Talking to Strangers: A Whirlwind Day in Havana
By: William Gowsell
A week in the sun relaxing in the beautiful March weather of Varadero, Cuba is an ideal vacation for anyone. In the midst of this tranquility, who in their right mind would get into a strangers car? This was an adventure my wife, two friends and I jumped at when offered a private tour of Havana.
HALEKULANI – Perfection in Paradise
Like an elegant host of a large, family party, surrounded by relatives of inconsistent style and increasing volume,
Visiting the Vineyard: 5 Things Up-Island You’ve Never Done, but Should
Immanjarok and the Shaman’s Ghost
Photo of author pulling sled on the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean
North Alaska in February; a profoundly disinterested sky dashed with sharp shards of still light. An auroral streak-milkwhite and arching from horizon to horizon-is just fading and now gone. Released from a spell, I walk again. Behind me the lowest cuticle of the eastern horizon brims a dull orange.
Journals of Constant Waterman
Photo:Flickr/Iheartj
Point Judith, Rhode Island – 14 September
This morning the harbor spreads calmly. Dirty clouds begin to descend; the next two days will prove wet. The fellow in the small O’Day sloop to whom I spoke last week touted the breakfast served at Snug Harbor Marine. The mile and a half each way seems a bit of a swim. I tumble into my Whitehall pulling boat. I take my empty water jug, a towel, clean clothes and, to propitiate the dumpster god, my favorite bag of trash.
It Never Rains in California
Photo by author
Last night, I took a red-eye from Los Angeles to Chicago so I could see Sunday appointments as usual. FD stayed on a half day more because he hadn’t joined me in L.A. in December when I ran away for a long weekend with the first degrees. So he needed a little more time to get his fill.
Come Strangers, Stay Free, Part Friends
Photo : Flickr/Ansari
For most travelers, the single largest expense following plane tickets is accommodation. Even at the low end, hostel sleepers will spend between $10 and $20 per night for their bed in a dorm-style room. Over two weeks, that adds up to $140-280; over six weeks, $420-840. Two weeks of hotels runs $700-1680. Now imagine you could free up that amount of money to continue your travels. Where else would you go? How much longer would you be able to travel?
Three years ago I discovered a way to reduce my lodging costs to zero. I did this by becoming a member of the Hospitality Club. HC is the largest free international network of hosts and travelers. After registering and creating a profile, you can search the database for potential hosts in your destination of choice. You contact your selections via the website (or email or even instant messenger, if they’ve listed their details) and negotiate your potential stay. Then you show up, make friends and stay happily ever after . . . or something like that.
My Turn
I’m floating on Jenny Lake in my wetsuit with the timeless, beautiful Tetons in the distance, my 70-year-old Mom resting on the shore behind me. As I stare at the water, the waves play back in my mind the miles I had traveled thus far: from Michigan to the Pacific Northwest, a green and brown blur on either side of a gray ribbon of road. I’d seen so much of it 30 years prior with Mom and the rest of the family, and 20 years ago on a trip with a friend, and on more recent trips with my husband and kids.
Consider Timeshares
Information donated by Sell My Timeshare Now
If you’re like most travelers, you’re anxious to get to the fun part. But hassles like securing lodging can put a damper on your vacation. One somewhat overlooked yet generally convenient method of securing accommodation is to buy timeshare. Timeshares are a way for individuals to share the economic responsibilities of property ownership with several other owners.
Here’s how it works: a purchase of timeshare is essentially a purchase of time, or the right to use a unit (at the resort of your choice) for an increment of time. You’ll select your usage based on your vacation availability and you’ll be afforded annual or biennial vacation time. Other owners will use the unit when you’re not, and the cost will be divided among all of you. Not only does this shared expense cut down on the price of the unit for the individual, it also ensures that the unit will generally be large and well appointed.
The Untamed Skies of Alaska
Traveling in America is like being constantly exposed to one and the same familiar cliché.
