SmarterTravel Editors’ Travel Bucket Lists

Jaclyn Liechti has recently joined the SmarterTravel staff and enjoys the many roles she plays as an Editorial Assistant. As the comments moderator, she is able to get to know the members of the SmarterTravel community, and she loves seeing the many thoughtful observations contributed by readers. She is just getting started in the many travels she hopes to take, but a semester abroad in Ireland and numerous family vacations around the Midwest have given her travel fever.

1. Explore Prague's cobblestone streets.
2. Watch the sunset on Paris from the Eiffel Tower.
3. Walk among the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.
4. Learn to surf in Australia.
5. Get in touch with my roots in Switzerland.
6. Eat, drink, and be merry in New Orleans.
7. Go on a Serengeti Safari.
8. Sample Marrakesh street food.
9. Join in the Festival of Colors in India.
10. Cruise to Alaska for a wildlife encounter.

Where in Prague would you go? Are any of Jacy's destinations on your own bucket list? Share your ideas below.

(Photo: iStockphoto/courtyardpix)

Kate Sitarz

Kate Sitarz is an Editorial Assistant at SmarterTravel. In addition to fact-checking and copy-editing, Kate keeps the hotel, vacation package, and car rental deal sections up-to-date with the latest discounts and offerings. The best travel memories Kate has are of the 12-hour family road trips taken in her youth to places like Washington, D.C., Montreal, and Acadia National Park. Though she has fallen in love with the sights, sounds, and culture of Paris (and dreams of living there one day), Kate first wants to explore all of the vast and diverse 50 states.

1. Take a classic road trip, hitting every state in the U.S. and stopping at American landmarks along the way like Mt. Rushmore, the Alamo, Gateway Arch, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Everglades.
2. Spend an entire year living in Anchorage, Alaska. See the aurora borealis, Denali National Park and Mt. McKinley, Fairbanks, and plenty of reindeer.
3. Hike the Appalachian Trail. From Spring Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine, this trail meanders through 14 states along its 2,000+ mile course.
4. Visit Auschwitz.
5. Take off to Fiji and stay in a hut with a hammock.
6. Herd sheep in New Zealand. With more sheep than people, I can't think of a better place to be amongst wooly companions.
7. Go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef.
8. Snowboard the Swiss Alps. While trekking through the Alps is on the do to list, I first want to leave the icy New England trails behind for some first-class riding.
9. Go backpacking in Patagonia. Highlights I'd want to hit include the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina and the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
10. Walk the Great Wall of China. Maybe not all 5,000 plus miles of it, but enough to get a sense of just how large it is.

Do you have a favorite stop along the road? Is there anything else you would add to Kate's list? Please leave comments in the field below.

(Photo: iStockphoto/Andrew Penner)

Patricia Magana

Much to the chagrin of the airlines, Patricia Magaña spends her exciting days at SmarterTravel taking a bite out of, analyzing, and spitting out airfare promotions. When not donning the Airfare Editor hat, she dreams of her next vacation. Her favorite among them has been a road trip through Honduras with her daughter, which included white-knuckle driving on roads enveloped in storm-filled clouds, being held for questioning at roadblocks by the policia during the presidential coup (numerous times), and snorkeling from sunup to sundown.

1. Skydive into the aurora borealis.
2. Snorkel with dolphins while in Belize's Great Blue Hole.
3. Motorcycle northbound from Buenos Aires toward Mexico a la Che Guevara.
4. Paint and swim in the Epte River in France.
5. Sneak into and sleep in the Forbidden City, Beijing, China.
6. Hike at least one of the following grand national parks: Arches, Zion, or Bryce.
7. Climb and camp at Machu Picchu.
8. Fight in Buñol's Tomatina (the tomato food fight).
9. Attend an anarchic festival like Burning Man.
10. Close down Disney World to everyone but my friends and family.

Have you ever considered skydiving? Where would you go? Anyplace else you think Pati shouldn't miss? Leave her your suggestions below.

(Photo: iStockphoto/Paul Fleet)

Carl Unger

Associate Editor Carl Unger has worked at SmarterTravel for just under five years. He writes the Today in Travel blog, giving you your daily dose of everything from fees and mergers to oddball stories from the world of travel. He has traveled to numerous places throughout Europe and the U.S., but is just as happy to stay local—driving along the coast of Maine or through the hills and valleys to Vermont, or simply bringing his dogs to a nearby beach.

