In my experience, the best places in the world are two places: the place you know the best and the place you’ve never been before. One is a sure thing and one is a gamble, but both the best none the less. The best photograph may not have come from the best photographer, but from the best view. Here’s why:

The places you know are the best because of a few reasons. Familiarity is one. When you are familiar with places there’s an undying feeling of confidence on how you talk about the place you are (so long as you like or love it). You know that place better than or as well as any long standing citizen from said place and you feel confident that you can give the best tour and best info about your place. Familiarity makes it yours as well, you can confidently say that this place is yours and you’ve put your stamp on it. For me, that place is my home town of Toronto, Canada’s biggest city. I’ve lived here my entire life and I can call it mine. I know so many streets, so many shops, so many spots that most don’t and I take pride in it.

There’s another one—pride. Having pride in your favorite sports team or player, or a most familiar place can show someone your roots and who you are, so long as you can tie in and accurately portray the place as yours. I take in Toronto, our people, our streets and everything that makes Toronto what it is.

Think about your favorite spots—your hangouts. Why do you love them so much? What’s there that makes you come back day after day, week after week? For me, I have my bars which I frequent, my restaurants which I’m constantly dining at and my house to which every day I walk out of I think about how nice it is to come home to. What’s in the spots counts so much too—the people. Some people have like spots where they can be alone, relax and enjoy the scenery, but for me the people are what make my spots so ethereal. Doesn’t matter if the place is loud and packed or quiet and calm, as long as there is lively conversation around, then I’ll be there. All of my favorite spots feature Toronto’s wackiest, smart and outgoing people I’ve ever met and will always remain magnets to those folk.

And finally, on a whole, you want everything encompassed in to one thing so that your city works for you. You should never be sitting at home on a Friday being bored. You should never be around a neighborhood and think I’ve eaten here or drank here too many times. No, your city should always have options that you would gladly, in a heartbeat, be able to take. If you live in a city that you make work for you, love and cherish, then obviously it’s the best. The other best is the place you’ve never been before; I guess the road less travelled or something like that. The best ideas often come around holidays, like Valentine's Day, or Christmas, when people are planning the best surprises and thinking about giving to others.

The reason why this is the best is because you’ll never know what to expect regardless of information, stories, maps, tour guides, etc. It’s like a huge surprise waiting to happen and you can never prepare as much as you think you can. The best place is the place you’ve never been: the place you’ve always wanted to go, but never have, but why is that so?

I would have to say excitement because obviously if you’ve never been, you can’t wait to see what it’s like. For me, that’s Japan. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan; the culture, the people, the food, the cities have always been fascinating to me. I’ve looked up, researched and talked to as many people about Japan as possible, but the one conclusion I always come to is that its better if I just go because I’ll never fully understand what I’m missing out on. And added to that level of excitement is mystique. Though you’re excited to go to this place, you know it’s still mysterious because you won’t know everything that will happen (unless you’re going somewhere like a theme park). The element of surprise is always nice.

Now, I said before that it is a gamble because either you go to the place and it’s beyond your dreams or it’s awful and you hate it OR you go there thinking it will be bad and it’s amazing. These options may vary, as most things do, but to me, 8 out of 10 times you will be more surprised than disappointed. Also that number goes up significantly if you’re looking at places like Machu Pichu or the Swiss Alps, instead of Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

The excitement of new places is a most wondrous thing, but again so is the warmth and familiarity of your home. Whatever your best idea of a place is, I’m sure you have your reasons as I clearly have mine.