Introduction to Denmark

As most people probably know, Denmark is a small Scandinavian country. In fact, it’s the smallest and most southern Scandinavian country.

As I discovered by research, there are technically only three Scandinavian countries: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They share a joint history & close culture and occupy the Scandinavian peninsula. Well, technically, Norway and Sweden occupy the peninsula, while Denmark is practically joined physically.

While Scandinavia includes just three countries, ‘Nordic Countries’ refer to these three plus Finland, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Geography of Denmark: islands, coastlines and lots of water

In any event, compared to its vastly larger neighbors, Norway and Sweden, which have territories stretching extremely far north, Denmark is pretty tiny. It occupies a total of just 43,000 square kms. Denmark is even small for a European country, comparable in size to nearby Netherlands. For US comparisons, Denmark is about half the size of Maine but twice the size of Vermont.

Briefly glancing at Denmark on a map, the country appears to be one block of land. However, it’s actually comprised primarily of islands. In fact, there are more than 400 named islands, 79 of which are inhabited.

If you look more closely at a map of Denmark, you’ll see that the bulk of the country is comprised of its easternmost island, Sjaeland (Zealand), where the capital city, Copenhagen, is situated; plus an equally large central island called Funen (where I am currently, in Svendborg); and the northern end of Jutland Peninsula, which Denmark shares with Germany to the south.

Then there’s a cluster of islands, of all sizes, just south of this main section of the country, and various islands scattered off the long coastlines all over Denmark.

Needless to say, Denmark is surrounded by water. In fact, Germany is Denmark’s only land border, situated on the Jutland Peninsula south of Denmark. Otherwise, Denmark’s borders are seas.

The North Sea lies along Denmark’s west coastline, while the Baltic Sea lies to the east. In between these two major seas, and flowing around Denmark’s many islands, are a series of straits and bays, large and small. Most significantly, the broad Skagerak Strait separates Denmark from Norway to the north, while the equally wide Kattegat Strait separates Denmark from Sweden in the east. These two connected straits connect the Baltic and North Seas.

Besides this complex network of salt water seas, straits, bays and estuaries, Denmark is also dotted by plentiful freshwater lakes, ponds and small rivers. On top of all that, Denmark has a lot of rain, cloudy weather and humidity. In short, Denmark is a nation of water.

Most of Denmark is low-lying and flat or softly undulating land. It’s very fertile, with a lot of agriculture and profuse vegetation. There are beaches, small forests, estuaries and other topographies.

The Kingdom of Denmark also includes in its territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Brief History of Denmark and Scandinavia

According to my research, human habitation of the region began about 10,000 years BC, at the end of the last great Ice Age, when ice began retreating northward, freeing up land previously under ice. Humans migrated in from southern and eastern Europe. They were hunter/gatherers.

About 3000 BC, people began farming the region, becoming agricultural. Centuries later they began trading with distant European countries, establishing several main trading routes.

Jump way ahead to the late 700s AD, when the Vikings took over the region. Their reign lasted about 200 years, until about 1000 AD.

Starting in 793 AD. The Vikings, who were excellent navigators, ship builders and traders, began a rigorous expansion program. They first expanded into neighboring lands like Netherlands then sailed to Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, taking over and settling. From there, they invaded England, France and other European countries. Of course, the Vikings practiced their infamous brutal invasions, pillaging and terrorizing as they went.

In the early 900s AD, an official Viking Kingdom was established by their first King Gorm the Old. Gorm’s son, Harald Bluetooth, first used the name Denmark for their vast country. King Harald also established Christianity in his kingdom by getting Baptized.

Over the next several centuries there were various battles and rivalries around the Scandinavian region, especially between Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany. In 1397, the entire region was finally united as Denmark under the new Queen Margrethe I when she married King Halkan of Norway. What is now Norway, Sweden and Denmark was united as Denmark until 1523.

In 1523, Sweden separated from Denmark. Not until 1814 did Norway split from Denmark, initially joining Sweden. In 1918 Iceland became independent. To this day, Greenland and Faroe Islands are still territories of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Meanwhile, in 1658 the Kingdom of Denmark became a hereditary absolute Monarchy, making it the oldest Monarchy in all of Europe. Over the centuries since, they’ve made many modernizations and changes to the government/political/social structures.

In the early1900s there arose a huge movement towards communal living, with many cooperative farms, and a social welfare system was established. Many communal groups and housing associations are still found throughout Denmark. Danes are also big supporters of free trade, human rights and clean energy.

After WWII, in 1949 Denmark became a founding member of NATO and the UN. They joined EEC (later called EU) in 1972. Today Denmark is a Constitutional Monarchy that’s ruled by a representative Democracy.

People and Culture of Denmark

Denmark has a population of just 6.01 million people (including small populations on Greenland and Faroe Islands). That means the entire country has fewer people that the city of New York, which has 8.3 million residents.

The citizens of Denmark are referred to as Danes or Danish. Generally speaking, they have a very high income, high standard of living, a long life expectancy and a high population density in the Copenhagen region. But there are also many rural, sparsely populated areas throughout the rest of the country.

According to my research, virtually every Dane is a descendant of Vikings.

Like The Netherlands, Denmark has a huge bicycling culture. Designated cycling lanes are found on nearly every road in cities, towns and even through the countryside. There are well-established cycling laws and bicycle parking lots everywhere.

Reportedly, Danes love the concept of ‘cozy’, seen throughout their homes, cafes, restaurants, churches, community centers and elsewhere. They are wine lovers, like most other Europeans. And they tend to be community oriented.

Politically, Denmark is a Socialist Democracy. One way this manifests is in Housing Associations, which are something like communes. They are small housing developments in which every resident communally owns all of the houses, while living privately in one of the homes. They have communal savings, budgets and expenditures to keep up the association.

Denmark is regularly voted as The Happiest Country in the World. I was very excited before arriving to see what the Happiest Country in the World would be like. So I’m quite disappointed to report that I really don’t see that here, though I’ve only been here two weeks, so I don’t want to make a solid conclusion.

However…the Danes are not walking around with big smiles on their faces, acting cheerful or with happy, shining eyes. They’re also not particularly friendly or outgoing, from what I’ve encountered thus far. On the contrary, they’re much more like what I’d expect from a Scandinavian country…cool, reserved and not especially energized. They are much like the people I encountered in Eastern European countries like Georgia, Montenegro and Macedonia, as well as the Chinese.

I’m not saying Danes are unfriendly. When I do strike up a conversation with someone, they speak with me, are friendly enough and are helpful when warranted.

Personally, I find people in cultures like Thailand, Bali, Latin countries and India to at least appear to be happier and friendlier. Countries where people are smiling, joking and laughing in public, behaving in outgoing, gregarious manners seem happy to me. Countries and cultures where people are cool, unsmiling and aloof do not give me the impression of being especially happy.

From what I’ve observed, Danes in general also seem to be quite private and protective of their homes/property (much like Americans) and very law abiding people, sticklers for rules, expecting everyone else to be too, and perhaps rather inflexible. I could well be mistaken on these observations since I’ve only been here two weeks. But my long-time Danish friend agrees with this assessment, for what it’s worth.

In any event, there’s much to be said on another aspect of Danish culture… such as the stunning historic architecture of Denmark’s countryside homes, traditional towns & villages, churches and castles. In fact, there’s a plethora of diverse historic architecture spread all over the country, including in big cities like Copenhagen, out in the countrysides, and on various islands.

Thus far, I’ve really enjoyed visiting beautiful towns like Svendborg, Faaborg and Toensen, plus seeing so many fantastic rustic country homes with Tudor-like walls and thick thatched roofs. I also got to visit two great Danish castles, thanks to my friend Kevin.

Summary

That’s it for my introduction to Denmark. I’m sure I’ll be making many more observations as I stay here and travel around for another three to four weeks. So stop back for more information and insights on Denmark.

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My 2026 Scandinavia Travel Plans

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The post Introduction to Denmark appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My Scandinavia 2026 Travel Plans

Two years ago, in spring 2024, I finally set out to explore Europe and UK in earnest. Although I’d already explored well over a dozen European countries, they were mostly in Eastern Europe. I’d barely seen any of the main western European countries, like Germany, Austria, Italy or those in Scandinavia. As of early 2026, I still have about 20 countries to visit in Europe, counting tiny nations such as Andorra, Monaco and Vatican City.

Tt always seems to surprise people that I haven’t yet visited so many main western European countries, especially Americans, who generally head first and foremost to western Europe when they travel internationally. Personally, I’ve always been a lot more interested in the Far East, the Indo-Pacific, Africa and Latin America than Europe. Hence, I explored most of those places first, leaving Europe until much later in my world travels.

Traveling around Europe under Schengen Zone Rules

Traveling slowly and in-depth around Europe is rather problematic for non-EU citizens like us Americans. That’s because of the 90-day Schengen Zone rules. Non-EU citizens are allowed to stay in the Schengen Zone ( a total of 29 countries) for a total of 90 days within 180 days. So if you stay 90 days, you must then exit and remain out for 90 days before re-entry.

For me, that’s proving to be a real Pain in the A**. Every three months I have to get out and find somewhere else to travel for three months before I can continue my European explorations. At this point, I’ve visited all the non-Schengen countries close to Europe. So each time I leave, I have to go farther and farther or else re-visit countries I’ve explored before.

That’s what happened to me in 2025. I couldn’t figure out where to go, so I returned to England for a whopping four months. I had a fantastic time and got to see many wonderful places in England for the first time, but it certainly didn’t help towards my main goal of visiting all the countries in the world.

The Schengen Zone includes 29 European countries: 25 of the 27 EU countries plus four more. Basically, it’s all the western European countries.

I prefer to travel slowly and really get to know each country, its culture and customs, main cities/towns and natural areas. So for Europe, under Schengen Rules, my plan of attack is to try exploring three countries during each 90-day visit, about one month per country.

In 2024 and 2025 I explored nine European/UK countries: Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, N. Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland. But I still have 22 European countries to go!

Scandinavia 2026

This year I’ve decided to explore three Scandinavian countries, namely, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. That’s partly due to getting hotel review assignments in these countries, mostly in the capital cities.

I’ll also be pet sitting around Scandinavia. In fact, I just started my trip here last week with pet sitting a sweet little Cocker Spaniel named Mocca in Svendborg, Denmark. I’m here now as I write!

Thus far, in Scandinavia I have two more pet sits lined up: one in Oslo, Norway for three weeks in late April, and another in Denmark, south of Copenhagen in late March/early April. I still have some serious filling-in to do!

Traveling the World by pet sitting

Although I’ve been pet sitting off and on for well over a decade, I really started pet sitting in earnest in 2024, when I decided to explore Europe and UK. That was for a couple of key reasons.

First of all, the vast majority of pet sits opportunities world wide are in UK, Europe and North America. In most other parts of the world, pet sits are generally far & few between. It’s not viable as a main means of travel in those areas.

Secondly, Europe and the UK are extremely expensive. So expensive, that I can’t actually afford to travel there unless I can cut out accommodation expenses almost entirely. The two ways I know to accomplish that are by pet sitting and by work exchange. I’ve been doing both in Europe thus far, though mostly pet sitting.

Throughout many regions of the world, the cost of living is low enough that I can simply pay my way. I can cover all the costs of accommodation, food, transportation, daily necessities and a few entry fees & activities along the way. Particularly helpful are the many super inexpensive accommodation options in those countries, options that don’t even exist in the USA or Europe.

In Europe, UK and N America, accommodation is extremely expensive. If I can cut out that cost, then I can afford to pay the rest- food, transportation, daily supplies, etc.

Between my work reviewing luxury hotels and successfully cutting out accommodation costs by pet sitting (and sometimes work exchange) I can afford to travel quite comfortably all around Europe (and other expensive regions of the world).

My 2026 Scandinavia Travel Route

Denmark in March – Sweden in April – Norway in late April/May

A. Denmark

My travel route this time has basically been determined by where I’ve secured pet sitting gigs. My first pet sit turned out to be in south-central Denmark, about two hours southwest of Copenhagen, in a small city called Svendborg. That’s where I am now.

That pet sit determined my entry point into Scandinavia. Last week I flew into Copenhagen, then took a train down to near Svendborg, where my host picked me up at a train station and drove us to her home.

My second pet sit is in Solrod, Denmark, starting in late March. I’m super excited about that gig because I’ll be living in…a historic windmill! Yes! It’s a five-story windmill built in the 1800s. Curiously, an American woman from NYC is living there. I’ll be looking after her adorable little Frenchie dog for two weeks.

Between my two dog sits in Denmark, there’s a one-week ‘break’. So I’ll head to Copenhagen to explore the city and visit luxury hotels on assignment.

B. Sweden

My next confirmed pet sit is in Olso, Norway in late April through early May. So must be in Olso by April 23^rd.

That means the only time I have to explore Sweden is in April. And, sadly, it’s only for about 2 ½ weeks. Bummer.

I still hope to secure a 1-2 week pet sit in Stockholm in April. But I just have to wait, search, apply for any sits that come up, and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, a long-term Swedish friend of mine from my years of scuba diving & rock climbing in southern Thailand, has invited me to stay at her apartment in Malmo, Sweden in April. Yeah! It will be soooo great to see her again, hang out and catch up on years of our lives.

Malmo is just across a narrow sea strait between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden. In fact, it’s just a 30-minute train or bus ride between the two cities. I may be able to visit some Copenhagen hotels from there. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to visit the western Swedish coastline, Gothenborg city and maybe a few other spots from Malmo.

Then I’ll have to head to Stockholm, whether I have a pet sit or not, to visit luxury hotels on assignment.

C. Norway

As I mentioned above, I have to reach Olso by April 23^rd. Most likely, I’ll be traveling from Stockholm to Oslo overland, by train or bus. Apparently, it’s a 6-8 hour trip. Easy peasy.

In Oslo I’ll be looking after one small pretty dog and one Sphinx cat for a Russian couple who live there. They live in a great, spacious apartment with spectacular views. Out of their city-side windows, Oslo splays out from a high apartment tower floor. Out the back windows is a big wooded hill.

I’ll be there for three weeks. Yeah! That’s plenty of time to look after the pets, explore the city, visit luxury hotels on assignment and hopefully meet up with another long-term Norwegian friend from my days living in Kyoto, Japan.

I should also get myself across Norway to the west coast city of Bergen. I have seven assigned hotels to visit there. Apparently Bergen is the jumping off point for cruises of the famed Norwegian fjords.

I would also looooovvvveee to get up to far northern Norway to experience tons of snow, dog sledding, an ice hotel and possibly northern Lights… Let’s see how it goes, because…

My 2026 Travels After Scandinavia

I’ve decided to return to far northern India this year. I’ve already traveled around the wonderful state of Himachal Pradesh to Dharamsala (home of Dalai Llama), Rewalsar Lake, Mandi, Shimla (British Hill Station) and Rishikesh, Uttarakand state (base for Beatles tour of India and declared World Home of Yoga), as well as some other places down on the plains in Punjab state (home of the Sikh religion).

This year I want to travel even farther north, to Kashmir, Ladakh / Leh, Manali and the far northeastern tea-growing region of Darjeeling and Sikkim.

The best time to start those Indian travels is in May. Therefore, I’ll be pressed to leave Norway as early as I can, and definitely by mid-May. That potentially gives me one ‘extra’ week in Norway after my Oslo pet sit ends on May 9^th.

Summary

I’ve just started my 2 ½ month explorations of Scandinavia. I greatly look forward to my ongoing pet sits, luxury hotel reviews work, explorations and meet-ups with long-term friends in the region.

I’ll be writing lots more about these three Scandinavian countries as I go, so stay tuned for more insights, experiences and photos coming up soon!

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The post My Scandinavia 2026 Travel Plans appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My Wonderful Three-Week Stay in Oxford

I recently had the great luck and pleasure of staying in Oxford, England for three whole weeks while dog sitting a sweet & lively Sprocker Spaniel named Dougie.

I took full advantage of my great fortune by exploring as many Oxford colleges, museums, historic pubs and other famous buildings as I possibly could manage. Because of daily dog walks, I also got to explore Oxford’s many beautiful, tree-lined canals and Thames River walks every single day. It was perfect.

Actually, it wasn’t my first visit to Oxford. In late July-early August, I had stayed in Oxford for nearly two weeks with two back-to-back pet sits. One was situated just west of town and the other located in a tiny village just east of Oxford.

Quite unfortunately, because it was such a hassle getting to/from town from both places, I only got to explore Oxford on three days during those two weeks, and that included visiting luxury hotels on assignment.

So I missed all the city’s fantastic museums, all but one college and only walked along a section of one canal and one college meadow. I felt incredibly frustrated knowing how many amazing places I was missing.

I vowed to try returning to Oxford during my remaining time in England this year. I began searching for another pet sit in Oxford in September, careful to apply

only to those that were actually in town, not out in the suburbs or nearby villages.

Quite amazingly, I landed a three-week dog sit in September, located on the southern edge of town, just a 10-minute walk to several major sites and 15-minutes to the heart of town. I was elated and began researching Oxford in more detail than previously.

Oxford Open Doors Event

Soon after I landed the dog sit, I discovered the annual Oxford Open Doors event, a weekend-long happening organized by the Oxford Preservation Trust. And this year it was scheduled on the third weekend of September, right in the middle of my visit! Woo-hoo. How lucky was I?

During the Open Doors, more than half of Oxford’s 39 colleges are open free to the public. Many colleges are, in fact, generally open to the public, but with various entry fees, while other colleges are otherwise always closed to the public.

In addition, many of Oxford’s most famous & beautiful buildings, plus most-popular sites also open free. They include Carfax Tower, Oxford Castle, Divinity Hall, Holywell Music Room and the university Examination Rooms, among others.

Then there are free special music events, such as Medieval Singing, a vintage car show, free rides on historic buses, guided tours of various historic buildings and other non-university tours and events.

Since I was staying a full three weeks in Oxford, I was able to take my time exploring everything, spreading explorations out over three weeks. I opted to spend just 2-3 hours per day visiting one thing or the other, especially since I also needed to spend 1-2 hours each day walking with Dougie Dog.

Strolling Oxford canals and Thames River

As it turned out, my dog-walking responsibilities actually enhanced my Oxford visit even more. It meant I got to stroll along several beautiful canals and along Thames River in different directions. Not only did I get to marvel at Oxford’s extensive stunning architecture, I also got to enjoy its many scenic natural places.

For our daily strolls, I identified six completely different waterside walks I could make right from the house I stayed at, each lasting 1-2 hours round-trip. Four of those walks I really loved and they became my standards, though I also made a couple one-off walks with Dougie Dog as well.

Each canal and riverside walk in Oxford is truly beautiful. They’re all lined by thick vegetation, with big shady trees, bushes and flowers. Some have sections of landscaped gardens. One walk encircles the vast and stunning Christ Church Meadows, complete with views of historic Merton College, with its golden-stone buildings and fancy church spires.

Many canals and the Thames are full of long narrow house boats, actual residences. Other sections have the distinctive English boats known as ‘punters’, which are mobilized by a long pole, as you’d expect on a Venician gondola. Then there are the various Oxford college rowing team boathouses and long slim rowing boats. Several times I saw individual rowers or teams out on the river.

Another scenic aspect of the canals and river are the dozens of different bridges crossing the waterways. Most are pedestrian bridges and come in all different sizes, shapes and styles. Then there are also several canal locks, which still function to this day.

Every waterside walk I did for those three weeks was a great joy. It was a real treat to be in such a beautiful town that also has so much splendid nature.

Outside the big Open Doors weekend, I slowly explored as many wonderful Oxford places as possible over my three-week stay. I managed to visit all the great museums, about 10 Oxford colleges that are generally open free to the public and about two dozen historic pubs, all the while strolling Oxford’s beautiful streets and admiring the stunning architecture.

Historic Pubs

Oxford University was founded in the 1200s (!). Over the ensuing centuries, primarily in the 1400s-1800s, more than three dozen additional colleges were added to the university as it gradually expanded.

Concurrent with the university’s founding were various pubs, where students, professors, literary and legal scolars met to socialize, strategize and drink. The oldest known pub in Oxford is tiny The Bear, established in 1202 and still in operation.

Pubs have always been an integral part of Oxford university life. Today, there are several dozen historic pubs around town, many several centuries old, others a mere 100-150 years old.

Since I’m so enamored with architecture, one of my projects in Oxford was to visit as many historic pubs as possible. But my ‘pub hopping’ journed was not about drinking, as most pub crawls are. I didn’t have one single drink in one pub, mainly because I greatly dislike beer. Instead, I visited more than a dozen pubs purely to admire their architecture.

