Ultimate guide to the world: Susan Spano’s 10 places to visit in 2009

Hawaii

Since the beginning of the year, airlines, tour companies and hotel chains serving Hawaii have been offering deals that make a Big Island visit too attractive to postpone.

Check out GoHawaii.com and look for good rates from resort chains with lush properties near Kona International Airport on the island’s beachy western coast.

The lush vegetation at Umauma Falls, north of Hilo.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Katmandu Valley, Nepal

Katmandu has attractively priced hotels, the colorful old hippie neighborhood of Thamel, world-class shopping, all the cuisines of Asia and warm, winning people. From the centrally located valley, bus and van tours are available to Pokhara in the Annapurnas, Mt. Everest and Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

The U.S. State Department has issued a warning about Nepal, based on sporadic political unrest. But that hasn’t stopped major tour companies, including Myths and Mountains and Geographic Expeditions, from taking tour groups there.

Info: Nepal Tourism Board website.

A Buddhist monastery on Pharping village, some 12 miles northwest of Katmandu.  (Narendra Shrestha / EPA)

Malacca, Malaysia

The cultural melange gave Old Malacca its singular, spicy Chinese-Malay cuisine and richly layered architecture. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has a Portuguese-era fortress, a Dutch city hall, Chinese cemeteries and shop houses, a sultan’s palace and St. Paul’s Church, where St. Francis Xavier served as a missionary.

Best of all, Malacca remains off the beaten track, though it’s an easy hop from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the beaches of southwestern Thailand.

Info: Melaka.net

A Malaysian girl of Indian ethnic background performs at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  (Shamshahrin Shamsudin / EPA)

Syria

My dream Syria tour would take in the capital Damascus with its Omayyad Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites; the ruins of ancient Palmyra, where legendary Queen Zenobia mounted a rebellion against Rome in the 3rd century; Aleppo, a Silk Road trading mecca with a seven-mile-long covered souk, citadel and nearby Simeon, the Stylite monastery where the ascetic early-Christian saint lived atop a pillar for 37 years.

Info: Syria Ministry of Tourism

A couple sit at the Monalisa restaurant, a renovated traditional Arabic building in the old city in Damascus.  (Ola al Rifai / Associated Press)

Utah Highway 12

The scenery along the way is one long hymn to the American West, including lonely little ranching communities such as Tropic and Cannonville, the weird sandstone chimneys of Kodachrome Basin State Park and 10,188-foot Powell Point.

From Head of the Rocks just north of the dusty town of Escalante, you can see the vast, impregnable Kaiparowits Plateau, lonely Henry Mountains and 100-mile-long Waterpocket Fold. Then the highway climbs over Boulder Mountain to the pleasant town of Torrey at the threshold of Capitol Reef National Park.

Info: www.utah.com/byways/highway_12.htm .

Pictured: Arches National Park in Moab, Utah  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso has stuck in my mind ever since I visited it briefly about 10 years ago. I never got back, but figure that now may be the time to nab a South American cruise bargain or discounted air fare from Lan.

A stage of the Argentina Dakar Rally 2009 between Valparaiso and La Serena, Chile.  (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)

Valparaiso, Chile

Situated on steep, earthquake-prone hillsides overlooking the apparently endless South Pacific, it has a transit system that features Portuguese-style funiculars and a compellingly seedy air. Cruise ships have begun to dock there, which I hope won’t ruin it.

Valparaiso sightseers can take in South America’s oldest stock exchange and La Sebastiana, the eccentrically decorated home of Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda.

View of the clouds near the Andes near Valparaiso.  (Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images)

Warsaw

Travelers drawn to newly accessible and relatively budget-priced Eastern European cities tend to give Warsaw the cold shoulder, chiefly because it’s a modern metropolis that had to struggle back to life after near-total destruction by the Germans in World War II.

Its Old Town was painstakingly restored post-war and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a 15th century town hall, market square, royal castle and cathedral.

The frozen Zegrze lake, on the first snowy weekend, near Warsaw.  (Andrzej Rybczynski / EPA)

Warsaw was the home of Frederic Chopin. In preparation for the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth next year, the city is remodeling its Chopin Museum and the manor house where he was born.

Info: Warsaw Tour website

Horse-drawn carriage on the streets of the Old Town in Warsaw.  (Andrzej Rybcznski / EPA)