By Billie Frank

Plan your next girlfriend vacation in Santa Fe! This over 400 year old city is a fun place for a man-free cultural escape. There are hotels and lodgings for all budgets. The city has over 200 restaurants offering diverse cuisines from New Mexican to New American to African, and lots in between.

Santa Fe teems with culture. It is the third biggest art market in the United States, along with New York and LA. Music lovers will discover a wealth of concerts to choose from, every season of the year. Summer brings the Santa Fe Opera and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The dance scene features the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet, flamenco and even line dancing at local bars. There are nine museums (including the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum) and more. Great shopping and fabulous spas await your group.

Throughout the year, there are festivals and events that are worth planning a focused trip around. The three summer markets (Folk Art, Spanish and Indian), the Wine and Chile Fiesta, Christmas, Restaurant Week all offer visitors a memorable experience.

Sunset over Santa Fe (photo courtesy of Steve Collins, for SantaFeTravelers.com)

Santa Fe, the second oldest city in the US, has a rich history both in town and nearby. Whether you tour the historic Plaza, visit a 1,000 year-old pueblo or go to one of the many historic sites, you’re in for a treat. You can tour Civil War Battlefields, ancient pueblos, petroglyphs sites and more.

Want something more adventurous? The city is the gateway to the Santa Fe National Forest, the Pecos Wilderness and the Kit Carson National Forest. In season there is rafting on the Rio Grande, trout fishing, hiking, golf, ballooning, back-country experiences (even on horseback), downhill skiing, and snow-shoeing.

No matter what season you visit “The City Different,” you’re in for an incredibly enriching, one-of-a-kind experience.

By Ray Pearson, Contributor at CityRoom and Scotch Whisky Expert

Ramshackle house on Penobscot Bay, ME

For folks of a certain age, “See the USA in your Chevrolet” and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” were anthems inspiring us to experience the thrill of zipping along the nation’s highways, seeing new sights, eating new foods, and venturing from our home turf – in short, go road tripping!

It was 1961. For me, high school graduation was past, college was months away, and the ink was barely dry on my new driver’s license. I had saved for years to buy my first car – a magic carpet that would take me to places only read about or seen on snowy black and white television. It was a “two tone”, 1954 Plymouth Belvedere, with white wall tires, no less, and my first road trip destination from Central New York was to the rocky coast of Maine and Acadia National Park.

Maps are handy, but the best piece of road tripping advice I ever received came from NY Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That adventurous advice holds as true today as it did 50 years ago. On a recent trip, signs along the Oregon Scenic Byway indicated I was on a “Journey Through Time”. It was named to honor an area rich in the history of fortunes made and lost, towns boomed and busted, and an archaeology proving long-extinct creatures had lived in a sea that is now mountains.

Whitney, OR, off Route 7 – a ghost town since 1947

More introspectively, driving this awesome road got me thinking about my own journey through time, and how the veritable fleet of cars I’ve driven over the years evolved. Memories of that first magic carpet, and the sense of freedom it provided, remain vivid, from its pointy, protruding knobs on the dashboard, with no head rests, air conditioning nor seatbelts, to the hand-cranked windows. Gas was about thirty cents a gallon and caring about emissions or MPG had not entered the public psyche. Soon, choices of “sedans”, “coupes”, and “station wagons” from American Motors, GM, Ford and Chrysler were challenged by various shapes and sizes from across both oceans. Through the years, tinted windows, steel belted radial tires and leather upholstery came in; steering wheel knobs, cigarette lighters and ashtrays went out.  I was abruptly jolted from my trip down Memory Lane when an electronic voice advised “slow traffic ahead in two miles, for about one mile” – the onboard “nav system” was working!

Slower roads allow for more frequent stops along the way

My car today is a Lexus RX450 Hybrid, with enough bells and whistles to quality as its own orchestra. Each time I use the navigation system, I think of good ole Yogi Berra again: “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” No worries, Yogi!

Everyone has their own list of suggestions for a successful a road trip. Here is mine. By the way, I usually go solo on my trips, so this list doesn’t address the needs of a co-pilot, children, or pets.

Road Trip Suggestions

1.  Driver’s license and insurance card: up to date and handy?

2.  Car in tiptop shape? Has it been tuned up lately? This includes an oil change, clean air filters and fresh wiper blades. How are the tires? Is the air pressure okay?

Stay in a wigwam motel room, surrounded by vintage cars

3.  Be smart. Obey speed laws, drive defensively, and no drinking and driving – EVER.

4.  Branch out from franchise eating places in favor of independent, local cafes, diners and restaurants – especially if you’re in an area noted for a particular cuisine.

5.  Same goes for overnight accommodations. Look a block or two off the main street.

6.  Interstate highways are efficient, but balance them with the slower paced, meandering local routes. A great book about this is Blue Highways, by William Least Heat Moon. It’s similar to John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, and urges the traveler to take the secondary roads printed in blue ink on maps. I remember a favorite quote by Charles Kuralt, moderator of the 1960s-70s CBS television show On the Road: “Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

7.  Stop driving late in the afternoon, allowing leisurely time to find restaurants and accommodations and explore the neighborhood. Support the local economy.

