San Miguel de Allende: One of the World’s Best Cities?
San Miguel is one of several sixteenth century Spanish cities established in what’s called the Colonial Crescent in the Central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano mexicano) a few hundred miles northwest of Mexico City. San Miguel carries the reputation of Travel+Leisure Magazine’s 2021 designation as the Best City in the World. That could be a burdensome responsibility for a town to measure up to, but so far, San Miguel continues to wear the mantle well.
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Caption The only thing that excites me more than dreaming about the next adventure is getting my passport stamped at the destination’s immigration counter. witnessing the world, one journey at a time For more than two decades I’ve travelled the globe seeking adventure, history, and cultural immersion. Visitors can’t really know a place and its […]
Springtime in Paris: Where to Explore, Linger, and Dine
It was practically a spur-of-the-moment decision for us. Rick and I always plan months ahead for a trip. But we were only four weeks out this time when we decided to make a pond crossing for an extra-long late-May weekend trip to Paris to celebrate our twentieth anniversary together. We booked our flights using points on credit cards and rented an Airbnb apartment. Arriving at Charles De Gaulle Airport in the morning, we purchased four days of train and Métro tickets, plus museum passes, a time saver for avoiding long lines at ticketed sites. We bought no souvenirs, ate in cafes and bistros, rode the subway, and walked our way across Paris, managing to spend surprisingly little money. And nature’s gift? Good weather followed us everywhere
5 Days in Istanbul: A Gift of Time in a Favorite City
When war broke out October 7, 2023 between Israel and Hamas, the event truncated our plans to return to Tel Aviv after an exciting four-day adventure to Jordan. The outbreak shook our “travel mojo,” and we needed to leave the region as soon as possible. Our travel company, London-based Out Of Office, contacted us immediately, and at our request booked us on a flight from Amman, Jordan to Istanbul. I’m not usually a “slow travel” kind of guy. I anticipate a full schedule of places to see, adventures out of the ordinary to enjoy, and new people to encounter along the way. I take lots of photographs and record the day’s experiences in a journal. Yet, with no itinerary other than to meet four friends for a Viking Cruise sailing from Istanbul five days later, we found ourselves with the luxury of time to spend as we wished in “the city of the world’s desire.”
Getting from Here to There: Shakedown in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Just over two years later Rick and I joined Eva and Suresh, our Indian travel pals, for a month in their home country, including a nine-day visit in the middle of the journey to the island country of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), located off the southern tip of the subcontinent to the east. Aware of the 30-day restriction for re-entering the country, we visited the Indian Embassy in New York City a month before our U.S. departure
Escaping Israel: The Attack Shook the World And Upended Our Trip
In October, we planned a four-night stay in the city of Jerusalem, capital of Israel and a religious center of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The stay included a side trip to the West Bank’s Bethlehem and Jericho. Little did we know our trip would be upended by the unimaginable.
How to Choose a Local Travel Agency
When we pack our bags and hit the trail, Rick and I enjoy traveling by ourselves, or sometimes with longtime travel buddies Eva and Suresh. A lot of preparation goes into a travel adventure long before we board the plane. On trips to destinations that are culturally more familiar, like North America and most of Europe, we do our own trip planning––what to see, how to get there, and where to sleep. In non-Western countries, private tour companies provide us with professional
Traveling to Three Medieval Spanish Towns by Train
On our two-week trip to Spain, four of us took high-speed trains to three outstanding destinations that are well worth your visit. We made a day trip to Segovia; the other two cities took us south into Moorish Andalucía––Córdoba for two nights and Seville for three nights. Each place rewarded us with eye-popping sights. High-speed, modern trains hurled us rapidly to our destinations, while we relaxed in clean cars with comfortable seats, dreamily gazing at the Iberian countryside and small towns whizzing by
Three Stunning Churches Exemplify the Byzantine Painted Monasteries of Romania
Bucovina is the home of eight fifteenth and sixteenth century UNESCO World Heritage Painted Monasteries, collectively considered one of the world’s great Byzantine art treasures. Richly colored graphic scenes of dramatic Biblical events and the holy men, angels, and demons who oversaw them decorate both their interior and exterior walls and ceilings. Priests intended these scenes, here and at all the monasteries, to scare the wits out of illiterate villagers, inspiring them to lead pious lives.
El Peñol Erupts from Colombia’s Landscape
El Peñol, a 656-foot granite rock, juts out of the earth. No ordinary rock, El Peñol, a Colombian National Monument, attracts thousands of people daily, many who climb the 708 steps for spectacular views of the region. On its top, vendors sell handicrafts, trinkets, and tee-shirts. One pays for the privilege of experiencing a panorama of the countryside with about a five-dollar admission fee at the bottom of the stairs.
