One would think that Kyoto, Japan was in the middle of a geisha boom, the way the streets are filled with kimono-wearing women, shuffling down the sidewalks in their six-inch high wooden geta and split toe socks. The jangly metal fan ornaments and flower blossoms in their hair called kanzashi bob with each step they take.  But they are not real. Okay, the women are real but they are not geisha, geiko or even maiko, (what they call women training to be geisha). These are tourists taking part in the booming business of dressing up and touring the town, creating excitement every where they go, not the… Read More…

The sound of raucous conversation greeted us when the double saloon-style doors opened to the Gold class lounge on Australia’s famed long distance train, The Ghan. My sister Lee and I were late in arriving for the departure cocktail party because we’d stopped first to check out the compartments where we’d be spending the next two nights crossing Australia from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the far north. We each had a single room and the tiny cubicles were across a corridor so narrow, we could have left our doors open and held hands if we wanted. But we did not. We would have welcomed being closer to the… Read More…

By Andrea Lee Negroni – I’ve traveled all over the world, but one country encompasses everything I love about travel and that’s Australia. It is astonishingly beautiful, with great food and wine. It’s got weird wildlife; deadly stingrays and jellyfish in Queensland, crocs in Darwin and the Outback’s kookaburra, need I go on? But more than all of this, it is the Aussie attitude that keeps me coming back. Below are nine uniquely Australian notions that captivate me, but I bet you can add some of your own. Gentle mothering – Even before I arrived down under, the welcoming flight attendants on Virgin Australia were urging those… Read More…

When the sun set and the temperature dropped from oh, say, 109 Fahrenheit to something in the neighborhood of 85, I ventured out from my air-conditioned airbnb to have a look around Doha, the largest city, heck practically the only city in the gulf state of Qatar. As destinations go, the desert metropolis is not to my taste with its showy architecture and “luxury” this and “exclusive” that. But on this evening of moonlight and temperatures moderate enough to allow a walk without risking heat stroke, I wandered into the Souk Wakif for an as-close-to-authentic experience as one can have in this capital of reinvention where 94% of… Read More…

Some travel is a lot of work, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Having just returned from a five week round-the-world trip that was ninety percent business and involved a lot of on-the fly booking of transportation and accommodations, I returned home exhausted. Times like this are when I crave the vacation that’s like home; but better. For me, that means a stay in a rambling inn in some unique setting where, unlike at my own house, people take care of my needs and leave me with no decision more difficult than what time to get out of bed in the morning. I started thinking about this… Read More…

There’s nothing original about our present-day affection for the spa. People have been enjoying a communal soak for millenia, and nowhere is that more clear than at the bath so famous England named a town for it. While the Celts apparently discovered Britain’s only natural springs in 600 BC, it was during the Roman occupation that the water source was used to create a complex of pools, health areas and temples. Much of this survives to this day, drawing a million tourists a year to Somerset County, about 2 hours drive south of London. These days though, the water is a brownish/green and it no longer looks inviting though… Read More…

I went to Siem Reap to see the ancient temples. My friend Marion Mapstone visited in 2012 and came back to show me photos that I couldn’t believe were of a real place. So don’t get me wrong, I loved climbing them, wandering through their aged stone walls, listening to the guide tell the stories behind the murals and carvings. But there’s something else in this city that’s not old and very much worth getting to know and that’s the young, animated and energized Generation X. Student Visit in Wat Bo On a late morning walk, outside of the tourist district, my husband Jim and… Read More…

America is often referred to as a cultural melting pot but I give the Malaysians credit; they’ve got the go-along/get-along thing down to an art. Just like Singapore, their next door neighbor, Malaysians are a mix of Indian, Chinese and Malay. Skin color ranges from dark to light and the three big religions, Christian, Muslim and Hindu are represented with sizable and well-visited houses of worship.   The downtown Holy Light Presbyterian Church in Johor Bahru at the southern most end of the country, takes up an entire city bloc with sanctuary, school, sports fields and meeting space. The nearby Hindu temple is ringed by stalls selling strings… Read More…

The beach was warm and the sea inviting. So I was less than enthusiastic when Jeanroger Dorsainvil and Sala Landemaine, guides with the tour company Touris Lakay, arrived after lunch to take me for a previously scheduled walk to the market. I was staying at Moulin Sur Mer, an 18th Century former sugar plantation turned into a family-friendly resort on Haiti’s Cote des Arcadin about 90 minutes north of north of Port au Prince. “Listen, gents,” I told them, “Earlier, I thought I would be interested in seeing the market, but really the idea of going pales next to the possibility of staying right here.” But Sala was… Read More…

Don’t ask me how, but the more wine I had, the more furious I pedaled until by the end of our 20 mile tour of the vineyards of Healdsburg, California, I think I burned off all the calories consumed at the three wineries I visited, including the salted peanut butter cup  and the double chocolate cake – about which, more later. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The Dry Creek Valley about 90 minutes drive north from San Francisco features gentle hills, nothing too strenuous, and there wasn’t much traffic after we made the short trip through town. I was riding with… Read More…