Tourist First: "Best" vacations

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

"Best" vacations

A popular question: What has been your best vacation?

That can be a tough question for anyone. How can you choose between Yosemite and Yellowstone? Or between Italy and France? Block Island and Martha's Vineyard? Every destination is unique in some way, and every vacation has its own dynamics.

Nonetheless, I think my wife, my kids and I all agree that our best family vacation -- and probably the best overall, for that matter -- was a Christmas trip to Ecuador that included a week cruising and exploring the amazing Galapagos Islands. (The photo is of Pinnacle Rock at Ilsa Bartolome.) The column on the right-hand side discusses both the Galapagos and a hacienda in the Andes of Ecuador. Read my New York Times article about our time in the Andes.

No. 2 on our list is probably Yellowstone, also a family trip. We planned the trip too late to stay in any of the park lodges, so we stayed at four different places outside the park: West Yellowstone; Chico Hot Springs in Montana; Cody, Wyo.; and Jackson, Wyo., which is just south of Grand Tetons National Park, which in turn is south of Yellowstone. We went rafting on fast-moving rocky rivers. We went to a rodeo in Cody. In Yellowstone, we swam in a geothermal-heated river, we saw loads of bison and moose, and we also saw loads of geysers. Both Ecuador and Yellowstone were before I began this blog, so they're not covered the way more recent trips are.

Since then, Jane and I have made lengthy trips to Southeast Asia, Italy, Peru and Africa, among other destinations. But I still look back fondly at trips that the children (now adults) were on.

What about you? What's your "best" trip?

What's the best place to take kids?

What's the best couples destination?

You can post your comments here or send me an email. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

5 comments:

AnonymousOctober 13, 2010 at 3:39 PM
The best vacation is always going to be one without kids!! But if you've got the kids along, it's hard to beat Orlando. My kids are now 19, 21 and 24, so they've outgrown Disney World, but we went there five or six time when they were younger. The other parks give you other things to do and keep it from being the same rides everytime you go.
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lindasilver1@live.comOctober 14, 2010 at 9:37 AM
My husband and I keep going back to Bali, which we first visited before we were married. It can be fairly inexpensive once you're there, the people are wonderful and the service is great. Best massages in the world!! I'm pregnant now with our first child, so we expect that how and where we travel may change, but we hope we'll still go to Bali. -- Linda S., Santa Monica
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AnonymousOctober 21, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Me and my girlfriend just had a great 1 week vacation in Barbados. October is really nice there. We stayed at Dover Beach. We paid $175 a night for a room on the ocean side. Barbados is an easy island to get around on. There are no mountains. The food was good even at the non-tourist places, we both had conch for the first time. Only problem was that we had to change planes in Miami and had a long wait on the way home. And we both got pretty sunburnt. This was our first trip to the Carribbean. Now we want to try all the other islands. -- R.G. (Detroit area)
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Xavier LloydNovember 6, 2010 at 2:51 PM
My best vacation ever was when me and and two buddies went to Europe for a month after our junior year in college. We went to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich and Milan, Italy. That was summer of 1993. I've been back to Europe three times since -- and I don't stay at hostels anymore -- but that's still the best trip.
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samthegreekDecember 21, 2010 at 3:47 PM
Our best vacation ever was our honeymoon in 1999. We went to Capetown and the wine towns in South Africa, then a photo safari in Kenya, and a few days each in Rome and Paris. It was almost four weeks -- we wonder if we'll ever take a vacation that long again. Now we have kids and a time share in the Dominican Republic, so that's where we go during the kids' spring school break.
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Argentine Patagonia

They are called what they look like: Mexican hats. They occur naturally in the highlands above the town of El Calafate. The water in the distance is glacier-fed Lago Argentino. An hour's drive east of El Calafate, near the headwaters of the lake, visitors can hike on the Perito Moreno glacier and take a boat ride among icebergs that have fallen off the several glaciers in the Parque Nacional des Glaciares. El Calafate is basically a summer (Nov. to Feb.) tourist town, and there are a number of hotels at all price points. We stayed at Esplendor El Calafate, a very stylish hotel with a full restaurant and bar. The South American picker-upper drink mate is available at breakfast. The hotel is an uphill walk from the commercial area, but that's not much of a drawback. Click on the photo to visit the Esplendor online.

Dominica

Probably the greenest island in the Caribbean, in terms of color and ecological awareness, is Dominica, just north of Martinique. It was named by Columbus, who sailed past it on a Sunday. The island nation is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, but it is rich in friendly people and natural attractions, including a boiling lake, hot and cold waterfalls, a parrot jungle and hill after hill of dense green jungle. There is also a cable-car ride through the jungle canopy (http://www.natureisland.com/AerialTram.html). I wrote about Dominica years ago, and much of that article is still relevant: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/26/travel/winter-in-the-sun-an-island-where-less-is-more.html?scp=2&sq= Unfortunately, one of the hotels I mentioned, Petit Coulibri, has since closed. Fortunately, there's still a wonderful eco-resort called Papillote Wilderness Retreat http://www.papillote.dm/), four acres of lush gardens, hot-spring-heated soaking pools and modest cottage rooms.

Palm Springs

Palm Springs, Calif., is a great destination for nature lovers -- Mount San Jacinto State Park is a wonderful gondola ride (shown above -- click on it to visit its website) away, and Joshua Tree National Park is a short drive away. It's also a great destination for naturists; there are several major clothing optional resorts in the area -- and for fans of Mid-Century Modern architecture. For a dose of mid-century style, stay at the Orbit In (http://www.orbitin.com/), which does ask that you keep your clothes on.

Pompeii

If you're driving from Naples to the Amalfi Coast, and it's hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't want to visit the Amalfi Coast, you should plan to spend a night in the modern city of Pompei, adjacent to the ancient city of Pompeii. Above are the murals depicting an unknown ritual in what's called the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. If you can, devote most of a full day to exploring the site. Afterward, you'll want a good hotel. Click on the image for info about Hotel Amleto, a small and friendly hotel in the heart of the new town and an easy walk from the ruins.

St. Vincent

This is one of the "rooms" at Petit Byahaut, an isolated (access by boat only) eco-resort on St. Vincent, the largest island in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Bequia, mentioned above in this column, is one of the Grenadines. The photo above is of the living deck and doesn't show a relatively enclosed area that had a real bed. Did you notice I said "had"? That's because the place has closed. To read about the property in its heyday, click on the image for a New York Times article I wrote. The article has a link to a slide show with more images of the resort.