So, i'm kinda curious about what other people think of the vacation destinations. Please rank the three vacation destinations, in order of your MOST favorite place to have your sims visit to your LEAST favorite place to have your sims visit, and a paragraph or two (or more, if you desire!) on WHY... I'd like to hear your opinions, and see what other people think. Perhaps something you love about a certain destination will inspire some ideas for other people to get more out of their sims' visits to Vacation Island.

Just a reminder, in alphabetical order so as not to be leading or influencing the results:

- Takemizu Village
- Three Lakes
- Twikkii Island

Be as descriptive or as brief as you'd like, include pix if you want (can you still do that?). Anything goes!


-grinEvilly
>=)

- Twikkii Island
- Three Lakes
- Takemizu Village

Opposite order. I think the beach is more family friendly and I simply like the activities. 3 lakes ends up being cold and while I don't mind the activities I don't think they are as fun. (might have been different if they had added skiing and tobogganing) Far East I find boring with not much to do.

I have most of Twikkii Island lots swapped out for player made makeover versions. Including my own water park.

ooo - I dunno. It's been a while. When we had Gina's Wanderlust competition, I think I liked building lots for either Twikki or Takemizu best. I think both are visually interesting. While I don't like playing vacations too much, I do enjoy building places with a distinct atmosphere and appearance and both of those locations facilitate that. Probably why I enjoyed that contest so much. I have a plan to change Little Carping's mountain locale for an alpine ski-ing vacation locale rather than the more American mountain vacation version. SNEE! Yeah.

Now if we had got full on alpine skiing local with snowsuits, ski hire and skill learning then that would have been my hands down favourite. I loved the winter vacation area in Sims 1 and it didn't even have skiing. It just felt more real.

Three Lakes all the way (of course I'm hugely biased, working in National Parks IRL and all)- I say that, but I also still 100% agree with Jo; it would have been even more awesome with a decent assortment of winter sports activities (maybe we need a winter sports challenge? ). In a distant second I'd put Twikkii Island, and then Takemizu Village- nothing wrong with it, but once again, I agree with Jo; there's just not much to really do there, and much as I see the benefits of meditation IRL, it gets boring to watch Sims meditate pretty quick...

I am gonna go with Three Lakes to. But as previous people said - it need more wintersports!
It reminds me of the good old days doing this,


On the other end my sims rarley go on vacaion

I am looking at these lots from both a building perspective and a vacation perspective. In order. I should also warn you folks that I have some weird fascination with building hotels where the housekeeper doesn't freeze. Some might call it an obsession. I must like punishment.

I should also add that I live in the U.S., so I am basing these lots on vacation destinations (mostly in the U.S. and Canada) that I can actually picture.

1. Three Lakes. My favorite in terms of building. The place with the most potential to add a few more hotels and destinations because there is more space to do so. I imagine Maine, Canada, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Catskills .... hay-ell, any place with mountains and cooler weather is fine, and since these places have different histories, I can let my imagination roam quite a bit. My custom vacation hood is Three-Lakes based.

My favorite vacation destination by a mile. Strangely, since I often have Maine in mind, I think of crisp autumns as well as brisk winters. (I changed the seasons.) I agree, though ... more winter sports. Either that, or more autumnal things to do.

2. Twikkii Island. The one with more things to do without modification, but too Disneyfied for me. I can imagine this being some sort of Magic Kingdom property. But I'm a beach bum at heart, and though Maine has pretty beaches, it's not quite the same now, is it? Flaws and all, I like the beaches. Not as much space to add stuff without bulldozing something, and surprisingly, not as amenable to beach properties without bulldozing and cussing because beach properties can be so finicky.

Unlike Three Lakes, I can't quite picture a comparable destination because this place seems more like a mishmash of different places. There was some piracy around Hawaii, but I guess when I think of pirates, I think of the southern seacoast of the U.S. or the Caribbean. South America. Not Hawaii. So there is a little disconnect there. And pirates weren't exactly Jack Sparrow.

But this terrain has potential for a tropical hood in general if you make a custom hood. Flattened beach lots will allow for more building. Lighthouses, historical sites, parks and preserves, beach boardwalks, ice cream shops and tropical nightclubs ... not too shabby. If only there was beach volleyball ...

