How to your plan/organize your trips?

[cbb]

roothy,

 

since you plan/research as i do you aren't a "nutcase" but just very well organized and prepared!

 

another site i use with great frequency is frommers.com since we are avid photographers as you are.

 

on frommers are city guides; look on the left of the city website and there are :"walking tours",(usually #1, #2etc) corresponding "maps" as well "suggested itineraries" which have proved to be invaluable for us.

 

if you haven't researched how to get to sintra it is totally diy. Train station in lisbon is excellent and easy to find. We then took a bus that was at the train station into city central....gorgeous place.

 

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/lisbon

 

have fun researching!! c

[BarbaraM]

I have used tripit since getting my iPad. Love that it has the maps, weather, search function, and ability to send confirmations. I also have discovered Dropbox, and use it all the time, allows me to do a little trip planning at work...

 

I confess I have binders too. I try not to consider myself a nutcase , I actually find the planning stage "fun".

[roothy123]

roothy,

 

since you plan/research as i do you aren't a "nutcase" but just very well organized and prepared!

 

another site i use with great frequency is frommers.com since we are avid photographers as you are.

 

on frommers are city guides; look on the left of the city website and there are :"walking tours",(usually #1, #2etc) corresponding "maps" as well "suggested itineraries" which have proved to be invaluable for us.

 

if you haven't researched how to get to sintra it is totally diy. Train station in lisbon is excellent and easy to find. We then took a bus that was at the train station into city central....gorgeous place.

 

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/lisbon

 

have fun researching!! c

 

Thanks, no I'm not a nutcase, but I DO have OCPD disease, apparently! Thanks for the Frommers tip. While I look at their books when I can, I didn't realize they were so big on walks. Steves is good for those too, and lots of detail for DIY. Yes, I've researched Sintra, but whether I have enough time is still a question. However, in good OCCP fashion, I have made lots of notes for it, so I can get there easily if I decide I have the time to spend. Lisbon and Sintra sound so wonderful. By the way, Steves' book was the first to mention in detail the shuttle bus that takes you from the bus stop at Pena Palace to the palace itself. (Not the 434 bus from the train - found that info easily). I may not need such detail, but when you have limited time as you do on a cruise, it's good to know.

 

For tripit fans, can you: send lengthy info on cities to it, or just things like, "ship's excursion to Seville, 9AM)? Can you put the whole thing on a Kindle (without 4g or 3g; don't plan to use wifi) or do you have to be WiFi'd up to see it? I am NOT when I travel, so need something lightweight. 5 sheets of paper for a particular port (which took probably 15 hours to produce, ha ha!) is easy to tote around. I don't have an iPad or iPhone. After paying for cruises, there's little money left over for I-anythings!

 

Oh, and you can get really lightweight 1 inch or 1/2 inch binders at office supply places. In each port, I just take the stuff out for each port, fold it in half, and put it in my day bag. I also write the port agent info on top in case I need it, as I go off on my own a lot....never missed the ship and certainly don't want to!

Edited April 8, 2014 by roothy123

[cbb]

roothy,

 

" In each port, I just take the stuff out for each port, fold it in half, and put it in my day bag. I also write the port agent info on top in case I need it, as I go off on my own a lot....never missed the ship and certainly don't want to! "

 

this is totally what we do, throw the port guides away back on ship, and go home with virtually empty notebook. I buy the ones with "pockets" on inside covers so that i can stick stuff i pick up that might come in handy when i get home.

 

Do you geo-tag your pix on google? We've done it now for years--ever since we gently "discussed" where a castle/fort was in Sweden that we had photographed!!

 

We recently took a land tour of Portugal and Spain and while I knew i'd love Spain we loved Portugal even more. If you wander down some side streets in Lisbon (well, all towns in Portugal) you'll find the facades of multi-story houses fully covered in 200-300 year old tiles....patina incredible!

 

The light there is pretty amazing....enjoy, and remember to come home!

[roothy123]

roothy,

 

Do you geo-tag your pix on google? We've done it now for years--ever since we gently "discussed" where a castle/fort was in Sweden that we had photographed!!

 

 

I have thought about geo-tagging my pix, but have never done it. Not sure my camera supports it, although my point and shoot does. Once in a while on the water, if I see a lighthouse I don't recognize, I'll take a picture of it with the point and shoot and enable the GPS so that I can go home and identify it by having a rough idea of where I was. I'm about as OCD in knowing what I photographed as I am in planning - hate it when people post wonderful pics with no clue as to where they are, even in general terms. I want to be able to include where the picture was taken, as I post many of my pix on a photo site (http://www.pbase.com/roothy123) which includes narrative about the trip.

 

Yep, I may carry a notebook, but it goes back about a third of the size when I go home. I do, however, keep some of the tourist maps I pick up, as they often have more detail than the ones I find online or in books or on viamichelin. I AM, however, going to check out the Ulmon maps someone mentioned, if they will work off-line on a relatively old Android smartphone.

 

I am REALLY into planning this next cruise - wonderful ports in Spain, plus Canary Islands (well, they're part of Spain, but an unusual part!), plus Lisbon, Funchal and Gibraltar. (Did you rent a car in Spain? Did you need an int'l driver's license there? I've heard differing things.) Feel free to check out my photo site (URL above) and email me using the link there if you have wonderful tips!

