The question I get all the time is what’s my “favorite country”. Which is fine, I don’t think like that, but I understand the question. What the question should be is what are my “favorite travel experiences”. Here are 25, some crazy adventures and some travel hacking related, some both.
25) Hitchhiking from the InterContinental Berchtesgaden to Innsbruck
Nothing is more symbolic of our being “broke and platinum” (as Carrie says) than checking out of the incredibly shwank 5 star alpine mountain resort – the InterContinental Berchtesgaden and hitchhiking right from the entrance. Our second ride was from a couple swedish guys who were super friendly and who we rode with for 3 hours. Then the four of us spent the evening together in Innsbruck.
24) Being in Venice
Yes. Just being in Venice ranks as an awesome travel experience.
23) Guy lends his BMW motorcycle to us
On the train from Bucharest to Budapest I got into conversation with a guy who asked, “What do you want to do in Hungary?” and I responded that I wanted to see the countryside and added that we love riding bikes but motorcycles are so expensive to rent. His response was pretty simple, “I have two bikes, we should go riding”.
This guy lent us a giant BMW Motorcycle and knew how to ride… fast! So we tried our best to keep up with him across the Hungarian and Slovakian countryside.
22) First/Business flights
Now, if it weren’t for frequent flyer miles, in no conceivable universe would I be flying first class. Ever. Us and a 2 CEO’s (or something) in on a $15,000+ oneway from Hong Kong to New York… it’s just not a possibility without miles and points.
21) Taking the mom to the UK
My mom has always wanted to travel and she’s crazy about genealogy. Going on a family history treasure hunt all around England was a complete dream come true for her. Sometimes we wound up at a random stone house in a field where her great, great, great someone-or-other once played, or a church in London where her great, great, great someone-or-other else was buried, and she’d tear up. Not only was it interesting, it was quite touching. She thanked me over and over.
20) Sharing soup in Merida, Mexico
Might sound odd… because it is.
Now this is before Carrie (2008) when I first went to Mexico, but I had the best time getting off the beaten track in markets, local festivals and obviously enjoying the local eats. This town for whatever reason was incredibly memorable for me. People were so interested to share things with me, even their food. Even their soup.
In this tiny little alley everyone saw me ordering, and everyone was offering samples of their food so I could better make a decision about my order. I guess. Either way, a guy grabbed a spoon and was adamant that I try his extremely spicy soup. Why not? Must have been a site, me and this old Mexican man sharing a soup bowl for a few bites.
19) Private Island Aruba
The Renaissance Aruba has a private island with flamingos, with a boat that picks you up in the lobby. And when we were there for our second anniversary, there were very few other people. The awesome part is that it was free with a category 4 Marriott certificate (now a cat 5?).
18) Road trip east Canada
Newly married we did a road-trip through Boston, Acadia National Park, Prince Edward Island and then went down the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Once we got into Canada, the entire setting felt like a fairy tale. We saw a fox chasing bugs in the grass without caring we were right there, a bald eagle hunting in the river right next to us, and we saw the best sunset ever.
17) Seeing a Puma in Chile
Staying in the tiny town of Pisco Elqui we and our friend Ben decided to just start hiking up the mountain, despite a lack of trails. We had to scramble up the loose gravel side of this mountain to get to the top and once we got there, we spotted a puma, giant rabbit-like animals I’d never seen before and great views.
16) Glacier NP
Now I’ve hiked in over 20 national parks in the US, but my favorite was Glacier National Park’s Highline Trail. It’s a through hike, so you take the shuttle up and hike across the ridge-line (and over a glacier, I think). To make things more epic, when I did it, a storm was coming in. It came and then settled right below the ridge-line. Part scary, part beautiful, and fully epic.
15) Romantic night walks in Vienna
Vienna as beautiful as one hopes Paris would be. This old empirical city has a quaint feeling with its stone streets and outdoor malls. Beautiful buildings lit at night, walking hand in hand to the sound of horses riding on the cobblestones and street serenaders singing Ave Maria… It’s slow paced, which might surprise people, but it’s my heart’s pace.
14) Hiking in New Zealand
New Zealand is beautiful. What else is there to say?
13) Sunset in Jodhpur
Nothing felt more Indian than sitting on the walls of this ancient fort overlooking the “blue city” and as the sun set, 20+ monkeys invaded the rooftops.
12) Park Hyatt Shanghai
Staying on floor 94 of one of the most luxurious modern hotels using a free night from the Hyatt credit card was an experience of its own. (Read our review of the Park Hyatt Shanghai here.)
11) Guam by dingy
In Guam we rented a car for super cheap and spent a week just camping in our car. We met a guy (38 and just retired from the navy) who offered his spare room to us. He happened to have just bought a little dingy boat. We were guinea pigs of how to run this boat. It broke down and one time floated away while we were snorkeling, but the waters of Guam are beautiful and the whole experience was a blast!
10) Hiking and then Hitch-hiking in the Cooke Islands
Snorkeling was great. We saw a giant moray eel and other strange things, but oddly enough our highlight was a hike on Carrie’s birthday from our side of the island across the big peak and down to the other side. We then hitched back to our little house (we accidentally found). I remember meeting nice people and specifically riding on the back of a truck hanging onto the roof.
9) Golden Temple in Amritsar
I wrote about this the other day in “India in One Word“, but in short, it’s a Sikh temple with tons of friendly people. The music, the food, the people, and the temple itself made this real travel if I’ve ever experienced that.
8) Staying in Civita di Bagnoregio
Italy is easily one of my favorite countries in Europe. But nothing was more ancient Italian feeling than staying on this tiny old bluff town that requires walking across a bridge to get to the island in the sky.
7) Bicycles in Yangshou
We rented some crappy mountain bikes for like $2 and went biking through the farm lands and hills of Yangshou China. It was epic.
6) Yasawa Islands are Fiji
Places to see before you die = Yasawa Islands in Fiji. Incredible.
5) The Long (and Cheap) way to Machu Picchu
You can pay a lot of money to take the train to Machu Picchu or you can take a cheap bus through the mountains, take a taxi around the scariest canyon road ever, and then hike along the train tracks below Machu Picchu. We took the second option. You can read about our Machu Picchu experience here.
4) Safari in South Africa
We had a great time with our self-drive safari in South Africa. And we saw pretty much everything there was to see: Lions, elephants, water buffalos, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, kudus, warthogs, ostriches, hippos…I must be forgetting something but you get the idea.
3) Dolphins in Bali
We befriended a local fisherman who let us try his family’s traditional food everyday and also took us fishing. One morning as the sun was rising, we saw a group of dolphins in the middle of our fishing trip. I swear it was at least 100 dolphins and many of them jumping and playing. I could have said being in Bali was good enough, but this was truly surreal.
2) Exploring Zakynthos
We rented a scooter and couchsurfed with the coolest guy in Greece. The days were spent jumping off cliffs and swimming in beautiful water. Beautiful.
1) Sri Lanka Festival
This trip had started with protests that shut down the streets in Negombo, and ended with the streets being shut down for this Maha Shivratri festival in Trincomalee.
I’m not sure how to even describe this festival. Every night for 5 nights, all night long, they walked these little idols through the street – for their gods to bless the people. We lasted until 2am. Seeing crowds set coconuts on fire and then smash them, sing, be in traditional dress and set off fireworks… what a party. Also, no one knew english and there were no other tourists that we saw. We were really off the path and it was more than worth it.