Yearly Archives: 2015

Full Moon Walk – Logistics and Pictures

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After we had booked our flight to Argentina, I was researching things to do and found out about this Full Moon Walk that is offered 5 nights a month (two days before, day of, and two days after the full moon).  I was nervous to check the timing for October, but was pleasantly surprised to find that our trip fell within the window for the night visit!  I used this site to get information on the dates, cost, and times for the tour.

Iguazú - Full Moon Walk

The moonlit road to Garganta del Diablo

I sent an email to make a reservation and was sent three attachments – two info sheets (one in Spanish and one in English) and a booking form, which was only in Spanish.  Here’s the general info for the walk – it’s $500 pesos for the walk, plus $200 if you want to add dinner at La Selva, the restaurant in the park.  Transportation is not included in that cost.  There are three walks per night – one at 7:45pm, one at 8:30pm, and one at 9:15pm.  If you decide to add the dinner and you choose the earliest time, dinner has to be after the walk.  If you choose the middle time, you can eat either before or after, and if you choose the latest time, you have to eat dinner before the walk.

We chose to go with the middle time, and to eat dinner (after the walk – although we didn’t have to specify on the form).  Once I sent off the completed form, they charged my credit card, and I didn’t deal with the company at all until the day of the walk.  For transportation, I contacted our hotel, since we were staying in the park.  I didn’t know at the time, but the Sheraton isn’t actually at the main entrance.  In fact, we never went to the main entrance during our park visits.  So we arranged to have a taxi bring us to the front (it took just a few minutes) and also pick us up after the walk + dinner.  It seemed that most people, even those staying in Puerto Iguazú, arranged for a taxi ride with the taxi point services.

We got to the main entrance a bit before 8:30pm (the tour start time).  We didn’t have a voucher (I think if you book the trip while you’re there, in the park, you can pick up an actual voucher).  But our names were on the list, and we were brought in front of a shop to get our vouchers for the tour and for dinner.  There were a few stores still open, so we browsed while we waited for the tour to start.  Nothing happened until 9pm, when they gathered everyone around and explained a bit about the park (there was a Spanish and English group).  The group was about 100 people large, and we finally piled into the train around 9:20pm.  The walk to the falls was very peaceful.  We had just done the walk that afternoon, but for some people on the tour it would be their first time seeing the falls.

The Garganta de Diablo was magical at night.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  The waterfalls were flowing at a tremendous rate, so sometimes the mist would almost completely cover the falling water. We were so lucky that we had such a clear night.  In fact, they will cancel the walk if it’s too cloudy, since there are no lights to guide you other than the moon. We had about 25-30 minutes at the actual platform (it takes maybe 15 minutes to walk out there), and there were no issues getting great views from all angles, even with 100 people.

Garganta del Diablo at nightGarganta del Diablo at night #2

Kristin on the Full Moon Walk

I’m so glad I found out about that walk, and that it worked with the timing of our trip.  I chose the first available night (the second night of our trip) in case bad weather caused the walk to be canceled.  That way we could potentially rebook for the following night.  As I already mentioned, we were ver lucky and had a clear night for our visit.

Dinner at La Selva was pretty good.  Nothing great, but it was a buffet and had a meat station (I didn’t try anything, but Ryan did and enjoyed it).  Since we were staying at the Sheraton, I’m glad we ate at La Selva instead of driving into town, but if you’re staying in Puerto Iguazu, I’d opt to do the walk at 7:45 or 8:30 and then head back to town for dinner afterwards, since there are many dining options that are superior to La Selva.

I’m so glad this all worked out – I was a bit skeptical since booking the visit seemed a bit too easy, and didn’t require any follow-up.  It was a fun way to spend our second night in the park, and a great way to appreciate the falls without as much of a crowd.  While I wouldn’t go out of my way to rearrange my trip to plan around the full moon walk, it’s a bonus if you happen to be visiting at the right time!

 

Sheraton Iguazú – Parque Nacional Iguazú, Argentina

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We’re back from our two-week trip to Argentina!  We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to share what we loved best.  We started our adventure in Iguazú National Park and stayed inside the park at the Sheraton (only hotel in the park in Argentina).  This was the only hotel on the trip that there was no debate about – it was a Starwood property that could be booked with points (so it was “free”) and it was inside the park.  There was nothing else for us to consider, and we booked it as soon as we booked our flights!

Sheraton Iguazú

 A view of the hotel (yes, the exterior is a bit outdated) from the entrance to the park.  It was THAT close!  Better than we could have imagined.

