Biggest miss of your travel career?

[codash1099]

My biggest miss was an opportunity, not a place.

When I was young, my employer, a US multinational of considerable size, broke a long drought and decided to send one of its research chemists overseas for 6 weeks to see its other laboratories. I had only been married for 6 weeks and missed the opportunity to take my bride with me. Too young to see it, I suppose.

Although we travelled to Asia many times, we never made it to Europe and the US before she died.

A lesson for all of you young guys out there.

 

[congee]

Not a direct answer ... a good summary all the same.

Well for me it was not taking the opportunity of a life time in south africa. If I had taken it up I would have seen lots of airports but not many countries.

Imagine return business class airfares every 5 weeks from sydney, with the option to fly first class if your travel agent could make it happen within the travel budget. All client funded....... Not just that, but if you could find a deal via dubai, bangkok, singapore, hong kong and if it was within budget it was approved (including 1 shopping stopovers).

In hindsight all I can think of is how many "status credits" i've let go.

But now, if I go anywhere, I don't feel like i've travelled if I don't get a couple trips in to MEL, HKG and KIK each year. Just these 3 locations are enough for the travel bug now and the 2 year old in tow.

Never been to EUR, London, BKK, KUL or New York but have driven from Boston to Montreal for new years eve. A most memorable experience.

 

[anat0l]

Everywhere, for me as I've only really done Australasia (including the main parts of SE Asia) + Japan.

Same here.

But "everyone" has been to Europe, and I haven't. Especially London. I intend to rectify that later this year.

I've been to some places before, but particularly these were when I was much younger and I went there with family. I'd like to go there again, now that I'm older and travelling mostly alone.

 

[kamchatsky]

Same here.

But "everyone" has been to Europe, and I haven't. Especially London. I intend to rectify that later this year.

I've been to some places before, but particularly these were when I was much younger and I went there with family. I'd like to go there again, now that I'm older and travelling mostly alone.

Yes I agree. Everyone has been to Europe. I haven't either. However as I am typing now, I am at Hilton Moorea resort, and the water is absolutely crystal clear (and lots of corals and fishes too!). I am not complaining ...... Yet!

 

[2muchplastic]

Same here.

But "everyone" has been to Europe, and I haven't. Especially London. I intend to rectify that later this year.......

I'm one of the "everyone" that has been to Europe. Probably helps having been born in the UK and lived in Germany for a good chunk of time too! I've seen a fair bit of Europe, but not any of the Scandanavian countries or Eastern Europe or even Italy.

Having lived in London for a few years, I can never see the attraction of people wanting to go there. I would imagine it's ok for a starry eyed tourist for a few days max but any longer than that and you end up broke, coughing your lungs up and lose the ability to smile at anyone.

I haven't been to North or South America (but have been to parts of the Carribbean) or Africa, but will work my way round to them eventually. I don't have a biggest "miss" at all, the world is a big place, and I can only see it one flight at a time.

 

[browski]

I've been to 42 countries but surprisingly not to any of the 6 closest to Australia:

Indonesia
Papua Niugini
East Timor
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu
New Caledonia (maybe technically not a country)

Personally, the biggest gap in my travel log is PARIS.

 

[Grooba]

Having done almost all of the Australan ports and the majority of the Australasian ports for work, and Asia/Europe/US with personal travel I would really like to check out South America.

Best place to fly into has to be my home port of SYD. Love coming home everytime.

 

[Warks]

I guess I was thinking of the 'unavoidable' places when I started. If you've flown around the world at least once there are places you are bound to have been like LAX, SIN, LHR etc. For me as I said in the OP it was New York.
Probably Bangkok as well where I've landed but I've never been in Thailand otherwise. Malaysia and Singapore plenty of times though.



I've not been to South America but would like to some day. I'd say it's the least frequently visited continent by Aussies though. Maybe Antarctica wins that! The language barrier, perceived distance or lack of cheap flight options plus not a strong cultural connection (for many) means that it's low on the list for Australians. I've even got family (in-laws) originally from there but haven't made it.

India would probably be down as a big miss for me as a country. As a cricket fan there's a strong interest in the country plus I know heaps of people who hail from there originally and have some ex-colleagues living there who would look after me on a visit. It's on the gunnadoo list.

 

[Warks]

Found this today via the Herald Backpacker blog. Has it been posted before? It's not quite relevant to the thread but I didn't want to start a new one. I'd guess there have been "where have you been?" threads before.

create your own visited country map">

create your own visited country map

 

[Grooba]

Found this today via the Herald Backpacker blog. Has it been posted before? It's not quite relevant to the thread but I didn't want to start a new one. I'd guess there have been "where have you been?" threads before.

You can also try www.flightmemory.com which is great for logging your trips and will show you (and others) a map of all the airports you have visited along with stacks of other statistics.