ellen_griswold

Have you considered taking the 'great american road trip'? We've taken eight of them, between 3-4 weeks each, and we're planning our ninth for july.

We've done the europe and mexico thing, liked them but prefer traveling the country from coast to coast.
We could fly but choose to drive since we experience TONS more - of the countryside, the people, culture, major league baseball games, exploring nat'l parks, major cities and tiny villages, anything and everything we can possible see and do!

Our kids still love going with us. We asked them what they'd like to do thie summer between jobs, internships etc - go to europe, hawaii, mexico ect and they said ROAD TRIP OUT WEST! We do have a BLAST!

So yes, when we tell people the above, most often the response is WOW!

Clifton

FWIW, I took your original post as a conversation starter, not as a statement that you were looking for a trip to brag about.

Impressiveness depends to much on others though, don't you think? Honestly, I believe you're right about the world being so small. Those major world travelers are going to be blase about anyplace you want to talk about. "Oh, Easter Island? Yes.... we did that years ago. Soooo over rated".

And the non-travelers or those with limited interest? "Why in the world would you want to go there?? I heard they don't even make decent pizza there!"

Those who see eye to eye with you are going to be impressed by the same places that you are or imagine you'd be.

I got a lot of the "why???" when we went to Transylvania and other parts of Romania last year, but it was just cool as far as I'm concerned. Big gothic castles and walled medieval towns that time forgot (as did the tourists, so far). Horses and carts and people working fields with wooden tools like they did 100 years ago. So I'm glad I went, even though I don't know that I found anyone else that would have ever seen why.

The biggie on my list? Bhutan, aka the Last Shangri-La. Can't afford to get there right now though, so the next trip is going to be to Cambodia, esp Angkor Wat, but also some rural areas. Already friends and relatives are not impressed and frankly may recommend therapy.

Annushka

Go to MOLDOVA! Who has every heard of Moldova? It is in Eastern Europe, has beautiful nature, good wine, beautiful women and good people!

bob_brown

I would say WOW at least once if you climbed Mount Everest, Ranier, the Matterhorn, the north face of the Eiger, Robson, or Denali. Everest is probably a "two wower," mabe even a threebie.

I would say WOW very, very loudly many times if you climbed K2. But those peaks may not meet your definition of a vacation spot. If they don't, I won't need to say WOW.

neworleanslady

I've gotten a few "WOW"s when talking about planning a trip to the Galapagos next year.

I've also gotten a lot of "WHERE??"s, too.

Mincepie

How about Peru or India? how lucky you are to have seen so much that you need advice on where to go! For us there too little time left to see all we would like to. Go back to a previous location...but a little sad that you feel you have seen it all or cannot impress your workmates anymore.

suze

How about a nice *LONG* walk somewhere - seriously! I mean one of those treks, like following in the footsteps of so&so... or doing the Great Wall of China's entire length... something like that?

birgator

Transsiberian railway (the Mongolian leg).

Borneo.

B/

annikany

Mt Everest was also on my list. I would also add Eygpt. Antartica would also impress me. (Hope I spelled that right).

Daniel_Williams

My 2 cents.

I think "WOW" is all in the eye of the beholder and it's good to remember that different people have had incredibly different life experiences. A number of my Canadian friends loved seeing pictures of the architecture, archaeological sites and the landscapes that I saw in Mexico, as that was something they don't see every day. And while I was in Mexico, waiters gathered round at a restaurant in Monterrey as I showed pictures of lighthouses on the rocky Nova Scotia coastline and pictures of the Carnaval du Quebec with ice sculptures, as THAT seemed different and beautiful to their eyes.

A friend of mine in Montreal recently went to Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue on the far western end of Montreal Island and said "wow" that she could get somewhere so beautiful and tranquil without paying extra money (you can get there with a bus pass). I shared in her joy, as I felt the same when I first saw that community.

I keep my love of travel alive and always genuinely feel a *WOW* when my friends visit someplace that is new for them, because for someone's eyes to be opened to a new place/experience is an exciting thing (at least to me).

dovima

Tell them you went to the Netherlands and got euthanized.

TC

Have you been to "Jellyfish Lake" in Palau? This is the most unusual snorkel in the world! After a short but breathtakingly beautiful climb along a trail, you snorkel in a clear saltwater lake filled with nearly two million jellyfish. (yes..that many) Openings in the limestone island allow for the transfer of saltwater from the ocean, yet keep other forms of aquatic life outside. Due to a lack of predators, the jellyfish have lost their ability to sting.

Here are some pictures. I'd give this a big WOW!
http://www.echeng.com/travel/palau/jellyfishlake.html

RBCal

Why would anyone go on vacation just to brag about it and impress your friends and co-workers?
I go on vacation for my education and enjoyment, not to lord it over other people about how exotic and unusual it was.

Scarlett

After mentioning this question to my son ( who lives in Japan) his suggestion was similar to a couple of posters here who say Take a Walk or go to India..
He spent Jan,Feb and part of March in India. He landed in Delhi and traveled all over the Southern part of India, leaving in early March to meet us in Paris. (talk about culture shock!)
He made friends with a raj ( or in his words, my friend the King), he stayed on houseboats etc, plenty of wow factor every day..
So maybe it isn't the wow place as much as what you do with it..

suze

If India isn't "truly different" as a travel experience, I don't know what is.

dsm22

I live in such a small town that when we get out of here and go anywhere else there is a "wow" from the people I work with. Majority have not even been out of PA before and a lot have never flown.

I am not being funny, it's true. Guess we are easily wowed in these parts.

I don't think the world is small at all. Maybe it's because I've not traveled as much as others.

Wayne

OK, you say you are serious about looking for new places to go and things to do, so I will take you at your word.

Suggestions:
-Windjammer sailing ship around the Cape of Good Hope
-Cycling vacation down the Baja peninsula
-Charter a balloon and fly from England to mainland Europe
-Live with the natives in Borneo or with pygmies in Africa
-Ride the rapids of one of our wild rivers
-Or just pick an area in the U.S. where the people are "different" from most of us, and spend some time there. Examples are: an Amish community, the Louisiana Cajun country, the isolated Appalachian communities, the Indians in a soutwestern pueblo.

Now if you don't think any of those are something new, I give up.

ronijeni

Have you ever been to Iceland? It is somewhere I would really like to go. It's got volcanoes, hot springs, and many other geological wonders. The culture is pretty unique. I've been to Sweden and I think that Iceland is pretty diffrent from other scaninavian countries. The whole population fits into one small phone book and thier police force doesn't even carry weapons.

Stephanie

Since I'm not like everyone else because I find a trip to OH or IN fun, I'd probably get some "wows" in the office because people are more like sheep in general and tend to do what all others do, go to a Carolina beach or Vegas, so anything between those two places as a vacation destination would get a "wow" out of you.

annikany

What about an adventure to the ice hotel in Sweden. Canada has an ice hotel too but the one in Sweden would be more of an adventure. If you haven't heard about it before it's an actual hotel made of ice. It is constructed every year differently so it's never the same. I don't know anyone who has been to an ice hotel. That would wow me. Check it out at
icehotel.com