Best places outside of US that you've visited?

[LazerBean]

My husband and I are trying to figure out where to vacation next year, so I thought I would see what y'all had to say. I would love to hear details about what your favorite thing about the country was, how the people were, how safe it felt, how easy it is to communicate with locals, ease of getting transportation, how expensive or affordable it was, how long you stayed, etc... Also anything that we definitely need to remember to not do if we go there.

[zeitgeist057]

Of the places I've been, it is very hard to play favorites, and I don't typically like to. If I were to recommend a place for a young couple that I don't really know, I might say:

Portugal - easy to get around, English spoken almost everywhere and Portuguese fun to learn, gorgeous places, good food, good variety.

Brazil - Again with the Portugues, but a slightly different version (which I prefer, tbh). Very friendly people, though a bit wild and potentially dangerous, I never felt fear/unsafe, even traveling and living in a favela in Rio. Great food, great parties, lovely (hot and humid) tropical weather, and a HUGE country to explore with lots of variety.

Thailand - There are already heaps written about Thailand, but it's cheap, fun, delicious food, lots of fun activities to sign up for like scuba, wildlife encounters, tribal peoples, learning about their culture is good, cheap massage and lots of cheap goods as well. I always go with an almost empty luggage and come home with heaps of loot for gifts.

Israel - people have a bit of PTSD and you have to get used to groups of random kids with guns (military) popping up whenever, and some tension. But love the food, the whole holy land vibe is interesting in Jerusalem or Masada/Dead Sea. I scored a cool pair of camel leather sandals and told people for years they were from the same shop Jesus got his.

Egypt- another great mythological kind of place with all the tombs of the Pharaohs. Though I will say after you've been to about a dozen of them and there are still several dozen more to see, it tends to get a bit boring. But really cool ancient architecture, sweet desert mystical vibes, and also cheap af. Cairo, Luxor, Abu Simbel, do a little desert trek on camels, get with the vastness.

If you don't have kids, want to do something really memorable/adventurous, and have more than a week for vacation, I highly suggest finding a yacht seeking crew and do a few weeks of sailing from one place to another. Being out on the ocean is incredible. Oh you should probably do a short stint to see how you fare with sea sickness also. But one of my favorite trips in my life was sailing from Thailand to Egypt by way of India, Maldives, Yemen, Eritrea and Sudan.

A few other places I would research on your own: Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize. The other three in CA are Honduras and El Salvador which are a little more dangerous (but totally tour-able), and Mexico which has a lot of great places but I don't know it might seem too basic for Americans, not exotic enough, almost like going to Canada lol.

Places I HAVEN'T been to, but are on my list and I think would be great: Croatia, Cuba, Turkey.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Croatia does seem pretty good

[Lliam]

I loved the Romantische Straße (Romantic Road) area in Bavaria. The scenery is magnificent. The castles and old towns with cobbled streets reminded me of storybooks.

My wife and I had a wonderful time at a resort called Xcaret in the Mexican Riviera near Cancun. Room, food, drinks, and the park were all inclusive. The theme park is great. And we took a side trip to Tulum.
You can look at photos here:
https://www.xcaret.com/en/buy-my-ticket/

We also had a wonderful time in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Mexico. San Miguel is a National Heritage site. A large percentage of the population are ex-pats and there are a lot of tourists, so most people speak English. There is an open air organic market with food vendors one day a week, an there is another giant, open air market on weekends. It's clean, beautiful, really artsy, safe and friendly.
Guanajuato is beautiful, full of classic architecture, sculptures, beautiful plazas, shops, and has a really fun street scene on weekends with wonderful entertainers everywhere.

I may like the Irish Republic the best of all. Dublin rocks. The scenery all over the country is wonderful and there is lots to see and do. The medieval banquet in Bunratty Castle and the Bunratty Theme Park are not to be missed.
The bed and breakfasts are plush and inexpensive. I never stay in a hotel in Ireland.

[WhiteBoyChill]

My family is thinking of going to Ireland in May so I am very glad to hear that! 👍

[Dinklex3]

Mmm… Jeju South Korea and Rome Italy.

