[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] I'm back, and so is "The Amazing Race"

[Edward Hasbrouck]

I'm back from my latest trip around the world (scroll down for some of  
the places I liked best), and my e-mail newsletter will resume with  
the new season of the reality-TV travel show, "The Amazing Race 13",  
starting this Sunday, 28 September 2008, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT, 7-8 p.m.  
CT/MT on CBS-TV in the USA:

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001534.html

One of my most frequently asked questions is, "Where should I go on my  
next trip?"

Usually, I refuse to answer, except to say that you should make your  
own choices, according to your own self-awareness of your own tastes,  
and not rely on my advice or that of anyone else.

Everyone has their own interests and reasons to travel. That's why I  
devote so much space in "The Practical Nomad; How to Travel Around the  
World" to the process of researching and choosing destinations.

But having just spent 13 months travelling 80,000 miles through 28  
countries on 6 continents, just this once I'll take the liberty of  
telling you some of the places I liked best.

All of these are places not to miss, in my opinion, but in different  
senses: some are worth making your primary destination for a trip from  
the USA (or wherever you may call home), while others are worth a  
detour if you are nearby, or a stopover of you are passing through.  
All of them are places that aren't as well known, in the USA in  
particular, and don't get nearly as many foreign visitors as other  
nearby places that I skipped, or found less rewarding. This isn't  
intended to be a list of the world's "best" places to visit, but a
list of places I greatly enjoyed on this trip (I've left out some  
places that were really interesting, but not for me so much fun) but  
that you might have overlooked, or never even have heard of.

My top dozen such places from this trip, in the order I visited them  
(not a ranking):

* THE HUMAHUACA VALLEY, JUJUY PROVINCE, NORTHWESTERN ARGENTINA:  
Stunning mountain scenery (as seen in the prize-winning and  
recommended documentary film Rio Arriba , which has caused a  
backpacker boomlet in Iruya), and small towns reminiscent of Sante Fe  
or Taos, where European-Argentine (i.e. white) artists and hippies  
seem to coexist fairly happily with the indigenous and mestizo  
majority. For travellers prone to altitude sickness, this is one of  
the few overland routes up to the high Andes that permits gradual  
acclimatization, with
villages and comfortable lodging every 500 meters (1500 feet) of  
altitude gain, all the way up the valley from the pampas to La Quiaca  
at the Bolivian border. If you are coming from Buenos Aires, you can  
take the train to Tucuman -- less than US$40 per person for a private  
sleeping compartment -- then continue by road through Cafayate, the  
center of the Torrontes wine-growing region.

* POTOSI, BOLIVIA: Perhaps eight million people died in the mines of  
Cerro Rico, the "Rich Mountain" above Potosi that was the center of  
Spanish colonial wealth in the Americas. From Ecuador to Argentina,  
Indian conscripts were marched thousands of miles to labor in the  
mines of Potosi. Those who survived to return home propagated some of  
the first seeds of a common "Hispanic American" cultural identity.  
Today, the mines (as deadly as ever, although on a reduced scale)
remain the sole reason for the existence of a city in such a location,  
on an almost unbuildably steep slope in barren desert at an almost  
uninhabitable altitude. Given that past and present, I thought it  
important to visit Potosi, but I didn't expect to enjoy it. To my  
surprise, I did. Potosi is, above all, a living city, warts and all,  
not a monument to the Holocaust of which it was and is the center.  
Local people are justifiably proud of what they and their ancestors  
have so arduously wrought, and of their city's historic importance.
Potosi was comfortable, inexpensive (like everywhere we went in  
Bolivia), visually stunning, and a delight to explore on foot -- at  
least until the altitude and steepness got to us.

* PORTUGAL: Worth a trip. If you are wondering where you can still  
afford to travel in Western Europe with devalued U.S. dollars, put  
Portugal at the top of your list. Friendly people, great food and  
wine, great scenery, few crowds (even in the summer, most foreign  
visitors to Portugal stick to the beach resorts of the Algarve, in the  
far south), and the price sinkhole of the Euro zone. The climate is  
mild enough to be pleasant even in winter, and gorgeous in "shoulder"
season in spring or fall. Like Ireland and perhaps Greece, Portugal  
combines a proletarian identity (as a country whose main export used  
to be migrant labor) with modern European infrastructure. Lisbon and  
Porto are charming cities -- big enough to be exciting, small enough  
to be accessible.

