You guys, we have a problem.
Almost every time we leave a place, practically as soon as we’re out of the city limits, we sigh and exclaim that we must return someday and find a way to live as locals for a while. At this point, we’re starting to rack up quite a long list of potential future homes.
Sometimes, it’s because we didn’t get to see everything there is to see. Sometimes, it’s because we didn’t get to eat all the food. And sometimes, it’s because we simply fell in love.
It seems that most people would rather visit new destinations, but a part of me quite likes the idea of returning to a place I love… like being reunited with a lover after many long months/years apart. I like the familiarity of revisiting old favorites and the excitement of discovering new things. And I think as with anywhere, you can never truly see all of one place no matter how often you return.
So here, I present the top 5 destinations that I’m just dying to return to (in no particular order).
1. London
London was the first ever European city I have ever set foot in. The street were clean and the buildings were grand. Pots of flowers hung from every lamppost. People were everywhere. It rained… a lot. I had no idea which way to look when crossing the street. Everything was so expensive that I didn’t dare to buy water (and yet bought a ridiculously overpriced giant macaron). And I LOVED everything about it (okay… except for the prices.)
Sadly, we could only stay for 2 nights (in the smallest, crappiest place we’ve ever stayed in). And we made the most of our 2 full days by riding around a tour bus like super tourists. We barely even covered a fraction of the city. I wanted more. But before I knew it, we were sitting on a train speeding towards Paris.
Sigh… these short days were definitely not enough. I’m dreaming of when I can return, but we’ll probably never have the funds to stay longer than a few days… Does anyone want to host us?!
2. Warsaw, Poland
I’m surprised myself that I even have Warsaw on my list! Honestly, I did not expect to like it at all. I had heard from quite a few other people that Warsaw is boring and lacks character (as it was completely destroyed by the war and then rebuilt). The only reason we even went was because D has Polish family members there, and we were going to meet them and get a free bed for a few nights.
I never expected to like it so much! Warsaw is proof that the best way to see a city is with locals. They can show you the best places, bring you to the best restaurants, and teach you things that make you appreciate the city that much more. We found ourselves bombarding D’s relatives with questions about property prices, mortgage rates, etc. …. because, maybe someday. :P
Okay, actually Warsaw is not my favorite Polish city, but being located in Central Poland + having family close by = the perfect city to return to! And it’s only a few hours away from Wroclaw too, so I can just hop on a train and go eat my heart out at my new favorite restaurant ever.
3. Santiago, Chile
My heart will forever hold a special place for Santiago. It was my first introduction to long term travel. When I arrived, I was scared and nervous, even afraid that this whole thing was a mistake. But over the next month, I learned to love everything about it. And we learned to function as travelers, from dealing with people who didn’t speak the language (almost no one spoke English) to using public transport to how not to get your stuff stolen.
Now, when I think about our time in Santiago, I think of the friendly ladies at the food stalls, the vibrant neighborhoods, and how we felt truly at home. I would love to return and revisit my beloved city. And most of all, I want to use Santiago as a base point to explore the rest of Chile. As scared newbies, we didn’t venture out too far from this capital city, but Chile has SO much more to offer.
4. Hawaii
I gotta include a tropical spot on this list! Hawaii is the only tropical place I’ve ever been to and it was just the every bit of paradise as people say it is. We swam in warm turquoise waters, stuffed our faces with spam musubi and island fried rice, and indulged in our adventurous side with activities in nature. I’ve never been anywhere more beautiful.
Despite our current travels being mainly through capital cities, I’m really not that much of a city girl. I would so much rather see green fields and dense trees and ocean waves. Now, whenever I’m sick of the noise and crowds of the city, my mind always drifts back that that week in Hawaii, and how everything was so pretty and how life was blissfully slow.
We only went to Oahu on that trip, but I would love to return and explore the Big Island and Kauai. And then maybe settle down in a secluded little beachfront bungalow to live the island life… sigh, a girl can only dream.
5. Portland, Oregon
To me, Portland is the ultimate foodie’s playground. As much as I like a gourmet meal in a nice restaurant now and then, I like eating out on the streets even more. And there’s nowhere better to get gourmet street food than in Portland. From porchetta sandwiches to Japanese octopus balls to the spiciest (and yummiest) pad Thai I’ve ever had… Portland street carts has it all. And it’s all the BEST I’ve ever had!! I also blame Portland for igniting my love affair with high end chocolate and gourmet ice cream.
AND it has the largest bookstore in the world!! … Need I say more about how much I love Portland?!
The only time I visited, I was too busy stuffing my face every 100 feet to get outside of the downtown area. I want to go back to explore the surrounding areas. And I want to go eat at all of the new street carts that pop up every year.
