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collecting countries


terratin

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I'm contemplating a geo-trip to Hong Kong (good caching in the hills), with possible detours to Macau and nearby Shenzen (China) as well.

 

Hong Kong and Macau are officially part of China, but often treated separately. GC.com seems to treat 'em separately, haven't checked the stats programs.

 

That should forever add ambiguity to my how-many-countries-have-I-visited? count. Ah well, not a numbers thing for me.

 

I think stats programs would recognize them as separate countries as they're just using the location as specified in a GPX file or through the API. For planning a trip, you might consider flying to Tokyo (Narita) or Singapore where you could easily grab a cache during a layover. In fact, when went to Malaysia (just a couple of weeks before you did, if I recall) I booked a flight from the U.S. to Singapore, then made a separate booking from Singapore (on Air Asia, if I recall) and saved a couple hundred dollars. I've been doing some collaborative work with a few people in China over the past few weeks and there have been some hints that I might be asked to travel there to do some consulting. Although I've been there twice before, I'd love to go back and see other parts of the country.

 

I recently got an email message for a CFP (Call for Proposals) for an annual conference that I've wanted to attend for the past few years (Open Repositories). This year it's going to be in Helsinki, Finland. One of the itineraries (that's within $100 of the least expensive) would have a long layover in Stockholm in one direction and a long layover in Iceland on the return trip. That could mean three new countries. Since I'm working on a digital repository project on a 3 year grant I would certainly be justified in attending the Open Repositories conference this year.

 

 

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For planning a trip, you might consider flying to Tokyo (Narita) or Singapore where you could easily grab a cache during a layover.

Or Taiwan; one of my flight options would take me through there; Tokyo's another possibility, though Singapore never occurred to me; it seems like a bit of an overshoot.

 

But then I think, why just grab a cache during a layover? I should actually stay a few nights and explore... And then hmm, if I've gone to the trouble to find a hotel, change money, etc, etc, for a couple of days... Before I know it, I've shelved the layover idea completely and bookmarked the country for a complete future trip of its own. Even a pocket-sized country like Taiwan (or even Hong Kong!) has enough to keep me entertained for a few weeks.

 

<tangent>

Speaking of Taiwan, the "other China", I think that may allude to why Groundspeak gave up on country souvenirs, of all things. Once you start taking sides - is it a country? - sometimes the other side starts getting cranky, and it's way more trouble than it's worth. Google too, they sometimes get flak for the way they draw maps.

</tangent>

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For planning a trip, you might consider flying to Tokyo (Narita) or Singapore where you could easily grab a cache during a layover.

Or Taiwan; one of my flight options would take me through there; Tokyo's another possibility, though Singapore never occurred to me; it seems like a bit of an overshoot.

 

But then I think, why just grab a cache during a layover? I should actually stay a few nights and explore... And then hmm, if I've gone to the trouble to find a hotel, change money, etc, etc, for a couple of days... Before I know it, I've shelved the layover idea completely and bookmarked the country for a complete future trip of its own. Even a pocket-sized country like Taiwan (or even Hong Kong!) has enough to keep me entertained for a few weeks.

 

<tangent>

Speaking of Taiwan, the "other China", I think that may allude to why Groundspeak gave up on country souvenirs, of all things. Once you start taking sides - is it a country? - sometimes the other side starts getting cranky, and it's way more trouble than it's worth. Google too, they sometimes get flak for the way they draw maps.

</tangent>

 

I had never considered Taiwan as a flight option. I'll have to look at that and Hong Kong as options if I go back to China. However, as there is a direct flight from Newark, NJ to Beijing it might be hard to justify. On the other hand, the organization I'll be visit would be paying for my travel.

 

If you fly into Tokyo, as you exit the international arrivals door there is a left luggage spot very close by and the entrance to the light rail at one end of the terminal The first stop is the station in the town of Narita (about 10 minutes away) where there are a few caches nearby, and a gorgeous park about 3/4 of a mile from the station where Narita temple is located and a nice cache with a wonderful view of a large pond filled with koi. The people at the information desk just outside the international arrivals door were also very helpful and provide a map with circles and arrows that showed the best way to get to Narita temple.

