Ten Science Fiction Dream Vacations

June 1st, 2009

Last fall I had a date with a woman who shortly thereafter became my girlfriend (and eventually my ex-girlfriend, but that’s another story, and less interesting).    I knew that we would get along when I asked her if she had a dream vacation   and she said to me:

“Yes, I want to go to Dracula’s Castle in Romania.”

Bingo!   That’s a good answer, and a trip I would love to take, too.   Many people have some generic idea of a dream vacation that involves Paris, a beach somewhere tropical, the Grand Canyon, but I don’t think those sorts of vacations are really personally satisfying very often.   They’re a sort of generic lowest common denominator for vacations.   Nearly everyone would like those trips, but I doubt few would mark them as highlights of a lifetime.

I think the best vacations involve following a passion.   Going to a tattoo convention, New York for Broadway shows, a world Esperanto Congress, a giant chess tournament like the U.S. Open, taking tank driving lessons, driving a race car on a racetrack, participating in a dinosaur dig, playing on the most famous golf   course of your dreams, whatever your passion.   Well, my passion is science fiction and closely related things, like fantasy and horror.   We’ll lump all those together under the heading of   “science fiction” for the purposes of this list.

1. Attending one of the better science fiction conventions.   The World Science Fiction Convention and other cons like Comic-Con, Dragon Con, World Fantasy Con, media-oriented cons focusing on particular TV shows or movies (e.g. Star Trek or Buffy), and similar events like The Amazing Meeting AKA TAM, which I imagine would be a lot of fun and include a lot of fans of science fiction.

2. Seattle, Washington.   Home of the Science Fiction Museum where you can check out Captain Kirk’s original command chair, many famous science fiction movie props like Darth Vader’s mask, and more.   Unfortunately a couple of hours will exhaust the museum.   One big plus about Seattle is its cache of used bookstores that feature a lot of speculative fiction, and with good timing you can catch a reading by a famous science fiction writer at the Elliot Bay Books.

3. Florida.   Yes, Florida.   It’s a bit cheesy, but I like theme parks and there are a lot of them in Orlando catering to us.   For instance, there is Universal Studios with many science fiction themed rides, and its Islands of Adventure with the Dueling Dragons roller coaster and costumed superheroes running around.   Over at Epcot Center there is a Mission: Space simulator that is pretty damn cool, if it doesn’t make you sick, as well as a lot of future-oriented exhibits.   Then you can drive over to the Daytona Beach area for the Kennedy Space Center.   Bonus points for scheduling your vacation to attend a shuttle launch, although those are difficult to predict to the day.

4. Hawaii’s Big Island.   This is a place that doesn’t directly cater to the science fiction fan, but it’s a must do vacation in my book.   You have Volcano National Park which is other worldly and the closest thing to Mordor you can imagine, or smell.   There are also the Observatories on top of Mauna Kea and there are tours that will take you up there and give you a star party.   Then there are ocean activities that include whale watching and submarines, where you can remember Star Trek IV and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

5. Washington D.C., primarily to visit the Smithsonian Museums.   For the science fiction fan, the Air and Space Museum is the first stop.   There you can touch a piece of the moon, see retired instruments from the Hubble Space Telescope, and gawk at one of the Hollywood models of the starship Enterprise.   The other museums will satisfy your dinosaur and knights in armor needs.   Head over to nearby Baltimore if Edgar Allen Poe is your man.

6. New Zealand for Lord of the Rings stuff.   There are tours you can take that lets you visit the Shire and other movie locations.   Sounds like they’ll even outfit you with costumes and props, too!   I’ve heard it’s a high-quality, interesting experience.

7. New York for the Hayden Planetarium, the American Natural History Musuem, science fiction/fantasy/horror themed shows (does Spamalot count?!   I want to see it…), author events, and more.   Just a lot of cool stuff and shops in New York, which I haven’t seen enough of.

8. The United Kingdom, for Stonehenge, Loch Ness, various haunted places (take a tour).   I’m sure a long list could be made of cool stuff to see.

9. Los Angles for some of the same or similar theme parks as in Orlando (e.g. Universal Studios), plus Hollywood and costumed characters outside the Chinese theater there, Griffith Observatory, and perhaps other irregular events like conventions.   Actors are more likely to be plentiful as convention guests in southern California.

10.   We’ll conclude with the ex-girlfriend’s pick: Dracula’s Castle, and throw in castles of Europe more generally.   I would love to go for Halloween with a package that included a high-quality Dracula-themed Halloween party.

Las Vegas nearly made the list on the strength of the resurrected Star Trek Experience, but it will apparently not be at full power until 2010 (unless Scotty works a miracle).   San Franciso has its oddities like the Winchester Mystery House and a lot of great science fiction bookstores.   The Catacombs under Paris are really pretty cool, and Paris does have its other attractions, but seems weak for a science fiction vacation.   Other near misses include various semi-famous haunted hotels, places with mystery lights or other regular UFO activity, camping trips in Bigfoot country, and other assorted world weirdness.   Hitting the International Space Station is beyond the means of most of us, alas.   There are a lot of great workshops of various lengths to improve at a particular skill, such as writing (Clarion West), astronomy (Launch Pad), but these are more like work than vacations and it can be difficult to secure admittance.

I’m sure I haven’t exhausted this topic, and I’ve done most of the trips above, so I’m always looking for ideas.   I have a lot of frequent flier miles to spend.   I’d love to expand this list into 100 places for science fiction fans to go before they die.

What’s your dream vacation?

Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , ,

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.