Travel plan idea blog

A reason not to do vacation home exchanges

It seems like a weak reason to me, but here's an article about how vacation home exchanges can only work in theory because many homes have lots of strange quirks. I don't see a hard-to-find light switch ruining my vacation but maybe I'm just a bit more easygoing than the author...

Then again, some people just love to complain. If you read this journal from an American and an Irish person who did a vacation home exchange, you'll probably laugh at Greg (the Irish guy) who must have had a really miserable vacation. I'm glad I didn't have to go on vacation with him...

The fact that the Americans went to Portadown (population about 33,000), about an hour away from Dublin reveals my biggest problem with a vacation home exchange; most homes are in the suburbs. When I'm in a foreign country I want to see the cities, not the suburbs.

Keeping a travel scrapbook

I couldn't find many interesting travel experiences for you, but I did find this article about someone who bought an old photo album with lots of hotel stationary in it. The author then decided to collect stationary from hotels and add it to the album.

When I was a kid, I used to collect stuff from vacation: tickets to Disney, postcards from museum gift shops, and whatever else. I've thrown it all away, but part of me wonders if looking back at whatever scraps we have leftover from old vacations isn't worth the trouble of maintaining a scrapbook.

I'd like to hear from anyone who does keep more than photographs of their vacation experiences. What do you do to make sure you have a physical reminder of your travels?

Hotels more likely to have a spa and be pet friendly

Here's an interesting article about how hotels, even non-resorts, need spas to compete. Of course they are more expensive than spas outside of hotels:

According to Susie Ellis, president of spa marketing company Spa Finder, spa services at big-city hotels are more than 50% higher than at a day spa. The average cost of a massage at a hotel or resort spa is $120, $44 more than at a day spa.

However, business travelers with little time are making sure that these spas remain profitable.

If bringing your pet to a hotel is more important than getting a massage while you're there, read this article on the friendliest cities for vacationers with pets. Here's another article that goes into more detail by talking about a particular family and a particular pet friendly hotel.

Short Connecticut travel plan: Essex & Hartford

As usual, I'm going to New York this winter to spend Christmas with my parents and other family. New York is great fun, but there's more to do in America and I need to experience more than one city. So after visiting the big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center (which we do every year) or celebrating the end of our vegetarian days with a trip to a NYC steakhouse, this winter my wife and I will head to Essex and Hartford Connecticut, to visit two places featured in 1,000 Places To See Before You Die.

First we'll drive from New York to Essex (120 miles north) where we'll stay at the Griswold Inn for two days. The Griswold Inn opened in 1776 and is a tourist attraction in itself. There's one room full of maritime memorabilia and the hotel is decorated for the Christmas holidays. We have to be there for Sunday morning's "Sunday Hunt breakfast" which was started during the War of 1812 when the British took over the hotel.

The town of Essex consists of wonderful examples of early colonial and federal architecture. We'll spend our time touring the town, admiring architecture and looking at antiques.

We'll then head 35 miles north to Hartford where we'll visit Mark Twain's Victorian style house also made up for Christmas. A guided tour will put the different things in Twain's old house in context before we head over to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Gothic cottage.

That's it, then it's back to New York. What do you think? Anyone know a restaurant in Hartford we need to experience or should we just eat anywhere?

Educating your kids on vacation

A 365 day working vacation for a couple of photographers and their kids resulted in some excellent learning experiences for the kids who were home-schooled for the year:

Meanwhile, they got to see what most of their fellow students at Pine View School for the Gifted will only read about. They saw the pyramids in Egypt and sat on the Great Wall of China. They learned about apartheid and then walked inside Nelson Mandela's old prison cell.

"It was really interesting to see how he lived," Alexa said.

"Learning about Islam by sitting in a mosque is more meaningful than learning about it at school," Carlton said.

Of course these experiences can be equally meaningful to adults so it's not only kids who need to learn about the world through experiencing it. But I can't stop thinking that those kids have a big advantage thanks to their exposure to other countries and cultures.

Inexpensive vacation destinations

The Boston Globe recommends 8 budget vacations: Minneapolis for the architecture; Maine's coast for windjamming and lobster feasting; Tunisia for beaches, Roman ruins, the Sahara Desert, sophisticated resorts, camel rides, jeep excursions, weavers, and traditional musicians; Sedona, Arizona for the nature and outdoors stuff; New York's Adirondack North Country for leaves changing color, Halifax and Cape Breton in Nova Scotia because its cheap during the offseason; Guatemala and Antigua for exotic destinations not too far from America; and Nashville for classical and country music.

This is a 14 page article (there's some detail on each destination) and to get past page 4 you need to register which takes a couple of minutes but is free.

Lucca in Tuscany: great food and not too crowded

Here's an article on Lucca, Italy. Lucca is in Tuscany. Its biggest attractions are food, a wall around the town that one can bike or stroll on for hours, and Puccini's house. As you might expect, the opera house is well-known too.

