I’d have to say Florence, Italy. Beautiful city, great museums (featuring works like Bottacelli’s The Birth of Venus and Michaelangelo’s David) , not too crowded (in October, anyway) and GREAT FOOD! The drive up from Rome was fun too, there’s several great cities to visit (Sienna, Orvieto).
In the USA: I had a great time in New Orleans. More great food, and lots of live blues! What can you say about Bourbon Street except: “Woo Hoo!”
I haven’t done much travelling, but my favorite vacation was a cruise out of Miami to Key West and Cozumel. I got to snorkle for the first time in Key West, and we saw the ruins at Xel-Ha and Tulum. The actual cruise part was okay, too.
The next year, we went to Can Cun and saw Chichen Itza. I climbed the pyramid! (And I did not crawl back down, I walked.) We also went scuba diving for the first time, and I can’t wait to do that again.
Something about ancient civilizations has always fascinated me, and I hope to someday go to Egypt.
My week in Canada. I went to visit my good friend, CanadianSue. Nothing makes a great vacation like a wonderful hostess.
A week on Grand Cayman, diver’s paradise. Each day went like this:
Get up, quick b’fast, get gear, head to boat
two dives
return to shore, eat lunch
have sex with wife, nap
go shore diving
eat dinner
stroll along beach and/or night dive and/or hit nightspots (but don’t drink and dive)
go to bed, maybe more sex
repeat ad nauseum…which never occurs!
Close second was 2 months travelling in Europe in the early 80’s. did the France/Austria/Germany/Italy thing, but the turkey unforgettable part was going through parts of Eastern Europe when the Curtain was still up (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia). Aside from being eye-opening and culturally mind-expanding, seeing some beautiful places, and coming to see how a political system was sucking the life out of vibrant people …I got to be a demigod. Western musical influence was still only trickling in at that point. Now, I am absolutely the world’s worst dancer - high school friends would fall into apoplectic fits watching me before I wised up - but they apparently thought I was about as hip as one could get. I actually cleared dance floors from the Danube to the Dalmatian coast, and not because they couldn’t dance and laugh simultaneously. Ah, in the land of the blind, the myopic, retinal-damaged, sharp-stick-in-my-one-eyed man is king.
Off to Little Cayman in 2 wks, planning to follow the blissful itinerary above.
Shaky Jake
I always seem to prefer the most recent.
The last vacation I took was a week at the beach in western Michigan with my siblings. We didn’t really do much more than walk on the beach, shoot the breeze, and discover the joy of having a good ice cream parlor within walking distance.
Whenever I get any free time I personally perfer spending it with family or friends rather than travelling. If I didn’t have to work for a living, I’d travel a lot more, though.
My vacation in 1990 was the best ever.
Had 5 weeks in Europe. Spent 3 in Britain, visiting family in Scotland, travelled through England by train, stopping where the fancy took me, browsing old bookstores and antique shops, finding weird out-of-the-way museums, scientifically testing real ale pubs…
Then, my Scottish uncle loaned me a car, and I crossed from Stranraer to Larne, in Northern Ireland. Got lost in Belfast (many dead-end streets), crossed through a very heavy security border to the Republic, and did an 8-day driving tour round the whole island. Despite the fact that it was late April, the sun shone for 7 days straight (which the natives swore hadn’t happened since the Easter Uprising of 1916). Stayed off the beaten track in bed & breakfasts, which were uniformly clean, comfortable, and had a plastic Jesus on the wall. I have never eaten so well, been treated with greater friendliness, and generally met such wonderful people (they even outdid the highlanders of Scotland, my previous yardstick of graciousness). If God likes you, when you die he will send you to Ireland.
Dublin was the only big city I stayed in, as many bookstores as pubs, and all open quite late. The Murphy’s flowed like water (both in and out). I made a 40-mile detour to Limerick, just to send off a dozen postcards to friends in Canada, written in limericks, natch. Stayed in the village of Sneem, by the Ring of Kerry, peered anxiously over the Cliffs of Moher, arrived in Galway during market day, and perused the cows and magnificent horses, crossed back into the North on a deserted road, with an empty guard booth (a contrast from Belfast!). The only rain on the whole trip fell while I visited the Giant’s Causeway.
People, if you want a honeymoon, romantic holiday, or just want to get away from it all, forget your Hawaii, Mexico or other tropical paradises…put on a sweater and go to Ireland (or better yet, buy an Arran sweater while you’re there).
