My favorite spots

I roughly live my trips in three phases: the anticipation, before the trip, the excitement, during the trip, and the souvenir, after the trip. This page is mainly about the souvenir, from my favorite trips and places I visited, and a little bit of inspiration for future ones. It’s also an invitation to travel again, written at a time when air travel is constrained by an unprecedented pandemic.

There is no ideal way to sort or rank the places I visited. They fall in different categories: mountain, beach, city, desert, etc. I just did this ranking based on my own feelings, and I welcome your thoughts.

By the way, Geneva and Paris do not compete in the list because below it’s home 😉. And the sky is not featured in the list either, although I spent a lot of time traveling up there (and Air France ads said that the sky is the best place on earth☺️).

  1. Lhasa, Tibet, China. For the thin air, the Himalayas, the colourful temples, the steps of the Potala palace.
  2. Bagan, Myanmar. For the sunrise on the pagodas in the mist, the balloons over the river, the sleeping Buddhas.
  3. Singapore. A special spot in the list, for the stunning infinite pool of the Marina Bay Sands, the quietness of the Shangri-La at the end of Orchard Road, the vibrant campus of Nanyang University, the flowers of the Gardens by the Bay, the beach near Santosa.
  4. Angkor Wat, Cambodia. For the ruins in the jungle
  5. Praslin, Seychelles
  6. Kyoto, Japan
  7. Damaraland, Namibia
  8. Oahu, Hawaii, USA. For the white sand beaches, the big waves, the paddle board, the middle of the Pacific.
  9. Krabi, Thailand
  10. Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.
  11. Cyclades, Greece. For the white cliffs, green fields, blue sea and sky, bright sun, and festive atmosphere of Santorini and Mykonos.  
  12. Cape Point, South Africa. For Cape Town and the iconic Table Mountain, and the road to Cape Point, which feels like the end of the world.
  13. Abu Dhabi, UAE. For the spectacular growth, the oasis in the middle of the desert, the vision for a cultural center, the feeling that nothing is impossible.
  14. Gorges du Verdon, France
  15. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  16. Ha long Bay, Vietnam
  17. Rotorua, New Zealand
  18. La Reunion, France
  19. Sydney, Australia
  20. Jerusalem, Israel. For the history, the culture, the resilience of the people.
  21. Corsica, France. One of the world’s best kept secret, the “beautiful island”. I could give it two spots, one for north of Corsica (Cap Corse, Ile Rousse, etc.) and one for south of Corsica (Porto Vecchio, Bonifaccio, etc.).
  22. Qasr Al Sarab, UAE
  23. Bangkok, Thailand. For the temples, the crowded streets, the rooftops, the energy in the middle of Asia.
  24. Istanbul, Turkey
  25. Dead Sea, Jordan
  26. Kani, Maldives
  27. Petra, Jordan
  28. Dubai, UAE
  29. Manaus, Brazil. For the Opera that looks like Paris, for the piranhas fishing, and for the hotel in the trees in Ariau, three hours by boat from Manaus on the Rio Negro.
  30. Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt
  31. Mumbai, India. For the vibrant mega-city, the Gateway of India on the harbor in front of the Taj Mahal hotel, the Léopold café nearby and the heat of the novel Shantaram.
  32. San Diego, USA
  33. San Francisco, USA
  34. Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France
  35. South Beach, Miami, USA
  36. New York, USA. For the cosmopolitan crowd, the iconic and timeless locations, and the shared feeling to be in a special place in the world.
  37. Hong Kong SAR, China
  38. Mexico City, Mexico
  39. Marrakech, Morocco
  40. Beijing, China. For the Great Wall and the Forbidden city, the Olympics district, the Summer palace, the temple of heaven, the tai chi in the park and the sunset on Tienanmen square.
  41. Kiev, Ukraine
  42. St Petersburg, Russia
  43. Rome, Italy. For the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the piazzas and the fountains, the bridges over the Tiber river and the trattorias in the Trastevere.
  44. Maripasoula, French Guiana. A fascinating village in the Amazon forest, on the Rio Lawa, which defines the border with Surinam. Rio Lawa joins the Maroni river near Grand-Santi and falls into the Atlantic Ocean.
  45. Washington D.C., USA. For the monuments, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial (in honor of the President who abolished slavery and where Martin Luther Kind gave his “dream” speech), the nearby cherry trees donated by the mayor of Tokyo, honored by a National Cherry Blossom festival, the house of George Washington in Mount Vernon by the Potomac river.
  46. Lugano, Switzerland
  47. Kingston, Jamaica. For the lucky encounter with Usain Bolt returning from Beijing Olympics, the kids running in the streets and the mythical Bob Marley museum.
  48. Muscat, Oman
  49. Chengdu, China
  50. Bettmeralp, Switzerland. For the view of the Aletsch glacier, and the half-marathon uphill arriving at 3000m.
  51. Loutro, Crete
  52. Ibiza, Spain
  53. Venice, Italy
  54. Porto Pino, Sardinia
  55. Mauritius. For the stunning beaches of Belle mare and ocean, for the delicious food and welcoming people, for the golf and the sun.
  56. Marseille, France
  57. Barcelona, Spain. For the Sagrada Familia and the Gaudi style, the football club, the beachfront, the nightlife.
  58. Bali, Indonesia
  59. Grand Canyon, USA 
  60. Nile valley between Luxor and Aswan, Egypt. For the Luxor temple in Thebes, the Philae temple in Aswan, and further south the stunning Abu Simbel temples.
  61. Elbow Cay, Bahamas
  62. Madrid, Spain
  63. Algarve, Portugal
  64. Chateaux de la Loire, France
  65. Lake Como, Italy. For the lake, the villas, the delicious risotto, the charming roads and the shadow of George Clooney.
  66. Brasilia, Brazil
  67. Antananarivo, Madagascar.
  68. Ayers Rock, Australia
  69. Marie Galante, Guadeloupe
  70. Reykjavik, Iceland
  71. Berlin, Germany
  72. Seoul, South Korea
  73. Annecy, France. The kind of city, nested between a lake and a mountain, where the lifestyle is as good as it gets.
  74. Monaco. For the lifestyle, the view on the sea, the Grand Prix and the helicopter ride from Nice.

