Iceland???
Some of the most picturesque countries I’ve ever been to. Not sure about their covid procedures.
3 Likes
Iceland is a terrific addition. When we’ve flown over it we’ve always looked down saying, “we need to stop there some day.” I’ve heard great things about it - not sure why it didn’t come to mind in our brainstorming TBH.
1 Like
And you can snorkel or dive in the tectonic fissures. 
Food was amazing too.
2 Likes
ooh, we loved Iceland also. I think they are less likely to be open than some of the other countries mentioned -
1 Like
I grew up in East Africa and loved the game parks. Especially Ngorongoro Crater and seeing the Wildebeest migration. Africa also has fabulous birds.
I know the German alps better than the Swiss ones, but the great thing about hiking there is you can take a cable car to the top of the mountain and hike around the peaks. It’s not terribly strenuous. I’ve felt the altitude hiking in the Sierras, but never where we went in the Alps. (Day trips from Munich mostly.) And even better - there’s a beer garden on the top of every mountain and fabulous cafes with cakes and tea or coffee after your hike.
4 Likes
If I recall your husband is a sailor. Bareboat charter in photo is Tahiti.
Other spots to charter would be Tonga. Croatia is also a good spot to charter a boat but I think they are now requiring that at least one person in your group have a license. The nice thing about chartering in Tahiti, Tonga or even Belize is that once you are on your boat contact with people outside your travel companions is little.
2 Likes
Boat charter in Croatia is a fabulous idea! It’s a really lovely way to spend a week or two there. Could combine with a trip to Venice.
2 Likes
We enjoyed renting a canal boat with 2 other couples on France’s Canal du Midi for a week in late Sept 2018. It was wonderful, but it did require a lot of work (60+ locks).
We did 4 nights at marinas in town, 3 nights tied up to the shoreline. In retrospect, 7 night was too short for our itinerary (locaboat, negra to Argens). Carrcassonne was delightful as expected, and the other little towns were lovely too.
I think there are rental boats that could hold 8 people, but it might be even harder to manage than ours (6 people). A key for us was having enough room for the entire group to eat inside or outside together. We wanted at least 2 bathrooms, but we actually had 3 - one for each bedroom.
2 Likes
I didn’t notice any issue with elevation (and we live at near sea level). The hikes can be easy or strenuous. We chose easy to mid level bc had 10 year old with us (youngest).
Another favorite trip was to Costa Rica. This was within our theme of nature travel. We stayed near Manuel Antonio park. Many outdoor things to do. Boats, snorkeling, walks for monkey and sloth spotting. Ended trip at Poas volcano. So many wonderful and diverse areas within driving distance.
2 Likes
Oh, Costa Rica is on my wish list.
3 Likes
So many choices. Our family favorites:
We’ve been to Alaska twice, one of the few places that we’ve repeated. It was fabulous.
The Cusco/Machu Picchu area of Peru.
Ecuador - a couple of days in old town Quito and then the Galapagos Islands.
Iceland - fabulous, though very similar to Alaska in some ways. A great (free) 3-4 day stopover via Icelandair if you’re going to Europe.
(It’s hard to rank them, as we’ve loved pretty much everywhere we’ve been, but trips that didn’t make this difficult cut: Costa Rica, Australia, Greece, Istanbul, Paris, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, India, UAE, Cancun/Tulum, many Caribbean islands)
2 Likes
Had another family discussion tonight including many of these and of our choices, the Trans Siberian is currently on the top of the list - has anyone done any of those routes?
We can handle English, French, and Spanish (as well as Arabic) among us, my guess is that would be fine since they handle so many tourists?
Never done the Trans Siberian or Alaska (which is on my list at some point).
Some of my favorite trips:
- Guilin and Longsheng in China. Stunningly beautiful. Probably need guides as virtually no one speaks English. ShawWife and I are waiting until COVID and political issues are behind us enough for a return trip.
