No, Shaxi is located between Dali and Lijiang.
You have connections from Dali and then you will not pass through Lijiang.
You can spend three nights in Shaxi then you will have two full days there.
And you can go to Weishan for some nights too.
You will leave Weishan to Kunming.

Michel

What about this itinerary:
How do we get from Shaxi to other villages, Shuhe, Baisha etc.? What is a good location about that.

Monday Travel from Chendu to Kunming by train - 1 night in Kunming
Thuesday Travel from Kunming to Dali - 1 night in Dali
Wednesday Travel from Dali to Shaxi by bus /taxi (>) night in Shaxi
Thursday Stay in Shaxi
Friday Stay in Shaxi
Saturnday Stay in Shuhe / Baisha??
Sunday Travel from to Dali. Dali to Kunming by train overnight in Kunming

What i don;'t understand: bot Baisha and Shaxi are closer to Lijangi then Dali. So why do you prefer Dali above Lijangi? It seems easier to travel fro Lijinang then from Dali.

Just in case others are interested, I am Australian and asked in both Berlin and London about applying for a visa and both said they had no problem issuing to me (there is no embassy in Australia). Requirements for both were the same, hotel booking, flight itinerary , yellow fever vaccination. The Berlin embassy has a requirement of “confirmation from employer” but she said as I was applying for a tourist visa it wasn’t needed. Both said 3 weeks, the lady in Berlin said to apply on a Thursday or Friday to make sure it reaches Bujumbura by the Tuesday meeting and it might be quicker..

I have applied visitor visa for my dad using immi.gov.au account on 23rd Oct. What are the chances that we will get the visa this week? The ticket is booked for next Thursday to travel to Melbourne

Mostly u ll get on 23rd or 24tg nov

Hi David,

• Thursday: Arrive Tozeur at 15:25. Spend the night in Tozeur.

• Friday: Mides, Tamerza, Chebika (is this too busy for 1 day?): that's not busy for 1 day, trekking inside the canyons possible with a local guide too. (locals knows better paths to pass through the canyons)

• Saturday: [open] Chott El Jerid and Douz?: highly recommend Chott el Jerid then Douz and enjoy a 4x4, quad or camel ride then spend the night in the middle of the desert in a camp/bivouac

• Sunday: [open] Depart Tozeur at 16:00: breakfast at the camp in the desert then departure to Tozeur.

have a nice trip.

Just wanted to give an update, and see if anyone has specifics on hikes to do, places to eat, tours to do, or other small tid-bits about these areas.

Despite what a few people here have said here, we are still planning on going to Katmai, as well as Kantishna in Denali. These were two things that we really wanted to do, so it's tough crossing them off the list. Although, based on recommendations not to do Katmai as a day trip...we will be doing an overnight. As for Denali, I want to see a lot of the park (and maaaaayyybe get a glimpse of the mountain up close and personal (I understand its a longshot)). Another recommendation was to move around a bit less...so took that into account too. We also decided to rent a car out of Anchorage, mainly based on recommendations here. I know we'll have a decent amount of travel for the first part, and the end of our stay. But I think staying in Seward and Kasilof for longer time frames in between will slow down the entire trip and make the hectic parts well worth it.

So, with that, we've decided on the following itinerary:
Friday (Night in Anchorage) - Fly to Anchorage
Saturday (Night in Katmai) - Fly to Katmai early, explore Brooks Falls area, and camp at Brooks
Sunday (Night in Seward) - Morning in Katmai; then traveling back through Anchorage, rent a car and on to Seward. Depending on timing, we'll explore a bit along the way and take in some sights around the Turnagain Arm, Portage, Girdwood, etc.
Monday (Night in Seward) - Day in or near Seward
Tuesday (Night in Seward) - Day in or near Seward
Wednesday (Night in Kasilof) - Travel to Kasilof (location of wedding, so this is the only fixed portion of travel).
Thursday (Night in Kasilof) - Day in or near Kasilof
Friday (Night in Kasilof) - Day in or near Kasilof
Saturday (Night in Kasilof) - Wedding. Minimal time for additional activities.
Sunday (Night in Anchorage) - Travel back to Anchorage, return car, explore Anchorage in the evening (based on recommendations...we'll be spending limited time actually in Anchorage)
Monday (Night at Denali) - Train to Denali Park entrance. Should be there with enough time to check out the visitor center, or just check into our cabin and relax.
Tuesday (Night in Kantishna) - Take the bus to Kantishna. Maybe get off a few places and see some sights along the way.
Wednesday (Night in Kantishna) - Wonder Lake is currently on the list of an area we want to explore. Any tips on this area would be greatly appreciated.
Thursday (Night at Denali) - Planning on a sight seeing tour/Flight back to the Park Entrance. Should be able to get back late morning, or early afternoon with enough time to explore/hike a bit around the visitors center and park entrance.
Friday (Red-eye flight home) - Train back to Anchorage, and fly home.

