Hi Dopers, as I stare at the nearly two feet of snow outside hoping that it doesn’t pulverize the car as it falls off the roof I cannot help but daydream of nicer climates. Where are some of the favorite places that you’ve been? Traveling is one of my favorite things and I’ve been lucky to be able to do it a lot, but I’m always daydreaming about the next trip. Any recommendations?
Can you narrow it down a bit more? Domestic or international? For excitement or relaxation? Nightlife or scenery?
For small, relaxed tropical island feel I like it here in Grand Cayman. But San Andres, Colombia feels more Caribbean to me.
The verdant, eye popping green of the valley of La Florida, Risaralda department, Colombia is surreal. La Florida is just southeast of the department capital of Pereira. And just north of Pereira are the thermal springs at Santa Rosa de Cabal. Simply amazing.
When there was still a train, I rode down to Girardot, so I can see where you are coming from. Colombia might be the most underrated tourist destination in the world. Wonderful people, too.
We traveled to New Zealand 20 years ago to visit my wife’s parents. I loved it.
Every fall I spend a long weekend with lifelong friends and my trusty fly rod fishing for trout below the Beaver Dam outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
When I met my gf I learned she had visited St Martin for twenty consecutive winters. I joined her that winter and for the following ten including this January. This year we were there mainly to support the island’s rebuilding process after Irma. #SXM STRONG
There’s a little island off the coast of Cambodia that is seared in my memory. I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of travelling too, and have many favorite places. But this spot was truly extra special.
No cars, roads, or motorbikes, only foot paths. No electric, only solar. Accommodations are beyond basic, but the beach is beautiful. The food is wonderful and surrounding jungle a trip.
But when the sun goes down, on a moonless night, the ocean becomes alive with bioluminescent plankton, it’s beyond amazing to see and experience. (It won’t last, development into large resorts is already slotted for five years from now!)
The island is called Ko Rong Samloem (not to be confused with the larger and widely touristed Ko Rong!). The leeward side is filled with high end resorts, with many amenities etc. But the windward side is as I’ve described and a truly enchanting spot to visit.
Favorite outdoor place: Breckenridge, Colorado. You can walk to trailheads from your hotel room and there are even tiny trails in the city itself.
Favorite touristy place: London. Good combination of outdoorsy parky stuff and monumental-type stuff.
Favorite nightlife: I don’t know as I’m sort of an introvert and I have to be around a place a lot to know good places to go. I guess I’d pick Washington D.C. as it has very good customer service and good restaurants (although London has these as well).
Favorite place I’d like to live that I also like to visit: Salt Lake City. It isn’t overly expensive, it has all the benefits of good suburbs – spacious roads and good sidewalks, and the benefits of a metropolis – public transportation, cultural draws, concert venues – and has mountain trails adjacent to and comingling with the residential areas.
My favorite without a doubt is Hawaii. I totally fell in love with the island of Kauai. It isn’t overpopulated and tourist invested like other parts of Hawaii, and its beauty is unparalleled. A number of movies have been filmed there for just that reason.
In 1986, I had to spend a week in Honolulu for medical reasons (kidney stone removal). The procedure was performed on Monday. By Thursday, I was stir-crazy in the hotel room, so I got the car and started to drive around the island. On the way, I stopped at Waimea Falls Park and wound up sitting on a bench there for a couple of hours.
For all the travelling that I have done and places that I have seen, that was the most incredibly beautiful place of the bunch. I wish I could go back.
Thailand every year in February to escape the crappy cold weather in DC.
I’ve done a lot of traveling, but these are my favorites:
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Serengeti Plain, Tanzania
Okavango Delta, Botswana
Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe
Denali National Park, Alaska
Mesa Verde Nat’l Park, Colorado
Antelope Canyon, AZ
Bryce and Zion Nat’l Parks, Utah
Katmai National Park & Preserve, Alaska
Prague, Czech Republic
Rome and Florence, Italy
I’ve never been to Mesa Verde although I am planning on it this May. I have been to Bandelier National Monument and the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico both of which are nice in that sort of way.
St. Kitts and Nevis were both great, especially after three weeks at sea. I wonder if Nevis has gone all touristy since Hamilton became such a thing. Go to Sunshine’s Bar and Grill on Pinney’s Beach and order the Killer Bee; four of those and you tell the Second Mate she has beautiful eyes.
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is much more secluded than the South Rim. I like the bottom, too, but it’s a bear to get to.
And I hear Costa Rica is very nice.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We got married there, and I always get a kick out of seeing the Malencon and John Huston’s statue, which always has a cigarette in his fingers. The people are friendly, and the food is phenomenal! Also, Tamarind Margaritas!
Sedona, Arizona/ Red Rocks and Cloudcroft, New Mexico tie for my favourite places in the US.
Cathedral Grove, on Vancouver Island. If Nature has a church, this is it.
I also love Copenhagen, Denmark. It has lovely scenery, lots of history and you can see the whole city by water taxi which is pretty cool. The bonus is that Legoland is nearby and that is well worth the trip to feed my inner 8 year old.
Been to some of the above, so I’ll mentions some others:
Galapagos Islands: Takes a while to get there, it’s expensive, but they keep the numbers down (no 3,000-passenger liners there) and the wildlife is…astounding.
Machu Piccu: Simply amazing, combined with the ruins outside Cuczo (very under-noted, IMHO)
For cities, if you can’t find something interesting in London, you simply aren’t trying.
Going to China (hopefully) this year, so I may have some new favorites when it is done.
Not sure about a nicer climate in the winter, but in the summer, Sweden is ridiculously gorgeous. That country is so pretty, you’ll get angry at it.
Temperatures don’t get crazy high, and the evenings are cool in the summer, with gentle breezes.
Winter, though… As anywhere. (Sometimes snow is as high as 10 feet!)
For fun, I married this guy once. This is how they graduate high school. 
This was months before I got there, though.
Budapest is my home away from home so there. I’ve always long meant to get back to Scotland. I spent a couple months on the west coast in the county of Argyll, and would love to get back there. It’s one of those places that keeps popping up in my (literal) dreams.
To be honest, though, there’s no place I’ve ever traveled to that I wouldn’t want to go back to, so I don’t really have a high bar.
As cliff dwellings go, these are well preserved and protected. It’s a beautiful setting. You might try Hovenweep in SW Colorado, also. It’s not as heavily visited, as it’s off the main road a way. The ruins are in a box canyon, with an easy hike around the rim, but you can’t get up close to most of the cliff dwellings like you can at Mesa Verde.