tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1471190 2012-02-05T19:16:14-05:00 How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833016761c0f2ee970b 2012-02-05T19:16:14-05:00 2012-02-05T19:34:26-05:00

Green and white awnings and a small sign are all that distinguish the Richmond home of Maggie L. Walker from neighboring duplexes that have been carefully restored to their appearance circa 1925. What distinguished Walker in her day was her skill at overcoming all the obstacles society could place before a black woman living under Jim Crow segregation laws. But wait. Maggie who? The answer to that is in the story I wrote on Walker...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330167614d90b3970b 2012-01-29T15:06:05-05:00 2012-01-29T15:06:05-05:00

My tale of cross-country skiing on the beach in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, just south of Portland, is in The Washington Post today. A year later, that trip still feels magical. A beautiful inn. Fabulous skiing. Great food. It may be difficult to replicate the experience at the moment, due to the lack of snow this year. But it's something worth keeping on the "bucket list." I'm hoping that there will be snow somewhere in late...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833016760c6f84d970b 2012-01-19T02:06:13-05:00 2012-01-19T02:14:59-05:00

Boker Tov, (good morning) No time, no time. I've been in Israel for almost four days, seeing and learning a zillion things, so there's no time to post here. I've been to the Western (Wailing) wall and to the Temple Mount. To old Jerusalem and, as of last night, "new" Tel Aviv. Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust musesum, was a profound experience but too short a visit. There was one day in Jerusalem that I heard...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833015438f77534970c 2011-12-26T16:11:49-05:00 2011-12-26T16:21:04-05:00

The "11" refers to the number of miles. While others were unwrapping presents or scarfing down turkey or perhaps banging forlornly on the doors of closed stores, 20 of us gathered for a Christmas Day hike. A long one. It was hosted by the Wanderbirds, a hiking club that more typically hires a bus to drive hikers from the Washington, D.C., area to the Shenandoah Mountains for day-long, scenic hikes. The hike was one of...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301675ea1ffae970b 2011-12-11T17:56:54-05:00 2011-12-11T17:56:54-05:00

Somewhere along the line I traveled with someone who taught me the fun of photographing silly signs documenting the hilarious mangling of the English language by non-English speakers. No, these photographs never get blown up, matted or framed. But they're good for a laugh and for showing other people. I'm sure many people would appreciate being amused by someone's vacation photos, more so than having to ooh and aah over some beautiful sunset that they...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833015393c440a4970b 2011-11-29T20:38:10-05:00 2011-12-01T19:44:03-05:00

In my previous post, my friend Bob described the conversation café scene in Tokyo. The conversation continues. Do guests always just sit down at the conversation cafes and chat? No, the cafes also hold “international parties” on the weekend once or twice a month. At a Norton Place party, a pianist provided a mini-concert at the cozy café that looks like someone’s family room. (Except that family rooms don’t tend to host belly dance parties....

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833015392d9b06f970b 2011-11-06T15:11:21-05:00 2011-11-14T10:02:13-05:00

Clearly, Japan is a café culture. The last time my friend Bob returned from a solo trip to Japan, I asked him about his travels and he contributed his observations about Japanese cat cafes to my blog. This time, he stopped in at several English-conversation cafes in Tokyo, where he was a top attraction, I'm guessing, being so good in English and all. What did you like about going to English-conversation cafes in Tokyo? Tokyo’s...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e8c456dd6970d 2011-10-18T08:13:47-04:00 2011-10-18T08:11:47-04:00

They say that if you walk late at night, up Hog Alley, a short, steep street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., you might see a tall black man, dressed like a gentleman from the 1800s, pacing up and down. If you get close enough, he slowly lifts his head to show piercing blue eyes. But when he lifts his head a little farther, you see blood dripping from a scar that goes from ear to ear....

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e8bf9e6a9970d 2011-10-04T08:16:07-04:00 2011-10-12T22:22:02-04:00

This is the second year that fall has come around and my thoughts have turned to...Guadalajara. The foods, the family I lived with there for a few days and the Guadalajara sights. The San Juan de Dios Market. (I just recently finished the vanilla I brought home from there, which reminded me of my trip every time I baked with it.) The Corona Market in Guadalajara's city center. And much more. My nice teacher at...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301543523cb3c970c 2011-09-05T13:50:54-04:00 2011-09-05T13:50:54-04:00

A guy I hardly knew cooked me breakfast yesterday. Pancakes. An Israeli guy from New York. Actually, "hardly knew" overstates things. I didn't know him at all. But Raz from Queens not only cooked me a batch of pancakes, he also gave me a rundown of all the places I should go and see in Israel - which I'm planning on visiting in January. This is what I love about hosteling. Particularly when traveling solo....

