Travel Sage

Big Bend Trip Report

Cathy Laurenzi — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:28:00 +0000

The Travel Sage

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Big Bend Trip Report

My husband, Mark, is a nature guy and Big Bend National Park has been on his must-see list for years. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to get there. The closest feasible airport to fly into is Midland/Odessa, but that still leaves a 4 hour drive to the park. But in February 2025 we finally decided to make the trek. I planned for us to stay an entire week there because in addition to exploring the parks, I had hoped that we would be able to sign up for at least a couple of guided activities, like rafting/kayaking, rock hounding, and/or birding. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after I booked the airline tickets, that I received replies to my emails telling me that none of those activities would be possible. The woman who does the rock hunting tours doesn’t start until March, the birding guide had ended his business, and the river tour company only offered one day-trip paddle in February, and that was to a place that didn’t look very appealing to me. So, I wasn’t sure how we were going to fill 6 full days. But as it turned out, we didn’t do much the first 2 days because it was freezing – literally. The lows were in the low 20’s and the high the first day was in the 40’s. (I believe that this was especially cold for the area.) Plus it was windy! Thankfully it warmed up after the first 2 days. During the time we were there we experienced temperatures ranging from 23F to 89F.

We stayed in a “Casita” that I booked through Airbnb. It was located in the small town of Terlingua, Texas (the closest town to the National Park) Despite the photos, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from our casita. Well, the best way I can describe it is a stand-alone motel room with a patio and grill. Along the road that runs through Terlingua, you can see all kinds of interesting-looking accommodations. In addition to a couple of motels and RV parks, there were white teepees, tiny A-frame buildings with decks and hammocks, really tiny A-frame buildings that looked only big enough to hold a bed, and what appeared to be domed tents with ⅔ of the “ceiling” being glass for star gazing, which was excellent in Terlingua. Overall, though, this town is by no means a crowded tourist destination. You can see everything for miles as you drive down the main road because there are essentially no trees or tall buildings blocking your view.

The first day we didn’t leave our room until after noon due to the cold. Then we drove west to Big Bend Ranch State Park and checked out the Barton Warnock Visitor Center (indoors) which had nice displays illustrating the natural history of the region. By the time we left there it was around 2pm so the temperature was up into the 40’s and I was able to tolerate a little birding and a brief visit to Terlingua’s historic cemetery.

Some people might think cemeteries are only for visiting deceased loved ones, but for me they are a glimpse into the lives of people in the past and sometimes they are also a window into other cultures. Terlingua cemetery was unlike any I’ve ever seen. Many of the graves were simple graves with pieces of wood made into a cross but nothing indicating who was buried there. I believe these were the older graves (early 1900’s) from when Terlinga was established as a mercury mining town.

But surprisingly, this small graveyard (just over an acre) contains not only graves from 100+ years ago, but residents are still being buried there today. It makes you realize how few people have lived in Terlingua. The new graves were much more “colorful” than the ones of the town’s settlers. Many of these graves are piled high with all kinds of objects such as tchotchkes, bottles, artificial flowers, and stones. This allowed visitors a much more in-depth look into the lives of the deceased. Typically we only get clues from what’s inscribed on the tombstone, but here you can infer all kinds of things. For example, I imagine that the man whose grave is piled with empty beer and liquor bottles was quite the partier. I’ve included photos from a few of the more unique graves for you to interpret.

After the cemetery, we visited the Terlingua Trading Company. I had read that this was a great gift shop, and it did not disappoint. It had a large main room and then smaller rooms with specific items like Christmas decorations, jewelry, hot sauces, cold drinks, etc. It also had a couple of rooms with historical displays. I highly recommend it.

Our second full day in Terlingua was again quite cold so we waited until late morning to go exploring. We decided to go into Big Bend Ranch State Park on this day because we read that the road going through the park was scenic. We figured if it was too cold to hike comfortably, it was better to miss the hikes in the state park rather than the ones in the national park. Our first stop along the road was to eat our picnic lunch at a picnic area. The teepees over the picnic tables were a nice touch.

So, the drive was scenic, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations after having read glowing reviews.

Although we spent most of the day just driving, we did get out of the car a few times to walk a short distance, especially to take in scenes of the river.

On Day 3 it finally started warming up enough for me to enjoy the outdoors, so we headed into Big Bend National Park. Our first stop for taking a walk was at Dugout Wells and the short Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail. It was a pleasant walk but not much to see in February, other than some interesting cacti. I especially liked the pink/purple ones.

Our next stop that day was at the Rio Grand Village Nature Trail. This walk led down to the river and offered some nice views. We discovered that many of the trails that bordered the river, have Mexican tchotchkes for sale, most of which were figures made out of wrapped wire. Mexican men rode their horses across the river border to put out these handmade items. Each collection of items for sale has a lockbox next to it where you can deposit U.S. dollars.

Before leaving the Rio Grande Village area, we walked through the campground because I heard it was a good birding spot. We didn’t see a lot of birds, but I did see my first roadrunner, which I was very excited about!

The following we got an early start, and headed back into the national park. Our first stop was at the Sotol Vista Overlook. The views were spectacular but the photos don’t do them justice.

Our primary destination that day was Santa Elena Canyon, which was my most anticipated site on the trip to Big Bend. Despite the Sotol overlook being approximately 14 miles from Santa Elena Canyon, you could actually see it as an obvious notch in the distant mesa. And as we drove closer to the canyon we pulled over several times to get photos of it.

We stopped for a quick picnic lunch right before we started along the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. While we were eating, we got a visit from a gray fox and several roadrunners.

The Santa Elena Canyon Trail didn’t disappoint! The only “challenging” part of the trail was at the beginning, where you had to balance on some small logs to avoid falling in the muddy stream.

After the stream the trail starts climbing up steps in the rocks, and before entering into the canyon, there’s a nice view looking back at where you’ve been. In the photo below on the right, the people on the right side of the river had crossed over just so they could say that they were in Mexico.

It was breathtaking as the trail entered into the canyon, and then after walking for a little while the trail dropped down to the level of the river. For me, this canyon was the highlight of our trip to Big Bend. But we still had two more days to explore.

The next morning we headed out pretty early to Mark’s most anticipated destination – The Lost Mine Trail. The drive there was quite scenic.

The Lost Mine Trail is 4.8 miles out and back with an elevation gain of 1,145 feet. I knew going in that I wasn’t going all the way to the top, so I just went as far as necessary to get some really great views. Then I found a nice place to hang out while I waited for Mark to return.

After The Lost Mine Trail, we drove to the Chisos Basin and walked the easy .3 mile Window View Trail.

That day we headed back to our casita a little early so that we could get cleaned up for a nice belated anniversary dinner. Our anniversary had been 2 nights prior, but when we showed up at the one “nice” restaurant in Terlingua (The Starlight Theatre) that night, we discovered you had to get there early and get in line or you’re out of luck. So, this time we arrived about 45 minutes before they opened and we were the 2nd group in line.

When I say it is a “nice” restaurant, I mean that it has a cosmopolitan menu with prices to match. But don’t expect fancy decor or tablecloths! Actually, it was the old-west rustic vibe that made a visit to the restaurant worthwhile. The food was nicely presented, but in my opinion, it wasn’t worth the price.

Our final day in Big Bend started wtih a stop at Terlingua Cemetary to get a few more photos in early morning light, and then we headed into the park to Daniels Ranch Road near the Rio Grande Visitor Center. I had read that this location is a great birding spot. I managed to add two more birds to my life list, we had a visit from a wild boar, and I bought a Mexican-made, wire-wrapped roadrunner in the local “shop”.

Our final destination inside of Big Bend National Park was the Boquillas Canyon Trail. As the name suggests, the trail led down to a canyon on the Rio Grande. It was nice, but it wasn’t nearly as spectacular as the Santa Elena Canyon. As we started out on the trail, we came across a Mexican on horseback who tried to not only sell us tchotchkes, but also some home-cooked empanadas that is wife had just made. I really wanted to try one of the empanadas, but I decided not to risk getting sick the day before our trip home.

Impressions and Tips for Visiting Big Bend

Overall, it was a nice trip. I was bummed about the cold weather at the beginning, so if I had to do it over maybe I’d push the trip back by a couple of weeks and go in March. That would also have allowed me to take the rock hounding tour that I was interested in. However, be forewarned, I was told that March is a very busy month in Terlingua and in the park. April also can be a good month to go, but you might experience hot temperatures. However, I understand the crowds are slightly less than March, rafting is better, and wildflowers are in bloom.

Here are some additional tips that I gathered from my experience there:

I think a 4 to 5 day trip would be plenty of time for most people to fully explore the area.
Compare gas prices before filling up, I saw some stations that were gouging people.
Download any information to your phone that you might need in Big Bend National Park because the cell service there was spotty.
Once you pick up your rental car, look for supermarkets on the way to Terlingua. The general store in town is very limited.

If you’ve ever been to Big Bend, please consider sharing your tips and experiences in the comments below.

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Workaway in Italy – A Cultural Immersion

Cathy Laurenzi — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 20:13:02 +0000

The Travel Sage

Workaway in Italy – A Cultural Immersion

Heads Up: This page includes affiliate links, which are marked by an “*”. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. But rest assured – my opinions are my own, I would never recommend something I haven’t or wouldn’t purchase for myself.

When traveling abroad, a big part of the experience is learning about different cultures. But when you’re a tourist, it isn’t always easy to get a real sense of what it’s like to live in that country. Most people just visit the popular tourist sites and rely on guides or museums to explain the local culture.

After visiting Italy five times, my husband and I both wished we could experience what it’s like to live there. We decided that we wanted to move to Italy for a year, but life circumstances have kept that from happening. Also, I wondered if we moved there, whether it would be difficult to integrate with the locals. So I did some research in hopes of finding a way to have a meaningful cultural exchange without having to uproot our lives. I was thrilled to find Workaway.info which provides a way to do this at very little cost!

A “workaway” is an arrangement where you live with a host family for an agreed upon amount of time, and in exchange for free room and board you provide help to the host. So, after doing a 2 week workaway in the U.S. as a trial run, I started searching for hosts in Italy that I thought would be a good fit for me.

The first thing I noticed is that there are a lot more workaway hosts in Italy than in the U.S. Here’s a comparison: Florida has a population of over 22 million but currently only has 40 hosts on workaway. But Tuscany, Italy, with a population of only 3.7 million, has over 500 hosts! So, that was good news for me! I narrowed my search by focusing on Northern Italy since I wanted to travel in August and September when it’s really hot at home in Florida. After looking through hundreds of host profiles, I decided to contact 3 of them and the 2 below replied.

One host family lives in a large house with extended family and others living with them. In total, there were 6 adults and 3 children living there. One thing that drew me to this host profile was the photo of the couple and their 3 adult sons sitting in a big tree. That spoke to me for some reason. Also, I liked the idea of experiencing a multi-generational Italian home. And the work included gardening (which I love) and possibly helping in a ceramics studio (which I wanted to try).

The other host was a 60ish year old couple who primarily wanted someone to speak English with them, but it also included working in a small garden. Again, I was drawn to the profile photo – something about their picture made me think that I’d want to be friends with them. However, this host was new and didn’t have any reviews which made me a little leary. (The other host had lots of 5 star reviews.) But I decided to go with my gut, and reach out to them.

Over the course of several weeks I had a video call with each of the two couples that accepted me. And we arranged my travel dates so that I could spend two weeks with one host and then go from there straight to the other host. And after planning the trip, I studied Italian for the 6 weeks leading up to my departure. Although I’d studied Italian on and off most of my adult life, this time I was motivated, especially since I was told that the husband of the large family did not want to speak in English! I had taken a few Italian classes over the years, and more recently I had been using Duolingo. And while my vocubulary had grown with Duolingo, I really couldn’t speak Italian except for very short, basic sentences. So I did some research and decided to try a audio based app. I settled on Pimsleur* and studied one to two hours every day. And although I made more progress in those few weeks than I had in the sum of all my previous studying, I was still far from being conversational.

So in mid-August 2024, I flew to Italy alone (my first time traveling to Europe by myself). The first destination was a small town near Brescia, called Cellatica. This was the location of the large extended family, whom I was scheduled to stay with for 2 weeks. I flew into Milan, then made my way by train to the Milan central station, then took a train to Brescia, and then caught a bus to Cellatica where my workaway host was picking me up. It sounds like a lot, but the trip went very smoothly. But to ensure it went smoothly, I did research beforehand to determine the best way to get to the Milan train station, and how to pay for the bus.

Italian Workaway #1: Introduction & Routine

Once I arrived at the bus stop in Cellatica, I messaged the host (Hedwige) to let her know I was there. At first she thought I was at the wrong stop, but after she realized I was in the right place I received the message “Arrivo!” Google translated “Arrivo” to “I arrive”, but I didn’t see anyone. After about 10 minutes she pulled up, and this became my first Italian language lesson of the trip- “Arrivo” is a way of saying “I’m on my way.”

