My Night With Vanilla Ice

Image: BluEyedA73

Spring break for American college students is defined by the following: drink specials, beach parties, booze cruises, dancing all night long, beer bongs, random hookups, wet t-shirt contests and Joe Francis filming girls with low self-esteem, all set in beachy destinations like Cancun, Mazatlan, Jamaica and Panama City Beach.

I never had a typical American spring break.  Neither did my best friend, Beth.  (I went to Italy to perform with the Glee Club; she hit up the Connecticut casinos.)  So when I flew down to visit her when she was living in South Texas, we decided to spend a night at South Padre Island.

New York City Adventure: Hitting on Jon Stewart

When I was a freshman at Fairfield University, my friend Meredith was obsessed with Jon Stewart.  Back then, in 2003, The Daily Show was nowhere near the powerhouse that it is today — it didn’t gain genuine credibility until the 2004 election.  Back then, it was just a cult cable show with a handsome host.

Meredith followed her heart and scored tickets to a show in April, and the two of us, along with our friends Carolyn, EJ and Erin, made the train journey to New York City.  By then, I had become quite enamored of Jon Stewart as well.

My Personal Paradise: Thailand’s Andaman Coast

This week’s #FriFotos theme is PARADISE.  I’ve been fortunate to see hundreds of beautiful places around the world — but no place exemplifies “paradise” to me better than Thailand’s Andaman Coast.
Here are all the things that make the Andaman Coast my personal paradise:

The views, and the hidden beaches — like this one in Koh Lanta National Park.

The Dark Side of the Scottish Highlands

When I was in high school, I was in a performance of Brigadoon.  The show — cheesy, but featuring some very beautiful songs — is set in the Scottish Highlands.

Brigadoon couldn’t have painted a prettier, happier picture of life in the Highlands — weekly markets filled with cheerful merchants, beautiful fields of heather, proud Scottish sword dances, friendly townspeople with musical accents.  And though the show has its share of death and destruction, life in the Highlands, overall, was good.

Solo Female Travel in India — Is it Safe?

Is it safe for a woman to travel alone in India? Yes, it absolutely can be — but traveling in India requires special preparation and practices, especially if you’re a woman.

For this piece, I decided to bring in an expert: Mariellen Ward, a Canadian travel writer and longtime advocate for solo female travel who considers India her “soul culture.” Mariellen is the voice behind Breathe Dream Go, a travel blog focusing on India and the spiritual journey behind travel. She is also the author of Song of India, a short story collection available for free when you sign up for her newsletter.

In this interview, Mariellen reveals how women can travel India safely.

How to Start a Travel Blog In Six Easy Steps

Anyone can start a travel blog — but starting a quality travel blog is a much more involved task. It involves time, it involves investment, and it involves a LOT of work.

Lots of people plan on starting a travel blog just to keep their family and friends updated on their travels. If that’s all you want, there’s nothing wrong with that! Go create a free WordPress.com blog.

BUT. If you want more people than just your friends and family to read your blog, if you want strangers to find your blog and thank you for it, and if you want the possibility of making money with your travel blog someday, this is how you want to go about starting it.
You’re ready. You’ve chosen a travel blog name, you have a few posts in mind, and you have some tantalizing travel plans on the horizon. Fantastic. Let’s put together your dream blog.

On Charleston and Victims of Timing

What do Luang Prabang, Barcelona, Bali, and South Korea have in common?

For me, they were victims of timing.

I visited each of these destinations at the worst time — either at the tail end of exhausting adventures, or after an incredible destination that I hadn’t wanted to leave in the first place.
As a result, I didn’t go in with the best attitude possible, and as a result, I feel like I need to revisit each of them in order to be captured by their magic.

Thoughts on Train Travel in America

I often get asked what other countries have that the U.S. doesn’t. My answer is always the same: a more comprehensive train system.

I love trains.

From the sleek bullet trains of Japan to the impossibly comfortable cars on Austria’s first-class cars to the ultimate luxury journey on rails, the Blue Train in South Africa, some of my most memorable travel experiences have taken place on trains, and watching the countryside roll by from the comfort of my seat is one of my favorite ways to relax while traveling.
Now, what does that have to do with America?

The Best Eats of the American South

To say I was looking forward to Southern food would be an understatement. I literally planned the whole #SouthUSA trip around what I would be eating! Southern food is rooted in so much tradition and has so many geographic influences, from Africa to France to the Caribbean to Ireland, and I was so excited to finally try it for myself.