 

I mention SIngapore because flights into Changi airport can be pretty inexpensive (comparatively, when flying half way around the world) and you can grab the oft mentioned Butterfly garden cache that is in the terminal. Changi airport is also the nicest airport I've ever found.

 

On the other hand, there is also something to be said for extending your layover a day or two (which I did when flying from Malaysia through Singapore, then to Tokyo, and back to the U.S.).

 

As far as your tangent goes, altough the list of countries/territories that GS uses is closely based on the U.N. geopolitical ontology which does not list Taiwan as a separate country either, GS does list it as a separate country/territory. The ISO 3166 country codes standard does, however designate a separate country code for Taiwan (TW) and lists it as "Taiwan, province of China.

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Thanks for the Tokyo tips. You never know when they'll come in handy.

 

Singapore, I think, will make a nice bookend for a future trip through peninsular Malaysia, with the other end being either in Penang, or in Thailand somewhere. Should be lots of good caching there now. Borneo reminded me how much I love Malaysian food, so I have a good reason to return. :)

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Thanks for the Tokyo tips. You never know when they'll come in handy.

 

Singapore, I think, will make a nice bookend for a future trip through peninsular Malaysia, with the other end being either in Penang, or in Thailand somewhere. Should be lots of good caching there now. Borneo reminded me how much I love Malaysian food, so I have a good reason to return. :)

 

I agree about the food. I'd also like to return to Malaysia some day so that I could see other parts of Borneo outside of Kuching. When I did an overnight stay in Singapore I stayed in a hotel just a bit NW of the airport across the road from a place where one can take a short boat trip over to Ubin island. I didn't do it but I understand that you can take a boat over to the island an rent a mountain bike and ride on the many trails all over the island, where there several traditional and multi caches.

 

I'd also love to visit Thailand as well. On one of the projects I've worked on over the past few years, and is likely to ramp up to the next phase this year, has a collaborative developer and former co-worker that lives outside of Bangkok so I'd have a good reason to visit.

 

 

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Little update once more:

we've had a little vacation on mostly sunny and warm Malta earlier on, before we moved out of Denmark. We managed to find some caches, managed to not find some others, and had a great time.

 

No vacation plans yet, but it will most likely be SE Asia or eastern Africa centered, with a bit of Middle East mixed in.

 

But my business travel plans mostly stand: Vienna (new country), southern France (new departement. Yes, now I'm exaggerating! :anicute:) and Denmark :)

 

Mrs. terratin, happy in Qatar

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Little update once more:

we've had a little vacation on mostly sunny and warm Malta earlier on, before we moved out of Denmark. We managed to find some caches, managed to not find some others, and had a great time.

 

No vacation plans yet, but it will most likely be SE Asia or eastern Africa centered, with a bit of Middle East mixed in.

 

But my business travel plans mostly stand: Vienna (new country), southern France (new departement. Yes, now I'm exaggerating! :anicute:) and Denmark :)

 

Mrs. terratin, happy in Qatar

 

I was really hoping that I might get to attend a conference in Helsinki in June but my boss has been less than enthusiastic. I'm still not ruling it out though. If if happens though there is the potential of adding Sweden and Iceland (three new countries) as well. I also got an invitation to submit a proposal for a presentation at a conference in Villach, Austria and the best way to get there would be to fly to Ljubliana, Slovenia. Both would be new countries for me. I know the conference organizer pretty well so I suspect if I did submit a proposal it would likely be accepted. I'm still probably going to be going to Africa in April but initial plans would be to go to South Africa and Tanzania (neither would be new countries) but there is also a strong possibility for a visit to Uganda on that trip.

 

Where in southern France would you be going? I really liked Montpellier.

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Been thinking. From Vienna it would be really easy to visit a few more countries, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I rather visit a country properly rather than just hopping over the border to 'collect' the country.

 

I know what you mean. On my last trip I had about a 5 hour layover in Copenhagen and rather than find a cache or two near the airport and take the train over and back to Malmo, Sweden I took a train into downtown Copenhagen so that I could see a little bit of the city. Even though I was only there for about two hours I'm still glad I did it and if I get a chance to have a layover again in Copenhagen I'd probably try to stay overnight for a longer layover.

