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By Mackenzie Carpenter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"There was an unbelievable list of excursions we could take," said Carbine, including an aerial tram ride over the rainforest, fishing, mountain biking, visits to the Panama Canal and trips to coffee plantations. She chose to kayak down a river, "a very narrow river, where the foliage is very thick and you can see the animal life up close," she said.

While Carbine will be able to retreat to her cruise ship each night, no such creature comforts awaited Bates during her trip to Western China, also known as the Xian-Jiang Province, in July and August. There, she found towering, icy mountain ranges and blistering deserts — at one point temperatures reached 140 degrees fahrenheit — which "brought to mind the word 'savage,' in every way," she laughed.

But the warm, welcoming peoples of the region, near the legendary Silk Road in northwest China, were so endlessly fascinating she didn't care.

Others in search of the new and the different — but not the uncomfortable — can find it in otherworldly Dubai, one of the seven "emirates," or city-states that make up the United Arab Emirates. Faced with the loss of its oil reserves in 10 years, Dubai has busily been remaking itself as a travel and leisure mecca and manmade "paradise," featuring indoor skiing and outdoor living.

Paula and Marshall Morgan, intrepid travelers from Sewickley, visited there in March — and stayed at the world's tallest hotel, the Burj Al Arab, in a skyscraper that looks like a sail.

"It was fabulous," Paula Morgan said flatly, noting that their accommodations consisted of a two-story suite with a circular staircase, full living room, study and "the largest bathroom I've ever seen in my entire life." Every room gets a butler, and there was a present on the pillow every night.

"We're luxury travelers," she said. "We like to eat well and sleep well every night."

But you don't have to be a luxury traveler to enjoy these four exotic travel destinations showing up on different "hot" lists:

Western China
Choquequoirao
Ethiopia
Panama

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