top15 updated

Top 15 travel spots! 11 done!!✅📍🌍

by Travel bucket list

Please take the time to read the blog below.  

If  you would rather listen, I have also provided an audio version below.  

Thanks for visiting NorthAmericanDarrell.com

When I first thought about creating NorthAmericanDarrell.com, I had a few simple goals. 

Document my past travels. 

Share what I am doing now. 

Show people that travel does not have to be expensive. 

Inspire somebody to get out and go. 

And, of course, visit as many places as humanly possible. 

So far, I would say it is working. 

The website gave me one place to collect trips, mistakes, budgets, stories and memories that would otherwise be scattered across thousands of photos. It also gave me an excuse to keep looking ahead. Because every time I cross one place off the list, I somehow discover three more. 

The list gets shorter for about five minutes. Then I watch a travel video, talk to another traveler or find a cheap flight somewhere I have never been. And suddenly the list is longer again. 

That is a pretty good problem to have. 

Years ago, I found a list of fifteen places considered some of the best destinations to visit in a lifetime. Naturally, I turned it into another challenge. Today, I have visited eleven of the original fifteen. 

Thailand. Greece. Indonesia. Portugal. Peru. Italy. The United Arab Emirates. France. The United Kingdom. The United States. And Spain. 

Eleven down. Not bad. 

Especially when so many of those places were once just names on a list. 

Every one gave me something different. 

Thailand helped open my eyes to Southeast Asia. Greece and Italy gave me the history, scenery and food I had imagined. Portugal and Spain helped teach me that I enjoy travel much more when I slow down instead of racing from attraction to attraction. 

Peru became much more than a checkmark. 

France and the United Kingdom gave me completely different versions of Europe. 

The United Arab Emirates showed me what happens when ambition, money, architecture and brutal desert heat all meet in the same place. 

Indonesia reminded me that one country can feel like several different worlds depending on which island you are standing on. And the United States? 

I have spent decades traveling around it and still have plenty left to see. [

The checkmark is satisfying. 

But the memories are what matter. 

There are still three places from that original list I genuinely want to visit. 

Sri Lanka. South Africa. And Bora Bora. Sri Lanka interests me because it seems to pack beaches, wildlife, train journeys, food and culture into a relatively small country. 

South Africa has been on my radar for years. Cape Town, the coastline, the history and finally doing a safari would make that one hell of a trip. 

And then there is Bora Bora. Yes, I know Bora Bora is an island in French Polynesia and not technically a country. 

My bucket list does not care about technicalities. If it requires a long flight, looks unbelievable in photos and has a decent chance of making my credit card cry, it qualifies. 

Then there is India. India was on the original list, but for now I have removed it. That does not mean India is not worth visiting. Millions of people love it, and I understand why it is on so many bucket lists. It simply does not excite me enough right now to justify the time and money. And I think that matters. 

A bucket list should be yours. 

Not a list of places you feel obligated to visit because somebody else says they are important. 

Travel time is limited. Money is limited. 

I would rather spend both on places that make me excited to book the flight. 

Maybe India makes it back onto the list one day. 

Travel has changed my mind plenty of times before. 

And that is probably the biggest thing that has changed about the way I travel. 

The older I get, the less interested I am in racing through countries just to increase a number. 

I still want to see as much of the world as possible. 

But now I want enough time to actually experience it. 

Find the neighborhood coffee shop. 

Eat the street food. 

Figure out public transportation. 

Walk the same route enough times that I stop needing Google Maps. 

Stay long enough that somewhere starts to feel familiar. 

That is the difference between visiting a place and actually experiencing it. 

NorthAmericanDarrell.com started as a place to document where I had been. 

Now it is becoming a record of how travel keeps changing the way I think about money, retirement, freedom, time and what I want the next part of my life to look like. I

f one of my stories helps somebody finally book a trip, rethink an old plan or realize that seeing the world does not have to cost a fortune, then the website has done its job. 

The list will keep changing. The check marks will keep coming. And hopefully I keep finding new places to add faster than I can cross them off. 

