Your most exotic places and any plans to visit others ?

At the moment anywhere warm and bright would be exotic compared to a dreary Durham.

I’m soon to be 75, but after DH died (he hated and wouldn’t go on holiday) I spread my wings and try to get 3 holidays in a year. Not long haul, just Madeira, Spain, or Cyprus. However New York is my indulgence and I go with DD2 (who has now been 40 times!).

Northern Cyprus just blew me away, the history, the scenery and the friendliness of the people! My son was five and in a wheelchair and everyone was so helpful!
The Guggenheim in Bilbao was also spectacular!

I'm a real home bird and have been for ages, but did some exciting hitching in the 70's, once all on my own round Brittany.
So Crete has been as far as I ever got.

My longing however is to go to Capetown, "under African Skies".

No money currently at all (the back wall needs doing, and.....etc) but could save up, and I'd need to go with someone who is confident, as I'm not at all.

The only exotic place was Singapore in the mid sixties where we were stationed for three years. I remember when I first arrived we stayed in a small hotel on a palm fringed beach while we were looking for a house. It was straight out of Somerset Maugham and very romantic. Singapore was short on decent beaches. After we’d been on the island a while we used to hire a car with friends, cross the causeway into Malaya and find some deserted beach to spend the day swimming and picnicking. We once got lost in a pineapple plantation!

Most of our travelling has been in Europe. We lived in Belgium and in Holland and travelled widely in Germany. After he retired, DH flatly refused to do long haul flights so I tore up my list of far away places with strange sounding names and settled for closer to home. I now live them vicariously through my children who are always off somewhere far flung! Some of the things they do when they get there make my hair stand on end😁!

What a wonderful thread! I’ve been fortunate to have traveled aplenty now.
Almost got stuck in Kenya with the Covid outbreak, it was worrisome watching the hotel empty and having to trust in our travel agents to see us home safely, we were last plane back into UK thank heavens our booked taxi driver came as many others didn’t show up, we had to get a further flight to Channel Isles and then forced into isolation for 14 days but at least at home by the skin of our teeth.
Apart from that some wonderful times Vietnam probably my favourite and would go back to again and again.
Australia I was fortunate enough to have a complete tour from Sydney to Cairns. Then many places around the world in between, not yet Japan but I haven’t finished yet!

I went to Uzbekistan last September and enjoyed every minute. Fabulous country and really kind and hospitable people. I’d happily go again.
I’ve visited most of the Emirates and love them too. The smaller the Emirate the more authentic the experience imho.
Off to India next and then China.

Bognor Regis.
Can't wait, I hear it's quite dangerous though.

India, but not the Golden Triangle. Calcutta, where I was born when my Dad was working out there, Darjeeling where they used to go in the summer heat, and wonderful Sikkim. Highlight was seeing Kanchenjunga, a painting of which always hung in my childhood home. It seemed to be visible on every stage of our journey.

Having travelled over most of Europe and parts of Africa the strangest place I have visited is Grand Marais on the North shore of Lake Superior. Nobody there had met anyone from England before.

Did enjoy Singapore as a stop off to Australia and NZ . They were both great too. I went to Tunisia in 1972 (honeymoon, first time abroad) very different then and seemed very exotic .

Have done lots of Europe and lived in Holland for a few years . I would still like to get to Italy d Poland which I haven’t managed so far.

I have never wanted to go anywhere in Asia or Africa, they have never appealed to me and I refuse to go to any of the Arab states because of their attitude to women and gay people .

I’ve been to America several times but find long haul harder now because of mobility issues

Singapore is terribly civilised.
But I do like it!

Singapore is expensive these days. We used to go there and buy cheap things but now it is more expensive than Australia. Very clean and very safe, though and they could teach our mob a thing or two about not having hideous graffiti in the central city areas.

nanna8

Singapore is expensive these days. We used to go there and buy cheap things but now it is more expensive than Australia. Very clean and very safe, though and they could teach our mob a thing or two about not having hideous graffiti in the central city areas.

We shared a taxi with an Australian woman the first time we were there.
She had been touring the Far East and said she didn't like Singapore because it was too civilised, clean and ordered.

