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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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Last Minute is Not Tomorrow
Last minute is used by tour companies to wake you up. Most companies call last minute 90 days before arrival. Why? Because if you travel with a big group, hotels and airlines require deposits ahead of time. However if you travel with a smaller group like The Women’s Travel Group, last minute is only 2-4 weeks away. We once booked a woman the day before a trip!
Our last minute trips include:
Canyon Ranch Health Resort, Lenox MASS. October 9 arrival for 4 nights or October 10 arrival for 3 nights. …
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Melatonin from Costco?
We all adore Costco, with its edible tidbits, amazing prices, and little surprises. Today the surprise was Melatonin. Which reminded me to talk about other Costco Travel Stuff. Luggage of course but you might do better at Marshalls or TJ Maxx. Snacks for sure: granolas, dried fruit, candy bagged into small lunch able sizes, basically everything you might crave in between meals. Then there is the giant container of zip lock bags- never enough it seems-even if you throw a few empties into your suitcase.…
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TSA Troubles with Women
Yes a 53 year old man in San Francisco Airport’s security area was a fake TSA staff member. He dressed like a TSA employee but had not emblem or official badge. However, he managed to take two female passengers into a private room for a search. He was caught because a female TSA officer remembered that only women can search women in private areas.
So what is the lesson to learn here? If unsure of someone’s official capacity, first look for writing on their uniform or badge.…
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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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Single Rooms vs. Shares?
The good, the bad and the ugly. We offer shared accommodations on almost all our trips. And we also offer insurance so that if your share cancels, you are covered for the single supplement.
The good: you save a bunch of money! You can chat at night and have someone else in the room if you are a novice traveler.
The bad: you have to be polite and considerate in the room, but we find our travelers are terrific that way.…
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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.…
