big or small

Both can be enjoyable, depends what you're after in a holiday. If you have kids, especially young ones, the popular destinations can be a better idea, as they're usually better set up to entertain children.

I really love to travel and these days I often prefer seeing less busy attractions than popular tourists destinations where there are hundreds of visitors. Whilst there are some must sees I also very much enjoy getting off the beaten tourist track. I delight in getting to isolated places where there are fewer people around. In Belize and Guatemala I had a wonderful time exploring the Mayan ruins, however I didn't have as nice a time looking at the ones in Mexico because they were crowded with tourists. I love tropical islands and prefer to see thatched beach huts rather than multi story hotels. I enjoy being on uncrowded beaches and found these in the Seychelles where I hopped to three different islands. I saw some tiny tropical islands in the Maldives and it was as pretty as a postcard. It was amazing to go to French Polynesia, the Cook Islands and Samoa. I found Hawaii rather touristy though I did enjoy going there.

I prefer to spend more time exploring places that are off the beaten track simply because you get to see more of the real stuff. A lot of places aren't like what the tourist spots are - I have been to spots that people don't really go to and it's refreshing to see a place untouched by tourists, where the children gawk at you for being a foreigner and where it's just very real... When I went to Beijing, naturally we checked out the tourist hotspots like the Forbidden Palace and what-not but when we went up to the Great Wall, we avoided the tourist part because well, it's not the real bits. The real bits of the Great Wall are run down and crumbly and steep. My hubby, myself and my step-father-in-law ended up on the Jinsaling to Sametai (I think) pass which was a horrible "hike" - steep steps, loose rocks AND locals who trek it like mountain goats. It was off the beaten track - we were the only tourist for miles but if you look at the photographs, it was worth it. Then there was the bike trip from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son...and from Hanoi to the outskirts (nearing Dien Bien Phu)... I'm not advocating that all tourists must go off the beaten track, just saying that sometimes it's worth going away from the crowd and exploring the unknown - provided you don't get lost. XD