Cape Cod - the combination of beach and quaint cottages, old bookstores, and little shops still gives me a warm fuzzy, as my parents took us there every summer growing up, 60’s into early 70’s.
Kissimmee - Celebration - Lake Buena Vista, FL:
Kissimmee is a city of about 35,000ish, just down the road from Orlando and right next door to Walt Disney World.
Celebration is a planned community that was at one time owned by Disney. Residents there have a “back door” into WDW - a private drive that allows them to get to WDW without having to drive on busy highways.
Lake Buena Vista is the town which hosts WDW’s mailing address. Accoring to wikipedia, it has all of 16 residents.
Either way, that’s where I’d love to live.
Daytona Beach, FL
I love the beach, I love the weather, and I actually (more ore less) like the town itself.
St. Augustine, FL
An absolutely beautiful city! It’s a bit further from WDW than I’d like to be, but it has an aesthetic advantage over Daytona Beach.
The Tennessee Valley. I used to live there, still have family there, and now that I am in Texas it always amazes me when I go bacK: it’s just so green, and so lush, and so soft. On the other extreme is the Blue Mesa area of Colorado and on up into the Black Canyon of the Gunnyson. There is just so much geology there: the contrasts between blue water and stark, eroded stone and stands of aspen is just remarkable.
Aside from current location, Crestone, Colorado near the Great Sand Dunes is my most fav spot on the planet. At the base of the Sangre De Cristo Mtns and just up the road from the Dunes…Just gorgeous.
-Tcat
I fell in love with Portland, Oregon. Mostly b/c of Powell’s but other things too.
I checked the job listings they had while I was there and I was qualified for a few and I so considered it. This was about 7 to 10 years ago.
The Pacific Northwest of the US is about the only place I’d relocate to from where I live. (I do love The Third Coast.)
Esfahan, Iran
Interlaken, Switzerland
North-western Rwanda
Male, Maldives
Luang Prabang, Laos
The western coast of Scotland- Gairloch. And the northern coast- Dunnett Head. Almost anywhere in Scotland.
The places that make my All-Star List are mostly big cities:
New York
San Francisco
Tokyo
Hong Kong (pre-1997)
Paris
And a few others:
Okutama, Japan
Sedona, Arizona
Athens, Georgia
Pass Christian, Mississippi (pre-Katrina)
Others will come to mind as soon as I click “Submit,” no doubt.
Kynance Cove, England – Only constant in my life, and a fantastic beach to boot.
Hatfield Park, England – Backdrop for many of my early memories
Anzac Bay (at Pio Shores), New Zealand – Scramble around the rocks, find a secluded place to smoke a joint and catch some fish with good friends.
Zürich, Switzerland – Where I spent my teenage years.
Flims-Laax-Valera, Switzerland – Overlooked ski resort with huge continuous area and long runs.
New York, New York – Only city I’ve ever liked.
San Francisco, CA
Santa Cruz, CA
Sedona, AZ
Yankton, SD
Key West, FL
Anna Maria Island, FL
To my previous post, I could add some cities that I’ve enjoyed; even been back to most of them:
London
Paris
Prague
Vienna
Bordeaux
Marseilles
Bern
Zermatt
Salzburg
Brussels
Rome (but not in summer)
Florence
Lisbon
Marvao
Obidos
Sintra
New York
San Francisco
Seattle
Portland
San Diego
Washington, DC
New Orleans (except for the heat)
All those tiny whitewashed villages perched on the hills and in the valleys throughout Europe.
I’d like to update my list, too.
The trip from Long Lake, NY, to Camden, ME, in 1998, took us across Vermont and New Hampshire by way of US 2. Some of the most beautiful countryside in the Eastern USA. Every picture postcard and calendar page of New England must have been photographed somewhere along that road. The way that rivers and streams run right beside the roadway, and how the little towns pop up suddenly and vanish, the majestic Green and White Mountains. It took that trip to convince me that even though the Smokies and Blue Ridge may have the tallest Eastern peaks, the upper extent of the Appalachians is just as grand.
We also saw the Adirondacks on that trip. Long Lake is right in the middle of them. I didn’t realize until then that roughly 1/3 of New York’s area is protected wilderness within the Adirondacks region. Further western New York state is also very picturesque, and reminds me a great deal of rural Middle Tennessee.
Manzanita, Oregon, with its fog, big empty beached, tide pools and rocks. I haven’t been there in years but, if it hasn’t changed too much, I’d live there.
Wapiti, Wyoming, between Cody and Yellowstone. Even more beautiful than the park, with cliffs, moose, eagles, grizzly bears, the Shoshone River, one decent restaurant and a population of about 10. God’s Country™.