 

From what I've seen, there are many places in Austria that are gorgeous so I'd probably want to spend as much time as I could in the country. If I attend that conference I'd almost have to collect a cache in Slovenia as it would make the most sense for me, economically, to fly to Ljubliana.

 

I've been looking at itineraries for a trip to Africa and Doha keeps on coming up as a possible layover city. It would be less expensive to go through Cairo, but I don't want to go through Cairo.

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After visiting (and bicycling in) four new countries last year (China, Iceland, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos) we do not have any trips planned yet for this year. Maybe the snow/sleet/freezing rain and frequent single digit (F) temperatures just have us beat down. But the good news is that with the exception of the China trip that was planned a year in advance all the other trips were pulled together within a month of departure.

 

I have been asked to take some of my faculty and lecture in Niarobi this year. I'm thinking about it, I haven't been to Africe (unlike S'cycle)

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I have been asked to take some of my faculty and lecture in Niarobi this year. I'm thinking about it, I haven't been to Africe (unlike S'cycle)

 

Do it!

 

Nairobi has a fair amount a caches for an African city (outside of South Africa). There's a local cacher (SawaSawa) that has hidden quite a few in the last year. I've been through Nairobi airport three times but so far haven't been out of the airport. It's a fairly major hub for KLM, Turkish, and Swiss airlines.

 

On the other hand, Nairobi has a reputation for being somewhat dangerous. There are some places where you just want to go at night. There are some places where you probably don't want to go during the day. However, the same could be said for Johannesburg, Cape Town, and many other African cities.

 

 

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Been thinking. From Vienna it would be really easy to visit a few more countries, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I rather visit a country properly rather than just hopping over the border to 'collect' the country.

 

I know what you mean. On my last trip I had about a 5 hour layover in Copenhagen and rather than find a cache or two near the airport and take the train over and back to Malmo, Sweden I took a train into downtown Copenhagen so that I could see a little bit of the city. Even though I was only there for about two hours I'm still glad I did it and if I get a chance to have a layover again in Copenhagen I'd probably try to stay overnight for a longer layover.

 

From what I've seen, there are many places in Austria that are gorgeous so I'd probably want to spend as much time as I could in the country. If I attend that conference I'd almost have to collect a cache in Slovenia as it would make the most sense for me, economically, to fly to Ljubliana.

 

For the potentially three days we have together in Vienna we now think we might spend a day, and the evenings during my training sightseeing there, and maybe rent a car and drive into the mountains as far as we can in a day. Mr. Terratin just had a brilliant idea of checking if there's a train to Bratislava: yes, and it only takes an hour. Might be a serious option of spending a day there as well. But certainly we'll go to Hungary and Czech republic another time. No quick visits just for the sake of a cache during this trip.

 

I've been looking at itineraries for a trip to Africa and Doha keeps on coming up as a possible layover city. It would be less expensive to go through Cairo, but I don't want to go through Cairo.

 

I'd be glad to go to Cairo, though I'd first check out how quiet it is there at the moment. Doha certainly is quiet. And has a lovely temperature compared to the rainy and cold weather in Denmark :)

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Just came back from Mexico (Riviera Maya) - what a week I had!! I didn't have much time to go geocaching but I logged some, so it is my 12th country :) so glad! and next week heading to Turkey, which will hopefully be my 13th!

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=ba32380a-7243-487c-8d2e-5f6ea72e4e4a

 

Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the world. That's me on the left!

 

515e9eaf-f1e2-40be-bb57-07473a809231.jpg

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Just came back from Mexico (Riviera Maya) - what a week I had!! I didn't have much time to go geocaching but I logged some, so it is my 12th country :) so glad! and next week heading to Turkey, which will hopefully be my 13th!

 

Check out the "All Nations" forum. There's a cacher there from Turkey that posts frequently and has created a patch that you can receive if you find one of his caches in Istanbul.

 

One of these day I'll have to travel to Mexico and find a cache. Even though I live in the U.S. I have not yet found a cache Mexico or Canada (and I only live about 3 hours from the Canadian border).

