Banff

Summer's right around the corner which means that many people, including myself, are beginning to explore summer trip ideas. I'm still up in the air about where to go so I'm hoping to pick the brains of those who are well-travelled. Travel engages the five senses by exposing us to new sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings. It breaks us free from the monotony of everyday life. But of all your travels, which places or experiences rise above all the rest and top your list?

kja

Favorite travel memory...

MmePerdu

This isn't a "Europe" topic. Try https://www.fodors.com/community/tra...nd-trip-ideas/ if you must.

Banff

Kja ... I honestly just come on this board once or twice a year for trip planning so I wasn't aware that a similar thread recently made the rounds. Thank you for the link!

Macross

Since you put this under Europe I will post. We have a spring trip planned that has us in the UK, France, and Germany. I have never been to Berlin so we are going there, Paris for two nights since we are taking the Eurostar from London. Just because my husband has always wanted to do that. I could stay in Paris while he goes to Berlin but am being a good wife... I love exploring France. I watch the Tour de France just to see the countryside. Visiting the WW1 battlefields was so moving and made me more aware of the crazy people running our world. They thought it would be the end of wars but they all died in vain and we did it again and again and again. But I loved Lille, Ypres, touring the area around Verdun. It is beautiful there.

Ireland is where I would go if I didn't make myself go explore. It just feels like home and Ballycotton is my fav place there. Just magical to me and made me the happiest. If I were given a bad diagnostic I would say give me two weeks and book my ticket to Ireland.

Banff

Interesting because Ireland is one of the places on my radar but I just haven't gotten around to going there yet. When I read older threads on this topic I've usually tried to look for recurring themes. For instance, many years ago I kept hearing people mention the Jungfrau region in Switzerland. Last year I was able to go there and now consider myself one who would include...

* An evening train up into the mountain town of Wengen with distant waterfalls and low lying clouds sweeping across the Lauterbrunnen valley.

....as one of those "magical moments" I will never forget!

Of all the five senses, I probably tend to find unique "sounds" to be the one experience that causes me to "pinch myself" when I realize I'm not in Kansas anymore.

* Waking up in the jungles of Guatemala to the sound of screeching howler monkeys.
* Waking up to the "Call to Prayer" blaring out across the city of Istanbul.
* Listening to a Gregorian Chant concert in Notre Dame on New Years Eve.
* Hearing the sounds of the Quetzal and other unique birds in Central America.
* Church bells ringing in old walled towns of Europe.
* The sound of the ocean from our balcony on a cruise ship.
* The clip clop sound of horses hooves on cobblestone streets

grace44

I also loved the Howler Monkeys. My first thought was Switzerland, but the lions outside our tent in Tanzania can't be beat.

Macross

If you have not been to Ireland then go. Ballycotton made the news last week when that ghost ship landed on the rocks below the cliffs. It is a gem.