Travel Itch: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go

Every few months I get the urge to travel to someplace, anyplace, where I've never been before. This leads me to dreaming up places I'd like to visit in the U.S. and around the world and so I'll hop on kayak.com to find out how out of reach they are in terms of plane ticket prices. These days, unfortunately, they are all out of reach, but that doesn't keep me from adding to my proverbial bucket list! I checked out 100 Places Every Woman Should Go by Stephanie Elizondo Griest the other day and have really enjoyed flipping around finding all sorts of ideas for fresh places to at least dream about visiting. Griest has divided her recommended locations into sections under broad titles like Places of Adventure, Places of Inspiration and Enlightenment and Just-Go-There Places. From pearl diving sites, famed chocolate sites, canyoneering sites and eminent ice cream parlor sites to out of the way cities and intriguing countries, any woman can find something to spark her travel imagination in this book. I appreciate the diversity of locations included and the well-written descriptions of what makes each special. I definitely want to pack my bag and book my plane ticket to head off to a few of these destinations now:

1. Morocco (okay, I've always wanted to travel here, but...)
Geist writes, "Travel books invariably describe Morocco as a 'full-throttle' assault on the senses,' and there really is no better way to put it. In Marrakesh, Jemaa El-Fna: bus station by day, thriving souk by night. In its labyrinth, you'll spy men walking barefoot through fire while artists blow glass, dentists yank teeth, herbalists scribble prescriptive potions, and acrobats turn flips. Dance with transvestites to the sounds of reed flutes and wooden drums before haggling with vendors over their piles of bangles, silverware, pottery, and Persian rugs..." (242). Sounds fun to me!!!! I can't resist suggesting another book while I'm on the subject of Morocco: Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi about the beauty of Morocco and her family growing up in the 1940's in Fez. I read it in undergrad in a class on Africa and fell in love with Morocco.

2. Any of the locations mentioned in the Surf Sites section (okay, I've always wanted to learn to surf)
I'm from East Tennessee; we know about mountains, bluegrass and TN football, not rash guards or board shorts! I have a feeling that could all change for me at Surfer Girls in Hawaii, Maui which apparently "offers both overnight surf camp and surf classes taught by women, for women (and girls)" (53). Sweet! Closer to home at Surf Diva in La Jolla California I could apparently take a 2 day or 5 day surf clinic for beginners. Maybe I will realize my dream yet!

3. Any of locations mentioned in the Bountiful Gardens section (no caveat here)
"What is travelling all about, if not stopping to smell the roses?" (224). Kew Gardens, in southwest London, Sissinghurst Garden, in Kent, Kyoto, Japan, and Suzhou in China, are all mentioned here. I love a nice long stroll through a rambling garden. I think I would much prefer to visit one of these well manicured landscapes than to actually ever create one of my own.