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I've only been to the states of Oaxaca, Jalisco and Nayarit.

Oaxaca is a big state, and it's most famous city would be Puerto Escondido. Escondido is a world class surf destination. The beach there, Playa Zicatela, will flog you within inches of your life.Oaxaca faces south, so when you roam around the countryside, you are going west (towards more mainland Mexico) and east (towards central and south america) Puerto Escondido is a gritty, grimy town but the ocean there is incredible. Heading east gets more and more rural until you reach Bahias de Huatulco, where there is a concerted effort on the part of the Mexican government to make a nice resort area for middle class Mexicans. It's nice, safe and boring as hell. It is, however, a very short drive from Huatulco to Barra De La Cruz, a dusty little town with a world class, sand bottom right hand point break. Between Huatulco and Barra is Playa Mohone (Shit Pile) which, when I was there 12 years ago had one unfinished structure on it. Pretty cool.

If you want to have a really good time and enjoy an awesome beach with chicks everywhere, fly into Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco. PV is pretty gnarly, over developed, cruise ships, etc, but if you head towards Punta De Mita and cut across to Sayulita, you will have a really, really nice time in a great old school Meixcan town with a gorgeous beach, bars, chicas y mas. Mas es mas.
 
farmer, thanks.

you definitely recommend mexico over say nicaragua ?
 
Rollins said:
farmer, thanks.

you definitely recommend mexico over say nicaragua ?

depends on what you're after.

Nica is much, much poorer and has much worse infrastructure. If you want to get away from it all and be more isolated, then coastal Nica is definitely less developed than most parts of coastal Mexico that you would actually go to. Mexico has some really remote areas and some places that you just don't want to go for safety reasons, but by and large Mexico has a much higher standard of living/development than Nicaragua. Mexico is also a huge country with a gigantic coastline, so you will probably be exposed to a tiny spec of what Mexico has to offer regardless of where you go in Mexico. I have way more friends who have been to Nica than Mexico, and they all go to Nica to surf, and that's it. One cool thing about Nica is that Managua is close to the coast, so you get off the plane and your at the beach in less than 2 hours.

If you want to split the difference, there's always Costa Rica, which is still awesome.
 
Wizarding World of Harry Potter is ridiculous. The Hogwarts ride may have been the best ride I've ever been on. Part of that is due to the waiting in line part where you walk throughout Hogwarts. They had every detail down perfectly. Was really incredible. Hogsmede and Diagon Alley were perfect "lands" perfectly recreated.

Other than that, the rest of the Universal parks were impressive.
 
rhfarmer said:
Rollins said:
farmer, thanks.

you definitely recommend mexico over say nicaragua ?

depends on what you're after.

Nica is much, much poorer and has much worse infrastructure. If you want to get away from it all and be more isolated, then coastal Nica is definitely less developed than most parts of coastal Mexico that you would actually go to. Mexico has some really remote areas and some places that you just don't want to go for safety reasons, but by and large Mexico has a much higher standard of living/development than Nicaragua. Mexico is also a huge country with a gigantic coastline, so you will probably be exposed to a tiny spec of what Mexico has to offer regardless of where you go in Mexico. I have way more friends who have been to Nica than Mexico, and they all go to Nica to surf, and that's it. One cool thing about Nica is that Managua is close to the coast, so you get off the plane and your at the beach in less than 2 hours.

If you want to split the difference, there's always Costa Rica, which is still awesome.

Nicaragua is easily my favorite country of the three. I like to travel cheap, and Mexico is too expensive by Latin American standards. And I find Nicaragua to be superior to Costa Rica in terms of architecture, food, and hospitality. The friendliest Latinos I've met (outside of Columbians) have been from there.

I say this as someone who spent half a year in Costa Rica: I don't get why it's so popular. Most of the country is an eyesore, they have one meal, and the people are pretty standoffish. But I guess it's pretty safe and you avoid too much culture shock. I should also add that I am not a surfer.
 
rome8180 said:
rhfarmer said:
Rollins said:
farmer, thanks.

you definitely recommend mexico over say nicaragua ?

depends on what you're after.

Nica is much, much poorer and has much worse infrastructure. If you want to get away from it all and be more isolated, then coastal Nica is definitely less developed than most parts of coastal Mexico that you would actually go to. Mexico has some really remote areas and some places that you just don't want to go for safety reasons, but by and large Mexico has a much higher standard of living/development than Nicaragua. Mexico is also a huge country with a gigantic coastline, so you will probably be exposed to a tiny spec of what Mexico has to offer regardless of where you go in Mexico. I have way more friends who have been to Nica than Mexico, and they all go to Nica to surf, and that's it. One cool thing about Nica is that Managua is close to the coast, so you get off the plane and your at the beach in less than 2 hours.

If you want to split the difference, there's always Costa Rica, which is still awesome.

