JAYNE'S BLOG: Travel Destinations Tips~ How To Decide Where To Go

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Travel Destinations Tips~ How To Decide Where To Go

Women Travel Guide Series (Applicable to Men Too, of Course!).

WHERE TO, NEXT?

Can you imagine having to choose between Madrid and Milan, Malaysia (Brazil) or Mexico?

All are great travel destinations, but how on earth do you make up your mind? As women we are incredibly decisive - but there's too much choice out there.

Of course it's part art - flair, instinct, desire, dream - and part science - budget, visas, distance, time...

My challenge is usually to narrow down my destination options. Is that your challenge too?

And what exactly IS a travel destination, anyway?

A destination can be:

A place - a country or city or region
An adventure - great railway journeys or sampling the best African safaris
A mood - dangerous places or pilgrimage routes
A wish - a trip to trace family roots or to take a year of freedom
A desire to be of service - by becoming a volunteer or taking a volunteer vacation
A search - to learn a language from scratch or attend a cooking school
A challenge - teaching English abroad or even studying a language abroad...

Let me share with you some of my 101 ~~idiot's~~ travel guides... wahahahaha.

NOW.....

Do you dream of tropical rainforests and the twitter of exotic birds at dusk?

~ Try Costa Rica, the Brazilian Amazon or the Kinabatangan River in Borneo.

Probosics Monkey ~ Kinabatangan

Are you an avid chaser of amazing natural beauty?

~ The Grand Canyon and Alaska, perhaps? Iceland's glacier caves? Australia's Great Barrier Reef or the Gibb River Road.

Grand Canyon May 2015

Grand Canyon Helicopter Ride

Are you seeking spiritual solace?

Then travel to sacred sites - (umrah) or perhaps in Tibet, Bagan (Myanmar) or Varanasi

RILA MONASTERY BULGARIA ~ APRIL 2015

Are you more of a culture vulture, with museums and history in your future?

~ You can't go wrong with Italy, Egypt, Greece, India or Peru.

FLORENCE ITALY MAY 2013

VATICAN CITY ROME FEBRUARY 2014

SOFIA BULGARIA APRIL 2015

ISTANBUL TURKEY, APRIL 2015 (MY 5TH VISIT)

ATHENS GREECE APRIL 2015

You're a city slicker... happiest sipping an espresso in a sidewalk café

~ Your ideal destination could be Paris... or Madrid... or San Francisco...

MILAN ITALY FEBRUARY 2014

RELAXIN HOLIDAY, LONDON DECEMBER 2014

SAN FRANSISCO JUNE 2015

And if these are on the expensive side and budget is your major issue, You'll find Phuket, Lisbon, Bali or Kuala Lumpur a bit more affordable.

JAMES BOND ISLAND PHUKET NOV 2012

JIMBARAN BEACH BALI MARCH 2003

KUTA BALI FEB 2015

HRC PENANG AUGUST 2015

KUALA LUMPUR FEB 2015

OR ......

Maybe you're an inveterate shopper

The world is full of fabulous markets -

Istanbul Grand Bazaar
Floating Markets Bangkok
Ismaylovo Market Moscow

Etc...

Or are you....

A festival junkie?

~ Then it's Rio for the Carnivale, Hong Kong for the Dragon Boat races, New Orleans for Mardi Gras...

Venice Carnivale

A wine lover?

~ That will get you to France, California, Chile, Australia, Italy...

Try Sienna Italy

A food tour fanatic?

~ This is one of my favorites! I've tried them Istanbul, in Barcelona... - and then there's this amazing food market in Lyon... and .... I could go on.

KUNAFE ANYONE?

Do you want to see some unforgettable building sites?

Visit central Rome, or the Pyramids of Egypt or Mexico or Peru

First time traveling?

~ You might choose one of the safer destinations for women

What about being sporty - sailing, biking, hiking...

~ Now that's not (at all) me but - there are few places you CAN'T indulge in your sporting passions. An up and coming adventure sports destination? Albania!

Do you dream of sun and sea?

~ Sample the beaches of Turkey, the Cayman Islands, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Zanzibar or Fiji.. or like me, recently - Sabah, Malaysia

TIP OF BORNEO KUDAT SABAH

Maybe you're a mountain girl...

~ You could follow in Birgit's footsteps and climb Kilimanjaro, walk around the Mont Blanc or play it safe with a visit to a lower-altitude ski resort like Charmey in Switzerland.

2010

Would you prefer going off the beaten track?

~Try Mozambique, Burma or travel as a solo woman in Lebanon. I haven't been there.

What about something on the beaten track?

~You could visit World Heritage Sites, or the Wonders of the World, or the top destinations of the year as decreed by BBC Travel or Lonely Planet.

If you like to follow in the footsteps of history...

~You can follow the footsteps of great explorers like Freya Stark or Alexandra David-Neel or Marco Polo.

Maybe you're the really adventurous type?

~ Your travel destinations could be Central Asia, Iran, Inner Mongolia - or why not one of the unrecognized countries?

And if adventure isn't enough...

~ You'll always have the world's dangerous places - though I wouldn't encourage you to go to any of the ones that put you in danger...

Tangkahan Forest Reserved ~ Beware of The Sumatran Tiger

Perhaps you're a lover of nature and the environment?

~ The lemurs of Madgascar or the gorillas of Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Would you like to explore a specific region?

~ Try Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, Central America, the Andes, North Africa, the Baltics - you can organize a circuit and not travel back on your steps.

Or maybe travel across continents to many countries?

~ There's Cape to Nairobi, Bangkok to Hanoi, London to Istanbul, Beijing to Moscow, LA to Panama... (my love of long journeys again!)

You might be curious about the New Europe...

~ Budapest, Prague, the Baltic States, the former Yugoslavia, Warsaw or even Moscow.