Where to Go?

"Where to go?" is the eternal travel question. I travel to places that I really want to see. That seems a simple enough answer, but it's a good answer.

I like going to places that are pretty, are interesting, and catch my fancy. That pretty much sums it up.

But most importantly, I go where I go. The trip takes me; I do NOT take the trip. This is a very important travel secret to discover.

I do NOT pick the place, the place picks me.

Let me explain by describing my past travel history:

• I am 100% German-American.
  
  
• My father's ancestry comes from northeastern Bavaria and northern Austria.
  
  
• So in high school I took German.
  
  
• My German class offered a trip to Germany, and I took it. I was hooked on travel after that.
  
  
• When I went to college, my mother offered my room at home to a student from southern Germany.
  
  
• Then next year I spent the whole summer in Southern Germany with the family of that student.
  
  
• I bought a car and drove it all over the German speaking part of Europe - Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
  
  
• I learned to travel well.
  
  
• Every year or so I returned, exploring farther and wider throughout all of Europe, learning new languages, meeting the locals when ever I could and having fun.
  
  
• After a decade or so, I widened my travels to include the whole world.
  
  
• I'll never stop traveling.
  
  

This oversimplifies my story on where to go, but I started traveling and basically never stopped.

I see some place, like Paris, on a German TV station and a few years later I'm in Paris.

I meet some Italian from Italy on a French train and BAM! I'm in Palermo.

Same thing happens to me when I watch movies:

• I watch "Star Wars," and I'm off to Tunisia where it was filmed.
  
  

  

  
  
• I am taken with "The French Lieutenant's Woman," and I'm hiking the seaside cliffs near Lime Regis, in southern England.
  
  
• I see the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and I'm exploring inside the pyramids of Egypt.
  
  
• I view Michael Palin's travel series "Pole to Pole," and I'm climbing the Torre Del Paine Mountains in Chili.
  
  
• I rent "Crocodile Dundee," and I'm marching through the Australia's Outback.
  
  
• I watch "Lord of the Rings," and I'm sailing through the air in Queensland, New Zealand.

That's how I pick places on where to go to. They pick me.

I utilize great travel information sources:

DVD Travel series like Rick Steves' Travels in Europe and Rudy Maxa's Smart Travels help point the way.

Travel magazines are great to subscribe to.

See my Travel Secret pages on Travel Guidebooks and Such and Where to Go Travel Destinations for more ideas.

Finally, I'd like to include different kinds of places on where to go in every trip, such as a Big City, villages, great museums, spectacular views, mountains, beaches and end it with one big adventure.

So check out these trip combinations I've done:

• Big City, villages, great museums, spectacular views, mountains, beaches, and a big adventure.

• Paris, wine country, Louvre, Dordogne, French Alps, Cote Azure beach, and hiking in the Pyrenees mountains.

• Munich, Alpine villages, Deutsches Museum, Bavarian Countryside, Swiss Alps, Italian Riviera, and boating in Venice.

• London, Cotswolds, British Museum, Cornwall, Mount Snowdon, Blackpool Beach, and renting a canal boat.

  

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian coast, Carmen Miranda Museum, Itatiaia National Park, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Ipanema Beach, and driving in Brazil.

• Rome, Tuscany, The Vatican Museum, Pompeii, Stromboli Volcano, any beach in Italy, and travel to Tunisia.

• Valparaiso in Chili, Lake District, Chilean Naval Museum, Chilean coastline, Osorno Volcano, Pucon Beach, and hiking Torre del Paine.

• Sydney, Aboriginal Australia, Tour the Sydney Opera House, the Outback, Blue Mountains, Bondi Beach, and diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

You got the idea.

So get off you duff, pick a place on where to go, and go.

Make your own travel combination.

And keep going.

More Travel Destinations:

Life in Toronto - It's a city guide that shows the best of the city. Whether you are planning a visit to Toronto, or exploring the city with the view to move here or immigrate, this website is for you.

Here are some important travel points:

Go to the Page on Best Travel Secret

What to do?

Where to go?

When to go?

Who can you trust?