Money and time no object? I would do a tour of the Pacific islands on a 110 Wally sailboat complete with crew so I get to do the fun stuff like helming and none of the boring stuff I don't feel like doing that day. Would hit at a minimum Galapagos, Tahiti, Fiji, New Caledonia and on down to the Sundays in Australia. Would take about 6 months although I could spend a lifetime there.
If I was time limited to two weeks? Sailing in the Bahamas in a Outreamer cat, these are as large as I can safely handle with my partner and its a lot lot shallower than the Wally so I get to explore far more of the Bahamas. Shorter holidays I want less flight time, so direct like this is perfect.
I handle this, as do most poor people, by not asking ourselves this question, not even fantasizing about it, for why torture yourself with something you never can do?
Probably any other country where I could get a doctor to take a look at my heart condition without having to take out a loan against my house to pay for it.
I'd like to see Japan deeply. I'd go all the way across the country and make sure to stay at rural spots along the way to enjoy the stillness between cities.
I've only ever seen Sweden from the highway from Malmö to Stockholm to get to a boat to Estonia in time, and only saw bits of the harbor in Helsinki during that trip. I'd love to take more time to explore Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Honestly I wanna do an expedition to the North Pole and see the sun do weird shit. Then treck to the South Pole so I can see the sun do weird shit but backwards. Like I know that sun is a weird freak when it doesn't think you're looking, that's why it does it at the poles. Then along the way from North to south I'll tell people how weird the sun is, and they'll have to believe me because I've been there, and they'll have to say "damn the sun is weird". Sun's going to be so embarrassed when everyone finds out how weird it is.
That or like go to Cancun or something. Anywhere that I can keep track of the sun that twisted freak you aren't fooling me.
Damn we have similar goals but different reasons. I want to have been on all continents and I am obsessed with going to Antarctica. If I had the money, I would want to stand on the planet's axis. And have the whole world actually revolve around me. Doing this on the North Pole too would be great, but it's not a continent and therefore has second place.
And now, can you elaborate the weird stuff the sun does at the poles? Besides polar night and polar day?
Fly to Frankfurt for fairly cheap. Take the train to Munich and the train to Vienna from there and attend at least a few. Get a cheaper “stay” in the outer districts that are still connected via train. Check if there is offers on “Groupon” for it potentially.
Could probably make it with 2k/2.5k
Amtrak does the train equivalent of a cruise liner, where you spend about half a month on a sleeper car travelling all over America. It's cheaper than an actual cruise line, and more importantly I think trains are cool.
Edit: forgot about the unlimited money. I guess I would pay to replace all the rails in north america first so I have a smooth ride the whole time.
I'm assuming you're talking about the All American, as that's the main one I could find. About fifteen days, and $2400. Which is about as much as a three to five day cruise, depending on cruiseline.
That sounds awesome, and isn't that terribly expensive, honestly. My wife and I went on a similar route road trip for our honeymoon a few years ago and it was in that same ballpark of cost, between car rental, hotels, and other expenses.
There's a place out in Washington State called Dirtfish. They call it a "rally school". For a bunch of money they'll give you a kickass Subaru and let you tear around a dirt track for a few days. Looks awesome.
I would love to visit New Zealand. I'm a canuk and I hear they are like a better weather version of my country...I've also never met a kiwi that wasn't a stand up person.
Alpha Centauri system. I'd keep spending money until we got a working fusion reactor and Alcubierre Drive, open source the designs, and go check that shit out.
It's amazing. I recommend sitting outside the central train station in Amsterdam and people watching, as thousands of tourists attempt to bicycle or walk somewhere, and they're just in everybody's way. It's hilarious. If you're going to cycle (which, yes, you should) stay to the right and signal where you want to go. There are bike lanes there for you to take, don't just be off in the middle of the street. Also, they want you to pay for an extra ticket to bring your bike on the train with you, I found that this can be ignored if you're not a jerk about it.
lol… it’s what you say but as tourist you not wanna cycle there. You’ll be happy on weekends yo barely have the space to walk. It’s a beautiful city though. Visited it like 3-4 times
Switzerland. Having grown up in the coastal plains, I just have this fascination with mountains. I don't t have the physical condition to climb one, but just seeing them up close already makes me feel things. Being on top of one, even more so.
Maybe I can do even better and do a train journey from France, and then Switzerland, then across Austria, all the way to Hungary and Romania, making sure that I cross as many mountains as I possibly can.
I bet the views of the Alps are majestic from there!
And yeah! I imagine the trip would be so much fun (though a bit exhausting). It'd be combining two of the things that fascinate me: mountains and trains.
I sometimes fantasize going from the northern tip of Scotland all the way to Singapore on a train. Not non-stop, of course, but maybe going from one city to another, spending some time on a city until I get my fill, and then hop on the train to the next one. All the way until I run out of land. Maybe from there (Singapore), I can do island-hopping across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Then road trip in Australia. But that's really stretching it, not just in terms of logistics and planning. At the pace I do things, do I really want to spend like five years crawling through Europe, Asia, and Australia? Even if money's no object, I don't think I can do that.
