DebetEsse, insent tomorrow. Home now.

That info can be gleaned, though, from guidebooks like Lonely Planet or Moon or whatever. Also, I'd be surprised if it got exposure to the whole group if every mid-level city doesn't have a Buffista who knows something about it.

I think it's important to have someone on the ground who can check out hotels, know where food, booze, and other stuff is, maybe drive people places, that sort of thing.

In Chicago the planner was Erin who had never been there. We had several present and former locals with knowledge, but the bulk of our transportation was public.

I think it's important to have someone on the ground who can check out hotels, know where food, booze, and other stuff is, maybe drive people places, that sort of thing.

The DC localistas were wonderful. I'm especially grateful for folks giving of their extra spare time to play with us, and I think it was a big bonus to have a sizable local contingent. That won't work for us everywhere, however, and shouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it is an advantage.

I think I phrased it poorly.

To me, the biggest advantage of localistas is the venue-scouting (which can be done by semi-locals, if they have the time and are willing).

I agree that the rest of it is nice, but non-essential, but I think having someone actually able to go to places and tell us what they look/feel like is important.

The Days Inn nearest me looks really good on pixel. It's near the lake. Not very far from downtown and clubs and all night restaurants. It has meeting facilities. It's recently renovated, yadda yadda... and it smells like a mildewed still and the rooms are laid out like a no-tell motel and just about as inviting.

IOW, yeah, what ya'll are saying.

I've noticed in some recent travels - that I can't tell anything by a picture of a hotel. Been burned a few times. Of course hotel speak is really bizzare too. Private should mean my room only -- not just blocked so only my floor shares ...

I probbably won't get over invovled in this debate over where. My only critera - after the obvious- is that public transportation, or a lot to do in the immediate vicinity be high priority. I HATE driving in cities I don't know know, but also hate to make others do the same. Serioulsy , my only real problem with the F2F in LA . If Matt hadn't gone I would have been very dependent on people that I don't know well.

Of course my ablity to go next year is already questionable. No vaction this year, and many family obligations that need to be fulfilled.

My hotel in London looked so cute on the website. In reality it was not that great.

I had a great time. DC is a fabulous city for museum-ing, and I made it my main focus for the week that I was there. There are a few things on my list that I couldn't get to but I came home feeling that I'd seen everything I wanted to see. I visited Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cassatt, Degas, Diebenkorn, Lichtenstein, de Witt, O'Keefe, etc. many times AIWFG. The little parks were a huge favorite - the butterfly park between Natural History and the East Wing of the National Museum of Art, the Bartholdi Fountain & National Wildlife Federation garden, the Japanese Memorial around the corner from the hotel, the Sculpture Garden with the fountain/rink in the middle and the elms! Wow! There were so many big trees, especially lots of big elms, all over the National Mall, and birds singing everywhere. It was marvelous.

See, the thing is part of this is just a difference in how one vacations. For some folks hitting a destination is trying to see so much stuff. I get the vibe that it's part of your thing Java, and that way cool. For me though, all those activities just end up blowing the vacation for me. I love the fact that we were in DC, but I did very very few touristy things. I hit Air and Space, and the Annex and half a dozen monuments. The reality is, that's the way I would have done it if I'd been there for a week by myself. I just don't like trying to see a lot of stuff. I like experiencing some parts of a new city, seeing a few things, and then eventually coming back to the city at another point and seeing a few more things. Rinse and repeat.

ION, yes, I'm finally home. I had the flight from fucking hell. We finally got airborne and I had asshat family surrounding me. Mom, dad, and two little girls. It was a 757 with 3 seats per side. I had the aisle seat on the left side. They had two seats in the right side, and the two seats next to me. It started with one parent and one child on each side. I was bummed that I had seats full around me, but no big deal. Then, while we're stuck on the tarmac to begin with, the brilliant parents pair the girls on one side, and the two parents sit next to me. They repeat this when they sit down again when we finally get back onto the plane. This means that they dealt with their kids by constants leaning forward to look around me, and occasionally having to yell and pass things to their girls across the aisle. (Oh, and I'd say neither kid was older than 6.) Also, turns out Dad is a white knuckle flyer, and we kept hitting turbulence, and he was in the seat next to me. Grrrr. So eventually Mom goes over and joins the girls to quiet them down and get them sleeping, but not until at least 3 hours into our flight. Thing is, twit dad, doesn't move to the window seat. NOOOOOOO, he stays in the center seat. My shoulders don't fit in the seats, so when someone is next to me I end up all twisted. I wanted to punch him. The capper on all of this? The inflight movie was Chasing Liberty with Mandy Moore, and then after that they showed 4 or 5 back to back episodes of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND!!!!!!!! I have never been so happy to get off a shiny metal tube.

I'm in denial that the vacation is over and tweaking writing about it.

It is totally my thing to see as much as possible in a primo destination location, ND. I've been wanting to go back to the museums in DC for years and seized the opportunity to go there and have some social life while there.

I'd enjoy it if we did go to some place more low key because I also enjoy just hanging around a pool or whatever. What's the point of paying top dollar for a primo destination city and then not seeing the destinations? $130 gets you a decent hotel in a primo city, but it can get you 5 star accomodations someplace off the beaten path. I'm just sayin', let's shoot for the value. If most people prefer to hang with other Buffistas anyway, then let's make the most luxurious accomodations for the still affordable dollar the primary evaluation criteria, not whether or not the venue is a major destination city. If some people get a rash at the idea of being outside a major metropolitan destination city, maybe they can live with the idea of a minor city that still has bookstores and restaurants and shops but is more low key. The trade off, slounging in a place that looks like this [link] instead of this: [link] though it was a perfectly fine pool. Because, same price. Only you can slip off to the spa or walk on the beach or have a marguerita brought to you at the first one. Or, here's another example: [link]

Cabo San Lucas? t drool (Better yet, fly into San Diego and drive down the length of Baja, camping out overnight... amazing AMAZING drive.)