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Revisiting Travel Destinations

Pauline

Forums Admin
My New Year resolution was to go to one new country each year and this year we are going to Israel. Since we moved to the UK in 2010 the only other new country for us was Portugal, several years ago. Instead of new countries, we revisit our favorites - Italy, France, Switzerland, the UK.

But maybe revisiting travel destinations is better. It would take a life time to see any of our 4 favorities. I am booking a trip now for Liguria and I realized that we our last trip there was 2003! 15 years ago! And I love Liguria. We were going to add a new region - Piedmont - but now I am thinking maybe we would be happier spending longer in Liguria (Levanto) with a few nights either side in Rome and Tuscany. We haven't been to Rome since 2004. At least we were in Tuscany a few years ago.

It all makes me think, where the heck have we been going? I need to write up my Trip List just to reassure myself that we have been traveling regularly to Europe.

What do others think? New places or revisit favorities?
 
In the last few years we have visited new places, India,Myanmar, and the coast of India and Africa on a 30 day cruise with a 10 day land trip in South Africa at the end. We loved the excitement of new experiences.

This year however, we are returning to favourite places for a big birthday celebration.
Paris, probably top of my list of favourites. Provence that we return to and stay around the same areas, even the same town this year.
Venice, for a month, and may have pushed Paris off the top spot but we shall see.
We are doing a whistle stop trip through Switzerland, new to us, and adding time in Bologna at the end, new to us too.

Returning to a place allows you to revisit favourite spots and add new ones that have been on the wish list but time precluded in the past.
With a month in Venice we plan to be more selective about what we do, although the list of "must does" seems to be growing thanks to great trip reports on this site!!
 
I always return to Paris and it feels like my second home, though I don't own property. I think this May will be my 11th consecutive year, but I'd been in years prior, sometimes twice a year.

I'm adding new regions in Italy this year -- Fruili with Bluone and Sicily with GrapeHops; Venice after Fruili. After Sicily, I'll be returning for my fifth visit to Rome.

Last year, The Cotswolds (with European-Experiences) was new and I will go back!

There are many places I'd like to visit. Having just turned 64, I feel a strong sense of urgency to take as many trips as I can afford each year. My mom died at 51, my dad at 65, and my husband at 60. Life is short! Travel!
 
I feel, like Freda, that the time is NOW to travel. I'm 68. We are both retired and really I am not sure what the future will hold for our budgets. The arrival of grandchildren who require travel to see, has an impact on our choices too.
We try to go to one country each trip and also Italy. So far we've been to Switzerland, Amsterdam and this year Portugal.
Always, we return to Venice.
Haven't been to Rome since 2012 and will go this year.
 
I have been pondering this question lately as we are debating where to go in 2019.
We have visited certain countries, Thailand, USA, Singapore many times. Thailand is like a home away from home for us as we have been 12 times.
It's also interesting seeing these trips through the eyes of our children. They love going somewhere we have been that is still foreign and exotic, but where they remember places/people/moments and they relive them in a different way. It's like adding to a memory bank.
I suppose that's why we like to revisit places as well.
This year, with our trip to Italy, will be new places for everyone. DH and I have been before, 21 years ago now! So it will all be new as the way we view everything has changed as we have aged.
I am looking forward to it all.
 
In my younger years, I wouldn't even have pondered this question, because back then I wanted it all and in my youthful naivety I felt that I would have all the time in the world.

Ten years ago I was all about accomplishing things on my bucket list. Today, it's more about following my heart and doing things that brings me the most joy. I would still like to visit new places and have grand new adventures at least once a year, but I think those new places can also be had in the places I enjoy revisiting the most (Spain & Italy). I've never been to San Sebastian in Spain yet. I've not been to Umbria in Italy yet and I think there are great new experiences to be had there and I hope to get there soon. I can also try to visit places near their borders like small towns in France and/or Portugal. I also want to do more caminos.

I love Europe the most, but I also enjoyed venturing to South America (Peru & Argentina). Would I revisit them again? Honestly although I loved my experiences there I probably would not. However, I wouldn't mind visiting another new country in South America. My hope is to try to get to one country in Asia sometime soon. Last time I went to Asia was as a teenager when my parents wanted my sister and I to get to see our roots. We spent a month living on our family's farms in the Phillipines (no electricity, drinking well water and taking cold showers). That was enlightening.

