Boston is the undisputed hub of American independence. From the Mayflower to the famous tea party, the people of this area created the country we live in today. If you hated history like most people do in high school, you might be wondering if you should read any further. Yes, you should! Like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure proves, going to places...
I’ve been to Holland half a dozen times and there’s always something interesting going on in the country, but I had never seen the tulips in bloom until my visit there last week. As a man who rarely takes more than an occasional flower picture, I surprised myself by snapping hundreds of images of these beautiful blooms. I had no idea that flowers could...
I was walking along Rue Lepic, telling my traveling companion how much I loved this particular area of Paris. After all, I explained, Van Gogh had lived with his brother on the same street we were walking, Gaugin and Degas had painted masterpieces a few doors down, and La Chat Noir, France’s most famous nightclub of the 1800s had been re-imagined and...
Iceland used to be a destination for only the most intrepid travelers; perpetually chilly, geographically inconvenient and generally misunderstood, this Scandinavian outpost’s tourism has quadrupled in less than ten years. Last year a million visitors stopped in at Reykjavik. That may not seem like a lot: until you realize that the population is only 320,000...
You’ve probably seen the zombies in Vegas. They aren’t the flesh eating kind that you might expect when you think of the undead. You can usually recognize their hollow sunken eyes staring deadly at a slot machine or watch them dragging their stiff corpses through the casino at 4 am. If you’re not seeing them, it might be you…..Las Vegas can be...
Madeira When one thinks of European islands, it’s usually those famous ones floating in the Mediterranean like Sicily, Malta or maybe Ibiza. Ask someone to name a European island in the Atlantic and many Americans will be hard pressed to think of any. A recent trip took me to the Canary Islands and Madeira and I was amazed at everything about these little...
I was in my twenties the first time I tried escargot. I thought I had truly broken all culinary barriers as I savored the garlic infused gastropod in the name of gastronomy. Thirty something years later I often find myself ordering the strangest things on menus around the world. There’s a reason that travel shows about food are...
Romania is possibly Europe’s most misunderstood country. What do you really know about it? Could you point it out on a map? After a quick survey of a few dozen friends, I discovered that most of them could tell me little or nothing about this amazing country that didn’t pertain to vampires. Hollywood has forever etched the Dracula fable into...
Travel is changing drastically from what it used to be even a few years ago. As I write this, there are 5 people in my pool who I never met until yesterday. They’re staying at my house and pretty much have the run of the place for two days. How did these strangers end up in my house? They booked it through Airbnb. If you haven’t heard of Airbnb, you...
What to expect from the most hyped tourist destination Whenever I mention I’m going to the Middle East, there’s a hushed silence that fills the air. Americans have this long-standing fear of Islamic radicals. Say the word “Dubai” to the same group and fear quickly turns to curiosity. Many people don’t realize that Dubai is not a country...