Allira

nanna8

Singapore is expensive these days. We used to go there and buy cheap things but now it is more expensive than Australia. Very clean and very safe, though and they could teach our mob a thing or two about not having hideous graffiti in the central city areas.

We shared a taxi with an Australian woman the first time we were there.
She had been touring the Far East and said she didn't like Singapore because it was too civilised, clean and ordered.

Yes, I can see that!
It was decades ago now, but a BiL married a Singaporean, so the wedding was there. Dds were late teens/v early 20s at the time, and it was their first experience of the Far East.

So we added on a few days in Bangkok, at least partly so that dds could see the ‘real’ Far East, not just the sanitised Singaporean version!

Might add that a few decades before that, dh and I had visited Singapore, and had stayed at the Raffles - the old colonial version - before it was tarted up out of all recognition. I still remember all the frangipani flowers scattered around the pool!

It wasn’t at all fashionable then - people asked why on earth we were staying there, but we loved it.

Wow some of you are really well traveled.
I think my most exotic place was Mauritius. We had a private driver and he took us all over the island . Seeing mango trees in peoples gardens was amazing.
My most interesting trip was South Africa, we went on safari in the Kruger and drove down the garden route to Capetown , such an interesting country. The second most interesting country was Cuba .
We’re done numerous road trips in the US , the most recent was Boston and New England in the fall .
Another exotic place was Thailand , one of my oldest friends lives there , so we get to go to places tourists don’t go to.
Australia, New Zealand and South America are on our bucket lists.

To be fair, Singapore was always ordered, safe and relatively clean, even in the sixties. Hygiene standards for hawkers of street food and restaurants were closely monitored though there were a few who slipped through the net, like the little man with a barrow, charcoal burner, a wok and a very dirty vest who used to lure DH out of the front door like a Bisto Kid! He never succumbed to anything, miraculously.

There were some very ‘colourful’ and exciting places to spend an evening then if you wanted to go “off piste”😏. It is very sanitized now. DS was there last year and said it was fabulous but there is very little of the old Singapore left. What there is has museum status. They deserve their success. You can’t live in the past.

Having travelled widely in Africa, India, Australasia lots of really good experiences, the best and most exotic for me is Galapagos, Isabella island, walk along the beach to the hotel, watch Pelicans, Penguins and Sealions on the shoreline from your hammock.

Not likely to return but I was so lucky

I believe the only "exotic" travel destinations we were in are Japan & Hong Kong.

My favourite European travel destination would be Venezia where we have been several times.

Other enchanting travel destinations we had enjoyed have been: The Bósforo - Estambul, Santorini, Roma, San Sebastian - Spain, Paris and La Rioja, Spain.

Hong Kong was wonderful but I haven’t been there since the Chinese took over - I wonder if it has changed much ?

I lived in the rain forest of Trinidad in 1963. It was pretty exotic with lots of snakes, centipedes and giant lizards.

Been all over the world except Australia. Researched a trip there during covid which could have worked for a fortnight (I don't like to be away for longer). I don't think I can face the long flights now and unfortunately DH is not the most delightful companion.

We were lucky enough to spend our honeymoon in LA in the early 80s, as my late brother was living there at the time. Flew Laker Airways, and saw some great places, including Santa's Barbara. We loved our trips to Australia and NZ and Singapore and glad that we made them when we did. Since OH was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers, long haul flights are out, so we have become 'Saga Louts' instead, and are sticking to Europe. Still many places to visit on the list. Would have like to have visited Canada, but it won't happen now.

That should be Santa Barbara. I did preview it, too!

I fancied India, until my friend & her husband went for two weeks.
They said it was hell on earth.
Really filthy & smelly.
Both picked up viruses.
They haven’t touched a curry since.

What a shameMT62 many of my friends have visited India and had a really wonderful experience but visitors do need to follow basic rules about what is suitable to eat and what to avoid. I've just got back from Morocco. I like to experience different cultures, really enjoyed the food and I found the people very friendly and helpful. I went with my daughter and we felt safe even walking through dark areas at night. Interestingly we both said we had felt unsafe in the US on previous visits, me in Los Angeles in the 80's and she in San Francisco in the 2020's! Foreign travel is not for anyone who likes it sanitised but I don't want to be in a country where I don't feel safe.