Sorry for the ramble. Given the scope of the question, yeah, a cross-Europe mountain train trip is perhaps my limit (that'd be like, two weeks? maybe a month if I take my time to really enjoy each place I visit?)
I'd book a trip on a tall ship. I found one a while back called the Bark Europa. It's one of the few ships that goes to Tristan da Cunha, the most remote civilization in the world.
Its already expensive ($10,000+) and even more expensive if you want to go to the arctic. Unfortunately, I have celiacs, so the only way I'd be able to do it, is if I paid a stupid amount of money.
Antarctica. It's possible, there are regular tours to the South Pole. In reality I can't afford €60k+ for such a tour, but if money is no object I'd go
I did a tour to Antarctica. Overrated in my opinion. But if you really want to go for yourself, the cheapest way is to head down to Ushuaia and sign up for a standby cruise. It's easily €5k or less.
I will answer for them. Because flying from the Netherlands to New Zealand in economy class will emit the equivalent of about 4 tons of carbon dioxide. Roughly equivalent to driving a car every day for a year or so.
There are places where you can go and slum it and still have a great time, just visiting free attractions and going everywhere on foot and by pubic transit.
But then there are places where the luxury itself is the attraction, so cheaping out doesn't really make sense.
I can afford to get to Japan and then just stay in cheap hotels and explore local attractions in Kyoto and Tokyo.
I can afford to get to Bora Bora or Tahiti, but I can't afford the luxury stay, which would be the point of the trip.
Titan is a terrible place to view Saturn's rings from; first of all the moon's orbit is pretty much coplanar with the ring disc so you're looking at something hilariously thin end-on. Second, thick opaque clouds. On the upside, Titan's gravity is so low and the air is so thick given an Icarus suit you could fly like a bird. Or pedal power a Cessna Skyhawk.
You'd probably get a good look at the rings on your way in though.
If money is NO object then I’d buy the US government and make the US visitor friendly. I mean I’d really like to see the pained desert, New Orleans, New York, New England in the fall, hell there’s heaps of the US I’d like to visit and it seams to me that you can buy the US government for a couple of hundred billions.
The moon, or just into space where I can float around and see Earth from a good distance.
Do you remember being a very young kid, of maybe 4 or 5-years-old, and riding your bike without stabilisers for the first time? Riding around your neighbourhood with that feeling of limitless time and seemingly bottomless reservoirs of pure joy? Or the first time you played a video game? Or the first time you went to the cinema? Basically any fun and novel experience. You could almost physically feel the birthing neurons branching through your brain in real-time like orgasmic, electrified roots. The joy of simply having your consciousness come 'online' more and more.
Well, I'm in my early 40s now, and I haven't felt that way since I was that very young child. But I don't think it's because I'm too jaded to enjoy things anymore, it's that I've experienced almost everything there is to experience in a normal everyday life, and there's not much left that is so new and shocking to my consciousness that it will trigger that magical experience again. And so there is no further branching of neurons and no further giddy joy at simply doing something hitherto completely foreign to my brain.
I think visiting space, and especially landing on the moon, would give me that feeling again. It would be the last truly novel experience I definitely have not felt before, and it's not one that I can sorta kinda experience vicariously. I mean, I've never killed anyone, but I know what an abyss of unquenchable guilt feels like, I know what the terror of being caught after doing something bad feels like, I know what it feels like to be so haunted by trauma that I have nightmares about it for years after. So I can just extrapolate from that and get a general idea of what it must be like to have done something that awful. My imagination can conjure up those sorts of ideas if I want it to, and while I won't get 100% of the way there, I can create a ballpark estimation of it. But going into space - leaving everything and everyone who has ever existed behind - and being somewhere so literally alien to my evolved senses, that's not something I can get a handle on just using my imagination.
I could be wrong of course, and going into space might simply be like visiting another country in the shittiest, most cramped Ryanair flight imaginable, but it's the only thing I think has the most chance of giving me one last brain-bukkake before I clock out.
Shame it'll never happen 🤷 Maybe I'll start a twitter account sucking Elon's fetid little dick and he'll invite me to use one of his rockets one day. Then while I'm in space, I'll take out a trans flag and play a shitty cover of Nazi Punks Fuck Off à la Chris Hadfield 🫡
Never really thought about it. Have always wanted to visit either the French countryside or some picturesque forest in Europe. But someone mentioned trains and unlimited money.
A nice indulgence then would be a luxury train line that navigates throughout most regions of the planet. Probably the most expensive ever done but should be possible. Could probably take years to travel the whole planet in maximum comfort. Wonderful.
