A week. Yeah 4th time. The last three were for the same writing workshop. After the workshop I’m planning to rent a car and drive to Italy.
1 Like
Basically, you’ve got a great solution to a very different problem.
LOL 6-day trip. That’s nothing.
Apparently Iberia at Madrid airport is way worse than average on this metric. At least if my internet research is to be believed.
As my wife would tell you, it’s different for a guy. Ask your wife/girlfriend/daughter if how easy it would be for her to replace nearly everything she packed for a 2-3 wk trip in a random city in Europe where English isn’t that commonly spoken. My wife’s Spanish is pretty good but figuring out allergens in various make-up/cosmetic products is beyond her skill.
I kind of hear you on the airport trips. If we were staying at a hotel, we would have chosen hotel delivery. The problem is that we’re at an Airbnb on a busy street. They can’t leave the bags outside, there is no one there to receive them unless we happen to be there when the come and they will give us a 3 hr window. We initially offered to have them delivered them to the host’s office but that would have been an uber back and forth as well.
The other problem is that the two times we went, they were like “We’ve got your bag right here for pick up” and one of those times we were going to the airport anyway. We’re flying to Portugal today and we’re probably going to show up 1hr earlier than we otherwise would in a likely vain attempt to see if they have at least one of the bags there. We’re at the acceptance phase at this point, so if we had anything else to do then we would not even try.
Travel in Japan and US is much less of a crapshoot, imo.
I’ve only had one bag lost in my life while connecting through China, and they marked it as officially lost after 3 days, and then I bought a bunch of new stuff, left Hanoi, and then it showed up like two days later so I had to go back to get it. Nowadays I pretty much exclusively travel with a 40L backpack (carry on) for international trips.
When I landed in Rome this year the lost luggage counter was a friggen zoo. With how overcrowded Europe has been in summer, I’d probably be a little more wary than usual.
I lived in Edinburgh for a summer before attending university for my Master’s. Although I no longer live there, it is still my favorite city.
1 Like
These days, I avoid checking bags if possible due to the fee you have to pay to do so. I can’t always avoid it but I do try. Only had a problem once.
Before then, I was always checking a bag. Haven’t had one lost yet but flying out of Iceland, the weather was so severe that the baggage people couldn’t fully load the checked bags before the flight. After a delay, I guess the weather settled enough to leave without some people’s bags. So, some people didn’t have their bags loaded on the plane. Of course, this wasn’t found out until the people landed. I was told that my bag would be delivered to my place tomorrow if I gave the company the address I was at and my phone number. This sucks because I was planning to only stay in London for a night and then take the train back to Scotland the next day. In the end, I had to stay an additional night because they failed to arrive when they said they would.
But wow @ your experience. Sorry to hear that shit happening to you.
I think on US international flights there is no fee to check bags. However, even before this I’d gladly pay extra to take all my shit on the plane with me.
Even with this incident, the main motivation is not losing a bag, because that is rare. It’s faster for check in/check out. It also makes you more mobile for non-plane travel. Especially in Europe or Japan where you might want to take a train, lugging on a full-size suitcase is just a pain. It’s also much easier fitting all your shit into a taxi/uber. Traveling light just has so many benefits. And on top of that, you almost can’t lose your bag.
Yeah, it’s basically this.
1 Like
Finally I found a flat… (in Spain)
Got really expensive
Has a great gym on the first floor, and shops.
50 meters to the beach, 500 meters to everywhere and everything
so,
Got so tilted not getting an appartement I was promised last week
That I bought a plane ticket to Thailand
atleast it was cheap, maybe Ill go LOL
Well, finally got some run good. We went to lost baggage before our flight and that bag that they told us they were holding for us was actually there so we got it after another hour at the lost baggage counter.
Turns out when we went last time we happened to catch a guy who was like on his first week at work and didn’t know shit. So he looked in the wrong baggage storage room and he didn’t even know that one our bag was in existed.