* OURENSE, SPAIN: Probably not worth a trip, but definitely worth a  
detour. Despite being the capital of Galicia (don't worry, everyone  
speaks standard Castilian Spanish as well, although much signage is  
bilingual in Galician), Ourense is just far enough off the pilgrimage  
route to Santiago de Campostelo that it's almost completely untouched  
by foreign tourism. The most fun part of our visit, other than the  
food, was the natural open-air public hot spring, in use since Roman  
times, at the edge of the river in the center of town, walking
distance from our hotel.

* PAU, FRANCE: Like Ourense, Pau is the sort of place that makes a  
Eurail pass worthwhile: you find yourself passing through or changing  
trains, and decide to stay a while. What have you got to lose? If you  
don't like it, you can get back on the next train. Pau used to be on  
the main rail line from Paris to Madrid (and may be again in the not  
to distant future), and with its vista of the high Pyrenees was once  
quite a fashionable resort. Today it's a quiet but still cosmopolitan  
place with plenty to keep you busy for a few days. And the rail route  
across the mountains to Zaragoza, Spain (site of this year's World's
Fair, in case you hadn't noticed) remains spectacular despite having  
to switch to a bus over the pass, where France and Spain have been  
arguing for decades over the repair of a damaged tunnel.

* MARSEILLE, FRANCE: It's hard to find anything except racism and  
(unwarranted) racialized fear to explain the paucity of tourists in  
Marseille. It's France's second-largest city, Europe's most African  
and ethnically diverse major city, and for millennia one of the most  
important ports on the Mediterranean. I've wanted to get to get to  
Marseille for years, and having been there, I'm eager to return. The  
Marseillaises have culture and panache, even on the barricades  
(whether in the French Revolution, in their celebrated leading role in  
the resistance to Nazism, or in the contemporary labor demonstrations  
we happened upon). But we encountered none of the snootiness of which  
Parisians are so often accused. Nor did we find Paris-like crowds at  
the museums, churches, concerts, restaurants, excursions, and sights.  
Nothing is really cheap, but the prices are tempered substantially by  
the general absence of mass or luxury tourism.

* SYRIA: Worth a journey in its own right, or an overland side trip  
from Turkey. Damascus and Aleppo were, for me, the high points of more  
than a year on the road. So much to see, and so few tourists. There  
are caveats and complication, and I'm working on a longer article  
specifically about travel in Syria. But nowhere else in the world,  
ever, have I experienced such a universal, unqualified, generous, and  
sincere attitude of welcome as I did from almost everyone I met in  
Syria. And that was especially true when they learned that we were  
from the USA! Nor have I been anywhere with so much historical  
importance and so few visitors. No, I never felt the least afraid:  
Even in the largest cities, foreign women can walk down dark alleys  
alone in the middle of the night safely -- and not just because it's a  
police state. Except for accommodations, everything is dirt-cheap,  
including great food and fine-quality handcrafted souvenirs in the  
frenzied bazaars.

* THESSALONIKI, GREECE: Worth a stopover along the rail route between  
Athens and Istanbul, or a side trip from either. My first taste of  
big-city life was at college at the Univerity of Chicago, so perhaps  
it's not surprising that I have a thing for "second cities": big  
enough to be cosmopolitan and dense enough to get around by foot or  
public transit, but not so self-important or overwhelming as  
mega-capitals tend to be. (Come to think of it, Marseille fits much of  
this same pattern, although with even fewer tourists than  
Thessaloniki.) Thessaloniki's location and multicultural history tie  
it as close+ly to the Balkans and to Turkey (its obvious sister city  
is Izmir, Turkey) as to Greece, while the present-day character of the  
city is dominated by the port (as always) and the huge university.  
Lots of Europeans on weekend "city breaks" mean lots of comfortable  
and empty hotel rooms on weeknights, with highly negotiable rates.  
Have I mentioned the superb and reasonably-priced (if not cheap) food?

