So You've Just Won The Lottery -- What's on Your Travel Bucket List?

You've just won the lottery and have a pile of cash you can use to travel wherever you want in the world, with whoever you want to take along. Where would you go and why?

From one award winning travel writer to another, Tim Lefell asked this exact question to Don George.

George said, "This is a mind-boggling question. Let's say that pile of cash is so big that not simply can I go wherever I want in the world, with whomever I want to take along, but that I can take a year off from all the monthly writing and editing responsibilities that support me. In that case, I would travel slowly around the world, visiting a mixture of the places that have changed my life -- France, Greece, Japan, Bali, Australia -- and places that entice me and that I haven't yet visited: Bhutan, Tibet, Vietnam, Laos, South Africa, Brazil, the Amazon. I would have a constantly changing caravansary of family and friends with me: It would be a magical moveable feast!"

So, I decided to take a few minutes from my busy day and ponder the thought. Having traveled to 85 countries, I consider myself blessed to have seen more than my fair share of the world.

As George said, this is indeed a mind-boggling question. Even if the pile of cash was so large that I would never have to work again, I would still want to write and photo the world, continuing to be an inspiration to travel. But, it would be nice to just be able to explore the world without even thinking of money.

In my late teens I traveled almost every conceivable way through Europe. I hitchhiked, took ferries, drove a car, rode a motorcycle, traveled by train. I even rode in the back of a fruit truck surrounded by grapes. I really was the color purple.

Having already done so many amazing overland adventures, Darwin to Sydney in Australia, Kenya to South Africa, being another great overland adventure in my life of travel. I still want to traverse the Amazon, traverse Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and travel the great silk road from Asia to Europe overland. I want to experience Route 66 or the great American road trip. Yes, I have still yet to drive across my own country, America. Also I have never been to Easter Island nor Bhutan, and as a scuba diver, I want to sail from Micronesia through the Philippines and Indonesia to Southeast Asia. I would surf and dive my days away, eating the catch of the day.

Why overland travel? As I have a book coming out soon about travel immersion, experiences and encounters, as I like to say, "you don't meet the locals by flying over them." I'm intoxicated by local cultures. I crave to know what makes people tick.

I would be enriched by volunteering. There is no greater satisfaction than giving back to the world. Helping build villages, or teaching children, or saving marine life such as Leatherback Turtles on Parismina Beach in Tortuguero National Park in Cost Rica.

Since, I cannot travel with my fellow Greeks: Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Alexander the Great, and sadly, nor Hemmingway or Mark Twain, I would settle for friends, family and hopefully new friends who I meet alone the way. Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet Guidebooks and Richard Bangs, father of modern day adventure travel, would provide excellent insight and thought provoking conversations. There is also a Croatian guy, Tomislav Perko, who quit his job and actually traveled overland around the world. Tomi would make a great travel partner.

But in the end, the "City by the Bay," -- San Francisco would still be home.