1. New York City, New York
2. Honolulu, Hawaii
3. San Francisco, California
4. Las Vegas, Nevada
5. Lahaina, Hawaii
6. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
7. New Orleans, Louisiana
8. San Diego, California
9. Sedona, Arizona
10. Seattle, Washington
See the entire list of the top 25 most popular places visited in the US at TripAdvisor.
I don't get Vegas. I really don't like it. Kinda creepy, in fact. Get out of the city to the red rock, I say. We've been there once, and that was enough.
ReplyDeleteHave been to all these places; they are distinctive and good. Okay, admit I'm not nuts about Honolulu and Lahaina, too touristy, but I adore Kona. You can sit on that coast and look out over to Maui, like a shadow on the horizon, and watch the whales and think of King Kamehameha III uniting the islands, and the amazing accomplishment of the pacific peoples in finding these remote islands to begin with. And at night, you listen to the waves crash, and you can hear whispers of the ancient chants on the breeze, and see a distant flicker of the torches.
They were hit by the tsunami and the place we used to stay , a very Hawai'ian place with a real feeling of ohana (family) was basically destroyed.
I would love to retire there to the big island, but I think as a white westerner, I would never really feel truly welcome. Because, of course, it's not not my home, I'm not Hawai'ian and I don't speak the language. But it's a beautiful place and I honor the people and their culture.
Hey, we'll see you in a coupla weeks in NOLA!
Nor do I get Vegas. I've never been, and I have zero desire to go there. I haven't been to Hawaii, nor have I been to San Diego. Sorry about that. :-) I've been to the other places, and I liked them all.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing you in NOLA! Zip me an email to tell me in which hotel you and BP will stay.
IT, I believe you're thinking about Hilo. Kona's on the opposite side of the Big Island from Maui. And except on Ni'ihau, the number of people who speak Hawaiian is pretty small (although when I lived in Hawaii as a child, I heard more people speaking it on the Big Island than on Oahu).
ReplyDeleteGrandmere --I was surprised what is NOT on the list --like NOLA!!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to most of those places --including Vegas. Reno was enough to convince me I didn't want to go there.
However, I have been to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, and somebody will have to do a lot of talking to convince me it is not the most startling and beautiful place on earth.
margaret, see no. 7. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've been to places in the mountains of the West and in Alaska, not Anchorage, that are candidates for the most beautiful place on earth.
The places named in the list are the most popular, not the most beautiful.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteKona is on the west coast. If you are on the shore just north of Kona, towards Waikaloa, where it angles a bit, you can indeed see maui. Hilo is on the wet, East side of the island and you can't see anything from there.
Dang it!!! I was looking for it and didn't even see it!
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess that's the story of part of my life! LOL.
Now I see what you mean, IT. I'm afraid that when my family visited the Big Island, I was about 12 years old, so I was a lot more interested in the volcanoes. I was a little disappointed that there weren't any eruptions while we were there. :-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, wasn't it Kamehameha I who united the islands?