We bicycled from Hamburg to the southern tip of Sweden, is probably my most exotic trip. That was a lot of fun.
I had a friend who, for his honeymoon, rented a light airplane and pilot and he and his new wife and another couple spent the next two weeks flying around Australia.

The cruise to Hawaii was nice, until some wonderful person spread their respiratory bug to the whole effin' ship.

I do know some railfans, however, and once went to Reno on a private car (day trip).

My 1962 ride on the Seattle Monorail at the World's Fair, and the Space Needle elevator. which due to its bubble like enclosure leaves everything in view and nothing to the imagination . Including vertigo.

Ty for moderating, @Cass M !

When I was quite young, there was still one operating commercial steam engine in our town, the shunting engine in the rail yard at the sugar mill, so my dad managed to talk his way onto that with me in tow and we chuffed about the yard for a little while. I've been on other steam engines since, but they were purely tourist trains, not an actual working steam engine from the 1920's still in business.

I want to ride the Indian Pacific across Australia someday. ?

There used to be a "mini" steam engine that took people on a little trip twice around Lake Compounce in Bristol. It was designed and built there by actor William Gillette in 1944. The idiots who own the place now tore it out to put in "better" rides. Cry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Compounce

There's still an old cog-rail steam engine that goes up Mt. Washington!

Long car trips across the country as a kid a few times and a number of plane trips to conferences, but as an adult I do not travel by choice. I really don't get the appeal, so no dream trips for this armchair traveler.

Good morning, love taking the train. Much more relaxing than riding car

My dream trip, subject to having the money, would be to drive across the Nullarbor, taking the coastal route from Norseman to Perth, then driving north up the coast to Exmouth to spend some time on the Ningaloo reef. Then continue on through the Kimberlies, visiting Lake Argyle on the way, up to Darwin, and then driving south through Alice Springs to Adelaide, and then head back home to Melbourne.

Especially in an electric car, it would take months; the pace would be slow; and it would be a huge change from my job.

First, though, I need to pay down some debt and accrue leave. (I think I’m up to nine weeks’ long service leave now. It’s a start..)

I love a train trip. Did the overnight between Baltimore and Atlanta a couple of times. But my bucket-list trip would be that Canadian Rockies jaunt you're describing.

When it comes to travel, I'm the kid with my nose pressed to life's glass.

I like to be places, but I have a love-hate relationship with the go part. My internal gyroscope is wonky. Anywhere I have to fly to is a nope (sorry, Europe). Plus I have anxiety (magnifies the gyroscope thing) and ADHD (planning is hell, and done badly). And we have pets to think about—one of whom has separation anxiety and starts yowling if my husband has been gone for less than an hour. So anyplace we go, they go... which is another layer of worry (what if they get sick? and it has happened), having to find suitable accommodations, take them out, make sure they have food, etc. So that rules out trains, even though I enjoy that ride.

I didn't give a single rip about travel (except going to the beach when I was a kid) until my job sent me to NYC, then Boston. Watching TV one day, I saw an image of a place I'd visited in Boston, and yelled probably louder than I should have, HEY, I WAS THERE! And that was the first time I realized I was missing something by not traveling. I was probably better off without that bit of sadness, but I wouldn't trade the experiences either.

So anyhow I guess the closest thing I have to a "dream" trip is to have a manageable-sized RV and just wander at our own pace. But as slow as we are about doing anything (shakes fist at ADHD), I don't see it happening.

We were about to take a long train trip: San Francisco/Oakland => Vancouver, BC => Toronto => car to Buffalo => train to Boston => San Francisco/Oakland but then the pandemic hit.

Wherever possible, I use public transport for traveling. Since I live in Switzerland, that means basically 95+% of trips. About the only regular occasion where I use a car is when visiting my dad, because he lives out in the sticks in Germany. Even there I could use public transport, but I don't want to impose on him picking me up from the station etc. Plus arrival/leave times are more flexible (the last train leg has only a 2h frequency, which can be rather awkward).

