My Top 10 Countries! (VIDEO)

I’m so excited to have been asked about my favorite countries from BuzzFeed and Bring Me! It was definitely tough, but here goes!

Back in November I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting the BuzzFeed studios in Los Angeles to meet with their producers and talk about travel. It was a blast and they certainly didn’t have to twist my arm for me to open up and start yapping about my journeys (I’m sure most of my friends and co-workers wish I’d shut up about travel!) We talked about everything you could think of regarding world travel, from how my passion began, to tips for other travelers. BuzzFeed also asked me to break down my Top 10 Travel Destinations, and that’s what they ended up using for this final piece.

It was definitely tough to just pick out ten, since I have at least a few dozen favorites. A few honorable mentions that didn’t make the list of ten: Eritrea, Nauru, Tuvalu, Jordan and Benin. Come to think of it, there are so many more!

I’ve been waiting for months to see the final product, and the video was finally released Sunday, April 7th. What a treat! They did a great job editing and producing the piece, and most of the photos and videos you see in the piece were taken by me. I’d like to thank Tiffany and the folks at BuzzFeed and Bring Me! for including me in their content. There are so many more well-seasoned travelers than I, so I feel really fortunate to have been asked to participate.

Finally, I’d like to address a couple of the comments the video has received, understandably, about Brunei, a country that’s been in the news lately for its laws and policies regarding gay people. The truth is, if I refused to visit every country whose policies and laws (and even human rights violations) that I didn’t agree with, there wouldn’t be many countries to choose from! Just because I travel to places like North Korea and Venezuela doesn’t mean I support or endorse their government’s actions and ideals. I believe you can still travel to a place to spend time with their good citizens, try their food, admire their landscape and most of all, to learn and to expand your mind and heart–even if it means taking note of the things you don’t agree with (for example, I’m astounded by how many countries don’t even share our same freedoms of the press!) If we stopped traveling to any place whose leaders actions went against our personal beliefs, there wouldn’t be many places to go. Thanks for understanding.

I’d love your comments (and shares) on the video, too!