Just got back from Atlantis Bahamas. Really fun and good food. Little pricey.
I'm a simple guy. The only vacations I take are trips to A.C./Vegas and an annual man trip to Myrtle Beach to play 2 rounds of golf a day for a week.
Went to Bannf, Canada last year for snowboard
What is this "vacation" of which you speak? I am not familiar with this term.
If you want to observe one of the most drastic changes in climate check out Hawaii (The Big Island). As you drive across parts of the island it changes from tropical rainforest, grasslands, desert, and finally to volcanoes!
The food is awesome too. Don't miss a luau, but do skip on the poi. That stuff is awful.
I haven't been anywhere too exotic, but diving both Poor Knights in NZ and the Barrier Reef in Australia (it was the same trip) has been a high water mark for me.