Traditional Southern food also has the reputation of not being so healthy. While you can eat healthy-ish in the South if you’re committed and have iron willpower, traditional food here is very heavy. Lots of butter, lots of cream, lots of fried food. If you’re trying to eat healthy, I recommend that you indulge with one traditional meal per day, ideally at lunch, and make up for it with a salad at dinner.

This Summer: Quirky Festival-Hopping in Europe!

I’m finally able to reveal it to you all — my big summer plans involve festival-hopping all over Europe!

Must Love Festivals

Must Love Festivals is a campaign highlighting quirky, unusual, lesser-known festivals in Europe. You won’t see us running with bulls, throwing tomatoes, or hitting up the festivals that get all the attention. Instead, you’ll see a different side of Europe — a side where regions celebrate their music, their food, their arts, their culture, their sports, and much more. Festivals that are mysteriously absent from pop culture.

Must Love Festivals is the brainchild of my dear friend Kash Bhattacharya, the Budget Traveller.
Members of the team include myself, Frankie Thompson of As the Bird Flies, Michael Turtle of Time Travel Turtle, Victoria Watts and Steve of Bridges and Balloons, Bethany Salvon and Randy Kalp of Beers & Beans, Peter Parkorr of Travel Unmasked, Dylan Lowe of The Travelling Editor, Sophie Collard of Sophie on Track, Abigail King of Inside The Travel Lab, Sebastian Canaves-Börner of Off The Path, and Alex and Ben of Hejorama.

Monthly Recap: Most-of-May 2014

Now that I’m transitioning from SOTM Tour recaps to monthly recaps, this is the one monthly recap that will be a bit wonky — it’s just for three weeks, from May 10 to 31.

Destinations Visited

Daventry and London, England

Limerick, Ireland

The Miracle Church of Mosta, Malta

 
If anywhere on the planet is more Catholic than the Vatican, it’s Malta.

From giant paintings of the Virgin Mary hanging in Maltese bedrooms to religious festas with saints carried through the street each summer to incredibly ornate churches thanks to generous donations from parishioners each year, Malta is a place where life revolves around the Catholic faith.

Malta is home to more than 360 churches in total — an incredible feat when you consider that the island is 122 square miles.
There’s the Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck in Valletta, which purportedly holds the wrist bone of St. Paul. There’s St. Mary Magdalene’s Chapel, a tiny, one-room church overlooking the Dingli Cliffs. The church of Xewkija in Gozo has the second-largest church dome in Europe after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Contest Alert: Brag Your Way To a Holiday

One of my continuous annoyances while traveling is trying to stay online. Some hotels still charge insane amounts for internet. Others make you sign in every time you pick up your phone. And more often than not, I somehow end up buying a SIM card that doesn’t even work indoors.

You know what would be easier? Just turning on your phone.

Well, now you can do that.
There is now an exciting solution from Three UK, the phone company I’ve been using since I moved to London in 2012. Three is introducing a new initiative called Feel at Home — in short, you can use your Three minutes AND data plan in several different countries at no extra charge.
Got unlimited data at home? You’ve got unlimited data on the road. This is a big deal.
There are currently 11 countries where you can use your data and minutes at no extra charge: Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Macau, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and the USA.

Starting on July 1, you can add Finland, France, Israel, Norway, and Switzerland to the list.

Finland, you say? I just so happen to be heading there in July for Must Love Festivals. I’ll be trying it out there for sure.

Finding a hidden beach in Gozo? Definitely a holiday braggie.

San Blas Bay: A Hidden Beach in Malta

In a country as tiny as Malta, there aren’t many new places to discover. Every geographic nook and cranny is well-documented — and if any two Maltese meet, I guarantee they will have at least have a few friends in common!

But if there is such thing as a secret beach in Malta, it’s San Blas Bay on the island of Gozo. It’s hidden, tough to access, sparsely visited, and breathtakingly beautiful — everything that you want a secret beach to be.

“San Blas!” I yelped out while perusing Google Maps as Mario drove up a steep hill. “One of my readers said that’s a nice beach! Let’s go there!”

Famous Place In Dubai

Famous Place In Dubai

A travel information guide to Dubai attractions, beach resorts, city tours, spa resorts, ... on them to have everything that you need, including the famous big bus tour. ... makes Dubai an ideal place for beginners and professional anglers alike.