I'm up?

Going to Quito, Ecuador 78.4678° W.

Zion National Park (113.0263 W)

aw ****, wanted that to fall to me

Yup, great choice.

Zion was fine for a couple days...

Southern Arizona (-110.9411)

Going to college there was fine for 4.5 years...

Canyon Country, UT


I'm hoping to get hold of most of the area within the circle below:





I don't think this impinges on Zion or on filthy's first week of river rafting (depends on how far he'd get in a week, but I'm happy to cede some of Glen Canyon to him if he'd get that far), but do let me know if you think it's not valid.


I'm basically looking to do a bit of a tour around Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Glen Canyon, Lake Powell and Page.

I brought my laptop to work today, so I'm going to try to do a few writeups

filthy is taking the Colorado River again isn't he:

I'll take RAPID CITY 103.2313° W

Looks like Gad got the pacing right...bunch of dudes hanging out in Utah...

Now I'm trying to decide, for my last choice, among the following destinations, all of which are unpicked afaik (obv if anyone is east of any of these, they're fair game):

Guinea-Bissau and the Bijagos Islands
Azores
PEI/Nova Scotia
Montreal
Jasper National Park, Alberta
Florida Keys
Charleston, SC
non-Havana parts of Cuba
random unpicked Caribbean island
Oaxaca
San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama
Suriname
Peruvian Amazon
Peruvian coast

Decisions, decisions

Peruvian Amazon was incredible.

Had I not taken Manaus, I would have taken it even though I've been there IRL.

Some of that list looks pretty strange to me, but maybe I could be surprised by a solid writeup.

Also it's your pick, so literally anything legal is fair game.

oh, it's my pick?

whoops, sorry about that

i'll need a little bit

Starting Point: LAS VEGAS 115.1398° W
1st Stop: CENTRAL CALIFORNIA COAST 122.0308° W
2nd Stop: SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 169.8926° E
3rd Stop: KYOTO, JAPAN 135.7680° E
4th Stop: HANOI, VIETNAM 105.8342° E
5th Stop: LUANG PRABANG, LAOS 102.1347° E
6th Stop: CHIANG MAI, THAILAND 98.9817° E
7th Stop: MANDALAY PROVINCE, MYANMAR 96.0891° E
8th Stop: KERALA, INDIA 76.2711° E
9th Stop: KASHMIR REGION, INDIA/PAKISTAN 74.7973° E
10th Stop: SHIRAZ, IRAN 52.5837° E
11th Stop: TBILISI AND KAKHETI REGION, GEORGIA, 44.8271° E
12th Stop: DODECANESE AND NORTH AEGEAN ISLANDS, GREECE, 28.2176° E
13th Stop: MACEDONIA ANCIENT AND MODERN (THESSALONIKI, SKOPJE, AND ENVIRONS), 21.4280° E
14th Stop: KOTOR, MONTENEGRO, 18.7712° E
15th Stop: SPLIT AND THE NORTHERN DALMATIAN COAST, CROATIA, 16.4402° E
16th Stop: LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, 14.5058° E
17th Stop: FLORENCE and TUSCANY, 11.2558° E
18th Stop: SARDINIA, ITALY 9.0129° E
19th Stop: BERGEN, NORWAY, 5.3221° E
20th Stop: SAN SEBASTIAN AND BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN, 1.9182° W
21st Stop: FEZ AND TANGIER, MOROCCO, 5.0078° W
22nd Stop: SKYE, ISLAY, JURA, and the rest of the HEBRIDES, SCOTLAND, 6.1771° W
23rd Stop: GALWAY, CONNEMARA, AND THE ARAN ISLANDS, IRELAND, 9.0568° W

so, I was trying to figure out where to go for my last stop, and after toying with the Peruvian coast, I had basically settled on relaxing in beautiful Nova Scotia

but then I randomly came across the following passage:

and I thought, hey, that sounds right up my alley, I wonder what it looks like?



turns out it looks pretty awesome!

and it's in a cloud forest



with a giant waterfall



make that two giant waterfalls



and, of course, if i don't have enough to do, the Amazon jungle is just over yonder



that's where Peru gets all this crazy and delicious fruit:



plus Peruvian food is just delicious regardless:



so, yeah:

i think i'm going to like this destination

24th Stop: CHACHAPOYAS REGION, PERU, 77.8708° W

Final destination for me is Panama City, Panama 80.7821° W.

