I have to have beach AND mountains each year. We take trips to both. I get to go to cities enough for business travel (or- I did- before travel stopped). Being in a city is not a vacation or re-charging for me at all.
I like the great outdoors (nice views big plus), preferably with few people but comfortable amenities—good beds, nice meals, good air. I’ve done camping but at this stage of my life, I need electricity to run my medical equipment.
@milee30 We would stay in albergues on some days for the camaraderie of the other Camino pilgrims. But every third day or so we indulged in nice hotels or paradors.
Beach with mountains. I love mountain islands like HI. Best of both worlds.
We avoid cities only occasionally going to one for a museum or aquarium or similar. Then we’re glad when we get out of them. To us they are mainly crowds, traffic, noise, and pollution.
(Never read my posts as dissing what others like - we’re glad millions love cities. It keeps the rural and wilderness areas less crowded.)
Last year for our Anniversary we were going to go to Chicago simply because we had never been there (except for the airport) and my mom’s tiny airport had a direct flight making it easy to do in a really rough summer (both moms dying and my son getting married).
Shortly before we were to go we realized even with a waterfront hotel it just wouldn’t be enjoyable. I got on AirBnB and found a waterfront Lake Champlain place that was literally right next to the bike trail. It turned out to be a very relaxing anniversary - exactly what we needed.
Chicago isn’t even at the top of our “to go to” list. Tahiti is there - and been there for some time - but it’s expensive and we have more Caribbean islands to see first, esp since those are contenders for our eventual winter home. HI is also a favorite, but mainly the more rural islands vs Oahu.
The slower pace of rural/island vs the quicker pace of cities is another thing that appeals to us.
I’m glad humans are different. Can you imagine if we all wanted the same vacation?
The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, like most Fairmont hotels, is running a BOGO promotion. Unfortunately, Americans can’t take advantage of it, as border closure between the two countries has already been extended to July 21 and may be extended again.
I’m not “allergic” to the outdoors. However, we take some of our vacations when it is winter. And they are either a plane trip away or a very very long drive. It would be mighty chilly camping in coastal Maine in the winter. Ditto the Great Lakes area.
And anyway…I did my camping. Lots of it. When I was younger.
I like exploring and doing different things. I don’t like sitting and enjoying the ambiance, or going the same place every year. I’m also not a water activities person. I do OK with it for about an hour and then I’m done.
Mountains are definitely at the top of the list. I love to climb (i.e. hike) mountains, as long as there’s no great risk of death (no Everest for me). Beaches? I like to walk along the beach and watch the ocean waves and look for seashells. I’m not a fan of getting IN the ocean. But I love to build sand castle cities. I love exploring cities and using public transportation. I love to observe how others live. I love getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things like upside down ziplining in Mexico and indoor skydiving. I’d love to to the real thing someday.
My good friend would go on these luxury bike trips where they had a van follow them with various equipments, food, drinks. At night they would stay at a 5 star hotel. Last trip they did was in France. She asked me if I wanted to join them next time - riding in the van. 
I also love where mountains and shore meet! Perfect vacation IMO ; )
Iceland and Scotland are my favorites internationally. Maine and the Pacific NW domestically.
That said, I love living near a big city. Sports, arts, dining (in normal times) greatly enhance my quality of life. Plenty of hiking and kayaking an easy drive away.
Easy ranking for me:
- Beach
- Mountains
- City
For me, it’s 1.City
2. Mountains
3. Beach
I can get bored on vacation, so just sitting at the beach doesn’t appeal to me. I’d much prefer to explore a city - it energizes me. I prefer spring/fall weather to summer, so mountains appeal for the weather and the overall ambience.
For us it’s definitely not “sit on a beach.” We never do that. It’s beach walking and if available, snorkeling and/or scuba.
If I’m sitting I want it to be on my balcony/lanai or campsite overlooking the water while we talk, eat, or read a book - even computer games if just killing time as I often do while H works remotely. As he tells his clients, he’d rather his window look out over BIG water and potentially see dolphins than dreary brown winter. (Snowy white is better than dreary brown, but blue water surpasses them both.)
Even when we go to Niagara Falls we now only get Falls View rooms with the Sheraton near the international bridge being our favorite of the options. We’ll get Take Out from Smokes (or elsewhere) and eat it watching the falls (and people) from our room. It’s easy to watch fireworks from there too, and good walking distance to almost everything we like doing on both sides of the border.
It’s a sad day. I knew it was coming but it’s still very tough. We got notice of the first cancellation connected with our trip to Spain and France next month. Our Norwegian Air flight from Paris to Boston has been canceled. We bought the tickets on JustFly.com. Who knows if we will get a refund or not. I put in a request and at least they acknowledged it by email immediately. They said it could take up to 18 months to process IF the refund is approved.
Thank goodness DH now understands that even Spain is not a good idea. Ugh, not looking forward to all the work headed my way to cancel everything. ?
^^ If they canceled on you, they should really give you the refunds. 18 months is a really long time, though. Good luck with getting other reservations canceled.
Just Fly has been a bear to deal with and I will never use the company again.
We finally got refunded from them for H and my flights to Germany/Poland after I had to contact SAS to get a code. SAS sent me the refund notice fairly quickly, but it went to Just Fly, not me. I had to call them multiple times to get them to refund me the money each time waiting on hold for up to an hour - over an hour once.
No big deal with all of that - just a hassle and a lot of wondering.
Then the kicker. My med school lad also had a reservation I made at the same time, just he left later from Krakow and we left from Gdansk so the return flight differed. I called SAS at the same time - they put the same code on. I dealt with Just Fly about both reservations at the same time. Someone on their end never put in for the refund from SAS for him, so it never happened. We were told to allow three months, so I didn’t worry.
When I called two weeks after SAS sent us our refund notices and not having received it from Just Fly I inquired about his too. They told me his was rejected from SAS. I called SAS - no such thing happened - they had never asked. The code was there from my original calling them, but the wonderful SAS rep said he’d add another one.
I called Just Fly back and now I HAD to pay them $35 to ask for a refund. I didn’t have to before. I tried two different calls, both times balking at paying the $35 since we didn’t have to before for the exact same thing. I asked to speak to a manager, but no one was available. Once I left a message to be called by one, but of course that never happened. Finally I gave in and let them charge me $35 figuring it’s just 10% they’re grabbing. We’d get 90% back.
And we’re still waiting. SAS hasn’t notified me of a refund yet. I’ve no idea if Just Fly put in for it or not. Someday I suppose I need to call them again. I’m not looking forward to it.
They may be going under, I’m not sure. I am sure I won’t use them again. A couple of people have been polite on the phone at least, but not all.
Ugh.
@Creekland, do you have a phone number for JustFly.com? If so, could you PM it to me?
I’m on hold with Just Fly now. I got inspired to see if I could find an update on their site and it now says “We hope you enjoyed your trip…” Not one word about it being cancelled and waiting for a refund.
This is really frustrating. My last contact with them was May 27th when I gave in and let them have another $35.
I sent you their phone number @MaineLonghorn
@Creekland, thanks.