10 Countries You MUST VISIT in 2023 - Ultimate Travel Guide

hey hey welcome back we're ian and anna and in today's video we're gonna share with you the top 10 countries to visit this year this is probably our longest video ever it is jam-packed with so much helpful information and hopefully it will inspire you guys to go travel to some of these countries we will timestamp down in the description below so you can zoom forward before we jump into our first country let's introduce the sponsor of this video which is our travel insurance safety wing we've been through a whirlwind of catastrophic unusual events while traveling including flying home for funerals getting sick in bangkok in a hospital for almost a week motorbike accidents so we know what's really important and the best part about safety wing is they have excellent customer service with a five-minute response time i also love that you can do a monthly plan so if we're not traveling for a month we don't have to pay all right let's kick this off with the country of serbia and i know what you're thinking serbia has never been on your travel destination list but here at the other side we love sharing off the beaten path places some hidden gems and for us serbia is one of those places also i'm a bit biased because my dad is from there before we dive into it i just need to say this real quickly serbia is not siberia and it's not syria i had so many friends growing up that like thought i was from russia for years serbia is located in eastern europe it's a part of the balkan region and it was formerly a part of yugoslavia one of the main reasons we want to encourage you to visit this country is because it's one of the cheapest countries in all of europe to visit ian and i were able to book an airbnb for 35 a night an entire apartment right in the heart of the city so let's talk about the capital city of belgrade which is one of the oldest cities in europe let's just put it this way my fellow serbs love to drink and i think this contributes to why belgrade is world famous for its nightlife along the sava and dhanya rivers you can find plenty of splobs which are floating structures and many of them are nightclubs so who wouldn't want to party on the river people from all over the world come to party in belgrade and it's actually really fun i had a blast other than the drinking there's so many attractions that i'm just going to quickly run through with you starting with kali megdon and the belgrade fortress kali megdon once served as the military stronghold but has been transformed into a park and it is one of my favorite parks in the world because you're in a fortress it's absolutely stunning you get to have a picnic maybe learn some history there's signs available and there's also cafes not only along the river but right next to cali magdon as well if you're going to belgrade you'll definitely be walking down canez my level this is a walking street where there's shopping no cars and here you really get a sense of the european cafe culture which i'm sure you've heard of before but it's basically people just eating drinking and smoking all day outside of cafes they are everywhere in belgrade especially on this street another street i love is schedulia this is a little bit more for tourists you won't find a ton of locals here it's really preserved old time serbia it's got that cobblestone road and it's very quaint also here you can find many many traditional dishes including gibenitza sarma pasu which is my personal favorite baked beans serps cassalata cheva barik everything that you love in serbian food which by the way is some of the best food ever it's a little heavy and a little greasy so make sure to order that serps cassalato with your meal don't forget to enjoy a yellen it's the local beer as well as rakia we call that schlievovitz it's plum brandy it is extremely popular there because plums are one of serbia's key fruits and so are raspberries which i actually didn't know serbia is one of the main exporters of raspberries in the world and i love raspberries so i wish i would have eaten more while i was there the last two things you're going to have to see are saint sava which is the second largest orthodox church in all of europe and the otta a huge man-made lake with tons of restaurants water sports swimming bungee jumping all these outdoorsy things you can do and you really get away from the city it's my favorite place in all of belgrade we were lucky enough to have my uncle's motorbikes and we rode the entire perimeter we were actually scheduled to do a serbian road trip and really explore the country in depth but we ended up going to my family's village and spending time with family um we were only supposed to stay there one or two days and we ended up staying a whole week here we were able to really immerse ourselves in the serbian culture cook with my aunt watch my uncle dragon make plum brandy that i have brought back to the states this is really really interesting and a huge part of the farming culture we have a video of us living in that village so make sure to check that out other than that there's so many things to do in serbia there's mountains monasteries national parks there's more to do than what i'm just saying cities like novi sod are very famous and there's plenty of festivals i'm gonna wrap up serbia with this it's the perfect place to base because of how affordable it is so if you guys want to do a europe road trip i recommend grabbing a car from serbia explore eastern europe eastern europe is so rich in culture compared to some western european countries and it's just really overlooked when i was 10 years old we flew into serbia and did a road trip to austria the czech republic and hungary and it was an experience of a lifetime this year we're hoping to hit up croatia yes that does neighbor serbia so now you're getting a better idea of where it is let's go to number nine greece i don't even know if this country needs an introduction because it is so legendary greece is the birthplace of democracy philosophy the olympic games and some of the most extensive history and temples in the entire world we visited greece for a month in july and this is the height of peak season making the prices higher and there's a lot more tourists around i recommend going during the shoulder months of may june and september if you want to beat the crowds and get lower prices all around when you're thinking about greece you're probably picturing those islands and i want to go over the ones we went to i'm going to highlight our favorite things that we did on each the first island