But back to the food, which is what the article is really about. Make sure to observe the locals and how they eat:

...dining at Ristorante Giglio, (my friend) started to put lemon on a piece of grilled baccalà, and a waiter swooped down on him, grabbed the lemon, and explained that it was there only "for idiots." Mr. Schneider was instructed to eat his salt cod with lots of oil and lots of black pepper, as the locals do.

A friend of mine who has been to Lucca (I haven't been) said that the restaurants mentioned in the article are the best he knows of. He also added that it's not far from some vineyards and Pisa. He also likes that it's not as crowded as places like Siena.

Do the math when hunting for vacation deals

Here’s a good article about hunting for vacation deals. I’m sure we already knew that not all travel bargains are created equal, but consider this example:

The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino in St. Martin, for instance, advertised a "Fourth Night Free Special," good through Oct. 31, on its Web site. With that special, the four-night tab for Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 totaled $630 for a Supersaver King room. The package beat the hotel's "best available rate" total of $760. But I could have paid only $500 using the resort's $125-per-night "Web rate."

No. 1 lesson: It's not the "free" night; it's the cost of the paid nights that counts. Effectively, I would pay $157.50 per night under the free-night special.

No. 2 lesson: "Best available rate" isn't always the least expensive.

There are some more good examples in the article from golfing in Hawaii to buying vacation packages online.

Santa Fe vacation experience

Since I was writing about northern New Mexico the other day, I thought this vacation in lights on Santa Fe was interesting:

We checked into La Fonda, our splurge hotel right on the Santa Fe Plaza (where buildings date back to 1610). In the evening's high-altitude breeze, we sat on the plaza and ate ice cream...

The vacation in lights idea is also an interesting one; Washington Post readers write in about their vacation experiences. I love the idea of readers sharing their experience which is why I welcome comments on this blog and have the writing contest. I hope to get many more entries - please submit before November 15th!

Outdoor vacation ideas for Michigan

Michigan is famous for cold winters, good skiing, and great snowmobiling.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), local organizations, and snowmobile clubs, make sure that the 6,000 + miles of snowmobile trails are well maintained. Snowmobilers can ride through some of Michigan’s most scenic forests or along the coast.

Michigan’s other seasons are less famous but equally good for outdoors enthusiasts. Boating, hiking, and camping are good possibilities.

Boating in Michigan is done in one of the four Great Lakes surrounding Michigan or in one of the 11,000 inland lakes. Boating, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, and even Great Lakes cruising are possibilities.

If you’ve never climbed a sand dune before, Sleeping Bear Dunes is the National Park for you. For a different kind of outdoor vacation activity, try a Live Action Role-Playing game (LARP). NERO Alliance Traverse is a popular fantasy LARP in Traverse City, Michigan where you create and play a character. You spend the weekend (typically events are run on weekends, often once a month) camping and interacting with good people who are also roleplaying medieval characters. It’s not the best for young children, but for adults it’s a unique and memorable experience.

Slightly more mainstream, but still in the medieval fantasy genre, would be a trip to the Michigan Renaissance Festival. This one goes from August 19th to October 1st (weekends only), while the LARP I linked to above will have at least one weekend event almost every month.

For more on traveling in Michigan, visit the official page.

Fun vacation ideas in northern New Mexico

Here's an article about the many types of vacation themes in northern New Mexico. You've got Santa Fe (including the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum), the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, and the Carson National Forest which includes the southern Rocky Mountains.

What do you have in mind for your next vacation? Mountain scenery? Art galleries and museums? Skiing? Hunting or hiking? American Indian cultures? The American West? You can do it all, or as much as you want, in one visit to northern New Mexico.

Personally, I'd like to see a vacation plan that includes Santa Fe, some mountains and hiking, and some Native American culture. I'd either like to live on a reservation for a few days (kind of like a temple stay) or attend a festival, like the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation's annual powwow festival, the Feast of Green Corn and Dance.

Cruise deals, European vacation deals

While searching for winter travel deals, I learned that business airfares are getting more expensive. I learned that there are some real bargains from British travel agents, especially for people going to Turkey. I'm not sure anything will save Turkey as a tourist destination until travelers are confident they'll be safe there.

I did find some cruise deals for the fall, including an NCL 7-night cruise to Bermuda on the Norwegian Crown. Inside cabins $429, ocean view $479 per person. Sail October 22 from NYC.

I did find a few European travel deals, which is really what I want, but they were also for the fall rather than the winter. Maybe it's too early to book my winter vacation; I'm not quite ready for Thanksgiving in Prague...

"Our dress code: wear something" and "Dinner will be served promptly at whatever o'clock."

"Our dress code: wear something" and "Dinner will be served promptly at whatever o'clock" are lines that will be appearing in Norwegian Cruise Lines print ads as the company tries to strengthen its brand by highlighting its "freestyle cruise" concept.

NCL policies include no fixed dining times at up to 10 different restaurants, no formal dress codes, relaxed disembarkation, and various types of entertainment. To turn these policies into a stronger brand NCL will try 30-second TV commercials (among other ads).

