Having been a long time subscriber to National Geographic Traveler Magazine, I look forward with great anticipation to their Annual Destination Survey/Assessment.
Being journalists, or at least trying to pass as such, the writers who compile this list have developed some points of perspective resulting in the application of their Stewardship Index.
I don’t agree with their scores on a number of the selected destinations, having completed my own first-hand assessments during prior trips....but they have added some new destinations this year and updated their scoring.
All in all, I enjoy their annual review and thought I would put up a link for those of you who might have missed it:
There is one caveat I would offer about adventure travel and it goes something along these lines:
There is something about discovering or learning early on about the existence of very special destinations…what might be called "the place" to visit and experience...especially those requiring a two week hike or trek or a pack horse supported expeditions just to arrive there.
“These places” can be very, very special!
Soon though, after a few people have visited “the places,” others hear about the “the place” and want to go, so they can tell their friends they have visited “the place”….but they don’t want to endure the hardships or inconveniences of getting there….so tourism adjustments are instituted.
Accommodations (some times rustic and some times quite extraordinary) are constructed, access is improved such as clearly marked trails, bush strips for aircraft are carved, helipads, hard packed roads, followed by four lane hard surface highways suitable for tour busses….all construction sequenced so it is easier to visit “the place.”
At last, yes finally at long last, everyone is able to arrive and remain in relative comfort to see and experience “the place,”
….but...
Oh My, when we all get there….”the place” is not so special, it is too crowded, too much conversation in different languages we have difficulty understanding, too may cameras clicking and video recorders humming and people jabbering or texting on cellular or satellite telephones.
Oh My, “this place”….the one that only a few years ago everyone was calling “the place” is too much like home, too much like what we do everyday to earn the money to allow us to travel to “the place”…..why are we here and why have we paid so much of our hard earned money (is the market up or down today…let me check my iPhone or Blackberry) to get to “the place” and discover it offers nothing more than the “the place” we visited last year and really didn’t enjoy!
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Frequent business and motivated leisure traveler. Interested in "off the beaten path" encounters. Not very good at formal touring, especially riding a bus.
I'm a married father of two and I live in Oregon. I have lived in New York, Pennsylvania, California, Hawaii (Maui), Washington and Oregon. My first real travel experience was backpacking through Europe for two months with a friend when I was seventeen. What an educational and eye-opening experience! Since then, I have gone to Mexico and Europe several times and explored much of the U.S. Prior to the births of our children, my wife and I backpacked for six months, starting in Berlin and making our way through Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. There were too many highlights to mention and I'm looking forward to taking another trip like this in the future.
