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Age versus Travel?
There is one word for this correlation: irrelevant.
Just back from our India trip with 22 women, all ages. So who did the best? Not the youngest and not the oldest, but the ones with adequate fitness, a sense of adventure and the right pace. Don’t let your friends say you are too old to enjoy travel!
A few mini rules:
Don’t overload your carry on weight or risk back pain.
Find the perfect walking shoes and wear them no matter how ugly.…
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What is the best first solo trip?
Let’s face it, many readers of our blog and Facebook page do not actually travel solo, but are dreaming of doing it. Here is what we think is the best first trip and some guidelines to adapt to your mind set.
A single stay trip might be less work than a multi city tour. Our March 21-29 Tuscany luxury farmhouse trip is an example of an easy adjustment: staying in a beautiful farmhouse,with wifi, free laundry, snacks and drinks in the kitchen etc.…
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Healthy Travel While Seasons Change
For those traveling this Autumn, here are a few tips to save you from colds, wet feet and or sleep deprivation.
Temperatures change rapidly this season: today it is 65 in New York and Sunday it will be 81- very hot for this time of year. Layering is the answer and sizing is another. Layering is not just about putting one garment on top of another. You also need to consider what sweaters for instance are too tight for undergarments. Same with coats which might pull with too many sweaters beneath the surface. …
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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.…
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Boo Hoo for Frequent Travelers
We all thought that PreCheck was for us special people who did not need as much TSA security at airports. PreCheck people do not have to take off their shoes, remove laptops or light outer garments. Ha, it is of course it is not going to be free for much longer. Here is the bad news: PreCheck has been marketing us so we get used to preferential treatment.
Beginning soon, you will be asked to pay for PreCheck or go back to the end of the line.…
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Fear of Flying: Alone that is
You do not have to be afraid of flying to meet up with a Women’s Travel Group trip. We are happy to coordinate you with others. If you live in the West and we are going to Europe or you live in the East and are going to Asia, you might want this service even more. We have several alternatives:
Meet up in the city of departure. On our Cuba trip, we meet up in Miami the night before and have our orientation at an airport hotel.…
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New TSA Rules Need Close Attention
The TSA has announced that they are now requiring all electronic devices be opened at security. Phones, tablets, computers, kindles….. This means some time delay and it requires that your devices have a live battery. Cameras are not mentioned in the list, but beware if they are battery operated.
If you are on a long trip, you will need to re-juice your devices before you go through security, as it is possible that security overseas will match our new regulations. And when you board your direct flights to the US from overseas say like Catania from our Sicily trip, TSA regulations will apply.…
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Top Five Hotel Complaints from Women
Cool Sicilian Gelato. Join us to Sicily for Christmas Markets, Archaeology, Farm Food and More.
Joe Sharkey wrote about Hotel Peeves the other day. He mentioned two top hotel complaints: bulky internet or expensive internet service and hard to reach power outlets. Well if you get to women’s complaints. We agree that paying egregiously for internet is annoying and definitely we are tired of moving furniture to recharge our phones.
Here is my list as a rep of The Women’s Travel Group of hotel horrors:
Dirty floors: many women either stretch or do yoga in the morning.…
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Frequent Flier Tickets are an Addiction
Every now and then we get a call like this: I want to go on the xxx trip with The Women’s Travel Group. I am trying to get a frequent flier ticket for this trip and will let you know when I get it. Then time moves on and we get this follow up call: I was not able to get the ticket, how much is the flight now? Answer: The trip is now full, sorry.
Way back when the frequent flier program was started, it felt like we were being given a prize: free airplane tickets?…
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Sicily+ Christmas markets: Reasons to Book Before July 1Early Bird Ends
Reason one is $200 more trip cost after July 1. The group is more than 2/3 full already.
Reason two is 3,000 years of history washed down with wine and fantastic food.
Reason three is the newest trendy tourist discovery: Palermo, our first stop.
Reason four is the ‘sights and sounds experience’ of walking in the mists of time during an ancient religious festival to the Basilica at night in Palermo. Sicily has history for Catholics, Jews, Muslims at a crossroads location.…