One shows vacationers sunbathing, playing shuffleboard and dining in unison. These vacationers have to check their watches because they need to follow the cruise ship's schedule. Then we see NCL's Freestyle Cruising, passengers relaxing and enjoying themselves because there is no schedule. The TV ads conclude with "Where you're free to whatever" and a graphic of a white fish swimming amid a school of blue fish.

My parents have cruised with NCL and they liked it just fine. They took good care of my vegan sister (not all cruise lines / ships do so if you are vegan check with the chef in advance). They took good care of my grandfather who was around 90 at the time and in a wheelchair. When I take my wife on our first cruise, I expect we'll also go with NCL.

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic vacation experience

Here's a good article written by some vacationers about their experience in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. They stayed at a resort called Sunscape the Beach, which they liked. How do you not like staying in a resort on a tropical island?

Sunscape the Beach was praised for excellent cleanliness, food, a pool (to which all rooms have easy access), the beach, and the critically important swim-up bar. I love swim-up bars.

I'm not sure why they don't blame the resort for taking them snorkeling when a tropical storm was on the way. Personally, I need my resort to make sure I don't get exposed to situations like this on vacation:

...two resort employees took Michael, Dante and four other guests out in a 20-foot wooden motorboat. When they hit the first wave, they flew into the air and landed with a thud on the wooden seats. It was not fun. The blue sky was turning dark gray as we jumped into the water filled with colorful fish and coral.

Michael was looking underwater when he saw a huge wave lift Dante and other swimmers high into the air. The sky turned black, winds picked up to 20 mph, big waves crashed over the snorkel tubes and the rain was pouring hard. Michael and Dante had been in the water for only about a half hour; it was a struggle swimming against waves to get back to the boat.

Normally I would say that vacationers are equally responsible for their own safety but since i don't usually watch the Weather Channel while I'm on vacation, I suppose that I would also have followed the guides into the ocean in a small, wooden boat.

The authors say that their vacation package was less expensive than going to Mexico or the Caribbean so it sounds like Punta Cana is affordable.

Floating condos in cruise ship resort communities

Here's a long, interesting article on a new kind of vacation property, floating condos. Instead of a condo on the beach, you buy a condo on a cruise ship. Prices range from $250,000 to $44,000,000 and there are several projects that seem to be going strong according this article. One even includes timeshares, which should make this bit of luxury affordable to us regular folk, if only for a few weeks or months a year.

Celebrity travel gossip: Eddie Murphy & Scary Spice in Hawaii

Maui's Four Seasons Hotel has a $10,700-a-night luxury suite, where rich and famous people stay on vacation.

According to People.com, Eddie Murphy and his 5 kids, ages 4 to 16, vacationed with his girlfriend Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) and her 7-year-old daughter. Apparently they did some body surfing and boogie boarding. "There was a lot of togetherness between the families," a source told People.

Murphy’s big brother Charlie of “Chappelle Show” fame told the magazine: "(Eddie) seems very happy with her, and that's what's important to me. He's in a good place. If she does that (for him), then that's great."

Movie themed tours

Here's an interesting article on tours that are designed for fans of a certain movie or TV show. Called movie vacation packages, the article mentions Harry Potter themed vacations, Pirates of the Caribbean tours, The Da Vinci Code scavenger hunt vacations, Pride and Prejudice tours, Sideways tours (wineries near Santa Barbara from the movie), Sex and the City lecture tours in new York, and other types of themed travel.

Of course not all themed travel has a movie theme. From farm tours in Iowa to California's old gold mines and ghost towns, there are tons of niche travel experiences waiting for us.

Vacation experiences in Thailand & Florida

I've got two things for you today. One is for the dreamers and one is for the complainers (you know the commenters who cry about my vacation ideas being too expensive). If you don't want to dream about the good life, skip the next paragraph.

The good life in Thailand: here's an interesting article on a single woman's travel experience in Thailand staying at a resort in Koh Samui. I'm not sure what she's talking about when she says Thai massage puts her to sleep. The pain generally purges all thoughts of sleep from my mind (though I do sleep well after one of those Thai massages).

If you're an American looking to stay in the country, USA Today recommends "A sunny Florida retreat on Amelia Island". They say people go there for the beaches, making it a lot like Thailand I guess: "It's the perfect sunny getaway for couples seeking quiet and romance, families who want the familiar comforts of home, and anyone who loves to play in warm ocean waters."

The All American Grand Canyon Helicopter Flight with Landing & Champagne Picnic Lunch

I'm sure many of you are wondering why www.travel-plan-idea.com has been unavailable recently. I was trying to upgrade my blog software and web hosting comapny. To make a long story short the web hosting company is evil.

I still have to make some updates and changes, but I hope the worst of it is behind us. Please bear with me if my blog goes offline again. I'll be working (fighting actually) to get it back up. For now, business as usual.

Some of you will remember my sister asking questions about Vegas. Here's another one:

I am interested in taking a helicopter ride from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. Most of the prices I have seen have been $350+ per person. I don't want to go in a sketchy helicopter, but I don't want to spend $700 either. Originally we were going to go on a cruise, and now that we're going to Las vegas we're already spending way more in Vegas than we would have on the cruise.

