Monthly Archive: November 2015

What’s My Favorite Country?

This is a question travelers, and travel bloggers, get asked a lot. It’s deceptively simple but wow, it is really hard to answer!

I’ve traveled to nearly thirty countries on five continents (I’ll make it to you soon Australia, I swear), and there has pretty much been nowhere I’ve visited so far that I didn’t enjoy. And there have been many countries I’d go so far as to say I love.

I love England, because it’s where my mom is from, much of my family lives there, it’s steeped in centuries of history, and London is one of the coolest cities in the world.

I love Italy because it’s full of art, pizza, gelato, and breathtakingly beautiful seaside towns.

I love Thailand for its beaches, its inexpensive massages and pampering, and its glorious seascape panoramas.

I love South Africa for having pretty much everything you could want in a destination—fascinating history, good restaurants, wine country, beaches, and one of my favorite cities in Cape Town.

I love Iceland for its rugged nature and isolation. And waterfalls.

I love Greece for its historical importance, delicious food, and blue-and-white island skylines.

Really, I could go on and on. I love just about everywhere.

But what is my absolute favorite country so far, if I had to choose just one?

I’ve thought about it and decided on my answer: France.

Why France?

Well, lots of reasons! Here is just a sampling:

Cultural treasures: France, particularly Paris, is like heaven for museum lovers. The Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay in one city? Yes, I’m on board with that.

Incredible food: You will never eat better than you will in Paris…or just about anywhere else in the country. Pain au chocolat for breakfast, crusty bread and cheese and fruit from a market for lunch, steak frites for dinner, and in between enough decadent pastries to keep you satisfied and fueled up all day long.

Café Life: The French get the importance of café life…they pretty much invented the concept, as far as I can tell, or at the very least perfected it. Sit me down in a quaint Parisian watering hole in which Hemingway and Fitzgerald used to while away hours eating, drinking, and writing their stories, and I am as happy as a person can be on this planet.

Diverse landscapes: I’ve been to France four times (once as a kid, but I’ll still count it) and three of those trips focused on Paris, so I feel I have a pretty good feel for the city at this point. However, there is so much more to France than its capital city. That’s part of what I love about France, in fact—it’s a place I know well enough to feel familiar and comfortable in, but I also know there is still so much more for me to explore…a perfect combination. Next time I return I want to spend time in Provence with its rolling fields of lavender; Marseilles and Lyon for city life and amazing food; Normandy and Brittany for history and the seaside; and the Loire Valley for castles and wine. Just for starters. France will never bore me, and it rewards multiple trips to explore all of its magical corners.

The Language: Here’s the kicker and probably what tipped France over from “I love it” to “favorite country” status: I can actually speak French! Not very well, but I took years of it in high school and college and when I spend time in France I’m surprised by how much of it comes back with relative ease. I can actually carry on conversations in something other than English, and while it’s obvious to anyone who listens to me that I’m far from a native speaker, I still love to be able to communicate in the language of the country I’m traveling in. I hate having to rely on the hope that people in the place I choose to visit will speak English; I want to blend in and become part of the daily life of a country as best I can, so for me, France is the ideal place to do that. One of my favorite memories of my time in Paris is sitting down in a luxurious historic café with a French newspaper and a chocolat chaud and pastry, and being able to get at least the gist of the news from it. It made me feel, in some small way, that I was more than a tourist passing through: that this was a place where I could soak up the culture, and perhaps feel, for a few minutes at least, as if I belonged here.

What’s your favorite country, and why? Do you love France as well?

France, Travel Musings

Nov

2015

Just Do It (or Why I Hate Travel Dreams)

Melissa Kaplan0

OK, so the second part of that title is a lie. I don’t hate travel dreams, at all. I’m full of them.

From riding the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Russia to snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to skiing in New Zealand to wine tasting in Chile, you’d be hard-pressed to find a person with more travel dreams than me.