3. Takemizu Village.The prettiest of the vacation hoods, IMO. It's serene, and though it does combine aspects of Japanese, Korean and Chinese art and culture, doesn't seem as much as a mishmash to me, though I might be wrong here, It just doesn't seem as complete as the other two. It's as if more should have been done with it. Neon City in The Urbz seems so much more lively and colorful, so it's not as if Maxis never covered Asian culture before. And this hood is screaming for a Pachinko parlor!

I have not built much in this hood, so I would have to check it out again to see how much room it gives you to add extra buildings.

My Sims vacation quite often, but they go to my custom hood. CC creators have given us so many things that could work really well in a historical hood with a shopping and nightclub area, and fall is my favorite season, so ... I only wished I used a larger terrain!

Due to the way I play, my ranking is different. Completely different I did sent all the BV teens to Uni over time - they are living in my hood now, some are elders already, so that has a huge effect. I also have not added any lots to them (those I built for contests are used elsewhere).

1.Takemizu Village - I think it is a wonderful vacation hood - I like the Thai Chi, the possibility to learn to teleport and the old wise man - and if he teaches the legend to a sim, that sim is made for life! That sim can tell the legend on community lots to other sims, making friends and friends with benefits Besides, this hood has some of my favourite BV teens (I sent them all to Uni) - including Pong Grundstrom, who, on his first day, taught the rest of the dorm residents to do Thai Chi (now that was long ago, but I was thrilled to see that).

2. Three Lakes: - a perfect place in many ways - I quite like the camping ground and the cheaper chalets. The activities are good too, and my fitter and more active sims love those. Even my poor sims can afford to go camping at times, and they can fish and feed themselves if necessary. The slap dancing is nice - and then it also is the home of teen Juan Harris (another quite awesome sim which i sent to Uni and has taught everyone the slap dance there).I don't like Bigfoot, though and am not sure that he was the best possible choice for a secret lot.

3. Twiki Island - Very pretty and swimming in the sea is nice, as is the hula - my sims enjoy going there as well and it is fun. I would have liked sims being able to fish in the sea (without a mod) - the pirate ship is nice and I like the boardwalk. I don't like the witch doctor - useless if a sim does not have a lot of mechanical points - but I like those teens too

I don't have TS2 anymore, but Three Lakes was my favourite destination. I loved the mountainous atmosphere, I think that's due to visiting Austria very often and my wish to visit Yellowstone or any American/Canadian national parks with Pine trees and/or (giant) sequoias. It's also great for building.

I don't think I've sent any of my sims on vacations since 2007-ish. I did play around with the destinations a bit, but I'm not sure which I preferred. Maybe Takemizu or Twikki (can't remember the difference).

@Gazania So stop looking at it as being supposed to be a copy of a real-world location quite so much... Combine a few points from the same era in history and you can make it work! For a few different reasons, my "SimNation" (which because of the way the game works is a pretty clear parallel for the USA) expanded from west to east, instead of east to west, so that resulted in a few culture shifts- you could do the same with your Twikkii Island- have it have been colonized by the Spanish in the 16th Century so that you can include old missions and colonial forts, to kind of combine the Caribbean and Polynesian vibes that can be done there, and make pirates a little more apropos...

@Johnny_Bravo , you don't really see this kind of mountain scenery in Yellowstone, actually. Pine trees, yes, but the 'big' mountains are kind of all around the park, but not really in it. I'd say Three Lakes is probably most like Glacier or Olympic National Park... On the other hand, I guess Three Lakes does have hot springs, so there's some geothermal activity...

@Zarathustra, I think Three Lakes is a lot like Island Park--just outside of Yellowstone on the Idaho side, in the older caldera. Yellowstone's down in the newest caldera, younger than the Tetons and all. (My friend Stephanie Osborn just published a book on Yellowstone called "Kiss Your Ash Goodbye" so I've been reading up on the super-volcano recently.) I wonder if a simulated geyser could be built with fountains and pond water . . . hmm . . . certainly there are no acidic hot springs in Three Lakes . . .