The All American Grand Canyon Helicopter Flight with Landing & Champagne Picnic Lunch looks good and has a discount price of $290, which I'm willing to pay, and it lands on the canyon floor and there is a champage picnic! $300 for limo pick up and drop off at the hotel.

Does anyone have any experiences or advice they can share? According to this site, this tour has a 4.8 out of 5 rating, based on 472 reviews - sounds pretty good! Has anyone done one of these or heard anything that might make me wary? Thanks!

Antarctica: Princess Cruises "Golden Princess"

As cruises to and around Antarctica get bigger and more popular, concerns rise over passenger safety (not too many rescue workers in Antarctica should the ship hit an iceberg or something) and environmental impact (cruise ships bring new animals with them and these animals could alter the ecology of Antarctica).

Some information on the new ship heading for the arctic:

The Golden Princess, due to make a three-week voyage through the islands, straits and channels of the Antarctic Peninsula, is 10 times bigger than cruise ships plying Antarctica's waters, and can carry 3,800 passengers and crew.

Mancationing

We've talked about vacations for women gaining popularity but it's not only the fairer sex that wants to travel with their own kind. What do men want on vacation? The usual guy stuff: "everything from poker parties to hand-rolled cigars, buckets of beer to sports tickets."

There are plenty of Mancation ideas, from "Dudes on the Dunes" to "The Fishing Mancation" to the Regent South Beach (opening soon) and some pretty cool hotel packages:

Fairmont Chicago's "Mancation Package" includes seminars on style and entertaining, cigar sampling, whiskey tasting and a steak dinner starting at $399 a person. And the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa has a "Speed Meets Spa" package pairing three-day race driving instruction with man-friendly spa treatments starting at $4,795.

Is swimming with stingrays safe?

Swimming with stingrays is a popular vacation activity in the Caribbean. In addition to Antigua and Grand Turk, Grand Cayman’s Stingray City is a very popular tourist attraction. However, some tourists most be reconsidering after the death of Steve Irwin, the famous ‘Crocodile Hunter’. Irwin died after he was stung by a stingray.

Stingray swims are still deemed safe by most experts and all the cruise lines:

Carnival said "The death of Steve Irwin was a terrible tragedy. Experts agree that it was an extremely unusual occurrence involving a particularly large breed of stingray found in Australia. To be stung by a stingray is rare and, despite the tens of thousands of our guests who have participated in the stingray shore excursions offered by our tour operator partners, there has never been a fatality or serious injury."

Disney offers stingray excursions at their private island Castaway where they manicure stingrays' barbs to make the experience even safer for guests. I’m not sure how I feel about this; I hope these “manicures” aren’t painful for the animals.

Holland America said that there has never been a serious injury on one of their stingray tours.

Royal Caribbean International's Lyan Sierra-Caro says "I think everyone understands that this was a rare circumstance. The stingrays in the Caribbean are much different then the kind found in Australia. Also, the stingrays that our guests usually see are used to being around humans and even fed by them."

Climbing Kilimanjaro: personal experience

You may remember Bill's excellent African safari vacation plan that included two separate plans, one for climbers and one for normal folk. By the way, there may (and I'm not positive) still be time to sign up for the Novemeber Mekong River cruise from Saigon to Siem Reap that benefits the Landmine Relief Fund.

Bill and his party of 12 just got back from the African Adventure, climbing Kilimanjaro and photo safari in Kenya. He has kindly written an article about his experiences.

I present to you an excellent article just awesome and inspiring to read, Climbing Kilimanjaro.

Climbing Kilimanjaro
It seemed like a good idea at the time

Palm Springs, Ca - August, 2006 - It sounded like it would be a lot of fun, when Jack called and said, “Let’s go to Africa next year and climb Kilimanjaro”. At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro is the tallest free standing mountain in the world, the tallest in Africa and one of the Seven Summits lusted after by climbers.

I’d known Jack for over 30 years, ever since we were in the Army together. At 58, he’d just finished his 60th marathon, had climbed a couple of mountains in the past and thought he knew what he was getting into. I on the other hand, while having run 11 marathons, was in reasonably decent shape for a 58 year businessman who had never climbed anything higher than a couple flights of stairs. I’d skied at 14,000 feet, but sliding down a mountain of snow is way different than climbing a mountain of jungle, desert, schree (think gravel pits), and boulders (we’ll talk about coming down later). I figured I’d better do some reading up on mountain climbing and figure out how we were going to get there and back without breaking the bank, my neck, leg, arm, back, or any other important body part.

Putting it all together
I’d been to Africa in 2002 and had traveled with Private Safaris, a company located in Nairobi, Kenya who specialized in customized trips. This had to be a real customized trip, because my wife said I wasn’t going to Africa by myself, and the only way she was climbing Kilimanjaro was if I carried her ashes to the top of the mountain. So I had to plan a trip that had some of us climbing while others went on photo safaris. Since Jack and I, and anyone else we could get to climb, didn’t want to miss out on the animals, I needed to plan a trip that included an additional photo safari after the climb, which takes 5 days.

