Bucket List Places vs. Happy Places

I think I find it more rewarding to find new places even though the last place I've been is usually my favourite place ever, and I can't wait to go again. However, on my 5 European adventures so far I've never been to the same place twice. This is because of my wife who has more of a been there, done that attitude and wants to see something new. Hopefully, we'll get to travel so much in our retirement years that we'll have time to repeat locations that we love. I can see a month in London or in Nice, re-exploring things we've seen as well as adding new sites to the itinerary.

We are always happy to go somewhere new but I always say that I need some (fill in the city name) time at the beginning or end of the trip. We tend to LOVE the places we love and can’t get enough of them.

Pre pandemic, I have had enough freedom to have balance between going to bucket list and happy places. Bucket list places also become new favorite places.

For us, it's always new places. We are trying to see as many places as we can, while we can. That said, there are a few places we'd like to return to IF we get the opportunity. These include Tabacon Resort in Costa Rica, Isla Isabela in the Galapagos, Erindi in Namibia, and Paris.

We do go on a beach vacation to the same area every summer, though.

It used to be always a new place and our bucket list was long and world wide. Europe and Asia are favorites. Since COVID we decided to skip traveling to third world countries due to less than excellent healthcare there. Thus we skipped returning to Cambodia and visited Japan which was wonderful.
We still go to new places but also return to our favorites happy places. Last night we were talking about a perfect trip we took for my birthday a few years ago, a week in Leiden, The Netherlands and a week in London. We had visited both previously but not together and it worked so well, very easy, and both happy places for us. Both are part of my ancestry.

I like a mix. So often I go to a place, love it and assume I’ll return but often haven’t yet. There are just so many places. Some I know I will return to again, but some probably not.

I’ve been to places like Rome multiple times and know I’m going again. Places like that can be a good jumping off point. Stay for a couple days at the beginning of the trip, don’t feel the push to go-go-go because I’ve seen it before. So I can relax and wait out jet lag there.

I do try and analyze what I liked about particular places so I can narrow down the bucket list a bit. So if I go somewhere I love, maybe other places in that country or region move up the list. Or the opposite, if there’s something I dislike then similar places move down the list. Of course there are exceptions.

This is all so interesting!

Mira, funny, I was thinking of Rome when I wrote this. I have a trip to Europe in the fall and Rome is not convenient to any of the destinations, but it's killing me not to make the "quick" (totally impractical) trip.

I love the analysis piece too. I've been thinking a lot about how there should be a destination matchmaking service. Well-traveled people could ask you what you love about Copenhagen and Madeira and the Alps and then suggest... ????

Googling works for a lot of things, but not this.

I've travelled extensively for 35 years. I've travelled for months at a time. I've rarely returned to anyone place - except for gateways like Sydney and Singapore. Due to the lost years of the pandemic I've been to the same places multiple times domestically - I'm so bored with it -can't wait to be lost in a new city again!

This year we are going to places I've been before - but generally not for 20 odd years - if not longer. So I think that's reasonable.

Both for me.

I have my happy places such as small inns and towns I may travel past on road trips from home, Hawaiian resorts I’ll happily go spend a week at relaxing and doing nothing at all. Towns and hotels and places we revisit for work or events as well. No real research or time to prep. Book and go, know I’ll enjoy.

Then I have my travel adventures where it’s about researching and logistics and learning. These are a different kind of fun- I adore planning. But it’s also more challenging and sometimes we don’t like the place after all- but sometimes a place becomes a happy place to return to.

After all- this is how you find your favorite spots!

Sleight, I’d love that travel matching service! I’ll go and enjoy most anywhere safe but there are some places I just love more and I struggle to see the connection between, say, Granada Spain, Mexico City, and the desert national parks in the southwestern US…

On returning- one trip I was mostly in Austria and a bit of Germany. My first and so far only visit to Austria and also I haven’t spent much time Germany before. So I’m enjoying my trip but honestly I learn that area is not my favorite and I’m getting a little stressed/ready to be elsewhere. I’m glad I went but it’s not a return type of place for me. Anyway, my return flight is out of Venice due to frequent flier mile availability - a free ticket! I’ve been to Venice a couple times before this. So I leave Vienna on a 6AM train, pull into Venice sometime mid afternoon and…I just feel immediately better. It was weird. I’m in Venice at 3PM, fighting my way through the train station crowds and I’m just happy. So I have a wonderful evening in Venice, get my Italian espresso standing at a bar, have an aperol spritz on San Marco, eat at a restaurant I’d been to the prior year, do a nighttime grand canal vaporetto, and head home the next day much happier.