we visited was santorini it's one of the most famous islands in the entire world it was created by a volcanic eruption one of the biggest ever in history 3 600 years ago this island is one of our favorites around the world but i'm biased in saying that because this is where i propose to anna right on the side of the caldera in that wonderful airbnb there's so many different places in santorini but the one you see online and in books and in movies is ia those are the whitewashed buildings on the side of the caldera there with the blue dome churches recommend getting up super early there and walking around before everyone gets up watching the sunrise it is just a magical experience if you want a cheaper side of santorini we found an airbnb at parisa beach which is about 40 minutes away from the famous eeya after santorini we visited milos it's the island of colors and this has been voted the number one island in all of europe there are two beaches here that absolutely blew our minds first being fury placa with that white pink and orange cliffside right next to that piercing blue water then we spent a whole day of cliff jumping at sarah caneco it's one of the most unique beaches we've ever been to i don't even know if you call it beach because there's only a small sliver of sand the rest of it is this moonlike landscape where there's different heights to cliff jump from and this was just a fun day out in the water just bring some beers or wine with you and enjoy a day in the sun after milos we took two ferries it was a 16 hour travel day all the way to the island of ikedia now if you're a first timer to greece i recommend mixing the more popular islands with the not so popular island so if you're going to santorini try to look for an island that's less touristy because that is truly where you find the greek culture ikea is very special and different than most islands because this is one of five blue zones in the world a blue zone is where the oldest and healthiest people live on earth and we went to this island searching for the answers we spent a week here and had the amazing opportunity to interview a 98 year old vangelis he invited us into his house we asked him so many different questions and here were his answers to [Music] if you want to learn more about the eight secrets of longevity you could watch our whole entire ikedia video that island is so special to us it's one of those islands you never want to leave as you can see right here anna cried she did not want to go of course we had to visit athens for two to three days and this is where you could see the famous parthenon overlooking all of athens up there is the acropolis and a bunch of other temples if you're a history buff definitely go to athens for a couple days but if you're not really into that stuff we do not recommend because athens is a little dirty just like any other big city like new york city or bangkok just get out of there and explore the rest of the country last but not least is one of our favorite islands the kinthos here we were able to rent a boat out with our friends we didn't need boating license because the boat only went around five miles per hour but there we got the sail right next to the giant limestone cliffs we brought drinks under the boat some food jumped off the boat a lot swam into caves to remote beaches this is one of our favorite travel memories ever with austin and amanda another epic must-do thing here is to head to shipwreck beach this is a ship literally on a beach within a cove surrounded by a thousand foot limestone cliffs and just being above we actually didn't go onto the beach we're above it looking down on it and just seeing that blue water it looks like a movie like pirates of the caribbean now on to greek food everyone knows of the mediterranean diet and greece does it right here you could have big blocks of feta cheese tomates which are grape leaves and if you're trying to save some money we ate so many traditional greek yellows we ate some with halloumi cheese and it traditionally comes with lamb or lamb beef combo i didn't even know they came with french fries but greek yodos have french fries in them they have taziki i want to be back there right now eating them lastly this isn't food but the traditional alcohol drink of rocky or uzo uzo's traditionally greek and rocky is traditionally turkish do not drink them as fast as i did i took them like a shot that i do back in america but you're only supposed to sip on it slowly now i want to teach you a couple greek phrases that you can use on your upcoming trip ya is hello and goodbye efjisto is thank you yamas is cheers so whenever you're with locals drinking some uzo say yamas and then there's also the classic one oppa now what puts greece a cut above most countries is that they have an unwritten cultural law that means filo xenia that translates to mean a friend to a stranger we saw it on milos when our friends katie invited us to their place to have some rocky and also gifted us some herbs we have bay leaves some oregano and mint that we brought back to the us and we still use to this day then in ikea 98 year old vangelis invited us into his house for this family to have dinner this was an amazing experience he even gifted us a whole bottle of wine i mean we got more wine gifted to us in greece than i could even imagine every airbnb host would offer us something whether that be olive oil olives tomatoes they just really were welcoming and i think every single traveler will appreciate this now let's hop on over to southeast asia to number eight vietnam we spent three weeks in vietnam in 2018 when we were studying abroad in bangkok thailand and that was definitely not enough time vietnam is different it's crazy it's one of those countries that's going to stimulate all of your senses at the exact same time now if you're looking for somewhere to backpack around the world vietnam should be high on your list it's considered a backpacker's paradise and i'm going to list off a couple reasons why first it's one of the cheapest countries you could travel to throughout the entire world we spent only around 25 a day per person and you could go way cheaper than that hostels can be anywhere from two to five dollars food is dirt cheap second vietnam is a very long country and that means one thing it has eighteen hundred miles of coastline and picturesque islands right off the coast on to number three if you're a history buff vietnam is gonna be the place for you because it has some of the oldest history in all of southeast asia dating back to 2000 bc number four why vietnam's a backpackers