Best vacation? I'm in the midst of mine...

Without question it was the three weeks my wife and I spent in Puerto Rico in 2009 that our kids gave us for Christmas the previous year.

Our hotel was right on the beach but also right by the road into the El Yunque rain forest. One of the greatest experiences of my life was when we hiked up to La Mina Falls and I waded out to stand under the falls. We also enjoyed Old San Juan, took a day trip to Ponce (on the Caribbean coast), and visited the Aricebo Observatory (highly recommended).

My wife had lived there long before we met, when she was in the Navy, and she spoke a little Spanish, so that helped. I know PR isn't a classic island resort, and there are some areas of extreme poverty, but the people we encountered were extremely friendly, it was just American enough that we didn't feel too much like aliens and much of the island is simply gorgeous with a unique culture all its own.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

 

After I graduated from U of T (1971) , I spent 10 months hitchhiking around Europe (yeah, hitchhiking). Also worked in Switzerland for three of those ten months. At the time my French & German were pretty good so I could actually speak to most people.

Only time we (my girlfriend I met at the hotel) were scared out of our minds was getting a ride somewhere on the Adriatic coast by two drunks. I thought the driver (who kept turning around to speak to us in the back seat) was going to drive off the road and send us several hundred feet into the ocean.

Other than that, unbelievable life experience. And I loved working in the hotel in Zurich. Full of Americans, Canadians, Aussies and New Zealanders, all of whom just wanted to get some money before moving on to their next adventure

The Swiss, by and large, were racist pricks.

 

Probably the trip I just got back from. A HS friend ended up in Korea teaching English for a year, and I decided that I'd be the one person out of 200 who said "I'm totally gonna come visit" who actually did it.

Ended up going with a tour group to a place called Jeju Island with about 135 other ex-pat English teachers. Not the most authentic experience, probably, but a hell of a good time in a really beautiful place. Sleeping a few hours a night on the floor of a hotel room (ondol style, as they call it), drinking way more than I should, etc.

Came back to the mainland on a 13-hour ferry, got two hours of sleep -- on the deck, no less -- spent the day in Seoul before we gave up because we couldn't keep our eyes open. Went back to Seoul the next day on my own, the DMZ the day after with her kindergartners (a nice reminder that *I* won't be teaching English anywhere), a wine festival the day after (so drunk. so very, very drunk) and Seoul again the day after.

Gloriously manic. I had a great time.

 

No great stories coming out of them, but my wife and I have vacationed to Maui (honeymoon) and San Francisco (still paying that one off) in our 11 years together. Loved both places. I've been to a zillion places for work travel, but that's not the same.

We're thinking about hitting New England next year. Maybe two nights in Boston, two in Maine, two in Vermont.

Then, the next year: Europe. Probably Paris.

We're not much for fancy accomodations or dining, so the biggest expenses will be flights. And Red Sox tickets.

 

Yeah, my only trip to Australia was for the Olympics and I had such a tight travel schedule that I didn't really get to experience it. I loved it when people say, "Oh, you got to go to all these cool places..." Well, it's not quite like that... I remember covering the owner's meetings in Hawaii and when I went into the office to turn in my expenses, someone said, "Must be nice to get to go to Hawaii..." and I said, "It would have been, if I wasn't turning in 50 inches of copy a day."

 

Try covering the Hawaii Bowl.

"Must be nice getting to go to Hawaii."

"Yeah, it's wonderful missing most of Christmas."

 

The desk sees a Hawaii dateline and they just assume you're at a luau on the beach...

 

Thanks, all, for posting about your experiences. Mine is still going great, even though we've actually had to bypass two ports of call -- well, actually two places we were going to anchor the ship offshore and take tender boats to dock and stop -- because of a storm (pretty awesome, in an awe-inspiring way, being out on the ocean in a storm, but I wouldn't have wanted to do it in anything much smaller than the ship I'm on, so I couldn't argue with the captain's decision to keep going).

I guess it's because I haven't been very many places, but I'm liking and appreciating everywhere we've been. For example, Dick Whitman, you mentioned you'd like to go to Maine. I highly recommend it, now that we've made a stop there (in world-famous lobster land, Bar Harbor). We came hoping to see all the fall foliage, and, thanks to more overcast, very foggy weather, we didn't get much of that. But Bar Harbor is great, anyway -- just beautiful, the picture of a true seaside town, and your wife will love the shopping in the heart of the "city." It kind of has the feel of Santa Barbara, California, only smaller, more beautiful, more charming and more exclusive.

My favorite places, still, though, have been Quebec City and Halifax -- Halifax had me planning to ask for work transfer there, even despite the colder-than-I-like mid-40s temperature -- and now, I'd have to say I'd love to go back to Bar Harbor, too, if I ever get the chance. I don't think I'd necessarily want to live there long-term, though.

And, for Rumpleforeskin and others who might wonder about my posting a couple times while on vacation, this has been so great that I've found that I've wanted to be sharing about it.

I would love to go to Australia or Alaska next.

 

Halifax is even better in the summer, lots of lakes around there as well for all kinds of outdoor stuff in addition to playing on the ocean. The upside of being there in the lower seson is that it is probably a little less crowded.

Quebec City is tons of fun as well. Winter Carnival time and pretty Quebec girls are a great combination!

 

Try this place next time you are in Quebec City.

http://www.auxancienscanadiens.qc.ca/en/index.htm

The building is 330 years old and serves authentic 17th-century Quebecois cuisine, including bison casserole and wild pheasant.

 

Was that before or after I whined about being stuck in Hawaii on the company dime in the dead of winter?

 

Ireland, my first trip there.

Seattle, my most recent trip there.

My travel ledger is still pretty limited ... it's something that needs to change.