Travel Theory
I. A theory to choose the best trips (through themes and sets).
II. My travel recommendations, in the form of the best themes and sets I've been to.
III. Benefits of travel - does travel improve you?
I.
I used to choose travel destinations by thinking: "I've never been here before," or "This sounds cool." After going to multiple places, I realized the world is too massive for such a simple strategy.
I now think of travel as themes and sets.
'Themes' means thinking about a category, then seeking the best in that category. If you fall in love with a category, move down the list and see the 2nd best thing in that category, then the 3rd, and so on. If you have gotten the majority benefit from that category, you move to a new category. For a simplified example: If you want to try the mountains category:
Mountains -> Start with Mt. Everest, if you're satisfied, switch to the Beaches category
or
Mountains -> Mt. Everest -> loved it so much, -> Move to what you think might be the second best mountain, for example Mont Blanc.
I believe categories can and should be more complex than just "mountains," like "mountains I can hike with minimal gear" to provide better customized travel experiences.
'Sets' are regions that have the three crowns I value most: Quality - High, Variety - High, Ease - High. The region(s) are interconnected with easy transport options, which means minimal planning is required. The options available to spend your time on are world renowned, and have strong variety as you move throughout the region.
Sets are great places to try experiencing the full range of a country (or region); i.e., moving towards "set completion". For example, in Slovakia trying to complete the set by geographically going to the corners of the country: Bratislava, Tatra Mountains, gorges, some small towns on the border, and Kosice. Activities-wise going driving, hiking, swimming, eating all of the different dishes, etc. with the goal of completing the full experience of the area.
It's important to distinguish between just vacation and travel. For me, 'themes and sets' is the best strategy for travel. Travel implies adventure - it can be unpleasant, new, challenging. Vacation is something else - requiring relaxation and near-perfect details and comfortably meeting needs. Vacation might have different optimal strategies, but having spent most of my time on travel, vacation strategies will be fine-tuned later.
II. Travel Recommendations
My second goal is to codify which themes and sets were the most rewarding based on my travel experience.
There are two types of winners in themes: a standard First Place, or a Category Killer First Place. A standard First Place is, based on my experience, "the best," but not 10X better than the second place, or 100X better than the 10th place in a category.
In five themes so far: Waterfalls, Green lakes, Big Cities, Nature Hikes, and 'Another Planet,' the First Place experience has fundamentally changed the category. Everything else in the category seems smaller or derivative afterward. These experiences are likely what it means to truly win a theme: something is so good it is a category killer. This could mean all other categories where I have a standard First Place it is because I haven't been to the category killer in that theme yet. Or, the experiences in that category are structurally different and follow a linear distribution.
I've put the category killers first because these experiences are incredibly unique and I hope to prioritize them in my future travel plans. In some way, a category killer experience is like the first cell of a virus - it can spark proliferating love for a category or ruin smaller experiences which pale in comparison.
Additionally, a theme with multiple winners will list the winners in priority order, but the list is only for all-stars - if there is a 2nd, 3rd place, or more, those places earned their mention. Most themes only have one winner.
If a place shows up in a theme and shows up in a winning set, this is an extra-strong recommendation. Enjoy!
Themes:
Waterfalls - Niagara Falls. No waterfall will be the same after this. Enormous, monumental, gorgeous, more water than your brain can imagine hurtling over rocks every second. I've gone on multi-hour hikes to a waterfall with raving reviews only to think "if only this person had seen Niagara, their review would have been better calibrated. (Maybe Victoria or Iguazu Falls supersede this review, but I haven't seen them).
Green lakes - Plitvice lakes. What Niagara is to waterfalls, Plitvice is to green lakes. On my way to the lakes I spoke with a woman who grew up there who said "Whenever people say I must see this lake or that lake, they all seem like nothing special compared to Plitvice". Now I can't look at green lakes the same any more either, they all seem inspired by or derivative of this great beauty.
"Big City" - New York City - nothing like it. I could walk around the glass tower forest all day. World class food. World class people. Great parks. Great entertainment. The big brother of big cities.
Hiking / Crazy Mountains / Pretty Nature walks
1 - Kauai, Hawaii - the most beautiful nature I have ever seen. Unique too. There is a reason the wealthiest people in the world choose to build compounds here.
2 - Huangshan, China - You take a bus up a huge mountain. You acclimate at the foot of an even larger mountain. You take a looong cable car up. You hike further up and half of the time you are in clouds, half of the time you are among the nature that inspired Avatar. World class.
3 - Mont Blanc, France - A lovely experience. Hike through ecosystems that change every hour, see new colored moss that only survives at that altitude, different trees, no trees, and so on...
