If anyone doubted that we have a major tsunami of a climate change happening. Look around. It’s chaotic, extreme and plentiful. Patterns are out of rhythm. Warm and balmy days followed by severe temperatures. As a traveler, I feel torn. My plane journey is not helping. The bus is not helping. Even trains are not helping. Cruises. The monstrous 5000 floating hotels that pollute our coastal cities and seas are not helping. So. What to do. Traveling is important. It enriches and teaches us about differences and maybe helps us to approach the world with greater tolerance.  It sparks adventure. Something that sparks to most of us. Can we make a difference beyond just curtailing our travel plans. Traveling is a huge piece of our economic health. Creates jobs and adds greatly to a countries gdp.

Do we slow our travel. Business travel has never recovered from Covid. Zoom has replaced it. That helps. Should we avoid those wish list places, cruises and multi faceted mega all inclusive resorts. If we did we would likely shave some of the strain from our daily travel grind. Should we stop visiting the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Essentially leave them be. It would help a little. Nothing is a silver bullet. Awareness and an analytic would help. To fully understand the damage we are doing. Maybe slow it down a little. Dont stop traveling. Just be smarter and more selective and maybe we will see a difference. Cruises are banned from entering certain harbors. That’s good. And make travelers be super aware of how to offload recyclable garbage. It’s often not clear and therefore it goes to the waste pile. Lots of small ways that keep us moving but keep us aware.

A friend of mine was telling me a story of what a friend of hers takes from hotel rooms under the guise of its ok as “I have paid for room!” And I wondered why hotels install those coat hangers that essentially are designed as a deterrent to people taking them home. I mean really, who takes coat hanger’s home! I have enough of them. I need to get rid of them. So, who are these people. What else do they take!

Apparently, they are out there. Towels, toilet paper (yep believe it or not) shampoos, lotions, bathrobes, basically anything not locked down. Crikey! I am often struck that the one thing you need, toothpaste for example, hotels are stingy, mainly not providing. But I was shocked.

Recently at a very nice 4-star hotel in London, the coat hangers were simply not stealable. And according to my friend, with good reason. Hotel thieves are out there. Walking out in broad daylight under cover of a suitcase with a stash of lotions, shampoos and towels and toilet paper. But not the coat hangers!

It’s sometimes said that Tour Guides or Tour Managers are an important link between the past and present. Like an ancient storyteller they recount history, massage facts, and pass them through generations. And like an actor in a play, every telling, every anecdote is different each time. It’s a fascinating business. They need to be equipped with a few languages, and for sure a super personality. They don’t regurgitate history or current events; they paint pictures and bring to life ancient stories well-trodden. They must imagine even though they have seen or been through the story a million times, that this is a first time for their audience. Their excitement must be palpable to their audience. That’s the gift. That’s when the transfer of knowledge happens. And funny enough, it happens frequently and can be life changing.

Every year we celebrate our group of Tour Managers with an annual meeting somewhere in Europe. This year it was Lisbon. One of my favorite cities. The starting point for many explorers in the 15th century. And there we were. Our merry bunch of explorers getting together before the holidays and the new season begins.

I just recently attended a language convention in Chicago. It was the national convention for teachers who teach foreign languages. Teaching in itself is an amazing profession. You become an influencer you create curiosity, and you teach tolerance.

We work in partnership with educators, across-the-board. Teachers of math, teachers of science, teachers of language, teachers of history and English. But this weekend, it was our privilege to host  language teachers . They are an amazing group of people. They travel, they travel with kids. They teach kids other cultures and how to break through using language to understand cultures that they would never usually interact with.

Teachers change lives. They help kids change direction and furthermore, a lot of the kids go study abroad. And many of them will end up living overseas. Language is a gift. Even if you try and you’re not brilliant, it’s a real gift. Thanks to all of the amazing teachers who travel with us and all who came to see us in Chicago. Love Chicago!   

And on this particular day before Thanksgiving, let’s hope that the educational blocks we build seep through. Never a better time than now to teach tolerance and hope that we can achieve some kind of stability in our troubled  world.