Hedwige is a French woman who had lived in Italy since she married her Italian husband about 30 years ago. She seemed warm and friendly. She picked me up in the family’s tiny car and drove me the short distance to their home. It was a huge, multi-story house sitting on the equivalent of about 5 acres just outside the tiny town of Cellatica. I later learned that in Italy this is a typical “farmhouse”. Apparently most Italian homes are small, with the exception of “villas” and “farmhouses”. Villas are very upscale, while that isn’t generally the case with farmhouses. This house was relatively new by Italian standards – it was built in the 1970’s and this was only the second family to live in it. The house had a huge wrap-around porch on two sides, three large garages, and a partially buried above ground pool. It had lots of windows – all of them with wooden shutters. Upon arrival, I was shown around the house and then up to my private room. The room was sparsely furnished with a single bed and a desk, and plenty of closet space. It was perfectly adequate for me. The best thing about the room was that it had its own private patio/balcony looking down over the front yard. I shared a bathroom with one other person.

Throughout the course of my first day I met the members of the family who were living in the house which included the husband, Marizio, the youngest son (in grad school), Ilia, Marizio’s Italian mother and Hedwige’s French father. The parents were in their 80’s/90’s and they both needed to be taken care of. Neither of them could walk unassisted and they had both lost some mental capacity. There was a consistent routine every day, which I’m guessing was at least partly due to the parents needing assistance.

Breakfast was eaten on our own, but it appeared that the parents were usually fed around 8am, which is when I started my chores. A hot lunch was prepared around 1pm and everyone who was home ate together at the kitchen table. Then we were off to do afternoon chores and possibly a swim in the pool to cool off from the extreme heat. I usually took a nap in the late afternoon since I was constantly exhausted. I was not used to that much manual labor, especially without air conditioning. (The main part of the house wasn’t air conditioned, but thankfully my bedroom was.) At around 7:30pm everyone started gathering to help finish preparing dinner and to get it on the table. Most nights we ate outside on the front patio and once the sun went down it was very pleasant.

After being there for a few days, I met the rest of the other family who lived in the house. (They had been away on a short trip.) This included a young woman (Moroccan, I believe) and her three sons aged around 7 through 14. This family was taken in by Hedwige and Maurizio nine years prior and had been living there ever since. Over the course of my two weeks there, I learned that Hedwige and Maurizio were involved with an organization that helps women in need. During her nine years there, the woman was able to build a life for her and her children, and happily, when I met her, she was gainfully employed and had just bought a house with her fiance and was moving out soon. This story was only one of many things that made me realize how incredibly caring and generous Hedwige and Maurizio were. Not only did they house this family, but they frequently had to watch the young children. So, at the time I was there, 9 people were living under that roof, not including me. But apparently there was always room for more. In addition to being a host on workaway.info*. Hedwige and Maurizio were listed on the site warmshowers.org. This is a site where people can sign up to host long-distance cyclists as they travel through town. Twice in the two weeks I was there, a couple of cyclists joined us for dinner and camped overnight in the yard. The first two people who came had met on one of these online travel sites and decided to take a trip together. She was from France and he was from Mexico, and the second visitors were a couple from France. At dinners, especially ones with visitors, I was taken aback by all of the different languages being spoken across the table.

Italian Workaway #1: The Work

According to this Workaway host profile, I was expected to work no more than 5 hours per day, 5 days per week. I worked more than that. But honestly, if I hadn’t, I would have felt guilty given how hard both Hedwige and Maurizio worked every day. I didn’t work at all on my first day, but Hedwige did go over the list of chores she had created for me. She told me she didn’t care when I did each chore – that was up to me, but she did expect me to work. The one chore that I was asked to do daily was to go into the back garden and pick whatever food was ripe. I was told this was the “small” garden, but it was huge! There were rows of tomatoes, cucumbers, various kinds of squash, pumpkins, celery, green beans, and much more. The big garden was in front of the house and it was a community garden. The family had allowed people from the town to plant there and harvest it themselves.

In another part of the yard there were fruit trees and vines. I’m not sure about all of the kinds of fruit they had, but the ones that were producing when I was there included grapes, pears, plums, and figs. There were so many figs! Picking fruit was another one of my daily chores. The number of figs I picked every day was mind boggling! And it was all from just two trees. Working in the gardens was my favorite chore, despite the oppressive heat. I came to northern Italy to get a break from the hot Florida summer, but when I checked the weather, I found that, on many of the days that I was there, it was hotter than it was back at home.

Some of the other chores I did included painting the radiators in the house, cleaning miscellaneous things, weeding between the cracks in the walkways, weeding the garden, scraping out old caulking from around the kitchen sink, helping to wax the tile floors of the wrap-around porch (by hand, on our knees). I only got to help in the pottery studio a few times. Once to clean and wedge the recycled clay and once to sand and clean the old wooden boards used for the background of the ceramic mosaics. Also, on my last day, Hedwige showed me how to make clay leaves by hand and assemble them into a tree.

I realized after the first day of work that my life back at home was very sedentary. I hadn’t thought it was, but the physical exhaustion I felt after only 6 hours of labor told me otherwise. When I wasn’t working or eating, I was mostly sleeping. But after about a week of this routine, the fact that my body was physically tired started to feel good in a way. It’s hard to describe, but maybe in some way I felt a little more alive.

Italian Workaway #1: Days Off

Although I was only supposed to work 5 days a week, I really only took 2 complete days off over the 14 days. On the 2 Sunday’s that I was there, I just worked a little in the garden and picked fruit, but overall I took it pretty easy. But on the days I was completely off work I wanted to do some sightseeing. My first choice of things to see was some of the “lake country”. The house was only about a 30 minute drive to both Lake Garda and Lake Iseo. (Not that I had a car, but it was clearly a short distance.) After getting advice from Maurizio and doing much research, I decided to go to Lake Iseo because the lake was smaller and therefore it would be easier to see more of it in a day. Also, there was a train that ran up along the entire east side of Lake Iseo. My plan was to take a bus to Brescia, then the train up to Pisogne, then a ferry to Lovere then a ferry to Monte Isola (an island in the lake) where I would then take a walk across the island and then catch a ferry the brief distance to Sulzano where I would get the train the back to Brescia and the bus back to Cellatica. I checked all of the bus, train and ferry schedules to make sure it could be done in one day. What could possibly go wrong?! Unfortunately, I found out. It’s such a long story, that I’m creating a separate article about it called “Your a Meticulous Planner – What Could Possibly Go Wrong!” Although I never made it to the north end of the lake, despite everything that went wrong, I did manage to walk around Monte Isola and take in some awesome scenery.

On my other day off I did something nice and easy – I explored the city of Brescia. It was easy because it was just a direct 30 minute bus ride away, and I had already taken that bus the day I arrived. I decided to walk through the older part of town to the Brescia Castle. The first thing that struck me as I walked through town was the lack of tourists. The Italian cities I had visited in the past were tourist destinations, but, for the most part, Brescia was not. I thoroughly enjoyed taking in a “real” Italian small city. At some point during the day it dawned on me that I really loved traveling alone (although I would have preferred my dog to be with me). I did whatever I wanted at my own speed, not having to worry about what a travel partner was thinking; it felt very liberating!

I walked through the historic part of the city on my way to the city’s medieval castle, Castello di Brescia. One of the most interesting things I found in Brescia was that their 17th century cathedral was built next to their medieval cathedral, which is still standing. This is unusual to find since it was common for the old one to be torn down to build the new one.

The old cathedral (12th century) and the new cathedral (17th century) of Brescia sitting side by side. (Photo courtesy of Wolfgang Moroder.)

Italian Workaway #1 - Observations and Takeaways

So, after 2 weeks in Cellatica, I considered what I observed and learned from this cultural exchange.

Food is very important. Eating together is an essential part of daily life. Meals are to be shared and not taken in a hurry. The food is fresh (preferably from the garden) and simple. Most of the family was vegetarian, so typically meals included a selection of vegetables sauteed with fresh herbs, a starch (pasta, rice, polenta, and/or bread, sometimes a salad, and always fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for eating whole. Occasionally there was a sweet dessert after dinner, but there were always fresh fruits, and occasionally homemade gelato (peach or fig) made from fruit picked in the yard and frozen.

You don’t need to speak the same language to communicate. I was a bit nervous coming into this workaway after being told that Maurizio didn’t want to speak English, but in reality he tried to speak to me in English and I tried to speak to him in Italian. And with the added guests in the house there was a lot of translating going on and always hand gestures being flung about. There was only one instance when a gross miscommunication occurred. I had asked Hedwige how long ago her mother had passed away. Well, for some reason, she thought I was asking when her mother-in-law was going to die. That made for an awkward few minutes until she realized what I was actually saying, and then we had a good laugh!

Natural products are best. Edwige made her own hand soap, cleaning detergents, and laundry detergents. Chemicals were avoided at all costs.
There were no strangers; everyone was a welcomed guest. I have a hard time imagining most people in the United States being so willing to welcome strangers into their home, let alone foreigners who may not speak English. And it really impressed me that the family shared their land (the big garden) to allow people who lived in town to grow their own vegetables as a community.
There was almost no TV and very little computer use. The only person in the house I saw watching television was the grandmother who was not mobile. And it appeared that smart phones and computers were mainly used to communicate or look things up.
I have a very easy life! As much as I love the idea of growing my own food, having a large property, being involved in the community, and living more naturally; this experience opened my eyes to how much work is involved in sustaining that kind of lifestyle. I would like to do more of this but on a much smaller scale.

As it was time to say goodbye, I was a bit emotional. I felt that I really made a connection with Hedwige and Maurizio and I would miss them.

Although the original plan was to go directly from my first workaway to the second one, I decided instead to spend one day and night in the city of Bergamo, which was on the way.

It was an easy train ride from Brescia to Bergamo, and I got an apartment near the train station for one night on Booking.com that allowed a 2pm check-in. So, after checking in, I immediately headed up to the old part of the city, which is walled and sits atop a hill. I walked up the main road heading toward the city where there is a funicular that takes you up into the center.

Once I was up in the old city, I just wandered around taking in the sights. I noticed shops selling focaccia loaded with different toppings, and I treated myself to some gelato. Bergamo is known for stracciatella gelato which was invented there, so I felt the need to try it. Honestly, I found it boring. It was just cream with specks of shaved chocolate. It occurred to me that vanilla gelato isn’t common in Italy. Their “plain” gelato is simply the flavor of cream.

After wandering around for a while, I took another funicular up to the remains of an ancient castle, Torre Castello San Vigilio where I found sweeping views of the city.

As I was trying to get back to the apartment before dark, I took a bus back, but got off a few blocks early to grab a bite to eat. After being in a vegetarian household for 2 weeks, I chose to get a big juicy hamburger instead of the requisite Italian food. By the time I walked back to my apartment it had just gotten dark, and as soon as I moved off the main street I started feeling a little uncomfortable. And when I got to my street I found about a dozen young men just hanging out, some drinking out of paper bags. No one bothered me, but it was pretty unnerving. I was later told by an acquaintence that the area around the train station was not a good part of town. I thought I was being smart staying there because it was so convenient (just 5 minute walk to the station), but I’ll be more careful next time and be sure to research any neighborhood where I intend to stay.

Italian Workaway #2: Introduction & Routine

I left bright and early the next morning to head to my next workaway. After changing trains twice, I made it to the Ivrea train station where I was picked up by next host, Renza. Renza was very friendly and welcoming and her English was better than I had been used to hearing for the previous 2 weeks. It was just a few minutes drive to her home where I met her husband Gianni. Their home was completely different from my first workaway. It was a small 3 bedroom attached home, with contemporary furniture. Their yard and vegetable garden were small, but their home was an end unit so that gave them some extra room. One of the nicest features of the house was a big glassed in porch that offered beautiful views.

The first thing that my new hosts did on the day I arrived was to sit me down and ask me what my expectations were. Well, after having just completed my first workaway I was expecting something similar, so I said that I assumed that they would give me a list of what they wanted me to accomplish. After some back and forth and moments of awkwardness I realized that they wanted to know what I was hoping to get out of the experience. I don’t recall what my answer was, but after that we just started chatting and everyone relaxed.

Renza and Gianni both worked, but they were still home quite often. Renza worked flexible hours, and Gianni worked for a company in Turin (about 1 hour away), but he was able to work from home 4 days a week. As was the case with my first workaway, meals were always shared. And here, all three meals were eaten together, even breakfast. In the evenings when we were all at home, we sometimes played cards. The last night I was there they had a “barbeque” at their house with about 14 people. (I’ll talk a little bit about that below when discussing observations.) One night they also took me out with a few of their friends to an “aperitivo”. In Italy an “aperitivo” is like a happy hour, where drinks are discounted, but some bars offered free appetizers with the drinks. Of course, my hosts knew where to go, so the bar they took me to had a nice spread.

