BootsnAll Travel Community

quote:

Originally posted by Not the first Travis:
What a cool list.

Okay, I had some major day-dreaming time today, so I took every place suggested on this thread and made a list. Then I looked at it and imagined an epic RTW trip. Start in Eastern Canada, work down through southeastern US. Pop in on Mexico and down to Central America and onto South America. Jump over to Europe. Go west to east. Then down to Greece. Then to the Middle East. Bounce to India. Then Asia. Quick stop down under. Then after all that traveling it would be time for a little R&R so head up to Siberia for some chill time in Ulan Ude by Lake Baikal. Here's the list. (I only deleted two places, Wallace Idaho just didn't pencil in, and Honolulu, though I guess we could stop to refuel there.) Thanks, all.

NORTH AMERICA

(Canada)
Montreal, Quebec
Quebec City, Q
St. Paul de Vence (is that in Quebec?)
Halifax, N.S.

(USA)
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Montgomery, Alabama

(Mexico)
Merida, Yucatan

CENTRAL AMERICA

Dangriga, Belize

SOUTH AMERICA

Vilcabamba, Ecuador
Cajamarca, Peru
Ayacucho, Peru

EUROPE

Cadiz, Spain
The Hague, Netherlands
Leiden, Netherlands
Brussels, Belgium
Brugge, Belgium
Basel, Switzerland
Lugano, Switzerland
Belgrade, Serbia (? How embarrassing)
Torun, Poland
Wrocklaw, Poland
Krakow, Poland
Warsaw, Poland
Poznan, Poland
Ceske Budejovice, Czech Rep
Mikulov, C.R.
Liberec, C.R.
Kosice, Slovakia
Rimisoara, Romania
Club, Romania
Brasov, Romania
Kastoria, Greece

MIDDLE EAST

Tel Aviv, Israel
Amman, Jordan
Answan, Egupt
Istanbul, Turkey
Bursa, Turkey
Erdine, Turkey

INDIA
Shimla

ASIA

Bandung, Indonesia
Bangcock, Thailand
Hanoi, Vietnam
Saigon, Vietnam
Hue, Vietnam
Nara, Japan

NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA
Dunedin, NZ

WAY OUT THERE AND UP THERE

Ulan Ude, Siberia

WOW!!! That would be one hell of a trip. Thank you not the first travis

so when i read your question, i immediately thought of all the small villages i visited last summer in new zealand. all of them i could see myself in for the rest of my life. its amazing, everyones like "oh did you go to queensland, or christchurch, or auckland??" and yeah, i went there, and theyre awesome, but not like the other ones.

just a few are: kaikoura, waitomo, motueka, hokitika, and rotorua

these are the places where the locals will talk for hours about their culture, will take you in for the night (or a week!!!), will cook you meals, will listen to you for hours about your life, and who are just amazing. also, you get to meet other avid travelers and hear about their stories, which is also great. but, really, all kiwis i met were insanely nice and genuine about everything...definitely want to live there someday and i highly reccommend anyone to go there, definitely worth it.

~kate

ahh, i was trying to rate this topic as a five out of five, but the drop down menu didnt show the options, only five dots from which to choose, but with no value next to any of them. So i took a stab, but it recorded it as a one. sorry. great topic though.

I agree that Basel is great, but my personal favourite in Switzerland is Fribourg/Freiburg.

The German Freiburg is definitely worth a visit, too. As is Lübeck.

Anyone going to Florence and round Tuscany? Don't miss Lucca.

I feel obliged to big up the England way for a moment:

1) Lyme Regis - Awww pretty fishing village and as I fondly remember, lots of fossil stuff ;D
2) Brixham - Awww, pretty fishing port and as I fondly remember, lots of drinking...
3) St Ives - Aww pretty fishing village and as I fondly remember, lots of arts and crafts...
4) Sidmouth - Awww pretty fishing village and as I fondly remember, lots of fish actually...

---

Other than that, Omoka, Penrhynn Island, Cook Islands. A place so friendly it could have become a home very quickly.

Arnhem in Holland is a great place to kick back and chill out and Utrecht is just somewhere to go to party like a bastard. Who needs Amsterdam!

Dan

i would also like to encourage more people to sunny nz, its a very cool country wth heaps of the above mentioned towns. central north island is a very odd little town called turangi. i arived, hated it, complained about how rubbish it was, stayed for 9 months and then left. i miss it terribly and i cant wait to go back! its defiinatly worth a look, even if just to say that you've been to, and i quote 'the trout fishing capital of the world'.

.....and i LOVED perth. very sunny, smily place

I studied in Cork and adored it there. It seemed very tourist-free (i think there's one hostel there, but I have no idea where it is), and most people just dismiss it as a sort of working town. I'm sure it's busier now because of the Capital of Culture deal, but it's amazing how tourist-free and authentic it is there. I highly recommend it if you can stay for a while.