And we had to do it all on the smallest budget we could manage.

We eventually had 12 people take part in our little adventure. 8 of us climbed Kilimanjaro, while my wife and 3 friends safaried. They then met up with us in Moshi, Tanzania after the climb and we all went to the Masai Mara for 3 days and saw some truly amazing sights. Private Safari put the whole trip together at an incredible price: $1,300 for the climb and safari in Kenya and $1,600 for the Tanzania and Kenya safari package. This included all hotels, transportation, English speaking guides and all our meals. We had to get to Nairobi on our own.

Kilimanjaro
Of the 8 of us who climbed, Jack and I were the oldest at 58. Michelle, Jack’s niece, taught 3rd grade and was the only woman. Jack’s son-in-law Scott, a veteran of Iraq, made the trip along with his brother Bryan, a grad student at Auburn. Adam, my godson, is in his 3rd year at Clemson, and he’s done a lot of dumb things with us over the years, much to his mother’s chagrin. Nate and Gabe rounded out the group. They’d done a lot of climbing, and I think they were the only ones who really knew what we were getting into.

It took us all day to drive from Nairobi to Moshi. The roads are not quite up to western standards. Actually they are barely roads at all; huge holes occasionally surrounded by asphalt were the norm. Scott, our war vet, slept the whole way. We figured since no one was shooting at us, to him, it must have been a pretty smooth ride.

The night before we started the climb we stayed at the Springland Hotel, a climbing lodge located in the middle of Moshi, about a kilometer from the local mosque. The first thing we had to do was weigh our gear. We each carried our own day pack that held our water, which we replenished daily, a jacket, cameras, batteries, and of course, our Ipods. The porters carried the rest of our stuff, which we had been told needed to fit in a medium sized duffel bag and weigh a max of 15 kilos (33 pounds). Except Adam, he brought a suitcase.

We started climbing late Friday morning. We met our guide, Frank Mtei, who Gabe soon named “Frank the Tank”, at the lodge. Our climbing crew, who all work for Frank, included 4 assistant guides, a cook and 16 porters. You don’t leave anything on the mountain (except your naivete); the porters carry all your gear, all their gear, and all the food. They carry down all the trash and hopefully none of the climbers. We bussed to Kilimanjaro National Park, signed in and started climbing. We started at 6,000 feet and climbed through a beautiful rain forest until we stopped for lunch in the early afternoon. Our box lunches consisted of a bottle of juice, a piece of chicken and a couple of rolls; carbs and some protein. We reached Mandara Hut, at 9,052 feet, late in the afternoon.

Each camp consists of a number of A frame huts, lit from solar powered lights with 4 beds per hut. We’d put out our sleeping bags and try and relax a bit after the climb. Card games became popular, as did the nightly rehash of nearly every Seinfeld episode ever made. We’d usually crash between 8 and 9 each night. A few of the group had a hard time sleeping at altitude. Those of us that took diamox, an anticonvulsant drug used to lessen the effects of altitude sickness, seemed to sleep the best. I woke up early the first night with a couple pairs of shoes, a shirt and a book on top of me. Seems I had slept all too well, and began snoring early in the morning. Adam, who fought altitude sickness a good part of the time, and never slept well, hit me with everything in reach. All to no avail. I snored on.

Toilets were either western style, except at Kibo, or a hole in the ground. And we had to supply our own toilet paper. Let’s say they were basic. Each night and each morning we’d get two bowls of warm water and a small bar of soap delivered to our hut. One bowl was for washing while the other was for rinsing. You didn’t want to be number 4 in line. But we all brought baby wipes. We may not have looked good, but we smelled like a baby’s (clean) butt.

Each camp has a central dining hall used by all the climbers. The cook for each group prepares the meals and you’re summoned as tables are available and your cook gets his time in the small kitchen. Dinners were simple but filling. The cooks concentrated again on a lot of carbs and a lot of sugars. There was always enough to eat, and we never felt rushed. Breakfast was a challenge for me. There are two things I detest: oatmeal and most of all, porridge. And each morning, bright and early, a great big pot of steaming hot porridge was dropped right in front of me. Unlike Oliver Twist, even if I was starving, I’d never ask for more. But I ate it…one bowl a day. Then I washed it down with lots of hot coffee, toast and eggs.

Day 2 we climbed out of the forest and through the moorland to Horombo Hut, at 12,408 feet. Some groups stay an extra day at Horombo to acclimate to the altitude. Frank the Tank thought it unnecessary. Since most people don’t sleep well at altitude he thinks the lack of sleep is more detrimental than the help you get from an extra day of acclimatization. Or maybe he just said that since we were doing the 5 day climb.

