Tag

vacation

Europe, Travel

A Day Visiting Ancient Rome

Visiting Ancient Rome truly deserves an entire day on your itinerary.  Some tourists may try to squeeze it into a few hours, but they’re not doing themselves justice.  Sure, they may capture a photo to share on Facebook, but is that why we travel?  To just brag about it online?  Hardly.  Ancient Rome is about the experience.  It’s about touring buildings that are thousands of years old, walking in the footsteps of…

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Travel, Travel Tips

Helpful Hints on How To Pack Souvenirs

If you remember from last week’s post 9 Ideas for Food Travel Souvenirs, our haul from Italy was quite large – 12 bottles of wine, 3 half wheels of cheese, 3 bottles of grappa, and 1 bottle of lemoncello.  Bringing all of those items home plus an acquired t-shirt and sweatshirt was not easy.  Heck, with airline luggage checking fees, overweight baggage penalties, high shipping costs, customs restrictions, and theft risks, bringing…

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Europe, Travel

Visiting Central Rome and the Best Meal We Ate in Italy

If you have just one night in Rome, visiting Central Rome is essential. This post picks up from my last post on Rome where we spent the greater part of the day exploring the Vatican.  After lingering over wood fired pizza and a half carafe of wine, we explored Central Rome on a self-guided walking tour took us past the ancient of Castel Sant’Angelo and through the trendy of the Triangle of…

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Travel, Travel Tips

9 Ideas for Food Travel Souvenirs

Our souvenir haul from Italy was huge and it was all food! It included a case of wine, three bottles of grappa, a bottle of lemoncello, and three half wheels of cheese.  That may sound strange to you, but we’re foodies so our souvenirs tend to fall into the food and drink category.  Our trip to Bavaria yielded four ceramic beer mugs and a bottle of Sporer schnapps.  Thailand, a dinner table…

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Travel, Travel Tips

10 Things To Do When It Rains on Your Vacation. Number 4 Won’t be in Guidebooks.

As much as we all hope for perfect weather on our vacation, Mother Nature is beyond our control and is bound to rain on our plans.  It seems like almost every trip we took last year included several unwanted rain storms.  It’s easy to get frustrated and allow the rain clouds to ruin our vacation.  I often tossed my hands up in anger.  But a little rain shouldn’t spoil your fun!  With a dash…

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Europe, Travel

Arriving in Rome

We arrived at Stazione Termine via train after being rejuvenated in Tuscany.  I was on high alert as we entered the hoard of people shoving this way and that in Rome’s main train station, keeping close watch on all of my belonging as the station is a prime area for pickpockets.  We emerged unscathed but a little bewildered as we approached the taxi stand.  There were just so many people!  It was…

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Travel, Travel Budgeting, Travel Tips

Want to Save Money to Travel? Then Stay Away from Starbucks!!!

Or any other coffee shop for that matter.  Friends constantly complain to me that they don’t have money to travel, dine out at nice restaurants, or pursue other dreams and hobbies.  And yet, these same friends often check-in daily on Facebook to Starbucks, Caribou, or name your neighborhood coffee shop. “Getting my morning pick-me-up!” Wow!  What an incredible waste of money! I’m not hating on coffee shops or the entrepreneurs that run…

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Latin America, Travel

Experiencing Real Relaxation at Tabacon Springs in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

I was wrapped in a towel damp from my wet swimsuit.  It was raining, but I didn’t care.  The canopy above our outside bed kept us dry enough.  The rain actually accentuated the tropical environment that surrounded us – the lush green foliage, the rambling creeks, the birds cawing, the occasional volcanic rumble, the steam from the hot springs.  At Tabacon Springs, for the first time in a long time, I felt…

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Travel, Travel Budgeting, Travel Tips

Would You Rather Travel or Drive a Cadillac?

I think you know my answer.  I’d rather travel.  I’d rather have the month of August off than just two weeks.  I negate Cadillac’s notion that the rest of the world is lazy because they take the month of August off when we, as proud overworked and overwhelmed Americans, only take two weeks off.  Like most Americans, I receive around three weeks of PTO a year.  Let me repeat.  Three.  Weeks.  A…

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Travel, Travel Budgeting, Travel Tips

How Can I Afford to Travel? Budgeting Tips for Your Dream Vacation

I often receive the following comments about my blog or our travels in general.  It must be nice to have the money to go on those trips.  Or, I wish I could afford to travel like that.  Both statements frustrate me not by how they are being stated but by what they are saying.  The truth is that you can afford to travel like we do.  You just have to make it…

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