* ETHIOPIA: If I could visit only one country in all of Africa, I  
would probably pick Ethiopia -- provided I was willing either to  
travel really rough (seriously bad busses and bedbugs) on a backpacker  
budget, or pay the price for comfortable accommodations (which do  
exist in the major tourist spots) and internal transportation by air  
(Ethiopian Airlines is Africa's best by far, with impeccable  
efficiency and competence even when flying to remote places) or a
private car and driver. As the seat of the African Union, Addis Ababa  
has become in many ways the capital of the the continent, while Axum  
and Lalibela provide an accessible introduction both to the grandeur  
of African civilization and to contemporary life in African  
communities outside the big cities. Extremely safe compared to most of  
the rest of Africa, much less the USA, with English widely spoken. And  
of course, the food is a unique delight. (Asmara, Eritrea, gave us a
fascinating comparison and contrast with Ethiopia, but isn't on the  
way to anywhere else, and doesn't have much in the way of  
tourist-oriented activities or entertainment.)

* SANA'A, YEMEN: Even if you don't (and maybe shouldn't) venture out  
of the city, Sana'a is definitely worth a stopover. Yemen Airways has  
excellent prices on through routings between Europe, East Africa, and  
South and East Asia, via Sana's, and gets my "we try harder" award as  
the best small airline of my trip. At 7,000 feet above sea level in a  
bowl in the mountains that set Yemen off from the rest of the Arabian  
Peninsula, Sana's has the perfect temperate climate characteristic of  
equatorial highlands. If you think all Arab countries are alike, think  
again: people here are Yemenis (and members of a tribe) first, and
Arabs only secondarily. Yemen isn't really isolated, but in a world of  
homogenized globalization, it's its own place in appearance,  
lifestyle, architecture, and exuberant welcome. (And qat-chewing, but  
that's another story.)

* BENDIGO, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA: Like most foreigners, I thought of  
Australia mainly in terms of the East Coast cities (especially Sydney)  
and the Outback. But there's a third Australia in between, which  
tourists shouldn't miss: the countryside and the "country towns", of  
which Bendigo was only one that happened to stand out in our  
experience. Nothing spectacular, but comfortable and "pleasant" in the  
best sense of the word.

* NARITA, CHIBA PREFECTURE, JAPAN: Most people know "Narita" as the  
name of the international airport serving Tokyo, but Narita is  
actually a small city worth visiting in its own right -- even if you  
don't have time, or don't want to deal with the crowds, to take the  
train to central Tokyo. Narita's best-known attraction, the Naritasan  
Shinshoji Buddhist temple, draws ten million pilgrims a year from  
throughout Japan and farther afield, and is surrounded by a pedestrian  
strip of traditional restaurants and shops catering to these pilgrims,  
as well
as several hotels within walking distance. It's just a few minutes by  
train from the airport, so a half-day layover can be an opportunity  
for exploration rather than an enforced waste of time. Japan has never  
been as expensive as some people would have you believe: you can spend  
a fortune, but you don't have to spend any more than you would to  
travel at a similar level in the USA, possibly a little less. With the  
Japanese yen having appreciated much less against the U.S. dollar than  
the Euro or many other currencies, that makes Japan a bargain these  
days compared to almost anywhere else in the First World (except the  
USA itself, of course).

If you are wondering about the absence from this list of India and  
China (both big, diverse, interesting, fun, and essential if you  
really want to be able to say you've seen the world), the reason is  
that we didn't get to India on this trip (we spent a couple of months  
-- not enough -- in India and Pakistan on our first trip around the  
world), and while we did get to China, briefly, the recent changes in  
China's visa rules preclude independent travel, at least for now:

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001498.html

I say again, your mileage may vary. Please post your recommendations  
(and the reasons for them) in the comments in my blog:

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001534.html

What are the places you've been that don't get as many foreign  
tourists, aren't as well known, or don't have as good a reputation as  
you think they deserve?

Bon voyage!

-- 

Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.practicalnomad.com>

Around-the-World and multi-stop international air tickets:
<http://hasbrouck.org/tickets/>