Italian Workaway #2: The Work

The ad for this workaway had said that they wanted to practice their English and some help in the garden. But in reality, they just wanted to spend time with me speaking in English. I had to nag them to give me actual work to do. They didn’t even need me to clean because they had a cleaning lady. However, I did force the issue and got to do some weeding, trimming, and picking nuts out of the gravel driveway.

I also wanted to cook for them at least once or twice, but that was a bit tricky because I had trouble finding the ingredients to the recipes I wanted to make. They mentioned that they liked Latin food but their friend who cooked Latin for them made complicated dishes that they didn’t want to go through the trouble of replicating. So, I thought of one of my go-to Latin recipes that is so easy and everyone likes it – chicken chili. Renza took me to the largest grocery store in their town so I could buy the ingredients, and then dropped me off at a second grocery store, but the Latin section in both stores pretty much consisted of just tomato salsa and tortillas. I couldn’t find green chilies, salsa verde, or even coriander! But I saw that there was a Latin grocery in Turin and I knew I was going there on my day off, so I held out hope to get the ingredients there. Meanwhile, I wanted to cook something else for them, so I headed to the can soup aisle for some cream soup that I use to make chicken and stuffing – another easy dish. I couldn’t find the canned soup so I asked someone “Dov’è la zuppa?” Unfortunately, I didn’t know the Italian word for “canned” so I was directed to the refrigerated soup section. So, I called Renza and asked her where I could find the canned soup. She seemed confused and asked what kind of soup I was looking for, I told her a “cream soup”. She then informed me there were no canned soups. “If we want soup, we just make it.”

I gave up on making them anything easy because, apparently, easy ingredients don’t exist in your average Italian grocery store. Except, of course, there was a whole aisle of boxed pasta. But I wasn’t going to make pasta for my Italian hosts, and certainly not boxed pasta! I eventually settled on making a dish that I considered to be Italian – chicken & wine with olives. There were a lot of ingredients, so it wasn’t a quick and easy meal, but at least I could find the ingredients. (Except there was no “Italian Seasoning” I just had to mix the individual spices together.) I made this meal for my hosts one night; they liked it but Gianni commented he could tell it was American. Huh? I was baffled by that at first, but in hindsight, I think it was because the dish was complicated and had a lot of different vegetables in it. I think it wasn’t as simple as Gianni was used to.

So, back to my main task… helping Renza and Gianni with their English. I tried to give them some sayings that they wouldn’t typically learn from a class or an app. Over the course of the week, I tought them sayings like, “it is what it is”, “what’s done is done”, “twist my arm”, “up-side down”, and “right side up”. I also corrected them sometimes, although I was careful not to do that too much. Although they really wanted to work on their English, they did encourage me to practice a little Italian, which I did rather poorly.

One day I accompanied Renza to visit her parents. I sat with her mother in the living room while Renza visited her father in his bedroom. Renza’s mother didn’t know any English, so that made conversation a bit difficult. I mostly nodded and smiled while she talked, or nodded and looked sad if her mother’s tone warranted it. I was actually able to understand a little. She asked me where I was from, which I answered in Italian. Then I thought she asked me how long I was staying with Renza, so I responded “due settimane” which means two weeks. After that she kept complimenting me on how great my Italian was. It wasn’t until the drive home, when I replayed the conversation in my head, that I realized what she had acually asked me was how long I had been studying Italian?! Well, that explains why she thought I spoke Italian so well. I don’t think she would have been nearly as impressed if I had told her that I had been studying on and off for about 35 years!

Italian Workaway #2: My Day Off

I was only with this host for 10 days, so I figured one day of sight-seeing was plenty. Besides, I was still recovering from the exhaustion of the prior two weeks. Since Gianni goes to work in Turin on Mondays, he graciously offered to take me into the city in the morning and pick me up after he got off work. I did a little research and decided to visit the National Cinema Museum inside the Mole Antonelliana which is a historic building with an elevator that takes you up to a tower with panoramic views. The inside of the building was really cool looking, and I enjoyed both the museum and the views. The museum contained a lot of paraphernalia from what was mostly Hollywood movies, as well as some oddities such as the theater room with toilets as the seats.

After visiting the museum, I walked down one of the main streets in the city toward the waterfront along the River Po, and then my plan was to walk about 20 minutes out of the way to go to the Latin grocery store to get the ingredients for chicken chili. Some of the main streets have porticos over the sidewalks which helped give the city a grand feel. The views on the river were very pretty and much greener than I expected.

As planned, I made my way to the Latin market. But I was quite disappointed to find this sign on the door. Unfortunately, It was only September 2nd, and apparently the owners had not yet returned from their summer vacation. There would be no chicken chili!

Italian Workaway #2: Observations & Takeaways

I had a great time staying with Renza and Gianni. Here are some of my observations from the visit.

Italian food is simple and meals do not need to be complicated. When I say the food is simple, I mean that they tend not to add a lot of different ingredients. I learned that simple can still be delicious. One thing I noticed in the houses where I stayed, as well as restaurants and grocery stores, is that salad dressings aren’t really a thing. Instead, they simply use olive oil, and vinegar or lemon. Also, their meals don’t have to follow any rules. For me, I always felt that a meal has to be thought out and the ingredients have to work together. In Italy, they would often just pull things out of the refrigerator and put them on the table. If they need more food on the table, they can always put out some cheese, or tomatoes, or olives. Maybe this is why Americans eat too much pre-made and fast food; we make meal planning too complicated.

The reputation that Italians have of being passionate when they talk is very true. As an Italian-American I really already knew this from my own family, but it was nice to see and confirm in Italy that it is perfectly normal (i.e., not rude) to be loud and argumentative. (I hope my husband believes me now.) When my hosts had a gathering at their house, I sat back and really enjoyed listening to the lively and animated conversations, even when I couldn’t understand much of it.

Italian gatherings aren’t much different than American ones (except maybe louder). When Renza and Gianni had their friends over for a barbeque, I noticed the similarities to a typical American gathering. The host provides the main course and everyone brings something to share. The closest friends of the host help in the kitchen. And most notably, the men all gather around the grill drinking beer!

Hand gestures really are an important part of communicating for Italians. I’ve always talked with my hands, but I hadn’t realized that in Italy, most all hand gestures have meanings which are used universally. My hosts showed me a book that their American friends had given them. It’s called “Speak Italian : The Fine Art of the Gesture“*. What amused me about it the most was that the book wasn’t meant to be funny – it was a serious book about how to interpret and make Italian hand gestures! This little book got passed around at the BBQ gathering and Renza and Gianni’s friends critiqued whether they thought it was correct. With just one exception, they agreed with the book’s translation of hand gestures. The book made for good dinner party conversation.

The Italian language has an unusally large number of words that relate to food and sex. For example, when helping Renza in the kitchen, she was asking me to clean some vegetables in preparation for cooking (“mondare” in Italian) and she wanted to know what the English word was for that. I said “wash” or “clean”. But that wasn’t what she was looking for, she wanted to know the word that means specifically to clean/peel vegetables. She was surprised to learn that there isn’t one. Other examples include “scarpetta” which means to mop up the remaining sauce on your plate with a piece of bread, and “culaccino” which refers to the wet mark left on a table from a cold glass. Regarding Italian words related to sex that don’t have a direct English translation… I’ll leave that to the reader to research.

The night of the party was my last in Ivrea. I was sad to leave Renza and Gianni; I really felt that I had made new friends. The next morning they took me to a bus stop to catch a bus to the Milan airport where I met my sister-in-law who had just flown in from Massachusettes. I spent another 10 days in Italy with her being tourists. But that’s another story. Although I do still like to see the sights, doing these two workaways was the true cultural immersion that I was hoping for!

Epilogue:

I had really hoped to stay in touch with my Italian host families and, so far, I’ve accomplished that. In fact, my husband, Mark, and I visited my new friends 9 months later (May 2025) while traveling through Northern Italy.

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Workaway – A Unique Travel Experience

Cathy Laurenzi — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 20:28:59 +0000

The Travel Sage

Workaway – A Unique Travel Experience

Do you love to travel but have the need to travel cheap? When you travel, do you enjoy meeting locals? Do you ever dream about living in a different country for a while to immerse yourself in the culture? If so, consider joining the “workaway” community.

What is Workaway?

Workaways are a type of exchange where the host offers free room and board for an agreed amount of time in exchange for some type of assistance from the workawayer. The most well known site for these types of exchanges is workaway.info. There are alternative workaway sites, but workaway.info is the one I’ve used (both as a workawayer and as a host), so that is the one I’m going to focus on here.

How Workaway Works

Both hosts and workawayers create profiles on the workaway website which include photos. The hosts’ profiles contain a description of where they live, the type of help needed, and information about the hosts themselves, including what languages they speak. The workawayers’ profiles include general information about themselves, their interests, and their skills. There is plenty of space provided to share as much as you want about yourself and I think it helps a workawayer to get accepted if they take the time to write a good and thorough description of who they are. Hosts profiles are free, and at the time of this writing, workawayers pay an annual fee of $59 for individuals or $69 for a couples account. (Couples accounts are for any two people wishing to travel together, not necessarily couples.)

Before any profiles are published on workaway.info, they are reviewed by the website’s staff, but background checks are not conducted and identity verification is not mandatory. However, the site does offer optional ID verification for both workawayers and hosts at no additional charge. Anyone who is ID verified will have a badge on their profile.

Typically, it’s the workawayer who makes the initial contact by reaching out to hosts that they are interested in. Although not as common, it is also possible for hosts to search for workawayers and make the first contact. As a workawayer, it’s very easy to search for hosts based on location, but I’ve found that the search filters for types of work don’t work very well.

The type of help that hosts advertise for can be just about anything (although if you help them in a business, they are supposed to pay you something). I’ve read hundreds of host profiles and I found that the following are the most common types of requests, at least in Europe:

Building and renovation projects.
Childcare
Elder Companionship
Permaculture projects.
Help with gardening and housework.
Assistance with a foreign language.

I noticed that the majority of workawayers on the site are young (mostly 20’s and 30’s), so I was a little concerned that I’d have trouble finding opportunities, since I was 56 at the time I joined workaway. But, thankfully it hasn’t been a problem. Workaways provide a great opportunity for people of all ages, including seniors, to volunteer abroad. I think you just need to be realistic about whether or not you fit well with the needs and desires of each host before applying.

The reason I joined workaway was because I wanted to experience what it’s like to live in Italy. But I decided to do a workaway in the U.S. before trying to find one in Italy. There were a couple reasons for this. One reason is that the hosts and the workawayers review each other, and I wanted to get a good review on my profile before applying to well-reviewed hosts in Italy that may be competitive. The other reason was that I wanted to do my first workaway closer to home in case I hated it. Well, I’m glad to say that I didn’t hate my first workaway experience in Vermont. In fact, I enjoyed it very much, but I did discover there are some important things to consider.

Harvesting Garlic

How to Ensure a Good Workaway Experience

1. Scrutinize the host’s profile. In addition to reading the entire profile multiple times, pay attention to the details (or lack thereof) in the photos. Two young Italian women who my husband and I hosted recently had a pretty bad experience with a host before coming to our house. Although they said that the woman was very nice, the living conditions in the house were horrible. The photos on this host’s profile were kind of odd. Most of them had a very narrow field of view. For instance, one photo showed a plant and a small part of a fence, another photo showed an empty hallway, and there were no photos with people in them.

2. Read reviews carefully. I find that if a host is really nice, workawayers are reluctant to give less than a 5-star review, even if the experience warranted it. (This is also true of Airbnb hosts/guests.) So read each review carefully and critically, looking for any hints of criticism. The host profile includes both reviews they receive as well as the ones they give. Be sure to also read the reviews that the hosts have given; from those, you can gain a lot of information about what the host is expecting from their workawayers. Also, if you see that the host’s profile includes a lot more reviews that they’ve given than ones they’ve received, that can be a red flag! This was the case with the unpleasant workaway situation I described above. The host had given out six reviews but only received two, and one of those reviews was from someone who had stayed on their boat, not in their house.

3. Ask a lot of questions ahead of time. Most hosts like to do a video call before accepting someone. If they don’t ask for it, you should insist on having one. You’ll want to make sure you are comfortable talking to your host. Don’t ignore any negative vibes you might get during the call. Make sure you fully understand what to expect from your accommodations. The cabin I stayed in at my first workaway didn’t have running water or AC, and I went to the bathroom in a porta-potty outside my front door. This was pretty well described in the host’s profile, but if your host’s profile isn’t clear, be sure to ask very specific questions.

Downstairs Interior of My Cabin

Also, make sure you fully understand the type of work you are expected to do and the hours you will be working. Ask questions like, What time does work start?. Do we get breaks? What time do we usually finish in a day? The host profile might say no more than 5 hours a day, but when you get the fine details, you may find that it adds up to more.

