Favorite countries to visit

1.       Argentina – perfect second home for a Texan.  Buenos Aires, my favorite city (outside U.S.) in the world, with my favorite restaurants anywhere. Great beef, great wine throughout, but not to be missed—empanadas in El Calafate, Malbec in Mendoza, and Torrontes in Cafayate. Giant cacti of Los Cardones National Park, estancias, Bariloche, and our summer is their winter.  No better place to escape Texas heat in July and August.

2.   Turkey – good food, Mt. Nemrut, awesome mosques, heaven for an oriental rug nut, spice market, and the Grand Bazaar is grand

3.   England – the pubs, Walker Shortbread, double-decker busses, the British Museum with all its great art stolen from around the world, a different play in a West End theater every night, and really good Italian restaurants

4.    Italy – good wine and great food.  Vespas, Michelangelo’s David, Lake Como in the snow, Pompeii, Florence, Rome, Venice (wife loves the place), and even Sicily as a bonus

5.     Greece – Feta, Greek honey, olives, real Greek salads, heaven for history buffs, Athens Plaka district, Meteora, Crete and Delphi’s “The Charioteer”

6.   Mexico – All kinds of great Mexican food, Copper Canyon, top Mayan sites (Chichen Itza, Coba, Palenque, Tulum), siesta lifestyle, color and culture, and great cerveza

7.    Chile – almost as good as Argentina but with great seafood and a flag that looks almost like Texas. Great wine tours, and perfect end (Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas) to breathtaking Cruce de Lagos (from Bariloche)

8.   India – more awesome sights than perhaps any other place in the world.  Taj Mahal absolutely magnificent.  However, if put off by squalor, extreme poverty and aggressive beggars, best to stay away

9.   China – history’s history, the Great Wall, Xi’an terra cotta warriors, Li River cruise, and now Hong Kong too—but maybe not the food

10.  I’m not sure—but I think it’s between Armenia (rugs and monasteries), Bolivia (Sucre), Bhutan (the idea, the archers and the enchantment), Bulgaria (Rila Monastery), Cambodia (Angkor Wat), Costa Rica (world’s best coffee, nature, and black beans and rice for breakfast), Czech Republic (Prague and maybe the world’s best beer), Denmark (picturesque countryside, Copenhagen in the summer), Egypt (almost everything), Georgia (the mountains, the vodka, the wine and the monasteries), Germany (beer, sausage, mustard and Nefrtiti), Guatemala (Tikal and chasing the quetzal), Honduras (Copan and chasing the quetzal), Ireland (the people, the pubs, the green), Israel (religious sites and history), Jordan (Petra—with perhaps my favorite archeological site in the world, the Treasury, plus Jerash, Syrian desert landscape), Kenya (photo safaris), Laos (Buddhist temples and world’s best pineapple), Lebanon (Roman ruins, olive oil and the wine caves), Malta (Knights Templar history and fish), Morocco (souks of Merrakech and Fes, Sahara-dunes at Merzouga), Myanmar (Bagan temples and pagodas), Nepal (stupas, Kathmandu Swayambhunath temple), Panama (going through the locks, coffee, fish restaurants and chasing the quetzal), Peru (Machu Picchu,  of course, Amazon cruise), Russia (St. Petersburg mainly), Scotland (with both the birth place and burial place of Adam Smith as well as Edinburgh Castle), Spain (Toledo, Prado, salt encased baked fish), Sri Lanka (great temples and gems), Sweden (second to none changing of the guard in Stockholm), Tanzania (hot air balloon over the Serengeti), Thailand (Ayutthya, night markets and tuk-tuks), or perhaps Tunisia (world class ruins, olives, olives, olives and some pretty good wine).