Favourite travel activities

What type of activities/types of vacations do you enjoy?

I'm not really a beach person and lie around a beach in foreign country for hrs. doing not much. In the past 20 years, I no longer deliberately lie out in the sun because I cycle so much. When we were in Hawaii on 2 different trips, we did bike by some beautiful beaches but as soon as we stopped, I wanted to sit in the shade.

Whenver I'm in a major North American city or foreign country I gravitate to its museums, galleries, certain types of historical monuments (military monuments don't pique my interest), local food markets and local food restaurants/cafes.

I find now local food markets are great way to see/buy/try local produce at reasonable prices and sometimes local crafts there also. For instance, in Hawaii, at the local markets that's when I realized how cheap their local tropical flowers are. Too bad, we can't take them home.

Going to local bookstores and looking at local titles/small presses. I've picked up stuff that would be alot more costly to order online from same store. Also alot of local niche titles just aren't promoted heavily over the Internet. And not listed in Amazon.

I do enjoy vacations with some degree of physical activity: ie. cycling, hiking and snowshoeing which enables me to move along and see something different along the way.

I tend to like bed 'n breakfasts but sometimes with their set times for serving breakfast is bit of inconvenience for us if we want to leave early..so we end up booking motel/hotel instead. He prefers the space and privacy of hotel.

If I read, it tends to be on a bus/plane/train or in the evening in hotel rm. after an active day of sightseeing, etc.

And your preferred way of travel activities in unfamiliar places?

We haven't taken a real vacation in years. But when we have gone on long weekends, we like to walk around and investigate the town and eat where the 'locals' eat. We also love digital photography so we're always looking for unusual scenes, architecture, people, to photograph. Our dream vacation would be to go the the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and take their photographer tour. It would also be great to go to Italy. We much prefer walking in a new place; we get to see more than taking a bus or driving. It's also fun to go to different museums, aquariums, zoos (depending on the zoo; some of them are horrible.)

We've been traveling a lot in the past couple of years. Our favourite thing to do is to walk...not just through the main attraction areas, but to take side streets and meander through less-crowded areas. Neither of us enjoy art galleries, but we both enjoy visiting sites that are oriented around people - for example, throughout our travels in Italy, we gravitated toward anything and everything to do with Michelangelo. And in Vienna (and Bratislava), it was all about Mozart.

One of our all-time favourite memories will probably be the day we spent in the medina in Fez, Morocco. The images from all of that walking are forever imprinted in our minds...the sights, the smells, the gross mud we had to walk through, but mostly the people we met...in particular a little boy we met deep inside the medina...I bought a cheap little trinket from him, paid him double what he asked for and probably about 100x what it was worth, but the look in his eyes and the smile on his face will forever grace my heart and memory. I still pray for that little boy every single morning.

Those are the experiences we've learned to seek out and discover in our travels. We've found out that sometimes just standing still long enough to strike up a caring conversation with the people hawking those cheap touristy trinkets can lead to the most memorable moments of our lives.

Coincidentally Eagleheart, I had a friend invite us for a bike tour in Cuba this year which unfortunately we can't do. Our budget just won't allow yet another trip outside of Canada.

I know what you mean about chatting up with folks ie. shopkeepers, etc. One cannot get the true "feel" of a place/culture unless one speaks with locals.

part of why I enjoy art galleries, is that an art book or tv cannot replicate the real impact of the canvass SIZE and brilliance of paint colours on real canvas paintings. When I went to Europe, I was stunned by the massive size of some painting masterpieces. Of course, I need to look the 3D reality of the paint strokes up close, how colours are combined/laid beside one another and then stand back a couple metres to enjoy the real overall impact of the painting. This experience can only be achieved standing in front of the real painting.

Sponanteity of brush strokes also is best "felt" by being there, in front of the painting. I look for "rhythm" in the whole brush stroking pattern(s) in a painting. Same for a powerfully executed sculpture.

I agree with all of you! The food! Oh, how I love to try local food. I will eat anything, as long as I know the locals enjoy that food.

In China, it was a hot pot dinner, with strange sea creatures and land creatures boiled in oil at our table. In Spain it was Tapas of every type - I especially loved the leg of pig, cured and carved before our eyes. In Ecuador, the seafood, right off the ship and onto our plates. I will not go on!

The art galleries - the brush stokes mentioned, the depth of paintings, the realism in a sculpture. Seeing something you have seen a million times in a book or movie, but suddenly it is there, right before you.

Meeting people. I miss traveling alone, because I have met so many people. We still do meet people, but it is different. We both love talking it up with the locals, even when they do not understand us and we do not understand them.

Beaches were made for shade and for book reading and people watching and drinking cold beer. I love a short, and relaxing beach break.

We are headed to Ireland this summer for a few weeks. We are hoping to catch up with Celtic and Poppie, too. Perhaps I will finally meet my adopted grandson, Lucien????

Oops, I forgot to mention my love for Morocco. We were there in the "windy" season (gosh, sand slapping you in the face really does hurt). Like Eagle, we were taken by a small child selling junk on the street. I have a watch that has never worked, but the kid, the kid.

The same in Guatemala - I bought woven hangings from a girl named Ana - so many that everyone I know owns one, except me. I gave them all away with a story of Ana.

Apart from eating and shopping? I do a Church and Synagogue crawl in Europe...which is followed by going through the nooks and crannies of old bookshops. I am always on the hunt for leather-bound, gilt-edged and handwritten legal and canonical literature (early edition Bibles).

I also love to traipse through cemeteries and read epitaphs on old tombstones.

P.S.

I also spend time sitting on a piazza and plaza enjoying the local buskers.

My favorite thing to do on vacation is sit on the beach, lap up the scenery, read a book, and be still (at least I try to be still because I rarely do nothing when at home). I ususally end up doing some beach walking too and trying out some of the water sports. I enjoy snorkeling close to shore, but have gone out on boats to snorkel in remote places.\ like the time we swam with the stingrays in the Cayman's as a family.

I also enjoy talking to the locals. It usually begins with the cab driver on our way to the resort/hotel. Most of the time they are men who have lived on the island forever so we get a real taste of the culture. I enjoy talking to the locals too.

The only time we've had a woman cab driver was in Vegas. I think she was strung out on something. She was telling us inforamtion that was way too personal about an older boyfriend she hoped to tie the know with because he had money, and how she had a 7 year-old at home alone while she drove double shifts. It totally freaked me out.

Prior to visiting the Dominican Republic, Ross learned that they loved baseball but couldn't afford equipment. It was at a tme when we had lots of extra baseball gloves around the house because our kids grew up playing ball. We got to know one of the waiters really well and one night after dinner we gave him the gloves so he and his son could play catch. You would have thought we'd given him the world. Eagle, I can only imagine the appreciation of your friends in Cuba. People who have less are most grateful.

Oh Dotsie, you need to recognize a con when you hear one? This gal mwas trying for pity to get a larger tip. They have all kinds of pity party stories they'll try on the tourists. Its discusting. They don't call this place SIN CITY for nothing.

I never thought of that, but I bet you are right on. Duh...

One of my favorite activities from the past:
When we visited Bangkok (4 whole days!) we got on a bus and rode through the entire city and around the nearby countryside. For the equivalent of 25 cents, we rode for 4 hours, and landed up where we started. People got on the bus with chickens and goats and baskets of produce. Sometimes they'd come over and speak to us, but they didn't know English and I had 2 phrases in Thai -- How are you? and Thank you -- so that's what I said every time. Still, it made everyone happy.

The best tours are the impromptu ones where you get to meet the locals.