I’ve crossed the US four times with eight flights according to various different public health protocols during this pandemic. Here’s what I’ve seen. Continue reading “Field Notes from Flying During the Phases of A Pandemic”
Category: Getting There
That’s the question I was asking myself on Labor Day when, closing in on Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the captain let us know we would instead be landing in Indianapolis, 165 miles and 1 time zone away from O’Hare. Close, yet so far. After you envision the worst (such as sleeping on the floor of a random airport with limited connections to your destination), here’s how to help yourself get home relatively happily. Continue reading “Yikes! Your Flight Just Got Diverted. Now What?”
There is a phrase in Swedish that refers to the essential “P’s” of travel packing list that can be roughly translated as passport, pounds, and poarding passes (pass, pengar, och piljetter). The almost-alliterative list is supposed to help you remember the items you absolutely cannot travel without: ID, money, and tickets. If you remember these, at least you can address anything else you forgot later. In a nod to 2018’s sweeping wellness travel trend, I’d say the new “P’s” are passport, pounds, poarding pass, and push-ups. And I hate push-ups. Continue reading “From Pushback to Push-Up: Incorporating Wellness into Your 2018 Travel Plans”
San Francisco is still developing its brand as turnaround port for major cruise lines, but it has always been a true destination city, topping travel bucket lists globally. With a new, convenient cruise terminal just steps away from the heart of the city -which, when occupied, also serves as an unavoidable reminder for all waterfront visitors to look into cruising- and all the attractions the City by the Bay has to offer, experiencing SF as a home port is a delight for any experienced or new cruiser.
Continue reading “From the Bay Area to the Open Ocean: Cruising from San Francisco”
Hej! After a painless, nonstop flight from Dulles to Copenhagen, I arrived at the Copenhagen Marriott just in time for some breakfast before heading out for the day. On the agenda: a quick tour de Skåne, or the southern part of, Sweden for lunch and fika with family. So after flying in that morning, I took the train from Copenhagen H over the Öresund bridge to head north to Halmstad. After our rendezvous in Halmstad we drove back, taking the Scandic Line ferry from Helsingborg back to Denmark and then continuing into Copenhagen. Continue reading “København-Skåne by Air, Land, and Sea”
Fifteen years ago was an ideal time to be an international jetsetter. The skies felt safer, airline hospitality standards were higher, milage programs meant something, and there wasn’t such a race to create the best sardine can in place of a plane. Not to mention, the concept of paying for checked bags (and every other detail) didn’t exist, avoiding carrying all your belongings on you and fighting for overhead luggage space. Continue reading “As New Companies Move into the US Market, Suggestions for the American Airline Industry”
Over the past few months, I have become a frequent DC-NYC commuter, and though I would love to cut my transit time and risk of getting stuck in traffic, I pay about a third of the cost to take a Greyhound roundtrip from Union Station to Port Authority and back than what I would need to pay to take the Northeast Regional train one way. And I can’t even consider the Acela Express.
The government-subsidized corporation Amtrak is quite frankly out of my league. Meanwhile, it costs 30 euros to hop on a Trenitalia train from Venezia St. Lucia to Milano Centrale. The distance is a bit less, but that’s still less than $40 to go from Venice to Milan. Continue reading “7 Reasons Why the United States Needs to Embrace Trains”
In celebration of finishing my undergraduate career today, I am back in action with a new blog post. I have been waiting for a vacation to write about my vacation (this evening is my minivacation), and with cruise ships positioning themselves for the summer season, I would like to share my thoughts on the cruise industry.
In March I had the opportunity to sail on Princess Cruises’ newest ship, the Royal Princess. Thanks to an extensive travel background in almost all modes of travel, this was my tenth cruise with almost 100 days at sea. My latest cruise experience and supplemental research indicates four key trends for the major cruise lines. Continue reading “4 Trends in the Cruise Industry and Their Impact on Your Onboard Experience”
You could say I am a bit of a cruise connoisseur. At the rate I’m going, I will be one of those little old ladies that has racked up months or years’ worth of sea days that you meet at the Captain’s cocktail parties… except super tall and in the midst of young adulthood. The true irony is that I am an expert in retirement and I haven’t started my career yet!
This, dear readers, is one of the many gifts of growing up with retired parents. The way I see it, these cruises are a win-win method of travel for us. My parents revisit places that they have already enjoyed properly, that is, in a much deeper way than a few hours walking about, and I explore them for the first time and make note of where I want to go back. Continue reading “Cruising from Retirement to Real Life”
anchored & adrift 