Write-up on the last...10 or so picks I've made...eventually.

summing up and junk

I've also decided to start my trip at the beginning of February. That would break out my destinations roughly as follows, assuming negligible travel time between them (or assuming that travel time and the fact that most months are slightly more than four weeks long will cancel each other out):

February
Central California Coast -- nice all year round
South Island, New Zealand -- late summer there
Kyoto, Japan -- just at the beginning of spring, probably a little cool, but that's fine
Hanoi, Vietnam -- smack dab in the middle of gorgeous dry season

March
Luang Prabang, Laos -- best time of year to visit
Chiang Mai, Thailand -- best time of year to visit
Mandalay, Myanmar -- still dry season
Kerala, India -- very early summer, hot but not humid

April
Kashmir, India/Pakistan -- gorgeous this time of year
Shiraz -- right in the middle of the best time to visit
Tbilisi and Kakheti, Georgia -- people say October is best because of harvest season, but mid-April is exceedingly pleasant
Dodecanese and North Aegean Islands, Greece -- absolutely the best time to visit, flowers are blooming and there aren't a ton of boats on the water yet

May
Thessaloniki and Macedonia -- best time of year to visit
Kotor, Montenegro -- best time of year to visit
Upper Dalmatian Coast, Croatia -- best time of year to visit, warm and sunny but it's not crowded with tourists yet
Ljubljana, Slovenia -- best time of year to visit

June
Florence and Tuscany, Italy -- best weather, high season is just starting but it's not as crowded as it is in July/August
Sardinia, Italy -- one of the best times of year to visit
Bergen, Norway -- second-best time of year to visit (behind May)
Basque Region, Spain -- one of the best times of year to visit

July
Fez and Tangier, Morocco -- May or September would be ideal, but this would actually be decent; Fez in particular has a mild Mediterranean climate
Hebrides, Scotland -- good time of year to visit (also, haven't gotten to the writeup yet, but this is a cool article with good pictures showing off some of this region's many non-whisky-related charms)
Galway, Ireland -- good time of year to visit
Chachapoyas, Peru -- smack dab in the middle of the best time of year to visit



crushed it

Chachapoyas looks amazing.

Nice find.

I'll be gone for much of the next three days. Will do my final writeup when I come back.

more summing up and junk

Now that we've established that I will have great weather wherever I go, let's take a look at the sundry enchanting features of my destinations. Here are the sort of things I look for in a vacation spot:

A: Visually interesting towns and cities, whether due to street art or architecture
B: Beaches
C: Vibrant city life
D: Excellent drinks
F: Excellent food
H: Loads of history
I: The chance to immerse myself in a new and unfamiliar culture
L: Likeable and friendly people to meet and talk to
M: Mountains
N: Natural beauty
O: Outdoors activities
P: Places that are off the beaten path (obv subjective and coming from an American POV)
R: Places that are relaxing
S: Lots of things to do and see in the area
U: Unique features of the destination that set it apart
V: Good value for money; notably inexpensive in key regards
W: Walkable towns and cities that you can explore for hours and find new things around every corner (narrow, tangled, maze-like streets a plus)

(many of these categories overlap to some extent, but they're still distinct in my mind)

And now let's see if I've done a decent job covering those bases in terms of why I would be going to each of these places; this is offhanded and haphazard, but still

Central California Coast: B, D, F, N, O, R, S
South Island, New Zealand: B, D, M, N, O, S, U
Kyoto: A, C, D, F, H, I, L, N, U, W
Hanoi: A, C, F, I, M, N, O, S, U, V, W
Laos: A, F, I, L, N, O, P, S, U, V
Chiang Mai, Thailand: A, C, F, I, L, N, O, R, V, W
Myanmar: A, F, I, N, O, P, S, U, V
Kerala: A, F, I, L, N, O, P, R, S, V
Kashmir: F, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, V
Shiraz: A, C, F, H, I, L, N, O, P, R, S, V, W
Georgia: A, C, D, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, S, V, W
Greek Islands: B, D, H, I, N, O, R
Macedonia: A, B, C, D, H, I, N, O, P, R, S, V, W
Montenegro: A, B, C, D, H, I, N, O, P, R, S, V, W
Dalmatian Coast: A, B, C, D, F, I, N, O, R, W
Slovenia: A, B, C, D, F, H, I, M, N, O, P, R, W
Tuscany: A, C, D, F, H, I, N, O, R, S, W
Sardinia: A, B, D, F, H, I, N, O, P, R, W
Bergen, Norway: A, I, M, N, O, P, S
Basque Region: A, B, C, D, F, H, I, N, O, P, S, V, W
Northern Morocco: A, C, F, H, I, L, N, O, P, V, W
Hebrides, Scotland: B, D, I, N, O, P, R, S
Galway, Ireland: A, B, C, D, I, L, N, O, R, S, W
Chachapoyas, Peru: F, H, I, M, N, O, P, S, V

not bad at all

Finishing with two parks in a row: Glacier National Park (113.7870 W).

Sniped on my final pick. WTF. Gimme some time to find a replacement.

Is not using E, G, J, K, Q & T some sort of standard list making strategy I'm not aware of?

I'll go to Yellowknife and the Canadian arctic and see me some aurora borealis.