Travel/Unforgettable Destinations

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A dedicated thread for books was just created here, and I think there could be more “normal life” threads. Sometimes it’s nice to read something other than brain-numbing investment discussions :melting_face:. Let’s get to the point.

I’m still a young lad, and I haven’t quite seen the whole world yet. I’m grateful for how my family has traveled pretty much since I was a baby. I’ve had the chance to see wonderful, and less wonderful places, but I’m grateful for every trip. My country-counter is probably around 25 countries, so there’s plenty to see.

Now I’m starting to find my own money, and trips need to be planned. I created this thread so that everyone could share pretty much everything related to travel here. Maybe some tips for booking trips themselves, etc. But I’m most interested in experiences and opinions about your travel destinations, from which I could get new ideas for a trip. Not everyone travels abroad either, so domestic experiences are more than welcome too.

One of my favorite trips so far was a vacation to Southeast Asia a few summers ago. First a week in Singapore experiencing city life, a few days in Malaysia amidst the hustle and bustle, and finally to Indonesia to admire the beaches and different islands. Absolutely incredible memories from there.

Another unforgettable trip was a West African trip made the Christmas before last. Our “main base” was Gambia, where we stayed for about 1 week. However, we made a 2-day trip from there to the Senegalese side, where we also got to go on a day-long safari. Seeing those certain big animals, like lions, free in the distance was truly incredible. I definitely recommend going if it’s ever possible.

My family hasn’t been “super rich” either, so some might wonder how it’s possible to experience such trips? Home exchanges have made it all possible. And it’s not a paid advertisement, even though I wish it were. So we have very often swapped houses with people who want to come to Finland, and lived in their homes. They usually provide a car for use, and for example, in the United States, we have been able to live in nice swimming pool villas for free. So this is my advice for traveling, if you are willing to be flexible in this way.

Regarding my upcoming travel destinations, as long as I don’t go personally bankrupt with investing, I should be heading to Slovenia with my girlfriend for autumn break. Lo and behold, the Huuhkajat (Finnish national football team) will be playing an EM qualifier match there then. In the summer, with family to Southern France for a week, precisely with a home exchange.

I’m incredibly interested to hear about your favorite trips or travels, whether they’ve been in Vantaa or South Africa. The floor is open! Verneri has probably traveled the world at some point too, so now you can come and talk about something other than stupid dividends. :wink:

(Of course, this thread might not belong on an investment forum, but I’ll open it anyway :sunglasses:)

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My favorite trips have been to Borneo several times and India once, and these were truly off the beaten track in pursuit of my nature hobby. You get to know people in a completely different way when the locals wonder how you know so much about their local nature, catching them off guard with your own perspective. They even forget to try to rip you off when they’re so surprised by it. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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By far the most unforgettable and impactful experiences of traveling within Europe are from visiting Auschwitz.

The feeling while walking through the gate was indescribably bad, and the whole place exudes nothing but evil. I don’t believe in spirits or the afterlife, but there it really felt as if some evil has permanently clung to that place.

Regardless, I recommend a visit to everyone.

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Japan has always been nice, and I’m headed back there in May for 2 weeks during the local summer holiday week (yep, 1 week of vacation per year!). This time, the group is headed for Osaka. Previously, I’ve spent more time in the Tochigi area and, of course, around the hoods of Tokyo and Yokohama. There’s plenty to see and experience there, and the people are always friendly. The food is absolutely insanely good :slight_smile:

I’ve visited many other countries as well, but for the most part, they haven’t really been anything that special. Perhaps the biggest kicks come more from certain specific places within them. For example, the Budapest Zoo and the spa near it, the Vienna Natural History Museum, the Vatican for its history, Polignano’s magnificent cliff town area, the great food in Bratislava, the dim flamenco clubs of Barcelona, Switzerland’s wild scenery and Lucerne’s 30-euro Big Mac :smirk_cat: well, the bridge is quite nice too, Singapore’s skyscraper jungle and zoo, Manila harbor after a proper monsoon, the view from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, California’s prices and shopping opportunities, and so on :slight_smile:

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Another perspective: traveling is the easiest area to save. Both money and the environment. You can easily save several thousand a year.

If you want to see the sights, there are cool 4k videos of various places on YouTube, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/live/31TFi2GKzIc?feature=share

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I went abroad for the first time at 17, when my stepfather organized a trip to Spain to watch Formula 1 practice sessions. My parents didn’t tell me that it can be cold in Spain even in January… I had bikinis and shorts in my bag back then. :slight_smile:

Actually, as soon as I turned 18, I started traveling annually. Traveling is something I want to invest in financially. My favorite destinations have been Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Chania in Crete, and Norway. During the pandemic, I especially fell in love with Norway and I’d love to go back there over and over again… It’s quite easy to head to Norway from Northern Finland when you pack a hiking backpack and a tent in the car.