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Pencilling in a February trip to Hamburg - principally to take Oxford Stone Junior to http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ the world's largest model railway. not even looked at the GC map yet but Germany will be a new country. Toying with Brazil for Christmas 2014 (Mrs OS is from there) - not the greatest place for caching but it'd be cool just to get one (Recife, Olinda, Porto de Galinhas)

 

I really liked this one in Hamburg: Der alte Elbtunnel It was just across the road from the hotel where I was staying (Hotel Haffe Hamburg, which I'd highly recommend).

 

Fresh back from 2 days in Hamburg. Cheers for this recommendation nypc, spot on. 15th of 16 we did. One is up 544 steps! Not a nano in sight and for urban caching, an impressive number of decent size caches. I'd recommend the city for a break. Very heavy on multis and puzzles in German but we managed one puzzle. Heavy traffic with most caches on thousands of finds and plenty over 100 fp's.

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<snip>

 

One of these day I'll have to travel to Mexico and find a cache. Even though I live in the U.S. I have not yet found a cache Mexico or Canada (and I only live about 3 hours from the Canadian border).

I find that so funny. We live 2.5 to 4 hours from the Canadian border (depending on which route we take), and we've visited many times over the years. I even own a virtual in Canada. Road trip! :D

 

My most recent trip to Canada was in December, for my wedding anniversary. I'll post some geocaching pics from the trip.

 

Finally visited the Peace Arch, at the Canadian border:

 

41dcce06-a602-40de-b22a-00aab37b3417.jpg

 

View of Vancouver, B.C.:

 

b0385a9e-cf36-4b0a-a4db-affd8a2a24c6.jpg

 

A totem pole, one of many, in Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C.:

 

3a07375c-e0b3-430e-90c0-fb9a78a2b70d.jpg

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<snip>

 

One of these day I'll have to travel to Mexico and find a cache. Even though I live in the U.S. I have not yet found a cache Mexico or Canada (and I only live about 3 hours from the Canadian border).

I find that so funny. We live 2.5 to 4 hours from the Canadian border (depending on which route we take), and we've visited many times over the years. I even own a virtual in Canada. Road trip! :D

 

My most recent trip to Canada was in December, for my wedding anniversary. I'll post some geocaching pics from the trip.

 

I've been to Canada several times (in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland) but not since I've been caching. I even to a picture of that totem pole in Stanley park. I've also been to Mexico a couple of times (Cancun, and a week just outside of Mexico City) but that was before I started geocaching as well. Ironically, up to about 10 years ago those are the only two countries I'd ever been to outside the U.S. In the past 10 years, however, I've been to 23 different countries.

Edited by NYPaddleCacher
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<snip>

 

One of these day I'll have to travel to Mexico and find a cache. Even though I live in the U.S. I have not yet found a cache Mexico or Canada (and I only live about 3 hours from the Canadian border).

I find that so funny. We live 2.5 to 4 hours from the Canadian border (depending on which route we take), and we've visited many times over the years. I even own a virtual in Canada. Road trip! :D

 

My most recent trip to Canada was in December, for my wedding anniversary. I'll post some geocaching pics from the trip.

 

I've been to Canada several times (in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland) but not since I've been caching. I even to a picture of that totem pole in Stanley park. I've also been to Mexico a couple of times (Cancun, and a week just outside of Mexico City) but that was before I started geocaching as well. Ironically, up to about 10 years ago those are the only two countries I'd ever been to outside the U.S. In the past 10 years, however, I've been to 23 different countries.

Interesting, well that's how it goes sometimes!

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Going to be a big caching year for this - aiming to go to our first Mega in Kent and then we're going to be going several overseas trips. The first is coming up soon as we're off to Venice (although we cached while in Rome a couple of years ago, so it won't be a new country), then just before the world cup we're heading to Brazil (sadly, not for long enough to warrant a trip to the Ape cache). But that'll be a new most southern cache and our first in South America. Then in October we're heading to Goa - so that'll be a new most eastern cache and our first in Asia. We won't have volume (we're thinking of holding an event in Goa due to the extremly sparse number of caches), but it'll be great for the stats. :)