If you won’t have a car, be sure to ask about transportation. Not just how you will get to the host, but also, how you might get around on your days off.

Ask about meals if the host’s profile wasn’t crystal clear. Will the host provide all of your meals? Will you have to prepare them or will the host cook? Will everyone in the house be expected to eat together? If you have dietary restrictions, be sure your host understands them up front.

4. Be realistic about your capabilities. If you are someone who typically spends most of your day sitting indoors, then you are going to be exhausted if your host is asking for 4 to 5 hours of help in the garden every day. Trust me. I learned that lesson.

5. Once you are committed, go in with an open mind and try to stay positive. Keep your expectations low and focus on meeting new people and learning about different ways of life. Your workaway might be everything you hoped for and more, but realistically, new places and experiences are seldom exactly what we imagine they will be.

There was another workawayer already there when I arrived at my first workaway on 50 acres in the country. She was a young woman in her 20’s from New York City who told me she was a country girl at heart. Apparently, she had done one other workaway on a horse farm and had found that really enjoyable. Well, I think the expectations she formed from her first workaway, made her miserable when she arrived and found a totally different situation. She even had a bedroom in the house with a bathroom right next door, so I’m not really sure what she found so objectionable. But after about 3 days she made up an excuse and left.

During that same workaway in Vermont, I struggled at first with not having a bathroom in my cottage. As promised, there was a port-a-potty right outside my front door, and my host kindly had it emptied before my arrival. Well, I learned that port-a-potties smell really bad right after they’re emptied, and the smell is magnified in sunny 90+ degree weather! I tried to avoid using it at all costs, which during the day was fine because I was allowed to use the bathroom in the house which was about a 10 minute walk up a hill. But when I had to go in the middle of the night, that walk really wasn’t feasible. And even after the smell subsided, I wasn’t comfortable going into the port-a-potty with no light.

Exterior of My Cabin Which was Part of a Garage/Barn

So, I improvised. I repurposed a 32 ounce plastic container that I’d brought with me to use as a pee cup. It took some practice, but I eventually got pretty good with my aim! Then in the morning, I’d throw the content over the steep incline adjacent to my cottage. I hope that story didn’t scare you away from doing workaways, but that is an example of why you should really think through what you’re getting into, and keep a positive outlook.

Despite unexpected hot temperatures, exhausting work, and bathroom challenges, I really enjoyed my first workaway experience. I got to take in a little of the Vermont local culture, I learned some new skills, but most importantly, I met some great people! And two years later, I met my goal of doing a workaway in Italy. Actually I did two workaways back-to-back for a total of 3 ½ weeks in northern Italy.

Outdoor Summer Concert in Brattleboro, VT

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Celebrity Apex 7 Day Cruise of Norway

Cathy Laurenzi — Mon, 19 May 2025 15:16:44 +0000

The Travel Sage

Celebrity Apex 7 Day Cruise of Norway

Heads Up: This page includes one affiliate link, which is marked by an astrick “*”. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. But rest assured – my opinions are my own, I would never recommend something I haven’t or wouldn’t purchase for myself.

Cruising the Norwegian fjords has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, but it kept getting put on the back burner untiI in July 2024 when a friend told me that she heard that Norway was banning cruise ships from entering some of the fjords effective January 1st, 2026. I immediately did some research and found that she was correct – beginning in 2026, all cruise ships would be banned from the Unesco-designated fjords unless they were zero emissions vessels. Well, since currently there are no zero emission cruise ships, I decided to book a Norwegian cruise for 2025. I learned that the stops of Flam and Geiranger were both in Unesco fjords, so I booked a cruise that included both of them on the Celebrity Apex, May 10th, 2025. The good news for future travellers is that in late 2024, Norway changed its mind and prostoned the ban until 2032. So it’s not too late for you to see these magical places!

Our itinerary was as follows:

Sat, May 10
Sun, May 11
Mon, May 12
Tue, May 13
Wed, May 14
Thu, May 15
Fri, May 16
Sat, May 17

Southampton, England
At Sea
Nordfjord, Norway
Flåm, Norway
Geiranger, Norway
At Sea
Zeebrugge (Bruges), Belgium
Southampton, England

Depart 4:00pm

1:30pm to 7:30pm
8:00am to 4:00pm
8:00am to 4:00pm

10:00am to 5:00pm
Arrive 6:00am

——- Leaving out of Southhampton, England, our itinerary included: Nordfjord, Flåm, and Geiranger in Norway; Zeebrugge, Begium; and 2 days at sea. ——-

Celebrity’s Apex is one of their newer Edge Class ships, and this was my first time aboard one of these ships. I was immediately impressed with the contemporary decor, and when finding our way to our room, it felt more like a hotel than a ship. I booked one of their new style of “veranda” cabins. The veranda can either be an extension of the room or if you close the folding doors and put down the massive window it would then feel more like a traditional balcony. Overall I enjoyed this design, but it definitely has it’s pros and cons.

My husband, Mark, and I took this cruise with my nephew, Will, and his girlfriend, Ia. Of course, the first thing that we all did when we got onboard was to drop our bags in the room and head straight for the buffet. And the buffet did not disappoint! I’ve been on a lot of cruise ships, and the Apex’s buffet is my favorite to date. Not only was the food consistently great with a huge selection, the size and layout of the food stations keeps you from almost never having to wait in line for food (except, of course, for the desserts and ice cream). In addition to that, the tall ceilings gave the space a much more open and contemporary feel.

We spent much of the afternoon napping and unpacking, but I managed to find some time to explore the ship.

Our first full day was at sea. Mark and I headed out of the cabin to explore the entire ship deck by deck; but we got stuck on deck 5 when we wandered into a Captain’s Club welcome gathering. (Anyone who has sailed with Celebrity before is in the Captain’s Club and that included us.) You don’t want to miss these types of events because they always include free drinks. (And we really needed the free drinks with the ridiculously high prices on the Apex.) We had received an invitation to the party but didn’t see it beforehand. This gathering was held in The Eden, which is an absolultely beautiful, multi-level space with all kinds of seating arrangements.

That night while we were at sea, we went to the first big show of the cruise, called Crystallize. I can’t say that I understood the whole crystal theme, but the performers did a great job.

The following day was our first port – Nordfjordeid, and our first venture into the fjords. Two years ago I had traveled into Milford Sound in New Zealand, and I was hoping the Norweigan fjords would compare favorably to that incredible experience. I got up early that day in anticipation of seeing some dramatic sights as we entered the fjord, but it wasn’t exactly what I had imagined. Yes, it was beautiful, but it wasn’t very dramatic.

The port of Nordfjodeid was quite small with not much to offer. From what I gathered, this port is not frequented by cruise ships nearly as much as other ports in the area. The town of Olden which is deeper into Nordfjord, seems to be a better stop with a lot more options. We opted to check out the Viking Museum. The museum features a replica of the largest Viking ship ever discovered. Although the museum was quite small, it provided a decent amount of information, but I felt that it lacked information about the viking ships and life at sea. Anyway, it was a nice enough visit but I’m not sure it was worth the $20 per person we paid for it. We spent the rest of our time in port, wandering through town, and of course the guys had to stop to try some Norwegian beers.

Our ship was in port until 8pm that night, but we were back on the ship by around 5pm. I made sure to get up early again the next morning, because we were traveling into a another fjord (Sognefjord) on our way to Flam. Well, this fjord was better than I had imagined! It got light very early, and when I woke up before my alarm went off, my view out the window while lying in bed was a rock wall. It was every bit as spectacular as Milford Sound in New Zealand. And it is a much longer fjord than in New Zealand which meant we got many hours of spectacular scenery both on our way in and on our way out.

Most passengers were sleeping through the incredible scenery.

We had booked the scenic train in Flåm that goes to the little mountain stop of Myrdal and back. If you ever do this, be sure to sit on the side of the train that you board from. The best views are from that side, and we made the mistake of sitting on the opposite side. Although we did have some nice views, they weren’t nearly as spectacular as on the other side of the train. The train makes two brief stops on the way to Myrdal, including one to view a gushing waterfall up close.

We were even treated to a surprise performance at the falls which really made the scenery more special.

Sailing out of Sognefjord was just as spectacular as sailing in.

The following day was our last stop in Norway – Geiranger. I had heard that this fjord was the best one, and it did not disappoint! We saw hours of amazing scenery passing by so close it was difficult to get photos. Luckily, our phones can take wide-angle shots. I was surprised at the huge number of waterfalls found throughout the Geirangerfjord. The first 2 photos depict the Seven Sisters Waterfall and the Suitor Waterfall which are directly across the fjord from each other.

For Geiranger we had booked a minibus tour to a view point called Dalsnibba through Get Your Guide. This place is closed in winter and apparently was not supposed to be open yet (it was May 14th), but it opened for the day because there was a cruise ship in town. Well, I can see why it isn’t open in the winter. As the road climbed up the mountain, our green surroundings turned into a snowy wonderland. From the town and the ship you could see that there was some snow on the mountain tops, but we were shocked at home much snow! I was also quite surprised to see that a few people had rented tiny electric vehicles (with no side windows) and drove them the 45+ minute drive up to the peak in below freezing temperatures.

It was freezing at the top but the views were spectacular!

I snapped tons of photos on the way back down the narrow winding road, all the while fearing for my life as our driver/guide was turning around to talk to us and constantly gesturing with his hands!

We made 2 brief stops on the way down to take photos, and then our driver offered to drop us of at the visitor center which was a little above the town. We were so glad we took him up on that offer, because the walk back to town from that point followed a gushing waterfall and offered great viewpoints.

Once we reached town Mark and Will had to stop for more local beer, while Ia and I did a little shopping. Then I hurried back on board for lunch in the buffet and to squeeze in a nap before we headed back out of the fjord – I didn’t want to miss the scenery. The following day was a day at sea. We mostly just chilled out, but of course I had to make time for some serious family board game competition!

After a day at sea, we arrived at our last port, Zeebrugge, Belgium. The city of Bruges has been on my bucket list for quite some time, and the port of Zeebrugge is only a 30 minute drive away. So I used Viator to pre-book us a roundrip shuttle from the port into Bruges*. (And I’m glad I did because I paid $35 per person, and Celebrity charged $75 per person to drop people off at the same location.) Anyhow, I loved Bruges even more than I expected to! Unfortunately, we only had a few hours in the city, so we booked a free historical walking tour with Legends of Bruges.

One of the things that we learned on our tour was that there are over 1,500 kinds of beer brewed in Begium, and Belgians take beer drinking very seriously. Every beer must be consumed in the properly shaped glass for that beer. If fact, just to be sure you don’t make a mistake, each type of beer has a coordinating glass with its label on it. It was this beer culture that immediately convinced Mark and Will that they had to come back to Belgium!

In addition to beer, Belgium is known for its waffles and, more importantly, its chocolate. Before shopping for chocolate, we made a pit stop at the House of Waffles which, according to our tour guide, had the best waffles in town. The entire menu was made up of beer and waffles. Mark opted for the savory Americana waffle which was essentially a BLT plus egg between two waffles. I opted for a sweet waffle with ice cream and caramel. And for those who wanted to take waffles home, next door was a very posh Waffle Boutique.

After completing the waffle experience, we only had a short time to shop for chocolate before we had to hurry to catch the last shuttle back to the ship. Thankfully, Celebrity had a wonderful surprise in store for us for the last night of our cruise. One of the stations in the buffet, was converted into a belgium chocolate smorgasbord!

For me, that chocolate was the perfect ending to an awesome cruise!

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Ha Long Bay Shore Excursion that Avoids the Crowds

Cathy Laurenzi — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:57:26 +0000

The Travel Sage

Ha Long Bay Shore Excursion that Avoids the Crowds

Ha Long Bay has been on my bucket list for quite some time. This was the first tour I booked after making the cruise reservations, and my primary objective was to appreciate the unique rock formations in the bay. From the photos, Ha Long Bay seemed like a magical place that could be peaceful under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, the bay has become a popular tourist destination so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see it without crowds of people. In order to increase my chances, instead of getting on a group tour boat, I opted to book a private tour through Tours by Locals. I couldn’t have been happier with my choice; I was able to enjoy the bay in all its glory! But allow me to start at the beginning of the shore excursion.

The plan was for our tour guide to pick up Me, Mark, and our nephew, Will, at the port gate. Unfortunately Mark had a bad head cold and decided not to join us. I felt very bad for him; I wouldn’t have missed seeing Ha Long Bay even if I had to be carried on a stretcher! Anyway, our guide, “Steve”, arranged our tour so that we wouldn’t get to our boat until the afternoon. He said that the mornings were the busiest times on the bay. A typical tour included a tour of Ha Long city, but I opted to see more of the countryside instead. Our first stop was to Yen Duc village. Steve (his name was really Hoang) said it was a typical newer Vietnamese village.