I discovered that British pubs come in all sizes and styles. Most are more than just drinking establishments, unlike a typical bar in the USA. Most British pubs also serve meals. In fact, many are more renowned for their cuisine than anything else.

So, they’re really more like restaurants that serve a large selection of beers. Some of the larger historic pubs in Oxford are like a maze of rooms, set on different levels and accessed by various old wooden stairs. They’re more like a house that’s been converted into a restaurant/bar.

Some are called pubs, others taverns, others such-and-such ‘arms’, referring to a family or royal coat of arms, such as King’s Arms.

I greatly enjoyed my historic pub tours, where I marveled at loads of fantastic architecture and interior decore.

Oxford Museums

Quite amazingly, most Oxford museums are free! I find that incredible, considering that most museums in other English cities and towns charge admission fees, sometimes quite hefty fees.

It’s even more amazing considering how truly incredible the museums are. I now have to count three Oxford museums as some of the best museums I’ve seen anywhere in the world. And I’ve explored dozens, if not a hundred, museums during my travels.

Oxford’s five main museums include Oxford University’s Museum of Natural Science, Pitt Rivers Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Museum of History of Science and Oxford City Museum.

My experience of Oxford Open Doors

During Oxford Open Doors weekend, I crammed in as many sites and activities as possible, with two tight all-day schedules that I prepared in advance. I managed to visit eight colleges that are usually closed to the public, attend music concerts at Sheldonian Theater and Holywell Music Room, visit amazing Divinity Hall, take a tour of Oxford Castle/Prison, ride a heritage bus and see a special exhibition of historic maps.

All told, between my three weeks of daily city explorations, daily waterside walks and Oxford Open Doors weekend, I visited more than half of Oxford’s 39 colleges, more than a dozen historic pubs, all of Oxford’s fantastic museums, several canal and Thames River walking paths, and most of the town’s other most famous sites. I felt satisfied that I’d experienced Oxford pretty darn well.

I loved Oxford so much that I’d actually consider living there in the future. Who knows?!

For anyone who loves historic architecture, world-class museums, pubs and/or scenic canals, I highly recommend visiting Oxford whenever you find yourself in England.

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10 Free Things to do in Oxford

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The post My Wonderful Three-Week Stay in Oxford – England appeared first on LashWorldTour.

10 Free Things to do in Oxford – England

Oxford, England is home to world-renowned Oxford University. In fact, the university makes up most of the town.

Oxford is the oldest university in England and one of the oldest in the world.

Unlike any other universities in the world, except Cambridge, Oxford University is made up of 39 historic self-governing Colleges. Each college has its own buildings set around plazas/lawns/gardens and their own courses, classrooms, chapel, dining hall and student housing. Most are hundreds of years old and still functioning schools.

The first colleges date back to the 1200s, but many others were added over the centuries, particularly during the 1400s-1800s. They all display stunning historic architecture, mostly constructed in stately golden limestone/sandstone.

A few buildings are so unique and important that they figure as some of Oxford city’s most famous places to visit. These include the round Radcliffe Camera (a library), Sheldonian Theater, Duke Humphrey’s Library, Divinity Hall and several buildings in Christ Church College.

Oxford has also been used for dozens of films and TV series. Films such as Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, A Fish Called Wanda, to name but a few. As for TV series, probably the most famous is the popular British Detective Morse series. So another interesting angle for exploring Oxford is to visit film and series locations, which include various pubs, university buildings and plazas, parks and historic streets.

The general public is allowed to visit most of the colleges. Some allow visitors inside without charge, but the most famous colleges do charge a fee for visitors to enter. Just exploring the vast university could take weeks if done in earnest.

But Oxford also has plenty of other wonderful places to visit. There are several excellent museums, many beautiful meandering canals and rivers, Oxford Castle, historic pubs and shops.

Not surprisingly, many of these places charge admissions fees and some can only be visited by guided tour. That includes Oxford Castle, many of the colleges and the most famous university buildings. Visitors could easily spend £100-200 / $130-260 US if they wanted to access all these spectacular places.

Quite luckily for budget travelers, there are also many free things to do and see in Oxford. They include various museums, some colleges, lovely walks and explorations.

1. Join a Free Walking Tour of Oxford

Many major cities and towns around the world have one or more company offering free guided walking tours. The tours are usually tip-based, meaning that tour guides rely on participants donating a tip of their own discretion at the end of the tour.

The suggested tips are a non-obligatory donation. Travelers on a really tight budget, with limited means, could donate just one, two or five dollars, or none at all. Other ways to contribute / support the tour guides is to leave a positive review on Google, Trip Advisor or the tour’s website.

In Oxford, there are rather expensive walking tours as well as free guided tours. The pricey tours do include entry into one or more famous University buildings, while the free tours do not. But both types of tours give a great overview of Oxford’s long history, little known facts about various colleges, buildings, historic pubs and other insights into the beautiful city.

I joined this great two-hour free walking tour during one of my first days in Oxford. It was really informative and gave me a good overview of the university’s history and very interesting details about certain colleges and pubs. These city walking tours are a really good way to start travelers’ visits to Oxford and any other city they’re visiting for the first time. I join them regularly.

2. 10 Oxford Colleges with free public entry

I have the great fortune of staying in Oxford for more than three weeks, looking after a sweet dog near the city center. That gives me plenty of time to visit all of Oxford’s colleges, museums and other attractions.

So I’ve done a lot of research about Oxford’s colleges, their histories, famous alumni and visiting rules. Here are 10 colleges that I’ve found offering free entry to the public…

Exeter, Lincoln, Wadham, All Souls, Corpus Christi, Mansfield, Harris Manchester, St John’s, Keble and Nuffield. I’ve visited most of them so far and plan to visit the others this week.

I’m a huge fan of architecture, so for me, it’s worth visiting all of Oxford’s colleges. While most have quite similar architecture and lay-outs around central lawns, each college has something distinct. Many have spectacular dining halls, chapels and gardens, each one quite different from the others.

Travelers not as taken by architecture as I am might find that visiting a handful of colleges is enough. But for anyone enamored of architecture, I highly recommend visiting as many as possible.

3. Free Museums in Oxford

Not surprisingly, Oxford has several fantastic museums. Amazingly, most of them are completely free! They include…

Museum of Oxford, housed in the historic Town Hall
Modern Art Oxford, a small gallery nearby
Ashmolean Museum, featuring a vast collection of items from all over the world
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, housed in a stunning historic Neo-Gothic building and displaying dinosaurs and other fauna & flora
Pitt Rivers Museum, a specialized museum within Museum of Natural History that is renowned for its quite unusual display style, and which is featured in several movies & series.

4. Stroll along canals and rivers

The Thames River meanders its way through Oxford as well as several canals. They’re all lined by beautiful pedestrian and/or cycling walkways set under big shady trees, passing landscaped gardens, residential neighborhoods, vast meadows and small sections of the city. Some sections offer spectacular views of Oxford’s stunning historic buildings.

These wonderful waterways are often full of long narrow houseboats, English punter boats and college rowing boats. There are ducks, geese and swans gracefully gliding along, while small song birds chirp and flit about overhead. Public park benches are scattered along the waterways as well, offering a chance to sit and watch life on the canals and river.

These plentiful waterways flow on for miles and miles into, through and out of Oxford. Avid walkers could stroll for hours, days on end, along the many beautiful stretches of canals and the equally pretty Thames.

I’ve been walking these beautiful walkways every day for nearly two weeks thus far. I’ve found six completely different 1-2 hour long routes from my pet sitting home, situated just south of Folley Bridge. Each walk is stunning and enjoyable for both myself and my pet ward, Dougie.

5. Check out some amazing historic pubs

Oxford has dozens of adorable historic pubs scattered around town. They come in all different sizes, from a tiny one-room space to large taverns with several rooms and outdoor seating.

The oldest one, The Bear, dates way back to 1020 AD! Each pub has its own unique interiors and ambiance. Some are tucked down narrow winding alleys, like T Pub near Bride of Sighs, while one of the most famous is situated inside historic Randolf Hotel, and now called Morse Bar because it was the setting for so many Detective Morse shows.

Many of these pubs have been used to film movies and TV series, such as Detective Morse.

A fun free excursion – or excursions – is a self-guided walking tour of Oxford’s many historic pubs. If you set off to see them all in one go, it would take at least a half day or longer espcially since they’re scattered so far apart. Another option is to visit which ever pubs are close to each day’s other visits. For instance, a few are located right near Musuem of Oxford, a few others up along Oxford Canal near St Barnardos Church, etc.

6. Stroll through beautiful gardens, parks and lawns

Oxford is full of large open meadows, leafy parks and beautiful landscaped gardens. Each college has its own sports fields/parks/meadows. And the city also has various parks and gardens.

It’s always free to explore any of these gorgeous outdoor spaces. Many of them are lined by Oxford’s stunning college buildings, which you’ll also get to admire during your strolls.

One particularly beautiful area is Broad Walk, a pedestrian walkway running along the north side of huge open Christ Church meadow. At the eastern end is a famous old tree called Watcher Tree. Along the path, to the south is vast Christ Church meadow, while on the north are the stunning buildings of Merton, Corpus Christi and Christ Church colleges. At the eastern end, there are two beautiful landscaped flower gardens, one with Christ Church college buildings as backdrop.

Various movie scenes were filmed at this location, often with the colleges in the background.

But this is just one of many beautiful park walks found in Oxford.

7. Admire gorgeous historic architecture

If you don’t want to pay admission to enter Oxford’s most famous buildings like Radcliffe Camera, Sheldonian Theater and Oxford Castle, you can always admire their stunning architecture from outside.

Just wandering around Oxford’s many historic streets and alleys will allow you to see plenty of fantastic architecture. Besides the aforementioned masterpieces, there’s also the elevated stone pedestrian passage called Bridge of Sighs, a few stately stone archways over roads, Medieval Tudor-style shops, towers, cathedral spires, quirky pubs & cafes, original street lamps and lots of other interesting things to admire.

8. Explore Oxford’s unique covered market

Over the years, I’ve visited many local markets around the world. Some are outdoor markets selling fresh local produce, others more like flea markets with everything under the sun on sale.

In large cities around the world, I’ve also visited many historic covered markets, usually selling a range of fresh foods and produce, restaurants, cafes, bars and hand made products. Most historic city markets are Victorian design, with heavy wrought-iron frames, glass roofs and tall wrought-iron pillars.

But I’ve never seen anything like Oxford’s large, historic Covered Market. It has a fancy ‘vaulted’ wood ceiling painted bright orange with white wood beams. Hanging from the ceiling throughout the market are large translucent paper mache figures from Alice in Wonderland, figures like a giant tea pot, a rabbit, Alice herself and others.

It’s a very pretty market filled with a collection of very interesting shops, restaurants and cafes. There’s an Ethiopian restaurant, a Thai restaurant, a cookie bakery, a fancy tea shop, a coffee roasters, a classic British pie cafe, icecream shop, pizza parlor, a barber and more.

9. Visit movie and TV series locations

As I mentioned above in the intro, Oxford has been the setting for dozens of movies and TV series over the decades. The city’s cobblestone streets, colleges, rooftops, meadows and various historic buildings have been used to film them.

Some of the most famous movies include Alice in Wonderland, the Harry Potter films, A Fish Called Wanda, Transformers, Young Sherlock Holmes, Shadowlands, X Men and Howard’s End.

For Brits, the extremely popular TV series, Detective Morse, is one of the most famous shows filmed in Oxford. In particular, dozens of historic pubs round town were used in one episode or the other.

In addition, several world-renowned authors resided in Oxford and composed their masterpieces here. JRR Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Lewis Carol wrote Alice in Wonderland. Philip Pullman composed and filmed The Magic Compass. CL Lewis inspired the Narnia series, also set in Oxford.

Other renowned writers include TS Elliott, Oscar Wilde, DH Laurence and Graham Greene all lived and studied at Oxford.

Exploring Oxford from this angle, visitors can explore various film and series locations or check out the haunts of famous writers. Some examples include Alice Shop, where the real life Alice used to buy candies; Tolkien’s bench, where he used to sit; and various pubs where several famous writers in the 1920s congregated to discuss story ideas, among others.

When I first arrived in Oxford, I ended up buying the book ‘Oxford Film Locations’ at the Castle shop, which includes several self walking tours of Oxford. Most of the information can undoubtedly be found online with simple Google searches. Some of the most famous sites are also marked on Oxford maps.

10. Enjoy a Self-Guided Tour of Oxford’s churches

Scattered about Oxford are dozens of beautiful historic churches. They were built over several centuries in a variety of sizes, shapes, level of grandeur, building materials and architectural styles. Most of them are open to the public for free.

In addition, each Oxford college has its own chapel. Some of these are exceptionally spectacular, such as the chapel at All Souls College. Those colleges that are open free to the public generally allow visitors to enter the chapels.

Just locate churches on a map of Oxford and set out on your own tour. One of my favorites in Oxford is the rather unusual St. Bernabus Church, located in the Jericho neighborhood, close to Oxford Canal on the western edge of the city. The stunning interiors look to me like several Eastern Orthodox churches that I visited in Eastern European countries a few years ago.

BONUS:

11. Visit Oxford during the annual Oxford Open Doors weekend

Every September, Oxford Preservation Trust sponsors Oxford Open Doors, one weekend when a whole slew of colleges, historic buildings and tours are open to the public free of charge. There are also music events, a classic car show, rides on heritage buses and other free happenings.

During the weekend, a dozen or so colleges that usually charge entry fees are open for free during specified hours. Many of Oxford’s most famous buildings are also open free of charge. They include Divinity Hall, Sheldonian Theater, Oxford Castle & Prison, Halfax Tower, the Examination Rooms and others.

Special music events include things like a Medieval singing group, Ballads and a piano recital in historic Ma Hall and a concert at Sheldonian.

There are so many free things to see and do during the weekend, that it would be impossible to do them all. To take the fullest advantage, careful advanced planning is recommended, especially since some of the colleges, buildings and events require advanced reservations (even though free).

Anyone who’s especially interested in Oxford should really try to make it to the annual Open Doors weekend. I’ll be attending next weekend myself! Yeah!!! So I’ll let you know how my well my meticulous research and planning work for taking the most advantage of all the great offers on hand.

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You might also enjoy:

How to Visit Stonehenge for Free

Introduction to Wales

My First Observations of Scotland

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The post 10 Free Things to do in Oxford – England appeared first on LashWorldTour.

I’m Returning to Florida for Autumn 2025

I just booked my flight from London to Orlando, Florida in early October.

Now normally after booking an upcoming international flight, I’d excitedly be yelling, “yippie!” But this time, the whole thing has me shaking my head, as if to clear out my mind, and feels like I’m about to enter the Twilight Zone.

Florida? Again, Florida? Really?

I had no plan or intention of returning to Florida this year. I had planned to be traveling around several new countries in my ongoing quest to visit every country on the globe.

However, this isn’t the first drastic and unexpected change in my travel plans this year. It’s more like an ongoing theme for 2025. Sigh.

In this case, it turns out that my step-dad has decided that he and my mom should move out of their nice spacious Florida home, down-size into an apartment and get rid of mounds of stuff they’ve accumulated for over 40 years together.

So clearly, I’d better go back to help them out. It also looks like it will be the last time I’ll get visit with them in their lovely Florida home, with its huge screen-in back patio and beautiful landscaped gardens. Heck, it might be the last time I get to stay with them, ever, if they move into an apartment with no room for guests.

And their move impacts me further since I’ve been storing a few boxes of clothes, photos and travel memorabilia in their garage, as well as using their address as my official US addy (needed for important things like a bank account, passport and drivers license). I’ll have to get that all sorted out one way or other by the time they move into a new place. Clearly I need to go back now.

Of course I’m looking forward to visiting with them, as well as my brother and his wife, who also live in St Pete. That will be great.

But it also means that my goal of visit 10 new countries per year certainly won’t happen this year. Sigh. In fact, with all the other unexpected, thwarted travel plans I’ve endured in 2025, I will likely only visit four new countries this year, out of a total of nine countries I’ve roamed around in 2025.

I’ll probably end up staying in the Florida region through December or January so I can enjoy a final family Thanksgiving, Christmas and NYE before I head out into the vast world again. Especially considering it might be the last time I’ll ever get to stay with them.

With any luck, I’ll make it down to a couple/few Caribbean islands, or maybe also Hawaii, during that time. I’m already keeping my eye out for pet sitting options at about a dozen Caribbean & Hawaiian islands and will jump on the chances if they pop up.

Thus far, they are far and few between. Sigh again. But if I do luck out on a couple of assignments, I’d at least get to visit a couple more new countries in 2025.

But island hopping is up in the air at this point, dependent on my parent’s moving situation and the vagueries of pet sitting assignments.

In the meantime, right now I’m still enjoying pet sitting all over England. I arrived in late May and will be here until early October, just over four months in total.

My return to England this year is yet another completely unplanned (and un-preferred) addition to my travels in 2025. I’ve already visited England three times previously and spent five months of 2024 exploring the other countries of the UK- Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – plus Ireland. So I really didn’t need to spend more time in England.

I would have preferred using these four months to explore new countries, toward fulfilling my goal of 10 new countries per year and visiting all the countries of the world.

This travel hitch of returning to England is mostly a result of the pesky Schengen Zone rule that allows non-EU citizens only 90 days at a time to travel around Europe. When my Schengen time expired in late May while I was in Switzerland, I couldn’t figure out anywhere else to go nearby that I hadn’t already visited or that wouldn’t be too scorching hot in summer months.

So England was my default. London presented the fastest, easiest and cheapest flights from Switzerland. And England is one of the easiest countries for pet sitting. In fact, within three weeks of searching, I had lined up back-to-back pet sits around England from late May through August, before I ever left Switzerland!

As and added bonus, after traveling around Switzerland, England actually seems cheap! Especially for food and public transportation.

Although I would have preferred exploring new countries, I have been able to visit many amazing places in England for the first time. Places like Bath, Stonehenge, Chester and Oxford. In fact, I will soon return to Oxford for three glorious week, pet sitting of course, when I’ll be able to really explore the culturally-rich university city. I can hardly wait.

Trying to put things in a more positive perspective, I can say that I am still spending all of 2025 out traveling the world. And I’m greatly enjoying my pet sitting assignments. So many wonderful dogs and cats to be-friend. So many great hosts to meet. And so many great houses and apartments to stay in, all on my own, with peace and quiet, fully-equipped kitchens, luxurious private bedrooms, Netflix and often landscaped gardens to boot.

I’m very privileged to be staying in so many wonderful houses and apartments, all gratis, and to have great furry companions for company. It sure beats hostels and hit-or-miss AirBnB rooms. In this regard, I can hardly complain about my travel life in 2025!

I’ve also explored several unique countries in the Middle East, much of Switzerland and the tiny country of Liechtenstein for the first time. I’ve enjoyed many wonderful cities, towns, villages, mountains and valleys. I also re-visited one of my favorite cities in the world, Istanbul, Turkey.

My only real complaint is that I keep getting thwarted towards my goal of visiting every country on the planet. At this point, I really need to visit at least 10-12 new countries per year to have any realistic hope of reaching my goal. In that regard, 2025 has fallen quite short.

I guess all I can say at this point in the year is that I hope 2026 goes more smoothly! Last year, 2024, went as smooth as clockwork. So I can certainly hope next year will too. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I’m very happy that I’ll get to visit my mom, step-dad, brother and sister-in-law this year. And I do love St Pete, Florida. So I’m sure I’ll enjoy cycling my favorite bike routes, the stunning Florida vegetation and re-visiting some favorite places in St Pete….at least in between helping move house.

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You might also enjoy:

My 10 Favorite Places in Switzerland

Introduction to Bahrain

My 3-Month Travels around UK in Summer 2025

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The post I’m Returning to Florida for Autumn 2025 appeared first on LashWorldTour.

How to Visit Stonehenge for Free

I recently visited the world-renowned ancient site of Stonehenge completely for free! And it wasn’t a sneaky, underground tactic for entering without a ticket. On the contrary, it’s a perfectly open, legitimate option for viewing the mysterious man-made stone construction.

Even better, visitors who go for free to the surprisingly large Stonehenge complex get to see, learn and explore nearly everything that paying visitors do. In this article I explain exactly how – and why – to visit Stonehenge for free.

