The third tri-annual Scotch-centric buddy trip – actually, #4 for me, counting a much earlier and much shorter foray when I lived in the UK – has been a resounding success. The itinerary was more ambitious than usual, taking us to farther outposts than we have been before. 1,300 miles…
The last time I did one of these, in 2019, after a really big traveling year even by my lofty standards, my prediction for the following year started with “next year shapes up to be relatively subdued”… Man, was that an understatement!! As the world more or less shut down…
For the first time in recent memory (and only the third time overall, if I recall correctly) we have greeted the New Year away from home. It was our first time in both Costa Rica and Panama, the first time in Central America overall, and by the nature of the…
Anyone following my lovely wife on social media would undoubtedly be aware that we have spent the last two weeks on a reasonably significant journey. Structured around our youngest’s Bat Mitzvah, it started with a bit over a week in Israel and then continued for a week on the French…
With all due respect to the Eternal City, which I not long ago declared the most satisfying place to visit, nothing compares to La Serenissima in terms of delightful walkability. People who have been to Venice only passingly do not realize that the city is not mostly water. Instead, it…
Whoa! Wait a second there!! Nearly two years of barely leaving the confines of our home – and then we had not one but two long-distance trips in quick succession!? One of them crossing international borders!?!? Yep, that is precisely what we did. Just a few weeks after returning from…
We got on a plane and flew to a remote locale. Funny how something that used to be par for the course for us in the BC era (“before covid” – a term not coined by me) is nowadays an extraordinary event. Two years sitting at home – a road…
In our days of closed borders, enforced quarantines, and mask-up regulations, road trips to manageable-distance destinations become the primary refuge to somebody starved for travel. Over the last few days, we took one such trip to the great state of Maine, which we never managed to visit in the past.…
I only took three overseas trips in the year of 2019, but the nature of those trips made the year remarkably fulfilling. I visited 8 different countries – Portugal, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Turkey, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan – and all were first-time visits. To be fair, half of those were…
My last trip of 2019 was epic by any measure. I spent close to two weeks in Israel for the very first time in my life. Along the way, I also visited Istanbul, explored a bit of south of Jordan, and set foot in the West Bank, adding 4 more…
The trip almost did not happen at the very last moment. We were waiting for boarding our outbound flight only to be told that it was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Three hours standing in ticketing line later, the best we could do was to rebook ourselves on a really…
As is always the case on our family travels, should you have been following my lovely wife on social media you would have known by now that we spent a glorious week-plus in Portugal. It was our first trip to the country, so we tried to reasonably cover as many…
I have managed trips to 4 foreign countries over the course of 2018 (Scotland, France, Greece, Italy), of which one was a fairly triumphant first. It continued a curiously stable trend established in the last couple of years (2017, 2016) following a much higher output of 2015. Where it comes…
This was not exactly a spontaneous trip – we planned it almost three months in advance – but it did come up fairly spontaneously back in August. After returning from Greece, I did not really expect to have either time or opportunity to take another journey this calendar year, but…
The quirks of family vacation planning this year conspired to put two amazing trips within a short interval of each other. Less than 4 weeks after returning from France, we went to tour Greece. Going to the country that we have never been to before, we tried to balance our…
Those who follow my better half on Facebook are well aware that we have just spent over a week in France. Those who don’t know that now as well. We explored for the first time the department of Dordogne and then re-acquainted ourselves a bit with Paris. Walked over 20K…
Another best-buddies whisky discovery trip is in the annals of history. When we did our first one, we came back with a clear feeling that we wanted to reprise the experience. It took us 3 years to align our schedules for the second time, but we did it. This time…
Year 2017 continued the slowing trajectory established by the preceding year in terms of my travels. I again visited only 4 foreign countries (Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain, France), two of those on intraday trips. Going by the methodology of the Travelers’ Century Club, which counts geographically segregated parts of a…
Our latest visit to Costa Brava has run its course. We return regularly and always greatly enjoy both the breathtaking scenery and the superb company, with a fair amount of outstanding food and wine thrown in. The last two weeks only reinforced the long established feeling of the place practically…
For a good half of the last year, it looked as if it would be hopelessly behind its predecessor in terms of travel accomplished for its duration. My first trip of any kind took place only in late July. But a flurry of travel activity from October to December meant that I…