My Top 5 Places to Go When I Can Travel Again

Before COVID-19 changed all of our travel plans in 2020, I had several trips in some stage of research or planning. My husband and I have now received our vaccinations, so I’ve dusted off my travel list and started dreaming. While many destinations outside the United States aren’t yet fully open to international visitors, I am already thinking about future travels.

While my list includes many more destinations, I’ve narrowed it down to these five.

A Tropical Island or Beach Location

As a tropical travel enthusiast, I always long to return to blue ocean waters and sandy beaches. An escape to a beachy location, either Florida or a Caribbean island, where I can scuba dive, snorkel, do some shelling, eat fresh seafood, and soak in the benefits of “Vitamin Sea” is at the top of my list. It will almost assuredly be my first trip of 2021.

A road trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida may win out as our first trip, but the Caribbean is calling me, too. A week at an all-inclusive resort (Sandals or Club Med) or a small ship cruise (Windstar or Star Clippers) with several ports of call are other possibilities.

You can dream along with me as an armchair traveler. Visit one or more of the Destination pages on my Tropical Travel Girl website.

African Safari

My husband and I had started researching African safari trips in 2020. It will be a big bucket list trip if and when we can accomplish it. I have always loved big cats, especially lions, so seeing them in the wild will be a dream come true. Decisions on which countries to visit and which safari companies to use to book this once-in-alifetime trip will continue Photos, this page, clockwise from top: Navarre Beach Fishing Pier; Cove Bay to keep me in planning modeAnguilla; Tahiti LeMeridien Overwater Huts; Lions ©Iurii Ivashchenko;

Elephants ©Filip-Olsok Photos, opposite page from top: Alaska, Courtesy pexels-pixabay; France until it’s safe to go.Cruises-Deborah Barge Loire ©France Cruises; Stonehenge ©John Nail

We were very close to booking an Alaska Inside Passage cruise, departing from Vancouver, Canada, in Summer 2019, but postponed it to Summer 2020. Even though I’m usually partial to visiting warm climates, I’m looking forward to an Alaska cruise for more than one reason. Reason #1 is that my father was stationed in Alaska during World War II. The scenery looks amazing, and I know there are many opportunities to view the wildlife. Not to mention, there will be plenty of Alaskan salmon (my favorite fish) to eat!

French River Barge Cruise

A barge cruise with France Cruises was tentatively on the agenda in the fall of 2019, then was delayed until spring or summer of 2020, and since we can’t yet freely travel to France, the waiting continues. I love French wines, so I hope to experience France’s itinerary on the Briare Canal between the Loire Valley and the Sancerre wine region.

Britain Self-drive (England, Wales, Scotland)

Three decades ago, I toured England, Wales, and Scotland by car, staying in bed-and-breakfasts along the way, eating in the pubs, and visiting sites throughout Britain that I’d spent weeks researching in advance. It is a trip I’ve longed to repeat with my husband, Stephen, and I hope we can do it. My ancestry, including my maiden name Dunning, my mother’s maiden name Collins, and other family names, are mainly English and Scottish, so being an Anglophile comes naturally.

That’s just a part of my travel wish list. During this past year of limited travel (We did make a road trip to the Florida Panhandle last October.) has helped me realize that time is fleeting, and there is no time like the present to go and do whatever we can fit into the time we have.