What’s the best place you’ve travelled to?

[Ori21]

Like most people I have a little bucket list. I enjoy travelling, seeing new places & cultures, & I hope to do more of it later on in life when the kids are bigger. What’s the best place you’ve been to & why?

I’d love to go back to Pompei one day. I’d love to see some of the Scottish Highlands. Just for the scenery alone.

@1starwars2 I was going to say Syria. I went before it all kicked off but got ill and had to come home early. Ah well, I thought, it’ll still be there in a few years’ time and I can go back and see the bits I missed. Like Palmyra. And Aleppo.

Most memorable,in a good way, have been Egypt (20 years ago), South Africa (Cape Town and Winelands), Thailand, Greece (any bit!), Venice and British Colombia in Canada.

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool I really hope there's something left to visit of Palmyra, it was beautiful.

Venice. Hands down. Pompeii, Rome, Lucca, Lake Garda. Pretty much anywhere in Italy except Naples.

Aurora chasing at the northernmost point of Finland and Norway. Nothing will ever compare to it.

Which is the safest country in Africa to visit?

For me I love the south of France.

Galway and the surrounding area was lovely, went there for an arts festival which was brilliant.

Canada is my favourite place ever though, the landscape has so much variety and is beautiful beyond belief, even the boring bits are impressive. And the people are fantastic. It is a really easy place to visit - safe, great transport, great food, loads to do outdoors, interesting cities.

Sri Lanka

The beaches in Thailand are like something out of a dream. Just stunning.

Standing on the cliff at Tintagel, trying to imagine people living there is very cool.

Hawaii is like the Disney-version of tropical island. All the American mod-cons, but with breathtaking landscapes.

@Kendodd we have that booked for August of this year ... waiting to see if it can go ahead, but not very optimistic. We're US citizens, so in theory we're 'allowed' to go there, but with the possibility of vaccine passports, expensive tests and quarantine I'm not holding my breath!

Putting in a massive shout for South America here. Buenos Aires is an amazing city to visit, and Patagonia (southern Argentina and Chile) is breathtaking. Also been to Peru, which is equally amazing.

New Zealand pretty much has it all as a destination; beaches, mountains, glaciers, vineyards, thermal springs... I could go on.

This thread is a wonderful but rather torturous reminder of how much I love to travel, how much I've missed it, and how much I can't wait to do it again!

Oh, and closer to home - I appreciate it's a bit of a cliche/popular destination, but the beaches on the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall are definitely my happy place.

One of the most amazing out of my comfort zone trips was an overland from Cape Town to Vic Falls though Namibia and Botswana. I also love Japan, Oman (the people are lovely) and Turkey (lived there for a couple of years and try and get back to catch up with people).
Rather jealous of those who managed to get to Syria, I can imagine it must have been fabulous. I managed to get to Yemen and Libya and find it sad to look back at these places as they used to be knowing how much has been destroyed.

Tokyo.
Utterly wonderful and mind-blowing, a totally 'different' experience, but at the same time felt utterly safe.
(I've been to many many countries that are totally 'different' of course, in West and North Africa, the Middle East but not Dubai and some felt erm, less safe than others. Tunis, for example. Hanoi was also mind blowing and exciting but terrifying, it took courage to cross the street! )
Cuba -- fascinating, sad, but safe too.

Venice. Perhaps my favourite place ever.
New Zealand, the other end of the world but some of the scenery looks so familiar yet some looks like another planet.
Shanghai and Xian were incredible, not a fan of Hong kong or Beijing.
Luxor in Egypt is like a museum, the temples are stunning. The Pyramids in Giza, not so much - basically a rubbish dump.

Chichen itza in Mexico was another high point along with Tulum and swimming underground in a cenote was mind blowing.
I adore our Lake district, especially away from the main touristy areas.
The Highlands are stunning but made me feel uneasy, Loch ness / Fort William and Culloden in particular.
Top of my to-do list is Japan.

Tokyo. The city itself is amazing, like nowhere else I have been, but there are tons of places nearby to do as day trips that get you out in nature. So many amazing foods. The shopping is on another level. It’s really safe, people even leave laptops and handbags outside cafes when they go in to order and they’re still there when they get back! I love it so much I’ve been back a few times. I have been to other areas of Japan (I felt Kyoto was vastly over rated tbh) but Tokyo is my favourite.

katscamel we were planning a fairly long trip to Syria in 2011, to Damascus, Palmyra and Aleppo when my DM got sick and we had to cancel and lost the chance.
I still massively regret that.

The Philippines. Phenomenal!

I'm planning a big overland trip when my youngest leaves school (6 years time!) inspired by 'Race Across the World'. Was hoping I could just set of from here in my 1lt Citroen but the practicalities of importing and exporting a car look too difficult.

I love Thailand and Mexico long haul, both so easy, great food, so much to see and do as well as great beaches. I love Italy and Spain short haul, although we went to Turkey a couple of years ago and that was amazing too.
In the UK I love Snowden and surrounding area, absolutely beautiful and keeping my fingers crossed that we might be able to go again in the not too distant future.

Absolutely desperate to be able to travel again.

Barbados. It's beautiful!

@Meruem

Tokyo. The city itself is amazing, like nowhere else I have been, but there are tons of places nearby to do as day trips that get you out in nature. So many amazing foods. The shopping is on another level. It’s really safe, people even leave laptops and handbags outside cafes when they go in to order and they’re still there when they get back! I love it so much I’ve been back a few times. I have been to other areas of Japan (I felt Kyoto was vastly over rated tbh) but Tokyo is my favourite.

Agree with this! Here is a picture of all the commuters bikes left unchained while they went to work! This was November 2019 and desperate to go back. I did love Kyoto too!

Our favourite was Australia - seeing lots of dolphins and whales, Sydney, then Great Barrier Reef, tree kangaroos, possum, pademelon, bettong, platypus, kangaroos, crocs, wallabies in the wild in Queensland and rainforest at Daintree.

Within Europe favourite would be Lapland and been there in summer to see brown bears in the wild and winter to do husky / reindeer rides, father Christmas etc.

Would also recommend Costa Rica for rainforest, ziplines and wildlife.

Belfast and around the north Antrim coast into Donegal and around the Wild Atlantic Way to Donegal town. Then across Fermanagh back to Belfast. Over 2 weeks. In a (rare) August heatwave so it never rained. Was the best road trip ever. Just me and DH about 5 years ago.

Syria / Lebanon, South Africa, Myanmar, Borneo and Japan for me.
Short haul, Tuscany.

My favourites are The Seychelles and the Pembrokeshire coast. Also the Ngoro Ngoro crater in Tanzania and Zanzibar really stand out.