[Misc] Retirement

[The Mole]

Northern India (Superb)
Delhi (smoggy)
Agra (Beautiful)
Ranthambhore (Everything we’d hope, saw a Tiger and her cubs in the wild)
Jaipur (Fabulous)
Mumbai (A very different culture and seemed more westernised)
Sri Lanka (Going back loved it)
Thailand (Drigs and Brits, not for me)
Malaysia (Wonderful people)
Singapore (Only there for fifteen hours)

Arrived in India a couple of days ago - was only too pleased to escape Delhi for the tiger reserve in bandavgarh - seen two tigers today - beautiful place. And my Albion snood came in very handy for the early morning start!
if you want to return to India try Kerala

 

[Professor Plum]

do you guys and gals ever use/do escorted tours?
just thinking about this as now that my health conditions aren’t the best, dicky ticker, balance issues, diabetes to name a few. I’d love to do 2 or 3 week trip to either Canada or perhaps even Aus. Mrs A is worried of us going away on our own in case anything health wise cropped up.
Normally i wouldn’t be keen on being herded around, but sadly it may be that or nothing.
any experiences on similar limitations?

We swore we’d never go on an organised tour but when we went to Cuba 20 years ago we found it would be impossible to get around as there was no public transport to speak of and no car hire. So we reluctantly went with a small group of about 20 in a bus. It was brilliant. The Cuban driver and guide knew everything there was to know. We stayed in about 7 or 8 different places in 2 weeks and saw everything possible, from remote jungle locations to Havana with everything in between.

Since then, we’ve been on similar trips to Peru and Jordan and South Africa and loved them all. They’re particularly good in slightly dubious/difficult countries or where it might be tricky to travel round freely. There’s definitely a place still for independent travel but past a certain age, it’s nice to have everything done for you eg lugging baggage from one hotel to the next, and especially transport arrangements. It costs extra of course but hey…

 

[A mex eyecan]

We swore we’d never go on an organised tour but when we went to Cuba 20 years ago we found it would be impossible to get around as there was no public transport to speak of and no car hire. So we reluctantly went with a small group of about 20 in a bus. It was brilliant. The Cuban driver and guide knew everything there was to know. We stayed in about 7 or 8 different places in 2 weeks and saw everything possible, from remote jungle locations to Havana with everything in between.

Since then, we’ve been on similar trips to Peru and Jordan and South Africa and loved them all. They’re particularly good in slightly dubious/difficult countries or where it might be tricky to travel round freely. There’s definitely a place still for independent travel but past a certain age, it’s nice to have everything done for you eg lugging baggage from one hotel to the next, and especially transport arrangements. It costs extra of course but hey…

did you use the same or different organisers? Or perhaps you or others may have experience of good organisers.
We had arranged a trip of Canada via Audley but it was cancelled because of covid. We rearranged for the following year but that was cancelled because of a heart episode, we rearranged for the third time but that was cancelled because of a huge problem i had with one of my business directors who had to be dismissed and the drawbridges pulled up and business into defence mode.

We came to a conclusion that maybe we weren't supposed to go to Canada.

 

[Carlos BC]

…..the number of Russians in some areas now making it a bit less pleasant though (for tourists and locals)

We are in Thailand for about 6 weeks and have heard this from other people we have met.
So far we have stayed in the quieter parts ourselves and have only come across one Russian family. They were the same as other people have told us about the Russians they have come across.
Rude, arrogant, very demanding and no please/thank-you or general politeness.

 

[papachris]

Millennium is an old ship, but our favourite of all ships was the summit.

we have just come back from 10 nights on the fabulous celeb eclipse and then 12 nights on the Oceania Vista ( different class really) around the Caribbean

I just recently returned from my first ever cruise. It was on MSC Seascape. The ship and entertainment were top class, amazing. Thoroughly enjoyed it