The knowledge: newbie help
Every week a reader gets a chance to put a travel question to the Been there community and travel experts. How does this work?
The dilemma:
I'm taking two weeks off in November, which is the longest I've had off for four years, and I am stumped about where I might go. Somewhere which isn't pricey, won't be in hurricane or blizzard season and can entertain two people who get bored by just lying on a beach. I wouldn't mind going to some sort of festival; music, food or culture - or staying with locals for a few days – but I hate camping and big flying insects.
Thank you!
Olivia Morris
The experts' replies:
Roger Wade, content director for Bootsnall travel network
I think Buenos Aires should fit the bill perfectly. November there is late spring so you’ll get plenty of sunshine without being peak season. And thanks to their currency collapse early in this decade, it’s still weirdly cheap once you get there, especially considering how lovely the place is. It has excellent food (particularly if you are fond of beef), wine, culture, and nightlife, all at very reasonable prices.
It’s a large city so keeping busy for two weeks is possible, especially if you stay in different neighborhoods, but even better is the fact that you could work in a side trip or two. You could spend a few days in the outdoor adventure mecca of Barlioche, or the lush wine country of Mendoza, or the stunning and very worthwhile parks in the Iguazu Falls area.
Cheap packages are easy to find once in Buenos Aires, but if your budget is even lower you can take a quick ferry ride to Colonial del Sacramento and/or Montevideo in Uruguay for a few days. English isn’t widely spoken in the region, so brush up on your Spanish before you go if you can.
If that doesn’t sound interesting you might consider heading to Bali. Flights to get there might not be cheap, but once there you can get by on very little while staying in nice places and having a great time.
November is part of its “wet season” but that normally means it’s a bit humid and then the skies open up for 30 minutes in the afternoon, and then it’s dry again. The island is fascinating, exotic, very friendly, and everyone knows English. Overly persistent street merchants are the only usual complaint, but the scenery, low prices, and everything else will make up for it.
Mark Meredith USA & Canada Product Manager, Virgin Holidays
You haven’t mentioned any particular destination you’d like to visit but since you have two weeks off it would be a great opportunity to travel long haul and explore a variety of places. As you hate camping and flying insects why not explore some of USA, trying something different and adventurous such as a road trip. Virgin Holidays offers the Golden Triangle Tour, which is a two week tour starting in LA, traveling on to Las Vegas and finishing in San Francisco. No lying on a beach, hurricane season, or flying bugs but lots of variety and possible activities including theme parks, shopping, entertainment, as well as culture and cosmopolitan food. While in LA you could visit Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios and see the famous Hollywood sights such as the Walk of Stars on Hollywood Boulevard, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre or a studio tour at Warner Bros. Depending on when in November you are travelling you will find lots of events such as Halloween activities continuing into November through to Thanksgiving celebrations on 26th November. The hotels in Las Vegas are an extravaganza in themselves from the erupting ‘volcano’ at the Mirage to the Lion habitat at the MGM Grand. There are also numerous concerts and shows as well as helicopter tours and Grand Canyon trips. In San Francisco, during November there is one of the world’s premier jazz festivals taking place as well as lots of cultural activities to take in. These include museums, theatres, good food and wines from the nearby wine region of Napa Valley and Sonoma, great views of the Bay and numerous historical sights and landmarks such as Alcatraz and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). The three areas are all really different so there will never be a dull moment.
Reader advice:
If you would like to experience culture and music then you should visit many countries to maximise this, by for instance visiting four countries by taking advantage of Europe’s second largest river that goes through the most capital cities in the World. Start off in Vienna and then catch the hydrofoil towards the Black Sea. The first stop after Vienna would be Bratislava in Slovakia, followed by Budapest in Hungary, then Belgrade in Serbia and finally stopping at Bucharest in Romania before flying home. Another advantage of doing this is it’s a great and cheap way of seeing a lot of Europe, it’s mostly out of the Eurozone and you can do the trip in your leisure according to your own pace and timetable. No section of the river cruise should take longer than eight
hours.
Adam Paddick
I would recommend two weeks in Egypt. Where you go and what you do really depends on budget – but I have just been checking out booking independently through Monster – the Co-op group. I put together a package in a five star hotel and flight for less than £600 room and breakfast, including single person supplement.
And if you don’t want all the five star frills you can do it for less – and probably get a discount for two weeks. That would limit you to one place but I could happily spend a month in Luxor as there's so much to see and do!
The Egyptair website gives you all the info on internal flights – I have never used the train so cannot comment.
So, get yourself a good guidebook and do some checking on the websites and sort out what you want to see – then organise the hotels and flights.
The weather should be good for sightseeing as well as pool time.