4 - Pamukkale, Turkey - I have never seen anything like this. White-as-snow rock formations. Blue water. Pretty mountains in the distance. As a bonus, you get to walk barefoot in soft sand and cool water.
5 - Tenerife, Spain. The island is one big volcano, yet also includes a forested corner and diverse landscapes all around.
6 - Tre Cime de Lavaredo, Italy - World famous for a reason. Awesome rock formations that change at every angle as you walk around them. Not too difficult of a hike.
"Another planet" - China. Like stepping into the future. Like stepping into another culture. Like stepping into an alternate universe: everything is new from the apps to the food. All around amazing experience.
"European City" - there is something that comes to mind when imagining "best things about Europe." Maybe it is cute walking streets, maybe it is fresh pastries. Each individual likely imagines different reasons, for my image of "European city" two cities stand head and shoulders above all the rest:
1 - Paris. Paris usually contributes heavily to many people's "european city" general image, but it really is that lovely. Streets, bread, food, culture, museums, events... the list is endless and high quality.
2 - Rome. A city influencing world culture throughout history. Art, cute streets, gelato, gorgeous architecture, and ancient structures - the city has everything that I associate with the phrase "great European City".
3 - Barcelona. A world class city with food, art, culture, and unique architecture.
4 - Prague. Incredibly high density of European monuments, with beautiful bridges, churches, palaces, parks, and more. My neck hurt after walking around all day here. One of the most touristy and crowded places I have ever been, but deservedly so.
Buildings
1- Mont Saint Michel - A magical complex rising like a work of fiction from the skyline. Ever-changing with the tides. Lovely light shows on weekends.
2 - Budapest Parliament - Incredible building that I could walk loops around all day.
3 - Eiffel Tower - Incredible at any angle and all times of the day (see video above)
4 - Florence Cathedral - 😵💫 Phantasmagoric
Cheap eating - An important category many people covertly ask about is: "where can I travel for the most unique food, with the best taste, and cheap?"
1 - Thailand - Kilos of fruit for a few dollars (mango, apple bananas, everything), soup (khao soi), pasta/rice dishes (pad see ew etc.), meat (any). $1-2 breakfast. <$5 meals. World class, and so many meals are made with love.
2 - Seoul - Korean food is a gift from the heavens. Prepare to wipe your nose. Also, the scoreboard of life-changing fermented vegetables is in the double-digits.
3 - Istanbul - Michelin meals for $15. Kebabs and Baklava capable of fostering world peace. Stellar tea.
4 - Tenerife - Local cuisine and ingredients make Spanish cooking even more flavorful. Don't miss: goat, seafood, cheese, carne fiesta, persimmons, creme catalan, jamon iberico, papas arrugadas.
5 - Athens. World class gyros and souvlaki every day of the week. Excellent seafood. Stani's dairy bar is life-changing.
6 - Madrid - I could eat a Bocadillo Calamares every day of the week. Not to mention Arroz con leche, flan, crème catalan, Jamon Iberico, empanadas, paella... and Spain is one of the largest persimmon growers. Madrid is also home to cheap, high quality grocery stores, especially Mercadona.
Beach town - Carmel, California
Peaceful remote village - Alberobello, Italy. There can be throngs of tourists here and Alberobello is still one of the most peaceful walks I've taken. The ancient stone roofs must manufacture zen air.
Peaceful remote islands:
1 - Lanai, Hawaii. Incredible place with very few residents and a handful of hotels. One city center and endless pristine nature surrounding the island.
2 - Koh Jum, Thailand. You haven't seen remote until you've travelled on a narrow supply raft to a far-off island offering only a few hours of generator-powered electricity at night. The locals will smile at you like you are the latest celebrity and you can walk around the island in a day. Enjoy private beaches, lovely fruit/homecooked meals, and stunning rubber trees.
3 - Aeolian Islands, Sicily. You can hike virtually privately during the offseason. Enjoy unique volcanic landscapes on multiple islands.
Most Unique and Beautiful Trees: 1 - Canary Island Dragon trees, 2 - California Redwoods, 3 - Austrian winter trees
Storefronts:
1 - Milan. While walking the Milanese streets I realized if I was creating a consumer storefront I would immediately return to study the stores. The storefronts were so beautiful this was where I started forming this "themes" theory of travel - some places are the source code for a category.
2 - Rodeo Drive, California. Great shopping and competitive art installations. The Rodeo area and surrounding neighborhood also wins nicest neighborhoods to walk around in theme due to the landscaping, diversity of architecture, and quietness. If I still cared about luxury cars, Rodeo would win that category as well.