However, “travel dreams” doesn’t mean the same thing to all people. As far as I’m concerned, they come in two varieties:

Person 1: “I really want to visit Bali and learn to scuba dive. I’ve been putting away money for the trip for the past six months and this week I started checking out airfares, and I just bought a guidebook and am researching Bali on Pinterest every day. I can’t wait to go!” (Ed. Note: not that I really know what Pinterest is, but it seems to be a big travel deal).

Person 2: “Oh, I’d love to go to Greece. I’ve heard it’s so beautiful. But you know, it’s a really long flight, and probably pretty expensive to travel there. I’m not sure when I could get time off for a big trip like that. Sigh…maybe someday.”

See the difference?

Dreams can mean a lot of different things. They can be sheer fantasy, as they sadly remain for far too many of us. Or they can be less dreams and more goals: things we’re motivated to work towards because we know they are achievable, step by step, and that the work we put into making them happen will be well worth it. We apply this logic to our careers, our personal lives, our long-term plans (hopefully), so why can’t we do the same for our travel dreams?

The answer is: we can! And we should.

So rather than prattle on about how we all need to get off our butts and get proactive, I thought I’d offer a few examples of how we can make our travel dreams happen, one little step at a time.

(I’ve already written more extensively about trip-planning how-to’s HERE.)

Five Things You Can Do Today (or soon) To Make Your Travel Dreams Into Reality

Buy a Guidebook. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to walk into a bookstore travel section and just wander around, entranced by all the beautiful places and potential adventures in exotic locations around the globe. Take an hour or so this weekend to visit your neighborhood bookshop (or go on Amazon if you’re really time crunched, but bookstores work better), and take a look at all the guidebooks on display for different cities, countries, and regions, then buy one to read up at home. Spain? Thailand? South America? You may already have a dream destination picked out, or an afternoon of browsing could turn you on to a destination you never even considered and get you excited to begin the planning process for your next trip. I may be hopelessly old-school, but even in today’s online world, I find guidebooks the best way both to incite wanderlust and give a real, practical handle on where you’ll be traveling, what to see/do/eat there, and how to make your dream trip into a reality. Shop away!

Sign Up for Travel Deal Emails. There are any number of email lists you can quickly sign yourself up for that will deliver travel deals to you inbox every week or so. Some of these can contain pretty great deals, so it pays to be a bit flexible and spontaneous in your travel plans, but some offers are good for a few months so when you see a deal you like, you can snap it up now and travel later. Hopefully seeing a fantastic deal to a dreamy destination will help kick your serious travel planning phase into gear! I recommend signing up for Travelzoo and Sherman’s Travels weekly e-newsletters for some excellent travel deals and inspiration.

Start putting aside money each month/paycheck. Ah, the really fun stuff…but this is how you can start, dollar by dollar, to commit to making your dreams of travel a reality. Every month or paycheck, figure out how much you can afford to put aside into a travel fund, then commit to doing so. Even small contributions can add up quickly: $20 a paycheck times 25 paychecks a year = $500. Of course, the more you can sock away, the quicker you can finance your dream trip, but if you have to start small, it will still build momentum and help keep your goals on track!

Download Skyscanner. The Skyscanner app is not just my new favorite app but one of my new favorite things, period. It’s an amazing tool for travelers and those planning future trips, which allows you to type in where you want to go, where you’ll be flying out of, and see what months/days offer the best deals for that route (you can also search specific dates, but being flexible can often pay off). Or even more magically, you can simply type in your location, enter “everywhere” as your search, and see how far you can travel for how much money. This app is free, so if you have a smartphone, go ahead and download it today and begin playing and dreaming!

Immerse Yourself in Your Chosen Culture. This last is a fun one: start immersing yourself in the place you want to go, in any way you like. Have dinner at a Thai restaurant; stream a Bollywood film on Netflix; check out an exhibit of Asian art at a nearby museum; start reading that Russian novel you always meant to get around to. Do anything that will help you get a sense of the place you’ll be visiting and what you want to see, do, eat, and experience there, and get excited about the adventure!

Anything to add to this list? How do you begin the travel planning process? What is your dream destination that you’re determined to make a reality?

