More lists – for 2012 though. Here’s the round up of the best places to see and be seen: Some are about pristine, untouristed locations, others have been chosen as best-for-your-buck; and then there’s the offbeat, off-trail adventures. There’s something for everyone, local or afar, and as a special treat, I’ve added a section on great rail journeys for fellow train lovers.

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel for 2012

Voted for by a panel of inhouse travel experts, these locations were chosen based on topicality, excitement, value and what LP is calling that “special X-factor.”

1. Uganda
2. Myanmar (Burma)
3. Ukraine
4. Jordan
5. Denmark: Tops the ‘quality of life’ list and perceived as the coolest/happiest/best-looking place on earth, it’s that hygge factor (a sense of warmth and contentment).
6. Bhutan
7. Cuba
8. New Caledonia
9. Taiwan
10. Switzerland

Budget Travel’s Bang-for-the-Buck Destinations for 2012

The world’s new best-value destinations including perennial, family-friendly favorites, bucket-list standbys made suddenly affordable, and overlooked underdogs ready for their turn in the global spotlight – all with an eye toward savings.

1. Azores
2. Egypt
3. San Diego, CA USA
4. Athens, Greece
5. Belize
6. San Antonio, TX USA
7. Taipai, Taiwan
8. Poland
9. Kansas City, MO USA
10. Maritime Canada

Budget Travel’s 12 Best Places You’ve Never Heard of

The best secret hideaways off the grid, and out of this world for your traveling pleasure.

1. Lord Howe Island, Australia
2. Saint-Sauvant, France
3. Keahiakawelo, Lanai, Hawaii USA
4. Sucre, Bolivia
5. Tusheti, Georgia
6. Eastern Antioquia, Colombia
7. Verduno, Italy
8. Doe Bay, WA USA
9. Wuppertal, South Africa
10. Namje, Nepal
11. Buffalo, WY USA
12. Iles de la Madeline, Senegal

National Geographic’s Traveler Must-Do Best of the World 2012

Some are exotic, some remote, some wish-list worthy, and some places have experienced a renaissance – the world’s must-travel-to destinations for 2012.

1. Iceland
2. Koh Lipe, Thailand
3. Dresden, Germany
4. Istria, Croatia
5. North Colombia
6. Virunga Volcanoes
7. Costa Brava
8. Sonoma, CA USA
9. Muskoka, Ontario, Canada
10. Oman
11. London, England UK
12. Guatemala
13. Sri Lanka
14. Greece
15. Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
16. New Zealand
17. Panama
18. Peru
19. Pittsburgh, PA USA
20. Mongolia

National Geographic’s Traveler Best Adventure Destinations for 2012

Just when it seemed impossible to find unwalked, unskiied, untrekked, un-humaned places anywhere… Cosmic happenings make a well-trodded planet feel full of new frontiers.

1. Ski and Snowboard Mammoth Mountain, CA USA
2. Raft the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers, ID USA
3. Mountain Bike Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Snorkel the Ningaloo Coast, Australia
5. Surf Todos Santos, Baja, Mexico
6. Climb Mustagata, China
7. Explore Maya Culture, Belize
8. Kayak Narragansett Bay, RI USA
9. Hike Newfoundland, Canada
10. Canoe the Susquehanna River Water Trail, Allegheny Mountains, PA USA

The Society of International Railway Travelers Best Train Journeys for 2012

Who can resist the lore and romance of the great transcontinental train adventure? It’s always been on my list of things to do. Here are 27 favorite rail routes.

1. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) // Europe
2. Rovos Rail Pride of Africa // Africa
3. Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express // Europe
4. Maharajas’Express // Asia
5. Royal Scotsman // Europe
6. Royal Canadian Pacific // North America
7. Eastern & Oriental Express // Asia
8. Danube Express // Europe
9. Deccan Odyssey // Asia
10. Shangri-La Express // Asia
11. Glacier Express // Europe
12. Bergen Railway // Europe
13. Flam Railway // Europe
14. Bernina Express // Europe
15. Hiram Bingham // South America
16. Andean Explorer // South America
17. El Transcantábrico // Europe
18. Blue Train // Africa
19. British Pullman // Europe
20. Rocky Mountaineer // North America
21. Canadian // North America
22. Palace on Wheels // Asia
23. Darjeeling Himalayan Toy Train // Asia
24. Al-Andalus // Europe
25. Sunlander // Australia/New Zealand
26. Indian Pacific // Australia/New Zealand
27. Ghan // Australia/New Zealand

Where are you headed for R&R in 2012?

Images: All photos are owned and/or under copyright by their respective sites. Please click on images to see full slideshows and credit information.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Albert Einstein

How about that – Einstein and I have something in common.

Some of the most interesting finds I made in 2011 were random – and local – discovered while walking around the city. As the world struggles through economic challenges, political uprisings and figuring out what to do with occupy-ers, there’s always something new to find and explore from the mainstream to the fringes. Good thing too.

