Lets hear some good and bad places you have been and reasons they were good or bad along with some photos.
Len
i travelled to england a few years ago for a 3 month job assignment helping the brits complete their engineering drawings of the astute class submarine and had the opportunity to bring some fly fishing gear and try out their waters. hope that counts.
have any stream photos of over there or your fish photos?
Were the locals friendly to you and were there any glaring good or bad things about your trip?
I haven’t traveled much as a hobby but a fair amount for work, which I enjoyed with very few exceptions. Downtown Newark, NJ and Detroit, MI are the only two places that come to mind I would recommend skipping. People in small towns and the countryside are universally a pleasure to visit. Most people in the large cities from NYC to SF, Miami and LA are usually fairly friendly unless there is a personal factor causing them to be otherwise. I like people, therefore I find people I like. There is still a lot of the West and New England I want to visit and fish. Eastern AZ is one of the best kept secrets in travel. High elevations, some great trout and other fish in the summer, skiing in the winter (I don’t do that myself but I know lots of people who do.)
Down southeast way, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans are well known and great places to visit and live. Miami is unlike anywhere else in America, it’s where the south urban area of NYC meets South America and the Caribbean. North GA, East TN, West NC and SC are low green mountains with streams and small mill towns. In the spring there is not a prettier drive anywhere than down the Natchez Trace National Parkway from near Nashville to Natchez, MS. No stop signs, traffic lights or billboard for a little over 300 miles, speed limit 50 mph, speeding is a federal offense.
Anywhere you go has lots of history, just some places starting writing it on paper before others.
I’ve also spent a good deal of time for business travel, more than pleasure. Back before the Panama Canal was returned to Panama’s ownership I managed to spend some time in the Canal Zone and surrounding area. The Peacock Bass fishing was amazing in Gatun Lake and the festivals in the smaller towns outside the Zone were wonderful. Sort of like County Fairs here in the States, but with a decidedly subsistance farming slant. Once while camping along a small jungle stream, our party ran into some guerrillas that were heavily armed. Fortunately, my spanish language skills were pretty good at the time and we spent several hours in pleasant conversation, traded some food items, and we parted on friendly terms. The art work and sewing skills of the San Blas Indians is beautiful and unique, and the carving skills of the Darien Indians is also something you need to see to believe. I found the people friendly, the prices were great, and the climate wonderful. One word about the climate, there is a dry season and a rainy season. During the rainy season you can stand on one side of the street in brilliant sunshine while there is a torrential downpour on the other side. Rest assured, the rain will get to your side of the street.
I also managed to spend some time in nothern Germany, staying between Bermen and Bremerhaven. The people were extremely friendly, once they found out we were American and not British. Apparently there are still some hard feelings left over from two World Wars. At the time, the dollar was very strong and the exchange rate was 4 DM to a dollar. A wonderful family style dinner for four could be had for about 50 DM. Made eating a real treat. No matter where I traveled in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, the people were friendly and surprised to find an American speaking German. I had a great convesation with an elderly lady on the Zugspitz border crossing between Germany and Austria. We were talking about my daughter Melissa, who was in a back pack baby carrier. After some time, the laddy asked what part of Germany I was from. When I told her I was American she was dumbfounded.
I have found that your travel experience will be greatly enhanced if you try to learn some of the language of the country your visiting. My first three phrases to learn are always “Please”, “Thank You” and “Pardon Me”.
REE
went to cancun this spring
pushy time shares people…
pushy hotel staff.
Crazy long lines for everything.
beaches dirty.
watered down beer.
NO THANKS
I have traveled all over the place, The U.K, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Turkey, Colorado, Morroco, Kenya, Australia, NZ, The Cook Islands. I am yet to find a bad place, without exception everywhere I have been the people have been friendly and the country facinating.
All the best.
