I recently had my first opportunity to try biking in Amsterdam. On past visits, I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit intimidated – biking in Amsterdam is serious business! At the same time, I’ve been looking at options for renting a bicycle during my stay in Hanoi next year. Just crossing the street in Hanoi is…
View MoreIn 2023 and 2024, I went on two international trips with my whole family – my parents, my sister, my niece and nephew, and my wife. Having just finished that second trip, I wanted to share some thoughts on what works and what doesn’t. Obviously every family different, and my family is mercifully low-drama. Hopefully some of these approaches…
View MoreThe last time I wrote about getting a SIM card while traveling, I recommended that most people skip the hassle when going on American-length trips abroad. Tolerating the slower roaming from your US carrier (or paying the extra fee for faster speed) outweighed the benefits versus waiting in lines at an airport kiosk or dealing…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 Saturday was essentially the end of our trip, with a couple days of transit to make it back to Minnesota. In the night, we had an amazing storm roll across the desert camp – very high winds and rain. We were glad that our tents…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 Well, I’m a bit behind on blog posts, on account of getting a wee bit sick. Thanks to strong empirical testing, I can report that many hours in a car on Moroccan back roads, followed by a couple hours bashing dunes in a Land Cruiser,…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 The motivation for this trip was climbing, so today we decided to do some climbing. For regular readers of the blog, there’s not a ton of excitement to share, but it was a lovely day. We started out with a delicious breakfast at the bed…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 Today was mostly about transiting the rest of the way to Todra Gorge, but we couldn’t sleep within walking distance of a world heritage site and not visit. So, we spent the morning exploring the historic city of Aït Benhaddou. The thousand-plus year old city…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 I’ve been on a mission to put Kat in a hot air balloon all year, and today was the day it actually happened! Hot air balloon rides are popular activity for tourists in Marrakesh, and all the companies offer a pretty standard package: pickup very…
View More
This post is part of a series called Morocco 2024 “Hey guys, wouldn’t it sweet to just go to the desert to climb after the election” Sometimes things start as jokes on the group thread and turn into reality. In a week of unfunny jokes, this one is playing out rather nicely. In total, there…
View More
Another year, another trip to Mexico City – when I say it’s one of my favorite places in the world, I’m not kidding! And, when you love a place, you want to share it with others. The past few years, it’s been friends. This year – family. The whole family! For reasons that I still…
View More
One wonders how often someone ends up in Bucharest, wondering where the Danube is? I’ll admit, I didn’t know a lot about Romania prior to this trip. And, admittedly, it wasn’t a destination at the top of my travel todo list. This trip was primarily about attending the TRACE conference, which focuses on dendrochronology. I’ve…
View MoreI recently returned from a quick trip to Cuba. As with any new destination, I tried to do as much research as possible in advance. I was surprised with how much outdated, contradictory, or intentionally misleading content exists on the subject of traveling to Cuba as an American. So, for this trip tip, I’m going…
View MoreSo, it’s illegal right? Nope – see my other post about legally traveling to Cuba. What about money? The money situation in Cuba is a mess for tourists and Cubans alike. For Americans, there’s one extra bit of hassle – you won’t be able to access your US bank through ATMs or credit cards, so…
View More
You should visit Reunion Island because it’s a jaw-droppingly gorgeous destination for adventure with a unique cultural background and hints of European character. Reunion is a wild collection of interesting facts – the furthest east you can go in the European Union, reached via the longest domestic flight in the world. It’s barely visited by…
View More
I recently returned from a quick trip to Cuba. I’ll be doing some separate trip tips about the logistics of such a trip, but for now I wanted to capture some memories of the experience. This was a “see it before our politics make it harder” trip, and I came away with a much deeper…
View MoreOn our trip to Reunion Island, we shot 2,039 photos. That kind of volume can be a challenge to deal with. While you can certainly go deep on photo management, there are a few basics every traveler should square away. Pay the Tax Whether you’re an Apple iPhone user, or you’re in the Android ecosystem,…
View More
This post is part of a series called Reunion Island 2024 We’re headed home, this time for real! I’m writing from our flight to Paris – success! Yesterday, for our last day on the island, we went out for a little hike, and explored Saint Denis a bit more. The city still isn’t fully up…
View More
This post is part of a series called Reunion Island 2024 (Here’s the story of the hurricane) The storm really got going around 4 or 5am yesterday – I was really glad we had shutters on our window, which made it seem a lot less threatening. Around 9, we wandered down to the dining room…
View More