Travel bucket list - top 5?

[Amethyst]

Even tours aren't immune to lines! We went on our very first tour (Tauck, "American Canyonlands") and proceeded to the breakfast room one morning, exactly at opening time (0600), only to find ourselves at the end of a long line of hundreds of hangry old ladies. Our tour director somehow managed to get our small tour group in before all the food was gone, LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callitaday2022 Starting our Vatican museum tour and Sistine Chapel tour in 1 hr! Lines, lines, lines everywhere! I told my son this is why you save and LBYMs so you can pay up and get the tours and skip all the lines. I hate lines!

[kaudrey]

I don't SCUBA, but for what it is worth, as someone who also wants to do the "active" stuff while I still can, my bucket list top 5 are:


1) Galapagos
2) Angor Wat
3) Hike Mt. Kilimanjaro/safari
4) Hiking on Glaciers in Iceland
5) New Zealand
6) Belize - great for SCUBA, although we will just snorkel - we are going here in January 2018.


Those are things we haven't done. The most active/memorable trips we have done:
1) Hiked the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu (amazing!)
2) Camped/hiked in Alaska (Exit Glacier/Denali National Park)
3) Biked through Portugal
4) Hiked/camped all over Utah/AZ/Yellowstone/Grand Tetons

[CardsFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup I like to see Israel and Istanbul but I'm not sure I will. I wish I was smart enough to volunteer for the business trip to Israel when I was working for one company that's doing business with an Israel company. To be swimming in the Dead Sea or floating there would be cool.

I was able to visit Israel several times on business, including swimming in the Dead Sea. Actually, the water is so buoyant you really just bob.

[folivier]

Here's a quick tip for anyone visiting the Vatican. Go to the Vatican post office and ask about the free tour of St. Peter's Basilica. We did it twice a few years ago. A nice english lady was our tour guide and took about 12 of us around the very long lines right into the church! She pushed her way past all of the tour groups.

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callitaday2022 Starting our Vatican museum tour and Sistine Chapel tour in 1 hr! Lines, lines, lines everywhere! I told my son this is why you save and LBYMs so you can pay up and get the tours and skip all the lines. I hate lines!

There is a way to avoid lines, check Rick Steves website. But once you are in the Vatican, you will be moved like cattle, tour or not.
But even with that the Vatican is amazing. I almost skipped it because I'm glad I didn't.

[jjquantz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by folivier Here's a quick tip for anyone visiting the Vatican. Go to the Vatican post office and ask about the free tour of St. Peter's Basilica. We did it twice a few years ago. A nice english lady was our tour guide and took about 12 of us around the very long lines right into the church! She pushed her way past all of the tour groups.

Or you can do what DW and I did- go in January. I won't say that it was empty, but we bought tickets to the museums in advance to avoid what line there was and there certainly weren't any crowds to speak of. The Sistine Chapel had a good crowd but was FAR from the shoulder to shoulder that it can be in the summer. No wait to climb to the dome and plenty of time and space to contemplate whatever struck our fancy in the museums and the Basilica. Similar results for the rest of the sights in Rome and Florence.

[mrWinter]

I was in the process of planning a backpacking trip to Yosemite when my wife and I found out we were pregnant, so that trip is on hold for a while now, but it's number 1 on my currently on-hold bucket list. Won't wait for retirement as I'd not gamble I'll be in good enough shape to still do it then, maybe 15 or 16 years from now the whole family can do it . If fortune smiles on me and I'm still in hiking shape when I retire I'd love to take a stab at doing much of the Pacific Crest trail.

If you want to go to Glacier NP, better go soon if you hope to see any glaciers!

Yellowstone was my first backpacking trip and it was awesome. Can't wait to take the kids there too.

[MuirWannabe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrWinter I was in the process of planning a backpacking trip to Yosemite when my wife and I found out we were pregnant, so that trip is on hold for a while now, but it's number 1 on my currently on-hold bucket list. Won't wait for retirement as I'd not gamble I'll be in good enough shape to still do it then, maybe 15 or 16 years from now the whole family can do it . If fortune smiles on me and I'm still in hiking shape when I retire I'd love to take a stab at doing much of the Pacific Crest trail. If you want to go to Glacier NP, better go soon if you hope to see any glaciers! Yellowstone was my first backpacking trip and it was awesome. Can't wait to take the kids there too.

mrWinter,
Just got back back from my thru hike attempt of the PCT. One of the greatest adventures of my life. I only made it 328 miles from the border before having to stop; but I learned so much, saw so much, met such interesting people, and did things I'd never done before. I'm no longer a thru hiker, but intending to return many times over as a section hiker of the PCT. In fact, probably going to go back in mid-August to section hike the Sierra. I started all this on day 2 of my new retirement. Follow your dream. Good luck to you.