When my wife got to the front of the counter that dude was there and she explained to the CSR that she got that it was that guy who said the bag wasn’t here when we came. CSR kind of did an eyeroll and said something like “He just started here, he’s still learning”. Of course once we got that part sorted the walk to the new baggage room was still a sweat because the CSR said “Well. I know it was there when we sent you the notification, but I don’t know if it is still there now.”
It would have been nice if we saw bag number 2 just lying around in there, but it was not to be. They still have no idea where the fuck that bag is. Allegedly they have a room with many “thousands” of lost bags that will eventually be scanned and maybe mine will turn up there.
Fortunately the bag that was recovered was wife’s bag, so she will go back to being her normal self for the last 60 percent of this trip…assuming the bag makes it to Lisbon. We did transfer some stuff just in case we get fucked by Iberia again, but we didn’t really have enough time or carry-on space to take everything she would have liked.
4 Likes
Just got back from Portugal - 4 days in Lisbon, 9 days in the Algarve - wonderful country.
3 Likes
Any recs for best things to do in Lisbon?
I used one of those types of services a few years ago for EU261 compensation from Delta when my own initial attempts failed. Was well worth it even paying the large commission.
1 Like
We did a Sintra trip, spend a few hours at the Palace and then driven around western Lisbon including the most western part of Europe and along the coast. Did a Eat and drink tour, we went to 6 different places and sampled some of the local wears. The food and drink was all a bit meh whatever but there was a dozen in the tour and we all had fun. Had a meal at Sala de Corte, ranked as a top class steak house, it was superb and very reasonable price wise considering.
We stayed near here - Marques De Pombal - and it was fine but next time I would stay in the neighborhoods further south nearer the coast. More bars, restaurants etc. We walked thru the park near us and came upon this mall - El Corte Inglés - which is a more designer end clothes place. We were walking to the museums, one of which was shut for renovations :(, but we had lunch there and it was very nice, much more than the usual mall fare.
We spent a day roaming around, using the elevators, a tram up the hill (it’s really hilly) and just people watching generally.
1 Like
I went to Lisbon for a few days back in 2022 and our experience was also that it’s a very easy city to entertain yourself in just walking around and hanging out. I really enjoyed the Miradouros around the city - the fact that the city is in a valley, and you can chill in the little Miradouro parks and have a wine or espresso, is simple relaxed living.
We also did some light getting out of town to Cascais, a beautiful little seaside town with fantastic fresh seafood at the marina. When in Lisbon it’s good to visit the little coastal places just a 30 minute Uber away.
2 Likes
In addition to Sintra day trip, we did an Evora day trip. We enjoyed it, and it’s a bit less touristy and crowded than the Sintra circuit, but we also had 5-6 days so were ok adding it. With fewer days, I don’t think I’d put it in the itinerary and if just doing one day trip, it’s hard not to go with Sintra.
Americans are just totally resigned to getting screwed by corporations without recourse but in Europe that is very much not the case.
1 Like
My family adopted the carry-on lifestyle a few years ago and we’ve not looked back. Staying in Airbnbs with the ability to wash clothes definitely helps. Although this did bite me in the ass a bit in Colombia when I wore my only pair of pants on horseback and then had to wear them on a plane without a wash, but I survived.
1 Like
But did the person next to you?
Anyway, re: the check-in vs. carry-on. I left behind a lot of stuff at my parent’s house in USA and still more stuff at my wife’s parent’s place in Mexico. Since late 2021, I’ve traveled around Europe and Asia with just a small Jansport backpack that fits under an airplane seat and a carry-on roller bag. I have a medium sized laptop, trackman mouse, and 2 tablets that eat a bit of space, but even still, manage to make do with just that.
I’ve gotten way more minimalistic over the years and basically don’t give a F about fancy clothes, shoes, watches, etc. It’d be nice to have a bit more variety of clothes, but I don’t really miss anything. We’ve settled in Bangkok for a 5-year period, so I’ve accumulated a bit more stuff, but once we leave here, I’m definitely returning to small backpack + carry-on system. Screw lugging around a big bag.