Location of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is located in southwestern England. It’s about 1.5 hours’ drive southeast of Bristol and 2.5 hours’ drive west of London. The closest city is Salisbury, a 20-minute drive or one-hour bus ride away.

The massive stone construction is situated in a huge open field. That field is itself surrounded on all sides by more open fields and some small woods.

Country road A303 goes right past Stonehenge, on its southern side. There’s almost always heavy traffic congestion along the road near the site, because so many people slow down to view Stonehenge from their cars. Turn offs into/out of the nearby visitors center also slow traffic.

Why to Visit Stonehenge for Free

1. The most obvious reason is to save money.

For travelers on a tight budget, a ticket into Stonehenge is pretty expensive. In 2025, it costs 30 GBP, about $40 US.

What you get for the admission ticket is entrance to Stonehenge Visitors Center, rides on the official shuttle bus to/from the stones, and close-up views of Stonehenge from all sides.

For travelers who don’t mind paying 30 GBP, it might be worth the close up views and the detailed information displayed inside the visitors’ center. But if 30 GBP is expensive for you, consider visiting for free, because…

2. Free visitors get to see, learn and experience almost everything that paid visitors do!

A wide, free public walking path goes right past Stonehenge! It runs immediately outside the paid viewing area, separated only by a simple fence. Anyone walking past on the open public trail gets the same view as the ticketed visitors, just 10-20 feet further out.

But there’s more to Stonehenge than just the massive ring of stones. As I discovered on my visit, there are huge ancient burial mounds set in open fields near Stonehenge, which anyone can walk to. There are informative educational plaques about the burial sites and other features, placed along various open public walkways.

Outside the Visitors Center, there’s a group of reconstructed ancient houses and one massive stone monolith from Stonehenge that’s set on its side in front of the building. These features are all free to everyone.

Inside the Visitors Center, anyone can view the general area and visit the cafe.

So the only thing non-paying visitors miss out on are slightly closer views of Stonhenge, reading educational displays inside the visitors center, and taking crowded shuttle buses.

If you visit for free, you do have to walk. But if you’re ok with that, then in my opinion, visiting for free is actually better than paying, because…

3. Even better, visitors who visit for free get to avoid huge crowds.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this ultra-famous, internationally-renowned ancient site is horded by visitors. During my visit I saw/heard people from all over the world: China, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, Sweden, Russia, USA, Spain, Latin America and UK.

By walking to and from the site on the free public walkways, I avoided huge, slow crowds getting on & off the shuttle buses and the noisy masses meandering around the inner, paid viewing area of the stones.

When I saw and heard all the crowds, I personally felt that visiting for free is better! I was super glad I wasn’t taking those jammed shuttle buses or being forced to mingle among loud-mouthed international tourists, families with children and babies. No thanks!

How I Ended up Visiting Stonehenge

Perhaps oddly, Salisbury is how I ended up visiting Stonehenge. I actually never had any thought of visiting Stonehenge this year. In fact, I’d practically forgotten it even existed. I wasn’t even planning any trips to England any time soon.

In fact, I actually had no plan, nor even vague thought, of visiting England this year. I’d previously been to England three or four times, including one full summer in Manchester. And last year I spent four months exploring the other parts of UK: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland (which is independent from UK).

As far as I was concerned, I’d already explored those five countries well enough. I was ready to head out to new countries. After traveling around Switzerland for three months in spring, 2025, my allotted Schengen 90 days was up. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t figure out any countries nearby the EU/Schengen zone that I had not already explored and would not be too broiling hot in summer.

So I finally settled on returning to the UK for 90 days until I could re-enter EU on another 90-day Schengen stint.

Once I embraced the idea, I quickly realized that I could visit a whole bunch of interesting and wonderful places in England that I’d never seen. Places like Oxford, Cambridge, Chester, the Lakes District and Isle of Man.

Even then Stonehenge didn’t come to mind. It wasn’t until I found a pet sitting position in Salisbury, a town I’d never even heard of, that Stonehenge came into the picture. When I researched Salisbury on Google maps, I quickly discovered that Salisbury is an ancient Medieval city with tons of stunning historic architecture. I also noted that Salisbury is the closest city to Stonehenge.

Luckily for me, I landed the dog sit. Even luckier, my gracious host suggested that I arrive one day before their trip and offered to take me to & from Stonehenge! She knew it was infinitely easier to get there by car than by the local rural bus system. So my unexpected trip to England this summer meant that I also got to see those amazing renowned ring of ancient stones, Stonehenge. Yeah!

How to Access Stonehenge for Free

My pet sitting hosts didn’t know anything about visiting Stonehenge for free. So I researched the details on how to do so, where to enter, and so on.

As it turns out, there are several public walking paths passing near Stonehenge from three directions. The paths hook up with nearby route A303 at two points and with the Visitors Center, so it’s easy to get dropped off by car (or bus) and simply walk in to see the stones.

In fact, as I mentioned above, the free public walking paths go right past Stonehenge! They run immediately outside the paid viewing area, separated only by a simple fence. Anyone walking past on the open public trail gets the same view as the ticketed visitors, just 10-20 feet further out.

Public walking trails into Stonehenge

As I just mentioned, there are two points along route A303 where visitors can step onto public walking paths that lead into Stonehenge. On the map above, you can see the two dotted trails leading in at angles from the highway.

There are no buses running along A303 in that area, but if you can get dropped off by car, then you can have the driver stop quickly along the road, hop out and get onto the trail at either point.

However, please note that A303 is usually very busy, with fast traffic moving in both directions. That can make it somewhat difficult to stop the car and potentially risky to cross the road to access the trail.

When my host took me there, we didn’t know if it was feasible to stop. Nor did we know how to arrange for him to pick me up at one of those points later. But we also didn’t know if it was possible to walk in from the visitors center. So we took a chance when he dropped me off along the highway that we’d be able to figure it out.

Since the traffic slows on A303 near the westernmost walking trail, it was fairly easy for him to quickly pull over and let me out. It was also not too risky crossing the highway. Then I was on a wide mowed walking lane between vast wheat fields heading in towards Stonehenge, with the stones clearly in sight, getting gradually bigger and bigger, closer and closer as I walked. It was pretty exciting.

When I finished viewing the stones, I decided to walk to the visitors center, a 30-40 minute walk on wide pathways through open fields and a small forest. My host and I kept in touch by phone, so he picked me up at the visitors center.

Now that I know there are public walking trails between the visitors center and the stones, I would recommend starting and ending your free visit at the visitors center. It’s much easier and safer than getting dropped off/picked up on the highway. However, it is a longer walk to/from the visitors center than to/from the highway.

Another excellent reason to start and/or finish at the visitors center is that, as noted above, many other site attractions are located in front of the visitors center and along the trails & fields between there and Stonehenge. If you want to see it all, definitely at least start or end your visit there.

The other free sites at Stonehenge

As I mentioned above, before my visit to Stonehenge, I didn’t know that there are many other interesting historic sites to see and learn about nearby. I actually just discovered them by being there and walking along the public walkways.

First off, in the fields just north of Stonehenge, there are massive grassy mounds that were discovered to be ancient burials sites. Anyone can walk up to, and even on top of, the huge grassy knolls.

Between those fields and the visitors center, there’s a small forest, where walking trails continue. Along that path there are several educational plaques that explain the burial mounds and many other ancient features found in the immediate area. Diagrams help make it all clearer.

Finally, as I explained above, in front of the visitors center there’s a reconstructed groups of ancient thatch houses. Two of them are open for visitors to step inside and see more clearly how those people lived.

Next to the mini-village there’s one of Stonehenge’s massive monolith stones laid to rest on its size. This really helps visitors understand just how truly massive the stones are and to wonder how the ancient builders constructed the site.

Summary

Visitors can check out internationally-renowned Stonehenge by buying an expensive ticket or completely for free. Those who visit for free get to see, learn and experience almost everything that paid visitors do.

For travelers on a tight budget, it’s really easy to visit Stonehenge and most of its other interesting attractions completely for free.

I hope my guide helps other budget travelers, like myself, experience the amazing, awe-inspiring site of Stonehenge.

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You might also enjoy:

Introduction to Wales

My First Observations of Scotland

My First International Trip – A Visit to London

====================================

The post How to Visit Stonehenge for Free appeared first on LashWorldTour.

Introduction to Bahrain

I kicked off 2025 by celebrating New Year’s Eve in Dubai, UAE. I had arrived there one month earlier on December 1^st, 2024, flying in from Ireland. I spent most of December in Dubai, with a 10-day side trip over to neighboring Oman.

In January, 2025 I proceeded to visit several neighboring Middle Eastern countries, including the tiny island nation of Bahrain. I spent nearly two weeks in Bahrain, exploring the capital city and visiting a handful of luxury hotels on assignment.

Geography and Biodiversity of Bahrain

As just mentioned above, Bahrain is an island nation, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain. It’s situated in the Persian Gulf, just off the east coast of Saudi Arabia and slightly northeast of Qatar, which is another island nation.

More accurately, Bahrain is an archipelago of 50 tiny natural islands plus 33 man-made islands. However, the main island, Bahrain Island, takes up 83% of the land area, with the remaining islands barely more than specks.

Bahrain is a very tiny country. In fact, it’s the smallest country in the Middle East. Occupying only 790 sq km / 305 sq miles, the entire country is approximately the size of New York City.

Although Bahrain is tiny, on a global scale, it’s actually not nearly the smallest nation. There are 22 countries even smaller! As far as island nations go, Bahrain is much much larger than several Pacific and Caribbean island countries. It’s also five times bigger than Liechtenstein, a small European country I visited in May. For a close comparison, Bahrain is slightly larger than Singapore.

Bahrain Island (and its other islands) is flat and consists of mainly desert (92% of land area) with a coastline of 161 km / 100 miles and plenty of golden sand beaches. The highest point on the island is Jabal ad Dukhan at 134 M / 440 ft, situated on a central plateau. Only 2.6% of land is arable.

More than 330 species of birds have been identified in Bahrain, most of them migratory. There are also over 300 species of plants. In contrast, only 18 species of mammals live in Bahrain. The country has five protected areas.

Climate of Bahrain

Like all other countries on the Arabian Peninsula, the weather is extremely hot for most of the year. Temperatures reach up to 40-50 C / 110-125 F in summer and just slightly cooler in spring and autumn months. The seas around Bahrain are extremely shallow, which causes them to heat up quickly, then evaporate and cause high humidity.

However, in winter, from about December through February, the weather becomes ideal, with day time temperatures around 24-28 C / 75-82 C. Offering perpetually blue skies and sunshine, a slight breeze and drier rather than humid conditions, it’s a perfect climate.

Early mornings, evenings and over night temperatures are actually cool in winter, dipping to 17-20 C / mid 60s-70 F. With a breeze, even long sleeves may be needed.

In June and July, sandy winds blown in from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran create huge sand storms, known as shamal winds.

Government of Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a Semi-Constitutional Monarchy. It gained its independence from England in 1971, making it only 54 years old as of 2025. In 1971 Bahrain also joined the UN and the Arab League. Today, Bahrain maintains bi-lateral relations with 190 countries.

In 1999, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain, as the result of a popular uprising lasting from 1994-2000. He greatly modernized Bahrain’s government and civil society by establishing elections for parliament, giving women the right to vote and releasing all political prisoners. Since then, some of these modernizations have slipped.

In 2002 he changed the country’s name from State of Bahrain to Kingdom of Bahrain and changed his title from Emir to King. He’s still king today. His son is the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. About half of government positions are filled by family members.

Population of Bahrain

The entire country has about 1.6 million people. For comparison, that’s about the same population as Phoenix, Arizona; Philadelphia, PA; or San Antonio, Texas. The official language is Arabic, but English is also widely spoken.

Rather amazingly, less than half the population are Bahraini nationals, about 47%. The remaining 53% are immigrants living and working in Bahrain. They are a hugely diverse people from 2000 ethnicities and dozens of countries.

In fact, one of the first things I noticed in Manama was the huge percentage of immigrants, particularly Asian, and more specifically Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan. But I also came across many Philipinos, Thais and Chinese.

That also means there are a lot of fantastic Asian restaurants, tea shops and bakeries! While there, I dined exclusively on Indian and Chinese cuisine from small independent restaurants in my neighborhoods. I even found a great Indian sweets shop, which was a real treat. Most restaurants were quite cheap, but a few were on the expensive side.

Nearly every morning I ate my favorite Indian breakfast: dosai with curries and chai tea. Yum! For lunches and dinners, I switched between Indian and Chinese meals.

Religion in Bahrain

Like all Middle Eastern countries (except Israel) Bahrain is predominantly Muslim, with 84% of the population practicing Islam. But the government officially allows freedom of religion and there are Hindu and Buddhist temples, Christian churches and even a Jewish synagogue!

Economy of Bahrain

Like most countries in the region, Bahrain has large quantities of natural oil and gas, leading to a very wealthy nation. The country’s big oil boom began in the early 1970s, soon after its independence as a sovereign nation. In the 1980s Bahrain became a financial and banking hub in the Middle East. The country is also historically known for its pearl industry.

Bahrain is a very wealthy country, with a GDP per capita in the top 25 wealthiest nations. In 2023 the per capita GDP was $63,500 US, putting it well above many European countries, UK, New Zealand and Canada.

However, compared to neighboring countries of Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain looks and feels quite poor, rather backwards and considerably less developed. In fact, I thought Bahrain was more comparable to several developing countries I’ve explored.

Manama

Bahrain’s capital city is Manama. That’s where most of the population lives and where most culture, museums, shopping, international restaurants and hotels are located. I spent my entire two-week visit in Manama.

I was quite surprised at how poor and down-trodden Manama looks, especially after visiting the super-wealthy, ultra-modern neighboring countries of Qatar and UAE. For one thing, Manama has just a smidgen of modern skyscrapers, shopping malls and other contemporary buildings.

Most of the city is filled with plain, older beige buildings of about 2-6 stories high. Streets are in bad condition, many of them actually unpaved within small neighborhoods! The city is all dusty, full of litter and piles of garbage and roaming raggedy street cats. Most of it looks more or less like a ghetto.

Manama is a vert surprising – and alarming – contrast to the uber-clean cities I experienced in Qatar, UAE and Oman.

Manama does at least have a few interesting attractions for visitors. Most impressive to me was historic Bahrain Fort, a Portuguese fortress set on the western outskirts of town. There are also a few museums, Al Fateh Grand Mosque, a traditional-style market (souq), a handful of stunning modern skyscrapers and a few huge modern shopping malls.

Brief History of Bahrain

Bahrain Island has an extremely long and complex history, with a whole slew of different tribes, cultures and countries having claimed the island over the millennia.

Ancient Bahrain Island was home to the Dilmun civilization from at least the bronze age, about 3000 BC. Even then, the island was an important part of international trade in the region. In later epochs, it was home to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Parthians. During the long Greek Empire period, the Greeks knew the island as an important cotton and pearl producer.

Islam arrived in Bahrain in the 600s AD and has remained the primary religion ever since. Over the following 1000 years, various Islamic tribes fought and ruled in the region, including Persians from Iran.

In 1592 the Portuguese invaded and took Bahrain from the Persians. They only managed to rule for 80 years, until 1602. During that time, they built several large stone fortresses. The ruins of that huge fort are now located at the western edge of Manama, called Bahrain Fort.

Persians regained control of Bahrain and ruled another 200 years, until the late 1700s, when a local Islamic tribe defeated the Persians. Throughout the 1700s several Islamic groups fought over control of Bahrain, mainly because of the lucrative pearl trade.

Eventually, the Al Khalifa family gained control in the late 1700s and mostly has remained in power ever since. Their dominance was due in large part to various treaties with the British from 1820. Britain was the main military force in the Persian Gulf and they agreed to recognize the Al Khalifa family as rulers and to protect Bahrain from adversaries.

Through the 1800s and early 1900s, Bahrain’s economy thrived. Discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1920s accelerated their wealth. Not surprsisingly, Bahrainis grew discontent with British over-lords and various protests ensued through the mid 1900s. Eventually, as noted above, Bahrain gained independence from Britain in 1971.

My Impressions and best experiences in Bahrain

As I noted above, I was really surprised at how down-trodden and ghetto-like most of Manama appeared. It was a real contrast to neighboring UAE, Qatar and even Oman. It’s even more surprising when you realize how wealthy Bahrain is.

As a consequence, Bahrain was my least favorite country in the Middle East. I was infinitely more impressed with the unique modern architecture of Dubai and Qatar, as well as the cleanliness of neighboring countries.

My best experiences in Bahrain include a visit to the amazing Bahrain Fort, eating delicious Indian and Chinese food, and a site inspection of the astounding Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain. Otherwise, I was rather nonplussed with Manama.

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Introduction to Oman

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The post Introduction to Bahrain appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My 10 Favorite Places in Switzerland

I just spent spring of this year exploring Switzerland for three full months, from late March through late May. I enjoyed a series of pet sitting and work exchange gigs all over the country. I also visited 50+ luxury hotels in various cities and towns throughout Switzerland, on assignment. I wrote about my three-month explorations here

Although I did not get to visit every famous or jaw-dropping place in Switzerland, I did get to visit a majority of them. I went to all the big cities: Geneva, Zurich, Bern and Basel. I also visited most of the famous smaller cities and towns, including Lucerne, Interlaken, Montreaux, Lausanne and Neuchatel, along with some perhaps less famous towns, like Sion, Chateau D’Oex, Gruyere, Gstaad and Zermatt.

I walked along the shores of most of Switzerland’s famous large lakes: Lakes Geneva, Zurich, Neuchatel, Thun and Lucerne. I also rode trains along the shores of several other lakes.

I rode through many beautiful valleys, cycled through rolling farmlands, hiked in beautiful forests and open meadows, gazed at dozens of high jagged Alps mountains and strolled along several major & minor rivers: the Rhine River in Bern, the Rhone in Geneva and Sion, the Aare in Geneva, the Limmat in Basel, the Reuss in Lucerne and the Saane in Chateau D’Oex.

I’d say that overall I got just about the full Swiss experience, apart from skiing and eating fondue.

Reflecting on my wonderful spring in Switzerland, I’ve come to identify my 10 favorite places in the country. Here they are:

1. Lucerne

Lucerne is a small famous historic lakeside town in central Switzerland. It’s set on the shores of a large western finger of Lake Lucerne, at the point where the River Reuss flows into the lake. Thus, the compact city is beautified by both riverside and lakeside shores.

Lucerne also faces stunning jagged mountains to the south and across the lake to the east. The natural setting is simply spectacular.

If I had to pick just one top favorite place in Switzerland, it would be Lucerne. The architecturally-rich historic buildings, homes and churches are spectacular. A zig-zag Medieval covered wooden bridge crosses the Reuss River. High snow-capped jagged peaks soar around the city and across the lake.

Lucerne is compact enough to access everything on foot. But a fleet of colorful electric trolleys also run throughout the city. Its small compact size make it easy to enjoy.

Actually, Geneva and Zurich have more or less the same natural setting as Lucerne. They’re all set on lake shores at a point where a river flows into the lake. They all offer views of soaring jagged mountains. And they all have beautiful historic city centers along the lake and riversides.

But Geneva and Zurich are set on much much larger lakes. The mountains are much further away, offering only distant views on clear days. And both cities are quite large and spread out, with huge blocks of grand historic buildings. Both cities are simply on a much bigger scale than petite Lucerne.

I personally preferred Lucerne’s smaller, compact size. It has a cozy, easy-to-stroll ambiance and the mountains are so much closer that they seem to hover over the city. And I absolutely loved the historic architecture there.

2. Interlaken

Interlaken is another famous little historic lakeside town in central Switzerland. It’s actually set on a small flat strip of land between two long narrow lakes: Lake Brienz to the east and Lake Thun to the west.

Soaring over Interlaken are a line of ultra-high, super jagged mountain peaks. Mt Jungfrau at 4158 M / 13,642 ft is the highest, most jagged and most famous. Nearby is equally stunning Mt. Eiger at 3964 M / 13,015 ft.

Those spectacular mountain views are what most enamored me of Interlaken. But the little town is filled with gorgeous historic architecture and several stunning grand historic luxury hotels.

Most Swiss people I met don’t like Interlaken. They consider it much too touristy. While there, I did end up briefly in the very touristy shopping streets in town, but it’s easy to avoid that section and enjoy the stunning views and charming architecture.

Both lake-sides are also generally completely empty, even though you can take various ferry trips across either lake.

