On 2/9/2026 at 3:17 PM, DrPhilly said:

Just booked a week to the Canary Islands to get out of the cold. Give me mid to upper 60s and a beach and I'll be fine.

I have money to travel but I still have poor person brain so the cost of some of these places (usually looking at all inclusive for convenience) seems unappealing.

17 minutes ago, Agent23 said:

I have money to travel but I still have poor person brain so the cost of some of these places (usually looking at all inclusive for convenience) seems unappealing.

Yeah but sometimes you just have to pull the trigger

3 hours ago, Agent23 said:

I have money to travel but I still have poor person brain so the cost of some of these places (usually looking at all inclusive for convenience) seems unappealing.

I don't have the money, but with advance notice, research, and a willingness to keep some things cheap, you can travel a lot.

Book a flight 3-5 months in advance. Use Skyscanner or Google Flights to watch fluctuations in prices and what might be a low water mark for prices.

If you are going to be out and about, then a hotel is just a place to sleep. So you don't need something fancy. A Marriott near a highway for $140 a night is just as good as some fancy hotel in a fancy area that's $500 a night.

There are other ways to save money. If you have good car insurance, and you get the $10/day coverage, one of the cheaper rental agencies is just as good. Taking public transportation or walking can save you a day or two on a rental car. And so on.

Travel has just never been a major expenditure in my life, so it’s a mental hurdle to get past. I was proud of myself last February. What I dropped on my Super Bowl ticket with @Mat is probably twice as much as my next-closest vacation (talking all in: flights, transport, lodging, meals, souvenirs, etc)

I booked a flight to the US Virgin Islands for April. Has anyone ever been there?

I have not been there

If I was there, theyd no longer be called virgin islands.

Been looking at St Thomas a lot lately though...

12 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

If I was there, theyd no longer be called virgin islands.

Been looking at St Thomas a lot lately though...

Okay chuck norris!

On 2/14/2026 at 7:29 PM, xzmattzx said:

I booked a flight to the US Virgin Islands for April. Has anyone ever been there?

Which islands are you headed to? St. Thomas is the gateway to fly into.

I'd recommend looking up the cruise ship schedule to St. Thomas. On a day when they have minimal mega-ships coming in, take the ferry to St. John for a day trip. Trunk bay is a gorgeous beach and that's a very popular day trip...but much better when you aren't sharing it with 100,000 cruise ship passengers.

This is Magen's Bay in St. Thomas, also beautiful and also better on low volume cruise days. The boat picture is from Rumbada charters. If they are still in business, they gave us one of the best days we've had out on the water on a vacation. Great price, endless drinks. Yes, I'm a vacation landscape photo geek.

If there's any way for a side trip to BVI (~60-90 minute ferry), it's definitely worth it as well.

On 2/9/2026 at 3:17 PM, DrPhilly said:

Just booked a week to the Canary Islands to get out of the cold. Give me mid to upper 60s and a beach and I'll be fine.

Always wanted to go. Give us a report after!

8 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Which islands are you headed to? St. Thomas is the gateway to fly into.

I'd recommend looking up the cruise ship schedule to St. Thomas. On a day when they have minimal mega-ships coming in, take the ferry to St. John for a day trip. Trunk bay is a gorgeous beach and that's a very popular day trip...but much better when you aren't sharing it with 100,000 cruise ship passengers.

This is Magen's Bay in St. Thomas, also beautiful and also better on low volume cruise days. The boat picture is from Rumbada charters. If they are still in business, they gave us one of the best days we've had out on the water on a vacation. Great price, endless drinks. Yes, I'm a vacation landscape photo geek.

If there's any way for a side trip to BVI (~60-90 minute ferry), it's definitely worth it as well.

Flying into St. Thomas. I do want to go to St. John and see Virgin Island National Park, even if for a day/24 hours. I'd like to see Road Town as well, but I am content with sticking with St. Thomas and St. John. This is only a 3-day trip, so I want to not over-exert myself. I want to explore Charlotte Amalie, explore Cruz Bay and a little bit of Virgin Islands National Park, and otherwise be within walking distance (or safari/jitney distance) from snorkeling spots and/or beaches.

7 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Always wanted to go. Give us a report after!

Not sure we are going to do very much. We’ve had a record cold Jan and Feb in Stockholm and my wife finally got a break from a nutty project so we grabbed a last minute trip solely to get some warmer weather. Maybe after a couple of days of pool, beach, and generally doing nothing we will want to grab a car and explore. Day one was uneventful. 72 degrees, bit windy. We are right on the coast along a little tourist strip with our room looking right out over the ocean and pools below. Not much to complain about but I don’t see a lot of cool culture in the mix either. Mountains and city are probably 45 mins away.

On 2/14/2026 at 7:29 PM, xzmattzx said:

I booked a flight to the US Virgin Islands for April. Has anyone ever been there?

We did St Croix back in 2019 - it was ok. The beaches weren’t the best but the water was great. Went on a snorkeling trip off Buck Island that was great.

On 2/16/2026 at 2:21 AM, eagle45 said:

Always wanted to go. Give us a report after!

If I want another mid winter week or two of low 70s, sun, beach/pool, decent wine, lazy vacation, etc then I’ll come back. Otherwise not. No doubt some cool nature stuff an hour away but we didn’t bother. The single complaint was that the food wasn’t very good generally. We’ve done Spain a bunch of times and it is pretty up and down food wise in our experience. This place was not horrible, thankfully, but rather just mediocre. I’ll give it a B overall.

Got stuck in Turks and Caicos during the storm of the century.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

Got stuck in Turks and Caicos during the storm of the century.

My wife has been saying she wants to go there. Are you staying in a place the poors can go to? If so where?

1 hour ago, HazletonEagle said:

My wife has been saying she wants to go there. Are you staying in a place the poors can go to? If so where?

Pretty sure that entire island is a place the poors can’t afford

Turks has a ton of options all over the spectrum. Probably not as comprehensive as Aruba or Grand Cayman, but they have quite a few options. Lots of Airbnb type options too.

@eagle45 Nice pics! I should have put up a pic from Gran Canaria. Here you go. From the balcony of our room.

16 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

@eagle45 Nice pics! I should have put up a pic from Gran Canaria. Here you go. From the balcony of our room.

Looks amazing. Nothing better than a long clean ocean view. I know so many people that rave about the food in Spain. I thought Barcelona and Mallorca were both pretty good, but I was in and out quickly and didn’t really experience it.

2 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Looks amazing. Nothing better than a long clean ocean view. I know so many people that rave about the food in Spain. I thought Barcelona and Mallorca were both pretty good, but I was in and out quickly and didn’t really experience it.

Food in Barcelona is pretty good, yeah. I’ve been several times and actually going again next week to meet some old friends for a long weekend. Never been to Mallorca.

The food spot is up in Basque Country in San Sebastián. It is amazing there. Great beach there as well. Good place to visit. Stuff to see in town. Also, you can get over to Bilbao in over an hour and Rioja is just a bit further away. In the other direction Biarritz is an hour up over the French border. A good full week visit with lots to do and every restaurant is great as they would go out of business otherwise.