Ponant’s Le Champlain is a small ship, with 92 cabins meaning a max of 184 people, plus 114 crew members. I’m “of an age,” I travel solo, and I am basically an introvert. The ship weighs in at less than ten gross tons which barely seems large enough to be…

The Eastern Cape province of South Africa is an up-and-coming area for safaris. While Kruger National Park, in the eastern part of the country, was set aside to protect wildlife in 1898, the development of the Eastern Cape as a safari area has only been taking hold in the last…

We can all agree that one of the least exciting parts of planning a trip, second to paying your cruise fare, is packing. The great news, though, is that someone always seems to have advice for how to make packing easier. Ralph Grizzle writes many articles on packing tips. In his…

Nashville may get all the attention, but it’s not the only place you want to go to for the history of southern music and family fun. Memphis offers a look into the birthplace of the Blues, civil rights, and major attractions. 1. Graceland You don’t have to be an expert…

I seem to have lost Hong Kong. It was there a moment ago, with 1,295 steel and glass skyscrapers glinting in a stunning display of wealth and style. Now the spectacular skyline has disappeared inside moody storm clouds, with just a few neon lights flickering through the gloom like displaced…

Visitors in the Seattle area looking for a quick getaway might want to check out Whidbey Island, one of the most scenic and accessible destinations in the Pacific Northwest. Within an hour of leaving North Seattle, travelers can arrive on this island via a 20-minute ride from the Mukilteo ferry…

Lately I’ve had a lot of bad luck with my luggage while traveling on long-haul flights. My bags were delayed three trips in a row – reaching my destination only 1 to 3 days after I had arrived. After these three consecutive luggage mishaps, I was confident the airlines could…

I’d been up since midnight – something big gave an audible deep throated grunt under the veranda of my wooden bungalow, off to one side of the 7,000 sq ft Stanmore Plantation House in Valparia (a hill station in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu). I’d left the balcony doors…

Hamilton tickets have become one of the most coveted cultural commodities of our day, but a timed pass to the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) comes in a close second. This is in part because the museum, which opened on September 24, 2016, has…

Istanbul is a melting pot — Asia butting up against Europe, Byzantine symbols displayed along Muslim icons and a food lover’s mashup with diverse tastes from throughout the centuries. The immense myriad of attractions means many visitors spend their days hoofing it from neighborhood to neighborhood, sometimes hopping on the…

What is the first thing you think when you hear Canary Islands? Do you think of a bright, yellow, lively creature that is full of life, happy, and quite talkative?  If you are referring to the bird, then you couldn’t be any more accurate.  The same could even be said…

Every once in a while, even the most jaded travelers come across a delightful surprise. And if you take the time to peruse some of the “Tourism Hot-Spot” lists, you’ll come across such a surprise – Ecuador. This country sits astride the sky-piercing spine of the Andes, and everywhere you…