Flying just sucks of course. My Wife and I drive a lot. In fact, she’s leaving in three days to drive to Pittsburgh to see her Mom. Gonna be about a 3 thousand mile round trip. No big deal.
My Wife REALLY wants to go to Hawaii. I’m sort of indifferent about it. At best. We’ve been to Mexico about 5 times, Belize and Costa Rica too. It’s a lot cheaper and closer to head south than West over the Pacific. I mean, if she want’s to do the Pacific Island thing, let’s REALLY do the Pacific island thing. Something a little exotic.
We’ve been on one cruise. I can guarantee that isn’t going to happen again. Bad food, bad crowds, and you have to stick to other peoples schedule. All I can say is thank god we got the drink package.
If I was to suddenly lose my mind and decide to get on a plane to leave the country, the bottom of my list would be India, or anywhere else in Southeast Asia. Muggy, buggy, snaky, hot, crowded and dirty. No thanks. In the US, the same applies to places like Mississippi, Alabama, etc., even though some of the previous descriptives don’t apply. I’ve been to Louisiana and Florida when it’s summer, and don’t care to ever return.
None of the Asian countries, especially the Middle East - I’d probably starve, crowded
India (I know it’s considered Asia) - When I see pictures, I can’t believe anyone would want to go there. The garbage and filth are unbelievable. I’m sure not all of it is like that, but that’s all I’ve seen. And I’d starve.
No Third world locations - I’d starve, crowded, dirty
Nowhere cold - I get enough cold right here
Las Vegas - holds no interest for me
New York City - seems crowded and confusing
Mexico - no thanks
Theme parks - they’ve lost their appeal since I’ve become older
Africa
I guess I’m opposed to going anywhere that is dirty, has questionable food and food prep, bad water, unclean living conditions in general.
This states my own views so accurately that I can only think of one thing to add to it: Party Resorts (though I suppose I’m just expanding on the concept of Las Vegas). My personal vision of hell - stuck in a Mediterranean island resort full of bars, discos and loud youth hell bent on fun.
This reminds me. All inclusive resorts. Like being a very pampered farm animal - I can eat all day, but I’m stuck in the same field the whole time. And too many kids dive-bombing the pool. Cruises are the Ellis Island of All Inclusive resorts.
Well, you’ve finally met someone who couldn’t agree more, especially on New Zealand. There’s is just no way I’m flying halfway around the world (I’m in Europe) for a bigger version of Scotland/Norway and rain.
I wouldn’t go to the Caribbean. Too homophobic.
Same for most of the Middle East, plus strict alcohol laws most places.
And the same goes for a lot of Africa.
I highly doubt I’d ever do an all inclusive or a cruise. I might consider it if it was a gay themed one and I was simply too busy to do a lot of travel planning.
Well, maybe for a long time we stuffy northern types have been maligning and mischaracterising the poor Italians. There comes to mind a bit of doggerel produced by Hilaire Belloc, well over a hundred years ago: supposedly listing the perceived various European (sub?)-races of humanity, in order of general worthwhileness – stuff which is in present-day perception, horrendously racist / xenophobic. Reaching the bottom of his list:-
“The most degraded of them all,
Mediterranean we call.
His hair is crisp, and even curls,
And he is saucy with the girls.”
I’d seem to have more use for both countries, than you do (I’ve never been there, by the way) – I’m keenest on nature’s beauties and marvels, and happy to let cultures be however they are. However: most of what I hear overall about Australia, attracts me; but – gut reaction, not claiming to be a matter of particular logic or making of sense – I instinctively feel rather “meh” about New Zealand.
I put this down in part – and I realise it’s pretty ridiculous – to the reactions of a hero of mine, the late zoologist Gerald Durrell. Nearly sixty years ago, he visited NZ and Aus., to see and film wildlife; subsequently wrote a book about the trip. Durrell was a rumbustious, larger-than-life character: Australia and its general “mores” would seem right up his street, and he indeed fell in love with it from first landfall there. He visited New Zealand first; and while he revelled in the various creatures there, and is duly appreciative and grateful re the aid and hospitality of assorted local naturalist-types – he didn’t much take to society there as he found it, and it comes across in the book: NZ struck him as a rather dull, prissy, inhibited kind of place. (Although that was many decades ago; likely things there, are now highly different from then.)