I then went back to Scotland, and flew out to Italy for a week. Did four days in Rome, hot, sweaty, noisy…but worth it to stroll the Forum, have a picnic lunch in the circus maximus, boggle at the scale of the Baths of Caracalla, and ogle some of the most beautiful (and well-dressed) women I have seen anywhere. Up to Florence, which was even better. As Soup said, the art galleries, the museums, the gold shops on the Ponte Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, and my God the food! The Italians know how to live and live well. There is nothing as relaxing as sitting down in a street restaurant at about 8 p.m., and taking three and a half hours to leisurely have dinner, with a couple of bottles of Chianti Classico (Gallo Nero) to sluice it down.
The nicest thing of all was that I did all this alone–just met new friends along the way, and had only the barest planned itinerary. Most relaxing vacation ever (except when I had my VISA card confiscated in Florence for being just over twice my limit. Worth every bloody penny, though!)
Jackson Hole, WY is, by far, the greatest place to good for a vacation…or to live. 'Course, if you don’t like skiing, snowboarding or snow in general in the winter, then maybe not. In the summer you are within an hour of Yellow Stone Nation Park for simply breathtaking scenery and the Snake River is nearby as well for some incredible whitewater rafting.
Jackson has some of the best snow, longest runs and most down-to-earth and friendly people you could hope to meet.
Mostly it’s the skiing though.
but we were decandent a few years ago, and spent 3 days in Vegas came back home for 1 day to go to a spa, then off to Scotland for 10 days. We drove around most of the coastline in a Ford Mondeo (like the Contour). We LOVED the terrain, B+Bs, people, sites, sounds, cities and towns.
It was one of the most relaxing and exhilerating vacations I have had. I dream of doing it again!
(not at the current price of petrol though, 85p/l!?!?)
Man, what a great question. I love traveling, so I have a hard time picking, but these would be up there:
3 days in northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes in August of '95. So much cool stuff to see and do. The Great Island Adventure Park in Cavendish, PEI is one of the most unique attractions we’ve ever been to; we just know we’re going to head back there some time.
2-week trip across the southern part of the United States in January of '96. Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, tried out for Jeopardy in L.A. (and ate the greatest ribs ever in L.A.), Space Center Houston, the Alamo, the French Quarter of New Orleans…the only reason it’s not the tops for me is because our car broke down, causing a week of frustration in Arizona.
2-week trip across the middle of the U. S. in June of '97. Yellowstone, Arches, Pike’s Peak, Graceland, the Gateway Arch, Churchill Downs and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And best of all, I actually got to see a Royals game in Kauffman Stadium (and they won, to boot)! And no mechanical breakdowns! Awesome!
3 days in Hawaii in November-December of '99. Beautiful scenery and flowing lava. Can’t get those anywhere else.
One week in the Pacific Northwest this March. Seattle, Vancouver and dogsledding in Alaska, seeing moose walking around outside out Anchorage motel. I saw Mount Ranier looming above the city of Seattle and decided that that’s the definition of the word “majestic.” And then I saw Alaska, and I immediately changed my mind.
A couple of years ago I spent Christmas in Dakar, Senegal with my family (Mom, kiffa, our brother and their families). It was wonderful to be together (a rarity for us) and to see sights I normally don’t see. We went to Djoujd, a wildlife preserve and and my birdwatching brain nearly overloaded with all the new species. Fishing, new food, new sounds - a very great trip!
The last trip was to the Everglades in Florida with my friend to go birding and just relax. Here’s the pics of some animals we saw. I fell in love with gumbo limbo trees and the Keys. It was a terrific trip because we went there specifically to do nothing.
Recently, the best vacation I’ve been on was camping out at Abbott’s Magic Get-Together in Colon, MI. This past year was probably the best year I’ve had out there as Jeff McBride from Las Vegas was the headliner. Talk about fun!
"I have seen the ruins of Rome, I’ve been in the igloos of Nome . . . "
Oops, sorry, I was having a “Follies” flashback . . . I think one of the prettiest and most exotic places I’ve ever been is Portmeirion, in Wales on the coast of the Irish Sea. It’s a bizarre village built from bits and pieces of demolished Stately Homes of England (it was used in the 1960s TV series “The Prisoner”). If you stay as a guest in the hotel, you get to wander the streets of the village aftyer all the day-trippers have ben locked out. It’s very eerie and romantic and a little hallucinogenic.