Advantages of a vacation train would also be having other people around. One cart per person/family. Not everyone would be in it for the whole ride, so probably lots of passengers changing too. Could have wonderful parties or just group entertainment like movie nights.
There was a knitting cruise I looked at before. Took you around Europe and had events to spin your own yarn and there would be workshops with masters. I think I would do that.
I mean, if money's no object I'm sure some travel agent could put together a package deal to go to every race. That way you could experience the glitz of Monaco but also get to see some decent races.
Sailboat, Caribbean, and all the food and sunsets in between as long as I can make it last. Maybe I'll end it by heading straight at a hurricane, or maybe I'll just try my luck at getting to Europe. It would be amazing to get to Gibraltar under sail from the Caribbean.
Finding the time is more of an obstacle, but definitely New Zealand or Australia! Love flying but just thinking about the flight time is making my butt hurt haha
Can recommend the Air New Zealand sky couch - you book a slightly more expensive economy seat and get a whole row with a special footrest that folds all the way up flat turning it into a bed 👌
Iceland. My kid took a geology class and was excited about Iceland. This is actually college: he never got his passport so I said, “sure I’ll take you if you apply for your passport”
Royal Caribbean cruise on an Icon, Quantum, or Oasis class ship (to the Caribbean, of course).
I don't care how much Lemmy hates cruise ships, nothing beats waking up to a different view out of your balcony every morning. Not to mention the unlimited gourmet food. You could eat a dozen lobster tails in a single sitting if you wanted to.
My friend’s uncle lived this life but swap globe to “Lake Travis in Austin, TX” and swap friend or family member to “random babe”
One time, she (my friend), invited us out for a full day on her uncle’s boat and whenever we stopped to gas up, one babe would depart and another would hop on. He also had some kinda magical ice chest that never ran out of beer. Good times.
I was thinking way too small with my answer. I didn't even consider the idea of telling NASA that I could fund any and every project they want done, if they just send me to the Moon
Well if money is no object then a world tour that lasts the rest of my life, thanks (or if I can use this magic purse on behalf of others instead, stay home and buy up all the world's debt, sponsor a jubilee year.)
I'd donate alot to my local makerspace then take unpaid leave for a good while and just make things. If I had to travel i would probably go to Germany to see a few friends, it's been too long.
Did something a little bit similar last fall - Vancouver to Vancouver Island, through BC over the Rockies to Edmonton. Then flight to Montreal and up to Saguenay, down to the cantons de l"est, back to Montreal.
The whole cross country thing is on the list, bit will have to wait. This country is big...
I’m very lucky - Grew up in the GTA, went to Uni in Halifax and lived on Vancouver Island for 8 years. I’ve taken the train across, but I’d really love to drive it and really enjoy all the bits in the middle. So I’ve seen lots and explored local areas where I’ve lived, I’m really just missing NFLD.
I live in the UK now (and oddly closer to my Uni than I was out west) so the plan would be to buy a car out west, and sell it out East.
Somewhere tropical, that won't mind if we smoke some weed on the beach. Jamaica comes to mind, but I'd research options because I'd like to see the other side of the Atlantic.
Somewhere remote that already has a well-established bartering system. Most of the usual tourist places would be a disaster if there was no such thing as money.
Definitely take a boat ride to visit Taiwan at least once before any shit potentially goes down in Asia and war breaks out.
Hell, if it broke out while I was over there, it'd make things easier for me in a way, since I'd be more than willing to help Taiwan in the event of a war by doing whatever the hell they need me to as a civilian who couldn't join the army due to my health. Wouldn't have to be working on helping them from far away, but rather on ground.
It'd be cool to walk about Mars for an afternoon. Maybe find that rover (Opportunity?) that ran out of power & give it a fresh battery & clean off its solar panels, see if it'll fire back up again.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but maybe we should all cool it on the tourism. It's terrible for the environment, mostly terrible for whomever was calling that place home. I know so many people that spout off about the environment and then think nothing of hopping on multiple flights per year.
If I were king everyone would get travel passes twice. Once in their 20s and again in their 60s.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but maybe we should all cool it on the tourism.
... and crash the economy of number of countries, making their populations poorer. Tunisia - tourism is nearly tenth of their economy and employs 400,000 people - they have entire places built for tourists, nobody would live there otherwise. Morocco is 7%, Egypt is 8%.
And I want to spend my holidays somewhere where it is warm and sunny, not fucking wet and miserable.
So we should prop up an objectively destructive sector of the economy? They'll all be a hell of a lot poorer when huge swaths of the earth becomes much harder to survive in. And I'm extremely skeptical anything of that 8% of Egypt's tourism money trikles down in a way that anyone would call fair or equitable.
And I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to burn down the planet so you can sip fruity drinks under a palm tree. Perhaps if we had invested in a rail system that was worth a damn it would be a different story. But here we are.
Disappointed but unsurprised to see nobody acknowledging that there might be reasons other than money for not flying business class to the other end of the world.