Here's what I look for when I travel - Suggestions please!

[fitnessnoob]

I do not suggest you to Pete's Eats, please.

[mabli]

mabli,
I tend to travel/live on a comparatively minimal budget. The exchange rate certainly isn'y in my favor...

Hiking Fox,
Your area sounds quite promising!

I think you'll find Hiking Fox and I have the same exchange rate

[XkillerX]

XkillerX,
That definitely seems like a neat area - have you spent much time there?

whoops missed this one.

I've been there plenty of times, except this year, which I can not forgive myself for

Maybe it's not that good if you don't have your own "tourguide". But you can make up for it if you're not in a hurry. A nice long week there. Especially in the summer. MMmmmm

[loveliberate]

So I am focusing in on visiting central and northern Italia next year in cunjunction with visiting the 2012 VFW. Maybe heading to nearby countries too: Austria & Germany perhaps. Suggestions please!

[soniczip]

when you are in italy you could visit both tuscany (my region ... florence, siena, pisa) and umbria (just beside it ... perugia). the countryside is very beautiful. sometime ago, coming back from siena, where i study, i gave two young tourists a lift. they were from israel and were doing a sort of farm to farm "work, eat and sleep" tour in italy. they basically helped the farmers and received food and lodging. when i asked them, they told me most of these farms were bio and you could easily find vegan options. if you are interested i can try to find these guys' email addresses.

[loveliberate]

Grazie tanto for your reply! Tuscany, Umbria & the Alps/Dolomite region are my top areas of interest in Italia. Oh - and San Marino! I dont see myself doing the WWOOF thing on this visit but who knows?

Any suggestions on nice and not too expensive rail and/or boat trips? How about pleasant mountain towns?

[soniczip]

i don't know much about boats. you can check prices for trains through this website: http://www.trenitalia.com/
there are non other choices apart from this national company, unless you travel from small town to small town, in which case you may find local train companies.
i went to a very nice location in the alps, before heading to vfw germany last year. it's close to bolzano. i only spent 25 euros per night with breakfast. you need to search for a "maso", a sort of alpine house lodging facility. check this website: http://www.redrooster.it/en/
i found my maso there.

[loveliberate]

Thank you for the info and links!

[loveliberate]

Back to the top: All of your travel suggestions are still very much wanted & welcomed!

[ORLYLOL]

Malmö, Sweden meets most of the criteria. It's by far the most vegan friendly place I've been to outside of Portland. The city itself is very charming and the parks are great. There aren't any mountains though, but you could always include hiking Norway on the trip.

[loveliberate]

Thanks! I'll look more into Malmö. Sweden remains on the top of my travel wishlist, along with the other Nordic Lands - though Stockholm/Uppsala, Helsinki & other cities have generally caught my interest more so than Malmö...

I've heard that Köln & a couple other German cities "feel" the most similar to Portland - any experience over there?