That’s because most tourists go to Interlaken – in groups mostly – specifically to take one of the world’s highest trains, the historic cogwheel Jungfrau Railway, dubbed the Top of Europe. It takes visitors up to a 3454 M / 11,362 ft viewpoint, where they can gaze up-close at spear-like Mt. Jungfrau. This is Europe’s highest train station!

3. Thun (pronounced ‘tune’)

Thun is a small, lesser-known historic town in central Switzerland, near Interlaken. In fact, Thun is set at the western shores of Lake Thun, while Interlaken is situated at the eastern shores of the lake. So Thun and Interlaken are like little sister cities.

I was introduced to wonderful historic Thun by one of my generous work exchange hosts, who took me and other volunteers there. In fact, I got to go with her to Thun twice!

Thun has two parts. Downtown historic Thun is filled with gorgeous historic architecture and is set on the small Aare River (the same river that flows through Bern far to the west). Like Lucerne, Thun has a zig-zag Medieval covered wooden bridge across the river. And an imposing stone castle hovers over town.

East of downtown, Thun lake-side offers a beautiful park, lake-side walk and a spectacular castle-turned-hotel with absolutely stunning mountain views of pointy Mt. Jungfrau and other jagged peaks along a high mountain ridge. They’re the same mountains seen at Interlaken.

4. Bern

I didn’t expect much of Bern. It’s Switzerland’s capital city and center of government. But Bern really surprised me with its beautiful monochrome historic architecture, its unique colorful caste-metal statues, its setting on a U-bowed river. and other unique quirks.

First of all, practically the entire city is built of unusual greenish-beige sandstone buildings. They’re all quite uniform in size and architecture. I’ve never seen a green-stone city before, so that was quite impressive.

I also was pleasantly surprised by the city’s collection of beautiful statues. I’m not generally very interested in statues and I figured those in Bern would be a typical bunch of bulky stone statues of important historic men.

Instead, I was delighted to discover a collection of relatively petite, very colorful unique statues. The little cast-iron delights are each set high atop a tall stone spire, way above pedestrians’ heads. Each one is a unique historic figure, including a baby-devouring monster, armored knights, Samson with a lion, Moses and dancing bears.

After I saw the first one, I quickly began intentionally scouting out all the others.

Bern has an animal symbol – the bear. Consequently, there are interesting bear statues of stone, marble and metal all over the city, as well as bear paintings and place names referencing bears.

But most amazingly, there are actual real bears living in Bern! Yes, they live in a huge enclosure along a bend in the River Aare. The large enclosure includes a steep natural embankment, forested areas, open areas and a purpose-built canal off the river for the bear’s enjoyment. It’s essentially a bear zoo. I was lucky enough to spot one bear during my visit!

5. Chateau D’Oex

I had never heard of Chateau D’Oex before. I discovered it, and ended up staying there for two weeks, because of a cat sitting gig I found. When I accepted the cat sit, I only knew that Chateau D’Oex was a small town up in the mountains. Good enough for me!

After I arrived, I discovered how super lucky I was to land there. First off, the adorable town is packed with stunning historic wood Swiss chalet homes. Secondly, the main street is full of beautiful historic buildings of entirely different architecture. Third, it’s set in a stunning broad rolling valley that’s surrounded by soaring Alpine mountains.

Turns out, Chateau D’Oex is famous (in Switzerland and Europe at least) on three counts. It’s one of the most renowned Hot Air Ballooning spots in Europe! Unfortunately for me, I was not there during the ballooning season. Darn.

Chateau D’Oex is also a ski resort town, though a minor one compared to Gstaad, St Moritz or Zermatt. It certainly looks like a ski resort town with all the wooden chalets!

Finally, dairy farms in the area are famed for their high-quality milk and cows. The milk is used in Swiss chocolate and cheeses. When I saw the lush Alpine meadows there, full of a plethora of flowers, grasses, weeds and other wild plants, I could quickly understand why their cows’ milk would be so rich, pure and flavorful.

During my two-week cat sit in Chateau D’Oex, I enjoyed several half-day hikes in the meadows, mountainsides and hilly residential town areas. I marveled at the imposing hefty mountains and spiky jagged peaks. And I took especially-scenic day trips by train down to Montreaux and Lausanne on Lake Geneva.

6. Sion

Like Chateau D’Oex, I had never heard of Sion before. I also discovered this stunning town via pet sitting.

As I found out, much like Chateau D’Oex, Sion is also a very famous town set in a rich valley and surrounded by soaring Alpine peaks. Even so, Sion is completely different from Chateau D’Oex.

Sion is located in the broad flat valley of the Rhone River in a historically-rich region called Velais. Nowadays, the valley is most renowned for its vineyards and wines.

Sion town itself is most famous for its stunning, well-preserved historic district and its two ancient hilltop fortresses that loom high above town. One fortress is the ruins of a castle, while it neighboring hilltop fortress is built around a renowned historic stone church. Valerie Basilica is still a functioning church and boasts one of Europe’s best-preserved ancient organs, which is still played to this day.

I was extremely lucky to stay in a sixth-floor apartment with absolutely spectacular views of jagged rocky peaks soaring over the hilly valley. For one whole week I reverently stared at those jaw-dropping views from the living room, balcony and even from my bedroom window.

Besides taking care of an adorable senior cat, I visited the castle ruins, Valerie Basilica, various museums and the beautiful historic district. I also took several hikes along the mountainsides, through vineyards, along ancient canals, around a small Alpine lake, all while admiring ever-changing valley and mountain views. It was awesome.

7. Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva is the largest lake in Switzerland and probably its most famous. The renowned city of Geneva is set along its shores, as are equally-famous Lausanne and Montreux cities. Incidentally, the Swiss call it Lake Leman.

Located in far southern Switzerland, the center of the lake marks the border between Switzerland and France, with France occupying the lake’s southern shores.

Like many Swiss lakes, Lake Geneva is long and relatively narrow. Lake Geneva has a bowed shape, much like a boomerang. Geneva city sits at the far southwestern tip of the lake, where the Rhone River flows into it.

Lausanne is situated at the northern side of the lake, towards the east, while Montreux is located near the far eastern tip.

A soaring mountain range full of peaked tips and more rounded rock masses lines the entire southern side of the lake. More high Alpine peaks are packed in a cluster just east of the lake, looming over the eastern end. As a result, the most spectacular lake & mountain views are from the northern shores and eastern end. The further east you go, the closer and more dramatic the mountains.

I had the great fortune of riding trains along the shores of Lake Geneva a total of six times. Twice I rode along the entire northern side of the lake, en route to Geneva and back. Four other times I rode along the eastern section of the lake, traveling between Sion, Chateux D’Oex, Montreaux and Lausanne.

Each time I marveled at the stunning lake/mountain scenery.

My favorite areas of Lake Geneva are in the east, from about Montreux eastwards. That’s where the most dramatic mountain/lake scenery is found. That region is also a lot less developed, with smaller towns and a wilder ambiance. Teh further east you go, the quieter and wilder it becomes.

Geneva city is pretty, but the mountains are much farther away, the area is completely flat and the city is spread out on a grand scale. I much prefer the smaller more-compact cities of Montreaux. Vevey and Lausanne.

8. Simme River Valley

I had the great fortune to pass through the stunning Simme River Valley twice. The first time, my work exchange host drove me and another volunteer through the length of the valley to visit Gstaad, Gruyere and Chocolate Factory.

For the entire one-hour drive, I was constantly wow-ed by ever-changing panoramic views of high Alps mountains, soaring way above the wide rolling valley.

The second time, I took a panoramic train through the valley in the opposite direction, from Chateau D’Oex northward to Spiez, on the shores of Lake Thun. I was afraid the views wouldn’t be as spectacular in the opposite direction. Happily, I was wrong and the ever-changing mountain views were just as impressive in reverse.

I don’t know if this is the absolute most beautiful valley in Switzerland since I didn’t visit all of them. But it certainly must rank among the top most gorgeous Swiss valleys.

9. Murten

Murten is a tiny Medieval town set on small Lake Murten. The lake is connected to much larger Lake Neuchatel by a wide natural waterway. So Murten is like a tiny sister-city to larger, more famous Neuchatel.

I was introduced to Murten by the same lovely host who turned me on to Thun. The small, little-known town features a few cobblestone streets lined by charming historic buildings, the lakeside and the impressive remains of a Medieval stone and wood wall that once enclosed the town.

The most amazing thing to do in Murten is to climb up old wooden stairs to the top of the wall, where a wide covered wood walkway runs the length of the remaining walls. On the inside there are fantastic views of nearby historic houses and the town center.

The outer side features a tall wooden wall with a series of cut out windows, where you can see the surrounding countryside. It’s an amazing experience to walk the top of a long Medieval fortress wall.

10. Lake Wallesee

I discovered long, narrow Lake Wallesee on my train trip east to Liechtenstein from Zurich. It’s a pretty minor lake in Switzerland, especially given how incredibly famous Lakes Geneva, Zurich and Lucerne are. In fact, probably most Swiss don’t even know little Lake Wallesee.

But of all the lakes I visited in Switzerland, this little-known lake in the northeast, near Liechtenstein, was my absolute favorite. First off, since it’s so small and unknown, it’s also quite undeveloped. There are just a couple tiny villages with historic Swiss wooden housese set around the lake shores.

But the real spectacle is the incredibly high, ultra-jagged mountain range that plunges almost vertically into the lake, hugging its entire northern shores. That lake is absolutely stunning. And peaceful. And quiet. And speckled with adorable little villages.

When I saw Lake Wallesee from my train, I immediately thought, “Wow! I’d love to live there!”

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My 3-Month Explorations of Switzerland 2025

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The post My 10 Favorite Places in Switzerland appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My 3-Month Explorations of Switzerland in 2025

Overview of my travels around Switzerland

I’m happy to report that I just spent the spring of 2025 exploring the gorgeous country of Switzerland. Yeah! I stayed a total of three months – 89 days – from late March through late May.

‘Exploring’ is probably not quite an accurate description of my travels around Switzerland, as I wasn’t actually spending all my time, nor even most of my time, actually exploring the country. I was primarily in Switzerland doing pet sitting & work exchange gigs and reviewing luxury hotels. So that’s actually how I spent most of my time.

Thankfully those pet sits, work exchange gigs and hotel visits did allow me to experience all sorts of places in that surprisingly diverse country.

I stayed in a tiny village with beautiful historic Swiss houses, cycled around rolling farmland while admiring traditional Swiss farm houses, visited most of Switzerland’s major and minor cities, strolled along many famous lakes, stayed in two amazing historic mountain towns in high Alps’ valleys, hiked around famous vineyards and Alpine cow meadows, gazed at dozens of high jagged Alps mountains, rode a dozen or so trains through all sorts of stunning scenery, visited Medieval castles and churches, toured a Swiss chocolate factory and visited two famous ski resort mountain towns.

I got to sample real Gouda cheeses in the historic town of Gouda, try the world’s first energy drink ‘Releva’, taste-test fresh chocolates, cycle through Ementhal cheese countryside and try a few traditional Swiss foods.

So, although I did not get to visit every famous place in Switzerland, I did get to visit many, many of them and to really experience the great diversity of the country.

Pet Sitting

In 2024 I began exploring the major European countries for the first time. They include all the expensive western European nations like Germany, Austria and Italy as well as the UK.

I had previously explored all the less expensive eastern European countries and a handful of western EU countries, about 14 nations in total. Now it was time to move on to the main, considerably more expensive EU nations.

My main tactic for affording these expensive European countries is to cut out accommodation costs – entirely – by pet sitting and/or doing work exchange gigs. So in early 2024 I began pet sitting in earnest.

In 2024, with the exception of three Belgium locations, I was able to secure back to back pet sits quite easily all over UK and EU. In addition, most of the pet sits were fairly close to my hotel review assignments, making it quite easy and relatively inexpensive to get to/from the hotels and complete my assignments.

But this year, I had a hell of a time securing pet sits in Switzerland for some reason. Dag! Among 30 pet sits I applied for in advance, I only got ONE of them! That was a one-month pet sit in Zurich.

After arriving in Switzerland, I did manage to secure two more pet sits in May, towards the end of my 90-day visit. In total, I had just three pet sitting gigs in Switzerland. I took care of two cats in Zurich for nearly one month, then one senior cat in Sion (mountain town) for one week, then three cats in Chateaux D’Oex for two weeks.

Work Exchange

Since I had trouble getting pet sits, I re-activated my previous ‘volunteer’ work on a platform called HelpX. Thankfully, I quickly secured two long work exchange gigs in Switzerland, which filled in the first half of my 90-day allowed EU visit, from March 27th-April 10th.

More details below, under itinerary.

Luxury Hotel Review Work

Before heading to Switzerland, I was assigned to review over 60 luxury hotels, spread out all around the country. Knowing that Switzerland is a small country, I figured it would be quite easy to visit all the hotels.

I was assigned to review hotels in the following 11 cities and towns:

Basel, Lucerne, Interlaken, Gstaad, Zermatt, Zurich, Montreux, Lausanne, Geneva, St Moritz and Lugano.

While searching for pet sitting and work exchange positions, I was specifically looking for positions in all those locations.

Quite unfortunately, it did not work out that way! Most of my pet sit and work exchange gigs were not located in any of those places! In fact, only my one-month pet sit gig in Zurich coincided with hotel locations, where I was assigned to visit 11 hotels in that city.

That unfortunate outcome made completing my hotel assignments in Switzerland considerably more complicated, time-consuming and ridiculously expensive.

Fortunately, I did at least secure several pet sits & work exchange gigs that were located within a one-hour train trip of various cities with hotels to review. That meant I had to make many expensive all-day train trips to complete my hotel assignments.

Quite unfortunately for me, I had no idea how incredibly expensive train travel is in Switzerland. I literally spend several hundred dollars on train fares, mostly getting to/from hotel visits. At least by doing that I was able to visit all but two locations and seven hotels. But man, I wasted a hell of a lot of money in transportation to complete my assignments. Crap.

The only two places I didn’t reach were St Moritz and Lugano. Both were simply too far from anywhere I was staying.

As I noted above, the only city I actually stayed in with a pet sit was Zurich. I had to visit all the others by train as day trips.

From two pet sits in Sion and Chateaux D’Oex, I was able to take day trips to Montreux, Lausanne, Geneva and Zermatt for hotel visits.

My Switzerland Itinerary and Experiences

Madiswil – tiny Swiss village in rolling farmland in central Switzerland

As I noted above, I arranged two great work exchange gigs in Switzerland. Upon my arrival in late March, I stayed in a tiny Swiss village called Madiswil for one month…. My main job was cooking dinner every day!

Madiswil is so tiny and un-renowned that I only met one Swiss person who had ever even heard of it. It’s located about one hour south of Basel in the district (Canton) of Bern. Luckily for me, Madiswil is an incredibly adorable little village, full of beautiful historic Swiss houses. More specifically, they are of historic Bern style architecture. I just loved strolling through the village admiring the unique traditional homes and barns.

My friendly Dutch host had electric bikes for his helpers to use as they pleased. That was fantastic since I was able to explore the rolling farmlands and other tiny villages in the area. During my one-month stay, I enjoyed easy-breezy cycling one to three times every week.

While there, I also took day trips to Basel and to Lucerne to visit hotels. I lucked out with Basel when one hotel offered me a complimentary one-night stay, complete with dinner and breakfast the following morning. That way I was able to spend two days in Basel, spread out my hotel visits, and enjoy looking at Basel’s historic district and riverside.

Belp – residential suburb of Bern

My second work exchange gig was not so far from the first, situated at a private home in a small residential town just south of Bern. To be honest, Belp doesn’t have so much to recommend it, aside from stunning views of distant jagged mountain peaks. On clear days I could see them from my balcony window.

My friendly & fun Swiss host had me and another helper from Belgium do gardening, take care of chickens and do a thorough spring cleaning of the house. It was a very quiet location with lovely flower and vegetable gardens out back.

Luckily for all her guests, she loves taking them out on explorations of Switzerland on days off. During my 10-day stay, she took us out on two full-day explorations. For me, she worked her day trips around the hotels I needed to visit!

One day she generously drove us to Interlaken for me to visit three hotels, then took us to nearby Thun to visit a lakeside castle-turned-hotel/restaurant situated on Lake Thun. It’s a stunning locations with panoramic views of a long range of snow-capped jagged mountains. She even treated us to champagne cocktails at the bar, while gazing out at the lake and peaks.

Another day, she drove us through a spectacular valley to Gstaad, an upscale ski resort town in the mountains, where I had to visit two hotels. Then she took us to Gouda town for cheese & Rivela in a crazy bar, then on to Chocolate Factory, where she also paid for our tours of the factory. Talk about a generous host!

My host and I became fast friends, so at the end of my travels in Switzerland, I returned to her house for four days to help with more gardening and house projects. During that brief stay, she took me and a Japanese helper on two more day trips!

First we went to Thun’s beautiful historic town and then returned to the castle-turned-hotel for another champagne cocktail overlooking the lake.

Zurich

I looked after two fluffy cats in a spacious modern apartment in a residential area of Zurich. While there I visited 11 hotels on assignment and was invited by one to a gourmet lunch.

I got to see most of central Zurich, its historic district, lakeside & riverside while walking from hotel to hotel. I didn’t do much else in Zurich besides hang out with the cats in their luxurious apartment and visit beautiful hotels. And that was fine by me.

Liechtenstein

While in Zurich, I treated myself to a full-day trip to the tiny country of Liechtenstein, just a 1.5 hour train ride from Zurich. The train passed through stunning scenery all the way to the border of Liechtenstein, where I crossed the border by bus and explored the capital city of Vaduz. I wrote about my Liechtenstein adventures here.

Sion

From Zurich I headed into eastern Switzerland’s high Alpine mountains and valleys for two more cat sits. First I went to Sion, a Medieval town set in the broad valley of the Rhone River in the Valais district of Switzerland.

Valais is famous for its vineyards, while Sion is most famous for its two ancient hilltop fortresses that hover above the beautiful historic streets of the old town. The town is also surrounded by ultra-high jagged mountain peaks, many of which I could see quite clearly from my 6^th floor apartment!

I took long hikes along the mountainsides, passing along vineyards and ancient irrigation canals, while gazing at ever-changing high mountain views. I also explored the very cool Medieval section of town, the old castle ruins and the still-functioning ancient Valerie church, set on a steep rocky peak.

Sion was easily one of my favorite places in Switzerland.

Chateaux D’Oex

From Sion, I took trains down to Lake Geneva and then up into another Alpine valley to Chateaux D’Oex, set in a broad rolling valley surrounded by more soaring mountains.

In Chateaux D’Oex I took care of three wonderful cats and spent days exploring the town, valley and surrounding countryside. This town is completely different from Sion as its full of historic wood chalet homes. That valley is marked by rolling cow pastures, where some of the country’s highest quality milk is created. Surrounded by more jagged mountain ranges, it’s also a very stunning location.

Other major places I visited

As I noted above, I took many day trips around Switzerland, mainly to visit luxury hotels. Due to those assignments, I got to explore many other gorgeous cities, towns and lakes.

I was especially impressed by the architecture and stunning settings of Lucerne, Interlaken, Thun, Bern and Lake Geneva. I also marveled at spectacular scenery on various train journeys, especially those along Lake Geneva and the valleys & mountains between Chateaux D’Oex and Thun. I’ll write more about my favorite places in Switzerland next.

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Meanwhile, you might also enjoy:

6 Crazy Facts about Switzerland

Introduction to Liechtenstein

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The post My 3-Month Explorations of Switzerland in 2025 appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My Original 2025 Travel Plans

I actually had no intention, nor even a passing thought, of returning to the UK this year. In 2024 I spent five full months exploring Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. And I had previously visited England three or four times over the years. In essence, I’d already explored all the UK countries.

I was planning, as always, to press on visiting new countries in my quest to visit all the nations of the world. I certainly had no interest in spending more time in countries I’d already explored.

I started 2025 in the Middle East, having arrived in Dubai, UAE in early December, 2024 and then exploring all the little countries in the region for two months.

Then I headed back to Europe for another 90-day allotted Schengen Zone visit (with a short unexpected side trip to Istanbul in February). I had planned on visiting three European countries again this time, but ended up spending my entire three months traveling around Switzerland, plus a day-trip to tiny Liechtenstein.

My plan after EU was to head down to Capetown, South Africa and then gradually work my way up the east coast of Africa over the course of several months. That would pretty much fill up 2025 with explorations of new countries.

