Best Travel Destinations

As in, where should I go? I plan on taking an extended trip next fall/winter. I’m contemplating either South America or the Pacific. Or possibly wait until spring and do Europe. I’ve had a recent desire to take the Trans-Siberian RR.
What places did you like the most?
or
Where would you like to go?


It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers

I live in the northern US so I like to travel anywhere warm. Sunbelt usually: Florida, Texas, California, southwest, gulf coast. You are talking about international travel so I don’t know.

I personally adore travelling in SE Asia and recommend it to anyone who will listen. The cultures are rich and varied, the languages and religions and races are multitudinous. While it is expensive to reach it is very cost effective to travel overland in most places. Your travel dollar goes a really long way. I have been back many times and it never fails to wow me. History, culture, food - don’t get me started on the food ! It always makes me healthier to travel there, my spouse calls it his SE Asian diet. Fresh fruit, fresh fish, lots of exercise walking around markets and monuments, lots of beach combing and water sports. He always returns looking trim and tan and feeling relaxed and expanded spiritually.When he regales his friends with his stories, I call him Indiana Dundee !

I could go on like this all day…


“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.” Bob Dylan

I love South America, and am keen to explore it even more. If you go to less well travelled villages and small communities you will find some fantastic people and experiences.
Also, I thought Turkey was fantastic.
I am still keen to go to Africa, just have to keep hoping.

I went to South America for 2 months and it was a fantastic experience. Lots to see and lots to do. I would especially recommend it if you are into “adventure travel”.


Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak.

Gumby and adam yax

I have been thinking about a trip to South America myself, but am trying to get more specific than that. Are there any particular countries/cities/towns/sights/adventures which you found to be especially enjoyable? Details appreciated…

Geez, Spoke-, he narrowed it down to a continent! What more do you want?

My favorite place is Puerto Vallerta.

Our family (11 1/2 people last time we went – half was my niece who was one year old) stays at this incredible villa just south of town, no hotel for this family. For that amount of people it’s a great deal at around $800 (or so) a night.

It is three levels, with two of the bedrooms that are fit for kings. A stereo system (I am usually DJ) satelite TV (I only watch the day we are leaving to get the weather in Colorado) Three TVs which are great for kids to watch videos if they get bored. A small private pool on the second level, a huge kitchen and a cook for 2 meals a day (you pay her separately) Estella is an awesome cook,

Rather than a hotel, this is great because you can be a family but still get some time away from one another if you need to.

They have 3 other villas in the complex, I think two have two bedrooms and one has three…all of them are beautifully decorated and have small pools.

Oh yeah, and the owners also own a local restaurant called Margarita Pete’s or something like that, that provides us with as much margs as we desire – the best in town!

Anyhow, that’s my favorite vacation spot!

*elbows
I have been interested in SE Asia for awhile, especially after reading The Beach. My question is the language barrier. Is communicating difficult?

spoke
I spent 3 weeks in Ecuador for a class in college. 8 days on the Galapagos, hopping from island to island by boat. this would be expensive unless you could get a group of people to charter a boat. The islands kick major ass! We also spent some time in the rain forest at an eco-lodge called Kapawi. Also could be a little pricey. There are several in Ecuador, and I’m sure there are others in Peru, Bolivia, etc. Didn’t quite spend enough time in the Andes. Quito is interesting, and the are quite a few smaller towns that have markets, most notably Otovalo. Check it out. The exchange rate is pretty good. Rather, pretty damn good.


It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers

I don’t speak any spanish so it was much harder for me in South America, at least in SE Asia everyone’s trying to speak english. Hell, in India without English the Indians wouldn’t be able to speak to one another. Singaporeans first language is English, Bahasa Indonesian is a very, very simple language (anak=child, anak anak=children, which leads to the following curious spelling: anak(2), meaning children ) and will serve you well in both Indonesia and Malaysia. Language really shouldn’t be a problem. On my first visit to Bangkok, you always had your pockets crammed with little snippets of paper with Thai script on them, the address of my hotel, the address of the embassy, post office, back then none of the drivers spoke English but within a few short years it had all changed.

The thing that will serve you best is a great appetite, you will be taken in again and again if you like to eat. It goes like this, in the west when people meet on the street they ask each other “How are you?”, and they don’t really care. In Asia when people meet on the street they ask (no joke) “Have you eaten?” and they really care, and if either answers not they go off to eat.

My first journey to SE Asia 15 yrs ago, it changed my world in a significant way. Maybe it was just the time in my life, who knows, but everything shifted in my perception and was never the same again. Of course, I began a course of travel in exclusively third world countries, I was rapt, drawn like a magnet.

If I could rewind the tape of my life to only one moment, it would be the moment I first stepped off a plane in Asia.

Sometimes when the weather is especially stinking hot & humid in the summer for several days running, and the ashphalt begins to put off a certain aroma,if you close your eyes you could be in Bangkok. Or after a summer rain when it’s so moist you can smell the soil, and the green of the plants even in the dusk, for all the world I can almost smell Bali.

I should soo go back to Asia, it’s been a long time for me.


“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.” Bob Dylan

BigDaddy, you could be the only person in this world that is as insane as I am. I’ve always wanted do due the Trans Siberia Railroad trek. I would looooove to see an unspoiled culture and landscape that has no Starbucks, Hard Rocks or McDonalds.

Alas, mula, time and lack of willing companions keep me from this. If you go, I expect a slew of postcards.

www.greentracks.com, I’m going to the Amazon before it disappears forever. Besides, you can’t get much more non-commercialized that that. I’ll be really surprised if i see a MickeyD’s on the whole trip. No phone, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe it’s as primitive as can be. Ring any bells?


“Gonna’ find my baby, gonna’ hold her tight. Gonna’ grab some afternoon delight. My motto’s always been when it’s right it’s right. Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night? When everythings a little clearer in the light of day. And we know the night is always gonna’ be here anyway.”

Shirley
I am now contemplating starting in Amsterdam. I haven’t done any research, but I’m geussing that it would take a good chunk of time.


It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers