“You’re going where?!” the familiar question asked by friends and family about out planned nineteen-day trip to Central Asia. “The Stans. The Silk Road countries. You know, the land of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo,” we responded, followed by an attempt to paint a colorful image of this remote, fabled
“Island life.” What comes to mind when you hear those words? Warm climes, palm trees, sandy beaches, piña coladas, tropical sunsets? Two inhabited islands in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay in U.S.’s temperate Mid-Atlantic coastal region turn those images upside down. Tangier Island, Virginia and Smith Island, Maryland sit
Traveling by train thrills me; I feel like I’m on an amusement park ride. On this track to Mount Koya, nature’s beauty and humanity’s creations stream by. I’m mesmerized by the unfamiliar sights, and my mind makes up stories about them. There’s a small village nestled among hills draped in
KONNICHIWA! A three-week dive into the wonders of the Land of the Rising Sun–– Japan––introduced me to a society steeped in rich tradition, yet at the forefront in twenty-first century modernity. Japan’s bounteous treasures saturated our senses as soon after we deplaned following the fourteen-hour ride over the top of
I’m a lifelong Eastern Seaboard resident, and my open space fix is gazing out at the vast Atlantic Ocean, with its uninterrupted, slightly curved horizon. Except for a few trips to California, I hadn’t enjoyed our country’s big skies “out west” (as we easterners refer to it) for many decades;
Gazing at its majestic monumentality, you might think you’ve been transported to Delhi, India. But this Hindu mandir (temple) is not half a world away. It’s in Central New Jersey’s Robbinsville Township, just a quick one-hour drive from my Center City Philadelphia apartment. And it’s the largest Hindu temple in
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
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
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
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.