In chronological post order – my 2011 discoveries…

1 > Bard Olympics

Since I penned A celebration of Shakespeare: 38 plays in 38 languages, one dropped. I’ll leave it to you to figure out where I went wrong. Get booking, looks fantastic – maybe the productions will travel.

2 > Happy Smappy

My quest to research the state of happiness continues after discovering that chasing that elusive emotion may be more harmful than we thought.

3 > Cartesian order

How do you keep millions of people, places and vehicles mixing it up on a 12- x 2-mile island, without imploding? And keep a city open to future development? Grids baby.

4 > Politics, Italian-style

Italians proclaimed a big “No” to Silvio Berlusconi’s government and four big “Sí’s” to referendums. The vote may have been the biggest turning point in Italian government in 20 years – leading to Berlusconi’s november resignation.

5 > Adieu Barnes

This year we bid adieu to the fabulous Barnes collection housed in its historic home in lower Merion, PA. While the artwork is being moved into a new museum in Philadelphia, we’ve lost a completely personal way to experience Barnes’ fantastic and eclectic collection.

6 > NYPL @100

Why does an extensive, big-city, free library system covering three boroughs work so well? Find out as the New York Public Library celebrates 100 years of education, research and entertainment for millions of New Yorkers.

7 > Wrong Turn

The buildup to Hurricane Irene was endless, and the preparation – sometimes over the top. Irene shut down major cities on the East Coast, turning them into ghost towns. With all the attention focused there, the powerful Nor’Easter that followed was underestimated.

8 > Taking Root

Urban farming made a huge leap this year in NYC with the sprouting of many new and inventive plots in developing microcommunites. Uptown, downtown and into the boroughs, local restaurants were the beneficiaries of some of the freshest ingredients restaurants have seen in a long time.

9 > Onesies Rule

With only one more numeric occurrence remaining for another 100 years, this year number lovers latched on a string of “ones” in search of mystical and spiritual narratives.

10 > Spinning DUMBO

Jane’s Carousel has finally been moved to its new home in DUMBO: Situated beautifully between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It seems fitting that one national treasure spins among many other historic New York landmarks.

Onward to 2012.

What was your best discovery in 2011?

Way back when I first began writing the curious g, I wrote a post about a great book, a travel essay, called Shadows Across the Sahara by John Hare.

I happened upon an interview that Mr Hare did with NPR, and some video of his journey. How timely as I’m about to reread the book about Hare’s recreation of Hans Vishner’s 1906 amazing camel caravan across the Sahara. Hare made his trek on Pasha, his white camel.

Shadows Across the Sahara is out of print, but AbeBooks.com is a fabulous resource, if you’re interested in picking it up.

Listen to John Hare’s how and why story here. Download video and other files here.

Hans Vishner’s 1906 expedition map. Hare reversed the journey: starting in Nigeria and ending his trek in Tripoli. Map: © 2002 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Star date 9.10.11: On September 8, 1966, the first regular episode of Gene Roddenberry’s TV series Star Trek aired, launching one of the greatest sci-fi franchises in TV and film history.

For true Trekkies who know most everything about Star Trek, there are few surprises in space.com’s infographic that details the series’ first 45 years. But the all-inclusive graphic does show the franchise details in relation to real space travel, and suggests how real life influenced fiction.

Logical.

Image source: SPACE.com

*Quote from Journey To Babel, episode #2.10, written by D.C. Fontana: “It seemed the logical thing to do at the time.” spoken by Sarek.

One of my favorite mountains that I’ve never climbed, K2, is in the news this week. Known as the “Savage Mountain” because of its treacherous ascent to the summit, K2 notched another first this week.

Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner reached K2’s summit along with three others from the National Geographic team. She is the third (or second, there is conflicting information here) woman to climb all 8,000ers, but definitely the first woman to climb all 14 of the world’s tallest peaks without supplemental oxygen, joining an elite club with the likes of American mountaineer Ed Viesturs.

Kaltenbrunner ascended K2 on the north ridge, a longer and more difficult climb than that on the Pakistani side, and counts only a handful of successful attempts.

Glückwünsche Gerlinde, a major achievement, especially for women!

Listen to the complete story on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Image from National Geographic, photograph by Darek Zaluski

It was a perfect Bronx Zoo day on a not-so-gorgeous spring Sunday. The animals, especially the big cats, were all about being seen. The polar bear was a performing fool, and the male peacocks were more than happy to strut their stuff – a worthwhile trip (and the bus was even on time).

As the song goes: It’s a cast you have to come and see…At the zoo…

Photos © 2011 Janet Giampietro. Lyrics respectfully borrowed from Simon and Garfunkel’s At the Zoo.

Little did I know that my curiosity would lead me to not one, but three posts about ducks, rubber or otherwise:

• If it looks like a duck…
• If it quacks like a duck… , and now,
• Moby-Duck: Journalist Donovan Hohn talks on NPR’s Fresh Air about his new book.

Hat trick.

“In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,000 rubber ducks and other bath toys that were headed from China to the U.S. Currents took them, and news reports said some may have eventually reached Maine and other shores on the Atlantic.

Thirteen years later, Hohn undertook a mission: He wanted to track the movements of the wayward ducks, from the comfort of his own living room.”