Travel Musings

Nov

2015

Why I Love the World

Melissa Kaplan0

I had a very different blog post planned to write today, but it will have to wait. In light of the horrific terror attacks this weekend in Paris and Beirut, I can’t seem to focus my mind on much else. I suspect many people feel the same way.

On Friday night, I was out with some friends for the evening as the word began to trickle in about the Paris shootings, and the scope and horror became increasingly clear. One of my friends, shaking her head over the awful news, commented that hearing about events like this makes her want to turn on her favorite fictional TV show and forget all about the world.

I understand this sentiment; I really do. But I can’t agree with it.

Because the truth is, no matter how many horrible tragedies may mar its beauty, I still love the world.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by events around the globe. I was a news junkie even as a little kid growing up at the tail end of the Cold War, watching the news with my parents in the evenings. I may have had a limited understanding of the things I saw and heard, but I was developing a sense from a very early age that this big, mysterious place—The World—was important. What happened out there mattered.

I went to college to study political science, moved overseas twice, got a graduate degree in international relations, and have traveled to almost thirty countries, all for the same reason: because I love the world. Even when it horrifies me. I can’t stop caring about it, about what happens on our planet and to the people who live here. I can’t stop myself from exploring it and always wanting to learn more.

The world can be ugly and frightening, but it’s so much more than that. It contains so much beauty and wonder that it would be a tragedy to stay home, hide under the covers, and miss out on experiencing it.

The world is the magical allure of Paris, the Eiffel Tower reaching to the sky, its broad boulevards and museums cafes and patisseries inviting weary travelers to come in a while away an hour, or two or three.

It’s the spectacular art in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and the glorious seaside town of Positano looming in the hills over the Amalfi Coast.

It’s London’s red double decker buses and endless rainy drizzle and how it feels to duck in a warm pub or café or bookstore to escape the grey day, surrounded by camaraderie and friends.

It’s the view from a table on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, eating falafel and hummus before heading to the Dead Sea to float for an afternoon.

It’s the windmills and whitewashed houses and impossibly blue waters of the Greek Islands.

It’s the magnificent gold-pattered Aya Sofia in Istanbul.

It’s tapas and sangria in Barcelona.

It’s drinking wine looking out over a sweeping green vineyard in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

It’s the thundering of Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland, pierced by a double rainbow.

It’s all of these places, and it’s the people who live in them too. It’s the strangers who gave me directions when I was lost in foreign countries, who open their homes to travelers passing through, who share a meal or a kind word with people they barely know. It’s billions of people we haven’t met yet, just trying to live their lives and in the process, making our planet a slightly better place.

It’s easy to despair about the world, especially in times like this. The world isn’t an easy place to live in. It never has been. But I refuse to give up hope.

I’ll keep traveling, keep exploring, keep trying to learn as much as I can about the people and cultures and countries of the globe. And no matter what may happen in the future, I won’t turn my back on them or let fear keep me away.

Because no matter what, even on its worst days, I still love the world.

France, Iceland, London, South Africa, Spain, Travel Musings

Nov

2015

Cape Town Highs

Melissa Kaplan1

South Africa was one of my favorite trips ever, but for some reason it’s taken me until now to blog about it. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s because I traveled there nearly two years ago (eek, has it really been that long?) and it can be difficult to write about a place I experienced longer ago than a few weeks or months. The memories start to fade, even though my copious Iphone photos have done much to keep them alive.

But that’s really no excuse. I loved Cape Town, and my trip to South Africa was all-around amazing, so it’s about time to write about it, wouldn’t you say?

I’ll do some more in-depth posts on my visit to South Africa soon, but in the meantime I thought it would be fun to reminisce about a few of the highlights of my all-too-brief stay.