As a result, I haven't owned a car in twelve years, and rarely if ever missed it. Downside is that my car driving skills have atrophied entirely.

Longest train trip I’ve been on was Copenhagen-Budapest.
That was an over-nighter, back when there was an Eastern Germany to pass through, with gruff night-time eatern german guards, knocking on the windows and and barking "Paskontrolle".

Was a fine trip.

My wife and I traveled the Caribbean for several years by sailboat. If your sailboat knowledge is Hollywood-based, then that qualifies as quite exotic travel I imagine. In reality it was primitive and gritty. I guess it was luxury in the sense that it took a lot of time which not everyone feels able to give up. But otoh, everything we do means giving up the time we could have spent doing something else - we've been happy with the choice to go, even at the cost of our supposed best income-producing years (everything after age 40). We saw some sights, we had some adventures, we met a lot of fascinating people - it was delicious.

No real exotic travel in my life,,, I've only ever traveled by airplane twice on commercial flights (from one coast to the other with a short layover in Chicago). Otherwise its been car, truck, bus, subway, short distance rail (in same state).

For this check in I would need to report our recent move from Chandler, AZ to Newport, VT. The mode of travel was simple enough -- driving our Honda Pilot. Unique was the distance combined with having 4 cats and 3 dogs with us.

I love trains. I've been fortunate to enjoy some travel on some of them, though none on the super luxury ones. I enjoyed a cruise to multi countries (in Asia) cruise on a French passenger ship when I was a kid. Celebrated my 6th birthday on board in Yokohama harbour - a day I'll never forget.

A dream trip? Nowadays Im less focussed on the mode of transportation than I am visiting a number of people I know in far away places, though I have to confess it would be nice to escapte to somewhere warm in the middle of winter.

No long train trips, but we did fly across the US (slowly) in a six-passenger plane owned by a family friend. Lots of stops in-between.

The closest to "exotic" I've ever travelled is either flying a two-seater airplane or riding one of the Thames riverboats that forms part of London's municipal transit service network.

None of my methods of travel appear exotic to me; although, a few acquaintances considered me once walking nearly two hours to get somewhere as strange.

My dream trip would be one where I didn't have to travel back: I quite enjoy going places and being places, but I often find the bit between having been somewhere and arriving home enervating.

Happy Election Day, 'Murica. ;-)

Thanks @Paul Ferguson! We just got back from casting our votes in our new home of Vermont.

Mrs. Dean and I did a bike/barge tour for a week in the Netherlands. We climbed Mt. Washington and took the cog railway down. We once did a package hydroplane daytrip to Victoria BC from Seattle. Champagne breakfast. The boat ingested a tree branch out in the middle of the Sound, and we had to endure nauseating back/forth/spinning as the captain kept reversing the engines to spit it back out. Those are my most exotic transportation arrangements.

Speaking of railfans, @Bob Lai, we stayed at the Izaak Walton during one trip to Glacier NP. Rooms quite small and walls quite thin, but quaint and fun. Their outside restaurant deck is alongside the railroad, and when the Empire Builder came through everybody on the deck stood and applauded. You could tell something was up a few minutes before the scheduled passage, the deck attained an aura. I think we were the only non-railfans in the restaurant. Inside the lodge it was like a convention, with all overheard conversations related to specifics of various locomotives etc. A bit of cosplay. Kind of a surrealistic dinner theater after days of strenuous hiking.

No 'exotic' travel.
We enjoy train trips a bit more than auto or air.
We would love to cross Canada by train.

What is the most exotic way you’ve traveled?

Umm... by motorcycle. Yeah, I'm not too adventurous. However, many would say that riding a Harley from Tampa to Macon, GA to have lunch might be an "adventure". Lunch was fun, and seeing old Macon, but the ride itself was just sore-assed boredom on I-75.

