Of all my travels, a few destinations stand out as being especially memorable. If you are looking for a unique travel experience, let me make a few suggestions.
In the first place, I would encourage you to travel with a group and to have a guide thoroughly familiar with the locale you are visiting. A good guide can show you sights and provide information that make the trip much more enjoyable. He or she will also know the best places to eat, and can help you avoid things that can ruin a trip.
Traveling with Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel, is an excellent choice and one I highly recommend. And any reputable travel agency can plan a trip to suit your particular interests. Mine have skewed toward nature in general and birds in particular.
Some of my all-time favorite destinations include Machu Picchu, the iconic city of the gods in Peru; Florence, Pompeii, Rome and Venice in Italy, Lake Como in Switzerland; Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum in Holland; Stonehenge and London in England; Dublin and Trinity College in Ireland.
Some of the things I most enjoyed might be considered travel cliches and are indeed universally famous – bagpipers in Scotland and fish and chips at a London pub. In Ireland, I walked by the Guiness Brewery gate and had a frothy pint at a nearby bar.
On one bus tour in Scotland, we came to a stream and the bus driver pointed out that stream and told us it provided water for a very famous Scotch. Glenlivet, as I recall.
However, as we drew closer, we saw there was a dead sheep lying right in the shallow stream.
“That’s wha’ gives the Scotch its full-bodied taste,” remarked the bus driver.