My Cape Town Highs (in no particular order):

Table Mountain—On my first day in Cape Town, I arrived at Table Mountain in the morning excited to take the cable car to the top and soak in amazing city views. Unfortunately, the wind at the top of the mountain was too strong that day, causing the car to be shut down. D’oh! I returned on my last day in the city and luckily, the weather was perfect, so I squeezed into the crowded car after a lengthy wait and rose quickly up the mountain, taking in magnificent unfolding vistas of sea and city below until the misty fog cut them off. Still, somehow this only made the summit more magical, and I wandered around taking in every inch of it (and yes, taking a selfie) before riding back down. I’d love to go up again on a clear day, but even in the fog, riding to the top of the mountain that dominates Cape Town’s horizon was still a magical end to my trip.

Beach Time—Oh yes, Cape Town has beaches—amazing ones. It’s pretty special to get to sprawl out on a white sand beach with a drink and an umbrella, listening to the waves crash on the shore, and then look up to see a mountain with a cloud cover looming over you. Even though the water was too cold to swim, Clifton Beach in Cape Town was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever been to and the time I spent there was one of the highlights of my trip.

Wine Country—While I’m not a huge wine drinker, I have come to love wine tasting, and the whole ritual that accompanies it (especially when there’s also cheese and/or lunch involved!) I tore myself away from the city for a day trip out to Stellenbosch and some of the other wine-producing towns in the nearby countryside, and I had an incredible day sipping wine, eating a lunch of South African bobotie (a sort of meat pie with a custard top—pretty good in fact), looking out on astounding views of rolling hills and green vineyards, and chatting with an enormous group of university friends who were backpacking through Africa together (seriously, why did no one tell me I could do things like that when I was in college?!?) If you make it to Cape Town, I cannot recommend a trip to wine country strongly enough.

Robben Island—I’ve always been a history buff, and I’m old enough to remember the days before apartheid ended in South Africa in the 1990s. I still recall the news stories when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years, and how strange it seemed to see the young firebrand in the photos the newscasters had been displaying emerge from prison as a white-haired old man. Of course when I planned my trip, a visit to Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for many of those years, was an essential stop for me, and it didn’t disappoint. Seeing the very cell Mandela had occupied was extraordinarily moving, but honestly, the fact that our tour guide was himself a former prisoner who spoke to us about his own experiences in jail was even more powerful. As it happened, I traveled to South Africa about a month after Mandela’s death, so the whole country was still gripped by a strange combination of mourning this great man’s passing and reveling in celebrating his life. I’m so glad I took the time to experience this piece of South African history.

Affordable Luxury—I LOVE to pamper myself. No shame from this girl on that score. And one of my favorite things to do when I travel is indulge in a little extra luxury, of all kinds, because hey, I’m on vacation! Not to mention the fact that it’s often cheaper to treat yo’self in foreign countries than it is back home. South Africa provided plenty of affordable luxury, from the excellent steak dinners with dessert I enjoyed at my lovely hotel for about $20 to the spa-and-lunch package (with a magnificent city view from my table) that I booked on my final day in town for $50. It was the perfect end to my time in Cape Town, and helped make the prospect of the twenty-hour flight ahead of me slightly less daunting.

I could go on and on, because really there was pretty much nothing I didn’t love about my week in Cape Town. I can’t wait to return and spend more time in the city, as well as seeing Johannesburg, the Cape of Good Hope, and maybe even ride the luxurious Blue Train! One day….

Have you been to Cape Town? Do you want to visit South Africa? Any suggestions for other places to see when I return?

South Africa

Nov

2015

A Splurge on the Andaman Coast

Melissa Kaplan1

I love luxury. And pampering. I have always been perfectly happy to eschew buying material things—aside from books and occasionally, clothes—in order to spend money on experiences instead. And the best kind of experiences, for me, are those that pamper and relax both body and mind—massages, facials, pedicures. If it falls into the pampering category, count me in.

When I arrived in Thailand a few months ago, I felt like I had finally found a country that understands this side of me. Massages available everywhere, for bargain prices (at least by American standards)! I was getting an hour-long massage treatment every day, for less than the price of lunch back home. I was in heaven.

