We are power-users (if there is such a thing) of TripAdvisor® and we are both rated as "Top Contributors". We meet people who claim all of the reviews are fake, who just look to see which hotel is #1 or who read the reviews and react negatively or positively to things that don't really have anything to do with them. But you read us, so you're superior to those people! Here … [Read more...]
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Two non-touristy places to experience nature in Southwest Florida
People visit Southwest Florida (SWFL) for many reasons including enjoying the beaches, freeloading off relatives with spare bedrooms and experiencing the area's nature attractions. This part of Florida offers a nice selection of nature preserves that are untainted by commercial interests. Most of them are educational and fun places to learn and experience the unique species … [Read more...]
Planning travel to other hemispheres
Planning travel to other hemispheres When you're planning to travel to another hemisphere a good starting place is to answer the question: What other hemisphere are we talking about? The world has two circles around it (not literally). One divides it in half horizontally and uses the equator to separate the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The other one is vertical and … [Read more...]
5 ways to experience luxury travel without breaking the bank
We are unrepentant lovers of luxury travel, especially when someone else pays for it. But we have occasionally opened up our own wallets for some. It can be a smallish splurge in the grand scheme of the vacation's total cost but have an outsize value in terms of making us feel as pampered as we somehow got the (mistaken) idea we deserve. Here are a few splurges to consider … [Read more...]
Secrets Maroma, a Mexican luxury getaway
If you want to truly appreciate Secrets Maroma we recommend you stay at a three star hotel first. Two dear friends of ours got married on July 4th at a very swanky expensive resort in Playa del Carmen. We couldn't afford to both go to the wedding and stay at that resort so we stayed at a barely 3 star place a short walk down the beach. By the second day Blonde was practically … [Read more...]
5 Reasons to travel to Greece
We can always come up with long lists of reasons to travel to Greece but it’s especially easy right now. We’ve seen a lot of Greece and want to see even more – Santorini in September maybe? These are the top 5 reasons we love Greece so much. (The first is true now but not always.): #1 Travel in Greece is affordable If your home currency is the euro then you are … [Read more...]
Miami Beach Art Deco Walking Tour (the AARP goes to Spring Break version)
When we decided to attend the event Cruise Shipping Miami we simultaneously decided to make it a mini-vacation. After researching walking tour providers on TripAdvisor we booked a top-rated one for a tour of the Art Deco buildings of South Beach. We did not give a thought to the fact that it would be Spring Break - a time famous for lewd behavior, public intoxication and … [Read more...]
Prague – Castle Hill, Lesser Town and mistakes
Sometimes the weather is cloudy and sometimes our memories are; unfortunately, both were in Prague. When we travel Brunette takes detailed, copious notes. Except when she doesn’t. For our couple days in Prague last October she jotted down only that we humiliated ourselves. We were 24 hours and 45 minutes late for a dinner reservation we made months earlier. We … [Read more...]
How to plan a beach getaway
The first snow hits the ground or the sun doesn't come out for a week and all of a sudden someone says "Let's plan a trip to a beach". Someone else agrees and they each have totally different thought bubbles over their heads as to what this means. Unless you think and talk through these things ahead of time you may find yourself wanting to get away from your partner or spend … [Read more...]
A visit to Cnoc Suain (easy for you to say)
Blonde and Brunette weren't exactly chipper when we received our morning wake-up call to go to a family-owned homestead to learn about authentic Gaelic experiences. We would have preferred some authentic sleeping in and we are usually loathe to learn actual information when we travel. However, this proved to be a case of the educational aspect being interesting (and some more … [Read more...]