Not surprisingly, it has its own Web site: http://www.virtualportmeirion.com/
Just did it last week. A 4 day cruise on the Mystic Whaler. Best mental therapy around:
When ask this question, I like to respond, " The next one."
I have never taken a vacation that I didn’t like.
Not even the ones where I threw up for hours and hours because of altitude sickness.
In closing, I would like to leave you with a reworked tired cliche: There is no such thing as a bad vacation, only bad travelers.
There are “veg out and bask” vacations, and then there are do something vacations…
The one from the latter category: I’d do again tomorrow, given the chance, was rafting (oar, not motor) the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There were long stretches of dozing on the raft, watching all that grandeur drift past, reading, chatting w/ companions…lazy peace. (Sigh.)
Then the pure, unadulterated adreneline rush of rapids; HUGE rapids, where the whole world came down to walls of roiling, cold green water; the sound of the river like an express train in a tunnel and pure sensation.
Absolute, stunning, perfect beauty; side canyons with unbelievably delicate mosses and waterfalls and pure, hard rock.
Ruins, and black night skies so filled with stars I finally understood “starlight” and the fury and majesty of anvil head storms hurling lightning down on us.
Guess I’m not very civilized. But I loved it, every minute of it. (The food was great, btw; the beer chilled in the river and Scotch shared after slamming through the big rapids: Hance, Horn Creek, Lava Falls…damn, I want to do it again!)
Veb
I think my happiest vacations always centered around visiting relatives in Iceland. It’s beautiful, and I just am happy up there. I think I want to be cremated and buried there, or maybe I’ll give myself as a “gift” in an urn to a friend.
-The Shadowed One-
When I take vacations (which is rarely), I generally go water-skiing!
But the best vacation was 15 years ago, when I went to Hawaii. Snorkleing in Hunauma Bay, whale watching trips (no whales to see, but dolphins and lots of other stuff), seeing an actual volcano, swimming in blue water, great food and the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen. And it was always warm, even at night, but never felt hot.
The only problem was the huge, hairy spiders.
I love most of my vacations, (travel is VERY important to me) but a few stand out:
The cross-country trip we took when I was 15, across the entire US in our car. Took a month. Wow. The first time I EVER saw it snow (I’m from L.A.) was in Jackson Hole. (And I still have fond feelings about Yellowstone/Grand Tetons.)
The last vacation we took with my dad. (He died suddenly about 6 months later.) We just went up the California coast, but spent half a day in the Ave of the Giants (about 30 miles of redwoods in a long meandering road.) I did a painting of the redwoods while my dad just sat and enjoyed the trees. We also rode on the Skunk Train (Willits CA) among the redwoods. My dad, the train buff, was in 7th heaven.
The cross-country trip I took on the Amtrack Train. From Pasadena, Chicago, Washington DC, down to Atlanta, New Orleans, back to Pasadena. It was wonderful.
The last few years I have taken nice long drives up the Calif. coast. Up Hwy 101, up Hwy 1, through the Ave. of the Giants, on the coast, up to Northern California and the coast and redwoods. Just by myself, taking my time, stopping when I feel like it, taking detours when I feel like it. It is just wonderful. I’m doing it again in October.
And, how can I not mention Yosemite National Park?!? Every trip there is a favorite.
They’ve gotten bigger, spooje. And hairier. 
My best vacation: Lake Tahoe, December 1993. It was beautiful. I didn’t want to leave. Ever.
Most of my family vacations growing up were spent on Shelter Island, NY. My father has a cottage there, which he now rents for the season. But during my childhood, that’s what vacation meant; two weeks on the Island. It is still a beautiful place, quiet, mostly unspoiled and infintely serene. To me, it is a place not only of rest but of healing.
Most recently, and since I’m an adult and can actually choose where I want to go, I would say Cooperstown. We can’t afford to travel a lot or go further than a car will take us. But Cooperstown offers a lot (especially to a baseball fan) and still mostly maintains a small town charm beyond the crass commercialism of Main Street. You can walk around early in the morning or late at night and feel safe (unless you’re wearing a Yankees cap and come upon a contingent of revelers from Boston).
Shelter Island and Cooperstown. Two beautiful places in New York State that I love.