Because finishing the list was never really the goal. 

Living the experiences was. 

Keep traveling. Keep adding to the list. And most importantly… 

Live life to the fullest.

pho coffee and tea

Vietnam – Pho, coffee, tea and me!🍜

by HCMC / SaigonTravel bucket list

Please take the time to read the blog below.  If  you would rather listen, I have also provided an audio version below.  Thanks for visiting NorthAmericanDarrell.com

One of the best parts of travelling anywhere is trying the street food and local beer.

I don’t care whether I’m in my hometown, visiting another province or state, checking out a new food truck or travelling internationally and ordering from a cart that looks like it might be pulled by a donkey.

It all counts.

And it is all worth trying at least once.

Street food can tell me more about a place than most restaurants ever will. It is fast, affordable, local and honest. I am eating what the people who live there actually eat—not a polished version created for tourists.

I can watch the food being prepared, smell everything cooking and see which stall has the longest line of locals. When I do not understand the menu, pointing at whatever looks good usually works surprisingly well.

Pair that food with a local beer, find a place to stand or sit and watch daily life go by.

That is the good stuff.

Some people collect souvenirs.

I collect meals.

The cold tea was so addictive!  This was my favorite, lemongrass! It was $1-$2 at a nice cafe, but a lot cheaper at the street vendors.  I enjoyed both!

For me, it started with street tacos in Mexico.

That was the gateway.

I still try new taco stands every chance I get, and I have favorites in cities all over the map. Some are famous, while others are little roadside places I found because I saw a crowd gathered around a grill.

The same rule applies everywhere I travel: follow the smoke, watch where the locals are eating and be willing to try something new.

That approach led me from Mexican tacos to Asian noodles, skewers, soups and plenty of dishes I could not identify until they were sitting in front of me.

Sometimes I still could not identify them after eating them.

But that is part of the adventure.

I loved Vietnam so much that I returned at the end of 2025 to explore Northern Vietnam in more depth.

When a place pulls me back that quickly, I listen.

I definitely found my favorites, but I continued making a point of trying at least one new place every day. That is easy when many street-food meals cost only a few dollars—or less.

The financial risk is low, and the reward is usually high.

Vietnam also reminded me that the local experience does not always involve beer. Sometimes it involves strong coffee, iced tea and accidentally finding a temporary office for less than a dollar.

On my first morning in Hanoi, I wandered into a small neighborhood coffee shop. By day five, I had returned every single day.

The owner already knew exactly what I liked: iced coffee and tea. She kept refilling them as needed for the same total price—about eighty-seven cents.

One day, I sat there for three hours listening to a hockey game and surfing the internet.

My total bill was under a dollar.

That is not just cheap.

That is a lifestyle.

One of my favorite discoveries was an enormous outdoor food court with hundreds of choices.

Rows of stalls were cooking just about everything imaginable in one place. I could walk around for ten minutes and change my mind twenty times about lunch.

This is where indecision becomes part of the experience—and pointing at whatever looks good is often the best strategy.

The place did not mess around, and that came through immediately in the videos and photos. The scale, energy, smells and nonstop cooking created organized chaos in the best possible way.

If there was ever a place where “just one more bite” could turn into a full-blown food crawl, this was it.

Street food is not just a cheap way to eat while travelling. It is one of the easiest ways to connect with a destination.

I learn by watching how the food is prepared, seeing what people order and sitting among locals going about their normal day. I may not speak the language, but food gives us something in common.

The local beer helps too.

Not every meal becomes a favorite. Sometimes I order something I would never order again. Sometimes the beer is warm, the chair is plastic and I have no idea what I just ate.

But even those meals usually become stories.

That is why I keep trying new places.

I am not looking for the fanciest restaurant or the perfect tourist experience. I want the taco stand, neighborhood coffee shop, outdoor market and cold local beer that make a place feel real.

Because long after I forget the souvenir shop, I usually remember what I ate, where I was sitting and who was there.

Keep travelling.

Keep trying something new.

And most importantly…

Live life to the fullest!