Destinations

The Unique Wildlife of the Galapagos Islands

By Carol Rowland / February 4, 2025 /

I’ve already planned a long-awaited bucket list trip for next year, and that inspires this week’s article… The Galapagos Islands have developed and evolved in isolation over millions of years, hundreds of miles from the South American mainland or indeed from any significant landmass. This means that the creatures that call this volcanic archipelago home…

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Dive Into a Dish That Defines a Culture! A Guide to Tapas in Barcelona

By Carol Rowland / January 8, 2025 / Comments Off on Dive Into a Dish That Defines a Culture! A Guide to Tapas in Barcelona

When traveling to Spain, experiencing local cuisine is a must in your focus of getting a feel for this destination, so that was how I spent my evening last night, and it inspires today’s article… Dive Into a Dish That Defines a Culture! A Guide to Tapas in Barcelona Tapas is a communal meal popular…

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Exploring Porto: A Guide to Visiting the City on the Douro

By Carol Rowland / December 18, 2024 / Comments Off on Exploring Porto: A Guide to Visiting the City on the Douro

Portugal seems to the hot spot right, as I seem to be working on a number of land itineraries featuring Spain and Portugal, and I’m also working on some river cruises on the Douro River. The city of Porto has come up quite a bit and I loved my visit there a few years ago,…

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Palaces & Prestige: Discover London’s Iconic Royal Residences

By Carol Rowland / December 11, 2024 / Comments Off on Palaces & Prestige: Discover London’s Iconic Royal Residences

A consistent destination of interest is the United Kingdom, with London a key spot for exploring in depth. There is so much to see there, which inspires today’s article that focuses on the most obvious theme in planning where to visit when there… Palaces & Prestige: Discover London’s Iconic Royal Residences London is a city…

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Galapagos Islands: A Journey Through Time

By Carol Rowland / November 20, 2024 / Comments Off on Galapagos Islands: A Journey Through Time

As I anticipate the opportunity to visit the Galapagos in 2026, I’ve started my research early because it is such a different and unusual destination. While I’m enthralled by the opportunity to see the giant tortoises and blue footed boobies, I found there’s so much more than wildlife to create fascination with this destination, which…

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6 Surprising Destinations for Wine Lovers

By Carol Rowland / November 13, 2024 / Comments Off on 6 Surprising Destinations for Wine Lovers

I love including wine tastings as an experience during travel, and last year discovered an unusual destination had a strong wine culture, which inspired me to explore other countries that are surprising wine regions… If you have even a passing interest in wine, then you will know about some of the most well-known wine producing…

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Venice Tourism Controls to Fight Overtourism

By Carol Rowland / November 6, 2024 / Comments Off on Venice Tourism Controls to Fight Overtourism

One of the fabulous destinations to visit while on an ocean cruise is Venice, Italy – I can remember my first trip there with my husband for our 20th anniversary. There’s been a lot going on in the travel industry in the last few years regarding overtourism in a number of cities, such as Barcelona…

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Japanese Ryokans – Sleeping in true cultural immersion

By Carol Rowland / October 23, 2024 / Comments Off on Japanese Ryokans – Sleeping in true cultural immersion

This month we’ve had a number of clients traveling in Japan, which is one of my favorite counties since I did a Japan-intensive 2 week cruise in 2019. I’m very big into cultural immersion and including traditional experiences to enhance a trip, so that inspires this week’s article about a special accommodation choice when visiting…

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From Byzantine to Baroque: Differentiating the Architectural Styles of Churches in Europe

By Carol Rowland / October 16, 2024 / Comments Off on From Byzantine to Baroque: Differentiating the Architectural Styles of Churches in Europe

Looking forward to future travel and some of the incredible cities I’ll visit, I know that some of the key sights will be churches. Back in May I wrote about the architectural design of churches, and today I want to explore some of the styles you’ll likely see in various churches throughout Europe and beyond… From…

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Angkor Wat: Visiting Cambodia’s Treasure

By Carol Rowland / October 9, 2024 / Comments Off on Angkor Wat: Visiting Cambodia’s Treasure

With our upcoming Mekong trip in Vietnam and Cambodia, Angkor Wat is one of the highlight visits of this incredible journey, but likely to be lesser known to us than some of the famous European sights, so that inspires this week’s article… Angkor Wat: Visiting Cambodia’s Treasure Angkor Wat is so crucial to the people,…

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