But I decided that I was going to step outside the affordable luxury box just once during my trip and go in for full-on indulgence. I found a spa package at a nearby hotel, which included an Apricot Body Scrub plus massage. Although I’d already gotten a plethora of massage treatments in Thailand, this sounded too wonderful to resist, so I made an appointment and dedicated my last day in Thailand to treating myself.

It may have been the best day of my trip. I found myself ensconced in luxury all morning, and some of it in ways I wasn’t expecting, which didn’t cost me a penny (or baht) but were ultimately priceless.

The Spa Treatment

I arrived at the spa and immediately stepped into a different world. Don’t misunderstand; my own hotel was lovely and I really enjoyed my stay. But this place was absolutely exquisite. I walked past a stone Buddha statue and climbed steps into what felt like an outdoor garden, except that it was actually the room where my massage was to take place. What a room! Broad, open, and airy, with light streaming in and a magnificent view of the trees outside undulating in the warm Phuket mid-morning breeze. I think I could have moved in here permanently.

The kindly and very skillful masseuse spent the first forty-five minutes or so scrubbing me with, as you can undoubtedly guess, a scrub made of apricot, smoothing out my skin until I smelled like a delightful piece of fruit. Then, I hopped quickly into the shower to wash off the scrub, and climbed back onto the massage table for the rubbing and kneading portion of the treatment. Even after several straight days of massages, I still had plenty of kinks needing to be worked out (what do I do to myself in my sleep?) and the massage did a wonderful job of settling my body into a more relaxed state.

While the scrubbing, kneading, and pummeling was going on, I closed my eyes and listened to the birdsong and the soft sound of the breeze outside, sweeping in through the open layout of the room. The jungle was right next door—or at least a thick layer of trees—and even without seeing it, the peace of my setting began to pervade me. I didn’t want it to end. Ninety minutes wasn’t nearly enough time.

After the Spa

Luckily, my spa day wasn’t over yet. After I climbed down the steps in a daze, I was led to a table where cookies and tea had been artfully laid out for me. I nibbled, sipped, and slowly brought myself back to reality after the morning’s otherworldly indulgence.

After finishing up my snack and thanking the staff, I headed over to the hotel’s nearby restaurant. Which has a patio that overlooks the Andaman Sea, giving me without a doubt the most spectacular view I’ve ever had during a meal:

Sure beats grabbing a sandwich at my desk at work back home!

As luck would have it, I was a bit early for lunchtime, arriving a little before noon, so I had the entire restaurant and its outdoor terrace to myself for quite a while. I had brought a book to read since I’d be dining alone, but I didn’t once crack it open. How could I pass up the chance to gaze endlessly at this view?

My lunch was simple but sublime, and I accompanied it with a lime smoothie that was among the most delicious I’d had in Thailand, land of smoothies and fruit juices. All through the meal, I kept looking around me, smiling without realizing I was doing it, and attempting to snap photos from every angle possible in order to show my friends and family back home the beauty of this place. But no matter how many shots I took, nothing could fully convey the beauty of this spot, overlooking one of the world’s most stunning bodies of water. I think this day alone would have made me a Thailand convert.

The Best Part of All

As I reflect back on that near-perfect last day of my trip, I realize that while the massage and apricot scrub were wonderful indulgences, they actually paled in comparison to what followed. To be able to just sit, eat, drink, and take in such a magnificent view in a place I’d dreamed of visiting for years…what could top that?

As I gazed around in rapture, I kept thinking to myself, “This is what you need to remember.” When life gets crazy and work is exhausting and deadlines are looming back in the real world, I need to remember this place, its otherworldly beauty, and the sense of peace I felt here. I need to remember how lucky I was to have the opportunity to visit such a magical destination. I need to remember that this moment, and moments like it, are what makes all the effort I put into travel worthwhile.

And I will remember it. I’m determined. I will hold on to that view, and that perfect, luxurious day.

Have you ever experienced a magical spot like this? Done a day of pampering while traveling? What types of travel moments mean the most to you?