As far as the game goes, who the vacationing sims are matters as much as where they go. I like all three destinations, for different things. Three Lakes is great for sims who really just need to hop in a tent and talk without cheating at chess or arguing, or who need to throw out a line and fish and talk without cheating at chess or arguing. (Looking at you, Grunts.) It's excellent for family bonding among families who are struggling.

Twikki has lots of stuff for the kids to do, and if the family's already fairly tight, is ideal for a family vacation. It's also perfect for honeymooners (1st, 2nd, or more) who just want to stay in their beachfront cabin and sunbathe. (Consort Capp takes his grandkids here regularly. They get sunburned a LOT. But also have a beachfront cabin of their own, and the need for passports helps protect them from the paparazzi who follow the family in Veronaville. Consort bribed the embassy, you know.)

Takemizu is serene, attractive to knowledge sims and sims who are overly stressed, as well as sims who are concerned about appearances. One doesn't let one's hair down in Takemizu the way everyone does in Twikki and Three Lakes. Sims who find orderliness relaxing (Mary Sue Pleasant) find Takemizu the best destination.

Fountain-geysers are now on my list of things to experiment with and figure out a good way to make work!

Twikkii Island- I love the beach and I've kind of forced that onto my sims as well. Twikkii seems to have the most activities- pirate ship, temple ruins, beach- and nearly all of them can be done by children. My sims have spent days just swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach.

Three Lakes- I like the campgrounds so there's a budget-friendly option, especially for families, who would otherwise need 2-4 hotel rooms to sleep everyone. I used Chris Hatch's ski mod to make a ski slope lot. It may not be as good as the Sims 1 vacation, but it's still fun. I've also added an ice skating rink and a few other touches to make it more of a winter resort. I don't like when sims get there and it happens to be a winter season, it's difficult to do most of the existing outdoor activities without sending your sims into hypothermia. Adding stuff like skiing at ice skating at least gives sims something to do when they can't fish.

Takemizu Village- There's just not much to do here in comparison. When I do send sims here, it's adults only, and mainly just the handful of sims who I want to fulfill all the vacation memories. The activities are pretty limiting. And I can never find that darn ninja! (Is there a mod that increases the chances of him appearing?)

Twikkii Island has a lot to do, so my sims go there more than the other two destinations. Some of it has been cleaned up and prettified for the tourists by the big resort companies, but thanks to Castaway Stories CC there are still some parts of the island that have managed to hang onto their mysterious native culture.

Three Lakes I could take or leave. Lately I've been exploring Isle St. Croix as an alternative mountain destination. It has mostly the same things to do as Maxis' Three Lakes with a few extras from other EPs (skating rink, karaoke machine, etc.), but it seems more fun to me somehow - better layout or something? It doesn't hurt that it comes with no sims of its own so I can just add it onto any neighborhood that already has Three Lakes and not worry about generating extra tourists or vacation locals.

Takemizu Village - I end up sending a lot of Knowledge sims here for the skilling bonus. If your sim is staying in Takemizu Village in Autumn and has the Eureka! perk from Freetime, you can max out your skills pretty quickly, especially if your sim has high enough aspiration to use the Thinking Cap.

have not yet sent any of my sims to any vacation destination.

when I do send sims to vacation, would likely send them to the respective hidden lots.
maybe also to lots that contain vacation-only activities.

Darn, Forgot those hot springs in Three Lakes. I use my custom hood so much, and I don't have the hot springs or Bigfoot, that I really should have looked at the Maxis hoods again more carefully! No matter in my mind, apparently. At least Maxis didn't mix maple-syrup tapping in there. My custom hood is based somewhat on historical places in the Northeast, since I went to so many of them when I lived there. And yes, the custom hood has its own history and culture.

I am a history buff, and used to do quite a bit of gardening, so it's a weird thing with me to keep some sort of continuity in a hood, which is one reason WHY I like a custom vacation hood. I even like the foliage to be somewhat consistent. For the vacation contest here, I researched the flora and fauna in the area where my lighthouse was based (a real-life place in the southern area of Mexico). While many areas have plants from other regions (unfortunately, some of those plants become invasive), some plants just will not grow well in certain gardening zones.

