I’d go to Sri Lanka. I’ve wanted to go there a long time actually.
I’d really like to go to London, England too, just for a few weeks to do museums! But tropical beaches always lure me elsewhere!
(Leaving for Cambodia in a week!:D)
Going to Alaska is super easy. If you want to see mountains and glaciers and wildlife and rivers and so on, there you go. Except Alaska isn’t just one place, the panhandle is one kind of place, the interior another, Anchorage another. Unless you’re super-dedicated you’re not gonna hit the Aleutians or the Bering Strait or the North Slope. Visit the interior in the winter if you want something different.
I grew up in Fairbanks Alaska, so it’s weird to see it as a “anywhere in the world” destination. It’s just a regular place.
Antartica…
But it gets worse.
The company i USED to work for…a few years after I left…had a project where that is exactly where they went for a month.
To add insult the injury I have a damn good idea of which of those people went and I would bet good money that every one of them hated every damn minute of it.
I want to go to the Maldives. I don’t care if it’s all resorts. Sleeping in a glass bottomed hut over the water and drinking all day sounds pretty good to me.
Yeah, Fairbanks is just regular, if you believe that temperature swings between summer and winter of as much as 150 degrees is ‘regular’, along with mosquitoes the size of a small airplane. 
I know a lady who just returned from 10 days in the Maldives with her husband. It was for their anniversary, and it’s where they had spent their honeymoon. She loves the place.
I came in here to say Iran and see that Desert Nomad already did. I’ve never been there, but for a long time I’ve wanted to go and meet the people behind all the stories in the news here in the states since the hostage crisis in the 70’s. I want to meet the people, walk the streets, have a meal with a typical Iranian family or three or four.
Denmark. Just interested because I’m half Danish.
Scotland. Lots of hills there you can hike. (They call it munro bagging.)
Maldives
Big Island, Hawai’i
New Zealand
Of all the places I’ve traveled, my two favorites were Chile and Prague.
In Chile we visited the Atacama in Northern Chile and then flew to Santiago, rented a car and drove all the way to the southernmost tip. The scenery is beyond incredible and the people outside of the big cities are curious, friendly, and wonderfully hospitable.
Prague is equally as beautiful a city as Paris, and far less crowded. It is the old world at its loveliest with unexpected influences from the Eastern cultures everywhere you look. The architecture is mixed, unusual, and lovely. Much of the old city survived the devastastion of WWII, so there is a distinct medieval feel. The museums are first rate, and the beer is unbelievably good. Prague is on my bucket list of places to go back to while I can still travel.
I loved Slovenia, Scotland, and Gibraltar, and would like to take my family to visit all three. Norway was nice, too, but bloody expensive.
Places I haven’t been to yet: Germany, Vienna, and Switzerland.
I visited Prague during Cold War days. It was my half-summer of bumming around Europe. Seemed like a nice city but I had no time to enjoy it, as I spent my entire time there looking for a place to stay. I hit it in August, which, as I learned, was a big vacation month in the Communist world and Prague a favored destination. I had a tent with me, but even the campgrounds were full up. After two days, I gave up and headed into Germany. I would like to explore the city for real.
Okay, I didn’t really answer the question.
On my ever-changing list right now are Brazil, Senegal, and Bhutan.
I’ll second “home”. I have absolutely no interest in traveling. I prefer the comforts of home.
any place which doesn’t have other people.
I am not sure why you want to leave the US. There are lots of hikes here in The States that are beautiful, many are not too difficult.
Back in my youth, my bucket list included hiking the entire Pacific Crest trail, The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, & The Great Divide Trail. The Great Divide Trail is in Alberta, & British Columbia, Canada. That would get you out of the US.
While not all of these trails are easy hikes, Parts of them are relatively easy. I hiked part of the Pacific Crest trail in 1978. That part of it was what I would call moderately difficult. I was on the trail for two weeks & covered a small portion of it.
There are folks who spend the entire summer hiking one of these trails. Many of them will hike as far as time & money allows. Then they take up where they left off the next summer. I met one fellow that had been hiking the Appalachian National Scenic Trail for three summers. He was on track to finish it last summer. Hmm, I will have to write him to see how it went.
There are lots of groups that do group hikes if you are into that. Google is your friend.
If I were a lot more affluent than I am (doing this thing is very expensive) – I would be greatly inclined to join one of the tourist groups which visit North Korea. The idea attracts me for the sheer weirdness of the experience; with, I suppose, an element of travel-snobbery – going to a place where very few people have been (or want to go). These tours are of course rigidly controlled and restricted, with virtually no chance for individual discovery or looking around. Nonetheless I’d find the whole thing interesting, even if in a somewhat nightmarish way; and from what I’ve read about these ventures – the actual North Korean guides, representing state officialdom, seem in the main to be decent sorts who cut their charges as much slack as they dare.
I’m here with a vote not for “where” but for “how.”
Any good on a motorcycle? Have a spare couple of grand you can tie up into a small bike?
Motorcycle adventure touring is increasingly popular, and there’s a massive support and advice structure. You don’t need much in terms of a bike, and all of your backpacking gear is already well suited to motorcycle travel.
Basically the entire western hemisphere is open to you, and more if you’re OK with shipping the bike.
I’ve had good experiences combining backpacking and motorcycling. It’s an economic way to travel. My bike gets about 50mpg at 75 mph, and there are some that will be in the 70mpg range on the highway.
One small piece of advice would be that you don’t need the $25,000 BMW GS. Nearly any bike capable of sustained highway speeds will be fine, and the cheaper the bike, the fewer preying eyes on it. The offroad requirements are overstated unless you go looking for trouble in the dirt.
I have read a ride report for a guy who did South America on a Suzuki Katana 600, and Nick Sanders famously chooses a Yamaha R1 race replica for his round the world trips.
Iran is one of the top countries on my “to visit” list. It has both gorgeous monuments and gorgeous landscapes, plus all the history and culture.
However, my own answer would be much less surprising : the Taj Mahal.