Considering how amazing Earth is, there are so many places to visit that are amazing. The next five adventures are totally unique travel destinations, with a little bit of what I experienced during them.
Antarctica
Read the full pust on my journey to Antarctica here.
Hands down one of the best trips of my life. There is no debating how incredible it is to wake up to a white massiveness just surrounding you. And the penguins!!! Oh the many many penguins we saw, each with its very own personality. I spent hours just taking pictures and penguin watching, seeing their little communities and how they interacted with one another. Our cruise was with Linblad Expeditions and NatGeo and it was one of the most wonderful experiences. We had naturalists and photographers on board, each an expert on different aspects of Antarctica, with informative talks every day. Definitely, NatGeo expeditions know how to make trips of a lifetime.
One of the highlights was taking one of the zodiaks out at night (broad daylight in December), and receiving hot coco, spiked for the adults, floating around just admiring the glaciers and snow. And KAYAKING! Kayaking was amazing! My siblings did the polar plunge, while my parents and I watched from the deck.
Hands down, one of the best experiences of my life, despite the Drake Passage, worst sea sickness and waves. If you have never experienced the Drake Passage, you are one lucky sailor!
Amazon
Another once in a lifetime adventure was a cruise through the Peruvian Amazon river. On a small river boat, Delfin II, we cruised through the river, getting off periodically either for sightseeing on smaller boats or walks through the rainforest. One of the best walks was at night! My mom walking in front of me, suddenly asked, “Are you messing with me and touching my back?” I of course wasn’t. Then she proceded to tell me, half calm, half panicking, “Then I have something on my back!” She took her shirt off, there, in front of our whole family and the guide, not caring just wanting to see what was on her back. Turned out it was just a huge cockroach!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars at night. The sky went on indefinitely. We were in the middle of nowhere with no access to any cell-service or wifi. It was the first time I had ever been truly unable to communicate for a whole week. AMAZING! Of course there was a sat-phone on board for emergencies which we never had to use despite many of our fellow passengers getting stomach problems. We attribute it to lots of Pisco Sours (which if you didn’t know, contain raw egg white).
That trip I held an anaconda, a sloth, talked to some people in an Amazonian community, kayaked in the river, swam with pink dolphins, used termites as bug spray and just took in the beauty and life of the Amazon. Definitely one of the best family trips of a lifetime!
Japan
For my honeymoon I was originally planning a trip to Africa and Kenya, mainly to stay at Giraffe Manor, but ended up choosing Japan. My husband loves video games, manga and anything toys. I love Japanese food and on my bucket list was a culinary trip through Japan. We combined both of these and had the best honeymoon. We arrived just as that week the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Tokyo. I could not have enough of the pink clouds all around the city.
One of the things I loved most about Japanese hotels is the service and amenities. I wouldn’t have needed to bring pajamas! All the hotels we stayed at provided a Samue for us to wear, one for inside the hotel and one for sleeping. Ryokans are a true luxury and they know how to do relaxing to the max. We stayed in two Ryokans during our trip, one in Hakone and the other in Taketomi Island. I would definitely go back.
Japan has incredible food and sights, but my favorite part was biking with my husband on Taketomi Island. The hotel had told us to come back before dark as the town was really small and there were no street lights. I took the flashlight provided by the hotel, my husband chastising me for being dramatic and not needing more than my phone light. How wrong he was! We stopped in town for a beer- loved Orion Hibiscus beer- and some snacks.
We broke two hotel rules for renting bikes: don’t drink and bike, and come back before sundown. The first is pretty obvious. The second became quite obvious when you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your eyes. We were cycling for 15 minutes on an unpaved road, with multiple holes and rocks, with only a flashlight illuminating our way. We worked great as a team and this trip of just my husband and me was perfect.
Banff
Small confession, I do have a bucket list and it has multiple places on it but also experiences such as doing a head stand. Banff National Park is on this list and it did not disappoint. Banff during the winter is just a winter wonderland paradise. Small town, snow everywhere, hot chocolate, crispy air, sunny days. The weather was perfect. The day we arrived there was a huge snow storm that cleared out the next day, unfortunately this meant no dog sledding as there was avalanche risk. We did get perfect ski days with tons of powder and ungroomed runs. Great restaurants with tons of local and seasonal flavors like buffalo meat.
One of the best experiences we had was visiting Rat’s Nest Cave. A whole day excursion into an explored cave with some rappel and something called the Laundry Chute. It was about 6 minutes of exhilarating shimming and squeezing inside a small chute. Insane. A huge adrenaline rush. Addicting.
The highlight of the trip was visiting Lake Louise. The frozen lake views with the ice castle built by the Fairmont hotel, seem from a movie scene. My grandmother even braved the cold and walked all the way to the ice castle on top of the frozen lake because she couldn’t miss it. Worth the trip for the views alone. No wonder it was in my top travel destinations!
Bhutan
The Kingdom of Bhutan only gives out visas to travelers with an approved tour company and a minimum spending budget which means tourism is limited to those who really are there to learn more about the culture of the beautiful Bhutan. This makes it one of the best travel destinations for travelers. Filled with temples, our guides would explain every aspect, even how to pray and meditate inside the temples. We had two young kids, 5 and 2, with us and seeing how well they were received, how their play and laughter even inside temples was welcomed showed me that Bhutan really is the happiest country. It was one of the best family vacations.
The hike to Tiger’s Nest was worth the incredible beauty and majestic nature of the temple in the sky. How it was originally built baffles me, but even more so how to this day it is maintained. Our guides were wonderful, with traditional Gho, always cheerful and excited to give us a little of their country. Their culture, their way of life, how they are stuck in a different time we do not understand. There are no last names, except the royal family, and names are randomly chosen at your local temple by pulling one out of a bowl. These type of traditions still alive today are just incredible to watch, admire and respect.
We got to visit the farmhouse of a local family. We were received with butter tea- an honor as butter is a luxury in Bhutan used for both eating and candles- by the head of the family and her children. Even my grandmother climbed up some steep ladder to be able to gather around the living area with the Bhutanese family. Later we had our meal on their terrace.
Bhutan is truly peaceful and just plain happiness. Everything is either good luck or normal, “auspicious” as our guides would say, and that is how I want to live my life, always focusing on the positive.
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