Wikivoyage:Tourist office/Archives/2017/July

II am going to Baku City Azerbaijan, and I am a American need to know what Vaccinations that I need
Thank you for your time

Asked by: Yncing1939 (talk) 18:08, 8 July 2017 (UTC)


 * I think Azerbaijan answers your question quite well. ϒpsilon (talk) 18:24, 8 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I'd say Hep A & B and tetanus shots are essential anywhere in Asia, but you really need to see your doctor and/or a travel medicine specialist.
 * US government advice is here. Pashley (talk) 18:30, 8 July 2017 (UTC)


 * As a US citizen, the CDC web site is dedicated to provide up to date information on exactly this: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/azerbaijan --Andrewssi2 (talk) 22:56, 8 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Look whether there is a specialist for travel medicine near where you live. Failing that, your noal docotr should either know that themself or be able to point you in the right direction. Hobbitschuster (talk) 11:24, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Fishing trip to Kautokeino - Karasjok in northern Norway
I and my father are going on a fishing trip to northern Norway, specifically to the Kautokeino - Karasjok area near the border to Finland, in middle August. We would need some advice on where to actually head there.

We are both interested in hiking among the nature and fishing. (Well, my father likes fishing more than I do.) We are quite experienced travelers, my father has traveled to Lapland for almost half a century and I for almost two decades. But we don't have much experience about Norway.

We will be bringing our own car, it's a Volkswagen Touran. It seats both of us comfortably in the front and the back will be filled with our stuff. We will have comfortable and durable outdoor clothing, hiking shoes and rubber boots. We will be fishing on rivers, not in the sea. We both have fishing rods with reels and my father has a good selection of lures.

Our intention is to avoid extremely long and taxing hikes through the nature just to reach the river. The idea is to fish in the middle of the night, when the fish can't see our shadows in the river. We have two options: A suitable total hiking distance per day would be about 3 to 8 km. Much more than 8 km on a single day would exhaust us.
 * Bring our own tent so we can spend the night by the river and leave back to camp the next morning, or
 * Just make a short trip to the river so we can go back to our car and drive back to camp late at night, and then sleep at the camp.

We would also need advice on where to actually reside. We would need some sort of fishermen's camping area with camping huts and possibility to cook our own food. We will be bringing our own sleeping bags so we don't need hotel-quality bedding.

Does anyone have any idea on what options for this are available in the Kautokeino - Karasjok area? And do we need Norwegian fishing permits, and if so, where can we get them and how much do they cost?

Asked by: JIP (talk) 19:20, 17 July 2017 (UTC)


 * What we have on that region is at Finnmark or in articles linked from there. Pashley (talk) 23:53, 17 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Fishing tourism is quite big in the area, so getting local advice should not be difficult. You do need permits, possibly different permits depending on area (so changing locations may involve paying double fees). There may be one common permit covering most of the area in question, I do not know, and I do not know prices. You have to disinfect your equipment, including boots, when moving between waters that may have the salmon plague and waters that do not have it (I hope there is none on Finnmarksvidda, but there is in many Finnish rivers), and you may need a certificate on the treatment (thorough drying suffices, I do not know how this is handled).


 * There are rivers close to roads (both Karasjoki and Kautokeino river, to name the main ones – I do not know how the Alta power plant downstream affects fish in the Kautokeino river), so how much hiking to do is probably a question on how far from roads you want to do the fishing and any specific preferences. I do not know your car, generous ground clearance widens the selection of places in reach by car, but there should be quite some selection of huts/cabins regardless.


 * I have not been fishing in the area, and have not used cabins there, so cannot give any specific advice. Sorry for that. I suppose calling the tourist offices (or the municipal administration) would give you pointers. Norwegians in general speak good English and the local Norwegian is quite close to Swedish. For a geographic overview you could use the tourism association (DNT) service ut.no and the kartverket maps. The former also describes hikes and cabins on the way, but mostly gives the confusing "no accommodation" (if noted at all) for ordinary cabins, which have to be booked. Our Karasjok and Kautokeino articles are not too well developed, but might provide some help (expanding them would be appreciated).