When I was a young lad, my family and the neighbor family took a few cross-country road trips in the summertime. That was quite an adventure for this wee lad. :)

If you have a dream trip, do you think you’ll every take it?

I would love to take a cross country train ride. I also have my "bucket list" dream (post-lottery jackpot win, of course) of taking another cross country road trip out West in my Suburban. I would travel on surface roads and highways only; no Interstate driving. I prefer it because you get to see so much more of the scenery and cities/towns that way.

Ah... what a dream. Maybe someday...

My most fun short rides were on the back of a Galapagos turtle (when I was a kid) and riding at a high rate of speed with a drunk driver on a sand sailor on a dry lake bed at night downrange of an illegal fireworks vendors' 4th of July event - it was like we were at the receiving end of a WW-I barrage while skimming at some great rate of speed about 2 inches from the lake bed.

I used to do the train from Montreal to Miramichi NB. It was very nice, that train ,,the cars were made for the Chunnel across the English Channel.. I have traveled by private plane, commercial jets, Ships, boats, cars. I also did the train from Merced to Oakland a lot when I was living in California. I prefer trains to all except for a nice ship, not a floating petri dish. No dream trip....Q wanted to do the Siberian Express and see Lake Baikal he was planning it for 2020.....

@Joseph Teller said,

...I’ve only ever traveled by airplane twice on commercial flights...

Same here. Up until I was 35 years old, I could have traveled for free anywhere in the world that Pan Am flew to; thanks to my dad's 32 years employment there and at National Airlines prior to the Pan Am takeover.

However, my only commercial flight was a short hop from Tampa to Ft. Myers, FL and back. I've flown in a small plane (my brother's) twice. That was enough for me. I'm prefer my feet on the ground, thanks.

Sadly, since I don't fly or do boats, I'll probably never get to experience my life long dream of touring Europe and Scandinavia... at least, not until they that finish that cross-Atlantic Interstate system. ;)

I would never ever ever go on a bridge like that, I get the creeps on shorter ones as it is...nope nope

Hmm. Surf trip to Tortola. Tokiyo Ginza. Diving Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia.
Then again, there was that midlife crisis motorcycle trip...

I would never ever ever go on a bridge like that, I get the creeps on shorter ones as it is…nope nope.

We all have our little phobias. ;)

That was a HELLUVA motorcycle trip, @Rodrigo Mesa!

I visited music sites. The RNRHOF is not one of the destinations. Meh.

Which way did you go clockwise on the map above or counter?

North, to Seattle, West to Detroit, South to N'Orleans, and back home.

Ass sore a bit?

Cool, then you can go counterclockwise when you feel like being middle-aged again.

Pretty sure that's how it works.

:-D

Back in '91 I took a month off work, got myself a BritRail pass, and did a circular tour of the island. It was great in that I could stop anywhere, get off, and stay a day or two if I wanted to. I remember being really impressed with their train system. At one station, I asked a guy working there where to get to a certain train. He told me how, and that I should hurry, because there was one just ready to leave. I got there just in time to see it pull out of the station. A man standing next to me noticed my exasperation, and told me not to worry, there was another in eight minutes!
Now, if I win a lottery, I'm going to cross Canada by train, but I'll need a sleeper with my own bathroom. $$$$$

Back in the '70s and '80s I worked a lot in the UK. After a dismal attempt to drive on the wrong side I gave up and took the trains everywhere.

Once, after a long flight from LA, I went to the station near Heathrow and asked to buy a ticket to Godalming (where I was staying and working - a very nice cut town.) But I pronounced it in a way that dissatisfied the clerk - I said "ga-dalh-ming" and he would not sell me a ticket - said that no such place existed. I ended up pointing to the map, where it was clearly designated. And he said, oh, you mean "gawd-al-ming". And in Wales, well, its Wales - can anyone pronounce Welsh names (apart from the Welsh)?