1. Trek through Torres Del Paine National Park in extreme southern Chile.
2. Eat sushi in Tokyo.
3. See a Canadiens game in Montreal.
4. Watch the storms in Tofino.
5. See the northern lights in Iceland.
6. Hike among the fjords in Norway.
7. Attend a ceilidh in Cape Breton Island.
8. Go Zorbing in New Zealand.
9. Do my Christmas shopping in Paris.
10. Revisit my family's roots in eastern Germany and Hungary.

What are your tips for trekking through rough terrain? Is Zorbing (or another crazy sport) on your list of travel must-dos? Compare bucket lists with Carl in the comments below.

(Photo: iStockphoto/Gerad Coles)

Kate Hamman

Associate Editor Kate Hamman has worked at SmarterTravel for four-and-a-half years, and in that time she has written about quirky and unknown stops, hard-to-beat deals, and seasons for savings. Her current role these days is that of the Deal Detective—or as she likes to think of herself, the "Dear Abby" of travel dilemmas. She has eaten her way across several countries, with an emphasis on Europe, Canada, and North America, and can't wait to taste the rest of the world.

1. Ride the Orient Express through Southeastern Asia.
2. Volunteer for a few months on a farm or vineyard in France.
3. Visit the last two states left to see in the United States: Alaska and Missouri.
4. Drink coffee in Cuba before it becomes a tourist trap.
5. Ride in a hot air balloon in the world's largest hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque.
6. Stay at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the holidays.
7. Reenact Steinbeck's Travels With Charley by taking a cross-country road trip with my dog as my co-pilot.
8. Have the chef's tasting menu at The French Laundry in Napa Valley.
9. Visit a floating market in Vietnam and eat on the river.
10. Spend a few months traveling around the world, stopping in every continent and sampling the local cuisine.

Is a memorable train trip on your travel list? Share your ideal itinerary with other readers below.

(Photo: Ian Lloyd)

Christine Sarkis

Senior Editor Christine Sarkis writes about destinations, the latest trends in travel, and ways to stay comfortable while flying. She's also one of the people reading your comments on stories, and loves how many great travel tips and ideas people have to share. She thinks that, based on these lists, it's clear the editors need to take a field trip to see the northern lights.

1. Walk the Cotswold Way, then stay at the Thermae Bath Spa in Bath.
2. See the northern lights in Alaska or Norway.
3. Take an ADEMAS nighttime metro tour in Paris.
4. Soak in the thermal baths in Budapest.
5. Experience the giant singing festival in Tallinn, Estonia.
6. Rent a river barge in France.
7. Hunt for truffles in Croatia.
8. Eat my way through Melbourne, New Orleans, Lyon, and Kyoto.
9. Bike and kayak in Cambodia.
10. Stay at the great lodges of the national parks.

Have more thermal bath, culinary, or subterranean travel ideas for Christine? She would love to hear them.

(Photo: Matt Cardy/Thermae Bath Spa)

Sarah Pascarella

Senior Editor Sarah Pascarella has been writing and editing for SmarterTravel for nearly six years. An avid reader and movie buff, Sarah tends to plan her travels around her favorite books and movies. She also is drawn to her family homelands, having spent time in Italy, Ireland, and Poland retracing her ancestral roots. In recent years, she's also become a novice hiker, tackling trails in California, Colorado, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

1. Take a literary tour of Great Britain—walk in Jane Austen's footsteps in Kent, visit Roald Dahl's home in Buckinghamshire, take a Dickensian tour of London, and more.
2. See the catacombs in Paris.
3. Stand in the shadow of Uluru Rock in Australia.
4. Hike through the canyons of Yosemite.
5. Spend at least a week (maybe more) eating my way through Greece.
6. Drive cross-country at least twice, taking a different route for each leg of the trip.
7. Drive from Miami to Key West along the Overseas Highway.
8. Return to Rome and find the Mouth of Truth.
9. Drive through the Badlands and discover the small towns in the Dakotas/Montana/Big Sky Country.
10. Hike the Grand Canyon.

Is a literary trip on your to-do list too? What's your ideal fiction-inspired jaunt?