paradise the mouth-watering food you could find throughout the country it is street food like pha or ban me's super cheap but delicious if you want to go on an adventure here you can if you want to chill at a yoga retreat you can this country has something literally for everyone now a little bit about the highlights of our three weeks there we visited the two main cities of ho chi minh in the south and then hanoi in the north ho chi minh is a booming metropolis the traffic's crazy all around vietnam but you could definitely see it here i like to call it organized chaos ho chi minh got a name change in 1975 it used to be called saigon but then northern vietnam won the war and they changed the name to ho chi minh now around this city there's so much to do but one of the most memorable experiences that we did was up an hour north to the kuchi tunnels the kuchi tunnels are a small sliver of underground tunnels used during the vietnam war for the viet cong the viet cong used these tunnels to hide away from american soldiers to transport supplies throughout the entire country and just to sleep at night during the tour we not only got to see the booby traps used against american soldiers but we actually got to go inside the tunnels go underground and get to experience the claustrophobic conditions that the viet cong had to live in another place that we visited close to ho chi minh was five hours east on the coast it was called moone and it was an otherworldly place because there was massive white and red sand dunes along the coastline here you can go on a jeep tour that takes you to fishing villages you could atv down the sand dunes now up north to hanoi one of the best things you could do here is get some street food you can't walk more than 10 feet without bumping into street vendors that are selling pho or bon mis and if you get the chance you definitely have to try egg coffee i know it sounds weird but it's just egg yolk condensed milk sugar mix into a coffee and it was rather delicious something i'd never expected to taste in my entire life like i said vietnam is a backpacker's paradise and you'll be able to meet so many people from around the world that's what makes travel great we met friends at our hostel in hanoi and headed up around six hours to a place called sapa it's the northern mountainous region of vietnam here we're able to stay in a homestay in a village and this is where they cultivate rice vietnam is the number five producer of rice in the entire world just seeing these massive cliffs with rice terraces was an experience of a lifetime one thing i learned from making this video for you guys is that i need to head back to vietnam asap because we miss so many great places like ha long bay we miss one place that's going to be on my bucket list haaseng loop it's a four day journey with a motorcycle through the northern mountains of vietnam also there's tons of islands that we miss out on islands that don't get the credit they deserve before i wrap up vietnam i want to teach you two common phrases that you can use on your visit xin chao means hello and kam un is thank you now it's time for number seven it's on the opposite side of the world in the atlantic ocean the bahamas home to the world famous swimming pigs we all know exuma bahamas is on your bucket list and it should be not just for the swimming pigs this place has so many amazing things to offer sadly i know we're always offering some budget friendly tips but i don't know how many i'm going gonna be able to give in this one because i was actually there nannying with the family that i used to babysit and ian just tagged along because they like ian we've stayed at the grand isle resort in the penthouse again how am i saying this although you know maybe if you have kids out there you're thinking of looking at places like atlantis because they have water slides and stuff you're definitely not going to find that here in the exumas you're going to want to get out on that water we had a private boat with exuma water sports the first day we saw those incredible swimming pigs they were so much fun to see they had really big balls which ian was obsessed with he couldn't believe it i don't know if he's ever seen balls that big and we were able to hold the little piglets which was my favorite part and also swim with stingrays afterwards we hit up this lizard island and saw a bunch of iguanas and we ended off that first day with a local experience eating some local food i really recommend doing a private boat but again i wasn't paying and they do offer group tours public boats and your trip is probably going to be scheduled for you i do believe if you have a private boat you can kind of pick and choose what you want to do because on our second day we actually went back to the pigs i can't remember why we did this but we went in the morning and let me tell y'all those pigs are hungry because one of the moms got bit on the hip yeah be careful with those piggies they just want food just like your dog at home however my favorite part was the journey there where we got to see tim mcgraw and faith hill's vacation home as well as david copperfields these people i mean they got some money you know what i mean exuma has by far the bluest water snorkeling is one of my favorite things to do and the bahamas does not let you down the end of the day when we're sitting down on our couch and we're talking about it we always agreed that exuma has the bluest water we've ever seen let's hit up number six malaysia personally i think malaysia is one of the most underrated countries in southeast asia right alongside lao before traveling here i had no idea malaysia has two separate parts first is west malaysia and that is the mainland squished between thailand and singapore and then there's east malaysia which is on the island of borneo borneo is the third largest island in the entire world right behind greenland and new guinea there's three countries that make up borneo in the north there is brunei and malaysia and in the south it's indonesia first let's start with mainland malaysia this is where kuala lumpur is located it has a great international airport and i think it's a great hub for anyone trying to travel throughout southeast asia it's a clean modern city four hours north of kuala lumpur is panang and this is the food capital of malaysia sadly we did not visit and that's some place we really need to go back to if you didn't know already malaysia takes their food seriously the reason the food in malaysia is so important and delicious is because malaysia is a cultural melting pot there you'll see