Edited April 8, 2014 by roothy123

[cbb]

nope, no rental car--we took the bus trip! Mr Wonderful is even more OCD than I am and gets really stressed about making mistakes while driving so it's easier for him and much more enjoyable to let someone else do the driving!

 

(This from a guy who got off airplanes around the world, got into the rental and drove to the hotel/business site, did highly complex tech/geek stuff and reversed the trip....go figure!)

 

We've got great pix of the monkeys on Gibraltor surfing the top of vans and cars! They're cute but also very aggressive. If one lands on you don't try and shoo it off, it might bite--or so we were told by a local...advice worked for me!

 

You'll love the whole Iberian Peninsula...it is gorgeous. We use Nikon D90s right now. I'll find out what program he uses for geo tagging. Point & shoots are wonderful now...perfect for many situations.

[corpkid]

I have thought about geo-tagging my pix, but have never done it. Not sure my camera supports it, although my point and shoot does.

 

What type of camera do you have (the non point and shoot)? I have a Nikon d40x that I just love and takes crazy good pictures with my upgraded high zoom lens (70-200mm). Of course, it doesn't geo-tag being a little older (but my $200 cannon pocket does - go figure!?). Anyways, a trick I use is to either take a picture with my cell phone and then take another with the DSLR of the same item at the start of an area, and then the end of an area (for example a site/city/however granular you want to get with geo tagging). Then when I dump all my photos for post-trip processing I can set geo tags manually comparing them to my phone's geo tag (I'm pretty casual - I just go for a whole "city" or "port." e.g. Moscow vs. The Kremlin). Make sense? It's a bit more work, but I just love my d40x so much and can operate it very quickly and fully understand it and what each setting does for my setup. One thing I hate is "missing a perfect shot" as I'm fumbling with controls.

 

That said, I've been REALLY toying with the idea of getting the Nokia Lumia 1020 cell phone. It takes very very good pictures and videos, however it doesn't really get that depth of zoom I love so much and it is a windows phone - so lots of apps I use are out the window. Of course I could upgrade the DSLR, and might just do that next year.

[roothy123]

What type of camera do you have (the non point and shoot)? I have a Nikon d40x that I just love and takes crazy good pictures with my upgraded high zoom lens (70-200mm). Of course, it doesn't geo-tag being a little older (but my $200 cannon pocket does - go figure!?). Anyways, a trick I use is to either take a picture with my cell phone and then take another with the DSLR of the same item at the start of an area, and then the end of an area (for example a site/city/however granular you want to get with geo tagging). Then when I dump all my photos for post-trip processing I can set geo tags manually comparing them to my phone's geo tag (I'm pretty casual - I just go for a whole "city" or "port." e.g. Moscow vs. The Kremlin). Make sense? It's a bit more work, but I just love my d40x so much and can operate it very quickly and fully understand it and what each setting does for my setup. One thing I hate is "missing a perfect shot" as I'm fumbling with controls.

 

That said, I've been REALLY toying with the idea of getting the Nokia Lumia 1020 cell phone. It takes very very good pictures and videos, however it doesn't really get that depth of zoom I love so much and it is a windows phone - so lots of apps I use are out the window. Of course I could upgrade the DSLR, and might just do that next year.

 

I don't know. That sounds a little too much for me. I only want to know where something was, but not GPS coordinates, just maybe a street name in case I ever get back there again and want to take a better picture. I always take note of the street or object I'm photographing, even if I have to mark it on a map I keep with a notation such as "water spout pic taken around here" - and I guess that's enough for me. I also do NOT like to frequently upgrade equipment, so can't see changing my photo or phone equipment any time soon. I guess I'm a bit of a dinosaur, and a cheap one! I don't even do videos, and use Photoshop very sparingly. I most definitely don't want to photograph things using a cell phone. Using my lame smartphone and my modest Kindle to photograph stuff is incredibly frustrating to me, but since I don't want to buy new stuff every couple years, I doubt I'll be changing any time soon. I just pull out my trusty DSLR (and my 5-10 pages of notes on a port, sigh!) and I'm good to go!

[corpkid]

I don't know. That sounds a little too much for me. I only want to know where something was, but not GPS coordinates, just maybe a street name in case I ever get back there again and want to take a better picture. I always take note of the street or object I'm photographing, even if I have to mark it on a map I keep with a notation such as "water spout pic taken around here" - and I guess that's enough for me. I also do NOT like to frequently upgrade equipment, so can't see changing my photo or phone equipment any time soon. I guess I'm a bit of a dinosaur, and a cheap one! I don't even do videos, and use Photoshop very sparingly. I most definitely don't want to photograph things using a cell phone. Using my lame smartphone and my modest Kindle to photograph stuff is incredibly frustrating to me, but since I don't want to buy new stuff every couple years, I doubt I'll be changing any time soon. I just pull out my trusty DSLR (and my 5-10 pages of notes on a port, sigh!) and I'm good to go!

 

Everyone has their system! Some say I'm a dinosaur for staying with my d40x... LOL No shame in what works for you. I enjoy sitting down for a few hours each night after a trip building a digital photo album and use photoshop to make the pictures that much better (pop/reduce shading/etc). But again, what works for you is what is the right answer! I have some friends who spend MONTHS editing photos from their $4000 camera rigs - that's not for me!). Either way, the best part is you were able to see it, in first person that THAT is priceless! :)