(Photo: iStockphoto/AmandaLewis)

Josh Roberts

Managing Editor Josh Roberts has been with SmarterTravel since January 2001. A lifelong adventure traveler, Josh's greatest passion is exploring the great outdoors—especially the moody and magical mountains of the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

1. Explore Egypt's Valley of the Kings by camel.
2. Climb Angel's Landing in Zion National Park.
3. Explore the Lofoten Islands, Norway.
4. Sea kayaking off the coast of Greenland.
5. Sailing between the Greek Isles.
6. Walk the Great Wall of China
7. Compete in the Amazing Race.
8. Heli-hike in the Western Canadian wilderness.
9. Snowshoe hut to hut in the Rocky Mountains along the 10th Mountain Division Hut System (where my grandfather trained for WWII).
10. Introduce my two kids to U.S. National Parks like Grand Canyon, Glacier, etc.

Have you been to the Valley of the Kings? Any suggestions for Josh?

(Photo: iStockphoto/Matej Michelizza)

Anne Banas

Executive Editor Anne Banas has been at SmarterTravel for nearly a decade. As the company spokesperson, Anne is always touting our value mission to the national media. Her deepest passion lies with a love for the earth, with an unstoppable desire to journey back to our food sources to understand how we eat around the world. And when the pressures of society mount, you'll find her lost on an island getting back in touch with her vibration.

1. Visit every island that touches the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Study at Le Cordon Bleu Paris.
3. Volunteer at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York.
4. Practice with a master yogi in India.
5. Live in a Provencal farmhouse for a summer.
6. See all the "big cats" in their natural habits (especially lions on a South African game reserve).
7. Sleep in a secluded, over-water bungalow in the Tahitian islands.
8. Work on a sugarcane plantation, maybe in Brazil.
9. Move to the Caribbean (most likely the French West Indies) for a year or forever.
10. Get lost at a Middle Eastern bazaar (and possibly kidnapped).

Which Atlantic island should Anne visit next? Do you have a long-term travel goal, for instance to visit all the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, or eat gelato in every city in Italy?

(Photo: iStockphoto/Alexander Cherednichenko)

Ed Passarella

Ed Passarella is our Editor-in-Chief and has been with SmarterTravel since August of 2001. Ed and his wife, Andrea, travel as a team, so this bucket list is a joint effort. They like to mix up their travel. Well-planned explorations of exciting cities alternate with peaceful, unstructured respites involving an island, a lake, or a mountain.

1. Hearing some jazz at a club in Montmartre. Not just for the music, but because it'd mean we were back in Paris. While we've done pretty well checking out the Left Bank and the museums, we've never had the pleasure of hearing live music, Parisian style.
2. Take a water taxi ride the full length of the Grand Canal. Forget the gondolas. Too slow. Too quaint. We had a taste of the old-fashioned, wooden power boats once in getting from the Venice train station to our hotel, but we want to get back for a leisurely tour.
3. Race down the East Coast and catch the sunrise from vantage points stretching from the Chesapeake to the Barrier Islands of Georgia.
4. Watch the sunset from the hills above Bodega Bay. Yeah, it'd be fun to check out the locations where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds, but the real attraction is the stillness at dusk—followed by the upward view of an impossibly starry sky, far from the light pollution of a big city.
5. Slurp some Vivoli cioccolato and limone while strolling the back streets of Florence. Vivoli's famous gelato emporium was closed the day we were in the neighborhood, so we missed our chance back then. We want a do-over.

Is Paris on your bucket list? What spots in Paris are must-sees for you?

(Photo: iStockphoto/Erick Nguyen)

Tim Winship

Tim Winship has been a contributor to SmarterTravel for more than 10 years, and Editor-at-Large for the past two years. He came by his knowledge of the travel industry first-hand, working for 20 years for such industry leaders as Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways, and Hilton Hotels. He's the founder of FrequentFlier.com and the author of Mileage Pro - The Insider's Guide to Frequent Flyer Programs. Tim lives in Los Angeles, where he has a choice of three airports: Los Angeles International, Burbank, and Long Beach.

Tim says, "Working for 20 years in the travel industry, I was fortunate to have access to free and reduced-rate travel during my wanderlust period and managed to see much of the world.

These days, I'm more interested in travel as a business, especially as it affects consumers, than I am in actually traveling. But there are four trips that I'd still like to make before I board that final widebody bound for whatever lies beyond: Chile (for the wine), Cuba (for the people), Costa Rica (for the socio-economic stability), and Scotland (for the single-malt Scotches ... and because my family has roots there)."

Tim has seen a great deal of the world, but what else would you add to his list?

(Photo: iStockphoto/Tim Abbott)