Gramsci wrote: Wed Dec 31, 2025 1:06 pm My wife and I are going to Iceland for a week next July.

Hit me!

My favorite place in the world, and the place I most long to return to.

Reykjavik is charming but very, very small. I’d spend time there the day you arrive and/or the day you leave but not more. I do love it, though, and I second the recommendation of Reykjavik Roasters.

A week might be just enough time to travel the entire Ring Road, but it will mean being in the car quite a bit. If you decide to do that, don’t miss the area around Lake Myvatn, the herring museum (really!) in Siglufjörður, Asbyrgi Canyon, and the Eastfjords.

If you’d like to spend less time driving, we did the south coast during our first trip, which was also one week long, and loved it. The Golden Circle is great, and don’t skip it, but its proximity to Reykjavik means that the sites are crowded. Once you get about halfway down the coast—roughly around Vik—the landscape changes from merely amazing to awe-inspiring. You really feel like you’ve reached the ends of the earth. Skaftafell is a lovely national park. Hofn is a good place to stay before your turn back. And again, I loved the eerie Eastfjord region, and you can probably fit that in too. Try to fit in the Reykjadalur geothermal stream, too, though it’s a good couple miles from the parking lot, and you’ll need to pack towels for the trek.

The Volcano Hotel in Vik was probably our favorite hotel there, though it looks like shipping containers from outside.

I’m reluctant to recommend any waterfalls, as they’re all amazing. Every last one.

Food is off-the-charts expensive. Elon Musk expensive. Take advantage of hotel breakfasts and grocery stores.

Wood Goblin wrote: Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:08 pm

Gramsci wrote: Wed Dec 31, 2025 1:06 pm My wife and I are going to Iceland for a week next July.

Hit me!

My favorite place in the world, and the place I most long to return to.

Reykjavik is charming but very, very small. I’d spend time there the day you arrive and/or the day you leave but not more. I do love it, though, and I second the recommendation of Reykjavik Roasters.

A week might be just enough time to travel the entire Ring Road, but it will mean being in the car quite a bit. If you decide to do that, don’t miss the area around Lake Myvatn, the herring museum (really!) in Siglufjörður, Asbyrgi Canyon, and the Eastfjords.

If you’d like to spend less time driving, we did the south coast during our first trip, which was also one week long, and loved it. The Golden Circle is great, and don’t skip it, but its proximity to Reykjavik means that the sites are crowded. Once you get about halfway down the coast—roughly around Vik—the landscape changes from merely amazing to awe-inspiring. You really feel like you’ve reached the ends of the earth. Skaftafell is a lovely national park. Hofn is a good place to stay before your turn back. And again, I loved the eerie Eastfjord region, and you can probably fit that in too. Try to fit in the Reykjadalur geothermal stream, too, though it’s a good couple miles from the parking lot, and you’ll need to pack towels for the trek.

The Volcano Hotel in Vik was probably our favorite hotel there, though it looks like shipping containers from outside.

I’m reluctant to recommend any waterfalls, as they’re all amazing. Every last one.

Food is off-the-charts expensive. Elon Musk expensive. Take advantage of hotel breakfasts and grocery stores.

Thanks!

We’re not driving. I don’t and wife’s license needs renewal. But it looks like between public transport and tours we’ll be fine. We’re likely doing Blue Lagoon hotel the first nights. Then we have a Kindred house swap place for four nights then need to find some other hotel.

We figured in the expensiveness. I got a free ticket and the other cost a hundred bucks with points. That Amex BA card is great. So travel was basically free.

Are there any “normal” cafe/diners that aren’t ludicrous? Well most eat in.

Does the Vik hotel have tours?

Time to start researching but thanks to all for the starters.

The Vik hotel is just called that because of the island’s volcanic activity. Some of the floors are made of volcanic rocks. Having said that, some of the more recent online reviews aren’t so good, but we loved it back in 2015.

Definitely plan to get out of the city. Tours of the Golden Circle should be easy to book. We’ve never been to Snæfellsjökull National Park, but that’s not far from Reykjavik and is apparently a common tour you could book as well. In fact, we’d planned to visit that area on our second visit, but a lost-luggage incident at the airport meant that we lost a day of travel and had to skip it. But just look at some photos online. It looks incredible.

My folks took my wife, my younger brother and I on Viking cruise recently, this one on the Mediterranean.

We flew into Barcelona the day before we boarded for extra time to explore the city. Sagrada Familia is an incredible structure, you could look at it everyday and notice something new. It was cloudy that day, though, so we couldn't get the full spectrum effect of the colors through the stained glass indoors. Park Guell was cool too. Had tapas one night, every item was delicious.

