Article: Once-In-A-Lifetime or Feels Like Home: How Do You Holiday?

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Once-In-A-Lifetime or Feels Like Home: How Do You Holiday? is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Once-In-A-Lifetime or Feels Like Home: How Do You Holiday?

The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Photo: Adobe Stock. Are you slowly working your way through a travel bucket list of once-in-a-lifetime destinations? Or do

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[Quickstatus]

i think for most Australians its not a holiday unless long periods of travel are involved. Many dont feel they have "gone away" if the travel is only short.

 

[foften]

Went to Hong Kong and probably won’t be back. Paris keeps luring me back. I’m not a beach person but went to Mauritius and absolutely loved it. Never been tempted to do Bali. The times we travelled in the US I tried to include New Orleans in our itinerary. Switzerland is worth repeat visits.

Norway I will go back to because I want to do the 1km zipline. I was too late in the season to do it. People really should do the mail boat on the coastline. Just fabulous.

I love architecture, art good, food and natural beauty. I’m really not interested in influencer bling.

 

[Mattg]

I agree that there's a fundamental difference between places you go to see, versus places you go to be.

Sometimes, a place that you intended to go to only once to see the sights can also become a repeat destination. Kazakhstan is very much in this category for me. I went in with zero expectations and thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed being there. Have since been back many times, and will continue to do so.

 

[RooFlyer]

At 66, there are still too many places in the world for me to see to keep going back to a place. I'm never one to sit on a beach or just 'chill' in a village somewhere in Europe. Very rare that I will spend more than 3 nights in any one place on a trip.

I visit a fantastic place, swear I'll go back but by the time I get home, some other shiny new destination has caught my attention. That said, just once have I immediately returned to somewhere - Moscow and St Petersburg (in nicer times). St Petersburg my favourite city in the world.

I mean I do go back to a country, but for very different experiences within it - like India and France.

 

[jase05]

Still far too many places to visit but we still have our regulars that seem to get a good run and that is helped by us often taking the slow route to our destination as we generally always try to tack on at least a week at one of our stopover ports which is often in Asia or the ME.
The ME is one place especially that we have fallen in love with and although it’s often the UAE or Qatar we visit it has given us plenty of opportunities to visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman multiple times too

 

[mrsterryn]

Cause travel insurance is a major problem for us, our places are quite restricted
However do have to say we loved UK and hope to have one last hurrah
@RooFlyer Russia was a destination we had booked for 2020

 

[Bindibuys]

@RooFlyer Russia was a destination we had booked for 2020

Ditto.
Right now I can not think of a specific place I want to go back too. Hong Kong and Singapore just become part of the "transit" cities, but usually get a day or 2 visit en route to somewhere else.
I would revisit Charles Bridge in Prague - if I was "near-by".
Don't ask me why, but I was near in tears walking across the bridge, with the feeling of "you have come back"
Weird, did I help build it in a previous life?

 

[luxury-lizard]

well never say never - e.g.

• Spent 2 weeks in Fiji on our way to migrate to Australia - then again in about 2007 - swore I'd never go back again (long story) but now booked for 2 weeks in late August this year.
• Have been to the Maldives 3 times (over many years) and last time said that's it!! Now longingly looking at all the good deals LE - but not booked

A few other thoughts:-

1. Antarctica - trip of a lifetime about 10 years ago - probably will never go back due to cost and logistics of getting to/from South America
2. Guam - never ever again - left early and spend a few days in Seoul (one of those crazy "trick-it" routes in the hey day of LifeMiles) - but Korea , never again
3. Japan Skiing - wow how can anyone compare it to Whistler or Zermatt - never again.
4. The rest of Japan. - not our cup of tea
5. Other parts of Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, China, ... ) - over it
6. Canada - well my homeland of nearly 50 years ago - so always happy to visit
7. Europe - never get tired of Germany, Switzerland and Austria - but Germany is Mr LL's homeland
8. Africa - love it- but 3 safaris are probably our limit
9. India - one amazing tour - but one and done
10. South America - 3 big tours - saw "everything" so no reason to return
11. The Arctic - one great trip (cruise and some land based travel ) -wonderful - but one and done
12. The rest of the world - due to our respective ages - feel it's now necessary to travel in countries with Western style medical care.

