If I had a dollar for every time a friend or family member asked us that…well, we’d probably have enough to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks (those things are pricey!). But seriously, that seems to be the thing we are asked most often. We don’t mind, of course, as we are pretty much always thinking about the next trip, and the one after that, and the one after that…and we love talking travel.

Which has made this spring and summer a bit tough, as we went through a period of unemployment for one of us, and job upheaval for the other (massive reorg/layoffs). The months of uncertainty and depleting budget meant we could not with any confidence make any plans at all, beyond “someday…”

So it was with great relief that a new job was secured last month, and while the other job situation is still a bit weird, things appear to be stable enough to make our late summer travel plans.

When people ask where we want to go next, we sometimes joke “everywhere”. And that’s mostly true. But of course, there are always a few places that come to mind each time we start planning in earnest.

When we first started traveling together, after our honeymoon, we chose places, mostly cities, that were fairly “traditional” for Americans to visit. London, Paris, Dublin, Venice. Our family and friends didn’t question why we went to any of these. Lots of people have been to those places, and for good reason. They are fun and beautiful and have sights we all know about and love to see.

But for the past few years, we have sought out places that were just a little more exotic, or adventurous. I was thinking about that as I posted the TBT post yesterday, because it was really Morocco that started us on our more “adventurous” path with travel.

Each year we consider going back to Europe, planning one of those “easy” trips again. In fact, I have a spreadsheet with plans for two different European trips fully researched, and yet…

…something speaks to us, and urges us towards the more exotic destinations, the less common. I won’t say the road less traveled, because where we’ve selected for this year is VERY well traveled. In fact, it’s one of the most visited cities in the world.

It’s walkable, exotic, beautiful and inexpensive. From what we can tell from all the travel videos we’ve been watching for our research, it will be a very, very delicious city, too. And it’s the only city that spans two continents.

Have you guessed it yet? Here’s a hint: