Solitary Diner asks:
If you could travel anywhere and not have to deal with practical considerations (cost, vacation time, hassle of actually getting there), where would you choose to go and why? You can choose to do an adults-only vacation or a kids involved vacation (or one of each if you’re feeling really inspired to write).
#1:
- Back to Italy! Alllll the Italy. I haven’t finished eating every foodstuff they make there yet. There are more things to see. It’s beautiful!
- Wales. Lovely countryside, history, Hay-on-Wye.
- Probably some other places. There are other places I would like to visit or re-visit, both abroad and closer to home. Being able to teleport there would be a plus. [Ed: except for that whole teleportation as murder thing]
#2: I still have not been to Italy and I would very much like to go on an eating tour there. Just not enough to deal with the practical considerations of doing so yet. Watching Solitary Diner’s recent travelogues, I’m also considering the benefits of just popping over to France to eat. Really I just like to eat amazing food. DH is considering a trip to Seattle/Portland for our 20th anniversary because we’ve never been to the Pacific Northwest.
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
June 22, 2018 at 2:52 am
Oh, man. All the most faraway places that are a nightmare to fly to – over to Ireland, Spain, Portugal, back to Italy… also to the PNW area, Vancouver, and back to NYC for the heck of it!
June 22, 2018 at 4:46 am
Two biggies:
1. Long, slow road trip down the coasts of Peru and Chile. With plenty of time to do side-trips up into the Andes.
2. Hiking the GR10 — along the French side of the Pyrenees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GR_10_(France)
Heading to Wales this weekend (-: but north, not to Hay-on-Wye (it’s far too dangerous for the book-lovers on a budget!)
June 22, 2018 at 5:35 am
Assuming I could rope in a hiking-friendly friend to travel with me, I think my top three are: New Zealand, Tibet, and Alaska. I’m in the mood for pretty nature in inconvenient-to-get-to places.
June 22, 2018 at 5:47 am
Speaking as someone who lived in both cities, Seattle and PDX are both worthy of plenty of time. They are only three hours apart so doable.
In Seattle: the underground tour, space needle, Dick’s Drive In, the International District are all faves. Taking a ferry to anywhere is fun too. I love Anacortes for whale watching.
In PDX: Salt & Straw ice cream, Powell’s books, Portland Wilderness, Saturday market. Visit the Oregon coast – so beautiful. Cannon City is my favorite northern coast city. Easy drive from PDX.
I’ve got more ideas if you want them. You could easily do a week in each place.
June 22, 2018 at 6:18 am
For me:
With kids (but would love a magical trustworthy babysitter in each place so we could have an adult day or two):
Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Alaska. Top places I want to revisit (or just visit in the case of Alaska). I’m almost done with the 50 states – just need four more (New Jersey, Indiana, New Mexico, and Alaska). So I’d love to finish those.
We mostly like traveling with our kids. They’re young, so that does limit us. But we don’t feel comfortable leaving for more than a night yet, both because of them and not wanting to burden sitters.
June 22, 2018 at 10:31 am
I’d spend a month every summer in Switzerland, hiking from hut to hut in the Alps. Everything there is so gorgeous, friendly, clean and punctual! We took the family a couple of years ago and it was just lovely. By far the worst part is the flight there and back, but if we’re invoking teleportation, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
I’d also really love to visit India and China with fabulous tour guides so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost.
I love traveling, so if I could travel without the hassles, I’d go EVERYWHERE!
As a side note about eating vacations, some of the best food I’ve ever had on this continent was in Vancouver. France and Italy are also obvious destinations for this.
June 22, 2018 at 10:33 am
Vancouver is good… Montreal is better!
June 22, 2018 at 4:29 pm
I’ll keep that in mind…
June 25, 2018 at 3:59 am
I’d love to hear your Montreal suggestions. We had the worst luck with food there. We went over Feb vacation last year and lots of the nicer places in old Montreal were closed as it wasn’t high season. We ate lots of baguette sandwiches that reminded me of airport food. The pizza was terrible too.
June 22, 2018 at 11:08 am
My “wanna go” list is really long. :-) Top five (leaving off the more-achievable ones that I think we’ll actually manage, i.e. these are dream vacations):
month-long road trip through England, Scotland, and Wales
month-long road trip through Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy
couple of weeks in New Zealand
couple of weeks in Japan
month-long road trip in eastern Australia, wine country to Cairns
The DH and I both like road trips, food, and wine. Fortunately we live in California, so we can have some very satisfactory vacations on a budget. But a girl can dream. :-)
June 22, 2018 at 11:19 am
I’ve been really wanting to go to Patagonia, but it isn’t the best for us logistically due to the season flip.
But I’m interested in lots of places, soI tend to do what makes logistic sense. I think our next international trip will be next summer to Paris. I looooove France. We’ll have a baby by then so I probably will refrain from doing an add-on of a new city too… but we’ll see.
June 22, 2018 at 3:04 pm
New Zealand, for sure, and like Lisa I’d love to do a hut-to-hut hiking vacation in the Alps or the Canadian Rockies. Lisa, if you have any specific recommendations I’d love to hear them. I think we will actually do a trip like that one of these days. Our kids are pretty good hikers now.
June 22, 2018 at 4:28 pm
I have some friends who used a company called Swiss Trails to organize a week long trip in the Swiss Alps. Their bags were delivered from place to place, they carried only day packs and stopped for lunch in little towns along their way. They had a 8-9 year old son with them and said it was a little much for him, but he survived. The Canadian Rockies would be gorgeous, but my feeling is that things are much more wild (i.e. need to pack everything with you, have survival skills, etc.). If I’m wrong, please let me know because that is another place I’d like to visit.
June 24, 2018 at 8:01 am
Some years ago my parents did a helicopter-and-hiking tour of the Canadian Rockies. They and their guides and luggage were dropped off at one hut by helicopter. Each day they walked to the next hut and their luggage was carried by porters. Great dinner served in each hut. Helicopter picked them up at the last hut.
June 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Thanks! The helicopter one sounds a little above my pay grade though. :)
June 22, 2018 at 9:40 pm
Australia and NZ
A longer stay in the UK (I loved the UK when I visited; I loved the people so much! I think they might be exactly my kind of people)
June 24, 2018 at 7:55 am
Corfu, Aegina, Capri, Firenze, Mutters bei Innsbruck, San Francisco, San Juan Island, Taos, and Roma are all places I’d love to see again. New Zealand is a place I’d love to see but haven’t yet due to the distance.
June 25, 2018 at 4:12 am
So many places……
So things I’ve done that would love to do now that I have kids. Back to New Zealand, Safari I’m Africa, a historic trip to China Australia. Road trip across America. Backpacking and train riding across Europe.
Places I haven’t been yet but still want to do:
Galapagos – tried to go twice but stuff happened both times so now I think there is an omen keeping me from there.
Costa Rica
Italy, France on their own for food and mountain climbing
Would love to go to the southern most tip of South America (have been to the tip of Africa).
Alaska – but my husband’s been
Hit all the national parks
China for a historical vacation. Forbidden city Great Wall. I’ve been for work more than once but never had much time to sightsee.
I’ve done very little in South America.
Still haven’t seen Yellowstone, banff or Mt Rushmore.
Iceland
The way northern bush of Canada. -but husbands been.
Asheville, nc is one of my favorite outdoorsy/hip towns to visit. On the east Coast I love Portland Maine.
I have travelled a lot for work and fun but I still love going places. We still haven’t taken the kids anywhere that requires heavy duty malaria meds, etc. soon.
November 18, 2019 at 1:09 am
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