A lot of towns up in Minnesota are also lovely, and not all are that visited. I liked Stillwater and Minnetonka a lot, although I don't remember how touristy they were (I think Stillwater may have been, but still, most traveller don't put smaller cities in Minnesota on their list).

Hugh Town on St Mary's (Scilly Isles). The most laid back place I know.

on getaway last week there was a segment on cesky krumlov. about 2.5 hrs drive south of prague. it looked amazing.

Canberra, Australia - Awesome War/Military Memorials and surrounding area (Anzac Parade), parliament house with some cool architecture, Australian National Museum, and beautiful botanical gardens. When we were there it seemed pretty quiet and laid back.

I Strongly Urge people to visist Lucca in Tuscany.

It's probably my favourite place in the whole world.

how about portland oregon? only a great city can help create people that created such a great thing.. like bna! its big and its pretty too.. its more then just a city..

Good to see some of my favs from a while ago (10 years?) are still on the list. That means that they havent been spoiled yet.

Merida, MX
Bangkok
Mae Sot, Thailand
Siracusa, Sicily
Valletta, Malta
Waikiki Beach (I know all the cheap/free stuff)
Puerto Angel, MX

Much to my surprise, I fell in love with Tangier although everything I had read about it suggested that it sucked royally. Well, I loved it. I loved it for its grottiness & grittiness & its offbeat and faded sense of self.

1. Nelson, South Island, NZ, Charming, lovely city on the sea with wineries;
2. Punta Arenas, Chile: amazing city at the end of the world;
3. Ushaia, Argentina: ditto
4. Christchurch, NZ: England transplanted
5. Kolonia, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia
6. Hilo, Hawaii
7. Hobart, Tasmania

Lausane in Switzerland, Salamanca in Spain and Oxford in UK are three mid-size, clean, university-feeling, alive towns. Expensive though!

I really like Luxembourg City. I would never have even thought of going there while in Europe, but I'm studying in Germany for the semester just across the border from Luxembourg. It's a beautiful city, very clean and neat and with a lot of character. I make frequent day trips there on weekends just to go and sit in a cafe or stroll around the streets.

quote:

To add a suggestions of places to go to "because the name sounds cool" try Karakalpakistan. It's in Central Asia (part in Uzbekistan, part in Kazakhstan) and I've been dying to go just so I can say I've been there.

Here's my list from the last few years:

Dubai, UAE -- First visit to the Middle East and I remember describing it as the "Bud Lite" of the Arab World. You can experience true Middle East culture -- mosques on every street corner, call to prayer five times a day. But then you go into one of their mega malls and there are women in the changing rooms trying on halter tops underneath their black jilbabs and buying expensive make up at Estee Lauder. Oh, and beer runs like water in Dubai.

Gokova Bay, Turkey -- my brother was a tourism major in college and his thesis advisor is from Turkey. When I went there earlier this month I asked him for advice on going to a beach town that hasn't been built up or croweded by tourists. He recommended a town called Akyaka on Gokova Bay (in between Bodrum and Marmaris). It was amazing. No people, no rug dealers hassling you, great hiking, great food. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Asghgabat, Turkmenistan -- definitely won't find many tourists here and one of the coolest cities in Central Asia. The rug market on Sunday is famed and you can buy Turkem rugs for about 90% less than in the States. Also, if you are bummed that you never visited Iraq to see Saddam's personality cult on display, Turkmenistan's leader is doing his best to copy his style. Posters of him are hung everywhere in the city and he's actually written two books on "how to be a good Turkmen" that are displayed at mosques next to the Koran. The city sits on the border of Iran and you can get dinner at the Iranian truck stop ... The economy is in trouble, so tourism dollars can do a ton to help the locals.

montreal has a great vibe: bars, restaurants, the Plateau, Mont-Royal, the student ghetto around McGill...

Taking my Japanese gf there next summer.

Seminyak, on Bali, is one of the mellower resort towns on the coast. This is where the locals come to spend time on the beach.

Gimmelwald.

Spent a month in Palma de Mallorca last summer, and I'll be back for six weeks this summer (I leave in three weeks!). Great cathedral and Miro gallery (Miro spent his last years on the island). Laid-back town.

In Japan, I've had my best experiences in the far north, on Hokkaido, and the far south, on rural okinawa and the tiny rain forest island of Iriomote (you can check out some of my writing about these places at http://www.exitbooted.com). Hiroshima is also a must-see, at least for the A-Bomb Dome and Memorial Museum.

Tokyo, my present stomping grounds, doesn't do much for me, but then that may be my "salaryman" lifestyle of daily commutes, stress, and over-work. (http://www.tokyokillsme.blogspot.com)
I kinda like to visit rural Niigata at Christmas, where my gf's family live, but haven't explored much past the neighbourhood and onsen resort.

Good question! Interesting answers!