 

[mandolino]

As a widower in my 70s, heading for retirement, I have to say I don't really have a bucket list of places, so much as things I want to do and people I want to see.

More often, places I want to return to, but life still takes me to unexpected new places: a festival by a lake in southern Sweden where I have become a regular; a small Aeolian Island with an ancestral connection I only recently learned of. Next week, as a spinoff from a work trip, I'll be in New Orleans for the first time.

In "people I want to see" - foremost is family. Children, grandchildren, siblings and the whole extended shebang, mostly in Australia, mostly in Victoria . Then friends and musical connections from all over the world.

When I look back on my life and travels, it all seems extraordinary and no list I could have made when I left the small family farm in SW Victoria at 18yo could have come close.

And of course in later years, bereavement changes everything about your life and plans.

 

[kpc]

Some AFFers have already achieved it and my goal for many years is to hit 100 countries visited

I'm very envious that our recent ex AFF editor hit this goal at 1/ 2 my age!

Covid really slowed me down but since we were allowed to travel again, I have added 25+ countries and now sit on 88. 7 new countries are planned in 2026

A visit to the 5 Stans in early 2027 could be the "magic" trip to get there...

I have been to many fantastic places but rather than return, I prefer to go to a new place that I have never been before!

Some highlighrs: Machu Pichu, Galapagos Islands, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Iguazzu Falls, Patagonia, Havana, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, Serengetti, Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, Cape Town , Kruger, Northern lights in Tromso, Iceland, Maldives, Bora Bora, Seychelles, Eastern Europe, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Vancouver, Egypt, Jordan, Jerusalem, Bethlehem etc etc

I'm looking at retiring sooner rather than later to travel more before any health issues catch up with me!

 

[Volando]

I would revisit Charles Bridge in Prague - if I was "near-by".
Don't ask me why, but I was near in tears walking across the bridge, with the feeling of "you have come back" Weird, did I help build it in a previous life?

I think it’s fascinating how there are some places like that which leave us feeling something very palpable … and inexplicable.

Usually for me it’s spontaneous tears in nature: Milford Sound, Mt Sonder, Kata Tjuṯa, The Himalayas. But there are definitely manmade places with the same effect. One such spot for me was the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan. It left me utterly speechless.

 

[jastel]

There is nowhere I have hated enough to never go back to....I have had less than optimal experiences in places but the next visit may be completely different.

Even places I go to semi regularly like SYD or BNE I can normally find something new to do/see.

Some things I have seen/done are not able to be done anymore, like climbing Ayers Rock, seeing something before it got insta famous and comparing it to the overdeveloped mess there now... so I am glad I have done those things....I have not flown on Concorde and now never can....some things you just cant do anymore.

But most of us gotta do that 9-5 slog for most of the year to pay for the trips.
So going "back" to somewhere that is not on the way is not usually economical for me.

If funds were not an issue I would never be home....

 

[RooFlyer]

BTW, do we have a new person in the 'Editor' chair, @AFF Editor ?

 

[Tiki]

My "home away from home" is Turkiye. I've learned to speak a little Turkish, enough to live in an airbnb away from tourist areas and live amongst the locals. I go back every year, each trip is to a different area - Black Sea, Mediterranean coast, Eastern Turkiye, Southern Turkiye, Northern (Turkish) Cyprus. This year it will be spending the last few days of Ramadan and Eid/Bayram in a traditional neighborhood of Istanbul to enjoy the festivities. Next year, I think I will take a sde trip to Uzbekistan, haven't been there since the 90's and I really liked it then. If I ever won the lotto, I would want to buy a house somewhere in Turkiye and swap every 3-4 months between Turkiye and Australia.

My once in a lifetime places are pretty much all my birding trips. I choose locations based on species diversity and habitat, especially for parrots which I love. I also look at historical and other sites while I am there. But I don't feel connected to any of the places that I would go back over and over again. And I really hate hot humid weather but parrots seem to love it. Europe was interesting but I don't want to repeat any places, happy with what I have seen. I like Brazil and Costa Rica, have been to both several times for birding but I am getting too old to do too much long haul travel.