Blogtober Day 24: Dream Vacation Destinations

Now this is my kind of prompt! As a serial wanderluster, I have many dream vacations, usually consisting of many destinations in one trip. I’ve already travelled Western Europe and ventured across Canada, but there’s still SO MUCH MORE to see. 

I like to see a lot in a short space of time. As a member of the workforce, I only get five weeks a year to visit all the places I want to go, so I need to squeeze them in when I can. I’ve just booked a long weekend in Sweden with the last two days of  annual leave I have this year – see what I mean about squeezing things in! 

There are two main places I want to visit in the semi near future, aside from revisiting Canada of course!

Scandinavia

I knoww, I’m going to Sweden soon anyway, but I really want to go on a tour of Scandinavia at some point, maybe with some other countries thrown in. This would be my dream intinerary:

Fly to Copenhagen

Train to Malmo

Coach/train to Oslo, maybe stop in Gothenburg on the way else it’s a really long journey

Coach/train to Stockholm, again maybe stopping somewhere on the way

Ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn via Mariehamn

Boat from Tallinn to Helsinki

Fly home from Helsinki

Then I get to see LOADS of place, and I only have to take a plane there and back. I try to limit how much I fly when I go travelling because it’s bad for the environment, and you miss out of so much landscape too. When you get the bus or the train you have the option to stop places along the way and see towns you would never have visited if you took the plane. 

To do this trip I’ll have to save for quite a long time. Scandinavia is expensive, and it’s a lot of travel. I’d probably look at getting an Interrail ticket again to try and save on travel costs, though that only works if it’s train travel or inclusive buses/boats. I’d definitely stay in hostels to keep the price down and to mix with other people. 

Maybe this can be my Big Trip for 2020. I definitely can’t fit it in next year! 

 

Japan

This is my other *must visit* place. There are things that I just love about Japanese culture. Obvious things like anime and sushi, but also more subtle things like how schools don’t have cleaners because the children are taught to take responsibility for their own environment. From what I’ve heard the whole place is very up my street, and I’m certain I’d love it there. 

I’d really like to visit Tokyo, but as I am a primarily a traveller rather than a holidaymaker, there are a bunch of other places I’d like to explore too. Obviously I want to visit Enoshima – the cat island! There are actually three cat islands (can you believe the UK has precisely zero cat islands?!), and this is the most popular one with the friendliest cats. I suppose in an ideal world I would visit all three cat islands, but they’re spread pretty far and not all easily accessible for tourists. 

Kyoto and Osaka are also high up the list, and I would definitely include them in a trip to Japan. Both places look totally stunning. 

This could be a trip for next year, though I want to visit in cherry blossom season so I better get a move on!