailors could get frustrating to say the least.

Yamanoto

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Sounds pretty interesting but would it not be a bit of a sausage fest? A month on a ship with nothing to look at but sailors could get frustrating to say the least.

No way I'd do a month - about 12 days max, sans sausage I may add.

That wiki page links to a number of operators offering such travel & their pages give an overview of how passengers tend to spend their time aboard - reading, wildlife spotting, sunning themselves on deck, visiting the bridge daily etc.

Not for everyone admittedly, but that's ok.

harry Bailey esq

Japan would be top of my wishlist,my budget wouldn't allow it though:(

ConstantJoe

Catkins407 wrote: »

Japan was good but didn't get to see enough of it. Hated Turkey but was in Izmir with work not touristy places . Japan is long haul but you could do a few places that side of the world while your out there

Can I ask you what you hated about Turkey?

fricatus

Went to Lviv in Ukraine a couple of years back, beautiful historic old city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv

I'd go back again in a heartbeat - lovely people, nice food, terrific upbeat atmosphere. The only thing is that there was very little English spoken. If you've some Polish or Russian it's easier to get by.

I'd also recommend Japan - I didn't think it was insanely expensive (that title goes to Australia), but it was about the same price for everything as here, so it was in no way cheap, and the long haul flight will eat up the budget too. However it's an incredible place - just to see how well they handle stuff like moving their huge population between home and work/school so efficiently. Great place to lose weight too - everyone's so fit, you feel like a whale if you can't keep up, and all that fish and rice is extremely healthy. Beautiful women too

bleg

I was in the alps for a summer holiday last year. It was deadly. Skiing on a glacier in the morning and then spend the evening nearly killing yourself on a mountain bike!

Yamanoto

Wattle wrote: »

The only drawback with Japan is how insanely expensive it is.

Interesting that you say that and I know it's a commonly held belief.

I've always found Japan quite reasonable for food, transport & accommodation if you shopped smart and I certainly wouldn't preclude it as a destination for budget travellers.

HalloweenJack

I went canoeing down a river in the Czech Republic last summer for a few days.

Six lads in three canoes, just drinking all the time, was great craic. We travelled about 70kms. We stayed in campsites every night and went out in whatever town we were in and stacked the canoes up with drink every day. Every few kilometres along the way, there was a bar where we stopped and stocked up some more.

It was actually really relaxing. Once you get a decent speed going and the river is nice and steady and nothing too curvy, you can just lay back, crack open a beer and just cruise down the river, under the sun and relax. And then every few hours, you have a proper rush when you have to fly down the locks. It was amazing. I'd defo recommend it.

AsianDub

West China / Tibet

southsiderosie

I love Turkey: there are so many layers of history, the food is great, the people were cool, and the beer was cheap.

Hong Kong is one of my favorite places in the world, and you can eat surprisingly well there for very little money, but I was lucky to be able to stay with family because the hotels are damn expensive. It is also stinking hot in the summer, so not the best getaway.

Probably the most amazing vacation I've been on was to the Amazon: we flew into Manaus, and had to take a boat up a tributary to get to the lodge. The wildlife is unbelievable, and the scale of the Amazon where the two key rivers meet is almost unimaginable. One of the most brilliant things I've ever seen was watching a giant storm slowly work its way up the river, pass over us, and slowly break. Rio was actually a bit of a letdown after that experience.

Lingua Franca

We road trip and camp a lot. We break the camping up with hotel/b&b stays to get a good wash, do some laundry and enjoy a bit of air con.

Starting point is always Amsterdam, from where we've:

toured the north of Italy with stopovers in the alps in Austria
took our own WWI + II tour of Belgium down into Ardennes forest, up to Ypres and into France
driven round Czech Republic, had a weekend in Prague and nipped into Poland
Austria again (Salzburg)-Slovenia (Lake Bled- oh god that's such a beautiful country!)-Croatia (Istrian peninsula)

Of all of the trips I personally loved Czech Republic the most, but for a unique and affordable experience I'll just add my voice to those lauding Croatia. Get there before everyone else and their granny realises what an amazing destination it is.

This year we're driving down through France, stopping at Barcelona, staying with family near Seville/Cordoba/Grenada and then driving north through the Basque country and the Pyrenees on the way back. It's still in the planning stages, the only thing I know for sure is the stay with family and we'll be hitting up some cave paintings at some point.

Fr_Fitzexactly

Tristan da Cunha

Systemic Risk

kingsenny wrote: »

Trying to decide where to go for the summer and do something exciting. Not really interested in going to Spain to lie on the beach

So what's the most exciting/unique holidays you've been on?

Go inter-railing for a few weeks if you can (depending on what age you are of course) stay in hostels in a city for 2-4 nights and party with other peole doing the same, move on to next city explore and meet new people in the next hostel. I did it in summer 2008 and was an unforgettable time. Still smile when i think back on it. The key is to pick good hostels with bars/ good common areas to meet others.