Asia, Thailand

Nov

2015

My Experiences Bucket List

Melissa Kaplan0

Recently I posted about my top ten bucket list of countries and regions I most want to visit. For me, the whole concept of “bucket list” tends to revolve around travel, because that’s the thing I’m most passionate about and which brings me the greatest degree of happiness.

But of course, travel doesn’t need to be the only type of life goal to find its way onto such a list. And believe it or not, there are other things I want to do with my life in addition to travel! Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about new types of activities or experiences I’d like to try, believing that doing so will not only be fun and exciting but also open up new worlds and help make me a more well-rounded and interesting person.

I’m a firm believer that we should never stop learning, growing, or seeking new experiences as long as we’re alive. That’s what keeps life from getting stale and routine, and helps us keep evolving into the people we want to be.

But of course, this being me we’re talking about, I can’t completely take travel out of the equation. There are certain things I want to learn or do or discover that I’ve attached to certain places. I mean, you can learn to cook pasta anywhere, but wouldn’t it be more fun in Italy?

So in that spirit, here’s my current bucket list of activities, experiences, and adventures I want to make happen for myself in the future, and where I see each of them taking place.

Melissa’s Bucket List of Global Experiences and Adventures:

Learning to Ski And/Or Snowboard in New Zealand: I’ve never really been a winter sports person (unless you count ice skating), but lately I’ve been inundated by views of New Zealand’s wintry mountains that have stoked my wanderlust to insane levels. And since skiing is something I’ve never yet done but always kind of wanted to try, why not combine a wintertime trip to New Zealand with my first ski lessons? Either Queenstown or Wanaka seem like good candidates for this: if I’m going to try a new activity and likely fall down a lot, might as well do it someplace with amazing scenery!

Learning to Scuba Dive in Koh Tao, Thailand: I’ve loved snorkeling since I was a kid, but scuba diving has always attracted and terrified me in equal measures. The idea of being so far below water with an oxygen tank makes me nervous, but the tales spun by those who’ve tried it (not to mention the underwater photos they’ve shared) have convinced me it’s worth doing. Koh Tao, the scuba diver’s mecca, seems like a perfect place to start. Lots of options for where to learn, plenty of instructors to help me through the beginning stages, and loads of other diving newbies like me to help me get over my nerves (hopefully). And oh yes, it’s in Thailand. What’s not to love?

Yoga on the Beach in India: I’ll be honest, Bali would do for this activity too, but there’s something especially magical about the idea of practicing one of my favorite activities in a place that holds yoga so sacred and contains so much ancient wisdom and expertise on the practice. Yoga on a beach has been a dream of mine for a while (and one thing I didn’t manage to do on my recent trip to Thailand). Could be a job for Goa….

Riding the Trans-Siberian Express: This one is obviously location specific—Russia, Mongolia, and China. And I love that. Riding the Trans-Siberian has been one of my big life goals for at least a decade, basically since I discovered it existed. A week-long train ride through Russia! The chance to explore not just its amazing cities, but its lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path destinations and get a real feel for what life is like there. And I cannot wait to dip into Lake Baikal, which, let’s face it, is about 90 percent of the reason I’m so excited to make this journey. The world’s deepest lake?

Perfecting my French in Provence: It’s a little-known fact about me that one of my secret (well, not anymore) ambitions is to retire to the south of France. By the time I reach retirement age, I’ll have spent most of my life living in cities, which is fine because I love city life. But I think in a few decades, I’ll be ready for a slower pace of life, and a new overseas adventure in my senior years sounds like the perfect way to begin that new chapter. I want to find a small village in Provence where virtually no one speaks English, and work to improve my mediocre French while shopping at outdoor markets every day for fresh bread, cheese, and fruit, whiling away afternoons reading in cafes over chocolate chaud and pastries, and, should I need a city or ocean fix, hopping on a fast train to Paris or the Mediterranean for a quick getaway. Does life get better than that? I don’t think so.

Do you have a bucket list of experiences you want to try? Does it involve travel in some way? Share!

Asia, France, Thailand, Travel Musings

Nov

2015