Where I will travel in 2021 once the restrictions are dropped

I didn't travel in 2020. At all. I visited relatives, I spent the Christmas holidays with the parents of my girlfriend and had a few quick trips, think about within 2-300 miles, here and there. But that's about it. If the government declared that traveling was discouraged, I would follow their indications and stop traveling at all.

I didn't mind staying home a lot more in 2020 but I did miss traveling abroad, seeing more of the world, hitting a few more of my bucket list's places. Therefore, 2021 is most welcomed. Hopefully, the ongoing vaccination will accelerate the dropping of COVID-19 cases, urging governments all around the world to drop the lockdowns and travel restrictions as soon as possible. Hopefully, by 2021's summer all traveling will be free but for a few countries.

I'm aching to visit a few places this year. Which ones? Well, making a list wasn't easy, clearly, but I managed to give my bucket list a new ordering, by priority, and these are the places I most want to visit in 2021.

Cuba

An old dream of mine, I wanted to visit Cuba already in the 1990s, right after the island opened itself to tourism (non-US, obviously). I would have loved to see how it was when communism was still in full force, with little in the Western ways to influence the Caribbean life. Unspoiled beaches, very few tourists and a feeling of going back in time would have been the highlights of visiting Cuba back then.

Photo by Alexander Kunze on Unsplash

Not that the island is ruined today. Far from it. But it is clearly more known, visited, used, trodden than it was 20-25 years ago. As I didn't hit any beaches in 2020 due to the travel restrictions, Cuba has a lot of fabulous ones to explore, with a long coast that is born to be visited with a long road trip. Renting a car and then spending 1-2 weeks going from north to south and then back, seeing both the eastern and the western coast of the largest Caribbean island, would be a dream.

Time to brush up my rusty spanish!

Thailand

It seems like everybody and their dogs have visited Thailand already. I haven't, yet. As with Cuba, I always wanted it, as I have a crave for tropical countries with great beaches but that have lots of culture and history as well. Thailand fits this description perfectly.

Yet life didn't make me book a flight to the Southeastern Asian country so far, for a long number of reasons that I'm not going to bore you with.

Whereas with Cuba I have already in mind most of the places I want to visit, with Thailand it is more complicated. Hitting the islands and traveling with a plane between them? Or focusing on the capital, Bangkok, and the nearby beaches? Or making a tour to visit the rural and historical north, dedicating more time to the culture of the nation than to its natural beauty?

It's hard to choose. Seems like Thailand is one of those countries that you need at least 2-3 trips to see all the most popular places, due to its sheer size and because it has a lot to offer, in any corner of the country. Probably the easiest would be to spend 3-4 days in Bangkok to appreciate the culture, history, cuisine and local life, plus a week or more in 1-2 of the best islands. That sounds like a plan. Hope that the travel restrictions will be dropped soon in 2021, as with the flight prices.

Netherlands

Another place that seems like everybody has visited but me. Netherlands is mostly thought of as Amsterdam and little else. Rightfully, in part. The capital is clearly one of the highlights of Europe, with the super-interesting museums, the beauty of the canals, and the local life revolving about bicycling and moving without a car. That is a good cultural shock for most Americans.

Yet I would like to see not just Amsterdam, but also the interior. Cities like Eindhoven, The Hague, Rotterdam, may have less to offer to the tourist interested in the arts but are less frequented by tourists, more with a local feeling, modern. Any country that has a nearly total focus on its capital intrigues me more in discovering the other parts, the less walked paths of it.

Photo by Serhat Beyazkaya on Unsplash

Plus, the nature is amazing. Mountain lovers will hate it, as it's all flat. But long stretches of green areas, with the occasional tree here and there, ending on a river or the sea are pretty much my thing.

Ireland

It may sound weird to say, but I've never been to Ireland either. Considering the large number of flights coming and going through Dublin from both sides of the Atlantic, reaching Ireland isn't much of an issue, whether one is in the USA or in Europe. And yet I never visited it.

Probably this will be the very first trip I'm taking in 2021. Ireland has been a childhood dream, with its greenness and open skies. Reading lots of fantasy books only enlarged the desire to visit it. Hopefully, the restrictions will be lifted soon so a spring 2021 trip to Dublin and then moving around the green island will be a possibility.

Bretagne, France

I've already been in France, and in Bretagne too. It is thus the only place on this list that I would return to, not visiting for the first time. Bretagne is in many ways similar to Ireland: lots of churches, castles, ancient dolmens and menhirs, all under grey skies. Green is as much the main color of Ireland as it could be of Bretagne too.

I've been to Nantes, which is close to Bretagne, and visited briefly the southern areas of Bretagne. A short trip next to the Atlantic sea and a bit on the interior. I haven't seen much then, and I've been yearning for more since then (about 15 years ago).

Photo by Roberto Gualini on Unsplash

Surely I'm curious about Brest, the main city in Bretagne: an important harbour, with an usually shitty weather, where many sailors have been scared of navigating close to. The menhirs and dolmens of Carnac, on the south-western coast, are one of the highlights of the region. Not forgetting also the English Channel coast on the north, with lots of bays, cliffs, churches and residences. Any French region is rich in history and culture and Bretagne isn't an exception.

Therefore, I'm hoping that the COVID-19 cases are going to drop very, very soon in France, as elsewhere. Traveling is too important to keep avoiding it.

2021 has to be better for traveling

That's what everybody is hoping for. Not just for the economy, but for our souls. Engaging with different cultures, discovering new places, eating unknown before dishes, listening to local music, exploring centuries-old traditions are too important to have another year missing them. Traveling manages to merge all this in a handful of days abroad. Let's hope for a 2021 full of trips!

#nbholidaycheer