Price. As I mentioned above, we were luckily enough to book our hotel using Starpoints.  For this time of year (late October), it was 16k points per night, for a total of 48,000 points. (When we were originally thinking of visiting in early September, the rate was 12k/night.)  I’m not sure how much it would have been if we had paid for it, but rooms seems to start around $300 (give or take, depending on the time of year).

Location.  In the national park!  Just a quick walk from our room (5 or so minutes) to the lower circuit trail of the park.  We could see (and hear!) the waterfalls from the hotel, and it was amazing.  You could also be the first and/or last people in the park that can be found through straight from the source.  We wandered into the park on our first afternoon, and we were surprised with how empty it was (it was about an hour before closing) and how close we were to the falls!

For us it was worth it to stay in the park, but it is about 30 minutes away from the town.  We took a taxi a couple of nights to eat dinner in town, which wasn’t a big deal for us.  One more logistical note – we had to pay the $260 (pesos) each to enter the park as we were driving in.  We had read that by getting your ticket stamped, you can then pay half price for the park entrance the following day (but on the third day, you would pay full price again).  Well, one perk to staying at the Sheraton was that we paid the entrance fee once, and never had to pay again (even though we left the park several times during our stay).

Iguazú Falls - Lower Circuit

This was a surprise for us – we went on a quick walk from the hotel on our first afternoon there, and ended up walking the lower circuit!

Room.  Since we booked with points, we had the standard room, with a view of the jungle.  A few days before the trip, I received an email saying we could upgrade to a falls view room for $50/night.  I jumped at the opportunity.  As luck would have it, we ended up getting a free upgrade when we got there!  Our room was second from the end, so our view of the falls wasn’t that great.  But it was still neat to see the mist from the falls and hear the falls!

Sheraton Iguazu - Room

Dining.  Honestly, it was a bit subpar.  They do have a restaurant that serves lunch and dinner, but we decided to skip it for everything except snacks. Many of such restaurants, get help from Clarity Voice website for different kinds of services.   The food was just okay, and the service was really lacking.  Breakfast was better – it was a buffet with eggs, meats, potatoes, cheeses, fruit, cereal, and an omelette bar.  They even had champagne! Breakfast was open from 6:30-10:30, so guests can get a very early start (the park doesn’t open until 8am, though).

Amenities.  The hotel has a pool (which we used everyday), a gym (which we never used), and a spa (which we tried to use, but it was booked).  It really is set up so you don’t have to leave the hotel to go into town for anything.  They even had a little gift shop that seemed to sell most things you’d need for your trip.  As mentioned above, there is also a bar in the lobby, and a restaurant that serves lunch and dinner.  The hotel also serves drinks and food at the pool, but the bar was being repainted while we were there, so it was closed.  They did have people taking orders, but the service wasn’t consistent and we were never able to get anything ordered.

Sheraton Iguazú - Pool

Transportation.  Usually this would go in a city overview, but since we didn’t actually spend much time in the city (Puerto Iguazú) and I won’t be writing a city overview, I’ve added it here.  For the Argentine side of the park, there is no transportation needed.  You walk to the start of the lower circuit and upper circuit trails, and to get to the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat), you take the free train that runs in the park.  For everything else, we used taxis arranged by the hotel – to go to the Brazilian side, to go to dinner in town (25-30 minute drive), to go to the front entrance of the park for the Full Moon Walk, and to get to the airport.  This was so smooth – the hotel has their own taxi service, so we were able to get a taxi at a moment’s notice.  Even to cross the border and go into Brazil!  And in all cases (other than getting dropped off at the airport), it was arranged so we had a roundtrip ride.  All rides were paid in Argentine pesos.

While the hotel wasn’t perfect, it was great for our stay!  I would definitely plan to stay here on a return trip.  I would also consider staying on the Brazilian side at the hotel inside the park – the Belmond Hotel Das Cataratas.  Apparently the rules are a bit relaxed on the Brazilian side, so you can actually enter the park before it opens or after it closes (not the case with the Argentine side).  If you are looking for nightlife, it may be best to stay in town – either Puerto Iguazú in Argentina or Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil.  Through the grapevine we’ve heard that Foz is better for restaurants and nightlife, but we didn’t even drive through the town, so I can’t really comment on that.  No matter where you stay, Iguazú Falls should be considered for any trip to Argentina (or Brazil)!

Next stop, Argentina!

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We’re headed to Argentina today (right now)!  Despite being very busy these last few weeks and feeling like we haven’t had time to do much research, we managed to line up a few fun activities for our trip.  I can’t decide which stop I’m most excited for – they’re all so different! Here’s a look at all we’ve booked so far:

Iguazu Falls 

About two months ago I read something online about a full moon walk at Iguazu Falls. It happens once a month, around the full moon (of course!), which is when we’ll be there! For 5 nights, a company takes 3 tours out to see the falls under the moonlight. We had such a great time when we did our night visit to the Alhambra, so I knew we had to take advantage of this.  We booked and got our preferred date and time, and I can’t wait! I’m just crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates.

