“Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.”
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata
The world is filled with such variety that is impossible to see it all. We each have to choose what’s important to us -what resonates with our interests. And what is within our reach – financially and physically. We’ve been fortunate to be able to enjoy active, (occasionally) luxury travel as we enter retirement years but there are still a few items on our travel bucket list.
Somehow our “to-do” keeps growing, so I like to reflect back on all the special adventures we’ve already had. Our “ta-da!” list.
This is our list of ‘favorites’ and ‘still to dos’. Your list will be different.
Trips of a Lifetime
Our All-Time Favorite Trips
- Costa Rica
- Cruising the Mediterranean and other European trips
- Egypt & Jordan
- Family heritage trip to Ireland
- Galápagos & Machu Picchu
- National Parks with the kids
- Paris with our daughters
- Rafting the Grand Canyon
- Safari in Southern Africa: Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
- Safari in Eastern Africa: Kenya, Tanzania (and Zanzibar)
Still to Do!
- New Zealand
- Amazon in Brazil (booked!)
- Tahiti (booked!)
- Namibia
- Southeast Asia
- River Cruise in Europe
- Alaska
Our Favorite Destinations
Favorite Parks & Wildlife Refuges
- Antelope Canyon
- Central Park, NYC
- Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, Florida
- Galápagos Islands
- Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica (and Monteverde Cloud Forest!)
- Masai Mara, Kenya
- Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica
- Okavango Delta, Botswana
- Londolozi Game Reserve, Sabi Sands, South Africa
- Serengeti, Tanzania
- Yellowstone National Park
- Yosemite National Park
- Zion National Park
Looking forward to!
- Denali National Park
Top 10 UNESCO Sites
- Acropolis, Athens
- Alhambra, Spain
- Ephesus, Turkey
- Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
- Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
- Luxor, Egypt (and pretty much all the Egypt UNESCO sites…)
- Machu Picchu, Peru
- Medieval City of Rhodes, Greece
- Mesa Verde National Park (and Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite)
- Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
- Petra, Jordan
- Sintra, Portugal
On our travel bucket list
- Mont-Saint-Michel, France
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia
- Great Wall of China, Summer Palace, etc., Beijing, China
- Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Favorite Cities
- Athens
- Barcelona
- Boston (of course!)
- Cape Town
- Istanbul
- London
- New York City
- Paris
- Rome
- San Francisco
- Venice
Looking forward to exploring
- Budapest
- Kyoto
- Prague
- Singapore
- Sydney
Experiences We Recommend
Favorite Museums
- 9/11 Museum, NYC
- Acropolis Museum, Athens
- Anne Frank House and Museum, Amsterdam
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo
- Field Museum, Chicago
- Louvre, Paris
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
- Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- Smithsonian Museums, Washington
- Vatican Museum, Vatican City
Hoping to Visit
- Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, Poland
- Terracotta Warriors, China
Top 12 Travel Activities
- Afternoon Tea – in a special location
- Beach days – relaxing is most enjoyable
- Bike – exploring for a day or a week!
- Birdwatching – read this if you travel with a non-birder
- Journaling – I capture memories in my travel journal
- Music – finding local venues and guitar stores
- Photography – take a photo tour or just have fun
- Picnic – like a local
- Sundowners – finding a special spot for our last evening
- Theater – attending a special performance
- Walking and wandering – getting lost is half the fun!
- Wine Tours – vineyards are beautiful and wine is always a good idea
We are ready to try
- River cruise – in Europe
Do you have a travel bucket list? Does it motivate you to travel?
#bucketlist #lifeadventures #carpediem #toptravel #favoriteplaces #dreamdestinaions