Horombo is above the clouds. With no moon and more stars than I’ve ever seen, it was quite a sight. We stayed outside late that night just to enjoy the show. The next morning we headed for Kibo, our base camp, and the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Kibo is 15,609 feet high and you reach it by crossing the Martian desert. At least that’s what Gabe thought it looked like. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Nate and Gabe a lot during the day. They were always a few hundred miles ahead of me on the trail. They were the ones who were ready. They were also the ones who were constantly encouraging and slapping the rest of us on the back.

We started to feel the effect of the altitude on the way to Kibo. You get winded quickly. You don’t just walk up the mountain, you pull yourself up with your hiking poles. Each night I felt like I’d done 200 sit ups; all from pulling myself up the mountain with those poles.

Kibo is different from the other camps. It’s a stark, working camp, not a resting camp. The mountain is right there staring you in the face, shrouded in clouds, cold and waiting. We reached Kibo around 1PM. No A frames here, just one long building with lots of rooms, 12 beds to a room. You don’t climb to the summit in the daytime. You rest and start your final push in the dead of night. A good thing too; if you saw the final climb in the daylight you’d run away screaming. You’re still far enough away at Kibo Camp, that the magnitude of the final climb isn’t apparent. They fed us stew at about 2PM and then we went to bed. Frank would wake us at 11:00.

I actually slept, but 11:00 came all too soon. We got up, layered up in thermals, overshirts, ski jackets, ski pants, gloves, and headlamps. Adam didn’t have a headlamp, so we duct taped two flashlights to his head.

The Summit
Poley poley, hakuna matatta: Slowly, slowly, no problems. That’s your mantra on Kili. We began our final climb at 11:50PM on Sunday night. Our first stop was Gilman’s point a mere 6 kilometers (3.75 miles) away. It took us an hour to climb the first 600 feet. Bryan, who couldn’t take diamox, had been having altitude problems for at least a day. Scott was sick, and Adam hadn’t started taking diamox until the day before, and the effects hadn’t kicked in yet. At 16,200 these trekkers knew they were holding the rest of us back and that they were not going to make the summit. With best wishes for the rest of us and pats on the back all around, they headed back to Kibo with one of our guides. While they may not have summitted, they’d climbed higher, at 16,200 feet, than any mountain in the continental United States. No mean feat, and something few others have ever done.

At 18,000 feet, after 3 ½ hours of climbing I just about packed it in. I couldn’t keep up with Jack, Michelle, Nate and Gabe. I collapsed against the side of the mountain and said “I gotta rest”. I struggled with every step to keep up with them to 18,500 feet and that was it, I didn’t think I could go another meter. I’ve hit the wall in marathons, and I’ve hit them hard. It didn’t compare; not even remotely close. Frank the Tank sent Daniel, another one of our guides back to take me wherever I wanted to go. That’s when Nate told me were at 18,500 feet, 500 short of the rim, Gilman’s Point.

500 feet. No way I could bail with only 500 feet to the rim. This was my only chance to climb Kili. I figured I could gut out another 500 feet. The others went ahead. That’s when Daniel and I got lost in the boulder field.

We were climbing in the pitch black of the African night. I had a headlamp that lit the ground right in front of me. Daniel had no light. He was following the path from my headlamp. All the other groups had passed us or were behind us. The path through the boulder field is hard to follow, even in the daylight. We took one wrong turn after another and pretty soon I could tell Daniel didn’t know where we were. 18,800 feet up Kilimanjaro, dead of night, no one around, and we were lost. I got worried. Daniel got up on a boulder. We were only about 5 yards off the trail. I rested and then we continued, poley, poley, up the mountain. At 5:30, with the sun just getting ready to come up over the western horizon Daniel said “We’re here. Gilman’s Point, congratulations.”

I’d made it. 18,750 feet. But the sign said “Point”, not “Summit”. I collapsed on the ground and went to get some water: frozen.

Daniel let me rest a few minutes and said “It’s an hour and a half to the summit. Do you want to try and make it.” Whether it was the adrenalin talking or what, I don’t know, but I jumped at the chance. I didn’t even give it a second thought. I don’t remember the 90 minute climb to the summit being that difficult. Halfway there I saw Frank, Michelle, Jack, Nate and Gabe on their way back down. They were sure I had bailed out and gone back to Kibo. They told me I made their day. That made mine.

At 7AM on Monday morning July 24 I made Uhuru Summit, 19,340 feet. Along with about 50 other climbers. I rested, got my camera out and found someone to take Daniel and my picture. Now I’m a big basketball fan. I’ve had season tickets to the LA Clippers for 17 years. I’d carried a 3 foot by 5 foot Clipper flag all the way to Uhuru and wasn’t going to miss this chance to make “Clipper history”. As I rolled out the flag I heard a voice from the back call out: “Clippers? I’m from Phoenix. We kicked your ass!” I looked at the guy and said “Yeah? Where’s your flag?”

The hike down was worse than the hike up.