I would have no trouble driving on the left side of the road. ;-}

( left and right are fairly interchangeable with me).

That brings to mind the old stale joke about how they switched from Left side driving to Right side driving in Sweden..

On Monday the large trucks converted.

On Tuesday the survivors converted.

Kinda forced into it.

@Karl AuerbachYears ago I worked with a Swedish mechanic at a Volvo dealer. He told me about when they did the change in 1967.
He was one of the top three Volvo techs in Canada.

I was recently divorced, was between women, got laid off, and had recently acquired a low-mileage Yamaha 1981 XS-1100G a standard model which was the fastest production motorcycle in existence for 1979.
This was a 603 lb (274 kg) (wet) heavyweight powered by an air-cooled 1,101 cc (67.2 cu in) 4-stroke, DOHC inline four-cylinder engine mounted transversely in a duplex cradle frame, swing arm rear suspension, shaft drive, and telescopic forks.
For the 1981 model year, a more touring oriented version of the XS Eleven was produced. This model, dubbed the Venturer was equipped with a fairing made by Pacifico for Yamaha. Venturers included matching trunk and hard bags. Additionally, the Venturer included a 6.3 gallon tank for increased range while touring.
I packed riding gear, rain gear, a tarp, a sleeping bag, and a change of clothes. In retrospect I should have packed a tent, as I left in May and arrived home in time for Christmas.

Have I missed today's check-in? I can't find it

@Griff Ferrell ?? friendica it was by babylontales@diaspora.glasswings.com about ten hours ago. Check his posts.

Click HERE, @Griff Ferrell ?? friendica. Click HERE!

You're on the list. The title is good morning from Missouri…

Here's the link
https://diasp.org/posts/a5d376804250013b02ad448a5b29e257

Thanks @Jodi K

PING @stefani banerian!

There, now you got a ping. :)

@randygalbraith@diasp.org So, how do you like Vermont? Personally, one of my life-goals is to move there - or further north...

My most "exotic" quest was the climbing of Mt. Kinabalu, in Borneo. It's a little more commercialized now, but not much.

Climbing Mt. Katadin in Maine, along the "knife edge" is a close second - especially when I proceeded north, into some true wilderness - alone.

@Tom Grzybow - I'm a California kid, so when I would hear people talking about the mountains in New England I'd say "oh, such tiny mountains". Then I met those mountains. They rise nearly as far above the base plain as do the Sierra Nevada (although the mile+ high almost straight-up scarp rising on the west side of the Owens Valley is beyond impressive). I have a friend who does search and rescue - and more often than one would like to know, the fetching of bodies of dead hikers - in the New Hampshire Presidential range.

So I've gained a lot of respect for those New England mountains.

I rode on a camel in the Dubai desert. That was fun and interesting, and the best way to pass the time before dinner was ready. Those camels were good-natured, slow and friendly, and obviously used to tourists first-timers. Does that count as travel? ?

The Maokong gondola ride is possibly similar to @gregg taylor glass cabin ride, Vertigo and strong wind included. Here's a random yt video by chatty tourists.

I have come closer to twisting my ankle in the Appalachians than ever in the PNW.

I don't often roll a joint, but when I do, it's usually my ankle.

? @Rodrigo Mesa

I’ve gained a lot of respect for those New England mountains.

When hiking the "knife edge" of Katahdin, one needs to plan to do this during good weather. If there is a wind up, one can be blown-off, one way other the other. I guess it would be possible to crawl. The other trail, which I also did, is called The Castle Trail - if I recall correctly. That one is less popular, as you can feel that you really should be on a rope...

People often think that Mt. Washington is the most "difficult" and dangerous mountain in New England - but this is not true. There are several others which offer both more severe conditions and poorer access. Cannon Mt. in the Whites is another which is probably best reserved for people with more experience.

Mt, Jefferson, with "The Lawn" is highly recommended, and not overrrun by "tourists":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Jefferson_(New_Hampshire)