Our first stop in the village was to walk along a narrow road that ran through rice fields. We stopped to watch the women working in the mud. The woman in the photo below is planting young rice plants. This is clearly dirty, back-breaking work.

The woman in this photo is pulling up plants that were damaged by the cold weather.

Scooters are the primary mode of transportation here. It appears to be how all of the workers get to the rice fields.

After the rice fields we walked across the street to a neighborhood. The homes here seemed rather large and nice with a front gate and a paved or tiled front “yard”. We noticed that most of the homes we passed had glass shards stuck on top of their courtyard walls. I asked Steve about this and he said it was to keep the children from climbing up the walls and picking the fruit. But I am a little skeptical of that explanation given many of the homes didn’t have fruit trees in their front yard. I’m not sure where the more modest homes were hidden.

We continued to walk through the streets until we came to the village’s temple. The complex of buildings and gardens were very pretty and peaceful.

On our way to the village we had passed by a cemetery and I asked our guide if we could stop there on the way back; he kindly obliged. I always try to visit a cemetery when traveling to a new country. I think it’s very interesting how different countries honor their dead in different ways. The section of the cemetery we visited was fairly new. The tombstones were mostly made out of marble, and I found it odd that the ground in between the tombs was concrete instead of grass. But the most interesting part of the stop was Steve’s telling of a Vietnamese tradition. Apparently, they bury their dead in a regular coffin and then after the appropriate time has passed for the body to decompose, the family holds a midnight ceremony where they raise the coffin. He said that they remove the bones, wash them and then put them in a smaller coffin and bury them in their final resting place.

We made one more stop before heading to our boat in Ha Long Bay. We visited a place where saltwater pearls are farmed and processed. It was quite interesting. They use a Japanese technique to get perfectly round pearls. It involves taking imperfect pearls and grinding them down to make tiny round pearls, they then implant those pearls into other oysters to create a larger round pearl. I didn’t completely understand the process involved with preparing the tiny pearl to be implanted, but it involved the use of other parts of the donor oyster (first photo). Once the tiny pearl is implanted into a particular part of the live oyster (second photo), it is put back onto a rack (third photo) and placed back into the bay. We were told there is only about a 30% success rate in getting a round pearl from this tedious process.

After the tour we were ushered into a huge jewelry showroom. I had no intention of buying anything, but I caved and bought myself a necklace. It caught my eye and the idea of having pearls harvested from Ha Long Bay really appealed to me. After spending too much money, we headed to the main event of the day – our cruise of Ha Long Bay!

I knew we were going to have a private boat and a seafood lunch, but both Will and I imagined a small motor boat and a picnic style lunch. So we were a little taken aback when we were shown to our tour boat that was large enough for 48 passengers and had a full kitchen onboard!

Around 10 minutes after we boarded they started bringing out the food. And it kept coming and coming until there were 10 different dishes. I had a difficult time eating because I couldn’t stop looking at (and photographing) the scenery.

As we were traveling through the bay, our guide pointed out some of the more famous rock formations. One of them is found on the back of their 200,000 bill. (That equals about $9US.)

Another famous rock formation is called the Rooster and the Hen, but our guide liked to call it the “kissing chickens”. I just don’t see it.

It didn’t take long for us to arrive at our first destination – a floating village. Well, that is what our guide called it. At one time it was quite large and many fisherman lived there. But when tourism became very prevalent in the bay, the government relocated the fisherman. The “floating village” is now just a base from which to get into a kayak or row boat, along with a store. Will and I opted to take the easy route and had a very friendly Vietnamese women row us around.

She rowed us into an opening in the rocks and that lead to a pool of water completely surrounded by tall rock formations. We were told that this is where the fisherman go with their boats to get protection from the wind during a typhoon.

We felt so fortunate that we had this beautiful, peaceful place to ourselves. It wasn’t until we were leaving that other row boats started coming in.

After leaving that protected area we were rowed a little ways into the opening of another rock formation. This entrance was shaped like the bat cave and the area on the other side wasn’t enclosed.

Can you see the cat in the photo below?

Again we were fortunate to be able to enjoy the quiet and solitude. Next we headed back to the floating village to rejoin our boat.

Back on our boat, we sailed past more beautiful, peaceful scenery as we headed to our next destination – caves.

I knew that our tour included caves, but I really didn’t know what to expect. For some reason I had the idea that we’d be taking the rowboat through some small caves. So, both Will and I were surprised, and in awe, when we docked and were walked into a cave that rivals the magnificence of Carlsbad Caverns in the U.S. It’s name is Heavenly Palace Cave (Hang Thien Cung in Vietnamese). It was really hard to capture the essence of it in a photograph. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites were incredibly massive. Our guide said that they were estimated to be as old as the rock formations in the bay which are approximately 500 million years old. I thought the ceilings were very cool with their white, circular indentations that looked like puffy clouds in the sky. In the photo below, can you spot the “window” into the next room?

After we exited the first cave we could see the boats docked below. At that point there were quite a few tour boats there, but still we saw very few people. I think we managed to stay just a few minutes ahead of them.

From there we walked a short distance into another cave called Ba Hang. This one was also very impressive but smaller than the first one and it had a much larger entrance which let in a lot of natural light.

The second cave was the last stop on our cruise tour. We enjoyed the ride back to the harbor from the top deck of our boat. Then from the harbor we were driven back to our cruise ship, the m.s. Westerdam.

That night onboard our cruise ship we had a nice view from our balcony. I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to visit this magical place and check it off my bucket list!

My Impressions of the Ha Long Bay Area and our Excursion

Despite dreary weather, the visit to Ha Long Bay was one of the highlights of my 28-night cruise. The two biggest pleasant surprises of the day were 1) being able to enjoy the bay without crowds of people, and 2) the magnificent caves! And despite spending too much money, I’ll also glad we went to the pearl farm; it was really interesting. The visit to Yen Duc village was okay, but I would have been happy to skip it. I realized after-the-fact that a lot of tours visit this particular village. So even though there isn’t much there, it’s almost like this village is maintained to be what the Vietnamese want us to think is a typical village. This might explain why the locals were overly friendly. Everyone, including workers in the street, were sure to smile, wave and say “hello” to us. One other thing I found amusing was that a lot of the Vietnamese people, especially the tour guides waiting to pick up people at the port in the morning, were bundled up in heavy winter coats. Will and I were wearing shorts – the temperature was in the upper 60’s and low 70’s!

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The Best Da Nang Shore Excursion

Cathy Laurenzi — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:24:11 +0000

The Travel Sage

The Best Da Nang Shore Excursion

Out of all the shore excursions we took on our 28-night Holland America cruise, the consensus of our group (me, Mark and our nephew, Will) is that our tour in Da Nang was the best! We booked our guide, Hoa, through Tours by Locals. The first stop on our 12 hour tour was to see “Lady Buddha“. The 67 meter tall statue is in a beautiful setting in the complex of the Linh Ung Pagoda which offers magnificent views of Da Nang.

In the photo below, our guide explains to us that this mythical creature is called a “unicorn” because there is no actual word for it in English.

Hoa also pointed out to us that all of the statutes of dragons include a ball. This is due to the legend that every 100 years, a koi fish leaps over heaven’s gate and bites a ball off of a dragon which causes the fish to turn into a dragon. We all pointed out dragon balls for the rest of our trip through Asia! Can you spot the dragon balls below?

Next, as we drove through Da Nang toward our second destination, I asked if we could stop and take a photo of the harbor and Hoa kindly obliged. The round boats on the sand are dinghies that the fisherman use to get to and from their boats anchored in the harbor. Most of these dinghies are made out of bamboo.

We then headed south out of Da Nang to the Marble Mountains which is a cluster of five marble and limestone hills. Apparently they were once much larger in size before much of the marble was extracted. It’s my understanding that in order to preserve what remains as a tourist attraction, marble is no longer allowed to be taken from here. Before exploring the largest of the hills, we were taken to a place where marble was supposedly being carved. But what we saw appeared to be mostly just a huge store. We were told that we were going to be shown how the marble was carved, but that just entailed a woman walking us behind the stores and showing us a man crouching in front of a large piece of marble and presumably carving it by hand. That was a bit disappointing. After that we were ushered into the store. The prices were quite high so Mark and I didn’t buy anything, but it was nice to admire some of the larger marble pieces, like the bench in the next photo.

Next we explored Thuy Son Mountain, the largest of the five hills that make up the Marble Mountains. I was surprised how much there was to see there.

We were a good portion of the way up the mountain as we were seeing these sites but our guide gave us the option of “conquering the mountain”. By this he meant climb to the top. Out of the three of us, only Will conquered it!

I felt that the best part of visiting Thuy Son Mountain, was going inside the caves. There was a large network of caves and many of the rooms had natural openings in the cave ceilings that let in light. Over several hundred years, shrines and temples were built in the caves. I believe the structure in the first photo below is one of the oldest.

Below is a photo of Mark and Will having a friendly game of chess with the locals.

This buddha statue was carved into the marble in a location where the sun would hit it during a particular time of day and time of year. We were there at almost the right time as the sunlight was hitting the nearby cave wall.

After the mountain was conquered and the caves were explored, we headed out. But first I had to make a pit stop. Forgive the bathroom photo but I just had to share the fact that they made me take my shoes off to use the toilet… ewww! And while I’m talking about the bathroom, I’ll continue with a little more crudeness. Our guide, Hoa, referred to the bathroom as the “happy room”. When we asked why he said it was because sometimes you fart when you are in there and that makes you happy. At this point we really started to have fun with him!

Our next destination was the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary which is an area of several Hindu temples that were built between the 4th and 13th centuries. This massive Unesco site consists of 350 acres plus a natural buffer area of an additional 2,273 acres. The site is so large that we had to be shuttled from the parking lot in an electric vehicle and then walked quite far along a paved path. It was a real treat coming here and getting away from the crowds. The grounds was very pretty and included mountains in the distance, streams, and lots of ponds with water lilies which were just starting to bloom.

We encountered several lizards like this one. When I first approached him he curved his very long tail all the way over his head.

But the highlight of the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary was the ancient brick temples.

Below is a photo of our guide discussing the many phallic symbols we saw like the one in the background.

Tragically, quite a bit of damage was done on this site by bombs during the Vietnam War. The first photo below is of a bomb site where the remainder of the temple is being stabilized. You can see bomb craters in the foreground. The second photo shows bomb casings that were recovered from the area. and a wall that was bombed and partially reconstructed.

Before leaving Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, we watched a traditional Hindu dance performance.

Our last destination for the day was the ancient town of Hội An. This well preserved town was a trading hub from the 15th to the 19th century. We arrived here at around 4pm after already having been on our tour for nearly 8 hours without a break. So, the first order of business was lunch in a local restaurant, and the meal that Hoa had arranged for us did not disappoint! We enjoyed all of the courses but the three of us agreed that our favorite was the Hoi An Crispy Pancakes, which our waitress kindly assembled for us. I’m not sure exactly what it was but it appeared to be some sort of crispy egg patty with baby shrimp in it. Our waitress put shredded vegetables on each patty and then rolled it in edible rice paper. It came with a yummy peanut sauce for dipping. Mark has never been a big fan of Vietnamese food, but after this meal he declared he might be changing his mind about it.

After the lunch break, our tour continued with a stop at one of the ancient homes that was open for touring. The first photo below is of the interior of the home with its beautiful original woodwork made from a type of iron wood. We learned that even though the town floods somewhat regularly, the dense iron wood does not get damaged. The second photo below shows the height of the water level during various floods, and the third photo is of pictures from previous floods in the town.

After leaving the house we continued our tour walking through the town. There were many shops and artisans. The first photo below shows a man carving sculptures out of bamboo roots. We have bamboo in our yard, so I might give it a try sometime. 😉

We arrived at our next destination in Hoi An which was a 300 year old assembly hall built by the Chinese where businessmen met to trade.

At this point in the day the sun was setting and the boat operators were getting ready to take the tourists out on the river. Hoi An is known for its colorful lanterns that make the town truly special, so taking a ride on the river at night is a popular way to appreciate all of the lights. In fact, as it started to get dark the streets became more and more crowded.

But we still had one more stop to make on our tour – a silk weaving demonstration. We were shown all of the stages in the process from the worms, to the cocoons, to creating the threads and weaving.

Of course, after the demonstration there was the requisite shopping. There was a shop with clothing and other textiles, but I focused on a showroom where finely detailed needlepoint artwork was hung. The larger pieces (16X20 inch or more) were so detailed they looked like paintings. But we opted to purchase a small one.