Sometimes a place is so unique that it creates its own theme. I couldn't have invented these through reasoning or research (like with mountains), but each place on this list was 1 of 1 and high quality. Notice they are not in any sets, which means the travel experience surrounding them is not all-around excellent.
Santorini - There is a reason this place is Instagram-famous. Great for lounging around and eating breakfast with awesome views both during the day and at sunset. Santorini has nice hiking opportunities as well - you can walk the whole island.
San Francisco - Has to win at something, but there is no category for it. Maybe it's the fog, the Golden Gate, the unhoused, the international restaurants, the ideas, the parks, the ocean/beach, or the architecture... If any of these appeal to you: SF.
Pisa - One of the best all-around cities I've been to in summertime. Pretty monuments, excellent food, nice walking trails on the river, beautiful facades, easy walking access to the airport.
Monaco - The first city I have seen that tried to be a utopia. The city wasn't 100% successful, but the attempt was incredible and unique. I had a great time, and as a bonus you can walk the whole country + go to Nice as well.
Istanbul - World class city that was the seat of civilization for much of history. Many world leaders yearned to conquer Istanbul and we get to walk it for free. Rich history, excellent food, great parks, mosques, markets, and monuments.
The Grand Canyon - A huge rift in the earth. Awesome.
Sets:
Japan - Zen gardens, futuristic LED overstimulus, polite citizens, amazing food, lovely architecture, incredible culture.
Hawaii - Amazing hikes. Varied landscapes. Beaches. Poke, fruit, shaved ice to die for.
Thailand - Very well connected access to: Megacities, vibrant cultural hubs, beautiful monuments, top-quality beaches, nature, remote islands, and top-notch food.
Italian Dolomites and Slovenia - Mountain hiking, clear blue and green lakes/rivers, and cute towns.
Northern Italy - Beauty, ease of transit/connectedness, and diverse landscapes. Hike or relax like a star in a romance movie.
Random: These are places that don't top any sets or themes, but I love enough for an honorable mention.
Nice, France. Felt super clean, great stores, fashionable people, lovely beach, peaceful hikes and parks nearby.
Mumbai, India - Has a world-class vibe, everyone is living life and having a good time.
Copenhagen, Denmark - Utopian city in the spring/summer. Blissful vibes with people hanging out outside. Pretty city buildings, gardens, facades. Excellent salmon.
Vienna, Austria - makes you feel like an emperor. Walk in your royal garden. Stroll among your art collection. Eat world-class food.
The Dead Sea - lowest point on earth. Not capable of sustaining life. Turns everything into crystallized salt structures - it’s a unique place.
Wadi Rum, Jordan - Walk and drive around a desert. Very cool rocks. Cool sand. This is where all martian movies get filmed.
III. Does travel add value to your life?
These are not my original thoughts, these are the best ideas I've collected on the pros and cons of travel.
Pros
1. "I wanted to learn about the world, so I went traveling. People in the east are so graceful, I felt like an inconsiderate pig. People up north are so serious, I felt like a lightweight clown. The way we define ourself is all relative to our surroundings, right? Yet the way we differ from the people in our hometown is how we define ourself. That's where we shape our self-identity, growing up. But when we go to a different place, the relative comparisons collapse. Traits like ambition, independence, and bravery - they're all relative. Back home I'm considered quiet. Here I'm considered loud. Back home I'm a slacker. Here I'm a workaholic. Or vice-versa. So how do I define myself now?"
2. "I found that going to new places lights up my brain in a way that doesn't happen otherwise. There is special machinery that turns on when you step off the plane at midnight in Istanbul or off the Shinkansen in Kyoto. Everything is different... the quality of the light, the weight of the air, how it smells, sounds, tastes... and you realize how much of your conscious experience is rooted in the ineffable features of your environment. You can't get this from moving around in the same city or country even. Your brain does a kind of experiential 'etc etc etc' when it gets used to a place. The times of my life when I traveled for long periods are dense with rich, vivid memories, whereas today I can't remember if I had breakfast."
3. "Staying with families in different countries and seeing how they lived, how they treated their kids, and their priorities was very formative in deciding how to live my life. Just sitting in a bus on a long road in a very different country you can watch how people live and it gets you thinking. How close are their families? Do I want to live like that?"
4. You develop the skill of being comfortable inside your own skull. When you travel alone, there will be time without a stranger to talk to. That's a lot of down time to spend with yourself and really examine your own thoughts.
5. You develop a self reliance related to not needing a lot. Once you realize you are fine just fine with a book, an afternoon, and a cheap corner to spend the night, the world is less menacing.
6. You develop a detached confidence from having seen everything go wrong and plans change more times than you can count. You learn to be more comfortable with uncertainty and have likely experienced all manner of hardships.
