Top 10 favorite vacation destinations

I love to travel, and at this stage in my career I’m lucky enough to have the freedom to do so fairly frequently. I enjoy travelling with my family, but I also have a group of woman friends with whom I meet every year or so to explore someplace new. When I travel, I like to thoroughly explore the places that I visit. I love to get to know as much as possible about them — their history, but also the natural parts: the flora, fauna, geography. Here are ten places I have been that I would love to visit again.

1. Ireland. Of all the places I’ve visited, Ireland is the place I’d most like to visit again. It’s beautiful, it’s green, it’s lush. The people are wonderful. I toured the SW coastline, which consisted of four glorious peninsulas jutting out into the sea. Each peninsula had its own unique personality. Some were rolling patchwork farmlands, some were rugged, jagged, rocky cliffs jutting out into the sea. Everywhere was rock, and history. We visited pubs that were 800 years old. We saw castles and listened to music. And oh, the bed and breakfasts were amazing! The Irish Tourist Information centers mark the bed and breakfasts that they approve of with a green shamrock, so, while looking for a place to stay, that’s all you have to look for. Also, if you just stop into each tourist info office in each town they will call to make reservations for you right from the office.

Since my friends and I tend to prefer natural beauty and small towns to large cities, we chose to tour the four peninsulas on the SW coast of Ireland on our visit there. We rented a car and drove from Shannon to Cashel in County Tipperary. The Rock of Cashel, the castle visited by St. Patrick in the 12th century, and its sister abbey, Hore Abbey are spectacular. We visited Counties Cork, Kerry and Galway, which included stays in towns of Bantry, Kinsale, and three nights in Dingle. The harbor town of Dingle was so beautiful we spent extra time there to enjoy the walks on the water, the hikes through old ruins and cemeteries, and food and music and fun in Murphy’s Pub. Galway was a bigger city, our last stop before we headed home, and it had a wonderful pedestrian-only shopping area. Wonderful pottery, woolens, crystal and all kinds of local crafts were available.

2. Cornwall, England. Like Ireland, Cornwall is filled with history and natural beauty. I loved the seas, and the differences in the climates of the coasts. The north coast is rugged and sharp, characterized by cold gales and lonely farmlands, whereas the south coast is nearly tropical. They have palms growing, lush gardens, little picturesque villages, cathedrals, and plenty of great shopping. In Cornwall, we stayed in St. Austell. From there the beautiful scenery of both coasts, and the gorgeous villages were equally accessible. Truro, with its shopping and cathedral, Falmouth, almost tropical in its foliage and Portreath, with its wild north coastline were all excellent stops.

3. London, England. I only got to spend a week in London, which was, of course, nowhere near enough to properly appreciate the palaces, the museums, the restaurants, the pubs. While we were there, we heard the Cambridge University Student Symphony play Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, just on a whim. A student handed us a flier as we strolled down the street to let us know they were playing that evening. It was one of those performances that you could happily have died after, feeling like your life was complete. London is full of great tour companies. “The Big Bus” is one. You buy a ticket for 24 hours and all over the city there are Big Buses that you can hop on and off at your whim to see whatever you want to see. We never waited more than 15 minutes at any bus stop for the bus.

4. Alaska, in the good old USA. I love the outdoors. I love hiking, birding, flowering (to anyone wondering, that is identifying and photographing flowers). So, Alaska is a fantastic place to visit, for me. There is so much spectacular hiking there. So many trails, long and short, of all degrees of difficulty. You can hike to and from glaciers, along spectacular peninsulas with the mountains rising on all sides. You can go kayaking, biking, or on boat tours for wildlife watching. And all of this is within a two-hour drive of Anchorage. Don’t miss the tour into Denali National Park. It’s spectacular! Hatcher Pass, near Anchorage, has hundreds of hiking opportunities. Seward was a wonderful place to rent kayaks and explore the bay. Girdwood, on the Turnagain Arm, is a fantastic resort community, also with plenty of hiking opportunities, into rainforest, mountain, or coastal trails.

5. France. In Paris, of course, you have fantastic food, shopping, and sights. Paris has Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, incredible museums, great little hotels with courtyards filled with flowers, and wonderful old stairways leading to different landings and more flowers and stairways! But, I have to say, the south of France is even more beautiful. The color of light there, the fields of lavender, the beautiful old ruins on every hilltop – all breathtaking. We saw caves in the mountains and sheer, hundred-foot cliffs dropping down to the Mediterranean Sea. There is so much history and beauty here! We stayed with my sister in the village of Herbeys, La Cote region. Herbeys looked out from the mountains onto the city of Grenoble. We traveled from there to Arles, a spot frequented and painted by Van Gogh, Avignon, into the Coranch cave region in the Vercos Mountains. The Coranche caves are reputed to be among the most magnificent of “show” caves. We agreed!

6. Seattle, Washington area. There is so much to see and do in such a small area here. Mountains, ocean, desert, big city, rainforests, hiking, shopping. You can take a ferry over to Victoria, BC, Canada, and have High Tea at the Empress Hotel. You can see the Buchart Gardens in Victoria. You can visit the markets in downtown Seattle and wander around the Space Needle. I really want to go back!

7. Colorado. This is another great place to indulge my love of hiking, the outdoors, and nature photography. I suggest a backpacking trip into the mountains here. We took a guide and seven llamas to carry our equipment, and hiked up a valley, up to 12,300 feet, over the Continental Divide and back down the adjacent valley. We hiked 20 miles in three days. That was a hike, let me tell you. Then we went into some of the little artsy towns around the area and ate and shopped and pampered ourselves. There are pueblo dwellings to see and natural hot springs to soak in. Glorious! Our guides for our hike on the Greens Creek/Continental Divide/Little Cochetopa Creek Trails were www.spruceridgellamas.com — these guys were fantastic. They took care of food, taught us about our llamas, helped us set up camp, packed our gear on the llamas and left us free to each lead our own llama and take zillions of pictures. My daughter went back the next year with five of her friends and did the hike again with this outfit. Fantastic!

8. Las Vegas. My friends and I love the dining, the wine and the shows here. And by shows I mean any and all of the Cirque du Soleil shows, the Blue Man Group, and some of the comedians/impersonators/magicians. And, another great place to hike: the Red Rock Canyon, about a 50-minute drive from Vegas. If you stay at the Red Rock Casino you can drive over to the canyon several times and go on many of their terrific trails! Gorgeous!

9. Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island, Canada. More great places for wonderful history, hiking, biking, eating, kayaking and shopping. I would love to return to Prince Edward Island in October when they have their annual Celtic Music Festival. I can only imagine the wonderful musicians who show up from all over the world. There is a Celtic music university on PEI!

10. South Padre Island, Texas. South Padre Island has beautiful beaches, resorts, great swimming…and well, yes, birding, again. On the Texas mainland just off the island there is a huge bird sanctuary. On the island itself there are smaller bird walks and nature trails. So for beaches and birding, South Padre Island is absolutely the place to be. But best not to go during Spring Break weeks: too many kids.