We won't be planning our time in Seward and Kasilof on a daily basis, since I'm sure it will change based on weather and how much we want to relax/sight-see/hike.
A few things we're looking at in those areas:
- Lone Lake trail
- Harding Ice Field trail
- Caines Head trail
- Skilak Lookout trail or Hidden Creek Trail to Skilak
- Rent Kayaks in Seward
- Glacier cruise day tour out of Seward
- Halibut fishing charter out of Homer
- Float trip on the Kenai River
- Explore towns/areas on the northern part of the peninsula

Thanks for all of your fantastic advice thus far!

Oh boy....

I think the Musée des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux (where I am at present) is one of the feeblest I've seen anywhere in France - tiny, dark, full of foreboding religious art - the best thing about it is the benches in the garden. The Musée d'Aquitaine and the Musée de Bordeaux and the Musée de l' Ethnographie are far more compelling.

There are several trams, and none of them starts at the train station, though two of them stop there. Neither of the C-line trams that go through the train station stops at Victoire, which is where the University of Bordeaux is located.

Brantôme is nowhere near Lascaux/Montignac. It's not even in the Périgord Noir. It's a nice enough town, but a terrible choice for accommodations if Lascaux and prehistory are your goals.

Taking the train from Paris to Angoulème defies all reason. Take the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux, then the train to Périgueux and pick up your car there. You'll be 40 minutes from Sarlat at that point.

Ribérac is a homely town bursting its seams with British expats. I would stay away from it. There are FAR better markets all over the Périgord Noir, namely: St-Cyprien on Sundays, Le Bugue on Tuesdays (big market) and Saturdays (small market), Lalinde (Thursdays), Montignac (Fridays), Le Buisson (Fridays), Rouffignac (Sundays), and of course Sarlat, Saturdays (big market) and Wednesdays (small market).

There is no place named Abyerre-sur-Drone. If capttimo meant Aubeterre-sur-Drone, it's in the Charente, an entirely different département from the Dordogne and nowhere near where you're headed.

Honestly................pffff! I fail to understand why people bother to offer information when they don't know what they're talking about.

I have visited Lascaux II many times and Lascaux IV twice. There is nothing the slightest bit sad about either of them. They are magnificent reproductions of the real caves, which of course one can't visit because visitors destroy them. The staff at both sites are incredibly informative, and the sites are very evocative. The fact remains that you simply cannot visit original caves in the Périgord except by permission (well, you can get into Font-de-Gaume with some serious planning, maybe for the next year or two), so why not go see what you CAN see - it's all wondrous.

As noted, Sarlat is only a 30-minute drive from Lascaux IV and Montignac. You could certainly stay in Montignac - it's a lovely town - but there's no reason to stay away from Sarlat. There are plenty of other places you could stay as well, along the route to Montignac: St-Léon-sur-Vézère and Plazac being two good choices. You could also stay in Les Eyzies and enjoy the Pôle and the Musée Nationale de la Préhistoire. If you decide to stay in Montignac, I can recommend a lovely B&B that is just minutes from Lascaux up in the hills.

So I realized yesterday that I'd need the full day and night in El Tunco since it was my first time seeing it in daylight and there was enough to do to fill a day. Also, since I didn't really go "out" on Thursday night (due to being extremely tired), I made up for it last night and don't regret staying overnight here again because it was a fun time out on a Friday night here.

Today might be a partial wash of a day because I need to catch up on some work so I don't have to deal with it the rest of my time here (and once I'm with my friend), and I'm also waiting for my friend to pick me up from here at an undetermined time (his flight was supposed to land a couple hours ago but haven't heard from him yet -_-). I realized that once I'm in Opico with him, I'll be in closer proximity to the Mayan ruins, which is what I'm currently prioritizing. This includes both San Andres and Tazumal (unfortunately Joya de Ceren is closed for renovations until May). Thinking of getting up early tomorrow to do at least one, and hopefully both if time permits. Was going to try to potentially do at least one today and get my own ride to one, but the cost and distance didn't really make sense to me if my friend would be giving me a ride eventually anyway and bringing me much closer to the area. He might also want to join in on some of this with me - at least Tazumal, since he hasn't done that (but has done San Andres in the past).

If I don't hear from my friend/something comes up that causes another delay, I'm either going to spend one more final night in El Tunco (not my preference, but there's enough to do at night to warrant it, including some bars/clubs I didn't get to hit last night) or am more deadset on going to San Salvador so I can catch a Saturday night there, which I heard is the best night to go out. I met enough Salvadorans here in Tunco to feel safe going out there and made notes on areas to go out in.

Other than the above, I'm playing things day by day as time permits. The only other "must-dos" I want to try to do are generally exploring the historic parts of San Salvador by day, and then try to hike one volcano (preferably Santa Ana, but if there's a closer one to San Salvador, might do that one). I am also taking into consideration all the other recommendations above based on geography, distance, and what I'm now calling my "friend factor' lol. For example, Sochitoto is a potential option for a brief part of day (my friend said it's only about 30 mins from a place we'll be at some point) and the Ruta de la Flores I will try to make happen if eventually hitting Santa Ana.

Appreciate all the recommendations so far!