Can I go back in time about 15 years? I can? Good, then
[~~~wavy lines signaling a flashback ~~~]
Issaquah, Washington. A cute as pie little silver mining town on Lake Sammamish, surrounded by three bumpy misty mountains that look like a Japanese painting. Not entirely out in the toolies (about 15 miles east of Seattle), but far enough away to feel like you are.
[~~~wavy lines signaling the end the rosy flashback ~~~]
It’s still a cute as pie little silver mining town, overrun with development – with horrible traffic, nutty prices, high taxes and all the other stuff that eventually happens to a cute as pie bedroom community.
Places I love:
Siesta Key off Sarasota, Florida
the Clifton section of Bristol, UK
Koblenz, Germany
Kensington in London
Cana, in the great Darién wilderness, on the border between Panamá and Colombia. Cana is the site of an ancient and now abandoned gold mine. It can be reached only by small charter plane (or a 3 -day trek by canoe and pack mule), and is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of dense rainforest. It has 4 species of macaws, Harpy Eagles, Jaguars, and Tapirs. I’ve been there 5 or 6 times, and hope to get back in a few months.
Some other places I’ve visited that are wonderful:
The Los Quezatles Cabins in Panama’s western highlands, small Swiss-style chalets in the middle of the cloud forest.
Macchu Pichu
Antigua, Guatemala
The Southern Alps of New Zealand, especially around Milford Sound.
I studied in Tokyo for 3 months this fall and I still miss it every single day.I’m from rural Oregon, and I always thought I just didn’t like cities that much… I was wrong.
I miss it the strange mixture of anonymity and stares that come from being a westerner in Tokyo. I miss the crowds of Shibuya–more people than I’ve ever seen in my life–and I miss the greenery that surrounded my own little suburban section of Tokyo. I even miss the ugly, dirty concrete everywhere, and the immense, often bizarrely shaped apartment complexes that dominated the train ride into Shinjuku. And oh, how I miss the trains. Public transportation that is actually convenient! For the first time, I understood those people who are obsessed with subway systems.
I miss Japanese-style Chinese food, cassis soda and ramen. I miss all the things that come along with living in a big city–concerts all the time, interesting stores, interesting people, culture and cuisine, and more beautiful people than Hollywood. I wasn’t there long enough for culture shock or a sense of isolation or homesickness to really set in, but I want to go back and see how long it takes.
Other places I like:
Edinburgh. I only spent about 5 hours there, but it was enough to know I’d like to see more. (My mom is from Glasgow, but it’s still not a particularly beautiful town, I’m afraid. I vastly preferred Edinburgh).
Other than that, I love the Oregon beach, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Too cold, too isolated, too expensive.
The Long Beach peninsula on the Washington coast. In about 10 years or so when I retire, that’s where I’m going.
Lake Shasta, California. I would love to rent a houseboat and float around the lake for a week or two.
For a big city, San Diego. I loved my time there when I was in the Navy. The Pacific Beach area was my favorite.
Even though I have been there about 20 times, I still like visiting Mt. Rainier National Park. It took a beating this past winter with heavy flooding then a destructive windstorm.
Here’s my Top Ten
Pagan, Burma: What seemed like 100’s of temples on a large plain and nobody
around. No fences or admission fees, just walk in.
Samorsir Is., Sumatra: The largest island on an island. Very low key “resort” with
friendly locals, beautiful scenery and warm weather.
Boracay Is, Philippines: The quintessential “Tropical Island”. Palm trees, blue
water, cheap food and huts right on the beach.
Ko Samui, Thailand: See Above. Every bit as nice as Boracay.
Varanasi, India: Much of this ancient city looks like it hasn’t changes in a
1000 years. The river bank where the masses bathe
and burn the dead is surreal.
Jaisalmer, India: This ancient sandstone fort in the middle on the Thar
Desert looks like a movie set from “Indiana Jones”.
Goa, India: A bit of Portugal on the west coast of India. Endless
white sand beaches, cheap food and places to stay.
Madurai, India: The huge ancient temple here allows non Hindus into the
“inner sanctum”. A truly other worldly experience.
Namche Bazaar, Nepal: A rather large town in the Mt. Everest area that is
unconnected to the outside world. The only way to get there
is on foot.
Banaue Rice Terraces, Phillipines: Huge 2,000 year old rice terraces still being used by the
locals.
Lahaina, Maui - just walking down the street at night is just so relaxing.
Columia River Gorge, Oregon - it must be included among the most spectacular places on Earth.
Disneyland, California - I will never, ever tire of Disneland, ever.
Hong Kong
The Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Sydney
Tien Giang Province, Vietnam