By the time we left the textile shop it was completely dark. The agreement we had with the tour operator was for them to leave us in Hoi An so we could experience it at night and then we’d take a cab back to our ship in Da Nang. But I never imagined that our tour that started at 8:30am wouldn’t finish until after 7pm! Since we were exhausted, we asked Hoa if we could just snap a few photos of the lights and then have them take us back to the ship. Hoa and our driver were kind enough to agree. So that ended our whirlwind tour of the Da Nang, Vietnam area. This excursion and the one we took two days later in Ha Long Bay were my two favorite stops on the entire 4 week cruise!

FYI, if you are traveling to other parts of Vietnam, Hoa recommends checking out Culture Pham Travel company for some of the best Vietnam tours.

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Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Thailand

Cathy Laurenzi — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:44:16 +0000

The Travel Sage

Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Thailand

Heads Up: This page includes a couple affiliate links, which are marked by “*’s”. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. But rest assured – my opinions are my own, I would never recommend something I haven’t or wouldn’t purchase for myself.

It was an exhausting, but incredible fun, series of tours that we took while our ship was docked in Laem Chabang, Thailand for one and a half days. This port is about two hours from Bangkok and we had to be back on board by 2:30pm on the second day, so in order to make the most of our time there, we stayed overnight in Bangkok. Our excursion started with a private, personalized tour for me, Mark, and our nephew, Will through the company Thai Tour Guide. We were assigned our tour guide when we booked the tour; her name was Ms. Pookie. The name made me imagine a much older woman than she was. Lol

Ms. Pookie escorted us to a nice, comfortable van with plenty of room to stretch out. She gave us a bit of Thailand (formerly known as Siam) history as the driver drove the 2 1/2 hours north to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 and was the capital of Siam until it was attacked and burned by the Burmese in 1767. We toured several of the archeological sites there.

Despite knowing that I would need to have my shoulders covered when going into temples, I wore a sleeveless top since it was going to be hot and we were only visiting ruins that day. Well, it turns out the ruins of temples are still temples, hence the need to turn my blue jacket into a cape.

This area was once covered by a portico that surrounded the grand temple. You can see the remnants of the pillars that once held up the roof. All of the buddha statues are lining the walkway to guard the temple. I was standing on a walkway on the grand temple when I took the first photo below.

We visited several archeological sites within Ayutthaya but currently only one of those areas is a Unesco World Heritage site. Once declared a World Heritage property, the site must be kept as it is found, it cannot be restored, only maintained as is. So it wasn’t until we went to the Unesco property that we saw the damage that Western treasures hunters, with the cooperation of Thai thieves, had done to the ruins. Sadly, the buddha statues were very popular “souvenirs”, and since the statues were generally too big to easily steal, people stole just the heads.

Can you spot the buddha face below?

Can you spot the stray dog below?

Many of the structures were leaning quite a lot. You can see how much the base is compressed on one side.

Each of the three temples below was erected for a member of the royal family.

Silly tourists…

After touring several archeological sites around Ayutthaya, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. We were in shock at how inexpensive the food was. We got four meals, a salad and four drinks for less than $13US.

We had one more adventure before leaving Ayutthaya – a canal boat ride. On our way to the boat we passed a few elephants.

Along the canals, we saw shacks mixed in with a few nicer, newer homes. And of course we passed by many temples, some new and some old.

After the boat ride, we headed to our hotel in Bangkok, which should have taken an hour, but took 2 hours because we were caught in rush hour traffic. I had hoped to get there in time for a short nap before our night tuk tuk food tour started, but we barely had time to check into our hotel before we were headed out to meet up with our tour. Thankfully, I had the foresight to pick a hotel very close to the food tour meeting point. This food tour* was the highlight of our trip to Bangkok! Our tour guide was a very perky, animated young woman who was quite entertaining. We had 6 stops. At five of the stops we were given different traditional Thai food and at one of the stops (rooftop bar) we were given a drink and a spectacular view.

Riding in the tuk tuk’s was a little scary but a lot of fun! The video below shows a tame part of the ride – I couldn’t video during the scarier parts because I was hanging on for dear life! The tuk tuks are really only designed for 2 people, so the 3rd person sits sideways on a tiny bench with nothing behind them to keep them from falling backward into the street.

Our first stop was in a modest-looking restaurant where a spread of several different dishes awaited us to share. There was a delicious lemongrass & ginger soup (my favorite dish of the stop), a Thai papaya salad, duck, chicken, pork and sticky rice. The food was arranged by the level of spice with the spiciest at one end of the table and the least spicy at the other end. I sat on the wimpy end! I was already starting to get full by the time we left this first stop.

As we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed that a man was cooking alongside the road on top of charcoal filled pots. Some of the meat looked like what we ate. I don’t know if that was our restaurant’s grill, but a later stop made me think it was likely.

Our second stop included two dishes. One was something I didn’t quite understand – it had shrimp on top, but I didn’t catch what else was in there. Mark liked it. The other dish was coconut sticky rice sprinkled with mung beans and sliced mango. I don’t know how such a simple dish tasted so amazing! We also got a sliced rose apple that I thought was quite bland.

And then we were back on the road toward the next stop, China Town.

China Town was bustling. We sampled some street food as we walked, but I don’t really remember it – I was just focused on keeping up with the group.

Our next stop was to a restaurant (Ann Guay Tiew Kua Gai) that was awarded a Michelin star multiple times. Their signature dish is guay tiew kua gai, which is fried rice noodles with chicken, and an egg on top. It might not sound very interesting but the flavor is in the way it is cooked. We were treated to a special tour of the back alley “kitchen”, which was quite an eye-opener!

This was another no-frills eatery where we sat on benches and ate on metal tables. I’m sure there are lots of nice, tourist-class restaurants in Bangkok but that isn’t what this tour was about.

By the time I got to the bottom of my noodle bowl, I was stuffed and couldn’t quite finish it. Thankfully, our next stop (The Eagle’s Nest) was just for a drink, not more food! The five flights of stairs we had to climb was well worth the view.

It was 10:30pm when we left the bar. Our final stop was going to be at a flower market, which I thought was pretty strange for a night-time food tour. I was so exhausted I toyed with the idea of skipping the end of the tour and heading back to the hotel. But I’m glad I didn’t skip it because it was quite the experience. We were taken to an area where flower vendors lined the street. Everyone was very busy, you would have never thought that it was nearly 11pm.

After a lesson in flower folding, we walked into what seemed like a storefront, but it was actually an entrance into a huge wholesale market/warehouse that runs 24/7. For the life of me, I can’t imagine who buys all of these flowers, especially since the majority of flowers we’ve seen around town have been artificial.

Past all of the flowers, there was a section of vegetables and then some sweets. We got to try a traditional dessert on a stick made with sticky rice and coconut. I was full but I made room for dessert. But then, we went back outside and were given some meat skewers. I just had to say “no”!

That was the end of the food tour, so our tuk tuk driver dropped us off at our hotel. By the time we got to our room it was 11:30pm. And by the time we showered and got to bed, we only had about 6 1/2 hours until it was time to get up and get ready for the next tour. Our hotel* was very upscale in a central downtown Bangkok location, but the price was only $75 per night. This is less than half of what we paid for our hotel in Singapore, and breakfast was included. And the breakfast buffet was something to behold. This photo only shows part of it, but each of those chafing dishes holds something different. There were some breakfast items but more than half of the buffet was food that you would expect to find on a dinner buffet.

Ms. Pookie arrived at 8:00am to take us on a canal boat tour of Bangkok. This time we didn’t have a driver so she took us on the subway to get to our destination. The subways were very nice inside, and we were amused by the priority seating signs. Can you guess why?

Monk Fun Facts

1) In Thailand men can sign up to be a monk on a temporary basis for as few as 3 months. Our guide said that many families have their sons sign up as soon as they finish school. In Vietnam, I asked if they did the same thing and I was told no, it was a Thai thing.

2) While Thai Buddhists only have 5 rules of conduct to live by, monks have a whopping 227!

Getting on the canal boat was rather challenging. The boat was tied up to a floating dock that was along a major waterway. The dock and the boat both rocked but not in unison.

From the canal boat we saw a lot of shacks. It was amazing that most of them were actually inhabited.

However, just like in Ayutthaya, amongst the mostly poor homes, there were some very nice new homes and many temples.

We also saw a little bit of wildlife, including quite a few monitor lizards.

We stopped in a neighborhood along the way and got off the boat for a bit. There were some shops and an artist studio along the water.

Back on the boat, we passed a giant golden buddha in the distance. The shacks along the canal were quite a contrast.

We headed back toward the dock. I didn’t get a good photo of it, but these boats are powered by massive truck engines.

Our final stop on our Bangkok tour was Wat Pho Temple. We were getting kind of templed-out, but this royal temple complex was pretty darn impressive. The biggest attraction here was a massive gold reclining buddha statue. The statue is 50 feet high, 150 feet long and covered in gold leaf.

The buddha’s toes came complete with prints made out of inlaid mother of pearl.

The Wat Pho temple complex had a lot more to it than just the giant buddha. There were many shrines (like the three shown in the first photo below) that hold the ashes of members of the royal family. I was most impressed by the detailed mosaics, that were covering some of the very large structures.

After Wat Pho we practically ran back to our hotel to catch the taxi that I had arranged to take us back to the ship. After seeing how the Bangkok traffic could get gridlocked, I was pretty stressed thinking that I might have cut the timing too close getting back to the ship. But, thankfully the ride went smoothly and we were back with an hour to spare. This was our last stop in Thailand. We were off to Cambodia next.

My Impressions of the Thai People

First of all, it was pretty clear that Thai’s love food. They generally eat small meals 5 to 6 times a day and food is everywhere all the time. Ms. Pookie was telling us about their major holiday (the Thai new year in April) which is very family oriented. When I asked her if stores closed for the holiday she looked confused and said “no”. When I told her that even grocery stores close in the U.S. on Thanksgiving and Christmas, she was shocked! Her response was “how do people eat?” We told her that we just shop ahead of time, but she was still dismayed because the food wouldn’t be fresh!

The other impression of the Thai people that I got from talking to Ms. Pookie was that Thai’s are not rule followers; they are independent and like to do things their own way. When discussing religion, Ms. Pookie said that although Thai’s are Buddhist, they don’t necessarily follow all of the rules. For example, she said that since Buddhists don’t believe in god as an single entity, the Thai people pray to the gods of other religions for what they want. She giggled as she told me this. There were many times after that when I asked Ms. Pookie why they did things a certain way, she would smile and say “because we are Thai!”

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A Day in Singapore

Cathy Laurenzi — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 02:15:03 +0000

The Travel Sage

A Day in Singapore

We were supposed to have two days in Singapore, but Mark and I slept through the first one! Well, our excuse is that it was raining – a lot! Our nephew, Will, met up with us on day 2 and we headed out pretty early trying to beat the rain. When researching Singapore, it was the futuristic part of the city (Marina Bay) that really appealed to me, and that’s where most of the tourist attractions are. Singapore also has several highly rated museums, but since we were limited on time we opted to skip those (although that would have been the perfect rainy day thing to do). We arrived at Gardens by the Bay (part of Marina Bay) fairly early and walked around the grounds while waiting for some of the attractions to open. The gardens are approximately 250 acres and are filled with lush landscaping, sculptures, waterways, and some attractions that you have to pay for. The giant floating baby was pretty cool. The crane in the photo above gives you an idea of the size of this sculpture. I’d like to know how they keep it so clean and white. The next photo shows the back side. This is clearly a baby BOY.

We continued exploring by walking along the river, and then just took different paths throughout the park.

The photo below with the elephant leading a line of animals is the beginning of a sculpture which is apparently the longest in the world. Each of the animals is connected in some way. The sculpture actually wraps around the corner of a walkway. When I visited the artists’ website, I noticed that the sculpture has dates of being in Singapore from May 2023 to May 2024. So, I wonder if it will be moved after May of 2024. But moving it doesn’t seem very practical.

Our first attraction of the day was a visit to the Skypark Observation Deck on the roof of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is the building in the background of the previous photo. On our walk there we passed more cool sculptures and nice landscapes. There were panoramic views from the observation deck and of course Mark and Will were very happy they sold beer there.

After the observation deck, we took another scenic walk to our next destination, which was the Flower Dome.

I didn’t know exactly what to expect at the Flower Dome, other than flowers, but as it turns out, the sculptures were even more impressive. This attraction is said to the be largest glass greenhouse in the world. Some of the coolest sculptures inside were ones made out of small pieces of wood. There was a massive dragon with smoke coming out of his nose, as well as a lot of different animals.

But I think the coolest sculpture in the Flower Dome wasn’t one of the wood ones but rather the bronze sculpture pictured below. It’s called La Famille de Voyageurs (the Traveling Family). It’s not an optical illusion; the people’s midsections are missing.

After leaving the Flower Dome, we headed next door to our final attraction for the day – the Cloud Forest. Like the Flower Dome, the Cloud Forest was enclosed in glass panels, but unlike the Flower Dome, the focus was more on the overall atmosphere than on the individual sights.