Quite unfortunately for me, that plan was quickly thwarted. First I discovered how expensive flights are from Europe to Capetown. I was really shocked since I somehow believed flights were relatively cheap from Europe. Boy was I wrong!

Then I found out that the weather in South Africa June-July was cold and rainy. I also discovered that pet sitting positions there were far and few between. Finally, I remembered that South Africa is pretty dangerous. Given all those factors, I scrapped that plan, at least for this year.

Why I ended up in UK again this year

After I gave up my South Africa plans, I searched all over for new countries to visit outside the Schengen Zone but close to Europe and also not too broiling hot during summer months.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve already visited nearly every country near Europe but outside Schengen. I could not figure out anywhere else to go except back to UK!

And, in fact, UK has a score of benefits. To start with, London is probably the closest, fastest and cheapest place outside EU to fly into from Switzerland. It’s only a two-hour flight and mine cost just $150 US, including all my luggage. Sold!

Secondly, as I quickly re-discovered from 2024, UK is probably the easiest place on the planet to secure pet sitting positions. At any given time, there are about 3500 pet hosts around UK actively searching for pet sitters! Compare that to Switzerland at about 30 hosts, Holland at about 50 hosts, Sweden at about 20-30 hosts…and so on across all the European countries.

After I reluctantly decided to return to UK, I began searching for pet sitting gigs. I very quickly secured several sits in England. After my recent troubles finding pet sits in Switzerland, the UK search was like magic!

Since I resigned myself to visiting UK yet again, I soon realized that I could take advantage of the situation by visiting a bunch of wonderful, beautiful & famous places in England that I’d never seen before. Places like Oxford, Cambridge, Chester, the Lakes District and Isle of Man. Suddenly, I was excited to further explore England! I felt I’d made the right decision.

Setting up my UK 2025 Travel Route

First, I decided exactly where in England I wanted to visit. Then I began a thorough search of pet sits in those places. Along the way, I inadvertently discovered a few other wonderful places that I never knew about. Places like beautiful St Albans, just north of London, and Salisbury, a Medieval town closest to Stonehenge.

I also contacted a few of my hosts from last year and asked them if they needed a pet sitter during June-August. One of them did and invited me back! Yeah. That’s a pet sit in Porthcawl, Wales, on the southern coast of the country, taking care of three adorable tiny dogs.

Within only two or three weeks, while still in Switzerland, I had already secured a series of pet sits in most of my target destinations, which filled up my schedule from late May through the end of August! Even I was surprised at how easy and smoothly it all went. Soon I was all set to explore many wonderful places in England and to re-visit the beautiful southern coast of Wales again.

My 2025 UK Travel and Pet Sitting Route

Here’s my route and pet sit locations…

London

Quite handily, I landed my first pet sit in London for one week. That made my arrival into England in late May relatively fast and easy. From Heathrow Airport, it was just one hour by metros – directly from the airport! – to my hosts’ home in Brixton.

I had the pleasure of looking after two wonderful dogs in a stunning, art-laden home, situated in a quiet residential neighborhood, just one block from a massive 126-acre city park. I enjoyed long daily walks with the dogs through that lovely park.

Salisbury

As I noted above, Salisbury is a place I accidentally discovered while searching for pet sits near Bath. When I saw photos of the town’s gorgeous Medieval buildings, I was sold on the place.

I also found out that Salisbury is the closest city to famous Stonehenge. Wowie, I’d get to visit Stonehenge! In fact, my host offered to take me there before they left on their vacation!

Porthcawl, Wales

This is a return pet sit for me. I looked after the hosts’ adorable cat-size dogs last year in September. I loved the hosts, their three super cute doggies and the gorgeous Porthcawl coastline. I was really excited to get back to the doggies and coastal walks & bike rides.

In fact, I’m here now as I write. It’s just as wonderful as I remember last year. Another spacious house in a quiet residential neighborhood. It’s just a 10-minute walk (with the dogs usually) to the beautiful, rugged coastline. The hosts also left me an electric bike, which I’ll ride out along the coast too.

Bath

Bath is a famous town in southwestern England that was built by the Romans. It’s full of beautiful beige sandstone buildings, Roman baths and other Roman ruins.

That’s my next destination, where I’ll look after two more lovely dogs for two weeks and also explore stunning Bath town.

St Albans

This is another stunning Roman town located just north of London. It’s another English place I accidentally discovered while searching for pet sits.

Oxford

No need to introduce the renowned university town of Oxford. I’ve been wanting to wander around Oxford University campus for decades. I’ll finally get my chance this July.

Chester

Chester is a gorgeous little town that I discovered randomly while living in Manchester in summer, 2009. I made a day trip to Chester, but only got a quick glimpse of the stunning historic architecture. I vowed to get back to Chester one day to spend more time admiring the beautiful buildings. Finally I’ve got the chance.

As an added bonus, I’ll also get to meet up with a pet sitting host couple from last year. I took care of their cat and two dogs over in Rhuddlan, Wales last October. The hosts and I really hit it off and have stayed in touch.

Unfortunately, they don’t need a pet sitter during the months I’m here, but they did agree to drive over to Chester to meet me while I’m there. I look forward to that.

Arnside

Arnside is a tiny coastal community situated on the southern edge of England’s renowned Lakes District. The practically wild area surrounding the village is Arnside and National Landscape. The main activity there is hiking along the broad beaches, wetlands and vast meadows. y

Isle of Man

Isle of Man is a tiny rocky island situated in the Irish Sea, midway between England and Northern Ireland. The island is a self-governing British dependency and is listed as a country in the UN list of nations.

By visiting Isle of Man, not only will I get to explore a stunning island with an intriguing history, but I’ll also get to add one more country to my list.

Benefits of exploring UK this summer

As you can see, my unexpected travels around England this summer are affording me many great benefits. First of all, it was really easy to secure a series of back-to-back pet sitting gigs. That means I’ll be hanging out with many wonderful dogs and a few cats, too.

Secondly, I will get to visit several amazing towns, cities and other destinations in England for the first time, including Stonehenge!

And one final bonus is the opportunity to meet up with one of my very best friends for a few days. Kat and I met in Bali back in 2001 and have been friends ever since. We’ve met up in several countries over the years. I’ve stayed at her house near Sydney, Australia and she’s visited me at my parents’ homes in the US. But we haven’t been able to coordinate a visit since early 2015, when I was last in Australia.

As it turned out this year, Kat recently flew into London, just one week after I did. We’re both here in England! She’s moving around, visiting various friends in the UK before heading to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. At long last, we’re both in the same country at the same time!

So she’s going to come visit me for a few days in Porthcawl, Wales, while I’m pet sitting three tiny adorable doggies. Of course, I asked my host beforehand if that would be ok. Quite happily, she agreed. So next week I get to hang out with one of my very best friends in Wales! I never expected that to happen because of my travels around the UK this summer.

It all seems like it was just meant to be.

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You might also like:

Introduction to Wales

My First Observations of Scotland

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The post My 3-Month Travels around UK in Summer 2025 appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My Fun Day Trip to Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is a tiny European country that’s squeezed in between two much larger countries, Switzerland and Austria in central Europe. I wrote all about it in my recent article Introduction to Liechtenstein

Background on my trip to Liechtenstein

First off, as I generally mention whenever I talk about visiting Europe, anybody who is not a citizen or resident of an EU country can only explore EU for 90 days at a time. Then they must leave for 90 days before returning for another three-month visit.

This makes it quite difficult and annoying to explore Europe for anyone like me who wants to travel thoroughly around all the European countries. But that’s how it is. No way around it.

So now that I’m attempting to visit all the European countries, my general plan of attack is to explore three countries during each 90-day visit. Last year I explored Belgium, Holland and Germany. This year I hoped to visit Switzerland, northern Italy and Liechtenstein.

Unfortunately, I’m not entirely free to choose exactly where I go in each country and how long I stay in any given destination since I have various hotel review assignments to complete (destination dependent) and I’m usually pet sitting (also destination dependent)…and, of course, for the obvious reason that Europe is so darn expensive. I need to cut out accommodation costs by pet sitting and/or doing work exchange gigs and those require acceptance by the hosts in their homes.

Last year, as it turned out, I spent most of my 90-day visit in Holland, mostly in/around Amsterdam, because I had to visit 50 hotels in that city. I also spent nearly one month in Belgium, visiting three fantastic cities where I had hotel reviews.

I really, really wanted to visit Luxembourg, especially since it borders Belgium. That was closest I’d get to Luxembourg during my stretched out explorations of Europe.

Unfortunately, in the end, I never did get there. Darn it! I searched high and low for pet sits in Luxembourg. There were a handful from time to time, but none of them fit my schedule. In addition, I didn’t have any hotels to review there, so I’d get no income by going.

I really should have gone anyhow! I should have just taken 7-10 days to head down from Brussels to explore Luxembourg before moving on to Holland. But I didn’t and I regret it. Lesson learned.

So this year when I headed to Switzerland, I was determined, if at all possible, to go visit Liechtenstein. Especially since this was the closest I was bound to get.

I was in a cannily similar position as last year. I continued searching for pet sits in Liechtenstein, but during the three or four months I searched I think I only saw one position advertised. Likewise, I didn’t have any hotel assignments there.

Since Liechtenstein is one of the most expensive countries in the world, I wasn’t sure how I was going to visit without any work nor any ‘free’ accommodation via pet sitting there.

Making a day trip plan to Liechtenstein

After arriving in Switzerland and gradually getting accustomed to searching for train routes between various destinations, I somehow discovered that fast daily trains run from Zurich, Switzerland over to Liechtenstein in just 1.5 hours! It’s the same for return journeys.

Right then and there I decided I would make a day trip to Liechtenstein from Zurich. Luckily for me, I had a one-month cat sit in Zurich, which would give me plenty of time to visit Liechtenstein.

I figured out the best day for me to go, bought my train tickets to & from, and just waited for my big adventure day in early May to roll around.

Taking the train from Zurich to Liechtenstein

Finally, my big day arrived. I had tickets on my phone and meals in my day pack, all ready to go. I caught the tram down to massive Zurich train station and found my train among the 42 (!) train platforms.

There, I was astounded to discover that my train was actually a very long-distance train to Budapest, Hungary which also passed through Vienna, Austria en route. I had absolutely no idea I’d be taking such a train. I thought I was taking one of Switzerland’s many national intercity trains.

As it turned out, my stop just outside Vaduz, Liechtenstein was the very first stop on a cross-continent, multi-country train to Hungary! I was told it took 10 hours from Zurich to Budapest. My portion of the ride was just one hour.

That mere one hour trip proved to be even more spectacular than I’d imagined. For the first half hour we zipped along the southern shores of long & narrow Lake Zurich. We started by passing through Zurich’s extended lakeside suburbs then gradually ended up in quite rural, undeveloped lakeside areas with walking trails, small parks and scattered houses.

I was quite surprised that just 20 minutes from Zurich one could reach such natural lakeside settings. Very handy for Zurich residents.

After finally leaving the far eastern end of the lake, we passed through farmland briefly, before reaching another, much smaller long & narrow lake. Lake Walensee. Now that lake was jaw-dropping spectacular! We zoomed along its flat southern shores while gazing at a long jagged mountain range that plunged vertically into the northern lakeside for its entire length.

Here and there, a tiny flat inlet at the base of the soaring mountains was home to a tiny village with a few historic Swiss chalet homes. The entire lake, with its dramatic mountain range and idyllic Swiss villages was simply jaw-dropping. In fact, I still think it’s the most beautiful lake I saw in all of Switzerland. On the train I even declared, “Wow! I want to live here!”

Eventually we left the lake and pressed on eastward with the stunning mountain range extending towards Liechtenstein. Finally, we curved around the mountains and northward along the border to a small train station called B. That was my jumping off point. I waved goodbye to the long train to Budapest.

From there I had to catch a bus over the border into Liechtenstein and then another bus to head a few kms northward into Vaduz, the capital. Unfortunately for me, because my train arrived a bit late and missed the local bus connections, the bus portion of my journey took an entire hour when it should have taken 15 minutes. Luckily, I could at least gaze at more jagged mountain peaks while waiting for buses. An hour later I finally arrived in tiny Vaduz.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

architecture, museums, sculptures and a Princely castle

As usual, I had already researched Vaduz. I knew pretty much how it looked and what to see & do there. It’s a small town-size city set in the flat broad valley of the Rhine River and butted up against a steep hillside. The Rhine forms the border between Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

When I say that Vaduz is small, that’s actually quite an understatement. In fact, Vaduz is the third smallest capital city in the world, after Vatican City and San Marino (capital of the micro-state of the same name).

Vaduz has a population of less than 6000 people. Heck, that’s waaayyy smaller than the tiny towns I grew up in over in western Pennsylvania and is also clearly smaller than most tiny towns in the USA.

Vaduz has a less dramatic or scenic location than I’d expected since the Rhine River valley is so very wide. Downtown Vaduz is basically just small and flat. But it does have some spectacular mountain scenery due to that rugged mountain range over in Switzerland that I mentioned earlier. The dramatic mountains are set on the far side of the valley with clear views from town.

Vaduz was also less beautiful than I expected, in terms of architecture. I was hoping for lots of elaborate historic architecture, like most Swiss cities. Sadly, Vaduz is mostly filled with nondescript modern buildings. At least there are several beautiful historic houses and buildings scattered about, along with a lovely Medieval stone church.

And, to my surprise, there’s some amazingly great modern architecture scattered about too. All in all, Vaduz is a mash of many different types of architecture, from fancy historic homes to ultra-contemporary buildings.

The main things to see & do in Vaduz include several museums, art galleries, sculptures, the church and other historic buildings, upscale shops & restaurants and, most popular of all, Vaduz Castle.

Museums are all situated right in town and include the National Museum of History, Modern Art Museum, Philatelic Museum. They’re all fairly expensive, so I didn’t visit any of them.

But I did get to enjoy a very impressive collection of huge metal sculptures, which are placed around the main pedestrian walkway downtown. Many of these sculptures were created by world-renowned artists from all over the globe. There are so many sculptures that the information center has a brochure listing all the sculptures, with a map and descriptions for visitors to make a self walking tour.

The most impressive sculpture to me was a huge, over-sized bronze of a reclining plus-size woman by famed Brazilian sculptor, Botero (mainly because I knew his sculptures and had seen them in Medellin & Sao Paulo, Brazil). How surprising to find a massive Botero sculpture in tiny little Liechtenstein!

The reason there’s so many sculptures, museums and other art in Vaduz is that the ruling family is a huge patron of the arts. In fact, it’s said that Liechtenstein’s Princely family has one of the largest, most important art collections in the world.

I wandered around downtown, visited the cute Medieval church, admired historic homes and ate my packed lunch while gazing at Swiss mountains across the valley. And then I headed up to renowned Vaduz Castle.

Vaduz Castle

Vaduz Castle is the city’s most famous and popular attraction. It sits way up on the steep hillside, almost directly above town. Visitors can walk up to the castle in about 20 minutes, either by a winding road or a walking path, both of which zig zag up the mountainside. Otherwise, visitors can catch a taxi.

Once you reach the top, the beige-stone Medieval castle is quite a striking sight. It dates way back to the 1200s, making it about 800 years old. It’s been owned by Liechtenstein’s princely family since 1712.

One unusual aspect of Liechtenstein’s royal family is that they actually live in that castle! Therefore, visitors cannot enter the castle, nor its grounds. Tourists can just admire it from outside. The royal family has officially lived there since 1938 and the castle is currently occupied by the 13^th generation.

Another oddity about Liechtenstein’s royal family is that it is a Princely Monarch. The country is ruled by a prince, not a king or queen. Like all royally-led countries, the rule is passed down from father to son.

Near the castle there are vast rolling meadows and a hillside forest with walking trails. I walked through the forest, sat a while enjoying the views, then headed back to town.

I had enough time to eat my packed dinner then go catch a bus to the train station and return to Zurich. Once again, I got to enjoy the stunning mountains rimming little Lake Walensee, followed by the long ride around Lake Zurich into the city center.

All in all, it was a wonderful day trip to Liechtenstein!

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You might also enjoy:

My Introduction to Liechtenstein

6 Crazy Facts about Switzerland

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The post My Fun Day Trip to Liechtenstein appeared first on LashWorldTour.

Introduction to Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is a tiny European country, wedged between Switzerland, to the west, and Austria to its east. The country is not just tiny, it’s the 6^th smallest country in the world! Only Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru (Pacific island nation), Tuvalu (ditto) and San Marino are smaller than Liechtenstein.

For a point of reference in America, Liechtenstein is only 0.9 times the size of Washington D.C.! That is tiny! More specifically, the country measures just 160 km sq / 66 miles sq. The country is sometimes referred to as a microstate.

It’s official title is the Principality of Liechtenstein. The population is a little over 40,000.

Amazingly, Liechtenstein does not have one single airport in its country! You cannot fly into or out of Liechtenstein! Instead, you can get there by train and/or bus from Switzerland or Austria, or else drive.

Actually, you can’t arrive into Liechtenstein by train either, as there are no trains or train lines in the entire country! If you head to Liechtenstein by train, the closest train stations are just across the border in Switzerland, near Vaduz, the capital. From there, everyone has to transfer to a bus to cross the border into/out of the country.

Getting around the country is possible only by bus or private car.

The capital city is Vaduz, located in the west of Liechtenstein, just across the border from Switzerland. Vaduz, and a narrow strip of land around it, constitute one of the country’s few fairly flat areas.

Geography of Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is the only country in the world that lies entirely within the Alps. Needless to say, it’s mostly quite mountainous. It’s also completely landlocked and largely undeveloped, with only 11% of the land inhabited and 40% of the country covered in forests, plus many rivers, streams and mountains.

Although Liechtenstein is located entirely within the Alps, its mountains are not particularly high, especially compared to other nearby Alp mountains. Liechtenstein’s highest peak is Vordere Grospitz at 2599 M / 8527 ft. In total, there are 32 peaks over 2000 M / 6600 ft, but that’s nothing compared to the peaks in neighboring (and quite nearby) Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

In Zermatt, Switzerland, one of the country’s major skiing spots, there are more than 38 peaks over 4000 M / 13,200 ft. Big difference! And Zermatt is just one of Switzerland’s high mountain areas. Italy has a similar range, while Austria’s peaks are in the 3600-3700 M range.

Regardless of their height, with so many mountains and pristine natural areas, Liechtenstein is a wonderful country for outdoor enthusiasts and sports like skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, sledding, hiking, cycling and off-road biking.

For hikers there are 400+ km of hiking trails of all difficulty levels. The most famous and longest trail is called Liechtenstein Way, a 75 km route for hikers and cyclists.

Skiing and other winter sports are hugely popular in Liechtenstein. Surprisingly, though, given its mountainous terrain, the country has only one ski area, Malbun. Regardless, several medal-winning Olympic skiiers hail from Liechtenstein.

Brief History of Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein was officially established as a country in 1719. That makes it older than the USA! Just a few years ago, in 2019, Liechtenstein celebrated its 100^th anniversary.

Establishment of the country was a bit complicated. It got rolling when Prince Johann Adam Andreas of Liechtenstein bought the domain of Schellenberg in 1699 and then the county of Vaduz in 1712. The Prince also owned large tracts of land in nearby Austria, Bohemia and Moravia.

It was the Holy Roman Emperor who officially declared the area to be called Liechtenstein, after the prince, and established the country to be ruled by the prince and his descendants.

One oddity about Liechtenstein is that its ruled by a prince, not a king or queen. It’s referred to as a Princely Monarch. Like all royally-led countries, the rule is passed down from the father.

Since 1921, the country has been a Constitutional Monarchy with a parliamentary government based in Vaduz. The country is a member of EU, but uses the Swiss franc as currency rather than the Euro.

Nowadays, Liechtenstein is also a member of WHO, the UN, EU Council, EFTA and other important international organizations.

Liechtenstein’s Royal Family

Liechtenstein’s royal family is one of the oldest in Europe. The current Prince of Liechtenstein is the 13^th successor in the family.

One unusual aspect of Liechtenstein’s royal family is that they actually live in a historic castle that’s located on a steep hillside above Vaduz. The royal family has officially lived in the castle since 1938. The castle itself dates way back to the 1200s, but has been owned by the princely family since 1712.

The Prince of Liechtenstein is the fifth wealthiest monarch in the world, as of 2019, with an estimated wealth of $3.2 billion US.

