Find travel guides, planning tips, advice, and resources for where you want to go for all the destinations I’ve visited! Everything is sorted by country and/or state for easy searching. Great for dreaming, planning, and making your trip a reality!
When I started telling people I was going to Guatemala, I was surprised that the most frequently asked question is, “What’s on your packing list?”. Believe it or not, packing for an extended trip is almost the same as packing for a week. As long as you get used to the idea of doing laundry, it’s […]
Carry-On Packing List for Guatemala (Even for Long Trips!) Read More »
I’ve never chosen a destination specifically for its food, but I love to eat and sampling local flavors is a fun part of discovering new places. In Iceland, though, restaurants can be expensive. Finding a restaurant with good food and reasonable prices isn’t something you can automatically count on. Luckily, I’ve done the research, tried it
Four Reykjavik Restaurants That Won’t Break Your Budget Read More »
“Sorry this didn’t turn out exactly how I expected,” I told Mike. “I thought we’d be fishing in the morning after tai chi class and biking or kayaking around the lagoon after lunch. Then we’d watch the sunset together from our overwater bungalow and hold hands on a moonlit stroll. Maybe cap it all off
Things No One Tells You About Vietnamese Cupping Therapy Read More »
Iraq: a country burdened by conflict for as long as I can remember. The War on Terror. ISIS. Saddam Hussein. You would think that a place that evokes those thoughts wouldn’t be somewhere that anyone would want to visit. Well, I went. I traveled to the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, otherwise known as Iraqi
Not All of the Middle East is Unsafe: Visiting Iraqi Kurdistan Read More »
Stepping off the bus in New York City and into the metro station, I thought I found gold. Deep in my pocket was a metro ticket with $8 already loaded on it. Too bad that didn’t even last my first evening so I ended up buying a 7-day metro pass anyway. Before I knew it,
The Ultimate Guide to Visiting New York City on a Budget Read More »
I don’t like to talk smack about my city, but Richmond can be superficial sometimes. Not everyone — far from it — and not all the time…but occasionally, you’ll find conversation never moves beyond a few polite pleasantries. That is, unless you have a guaranteed conversation starter. After seven years in Richmond, I finally found
Picking a hotel should be a simple task, but I get lost in too many options. But when deciding where to stay in Fes, I didn’t have to search hard because I got an awesome reader recommendation for Dar Seffarine. Why You Should Stay in a Riad (or “Dar”) In Moroccan, a dar is a
I acclimated to the Sacred Valley the wrong way. Admitting this kills me because I know I’m prone to altitude sickness and I knew in advance that Cusco altitude is 11,152 feet (3,399 meters). I took a lot of precautions to lessen the impact. But even though I did a lot of things right, I
I Acclimated to the Sacred Valley the Wrong Way (But You Don’t Have To) Read More »
Hurry up and wait. That should be the new tagline for Machu Picchu. I didn’t think much of it when I was standing in the world’s longest airport line for my flight to Cusco (Star Peru actually handwrote tags for checked luggage!), but that just foreshadowed what was to come. On Paper, It’s Simple Don’t
I’ve never had any ambition to hike the Inca Trail. There’s little solitude throughout the journey and too much downtime at camp each night, so even though I like hiking and camping, it didn’t make sense to add the iconic trek to my itinerary. No doubt it’s beautiful, but isn’t all of the Sacred Valley?
Photo Essay: What I Did Instead of Hiking the Inca Trail Read More »