I incorporated Spanish colonization in the lighthouse's history (and hope to make a tiny custom vacation hood using the lighthouse), and English colonization in my historical hood. Making SOME sort of historical sense is a thing for me. I don't have to be that limited in my builds and hoods to exclude any sort of outside influence whatsoever or to not let a few inconsistencies slip in there, but even outside influences in many cultures are often mixed with aspects of native life to produce some sort of hybrid, rather than an exact copy.

If you think I'm bad with all this, just don't take me to a film based on an historical event, or a TV series based on a famous character in history! I have no issue with a few minor liberties for the sake of a consistent story, or a little inconsistency is in there for some sort of artistic reason. But when things are so, so inconsistent or incorrect, I wonder whether the script writers, costume designers, etc. did their research all that well.

EDIT ... Wait. And I thought people who kept spreadsheets on their Sims paid too much attention to detail? Errr ...

Zarathustra: Yellowstone, YES! Stay in a cabin, or the expensive lodge. Hike on the wooden path through the various mud-pots and geysers..don't fall in, you DIE! Also dangerous are the buffalo; they are not afraid of people and wander right through the parking lots. People creating traffic jams looking at them is bad enough, but I've actually SEEN people walk up to a cow with calf to get a selfie -- good buy stupid tourist. And bears would be "fun". You could do just their sound, growling and snorting and tearing up a camp while tent-campers freak out, wetting themselves, passing out, hahahaha

Grammapat, now just imagine having to try to keep all those people from getting themselves killed, AND trying to make sure they go home having learned something, had a good time, and have a sense of stewardship and responsibility to the place they went on vacation, and you'll start to get an inkling of what it's like to WORK in these places.

(said from the perspective of one of those Rangers whose job it was to deal with "charismatic megafauna" (read: big-ass animals) wandering through the parking lot on Labor Day weekend...)

The BIGGEST miss of all... we should've been able to visit with an old friend!


-gE
>=)

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You never stop amazing me...

I've never actually played Three Lakes, and would like to rectify that soonish!

I like Twiikii and Takemizu, but the mishmash of cultures does irritate me. I want my Twiikii to be based on the Caribbean, and my Takemizu to be more clearly Japanese (just because there's a ton more relatively accurate Japanese cc then Chinese or Korean. The latter two are usually confused or mixed together and so much harder to find for some reason.) I'm kind of intense about realism in some ways, but I like my sims to have things to do that aren't just rabbit holes, so I want to include things like Chris Hatch's skiing mod for Three Lakes, a proper mountain shrine - with stairs - for Takemizu (and a new name for that one as well) and then a good beach with a diving cliff and waterfall for Twiikii. I don't like the tiki crap so allll of that would have to go. ONE tiki bar may stay for the most touristy of the tourists, and that's it.

Thanks everybody who participated. I found all your insight to be very interesting! I'd still love to hear more... what your sims like to do, how they enjoy their preferred destination, and stuff like that. It seems a lot of people have different ways of enjoying their vacations. Some prefer more active, adventurous vacations, while others prefer more relaxing and sedate ones. Very cool!

Please feel free to continue to add your thoughts, ideas and opinions... even ideas on things that'd improve the vacation zones. For instance, i think Twiikii Island would have benefited GREATLY from an Island Restaurant. There's one in that hotel, but... it's not the same thing. Besides, for some reason, after adding one of the EPs, whenever I send sims to dine there, the hotel doesn't generate guests because I'm not checking in... So my vacationing sims are the only ones who show up on the lot. Makes for a BORING community lot, when there's no community. If my sims check in, it propagates normally. But if i'm using it as a community lot... Dullsville! I'm talking [ ].

Anyway, thanks again!


-gE
>=)

I agree about the restaurant for Twikkii. I always add three new lots there, which I call "The Paradise Bar and Grill", "Mosquito Coast Campsite" and "The Little Chapel On The Beach", because you need a holiday wedding venue. I build them again every time, I should really package them and save them!

For Takemizu I often add a day spa, with a swimming pool, as there is nowhere to swim there. I sometimes give Three Lakes a beach, but the waves and gull sounds are a distraction.

@Aysarth - Got any pix?


-gE
>=)