Opinion – Unmissable adventures around the world – Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet proposes hiking,  climbing, cycling, surfing, canoeing, as a few of the countless ways to explore a country, if you’ve got a taste for adventure. Then it answers the question, ‘But which of these pulse-quickening experiences fall into the ‘don’t-leave-without’ category?’

Source: Unmissable adventures around the world

To my surprise, we’ve done four of the nineteen proposed adventures – not bad for a couple of seniors.

What about you?

Of course, there are different types of travel, for example:

  • Independent travellers
  • Adventurous independent travellers
  • Group travellers
  • Cruise lovers

Much depends upon your passion, fitness, interests, available time, budget, independence and risk profile.

Marilyn and I are passionate independent travellers with a controlled taste for adventure. For example, one of our most previleged travel experiences was working with Giant Pandas in Sechuan, China (our blog was translated in Mandarin and Japanese to share with others lovers of Giant Pandas)

For more of our adventures, see our travel blogs:

Discover the Orient & the Pacific

Taking the Slow Road to Cyprus

But many people of our age prefer group travel or cruises – good luck to them but it’s not for us.

Thoughts?

Compare your country by OECD

English: The logo of the Organisation for Econ...

English: The logo of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

via Compare your country by OECD.

This is a fantastic interactive tool to look at your country over time and compare it to other G20 countries.

Key variables are:

  • Agriculture
  • Education
  • Health
  • Poverty & Inequality
  • Taxation
  • Development
  • Employment
  • Migration
  • Quality of Life
  • Trade
  • Economic Projections
  • Environment
  • Pensions
  • Regulation

For example, I looked at Regulation and there are two variables mentioned, when you press the interactive key:

  • Regulation of Product Markets
  • Restrictions on Trade & Services

If I press the link again, I find that:

Amongst OECD countries, the Netherlands has the most competition-friendly regulatory environment, with the lowest overall score for regulation of total economy. The Netherlands is followed by the UK, Austria & Germany.

Why don’t you have a go. Focus perhaps on France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Ireland or the UK, if you prefer.   Let me know if there are any surprises or does the data just confirm your views?