We asked where were some of the most memorable places you visited because of SlowTrav/SlowTalk and you shared some amazing photos and stories with us. The moderators were hard-pressed to come up with only 12 finalists after seeing so many wonderful entries but after a couple of rounds of voting we've selected the photos and stories below. Each will be featured over the next year in our newsletter and each finalist will receive a premium membership.

Now it's your turn to decide the Grand Prize Winner. Voting starts today and will end on January 31st at 8pm EST. We're asking each member to vote once on their favorite photo and story as to why "SlowTrav sent me here." The winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful submissions! Let the voting begin!

Question:
Which photo below should win??

Choices:
1. Venasque
2. La Foce
3. Lerici
4. Portovenere
5. Ostia Antica
6. Coustellet Market
7. Cesky Krumlov
8. Col de Rousset
9. Santo Spirito at Dusk
10. Slot Canyon
11. Le Case Gialle
12. Plitvice National Park

 

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Vote for Number 1

We were in Aix-en-Provence in April 2011. I used our iPad to post Sainte Cecile les Vignes area? about where to go THE NEXT DAY!

So many SlowTravelers responded with great ideas. I could post many photos as a result of all of the wonderful recommendations.

Since I must chose one, it is Venasque. The Mistral was cold that day and the quaint beautiful village was virtually deserted. We had a great time exploring and had an afternoon tea at a little café.

Thanks to everyone for great ideas on short notice...I mean, really...less than 24 hours!

Cameron

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Vote for Number 2


This was actually a two-for-one from Slow Travel. First was the recommendation for the book, "The War in Val D'Orcia" and the second was the visit to the gardens at La Foce.

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Vote for Number 3


colleen--that looks like a winner to me. And funny but my ST connection to this photo involves you.
This was taken from our balcony at the Doria Park Hotel in Lerici, June 2008. I remember colleenk stayed there before we did. And Megan in Liguria helped us by recommending it, too.

As I look at my Italy photos it's hard to find many that don't have a connection to slow Trav

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Vote for Number 4

quote:

As I look at my Italy photos it's hard to find many that don't have a connection to slow Trav

Isn't that the truth Jan?!

And it was fellow STer and travel consultant Jim Zurer whose love of the Doria Park Hotel convinced me to stay there. I must have taken a dozen pictures of the lovely view from our room there.

And Megan's love of Portovenere (as well as Bob the Navigator) made visiting there while we stayed at the Doria Park Hotel a must do day trip. Pictured is the colorful port of Portovenere on a sunny September morning in September of 2007.

I have to say it's hard to pick just two photos. I have stunning photos of Sant'Antonio's surroundings recommended by Jane and Ken. Piemonte landscapes suggested by Diana and Misha. An Umbrian winery lauded by Marcia and David. The list goes on and on. Thanks Slow Travelers for all of your inspiring trip reports, photos and helpful answers to inquiries. You've made my travel life much richer!

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Vote for Number 5




When we started planning last year's trip to Europe, I had big ideas that ended up being condensed into something far more in keeping with the idea of slow travel. One of the things that changed was our original idea to go to Pompeii as a day trip from Rome - doable, but several hours on the train and a full day of walking around the scavi were probably not the best idea with a child in tow.

I think it was DDtraveller, in reply to one of my first ever posts on Slow Talk, who first suggested Ostia Antica, and I'm very glad we went there. A very easy trip out of town on the train, plenty of shade, few other tourists and fantastic ruins you can climb over and walk all around made for a great day out.

The photo was taken on 29 October 2010, from the top of the theatre in Ostia Antica. We're overlooking the stage (which would have had a back wall several stories high, and across to the Piazzale delle Corporazioni (the Square of the Guilds).

Thank you Slow Travel!

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Vote for Number 6

SLOW TRAVEL: The Bridge to Everywhere.
I joined Slow Travel to try and find more info on an unusual 400 year old stone bridge, near Lourmarin, Provence.
It turned out to be 'The Bridge to everywhere' in the Luberon area of Provence.

What a wonderful time my family and I had: from Gordes to Lourmarin, Rousillon to Isle sur La Sorgue, and on, this is a wonderful region of France.....made easy by the willing and unencumbered giving of advice and personal experiences of Slow Travel members.
Roz...you are so right when you say: "We know it will be tough to select from all the great SlowTrav-related places you may have been, but no more than two submissions per person, please.", but thanks for this opportunity

This is in the Sunday Paysan Marche in Coustellet just 12 hours after our arrival and we struck gold... thruout this market was food beyond compare...just about the best way to kick off a stay in this region.
Go there, eat, drink, see and love life!!!!!

