Alsace just might be the most visually Disney-like place I have ever been to. Every town and village is candy-colored. Every half-timbered storefront beckons like the Witch’s house in ‘Hansel and Gretel’, with their candies and pretzels and storytelling signs. Roses and wisterias snake up facades and fountains. It’s almost too whimsical, almost fake. But…
Over nearly two decades I have traveled all around France. I would love to spend the next decade popping into any of its corners for a weekend or a month, whenever I get a chance. Yet there is one area of the country that has captured my heart like no other place in the world.…
Over the last 16 years I have been to many different corners of France. Here are my biggest tips and takeaways about traveling there. Part 1 covers my love story with the country, what to hit and what to skip on the beaten path, and best ways to discover untouristed, authentic France. Part 2 is…
I cannot believe it has been more than 4 years since I wrote this post, about my dream travel destinations. I also cannot believe how much travel I have done in that time, culminating with the most insane 2018: 26 journeys, 24 of them – international, including to 5 new countries. I visited places I…
There are three things you learn about King Ludwig II of Bavaria on the Bavarian Alps Royal Castles tour: 1-he died under suspicious circumstances; 2-he was either crazy, eccentric or gay; 3-he was really into the French court, peacocks and country life. The one thing you learn about Ludwig when you actually get to Linderhof,…
I’m not a mountains person, but as soon as I saw the idyllic, bucolic landscape of the Bavarian Alps from the window of my tour bus, it was love at first sight. All I could think was “I can’t believe God has made something so beautiful.” Give me a minute, I think I might have…
You know how parents tell their kids to never get into cars with strange men? This is exactly what I did in Estonia. The strange man in question was the Nice German I met on my first evening in Tallinn. Long story short, as a result of making this acquaintance, I abandoned my original plan…
Crimean tour guides are full of fascinating stories from the region’s history and culture. If one such tale is to be believed, in the 19th century, just as Crimea’s southern coast has established itself as the Russian Riviera and a favorite of Russian royals and international nobles, it started to gain a bit of ill-repute as…well, in…
Wildflower meadows. One after next, after next, after next. Blue, pink, purple, yellow, white, red. Cornflowers, poppies, daisies, clovers, heather, wild lavender. Cows grazing idly by the side of the road. Cyprus trees peppering wide open spaces. Tiny village houses hidden by the lush orchards. Blue mountain ridges looming in the distance. Echoes of Provence…
I had many an ambitious day-tripping plan for my Winter Hols. Arkhangelskoye — a comparatively modest country estate that over the course of the 17th-20th centuries had passed through the hands of several prominent aristocratic families of Imperial Russia — was not on that list. In fact, I had never heard about it and found…
Home & Away 