5 Must See Countries for 2016

Fiji

If you love music, you’ll love Fiji.  You’ll be serenaded by singers playing guitars or ukuleles often and wonderfully. There will be singing at your hotel, at the airport, and even on buses. Do yourself a favor and get to a village church on a Sunday. Be sure to dress modestly and experience the voices of a community singing traditional songs in harmony.

Float in the turquoise waters, surf and dive. Visit Rainbow Reef for its fantastic marine life, go bird watching and forest hiking then relax at your resort at the end of the day with a cocktail while you view a magnificent sunset over the ocean.

USA

The ‘best idea’ America ever had is 100 years old this year. The National Park Service is celebrating a century of protecting our amazing national parks and monuments. Make this year the year you visit as much of the 340,000 sq. km network of surreal and spectacular landscapes that comprise the national parks as possible.

What would be the best way to get there?  The United States is a road-tripping paradise. Hop in the car and see prairies, mountains, deserts, forests and the ocean. As you travel, take time to visit unique roadside attractions, small-town diners and spend some time getting to know the locals in each area for enriching memories.

Botswana

The country is celebrating 50 years of independence in 2016. Enlightened, progressive and democratic Botswana is wonderfully wild. Be prepared to be awed by the sheer beauty of the landscape. 

Experience being poled by a gondolier in a mokoro past hippos in the Okavango Delta; take in the  thousand-year-old rock art in the Tsodilo Hills and be transported to a primitive time; and at night, the stars, you never realized how many stars are in the sky.

Latvia

Latvia is bringing back ancient traditions, restoring castles and majestic manor houses, and taking its cuisine to New Nordic fare. Riga has built on its reign as a European Capital of Culture with improved infrastructure and renovations making visiting an ever increasing pleasure.

If you’re brave, or uninhibited, or a little of both, try a true Latvian tradition, the pirts or hot birch sauna. A traditional pirts is run by a sauna master who cares for her naked attendees while performing choreographed branch beatings that draw on ancient pagan traditions. Herbs and wildflowers sway in the air raising the humidity in the chamber for a series of 15-minute sessions before you leave the sauna and jump in a nearby body of cooling water such as the sea or a lake. The experience also offers beer and traditional Latvian snacks, so something for everyone.

Japan

The land of the rising sun is the epitome of ‘modern yet ancient’. Tokyo offers all of the excitement of a modern city, while in the countryside, Japan is still the place to immerse yourself in graceful gardens, wooden temples and peaceful villages.

A world famous pilgrimage route is Japan’s Kumano Kodo near Osaka and an experience you’ll never forget. For over a thousand years, pilgrims of every stature have walked through hidden Oji shrines and haunting forests to reach the three grand worshipping complexes of Kumano. There are a few different paths that fan out like spokes around the Kii peninsula, but the goal is united in the act of spiritual penance performed by hikers as they traverse the paths. The preferred route, and also the oldest, is Nakahechi, which starts in the west and travels 30km to the shrines. UNESCO officially recognized the network of trails in 2004, and over the last 12 years the walk has seen a steady increase in foreign tourists.