I always wanted to see the wild side of Japan. When thinking about it all I see in my mind are the big cities, but there must be incredible natural areas waiting to be seen.
What about you?
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Good question, as an orchid enthusiast, the places I would like to go most would probably be Ecuador, Madagascar, and Mount Kinabalu. That being said, I would love to go somewhere in the Mediterranean to see Ophrys and Serapias species as well.
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I would love to go to Central/South America, since the insects there are phenomenal, also it has the White Witch, my personal favourite.
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Wildflowers in the Balkans, redwoods, forest and ocean life Pacific coast of U.S. / B.C., Alaska, Scottish, Irish or other peat bogs in that area, high desert in the U.S., Peru, Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Halifax, the Alps in spring, Yucatan, East Asia, Iran/ Iraq/Jordan. I guess I have a lot of interests. My main reasons for these choices are either flowering plants or birds (pelagic too) but I’m an equal-opportunity observer.
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I’ve always been fascinated by South and Central America, pretty much all of it. I’ve been there for a little bit but would love to see so much more. The rainforest and mountains with their huge variety of bird and insect species, the tepui with crazy sundews and pitcher plants, etc.
Closer to home I would like to visit Newfoundland to see the seabird colonies.
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The best part about nature, in my opinion, is that nature is everywhere. Bugs everywhere! Plants everywhere! To date I’ve observed about 5000 species and yet still every time I go out I manage to find something new. So while exotic locations certainly offer the prospect of an above-average amount of new things (and oh how I love finding new things), and while it would be cool to see some of the weird things that I’ve only ever seen in other people’s photos, if I could travel anywhere in the world to see nature I would sooner prioritize any destination that lets me join up with my fellow iNat peeps and nature-loving friends. Because weird tropical bugs are awesome, but nothing quite beats iNatting with like-minded folks.
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Thanks to the inspiration of old National Geographic, I’d say the tepui country. Not much of a tropics person, but that seems like it would be an amazing place to botanize. More realistically? Newfoundland, the Gaspe, and the Bruce Peninsula to scoop up specialty edaphic flora.
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I would love to go to Bruce Peninsula!
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I would love to thoroughly explore the redwood forests of california, the amazon rainforest (or any rainforest for that matter), borneo, and the sonoran desert, though I’d love to go all over the world to see new things. That all said I also firmly agree with the sentiment that you don’t need to go anywhere grandiose to see something you haven’t before. I’ve seen animals in my front yard that I haven’t seen anywhere else.
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The challenge with going to the Bruce Peninsula (speaking as someone who lives a couple of hours away) is that in season you need to go every 2 weeks or so as the different flowering cycles kick off. Less of an issue for some of the ferns, but still a challenge.
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My spot would be South Georgia. Not Savannah and the peanut farms but the sub-Antarctic Island.
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Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, because of the abundant shells washed up there.
And if you could magically make the civil war go away, the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines. For the same reason.
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I am very keen to visit Antartica!!
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yeah if money or social/cultural/military factors weren’t an issue, i’d totally roam all over all the deserts in the Middle East and visit every Mediterranean ecosystem and also go all over the deciduous forest in N china and siberia which is the analog of the one in the eastern US. And Patagonia for sure. And heck, just about everywhere else too. Why not?
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I would take your question literally and go into one of the huge oceans that are supposed to be in the Earth’s mantle. Life is so tenacious that I would expect there to be things down there. Might need an electron microscope to see them, but I’m guessing there are some unique things down there.
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I’d be another heading to Central & South America, probably swinging by the Caribbean for good measure (so @psyllidhipster could always join this hypothetical expedition that seems to be forming). For me, it’s the stunning wasp species (over the past year or so, we’ve been able to push a ton of records toward species within the paper wasps, particularly the genus Polistes). I swear I keep hopping between a different favorite species every few weeks. I also happen to love the food (pupusas, arepas colombianas, mofongo, plátanos maduros, …). Seriously, if you haven’t had any of those, or mamey zapote fruit, you’re missing out.
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The southern half of South America
To include a area up the coast to Columbia
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I would definitely spend more time on the northern California coast. I love it up there and I don’t get to go often enough.
I think there’s also something to be said for places closer to home that are not necessarily spectacular or unique or fantastically biodiverse, but are just special places to you and so you’re drawn to them for that reason. I live in New Zealand now but I grew up in New South Wales, Australia, and there are a couple of wild places there that I just love and that are really special to me. Because I am passionate about these places I am drawn to find out as much as I can about what wild things live there. So if I could travel anywhere, these places would always be at the top of my list.
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Galapagos, but before the touristy boom…
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if we can go back in time i’d go to california in ~ 1400 over anything else. Or even the ice age
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