What are your rules on Travel?

Never tried Mexican food in France, but I've tried pizza at a German restaurant, and that wasn't good. However, there very well may be places that specialize in pizza in Germany with far better results.
I've had Japanese food in Munich, way back in 2001. Wasn't bad, from what I recall - went to a beer hall afterwards, so my memory of that night is a bit hazy...
 
Now apart from fast food joints, have you all ever eaten at a restaurant of a completely different culture than the place you were visiting? Say, a sushi place in Mexico, or eaten Chinese in Italy?
I went to a French cafe in Japan and it was really nice, though it had a smoking section and you could somewhat smell the cigarette smoke even in the non smoking section. When I was living in Germany I went to a Mexican restaurant which was horrendously bad. Made me miss Mexican food back in the US lol
 
I went to a French cafe in Japan and it was really nice, though it had a smoking section and you could somewhat smell the cigarette smoke even in the non smoking section. When I was living in Germany I went to a Mexican restaurant which was horrendously bad. Made me miss Mexican food back in the US lol
Though apparently France is cutting down, they used to have one of the higher percentages of smokers: I guess the cigarette smoke compliments the French motif? That's a good excuse.
 


Don’t be cheap. If it’s worth visiting, it’s worth paying a little extra for better experience. Like if you’re going to Niagara Falls spring for the room view. Or if you’re going to the beach don’t get something 7 blocks away. Sometimes it’s only possible doing a budget friendly choice, but when the price difference isn’t that much more? Take the upgrade and live a little. Save money some other way.
 
Though apparently France is cutting down, they used to have one of the higher percentages of smokers: I guess the cigarette smoke compliments the French motif? That's a good excuse.
I noticed a lot of people smoking when I was in Tokyo but the French cafe was the only restaurant I went to that had a smoking/non smoking section. I guess you're right LOL. I haven't been to Paris in about 10 years but I noticed a lot of smoking, even in Disneyland Paris.
 
No rules really just behave, be nice, stay healthy, and have fun. Short but sweet and to the point.
 


Now apart from fast food joints, have you all ever eaten at a restaurant of a completely different culture than the place you were visiting? Say, a sushi place in Mexico, or eaten Chinese in Italy?

Yes. Had a great meal at an Italian place in Puerto Rico. Everywhere I've been is multi cultural.
 
2) NOTHING MOTIVATES LIKE ABANDONMENT. You might want to save this rule for when your kids are a little older, HS in our case. Mom & Dad and little sister will be ready to go for first bus and will be rope-dropping. If you are sleeping in, taking more time in the bathroom, whatever it is you do, fine. You have our cell phone #s and you know what park we are headed to. We'll see you there when you are ready. The threat was enough - nobody has ever missed rope drop.
I had the opposite experience. When we were kids, my sisters and I had to repeatedly tell our parents to just go without us in the mornings. We would rather sleep and join them later, stop waking us up so early on vacation!
 
Now apart from fast food joints, have you all ever eaten at a restaurant of a completely different culture than the place you were visiting? Say, a sushi place in Mexico, or eaten Chinese in Italy?
All the time! We love trying out Irish pubs everywhere we go. Ate at one in Spain that served a combo of American and Mexican food, I think I had a quesadilla. We ate at an authentic one in Rome (run by Irish people) and a crappy one (we were dying of thirst after the Coliseum and Palatine Hill and it was the closest place to get a large cold beer).
Went to a great tiki bar in Paris, check out Dirty Dick if you're ever around there.
 
We actually did a road trip in Europe. Started in Paris (didn't get car until leaving there). We visited Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. We even went to Dover and had to drive on the other side of the road. That was a great vacation!
I hate driving in unfamiliar places in general, but add in a different language/rules/side of the road and it's just way too much stress for me. My sister did all the driving in Ireland, I might've had a panic attack.
 
Never tried Mexican food in France, but I've tried pizza at a German restaurant, and that wasn't good. However, there very well may be places that specialize in pizza in Germany with far better results.

I can vouch for having found excellent pizza in Germany. Also some fantastic Vietnamese food there.
 
We actually did a road trip in Europe. Started in Paris (didn't get car until leaving there). We visited Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. We even went to Dover and had to drive on the other side of the road. That was a great vacation!
My family did this back in the 90s - our car almost didn't fit on certain streets (9 seater van). But it was amazing to see all those different places.
I had the opposite experience. When we were kids, my sisters and I had to repeatedly tell our parents to just go without us in the mornings. We would rather sleep and join them later, stop waking us up so early on vacation!
Ok, I'm somewhere in the middle. I want to make it to rope drop but my parents are not early birds but say 'we'll be ready'...yeah, right!
 