Little did Hohn know that his fascination would take him on an odyssey from Seattle to China, and onto the Arctic. Listen as Hohn talks about the environmental issues that the duck dump generated, and ways of coping with the endless curiosity that his journey created.

Must read book!

Photo: Rubber duckies in the East River / NYC © 2008 Janet Giampietro

I’ll take Manhattan. And apparently so will 1,629,053 of my closest friends.

Thanks to chief engineer and surveyor John Randel’s proposed plan, known as the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, the foundation for Manhattan’s future growth was put in place. The original grid illustrated 11 major avenues and 155 crosstown streets. It’s the map that made New York.

The Cartesian solution has proved extremely resilient: accommodating the transition from horses to motor vehicles and even the placement of our green, urban oasis: Central Park.

The easy-to-navigate street grid provides developers, inhabitants, and tourists with order, access and predictability.

So much happening in so little space

Manhattan is the oldest and most densely populated borough of New York, consisting of nearly 23 square miles. Here are some Manhattan facts:

• Settled > 1624
• Land area > 22.96 sq mi (59.5 km)
• Population > 1,629,054*

In this NYTimes interactive graphic, you can compare John Randel‘s 1811 proposal to the modern-day Manhattan map.

Rectilinear nonbelievers abound. Henry James condemned the grid a century ago as a “primal topographic curse.” Tony Hiss, author of In Motion: The Experience of Travel, said that while the grid contributes orderliness, “I still think it distances us from our natural surroundings…”

The grid is necessary and clearly allowed the city to develop. But for me, some of the most interesting spots (and the best places to get lost and wander freely) are the off-grids: Broadway at 23 Street, Waverly and Waverly, Little West 12 Street, and West 4 Street as it crosses 10, 11 and 12 Streets. Everyone has their favorite off-grid place.

A teacher in art school always reminded me: remember the importance of “breaking the grid.”

Map image: From got geoint?

* as of 1 July 2009 census

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.
Shakespeare :: Troilus and Cressida, Act I / Scene ii

Here’s what the Globe is doing. How great is this?

To celebrate the 2012 London Olympics, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre will present each of William Shakespeare’s 38 plays in a different language. The six-week theater season will begin appropriately on 23 April 2012 – the Bard’s birthday.

Here’s a sampling of the Globe’s 2012 season (at this writing):

• Julius Caesar in Italian;
• King Lear in Australian Aboriginal languages;
• The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu;
• The Tempest in Arabic;
• The Two Gentleman of Verona in Shona;
• Titus Andronicus in Cantonese;
• Troilus and Cressida in Maori.

The season will feature Shakespeare’s other plays performed in Lithuanian, Spanish, Mandarin, Greek and British Sign Language, and more announcements to come. Companies from around the world will participate. This is described as “the most ambitious multilingual Shakespeare project ever attempted.” I’ll say.

Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe’s Artistic Director, explains: “It has long been recognized that Shakespeare, as well as a great playwright, has become an international language, and has proved one of the most life-affirming and barrier transcending ways that people can speak to one another.”

Here’s an interview Dromgoole did with BBC Newshour. It features a multi-lingual recitation of the first line of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. Listen up.

I wouldn’t want to be in London for the Olympics, but how fabulous if they took the multi-lingual Shakespeare 38 on the road! A subtle hint to the Globe.

Image: This original image of the first folio cover is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. Illustration: © 2011 Janet Giampietro

With no working experience in the travel industry, I can’t predict 2011 travel trends, but I can put up my wish list and hope that most of my future destinations don’t fall into the mass-travel categories. I want off the beaten path.

While the travel industry has expanded the definition of adventure travel to “experiential travel,” for me, it’s always about being a traveler, not a tourist. Package it as you will.

The New York Times has chosen 41 destinations for 2011, I went for 11 in ’11. If I had nothing but time and money (and a huge supply of energy), here’s where you’d find me.

1 > Libya: Exploring the ruins of Leptis Magna and trekking in the Acacus Mountains
2 > Egypt: Camping and trekking in the Black/White Desserts
3 > Antarctica: Exploring and onshore camping on the Antarctic Peninsula
4 > Eastern Turkey: Hiking in the dramatic Kaçkar Mountains
5 > Basilicata, Italy: Trekking in the Lucanian Dolomites through ancient rock-cliff villages, lakes and moors
6 > Greenland: Dog sledding and searching for the unicorn-tusked narwhal in the great northwest
7 > Mali: Attending Festival au Désert, camping, camel-riding and checking out Timbuktu too
8 > Ennedi Massif, Chad: Here’s a guy who got to this fantastic, remote place, so it can be done!
9 > Iceland: A little hiking, looking for Arctic foxes and puffin-watching in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve
10 > Assam, India: Game viewing on the back of an elephant, searching for endangered tigers in Kaziranga National Park
11 > Chile/Argentina: Patagonia adventure trekking in the peaks of Fitzroy-Chalten, and some knoshing in Buenos Aires

What places are on your list? Where will your travels take you?