Oh Lordy, yes. Never been, never will, but have fleetingly seen those travel documentaries where families descend on the dining room and stuff their faces until they can’t eat any more; and then repair to the bar and drink until they can’t stand up. And never leave the resort hotel. And my loathing of this is at least partly because I know I could do that if you placed it in front of me. Shudder
I’ve been there. As holes in the ground go, it’s pretty big.
Some people just have no aesthetic sense, am I right? I’m one of them. Majestic mountains = big piles of rock. (Until somebody wants me to climb one, at which point majestic mountains = justification for murder.)
Go in November to Italy- no europeans have holidays then. It was empty enough that I was able to do the Vatican museum with two breaks to go outside for a bite to eat and just walk back in and the line was at max 5 ppl long. Colloseum was a bit busy but calling it a queue would be a streatch. We had St. Mark’s “courtyard” in Venice with maybe 20 ppl in it in the late afternoon. The weather was nicer than 90% of the continental U.S. for that time of year- absolutely not hot but certainly not cold.
Now that being said, I’ve been there 3 times around thanksgiving and once mid-July. And I would pick mid-July. Yes it is hot, but the colors and life is amazing. The markets, the tourists are lively. You won’t see as much, but be first in line in the morning, relax somewhere pleasant from 11-3, go to another destination before closing as the crowds start to thin, and stroll the streets back to your apartment in the evening. Venice, central Rome, Florence clear out the rubbish tourists by late afternoon. Italy is magical in summer.
Also, we have plenty of natural beauty in Italy. For example, the Dolomites are only about three hours away from Venice, and that’s just one examples of the many varied landscapes that Italy has to offer. It’s not only Renaissance art and amphitheatres.
Some of you seem to think all of Asia is a cesspool. Hey, if you don’t want to visit, no problem. But there are plenty of places in Asia where the air is clean, the food is delicious (and sanitary), the views are stunning, the people are friendly, the streets are clean, the architecture is charming, the crime rate is lower than in comparable US cities, and the price is right.
As for me, I don’t care to visit Nigeria, Liberia, Somalia or DRC. Or any failed state/war-torn region. Just because. And probably not the Maldives, beautiful though they are, because it seems that the economy/tourism culture there is kind of rotten at the core. No cruises, no theme parks, no place cold (though I had a fabulous time on two trips to Saraselka, Finland, above the arctic circle in the dead of winter).
India. Hot, filthy, crowded, and unsafe for women. Even The Amazing Race, which highlights the counties they visit and makes people want to travel, could not make India look appealing.
Ever watch fireworks on TV? Ever watch 'em in person? Not nearly the same on TV. That’s what I feel about looking of pics of places to travel vs. traveling somewhere.
As for my no list -
[ul]
[li]All inclusives where you never get to leave a few acres.[/li][li]Hate, hate, hate lying on a beach, getting sunburned & sand sticking to you in places nothing should be. Actually got a doctors note to not go on a beach vacation a couple of years ago; sprained ankle & sand is contraindicated. I was happier staying home & working instead.[/li][li]Places with long queues. Mid-summer day in an amusement park, no thanks. Opening hour(s) in the fall, sure. Though I can’t take the roller coasters like I used to. One weekend of no lines & the corresponding massive amount of G’s broke me. :([/li][li]Any ‘highlights’ tour - ie. “Here’s the Mona Lise, okay, let’s go see the Eiffel Tower, then to an American style restaurant for dinner before departing for the next location.” My most memorable travel experiences are where I wondered off the from the typical touristy street & saw something unique &/or ate at a ‘Point-&-Pray’ - point to something on the menu & pray that I like it even though I don’t really know what it is. Although I’d try a Mickey D’s in India to see what they serve since it’s not Big Macs, the purpose of travel isn’t to eat/do the same things I can do at home.[/li][li]Anywhere w/o a relative degree of safely making it out. Iran, Mexico, Da Hood in Chicago, etc.[/li][li]Ireland - Just. No. Desire.[/li][/ul]