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Your First Pandemic Vacation
What does your first pandemic vacation feel like? I just took 5 days off and traveled to a new location, stayed at a hotel, ate in restaurants, played golf, walked in parks and on a beach. I was able to chat with others at a distance or behind a mask and by Day 2 it all came together: We can do this and enjoy it.
Outdoor Fun in Egypt Here is what I found:
Every place had hand sanitizer and it was used!…
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Chocolate Around the World
Chocolate you must try, buy and keep a supply, tips from The Women’s Travel Group.
Chocolate ginger pieces or cookies: a common combo in Great Britain including Scotland. Ginger was imported from India to ancient Rome, then to Britain and ultimately became a colonial favorite. Chocolate ginger cookies can be supermarket level or gourmet from an upmarket store like Fortnum and Mason.
Chocolate with chili: The first time I ate a chocolate/chili bar was in Mexico City Airport. Chocolate with chili is made in Mexico by artisanal candy makers. …
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History is the cook in Sicily
There is no better food on earth…than you will eat on our Sicily trip March 19-29 2020
There is no better food on earth…than you will eat on our Sicily trip March 19-29 2020
The March climate is warmed by mild Mediterranean breezes. Over the centuries Sicilian food was influenced by the Greeks, Spanish, French, Arabs and New World. In fact, the first cookbook with a known named author was written by a Sicilian cook in 5th century BC.
Here is what history cooks for our trip to Sicily and Malta
The Arabs donate apricots, spices, sugar, citrus, saffron and tropical fruits.…
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Cook When You Don’t Have to? Tuscany Cooking and Seeing Tour ONE ROOM LEFT
Every year we fill Tuscan Cooking and Seeing Tour early. This year we have one cancellation, single or share.
Why cook when you are in Italy?
Why not?
$3399 based on single occupancy and $2999 based on double occupancy if share is available. Your only extras are tips for guide, chef and driver. Optional Pisa stopover pre tour.
Your group is small-only 10 women.We stay in a lovely recently restored farm house with 10 bedrooms, 10 private bathrooms, swimming pool, wifi, several living rooms, several dining areas (inside and outside) and a huge kitchen where our chef teaches.…
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Traveling Abroad in the Trump Era
Whatever your politics, you might worry about the image of Americans with Trump as President. During the 60’s the Dollar was king, the elite traveled; Americans were new rich tourists aka The Ugly Americans. During the 70’s we stayed in hostels flyew on charter flights. If it was Tuesday it was Belgium. In the 80’s we flooded Europe and SE Asia many with first passports. In the 90’s overseas travel started in college with junior years abroad. 2000’s tourists went to new countries in Eastern Europe, did volunteer tourism and adult study programs.…
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Take Advantage of Others' Travel Fears
Travel is as safe as ever. Newspapers are not as popular as ever. What connects the two subjects? To motivate you to buy a paper/read it on line/ or glance at a newsstand, head lines have to be horrifying and misleading.
Middle Eastern refugees will not attack you in Europe. Berbers will not throw a bomb at you in Morocco. No one is waiting in a niche at the Colosseum in Rome to rob you. But newspaper headlines will hint that all of this will happen, and will happen to YOU.…
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5 Tips for Navigating a Street Market
On some Women’s Travel Group tours we include a street market if it is exciting, local and has good products. Those might be Florence on our Tuscany Cooking/Seeing trip, an organized and both local and tourist market. Or they might b the Sabato market included in our Mexico City trip, the best crafts market in Mexico’s capital. Or finally it might be one of the more upmarket street scenes in Delhi on our India trip. You will never have either enough time or energy to feel you really ‘did it’.…
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Back from our Tuscany Cooking Week
Starving post trip, for the pounds were all worth it. Here we are with home made pasta that we kneaded, cooked and ate happily. Some notes on the trip and other small group trips with The Women’s Travel Group:
There will always be someone to pal with, oddly our group tends to be similar from trip to trip. We are women who love to travel and will not wait for friends. We are sometimes celebrating retirement from work or from other ‘lifetime’ stuff.…
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Nervous Nellies Read Here
A personal note from Phyllis Stoller. “My father started life as a traveling salesman. He started a business and worked a 24/7 schedule, before that was the thing to do. Of course, that meant rarely going on vacation and never taking trips. Well, he did play golf all the time. My mother outlived him by 15 years in good health and with financial security, thanks to Dad’s constant work schedule.
Here is what she told me in her very short list of life’s regrets: I wish I had traveled.…
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Why a Private Villa is a Perfect Trip
In March 2015 we return to our private farmhouse in Tuscany for another week of sightseeing, cooking, eating and laughing. The villa is 40 minutes from Pisa, has 11 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, 3 living rooms,with tv and comfy furniture, several wonderful farmhouse tables for our meals, wifi, and acres of vineyards and forest. All the rooms are charmingly decorated, and huge for solos--the trip has no single supplements- we all get single rooms.
We never saw a boar, but were assured they were our neighbors.…