As of now (fall 2014), these are my top 5 places to revisit. I’m sure this list will grow and change with every new place I visit. I think when we travel, we leave a little piece of our heart at each place. And revisiting a place allows us to fill in the hole a little bit. :)
This post is promoted by Shikha, who so nicely asked me to write about my Top 5 Destination as part of Booked.net – Top Destinations to Go There campaign. Thanks, Shikha, this was fun! … but hard! (And I think an iPhone 6 is involved too.)
Now, let’s hear from: Justin Plus Lauren, Simply Sara Travel, Creatrice Mondial, Mountains and Passports, Nerd Nomads
I also want to hear from ALL of you!!! So tell me in the comments your top places to revisit!
This post is also linked up to #SundayTraveler with Pack Me To and others, and don’t forget to support all the other participating blogs (links at the bottom of post)!
I would’ve thought Pierogarnia.. I mean Wroclaw will make this list :D
Oh believe me, I did think of it right away! But ultimately, I decided on Warsaw since the location is more central and D has family there (it’s always more fun with built-in friends!). And Wroclaw and Pierogarnia are only a few hours away. You can practically go there for lunch and come back the same day (right??). :P
Great List Anna!
London tops my list as well of cities I just HAVE to return to. I loved it when I visited a few years ago, and can’t wait to go back! Its also a city I would love to live in some day. A girl can hope, right? :)
I hope you liked Istanbul? I honeymooned there 2 years ago and thought it was amazing!!!
I would LOVE to live in London someday!! But it’s so darn expensive!! Maybe someday we’ll both find a way to live there, hehe.
Yes!! I LOVE Istanbul!! I’m here currently. It almost made this list, but we’re here for an entire 2 weeks, so we’re already seeing a lot. :) I really do want to come back here though! And again, we’re talking about living here for a while, lol.
So well written Anna and I’m SOOO glad London is on this list – 2 days is just the tip of the iceberg and on the rare occasions when it’s actually not raining, there are some wonderful things to do in and around London (many of which are free as well!) Very jealous about Santiago and Hawaii – would love to visit both but absolutely fascinated about Portland -would never have known that this is a great city to visit as we don’t often hear of tourists travelling there from England but I love street food so I think I’d really enjoy it!
Thanks Shikha!! If you love street food, you’ll LOVE Portland. It’s known for it’s street cart culture.. and most of it is very high quality, artisan food! I hope you make it to Santiago & Hawaii someday, but honestly, I’m jealous of your Maldives!! I think that’s probably the epitome of a tropical paradise!
London’s one of my favourite cities! I’ve never been to the other places. Very jealous of Hawaii! Warsaw looks surprisingly lovely too!
Warsaw is… interesting, hehe. I can see how other people may not like it (and it’s not my favorite Polish city too), but I think you have to understand the history to appreciate it. I’m so grateful that we had locals to show us around, otherwise, I probably won’t see what’s so cool about it too!
I enjoyed reading your choices; I too wrote about my 5 top places to return to and found it an interesting experience to limit yourself just to 5. Of your 5 I’ve only been to London. Poland is definitely on my hit list for the near future. South America and USA will have to wait for awhile; not for lack of desire, just funds! #SundayTraveler
I know, right?! Only listing 5 is so hard! I’m glad you’re making it to Poland soon! It’s so underrated as a travel destination, but I honestly loved everything about it (I spent 2 weeks in Poland)!
I’m going to check out your choices now! :D
No. 1 is my home, so glad to see it on the list. It’s a fantastic city! Love the sound of 2-5 as well, they all look brilliant! :)
I really loved London SO much, and I’m dreaming of when I can return and explore it for longer. But why oh why must it be so expensive for those of us who don’t earn money in pounds?! :P
Thanks so much for nominating me to write about my favourites! I will very soon, and it will definitely be hard to narrow it down to 5. I always want to re-visit places that I’ve been before. I love all of your choices and I’ve never been to any of them, and now they are all on my list (some of them were always on my list though like London, Hawaii, Portland, Santiago), I’d never given much thought to Warsaw before but now I really want to go there!
Truth be told, Warsaw is not my favorite Polish city nor is it the most interesting for travelers… but after much thought, I chose that one for its location and for the fact that D has family there. :) When you make it to Poland, make sure to visit Wroclaw and Krakow!
I can’t wait to read about your choices!!
From this year, mine is Slovenia. I want to try to move there by the summer. I miss the place sooo much!
I’ve been hearing about Slovenia SO much recently in blogland. And it looks like such a fairy tale country. I want to visit! I’ll be so excited for you if you do move there by the summer! I always think it would be so great to live in the places that I love for a bit. :)
Hi Anna
Interesting list..I always love learning about the places different travelers love the most. In our travels, Ryan and I have revisited several places more than once during these last three years. We just liked them so much, we had no problem going back in lieu of seeing a new place. We like to settle down in places for at least a month and get comfy so it always worked for us.
