On The Road Again

I giggled as I Skyped with Elliot from my hotel room in Ao Nang. “Yes, that's how it's pronounced!” I exclaimed through my giggles. “I swear to God! You really do say it ‘Pee Pee'!” I was talking, of course, about the  Phi Phi Islands , a collection of islands in Thailand's Andaman Sea. I was just getting ready for a full-day tour of the island group, and I was assuring my boyfriend that, yes, you really did pronounce them in a way that made you giggle like a 10-year-old. Immaturity aside, I was looking forward to the tour. I only knew these islands as being the place where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” was filmed. But I soon learned that this island group is about much more than Maya Bay.   After piling into a speed boat with a huge group of Thai tourists and a friendly Canadian couple, we set off across the turquoise water of the Andaman. Our first stop? Koh Mai Phai, or Bamboo Island. Despite the number of speed boa...

You know how when you go to a zoo (or maybe to a park with lots of wildlife), they have those “Please don't feed the animals” signs up all over the place? Well, today I have a very similar plea: Please don't ride the elephants.   Not long ago, when I first started thinking about my travel bucket list, “riding an elephant in the jungle” was something I dreamt of someday doing — right up there with riding a camel in the desert and a horse on a beach. But then I started learning snippets of the truth about elephant tourism , and I quickly struck that item off my list. In Southeast Asia, elephant tourism is a booming business. You'll see baby elephants making paintings for paying tourists, young elephants performing on the streets, and endless ads for elephant trekking camps that allow you to ride that elephant in the jungle. But, knowing what I know now about the plight of elephants in Asia, I would advise you to avoid ALL of these things. ...

“There was just too much to see at The Vatican.” This was a common complaint I heard from people who were traveling in Italy the same time that I was. And it's true — the Vatican Museums are massive, and have a HUGE collection of everything from classical sculptures to Renaissance masterpieces. If you're on your own, this amount of stuff can become overwhelming quite quickly. There's too much to see, too much to take in, and you're never sure if you're missing the really important bits. Which is why I highly, highly recommend doing a guided tour of The Vatican — especially the Museums. While in Rome, I booked a spot on a guided Vatican tour called Pristine Sistine with a company called Walks (formerly Walks of Italy). This tour promised early access to the Sistine Chapel, as well a small-group guided stroll through the Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Compared to my half-remembered visit to the Vatican Museums 8 years earlier on a college trip, this one w...

The best Myanmar itinerary is typically around 2 weeks and should include a mix of culture and natural beauty that Burma is most famous for. We suggest you spend your time between the cities of Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay, and Kalaw. Myanmar Itinerary We planned our Myanmar trip last minute and in the middle of high season, the first week of January. All we had planned was the first two nights in a Mandalay hotel. We literally were researching hotels on TripAdvisor in the taxi on the way to the airport. Thankfully we found the perfect hotel with Bagan pagoda views right from our room and we booked it right on the TripAdvisor app on our phone. The below Myanmar itinerary starts and ends in Mandalay it doesn’t matter if you go to Bagan first or Inle Lake. It’s kind of a messy triangle hitting four of the best Myanmar destinations. This mess would also make for an epic Myanmar honeymoon for the right couple. *When looking for the best price and biggest selection of hotels...