 * --LPfi (talk) 06:54, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

DC driving
Do I understand rightly that the Capital Beltway, around Washington DC, is toll-free if you don't drive in the special HOV-only lanes, at least on weekends? The warning signs upon approaching from the southeast (I-66) have made me hesitate to take the Beltway (I'm rather firmly a shunpiker), but Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway) makes it sound like the normal lanes are free. Nyttend (talk) 12:04, 19 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I can't answer your toll question, but are you planning on driving into DC or do you intend to only use the Capital Beltway without going into DC itself? Because all I have heard about DC driving is that it is neither fun nor cheap and the Metro is most likely to be faster than driving anyway. That said, maybe User:Ikan Kekek as an East Coast native knows the answer? Hobbitschuster (talk) 12:23, 19 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Heading into DC itself; at some point, I expect to be going to the southern tip of DC (my interest is architectural photography), and taking the Beltway past Alexandria would be preferable to driving through downtown and the Mall area, if I don't have to pay tolls. I've driven, parked in, and walked around downtown on two Saturdays this month (it's immensely cheaper, and presumably vastly easier, than doing the same during the week), so I'm not particularly concerned about doing it a third time.  Nyttend (talk) 17:17, 19 July 2017 (UTC)
 * It's been a couple of years since I drove there, but indeed, the Beltway was free except for HOV lanes where they exist (in northern Virginia). --Xuxl (talk) 18:12, 19 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I have no idea, as I neither drive nor have I been to DC since 2000. However, DC is notorious for being a bad place to drive, and it's a good walking city with decent public transit coverage. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:51, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

arriving in DC with a rental car
We want to drive to Washington DC with a rental car, coming from Pittsburgh on a Friday afternoon. We don't need the car for the rest of the trip, so we want to return it in DC as soon as possible. We will be staying close to Dupont Circle. What is the best place to return the car? Is it a good idea to return it somewhere close to the hotel or should we rather return it at some place out of town (Dulles Airport maybe)? Thanks! Asked by: 192.53.103.119 09:50, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
 * The problem with Dulles Airport is that it's a long way from town, and it will be an expensive cab ride to get back to Dupont Circle. Public transportation options exist but are not great. If you are not concerned about driving in the city, find an office of your rental car company near your place of abode and return the car there. If you would rather not drive into the city, then find an agency somewhere near a metro stop in the suburbs, since Dupont Circle has a metro station. National Airport is on a metro line, so that's an option, but while it's reachable by freeway/parkway, it's also near the middle of the city. The agency from where you're renting the car in Pittsburgh could give you pointers as well. --Xuxl (talk) 14:53, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't consider taking a bus a few stations to the next metro stop an impossible feat. But I know some Americans have an irrational hatred of buses (while others seem to think "BRT" is better than buses for some weird reason) Hobbitschuster (talk) 16:16, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I've only ever driven to/from DC once by rental car, but this might actually be relevant. I happened to use the Avis/Budget office located behind the Days Inn at 4400 Connecticut Av. NW.  From there it's no more than 1/4 mile to "Van Ness UDC" station on the Red Line Metro, and then it's 3 stops (toward Glenmont) to Dupont Circle. --69.159.60.147 06:18, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Hotel Resources
Will it be able to help me with nearby hotel services?

Asked by: 116.58.203.58 16:14, 29 July 2017 (UTC)


 * What's your question? Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:32, 29 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Pretty much every bottom-level article (cities, towns, national parks, some rural regions) has info on hotels, though in some cases not much either because there are few hotels there or we haven't yet had a contributor who wanted to write them up. The articles for your destination(s) are the first place you should look.
 * There is also a general overview of accommodation issues at Sleep with links to specific types: hotels, bed-and-breakfast, etc. Pashley (talk) 17:44, 29 July 2017 (UTC)