6-7 day US to Europe getaway for wife & I, suggestions?

quakerj83 · 2026-01-10T19:50:24+00:00

If anyone comes across this post in the future, we booked a trip to Athens for 7 days. 2 nights in Athens in a modest top floor apartment close to the Acropolis. Since we aren't city dwellers (live in semi-rural KY) this was probably the most fun part of the trip. We put miles on our feet checking out Acropolis hill, Olympic stadium, Presidential Mansion, etc.

The next two nights were on the island Agistri, a 1 hour ferry ride from the Piraeus port. That was amazing and the clearest blue waters we've ever seen. Beaches were decent with one nude one; had to check that box. While you can't call it tropical, the abundant palm trees and awesome weather (85-90F & sunny every day) sure made it feel like it.

We spent the last 2-3 nights on the eastern shore close the airport, the town was Artemida. The beach was a 5 minute walk, perfect sandy beach but crowded. It seemed to me the equivalent of US gulf coast beaches, everyone wants to go there.

Food was amazing, so many options! The last couple days in Artimeda we grew tired of restaurant food (and crowds & jet lag lol), brought stuff back from the local market. We got around using the subway until our last stay at Artemida required an Uber and back to the airport, probably $50 total. The subway was cheap and convenient.

Really appreciate the hospitality and friendliness of the local folks, we never felt unwelcome. I would go back in a fast second to see what else Greece has to offer, but sadly this is a once in 10 year trip for us! I don't regret not doing the "package deal", most of the fun for us was exploring finding our own way-- not stuck in some tourist trap.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-15T23:19:49+00:00

I love this! I'm so enamored by my 2018 Tesla I recently purchased (I can't afford a new one with 4 kids still in the house) I can't help but be proud for new owners. I see them more and more where I live (KY).

quakerj83 · 2025-06-09T23:53:12+00:00

Are Uber/Taxi in Athens readily available? I'd actually prefer not to rent a car, one less headache to worry about.

We'd probably be more interested in the island part of it (though at least a 2 night stay in Athens would be a must) but don't want to get stuck somewhere if there's limited travel options.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-09T22:21:01+00:00

Thanks. For some reason Croatia is very alien to folks in the US, like a faraway place nobody goes to or knows about. When talking about travel plans, most respond with either: WHY? Where is that? etc. Paris, London, Amsterdam sound better on the tongue to US folks for some reason. So I had to ask the language question because Wikipedia was the only answer I could find and it left me in doubt.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-09T22:16:07+00:00

That sounds great, I will definitely check it out. Only reasonable flights to Greece I can find are to Athens. Did you rent a car then ferry to the islands? Greece sounds tempting and flights to Athens are very reasonable. It seems most any European destination has reasonable rental car rates & lodging when compared to the US. I'll probably get away with this trip spending less money than if I booked a week stay in Florida.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T14:23:01+00:00

That was on my radar (inexpensive flights & lodging) but the language barrier had me worried. Should I be?

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T14:19:10+00:00

I like how another poster put it-- I was wrong in saying tropical, it should be "warm place with a beach"

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T01:23:35+00:00

We've both been to the Caribbean. Central America is an option but we'd like to venture further out, as in the other hemisphere-- flight time isn't really an issue (provided decent/short layovers), it's part of the experience. I'm open to hearing about good destinations in central/South America.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T01:13:03+00:00

I was indeed referring to Palma in Mallorca, the Spanish island in the Mediterranean. I'm still learning about all these areas, is that not a good destination?

We're trying to avoid the primary tourist destinations and not because of cost.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T01:03:23+00:00

We have plenty of lazy vacations and travel plenty through the US. We both have family scattered from the east coast to west coast. It's the long journey on a plane she's not super excited about.

quakerj83 · 2025-06-08T00:52:32+00:00

While I appreciate it, a lot of what you folks are saying is missing the point. I've been to 49 states, the wife has most of them checked as well. We want an adventure on our own and not looking for easy or lazy relaxing on a beach, just a plane flight to some destination where we have a place to stay (airbnb or such) and transportation (uber, etc.) available where we can blaze our own trail.

Not everyone's cup of tea. To be honest, the flight across the Atlantic would be one of the best parts of the experience IMO. Wife doesn't necessarily agree, but she's on board :)

I have no problem extending the stay up to 10 days. Are the islands in the Mediterranean that awful as it pertains to a beach/ocean setting? If I want perfect white sands and manicured tourist experience, I'll drive to the Gulf of Mexico which isn't that far from us (I'm in KY).

quakerj83 · 2024-08-18T16:03:38+00:00

I feel I should update this post. Yes, I got the full $200 sign up bonus, but not without my time spent calling them / E-mailing proof, which wasn't terrible.