We got back to Gilman and Daniel said 90 minutes to the bottom. It took me 3 ½ hours to get off that mountain. The schree field, really a million year old gravel pit, took out of my legs what little I had left. I fell 6 times. Now when you’re going straight down a 60 degree wall of gravel you fall backwards, and you don’t fall far. Daniel said I taught him some English words he’d never heard before. I encouraged him to be careful where he used them. Daniel held my elbow and walked me the last kilometer into camp. I’d never been so glad to finish anything in my life. I gave Daniel a big hug, thanked him profusely and headed for the dorm. For an hour; then we hiked 4 hours back to Horombo hut and rest.

We compared notes. Nate and Gabe thought the climb from Gilman to Uhuru was the hardest. Jack thought it was harder than a marathon. Michelle thought it was harder than childbirth.

We all got back down the mountain the next day and spent the afternoon either in the shower, in the pool or in bar. That night we had a celebratory dinner with Frank the Tank. I made sure Daniel was there. I gave him my gloves, of which he had none, my headlamp, my watch and an extra big tip.

We headed next to Kenya and the Masai Mara where we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, more wildebeest than I knew existed, and met an amazing woman who teaches second grade. She has 71 students in her class. But that’s another story for another time.

Maybe next year we’ll go back and do it again.

Not.

Club Med Turkoise review: fun for adults only

When I wrote about luxury resorts in the Caribbean a while back, I linked to one article about adult only resorts. Well Club Med is not known for adult only resorts, but here's an interesting experience from Club Med Turkoise, an adult only Club Med resort.

Club Med Turkoise is an all-inclusive resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies. All-inclusive includes trampoline lessons, salsa classes, sailing lessons, water polo matches, softball games, scuba diving, snorkeling excursions, and the best beach on the island:

Unlike many destinations that boast fictitious "white" sand beaches, Grace Bay Beach is bone white. The sand maintains a talcum powder softness that must be experienced to be believed. The brilliant turquoise water, from which this Club Med village takes its name, helps transform the beach into a vivid picture postcard.

The article also reminds us of the main all-inclusive resort drawback, that you never leave the resort.

Travel trouble, smoking, flying, Cuba

I don't have much to write about today so hopefully I'll start getting more winter vacation plans submitted via email to jtrotta@gmail.com - remember every vacation plan that passes the initial screening gets a $5.00 prize and is in the running for much larger prizes.

What do I have for you? We have the travel troubleshooter looking into the Mariott for sending a traveler to a crappy motel when they couldn't honor his reservation.

Then there's a new airline for smokers, launching next year with a Germany - Tokyo flight. Instead of going 12 hours without a smoke, flyers can go 12 hours in a cabin full of smokers. Makes me glad I don't smoke!

We've got an American woman on a humanitarian mission to Cuba. I lover her quote, "I always like to go places where I'm not supposed to be," says Mary Ann Olding of Clifton. "I like to see things for myself."

Speaking of Cuba, we have Tom Hall from Lonely Planet answering questions about driving in Cuba, spending two days in Bangkok, and more.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation annual powwow, the Feast of Green Corn and Dance

If you scroll down past the stuff about the sister getting married and the old mom who can't remember her grandkids' names you get to something very interesting. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation's annual powwow festival, the Feast of Green Corn and Dance:

Celebrated at a tribal field affiliated with the Foxwoods resort and casino (owned and operated by the tribe), the event is an exciting ritual of pow-wow activities including flag ceremonies, tribal dance contests, drumming challenges and songs from the various tribes. Part of the excitement also comes from the arts and crafts fashioned by native people, the food prepared by the native pros and a replica of a Schemitzun summer village. Add to that, the Buck-A-Rama, a rodeo with native riders from all over the country, and you have a four-day festival with wild and wooley excitement.

The article didn't include the dates of this powwow, but I was able to find a site that does list Native American events including the one we just missed: "Schemitzun, feast of green corn and dance, August 24-27, Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation, Wintechog Hill Road, North Stonington, CT, FMI." Check that list, maybe there's an experience for you on there.

Perfect example of meaningful travel

Here's a family that spent their vacation taking care of orphans in Romania, including one that their son helped get flown to America so that the medicine for the orphan's brain cancer (the medicine isn't available in Romania) could be administered.

If that's not the perfect example of meaningful travel, traveling to make the world better, then I don't know what is.

Rome walking tour: Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna

My friend Matt recently gave me this suggestion:

I highly recommend checking out Campo de Fiori. It is a small square where all the young Romans go at night, after work. There are several bars with the crowds basically spilling from one to the other and music playing in the square. The bars are cheap (we got 2 glasses of Proseco in one for 3 Euros...total). We went on the recommendation of the GM of our hotel; she took us there personally. It is not touristy. In fact, we were the only non-Italians the two nights we went. It is especially packed on Sundays.

Campo de Fiori is not only a place to hang out at night; it has a very good fruit and vegetable market in the mornings (since 1869). You'll also want to see the statue of Giordano Bruno (a Dominican philosopher who was executed in Campo de Fiori).

