Mountains or ocean? What's your favorite?

Whenever you look at just about anywhere that people love to travel to there are normally only 2 major landmarks that seem to dominate the decision to go there and that is amazing mountains or a beach of some sort. This is the reason why tourism to Kansas and Minnesota aren't exactly big programs but Colorado and Florida definitely are. To be fair to Minnesota, I've been there a couple of times and they have some pretty amazing forests but sorry guys, otherwise the scenery is pretty bleh, and it's also too damn cold there. Kansas, well, Kansas is farms and football and I don't think even the people that live in Kansas would be offended by me saying that.

Whenever people decide to go somewhere they tend to be looking for some sort of natural wonder that is the mainstay as to why they go there.

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Beaches are almost certainly number one as a factor as to why people decide to go somewhere. These idyllic locations can be found all over the world and thankfully, a lot of the are in countries that are actually very inexpensive to travel to just by pure luck. Sure people might immediately think of Bora Bora, Hawaii, or something like Seychelles when they see beaches like this and yes, they have them there but there are literally thousands of other locations around the world that look the same and cost next to nothing to visit.

For me, I spent a great many of my years seeking out the perfect beaches and I think I have found most of them from a budget point of view. Basically if you go anywhere in Central America, the Caribbean, and most of South East Asia, you don't have to look very very far to find beaches like this. In many places like Thailand you can actually stay in a bungalow with this view being your front porch for just $20 a night.

Then we have the other side of things, which after decades of travel I actually prefer over beaches, probably because of over exposure.

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These days I find that I prefer the nature that surrounds giant mountain ranges and especially the ones that due to elevation are covered with snow at the top, even in summer. The spots that stick out most in my life as far as ultimate beauty of mountainous regions are concerned is probably the Banff area in Canada. Unfortunately, this area is very expensive and also quite distant. This is one of the major problems with all mountainous areas unfortunately. They tend to be in out of the way locations and very expensive.

The only exception to this rule that I have found is Nepal, which is lovely and very very cheap to visit.

The last time I was in Nepal was just before rainy season and during a down year for them as far as tourism was concerned so during our trek we didn't even have to pay for accommodation in any of the places we stayed outside of the cities because they were so desperate for customers all you had to do was agree to eat all your meals at their restaurant and your room was free.

It's a lot of work of course, much more so than sitting on a beach working on your sun-tan but there is something really rewarding about after days of hiking, you are now above the clouds. Obviously there are more dangers in the mountains but life is meant to be an adventure, right.

So for me personally, I think at this point in my life I prefer mountains over beaches but I will also admit that this is because I think I kind of overdid it as far as the beaches are concerned for so many years and this is why I no longer care about being near one. I guess the prospect of sitting somewhere and looking at something lovely just isn't enough for me anymore. I want to get out there an DO.

But what about you? Which do you prefer?