People always ask me for my choice of a favorite place I’ve ever visited. My response has to be, “it depends on with whom I was traveling and what I learned, felt or discovered” – so here are my awards for the best and worst:  (NOTE: As a stand-alone list like this, you don’t get the full flavor or WHY I made my selection – when I lecture, I go into the details!). 

MOST ENCHANTING - Austria ( Vienna and Salzburg); Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; Belgium ( Brussels); Monaco; and Seville, Spain.

MOST MOVING (emotionally) - Omaha Beach, Normandy; St. Peter’s, Rome; Dachau Concentration Camp, outside of Munich; The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin; and being in Hungary and the Czech Republic when they first opened up to tourists; visiting the village in Germany from which my Great Grandfather emigrated in 1883; on the beach in San Salvador where Columbus first landed.

MOST EXOTIC - China ; Istanbul; Turkey; Thailand; Australia; Russia

MOST SURPRISING - Hong Kong; London; Puerto Rico (out on the Island!); Russia

MOST CULTURAL - Florence, Italy; Paris, France

MOST EXPENSIVE - Switzerland

MOST FUN - Germany   ( Munich and villages); Paris; Edinburgh;  London

MOST EDUCATIONAL - All of them…. (because I approached them with the attitude of a “student”.

MOST MEMORABLE - Athens and the Greek Islands; Ireland (especially Northern Ireland); Prague; Thailand; Russia

MOST DEPRAVED (BUT FUN!) - Amsterdam

MOST DISAPPOINTING (but still educational and a good travel experience) - Scandinavia ( Norway, Denmark and Sweden). However, Copenhagen was a fun city; Hawaii -- in some respects!

BEST FOR SH0PPING - Thailand ; Black Forest Region, Germany; Holland; Montmartre, Paris; Florence, Italy.

MOST DEPRESSING - Quito , Ecuador; Caracas, Venezuela; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (not because of the history, but because of the poverty).