Dream Trip Giveaway

It may be known that I don't like February so much - winter bleakness bums me out! - so it's a time rife with fantasy.

I block weeks out of my calendar with things like "Go to California" when I haven't booked a ticket or made real plans.

I ask myself things like, "If you could go anywhere next month, if money and time were not obstacles, where would you go and why?"

Then I answer.

I'd go to Bali. I'd go there because I hear it is beautiful, colorful and sacred, and when the winter blahs come after me, I need those precious things.

I also go around asking others that same question. Hearing about others' dream trips gives me a little boost of excitement. Plus it helps me know them better.

So, to you, I ask this question.

"If you could go anywhere next month, if money and time were not obstacles, where would you go and why?"

Answer in a comment here on the Journey Juju blog and you'll be entered into a drawing for copies of my e-books, The Creative Toolkit for Travelers and The Graceful Return: Relish Your Adventure After You've Come Home.

By the way, after I declared that I wanted to go to Bali, I was invited to go speak at a writing workshop there. Unfortunately I'll be in Rome in October, but I can't help thinking it was a bit of journey juju, n'est-ce pas?

Share your dream trip here so you can enjoy your dream and real trips even more. And maybe invoke some of your own journey juju!

One winner will be drawn at random from comments left here before March 1st, 2010. Tell your friends - help everyone defeat winter blahs with luscious travel fantasies!

Bonus giveaway! Name the locations of the first two photos above and I'll give you a copy of The Creative Toolkit for Travelers for being extra clever. The last photo was taken in Portugal, near Sintra.

Comments

[Cynthia Morris]

About the photo: Yes, it is France but it is neither Avignon nor Roquebrun. Think more royal.....

Lisa, Brazil! Yes! Do you listen to Brazilian music as a way to improve your Portuguese? Sometimes it's hard to understand the lyrics, but it could be a fun way to make learning even more fun.

Brazil, Bali, Mongolia, Bora Bora! Sounds like a lot of of have warm climate urges.

I almost went to Bergamo. Do you have any sketches of it you can share, Douglas?

England, Tuscany, Greece...yum!

Wendy, your trip to South Africa sounds great. So what if what you want to do is touristy. Much of the things we want to do - visit the Roman Coliseum, see the Eiffel Tower, go on safari - are compelling for a reason.

Martina, That sounds like an awesome trip! Let me know when you do it, and if I'm living in the US, you must visit me, too!

Thanks, Anne, for your vote of confidence in my self-confidence. I don't always feel fearless, but I do have a lot of chutzpah.

Sending blessings to the people of Chile and Haiti for their recovery.

Thanks, all, for sharing your dream trips here!

[Hunter]

India!

It is warm and cold; beautiful and ugly; ancient and modern. I would go past the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, and get on the Dehardun Chennai Express going south.

Chennai has a New York in the 1990s feel with Restaurants/Cafés Amethyst and Mocha, and the best food I've eaten at hidden Southern Indian restaurants. It has a strange buzz, but it is more livable than some Indian cities, still I wouldn't stay long.

I would go further South like the truly mad English and into the heat. On to Punducherry with it's French colonial influence to stare out at the sea at the cooler times of the day, and sit in cafés decaying in the heat as the centigrade climbs. And when I've had enough of the South. I'd hop a Spice Jet flight north to Delhi.

A night bus to McLeod Ganj and the cool, cool Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh. To sit under an aging Oak at a guest house half way to the waterfall in Bhagsu; for morning walks into McLeod Ganj to Carpe Diem with outdoor seating and views of the mountains; hot chai and spicy parathas, to sit and think long slow luscious thoughts.

I would choose–India.

[Mikael]

Well, Sometimes we believe that we don't have the time and that cost a lot of money to travel...But it's wrong...it's all depend how you want to travel...? Some of you want to stay in a nice hotel, 3-4-5 stars - and it'll cost more than someone who practise couchsurfing which is free...I know some people who made a turn around the world with 2000€ and other with 50K€.
Just to say that you could travel in one place without a lot of money - You could say airfare are expensive - yes it could be true, but some people travel by boat, other by car without take only one flight...just to say there is always a way...

But to give a reply to this topic, i'd say Tierra del Fuego close to Ushuaia...it's like the end of the world..a no man land...

La différence entre un tourisme et un voyageur est le temps...Le 1er fait une course d'étape en étape - le 2ème se laisse guider au fur et à mesure ... je préfère le Voyage - comme le dit cette expression : je voyage pour me retrouver - je me retrouve dans le voyage...

The difference between a Tourist and a Traveller is the Time...Time is not Money - Time is Time you can't pay to get more Time - priceless...The first one make a race between all the steps during his trip - the other one take the time to see the road....I prefer to be a traveller - as one man said one day - I travel to find myself, i find myself during the travel -

;)

[custom essay writing]

I'd head off to Lithuania on the grounds that I've invariably would have liked to be there in winter, and I'd run over to England since I am scarcely able to holding up until June to get there! I'll be in both puts this sunny season, so its simply a spot of persistence that I require at this time! Great thing I'm occupied the considerable distance up to my excursion.