Besides these fantastic places, there are countless places where I’ve never been and which I would love to visit soon. This is just a short list, by alphabetical order:

  1. Azerbaijan
  2. Belize
  3. Bhutan
  4. Bolivia
  5. Bosnia
  6. Botswana
  7. Bulgaria
  8. Cabo Verde
  9. Colombia
  10. Congo
  11. Costa Rica
  12. Cote d’ivoire
  13. Croatia
  14. Cyprus
  15. Ecuador
  16. Estonia
  17. Fiji
  18. Georgia
  19. Guatemala
  20. Iran
  21. Kazakhstan
  22. Laos
  23. Latvia
  24. Lebanon
  25. Lithuania
  26. Luxemburg
  27. Mongolia
  28. Montenegro
  29. Mozambique
  30. Nepal. I’m attracted by the mountains and the culture.
  31. Nigeria. I’ve told my friends who live there that I would come and visit them. Just waiting for the opportunity.
  32. Norway
  33. Panama
  34. Papua new guinea
  35. Peru
  36. Philippines
  37. Rwanda. I’ve heard a lot about this place, more recently for good reasons, its stability, its tea plantations and its gorillas.
  38. Saint Kitt and Nevis
  39. Samoa
  40. Serbia
  41. Slovakia
  42. Slovenia
  43. Sri Lanka
  44. Syria. Unfortunately not a good time to visit now.
  45. Taiwan
  46. Tadjikistan
  47. Tanzania
  48. Tonga
  49. Uganda
  50. Uruguay
  51. Uzbekistan
  52. Vatican
  53. Zambia

What about the rest of the world? There are places where I’ve been but it’s not one of my favorite spots, like Chisinau in Modova (although I was curious to see the Soviet-era streets and buildings and taste the local wine), and so many places I’m not aware of and may discover one day.