Enjoy!
Vivienne Rayner MBE
The dilemma:
I'm taking two weeks off in November, which is the longest I've had off for four years, and I am stumped about where I might go. Somewhere which isn't pricey, won't be in hurricane or blizzard season and can entertain two people who get bored by just lying on a beach. I wouldn't mind going to some sort of festival; music, food or culture - or staying with locals for a few days – but I hate camping and big flying insects.
Thank you!
Olivia Morris
The experts' replies:
Roger Wade, content director for Bootsnall travel network
I think Buenos Aires should fit the bill perfectly. November there is late spring so you’ll get plenty of sunshine without being peak season. And thanks to their currency collapse early in this decade, it’s still weirdly cheap once you get there, especially considering how lovely the place is. It has excellent food (particularly if you are fond of beef), wine, culture, and nightlife, all at very reasonable prices.
It’s a large city so keeping busy for two weeks is possible, especially if you stay in different neighborhoods, but even better is the fact that you could work in a side trip or two. You could spend a few days in the outdoor adventure mecca of Barlioche, or the lush wine country of Mendoza, or the stunning and very worthwhile parks in the Iguazu Falls area.
Cheap packages are easy to find once in Buenos Aires, but if your budget is even lower you can take a quick ferry ride to Colonial del Sacramento and/or Montevideo in Uruguay for a few days. English isn’t widely spoken in the region, so brush up on your Spanish before you go if you can.
If that doesn’t sound interesting you might consider heading to Bali. Flights to get there might not be cheap, but once there you can get by on very little while staying in nice places and having a great time.
November is part of its “wet season” but that normally means it’s a bit humid and then the skies open up for 30 minutes in the afternoon, and then it’s dry again. The island is fascinating, exotic, very friendly, and everyone knows English. Overly persistent street merchants are the only usual complaint, but the scenery, low prices, and everything else will make up for it.
Mark Meredith USA & Canada Product Manager, Virgin Holidays
You haven’t mentioned any particular destination you’d like to visit but since you have two weeks off it would be a great opportunity to travel long haul and explore a variety of places. As you hate camping and flying insects why not explore some of USA, trying something different and adventurous such as a road trip. Virgin Holidays offers the Golden Triangle Tour, which is a two week tour starting in LA, traveling on to Las Vegas and finishing in San Francisco. No lying on a beach, hurricane season, or flying bugs but lots of variety and possible activities including theme parks, shopping, entertainment, as well as culture and cosmopolitan food. While in LA you could visit Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios and see the famous Hollywood sights such as the Walk of Stars on Hollywood Boulevard, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre or a studio tour at Warner Bros. Depending on when in November you are travelling you will find lots of events such as Halloween activities continuing into November through to Thanksgiving celebrations on 26th November. The hotels in Las Vegas are an extravaganza in themselves from the erupting ‘volcano’ at the Mirage to the Lion habitat at the MGM Grand. There are also numerous concerts and shows as well as helicopter tours and Grand Canyon trips. In San Francisco, during November there is one of the world’s premier jazz festivals taking place as well as lots of cultural activities to take in. These include museums, theatres, good food and wines from the nearby wine region of Napa Valley and Sonoma, great views of the Bay and numerous historical sights and landmarks such as Alcatraz and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). The three areas are all really different so there will never be a dull moment.
Reader advice:
If you would like to experience culture and music then you should visit many countries to maximise this, by for instance visiting four countries by taking advantage of Europe’s second largest river that goes through the most capital cities in the World. Start off in Vienna and then catch the hydrofoil towards the Black Sea. The first stop after Vienna would be Bratislava in Slovakia, followed by Budapest in Hungary, then Belgrade in Serbia and finally stopping at Bucharest in Romania before flying home. Another advantage of doing this is it’s a great and cheap way of seeing a lot of Europe, it’s mostly out of the Eurozone and you can do the trip in your leisure according to your own pace and timetable. No section of the river cruise should take longer than eight
hours.
Adam Paddick
I would recommend two weeks in Egypt. Where you go and what you do really depends on budget – but I have just been checking out booking independently through Monster – the Co-op group. I put together a package in a five star hotel and flight for less than £600 room and breakfast, including single person supplement.
And if you don’t want all the five star frills you can do it for less – and probably get a discount for two weeks. That would limit you to one place but I could happily spend a month in Luxor as there's so much to see and do!
The Egyptair website gives you all the info on internal flights – I have never used the train so cannot comment.
So, get yourself a good guidebook and do some checking on the websites and sort out what you want to see – then organise the hotels and flights.
The weather should be good for sightseeing as well as pool time.
Enjoy!
Vivienne Rayner MBE