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Monthly Archives: August 2022

How to Enjoy Dining Solo: My Top Ten Tips

This post is for the solo female traveler wishing to enjoy a meal in a restaurant while traveling on her own. This post is not for the solo female traveler trolling for a male dining companion. I’m pretty sure there are apps to make that easier so better to rely on those. Here are my top ten tips on how to enjoy the solo dining experience while traveling: Dress conservatively. …

The Dead Sea: Masada, Magic Mud and Pickle Juice

The Dead Sea is a place of riveting natural beauty and murderous weather extremes. Ragged cliffs, arid canyons where dust storms flare and blur the landscape in a palette of opaque cobalt and shadow for hours. Leaving the visitor feeling coated in a layer of finely ground glass. It’s the Lowest. Place. On. Earth. A fact you can’t miss given the signage. It’s also the place humans have somehow inhabited …

Not to Miss: The Cliffs of Moher and The Aran Islands

The three Aran Islands lie across the waters of Galway Bay on Ireland’s west coast. Sometimes called “the Islands of Saints & Scholars” they are a hallmark of Celtic culture not only for their stunning geological formations but because of their linguistic and cultural heritage. I fell in love with the Islands on a recent trip to the Cliffs of Moher, another stop on my tour of the Republic of …

How to Sleep Like a Baby on Long Flights

There are two types of travelers, those who nod off moments after “wheels up” and those who spend countless hours worrying about the mysteries of sleeping on long airline flights. I’ve been both and I know the benefits of starting a trip after a nourishing nap on a long flight. Dreamless, not drugged or otherwise made unnaturally unconscious. This assumes that yours is not the ergonomic/temperature controlled/gourmet nourished/ pink-noise lullaby-ed …

O Jerusalem! What You Need to Know Before You Go

Of all the sacred ground on earth, Jerusalem is one of the most prized; its history marked by bloody sieges and transfers of power, leaving wounds too deep to be addressed by politics or priests alone. You can’t possibly see everything, so choose the sites most important to you. Know before you go! Hotel and a Guided Tour First, book a centrally located hotel. If you do this, most sights …

Five Really Cool Facts About the Matterhorn

The Matterhorn which means “peak in the meadows” in German, is a nearly 15,000 foot tall mountain on the border between Switzerland and Italy. K2 and Mount Everest may outshine it in sheer stats but it’s the stuff of legends for any climber worthy of the calling. It looms, majestic and snow covered, purpled in shadows. I visited in the fall while temperatures in the village of Zermatt below were …