The royal family is also a huge arts patron. In fact, the family holds one of the largest, most important art collections in the world. The royal family’s love of the arts is quite evident in the capital, Vaduz.

Dozens of huge sculptures, by some of the world’s most renowned artists, are placed throughout the compact downtown. The tourist information center even has a brochure detailing all the sculptures in a self-guided tour.

There’s also a national history museum, a national treasury museum, a fine arts museum, a postal museum and several art galleries. Vaduz town center also has plenty of watch shops selling the best Swiss watches.

Economy & Standard of Living

Liechtenstein is one of the most expensive countries in the world, on par with Switzerland, with high wages and an extremely high standard of living. The average annual salary is 72,000-90,000 Swiss francs. That’s about $87,500-$107,500 US per year.

There is zero poverty, no homelessness and extremely low unemployment.

Liechtenstein is also extremely clean and safe, one of the safest in the world.

Liechtenstein is big on manufacturing, which accounts for more than 40% of its GDP. Interestingly, two of the country’s biggest export industries are false teeth and prosthetics. It’s also a big financial and banking center.

Rather surprisingly, Liechtenstein has an extremely international population. There are people from approximately 115 different countries residing in the country! Perhaps given the high wages, that shouldn’t be so surprising.

Visiting Liechtenstein

Even though there are no airports in Liechtenstein, it’s quite feasible to visit the country in a day trip from Zurich, Switzerland. At least a visit to Vaduz. In fact, that’s what I did!

Somewhat amazingly, trains from Zurich to train stations just across the border from Vaduz take just 1.5 hours. It’s a beautiful journey along vast Lake Zurich, then across rural countryside and another smaller lake to the border. From the train station, frequent buses cross over into Liechtenstein and into Vaduz.

There’s plenty of time to see all of the sights, museums, shops and even hike up to the princely castle in one day. Then return to Zurich in the evening or else head on to other destinations.

Travelers who want to see more of the pristine and beautiful little country can spend a few days, a week or two, exploring the country by bus or private car. There are plenty of tidy little villages, stunning scenery, hiking and cycling trails or skiing in winter.

Summary

I hope this peaked your interest in pretty little Liechtenstein. I certainly enjoyed my day trip to Vaduz from Zurich in May, 2025. I’ll be writing about my experiences next!

You might also enjoy:

6 Crazy Facts about Switzerland

Introduction to Croatia

13 Things I Love about Eastern Europe

========================

The post Introduction to Liechtenstein appeared first on LashWorldTour.

1. Basel, Switzerland has an airport unique in the world

The very unusual Basel Euro Airport was built way back in 1946, just after WWII ended.

It’s situated at the tri-borders of France, Germany and Switzerland, on French land. It’s administered jointly by France and Switzerland and is officially a bi-national airport. Both French and Swiss police & security guards work at the airport as well.

The full name of the airport is Euro Airport Basel-Mulhouse-FRieburg…

for Basel, Switzerland – Mulhouse, France – Frieburg, Germany.

Amazingly, the airport has two different airport codes! BSL and MLH are the same airport!

What’s really unique is that you can step outside the airport into either France or Switzerland. One exit door leads to France, while the other exit door lands you in Switzerland. And, apparently you cross the border from France into Switzerland inside the airport terminal! The border of Germany is just a few miles away.

2. Switzerland is crazy expensive – for no apparent reason

I didn’t know until right before my arrival to Switzerland that the country is notoriously expensive. It’s the most expensive country in Europe and the … most expensive country in the world.

Simply by crossing the border from Switzerland into neighboring Germany or France, you’ll find prices on most things half price or one third the price of the same products in Switzerland.

What I’ve observed personally thus far is that particularly train travel and medications are absurdly expensive. Apparently everybody knows how crazy-expensive train travel is, including the train companies. They continuously offer various discounted prices, including ‘all-day tickets’, monthly and annual subscriptions that then give owners half price on all fares, pop-up offers, tourist tickets and many other special fares.

Heck, since everyone acknowledges that train travel is ridiculously expensive, why not just lower the fares?

Anything that’s deemed any sort of medication has sky-rocket prices. That goes for basic over-the-counter meds like cough syrup and cough drops, supplemental pro-biotics to help with digestion, anti-acids and, of course, prescription meds.

I’ve asked many people here why prices are so expensive in Switzerland. Everyone, to date, has shrugged their shoulders and said, laughingly, “It’s Switzerland”. Hence my conclusion that prices are high here for no apparent reason.

If anyone knows why Switzerland has double and triple prices from neighboring Germany or France, please fill me in! I’d like to know what’s up with that.

3. Basic toiletry items and vitamins are crazy cheap

At the other pricing extreme, I accidentally discovered that basic toiletries, vitamins and food supplements are amazingly cheap. In fact, they’re probably the least expensive I’ve found anywhere in the world, including generally very inexpensive developing countries.

I’ve found tubes of various vitamins tablets (those ones that you put into water to dissolve via lots of fizz) for less than $1 US / 1 CHF (Swiss Franc). Bottles of magnesium tablets (30-60 tablets) for 6-8 CHF. Large packs of thin women’s panty liners (48-60 count) for just 1.20-2.40 CHF.

While nearly every type of vitamin, mineral and other nutrition supplements are super-cheap, quite unfortunately, pro-biotics are not among them. Those are crazy-expensive.

4. Flushing toilets after 10 pm is illegal !

This sounds crazy, right? But it’s true in Switzerland.

Turns out, Switzerland is very diligent about noise control and not disturbing ones’ neighbors with loud noise. Personally, I’m all for that! I’m extremely sensitive to loud noise and am happiest in very quiet, peaceful locations.

But Switzerland goes way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of, in terms of preventing noise pollution. Making the flushing of toilets at night actually illegal is pretty extreme!

In truth, it’s not just a ban on night-time toilet flushing. It’s a general night-time quiet rule: No noise from 10 pm – 6 am. Toilet flushing is included in that.

5. It’s illegal to work or make noise on Sundays

Sunday is officially a day of rest, following traditional Christian practices.

No construction or remodeling work is allowed, even outdoors at your own property. No lawn mowing, garden power tools, high-pressure water hoses nor vacuuming are permitted.

6. All stores and businesses are closed on Sundays

Sunday’s ‘day of rest’ regulations mean that all stores are closed every Sunday. That goes for supermarkets, pharmacies and all other businesses.

Travelers arriving to Switzerland for the first time might have trouble initially remembering that they will not be able to buy anything at all on Sundays.

Summary

These are a few of the very unexpected things I’ve discovered about Switzerland during my first 10 days in the country. I’ll be sure to report any more unusual, crazy and interesting things I come across here during my 90 days in this pretty country.

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Meanwhile, you might also like:

Differences between US and European Cities

15 Surprising Facts about Wales

11 Things Ireland is Famous For

===============================

The post 6 Crazy Facts about Switzerland appeared first on LashWorldTour.

Introduction to Oman

Oman is a small Islamic country in the Middle East, which borders UAE (United Arab Emirates) on the Arabian Peninsula. Officially known as the Sultanate of Oman, the country is an absolute monarchy, ruled by a Sultan whose power is passed down through the male line.

Oman is officially a Muslim country, but people are entitled to practice whichever religion they choose, so long as it doesn’t interfere with public order or contradict morals. Oman is classified as a high income country, with most wealth obtained from oil, like most other Middle Eastern countries.

Oman is considered one of the safest countries in the world. It currently ranks as the world’s #25 safest country (btw, all the other countries on the Arabian Peninsula are ranked in the top 20 safest countries of the world).

Omanis are very hospitable and welcoming to visitors and the country is also very clean and beautiful.

Geography of Oman

Oman is a roughly rectangular-shaped country located on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders UAE and Saudi Arabia on its northwestern border and Yemen on its short southwestern border.

Otherwise, Oman is surrounded by sea water. Its long southern coast lines along the Arabian Sea, while the northeastern coast lines along the Gulf of Oman.

While I described Oman above as a small country, on the Arabian Peninsula, it’s actually one of the largest countries, second only to Saudi Arabia. Oman is three times bigger than UAE and even bigger than tiny Bahrain, Qatar or Kuwait.

For Americans to put things into perspective, Oman is slightly larger than Kansas.

Oman is primarily a very arid country full of barren desert (80%) and rough, jagged-y dark dry mountains (15%). In the north, a wide rugged mountain range curves inland and then curves out to the coast near Muscat, where it runs very close to the sea, making a dramatic coastline. North of Muscat, there’s a wide lush coastal strip with sandy beaches, with mountains and rough desert inland.

While the country is mostly dry desert and mountainous, there are also rivers, water holes, waterfalls and wadis (oasis es) that are lush green. Just off the coast there are extensive coral reefs with all the usual reef fish and marine life. A lush coastal strip covers about 3% of the land area.

There’s a lot of beautiful and diverse geography around Oman.

Weather of Oman

Like all other countries on the Arabian Peninsula, the weather is extremely hot and dry for most of the year. Temperatures reach up to 40-50 C / 110-125 F in summer and just slightly cooler in spring and autumn months.

However, in winter, from about December through February, the weather becomes ideal with day time temperatures around 24-28 C / 75-82 C. With perpetually blue skies and sunshine, a slight breeze and drier rather than humid conditions, it’s like paradise.

Early mornings, evenings and over night temperatures are actually cool, dipping to 17-20 C / mid 60s-70 F. With a breeze, long sleeves may be needed.

Government of Oman

As noted above, the Sultanate of Oman is ruled by a Sultan who serves as royal head of state as well as prime minister and head of military. Power is passed down the royal family line through the male heirs.

The current ruler is Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. He took over quite recently, in 2020, when his first cousin, Sultan Qaboos passed away. Sultan Haitham was appointed by the royal family and by Sultan Qaboos as the next sultan.

Prior to that, Haitham spent his adult life as minister of various government departments and heads of other organizations.

The royal Al Bu Sa’id dynasty has been in power in Oman since 1749, nearly 300 years to date. Sultan Haitham is the 16^th sultan in the family. Many other men in the family hold top positions in the government, while others are businessmen.

His predecessor, Sultan Qaboos was a key ruler in modern Omani history and development. He ruled Oman for 50 years, from 1970-2020, making him the longest reigning sultan in the Middle East.

Sultan Qaboos greatly modernized Oman. He built roads, hospitals, schools, and communications systems. He also allowed other Omanis, including women, to participate in the government. Under his rule, Oman joined the United Nations and the Arab League. Sultan Haitham plans to continue in his footpath.

Brief History of Oman

Humans have been living in this region for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s believed that when humans began migrating from Africa, they first passed through and settled in the Arabian Peninsula.

The world’s oldest man-made object was found in Oman! It’s a stone tool from the Paleolithic Period, estimated to be over 2 million years old – from 2,000,000 BC.

Besides that, there are many archaeological sites scattered around Oman with remains of humans dating back 100,000 years and all eras of human development.

Islam was introduced to the region in the 600s AD and has remained ever since.

Over millennia, the region was invaded by many major empires, including various Arabic tribes, Persians, Turkish Seluks, Turkish Ottomans and in more recent history,

Portuguese and British. Portuguese took over much of Oman in the early 1500s and held it until 1650, nearly 150 years. In 1650, the ruling Omani regime finally ousted the Portuguese. Today, several Portuguese forts still stand in the Muscat coastal region.

As noted above, Oman has been ruled by the royal Al Bu Sa’id dynasty since 1749.

My Visit to Oman

Since I’m in the Middle East, I’m hoping to visit all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula between December through February, aside from Yemen, which is apparently extremely dangerous for travelers right now.

I took a short one-hour flight over to Muscat from Dubai and will stay just 10 days. I’d really love to stay much longer and travel around the country. I know there are many stunning places, including wadis (oasis), canyons, mountains, waterfalls, desert and more.

However, I already have a pet sit lined up in Dubai over Christmas, which puts a quick deadline to my Omani visit. In addition, Omani tourist visas are issued for 10 days or 30 days, with the 30-day visa being a bit costly. I opted for the 10-day visa, for both reasons.

In reality, two days are taken up by my arrival day and departure day, so I really only have eight days to explore Oman. In addition, I have to visit six resorts for work, so I just have a handful of free days and a few work days.

So I’m basing myself on the outskirts of Muscat at a great little guest house for the duration of my visit. This area is close to the main points of interest for visitors, which include ‘Old Muscat’, set in scenic Muttrah Bay, where the city was originally founded; the location of the Sultan’s Palace, over at Takia Bay; and beautiful stretches of dramatic rocky coastline running southward.

Within the two historic bays, there are two major historic forts, several historic hilltop guard towers, a large traditional souk (market), several mosques, the National Museum of Oman, several other small specialty museums, the grand Sultan’s Palace, traditional houses and alleyways, beautiful Muttrah Bay and a coastal walkway.

They’re all within easy walking distance of each other and comfortable to explore in two full days. In fact, I explored those bays in my first two days in Oman and got to visit just about everything.

Happily, in this short time frame, I can get the main feel/look/experience of Oman, at least in the Muscat region of the country. I’m also hoping to join a half-day trip along the coast to see more of Oman’s beautiful coastal mountains, valleys and snorkeling areas.

Of course, I’ll also get to thoroughly enjoy visiting six ultra-luxurious coastal resorts for my job as luxury hotel reviewer, and see yet another side of Oman.

Meanwhile, please enjoy all the photos of Oman that I’m posting on FB. It’s a really beautiful place!

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You might also enjoy:

My First Impressions of Dubai

Five Reasons Dubai is a great Budget Travel Destination

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The post Introduction to Oman appeared first on LashWorldTour.

My First Impressions of Dubai

Wow! Wow! Wow! Dubai is aammmmaaaazzzzziinnnnggg!

I had very high expectations for Dubai after seeing so many photos of its dazzling skyscrapers over the years and after some pretty extensive research about things to see & do, public transportation, costs and other details.

Yet Dubai has managed to far exceed my lofty expectations, and on all fronts!

In fact, after just two days here, I was thinking, “Wow, Europe and UK suck!”

I just spent most of 2024 pet sitting all over UK and EU, greatly enjoying most of the places, people and experiences very well. But in retrospect, now that I’ve landed in fabulous Dubai, those countries all seem well, well below par!

No offense to any of the wonderful hosts I met and befriended there, nor all the great experiences I enjoyed in their countries. But Dubai is just waaayyy, wwaaay beyond all of them! Hopefully the following details will shed some light on my new-found sentiments…

Start: Arrival at Dubai international airport

My very first impressions of Dubai came when I stepped off the plane and into Dubai International Airport. The airport doors slid open and I was greeted by spectacularly clean interiors. Everything looked immaculate, including floors, walls, railings, bathrooms and even the plentiful airport staff’s crisp uniforms.

In fact, I think those bathrooms are the cleanest I’ve ever seen in any airport in the world, including in Europe, UK and USA. Round-the-clock bathroom attendants are based inside each bathroom, equipped with brooms, dustbins and cleaning products. They’re perpetually sweeping floors, tidying up bathroom stalls, wiping the sinks and counters. I swear they clean up after each guest.

Other staff stroll the airport hallways doing much the same.

I can tell you that gave me a mighty fine first impression of Dubai before I even set foot in the city. And my good impressions continued…

Before arriving in Dubai…

Quite unfortunately, I’d had a brutal trip over from Ireland on Egyptian Air, due mainly to my first flight departing two hours late, thereby making me and dozens of other passengers miss our connecting flights and have to wait many hours for the next available flights.

By the time I reached Dubai I’d been awake nearly 24 hours and was so exhausted that I felt sick and unable to go any further without sleep. I was even walking off the plane as slow as a snail, something very rare for me.

Unfortunately, Dubai airport doesn’t have any actual places to sleep such as carpeted waiting areas or rows of seats without armrests. So I attempted to sleep on a single seat in a hallway by sitting on the floor in front of the seat and draping my upper torso over the seat.

I was resting there when I was awakened by a uniformed staff lady telling me that I could go sleep in the ladies’ prayer room, just down the hall.

(For those of you who haven’t visited any Muslim countries, in all said countries there are men’s and women’s prayer rooms situated throughout public places – parks, airports, bus and train and metro stations, shopping malls, and so on. That way, anyone can catch their five-times-daily prayers no matter where they are at the designated times. The rooms are not really intended for sleeping, but the airport staff told me it would be fine.)

So I roused myself up and stumbled a short distance down the hall with all my luggage into the female prayer room. There I found a completely private, enclosed and utterly silent little room with plush carpeting and thick walls. Wow, what a sanctuary for an exhausted traveler! I promptly laid down on the cushy carpet and fell asleep.

And so my second impression of Dubai was of great hospitality and kindness toward visitors.

After resting a couple hours, I finally got up and proceeded on through the utterly immaculate airport to immigration. There I encountered the longest lines I’d ever seen. But, amazingly, it all went very quickly since there were so many immigration officers and excellent organization from more attending staff.

To top it off, immigration officers hand over a free sim card to each visitor when they’re stamped in.

Oh, and did I mention that everyone speaks English, including bathroom and hall attendants? That’s actually not so common in foreign countries.

The smooth and easy arrival continued…

Getting from Dubai airport to many parts of the city is crazy easy. The metro has stops at two airport terminals. Their entrances are right at the airport. Just walk down a hallway, buy a ticket from the counter or ticket machine, get to the correct platform and step onto an immaculately clean metro to your destination.

That’s all I had to do. I think it’s the easiest, quickest and least expensive trip from an airport into a city that I’ve ever encountered in 27 years of world travel. My trip cost 3AED / about $0.75 US !

So, to sum up my impressions of Dubai solely from arriving at the airport… It’s immaculately clean, exceedingly well organized and very user friendly. People are polite, welcoming, helpful and very well-organized.

When I got into the city, I found it just as immaculate. The streets, sidewalks, restaurants, shops, parks, everything is super clean.

But first, a few more words about Dubai’s incredible metro system...

I had already researched Dubai’s public transportation system. So I knew it was inexpensive, reliable and extensive. Yet I was still surprised at how amazing it is. In fact, I’m going to write an entire post about it!

To sum it up quickly here, though, Dubai’s metro system is extremely user-friendly with English signs and announcements, clear signage, escalators, elevators, public toilets at every station, women-only carriages, manned ticket offices at every station, frequent and punctual trains, great architecture, immaculately clean and provides very inexpensive fares…and there’s even more to tell!

In short, Dubai metro system is a real pleasure to use.

Dubai’s amazing skyscrapers

Photos of Dubai’s incredible skyscrapers and other modern architecture over the past 10-20 years are what had me so eager to visit the city for so very long. I’ve been crazy about architecture as long as I can remember, so any city with stunning buildings, whether ancient, colonial or contemporary, I look forward to visiting.

But even though I knew many of Dubai’s most iconic buildings from their photos, seeing them up close and in person is an entirely different -and more amazing – thing. I am in heaven here staring googley-eyed at all the ultra-tall, cutting edge modern towers!

Diversity of Places to see / things to do

I researched Dubai pretty extensively before I headed over here. So I already knew about the city’s completely different historic districts, intriguing museums, traditional souks (market mazes), Dubai River, guided mosque visits, beautiful powdery beaches and other interesting places.

During my first week in Dubai, I visited most of the places I’ve been wanting to see. All of them have met my expectations or exceeded them.

Dubai’s Ideal Weather

Dubai and the Middle East are notorious for their scorching hot, intolerable climate. In summers, temperatures generally range between 40-50+C / 110-125 F ! Add to that, perpetual sunshine with hot a cloud in sight.

However, Dubai’s winter weather is a completely different thing! I’d done my research in advance, which is exactly why I’m visiting Dubai and this area December through February. At this time, day time temperatures usually range from 24-28 C / 75-82 F. Also with perpetually blue skies and sunshine.

On my way to Dubai, I was greatly looking forward to bright blue skies, wonderful sunshine and warmth. Especially after spending most of two months in cold, completely overcast, gloomy damp days in Ireland and Northern Ireland. But I was slightly concerned that Dubai might be a bit too hot at times, considering the ongoing sunshine.

So I’m over the moon to discover that Dubai is generally a bit cooler than I’d expected. I didn’t know about the cool breezes and the huge shade cover from all the tall buildings. The shade and wind actually make me feel slightly chilly at times and I have to pull on a long-sleeved shirt.

In fact, the weather here is pretty much perfect and ideal. And it’s certainly a huge improvement over the cold damp gloom of UK in November!