Happy Thanksgiving.

It’s been some years since I was in Malta and think I missed the whole island last time I was there. Shame on me! Holidays with the kids!  

So, we had planned a conference in Jordan but with the situation in the Middle East we had to pick an alternative.  Malta was our choice!  How serendipity works always amazes me.  What a delightful and surprising island.  Small enough to cover all the main sites and historically significant enough for us to want to go out and do what we do best and discover things we didn’t know and should know to make us better informed travelers.  This place has an incredible history.  Neolithic ruins that date back 5000 years.  

A huge slice of Roman antiquity and the influence of the Knights of Malta running through its history via crusades and Ottoman Empire to the present day.  The language gives it away.  Sounds Arabic with a touch of Italian but everyone speaks English.  Beautiful beaches, A magnificent Citadel on the island of Gozo, Baroque churches in glorious limestone colors, the silent city of Mdina and a state of the art reconstructed performance space built around the old ruins of the Opera House, courtesy of Renzo Piano .  

It has the deepest harbor in the Mediterranean in Valetta and was the staging point for the invasion of Italy in the second world war.  Because of its huge fortifications, it was never occupied during  WW2. It can be combined easily with Sicily.  Only 1.5 hours on the high-speed hydrofoil.  And lends itself to combinations with Italy and Greece. It gained independence from the Brits in 1964 and is now one of the 27 countries of the EU. Sadly Britain is not!!  It has great air connections.  Fantastic restaurants and a climate that extends summer well into the late Fall. What a delight. Recommend to avoid the heat of the summer but October is still beautiful.

Looking for something beyond just beaches. Welcome to Malta!

I hadn’t been to Atlanta since 2017. We had organized a teacher meeting to talk travel and get back with familiar faces we handy seen for such a long time. As always. Counting the people in the room who had traveled with us , there were so many stories. Teachers who were students of teachers who had traveled before. It’s impossible to imagine the thousands of students who had literally had their lives changed by going on an educational trip somewhere. New jobs. New opportunities. Study abroad. And in the center of this entire dynamic were the teachers. They inspire. They deal with day to day challenges and still they find time to imagine a possibility for their students.

It might be a travel program. It might be spotting a student and pointing them in a different direction. An umbrella of possibilities protecting their students from the inevitable rain shower. They inspire and help change lives. They do it every day. And students are better prepared for the world outside. They become better citizens and sometimes global ambassadors. There are 2 million teachers in the USA. It is an honor to be part of their mission.

Happy World Teachers Days!

I was in Ukraine in 2018. Of all things I want to see a champions league final game. The city was beautiful. The monastery in the old town. The people were great. Who would have thought or known that time that Ukraine would become a country under siege.

I remember we drove down to Odessa, the port city, and a beautiful city with an opera house, beaches, and a funky cable car that looked as though it was going to come off of its hinges. We did it all! The restaurants were great, and the view out to the black sea, which is now a battleground was amazing.  I think Odessa gets attacked every other night because of its strategic importance. It seems extraordinary to me .A place that we strolled around. Extraordinary to think that this place is under siege every night.

We crossed into Transnistria, a semi Russian enclave with plastic money and no real identity. We got nabbed by a Transnistrian , Police Officer for speeding on beautiful  roads with no cars!!  He charged us €50 cash and wanted his picture taken. Lenin statues, tanks and Soviet armory amidst Ukrainian heroes all around us. A place you would love to go to. But you can’t.

I think of all the people I met. Wonder where they are now. The tragedy and futility of war.

Imagine going to see a play in London about two guys who meet in a park with their dogs. Famous actors, Ian McKellen and Roger Allam and they fall in love.

I get to have my ice cream at intermission. A thing I love in London theatres.

And at the end of the performance there were only two actors on stage the whole time. They walked out into the street to an adoring devoted crowd of fans and they can’t escape as there’s no stage door, and they were marvelous.

Took selfies. Signed programs and smiled the entire time. It was so utterly London theatre! See Frank and Percy at the Other Palace theatre near Victoria tube.