so many different ethnicities you'll see chinese malay and indians throughout the country now mainland malaysia is great and all but what really blew us away about this country is the borneo side of things i'm going to give you the highlights of our trip and i truly believe this deserves a spot on everyone's bucket list before they die our first stop was kota kinabalu and here we got to visit night markets that were so wild we got to visit mosques and then there were five islands right off the coast the island hop too this really blew us away and was a great starting point for the rest of our adventures then only an hour plane ride away with sundakan and here we got to experience baby turtles hatching and making their way to the ocean this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be on the island stay on there get to see conservation and action and those baby turtles were super cute after that we headed on the most exhilarating four day tour through the kina batanon river where we got to see the big five the kinah bataan river is located in one of the oldest rainforests on earth right behind the amazon and this is where the animals will take your breath away the big five animals that you will see here are the orangutans probiscus monkeys which have these crazy noses i didn't even know they existed for this trip cute pygmy elephants you have the largest crocodile on earth and lastly is the bird called the rhinoceros hornbill we were so lucky that we got to see all five of these animals during the trip one of my favorite parts of it was seeing the monkeys high up in the trees fight each other after that tour we headed down to sipidon to one of the top 10 dive sites in the entire world we stayed on houses on stilts in the middle of the ocean and we got to hang with locals go on dives every single day and i would say there's diving and then there's diving at sipidon we were surrounded by hundreds of barracudas sharks turtles that you can't even count we went into caves saw the turtle tomb which was kind of sad because that is where turtles get lost deep in a cave and they can't find their way back out if you're at all interested in diving you really need to make your way to sipidon this will change your life and last but not least you could head to kuching which is the food hub over on this side of malaysia and here you could have two of our favorite dishes which are kodomi and sarawak laksa thailand is the country we owe so much of our lives to right now this is the first country ian and i had visited together no parents on our own when we were studying abroad in 2018 our junior year of college total we've lived in thailand for about six months so we definitely know this country like the back of our hand it's so hard because i just want to keep going and going and i'm gonna try to make this part not too long with perfect tropical islands lush jungles the nicest people in the world and the absolute best food ever it's no surprise that thailand has emerged as one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world let's kick it off with ko pangong this is where the famous full moon party is back in 1985 a bunch of tourists were like oh my gosh this is the most beautiful full moon in the world and they made this party and now millions of people come every year to have a party on this beach and it's freaking awesome this island has so much more to offer including a very fun slip and fly and one of our favorite beaches lila beach i also really think that if you guys are interested in scuba diving at all koh tao is the island for you we were able to get our scuba diving license for only 300 and on our last day we actually got to see a whale shark on our final dive it was the perfect way to commence that trip and getting our license another great one that i'm sure you guys have heard of is kopi it's probably the most famous island in thailand making it definitely a bit more touristy but still worth the visit if you can't make it to a full moon party there is a beach on ko pp that really carries that vibe every single night there's fire shows live music drinking buckets be careful of the buckets it's basically a bucket of alcohol and you will get sick we're gonna go through the rite of passages in thailand a little later because there's like some a few funny ones hoe pipi does have that exciting nightlife but there's tons to do during the day including some great snorkeling we were able to walk to shark point on the other side of the island where we rented some snorkel gear and went off the shore found some sharks they're very small friendly black tip sharks the most famous thing to do there is probably go to maya bay which is known for being in the movie the beach with leonardo dicaprio on that tour you can also go to monkey island where you'll see tons of monkeys please don't feed them they're crazy don't feed the monkeys you'll get bit and then you'll have to go get rabies shots and it's a mess don't feed the monkeys there's also some bruised cruises available we did not do one we opted for mr chet's cruise it was much more low-key and private and i preferred that other than those islands kolanta is a great one because it's very low key as well as koh chong and one place we really hope to visit when we go back is kosak so i would definitely put that on your list it's a national park and it looks really cool if you guys want to hit up the north of thailand you gotta check out chiang mai much better than bangkok bangkok's a little too crazy i think if you're only going to thailand for a little bit nobody is going to like bangkok you have to really live there to like bangkok check out chiang mai great culture more artsy but just an hour from there are some amazing mountains thailand literally has something for everyone and then let's get to bangkok my favorite thing to do in bajak is just eat literally i wait to eat all day before we get into the food let's talk about some temples that you should see watfo is where the reclining buddha is what iran is my personal favorite and to get to that you literally take a taxi boat from the reclining buddha across the river it's a really cool experience i highly recommend doing that and of course the emerald buddha is also very popular and they're all in a very similar area so you could do that in a day some really touristy things is khao san road lovely partying and some things you'll never see unless you go on this road so you gotta check it out at least once my favorite market is rachata night market i hope you check that out as well and if you're feeling bougie hit up the sky bar this