What do you make it a point to see / experience on your trips? (checklist, vacation)

[tvdxer]

What do you make it a point to see or experience on your first trip to a destination?

EDIT: Crap! The poll was supposed to be multiple-choice.

[StealthRabbit]

not enough choices.

I FIRST purpose to immerse myself in local culture.

Stay with local people, go to their events, help them around the house or farm.


This poll seems to be more Tourist / USA Traveler centric, Most of the world doesn't 'holiday' (or do much of anything else) like the USA. Something along the lines of "enjoy the journey" (where ever it may lead); rather than pursue a destination and grab as much of it as quickly as possible and MOVE ON to conquer something else.

YMMV

[Alaskan Mutt]

I rarely make plans ahead of time. Thus I never really know what I am going to do until get there. I will check out aviation and history museums. I usually do not take tours of famous landmarks as they only allow me to see what they want me to see. I love stopping at city and country parks and having a picnic lunch. I do not eat out at fancy restaurants. Instead I find out where the locals like to eat. Some of the best meals I have ever had were at some really dumpy looking places.

[Fuzz]

My travel is motivated by photography, history, and food. So I tend to visit famous sights (both artificial and natural), museums, historical sites (both famous and lesser-known -- wherever I go, I try to read up on the local history beforehand), and eat lots of different types of food (local and imported cuisine, almost never at upscale/trendy places). I tend to spend more time at a few sites rather than spend a little time on lots of places -- this is mainly driven by my photography. For instance, I visited Prague Castle three times over two days, trying to capture it in different lights. I spend a lot of time looking at small details and new angles for photography. In most places, I end up not seeing many sites (that are either famous and/or that I wanted to see) -- that just makes a second (and third!) visit all the more interesting! I mostly take public transportation and walk, so get to explore many neighborhoods, both urban and rural.

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

This poll seems to be more Tourist / USA Traveler centric, Most of the world doesn't 'holiday' (or do much of anything else) like the USA. Something along the lines of "enjoy the journey" (where ever it may lead); rather than pursue a destination and grab as much of it as quickly as possible and MOVE ON to conquer something else.

Are you saying that US travelers mostly grab as much to check them of a list and move on? If so, I disagree. Many (don't know about "most") US travelers I've met in Europe and Asia do tend to explore a lot of out-of-the-way places. Asian travelers (east and south/southeast) tend to be the most checklist-driven travelers that I've encountered (at least in the Americas + Europe). Take a few pictures at a famous landmark and move on to the next.

[jtur88]

"Species of birds that I've never seen before". The quest for which brings me to almost all of the choices in the poll.

[Ameriscot]

I can reply to the poll if it's redone to make multiple choices. No way can I pick just one.

[jlawrence01]

I always travel with a 2" binder of what I plan to do on a trip - accommodations, restaurants, attractions and the like. It is NOT that I am BOUND to doing those things. However, I would be disappointed if I did not see the major attractions or missed anything great,

Planning the vacation is at least half the fun.

[annerk]

We usually have about half of our time planned and the other half free form.

We travel to see cultural events, the art of the masters, the local cuisine, visit with friends, take in history (including ruins and museums), a little shopping, a little site-seeing.

We try for some unique experiences on every trip. On our most recent trip we enjoyed an after hours tour of the Vatican Museum with the curator of the Sistine Chapel (I can't even begin to describe how awesome that experience was!!), had an amazing dinner with the owner of a winery in Istria, and took the public bus around the island of Santorini, getting off here and there when something looked interesting along the way. We shopped for Murano glass in Venice, wandered with no place in particular to be and then ate lunch in a cafe in a very residential neighborhood in Rome, and marveled at the ancient dust on our shoes after visiting the Parthenon in Athens.

We tend to eat in many ways--lunch might be some items from a local grocery store made into an ad hoc meal while dinner that same day might be at a Michelin three-starred restaurant. We like to wander into residential neighborhoods and find the cafes where the locals are having a meal. We don't ask the concierge, we instead ask the bellboy for suggestions.

We typically don't take "tours" although we will hire a local guide in places like Pompeii or the Roman Forum where a guide with thorough knowledge of the site will offer commentary on not only what you are looking at, but also what it's importance is--and point out very interesting but often obscure details.

[Tom Lennox 70]

When its not far out of the way, I do see sites associated with local celebrities like.

I've visited the Sonic in Albemarle, NC where Kellie Pickler worked at in high school, the house in Lynchburg, VA where Phil Vassar lived in as a kid (he sings out the address in his song American Child and many people visit it) and also been to Sara Evans and Gretchen Wilson's hometowns. The best experience was visiting Gretchen Wilson' local hometown bar in Pocahontas, Illinois (pop. 800) and doing karoke there.

I do try to expereince the local food either thorugh local restaurants, or through chains native to that area that don't have locations in my home city.