I’ve also done a two-week road trip in Finland from Hanko to Ivalo with a tent—that was an unforgettable experience as well. :slight_smile: Fortunately, my employer is very flexible, and I could also work remotely in Europe if I wanted to. I haven’t utilized the opportunity yet, but I’m considering renting an apartment for a month in Spain, for example. I’d be happy to receive any tips if someone has worked remotely abroad: where might be a nice place to head to?

I’m also dreaming of being able to try home swapping. Tromsø could be nice…

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Life is for living, not for saving. You might as well watch those saving videos on YouTube where people pinch pennies on everything.

Traveling is about more than just seeing the sights. Sure, you snap photos of the so-called “must-see” tourist attractions and, of course, the landscapes on every trip. However, you rarely reminisce about those; the greatest pleasure and the memories gained from traveling come from getting to know the local culture and people. A trip is often a success when you get to do and experience things with the locals.

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My favorite city in Europe is San Sebastian in Spain, which has the most stunning city beaches in the whole world. Among long-haul destinations, my favorite is the island of Roatán in Honduras, where you can snorkel with rays. The “archipelago” of Cartagena, Colombia is also unique, as is the city itself – once I was staying in a hotel there and bumped into a Finnish hotel worker; we really are everywhere.

If you want to get away from the whole world to a place where there are no roads at all, then Livingston in Guatemala is for you – perfectly isolated from the rest of civilization.

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A couple of longer trips to the United States have easily been the most important journeys of my life, at least so far. First at age 18 to Nevada for conservation work, and a second time 10 years later for an exchange in Colorado. I spent a lot of time in the deserts, in excellent company, and somehow my soul hasn’t found peace in the same way anywhere else :sunglasses:

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I’ve mostly traveled to visit family and for business. I used to have a job that allowed me to visit places like Germany (Essen), California (San Jose), and British Columbia (Vancouver). These trips were certainly impactful; they gave me a completely different perspective on the world. My family-related travel was mostly limited to Sweden (the 1960s emigration wave resulted in a Swedish branch of the family) until I met my current wife. Since then, I’ve visited Vietnam a couple of times to see her side of the family.

Perhaps the most impactful destination for me has been Côn Đảo in Vietnam, where the French colonial administration built a prison for political opponents that remained in use until the end of the Vietnam War. The French “tiger cages” were a chilling sight in all their cruelty.

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My favorite isn’t a place, but a principle. Heading to the Alps to ski with pretty much the same group and setup. The “let’s go somewhere we haven’t been” idea has worked well: a week’s stay in a new destination, maybe a couple of day trips to some “never-heard-of” place spotted online. Always self-organized—flights, car, and accommodation booked separately. Scoping things out and brainstorming with the group is fun in itself.

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In my early twenties, inspired by Madventures, I dropped out of school, went to work, and moved back in with my parents to save money for my first backpacking trip. After grinding for a year and a half on a 9€ hourly wage, I managed to save the 10,000€+ I wanted. My English was pretty poor and I hadn’t really traveled much, especially not alone, but I didn’t let that stop me. That was the start of my first trip, which was supposed to last 3 months but stretched into 7. At that time, I first flew to Indonesia, rented a place for 150€ a month, bought a surfboard, and decided to learn how to surf… Well, it would have taken a bit more than a month to actually learn, but I did manage to catch a few waves. The journey then continued around Southeast Asia: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. At that time, there weren’t really smartphones or Wi-Fi networks yet, so accommodation and transport had to be handled by walking around, asking, and flipping through guidebooks. If you couldn’t haggle the price of accommodation down to between 1 and 8 euros per night, then it was backpack on and off to find the next “guesthouse” sign and ask again. Although I wouldn’t have the energy for that at an older age, and those cheap rooms were sometimes such cockroach-infested dives that I’d avoid them at all costs now, I still have great memories. I also spent some time on a small island where electricity came from a generator (aggregaatti) for just a few hours in the evening and there were no roads at all; every few days, a boat full of large ice blocks would pull up near the island, and they were carried from the sea to the shore, wading chest-deep, into large plastic boxes to keep the guesthouse’s food fresh. I could go on forever with these travel stories… but yeah, this was the start of my travel addiction that lasted for years: working for a while, and once I had money, heading out into the world again. One of the finest single memories is maybe a completely random whim—a bicycle trip on a 150€ bike from Finland to Slovakia, 1500km, from where the trip was supposed to continue to Istanbul, but the bike was stolen, so the journey continued by train/bus. Then another time, I cycled from Laos to Bangkok on a three-wheeled “grandma bike” where I could throw my backpack in the rear basket. Cycling that in the scorching Thai sun and on Bangkok’s 8-lane highways was quite a struggle :smiley: Eventually, 2/3 of the tires were flat in the middle of a Bangkok motorway, and I abandoned it at a bus station light pole and headed off on vacation… I wonder if it’s still locked there. And also great was a 3-week trek in Nepal around Everest, a trek called the “Three Passes Trek.” It was quite a tough challenge for a first trek, but I can definitely recommend it…