was featured in the hangover 2 movie we went with ian's parents they treated us and it was so much fun and the food was magnificent as for seeing elephants please don't ride elephants they're very abused you can go to a sanctuary where a lot of the rescued elephants are but some of those are still unethical so if you're going to do an elephant sanctuary please look into it as much as you can we went to one with our class and i definitely think it's reputable because i don't think our school would have taken us there and i'll put it down in the description below moving aside from things to do let's talk about the people thai people are some of the nicest but one of my favorite things about thailand is the fact that a lot of them don't speak english so you have to be patient with one another but they're still gonna always help you out lend a helping hand try to go on google and translate things it's really sweet this is the country of smiles everyone is happy happy that being said don't be fooled of course there are some bad people so let's talk about those right of passages you have to go through to say you've traveled thailand including getting scammed you'll either get scammed by a taxi where they they don't put the meter on and at the end they'll just ask for a lump sum of money and since you're taurus you don't really know how much a bot is but they end up charging you way more than the ride should have been to avoid this make sure you say hey run the meter or have the grab app downloaded because that would be a fixed rate grab is their uber another scam is just walking around sometimes people are going to come talk to you they'll try to get you in a tuck tuck which is those tricycle things which by the way you gotta ride in don't do this tuck tuck scam you can actually just look it up it's very interesting but it has to happen to everyone it's happened to us it's not a big deal and of course another rite of passage is renting a motorbike while you're on those islands you gotta get out on a bike and just explore we've ridden motorbikes all over southeast asia i promise you you'll be fine we've gone on an accident you'll be fine no big deal let's wrap this section up with food what we're all wanting to hear because it is the best food in the world if you like pad thai drunken noodles there is no better place to eat it than thailand itself while you're there you gotta have some curries all the curries are great red curry yellow curry green curry uh please take a cooking class it's very interesting and if you have time to venture out to salea that is where our university was and there's a little shop there with curry mama we can put the information in the description below but she makes some of the best pad thai and chicken steak right down the street from there there's a squid guy who grows some squid and has this amazing sauce so that it's very spicy if you get the chance check out jfi she was on a netflix special and she makes this incredible crab omelette oh god i wish i was in thailand right now and if all else fails never stray away from your local 7-eleven there will be a 7-eleven every fifth store now i'm in the states and anytime i see you 7-eleven i'm like oh thailand i miss it so much let's end this part with a simple thank you for women you would say you have to make sure you say ka at the end for men you'd say okay guys it's time to move on to number four turkey to be honest turkey was never a place that was high on our travel list and shame on us one of the reasons we wanted to go to turkey in the first place was when we saw a place called cappadocia on instagram of people flying over these fairy tale landscapes and hot air balloons even though cappadocia inspired us to visit turkey the rest of the country really made us never want to leave what makes turkey even more special is that it resides in both asia and europe to be more specific turkey is 5 in europe and 95 in asia and that brings us to our first location where both continents meet and personally for me it's one of the best cities in the entire world istanbul the weird thing about istanbul it used to be the capital city to three huge empires the roman byzantine and ottoman but it is no longer the capital of turkey even though it's not the capital istanbul is the most populated city in all of turkey with more than 15 million residents making it super packed istanbul is one of those places where you could spend months and still not discover everything that it has to offer some of the places that we went to were the grand bazaar which is the largest covered market in the world with over 60 streets covered and 3 000 shops when you're walking through the grand bazaar you are surrounded by turkish rugs turkish delights and more tea and spices than you'll ever see in your life fun fact turkey is predominantly muslim and there's over 82 000 mosques around the country three thousand which i think are the most predominant ones are located right in istanbul we visited three mosques suleimanie sofia and the blue mosque although high sofia is one of the most important religious structures in the world our favorite was suleimanie mosque and the reason for that is because there weren't a lot of tourists here it was really stunning and there's some rooftop cafes that are a perfect viewpoint of all of istanbul all right i have something to admit before visiting turkey i wasn't the biggest fan of cats but once we went to istanbul this city is nicknamed the city of cats you won't find more cats around the world than right here in istanbul the locals adore them they take care of them they feed them i don't know it really made me love cats so thank you turkey of course you have the famous walking street called istiklal avenue and here you're able to fight off vendors for ice cream drink a beer in an electrifying environment and even shop for an affordable price but by far our favorite thing we did in turkey was the food tour with latif we spent the entire day eating like a local whether that was our olives cheese and turkish coffee to start our day or the famous iskander kebab which is lamb on top of pita bread doused with yogurt and melted butter also fun fact get ready to drink more tea than ever before turkey is actually the number one consumer of tea in the whole world and it's heavenly now on to the place that brought us to turkey cappadocia this is the number one place to go hot air ballooning in the entire world and i cannot get over the landscape there it rivals places like utah back in the united states and it was formed 60 million years ago with volcanic eruptions for