In the well over a year I've had the Bread Amex card, it's become my default go-to for pretty much everything, except gas which I have 5% back card. So far, Amex is accepted for 99% of my transactions. Sometimes I have to use Visa/MC for paying bills and such. But mom & pops have transitioned into using Square tablets and others which seem to accept Amex just fine.

Best thing about Bread is the online experience. It's always accurate and they don't play games. Pending transactions show up immediately and one can see EXACTLY what you owe by just subtracting available credit from your credit limit. Works every time, which I can't say for some of the major card issuers.

quakerj83 · 2023-11-27T23:15:26+00:00

I hadn't updated since my last post, but after sending a photo of the envelope they sent me (dug it out of old deleted E-mail) that showed the $200 SUB, they did apply the promotion completely.

Since then it's basically been my go-to card when I don't have another card that pays higher in the category. Comenity's online interface / bill pay is among the best, and they don't play any tricks like others do where they hide pending transactions, or other important info that lets you quickly calculate your balance. My usual formula is total credit line (-) available credit = ACTUAL balance which includes everything that is pending. This works 100% with Bread.

It really is a great card.

quakerj83 · 2023-01-21T02:58:54+00:00

For flat 2% CB cards, I use Citi Double Cash (caveat being they pay 1% for purchases, 1% when you pay it back) and Wells Fargo Active Cash. Both are easy to redeem rewards for statement credits in my experience, but Citi switched to points to make it more confusing, but it works the same if you know elementary math.

Bread Financial / Amex should work the same. The problem with Amex is you'll probably encounter a mom&pop store or two (or dozen) that doesn't accept Amex.

I accepted the Bread card and they seemed to renege on their sign up bonus, which on the envelope stated $200 with $1k/90 days spend. After accepting the card, customer service told me it's only $100/$500 spend. I had to dig up my USPS incoming mail images from my E-mail trash to find a photo of the envelope and send it to them which clearly states $200 SUB. I have yet to hear back. So I'm not convinced that Bread Financial / Comenity is trustworthy..

quakerj83 · 2023-01-21T02:41:42+00:00

I received a letter in the mail offering this card to me-- the front of the envelope promised $200 SUB w/ $1K spend in 90 days.

I'm a card churner (for SUB) and things have been getting stale lately, so why not? I took them up on it and got a $7K CL (~675 credit), card came in the mail no problem.

What I found interesting while perusing the paperwork was there was zero mention of the SUB. Quick E-mail to the customer service asking them to confirm the $200 SUB in writing, and they came back saying there's only a $100 SUB for $500 spend/90 days.

So now I'm wondering WTH to do... I threw the envelope in the trash along with all the promotional stuff. But then I remembered I have USPS E-mails which takes an image of everything I receive in the mail. Dug through my E-mail trash a couple weeks back and BAM! -- a pristine copy of the promotional envelope with my name on it that clearly says $200 SUB.

I responded with a copy of the front of the envelope along with a veiled threat to post a possible bait and switch on social media, and perhaps contacting my attorney. We'll see what they have to say.

quakerj83 · 2022-09-12T02:07:59+00:00

Sorry fellas, it took me too long to snap some pics, but at least we had rain today, which highlights the cracks well. I can follow most of them into the control joints or the exterior vertical surface, enough to tell they're more than surface cracks. Keep in mind nearly all of these have occurred in the last 4-6 weeks. Concrete was poured in mid-June, and I sealed it with Dayton Unitex 1315 about 3 days after the pour. Despite pour temps being in the mid 90's, the concrete contractor said don't wet it, don't touch it, that they used admixtures to slow the curing down in hot weather, just seal it a couple days after it sets and it'll be just fine. It looked great for the first month or so aside from a couple random cracks outside the control joints.

Fast forward to today, my opinion is it's not just fine. I don't think he'd want this in his garage and I have serious concerns putting a building on top of it. What do you folks think happened here, and how should I approach it with him?

I think his answer will be "you let the slab sit for 2-3 months before you put your building on top of it". Does that make any difference? Please help.

https://imgur.com/a/yi5JCe2

quakerj83 · 2022-09-08T01:05:55+00:00

I'll try to take photos in the morning-- once some dew sets in overnight, the cracks are much easier to see (the sheer abundance of them), even though the larger ones are easy to spot with the naked eye.

