Not necessarily the biggest or most exciting, but the most memorable and meaningful....
For example, my favorite was two weekends a year, in the spring and in the fall, on a retreat in Montauk (on the eastern tip of Long Island in New York) with a writing.group. We stayed in a place two blocks from town where everyone had their own room right on the ocean, and we'd meet twice a day for workshops. I did this starting on the late-90's on and off for over a decade. They were the most wonderfully supportive, relaxing and replenishing weekends, and something I'll never forget.
I got in the car one day and started driving. Ended up in Nova Scotia. Went to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina another summer just to see where it was and enjoy an Irish Festival. 7 years ago when I first retired I drove across the US and back for 6 weeks.
About 8 years or so ago my family all drove from our house to colorado, utah, arizona, new mexico, texas, oklahoma, and home. We stopped at the rocky mountains, four corners, arches national park, the grand canyon, tombstone, my great great grandmother's home etc. It was a really fun week
Oh but 4 years ago I hopped a train by myself to Shreveport and got to meet Tom Hiddleston. That was exciting too.
@LadyAlyxandrea Tom Hiddleston was on a train to Shreveport? WOW!
@LucyLoohoo no no he was filming in Shreveport and I happened upon (stalked) the film set
Most recent was a 5 day road trip, through small towns and back roads, with one of the high points being mayor for the day of Hell Michigan.
Hey! Mr. Mayor! How'd THAT happen?
@LucyLoohoo same way any politician gets in power: you buy your office.
@Angus WHAT? You bought your own gavel?
Havent done it yet, but I always thought that a Maine windjammer cruise would be nice
When I was at university, in Washington State, I went on a skiing / camping trip to Lake Louise in Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies. Amazing scenery, wonderful time.
Holy Crappoli.....so, 48 states, 63 countries.....I could write a book.
I have a least 50 "favorite" vacations.....
A lot to choose from but the one that comes to mind first was my 12 month working holiday to England back in the early 1970's. What a blast. Many good memories from that one.
My favorite vacation was when I went to Toronto for about a week. I went to see Maple Leaf Gardens, went to a Toronto Bluejays game, went to the NHL Hall of Fame. It was a great time.
I will never forget India. There are so many places I will always remember, but that one was hard to beat.
India's my very second favorite! The color, the sounds, the history, the beautiful people and....(drum roll here) THE FOOD!
@LucyLoohoo
You summed it up perfectly!
I am disabled and don't work (well, i am not employed and do not work for monetary compensation; i still cook dinner, try to keep my alzheimer's-afflicted fiancé from hurting himself or driving me insane, and other suchlike, but that doesn't count). still, i could use a vacation from my everyday life. i haven't had one in ages. when i did have vacations, though, i had so many wonderful ones it would be hard to choose just one. on the list, in the top 10 i am sure, would be one of my trips to the uk, during which i spent a few days in london, where i hired a laptop; repaired by train to aberdeen and spent a month there, working on my still-unfinished novel. walking about communing with the cows, rescuing a muddy jacob sheep someone had tied up, looking for nessie on a rainy day, visiting the orkneys, and losing my favorite pen and finding a lost pin; traveling down to edinburgh for a week of its annual arts festival (have you ever seen "a midsummer night's dream" performed in ukrainian by actors wearing gigantic codpieces?) and then finishing up back in london for, oh i forget, a few days or maybe a week, before returning to my then-home in japan. that was a pretty good holiday altogether. i'd like to take more vacations with my fiancé but we're broke and he's... well, he could probably still travel and enjoy but i'd have to keep an eye on him.
g
My most memorable and pleasurable vacation was in the early 80s on Hornby Island in BC's Gulf Islands.
Karen, my girlfriend at the time and I had rented a motorhome and spent two glorious weeks on deserted, and naturist friendly Little Tribune Bay beach. The only time we left the beach or put any clothes on was to walk down the road to a co-op store. It was paradise here on earth.
I've been back many times since. It was only about 3 hours from Victoria and my go-to vacation place for stress relief.
That sounds great!
There's a similar one a friend of mine attends on the west coast, for mixed media artists. I'd love to hit that...
Well... who boy mine's exciting ? (to me it was, dh took off work during a hectic part of the yr for his company to do this with me)
Topeka Kansas, Doberman Pinscher Nationals 2010. Just me and my husband breeder shopping for a week, fueled by copious amounts of good food, drinks & a couple of gorgeous dogs. Beautiful scenery . Kansas is underrated as far as subtle beauty goes imo. Flint Hills is surreal at pre dusk, like another planet.
OMG! I've been fortunate to go on MANY amazing trips, not due to where we went, but who I went with and what happened... I sailed to the Dry Tortugas (from Clearwater FL) with my parents, took an aging cat and two very rowdy kittens tent camping with my late husband, have visited several amazing cities with my kids, spent a weekend in Paris with workmates...
My fave has to be a tent camping trip (D and I had very little money, but found cheap ways to vacation) in the Florida keys, culminating at Bahia Honda State Park. We took moonlit bike rides every night at midnight, grilled seafood every day, snorkled with running Tarpon. It was hands down the most romantic trip ever, tough to convey how or why in text though. You'll just have to trust me.
I'm sure it was.
Traveling to/through Africa. Seeing the magnificent diversity of animals, seeing the stunning wildlife migration from Tanzania into Kenya, realizing how deeply tied to everything ALL life is (even the grass seed is dependent on the hooves of animals to stir the soil and help it receive the seeds.) Traveling out onto the savannah in the early morning and seeing who survived the night and who didn't...and who is surviving on the remains. This is such a powerful experience that I've repeated it eight times and plan to go again next year.