Jeju is amazing because of the scenery and the people. They are so sweet and just want you to see the beauty of their island. I stayed in Seogwipo. Korea in general is pretty cheap. Food and hotels are on the cheap side in my opinion. It’s generally safe (but of course you can never be too sure). My other friends who went there rented a car, but I refuse to drive in Korea so I used Kakao taxi which is kind of like Uber. I’ve lived in Korea for 2 years and still don’t speak Korean but was still able to communicate with locals just by pointing to pictures, using broken words, and Papago app. I stayed 4 nights and it was $758. If you are unable to drive, I honestly wouldn’t recommend Seogwipo because the bus can be a little confusing and you may not always get rides from the taxi app. I was lucky and always got one. If you do go to Korea I suggest going to Seoul, Jeju, and Busan. I sadly never got to go to Busan, but I think you’d love it.

Rome was just a vibe. I loved the vibe, loved the people, loved the food. We spent like $900 for 3 nights in a hotel so that was a bit on the expensive side, but you could probably find a cheaper place. When it came to taking the train we loss about $200 because we didn’t know what we were doing, but ended up figuring it out.

[lilBigPotato]

Not from the US and never been there but the places I've loved the most other than my country are Italy and Thailand

[Emii_Urashima]

I have been to Thailand several times and it is nice.

[exitseven]

I went to Nova Scotia a couple of times.

[abc3643]

Canada, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9W1tWRMoiAI

There's no Canada like French Canada,
It's the best Canada in the land.

The other Canada is hardly Canada,
If you lived here for a day, you'd understand.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GFJO8gW83BE

On my bucket list...

Chateau Frontenac, Ville de Québec (Québec City), QC, Canada

[lightbulb27]

We were all over West Europe. It's all different flavors.

The best to me was Italy because of the food and scenery. France is second. Going through the Alps I prefer, not the big cities so much. Also went to norway... we liked, easy to drive or take train, very different, sweden and denmark and Germany. Austria area was good scenery!

Switzerland, I enjoyed Lucerne and Interlaken, but it's quite expensive.

that's a big question, narrow it down first.

[dolemite58]

i’ve been to madrid to visit family spain in general is awesome, puerto vallarta cancun and playa del carmen in mexico are all great not sure if it’s still safe to go with all the cartel stuff going on right now though, antigua in guatemala is awesome too. I’ve been to brazil and colombia as well but if i was a married woman i would not take my husband to either of those countries lol

[LazerBean]

Lol I'm not too worried about him. Out of all of those, do you have one that you liked the most?

[dolemite58]

depends what ur looking for in a vacation, if u want more of the beach type mexico and brazil are the best. if you wanna go sight seeing spain and guatemala were my faves

[gorydetails]

I went to a town in Mexico called Puerto Aventuras. It’s about 20 mins south of Playa del Carmen. The entire town is gated - meaning you have to live there or have reservations to even make it on the property. It’s an absolute paradise, tons of delicious restaurants, hundreds of things to do, plenty of friendly people to meet. It was so nice I went two years in a row.

[DryGermanGuy]

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Munich, Cologne, Heidelberg, Dresden or Hamburg, Germany (avoid Berlin!)

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Tel Aviv, Israel

Ko Samui, Thailand

[WhiteBoyChill]

Ever been to Prague CR?

[WhiteBoyChill]

Apparently American travelers love Prague

[DryGermanGuy]

I have been to Prague, it's only an one hour flight. Very nice city, unfortunately full of scammers.

[AviatorTom]

It depends on what you're interested in. If you like history, spond a few weeks touring historical sites in Europe. If you like nature, visit South America. And if you like to just chill at the beach, visit the east coast of Australia.

[LiamJHayden]

I love Portugal and Western Spain. Scandinavia, Ireland, and the UK have some wonderful places as well. Greece. Wow, there are a lot of awesome places now that I think about it. If I had to choose only one, though, it would be Nazaré, Portugal.

[Nikki1989]

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Sweden
• Norway
• UK
• Scotland
• Ireland
• Switzerland

[ByronWolf]

Thailand and the Bahamas are Theo not outside countries I have been. US dollar goes along way in Thailand however and tourists are very respected. Had a blast there.

[BourbonAndBacon]

Philippines. Beautiful beaches, mountains and waterfalls. Lots of adventures and everyone understands English (mostly)

[Kingofkings1992]

I have never been outside the US. I had a chance to see Tijuana when I was in San Diego, but I passed. I have heard it’s very dangerous.

[CoolCatMar1]

Outside of Greece for me hahah

Well Skopje lol

[Paige90]

Mykonos, Greece

[JennieF]

Athens and Beijing. Representing the USA.

[catarecute]

evian

[HAAAAAAAAAAAAA]

italy