Nicaragua is easily my favorite country of the three. I like to travel cheap, and Mexico is too expensive by Latin American standards. And I find Nicaragua to be superior to Costa Rica in terms of architecture, food, and hospitality. The friendliest Latinos I've met (outside of Columbians) have been from there.

I say this as someone who spent half a year in Costa Rica: I don't get why it's so popular. Most of the country is an eyesore, they have one meal, and the people are pretty standoffish. But I guess it's pretty safe and you avoid too much culture shock. I should also add that I am not a surfer.

Yeah, that's why I prefaced my post "depends on what you're after." There is virtually nothing that you could describe as "Tico culture"--Costa Rica is just a safe place to go with pretty good tourism infrastructure. I will say, though, having visited Costa Rica over 2 dozen times, I find the people pretty charming and funny. They have seen the absolute worst of the global tourists, so I'm sure they don't engage people on the same level that Nicaraguans do, but Nicas will get there at some point, it's just inevitable.

Nicaragua has my favorite rum in the world.

Also, most of my travel comments will always be from the viewpoint of a surfer, but I'm not a typical traveler. I'm happy to ride the local buses, stay on the cheap and engage the locals. Surfers are typically really exploitative when they travel--big packs of dudes in giant rental cars flying through sleepy little coastal towns, getting wasted, doing drugs, etc. I don't play that way.

I also bring stuff with me to give away to local kids.
 
I was probably too harsh on Costa Rica. Obviously part of it are beautiful (the cloud forest and certain Pacific beaches). And I did meet a ton of cool people there, though many turned out to be immigrants from Columbia, Nicaragua, or El Salvador.

I am a stay-in-$5-windowless-rooms-and-ride-chicken-buses sort of traveler, so I am probably not the best person to give advice if someone just wants to relax.
 
I have never travelled with my girlfriend and we are planning to go to Guatemala over Christmas break. I am a little worried about it. I would describe her attitude toward the world as much more "white" than mine.
 
We're going to Cancun in July. I'll probably be too nervous about kidnappings and beheadings to leave the resort.
 
Cancun is so tourist friendly along the main strip. I don't think you have anything to be nervous about
 
just don't get so drunk you pass out on the bus and end up outside of the tourist areas. bus is best way to get around up and down that long strip
 
Lol yeah we won't see any yayo. Not even any ganja. My girl wouldn't stand for that stuff.
 
I didn't know where else to put this, but I hope the travel thread denizens will appreciate it.

It is, in no order, a list of my 100 favorite NYC developments since the end of the Great Recession. Each is beautiful and adds to the fabric of the city.

56 Leonard Street
One World Trade Center
20 East End Avenue
The Touraine
The Greenwich Lane
1110 Park Avenue
The Lindley
Museum of African Art
The New School
135 East 79th Street
The Laureate
The Larstrand
51 Astor Plaza
AVA DoBro
70 Vestry Street
160 Leroy Street
150 Charles
170 Amsterdam Avenue
10 Sullivan Street
551 West 21st Street
Hotel Willow
215 Chrystie Street
301 East 50th Street
35 XV
Mercedes House
The William Vale
55 Hudson Yards
The Bryant
The Kent
The Charles
7 Bryant Park
420 East 61st Street
One Seventy Two Madison
VIA 57 West
American Copper Buildings East Tower
American Copper Buildings West Tower
400 Park Avenue South
International Gem Tower
432 Park Avenue
50 United Nations Plaza
Baccarat Hotel & Residences
250 West 55th Street
252 East 57th
35 Hudson Yards
100 East 53rd Street
520 Park Avenue
Madison Square Park Tower
50 West
111 Murray Street
10 Hudson Yards
30 Park Place
220 Central Park South
One57
Four World Trade Center
Three World Trade Center
Central Park Tower
100 Varick Street
1399 Park Avenue
110 University Place
The Eleventh West Tower
The Eleventh East Tower
53W53
685 1st Avenue
1558 3rd Avenue
The Hub
200 East 59th Street
30 Hudson Yards
One Seaport
Roseland Tower
425 Park Avenue
281 5th Avenue
One Manhattan Square
138 East 50th Street
15 Hudson Yards
45 Broad Street
One Vanderbilt
111 West 57th Street
One Manhattan West
9 DeKalb Avenue
One Vandam
241 5th Avenue
Two World Trade Center
145 East 60th Street
15 Penn Plaza
3 Hudson Boulevard
The Spiral
Wall Street Tower
516 5th Avenue
200 Amsterdam Avenue
303 East 44th Street
Virgin Hotel New York
1865 Broadway
The Sutton
Halcyon
21 West End Avenue
Marriott Edition Hotel
388 Bridge Street
Brooklyn Point
118 East 59th Street
8 West 30th Street
 
I'll be going to San Diego later in the year for a work conference. The conference will take place in the San Diego Convention Center. Registration for housing begins in a few days. Any recommendations for a particular hotel I should try to get? Obviously, I would prefer walking distance to the convention center. Also, recommendations for restaurants and evening activities would be appreciated.
 

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