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e8abbe194970d 2011-08-17T21:59:33-04:00 2011-08-17T22:05:51-04:00

Travelers debating whether to buy an iPad to take on the road should take a peek at the apps and functions described by Jim Karlovsky on The Globe Less Traveled. He lists 21 useful functions the iPad provides travelers. The wifi and Internet connections didn't impress. I don't travel to stay in touch. In fact, it's the opposite. In any case, there are Internet cafes and I can always pay to activate my smartphone overseas....

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e8a7c4881970d 2011-08-08T21:19:42-04:00 2011-08-08T21:12:52-04:00

Oh no! I missed Chocolate Day. It was July 7. No wait. U.S. Chocolate Day is October 28. Whew. I never knew such a day existed but now that I do, I sure don't want to miss it. This news comes to me via a fellow travel writer's site, Travel Diversions with Doreen. I write a blog on solo travel. Doreen writes one on traveling for chocolate. What. Could. Be. Bad???? In fact, why didn't...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833015390529ecc970b 2011-08-01T21:07:37-04:00 2011-08-01T21:10:10-04:00

I now throw out the idea of "singles" travel for those who might be interested in joining a tour composed solely of people traveling alone, who are presumably not married. I have not gone with the group Singles Travel Service, but I'm on the email list and they recently sent me a newsletter on some of their future trips. Such as: Ecuador, a multisport and multicultural adventure; the Inca Trail in Peru,including Machu Picchu, of...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e89d93c57970d 2011-07-14T21:14:17-04:00 2011-07-14T21:18:09-04:00

Take a look at these 50 utterly fantastic photos of bridges around the world. At first, I didn't think of this as something to write about on a solo travel blog. But scanning (or should I say "spanning") the photos stirred up so many memories of my travels. I thought maybe it would do the same for you, even if you haven't been across or in view of any of these particular bridges. For instance,...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301538f74a09e970b 2011-06-28T21:34:51-04:00 2011-06-28T21:37:48-04:00

Time for me to start harmonica lessons. Right quick. A travel writer acquaintance of mine wrote this lovely story about how playing the harmonica during her travels in China, Turkey and elsewhere, quickly broke the ice with children she met along the way. Brilliant! Why haven't I ever thought of this? People often advise travelers to bring gum, coins, pens, pencils and other small items to give to children. But sharing music seems like such...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833015432ff20c3970c 2011-06-14T08:19:25-04:00 2011-06-13T21:59:58-04:00

In a third-hand account of spa-going, I offer you the results from this year's list of best spas, based on a reader poll done by Conde Nast. I tried going directly to the Conde Nast site, but they offered their results with that annoying web trick of forcing you to click here, there and everywhere to see all the results. Instead, you can go to A Luxury Travel Blog and see all on one page,...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301538ec53284970b 2011-05-31T07:30:00-04:00 2011-05-31T20:53:56-04:00

Visiting a new place? Ride a bus to the end of the line and soak up the sights while coming and going. Get off the bus if you see something or some place that strikes you. Maybe get back on and go to the end of the line after that. Or maybe not. I love this tip. But I didn't think it up. It's from Pico Iyer, a great travel writer, well known in the...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301538e6cc58e970b 2011-05-13T07:00:00-04:00 2011-05-21T12:03:04-04:00

For two weeks before Sawau tribesmen from the island of Beqa in Fiji perform a firewalking ceremony, they have no contact with women and don't eat coconut. If they mess with "the rules" their feet are liable to get badly burned during the ceremony. While in Fiji, I watched fire walking, not on Beqa, but the tourist version at the Outrigger on the Lagoon, Fiji on the island of Viti Levu. Now you can watch...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301538dee651f970b 2011-04-28T21:10:18-04:00 2011-05-01T16:51:49-04:00

What I didn't know about Fiji. Until now: Cast Away, the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks was filmed in Fiji. But not on Castaway Island. Nope, it was filmed on Monuriki Island in the Mamanucas, islands off the West coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. (Sometimes, it's just fun saying the names of these places.) Cannibal Isles Fiji was once known as the Cannibal Isles. Yes, indeed, the ancestors of some of the...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833014e87d62f94970d 2011-04-15T20:03:37-04:00 2011-04-23T19:56:42-04:00

Fiji is a very welcoming place. Everywhere we go we get big and loud "bula's" (BOO-lah), always singing and sometimes guitar and ukelele playing. Several times we've had "scary" warriors sporting face paint, spears and bracelets of grass or leaves on ankles, upper arms and wrists run out to greet us, screaming Fijian things we don't understand and jumping and making faces. All in good fun. These seem very much tourist and hotel related but...

Ellen Perlman