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Going to be a big caching year for this - aiming to go to our first Mega in Kent and then we're going to be going several overseas trips. The first is coming up soon as we're off to Venice (although we cached while in Rome a couple of years ago, so it won't be a new country), then just before the world cup we're heading to Brazil (sadly, not for long enough to warrant a trip to the Ape cache). But that'll be a new most southern cache and our first in South America. Then in October we're heading to Goa - so that'll be a new most eastern cache and our first in Asia. We won't have volume (we're thinking of holding an event in Goa due to the extremly sparse number of caches), but it'll be great for the stats. :)

 

I had to look up Goa to see where it was. Looks like there at least a few caches in Panjim. I've certainly been in places where there were fewer. I don't go for volume even when I'm caching locally and am usually happy just to find a handful of caches when I'm traveling.

 

One my my favorite stats in my profile is the southern/northern/eastern/western most finds. After a trip last year to Malaysia, they are now in four different countries on four different continents.

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We still haven't decided on a summer vacation. It will be something in SE Asia or eastern Africa, but where... Not so easy to find a place with ample things to look at for 2-3 weeks, which isn't a big resort with large hotels and disco. Not so easy.

Some random ideas:

Bangkok and Angkor Wat and then a quiet beachy place for resting and minor sight seeing (better check out the situation in Thailand first)

Fly to Kenia for some hiking and then Zanzibar for resting

...no idea, really.

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We still haven't decided on a summer vacation. It will be something in SE Asia or eastern Africa, but where... Not so easy to find a place with ample things to look at for 2-3 weeks, which isn't a big resort with large hotels and disco. Not so easy.

Some random ideas:

Bangkok and Angkor Wat and then a quiet beachy place for resting and minor sight seeing (better check out the situation in Thailand first)

Fly to Kenia for some hiking and then Zanzibar for resting

...no idea, really.

 

There are some nice beaches at the north end of Dar es Salaam (look up near Kanduchi). I really liked the town of Morogoro, Tanzania (about 3 hours from Dar es Salaam). It's at the base of the Uluguru mountains where there is some real good hiking and Mikumi National Park is about an hour away. We saw lots of different animals during a 4 hour or so visit there.

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<snip>

 

One of these day I'll have to travel to Mexico and find a cache. Even though I live in the U.S. I have not yet found a cache Mexico or Canada (and I only live about 3 hours from the Canadian border).

I find that so funny. We live 2.5 to 4 hours from the Canadian border (depending on which route we take), and we've visited many times over the years. I even own a virtual in Canada. Road trip! :D

 

My most recent trip to Canada was in December, for my wedding anniversary. I'll post some geocaching pics from the trip.

 

I've been to Canada several times (in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland) but not since I've been caching. I even to a picture of that totem pole in Stanley park. I've also been to Mexico a couple of times (Cancun, and a week just outside of Mexico City) but that was before I started geocaching as well. Ironically, up to about 10 years ago those are the only two countries I'd ever been to outside the U.S. In the past 10 years, however, I've been to 23 different countries.

 

Hmm... Before Geocaching I'd been to five provinces (BC, Man, Sas, Ont, & Que). Since Geocaching, I've been to BC, ON, QU, PEI, NB, NS & Newfoundland. Guess I have to work on Alberta!

Before Geocaching I'd been to 46 US States (not Ark, Okla, Alaska or SCar.) Since Geocaching I've cached in 29 states (including South Carolina.)

Before geocaching, I'd been to US, Canada, Sint Maarten (Netherland Antilles) and Saint Martin (it was part of France then!!) Since Geocaching, I've only been to US and Canada. (I did think of taking a plane to St Pierre et Miquelon, but Geocaching says that is no longer part of France. Oh, well.)

I am following my relatives on their most recent trip. So far, they've logged caches in Turkey, Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. They will have stops (and hope to find caches) in Austria and Belgium on their return.

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Is this an ok thread to discuss before and after caching travel? It's interesting what Harry Dolphin wrote.

 

Before geocaching: Canada (multiple times), Mexico (twice), Belize, Guatemala, Australia, St. John and St. Thomas, Jamaica, and 49 states.

