u/NotoriousRBP

My wife and I (38) are in the early stages of planning a trip to the Galapagos with my in-laws, who are in their 70s but generally active. We are trying to figure out which ship/itinerary would be best for us, but I feel a bit at a loss, since cruising is not generally our style and I’m a bit out of my depth.

About us:

— We all love nature and wildlife, and 3/4 of us are pretty serious amateur photographers
— We don’t need super high-end luxury, but we don’t want bunk beds either. My in-laws are pretty classy and like a certain level of comfort, especially given their age (and my MIL has some knee issues)
— My in-laws are birders and are excited about seeing some interesting bird life
— I love the ocean and want to spend as much time in it as possible. I’m a scuba diver and while I know that dive boats and naturalist boats are separate and you can’t really dive on a non-dive liveaboard, I’d like to see as many ocean animals as possible
— My wife does not love the ocean, so we’re hoping to find a company that offers both land-based activities and water-based ones
— We strongly prefer a small ship to a bigger one, and want a ship that doesn’t stop to pick up other passengers for shorter itineraries. I’m not sure yet if we’d be looking to do a 7 night cruise or a 14 night one.
— My wife is a teacher, so our options for timing are limited to the summer months, and winter break. And because she’s a teacher, we’d probably prefer a cruise that is adults-only (or at least primarily) if that is an option

Any recommendations? I’m grateful for any assistance!

My wife and I will have three hours in Colmar en route from Switzerland to Luxembourg. We will be there between 8am and 11am and would love to try to make the most of it. A couple of questions:

- Do you have any recommendations for a luggage storage service near the train station? I understand there is no official luggage office at the train station itself but there may be some nearby? We will have carryon suitcases and backpacks.

- what would you do with only 3 hours? I imagine we only have time to get some breakfast and walk around a bit but I’d welcome any recommendations for where to do that.

If it matters, neither of us speaks French but my wife speaks some German. Thanks!

Hello!

My wife and I will be in Switzerland very briefly next week and would love any recommendations for how to make the most out of our two days there. We’re staying in Basel and plan to spend the first day there, and then we’re hoping to do a day trip to Lucerne on our second day.

We love nature and scenery, walkable neighborhoods, and photography. My wife speaks some German (although not Swiss German) - hopefully enough to get around and to not offend folks by defaulting to English.

Do you have any recommendations for how to spend our limited time? We enjoy slow travel and don’t feel the need to pack everything in, just want to have a couple of enjoyable days (although I wish we had more time). Is it worth doing some kind of a photography tour in Lucerne if we’d like to get some nice wide angle scenery shots?

Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Hello folks!

I will be in Portland for few days in August for a work conference, and I am trying to figure out how to best make use of my time in the area. I should have a day on either side of the conference dates to explore, and will have free evenings (and one full afternoon). I'm more interested in nature things (hiking, horseback riding, photographing waterfalls/landscapes, etc) than city things, so I'm hoping to find some accommodation outside of Portland itself that would give me decent access to some of the beautiful nature the PNW has to offer (Columbia River Gorge, Cannon Beach, etc).

Do you have any recommendations for a hotel within an hour or so of downtown Portland that would fit the bill? Boutique hotels are more my speed than big chains, and I'd love something close to nature and outdoors-y things to do. I plan on renting a car, so transportation shouldn't be an issue.

No AirBnb or VRBO, sadly - those aren't eligible for reimbursement, which I found out the hard way when I went to a conference in Salt Lake City a couple of years ago and wound up having to eat the cost of the AirBnb I booked.

I'd also welcome any recommendations for good, easy hikes in the area or anything else that would be fun to do as a solo traveler who likes pretty stuff.