What's on Your Travel Life List?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream."

Mark Twain is said to have penned those prophetic words years ago when travel to distant places was by ship. A wanderer himself, always seeking new experiences, Twain often wrote about the joy of discovery -- places, people, ideas. Discovery is what fires the imagination and warms us when we can no longer roam, he said in Innocents Abroad. Travel is a process of discovery, as much a journey of self-discovery as of exploring new landscapes, which ranks it high on the life lists that are so popular now. You've heard of them, important things to do before you die. Everyone has a life list these days, from Oprah to my 8-year old neighbor. (Her list runs heavily to Disney: go to Disney World, sleep in Cinderella's castle, go to Disney World again ...)

I saw a great book in my local bookstore recently, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List by Patricia Schultz ($13.57 on Amazon). For those who prefer to travel closer to home, Ms. Schultz has also complied 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die ($11.97 on Amazon).

The world's wonders exist well beyond the current vacation hot spot, Schultz reminds us. She writes with passion about unforgettable travel destinations. In choosing her list, she says, "the common denominator I chose was a simple one: that each place impress upon the visitor some sense of the earth's magic, integrity, wonder and legacy." On her list: Oregon's Lewis & Clark Trail; the Alhambra in Andalusia, Spain; the Great Wall of China; Ipanema Beach; Oaxaca's Saturday market; Jordan's lost city of Petra; Venice from a gondola; bungee-jumping into a New Zealand gorge; the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Wrote St. Augustine of Hippo in ancient times, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page." There are timeshares in every corner of the globe, everywhere you want to travel. What's holding you back?