Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am currently trying to justify a helicopter ride to a glacier for dog sledding in Alaska.

Dog sledding is a not-to-be-missed experience, but there are plenty of places you can access it without a copter. Helicopters are inherently dangerous. Any hint of unpredictable wind gusts or of humidity that could lead to fog, and you can crash so, so easily.

Alaskan here. I fly in helicopters and small planes every year for field work. I have had several field seasons where I was in helicopters 7 days a week for months. They are very dangerous and Alaska's weather and terrain are very unforgiving. Google "temsco helicopters crash skagway" as just one example of just one company in just one town in Alaska. Last year I lost 3 coworkers in a helicopter crash, pilot also lost. The year before we lost a pilot in a crash. It is not a joke and you don't have to trust my anecdotes, you can easily do your own research.

Anonymous wrote:Private boat (with captain) for 12 hrs to see some smaller islands and out of the way snorkel spots in Croatia.

Similar: private boat with captain for a week in the British Virgin Islands.

Anonymous wrote:I am currently trying to justify a helicopter ride to a glacier for dog sledding in Alaska.

Dog sledding is a not-to-be-missed experience, but there are plenty of places you can access it without a copter. Helicopters are inherently dangerous. Any hint of unpredictable wind gusts or of humidity that could lead to fog, and you can crash so, so easily.

I am currently trying to justify a helicopter ride to a glacier for dog sledding in Alaska.

Private boat (with captain) for 12 hrs to see some smaller islands and out of the way snorkel spots in Croatia.

Took a float plane to a remote part of Alaska to go fishing

Let's put it this way: I've regretted going cheap on vacation, every single time! And *I* know better than to cheap out. But my husband continually thinks hotels/rentals are too expensive and if he makes the reservations, it's going to be to places that are dirty, or have inadequate hot water, or where something is somehow not right.

So for example, AirBnBs: I don't want to be stuck using one bathroom for our family. In many places in the world, you need to reserve a 12+ people rental to get two decent full baths, so that's what I do, even though we're 4 or sometimes 6. It also gets me "nicer" places, with decor and attention to detail, etc. Not a ramshackle mismatched place with kitchen things that don't work.

Hotels, same thing. I want comfort with nice cotton sheets and quality mattresses, light switch controlled from the bed, and well-designed bathroom fixtures, not the toilet paper 3 feet from the toilet. Healthy options at the breakfast buffet. I mean, are these BASIC things too much to ask?!? Yet they sometimes don't occur automatically in moderately-priced hotel rooms, which is why I upgrade.

Safari to Serengeti, on the Tanzanian side, with Arusha.
We slept above the Ngorongoro Crater and visited Serengeti, Lake Myanara, and nearby plains. Nothing compares. I only wish we visited the Olduvai Gorge. I am a historian, so that would have been special.
I want to go again.

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, followed by an Ecol8dge in the rain forest

Amangiri

On our honeymoon my wife and I went to my ancestral village in Italy, really just as a side-trip from our time in Rome. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather had emigrated about a hundred years previously. No one was expecting us, and all I wanted to do was step off the bus and walk around.

What actually happened is that were greeted in short order. I don't speak Italian, so they found an English speaker to speak with us. They figured out who we were, and who in the village was related on both sides of the family. We were invited into the Trattoria for lunch, where our money was not accepted. A different family invited us to their house for dinner and insisted on driving us back down the mountain to our hotel that night.

tl;dr Go to your ancestral home if you can!

Private van pick up in Rome after an overnight flight. It was definitely worth the money not to even think about getting from the airport to the hotel. I just found the guy holding a sign with our name and he took it from there

Every safari I've been on. No regrets at all.

Where are you thinking of going and what’s the budget you’re thinking of

Trying to convince myself to spend a lot of cash on a vacation experience but worry I’ll regret it once the bill comes.

Tell me about an experience where you spend entirely too much money, but it was worth every penny!