Muir

[Scuba]

Love reading these posts! Fun to see what others like to do and want to try in the future.

[LRDave]

Sort of vague, but:


1) Yosemite
2) Yellowstone
3) Cinque Terre
4) Peter Mayles's Provence
5) Utah canyonlands


Totally fluid...

[mrWinter]

Adding on another I've been dreaming about a lot lately, I really want to do the great loop.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrWinter Adding on another I've been dreaming about a lot lately, I really want to do the great loop.

I did something similar - albeit on a smaller scale:
The Fruit Loop

[Fedup]

You are all loopy.

[Koolau]

There are some things that might be fun to do or a nice diversion, etc. But a true bucket list doesn't seem to exist for me. I can't even say I've done all that much in this life. Perhaps I just never had great expectations. I've traveled a fair amount but nothing like many folks on this site who've been to every state/every continent (or even most countries.) I find most of my appetites to be pretty mundane. Still, thinking about "loops" got me thinking of something I sort of dropped a couple of years ago. I would like to fly around Oahu in a small aircraft (probably fixed wing rather than helio.) I started looking into it a while back and then sort of forgot about it. As much as anything, I think I would like to have some idea of what it was like on Dec. 7, 1941. I realize the growth of buildings on the island makes that now impossible, but I think I could forget about that from 2000 feet MSL. YMMV

[capjak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrWinter Adding on another I've been dreaming about a lot lately, I really want to do the great loop.

read this https://www.boatus.com/cruising/kism...s.asp?bid=2347

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LRDave Sort of vague, but: 1) Yosemite 2) Yellowstone 3) Cinque Terre 4) Peter Mayles's Provence 5) Utah canyonlands Totally fluid...

Cinque Terri's awesome! Beautiful, quaint, and it seems life there is much the same as it was centuries ago.

[Scuba]

Oops I meant Cinque Terre

[bearkeley]

We are planning to do a part of the Great Loop this Fall, taking our little trawler on the ICW from Virginia to the Keys and hopefully the Bahamas with dive gear ready to go! Can't wait!

We have been fortunate enough to RE before 50 so like you, we wanted to prioritize travel (also prefer tropical dive destinations and nature). Over the last two years, we spent a total of 7 months in Australia. It was not enough time to see and do it all, but definitely amazing. Diving was not my favorite.....Ningaloo was awesome but the rest was ok....too cold, poor dive ops and very expensive compared to other dive destinations.

We also spent time traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia (Angkor Wat was amazing) and the Philippines (diving mostly). We only spent 12 nites in Indonesia....all aboard Calico Jack, an amazing Liveaboard ...we did Raja Ampat... here's a quick video of our trip.

https://vimeo.com/212475401

Traveling is great. On our bucket list.... any place warm and sunny! Cheers!

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearkeley We are planning to do a part of the Great Loop this Fall, taking our little trawler on the ICW from Virginia to the Keys and hopefully the Bahamas with dive gear ready to go! Can't wait! We have been fortunate enough to RE before 50 so like you, we wanted to prioritize travel (also prefer tropical dive destinations and nature). Over the last two years, we spent a total of 7 months in Australia. It was not enough time to see and do it all, but definitely amazing. Diving was not my favorite.....Ningaloo was awesome but the rest was ok....too cold, poor dive ops and very expensive compared to other dive destinations. We also spent time traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia (Angkor Wat was amazing) and the Philippines (diving mostly). We only spent 12 nites in Indonesia....all aboard Calico Jack, an amazing Liveaboard ...we did Raja Ampat... here's a quick video of our trip. https://vimeo.com/212475401 Traveling is great. On our bucket list.... any place warm and sunny! Cheers!

How was your Philippines dive trip? Liveaboard or land based? Your bucket list sounds a lot like ours!

[2017ish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearkeley ... We only spent 12 nites in Indonesia....all aboard Calico Jack, an amazing Liveaboard ...we did Raja Ampat... ... Traveling is great. On our bucket list.... any place warm and sunny! Cheers!

We so wanted to include Raja Ampat on next year's trip, but the logistics didn't really work out. DW is a devoted macro photo person, so we will be doing it--just on another multi-month trip.

Thanks for Calico Jack reference--that hadn't made it onto our planning lists.

We don't really have a bucket list, as we can't even narrow it down to "warm and sunny"! More like "encyclopedia of potential journeys of exploration," which is the primary reason we planned for [relatively] early retirement.