Frequently Asked Friday: Best in the World

It seems like most of the time what people ask us about is “What was the Best! of” anything and everything. So we thought we’d give you a rapid-fire rundown of some of the bests from the trip.

Best Accommodations

Lana: Orchid Garden Homestay in Hoi An, Vietnam.

David: Airbnb apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Most Comfortable Bed

Lana & David: Airbnb apartment in Bangkok.

Best Meal

Lana: Kofte/mixed grill in Cairo, Egypt.

David: Asado in El Calafate, Argentina.

See our FAQ on this.

Best Gelato

Lana: Freddo’s chocolate suizo (chocolate ice cream with dulce de leche swirl and chocolate bits) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

David:  Arkakao’s chocolate extra fondante gelato in Buenos Aires, Argentina (it was so good, he’d finished it off before thinking to take a photo).

Honorable mention for prettiest gelato: Gelartarosa’s flower-shaped scoops in Budapest, Hungary.

Best Non-Gelato Dessert

After trying to narrow this down—and utterly failing—we decided this is going to have to be it’s own post.

Best Airline/in-transit Meal:

Lana: Pound cake on AtlasJet Airlines to Cappodocia, Turkey (this is barely a category in which I define anything as “best,” but this was pretty good).

David: Kaya bun on Valuair, flight from Bali to Singapore (the savory airline food was universally sad or worse; it’s harder to screw up sweets).

Best Alcoholic Beverage

Lana: Honesty box cider in Paihia, New Zealand or Pivovarsky Dum Brewery in Prague, Czech Republic.


David: Three Horses Beer “fresh” beer in Madagascar (this barely qualifies, at <1% alcohol—but both Lana’s bests were close seconds to this one)

Best Coffee

Lana: Vietnamese coffee, everywhere in Vietnam

David: Kopi coffee in Singapore

Country where we had the consistently best food

Lana & David: Jordan.

Best animal encounter

Lana:  Lemur Island, Madagascar.

David: Swimming with adolescent sea lions in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

Best snorkeling

Lana: Snorkeling with penguins (!) in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

David: Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Honorable mention: Japanese Garden in Koh Tao, Thailand.

Best hike

Lana: Day hike to Lang Bian, Dalat, Vietnam.

David:  Day 3 of the Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu, Peru.

Friendliest country/people

Lana: toss up between Vietnam and Laos.

David: New Zealand.

Best internet

Lana: Vietnam (as long as you don’t need Facebook—and let’s face it, who needs to use Facebook?).

David: Argentina (fast and free in every hotel, restaurant and café).

Best mode of travel

Lana: Rental car, everywhere but Bosnia-Herzegovina (that’s a story for later).

David: Subway in Hong Kong (subway/tram systems in general were one of our favorites, worldwide, but Hong Kong finally pushed London out of the #1 spot).

Best Airline

Lana: Vietnam Airlines—super cheap and great service.

David: LAN Airlines—not super cheap, but the only game in town in South America, and good service and newer planes.

Best traveling companion (other than each other, obviously)

Lana: Our friend Nicole, who planned our trip through Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and Vienna.

David:  Our fellow Mudis on our G Adventures trip through Egypt and Jordan.

Honorable mention goes to Mr. Bee, who was quiet, calm, and took up very little space in the luggage.

Best border crossing (all un-pictured, because taking pictures at a border is a good way to make it a long, bad border crossing experience)

Lana: Egypt (we had someone meet us at the plane, who walked us through visa, immigration and customs).

David: Jordan (retinal scanners!).