What should I put on my Bucket List Top 5 places ?

[Talios]

I’m recently retired, early 50s, very fit and active. I’ve decided to draw up a top 5 inspirational places to visit with the aim of doing them in the next 10 years.

So I’m looking for suggestions, preferably personal/recommended specific places to visit or things to do (so not a general “do an African safari”), or somewhere unusual or breathtaking.

NOT looking at Europe (unless it’s an unusual or not well known fabulous place) and NOT Australia/NZ.
I have reasonable budgets but nothing extortionate like £30k for Antarctica!

Things I love:

Wildlife (on land and under water)
Adventurous and outdoorsy
Amazing scenery
A little history/culture but not the main driver

Things I’m not interested in:

Food and wine
Fancy hotels (unless there’s more to the place that the hotel)
Cruises (unless it’s a smaller boat somewhere special )

Provisionally on my list is:

Diving with manta rays (any specific recommendations welcome as there’s several places in the world, I’m a certified diver)

Visit/ canoe up the Amazon jungle probably Brazil or Guyana

So any suggestions what else I can add?

Ditto South Luangwe. We saw so many big cats. If you are into photography you might enjoy staying with Shenton Safaris (at Mwamba and the smaller, more rustic, Kaingo). The hippo hide is fab (if a bit noisy and smelly being so close to the hippos). We combined this with a hotel at the Falls and then joined a plane charter over to beautiful little Kaya Mawa on the island of Likoma on Lake Malawi.

In Namibia, my absolute favourite thing would have to be 4 days we spent heading up the coast/interior with Skeleton Coast Safaris. It is easy to drive around most of the country in a standard car. Use the government rest camps to keep the budget under control in the National Parks.

For Mantas, the far south of Baa Atoll in the Maldives had plenty in our winter (I just snorkelled as it was only about 10 metres deep). We stayed at a place called Coco Palm (this was probably 20 years ago), which is/was some distance from most other resorts. The dive boat just took about 10 of us out and the Manta were very curious (and massive!). We've always chosen resorts with house reefs so I could just amuse myself snorkelling. The young turtles usually had favourite 'grazing spots'/routines and I love listening to parrot fish (and admiring picasso fish).

Whale sharks we saw in May off the coast of Belize (also look at the blue hole), which was easy to combine with a short stay in the interior to look at ruins and temples.

I think the key with most of this is to find yourself a specialist travel agent. I am a fan of smaller groups/hotels and a dedicated reader of Bradt Guides to help us plan. We've met some lovely guides and guests in our travels.

Have fun planning

I would try and find some proper winter wilderness. Probably in lapland or Alaska.

Have you thought about doing an Earth Watch expedition?

earthwatch.org/expeditions/browse

Vancouver Island is a magical place, especially the western Pacific Rim coast. We did a small boat trip out of the fishing town of Ucluelet and saw bald eagles, hump back whales, sea lions and sea otters in the first 30 mins!

Would love to go back and explore the northern tip of the island.

@gettingolderbutcooler the need for a full US visa including an interview in London, puts me off Cuba (don’t live in England).

We’ve done several Safaris (South Africa/ Kenya/Zimbabwe/ Botswana) so that’s why this isn’t currently on my list although I do like the thought of seeing the gorillas.

Are you able to say which country/your nearest Intl airports are OP? That will make some journeys easier than others.

For example we used to fly down to Namibia via Frankfurt and have gone down to Mauritius from Paris simply because it avoided annoying connections later on in the journeys. Getting over to Latin/Central America I would definitely go via Spain or Portugal to avoid the faff in the USA (we nearly missed a connection in Atlanta, even though we'd allowed 4 hours).

This is the sort of thing a decent travel agent will tell you.

How about a California / Nevada road trip? We flew into Las Vegas and did Vegas stuff for a few days, including a trip out to Lake Mead & the Hoover dam, then a helicopter trip into the Grand Canyon. We then picked up a convertible hire car & drove through the desert & down into Death Valley, then up over the mountains into Yosemite. A few days there, then we drove on to San Francisco then down the Pacific Coast Highway via Carmel, Monterey, Santa Barbara etc. We didn’t have time to do LA, Malibu, San Diego etc. Maybe next time?

