To coincide with the launch of my new Travelogue book, Planes, Trains and Sinking Boats I am going to briefly write about my 100 must see places. I won’t call this a bucket list as I only travel to places I really want to see, crossing off a list of locations just doesn’t do it justice and doesn’t fit in with my philosophy of life or travel. There are some obvious places on my list and lots of places that might leave you wondering what I was smoking when I wrote it.
The list itself is based on one that I drew up when I was 20, nearly 20 years ago. I have been to quite a few of the places and many more not on the list but the majority of these places remain dreams as yet unfulfilled.
If your home city or country isn’t listed anywhere, don’t worry its just my personal preferences and it is impossible to fit everywhere into 100 places. I could list 100 places in London that I haven’t been to but want to see, let alone the whole world.
Also you wont find any beach holidays, theme-parks or resorts on my list. When I travel, I definitely don’t want to see or hear any English, American, Australian and unless in their countries, preferably no German, Russian or Japanese either. I don’t want to eat anything but local food or travel and spend time with anyone but the locals unless of course I meet you in the middle of nowhere and you’re trying to get away from it all as well. I’ll always treasure those moments with people from the other side of the planet when we meet at a desert junction or run-down train station.
Finally, I don’t really do modern. Dubai and Beijing might be cool but it’s not for me. Comfort is not a necessity and if it takes me away from normal local life then it is to be avoided at all costs.
If you have been to any of these places, let us know what you thought about them in the comments below or if you have any suggestions of your own.
100 The Giants Causeway a unique geological structure on the coast of Northern Ireland.
99 The Bayeux Tapestry. Not too far from the D-Day beaches lies the pretty little town of Bayeux. It has some nice narrow shopping streets an old cathedral and of course the famous Bayeux Tapestry.
98 Copenhagen. Capital of Denmark and full of museums and culture. What wasn’t on my list when I drew it up because it wasn’t built then is the Oresund Bridge which connects Denmark to Sweden. As a big fan of Scandinavian TV drama The Bridge, I reserve the right to “tak” this onto my Copenhagen entry.
97 The Baltic States. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been on my to-see list since they gained independence from the Soviet Union. Off the radar for most travellers but their unique culture and history make them well worth a visit.
96 Athens. Home to the ancient Greeks and modern ones too. The Pantheon has to be worth going to if nowhere else which as a history buff is definitely not the case for me.
95 Wellington This small but funky city is the capital of New Zealand and also conveniently a good starting point of those who wish to visit Middle-Earth.
94 Victoria Falls Like its small cousin at Niagara, Victoria Falls spans two countries but this one is much bigger and less touristy. Imagine hearing the roar of the water for miles before you reach the bridge and see this.
93 Gallipoli. Famously the site of one of the worst moments of WW1 and the doomed attempt to capture Istanbul and end the war early. Also lots of old history nearby too.
92 The Shetlands. Mainland Britain is surrounded by islands but few are more isolated than the Shetlands. At a similar latitude to Alaska and Siberia and with some of the Neolithic buildings over 6,000 years old. The fact that the Shetlands lie closer to half a dozen capital cities before London is highlighted by their annual Up Helly Aa Viking festival.
91 Edinburgh. Capital of Scotland and full of fine buildings and history.
Remember, I am running a competition to win a copy of my new travelogue Planes, Trains & Sinking Boats. The book is available on Kindle from all the Amazon UK USA sites and will very shortly be available on the Apple iTunes iBookshelf for use with iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads. A paperback copy is for sale at Lulu and going to be available very soon on Amazon and the bigger bookstores in a few weeks time but is available now from the publisher’s website.
The reader who can guess what is number 1 on my list will receive a free signed paperback copy of Planes, Trains and Sinking Boats. If no-one can guess number 1 then the person whose guess is highest on my list will receive a free e-book. Send me an email with your guess or leave a guess in the comments below.
For the next 100 days anyone who follows my blog and purchases either Let Me Help or Planes, Trains and Sinking Boats on Amazon Kindle or in E-book format from Lulu or iTunes iBooks then I will send you a free E-book of the other title, just email me a screen dump proof of purchase.
