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What Not to Do on a Plane
Five don’t for long distance travelers:
1-Don’t brush your teeth in the bathroom on planes,nasty water dirty area.
2-Don’t take a sleeping pill. You will still be jet lagged and sleeping through a long flight creates a risk for dehydration and worse: clots.
3-Don’t leave valuables unattended even if you have them on your person-rest on them like the Princess and the Pea.
4-Do not treat yourself to the salted snacks or that second glass of wine.
5-Do not let others bother you; it is better to ask neighbors to lower music or windows or conversation than to suffer for hours.… -
Foreign Travel Deals in a NY Backyard
The other day, a travel group member and I went to the Indian neighborhood of Queens, a NY Borough. The area is called Jackson Heights. We took the rapid 7 Subway fastened our seat belts and exited in ‘Little India’. Along the streets of this neighborhood, we found: gorgeous silks, and silk/cotton clothing, 22 carat jewels and objects, and scarves galore. If you are not able to travel with us to far away places, try your own backyard for an ethnic experience.…
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Women Permitted Finally
St. Andrews, the bastion of men’s golf in Scotland, announced that they will permit women to play. Here is how golf and travel intersect.
Men concentrate on their golf scores. Women measure the connection to others they are playing with. Men and women can be equally competitive, but our ultimate score includes the level of friendship we begin and end the round with.
Men bet $$. Women. Women players finish the gold game, not with money exchanges, but with family/friend/goals/health conversations.…
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Family Pressure and Your Travels
Three months ago, I fell down the stairs in my old house which has steep painted wooden stairs. Everyone in my family warned me about wooden stairs and better “concentrated bannister use”. Did I sell the house? Install an elevator? Stop using the second floor? NO. I forced myself to go up and down repeatedly until there was only a frisson of fear left. My family was concerned but I…
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More Pilots on Drugs?
Why did I let myself read that small article today about the greater number of pilots which have been found to have drugs in their system? The most scary category was sedating antihistamines, present in 9.9 percent of pilots who died from 2008 to 2012, compared with 5.6 percent from 1990 to 1997. The ingredients in Vicodin and Valium also showed up more frequently. Now why would we tell you this bad news, if we are encouraging you to travel?
Reading the news in depth is a way to ruin your love of travel.…
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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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Solo Scares on Large Cruise Ships
Today we have choices of all sizes of ships, from riverboats of 100 guests to cruise ships of 1,000’s. What is best for women who are serious travelers? Why should you avoid the temptation of cheap fares on huge ships?
Large cruise ships need ports for docking. That means you often arrive far from the actual place you wish to see. For example from its port city, Livorno to Florence, the drive is a minimum of 90 minutes each way. You have to get up very early for the tour than when you arrive in Florence, you find yourself surrounded by cruisers blocking the very things you came to experience. …
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When is a Place Scary or Just Exotic?
Just had a call from a new traveler who is interested in Morocco for Thanksgiving. Her question: is it scary? There is a broad line between scary and exotic and here are some of the guidelines for that frontier.
Scary is being alone is a crowded market where the language and writing are foreign. Exotic is wandering with our guide in a Moroccan souk knowing she is watching out for you.
Scary is finding you are in a political demonstration. Exotic is being in a country when eventful things are happening, like our group in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the anniversary of Evita’s death.…
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Five Travel Habits to Erase Today!
We all have some irritating habits and there are 5 travelers must get rid of in order to have the best trip.
1- Second guessing the guide: guides take travelers all the time, truly they know best when it comes to doing their job.2-Overpacking and asking others to help: if you must bring your rock collection…. do not expect others in our group to help you carry it
3-Always being late: we are a pretty punctual group of women, but from time to time we need to chase someone up.…
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What is a non Plastic Visa?
Since we had this question from some women going to India with us in October,:here is a primer on visas.
To enter foreign countries, (or for non citizens to enter the US), travelers need a visa. If you look at your passport, you will see pages called Visa Pages. For many countries, US Citizens only need to have their passports stamped when they arrive overseas-that stamp is a visa.For Morocco for Thanksgiving, US citizens get their visa stamp on arrival easily.…