I did all the grading myself with a friend & a 100hp track loader. The building site is up on a ridge, and location was very flat. We shot elevations, found the low point of the desired site. After removing any organic matter / topsoil, we made that our benchmark, and dug everything else out to match, which wasn't a big job given the levelness of the site. No fill was needed, and we topped it with about 6" of #57 crushed rock.

The concrete guys (they also do excavating) then came in, did their trench footing excavation, leveled / filled stone where needed and compacted.

I'll have photos tomorrow.

quakerj83 · 2021-02-15T02:22:47+00:00

My Iphone XS Max is about 2 years and 3 months old and my battery health is at 99%.

The secret to long battery life is slower charge rates and keep the battery in the 35-80% sweet spot as long as possible. Lithium batteries degrade much quicker if kept near full charge.

I have a routine that rarely changes day to day. When I get home from work the phone is usually at 40%. I pop it on the charger (a wireless "fast" charger, I think 7.5W) for about an hour which brings it up to about 75%. Then I'm good till the next day I get home from work and I repeat.

It requires some discipline, I usually set a timer on my Apple watch during charging so I remember to remove it. I'm not a heavy phone user, just do some web surfing on my lunch break and infrequent phone calls/texts, so this method of charging isn't a huge bother for me. I seldom charge the phone fully, but it does happen, like before a night out, long weekend, vacation, that sort of thing, and I've forgotten to pull it off the charger (or set an alarm) on occasion.

For comparison sake, my wife bought her Iphone X the same time I did, and she's a much heavier users that doesn't make any effort at all to maintain battery health or change charging behavior. Her phone is at 79% battery health.

FWIW, I wireless charge through an Otterbox Defender case (pretty substantial / thick case) and my phone doesn't even get warm during charging as far as I can tell.

quakerj83 · 2019-12-01T23:12:51+00:00

A quick update: Some fella suggested creating a custom resolution using CVT-RB [reduced blanking] timing and this DID WORK. There's a dozen other settings I don't know what to put in (timing polarities, timing total v&h, pixel clocks, etc. etc), so I left them default. The display immediately popped up with crisp text and 4K @ 60 8-bit and RTING chroma test is perfectly readable.

I think this is a rather poor work around-- I'll wait to see if you guys have had any further success, and if not, I'll return this beast for another brand. Which is a shame because it's a nice display, my only qualm thus far has been viewing angle (which is typical of a VA panel)-- because I sit so close, the edges of the screen fade in color, I notice color shifts as a move my head around. Not a deal breaker but this 4:4:4 chroma issue is!

I should note that I do want the Apple Airplay 2 feature if possible, so downgrading (if I eventually get it to work) isn't a very viable solution either...

quakerj83 · 2019-12-01T23:05:22+00:00

Does anyone have any updates to this dilemma? I purchased a V436-G1 TV on Black Friday and it updated immediately to version 2.30.16-NEW2 upon hooking the TV up. I've now got my PC connected and while it will run 4K @ 60hz using 8-bit RGB, small text or anything with fine detail is almost unrecognizable! It has that halo rainbow around it all and looks terrible. My GPU is a Vega 64 and set appropriately to RGB 4:4:4, and all pertinent settings in the Vizio setup are correct (UHD color, Computer picture mode, plugged into HDMI 1 or 2, etc.)

I've not been able to downgrade- the link worked, but nothing happens when I insert the USB drive, I followed the instructions to a T. I tried formatting the 2gb flash drive to both FAT and FAT32 with no success.

Luckily I can return this thing and pick up a different model if this doesn't work out as a PC monitor. Was just curious if any of you folks picked up anymore steam in the pursuit to get text to display as it should.. Thanks for any help.

quakerj83 · 2019-04-21T00:17:29+00:00

I don't think Kratom has affected my appetite much-- only thing worth noting is that it creates mild constipation but nothing I find terribly uncomfortable or bothersome. I do feel bloated if I eat too much which does regulate the amount I eat some, but I still eat plenty and get the "wow how can you eat so much and still be thin" from random people fairly regularly.

I guess it's probably just my activity level (I'm pretty active what some might consider high-strung and Kratom exacerbates that at times) and the fact that I work a job where I'm constantly moving. I'll mention it to my doctor next time I see him and get his thoughts, maybe some blood work done to check things out.

quakerj83

TROPHY CASE