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FootyLovin

FootyLovin

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Inspired in part by mgarbowski mgarbowski posting about Shrovetide.

Wifey and I are going to be the proud owners of an empty nest in just 6 months. We are dreaming of places to go, things to see. I love the idea of planning travel around unusual events. E.g., currently considering:
Would love any / all ideas for off the beaten path, unusual events, destinations, things you have to go and experience.
 
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FootyLovin said:
Inspired in part by mgarbowski mgarbowski posting about Shrovetide.

Wifey and I are going to be the proud owners of an empty nest in just 6 months. We are dreaming of places to go, things to see. I love the idea of planning travel around unusual events. E.g., currently considering:
Would love any / all ideas for off the beaten path, unusual events, destinations, things you have to go and experience.
Click to expand...

Congrats on your future empty nest!

My suggestion: Kanamara Matsuri aka Fertility Festival aka Penis Festival

Held in Kawasaki, Japan. I've never been myself, but seems to meet your unusual event criteria.
 
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FootyLovin said:
Inspired in part by mgarbowski mgarbowski posting about Shrovetide.

Wifey and I are going to be the proud owners of an empty nest in just 6 months. We are dreaming of places to go, things to see. I love the idea of planning travel around unusual events. E.g., currently considering:
Would love any / all ideas for off the beaten path, unusual events, destinations, things you have to go and experience.
Click to expand...
Watch the Northern Lights in a glass-topped igloo: https://www.kakslauttanen.fi/

Check out this off-beat travel agency -- https://lupinetravel.co.uk/ -- I've had this bookmarked for 20 years!
 
Love this! My wife and I became empty nesters 6 months ago and it’s AWESOME haha. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids to death and would gnaw my own arm off for them, and happy to see them on holidays, winter break etc.

Interestingly, I’ve been to the Catalan Festival and even participated in a human tower, all because my son’s soccer team was there for a tournament (2014). It was wild. Love the other suggestions!
 
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Love the suggestions.

And holy shit! If anyone ever doubted that FredMertz FredMertz was hardcore, the travel agency he pines over features exciting travel images like this one.

centralamerica-1200x675.jpeg


#dontfuckwithfred
 
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A lot of great stuff here. I don't have anything to add as I haven't started to think about this in an organized way yet myself. But Mrs. MG and I also will have an empty nest in 6 months, plus I'm planning on going part time in 2023 and probably retiring in 2024. I'm bookmarking everything here.
 
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Being the resident Bavarian fan/traveler, I'd obviously recommend Oktoberfest in Munich. However, there is also a lesser known festival in Munich in the spring, known as Münchener Frühlingsfest (Munich Spring Festival). Usually held in April or May, it's essentially a mini Oktoberfest with a lot less foreigners/college students/Englishmen. Therefore, a lot more fun and less negative chaos likely to occur. It occurs on the same grounds as Oktoberfest does, so it is essentially the same thing that a lot less people know about.

The Munich Street Festival is also great, as having a beer in a tent under the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz is a wonderful thing. Stumbled upon this with my family and had a great time. Did any of those words in the previous sentence make sense- probably not. But now I've given you something to Google/DuckDuckGo/Ecosia.
 
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The Iceland ring road, was pretty spectacular. I did it a few years ago in about a week, although I'd really recommend at least two weeks if not three, just so you can make stops in the northeast, see the puffins in the north if in season, and then do the peninsula in the northwest as well. Or go into the interior via snow vehicles maybe.

I went in the fall, when the daylight was "normal." If you go in the end of June it's almost all sunlight, or end of January it's almost all darkness. Want to go back at least twice, once for each of those.

Slide show:
 
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Dnigly13 said:
Palio Di Siena - July 3rd in Siena Italy.

www.italybyevents.com

As every year, the famous Siena Palio on July 2nd

On July 2nd it takes place the famous and traditional Siena Palio. A horse eventful race between the ancient districts of the town.
www.italybyevents.com www.italybyevents.com
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My sister and her family did this! They haven't stopped talking about it for years. Definitely want to get there at some point.

Love all of these ideas!!
 
I’m currently wrapping up my honeymoon and have spent the last week in Uganda traveling around the country and would highly recommend. Will post more details about it later when I’m not on my phone, but figured I’d forget about it if I don’t post this now.

Also, that tomato throwing ordeal in Spain sounds like a riot. My brother went to that and said it was so much fun.