Like you Pauline I don't know where the time has gone! I guess that's a good thing as it must mean we are enjoying life. So to the question of New Places or Favorite Destinations? I guess for me I still want it all but if I don't get to it all, I'm okay with that. I want to enjoy doing and going to whereever my heart leads me to and whatever brings me the most joy for as long as I can and in the time that I am fortunate to have.
 
Revisiting is sometimes a good idea, especially when you didn't get enough of the country last time. I keep visiting Wroclaw and Krakow (Poland) and Seoul (South Korea), they're my favourite destinations in Autumn.
 
Well Pauline you will not go wrong with Liguria and Piemonte. Although my travels in Italy are not as extensive as many on this board, those two regions were my favorite.

Some people may think returning to the same place puts you in a rut - Not us! There is one place that we always return and have since the late 70s. The island of St John in the USVI is that special place. Devastated by Hurricane Irma, St Johnians have endured much, but are keenly focused on returning to normal. The annual St Patrick’s Day parade was a success and the annual Light Up the Night Cancer Walk is this weekend. Although power has not been totally restored on island from the storms the island is asking for people please to come and enjoy. As one of the residents who has a daily blog put it, “St. John is open for business. We may be a tad bent, but we are nowhere near broken. Please visit us soon if you can.”

beach.jpg


My wife and I have been married for forty years, and during that time St John has given us so much and so many memories that we must return (as I like to say, “frequent and often”). Although the island may be slightly scarred this trip, I know we will return from our getaway with another wonderful experience and our internal batteries recharged. Hopefully, we will be able to participate with the Friends of the National Park cleaning hiking trails or some of the isolated beaches. Due to work commitments this year my wife will not be able to participate in the annual Beach to Beach Swim. A 3.5 mile open water swim from Maho Beach to Hawknest Beach at the end of May. However, the swim is on, and it is one more sign of resilience of this tiny island we love.

A destination that has become your second home or go-to place is truly slow travel at its best.

footstep.jpg

18 days and counting…
 
We do enjoy a balance of familiarity, but always with a new twist

e.g. 3 bases, one familiar, another we've maybe just done as a day trip before and somewhere else brand new
 
Ian,

I like your strategy.
The sense of adventure and discovery of a new place is exhilarating
Confirming that a place scene on a day trip was worth investing time bring satisfaction
and of course the comfort of being back in your go to place where a certain personal nirvana can be found.
 
A few years back we started asking the same questions. There are still so many places we'd love to see: Australia, New Zealand, Vienna, Sicily, Madrid, Portugal, Cornwall and on and on. We'd also love to return to places we already know and love: Italy, England, Scotland. I guess for us it will always be a combination of Italy and somewhere else. Last year we did Italy and Switzerland. The year before we visited Copenhagen before taking a Baltic Cruise.

Art will be 72 this summer, I'm 66. Who knows what the future holds, and if one of us is unable to travel, that will probably end travel for the other. Our new philosophy is: If we can only go to one place, where would it be? We've been talking about Ireland for years, so this year we'll add Ireland - but we'll also visit Italy.

Normally I would already have ideas for 2019, but so far, I'm blank. I have to admit that returning to the same places is easier, so maybe I'm just getting lazy. OTOH, returning to Italy or England always feels right.

As long as our health and our money hold out we're going to keep traveling!
 
We did our new country, Israel, and loved it. I think it will become a place we revisit. There are a lot of places we haven’t been to but I don’t feel a big draw. I figure if we haven’t been to them by now (we are the same ages as Barb and Art), then we really didn’t want to see them.

I think we will keep with our routine of returning to favourite places. The Israel trip took a lot of time to research and plan, and because everything was different and new it was exhausting. I think I was on high adrenaline the whole trip. Looking forward to returning to Italy in May where I know what to expect.
 