Also, anyone who purchases a paperback copy of Let Me Help in the next 100 days and sends me proof of purchase I will send a free e-book format book to you. I would ask that if you buy Let Me Help, you buy it from either Lulu or the more expensive copy on Amazon as the cheaper copy provides me with no royalties as the Publisher has now closed.
Stephen Liddell 
Looks great. Can’t see me getting to many of them, but at least on the net we can see others pictures. The photo of the Shetlands intrigues me
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Yes, I’d really like to The Shetlands. It is only recently that archaeologists have become aware that the people in these remote islands had building skills similar to the Egyptians or Babylonians when for all this time it was thought northern Europe was very backwards. There are also some amazing circular forts in the Shetlands too which aren’t really fully understood.
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Giant’s Causeway
Bayeux Tap
Copenhagen
Baltic States
Athens
Wellington
Vic Falls
Gallipoli
Shetlands
Edinburgh
Out of your list I had done Copenhagen, Athens, Wellington and Edinburgh before I was 30.
Giant’s Causeway, Shetlands and (Wellington again) by 40, with Bayeux Tap at 42.
Athens and the Partheon were well high up my top list of places to visit. Certainly in my top ten and well worth it.
In terms of history (as with the Parthenon) the Bayeux Tap was one I’d wanted to visit for 30 years having studied it at school, so that would certainly be in my top 20.
Orkney was something else. Skara Brae and Maes Howe were out of this world. There were also some standing stones somewhere just near a hotel we stayed in that were equally surreal. Def top 20 and maybe top 10.
Edinburgh. You must have been to Edinburgh!! Good city. Top 20 maybe?
Giant’s Causeway was good too. Not sure where I would place it, but it was impressive and worth the visit.
Copenhagen was nice, although nothing special.
I liked Wellington too, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to travel half way around the world to it. Now, Rotorua is another matter.
I may do a places I have visited, and ones I would visit if I had the money post 😀
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Thanks for your comments. You have done well to get to Wellington twice. I must confess I would probably only go there if I were already in Australia.
I was torn over whether to include Orkney or Shetland. Edinburgh was great, it felt quite European in some ways though personally I prefer York but Edinburgh does have much more of a big city feeling even if that is just due to the buildings there.
That would be a good subject to write on 🙂 You’ll be pleased to know Gibraltar is on my list!
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The Giant’s Causeway is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been–and I’ve been in fall, winter, and spring! It is always different, always the same, always inspiring.
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Oh that sounds wonderful. I haven’t been there yet even though it is in my own country. It’s always the way that you ignore things on your doorstep. It does look magical. Thanks for your comment.
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Reblogged this on Savannah Liu..
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Riga is definitely a place to visit, as is Tallinn. Riga during the summer solstice is really nice – their Ligo festival is the world’s best solstice festival. Edinburgh is nice enough. Shetlands..nice enough, Orkney great. If you like Copenhagen head instead for Gdansk. I’ll make a wild guess at number 1 but goodness, difficult – might be St Petersburg, or Isfahan, Samarkand or Petra, which you will have already seen, so we’re back to square 1!.
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Many a time I have contemplated hopping on a plane from London to Riga. I would have put Orkneys but I didn’t want my list to be too British-centric. My list does include places I have seen and not yet seen and probably a few that I will never see.
Even though it was based on a list I drew up nearly 20 years ago, I still had to arrange them into a vague numeric order. Whilst not much should be read into the rankings between 14 and 18 or 88 and 94 and I tried to not clump too many similar locations together, generally they do increase in importance and the nearer the business end of the list they are, the closer to their actual “ranking”.
There were also the problems that in some instances they are listed as specific sites, others are cities and some are entire countries. If anyone needs to query this, they just need to go back to 1996 and debate it with me there!
I will keep your guesses for later 🙂
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I adored The Bridge (the show; although the actual bridge is quite nice). The locations in the show were stunning.
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I agree. The way they shot those locations too were amazing. I can’t wait for the second batch of episodes later this year.
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Mouth watering list
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I saw them all. Spectacular. I so agree. What a nifty way to say so. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Great places and it’s very interesting to see this places in my lifetime. thanks for sharing this one.
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I’m very happy to see this collection of top 100 tourist places, but i’m very surprised about how you collect all this places. great to see this post. all the best
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