After Barcelona, the plan was to go to Marseille, but bad weather got the captain to change our itinerary to where we sailed to Corsica instead. The trip there was ROUGH, lots of waves rocking the boat. I basically laid in bed and didn't leave the room that day from 1:30pm onward (Bonine didn't help much, but it was good to have). After that day, though, the journey was fairly smooth. Corsica was a nice little island, Napoleon was born there and there are a few statues of him.

Next was Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo. Did a tour of Monaco, which included the cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier were buried. The casino at Monte Carlo cost 20 euros to get in and you had to dress nice, we skipped it. Would've liked to have seen more of Nice but we didn't have a lot of time (a drawback to trips like these).

After that we sailed to Livorno, Italy. One day we did a day trip to Florence. Saw some incredible art at the Uffizi Gallery, and outside on the piazza. The statue of David was moved to another museum we didn't have time for, a replica is out on the piazza where it was originally. The structure that surprised me the most was the Duomo di Firenze, we rounded a corner and there it was, the architecture was stunning. Had some free time where we bought some wine and olive oil, I found a record store with a big selection but nothing I really needed.

The next day we did Pisa. A really nice area, was not aware it was a college town. The Baptistry, the cathedral, and the Leaning Tower are all in one central, grassy area. This was the only place where the sellers were coming up asking you to buy something, or eat at their restaurant.

Overall, it was a great time except for the rocky journey one day. The Viking staff again took great care of us, their wait staff does a great job at being attentive without being annoying.

Going to Cabo Verde for six weeks in April and May. Focus on hiking, dining, and (surprise) wine. (No, really, there are vines on Fogo.)

No plans to visit the dry islands (Sal and Boavista) aimed at Euro all-inclusive beach tourists.

The tentative schedule is: Santiago, Fogo, Brava, São Vincente, Santo Antão, and, if we can manage, São Nicolau.

Anyone been to those islands? Advice? I have way more specific questions if someone here weighs in.

Not our first trip to Africa, but certainly our first trip to West Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.

Heading to Rome in late April. Will be seeing the tennis open on May 6. Other than that, no plans yet.

Good neighborhoods to stay in?

^ Being relatively well-traveled, feel bad not knowing a thing about some of these places and not having any recommendations.

Man, I really want to go to Iceland. But that’s gonna have to wait.

My next trip is to Abu Dhabi in two weeks. During Ramadan. I have never been anywhere near the Middle East before.. any advice from anyone is appreciated.

Heading to Mexico City for a few days, coinciding with Easter Weekend. Has anyone been there during Holy Week? I know that’s when much of the city heads to the beach for Spring Break, but it’s also when there’s a lot of religious pomp and circumstance. I’m not entirely sure what to expect.

Edit- it looks like we’ll be staying in La Condesa, but still haven’t booked a room yet.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 2:38 pm Going to Cabo Verde for six weeks in April and May. Focus on hiking, dining, and (surprise) wine. (No, really, there are vines on Fogo.)

No plans to visit the dry islands (Sal and Boavista) aimed at Euro all-inclusive beach tourists.

The tentative schedule is: Santiago, Fogo, Brava, São Vincente, Santo Antão, and, if we can manage, São Nicolau.

Anyone been to those islands? Advice? I have way more specific questions if someone here weighs in.

Not our first trip to Africa, but certainly our first trip to West Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.

Weird, I've never heard of Cabo Verde before (or clocked it), but yesterday I came across this record:


Synth-y afrobeat from 1980s, made with marooned synths.

hyljetronic wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 11:26 pm

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 2:38 pm Going to Cabo Verde for six weeks in April and May. Focus on hiking, dining, and (surprise) wine. (No, really, there are vines on Fogo.)

No plans to visit the dry islands (Sal and Boavista) aimed at Euro all-inclusive beach tourists.

The tentative schedule is: Santiago, Fogo, Brava, São Vincente, Santo Antão, and, if we can manage, São Nicolau.

Anyone been to those islands? Advice? I have way more specific questions if someone here weighs in.

Not our first trip to Africa, but certainly our first trip to West Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.

Weird, I've never heard of Cabo Verde before (or clocked it), but yesterday I came across this record:


Synth-y afrobeat from 1980s, made with marooned synths.

Very cool! That first track is pretty damn good, synth part and all. Thank you. I'm going to dig deeper into this before my trip.

About the only Cabo Verdean artist w/whom I am even passingly familiar is Cesária Évora. And I'd heard morna, the islands' trad music, in Portugal before. It's much less uptempo and maybe more melody-oriented (as opposed to rhythmic) than a lot of Afrobeat stuff. Like the sound of Portuguese folk ballads on their way to Brazil or something.

In the early '00s, in Lisbon, I also stumbled upon some guys playing what almost sounded like a weird form of American acoustic blues on a guitar and fiddle—apparently, they were playing music from Cabo Verde. They were great.

I would imagine that, like everywhere in the Portuguese-speaking world nowadays, a poppier take on kizomba (which also tends to be slow) is big business. We'll find out, I guess...