Mike
Idaho
The area from Idaho falls up to Island park and anywhere in between…
Ashton , St Anthony,. Rire, Amon
Be safe
we have been travelling since you could smoke in your seat in the airplane, and had the privilege of living in and learning the language of many different countries. every place we went had wonderful things to write home about and not-so-wonderful things that we didn’t make a fuss about. now we stick to places we can drive to, which turns out to be every bit as fascinating as the overseas stuff, especially since we took up fly fishing. i am confident that no matter how long we live, we’ll never quite get to all the streams we mean to “one of these days.”
when i get the posting photos thing down again, i’ll add some photos. sorry about the blank just now.
Have been to England a couple times.
Liked the small towns.
I guess I don’t care for the big cities there but
that can be said for pretty much everywhere I have been.
Gotta agree about downtown Newark. My daughter lives near Detroit but far enough out that it’s not too much of a problem. Michigan and Michigan State always show the great photo’s of the school, but I don’t think most people know that the area right near them is where the movie 8 mile with Eminem was filmed and yeah it’s a DUMP!!!
In my younger days when I was single and in the Air Force, we got a bunch of guys together and went to Kentucky and fished Dale Hollow. Had a great time.
Fatman
Went to air force base once to visit my sister in Clovis New Mexico.
Town was a typical military town but I then drove to Roswell and was
impressed with how clean it was (didn’t know about alien stuff there then)
We went to Ruidoso and i liked it so much I even put a job application in at
the local police department.
Really pretty area.
PS: I fish so much during the year…when we go on vacation it is family time and my wife has a cow if I even talk fishing while on vacation.
Went to France, Germany, Italy, England and Switzerland during the late 80’s. People were wonderful everywhere but in Paris. I thought it was because we didn’t speak the language. Everywhere else the young people would hear us speaking english and come over to talk to us so they could practice their english. Spent some time in Mexico at a border town called Matamoras. Stayed on the US side and we were locked in at night. The parking lot was gate and guarded by nice guys with guns. Watched TV one night with a Palmetto bug, he sure did enjoy watching TV. Not a nice place at all with garbage everywhere and now with the drug cartels around the border theres a bigger reason to avoid them. i think it would be best to go to South Padre Island and not crosss the border at all. Like others have stated, I don’t care for Newark or the downtown area of Detroit, but if you get outside of each town… not so bad.
I don’t travel so much for work anymore, just a few times per year.
Roy
I/we’ve been to every state and many of their cities except for Mississippi ( for no particular reason). Europe, it’s only Ireland and Great Britain and of course my most humble origin of Ukraine and in the process of escape emigration, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Germany. Of all these, I can honestly state , I would eagerly visit each of these again. Detroit, Cincnnati and Newark, on the other hand, - NOT EVEN ON A SURE THING BET. SOMETHING has to change !!!
Mark
Switerland I thought I might need to mortgage my house to afford a good hotel room and gas.
Instead I drove through the nite in to Germany.
where are ALL the photos I was looking forward to?
Please
I have cabin fever.
wings were seriously clipped when we had a kid.
She is 14 now.
This spring gonna go somewhere.
Not sure where. Daughter coming with.
I believe patience is paying off. Will have her convinced by by spring
Spinner,
You are a guy, you are primarily dealing with guys. If you had wanted photos you should have ask for photos. Guys don’t take hints.
The two guys in the float tubes are on Sunrise Lake, Ft. Apache Reservation, Mogollon Rim, AZ, that’s me in the doughnut and my friend from Phoenix in the FishCat. The small lad standing, a good friend, is playing a north Mississippi bluegill, in a family farm pond about 30 miles south of Memphis.
Unc jesse, can’t open them. As for travel, in Dec. of 2006, went to China with the wife for ten days, photos are at home, I’m at work. Hawaii in April of that year, Alaskan cruise, 6 years ago this last june for the 30th anniversary, Victoria BC in June of 2009, CA wine country this last Sept., yes the wife and I like to travel some.
The next out of the states trip is to New Zealand in 2012. Will try to post a couple of photos the next few days.