After the Cloud Forest we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Will needed some essentials, and I decided to do a little shopping with him. So we asked the person at the hotel desk where to go and they told us about a nearby underground shopping area. The desk clerk’s directions took us to what appeared to be a designer shopping mall – not the kind of place to find what Will was looking for. But then we noticed some stairs going down and took those. We arrived in a whole different place, one that felt a little like a basement with its low ceilings. But we were delighted that there was food everywhere we walked! And Will noticed that the exact same pastries he saw upstairs were downstairs for a quarter of the price. We felt like we had found the secret place where the locals shop! We pulled ourselves away from looking at the food long enough to find a tiny shop that just happened to have both of the things that Will needed, and he paid less than half of what he would have paid in the U.S. Of course, we didn’t make it out of the underground shopping mall without buying something to eat/drink. One thing that amused me was seeing multiple food stalls advertising “air flown” sweet potatoes from Japan.

It rained on and off all afternoon and it was predicted to rain even more in the evening. I really hoped that the forecast was wrong because Marina Bay is supposed to be beautiful at night. Well, the forecasters weren’t wrong – it poured. But below is a photo of what I would have seen if it wasn’t pouring.

Photo courtesy of Kosublog.com

Although we weren’t willing to go back to Gardens by the Bay in the rain, we did brave the rain to get some dinner. The cab driver that drove Will from the airport told him to eat at Lau Pa Sat, which the driver said was where the locals go. Well it just so happened that was where Mark and I had dinner the night before. But we were happy to go back so that Will could experience it. And it was quite an experience. It’s essentially a giant, covered open-air food court with around 70 stalls serving almost exclusively Asian food. The following photos were taken the first night we went, which was a Thursday. On the second night (Friday) it was too packed to even take photos. I must say that the experience was somewhat stressful. It was a bit of a sensory overload with so many different choices that somehow all seemed the same. But once we got our food and sat down it was kind of amusing watching other tourists walk by with their mouths hanging open looking lost and confused just like we were moments before.

In addition to the stalls within the building, when it isn’t raining they close off part of the street and have outdoor grills and additional seating.

The next morning, Will and I explored the 17th floor of the building that our hotel is in. It’s was a unique open-air park in the middle of a high-rise.

When it was time to check out of the hotel, we had the desk clerk in the lobby call a cab to take us to our cruise ship. Since there were three of us and quite a lot of luggage, we required a rather large vehicle. What arrived was an overpriced party bus. The vehicle came complete with neon lights, a refrigerator, a smoke machine, and what appeared to be dance pole for a little person. Well I guess that was a fitting send off to our next adventure – a 28 night cruise with the first stops in Thailand and ending in Tokyo. More trip reports coming soon.

My Impressions of Singapore

Singapore is a very new and clean city. The more touristy parts felt a little bit Disney-ish and were quite expensive, especially compared to neighboring countries. But I enjoyed my time there and wish that I had another day or two to explore other parts of the island.

The post A Day in Singapore appeared first on Travel Sage.

Planning in Progress

Cathy Laurenzi — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:24:48 +0000

The Travel Sage

Planning in Progress

Our next big trip is in the works – a 28 night cruise leaving out of Singapore on January 20th, 2024 and ending in Yokohama (Tokyo) Japan on February 17th. My husband and I will be joined by my adult nephew, Will, who will have his own cabin. The cruise on Holland America has been booked, and the flights have been purchased, but now it’s time to figure out what we want to do in each port so that we can book tours in advance if necessary.

Heads Up: This page includes affiliate links, which are marked by “*’s”. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. But rest assured – my opinions are my own, I would never recommend something I haven’t or wouldn’t purchase for myself.

To help others see my planning process, I’m going to document what I’m doing in the form of a travel planning diary. The oldest entries are at the top and the most recent are on the bottom. Feel free to ask questions in the comments field at the end of the post.

October 5th, 2023 – Cruise Booking; Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; and Bangkok, Thailand.
So I actually started planning this trip back in June but have just started keeping my “diary” today. I watched the prices for a long time, thinking they would come down. Unfortunately, they didn’t, they went up. I screwed up because 1) I was used to watching prices of European cruises which are a lot more plentiful and therefore have more competition to drive down prices, and 2) I didn’t realize that cruise industry was seeing a boom in 2023 now that people finally feel more comfortable about the Covid-19 situation. Anyhow, by the time I booked on August 7th, I ended up paying about $400 more per person than I would have if I hadn’t waited! And I found out that I could have rebooked the cruise at a lower fair until the final payment date of October 15th! Live and learn. (Update: It turns out the fare did go down, after the final payment date – see 11/14/2023 entry below.)

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching what to do in what I consider to be the most important ports. First on my agenda was Halong Bay, Vietnam. This bay has been on my bucket list for sometime now, ever since I first saw a photo of it. One of the most popular things to do here is to take a one night cruise on the bay, so you can experience it without the day trippers. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be possible for us since our cruise ship was not docking here over night. So I looked into daytime cruises of the bay – there are lots of them! But in the end I decided that I didn’t want to experience this on a large boat full of strangers so I started searching for private boat excursions. I found the Halong Bay private shore excursion tour that I was hoping for on Tours by Locals. I contacted the guide and asked him if he could extend the tour since by a couple of hours since we would be in port over 12 hours. He happily agreed and didn’t charge me anything extra for his time (I just had to pay an extra $50 to the boat captain.)

Halong Bay, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Lonely Planet.

Once Halong Bay was checked off the list I turned my attention to Thailand. Our cruise is only making two stops in Thailand. One stop is to the island of Ko Samui which doesn’t seem to offer much sight-seeing; it’s more of a beach destination. But the other stop in Thailand is Laem Chabang which is the closest port to Bangkok. Our ship is scheduled to arrive at 7:00am and depart at 3:00pm the next day. Unfortunately, the drive from the port to Bangkok takes between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. Typically, you are required to be back on your ship no later than 30 minutes prior to departure, which would mean we’d have to be back no later than 2:30pm on the second day. But I know better than to cut it close getting back to a ship when you are almost 2 hours away, so I figured we’d have to plan to leave Bangkok by around 11:30 on the second day. Because of that, it made no sense to return to the ship on day one and then go back to Bangkok on day two. Either we would stay over night in Bangkok or just not go there on the 2nd day. So I looked into hotel prices and I was happy to discover that they are very inexpensive. We can get a really nice hotel for about US$50! So that’s the plan. I’ve been emailing two different tour operators, one on Tours by Locals and another tour company, Thai Tour Guide, I found by just searching the web. I hope to finalize the plans for this cruise stop in the next couple of days.

October 11th, 2023 – Bangkok and Ayutthaya
I decided to book the tour with Thai Tour Guide for both days in Bangkok. They pick us up at the ship on the first day, take us to Ayutthaya after which they drop us off at our hotel in Bangkok at 5pm. On the second day they pick us up at our hotel and take us on a canal boat ride and to visit Wat Pho temple. You can see our actually itinerary here. The reviews of this company were comparable with the Tours by Locals guide, but the price was a little less and I felt that Thai Tour Guide was somewhat more organized. The only potential downside that I recognize with my choice is that with Tours by Local, I’m reading the review of my actual guide, but Thai Tour Guide is a company with many guides so you don’t know who you are going to get until after you commit. But on the plus side, Thai Tour Guide didn’t ask for any money up front (not even a credit card to hold my reservation), you pay your guide in cash after the tour is complete.

In addition to the tours I booked with Thai Tour Guide, we are also booking an evening food tour of Bangkok* through Viator. We’ll be driven around in a tuk tuk (open air 3-wheeled taxi) and the guide will give us a taste of Bangkok’s street food scene.

Since we won’t have much time after we are dropped off at our hotel to get ready for the evening tour, I opted to book a hotel that was very close to the meeting point for the food tour. I got a room for 2 people at the 4-star Mandarin Hotel for a total of USD$78.76, including taxes, breakfast, and free cancellation. I also booked Kiwi Taxi to pick us up at our hotel on day two and take us back to the ship. The tour company would have taken us to the ship but they would charge US$125 and Kiwi Taxi only charges US$69.

(Post Trip Updates: Check out the actual trip report from the Bangkok (Laem Chabang) port of call. Since I had to get a lot of Thai cash (Baht) out to pay our tour guide, I wish I had found this article beforehand which talks about the best way for US tourists to get Baht in Thailand.)

Photo courtesy of Russiau.com

October 23rd, 2023 – Visa Requirements
Today I looked into Visa requirements for this cruise. I started by looking through Holland America’s website, including within my reservation, and I couldn’t find anything about it. Finally, I found it on the actual travel documents that I was emailed at the time I booked. From what I read there, the only countries on my itinerary that currently require Visa’s for U.S. citizens are China, Cambodia, and Vietnam (South Korea has temporarily waived their requirement through the end of 2024). According to my documents, I can purchase the Cambodia and Vietnam Visas onboard the ship. So that’s easy, although not cheap – approximately $150 per person. On the other hand, China seems to not be easy at all! I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer to look into this – they say you need at least 30 days to get the Visa and the process is not straight forward… More to come.

November 13th, 2023 – Chinese Visa
I finally got around to doing more research on a tourist visa for China. From what I read, I think some of the procedures changed this year and it might be easier than it used it be. I’m going to try to apply directly through the Chinese consulate rather than use one of the services that charge you a hefty fee to supposedly help you through the process. The one thing I still need to get before I can go through the online process is passport photos. I can get those for free from AAA since I’m a member.

November 14th, 2023 – Cruise Price Dropped
Today I made the mistake of checking Vacations-to-Go to see if the price changed on my cruise. I’ve been hoping to try to upgrade to a suite if the suite prices got down to not much more than what I paid for a balcony cabin. Unfortunately, the suite prices didn’t come down but the balcony cabin prices are $900 per person lower than what I paid! It says “limited availability” but it’s been saying that since I started looking at the cruise over 5 months ago!

November 19th, 2023 – Chinese Visa
So, I can’t use the passport photos I got at AAA. It turns out that the specs required for the China Visa are not the same as for U.S. passport photos. Also, I didn’t read the fine print and apparently China wants to see my ears in the photo. Very strange! So, now I’m going to try to take the photos myself.

November 20th, 2023 – Koh Samui, Thailand
I’ve been working on our cruise stop in Koh Samui, Thailand for the last couple of days. I’ve narrowed down my options but I’m having trouble deciding. Unfortunately we will only be in port from 7am until 3pm and from what I read we will likely have to tender. Most of the tours seem to be on the other side of the island and only a few offer pickup at the port. I thought about renting a car but the only decent car rental places are at the airport on the other side of the island. So, this is what I’ve come up with:
— We can hire a driver through Viator* but the driver will not be a guide and may not speak English. So, we’ll have to do our research and know where we want to go and we won’t be able to count on learning anything from the driver.
— There’s a 6 hour private 4X4 tour of the countryside* that offers port pick up for an extra fee, but we’ll have to cut the tour short to make sure we get back to the ship in time.
— There’s a very inexpensive 4 hour group tour*, but they don’t offer port pick up. Fortunately, one of the hotels where they pick up is about a 10 minute drive from the port. However, I don’t know how difficult it will be to get a taxi when everyone is getting off the ship at once.
— Another tour that caught my eye was a 4 to 5 hour ATV tour*. This isn’t something that my husband and I feel up to, but I’m going to recommend it to my nephew. They don’t say they pick up at the port, but they seem pretty flexible about their pick up points.

January 16th, 2024 – On Our Way, Despite a Lost Passport and Canceled Flight
I’m sorry that I haven’t update this in a while. It’s always hectic between Thanksgiving and New Years, but Mark and I have been stressing over a lot more than just the holiday madness. Following the advice of Holland America, we used CIBT Visas to process our Visa application with the Chinese consulate in Washington D.C. The only reason we needed to use a service at all is because you, or a representative, has to show up in person to the consulate to present your application. CIBT acted as that representative. I had considered just flying to DC for the day to do it myself but CIBT said their fee was only $79. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. This is a rather long story, so I’ll just give you the gist of it.

My passport came back quickly, but Mark’s was lost by UPS.
The $79 fee was just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the $185 fee charged by China, CIBT charged us over $280 a piece in miscellaneous charges.
AND as it turns out we didn’t even really need the Visa!

The one good thing I will say about CIBT is that when Mark’s passport went missing they assigned him a supervisor who walked him through the process of applying for a new passport and he helped get it expediated. They were hopeful that his passport would arrive in time but there was no way another China Visa could be obtained that quickly after the new passport got to us. My big fear was that Mark might not be allowed to board the ship in Singapore without the Visa. The communications from Holland America talked about the various visas needed for the trip and how to get them, followed by the statement that “passengers without the proper visas may be denied boarding”. I was even told by my Vacations-to-Go travel agent that he wasn’t hopeful they would allow Mark to board the ship. Once I finally reached the right department (documents department) at Holland America, I was told that not only could Mark board the ship, Visa’s weren’t required in Hong Kong, and he could get off the ship in Shanghai as long as he went on a tour with a company that was approved by the government (essentially the tour company gets you a day visa). At this point I wasn’t sure what I felt more of – relief or anger! We had spent over $900, and countless hours of stressing, to get visas we didn’t even need! Why doesn’t Holland America tell you this upfront? Ugghhh!