If you're looking for something to do after the vegetable and flower market but before the young Romans come out to play after work, try this walking tour:

Cross Via Vittorio Emanuele II to find Piazza Navona. This is touristy as everyone comes to see the famous Fountain of the four Rivers in the middle of Piazza Navona and the tall Egyptian obelisk. Piazza Navona also has 2 more fountains sculpted by Giacomo della Porta: Fontana di Nettuno and the Fontana del Moro.

Walk towards Piazza della Rotonda and visit the Pantheon. Church services are held here even today, which is amazing considering the age of this building and its concrete dome roof.

From the Pantheon, walk to Trevi Fountain. It will still be daylight if you left Campo de Fiori after the market, and you need to see Trevi Fountain at night. That means you can wait before you throw a coin in to guarantee a return trip to Rome. For extra insurance, you might as well throw one in during the day and another when you return for the night view.

Take Via del Corso (you can do a bit - or a lot - of shopping on the way) to Piazza di Spagna and its 138 steps climbing to the church of Trinità dei Monti. This is very popular with tourists, particularly at night. Expats gather to relax and listen to other expats sing and play acoustic guitars. During the day, you can visit the house where John Keats died. The house is now a small museum, but I wouldn't bother going unless you really love Keats (as I do). Even though I love Keats, I barely remember the museum.

Comments saved from the old server

A close friend and I went(without our husbands)on a European vacation. Since this was our first time there, we decided to take tours.
We flew into London for two days, then off on a cruise along the Mediterranian. Every day we had tours planned.
I want to go back, only this time, on my own. There was so much we missed because of having to keep up with our tour guide.
I am currently making a scrapbook of this trip. It was the most memorable trip in my life.
Posted by: Lynn at September 1, 2006 01:33 AM

Piazza Navona and the Parthenon were my absolute favorites after a week in Rome. There is SO much! You MUST walk Rome. and the Romans are wonderful.
Posted by: lynn at September 1, 2006 08:38 AM

My best girlfriend and I made a long time dream a reality when we toured Italy in 2000.

It was a wonderful trip and spending 3 days in Rome was unforgettable! There is so much to see and do, I need to go back for about 6 months. The Vatican is awesome, the Piazza Navona offers world class shopping and interesting attractions. I am just now remembering a great meal on the Piazza, not that any meal in Italy was less than excellent,that made our day so perfect.We caught a Mercedes Benz taxi from the piazza back to the hotel.

The Coliseum, et al are guaranteed to make you a history buff as well as spark a deeper appreciation for the ancient wonders on this planet. Personally, I have read many books about Italian history and significent historical figures.This new found literary interest was an extra bonus from our trip.

Finally, I recall a memorable evening and meal at Michael's.It is a restaurant near the American Embassy in Rome. There is no menu, the daily meal is the chef's choice and it will make you want to slap your Mama! The courses which are too many to count, are served family style and each dish is better than the one before. It was the best meal I ever had or will have. I hope Michael is well and still cooking when I return.

Wherever you go in Italy, you will not find anything to dislike. VIVA ITALIA!!!
Posted by: Beverly M. at September 1, 2006 11:15 AM

Thank you for the trip down memory lane. Took two trips to Venice, Florence and Rome. First with my daughter and the next year she and I took my Mom, and I am so fortunate to have shared these wonderful places with the 2 most important women in my life.

Beverly, if you ever get to Florence, make a point of going to IL LATINI. A wonderful restaruant where you sit at long tables and make new friends and are served dish after dish of delicious food. Sounds much like your beloved Michaels in Rome, which I will try when I hopefully return in the future.

Travel safe and bring your walking shoes that's the only way to enjoy the beauty of Italy.
Posted by: Patty at September 2, 2006 12:22 AM

I am a little surprised that no one has mentioned Lake Como. I loved it and the boat trip to the Islands. Lago de Como separates Italy from Switzerland. Belligio has wonderful little shops with beautiful designer silk accessories. The shop next to the Palace hotel where I stayed had what I considered to be the best Gelatos in Italy. I plan to return next year. With a more comfortable pair of shoes. Florence was very special to me, but I loved everywhere I went. Two weeks wasn't long enough.
Posted by: Grace at September 2, 2006 12:50 PM

After a life time of wishes & dreams, I am finally counting down the days til my arrival in Rome.
(Sept 12th) 6 am Roman time. It doesn't take much imagination to know what I will be seeking out first. That would be a dopo of espresso. No matter what road I take from my home in New Jersey, my morning goal for each new location is the same. The search for espresso. There is no doubt, that it won't be hard to find, when I arrive. After all, it has to be the original home for my poison of choice.

Thanks to the computer, we don't have to wonder what our next vaca has in store for us. So, while surfing the web, I came accross this site. My thanks to every one who entered their advise, from experience. I will now have an idea on which direction to run, after the espresso kicks in.....

I've written down high lights. And plan on presenting them to my friend/guide, who happens to live part time in Sicily and will be picking me and some other friends up at the airport.

Thanks again! Hope to enter my own high lights on the same site, when I return on the 28th.

Til then............. ciao!
Susan

Posted by: SUSAN at September 3, 2006 12:25 AM