I had the opposite experience. When we were kids, my sisters and I had to repeatedly tell our parents to just go without us in the mornings. We would rather sleep and join them later, stop waking us up so early on vacation!

When we were teens, my parents would get us our own room at WDW (family of 5) and we'd catch up to them by dinner, maybe. To this day, I have still never rope dropped a park at WDW.
 
1. Be a traveler, not a tourist. Live like the locals do, eat where they eat, hang out at their favorite dives, and engage as many people in conversation as possible. Always choose the interesting lodging option instead of the fancy resort or chain hotel.

2. Buy trip insurance. This one only got implemented when we went to Cuba. Decided it was worth buying the insurance cause, you know, Cuba. And my dad ended up sick that trip with $2500 of shipboard medical expenses, plus they were debating airlifting him to Havana. The insurance reimbursed every penny. So now, we always buy it.

Other than those two, it's travel. Why in the world would you implement rules??
 
No real rules here. We definitely try to carry on only whenever possible-if I my then-17 year old beauty obsessed daughter can do two weeks with only a carry on in London and Paris, anyone can. If more than a couple nights, we much prefer to have a kitchen and a washing machine. I hate eating out three meals a day-esp hated it when the kids were little-and I love to cook. One of our favorite things is to visit grocery stores in new places-esp different countries-and bring snacks and meal fixings back to the room-cooking on vacation is fun for me (as long as I’m not doing it three meals a day). With that in mind, we typically stay in airbnbs and timeshare units. We did 10 nights in Italy in 2 bedroom apartments that were so gorgeous and had wonderful locations for an average of $170 a night all in this spring-way better situation than a hotel. And we are a family of five-traveling in Europe with more than three you’ll almost always have to get two hotel rooms.

But yeah, just travel when you can! And I love Rick Steve’s’ advice to always travel like you’re coming back. Wander and explore and don’t feel pressured to see every single site.
 
And I think the “have you ever eaten food from a different cuisine in another country” question is so funny-like are we surprised that there are restaurants in the US that serve food that isn’t “American food”?
 
From what I've seen happening at the Spirit terminal at one of Houston's airports, it's not about the cost - it's about the overbooking, the chaos at boarding, and the lack of organization in just about every other aspect at the airport.
Fair point, though with the exception of Jet Blue I feel as though you just described domestic air travel in general.

Edit - so crazy but minutes after I posted this I see a note on my Spirit app (I'm waiting to board) saying Spirit and Jetblue are merging. Which makes me sad because I like both of them separately. I have a feeling this is going to bring on the wrong kind of changes, where Jetblue starts playing the nickel and dime game, eg charging for a printed boarding pass, while getting rid of the best Spirit a la carte perks, like the big front seat, to make way for traditional first class. And I would imagine they retire the aging, roomier Spirit fleet so they can deliver the tighter, yet fully wired, experience Jetblue is famous (infamous?) for.
 
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And I think the “have you ever eaten food from a different cuisine in another country” question is so funny-like are we surprised that there are restaurants in the US that serve food that isn’t “American food”?
I don't think people are surprised those restaurants exist. It's whether you eat at them or not.

I haven't seen anywhere in Europe that can do Mexican food right. I even tried making tacos from a kit when I was doing my summer abroad in France and the spices were completely wrong. Compounded by the only shredded cheese we could find being emmental. We were trying for a taste of home, but it wound up just being sad.
 
Now apart from fast food joints, have you all ever eaten at a restaurant of a completely different culture than the place you were visiting? Say, a sushi place in Mexico, or eaten Chinese in Italy?
Went to a Japanese restaurant in Izamal, a small town in the Yucatan. It was... interesting. No sushi, which was fine because I wasn't going to order any. I ordered tonkatsu because you can't go wrong with pork in the Yucatan. They were pork mcnuggets lol. Not bad, just nothing like any Japanese food I've ever had. The kids had ramen, which I'm pretty sure was top ramen with chicken and veggies cut into it. It was one of the most expensive meals of the trip, but to put that into perspective it would have certainly been the cheapest meal from this trip to WDW. I'm sure you can get good Japanese food in Mexico City or Guadalajara, but otherwise I probably wouldn't try that again.
 

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