Location: All Around The World

Putting together my annual travel bucket list of the best places to visit is a process that takes time. While news and global events have a large impact on the places I choose for this bucket list, I need to cut out all the locations I have been already. Another big thing I have to consider is… my wife Romina. Oh yeah I am not the lonely person that decide all the future travel destinations! 

Considering locations we have been in the past we are not considering for the bucket list: Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia (Sumatra, Sulawesi,Lombok), Malaysia, Singapore. Then again Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Colombia, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands too), Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile (Easter Island too), Brazil. We have visit many places in Europe too.  So, finally, what did we choose for our Bucket list of travel destinations to visit this year? 

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has seduced travellers for centuries. Marco Polo described it as the finest island of its size in the world, while successive waves of Indian, Arab and European traders and adventurers flocked to its palm-fringed shores, attracted by reports of rare spices, precious stones and magnificent elephants. Poised just above the Equator amid the balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, the island’s legendary reputation for natural beauty and plenty has inspired an almost magical regard even in those who have never visited the place. Travel bucket list 2017.

Botswana/Namibia

A land of vast open landscapes, abundant wildlife and an astonishing array of natural wonders, Namibia promises adventure. Tortured by extreme temperatures and strong winds, and battered tirelessly by fierce waves, the Namib runs the length of the country’s 1500km wild coastline, encompassing towering, sculpted dunes and lichen-encrusted gravel plains, punctuated by dramatic isolated mountains and transected by sandy river beds. 

Listen the lions roar just beyond the circle of the campfire light. What about the contrast of desert and delta, the endless horizons of the salt pans, the sense of a delta world in motion that is never the same from one year to the next, and the sense that here in Botswana, the world of wilderness, wildlife and….. Why don’t I visit Botswana and Namibia in a great trip?! Travel bucket list 2017.

Cuba

Cuba, the country where the clocks stopped for decades, is finding its way back to the future. A population desperate for change is recovering from the Cold War’s longest hangover and warming once again to its closest neighbour USA. Far from becoming the American neo-colony it once was, however, this proud nation, whose stature and influence within Latin American has long outweighed its small size, is holding on tight to what makes it so special. Travel bucket list 2017

Arizona/California/Utah

“What’s your reaction if I say that I wanna discover this piece of land with a Camper?!?!?” Well just looked my wife’s reaction when I told her. This one is on the TOP of my travel bucket list destination of 2017.

The moment you roll up to a national park kiosk you feel it. You’re entering someplace special. Maybe it’s the mountain air or the smell of trees. Most likely it’s because you’re about to see something big. Something indescribable. A canyon so deep you can see two billion years of geological history in its walls. Trees so massive you could fit buildings inside them. No wonder our skin tingles upon entry to a national park. Behind those entry kiosks lie landscapes that are vastly beautiful, histories that are inspirational and idea that was, as novelist Wallace Stegner famously put it, America’s best. And if you can only sample a taste of what these parks have to offer, these are the top sites and activities that can’t be missed.

Ethiopia

Few countries are so obscured by misconception as Ethiopia. This country is associated by most outsiders with drought and famine and often presumed to be a tract of featureless desert. Ethiopia is in reality one of the wettest, most fertile and most scenically beautiful countries in Africa. Remembered for the murderous communist regime that held power in the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia is in reality a peaceful, functioning democracy cohabited by two of the world’s oldest, and most mutually tolerant, Christian and Islamic communities. Into my travel bucket list?!?! For sure!

Iceland

Resting on the edge of the Arctic Circle and sitting atop one of the world’s most volcanically active hot spots, Iceland is an inspiring mix of magisterial glaciers, bubbling hot springs and rugged fjords. Activities such as hiking under the Midnight Sun are complemented by healthy doses of history and literature. Iceland is a place where nature reigns supreme. Aside from the modern and cosmopolitan capital, Reykjavík, population centres are small. It’s possible to find diminutive towns, fishing villages, farms and minute hamlets clustered along the coastal fringes. Travel bucket list 2017

Mexico

The home of tacos, Aztecs, sombreros and tequila, almost everyone on the planet knows something about Mexico. Yet there’s a lot more to this country beyond the stereotypes. One of the world’s great civilisations, Mexico offers a blend of Meso-American cultures, Spanish traditions and contemporary arts. Its landscapes range from the shimmering blue coastline of Bahia California and the iconic cactus-strewn deserts of the north. Don’t forget the Maya villages and gorgeous palm-smothered beaches of the south. At the top on the travel bucket list of my wife.

Marocco

For Westerners, Morocco holds an immediate and enduring fascination. Though just an hour’s ride on the ferry from Spain, it seems at once very far from Europe. They have Islamic culture, and it’s deeply traditional.  Despite the years of French and Spanish colonial rule, a more distant past constantly makes its presence felt. Travel bucket list 2017. 

West Papua

For a grab bag of stimulating experiences, this remote province is hard to beat. Indonesian Papua is as far east in Indonesia as you can go, with sublime landscapes, extraordinary animals and an ancient and vibrant Melanesian culture. Combined with the more recent arrival of Dutch colonialists, Christian missionaries, and all the trappings of the Indonesian state, it’s a remarkable place. Travel bucket list 2017.

Madagascar

Madagascar has no parallel: an extraordinary storehouse of natural and cultural riches, it makes experienced travellers question what it means to say a country is unique. Separated from Africa and Asia at the time of the dinosaurs, animal life here has evolved in a startling myriad of forms. This fact created a profusion of endemic species found nowhere else on earth. Humans were not part of that process. They first colonised this huge island less than 2000 years ago, when it was a primal Eden, inhabited only by its bizarre and marvellous zoological cornucopia. At the Top of my travel bucket list.

Author of this post:  Davide

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