 

After geocaching: Canada (multiple times - Alberta, Ontario, N.S. and B.C.), Mexico (several more times), Bahamas, Jamaica again, Australia again, UAE, Oman, India, and 36 states (plus a few more that I managed to miss caching in, bummer).

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Is this an ok thread to discuss before and after caching travel? It's interesting what Harry Dolphin wrote.

 

Before geocaching: Canada (multiple times), Mexico (twice), Belize, Guatemala, Australia, St. John and St. Thomas, Jamaica, and 49 states.

 

After geocaching: Canada (multiple times - Alberta, Ontario, N.S. and B.C.), Mexico (several more times), Bahamas, Jamaica again, Australia again, UAE, Oman, India, and 36 states (plus a few more that I managed to miss caching in, bummer).

 

I don't want to speak for Terratin (who started the thread) but I think it's a reasonable drift. I'd also include traveling to other countries/regions as a geocacher but not being able to collect that country. For me it would include Norway, Zambia, and Kenya. At one time it included Ethiopia, where I got within 1000' of a cache but wasn't able to go look for it. Fortunately, I was back in Ethiopia last year and was able to get a find. Even if one doesn't find a cache while in some country, that experience could be helpful to someone else that might be traveling to that country.

 

 

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For those considering transiting through Doha: http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/qatar-airways-launches-free-doha-city-tour-for-transit-passengers/

Though it doesn't say what the visa regulations are for this. And to be honest: to do this in three hours doesn't really sound too realistic, considering all the roadworks going on :unsure: I'm also not sure if you'll be able to pick up a cache along the way. Quite possible now. :shocked:

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A question for those that have traveled to Iceland. I understand they are very much credit card based. I read that you may have issues if you do not have a chip enabled card. Can anyone confirm this?

 

I've heard of people having issues with this in other countries but so far it hasn't been a problem for me.

 

I'd also be interested to hear about Iceland as Reyjkavik is at the top of the list for layover on a possible trip for me in June to the UK.

 

 

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A question for those that have traveled to Iceland. I understand they are very much credit card based. I read that you may have issues if you do not have a chip enabled card. Can anyone confirm this?

 

I've heard of people having issues with this in other countries but so far it hasn't been a problem for me.

 

I'd also be interested to hear about Iceland as Reyjkavik is at the top of the list for layover on a possible trip for me in June to the UK.

 

If you fly Icelandair, you can extend your layover up to a week at no additional cost!

 

I will definitely be posting when I return!

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A question for those that have traveled to Iceland. I understand they are very much credit card based. I read that you may have issues if you do not have a chip enabled card. Can anyone confirm this?

 

I've heard of people having issues with this in other countries but so far it hasn't been a problem for me.

 

I'd also be interested to hear about Iceland as Reyjkavik is at the top of the list for layover on a possible trip for me in June to the UK.

 

We had no problem without chip-enabled credit cards there last September. As always, we called the CC companies to let them know we were going overseas, to what countries and during what dates.

 

Picked up 45 caches in a week without too much difficulty, hiking biking and by car (no caches on our kayaking day though. Lots of earth caches out in the countryside and OH, what countryside!!

 

NYPC: It's a fair ways from the airport to Reykjavik. There were two caches on the airport grounds but you wouldn't want to "bag" a country that way, would you? If you can spend a full day with a rental car, the Reykjanes peninsula has a variety of interesting caches and interesting features that would give you a little taste of the country.

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NYPC: It's a fair ways from the airport to Reykjavik. There were two caches on the airport grounds but you wouldn't want to "bag" a country that way, would you? If you can spend a full day with a rental car, the Reykjanes peninsula has a variety of interesting caches and interesting features that would give you a little taste of the country.

 

If my only feasible option to bag a country, due to the amount of time of a layover constraints, was to find caches close to the airport, I probably would. That said, I haven't done that so far. During my last trip I had about a three hour layover in Norway but didn't get a find. There was one about a mile from the terminal but I just wasn't sure I could get there and back to my connecting flight in time. On my flight back, during my almost 5 hour layover in Copenhagen I could have just found caches close to the airport and taken a train over to Sweden, but I decided to take a train into the city instead.

