Wish We Were There: Readers share their travel dreams (2023)

For years, our readers have shared their travel adventures every Sunday, submitting their “Wish You Were Here” vacation selfies and adventures, and offering travel tips to help fellow readers globetrot, too. Now with vaccines beginning to arrive, it’s time to dream again of palm-fringed beaches, rustic hillside towns and the chic cities we’ll one day explore.

Here’s just a sampling of “Wish We Were There” travel dreams, with more to follow. (It’s not too late to share yours. Just email jburrell@bayareanewsgroup.com.)

Dreaming of Spain

I’m a high school freshman living in San Jose. When we are fortunate enough to travel again, I most look forward to returning to Spain. During the summer of 2019, after I had taken Spanish for one year, my mom, my brother and I spent three incredible weeks exploring Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and Grenada.

Seville stood out the most to me, with its breathtaking Plaza de España, the enchanting Moorish influences and the classical people-on-horses-with-swords statues mixed into the metropolitan jungle.

I cannot wait to go back to Spain, when it’s safe to travel again, speak with the locals, snack on delicious tapas and enjoy feeling at home in a foreign country.

— Ritu Belani, San Jose

Hawaiian mai tais, New York holidays

Since March 17, when the shelter-in-place directive was issued, my wife and I have been no further than San Ramon. So, traveling almost anywhere sounds pretty darn good right now. For nine months, the only break in our daily routine has been Thursday pick-ups by Pleasanton Garbage Service.

We have talked often of how nice resuming our annual pilgrimage to Hawaii would be. A dip in the warm ocean, reading a good book beneath the palm trees and late afternoon mai tais at Hale Koa’s Barefoot Bar would be like heaven at this point. If COVID were actually controlled, the five-hour flight in one of the germ tubes would be no deterrent.

But we also think of how much fun another visit to New York City would be. The Rockette Christmas Spectacular at Radio City could put any wannabe Scrooge in the Christmas spirit. With so much going on at all hours, New York is almost the capital of the world: ice skating and the huge Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the nighttime view of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry, street performances and on and on. Frank Sinatra said it all when he sang, “New York, New York.”

— Bill and Ellen Lathlean, Pleasanton

Paris, interrupted

Once it’s safe to travel, we will re-do our abruptly-suspended, three-month apartment stay in Paris.

This long-planned vacation, which we had already put off for several years, commenced on March 4, 2020. We knew there was a virus starting to cause concern, but there were no travel restrictions, and the first month of our apartment was already paid for.

The first week or so after our arrival was wonderful, with so few tourists that we felt like we had Paris to ourselves. We used a lot of hand sanitizer as we walked around the city, visited shops, restaurants and museums, used the subway, etc. Face masks were not yet a necessity.

Within a short time the major museums started closing due to COVID-19. A few days later, all the museums closed, along with other places we frequented like jazz club, restaurants, stores and even the big parks. Soon our outings were limited to grocery/food stores. We learned that we would have to carry with us the “attestation” document affirming we were outside only for exercise or to get groceries. Under threat of citation, there would be no wandering the streets of Paris as spring began to emerge.

We came home on March 20, instead of the end of June (we had planned on adding one month in Ireland). Our return trip was complicated by cancelled flights, but after 25 hours we were at our own front door and beginning our 14-day self-quarantine.

Our re-do to Paris is tentatively planned for spring of 2022, assuming the public health risks are diminished and such travel is allowed. We will definitely complete this “bucket list” trip we had started, but we are not making any firm plans at all until the path is very clear.

— Malcolm Smith and Eileen McKenna, San Jose

Dancing in Buenos Aires

Here is my travel dream: I would like to sail on a cruse from San Francisco to Buenos Aires in Argentina, where I will stay for a month and learn how to dance a sexy tango. My late husband and I loved to dance, when it was chic to dance cheek-to-cheek. We were planning to travel to Argentina and learn from the very best. Sadly, he passed away three years ago, and our dream never came to fruition.

But in his memory, I would love to make our dream come true and travel to the capital of tango. I hear people in Buenos Aires dance on the main square in the city. Hopefully, my tango teacher will twirl me around.

Cheers and olé!

—Lina Broydo,Los Altos Hills

Trains across the bay

I’m a San Jose girl, who has been reading “The Merc,” as my family calls it, since the late ’70s. My first trip — kinda allowing myself to dream a little more lately — would be to jump on the Amtrak train, after parking at Diridon Station. Enjoy the beautiful ride (past) the salt ponds after Alviso towards Fremont, and really appreciate all that has happened. Let things go and get the courage to start going out again.

Hubby and I have been helping dad and mom, who helped us so much through life. I learned about the train when they retired from the Cement Plant in 1999 and discovered it stopped two miles from their house in Turlock. So for 20 years, I took the train to visit them — since 2019, they’ve been in Watsonville and we’ve been able to be with them since the virus.

I would get off at Jack London Square Station, enjoy a beer at Heinold’s historic bar on the waterfront and walk around the farmers market. On the way back home to Santa Cruz from the train, I’d go up San Carlos to Bascom and pick up Taco Bravo bean buckets and soft tacos and their SALSA and head home for the day. I can dream, right!? Patiently waiting for the vaccine.

— Leah Meek, Santa Cruz

A cross-country road trip

I read that the New York Times coined the word, “vaccications” for these dream trips!

Post-vaccine, my husband and I are going to do one massive road trip and visit all of our out -of-state friends in Montana, Oregon, Maryland and Wyoming, to name a few. We’ll stay in motels and eat in restaurants and hug people. Can’t wait.

— Susan Sprickman, Danville

Greek island adventures

We had a trip planned to Greece for April 2020, including Athens, Rhodes, Corfu and Santorini, plus some side trips to Cyprus and Albania. I started studying Greek through Duolingo in January 2020. By April, I was struggling with it – barely getting the alphabet and basic words. I’ve kept it up and it’s gotten easier. At the rate I’m going, I’ll finish Duolingo Greek in a year.

A few years ago, I studied Portuguese on Duolingo in preparation for a trip to Brazil. Other than hello, please, thank you and good bye, I don’t think I actually spoke any Portuguese (but) it helped me read signs and menus.

By 2022, I should be ready for Greece!

— Clare Meyerson, Sunnyvale

A NOLA state of mind

I dream of traveling to New Orleans. Mind you, I have traveled quite a bit. I have visited all the continents in the world and about 90 percent of our U.S. National Parks, but I have never been to New Orleans. I have loved jazz forever and have read books about its history, its old mansions, its old folklore, its food and more. I can’t wait to visit jazz places, stroll the Garden District and eat beignets. Looking forward to traveling conditions being safer, so I can go!

— Edda Stark, Danville

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