Many nostalgic references to other Asian travels

I’ve spent about half my adult life roaming around various countries in far east Asia. First I lived in Kyoto, Japan for six years. Then I set out on my world travels in SE Asia, where I ended up spending most of the next 15 years. It’s only been since 2015 that I departed SE Asia and started exploring Latin America, Europe, UK and northern Africa. So it’s been about seven years since I’ve roamed around my favorite places in Asia.

Exploring Dubai is a real treat for me because I’m repeatedly reminded of all my old Asian stomping grounds and favorite cities. Dubai’s riverside strongly reminds me of Bangkok’s Chao Praya River, where I used to love catching the cheap public boat ferries.

The Burj Khalifa area is uncannily like Kuala Lumpur’s Twin Tower area, both with huge modern shopping malls and a small lake surrounded by landscaped gardens and soaring skyscrapers.

Dubai Marina reminds me of Singapore. Dubai’s main street that’s lined by blocks of super-tall skyscrapers, Sheik Zayed Road, reminds me of walking in parts of Bangkok and Singapore.

Dubai’s historic district, with its plain sand-colored buildings and narrow alleys, reminds me of Marrakesh, Morocco.

All the nostalgic references just make my experience of Dubai even better than expected.

Dubai’s delicious & diverse Asian foods

One thing I did not know about Dubai before I arrived is the huge diversity of inexpensive & delicious Asian restaurants and groceries. But I sure found out as soon as I arrived, much to my great delight!

I’m staying in the Deira neighborhood. It’s full of expat Asians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and other countries. They’re all in Dubai working or searching for jobs. Many are professionals, including accountants, engineers, business managers, medical professionals, bankers and so on.

There are especially a large number of Indians. And that means a lot of great, authentic, inexpensive Indian restaurants & tea shops are all over the place. I had no idea.

Much to my great delight, I’ve found myself immersed in all my favorite Indian breakfasts, meals and snacks that I used to eat while romping around Malaysia and Singapore for a decade. Suddenly, I get to eat dosai, idly, paratha roti, daal, palak paneer and masala chai. Yippie!

On top of that, supermarkets are chock-a-block with a huge variety of Asian foods, drinks and ingredients. There are entire isles devoted to Philippino, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese and Japanese foods!

On my first grocery visit, I found a favorite Japanese drink called Oronomin C! Wow! I had to buy one for old times sake. Delicious.

I also found one of my favorite little Malaysian/Thai cakes, little green pandan muffin-like cakes. I bought those too and have been happily eating one every day. Yeah!

Shopping mall food courts have separate shops selling Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, Japanese, Philippino, Vietnamese, Thai and other cuisines. They might be the most extensive/diverse food courts I’ve seen anywhere.

Prices are a bit high for me, but the portions are so big that one meal makes two meals for me. And that I can do.

So I’ve unexpectedly found myself living in food paradise, with all my favorite Asian cuisines on hand!

In fact, this has suddenly transformed my life in yet another regard. Up until now, I’ve spent all of 2024 cooking and eating all my own food. Believe it or not, I never ate at any restaurants in Alaska, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Wales, Ireland or Northern Ireland. Much too expensive for my modest budget.

I’ve spent the entire year going grocery shopping, hauling it all home, putting it all away, cooking meals every day, cleaning up, packaging left-overs, carrying my lunches around with me every day.

And now suddenly in Dubai I no longer have to do any of that! I just go out to a delicious, cheap nearby Indian restaurant or Mall food court, order a meal, wait a few minutes, eat my meal and head out. That’s it!

This is just like I used to travel all over SE Asia for about 15 years of my life. No more grocery shopping, cooking or cleaning up! Yeah!

Lots of little surprises!

Despite all my careful advanced research on Dubai, I keep running into all sorts of fun, charming and unexpected little surprises here. Like my aforementioned favorite Japanese drink, Oronomin C; my favorite Thai pandan cakes; my favorite Indian breakfasts and meals.

During my first week in Dubai, I unexpectedly got my hand henna-ed for the first time. Got to meet an Emirati falcon. Saw a camel and her baby. Learned the proper ablutions before entering a Muslim mosque.

I’ve been inundated by wafts of fragrant incenses in front of perfume shops, in luxury hotel lobbies and shopping malls. I was blessed by a Hindu holy man, who delicately wound a thin red string around my wrist and chanted good luck wishes for me.

I’ve come across many small green parks. Enjoyed unexpectedly pleasant, even cool, weather, all further enhanced by cool breezes and heaps of shade from all the tall buildings. I’ve befriended and fed three stray cats in various parts of the city.

Every day brings more new delightful little surprises.

Summary of my First Impressions of Dubai

As you can see, I am really loving Dubai!

This city is immaculately clean. It’s super user friendly and has a fantastic public transportation system.

Dubai’s famous skyscrapers and other modern architectural wonders are even more spectacular in person than in photos. Besides skyscrapers and shopping malls, though, the city has a huge diversity of interesting things to see & do.

Dubai also offers a huge variety of inexpensive and authentic Asian cuisines, cooked by chefs from each country. And, at least in winter months from December through February, the weather is absolutely ideal.

I’ll be exploring and writing much more about Dubai through December and January, so stay tuned for heaps more intriguing news from this spectacular city.

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You might also enjoy:

5 Reasons Dubai is a Great Budget Travel Destination

12 Things I Most Love about Turkey

=================================

The post My First Impressions of Dubai appeared first on LashWorldTour.

5 Reasons Why Dubai is a Great Budget Travel Destination

Back in 2020, while I was ‘stuck’ in Turkey for seven months during Covid, I spent a lot of time researching where I else could travel to from Turkey during the pandemic. So many country borders were closed and others were open but had heavy requirements for entry. It was difficult to figure out where to go.

One of the regions I researched in depth was Dubai, UAE and its neighboring countries in the Middle East. Since Dubai has so many ultra-contemporary, ultra-high skyscrapers and because UAE and neighboring countries are so wealthy from oil, I’d always assumed that it would be extremely expensive to visit.

Much to my great surprise, I discovered that Dubai actually has a lot of budget accommodations! I also found out that Dubai has a huge diversity of things to see and do, beyond just gazing at mind-blowing skyscrapers. Looking at photos online and reading about all the amazing things to do there really got me ultra-hyped to visit.

Now that I’m finally going to visit Dubai, I’ve done even more research about entry requirements, costs, safety, getting around the city and things to see and do. To my great delight I’ve found out that Dubai is an easy budget travel destination for more reasons than just cheap accommodations. Here’s what I’ve discovered….

1. Free Tourist Visa on Arrival for Americans and other G1 countries

Nowadays a majority of countries in the world do not require visiting Americans to buy a visa or pay upon arrival to enter and explore their country. However, that’s not always the case. There are many countries that require a visa, usually a reasonably-priced one of about $10-25 US. That includes a few of UAE’s neighbors like Oman and Qatar.

And there are a few countries with really expensive visas, even for Americans, such as China, Bolivia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Happily, UAE gives out free 30-day visas-on-arrival to Americans and citizens of other G1 countries, like Europeans countries and other first-world nations.

That makes UAE and Dubai less costly and considerably easier to visit for everyone, but especially nice for budget travelers, like me, who are always pinching pennies.

2. Lots of Cheap Accommodation Options

As I mentioned already, I was astounded to discover that Dubai has heaps of budget accommodation options. I don’t mean a handful, but dozens and dozens of places. They include hostels, small private rooms called ‘partitions’ and various shared rooms and private rooms on Airbnb.

I’m talking many for about $10 US per night, with a total cost of about $77-90 US per week (Airbnb fees). There are many others in the $14-20 US per night range and a total of about $115-150 per week. Some of these are in prime city locations!

If you can afford the $20-30 US per night range, $150-250 US per week, then you can find some quite luxurious private and shared rooms in key locations like Dubai Marina and central Dubai near the world’s tallest skyscraper, Burj Khalifa.

And these rates are found even during Dubai’s best visiting season, in winter from December through February or March. That’s when the notoriously HOT weather conditions in the region notch down to daytime temps of about 24-28 C / 75-82F and night-time temps of 18-24 C / 65-75F.

Now that I’ve spent hours and hours searching and re-searching for budget accommodations in Dubai, I do have to make some qualifications about these places. You do have to be careful about choosing rooms and making reservations. There are issues about how far places are located from attractions, potential scams, shared rooms filled with immigrant laborers and so on.

In fact, there are so many things to look out for and be careful of when selecting budget accommodation in Dubai, that I’ll write an entire post with tips, do’s and don’ts.

3. Great & Inexpensive Public Transportation

I was also very happy to learn that Dubai’s public transportation network is modern, clean, diverse, efficient and…very inexpensive! Yeah!

There are extensive lines of regular buses, trams, metros (subways) and river ferries, in addition to carefully regulated, relatively inexpensive taxis. These all fall under the government transportation system. That means you can buy a transport card (actually various choices of transport cards) that can be used on all the different modes of transportation, including the taxis!

Even better, it’s all pretty cheap. Depending on how far you’re traveling, a one-way fare costs 4 AED / 6 AED / 8.5 AED. That’s about $1.10 US / $165 US / $2.30 US. The latter fares cover a distance of about one hour.

Even better, passengers are allowed 180 minutes for that one-way fare. Within that time frame, you can switch between metros, buses, ferries and trams, as long as the time between any two doesn’t exceed 30 minutes. Your transport card keeps track of it all and charges you the final fare at the end of your last vehicle.

In my experience using public city transoration all over the world, a $1 US fare is about standard and reasonable. In some countries, it’s even less, maybe $0.25-0.50 US per ride!

But I’ve discovered this year that in UK and Europe, city transportation fares are MUCH more expensive. A one-way fare in most cities I’ve visited are 2.50-3.00 GBP or 2.50-3.50 Euro. That’s about $3-4 US for a one-way single bus or metro ticket! In many cities, if you switch modes, you have to pay again!

So heading to Dubai after traveling around UK and Europe for a year, Dubai’s transportation seems really cheap! But it’s at a normal low rate found in most countries around the world. And it certainly fits easily into low budget travel.

4. Reasonably Priced Groceries

I was expecting grocery prices in Dubai to be quite expensive, especially fresh fruits and vegetables and quite possibly meats as well. None of those things can be grown or raised in UAE, with its HOT desert climate, so all of it has to be imported.

I was a little nervous that it would cost me a small fortune to feed myself there. So I was pleasantly surprised when my pet sitting host in Dubai, a Scottish expat woman, informed me that grocery prices for everything are about the same prices as in UK / Scotland.

Well, I’ve found consistently that grocery prices in UK (including Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) are considerably cheaper than in the USA right now! So if Dubai grocery prices are like those in UK, I guess I will be eating for my usual $10 US per day. Saweet!

There are some great internationally-known supermarkets in Dubai, such as Carrafour, one of my personal favorites. Then there are also many local fruit & veg shops, fish & seafood markets, nuts & spice vendors and other food goods on sale at low prices all over the city.

5. Lots of free things to see and do

Dubai has so many amazing & diverse things to do that are completely free!

Besides admiring stunning skyscrapers and city skylines, there are beautiful parks, spectacular beaches with powdery sand and turquoise seas, historic districts full of ancient architecture and culture, museums, exotic traditional markets, huge modern shopping malls and public evening light shows.

Besides all the freebies, several fantastic activities and attractions have very low entry fees. These include guided tours of huge Jumeirah Mosque and many key museums.

Dubai has so many free and budget things to see and do that I will write a separate post detailing them all. So stay tuned!

Summary

As you can see, many factors come together to make Dubai a great budget travel destination. No visa is required for a 30-day tourist visit for most major countries’ citizens. A variety of accommodations and public transportation are very inexpensive. And there are dozens of fantastic free & inexpensive things to see and do.

I’ll be spending about one month in Dubai, so I’ll be sharing lots of photos and useful travel information about this exciting city as I go. Stay tuned for more on Dubai!

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In the meantime, you might also enjoy:

OMG! I’m Going to Dubai!

12 Things I Most Love about Turkey

18 Surprising Facts about Cyprus

========================

The post 5 Reasons Why Dubai is a Great Budget Travel Destination appeared first on LashWorldTour.

OMG! I’m Going to Dubai!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I’m Going to Dubai!

Yes, this coming Sunday, December 1^st I will board a flight in Dublin, Ireland bound for Dubai, UAE (United Arab Emirates). I’ll arrive in the early morning hours of December 2^nd.

Eeek! I’m sooooo excited!

I’ve been wanting to visit Dubai for years! All those ultra-tall, gorgeous modern skyscrapers!

More recently, while I was ‘stuck’ in Turkey in 2020 for seven months during Covid, I spend hours – days – weeks researching where I else could travel to from Turkey during the pandemic while so many borders were closed and others were open but had heavy requirements for entry.

One of the regions I researched in depth was Dubai, UAE and neighboring countries in the Middle East. That’s when I discovered, much to my great surprise, that Dubai actually has a lot of budget accommodation! OMG, even I could afford to visit! Yeeha!

I also found out that Dubai has a huge diversity of things to see and do, beyond just gazing at mind-blowing skyscrapers. Looking the photos and reading about all the amazing things to do there really got me ultra-hyped to visit.

However, it wasn’t possible to visit that region during Covid. So I just tucked all my new-found knowledge into the back of my mind, with an ongoing ‘flag-to-self’ to visit the Middle East at the earliest feasible time in the near future.

While researching weather in the region, I also noted that the best – and only – time to visit would be in the winter months of Dec-Feb, possibly into March. During those months, day-time temps typically are between 24-28C / 75-82F, with night time temps between 20C-24C or even lower.

With all the daily sunshine, it was bound to feel a bit hotter, but those temps are certainly reasonable, even comfortable. In fact, I love those temperatures! Other times of the year, temperatures soared up into the 40s C / over 100F, even up to 50C / 120F. No way!

So ever since my Covid-era research, I’ve kept in the back of my mind to fit in a Dec-Feb exploration of Dubai, UAE and the Middle East. It just had to fit into the rest of my travel scheme some year. And this is the year! Yeah!

I start my explorations in Dubai for 10 days. Then I’ll explore the neighboring countries of Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait for one-two weeks each, as well as the UAE city of Abu Dhabi.

I had also planned on visiting Saudi Arabia, at least to Riyadh city for one-two weeks. But I recently found out that a visa to Saudi Arabia costs more than $100 US! Eek. That’s way too much to spend for a simple one-two week visit. So I’ll skip that for now…unless I find a pet sit in Riyadh during my designated months.

At this point, I’m more or less ready to go. My travel arrangements are all set in place for the entire month of December. I’ll be in Dubai for 10 days, as noted above. Then I fly to Oman for 10 days, followed by a return to Dubai for a 10-day pet sit, which will bring me to Dec. 29^th. I then plan to stay another week in Dubai over New Year’s before heading off to the other places.

I’ve already booked my flight to Dubai, plus my first 10 days of accommodation, a RTN flight to/from Oman and, obviously, have arranged the pet sit. I’ve also researched more extensively about Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait, in terms of what to see & do and accommodation options in January / February. I’m ready!

Paying for my Middle East explorations is a combination of using money that I’ve already earned this year reviewing luxury hotels in UK and EU, plus upcoming hotel reviews in these Middle Eastern countries, and pet sitting gigs (which doesn’t pay but cuts out accommodation expenses).

Sadly, I don’t have any hotels to review in Dubai, but luckily I do have a handful of hotels to visit in all the other places.

As for pet sitting, I was confident that I could find a pet sit over Christmas since there are so many expats living in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and all the other major cities in the region. And sure enough, I landed a gig looking after two cats for a Scottish woman over Christmas. That sit ends Dec. 29^th, so I’m still hoping to find a second pet sit over NYE. Let’s see!

If not, I’ll make another reservation somewhere in Dubai. I really want to watch the NYE celebrations in Dubai!

Some of the things I’ll be doing in Dubai – and, actually, most of the other places – include visiting their main mosques (some offer guided tours); going to various museums to learn about the culture, history, religion and art of each country; exploring Old Town centers and typical labyrinth-like traditional markets; going to beaches (Dubai has stunning beaches with bright turquoise water!); gazing at all the amazing cutting-edge modern skyscrapers and other architecture; checking out some of the world’s largest and most luxurious shopping malls; and a few more touristy attractions/activities like night-time ‘dancing light and fountain’ displays.

Since I’ve done so much research on Dubai and other regional countries, I already have tons more information to share. After I arrive and get to know the places in person, I’m sure I’ll have even more to write about.

So stay tuned for lots of photos and travel updates from Dubai & beyond!

In the meantime, you might also enjoy some of my articles about other Muslim countries I’ve visited, like Morocco, Egypt and Turkey…

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12 Things I Most Love about Turkey

My First Impressions of Morocco

My First Impressions of Cairo Egypt

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The post OMG! I’m Going to Dubai! appeared first on LashWorldTour.

11 Things Ireland is Famous For

In October, 2024 I was lucky to find a two-week dog sitting position in Dublin. As a result, I was able to explore Dublin city for many days. I visited several museums, parks and gardens, Dublin Castle, a famous prison, and a historic Guinness family estate known as Farleigh Hall.

I learned quite a lot about Irish history and famous iconic Irish traditions. Some are very well known worldwide, while others may be known more fully only to fans of particular products or past times.

Following are 15 of the most famous Irish things…

1. Irish Whiskey

I’m sure most people have at least heard of Irish Whiskey, while whiskey aficionados will undoubtedly know first hand at least a few of Ireland’s most renowned whiskeys.

I’ve never acquired a taste for whiskey myself, but I have heard of Irish Whiskey. But I’d be hard-pressed to name any particular brand. Looking online now at a list of top Irish Whiskey labels, the only one I’ve ever even heard of is Jameson.

Other top labels include Bushmills, Redbreast, Middleton, Tullamore Dew and Lost Irish, though there are at least a dozen top brands today.

According to some quick research, I learned that whiskey making in Ireland dates back to at least the 13^th century. Several current brands date back to the 1600 or 1700s, including Jameson, Middleton, Teeling and Bushmills. But in recent years, Irish Whiskey has become increasingly more popular and several other brands have sprouted.

Apparently traditional Irish Whiskey is referred to as ‘single pot still Irish whiskey’. It’s made from a mix of malted and un-malted barley that’s distilled in traditional copper pots. There may also be up to 5% of other grains in the brew. But there are also Irish Malt Whiskeys.

Irish Whiskey is considered smoother than Scotch Whiskey, which is said to be heavier and fuller in flavor.

The most surprising thing I’ve just learned is how expensive top Irish whiskeys are. Several are in the $200 per bottle range, while others cost $400+ or $600+ per bottle. Really expensive bottles cost from $1500-2500 per bottle, or even more. Wowie, that is an expensive beverage!

2. Guinness Beer

Even more famous than Irish Whiskey is Guinness Beer, a household name all over the world. Beer lovers may also know that it’s from Ireland.

I have to admit that, while I’ve heard of Guinness of course, I did not know that it’s from Ireland! That’s because I have never enjoyed drinking beer.

The Guinness Beer legend is attributed to Arthur Guinness, who descended from a long line of beer brewers. In 1789, Arthur secured a 9000-year (!) lease on a Dublin brewery and set about creating, marketing and distributing his particular version of beer. By the 1860s Guinness was known all over the world.

3. Guinness World Records

The renowned Guinness World Records (formerly called Guinness Book of Records) comes from the Guinness Beer company. The book is considered the ultimate authority on record-breaking human achievements around the globe. The company’s mission is to document the incredible.

It all started in 1854 by then Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver. At the time, there were many unresolved public disputes among the well-to-do about various daily facts, such as the fastest game bird in Europe. Answers to such questions were not found in any reference book.

Mr. Beaver decided to assemble a team of well-known fact-finders to research various information and compile a book of superlative facts and figures. The idea was actually intended as a promotion for Guinness Beer.

Little did they know that the book would go on to become a best seller and lead to this renowned source of global superlative achievements.

To date, they have compiled annual record books for 70 years with 153 million+ books sold in 40 different languages in 100 countries around the world. Each year there are thousands of records, 80% of which are new or updated.

4. A Plethora of Renowned Writers & Poets

Until I visited Dublin’s small but very educational Museum of Irish Literature, I did not know that so many super famous writers and poets originated in Ireland.

Many of them are household names that nearly everyone has a least heard of. Avid fans of classic literature no doubt have read their works and may even be able to recite their poems or lines from their books.

They include Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, William Yeats and Bram Stoker (author of Dracula) to name just a few of the most famous Irish writers.

Turns out that there are soooo many famous Irish authors that a display of them fills an entire room in the museum, as you can see above.