I like settling down in 1 place for a while too (in lieu of traveling fast through cities). We’re headed to Southeast Asian later this fall and we will slow down a lot and stay in each place for longer. I can’t wait! I think you can’t really get a true feel of a place unless you live as locals for a bit. :)
Portland is amazing! We only had 2 days there and just ate our way through the whole time. We would love to go back and eat some more too :)
I know!! I’ve never encountered such a crazy, diverse food scene. I still maintain that some of the best foods I’ve had EVER was in Portland, off of the street carts! I wish I could live there for a few months… I think you can literally try a different cart/cafe every meal!
What a great post – of course, I’m delighted that London is on your list as there is SO much to see (I’ve lived here all my life and am still discovering great things), but I’m really taken by your descriptions of Warsaw and Portland. Adding them to my list now (to visit, not revisit, yet…)
Oh I would LOVE to live in London someday! It’s such an exciting city!
I don’t want you to be disappointed with Warsaw, so I’m gonna say to go to Wroclaw and Krakow too (both are a lot “cuter” and have more character). I’m not sure that I would have liked Warsaw so much if I didn’t have locals to show me around and explain the history (I hope to do a post on it soon!). And yes, Portland is AMAZING!! I’m positive that you’ll love it if you love food. You’ll never get bored there. :D
Oh my gosh, I’m forever torn between wanting to discover new places and wanting to go back and discover new things about the places I didn’t get to spend enough time in. And I have about 87 places that I want to move to and live in for at least 6 months. Basically, I better live to be 307 to make it everywhere on my list. These are great choices, though. I haven’t been to Chile yet, so I can’t personally vouch, but when I do I’ll be sure to go exploring. :)
I know! I need to live well into my hundreds to be able to live at all my favorite places for a while (I know the list will only continue to grow). I hope you make to South America one of these days!
I am same way! When I love something I want more and more. Sometimes when it comes to trip planning, it is hard for me to pass on a place I enjoy to see somewhere new.
New places are exciting, but there’s just something special about reuniting with an old favorite place! I think it’s a good idea to alternate between going somewhere new and revisiting somewhere old! :)
Great list Anna! Even though I just came back from Portland, I’m already looking forward to the next time I can go. I didn’t eat enough from the food carts!
I know!! I didn’t get enough of the food carts either. They’re so many of them, and all are so good!
I definitely need to return to London. I was so exhausted the only time that I want that I didn’t do it just. Its ended up on the short list the last 2 years but got bumped by Italy and Paris. Hawaii would be wonderful, too. I’ve never considered Warsaw to be a key destination, so you have my interest peaked. My return visits would be Paris (for the 3rd time), Australia, San Diego, New York and Austria.
I completely understand about being too tired to do anything… I’m reaching that point in my travels right now! I should have added Paris too, when I think about it… Then it’d be the only city that I didn’t like, and precisely why I need to revisit, to give it another chance.
Warsaw is definitely not a key destination, and the most interesting thing about it is its history. But I chose it for its location and having built-in friends there, hehe. I should be posting soon about Warsaw!
aw, thanks for nominating me. I really appreciate that! So many places I’d like to revisit, its wicked hard to choose
I can’t wait to see your choices!! It is so hard to narrow it down to just 5!
I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I can just imagine how wonderful it must be there, especially the landscape and the food. I also loved your guide to Warsaw! That’s definitely my favourite city in Poland and your blog post and pictures brought back amazing memories :-).
Thanks Agness! I’m happy to hear that you like Warsaw. I really don’t hear too many people saying that!
And yes! Hawaii is amazing! But it is the only tropical place I’ve ever been to. I hope to find more beautiful beaches!
If you allow, this is my list of places which I am ready to visit again and again: Venice, Rome, Bruges, the Maldives, Malta.
Awesome list Victor! I’ve only been to Bruges of the ones you mentioned. And I would love to see the others… especially Maldives! sigh…
Let Venice be first. It is the unique city. You will fall in love, I am sure.
I have the same problem! There are so many places where I’d like to go back, and so many that I’d like to visit for the first time… too many :) Hawaii is one of my dreams and Santiago de Chile is on my plans for next year. Nice post!
Yay!! I’m so glad to hear that you’re going to Santiago! It’s really special to me, so I hope you will have a great time!! And yes – Hawaii is absolutely beautiful. I dream of living the island life!
Definitely get that feeling! I rarely ever visit a place and don’t start scheming for ways to visit again immediately after I leave! ;) Now off to check out your posts on Chile!
Exactly! However long I spend in a city is never long enough, and I always leave feeling like that there’s so much I missed. There have been a few places I didn’t like, but even so, I would still like to return and see them in another light!