Man, if I had saved the money I spent on those trips, let alone realized I should invest it, it would surely have yielded a nice return by now, but a lot of life would have gone unlived, unexperienced, and unseen.
Now I have a young son and a steady job, so the kind of escapes and freedom of my youth are just dreams and good memories. This kind of life and traveling with the family is great too, but the biggest inspiration for my own investing/saving is that longing for freedom.

Sorry, this might have strayed a bit from the topic of the thread. My favorite destination is Thailand, because it’s so versatile, affordable, warm, and has the best food in the world. Hopefully, I’ll be able to spend the winter there someday. In the summer, Finland is the best.

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The Lyngen region in Northern Norway is truly unforgettable. You can go hiking in the mountains, on the fells, and on glaciers, and the sea is incredibly beautiful. Even beach life is possible. There are great hiking routes, such as the trek from Furuflaten to Dalbotn to the edge of the glacier or onto the glacier itself. The route follows a river along a valley, where the water is milky white. Blåvatnet, located further up the peninsula, is also a lake well worth seeing. The Sledo trail from Skibotn to the fell is magnificent. For budget travelers or adventure seekers, there are plenty of camping spots even along the main roads, so staying overnight in spectacular scenery is relatively easy.

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This thread is quite a cool idea! For me, traveling and experiencing other cultures and languages has been very close to my heart since I turned 18 (I’m now 36). My family was poor, and we didn’t travel abroad during my childhood. After my first Interrail trip around Europe in my early twenties, there was no turning back. Since then, I’ve done a solo round-the-world trip, Interrail trips, shorter journeys, and traditional road trips in the United States. All these experiences have certainly fostered personal growth, and I wouldn’t be the same person today without the things I’ve experienced.

But to the point! It’s hard to name a single favorite destination, but that solo round-the-world trip was definitely one of the best things in my life overall. I started the journey with a train trip from here to China (spending some time in Siberia and Mongolia), then along the coast to Hong Kong, and from there to tour Southeast Asia. I took a diving course in Thailand, and after that, I kept up the hobby in many different countries. After spending a few months wandering around Southeast Asia, it was time to move on to Africa with flights to Johannesburg. Due to various mishaps, I ended up in Durban on the east coast, where I rented a car with a few others and drove the South African coastal route to the other side of the country to Cape Town. Oh boy, the landscapes I saw. From South Africa, I moved on by bus to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya. There was plenty to see and marvel at in all of them. From Kenya, I flew to the Dominican Republic, and in the Caribbean area, I visited Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Cuba, finally returning home penniless but happy!

A road trip from New York to San Francisco (1.5 months) with friends was also one of the highlights (the Grand Canyon and Yosemite particularly stood out along the way).

Auschwitz was also mentioned above, and I can relate to those feelings. It’s a place that really gives you pause and makes you think concretely about the horrors people can inflict on each other.

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Going to Japan in May for a honeymoon, so recommendations are more than welcome :slight_smile:
Preliminary plan: Tokyo - Nagano - Kanazawa - Osaka - Kyoto - Hakone - Tokyo.
Particularly interested in food and whisky bar recommendations, as our trips tend to focus on those themes!

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That’s exactly how it is, and for me at least, this is a topic I’ve struggled with a lot. It’s only now, in my early 30s, that I’ve dared to start traveling alongside all that constant saving.

My father was a real cosmopolitan who would escape abroad as soon as the opportunity allowed. With him, I’ve been able to see incredible places since I was a child. The most breathtaking trip, however, was as close as Norway last summer. The Tromsø region completely stole my heart. I also look back on the Austrian Alps with nostalgia. Clearly, mountain scenery is my thing :slight_smile:

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Oh man, finally a thread where I actually have something to contribute.