7. You develop cutting edge planning skills and self-reliance. You pull hundreds of details together to turn a dream into reality.
8. Seeing the extent of human suffering in the world. I'm not sure I want to say too much about this, but it really hammers home the message - we have a long way to go, and there are many problems to devote your life to.
9. Finding 'paradise' in several places and having that experience of dozing in a hammock on a beautiful beach that isn't on a tourist brochure. It was a beautiful experience but it also made it clear to me that just enjoying life was not enough for me. I have to build something.
10. My best learning was to measure the ''jollies per dollar' of each purchase (as my old coworker would say). A 20 dollar meal doesn't necessarily make me twice as happy as a 10 dollar meal. I still keep that 'happiness math' with me today.
11. The fact that you're around strangers all the time allows you to experiment with your personality. At home you become one version of yourself and people know you and treat you as such and you respond in kind. Everything becomes sort of routine to maintain the status quo. Travel is amazing because you have no preconceived notions or expectations from other people so you can experiment and be different versions of yourself and no one will be the wiser.
12. One of my best friends is Indian. Many of my friends are. We talked a lot about India. I read a lot about India. I watched many Indian movies. I ate my fair share of Indian food. And then I went there... nothing could have prepared me for it. Seeing it for yourself is a whole different beast - it puts the whole thing into context.
13. This is exactly why I travel: to stretch myself; to step outside of my habituated, and ultimately unconscious norms; to be available for all the unexpected little gifts that life can shower you with if you just get the hell out there and get in their way.
14. We live in the most unique time for travel ever. Two hundred years ago the cost for an average person to cross the Atlantic was seven years to a lifetime of servitude. Now it can be funded by a week waiting tables.
15. When I travel, almost every single one of the senses is temporarily awakened with no effort at all, by the simple and the mundane. The things I usually take for granted. Everything is turned on. A simple thing like getting your haircut can by an incredible little adventure if you allow it to be. So, getting my haircut, taking public transit, going for a walk, eating, hygiene, health, what is usually "etc. etc." in my normal life is like being an infant. First and foremost - the world is a big place, and I'm in a lucky position where I have the ability to see some part of it (an ability 99.9% of people in history never had). To live in this world and have that ability, and not take advantage of it... that's like buying a video game with 500 different levels and just repeatedly playing the same one.
Be wary of drawbacks
1. "Traveling is a fun activity. It is just very expensive fun, and I can have about as much fun doing things at home."
2. "The people who comment about how much travel has changed them are mostly young. When you're young, anything changes you. You don't need to go halfway across the world, just go volunteer at a homeless shelter, join a martial arts school, whatever. That'll change you too and you're far more likely to meet your wife/friends in your local community than half-way across the world and have it work out."
3. "At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican, and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not changed. My giant goes with me wherever I go."
4.The most important thing is that self improvement is the only escape from the hedonic treadmill. Traveling involves a lot of hedonism until one day you realize you are on the treadmill. The first amazing meal you eat is life changing. The second one is about 50% as novel and good as that. Then you're comparing the next meal to 2 others, the cycle continues until you have consumed the earth and achieved emptiness. What remains is yourself. Once there is nothing left to consume to satisfy yourself you really have to ask "what's next?" The answer is building, and probably building yourself. 'Self improvement is the primary good in your life,' and that can be through travel or blocked by travel.
5. I would have shortened the trip... after 10th National Park or so I stopped appreciating the location as much because I was comparing it to some other that I saw just a couple of weeks before. The wow factor was no longer there because seeing too much in a short span of time can be a curse.
6. It is great experience to have, but now almost 10 years later it just feels like it never happened, memories are fading fast as I settled into life.
7. The thing about status posturing is people don't want others to think they are status posturing. So, they make up other reasons for why they do something. For example, you 'need the huge pickup truck' because you 'haul a lot of stuff once a year.' Travel is similar. People like to claim they need their status posturing to be well rounded individuals.
8. I personally prefer to think of travel as cultural immersion. Jumping into an unfamiliar situation and going in. Live as another lives; learn customs, language, modes of interaction, how to cook new food, how to relax, and so forth. You don't have to travel in the traditional sense to do this, there are many cultures available and accessible within your own country. I'll list a few for you, the military, remote communities, big cities, artistic enclaves, and the list keeps going. Join one. Experience it, learn the good and bad and finally move on, or don't. Rinse and repeat.
9. The size conundrum: nobody would go to most landmarks/wonders if they were smaller. If a lotus leaf on the side of the road was 1,000x bigger it would be a world wonder. Once you see this you can't go back. Enjoy the little things as much as the big. Zooming in on the leaf in your backyard sates the lust towards the African baobab tree. You can already see infinite things by closely attending.