our hot air balloon experience we got up at 3 30 a.m and paid around 90 per person which is quite a steal we were pretty unlucky because there was a storm that pushed back our departure so we weren't in the sky when the sun rose which sucked but it still was such a crazy experience you glide right past the fairy chimneys and castles and let me tell you being surrounded by hundreds of hot air balloons is a once in a lifetime experience the whole vibe of cappadocia is just mesmerizing you literally stay at cave hotels that were once inhabited by christians hiding from the romans because of its stronghold along the silk route cappadocia went through a lot of wars and battles and that's why people living in cappadocia carved holes in caves and created underground cities to hide away we even ran into locals hiking this beautiful landscape and spent the night under the stars drinking wine eating baklava and dancing the night away i can keep going on and on about how great turkey is i mean you have the white cotton candy terraces at pamokale and the unforgettable coastline in the south with islands that take your breath away if you don't know where to go next definitely check out our three turkey videos and maybe just maybe that will be your next destination time to head back to our home country number three the united states so this will be the largest country that we're covering and for that reason i'm very confused but we're just gonna give it our best shot as you know the us is made up of 50 states each of which has their own way of life so if you get the chance the more states you can go to the absolute better we've actually been to a total of 27 states a handful of which was covered during our four month road trip across the u.s from cleveland to california before we go any further i want to let you know that we have a usa road trip travel guide where we give you how we traveled for 30 a day all the campsites we stayed at everything from our routes to activities you can find in this guide it will be in the link in the description below and while you're on our website you might want to check out our american kids preset pack this is just photo filters for your pictures that you take on the road and these presets work really well on all your pictures not just the us ones but i was just inspired by that trip that's why it's called american kids preset pack although there are a numerous amount of ways that you can travel the us i think we can all agree one of the most exciting and best ways to do it is by road tripping road tripping is an american pastime that is something we all love to do we grew up doing i mean we used to drive from cleveland to florida instead of fly because why fly when you can drive for half the price that's how i grew up and i'm sure a lot of you can relate to that i also have that midwest thought of donna and kelso from that 70s show road shipping from wisconsin in their vw van all the way to california and i just know this is a shared dream not only amongst americans but people everywhere i've heard many foreigners talk about how they want to come to the u.s and road trip it lucky for ian and i we are born in this country so it made a lot of things easier for foreigners i don't have many tips on how to keep costs low when it comes to renting cars what you have to do for your phone plan visas all that stuff but if you are from the us i know you can take something away from this quick background ian and i bought a ford transit connect for 6 500 we built it out for less than 400 we really just put a bed in there and made it look pretty having this van what made us keep costs so low because we didn't have to pay for a night stay so for four months we slept at free campsites if you factor in the price of the van obviously it's going to raise that daily cost but we still have that ban and we use it every single day to drive so it was totally an investment worth taking for us but we have many friends who just sleep out of their tacomas their teslas anything you can sleep in there's free places all over this country so you can still travel the us for very cheap over our four months we left from cleveland we drove through south dakota wyoming utah oregon idaho arizona nevada and california not in that order some of my favorite experiences on that trip was hiking angels landing it's one of the scariest hikes in america and that's located in zion national park in utah i loved camping outside the grand tetons we had this really cool free campsite that just overlooked the mountains and i didn't even want to hike i was so mad ian made me hike every day i just wanted to sit there and cook and look at the mountains because it was so pretty i also love one of our campsites in mount hood oregon camping in general was really what i liked about this trip because those are the small moments that make everything so special and in those moments you get to reflect on all the cool things you saw so just remember to always enjoy what you're doing because i'm wishing right now that i was camping you know top of all that i loved seeing the grand canyon antelope canyon vegas and one of my all-time favorites was road tripping the coast of california seeing malibu up through big sur and then we ended up in san francisco this whole entire road trip was i mean a once-in-a-lifetime thing that everyone should either do alone or with their kids i know my mom did it with her parents when she was younger and it's definitely something that everybody remembers overall we really focused on national parks because this country has the best national parks ever my top five that we've been to are bryce zion yosemite arches and crater lake the interesting part is three of those are in utah so if you really love national parks and you've never seen anything like the pictures you've seen of utah i just recommend going there and road tripping utah because it is mind blowing so many americans out there are going to fight me on this but i believe the west coast kind of beats the east not necessarily the west coast but just the west in general has to me the most incredible views i've ever seen you can find that over here on the east coast i've been to a lot of eastern states i'm from the midwest in ohio i've lived in florida i'm currently in north carolina if you do want to see something that is truly world renowned i recommend going to vermont and new hampshire in the fall season because they have some of the world's best foliage we've lived in florida like i said so hitting up those natural springs swimming with manatees and visiting some of the best beaches