Some other items I’ve wanted to do:
  • Great white shark cage diving off of Capetown, South Africa. This is seasonal.
  • Visit Victoria Falls in South Africa/Zimbabwe. In certain parts of the year, you can even swim in the upper part of the falls and look over the falls.
  • Spend 1-2 weeks in Alaska in the summer
  • See the northern lights as someone above mentioned. Probably tag that onto also
  • Go see that cheese wheel racing event (in Gloucester, England)
 
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Also wanted to add something much easier to do. Apparently during the winter, you can go visit the Lake Placid Olympic grounds and even take a ride down a bobsled run. That sounds fun as hell and it’s not terribly far from nyc.
 
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SoupInNYC said:
  • Go see that cheese wheel racing event (in Gloucester, England)
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If you want to do that, you might also like cheese rolling in Italy. They have at least 3 versions, one which is like frisbee golf, but with rolling cheese; one is like shotput - the longest roll wins; one is like bocce played in rugged terrain to see who can navigate their cheese roll over the tree roots and other obstacles.

Here's the golf style one. The other two I only know about because I went to see them on a trip in Umbria in 2000 and actually paid my way into a game with (read: got fleeced by) some old Italian guys who didn't speak any English. I don't know what town they happen in, and I remember it as a weekly thing, not an annual festival. Though it does seem an awful waste of cheese if it's every week.
 
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SoupInNYC said:
I’m currently wrapping up my honeymoon and have spent the last week in Uganda traveling around the country and would highly recommend. Will post more details about it later when I’m not on my phone, but figured I’d forget about it if I don’t post this now.
Click to expand...
So my wife and I just wrapped up a 6 night / 7 day safari ordeal all around Uganda and it was absolutely incredible with so many different types of experiences. And per our guide, this was a "short" trip. Apparently there are much longer ones you can do.

But things we did included:
  • Typical game drives (saw leopards, elephants, different types of monkeys, giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, antelope, many different types of beautiful birds)
  • Took a boat cruise down the Nile River and saw hippos, crocodiles, elephants and other animals on shore, again more beautiful birds.
  • Took a walk in the jungle to see different types of tree monkeys (saw 5 different types)
  • Trekked in the jungle for chimpanzees. Watched them in the trees for a couple of hours and then they came down to the jungle floor and got so close, I literally could have high-fived one this guy got so close and I nearly pissed myself.
  • Trekked in the jungle for mountain gorillas and they again got so close. My wife at one point was probably 3-4 feet away from one.
  • We also went searching for tree-climbing lions but our luck ran out there, wasn't able to see them.
Every place we stayed at had just incredible views and the people were very friendly. I really can't gush enough about how amazing this experience was.

If you (or anyone else) want more details, let me know and I'd be happy to provide, or send pics. I am not a photographer at all, bought a nice DSLR camera for this trip and some of the photos I took I still can't believe how amazing they are. And I don't say that to toot my own horn or anything, I'm sure people who are into photography and whatnot would do even better.
 
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SoupInNYC said:
So my wife and I just wrapped up a 6 night / 7 day safari ordeal all around Uganda and it was absolutely incredible with so many different types of experiences. And per our guide, this was a "short" trip. Apparently there are much longer ones you can do.

But things we did included:
  • Typical game drives (saw leopards, elephants, different types of monkeys, giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, antelope, many different types of beautiful birds)
  • Took a boat cruise down the Nile River and saw hippos, crocodiles, elephants and other animals on shore, again more beautiful birds.
  • Took a walk in the jungle to see different types of tree monkeys (saw 5 different types)
  • Trekked in the jungle for chimpanzees. Watched them in the trees for a couple of hours and then they came down to the jungle floor and got so close, I literally could have high-fived one this guy got so close and I nearly pissed myself.
  • Trekked in the jungle for mountain gorillas and they again got so close. My wife at one point was probably 3-4 feet away from one.
  • We also went searching for tree-climbing lions but our luck ran out there, wasn't able to see them.
Every place we stayed at had just incredible views and the people were very friendly. I really can't gush enough about how amazing this experience was.

If you (or anyone else) want more details, let me know and I'd be happy to provide, or send pics. I am not a photographer at all, bought a nice DSLR camera for this trip and some of the photos I took I still can't believe how amazing they are. And I don't say that to toot my own horn or anything, I'm sure people who are into photography and whatnot would do even better.
Click to expand...
Sounds amazing!! I do want to work up to trying to get my wife on one of these. When the time comes I'll want info on things like accommodations and food. But this is a remarkable rundown.
 
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