Destination Hightlights

For over a thousand years, the faithful have taken the pilgrimage to Santiago passing through northern Spain. It’s called the Way of St. James or El Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

It’s actually not just one route…. It is a large network of ancient pilgrimage routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela.

All of the different routes sprang up because in the Middle Ages, pilgrims simply left home and started walking… making the pilgrimage to Santiago from wherever they lived.

Of all the routes defined today, the … read more

The kids are grown and out of the house… time to think about year round vacations! This is no time to mope about the empty nest…. This lets you start planning to take vacations when other peoples kids are in school.

You can stop thinking only about kid friendly places. You can plan late night entertainment. You can go during different seasons. You can explore more museums or archeological sites or do some wine tasting… things that just weren’t possible with the kids in tow. Now you can think of things you’ve always … read more

If you’re the adventurous, do-it-yourself type, you could use the idea of world drives to plan your next trip. We love renting a car and just rambling around new countries.

Sure there are countries and cities where you probably just wouldn’t want to drive. Most cities fall into that category, in fact, unless you’re on business and need a car… or if you’re just driving in and parking. We’ve done that in Florence, for instance… and we’ve driven into and out of Rome on different trips, driven out of Paris and Madrid too… but we’ve always … read more

When people ask “Is the water safe?”, they’re usually thinking is it safe to drink?

It’s a basic travel concern. Can you drink the tap water? Should you brush your teeth with it? Do you need to drink and brush with bottled water? That’s important to find out in order to stay healthy, but there are other considerations you should pay attention to.

You should know enough by now if you’ve been reading along with us that if you need to drink bottled water, you should also avoid using ice cubes in drinks. … read more

Just coming off of a trip to Israel, we started thinking about pilgrimage cities of the world. While most people take a pilgrimage for religious reasons, pilgrimage cities are interesting to all travelers. Most have layers of history. There is much to see and learn about in all of them.

All the major religions of the world have cities that hold special significance to their religion. Some of these holy cities are important to more than one religion. All of them are interesting to visit. If you’re trying to come up with a reason to … read more

Here’s a different travel idea for you… take a pilgrimage.

“Whoa,” you say, “A pilgrimage?”

Does that sound a little heavy? It doesn’t need to.

You’re right in one sense… a pilgrimage is, most often, to go on a journey to visit a place that is religious or has historic significance… and more often than not, it is a journey to a sacred place. Whether you go for strictly religious reasons or for personal satisfaction, a pilgrimage can be a moving experience… it’s a journey inward as well as outward.

This theme came to mind because of our … read more

Do you love city walls? Ancient walls? Historical walls? Mediaeval walls? We think they add an extra dimension to any city. You find them in cities with history… usually lots of it.

There are many cities around the world where the old city inside the walls has been preserved. It’s fun to see what lurks inside those walls….

If you’re looking for a reason to travel, something like finding cities with walls is another lure to get you going.

Hopefully you didn’t miss our story about the W-A-L-L-E-D City of Rabat in Morocco, … read more

The recent blast of cold weather across Europe has focused many people’s minds on booking a holiday in the sun. And whilst January is usually the month when thoughts turn to the summer holiday, there will also be plenty of people looking to escape to warmer climes before that season arrives.

And who can blame them, when there are six long months between now and the start of the traditional summer holidays. Plenty of time to pack in a week … read more

Have you ever experienced mid-trip letdown?  Most of our trips are about two weeks long… sometimes three weeks.  We want to see all that we can… get the most out of that vacation time, so we tend to be on the go… non-stop.

That can be a problem.  Travel is tiring.  You fly to your destination and have to deal with jet lag, and then you get up early, you’re on the go all day and probably eat later at night than your used to… your schedule is all thrown off.

And there is no “weekend” to relax.  So what you really … read more