 

For the flights I was looking at, there was a 14-16 hour layover in both directions so that would give me plenty of time to get into the city. It's good to know that Iceland air makes it easy to extend a layover. For me next trip to Africa one of the options has 1 hour refueling stop in Senegal between the U.S. and Johannesburg (I've done that twice before). I'd like to extend that to 25 hours by taking the flight the next day. Although I use travel broker sites like Kayak.com and Google flights (Hipmunk is good as well) to discover what flights are available I always go to the carriers web site before booking a flight. In some cases I can actually get a better fare but it also gives me the option of choosing a longer layover.

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I think the biggest shock in Iceland will be the $2.20/litre gasoline!

 

Our experience was that the price of food (ya gotta eat) was much more of a shock.

 

Yes, I was warned about that as well. I am glad we are for less than 24 hours! However, this may be the only time I make it to Iceland, so I won't mind splurging a little.

 

I read that I shoudl buy any alcohol I want at the airport in the Duty Free shop (I want to try Brenevin and brign some home).

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Had my first international outing since moving, and did not manage to pick up a cache. Was a one-day business trip to a cache-free industrial area, and the return to the airport was a bit too late to go to the nearest cache, some 600m away. Oh well.. we've cached there before, and there will be more changes in the future.

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I found out that I'll be going to Seattle for a meeting at the Gates foundation on June 12th. Rather than fly back on Friday I might stay part of the weekend and take a ferry over to Canada and finally add it to my countries list.

 

I may also be going to Rome next month. I've already got Italy but two of the possible itineraries include long layovers in either Vienna (where I could add Austria) or Casablanca, Morocco. Has anyone flown on Royal Air Moroc and/or done any geocaching in Casablanca. The least expensive flights are through Moscow on Aeroflot but a visa into a Russia is real expensive, sounds like quite a hassle, and I'm not sure I want to fly on Aerflot.

 

Edited to add: I took a look a the caching opportunities in Morocco. There's one sort of close to the airport that is disabled (with a warning from the reviewer to check on it or it will be archived). There's another near a beach that was disabled almost a year ago and a Meet-n-Greet event schedule two days before I would arrive. The next closest is in a nearby town about an hour from the airport.

Edited by NYPaddleCacher
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I found out that I'll be going to Seattle for a meeting at the Gates foundation on June 12th. Rather than fly back on Friday I might stay part of the weekend and take a ferry over to Canada and finally add it to my countries list.

 

Sounds great! Wish we could meet, but I never know when I'm going to be in Seattle.

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Checking in to mention I'm off to Curacao tomorrow! So will get that and Netherlands Antilles by the end of next week if all goes well. B) Doubt I'm going to Bonaire though as it's an extra flight (albeit super short one) and that would mean no diving the day prior which is the focus of the trip.

 

Also slightly annoying, turns out my plane makes a brief stop on St Martin on the way there- like an hour-long layover, no caches near the airport even if it was enough time to leave. Ah well, I visited years ago as a kid, and look forward to the crazy landing at that airport!

 

Looking ahead, planning for Norway for a few days in May so that'll be a good one to nab. My epic planned trip this summer is looking like Alaska and Yukon territory tho, so should get a new state and two Canadian provinces out of the deal but no new countries I think. I'm somehow ok with that. :)

 

Probably gonna hit up a few more this year, just not sure where yet. Czech Republic at the very least I think!

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Re: Iceland, non-chip cards are not a problem from my experience. Which is good, because some of the gas stations in the hinterlands have automated pumps.

 

Highly recommend renting a car if you're there. One could get around with the bus service on the ring road, and there are tour packages to areas along the southern coast, but if you're going outside of Reykjavik and want to have some freedom of movement, get a car.

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Re: Iceland, non-chip cards are not a problem from my experience. Which is good, because some of the gas stations in the hinterlands have automated pumps.

 

Highly recommend renting a car if you're there. One could get around with the bus service on the ring road, and there are tour packages to areas along the southern coast, but if you're going outside of Reykjavik and want to have some freedom of movement, get a car.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

I looked at the tours, butthey were not much cheaper (for 4 of us) than renting a car. I like the freedom of the car will bring us, and will let us go places the tour may not, and also let us cut things short if we (i.e. the kids) start getting bored.