@Mira, I know exactly what you mean. It’s not a “home” feeling, but not too different!

When our kids were little, we could afford to get to Virginia, so that’s where we went. By the second or third time, it was like taking a huge deep breath when we put our feet on the first familiar path. The smell, the feeling… ahhhh. I noticed even my littlest felt that way. It was a relief, but also, the familiarity had a mild giddy quality, like “Look, our favorite bench! The place with the candied apples!” while they approached new places with a bit more caution.

In over 30 trips to Europe I've repeated the main cities (e.g. London, Paris, Rome) at least 10 times each. But each trip I've also visited new places - but not necessarily new countries, just new towns in areas I've already been in. A few shorter trips (like under 2 weeks) I'd just go to one of those cities, but even then I'd do at least some days trips to somewhere new. I always needed to have some place I hadn't been. I just retired at the start of the pandemic and I had loose plans for Asia, Africa and South America in the next few years. But when the pandemic stopped travel all I wanted was to be able to go back to London, Paris, Rome, Venice and a few other places I've been multiple times.

Bucket list locations for me, for sure. I've not yet seen enough (and what I have seen has been 10-15 years ago). I am finding though that as I plan my upcoming trips for the next year or two I have almost an equal amount of revisits as new places.

It’s so hard. There are so many places I want to return to. Happy places - Rome especially comes to mind but there are so many new places to see. The new always wins out for me. Though this summer we’re going back to Paris. That one happened because it’s a return for my husband and me but new for the kids. I wish I had more travel time so I could do a mix of both more.

I’m more in the repeat favourite places camp, but there will always be new sights to see. Also, my interests often aren’t quite the standard tourist path. London is a financial centre and I work in that industry so some of my interests in London are related to work.

Plus, I meet new friends while traveling and often stay in touch. On my next trip to the U.K., I am going to meet up with a guy I met in New Orleans while watching sports. He’s from the U.K. and has a definite passion for the NBA as I do as well.

I'd rather not revisit places when there are other places I would like to see. We're just not that wealthy.

I could envision revisiting places after we've more or less checked off our bucket list.

But for me nothing is like the first time.

We like going to new places but have done a few repeats, usually for a specific reason (e.g. Oktoberfest) ... there's too much I still want to see in the world.

I don't have a bucket list.... I've got a thing about "bucket lists" :(

When I go back to place I've been I try add some place or something new. Our trip to Florence later this month, which will be our 3rd visit, we are not repeating any activities and we chose a new neighborhood to stay but instead of heading to Bellagio again we are heading to Locarno instead.... I get my mountain lake but we get to experience a new location (and in this case another country). We tend to bring people with us so for example in Florence our travel companions are visiting the museums without us and we are heading to Panzano for the day.

@Dana
What is it about Rome that makes people feel like they are home? Traveling with kids who have never seen a favorite place is the best of both worlds!

@BigMikeWestByGodVirginia

**I'd rather not revisit places when there are other places I would like to see. We're just not that wealthy.

That is so fascinating, because it's kind of the crux of the question. I can imagine someone saying, "We're just not wealthy enough to explore all the places we want to. Life is so short, we have to go to the places we're sure we love. "

It costs the same to travel to Paris if it's new or a favorite, so it's all a matter of value, I guess.

@Donna
I'm sorry if that was an insensitive choice of words...
I love that way of using the favorite place as a starting point for newer things about that place and other new places.

I would go someplace new every time. But my husband would return to favorite places very easily. I have to do some convincing to get him away from the familiar! We went to Walt Disney World 3 years in a row when our kids were between 4 and 10, and we’d still be going every year if it were up to him (they’re 15 and 18 now and not at all into Disney!)

We’ve been to Europe 9 times (I think). We’ve been to Paris and Venice 3 times each. Each time has been with different groups: one trip just us, the next trip with his parents, the last time with our kids. So it’s been fun seeing some of our favorite places through their eyes.

I find a happy mix of familiar places and new adventures works best for us. Our last trip included a week in Spain (new), 3 nights in Normandy (new) and 5 nights in Paris (3rd time). I’m the planner, my husband just packs the night before and goes where I tell him. After the trip, he told me he had been very nervous about Spain. He didn’t know if he’d like it. (How could you NOT love Granada?!) Now he can’t wait to go back. He LOVED it, but never would have picked it himself.

I've got a thing about "bucket lists"

I hear ya Donna ... never liked that term, bucket is too negative ... I don't have a buzzword, just refer to them as places and things I want to see and do

@Sleight - no offense taken by the word "bucket".... I just don't like to use that term "bucket list. It sound terminal to me.