El Calafate

I already talked about our El Calafate activities in my post here, but will mention them again (now that we’ve officially booked). We’ll be taking the mini trekking tour with Hielo y Adventura on our first full day, which includes a trek across a glacier!  Our second day will be a bit more relaxing but the views will be stunning – we’ll be on an all-day boat cruise that will allow us to get up close to the glaciers.  We ended up booking with Marpatag because the experience looks more luxurious, but there are other (cheaper) options.

El Chaltén

Nothing booked! We have two long hikes and a few short ones planned, but the days are flexible and there’s nothing to book in advance!

Buenos Aires

Not wanting to be bored (but how could we be?) with 5 days in the city, we booked a few fun and different activities.  We’re starting out with dinner at the Argentine Experience – I guess it’s not a cooking class, and honestly I don’t really understand what it is. But it comes very highly rated and one of my best friends was just there and raves about it. This was a must do! The next night we are seeing a tango show! It doesn’t include dinner (which was our preference) and is in an intimate setting.  If we like it enough, maybe we’ll visit a tango club 😉

We decided to take one day trip (as opposed to two, which just seemed like too much time away from the city) and it was between a visit to an estancia, the Tigre delta, and a day in Colonia del Sacramento (in Uruguay).  Ryan found an estancia that offers a day trip (including transportation back and forth) that sounds like a lot of fun. It starts with a tour of the town (San Antinio de Areco) and then a visit to the estancia, with either horseback riding, a carriage ride, or a swim, a barbecue picnic, and a demonstration put on by gauchos! We booked this for the middle of our time I’m Buenos Aires.

We plan to tour the Teatro Colón, but thought it would be even more special to see an opera while in town.  When we went to buy tickets, we noticed that there was also a concert, so we booked that instead! The performance is in two weeks and we just booked it this morning.  Based on what I read online, we either wanted seats in the orchestra or the balcony.  I’m not sure if this is the case with all performances, but there were almost no seats left.  Luckily between the two of us we were able to navigate through the Spanish-only website and purchase two tickets.

The last thing we have booked is a graffiti tour.  One of our friends went to Buenos Aires a few years ago and this was his favorite experience of the trip.  We booked through Graffitimundo, which has south city and north city tours. However, the tours are only offered certain days, so although we really wanted to fit it in at the beginning of our trip, we’re having to wait until the very end.

And there you have it! A quick look at most of our plans for our trip.  We have high hopes for everything we’ve booked and for the activities in between.  We can’t wait for the adventure to begin!

Granbell Shinjuku Hotel – Tokyo, Japan

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Overall I was very happy with our hotel (and ryokan!) choices in Japan.  You’ll notice a theme in this post and the posts about Kyoto – we didn’t have as much time to plan, so the research wasn’t as thorough as I normally like it to be.  It turned out great, but in general I do like to make sure our hotel location, amenities, and price work well with our plans.

View of Tokyo from our room

Price.  Since our trip was planned about one month in advance, and hotels not booked until less than 3 weeks out, the selection was somewhat limited.  Tokyo is an expensive city, but we were able to find a reasonable hotel in our preferred neighborhood.  The total cost was 97,600 yen, which was charged per person per night: 19,000 yen/person for Saturday night, and then 14,900 yen/person each for Sunday and Monday nights.  It ended up being just under $825, so not quite $300/night.  So, it wasn’t a cheap room, but very reasonable for Tokyo, and for the comfort (and size!) of the room.  I should mention that we booked a room on the executive floor, so we had a few extra perks, including free breakfast.

Location.  After reading up on neighborhoods online, we narrowed it down to three: Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Ginza.  We ended up on the east side (of the train station) of Shinjuku, and I couldn’t have been happier with our choice.  Our hotel was minutes away from the Golden Gai area and it was very lively.

Room.  We did a little upgrading and chose a room on the executive floors (13-17) so that we would have a better view and have access to the executive lounge (open 9am-10pm, with wine available from 5pm-7pm).  We booked the “Deluxe Designer Executive Room” based on the layout and pictures we saw online.  The room itself was beautiful and much larger than I expected.  The bed was very comfortable, there was a large TV, and even pajamas and robes.

Dining.  The hotel had a breakfast buffet with both western and Japanese items.  Our rate included breakfast, but you could also add it on for about $18/person.  The hotel also served lunch (weekdays only) and dinner, but we never dined there.  On the 13th floor, the hotel has a rooftop bar – it’s open from 5pm until 4am, and serves some food as well.  We were able to enjoy the bar once, but since it was raining outside, we didn’t appreciate the beautiful outdoor area.

