Dublin: Five Things Not to Miss

Ireland in the off-season is magical. Brisk, windy, often wet but still green and lively. Dublin is a great walking city and you can use the River Liffey as a handy navigation tool. Here are five places not to miss! Temple Bar Established in 1840, Temple Bar is one of the most famous pubs in Dublin but also because it offers over 450 different kinds of rare whiskies (Ireland’s largest collection). Easy …

Visit Petra: Magnificent Site of the Last Crusade

Located in the southwestern corner of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Petra was a thriving trading center and the capital of the Nabataen Empire between 400 BC and AD 106. My first question? Who the heck were the Nabataens? Brilliant, savvy, artisanal nomadic Arabs who performed engineering feats of singular merit. Some scholars feel that the ancient Nabataean gods may have become: Al-Qaum, the male god of the night (moon), Dushara, …

Eat Here: Bairro Alto in Lisbon

There are a million things to love about Lisbon and Portugal in general. But a recent visit introduced me to the city’s interesting and largely unheralded status as a jewel in the crown of the food and wine culture. Sure, Spain in general gets the nod but Lisbon deserves to be singled out for special distinction. I love this capital city and I’d call it a major player in the …

Seven Ways to Pack Lighter, Smarter, Faster

Here are my favorite, travel-tested tips culled from my own experience as a senior solo female managing her own luggage challenges with a few borrowed from my fav travel companions. Do your homework. Sounds simple, right? Check seasonal temperatures and precipitation for the region where you are traveling. A week or so in advance, add the major cities to your iPhone weather app and note variances in weather. Pack something …

A “Must See” in Tel Aviv

Neve Tzedek, my favorite little neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Got off the bus solo and wandered around Tel Aviv’s first and oldest neighborhood away from the “balagan”, the chaos of city life. A tangle of narrow streets and limitless eclectic portraits, the “artsy section” and oldest of the city with a rich, cultural history. Neve Tzedek was established in 1887, over 20 years before the City of Tel Aviv was …

Yoga in Africa

On my last trip to East Africa, another of my female traveling companions and I were the fortunate guests of a Masai Village at the base of the Ngong Hills in the Masai Mara region of Kenya. This nomadic, warrior tribe which once held vast swathes of pre colonial Kenya, still retain many of their traditions as they live largely unaffected by modern day civilization, in areas surrounding Masai Mara. …