For me, the idea of traveling has always been a bit of a romantic adventure. Even as a small child, I watched the Moomins and thought about how Snufkin (Nuuskamuikkunen) is the happiest person in the world. When winter comes, he throws a knapsack over his shoulder and sets off on incredible journeys far beyond the mountains; when spring arrives, he returns to his home turf to tell epic tales of adventures in distant lands with people who looked different. Later, this was fueled by Indiana Jones and Madventures.

My first touch of my own future – which then shaped my inner world – was when a group of friends and I won the Bamboocha competition organized by Fanta, where the grand prize was a cruise around the Mediterranean. Oh, that feeling of freedom. I was 17 at the time, and my friend had just turned 18, so he could be the legal guardian for our rowdy crew.

That trip started in Barcelona, from where we took the boat to Nice - Rome - Naples - Ibiza - Barca. From Nice, we naturally took the train to Monaco. The high elite of Monaco certainly had to hold back their horror when a 17-year-old vocational school boy arrived at the Monaco Casino in a white wife-beater and camo shorts; we didn’t get in, though (surprise). Spited by that, we bought top-of-the-line “Gigolo” threads from a street vendor in Naples, and suddenly my luck with dark-haired beauties in the ship’s bar that evening began to turn :smiley:

In Naples, we also drank a bit too much of the local one-euro pints, and I got separated from the group. In a panic, they went to find help and, when they couldn’t think of anything else, they blurted out to a local officer that Mafia guys had now kidnapped “Young Mr. Nahlroos.” Apparently, quite a show started from that; I was sleeping off my buzz on the ship’s deck under the Mediterranean sun.

Upon arriving in Ibiza, we wondered why it was so damn quiet there, nothing like on TV. We were told that the last parties of the season had been the night before :dizzy_face: Oh well, after stuffing ourselves with Kentucky Fried Chicken, we decided to call the number on a flyer. 40€ per head for a ride + unlimited beer served at a local Titty Twister club was arranged.

On that trip, I got to taste absolute freedom for the first time. I could have vanished like a fart in the Sahara and no one would have ever heard from me again. Sometimes I do wonder about my mother’s train of thought when she signed that permission slip.

The internal world of a 17-year-old boy was revolutionized in an instant, having only pedaled through the village streets of Kuopio on a grandma clunker with Martti Vainaa & Sallitut aineet - Pelimies playing in my head and girls on my mind. Then, there I was sipping a cold drink under the nightly Mediterranean sky, a Latina beauty on my arm and a cigar in the other hand.

There was no coming back from that trip… I was sold. Now I have dozens of these trips under my belt and probably a hundred grand burned on Finnair’s wings. Sunday :airplane: :ceuta_and_melilla:

E: Nowadays, I’ve gone everywhere with stock market money. From Tokyo to Miami, Seoul to Havana - via Haiti to Oslo and all around Europe. By the way, I’m heading to Osaka in May, just like @Torniojaws.

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I’ve been to Tokyo once, and based on that, I can recommend all of Japan. I don’t have any specific recommendations to give, as there’s so much to choose from. When it comes to food and drink, there’s surely something for everyone’s taste. People are also very helpful and friendly, and everything works like clockwork.
I also visited in May, and the weather was like the Finnish summer at its best.
Enjoy Japan; I might even end up going back there again myself.

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I totally agree.

While investing and saving are fun activities, I personally want to enjoy that money throughout my life. Specifically, “getting into” different cultures and interacting with locals is one of the greatest things. You get to see the world from such different perspectives when you chat with, for example, a safari guide in Senegal. You learn so much about that culture and corner of the world, which I find incredibly fascinating. Or, for instance, spending the 4th of July with American neighbors somewhere in Florida. Those are truly unforgettable evenings.

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Japan is kind of like that (especially Tokyo), where you can find pretty much everything. Just think about what you want to see/eat/experience/buy, and then you just look for where it’s located :smiley:

On average, however, the best ramen is found in a “small stall” or along the highway, rather than in some fancy restaurant. Sushi is a surprisingly rare restaurant food, unless you go specifically to a sushi joint. But I haven’t come across any kind of “standard” ones, if you don’t count kaitenzushi. But those aren’t always the best tasting. It’s a bit of a gamble.

The “real” dishes are then more based on seafood, with noodles or rice, or very sweet treats :smiley: They are very different from Europe, and nothing like what you can buy from some “Asian” restaurant in Finland. They are in a completely different league in terms of flavor.

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