8.  Never let the gas level get much below half

CA - Route 46 - 1 - Oil rigs at dawn

9.  Keep a small “office” handy: notebook, pens, flashlight with new batteries, phone charger, camera, and basic medicines for headaches, strained eyes, coughs, etc., along with personal prescriptions.

10. Experience driving before dawn. With all the windows down.

11.  Be flexible. Inconvenient things will happen along the way, so just roll with the punches.

12.  And, above all, ATTITUDE.

In the mid-20^th Century, Yogi Berra advocated taking the fork in the road; poet Robert Frost recalled doing something similar about forty years earlier, in The Road Not Taken:

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I would have enjoyed either of these gentlemen as a co-pilot.

Talbot County on the Chesapeake

One striking feature of traveling down Route 301 about an hour after crossing the Delaware border into Maryland is that all vestiges of suburbia like strip development and shopping centers recede into wide open fields and miles of undisturbed forest. Partially due to the fact that I was headed out here in November to experience the Annual Waterfowl Festival, I immediately thought, “Wow, what great farming and hunting grounds.” This coming from somebody who has never shot a rifle or climbed aboard a tractor. Little did I know that Talbot County’s first impressions were already revealing the underlying culinary treasures brimming forth from this peninsula jutting out into the Chesapeake Bay on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  Read full article by Steve Mirsky on CityRoom / Travel.

Ramshackle house on Penobscot Bay, ME

By Ray Pearson, Contributor at CityRoom and Scotch Whisky Expert

For folks of a certain age, “See the USA in your Chevrolet” and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” were anthems inspiring us to experience the thrill of zipping along the nation’s highways, seeing new sights, eating new foods, and venturing from our home turf – in short, go road tripping!

It was 1961. For me, high school graduation was past, college was months away, and the ink was barely dry on my new driver’s license. I had saved for years to buy my first car – a magic carpet that would take me to places only read about or seen on snowy black and white television. It was a “two tone”, 1954 Plymouth Belvedere, with white wall tires, no less, and my first road trip destination from Central New York was to the rocky coast of Maine and Acadia National Park.

Maps are handy, but the best piece of road tripping advice I ever received came from NY Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That adventurous advice holds as true today as it did 50 years ago. On a recent trip, signs along the Oregon Scenic Byway indicated I was on a “Journey Through Time”. It was named to honor an area rich in the history of fortunes made and lost, towns boomed and busted, and an archaeology proving long-extinct creatures had lived in a sea that is now mountains.

Whitney, OR, off Route 7 – a ghost town since 1947

More introspectively, driving this awesome road got me thinking about my own journey through time, and how the veritable fleet of cars I’ve driven over the years evolved. Memories of that first magic carpet, and the sense of freedom it provided, remain vivid, from its pointy, protruding knobs on the dashboard, with no head rests, air conditioning nor seatbelts, to the hand-cranked windows. Gas was about thirty cents a gallon and caring about emissions or MPG had not entered the public psyche. Soon, choices of “sedans”, “coupes”, and “station wagons” from American Motors, GM, Ford and Chrysler were challenged by various shapes and sizes from across both oceans. Through the years, tinted windows, steel belted radial tires and leather upholstery came in; steering wheel knobs, cigarette lighters and ashtrays went out.  I was abruptly jolted from my trip down Memory Lane when an electronic voice advised “slow traffic ahead in two miles, for about one mile” – the onboard “nav system” was working!

My car today is a Lexus RX450 Hybrid, with enough bells and whistles to quality as its own orchestra. Each time I use the navigation system, I think of good ole Yogi Berra again: “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” No worries, Yogi!

Everyone has their own list of suggestions for a successful a road trip. Here is mine. By the way, I usually go solo on my trips, so this list doesn’t address the needs of a co-pilot, children, or pets.

Slower roads allow for more frequent stops along the way

Road Trip Suggestions

1.  Driver’s license and insurance card: up to date and handy?

2.  Car in tiptop shape? Has it been tuned up lately? This includes an oil change, clean air filters and fresh wiper blades. How are the tires? Is the air pressure okay?

3.  Be smart. Obey speed laws, drive defensively, and no drinking and driving – EVER.

Stay in a wigwam motel room, surrounded by vintage cars

4.  Branch out from franchise eating places in favor of independent, local cafes, diners and restaurants – especially if you’re in an area noted for a particular cuisine.

5.  Same goes for overnight accommodations. Look a block or two off the main street.

6.  Interstate highways are efficient, but balance them with the slower paced, meandering local routes. A great book about this is Blue Highways, by William Least Heat Moon. It’s similar to John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, and urges the traveler to take the secondary roads printed in blue ink on maps. I remember a favorite quote by Charles Kuralt, moderator of the 1960s-70s CBS television show On the Road: “Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

Eerie oil field at dawn

7.  Stop driving late in the afternoon, allowing leisurely time to find restaurants and accommodations and explore the neighborhood. Support the local economy.

8.  Never let the gas level get much below half

9.  Keep a small “office” handy: notebook, pens, flashlight with new batteries, phone charger, camera, and basic medicines for headaches, strained eyes, coughs, etc., along with personal prescriptions.