Thanks for the advice. I thought I would update for anyone planning a trip who comes along and reads this afterwards. Here is how our trip worked out:

Saturday: Arrived in Zagreb a little before noon after our red-eye flight to Frankfurt and a quick connection to Croatia. Picked up our rental car (we used Sixt) and headed south towards Plitvice. We made a couple of stops along the way: the open air "museum" in Karlovac to see the old military equipment, and this restaurant set among many waterfalls that the Rick Steve's guide recommend. We got to Plitvice around 7 and crashed at our B&B for the night.
Sunday Spent the day touring Plitvice. We parked at Gate 2 and did the "K" route. Plitvice was really neat, but very crowded. I can't imagine how bad it gets during the summer. We drove on to Split in the evening- making a pit stop in Zadar to see the sea organ and have dinner. Spent the night in Trogir.
Monday Slept in as I was super tired. Took the Bura Line boat from Trogir to Split for the day. If I were to do this day again- I would definitely have taken the bus. We had issues with the boat both going and returning. Going: they didn't know if it would fit under bridge so we drove around in circles for 30 minutes before leaving. Returning, we stopped at the mid-way port, and they told us the boat was broken and a random van would take us back to Trogir. But the van didn't have enough space for everyone- cluster. Anyways, we enjoyed our day in Split, but it was SUPER hot.
Tuesday Took the 10:30 ferry to Korcula. The Split ferry port was very confusing- and the signs pointing to Vela Luka lead to a boat that was NOT going to Vela Luka. After driving in circles around the ferry port for 30 minutes we got to the right boat by process of elimination. I had e-tickets for the ferry- I would recommend printing if possible because the guys didn't really know what to do with my eticket. Had lunch in Vela Luka and then drove up to this cave and a scenic overlook. We drove around the island some to explore before heading over to Korcula for the night.
Wednesday Spent the morning wandering around the old town of Korcula. In the afternoon we went to two different beaches to swim and hang out.
Thursday Took the 9:40 ferry to the Peninsula- this ferry was much easier to find. We stopped at a couple of wineries on our drive down- my husband liked me being his chauffeur! We stopped in Ston for lunch, but didn't bother to climb the wall. Then we headed across the border to Mostar. We arrived in Mostar at about 4pm- driving in the old town is TERRIFYING. We had a 5pm "Death of Yugoslavia" tour with I House travel. This tour was phenomenal and I would absolutely recommend. After the tour we got dinner in the old town and wandered around.
Friday We went back down to the old town for a couple of hours in the morning and then we headed out of the city and down to Dubrovnik. We got lunch in Mali Ston on the way back. We were staying North of Dubrovnik in Sun Gardens (our splurge of the trip). In the afternoon we swam in the pool and hung out at the beach.
SaturdayWe drove down to Kotor. We back-up at the border took 1:30 hours to cross. Once we got to the Bay of Kotor we had lunch at a lovely cafe with a great view and watched a cruise ship leaving through the narrows! We took a small boat out to the church island- it was captained by a very ragtag looking guy who were were worried would just ditch us out there- but he came back for us. The cost was 5Euros pp. We then wondered around the town of Kotor. While the scenery on the drive was beautiful, I don't know that I would repeat this trip due to traffic along the main road and the line at the border. Crossing back in the evening went much smoother. We got back to Dubrovnik around 8pm and after driving in circles for a while were lucky to snag a spot in a lot near the old town for way too much money. On our way into town we caught sunset over the city from a nice scenic overlook south of the city. We had dinner and wondered around Dubrovnik for a few hours.
Sunday After the cost and stress of parking the day before, we decided to take the boat from Sun Gardens into the city. It was a very nice boat trip and cost about $18USD pp. round trip. We walked the walls of the city and got lunch. We were thinking about doing the cable car, but the line was probably 2 hours long and it was hot, and we felt like it wasn't worth it. We ended up going to a bar on the outside of the wall overlooking the water and wandering around the town. In the late afternoon we got more beach time in before heading to our B&B near the airport.
Monday We got to the airport at 6:00am for our 7:30 flight to Frankfurt. EARLY.

Overall, I'm really happy with everything we got to see and do. I think the itinerary was well balanced between history, wandering through small towns, and some beach/pool time (it is a vacation afterall). While the trip was definitely full- I don't think it was rushed. I wish maybe that I had one more day for the beach! I want to go back to Bosnia- as Mostar really peaked my interest.

I am glad we chose to rent a car, although it added some stress. Total including the car rental (automatic), fees (one way, international insurance), gas, tolls, parking, and ferry I think we spent about $600USD. I know we could have done this via public transportation cheaper- but it would have been fairly stressful on me. Or we could have taken day trips to Plitvice, Mostar, and Kotor, but we would have been limited in our ability to do things our own way. We did end up staying outside of the city centers (except Mostar) to find places with parking. That limited us some, but also allowed us to find some good restaurants we wouldn't have gone to without a car. Driving was fairly easy for the most part- but was stressful in small towns with tight roads. We used Google Maps for navigation- which was pretty good overall. It had a harder time in Bosnia than Croatia. It also liked taking us through mountain border crossings vs. the main drag in Bosnia. Sixt was super easy to do business with and would recommend them again.

I hope this helps anyone who is planning their trip to Croatia!