Thats the big question I get all of the time. In fact, this past weekend, I was asked in person or by email by about 10 people. This is a difficult blanket question to address for people. If you narrow down what you are looking for using criteria such as: beach or city; near or far; island or inland, cheap or expensive; and of course, how long you want to go for. It can make life a lot easier for that question to be answered. Figuring out where to go is obviously the most important thing about planning a trip and determining where is tough. Here’s how I try to narrow it down for people.

Do you want to lounge on a beach, climb a mountain, explore a city or ski, shop, relax or golf? This is obviously up to the person or people. I personally have a lot of problems just sitting around at a resort and get bored easily but if you are the type of person who likes that, then an island might be in your future. Americans might say they are tired of going to the Caribbean because the islands are generally very similar. Maybe thats true, so thats the first step, determining you don’t want to go there. If they still want to go tropical, then you have some options.

Assuming a week long trip then you probably don’t want to spend double digit hours on a plane both ways so I would probably recommend places in Central America or Northern South America. Then from there, a lot of people might be nervous about the prospects of going to Colombia or Venezuela (although I disagree) so I would probably suggest Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands or even Peru, although less tropical and more altitude worries.

Generally, people will shrug off Ecuador or Peru and focus on Central America because that is the hot spot for Americans to go, especially Costa Rica. I love Costa Rica and am always happy to offer suggestions on that country. I am also quick to offer suggestions to Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Belize because with the exception of Belize, most people know nothing about these other places and that is unfortunate because they are wonderful places to visit.

Then come the inevitable questions of security and safety in Central America and Costa Rica. I always say the same thing. I have never had any issues anywhere, especially in Central America. Just stay out of the ghettos of the cities and use common sense. Believe me, you’re not going to visit Nicaragua to hang out in ghetto center of Managua so you most likely won’t have any issues.

Finally, once you are set on the country you want to go to, it’s down to where to stay, how much you want to spend and what activities do you want to do. Thats the easy part and the fun part because then you are just playing with house money because you’ve already figured out where you want to go. And at least to me, planning your trip is the best part because you get to pick your route and what type of fun you want to have.

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