- Vietnam/Thailand and would go to Laos instead of Cambodia (except probably for Siam Reap). Beautiful. Lovely people (loved Vietnam). Good food. Inexpensive.
- Croatia. Had a lovely trip with my young adult kids there a few years ago staying in Airbnbs. Previous poster had good suggestions. Skip Hvar, an island where rich playboy types go to find attractive young women. It was a beautiful island, but the scene was almost comic although interesting from a sociological perspective. There are many others.
- More plebeian, but we go to Northern Italy every other year. Superb food. Beautiful scenery. There are the obvious places Tuscany and Umbria, but also the Veneto, Friuli, Emilia-Romagna, Trento di Aldige, Abruzzo, etc. Planning a trip South to Puglia and Sicily. I’m not a big fan of Venice itself.
- Similarly, we go hiking every summer in the Canadian Rockies. One of the nicest places we’ve ever been is in the Lake O’Hara area (staying at the lodge).
- Peru is beautiful. In addition to Machu Picchu, there are the Andean Highlands, the Amazon, beaches (Ica, I think). And, my favorite fruit, chirimoya (which I’ve had in other places like Mexico).
- Israel. Went hiking in the Negev with a guide many years ago. Eye-opening. A good guided tour in Jerusalem can be pretty stunning. Have had trips to other areas (e.g., Ein Gedi, Masada) that were also pretty cool.
- Was supposed to hike the Abraham Path near Hebron and also near Petra. Will try to do that again.
- Panama has all kinds of terrain. Jungles, islands, plus the canal.
3 Likes
I’d second that. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to make several visits for work over a few months and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We’re musing that we’re making a ranking list, pretty much like middle son needs to do for his medical residencies. Instead of a computer getting to pick, Covid coupled with availability for our dates will.
So many places in my bucket list, so we almost can’t go wrong with what gets chosen - as long as something can be chosen. We’d rather not have to settle for our fallback to a “same old, same old” place we’ve gone often.
We’re also now toying with whether we could wait an extra year or not - really not sure with residency requirements for the lad.
2 Likes
We’ve traveled a lot over the years and it is a family activity. Instead of buying a country house, we decided to take an exotic trip with the kids every year. Ignoring Canada (to visit ShawD’s family) and Florida (visiting the Canadian snowbirds) and Mexico (enjoying the sun), we started when our youngest was 5. First, the UK, but then Italy, France, Japan, China, Bali, Australia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, … . Plus ShawWife and I have traveled a lot on our own and I have traveled all over the world as a consultant (ShawWife has “joked” that although we have been married for 35 years, it is really only about 15 if we adjust for travel). And, we would sometimes stay a few months on a houseboat in Sausalito.
Perhaps because of all of that and maybe because we sold our house to raise the kids and replaced it with a house on the river with a salt water pool tucked into conservation land (feels like a beautiful vacation home except that it is the same town where we raised the kids), we aren’t really feeling the travel bug at all. We know we will have to visit our aging mothers and will visit our kids in SF. We have talked about going back to Giulin (it was very inspiration for ShawWife’s paintings) but aren’t feeling the same wanderlust we normally feel. Still places to visit (I have never been to South Africa, though ShawWife has, or Alaska, Laos, Cuba or Russia).
I wonder if the wanderlust will return once I start traveling again for work, but we are pretty content where we are.
2 Likes
Guilin is stunningly gorgeous. Did not see Longshen, but would like to. Also recommend Huangshan, but it’s easier to get uncooperative weather. Guilin was still gorgeous even in the rain. Huangshan’s best views disappeared into the clouds. (But it was still gorgeous.)
2 Likes
We did like a week layover with adding Germany to it. Great trip and highly suggest it with Iceland.
2 Likes
@ richinpitt from above - why didnt greece make this cut?
@shawbridge - the houseboat in Sausalito — nice. Relative who lives there year round . just sighing over that as I’m in the freezing brown plain territory of the midwest !
2 Likes