in this nation is what florida's all about and of course guys the major cities i mean there's countless major cities in this country including new york chicago l.a austin there is so much more left to explore of this country i know that growing up i totally took it for granted i mean i went to thailand and philippines and southeast asia before i ever even went to utah or wyoming keep in mind how grateful you should be to live in this country if you have a car that car can take you anywhere so this is really just us encouraging you to get out and explore one of the most beautiful places in the entire world the usa coming up is number two indonesia known as the lost world of asia indonesia is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and it's the only place you could find a rhino orangutan elephant bear and tiger all in the same forest fun fact indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with over 273 million people just behind the united states indonesia is absolutely massive it's the world's largest island country by area and by number of islands with more than 18 000 islands oh and let's not forget indonesia is home to the world's largest lizard a real life dragon now onto places that we visited while in indonesia we went to jakarta only for a couple days and the one thing we do remember is it's a bustling city but they do have some luxury malls after jakarta we went over to bali we actually spent two months here and spent christmas in bali who would have thought a tropical christmas it was a good time but it was definitely different from those cold winters back in cleveland nicknamed the island of the gods bali is an exotic island filled with waterfalls volcanoes black sand beaches yoga retreats and more rice paddies than you can count fascinating thing about balinese culture is that they have a total of 11 names and they get it according to when they were born it was so confusing when we first arrived because we would meet over 20 wyons in one day later learned that wyon is the first born in a family i'm the fourth born so it is katut i would be katut in bali kuta chengu and seminyak are the hubs for nomads and foreigners because these villages are close to the airport and more westernized with beach clubs co-working spaces gyms and everything you need during your day-to-day life we decided to venture up an hour north from here and stayed in ubud for majority of our time in bali this was the cultural center of bali and the filming location of eat pray love you could find some of the cheapest homestays and airbnbs around this area we stayed in one for 12 dollars a night and that included breakfast this was with some locals and it was right near the most beautiful rice paddies by far the best thing you can do in bali is run a motorbike for only four dollars a day and cruise around the island around this area you can visit gorgeous waterfalls like our favorite tibu mana and if you go for sunrise you get the whole place to yourself which is just magical up north and ahmad was another crazy experience where we stayed right at the foot of mount again this is an active volcano that last erupted in 2019 just seeing this volcano from so many different viewpoints was astonishing we also ended up taking a boat ride with a local fisherman and caught mahi mahi this was absolutely nuts seeing the fishermen fight off these massive fish in such a small boat now on to the smaller islands surrounding bali you could visit the three gilly islands some are known for partying but we stayed on the chiller one called gilimano and swam offshore to see the underwater statues these things are creepy and fascinating all at the same time then you could hit up nusa penida which i consider to be the most adventurous island here you can see the famous t-rex beach called clinking videos and pictures don't do it justice because when you see this from above you will go speechless we went to clinking twice the reason for that is it's way less crowded in the morning and the only other people there are a ton of crazy monkeys we actually made the sketchy trek down to clinking beach and this is one of those travel memories that i will never forget because not only is it sketchy but it's also exhausting once you get down to the beach though the waves are massive so if you are a strong swimmer riding these waves was so much fun another great spot on nusa penida is called diamond beach here you literally walk on the side of a cliff to get down there but it's absolutely worth it because just look at this place nusa penida is also a famous place to go snorkeling and diving with manta rays unfortunately we got unlucky because they are usually there a year around but for the three or four days we were on the island they were nowhere to be found and i left the best for last if you're watching this right now please go to indonesia and do this tour we've said this numerous times in different videos but the best tour we've ever taken was the four day komodo island tour on this tour we boarded a boat with 20 different strangers from around the world and sailed the sea for four straight days visiting pink city and beaches remote uninhabited islands and finally hitting up komodo national park where you can see the biggest lizard in the world the komodo dragon these lizards are massive and can eat a full-grown deer there have been several humans that have been killed by these dragons on the island before so be careful but you should be good with your guide our favorite part about this tour was making lifelong friends drinking beers late into the night jumping off the boat and being totally off-grid in one of the most bio-diverse places in the world finally we're bringing you to number one the philippines we constantly get asked where is our favorite place in the world to travel and of course this is like an impossible question but more often than not we find ourselves answering this question by saying the philippines and why because it's more fun in the philippines that is the country's legitimate slogan i am not making this up and you're about to see why with over 7 000 islands but three of these islands have consistently been voted the best in the world by major travel publications these three islands are boracai palawan and sheragow boracay is home to one of the best beaches in the philippines which we've actually never been here but we're excited to go one day we have however been to palawan only two sections we've visited el nido and coron both are home to massive limestone rock formations that tower over these pristine waters the most popular thing to do