Also, depends whether you cross the yellow fever line get a vaccination before you go. The needles at the borderline can be dodgy.
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I am in Texas and I have always loved the place. Austin is a great place and both Dallas and Houston are full of friendly people who are great to socialise with and also to do business with, especially if you have something to sell into the oil and gas business.
But I have struggled to find a good beer, and today I went to a small town called Shiner where they have a small brewery that has been making Bavarian style beer for over 100 years. Shiner bock is a great drop, and I am now sitting at bar at my Hotel in Houston attempting to drink them dry of this brew. I will report if I succeed, or get picked up by some Texan beauty or get arrested.
The Austin area has some fantastic local breweries (Jester King, Live Oak, Austin Beerworks), not sure how well they get into bars around the state though. Shiner Bock is a good find, Celis White might be around, Houston’s Karbach probably has good distro since they got bought out, they’d be worth a shot.
Well Mr Jez, I think I have found my home.
I was born to be a Texan, want a red and black Ford F-150 F4 with gun racks, a blonde blue Texan cheer leader wife (Mrs Fox IV) and to the dusky beauty who has been serving me Shine Bock for the last few hours to gently accede to my wants.
Not gonna happen, but dreams begin in Texas.
Going to see a College Football game tomorrow when the star player is an Aussie Punter.
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JUst got back from a week in the Maldives. Absolutely spectacular, on one atoll we counted seven different shades of blue water from the shore. Just ridiculous.
Any tips on resorts, flights, transfers etc.
wife has been bugging me for years to go there and I’m looking at going there for our anniversary in the future
We stayed at
My mate is now the GM there so that’s why we stayed there, but I went for work and travelled to about seven/eight different resorts. I reckon the pick of them that we visited was the Conrad. It just felt like it was oozing money.
One of the newer ones is Hurawelhi and mate its superb as well.
I’ve been to Fiji seven times this year for work and stayed in some pretty nice places, but the Maldives makes Fiji resorts look like a Best western in Dunbo.
Mine too. And bora bora. I’m not sure I have enough organs to sell to afford one of those overwater bungalows in bora bora though.
Some of the ones in Maldives are surprisingly affordable. One of the new resorts we’re looking at working on they’re going to open around March next year and opening pricing for the villas are only around $280.
Yes, wife’s bucket list has the Maldives and Bora Bora at the top.
I really want to do the Seychelles, Mauritius or Reunion
Singapore Airlines via Singapore?
What was transport around the Maldives like, sea plane or boat mainly?
Texas is cool. People are friendly, some beautiful scenery and weather is great this time of year.
San Antonio was fantastic. Houston was ok but felt too much like another big city for mine.
We did Etihad via Abu Dhabi, took longer but was cheaper. I think Singapore would be quickest. All the resorts are either Seaplane or boat. Mainly Seaplane but the whole joint is so well organised. You just turn up at the airport and they’ve organised everything for you.
Male is an absolute tip, quite often you’ll have to stay there for a night before you go to your resort. Stay at Hulhumale north of the Airport, WAY nicer. They taxi you everywhere and it’s all included in the room charge.
Got caught in a flash flood in San Antonio, oh my. Great town though, huevos rancheros and 50c Corona for brekky!
Austin and San Antonio were the pick of Texas for me. Wasn’t that keen on Dallas (1994) or Houston (1983).
Anyone have good tips for car hire in the US these days?
We do it regularly (every 1.5 - 2 years) and the things we’ve learnt are:
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it tends to be cheaper to book it earlier
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the cost of hiring can vary greatly depending on the airport. So if we have some flexibility in where we start the hire (i.e New York vs Washington/Philly/Boston or Detroit/Buffalo/Chicago/Minneapolis etc) I always check different flight/airport/car hire combinations to find which gives the best overall deal. Last trip we flew into Detroit because both flights and car hire were significantly cheaper than Toronto and Buffalo
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If we’re staying in a big city for a few days at the start or end of our trip I try to avoid having a car for those few days as it costs $50 or more sometimes to park it per night at our hotel.
Done it a couple of times. As AD said, book it as early as possible and it’s usually a lot cheaper if you pay when you book rather than just make a deposit.
It’s generally pretty cheap but the one-way fees can be steep. Our most recent trip we drove from San Antonio to New Orleans and the one-way fees were nearly double the base rental fee. If you can, plan your trip so you take the car back to the city/depot you picked it up from.
Thanks guys. I have rented several times in the US before but was just wondering if rentalcars.com was still good or another company offered better deals. Some people recommend expedia.co.uk but as far as I can see its a bit cheaper booking direct with Hertz.