Places you’ve visited and loved

[cafenoirbiscuit]

Hot on the heels of the most over-rated holiday destinations thread, I wonder where you’ve been and really enjoyed?

Cambodia, absolutely stunning. Amazing temples, great food and wonderful kind people. Would go back in a heartbeat.

Edinburgh blew my mind. Also Stockholm is beautiful. It's spread over little islands and is clean and friendly and just gorgeous. Bit pricey but worth seeing.

We love Mallorca, which someone (surprisingly to me) suggested on ‘that’ thread.

I also loved a place which always come up on the worst places threads - Las Vegas! It is just exactly as you’d expect - brash, bold, gutsy, glitzy. I loved it.

The Maldives
Iceland
Seville are my favourites.

Istanbul was a favourite for me, and i usually don't much like cities.

Plitvice Lakes in Croatia was stunning.

Montenegro was also very beautiful although we only passed through and didn't stay the night.
And Kruger National Park in South Africa - i went for a work trip and it was the best work trip ever!

If I had to pick one place that surprised me … I always say we had an unexpectedly brilliant, car-free long-weekend in Rotterdam with our school-aged kids one summer. There is loads to do in the city and its environs including a day trip to see windmills, a historic tram ride, boat tour round the massive port, huge food hall, and shipping museum (loads for kids of all ages, fun and educational -
loved the trail round the various boats on display in the dockside area) . The highlight was a day at Plaswijkpark, possibly the best value park I’ve been to in the last 15 years.

Canadian Rockies.

Sicily - Ortigia and Taormina - absolutely gorgeous with great food.

Seville
Antibes / Juan Les Pins
Cinque Terre
Ischia
Lake Maggiore/Como
Gassin/Gigaro/St Tropez
Budapest
Wroclaw and Zakopane in Poland

Bhutan ( so lucky to be able to go as a relative was working there - I don’t expect it to be surpassed as an experience)
Iceland
Conques in SW France and the area round it.
Honfleur and Normandy in general
Northumberland coast

For our honeymoon we did 2 weeks in a tiny villa on the south coast of Corfu with a pool and it's own teeny motorboat that we could scramble over the garden wall and down to the jetty and take out... Spent lots of days floating in turquoise water off deserted white beaches... It was SO lush! And I'm totally aware that many people go to Corfu for a different experience :)

I loved Sardinia, Cuba (15 years ago though so may well have changed) and wildlife spotting in Brunei/Borneo...

Japan is my all-time favourite holiday destination - love the food, the culture, the history, the nature, the people! - and we are planning to go back for the 3rd time next summer, first time with the kids in tow!

So glad to Seville on this thread, we're going there at Easter!

Places I've loved:

Another vote for Antibes / Juan Les Pins (people watching, warm sea and lovely weather in October)
Rome (never boring)
Greece - never had a dull holiday on the islands, although you have to pick areas the tourists avoid. I could happily go there every year in May (I wish!)
The High Atlas (stunning scenery and wonderful kind people)
New Zealand (particularly the Marlborough Sound and Abel Tasman)
Porto (went with a group of friends and followed local recommendations to incredible side shidden bars, welcoming cafes and vintage shops)
Edinburgh and Glasgow. Both ace.
Brittany for camping with kids - basically Cornwall with better wine and more cheese.
West Wales - particularly around Cardigan, but like Greece, you need to get off the beaten trail to find peace and natural beauty.
Istanbul and Turkish coast - wonderful people and a warm welcome to beautiful places.
Hong Kong (I used to live there, so probably biased, but it's quirky and the people are so interesting)
Lanzarote - didn't expect to love it, but there are some lovely wild areas and the volcanic vibe earth with vines growing out of the black hills were amazing. We stayed in a little house in the interior and ventured into the national parks to get to interesting coves out of season.

Malaga and Seville. Both places I didn’t choose to go but absolutely blew me away. Since been back to both.
Sorrento as well. We chose to stay there as it was a lot cheaper than the actual Amalfi Coast so weren’t expecting much but we absolutely loved it. Wish we’d spent a lot more time actually in Sorrento rather than a day trip every day.

Prague, we've been so many times we're going into the outer districts and the people are usually friendly, we also went to Czesky Krumlov which is a few hours from Prague and incredibly beautiful.
Antigua, Barbados & St Lucia we always use public transport so meet locals who aren't after your money.
Naxos & Crete I could happily live in either.

@Imicola thank you for your post about Rotterdam. It sounds gorgeous. I'd never have thought of going but want to now.

Andalusia
Malta
Sri Lanka

Malta always comes up on the threads about terrible places to visit. It's fantastic. It has so much history accessible via loads of different museums and two fascinating pre-historic temple sites. Just walking around Valletta and the Three Cities is lovely. Mdina and Rabat are lovely. Food is great, people are really friendly. It's not a beach place but if you know that it's a wonderful holiday. I've recommended it more than once.

Rotterdam is surprisingly lovely

Have been to a lot of countries but only two have genuinely blown my mind.

New Zealand - it's just an amazing country. The scenery is out of this world. Many of the people were slightly mad but great fun and they seem to have a more relaxed approach to life.

Galapagos Islands - the fact the wildlife isn't afraid of people is mind blowing. You can sit down and birds fly up to you. Sealions and iguanas sit around on the beach or on benches and completely ignore you. It's just an incredible place to experience.

Cape Town
St Lucia
Turkey
Cambodia
Dubai
Devon

I really loved Aigues-Mortes in France. Also Rome. I hope to go back to both some day

Rome - history around every corner
Barcelona - so much to see and a real buzz, especially if you avoid Las Ramblas and go down the side streets
Venice - for the beauty, it's incredible.
California - we did a 2500 mile drive (San Francisco to Los Angeles to Las Vegas with so much in-between) and it was, for us, the best holiday ever (so far....!)
Edinburgh - had a brilliant long weekend here, again there was so much to see.

I honestly believe a place is what you make it. Do your research beforehand, read up on TripAdvisor (I know there's a lot of daft stuff but there is often really useful bits and pieces that people have recommended) and take comfortable shoes....on the awful hols thread, someone said they'd had a horrible time at a particular place because their shoes were wrong and they got blisters!!!

Bhutan is on my top places we have visited list too! We loved it.

Other places we loved are Sikkim, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Canadian Rockies, Death Valley, Peru - especially the Amazon.

Luang Prabang in Laos.

In no particular order of preference (for ME anyway).

Cordoba
Seville
Padua (and the half hour train to Venice from there)
Cadiz
Bologna
Lucca.
Loire Valley
Limoux and down to Pyrenees
Canal du Midi from Carcassonne to Beziers

As you can see I like Spain, Italy, and France the best.

Georgia is underrated, spend a few days by Mount Kazbeki and stay in the city of Tblisi for an unusual mix of cultures. Whilst there take an easy overnight train to Baku, Azerbaijan.

One of my favourites that someone mentioned - Sri Lanka! The golden triangle, beaches, food - India vibes but imo less hectic!

Orlando
Cancun
Arizona / Grand Canyon
Cape Town / Garden Route
Nice