10. Experience driving before dawn. With all the windows down.

11.  Be flexible. Inconvenient things will happen along the way, so just roll with the punches.

12.  And, above all, ATTITUDE.

In the mid-20^th Century, Yogi Berra advocated taking the fork in the road; poet Robert Frost recalled doing something similar about forty years earlier, in The Road Not Taken:

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I would have enjoyed either of these gentlemen as a co-pilot.

Columbus discovered Cuba in 1492, the largest of the Caribbean Islands, situated 90 miles south of Florida’s Key West.   It is where Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Old Man And The Sea”, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “A Moveable Feast.”  Travelers can now explore Hemingway’s home, now a small museum, called Finca la Vigia.

In addition to this literary component is another of Cuba’s unique offerings: the natural/ecological dimension. Explore Viñales, a fertile valley where tobacco, taro and bananas are grown. Also, there are plants, trees, birds endemic to this area. The Viñales Valley has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since November 1999 as a cultural landscape enriched by traditional farm and village architecture. Old-fashioned farming methods are still used in Viñales, notably to grow tobacco.

Editors, CityRoom, via JustLuxe.com

Plage de Kabira, île d'Ishigaki, archipel de Yaeyama, Okinawa

Okinawa may have been made famous to the western world as the home of the Karate Kid’s mentor, Mister Miyagi, but the islands that make up this southern prefecture have been a popular relaxation retreat for native Japanese for centuries.  Crystalline waters and abundant coral reefs, densely populated ancient forests, incredibly healthy food, one-of-a-kind architecture and a general peace-of-mind… you’ll soon understand why the diet and lifestyle of the region, earn locals the title of “the healthiest people on earth.”

- Editors, DailyTravelDestination.com

The Canals in Ghent, Belgium

Not as big as Antwerp and less trammeled than such popular travel destinations of Brussels and Bruges, Ghent lies somewhere between a cosmopolitan frontier and a quaint, well-traversed city.  Situated on the Flemish (northern) side of Belgium on the road from grand old Paris to lively Amsterdam, Ghent happily invites travelers to stop in and stay awhile.  Stella Artois pours as freely as Bud Light does in America, Belgium frites call from street vendors with tiny sporks and Samurai sauce glistening in the European sun, and the bridge Sint-Michielsbrug offers views of the river and the three towers of Ghent. The city centre, enfolded by the largest car-free area of Belgium, is home to expertly preserved Medieval architecture from the Middle ages… a time when Ghent was one of the most powerful cities in Europe.  With Ghent University comes an influx of young minds and great cultural modernization. Civic innovation is apparent in such city observances as “meat-free Thursdays” (known as Donderdag Veggiedag.)   This new tradition is supported in conjunction with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization to help reduce global greenhouse emissions.  The commitment to maintaining excellent walking and biking routes within the city – along with other new eco-efforts – makes Ghent one of Europe’s great, green cities.

Courtesy of DailyTravelDestination.com

]]> http://www.worldwidetoursdirectory.com/2011/09/%e2%9c%af-daily-travel-destination-ghent-belgium/feed/ 0 http://www.worldwidetoursdirectory.com/2011/09/%e2%9c%af-daily-travel-destination-ghent-belgium/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WorldwideToursDirectory/~3/IOp2FRweVPQ/ http://www.worldwidetoursdirectory.com/2011/09/%e2%9c%af-daily-travel-destination-appenzell-switzerland/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:51:57 +0000 wp_admin http://www.worldwidetoursdirectory.com/?p=607 Switzerland’s Appenzell, a half-canton of only 66 square miles, is packed with more charm and cultural richness than normally found in many countries. Cradled and protected by the surrounding Alpstein massif (mountains), this terrain would normally be inaccessible if it weren’t for the region’s intricate trail network linking dozens of welcoming guesthouses and mountain hotels that just happen to serve delectable cuisine.

Seasonal rotation of herding to higher or lower pastures in Appenzell

- Steve Mirsky

Camanito in La Boca (Credit: Stefanie Payne)

Just to the south of Center City in of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires is the grand little barrio (neighborhood) of La Boca.  Best known for their beloved futbol/soccer stars – the Boca Juniors – it is also a neighborhood ripe with a mixture of European and South American culture.  And with the collision of two very unique cultures, you are certain to find a mixture of old and new.

A working class neighborhood and art colony, La Boca was settled upon long ago by Italian immigrants.  Today, walking the Camanito, you are sure to find one of the best places in BA to be entertained by impromptu Tango performances while sitting on the collective patios of Italian influenced bars and restaurants.  The small walking streets are governed by colorful houses, civic pride bursting from the windows like a cat trying to escape – a dream for the artist and photographer.  Set off for the Museo de Bellas Artes Quinquela Martin – or the “Fine Arts Museum of La Boca” – to view original works by early 20th century Argentine Artists.  La Boca, truly the heart of the city’s most authentic barrios, can be explored in as little as one full day. Words to the wise, though, map out your trip before you go. Cab Drivers in Buenos Aires are notorious for taking you far off of the direct path from point A to point B to pad their fare.

- Cultural Tours Worldwide

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