The retirement thread has me wondering what is on everyone else’s bucket list. I made a bucket list when I was in my early 40’s, right after DH died. He had worked sooo hard to be at the top of his profession and was diagnosed with cancer right as he was getting some recognition. He died just a few months later and was so sick that he was essentially in hospital almost the entire time after diagnosis. He was unable to do anything that he might have wanted to do on his bucket list.
I’m almost done with the main goal which is to launch the 3 kids, but most of the items on the original list were places I wanted to travel. I remember that one of them was to see the Egyptian pyramids - I still haven’t done that. I don’t know if I ever will. Many of the others I have done including visiting China, Hawaii and Europe. I’ve also visited Antarctica which was spectacular. I would still like to do a safari in Africa, visit Australia, Iceland and Greenland. I’m hoping to do some of that before I’m 70.
Most of my bucket list items are travel related too - I also want to see the Pyramids and the Cairo Museum, climb Machu Picchu, do a small ship sailboat in the Greek Isles, and visit New Zealand and Japan. Skiing in Austria is on the list too. There are lots of places I’d like to re-visit as well ; )
I’d also love to live abroad for a year or two.
Would love to be a grandma at some point too but that one is out of my control!
My H lost his mom when she was fairly young so we’ve also tried to strike a balance between saving but also living. Covid put a damper on the international travel but we’ll get back to it.
My husband and I have a combined list of places we really want to travel to, both domestic and international.
Includes Alaska (small ship and land tour), San Juan Islands, New Zealand/Australia, the Dolomites (biking the Dolomite Valleys) and other places in Italy.
I’ve been to Alaska twice, both times on cruises. It’s amazing! My most memorable shore excursion was a trip to Anan Creek. They only allow a small number of people to visit at a time. There is a blind where you can view the black bears catching salmon. I was thisclose to a black bear who was right outside the blind. We also saw grizzlies on our way to and from the blind.
All these travel bucket lists “see” items. I’d like to hear some about travel (or not travel) “do’s”!
Are there some more specifics to your travel for instance? Like a certain hike you want to do in a country? A certain museum you want to tour? A restaurant visit or meal in another place you covet to try???
All of ours are travel and they include everywhere we haven’t been yet. If it were possible I’d wander every single country out there.
Most don’t have anything specific in them - we just like to wander and see the planet. Victoria Falls comes to mind as does the Terracotta Army in China for specifics. Oh, and hopefully relatively soon will be the Trans-Siberian railway from Beijing to Moscow. That was would have been done already if it weren’t for Covid. H wants Easter Island on the list and we both want to get to Bora Bora and other South Pacific Islands.
Two that were specific (both that I’ve already done because they were near the top of my bucket list) were visiting Pearl Harbor and Petra - those came from my 9th grade Geography class and somehow stuck out to me through the decades. FWIW, there’s far more to do in Jordan than Petra and Petra is far larger than just the Treasury. My geography class didn’t go into enough depth. We have to get back to Jordan someday. 2 weeks wasn’t nearly long enough to explore the country.
All of the trips I listed would include “multi-sport” adventures. Mostly biking, but some hiking/walking and kayaking too. We are not good at just “seeing” things.
We do things like hiking/kayaking/scuba, etc when we’re at places that have them, but it’s not why we pick a place to go to (usually). Bonaire is near the top due to scuba though and it was one of our biggies when we went to the Big Island of HI - specifically scuba with the manta rays - though we did far more than just that.
I would like to visit New Zealand and Australia, Japan and go back to Europe—didn’t spend enough time there.
I’d like to visit the woman who hosted me when I was a young teen in KY—not sure if Covid will allow that before she forgets me, as it was decades ago and though I’ve kept in touch, her dementia is now also a factor. We shall see. She’s visited me twice in Honolulu.
Really, I don’t have a bucket list per se. I have enjoyed my trips to date and there are some places I likely won’t go due to poor air quality.
The best advice I would give is to not rush. Give yourself enough time to be able to wander around at leisurely pace. Having a local host is also highly beneficial, because they’ll likely take you to new places/neighborhoods.
I’d say most if not all of mine are travel related as well. We “do” a lot when we travel, but we would specifically like to hike the El Camino de Santiago and possibly the AT or another long through hike. Would like to visit most of the 63 national parks (completed 13 so far).
Like a lot of people, mine mostly are travel related.
As for domestic travel, we want to spend more time in California. Driving up the PCH from L.A area to Northern CA and stopping at several points. Also traveling by train on an overnight trip. Spending as much time as possible in NYC. Nantucket and the Vineyard.
Outside of the US: Travel across Canada (train?). Italy (have been close in the south of France ). Germany and Austria. Iceland.
Most Creeklanders have one state left - Alaska. Youngest S went there on his honeymoon. We threatened to chaperone and thought about “beating him” to it by going earlier. Then we thought to ourselves, “He’s the youngest Creeklander. Let him have a claim to travel fame in our family.” The rest of us still have to get there though…
We’ve also been to most of the National Parks. I don’t have a count for the few remaining, but some, of course, are in Alaska. A decade or two ago we bought a map from the NPS for $1.25 showing them all and telling what they have (map form, in a grid). It’s been super useful over the years. I know a couple have been added since then, but we’d have never found places like Chaco Canyon without that map. Loved our time there seeing the stars(!) and ruins. Probably the best buck and a quarter we’ve ever spent on a whim in a gift shop.
) would runneth over. We are working on it!