My Travel Bucket List

by Chris Christensen
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In the middle of next month I turn 49.5. That might seem like an odd milestone to mark but I had 2 of my 4 grandparents live until they were almost 99 years old. The other two grandparents made it to their 80s so I score pretty well on the actuary tables, but even if I am very optimistic I am at best halfway done with this life. That is not to say that I am approaching this date with dread or remorse but it has made me a bit introspective.

I love to travel and many of my friends think that I have been “everywhere”. I have certainly been to more places than the average American but there are so many places left to travel. I decided it was time to start my bucket list. These are the places I would like to see and the activities I would like to do before I kick the proverbial bucket.

– Chris Christensen 2010

Updated August 2020:

I have made some progress over the last 10 years and I may need to changes some of the places on the list as I am 10 years older and maybe 10 years wiser. It seems like maybe I need to start making some more progress on the ballparks. Also, it is surprising how few of the Virginia Civil War sites I have been to when you consider I have a daughter who lives in the Virginia.

Cliché Places

Some places are so well known that putting them on this list seems a bit obvious:

Experience

Cultural

  • Running of the Bulls, Pamplona (from a safe vantage point)
  • Oktoberfest, Germany
  • Palace on Wheels train journey, India
  • ✔️ Albuquerque, New Mexico balloon fiesta
  • ✔️ Invited to the White House (this one seemed very unlikely when I added it, but to my surprise, I was invited to the Obama White House for a travel blogger summit)

7 new wonders of the world

7 natural wonders of the world

All Major League Ballparks + Raleigh Durham and Louisville

  • Angel Stadium – Anaheim, California – Los Angeles Angels
  • Busch Stadium III – St. Louis, Missouri – St. Louis Cardinals
  • ✔️ Chase Field – Phoenix, Arizona – Arizona Diamondbacks
  • Citi Field – Queens, New York – New York Mets
  • Citizens Bank Park – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Philadelphia Phillies
  • Comerica Park – Detroit, Michigan – Detroit Tigers
  • Coors Field – Denver, Colorado – Colorado Rockies
  • ✔️ Dodger Stadium – Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles Dodgers (boo)
  • Fenway Park – Boston, Massachusetts – Boston Red Sox
  • Ballpark in Arlington – Arlington, Texas – Texas Rangers
  • Great American Ball Park – Cincinnati, Ohio – Cincinnati Reds
  • U.S. Cellular Field – Chicago, Illinois – Chicago White Sox
  • Kauffman Stadium – Kansas City, Missouri – Kansas City Royals
  • Marlins Park – Miami, Florida – Miami Marlins
  • Miller Park – Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Milwaukee Brewers
  • Minute Maid Park – Houston, Texas – Houston Astros
  • * Nationals Park – Washington, D.C. – Washington Nationals
  • ✔️ Oracle Park – San Francisco, California – San Francisco Giants
  • Oriole Park at Camden Yards – Baltimore, Maryland – Baltimore Orioles
  • Petco Park – San Diego, California – San Diego Padres
  • PNC Park – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Progressive Field – Cleveland, Ohio – Cleveland Indians
  • McAfee Coliseum – Oakland, California – Oakland Athletics
  • Rogers Centre – Toronto, Ontario – Toronto Blue Jays
  • SunTrust Park – Cumberland, Georgia – Atlanta Braves
  • Safeco Field – Seattle, Washington – Seattle Mariners
  • * Target Field – Minneapolis, Minnesota – Minnesota Twins
  • Tropicana Field – St. Petersburg, Florida – Tampa Bay Rays
  • ✔️ Wrigley Field – Chicago, Illinois – Chicago Cubs
  • Yankee Stadium – Bronx, New York – New York Yankees

* – visited the park but did not see a game

Historic

Visit the site of all 7 wonders of the ancient world… Babylon might be a problem (Iraq)

  • the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
  • the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece.
  • the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
  • the Colossus of Rhodes.
  • ✔️ the Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt.
  • ✔️  the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.
  • ✔️ the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
  • Visit Talavera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria and Waterloo (Wellington’s victories in Spain, Portugal, and Belgium)
  • Walk Hadrian’s Wall, England
  • Travel the Silk Road
  • Ruins Pompeii, Italy
  • Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela Ethiopia
  • Persepolis, Iran
  • ✔️ Normandy beaches, France

Visit all the battlefields where the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac faced off

  • Bull Run / Manassas
  • Peninsula Campaign, including the Seven Days Battles
  • Antietam or Sharpsburg
  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania
  • Chancellorsville
  • The Wilderness
  • Cold Harbor
  • ✔️ Richmond-& Petersburg
  • ✔️ Appomattox
  • ✔️ Gettysburg

How many places do you get to put on your bucket list? What about all the capitals of Eastern Europe, Great Zimbabwe, Eastern Canada, Antarctica, How Long Bay, Sana’a, Mont Saint Michel, Damascus, Buenos Aires?

What am I missing?

I think I should have started sooner.

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Chris Christensen

by Chris Christensen

Chris Christensen is the creator of the Amateur Traveler blog and podcast. He has been a travel creator since 2005 and has won awards including being named the "Best Independent Travel Journalist" by Travel+Leisure Magazine.

+Chris Christensen | @chris2x | facebook

28 Responses to “My Travel Bucket List”

Brett

Says:
May 21st, 2010 at 11:08 pm

I’ve done exactly none of those things. 🙁

…although, I have slept in a yurt in North Carolina. That has to count for something, right? Right? 🙂

chris2x

Says:
May 21st, 2010 at 11:13 pm

That’s one yurt up on me 🙂

Ray

Says:
May 21st, 2010 at 11:49 pm

I am living in Inner Mongolia and you could accomplish several of your list desires here. I have been in a yurt and gone to the Mongolian grasslands. Let me know if your travel plans are going to bring you this way some time soon and we can hook up and I can show you around.