I think it is an emotional decision. I pick with my heart.
Moving to Chiang Mai,Thailand 5 years ago pretty well quenched my taste for new and exotic. Most of my international SE Asia decisions are "head"decisions. They turn out to be exciting, challenging, and exhausting. And that is with short flights!!
Angkor Wat, Luang Prabang etc were based on things I have read.
A friend once said trips to new foreign places are like going back to graduate school and going to familiar places are like going on vacation.
We have such comfortable and cheap arrangements in Italy that it is hard to change my destination when we travel longer flights.
Living here new and exotic to me is a $50 flight to Danang Vietnam, 75 to Singapore and $30 train trip to Bangkok. Been there, done that. Got the T shirt. But I will admit to getting tired of "adventure" travel.
Travel plans this year are a 60 to 90 day trip back to the US ( now THAT is new and exotic) and then 90 days back in Italy.
Probably China gorges cruise this late fall. Already booked and paid for is a December 10 day stay at the new Hilton resort in Penang. $700 US.
As someone else mentioned I will probably run out of money and get up and go long before fulfilling my bucket list.
I will say that for me on an enjoyment scale old familiar is better than new and different.
Maybe because at the heart of it slow travel is about making a place old and familiar.
 
I do all the travel planning for my husband and me...he is always happy to go anywhere and is thrilled to have someone else spend the significant amount of time it takes to plan independent trips compared to taking a group tour. That being said, I must admit that returning to Italy, France and the UK has become so easy for me to plan now and, while there, I always find the trip extremely relaxing. So I tend to plan those trips more frequently than trips to other locations. We are 68 (me) and 64 (him) and I must admit that the more “adventurous” trips of our past no longer appeal to me. I am now happy to plan trips where we stay at least 4 nights in each location...preferably a week. I do, however, like the idea of combining a trip to a new and different location with a trip back to Italy, England or France (the countries with which I have the most comfort planning) each year. I agree with Rome Addict...”old and familiar” now appeal to me more than new and different. Oh dear...when did I become so stodgy and set in my ways?!?
 
Mom 83, I'm 71 and husband 72. We now also love returning to old familiar places. He still likes to drive, so I guess we still have some adventure left in us!!! Italy and France, are now the two countries we always return to, and we definitely never miss a year without going to Italy, with a must stay a week at Sant'Antonio in Tuscany before moving on. It feels like home to us, and Nico is now a very dear friend. We will return there next year as well ((2019), and then tack on Varenna and Venice. We leave this June for Sant'Antonio, then Rome. I no longer find Rome so appealing, as it is so big and crowded, but hubby wanted to return, after so many years bypassing it.

So, because of our ages, and still wanting to see some new areas, we had never visited, we decided on a Viking Ocean Cruise for 2020, (hope we're still around). We have been to Greece, however, the ship will start in Athens, visiting Santorini, Katakolon, and Corfu, all in Greece, then Kotor in Montenegro, Dubrovnik and Zadar in Croatia, and Koper Slovenia, ending in Venice, where we will stay a week in the apartment we always rent. I hope we're not sorry, as we took a few cruises when we were much younger, and found they just weren't our style. Mostly, too rushed.

We have two beautiful little dogs, who are like our children, and we hate leaving them. They are 14, and 12, thus the reason, we never stay away any longer than two weeks, and only once a year. As sad it will be to lose them, we do look forward to staying in Italy, and/or France for a month or longer.

Sorry, this got to so long, but my response to the original post is....We now love familiar. It just feels like home.
 
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Well, I have favorites I've returned to several times in the past 10 years, but always try to add a new destination in between. I enjoy researching new places. Japan, S. Korea, Australia, New Zealand are the most recent places, along with several smaller towns in France and Italy. Next up: South America- around the Horn.
 
I do toss in a new place here and there but I'm continually drawn back to Italy and I don't beat myself up about it too much.

Years ago a friend I admired for her intellect and wit, among other wonderful qualities, told me that she only allows herself one "fun" book to read after two "important" ones. Part of me admired her discipline while the rest of me just felt sorry for her, for feeling so driven in all aspects of her life.

There are many places I really want to get to, like India, but if I don't make it there I don't think I'll die feeling unfulfilled.
 

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