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Vote for Number 7
This was from our summer trip this year to Prague. While posting to ask questions on Prague, I received several recommendations to go visit Cesky Krumlov. It would be a long day trip but people sang such high praise of the place that we decided it was a must. We were SOO happy we went. It was incredibly scenic and so different from other places we visited in western Europe.

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Vote for Number 8

My second photo, of the Col de Rousset in the Vercors region of France in June 2008, is also due to a suggestion from Linda Jones (SL Jones on ST).

With overcast and threatening skies, we decided to follow Linda's driving route north into the Vercors. Off by 9:00am along the D538 up a series of hills to Bourdeaux, pausing for a brief walk around the quiet village streets before continuing up the D156 over the Col de la Chaudiere and down into Saillans where we stopped for coffee. We started talking to a young local man at the next table and he suggested, instead of our planned out-and-back route, that we do a long loop by driving west over to Mirabel et Blacon, almost to Crest ("Cree") and turn up into the Vercors. We took his advice and drove up the winding D70 past Beaufort-sur-Gervanne, Plan de Baix, over the Col de Bacchus, up past La Vacherie and over the Col de la Bataille, Col de Portelle, Col de Rama, Col de la Chau and into Vassieux-en-Vercors where we stopped for lunch.

Just outside Vassieux-en-Vercors there is a Memorial Museum to the Resistance built onto the mountainside. The Vercors was a region of extensive Resistance activity and savage German reprisals in the months and year after D-Day.

And I notice something else in all the small towns and villages back in the Drôme during the rest of our time in the region. In many places, sometimes outside the town hall, but often just along a stone wall or on the side of a building there are memorial plaques to local citizens who died, not in combat, but by execution on that spot or deportation to death camps by the Germans in 1944 and 1945. Such a beautiful part of the world to have experienced such brutality.

After lunch, we continued on over the Col St. Alexis, the spectacular Col de Rousset (photo) and down into the town of Die ("Dee") where we stopped and purchased two bottles of the distinctive local dry sparkling wine, Crémant de Die, which we opened at the celebration of the baptism of our first grandchild on July 6, 2008.

The experiences of the day remain clear and fresh in my mind and I am sure they will do so for the rest of my life.

Thanks again, Linda.

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Vote for Number 9

Oh what a challenge to narrow my photo choices down to one or two. I don't get to travel often, but SlowTrav has changed my approach to travel in a very positive way. I wrote a blog entry back in Feb/09 about the SlowTrav community in which, among other things, I said: "I would never have made my October solo "pilgrimage" to Florence had it not been for the knowledge and encouragement of that community. The women who have gone on their own solo journeys and shared their experiences on the
ST board, and on their blogs were an especially wonderful inspiration!"

That solo trip in Oct/08 was an amazing time for me, my heart and soul were renewed and rejuvenated and expanded. This is a photo taken one evening from the window of my rental apartment. I had such a beautiful view of Santo Spirito and the Oltrarno skyline...

(If you want to read the full entry, it is here.)

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Vote for Number 10

Ruth, I Love that photo, and ST was very helpful for us too in planning our trip to Arizona. Someone recommended the slot canyons in Page, and I had no idea what a slot canyon was, but I'm SOOO glad we went - thanks to whoever first introduced me to that term!

On the way up to Page we drove thru a blinding snowstorm where the snow was blowing sideways, but once we got to Page the weather had cleared. The entrance for the slot canyon was closed and we were told it was because of the snow/rain - flash flooding is a very real possibility. Luckily I'd saved a brochure from our hotel and called - and yes, the tours were getting ready to begin! Thanks to all who helped with this trip!

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Vote for Number 11

Not sure if I made the deadline or not, but of course as I procrastinated I have been thinking of the many wonderful places I have discovered through or enjoyed along with other STers.

Le Case Gialle, the welcoming agriturismo near Gualdo Cattaneo of which I had read many enthusiastic comments in the Slow Travel reviews (it is a "SlowTrav Favorite") before reserving my balcony apartment, is one of the most memorable, partly because every time I think of my stay there the gentling fragrance of lavender wafts through my brain, and conversely every time I smell lavender I now think of Umbria. I had a hard time deciding which picture to use, but since I can almost catch the mingled scents of rosemary, thyme, lavender, bay leaf and olive through this photo of the path through their herb gardens to the swimming pool, I hoped you could too.

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Vote for Number 12

Well, I've been following fellow STers for a long, long time so deciding what to share has been difficult; however, my first entry is comes from Plitvice National Park in Croatia. Ann from Hawaii and moderator Terry shared with me the magic of this country and help to inspire our trip there. Many people miss what we think is a must see part of that country as they concentrate on Dubrovnik and the magnificent coast. The area of Plitvice saw much of the terrible fighting of the war in the 1990's but the park itself was spared. It is magnificent.

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