Amenities.  A cafe and vending machines in the lobby, and breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a late night bar on the 13th floor – great options for food!  The hotel also had one-pagers for guests to take on restaurants in the area, which came in handy for us (there was one that had late-night restaurants, which saved us one of the nights we were there!).  Since we had an executive room, we also had access to the lounge, which had snacks and drinks from 9am-10pm.  The wifi also worked great in the room.

I would not hesitate to stay at the Granbell Shinjuku Hotel again.  It exceeded my expectations and the location worked really well for us (although Tokyo is well-connected, so other areas would have been fine as well!).

 

City Overview: Tokyo, Japan

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We just returned from our week-long adventure in Japan!  We had a wonderful time in Tokyo and Kyoto (despite the sometimes rainy weather), and we can’t wait to write more about the trip!

Shinjuku, TokyoCity.  Tokyo, Japan

When?  3 nights – September 5-8, 2015.  After we booked our plane tickets we found out that it’s the rainy season, and that there may even be a typhoon while we were there.  It worked out fine and our plans weren’t ruined, but it was less ideal to have to deal with rain.  For our 7-night trip, 3 nights was perfect.  That meant two full days in Tokyo, which gave us the opportunity to see our top priorities, while still allowing time for 4 nights in Kyoto.

Where?  We stayed at the Granbell Shinjuku Hotel, which we loved.   I was worried that the Shinjuku area would be too crowded for me, but we weren’t on any of the main streets – just close enough to be able to walk to shops and restaurants.  We aren’t big on the nightlife (and really, we had a horrible time getting adjusted to the time zone), but Shinjuku (particularly east of Shinjuku station), seemed to be lively well into the night.

Transportation.  We flew direct from LAX to Narita International.  We took the Narita Express (a train) from the airport into Tokyo, which took about 90 minutes.  From there, we took the Tokyo metro to a station closer to our hotel, and walked from there.  We relied on the metro a lot (which was very smooth and easy to use), and only used a taxi on our last day, since it was raining. Ryan will go into more detail about the transportation logistics.

Food.  Amazing.  We had some of the best food in Tokyo – an unforgettable sushi dinner at sushi houston Iwa and ramen in the Golden Gai area were the highlights.  Everywhere we turned there was a sushi place – serving fresh fish that was caught locally and purchased at the fish market.  Even the department stores and train stations had restaurants.  It really was amazing, and I wish we had more time in Tokyo just so we could experience more of the food.Food

A food court (and grocery store!) in the basement of a department store. 

Day Trips. None, although we had toyed with the idea of a trip to Hakone, an area known for hot springs and views of Mt. Fuji.

Senso-JiAttractions.  This city has a lot to offer, and we didn’t even come close to scratching the surface.  Some of our favorite activities include a visit to Meiji Shrine, Gyoen Shinjuku park, a Kabuki play, and Asakusa (and Senso-Ji, shown to the right).  If that doesn’t interest you, there are museums (historical museums like the Edo museum and art museums), several other parks, Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Universal Studios, Odaiba (an “island” with attractions to last at least a full day), and so many others.  It really is diverse and anyone could find something fun to do during a visit.  And there are so many people – visiting, living, wandering – that it can be fun tojust sit and people-watch!

 

Language Barrier.  We do not speak any Japanese.  The only word either of us used the entire time was “arigato” (thank you).  It worried me, but overall it worked out just fine.  Some of the people we met spoke English, and some not so much.  But everyone was very willing to help, so we never felt frustrated.  It’s amazing how much can be communicated through gestures!

Cost.  I hate to call a city expensive, but Tokyo did feel a bit more expensive than some other cities we’ve visited, at least for hotels.  Food can be VERY expensive, but you can also spend $10 and get a bowl of ramen and a beer!  It really does vary, and we did not spend too much money on transportation or visiting attractions, but did decide to splurge (a bit) on our hotel and on our one very nice sushi dinner.  

Advice. If you want to eat at a specific restaurant (and one that’s popular), plan to make reservations ahead.  We used the Visa Signature Concierge service for Sushi Iwa, but working with your hotel would be another good option.  Some restaurants may take reservations directly, but keep in mind that many restaurants will charge a hefty fee for a missed reservation (this can include being late).  So take the reservations seriously, and plan accordingly!

Closing comments. Tokyo was a great introduction to East Asia.  The city is modern and transportation is easy, everyone we encountered was very friendly, and there’s a lot of different types of attractions to enjoy.  And the food is amazing!  I think our 3 nights was enough to do what we really wanted, but you can easily spend more time exploring and enjoying this huge city!