57 countries in the last 4 years Q&A
After the topic posted recently by @Lloyd BIankfein" got so much engagement I though I would post this as it seems most excel monkeys here have been permanently staffed and haven’t been able to travel as much as they would like. Will answer anything related to travel, costs, travel styles, different regions, cultures, how to travel for free on points etc... Ask away fellow monkeys
Bump as this took a while to go live...
what's the longest you spent in any one spot? do you regret not going slower?
I have spent roughly a year in Australia, coming and going for various reasons while completing my undergrad with the next longest being a month in India. Many times I've ended up regretting not spending more time in places due to commitments and pre-arranged travel plans. More recently I've begun only booking one way flights leaving my itinerary as open as possible when time and other things permit.
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If only I could roll up to a super day on a nimbus, would jump right from SA to MD.
Top 5, bottom 5, and why, please
Rather than Top I'm going to list my top per region as it's a apples to oranges situation.
Top 5:
Mauritius: Literally Jurassic Park in the course of a day I climbed a mountain, jumped out of a plane, wrestled with a lion "not a drugged up one" and swam with some dolphins.
New Zealand: Infinite amount of cool things to do, amazing food and very friendly people. would highly recommend a road-trip encompassing both islands starting in the north heading south.
Colombia: Incredible people, food and parties. Spent two weeks in 2016 backpacking along the north coast from CTG to the Venezuelan border. If you want a adventure go here with no plans, just figure it out upon arrival.
Japan: it's a very special place that I wish I could have spent more time in. If you can appreciate cultural nuances you will love the mono cultural playground that is japan. Big fan of sushi so that helped in this pick too.
Last would be a collection of the Mediterranean regions of Spain, France, Italy and Greece. lifestyle wise it can't get much better, if you have even a moderately high income you can basically do whatever you want within reason. Gorgeous women and amazing food are a daily occurrence in the med, i will be spending May-Oct here in this region as part of my retirement plan.
The Bottom 5:
Kiribati: No infrastructure + Cannibals = no good Seychelles: Overpriced and over-hyped if you're looking for a island retreat there are better choices.
Vietnam: Absolute madness, almost died if not for amex global med due to poisoning.
Lichtenstein: Why does it even exist, some disappointing visit here as there was seemingly nothing to do. USA: there are some cool pockets but the ever changing landscape of the country and the trend towards mega-cities + high taxes and political turmoil have made me somewhat dislike my visiting my neighbor to the south.
poisoning?
rank your favorite countries in latin america
favorite foods?
Apparently some vendors add additional chemicals to their food in addition to not practicing sanitary conditions, shout out to the FV hospital in Ho Chi Minh and the french speaking dr that actually came to my hotel to treat and bring me to the hospital.
My favorite Latin countries would have to be Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and surprisingly Venezuela... they are amazingly friendly and welcoming. Will be heading to Peru, Equator, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina in roughly 6 months so will have more regional experiences then.
As for favorite foods, that is a incredibly hard question... if there's a Nobu somewhere I visit I make a point of going but that being said I have also had McDonald's in almost every country I've visited. France and Italy by far have the best food of the countries I've been too but that being said noting beats a off the beaten path restaurant where the owner cooks you a essentially home cooked meal with passion.
Adding to the above, the trip to the hospital outlines the importance of having great travel insurance. Would have cost me min 10k if I haven’t been covered by my card.
Bump
Are you a trust fund baby? Where did you get the $$$ to pull this off?
I’m not saying it was cheap by any means to do this but if you do it right it’s definitely not as much as you think. I’ve probably spent 150k ish give or take a bit on total travel expenses, that I funded through working and trading profits. Have been trading my own funds for 9 years now.
But I guarantee that what I’ve done could not be replicated for less than a half mil. I’ve used over 2 million points/miles to essentially fly myself around the world in first class for pennies. For example Toronto to South Africa in first for 90k points and $34 in taxes in January.
I earned most of the points through credit card churning, promotions and spending “tuition and rent on the card helped a lot”... I essentially never use cash or debit.
Some good resources to do this yourself would be the points guy, loyalty lobby and one mile at a time.
Which of countries have best girl???
In every country there are attractive girls, average girls and non attractive girls... this is a fact of life. Now how you determine who goes in to what category will be based off your own personal preferences obviously if you only like Asian women you wouldn’t go to Africa etc.
For me personally, I’ve found the hottest women in fashion capitals... think Milan and Paris, very expensive tourist destinations like the Canary Islands, Monaco during the GP and Portofino. As well as the general Mediterranean area, South America and Scandinavia/Russia.
Thanks
Scariest or worst travel experience?
To many too list lol, here a few notable ones:
2 emergency and 1 aborted landing.
Narrowly escaping being car jacked / kidnapped in South Africa.
Getting poisoned in Vietnam.
Drinking in what turned out to be a cartel bar at 2am in Mexico City... until I realized they were all pretty chill and were only calling me gringo because they didn’t know my name.
A handful of conflicts with migrants while in Europe. Guns pulled on me in Detroit, Miami and Kentucky.
South Africa is insane for crime. Great country, but I felt on edge every second
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