on these islands is a boat tour we did the ultimate island hopping tour in coron and i think it ran us between 30 and 40 dollars per person which is just amazing value for what you get you embark on one of the most majestic adventures of your life while sailing through water that turns 50 different shades of blue we spent practically a whole day going to kaianga lake twin lagoon we swam at a shipwreck and there's actually a lot more on that list of all the spots in the philippines we've been to i think that this ultimate island tour gave us the most pretty views i know that's like a hard thing to say but i really think where we were in corona is the prettiest of all i don't know if it's my favorite but it's the most beautiful you don't need to spend too much time on carom cause there's actually not much to do on the mainland and after that you can just take a quick ferry from coron to the big island of palawan which is where el nido is in el nido you also have those island hopping tour adventures we were in a small town called bukhana beach it was about an hour from the touristy part of el nido here we met some of the most amazing people filipinos are extremely friendly they are all up in your business and all they want to do is help you and hang out and talk they speak almost perfect english and finally the third island that was voted one of the best to visit ish my personal favorite share gao sadly the philippines has just been hit by a typhoon and sharagao was drastically affected some of our favorite spots on the island are completely destroyed so we're gonna have some information in the description below that we hope you check out because this island has given us so much and we just want to be able to give back to it thanks guys and let's move on to why sharegow is so special it is the surfing capital of the philippines the government realized how many wave finders were coming there to surf and the government decided to brand it as the new bali which it kind of is it's the perfect way to explain shark out although i love bali it has become a bit touristy and kind of crowded sharagao still maintains that small island vibe with really just one stretch of restaurants and things to do but the amount of adventures you get to have on sharagao are endless starting with of course surfing this is one of the first places ian and i really tried surfing and we also did boogie boarding on the big waves to the right of cloud9 because we were not about to try surfing in the big waves but they have like four footer waves six foot waves it's a really good place to serve if you like to do that afterwards you can grab one of my favorite smoothie bowls ever at shaka i don't know if it's there right now because of the typhoon but it is like the best medieple and you can find shaka all over the philippines too just so you know there's plenty of tours that you can do off of share gow including the three island tour which we did and the sahoten cove tour people love the soho and cove tour because it reminds them of palawan with those limestone rocks basically implying that sheragow's the only island you need to see since it has a little bit of everything they also have that world famous rope swing that's surrounded by hundreds of lush palm trees you can explore caves see white sand beaches in the north and waterfalls honestly the list goes on and i really hope you get to see sharagao one day because it is glorious another spot that we love is cebu we actually went there and visited it again when we went back to the philippines we actually hit up the exact same spots which are immobile here you can swim with millions of sardines and this is one of only two spots in the world that you get to sew with sardines i know that sounds crazy because we think of sardines as like this yucky foo but it's really really magical once a team of marine conservatives declared the philippines as the geographic center of marine biodiversity in the world so it's really a paradise for underwater life and you can find this all over the philippines while you're swimming with the sardines you will see turtles please do not touch any of the wildlife this is a lesson i learned the hard way i was a little bit more ignorant back in the day and i touched a turtle you can be fined up to one thousand dollars and get jail time in the philippines they really take preserving their wildlife seriously which i appreciate um so yeah just don't do that please and one thing you have to do absolutely a hundred percent is canyoneered to kawasan falls kawasan falls is tears of waterfalls and you basically trek through a jungle swim through lagoons and jump off cliffs to get to the final waterfall it was an experience that i had never even heard of but has to be one of my all-time favorites in the world because if you know us we love water we love cliff jumping and it was just a day of absolute chaos and fun while you're in cebu make sure to hit up sikihor island it's one of our very special places because it's very chill not so crowded here they have an amazing cliff jump into the sea but while you're not adventuring there's just other things to do like snorkeling and relax i love relaxing it's a great chill island we've also visited destinations like bullhole seeing those chocolate hills and dumagetti there's a place there called the maldives of the philippines where you're going to see those houses on stilts and everywhere we've been in the philippines is worth visiting it's just up to you to decide which path you want to take and hey if you have the time go everywhere all right guys that's a wrap for this video sorry we haven't been posting that often lately we took a very much needed a few weeks off but we're back and have some amazing things coming your way don't forget to keep up with our day-to-day on instagram and if you got any value out of this video give it a thumbs up please subscribe and we will see you in the next one bye guys love you woot [Music]

Channel: Ian and Ana

Views: 253,469

Keywords: top travel tips, travel tips, best countries to visit, top 10, top 10 countries in the world, top 10 travel destinations, 10 places to visit, travel 2022, where should i travel, best travel destinations in the world, turkey, united states, indonesia, philippines, vietnam, thailand, bahamas, greece, malaysia, travel guide, travel, serbia, top travel destinations 2023, best countries to visit in 2023, 2023 travel, 2023 travel guide, where should i travel in 2023, travel destinations 2023

Id: ML2xtbIERPM

Length: 50min 21sec (3021 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 16 2022