Solo travel suggestions - December 2014

[Alexander]

It seem that I may have the entire month of December off from work due to some rather unplanned events. So I'm thinking of taking a 3-week vacation somewhere (Could turn it into a 4-week, but my family will not be very pleased if I don't visit for XMAS)

That leaves me about 1 1/2 month to decide on a destination and book everything which should be enough for most places, except a few that has a lengthy VISA process.

So far I have been looking at the following destinations based on temperature and airfare prices:
- South East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia or Philippines.)
- Americas (Mexico, Costa Rica or Florida based on airfare prices)

Never been to either Asia or South/Central America which is why I am mainly focusing on these locations. I am open for other suggestions, but as a fairly large (6'1" 280lbs) Scandinavian I don't do well in temperatures above 30C or small, crowded spaces, and physical demanding activities like mountain climbing should probably be avoided

I'm not a monger looking for P4P or Pump'n'Dump, nor will I be looking for a wife, but since I'll be traveling alone it would be nice to go to a place where the people are fairly open and friendly to strangers.

Either way any advice or suggestions will be appreciated.

V/r
Alexander

[Ghost]

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[Alexander]

Honestly I don't even know, I have barely had any vacations at all the past ~10 years except for the occasional business travels, and I didn't really plan to take a vacation now if it hadn't been forced upon me.

My initial plan was to wait until spring and take the trans-mongolian express from europe down to asia and then spend a month or two traveling around asia, but it seems like that is out of the window unless I quit my current job as they have made it perfectly clear they wont allow more than maximum 4 weeks of continuous vacation time.

I'd prefer a place that is not too touristy, and more about experiencing other cultures, foods and places, making friends and generally take in new experiences. However museums, zoos and such places would be ok even if they are a bit touristy.

Don't really care about sex, if it happens it happens, and that's great. But I don't want to spend my entire three weeks chasing it and feeling disappointed if it doesn't go the way I hoped like some guys on this and other forums seem to have done. As a Norwegian P4P is technically illegal, even abroad, but of course it's near impossible to enforce. I'm not sure I have enough game/looks to pull off much else without giving them false expectations of a long term relationship.

[Ghost]

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[Yohan]

My initial plan was to wait until spring and take the trans-mongolian express from europe down to asia and then spend a month or two traveling around asia...

Asia cannot be explored so easily, the area is too big, better to split it up into some parts.

You could consider to visit Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. What about that?

South Korea will be cold already, but here in Tokyo it is never below zero, Taiwan has a mild climate in winter,
plenty of sightseeings, night-life available...visa not required, only passport.

There are plenty of flights - however it's a long trip. Finn-Air comes to my mind, as it seems you are located in Scandinavia. Cheap flights into Japan, easy to continue from here...

Nothing to worry about health, criminality, bad hotel accomodation - these are very safe developed countries with nice people in Asia.

[Alexander]

My initial plan was to wait until spring and take the trans-mongolian express from europe down to asia and then spend a month or two traveling around asia...

Asia cannot be explored so easily, the area is too big, better to split it up into some parts.

You could consider to visit Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. What about that?

South Korea will be cold already, but here in Tokyo it is never below zero, Taiwan has a mild climate in winter,
plenty of sightseeings, night-life available...visa not required, only passport.

There are plenty of flights - however it's a long trip. Finn-Air comes to my mind, as it seems you are located in Scandinavia. Cheap flights into Japan, easy to continue from here...

Nothing to worry about health, criminality, bad hotel accomodation - these are very safe developed countries with nice people in Asia.

Yeah, South-Korea and Japan are definitively on the list, but probably in the spring or summer when it is warmer. My friends in Japan suggest going between March and May. I've been reading up on the Japanese rail passes so maybe getting one of those and see some more than just Tokyo could be interesting.

Taiwan usually falls off the radar and I kind of forget it's there, but I've been reading a lot of good things about it online, so it is definitively worth a trip at some point as well.

[Alexander]

I would suggest Europe then. It would be different without being too far out of comfort, it's developed and I guess most of it is reasonably priced, and sex probably won't happen so easily there unless you go to a red light district. Haven't been there myself but if I was wanting to travel for a month or less and had no specific purposes, I would probably do Europe just because there is so much it has that you can see in a short amount of time.

Europa is very interesting, and I've been thinking about doing an inter-rail trip at some point, or maybe one of those Carbage Run races. Most of Europe is however fairly unpleasant in December, maybe with a few exceptions in the far southern countries. I've spent quite a lot of time in Nice (Sofia Antipolis) and Monaco due to work, and even there it's starting to get chilly around September-November.