I love to travel, and I have quite the extensive bucket list of places to see. This is not the first time I have talked about traveling here, and I highly doubt it will be the last. But, travel has been something that I have been thinking about for as long as I can remember, and I am looking forward to hopefully fulfilling my dreams of seeing some of the incredible places Earth has to offer.
With that being said, I compiled a list of five places I want to see in my lifetime. These are in no particular order, and are a mix of domestic and international locations, as well as a mix of city versus natural locations. So, without further introduction, let’s hop into it!
- London, England
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Honestly, London gets a special shout out in this list because it has been a location I’ve wanted to go to since I was five or six years old. I used to have two top locations, and they were Hawaii and London. I made it to Hawaii with my high school marching band back in 2016, but London is still on the horizon. I am hoping to potentially study abroad there next year though, so I may see it soon!
I love history, and London is full of it. The museums in London have captured my interest and I want to explore them all. The vibe and the energy of the city seems to be a bit different than the vibe of cities I have traveled to here in the United States, and I really want to experience it. I also love its close proximity to other countries such as Scotland.
I can’t put into direct words what draws me there, but I have talked to many people who have visited London and have loved their time there, so I am looking forward to making my own memories there one day soon!
- Glacier national park, montana
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I don’t know where exactly I heard about Glacier for the first time, but I think it is absolutely beautiful. The colors of the water there and the flowers that bloom are gorgeous, and it seems to offer a lot of different places to explore. I have been doing research to see when it might be best to visit, and during a few weeks in the spring there is a chance to see the Northern Lights, which I think would be so cool!
I would love to go and hike through the park or potentially bike through it, and just take in the exquisite scenery around me. I am also not a fan of the heat, and the average temperatures in Glacier even over the summer are nowhere near the heat we experience here in Pennsylvania. The United States has so much beauty that I think we sometimes tend to look past, and I want to explore more of it.
- Iceland
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Iceland kind of took over Hawaii’s spot after I visited the island in 2016, and has been on my list ever since. Iceland’s incredible natural land is what captured my eye at first. I don’t have a specific place I want to go in Iceland, but would just love to see the country in general. I discovered my desire to go to Iceland a bit accidentally, because I watched a video that I thought was from Iceland but found out it was actually filmed in Canada. From there though, I started to do research on Iceland and even did a project on the country for Girl Scouts in high school.
Again, the Northern Lights can be seen from Iceland, and it is one of my dreams to see them in real life. Iceland also has black sand beaches, hot springs, glaciers, mountains, and more. All of these features look so beautiful and I just want to see them with my own eyes so badly. A really cool thing to do in Iceland that is not for the faint of heart: you can actually swim between two tectonic plates. I don’t know if I would have enough courage to try, but this can be a really awesome experience!
- Seattle, Washington
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Again, I do not like the heat. Seattle’s average summer temperatures are also much lower than Pennsylvania’s, so there is an automatic selling point right there. It also can rain a lot in Seattle, and I love the rain.
To be honest, while I love visiting naturalistic places, I love cities. I would live in New York City if I could afford it (maybe one day!). Seattle has been on my radar for a few years, as I watched a YouTuber who lived there and everything always looked so nice. The photos I have seen of Seattle have also attracted me. I would love to go to the top of the Space Needle, or visit the Public Market or take a ferry boat ride. I watched Grey’s Anatomy over quarantine, so maybe that also has something to do with my wanting to visit the city. - Acadia national park, maine
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Last but not least, we have the second U.S. national park on the list. My family talked about traveling to Acadia a few years back, but decided to go somewhere else instead. But, the park has piqued my interest. It is another absolutely beautiful location that offers hiking, biking, and stargazing, which must be really cool since there isn’t as much pollution around.
I think I would love to visit in the fall, because of the weather and also because I want to see the foliage around. The colors of the leaves are so pretty, and I would love to see them in real life. Acadia is also the closest location to where I live and go to school on this list, so it may be the easiest to get to at the moment!
So, there we have it. A lot of the places I want to travel to because they just look gorgeous and I think it would be incredible to see them in person. The cities offer different kinds of activities, but all five locations on this list will be wonderful to visit. I hope that I can see all of them during my lifetime!
I hope all of you get to see your top travel destinations as well!
HCXO,
Katie McLaughlin