So, I booked the Zhujiajiao Water Town and Shanghai City Private Day Tour* for our first day in Shanghai. I told Mark that on the second day I was wondering around Shanghai on my own just so I could take advantage of that damn visa.

The passport/visa fiasco wasn’t quite the end of the pretravel stress. Four days before our departing flight, Mark told me he had just read an article that said that all of the Boeing 787 Max-9 planes were still grounded. This was the type of plane that had a portion of the fuselage blow out during a flight over a week prior. I had heard that the FAA was grounding the planes until they were inspected, and I knew that our first flight was on this type of plane, but I had put it out of my mind because I had read shortly after the incident that a lot of the planes were already inspected. Apparently, the FAA changed its plans and Alaska Airlines and United (our airline) were cancelling hundreds of flights a day. We hadn’t heard a word from United but I thought I’d better see about changing to a different flight to be safe. So I called United and was put on hold. After being on hold for a while Mark and I both received a text saying our flight was canceled. I was so happy to have already been on hold with the airline before everyone else got their text. Thankfully, other flights that day were still available. However, the new flight into Singapore got us in on the evening before the morning we were initially expected to arrive. So, I quickly contacted the hotel in Singapore and thankfully was able to their last room for that night! Whew, that was a close one.

So here I am now, on the plane to Singapore; hopefully all of the travel hiccups are behind us. Travel reports from this trip will be coming soon.

The post Planning in Progress appeared first on Travel Sage.

Orlando Girls’ Trip: Beyond Theme Parks

Cathy Laurenzi — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 22:13:31 +0000

The Travel Sage

Orlando Girls’ Trip: Beyond Theme Parks

Photo courtesy of Sea Life Orlando.

Heads Up: This page includes two affiliate links, which are marked by an “*”. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. But rest assured – my opinions are my own, I would never recommend something I haven’t or wouldn’t purchase for myself.

Looking for ideas on the best girls’ trip destinations? Consider Orlando if your travel plans are NOT between June and August. If you don’t live in the area, you probably think “Disney” when someone mentions Orlando. But there is so much more to do in Orlando beyond theme parks! A group of five of us did a weekend ladies trip to Orlando in February a few years ago to celebrate my friend’s 50th birthday, and it turned out to be a great choice! The thing about Orlando is that because there is such a variety of things to do, it is an excellent option for “girls” of all ages and interests. You’ll find resorts, nightlife, shopping, museums, sports activities, nature, endless restaurant choices, and of course theme parks. And Orlando is only an hour drive to Cocoa Beach! Check out some specific ideas of what you and your friends can do in Orlando beyond just theme parks.

Things to do in Orlando

No matter what you and your friends’ interests are, you’ll find plenty to do here. Of course if you love theme parks, you are definitely in the right place. But let’s consider other things to do with a group of friends in Orlando.

Get Sporty

If you and your friends enjoying being athletic and/or a little competitive, consider some of the following ideas.

Try out Some Water Sports

Visit Orlando Watersports Complex and try your hand at waterskiing, wakeboarding, tubing, kneeboarding, wakeskating or wakesurfing. You can get lessons while you’re there if you need them.

Photo courtesy of Matt Rini Waterski School.

And while you’re there, get silly playing on their inflatable waterpark. It’s not just for kids!

Photo courtesy of Commercial Recreation Specialists.

Play a Round of Golf

The entire state of Florida is known for golfing and Orlando is no exception. If you want to golf in the Orlando area, check out Golf Links list of 59 golf courses in the Orlando area.

Photo courtesy of Visit Orlando.

Try out a New Kind of Golf – Top Golf

If you want to hit some balls without spending hours on the golf course, consider a visit to Orlando’s Top Golf. I’ve never golfed, but recently went to a birthday party at a Top Golf in Atlanta. It was so much fun! It’s a great concept where you and your friends tee-off from an open bay that you rent (by the hour) in a multi-story building. Your balls have tracking devices in them and automatically record your score on a screen in your bay. And they have a great menu and full bar so you can eat, drink and golf at the same time!

Photo courtesy of Geek Wire.

Challenge Yourself to Some Rock Climbing

Even though Florida has a flat landscape, you and your friends can still have fun rock climbing in one of Orlando’s 11 rock climbing gyms.

Photo courtesy of RebounderZ.

Get Back to Nature

Orlando might be a big city, but there are still opportunities to enjoy nature.

Explore Gardens

Visit Harry P. Leu Gardens where you can explore a 50 acre semi-tropical garden with the added benefit of visiting a historical home. And it’s right in the heart of Orlando.

Photo courtesy of Orlando Magazine.

Walk a Nature Trail

If you’d rather to take a walk in a more natural Florida landscape, then consider a stroll along the Shingle Creek Trail.

Photo courtesy of Burnsland.

Go on a Boat Ride

Take a scenic boat tour in Winter Park. This might be a nice thing to combine with lunch and shopping.

Photo courtesy of Glassdoor.

Venture Outside of Orlando

If you are spending more than a couple of days in Orlando, consider taking a nature excursion day-trip outside of Orlando. If you don’t mind renting a car, then there are a ton of possibilities. But if you don’t want to drive yourself, below are a couple of nature tours that will pick you up and drop you off in Orlando.

Visit Homossassa Springs wildlife park and swim with manatees* …

Photo courtesy of MilesGeek.

or learn about Florida wildlife while enjoying an airboat ride*.

Photo courtesy of Marsh Landing Adventures.

Enjoy the Best Nightlife in Orlando

Do you and your friends like to party in the evening? If so, Orlando is an excellent option for your girls’ trip. Below are just a few of the many nightlife venues in the Orlando area.

Visit Locations With Multiple Night Clubs & Bars

Be sure to check out Universal’s City Walk on one of your nights in Orlando. City Walk is attached to Universal Studios but does not require a fee to enter. However, some of the bars do have cover charges. At City Walk you can sing-a-long at a dueling piano bar, do some late-night dancing, sing karaoke with a live band, and enjoy sipping drinks at a tiki bar. And if you’re feeling silly after you’ve had a few drinks, consider playing some horror movie-themed night-time mini-golf!

Photo courtesy of Attractions Magazine.

Another venue that includes multiple entertainment and dining options is Disney’s Boardwalk. The Boardwalk offers a charming atmosphere around a lake, with street performers, midway games, a dueling piano bar and a dance club.

Photo courtesy of Disney’s Food Blog.

Another multi-venue option is Wall Street Plaza in downtown Orlando. Here you’ll find bars with various themes, including steampunk, vintage carnival, and a tropical oasis. One bar, “Hooch”, is named for its variety of in-house flavored moonshines. You might find Wall Street Plaza to be fairly tame during the week, but on the weekend all the bars open up to a big block party.

Photo courtesy of Wall Street Plaza.

Party at One of the Hottest Nightclubs in Orlando

If you’d rather just focus on the hottest club in town instead of bar-hopping, then you’ll want to do more research. Take a look at Time Out’s list of the 12 best nightclubs in Orlando, or CuddlyNest’s list of the top 7 Orlando clubs.

Attend a Performance or Event

To find out what events are going on around Orlando, check out the events calendar on Visit Orlando’s website. If you are specifically looking for live music, then the Orlando Weekly is a good resource. Or consider one of the long-standing shows below.

Be Captivated by Cirque du Soleil

The Cirque du Soleil show in Orlando is put on by Disney at Disney Springs.

Choose one of the Many Orlando Dinner Theaters

The Outta Control Magic Comedy Dinner Show is rated the best dinner show in Orlando by Trip Advisor. Be sure to choose a night when their main act, Tony Brent, is performing. This might be a great option if you or any of your friends want to volunteer to get on stage as an assistant.

Photo courtesy of todaysorlando.com.

Medieval Times is one of the longest running Orlando Dinner Theaters. If you’ve never seen a medieval-themed performance with jousting and sword fights, then you might enjoy this. Note that this show is in a big arena, where you will sit and eat in rows.

Photo courtesy of Visit Orlando.

I’ve been to the Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows several times. The characters mix with the audience, and the audience gets to ask questions to solve the mystery. Depending on which show you choose, you and and rest of the audience will be guests at a wedding, a lodge or some sort of party/event .If you are looking for serious detective work then you should look elsewhere. But if you and your friends are up for sipping wine and appreciating silliness, then this dinner show might be a good option.

If you’d like a dinner experience that allows you to step back in time, consider attending a Titanic Dinner Gala available on Friday and Saturday nights. Perhaps you and your friends might want dress up in clothes from the turn on the 20th century.

Another dinner theater in Orlando to consider is Teatro Martini. It’s described as an adults-only variety show. You can expect music, comedy, burlesque, improv and more.

Photo courtesy of orlandovacation.com.

Visit a Museum

Although Orlando isn’t known for world-class museums, there are a few options for museum lovers.

Visit an Art Museum in Orlando

The largest and most well known of the Orlando art museums is the aptly named Orlando Museum of Art. Its permanent collections include American, African, and contemporary art.

I really enjoyed my recent visit to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in nearby Winter Park. Its permanent collection revolves around the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Photo courtesy of Art Geek.

If you like sculptures, be sure to visit the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens which is also located in Winter Park.

Explore a History Museum

If you want to learn a little bit about the history of Winter Park and the Orlando area then consider a visit to the Winter Park History Museum.

Photo courtesy of 407area.com.

For something different, check out the Orlando Fire Museum. This little museum located in a 1926 firehouse gets great reviews.

If you are intrigued by the history of the Titanic then be sure to visit the Titanic Artifact Exhibition.

Since Orlando is a major tourist destination, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that you can find the usual tourist-oriented museums here. These include Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and Madame Tussauds.

Go Shopping

Orlando wouldn’t be a great girls’ trip destination if there wasn’t some fun shopping venues! So let’s talk about some of the best places to shop in Orlando.

Save Money at One of the Orlando Outlet Malls

If you are shopping for luxury brands, be sure to visit the Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets. Here you’ll find 160 stores with brands such as Armani, Jimmy Choo, and Versace, just to name a few.

For those who don’t want to pay for luxury brands (even at discounted prices), check out the Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores. This shopping plaza provides a complimentary shuttle to and from select hotels and resorts in Orlando and Kissimmee.

If You're Looking for a LOT of Stores, Visit One of the Indoor Malls

For a traditional mall experience, visit The Florida Mall which has over 250 stores and restaurants. But if you want something a bit more upscale, the Mall at Millenia is a great choice.

Stroll Some Local Boutiques

If the buying is less important than the shopping experience, then local boutiques are the way to go. And the best shopping experience in the Orlando area is definitely downtown Winter Park. Strolling along N. Park Avenue makes for a pleasant afternoon.

In case you want my recommendation… If I had to pick just one place in the Orlando area to spend a day with my girlfriends, I’d choose Winter Park. There are great restaurants, a nice little boat tour, unique shops for window shopping, and a handful of museums.

Where to Stay in Orlando

There is no shortage of places to stay in Orlando. First decide the type of place you’d like to stay. Do you want to spend your days relaxing by a pool, then a either a resort or a nice home with a pool are your best bets. If you want to keep your lodging costs down so you can spend more out and about, then a hotel/motel is a good option if there are only 2 or 3 of you, and an apartment hotel is a great choice if there are going to be more ladies than that. My friends and I stayed in the Floridays Resort. Although “resort” is in the title, this is not the kind of place I’m referring to when I talk about a resort. Floridays is more like a nice condo or apartment complex with a pool and a cafe. But the price is great if you are sharing the cost with several people. As of the time of this writing (Aug 2023), for most of the year prices for a two bedroom apartment are under $200 a night, and their three bedroom apartments sleep up to 8 people and are around $250 per night. Also, it’s in a great location right off of International Drive.

If you don’t mind paying more for a real resort experience, then consider some of the options below.

Disney Boardwalk Villas & Inn

Photo courtesy of Disneytips.com.

The Disney Boardwalk is a fun place to go in the evening with lots of restaurants and entertainment. So when I go there I always envy the people who get to stay in the villas or inn that are right on the Boardwalk. Prices Start Around $650/night for a standard room at the inn, or a studio villa that sleeps up to 5 people. However, there is another way to potentially book villas (including ones with 1+ bedrooms). Apparently, these villas are one of the options for people who join the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). They get a set number of points per year which they use to reserve the villas, but if they don’t use them, they sell them. If you don’t mind working a little to try to find a bargain, then check out the DVC shop where you can buy these points and immediately book a villa on available days. For more information on the Boardwalk Villas visit the Disney Tourist Blog.