@Madcats we usually fly via London (as we get British Airways Avios flights to keep the cost down). Means travelling to London the night before and stay in an Airport hotel. We have very limited options from our regional airport.

Although there are issues at the moment, we absolutely loved Peru, the Amazon was incredible as was Machu Picchu and Lake Titicacca, so much to do.

we loved Cambodia, Canada- both the Rockies and Vancouver island and the west coast. Boat up to great bear rainforest was awesome too.

we actually booked flights to Ecuador for this October but after reading the FCO website cancelled them, Ecuador seems a bit risky to me atm. We’re off to Jordan this year which looks fabulous.

places on my list are Namibia, Iceland, Chile, Belize. Omg so many places to see, hope you have a fabulous time planning and doing!

@Holidayqueen1 thanks, it is great fun but also a tad stressful albeit in a good way.
I'm determined that these will be my 5 trips of a lifetime , and equally determined that they will be done before I die! I’ve agreed with my kids that any I don’t manage, the baton will be passed to them as part of their inheritance!

I did consider Ecuador/Galapagos, may still make the list, I wasn’t aware that Ecuador was on the dodgy list. That sort of trip I would do as part of an organised tour rather than independent booking, I do both dependent on where we are going.

Sri Lanka. Do a tour. Candy sigyra and end with a Beach blew me away.

Congost. In Spain. Possibly the most amazing walk i have ever done. Beautiful. You can walk one way and kayak back.

Malaysia. (Not KL)

Sorry if someone's already said this but Vietnam! Specifically ha long bay and also Hoi An. Ho Chi Minh and Dalat are fabulous too.

Possibly a but too close to home, but Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris is stunningly beautiful.

I would definitely add the south western USA - Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. So many fabulous national parks - Arches, Bridges, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Death Valley, Mesa Verde.

Or a road trip from Vancouver to San Diego.

Langkawi in Malaysia is beautiful @ihatethecold

@IntentionalError that’s another road trip that I want to repeat. Are they still letting you go down to the turbine hall in Hoover Dam? I loved Hearst Castle on that trip too.

This looks amazing. Im definitely bookmarking this website

I know you said no Europe but please consider the volcano of Stromboli, just 2 hours on a boat from Sicily. It is mindblowing, it erupts constantly and the island is so untouristy, there are no cars and all you can hear at night are the sound of the waves and the rumbling of the volcano. There are no street lights so the stars are unreal and you can hike up the volcano. My most favourite place on the planet!

Writing this from Costa Rica , it's full of biodiversity and changing landscapes and really easy to get around, expensive though!

Ecuador is compact and feels like a microcosm of the continent, but having travelled the length of South America, its the place we had the most issues with petty crime. It's totally worth it to get to Galapagos.

My two favourite places in the world have been iguassu falls (both sides) and Tikal in Guatemala. Countries I have loved, Colombia, Laos

Chile has loads to offer in terms of landscapes, Atacama is incredible.

Still on my list: Japan, Iceland and seeing whale sharks somewhere

For Madagascar I recommend a G adventures tour. They are small group tours with a local guide. Normal the groups have a wide age range, singles and couples, and naturally all have some common interest as they have chosen same trip! Definitely worth trying this type of trip if you haven't before, as you do get to see and experience so much. And there are normally a few options you can choose and add on days at either end of the tour. The trip itineraries on the website of this company and other similar ones can help with planning

Namibia for Safari and incredible scenery.

Costa Rica for amazing wildlife and scenery. The cloud rainforest are wonderful.

Hope you have some wonderful trips and experiences

I'm doing Antarctica! But then I'm obsessed with Penguins.

Road trip between Vic Falls to Windhoek. Depending on time/£ budget you can take in Chobe in Botswana, Etosha, Damaraland and the costal areas We did a 2 day (very basic) camping river safari in the Caprivi strip that was a real adventure. You can hire a 4x4 with a roof tent to keep the costs down. Okanjima is well worth a stop for leopard and pangolin tracking and the most amazing campsite.
Next year we are renting a camper van for 2 weeks in Iceland.

Another vote for The Galapagos, the most incredible place I've visited.

I combined the trip with another Bucket List destination, Machu Picchu.

Glad to see you added Borneo to your list! As well as the rainforest (Danum Valley) make sure you dive Sipadan while you’re there.