What’s Your Tropical Bucket List?

Warm weather is slowly starting to creep into New England. I’m embracing it, in love with it and hope it never goes away again. Oh, but it will. And there will still be awfully cold days and rainy days  from time to time.

When I start to think about all that dreary weather, my mind tends to wander to happier, sunnier times. I love visiting tropical escapes and can’t even fathom what it would be like to live there year-round. Sure I spent 6-12 months in southern Spain, but even they are slammed with rainy months and some miserable conditions occasionally.

I’m talking SUN. Sunshine and blue skies 364 and a 1/2 days a year. Give it to me, baby.

Sometimes I sit back and think I’ve done it all – which is insane. Then all I have to do is pull out a map and realize there’s countless countries and beaches and islands and world left to explore. Sure I love a good ski mountain, but I have only warm places on the brain. Here’s some of the top picks for my tropical bucket list. What’s yours?

Jamaica

Word for word, I can go through the entire movie of Cool Runnings. It’s hands down my favorite movie of all time, no matter how old I get and how irrelevant it gets. YES I know it’s silly and has very little to do with the destination, but I begged my parents for YEARS to let me go to Jamaica. This might be one of my more frivolous ideas because I know little about the island off the resorts. But I hear beaches are great, live music is fun and it’s well worth spending a week or two there exploring. Or bobsledding.

Curacao

A few years ago my parents made it to this colorful island and still won’t stop talking about it. They fell infatuated with the funky cuisine that seemed to be always fresh and the blue waters filled with diving and snorkeling opportunities. If I dream hard enough I can see me sipping something fruity after an afternoon swimming with the marine life.

The island is running some incredible accommodation and tour deals too right now which is making it all the more difficult not to grab my plane ticket. Go nuts with all their discounts on car rentals, diving excursions and even resort credits, presented right on the official tourism board’s website. It sounds way better than a boring cruise to me. Check out the offers here.

Goa

India. It’s so massive, so mysterious to me and a place I’ve always wanted to go. A few times opportunities have slipped through my fingers much to my devastation, but I hope it’s in the cards for me soon. I also want to reach the beaches of Goa before it’s totally commercialized and all the hippies have been scared away. There trance music scene and ideal, hammock-laden hostels sound like something I’d dig, big time.

If you’re looking for the BEST possible flight to India, I’d go with the ITA software from Google. For real. It’s industry-known and you won’t find ANY deal online posted for less, promise. It’s pretty easy to use too – try it out.

Greek Islands

This is another place that I’ve been dreaming of for  along time, probably ever since I read “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and wanted to find a hot Greek boyfriend. Well I landed a British one instead but my love for Greece hasn’t wavered. Wouldn’t it be magical to hop on a sailboat (OK chartered because I have no idea in hell how to sail) and just glide form island to island? I need to see it all for myself – some of those views don’t even look real, framed by blue domed roofs and endless miles of turquoise sea.