Crissy

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:33 am

I’ve been to the Winter Palace, the Pyramids and Hadrians Wall will probably happen this year. I’ve also crossed the Arctic Circle. I think the experience of crossing the Arctic Circle left the biggest impact on me.
And now I have some new ideas for trip, not that I needed them.

Gary Arndt

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:01 am

I love lists. They are fun.

I’ve been to 5 of the cliche places you listed.

If you want to visit all the wonders of the ancient world, learn to SCUBA dive so you can see the ruins of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. It was a very cool experience.

Craig

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:05 am

Interesting list, Chris. There’s stuff on here I’ve never heard of!

chris2x

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:12 am

Gary, yes that had occurred to me that I could see the light house better if I dove. Hmmmm.

Craig, baseball is kind of like cricket 😉

chris2x

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:44 am

Ray, sounds like fun, I am not sure when the trip to Mongolia will happen

Matt | YearAroundTheWorld

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:44 am

Swimming in a cenote has been one of my highlights of the Yucatan so far. I highly recommend Dzitnup cenote, you swim with black fish as bats fly over your head and a stream of sunlight comes in through a hole in the roof… I have a photo of it on my site.

chris2x

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:47 am

Matt, how would you like to write a blog post for the Amateur Traveler about the experience?

Agagooga

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:49 am

What would be more interesting is what you HAVE done 😉

chris2x

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 11:45 am

Agagooga, I would hope what I have done is more interesting… as that’s sort of what this blog is about 🙂

Christian

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:21 pm

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is definitely very high on my list! Hopefully that one can be crossed off next year…

Ray

Says:
May 22nd, 2010 at 11:31 pm

You can get all the Mongolian experiences you need with lots more safety in Inner Mongolia, China. I have friends who speak Mongolian and have been assaulted in Mongolia just for being non-Mongols. Inner Mongolia is more like what you think Mongolia is anyway. Believe me it is worth a trip.

chris2x

Says:
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:29 pm

I forgot visiting the Galapagos Islands and biking the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route.

Darrell Hickman

Says:
October 27th, 2011 at 9:47 pm

Wow extensive list, can’t believe I been to one of your places and you haven’t. You have to go to Buenos Aires cool place and once you are there you are close to Uruguay. It is not really a bucket list of mine but I have been to 8 baseball stadiums. good luck on your incredible bucket list

chris2x

Says:
October 28th, 2011 at 7:07 am

I am well behind on the baseball stadiums. I have not even made it to Fenway despite being in Boston one week a month. Been to the Bob, AT&T Park, Wrigley and Oakland.

Gary

Says:
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:30 am

Hey Chris,

And a wonderful bucket list you have. Thanks for sharing.

You asked, “What am I missing?”

I would like to recommend my Hidden Island Paradise (Prince Edward Island, Canada)

Here is the link. http://www.tourismpei.com/index.php3

Wishing you an Awesome day!

smiles 🙂

Laura

Says:
March 20th, 2014 at 2:06 pm

Sometimes I think it’d be easier (not to mention shorter) to make a list of places I don’t want to go! I’ve done exactly zero of the items on your list but a lot of them would be on mine too. It doesn’t matter how “cliche” some of them might be. They’re all unique to you when you experience them 🙂

Antarctica, Nepal, Indonesia, New Zealand and travelling overland from Nairobi to Cape Town would be some of my great white whales. Keeps life interesting 😉

chris2x

Says:
March 21st, 2014 at 7:55 am

Good list. I need to get back to New Zealand when I have time and weather to explore the South Island.

chuck

Says:
April 9th, 2014 at 3:58 am

Not sure why I am just getting around reading this list, but would suggest adding a 2 battlefields from the Western Campaign. Shiloh National Military Park and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Great sites that show dramatically different stories of the U.S Civil War.

chris2x

Says:
April 9th, 2014 at 4:44 am

Good additions Chuck!

Peter

Says:
June 9th, 2014 at 2:57 pm

I’ll comment on the only one of those I’ve done, and I’ve done three times three different ways. Flying in an airplane over the Arctic Circle is the least interesting. Hurtigruten was fun and I would suggest a few days Northbound and probably including Tromso. However, the most fun I had crossing the Arctic Circle was in Finland. We rented bikes in Rovaniemi, rode through the forest, past pine trees with lingonberry and blueberry ground cover, and across the circle at Santa’s Village, which itself is a little cheesy. A fun day. Though we didn’t get to see any reindeer, I think you have to go further north for that.

Chuck

Says:
December 26th, 2014 at 5:16 am

I guess you need to mark off the Invitation to the White House now. 🙂

chris2x

Says:
December 28th, 2014 at 10:27 am

oooh, good point!

ooarevo - www.ooaworld.com

Says:
March 16th, 2015 at 10:05 pm

Thank you for sharing this awesome list, Chris! You’ve inspired me to add more places on mine. Looking forward to read/hear about your stay in a yurt in Mongolia! Angkor Wat is a beautiful cliche place, well worth the detour. I would also suggest a visit to the crescent lake in China, quite breathtaking!
If you’re interested in quality photos, videos and storytelling on top of traditional travel tips:
http://www.ooaworld.com

chris2x

Says:
March 17th, 2015 at 8:34 am

I will have to look up the crescent lake, thanks!

MAry

Says:
October 4th, 2016 at 10:42 am

Bali, Indonesia. I went back in 2014 after a 27 year absence. While the beaches are now overbuilt and less spectacular, the interior is still magical.

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