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I have to pop in and mention that Hong Kong is a cacher's paradise. That trip I alluded to above is now reality. Sooo many great trails far above the skyscrapers, sooo many great and well-maintained caches. I'm getting farther behind in my logging every day because I can't make myself stop hiking/caching to get back at a reasonable hour.

 

This is good. I'll be back.

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Sounds great! 8.30 hours of flying just for a few caches in Hongkong is maybe a bit too much, though I'm working on convincing Mr. Terratin on a flight to Singapore, then a train ride to Kuala Lumpur and from there back home. He suggested a longer train ride through Malaysia earlier on, but I'm missing some historical sites in Malaysia for the main vacation. So maybe we'll do such a trip later this year. Vietnam (not many caches) and Java, Indonesia (also not many) are on top of the list for the main vacation now. Lets see...

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Checking in to mention I'm off to Curacao tomorrow! So will get that and Netherlands Antilles by the end of next week if all goes well. B) Doubt I'm going to Bonaire though as it's an extra flight (albeit super short one) and that would mean no diving the day prior which is the focus of the trip.

 

Also slightly annoying, turns out my plane makes a brief stop on St Martin on the way there- like an hour-long layover, no caches near the airport even if it was enough time to leave. Ah well, I visited years ago as a kid, and look forward to the crazy landing at that airport!

 

Looking ahead, planning for Norway for a few days in May so that'll be a good one to nab. My epic planned trip this summer is looking like Alaska and Yukon territory tho, so should get a new state and two Canadian provinces out of the deal but no new countries I think. I'm somehow ok with that. :)

 

Probably gonna hit up a few more this year, just not sure where yet. Czech Republic at the very least I think!

 

Sounds like you have a good trip planned. I've had the hour-long layover thing happen a couple of times as well. I've been through Nairobi, Kenya three times with an hour or less layover and Dakar, Senegal twice for the hour long refueling stop from Johannesburg to JFK.

 

I've been working on a possible trip to the UK (which would be a new "country" for me) for a conference in June and then found out a couple of days ago that some funding might be available for a meeting in Rome just prior to that so that chance I might make that trip went way up. Then I realized that I'm supposed to be Seattle the day after the conference in the UK. I'm not sure how that will work out now but most likely I won't get to go to the UK, but will go to Rome (which has several possible layover places in countries I have not yet visited) some other time this summer.

 

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It's 13 hours for me to Hong Kong, not including the short commuter hop from home to Vancouver where the big planes gather. I'd always dreaded long flights like that, but I'm starting to figure out strategies that don't require paying for premium seats. Such as, pick an airline (eg Cathay Pacific) that puts 9 seats across in a 777, vs an airline (eg Air Canada) that sardines you in 10 across. I paid a few bucks more to choose the more humane airline, and got the difference back in freebies like seat selection and drinks - which the "cheaper" airline charges for. So a comfy seat for roughly the same price, and it felt like business class. I think I'll do more long hauls...

 

As for caching hotspots, I'm hoping there are more places out there like Hong Kong. I love Mexico for various reasons, but caching (other than some places in the interior) isn't among those reasons. The coasts are bedevilled by vacation caches, though some places in the interior are getting well-developed with good, locally-placed hides. Europe, I know about Europe. It's expensive... Maybe when I'm old.

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Sounds great! 8.30 hours of flying just for a few caches in Hongkong is maybe a bit too much, though I'm working on convincing Mr. Terratin on a flight to Singapore, then a train ride to Kuala Lumpur and from there back home. He suggested a longer train ride through Malaysia earlier on, but I'm missing some historical sites in Malaysia for the main vacation. So maybe we'll do such a trip later this year. Vietnam (not many caches) and Java, Indonesia (also not many) are on top of the list for the main vacation now. Lets see...

 

I'd recommend Singapore. I found that flights through Singapore are quite reasonable. The urban caching in downtown Singapore was fun and you can also take a boat ride Ubin Island where you can rent mountain bikes and finds a handful of caches on the island. I didn't make it to KL, but instead went to the Borneo part of Malaysia to Kuching for a conference. I really liked it there.

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