5. Harps

I’ve always loved the lyrical sound of the harp. But I must confess that I did not know the instrument originated in Ireland.

Harps are so beloved and famous in Ireland that they became the symbol of the nation as early as the 1200s. The harp now adorns the Republic of Ireland’s passport, official government documents, presidential seals and Irish currency. It’s also found on various alternate Republic of Ireland flags.

Historically, the harp was associated with the royal family, particularly with the Last High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, who was an avid harpist.

The harp is also the logo on Ryan Airlines planes and Guinness Beer, though in reverse image.

6. Irish Music

Music indigenous to the island of Ireland is called Traditional Irish Music or Irish Folk Music. There are many, many different genres and many different instruments used. Forms of Irish Music go all the way back to the 800s, so it’s not surprising that over the course of 12 centuries many varieties of music were created.

Over all, genres include ballads, dance music, drinking music, harp music (mostly played for royalty), military music, choral music and others. Types of dance music include jigs, double jigs, polkas and reels. In more recent centuries, ballroom dances and mazurkas were created.

Important Irish instruments include the Irish fiddle, harp, Irish bagpipes, accordion and concertina.

Many forms of traditional Irish music still remain intact and many modern day musicians, singers and rock bands have incorporated Irish Music into their own fusion style. Some examples are A/C D/C, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, Enya. In addition, hundreds of local and nationally-known Irish rock bands play their own versions of rock and Irish music, beginning in the 1960s.

7. Leprechauns

Leprechauns originated in ancient Irish folklore and are key figures in Irish mythology, going back at least to the 700s AD. But scholars seem to disagree about the actual origin and tales.

Some say that the word leprechaun came from an ancient Irish-Celtic god and cultural hero named Lugh. Others say that leprechaun means ‘small body’.

Some say leprechauns are small supernatural beings associated with water spirits or considered a type of solitary fairy. Apparently there are no female leprechauns.

Still others say leprechauns are cobblers by trade who own a bag of gold, which they must reveal to anyone who can catch them. But they are clever, mischievous and strongly intend on keeping their gold, which makes them incredibly difficult to capture.

While leprechauns are considered not actually real, there are supposedly 236 leprechauns currently living in Ireland. Hmm…go figure that one out!

The only thing that everyone seem to agree on is that leprechauns are part of ancient Irish culture or folklore. Which ever way you regard them, leprechauns are strongly connected to Ireland. There’s even a Leprechaun Museum in Dublin for visitors who want to learn more leprechaun tales.

8. St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick’s Day originated in Ireland in the 1600s as a day of feasting in honor of St Patrick, one of Ireland’s leading saints way back in the 400s AD and now Ireland’s patron saint. Apparently, it was St Patrick who introduced Christianity to Ireland.

When thousands of Irish immigrated to the USA in the 1700s, particularly to Boston and NYC, they took St Patrick’s Day with them. The first annual St Patrick’s Day Parade in NYC was held in 1766. That was 10 years before America became an independent nation!

The original St Patrick’s Day of feasting eventually evolved into a holiday centered around heavy drinking, along with parades and everyone wearing green. Now it’s celebrated all over the world.

9. Shamrocks

Like the harp and leprechauns, shamrocks are associated with Ireland. In fact, the shamrock is the National Flower of Ireland and has long been part of Irish culture.

Rather amazingly, the origins go back to St Patrick. When St Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland, he used the shamrock, with its three large connected petals, as an analogy to the Holy Trinity, to explain to laymen the interconnection of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Who knew?!

10. Potatoes

Potatoes are often associated with Ireland. However, that’s primarily because of the notorious Potato Famine that struck Ireland in the mid 1800s.

Potatoes actually originated in Peru, where there are amazingly about 3000 varieties of potatoes. When the Spanish conquered South America in the early 1500s, they discovered potatoes and eventually exported them to Europe.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced Potatoes to Ireland in 1589. Prior to that, the Irish diet mainly relied on oats, wheat, barley, porridge, bread and dairy products. But potatoes grew exceedingly well in Irish soil. They are filling, nutritious and dense in calories, so Irish people began including potatoes more and more into their diets, especially the poor.

In the 1800s, other grains became extremely expensive in Ireland, so potatoes became even more important to poor tenant farmers and other poor Irish. By the mid 1800s, about 50% of Irish relied solely on potatoes, while the other 50% also relied heavily on them.

Quite disastrously, in 1845 a mold caused a dangerous, fast-spreading plant disease that spread rapidly through Ireland, causing great crop failures. It decimated about 50% of the potato crops in 1845. Over the next seven years, it wiped out about 75% of potatoes.

Over the seven years of the Potato Famine, also called The Great Hunger, it’s esimated that one million Irish starved to death and another one to two million emigrated out of the country.

11. IRA ‘Terrorist’ Group

IRA – Irish Republican Army – is the name used by several different militant groups over a century, from the early 1900s to present. The stated mission of these IRA groups is to break Ireland away from ‘colonial imperialism’, meaning to free Ireland from the British monarchy.

The original IRA, 1919-1922, was organized by Irish soldiers who returned from WWI and initiated the Irish War of Independence. This did lead to Ireland becoming a sovereign nation, well actually two nations, in 1922.

Irish fighting groups could not agree on whether to remain under the umbrella of the British crown or not. The Republic of Ireland broke away completely and is part of EU. The much smaller Northern Ireland is also a sovereign nation, but stays connected to the British crown, just like Scotland and Wales.

From 1922 to the present many different splinter groups of IRA have formed over the decades, each with a slightly different view of things. From the late 1960s to 1998d, nearly 30 years, a kind of civil war raged in Northern Ireland, fought by various IRA groups on both sides. There were bitter political/ethnic/religious differences between the groups.

There were ongoing riots, mass protests, civil unrest and bombings, particularly in Belfast over that time. These were the modern day IRA terrorist groups that people around the world currently in their 50s or older probably remember hearing about on the news. The conflict was finally resolved in 1998 by Good Friday Agreement.

IRA groups still exist today, though no major conflicts have been underway in the 2000s thus far.

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15 Surprising Facts about Wales

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The post 11 Things Ireland is Famous For appeared first on LashWorldTour.

I recently spent nearly two months traveling around the small country of Wales. I was pet sitting the entire way, looking after various dogs and cats all over the place. Those pet sits took me to the capital, Cardiff; a small coastal town on the south coast called Porthcawl; and and even tinier town in northern Wales called Rhuddlan.

Not surprisingly, I learned a lot about Wales during my adventures. Last week I published my Introduction to Wales. In this article, I share 15 of the most interesting things I learned about this lovely, hilly country…

1. Wales is officially a bilingual country

Wales is officially a bilingual country, with Welsh and English. In order to preserve the Welsh language, the government has instituted a serious bi-lingual signage policy. So double signs in Welsh and English are found all over. In supermarkets, on road signs, public buildings and heritage sites. I saw them everywhere during my two months in Wales.

In reality, less than 20% of the population still speak Welsh. Most of them are in the north and interior rural regions.

A bit surprisingly, many people in southern Wales are rather irritated at the government for all the bilingual signs. Since virtually nobody speaks Welsh throughout most of the country, people feel it was a massive waste of tax-payer money. Hopefully people in more Welsh-speaking areas appreciate the effort.

2. In Welsh the country is called Cymru

Speaking of the Welsh language, in Welsh the country is actually called ‘Cymru.’

3. Wales has the most castles per square mile in world

Here’s an interesting fact about Wales that really surprised me. Considering all the European countries with famous castles, along with England and Scotland, I certainly would have guessed that some other country held this title.

But little humble Wales has more than 600 castles scattered about its meager 8000 square miles. The castles are from many different centuries, built in many different styles and sizes. They’re also in varying states of preservation, from mere ruins to fully-preserved and functioning castles.

During my two months traveling around Wales, I only got to visit two of those 600+ castles and gaze upon a few others from afar. I visited stunning, well-intact Cardiff Castle and semi-ruined Rhuddlan Castle in the far north. I sure wish I could have seen more!

4. This cool Red Dragon is the symbol of Wales

This super cool & stylish red dragon is certainly one of the best national symbols that I’ve come across in the world. It features on the Welsh flag and is also found all over the place in Wales.

5. Tom Jones is from Wales

Nowadays, the internationally renowned singer Tom Jones may not be commonly known by today’s youth. But hey, many young people don’t even know who Madonna is for heck’s sake!

But for many generations, from at least my parent’s era, Tom Jones was a household name, right up there with Elvis Presley and the Beatles. He was most famous in the 1960s.

I’m not even that familiar with his music, though he was around while I was a young kid. But I do remember that he was considered a very handsome and sexy lady’s man with a flashy smile and sexy clothes. He played for more than 40 years at Las Vegas, from 1967-2011, but was probably most famously known for his female fans randomly throwing their panties at him while he was performing.

In any event, Tom Jones is one of Wales’ most internationally-famous stars. Incidentally, he’s still alive and singing! He’s also been dubbed Sir Tom Jones by the British Royal Crown for his contributions to UK.

6. World’s Biggest Elvis Presley Festival in Porthcawl, Wales

Speaking of Elvis…

As wacky as it seems, the world’s biggest Elvis Presley Festival is held in Porthcawl, a tiny coastal resort town in southern Wales. I only know about it because I just happened to be pet sitting in Porthcawl the very weekend that the annual festival descended on the town.

In 2024, the festival celebrated its 20^th year in Porthcawl. It’s been growing in size and fame during the past two decades and now a whopping 40,000 people arrive in little Porthcawl over one weekend in September.

There are three days of Elvis contests with dozens of contestants, hundreds of people dressed up as Elvis (both contestants and spectators) and a dozen or more bars, restaurants and other local businesses participating.

I’m not particularly an Elvis fan, but since I was in Porthcawl at the time, I did mosey on through briefly to see all the crowds and snap a few photos of Elvis wanna be-s. They sure looked like they were having fun!

7. Cardiff was once the world’s biggest and most important ports

As the industrial revolution took off in the mid-late 1800s in the UK, and huge deposits of very high-quality coal was unearthed in southern Wales’ valleys, Wales suddenly became an important part of the success of industry.

Welsh coal was declared to be the best quality steam coal, so was highly sought after to generate electricity, heat homes, run steam trains, factories and all sorts of machinery. Wales began growing in fame and wealth.

Luckily for Cardiff, the city lies on the southeastern shores of Wales, just south of the coal valleys. It was natural to send all the coal down to Cardiff Port to ship it out all over the world. Thus Cardiff became the most important and busiest port in the world, with the largest exports measured in tonnage.

In 1987, Cardiff exported 16 million tons of coal. In 1914, it exported more than 24 million tons.

It was a relatively short lived run, lasting from the late 1800s until WWI, when a huge percentage of young Welsh men were sent off to war.

8. The world’s first Million Dollar business deal took place in Cardiff

The Welsh coal industry was so prolific that it lead to the world’s very first Million Dollar business deal (actually, the first Million British Pound deal), which took place in 1907.

The Million Pound check was signed at Cardiff Port’s Coal Exchange. That once all-important building still stands at Cardiff Bay.

9. Today Wales has several huge offshore windmill farms

In September of this year, I took a train from Cardiff, in southern Wales, up to the north coast. As we moved along the north coast, I looked out to sea and saw something very curious waaayyyy out on the horizon of the Irish Sea. I had to strain my eyes and use my imagination to figure out what the heck I was observing.

Eventually, I realized that I was gazing at a virtual forest of huge modern windmills! They stretched out across the horizon for miles. There must have been hundreds of them, I reckoned.

After arriving at my destination, a pet sit in the tiny town of Rhuddlan, I asked around. It turns out that the windmill farm I saw is called the Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm. There are 160 windmills.

It started producing power in 2009 and nowproduces enough clean energy annually to power 70,000 households! That’s equivalent to cutting down on 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

Rhyl Flats is not the only large offshore wind farm in Wales, though. There are several others, as well as training schools for offshore windmill maintenance, power facilities, admin offices, visitor centers and onshore wind farms. It’s already an entire industry!

More over, throughout UK there are dozens of offshore wind farms.

10. Mt. Everest was named after a Welshman

Up through the mid 1800s there was great debate about which Himalayan mountain was the highest in the world. When the official survey team of India, composed of both Indian and British mathematicians and surveyors, conclusively proved that this particular mountain was indeed the highest on the planet, the British Royal Geographic Society decided to name it Mt. Everest in honor of Welshman, Colonel George Everest, former Surveyor General of India.

Tibetans already called the mountain Chomolungma, while Nepalese called it Sagaramath. But the British considered those names ‘not intelligible to civilized man’ and gave it their own name. Prior to that, the British referred to it as Mountain XV.

11. Wales is famous for slate

Along with coal, Wales is famous for that super hard black stone, slate. Modern architects in Wales often use slate to honor the country’s natural resources. One excellent example is the Welsh Parliament building in Cardiff, referred to in Welsh as Senod.

12. Wales is less than 10% the size of England

While England takes up nearly 60% of the island of Great Britain, tiny Wales occupies less than 10%, while Scotland up north takes up the remaining 30% of land.

Wales’ land area amounts to 8023 sqaare miles / 20,779 square km. That’s a little bigger than New Jersey (7354), but a little smaller than Massachusetts (10,555 sq miles).

Even so, Wales is not the smallest of four countries making up UK. The country ofNorthern Ireland, situated at the north end of the island of Ireland, is 5456 sq miles. That’s roughly the size of Connecticut (5543 sq miles).

13. Corgi dogs originated in Wales

Here’s another fact I was surprised to learn. I had assumed that Queen Elizabeth and the British Royal family’s favorite dog breed would have originated in England.

But as it turns out, Corgis came from Wales, where despite their small size, they were sheep herders.

14. Wales has the world’s 2^nd longest town name

A tiny town in northern Wales is famed as having the world’s 2^nd longest town name.

It is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch.

That means ‘the Church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool.’

The absolute longest town name is in New Zealand.

15. Wales is the only country with a coastal walkway following its entire coast

Wales is surrounded by seas on its southern, western and northern borders. Only to the east does Wales have a land border, and that’s with England.

The country’s total coastline measures 2700 km / 1680 miles, which includes all the ins and outs of its many bays, small offshore islands and the large northwestern island of Anglesey.

The famous Wales Coast Path runs for 1400 / 870 miles, following the entire coast. It’s the longest coastal path in the world and the only trail that follows the entire coastline of a country.

Wales Coast Path also links up with other long trails that go inland through Wales and Offa’s Dyke Path, which follows the border between Wales and England. Hikers who walk both trails will walk circumnavigate the entire country. That’s an additional 285 km / 177 miles.

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The post 15 Surprising Facts about Wales appeared first on LashWorldTour.

Introduction to Wales

Wales is one of four countries that make up the United Kingdom (UK). The others are England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Wales is a full-fledged country with its own government, parliament, courts and power to make its own laws. But it’s also under the umbrella of the British Royal Crown.

Oddly, the United Nations list of countries considers UK as one country, rather than listing each of the four countries within UK. Honestly, I don’t understand this.

Three of UK’s countries are located on the island of Great Britain, namely, England, Wales and Scotland. Wales is located in the southwestern section of the island, taking up less than 10% of the land area. It’s bordered by England on the east, but otherwise surrounded by seas.

England takes up about 58% of the southern end of the island. Scotland occupies the northern 32% of the island. The fourth country to make up UK is Northern Ireland, located on the northern tip of the island of Ireland.

The distinctive Welsh red dragon is the symbol of Wales and flies on its flag. As part of UK, the Welsh currency is GBP, the British Pound. Wales is bilingual, with Welsh and English as official languages.

Geography of Wales

As noted above, Wales is surrounded by seas, aside from its eastern border with England. Southern and southeastern Wales lies along the broad, V-shaped Bristol Channel. Off the southwestern coast, St George’s Channel runs between Wales and the southern end of Ireland. The remaining west coast and north coast of Wales look onto the vast Irish Sea that runs between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

In total, Wales has over 870 miles of coastline. The coastal topography is quite diverse, including sandy beaches, stone beaches, rugged cliffs, rocky shorelines, sand dunes, grassy meadows and bays both large and small.

Wales is primarily hilly and mountainous. But its highest mountain, Mt Snowdon in Snowdonia National Park, is a mere 3560 ft / 1085 M.

Wales is also primarily rural, with much land taken up by rural living, agriculture and pastures for sheep, cows and horses. Driving around Wales, visitors will mostly see bucolic, rolling hills of open meadows, fields and forests, along with valleys, rivers and streams.

Wales has three national parks and several other protected lands, including wetlands, national landscapes and areas of outstanding natural beauty. The three national parks include Snowdonia NP in far northwestern Wales, Pembrokeshire Coast NP in far southwestern Wales, and Brecon Beacons NP, located inland from the south coast.

Another prominent part of the Welsh landscape are its many castles. There are more than 600 castles, of various architecture, size, history and condition. In fact, Wales has the largest number of castles per square mile in the entire world!

Population of Wales

Wales has a rather minimal population of just 3.1 million. Considering that NYC has 10 million inhabitants and London has 8.9 million, one can see how small the Welsh population really is. In fact, the Welsh population accounts for only 4.2% of the total UK population, which is more than 68 million.

Cardiff is the capital city of Wales. It lies on the southeastern coast, over-looking vast Bristol Bay, with England on the far eastern side. It’s a compact city with an important history and a strong mix of historic stone buildings and modern ones.

Important landmarks include Cardiff Castle, the once bustling Cardiff Port area, huge Principality Stadium (which stages many important international sports and music events) and several excellent museums.

The Welsh government is centered at Cardiff. It’s a Devolved Government with a First Minister, Cabinet and elected Parliament. They meet at Cardiff’s ultra-contemporary Parliament building, which over-looks Cardiff Bay.

A Devolved Government means that governmental powers to rule itself were give over to Wales from the UK. That happened in 1999 by popular Welsh vote.

Wale’s other main cities include Swansea, about one hour west of Cardiff on the southern coast; Newport, just 30 minutes northeast of Cardiff; and Wexham in the far northeast, close to the border with England.

Of course there are plenty of small towns and villages scattered throughout the country, including along the coast. Many are beautiful historic towns filled with stone buildings from various ages, including churches and often castles.

In my experience traveling around Wales for two months, I found the Welsh to be very down-to-Earth, kind and helpful, well-meaning and with great hospitality.

Brief Ancient History of Wales

Humans have been living in Wales all the way back to Neanderthal times, more than 230,000 years ago. Modern humans have lived there since the end of the last ice age, earlier than 1000 BC. There’s plenty of archaeological evidence from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages.

During the Iron Age, 800 BC – 43 BC, the Celtic culture thrived throughout UK.

But in 43 AD, the Romans invaded UK, and subsequently the region of Wales. They remained for 400 years until they left sometime in 400s AD.

After that, Anglo Saxons took over UK. At that time a separate Welsh people, with a distinct Welsh language and customs, thrived in the area of Wales and have been there ever since.

The Welsh organized themselves into many separate kingdoms. Over the centuries, they sometimes fought, but also dealt with external pressures from England and later, Normans.

Wales gradually went under the sway of the British Royal Crown. In 1285, King Edward I of England took over Wales, placing it under the crown as the Principality of Wales, making himself Prince of Wales.

Wales has been under the umbrella of the British Crown ever since, but has also always retained their Welsh language and distinct customs, culture and food items. Even today, Wales is a bilingual country, with public signs in stores, on roads and other public places written in both Welsh and English.

Not surprisingly, over the centuries since 1285, there were various revolts and uprisings against England. Particularly important ones were in the 15^th ad 16^th centuries. Never the less, in 1707, Wales officially became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain, now United Kingdom of Great Britain.

It wasn’t until 1999, by popular Welsh vote, that an independent Welsh government was established, separate from the British government in London. Since then, Welsh determine their own laws. Yet they remain under the British Royal Crown.

Brief Modern History of Wales

Wales came to prominence and wealth in the mid-late 1800s during the growing industrial revolution. Its importance was due to its vast reserves of very high quality coal, especially steam coal, that was so important to the trains and factories of the time.

The southern valleys of Wales were so productive with coal that Cardiff, a city on the southern coast, became one of the world’s most important ports in the world. For some time, it even exceeded the port of NYC in importance.

As the use of coal faded after WWII, so too did Cardiff’s bustling port, coal and trading industries. But the Welsh economy, standard of living and wages continued to flourish after WWII in other fields and today Wales still holds its own as a thriving first world country.

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The post Introduction to Wales appeared first on LashWorldTour.