Red Square Moscow
Krakow Poland
Great Wall of China
Munich
Tallinn
Your NEXT Top 5
Quoting Beausoleil
France (Dordogne, Occitanie, Provence, Loire)
Bavaria
Scotland
Italy (Tuscany and Umbria)Not sure if that's 4 or 8; depends on how you count. None of these is a first time, just returning to places we love. We're visiting Burgundy and Alsace this autumn so they are not on the list. If we had more money, we'd simply stay longer . . . or fly first class which would be lovely.
I would put a hold on Scotland, I live here and the weather is usually awful, never seems to stop raining, even in the summer months, and the further north you venture the lower the ambient temperature becomes, I don't know how anybody can survive in the northern isles, Shetland and Orkney.
With this wet and comparatively mild weather it's happy hunting time for the dreaded midgies ( tiny flying insects similar to mosquitoes) which get in your hair and face, also the clegs (cow dung flies) will be back in action after their winter break, these are more harmful and insidious and you won't feel them biting you until it's too late.
Worst of all are ticks, a bite from these small red insects can give you Lymes disease, they are hosted and carried by foxes and other wildlife, I watched a TV documentary about ticks, some unfortunate people have suffered life-changing illnesses over a period of several years after contracting Lymes disease, the only treatment available is antibiotics, but not always with success.
Still keen on Scotland?.....
Quoting Bennytheball
I would put a hold on Scotland, I live here and the weather is usually awful, never seems to stop raining, even in the summer months, and the further north you venture the lower the ambient temperature becomes, I don't know how anybody can survive in the northern isles, Shetland and Orkney.
With this wet and comparatively mild weather it's happy hunting time for the dreaded midgies ( tiny flying insects similar to mosquitoes) which get in your hair and face, also the clegs (cow dung flies) will be back in action after their winter break, these are more harmful and insidious and you won't feel them biting you until it's too late.
Worst of all are ticks, a bite from these small red insects can give you Lymes disease, they are hosted and carried by foxes and other wildlife, I watched a TV documentary about ticks, some unfortunate people have suffered life-changing illnesses over a period of several years after contracting Lymes disease, the only treatment available is antibiotics, but not always with success.Still keen on Scotland?.....
How they EVER passed you up for that job with the tourist board, I'll never know....
I would put a hold on Scotland, I live here and the weather is usually awful, never seems to stop raining, even in the summer months, and the further north you venture the lower the ambient temperature becomes, I don't know how anybody can survive in the northern isles, Shetland and Orkney.
With this wet and comparatively mild weather it's happy hunting time for the dreaded midgies ( tiny flying insects similar to mosquitoes) which get in your hair and face, also the clegs (cow dung flies) will be back in action after their winter break, these are more harmful and insidious and you won't feel them biting you until it's too late.
Worst of all are ticks, a bite from these small red insects can give you Lymes disease, they are hosted and carried by foxes and other wildlife, I watched a TV documentary about ticks, some unfortunate people have suffered life-changing illnesses over a period of several years after contracting Lymes disease, the only treatment available is antibiotics, but not always with success.Still keen on Scotland?.....
Well we're all different. 
After visiting a hundred countries Scotland's still up there in my top three (I'm not sure of their ranks within that top three).
I've probably had a hundred trips round Scotland, a few work but mostly pleasure. Seldom been troubled by the rain, I appreciate the verdant landscape it helps create. Midges are only an issue in summer at dawn and dusk and then generally by standing water when there's no breeze - ie seldom. Never been troubled by clegs aka horseflies. I've seen two ticks ever; they're usually a thing where deer roam free. As it happens I had a conversation last month about them with an NHS worker who said a tick is very very unlikely to carry Lyme's; yes they try to keep the numbers down but they're not something to fret about. All in all we're pretty lucky our bugs are more benign than in most of the world.
As for the cold uninhabitable north there's a quality to the far northern light on summer nights when it barely goes dark. Equally I've been driving over moors on a snowy February moonlit night when headlights were unnecessary - brilliant. Orkney is amazing if you delve into the prehistory.
Yeah there are some dreich days but it's still one of the most amazing places on the planet.
Quoting Bennytheball
Quoting Beausoleil
France (Dordogne, Occitanie, Provence, Loire)
Bavaria
Scotland
Italy (Tuscany and Umbria)Not sure if that's 4 or 8; depends on how you count. None of these is a first time, just returning to places we love. We're visiting Burgundy and Alsace this autumn so they are not on the list. If we had more money, we'd simply stay longer . . . or fly first class which would be lovely.
I would put a hold on Scotland, I live here and the weather is usually awful, never seems to stop raining, even in the summer months, and the further north you venture the lower the ambient temperature becomes, I don't know how anybody can survive in the northern isles, Shetland and Orkney.
With this wet and comparatively mild weather it's happy hunting time for the dreaded midgies ( tiny flying insects similar to mosquitoes) which get in your hair and face, also the clegs (cow dung flies) will be back in action after their winter break, these are more harmful and insidious and you won't feel them biting you until it's too late.
Worst of all are ticks, a bite from these small red insects can give you Lymes disease, they are hosted and carried by foxes and other wildlife, I watched a TV documentary about ticks, some unfortunate people have suffered life-changing illnesses over a period of several years after contracting Lymes disease, the only treatment available is antibiotics, but not always with success.Still keen on Scotland?.....
I live in Maryland. We are way south of Scotland and we have cold weather and a lot of rain and whether it is hot or cold, it is also humid. (We live near D.C. and the British embassy employees considered that a hardship post.) I don't know about clegs, but we have ticks. Three main kinds, dog ticks which I think carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, deer ticks which carry the Lyme disease (named after the place in Connecticut where it was first discovered), and lately, lone star ticks, the bite of which can cause you to be violently allergic to the meat of mammals (beef, veal, lamb, etc).
I picked two ticks off my husband last week. One was a Lone Star tick and one was a deer tick.
We also have tiny biting flies which hunt you down in the Bay when there is no wind. And in some areas in the south (Georgia-northern Florida) there are no-see-ums which are tiny biting insects which are small enough to go through screen.
My next top 5 is there is no financial limits:
1. Russia (Moscow)
2. Finland (Helsinki)
3. London (UK)
4. Copenhagen (Denmark)
5. Paris (France)
We have already booked our flights to Moscow in December! ????
1. Mexico
2. Alexandria, Egypt
3. Romania
4. Siberia (ideally with the Transsiberian!)
5. Prague
And the tiny state of Andorra - has anyone been there?
No financial limits: (in random order)
Easter Island
Antarctica
Mustang
Trans siberia express
Hiking the great wall
Realistic:
Tibet (planned for this year)
Cuba
Myanmar
Costa Rica
Iceland
5 cities on my list :
- Saint Petersburg
- Praha
- Venezia
- Sevilla
- Firenze
And 5 countries/states :
- South West USA (this one is scheduled !)
- Colombia
- Ethiopia
- Iran
- Yukon
Turkey
Switzerland
Sri Lanka
Australia
Pakistan