Having spent several days on the West Coast – a little Seattle earthiness, a bit of the gorgeous climate of San Diego, and a touch of L.A. – I had this absolute desire to go to Vancouver. I am not really a Canada freak but I do enjoy it. I quite like Montreal partly because […]
Recently at the ACTFL conference in San Diego we listened to Rick Steves talk about the power of travel. It was a compelling conversation that got me thinking a lot about language and the pioneers of cultural bridge building that we call teachers. I am not sure we focus enough on the power of teaching languages in schools, the […]
We have a lot of surge in Cuba for business for 2016 and 2017. Everyone got hot on Cuba at the same time. Now, Cuba is turning into a high-demand, little supply destination. Hotel rooms are sold out months in advance. With talk of more restrictions being phased out, the 36% increase in American tourists […]
It is fascinating to think about missing the boat. Blackberry missed the boat and they have been waiting at the port ever since. Myspace missed the boat. Digital cameras, except for the professionals, have all but disappeared. Embedded GPS systems in cars are useless. Not only do you save $1,800 for the GPS and add-ons […]
Held every year in London’s east metropolis full of new buildings that dot themselves around the river, the World Travel Market is like a huge bazaar, a maze-like walk across the world. I love the fact that you get to start your day in London Town and end your day in the far reaches of […]
The news was bad. The rains had washed away the border crossing and so there was no way back to Israel at the southern crossing. Instead, we had to drive north to the Allenby Bridge crossing and we had to leave our hotel at 3 am. It was sort of exciting because that particular crossing […]
It was cloudy when we left Aqaba but all of the forecasts predicted that rain would cease around midday when we were set to arrive in the ancient city of Petra. Situated in the Wadi Musa, Petra was established by the Nabateans around 400 years before Christ. In its heyday, it was home to 30,000 […]
The morning was glorious although there was talk of rain coming in the afternoon. We drove out to an unspectacular roadside café where everybody was smoking cigarettes. Here we were supposed to switch into a four-wheel drive vehicle and begin an adventure into the Wadi Rum. As it turned out, the four-wheel drive was an […]
It was a bit like one of those spy movies. You arrive in the car, there’s no one there, the driver waits and has a cigarette, we hang around, and then out of nowhere, a van appears and another guy comes out. A conversation takes place, passports are exchanged, and we are all walked to […]
If Eilat is a sprawling, disco inferno, dance until dawn, restaurant-infused, party machine, then Aqaba is not. There is a bazaar, a few terrible restaurants, a pub called the Rover’s Return named after the pub on Britain’s long running soap opera, Coronation Street, for some reason, and a scattering of Chinese restaurants. Finding any place […]
The idea was that we would drive down to Eilat, the hedonistic playground for Israelis searching for even more sun, on the glorious Red Sea. In between, we would stop and take in the spectacular scenery that featured heavily in my guidebook. Of course, what we had not planned for was our driver who was […]
The funny thing about Israel is that the roads are so darn good; Massachusetts Turnpike should take note. The exit north of Tel Aviv was very smooth and we passed a whole bunch of mega factories and Silicon Valley-type high-tech places on the coastal road, close to very upmarket residential beach areas. Today we had […]
The excursion spiel was that we would ride four-wheel trucks in convoy, in a jaunt in the desert. It frankly sounded like the caravan of gondolas that you see when you walk across the bridges of Venice and look down as 100 tourists are being serenaded by disinterested gondolieri. In other words, I had my […]
The Dead Sea is something that you just have to go to once in your life. The surface is 428 meters below sea level – the lowest point on the face of the Earth. It’s part of the Great Rift Valley and is fed by the Jordan River to the north. Its salt content, because […]