I’ve just returned from a photography expedition in Oman and United Arab Emirates with National Geographic. On the flight home, I started thinking about the ten photography expeditions and workshops that I’ve now done around the world and what made each one successful (or not). To my mind a successful trip needs:… Read More
Best of 2016: Favorite Things Around the World
It’s an absolutely amazing world, and I was lucky enough to see a lot of it this year, mostly with the kids. I started the year in Thailand, then moved on to the Philippines, Taiwan, the US, Tanzania, Kenya, Switzerland, Germany, Jamaica, China, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the UK, France,… Read More
Ten Incredibly Cool Kid-Friendly Activities Around the World
On our 13-hour flight back from Sydney this weekend, I started working on my round-up post of our favorite things in the world from the past year. Some are easy, since there’s usually one view from a hotel room that stood out, one breakfast, one resort, and so on. But… Read More
Ethiopia: Ten Amazing Places Not to Miss
If Ethiopia’s not on your travel list, it should be. It’s a huge country – the largest landlocked country in the world – with unique cultures, a diverse landscape, incredible man-made creations, one of the oldest human skeletons ever discovered, and really good coffee. And there aren’t many tourists, largely because… Read More
How to Book an Affordable African Safari
How Much Does a Safari Cost? Safaris are expensive. In the October-December 2015 issue of Travel Africa, the standard price of a 10-day safari in Botswana is listed at £6000-8000 (US$8,500-11,000), or $850-1100 per person per day. Major international safari companies routinely quote $700-1000 per person per day for Tanzanian… Read More
A Stay at Giraffe Manor
Ever since my first trip to Africa in 2000, giraffes have been my favorite animals. No matter what national park you’re in, you see them from miles away, moving slowly through the grass and trees, dining on acacia. I love how they seem to run in slow motion and how… Read More
An African Safari with Kids
Africa I always tell people to take their kids everywhere, but we hadn’t been everywhere yet – because of the ages of our kids. I had done several safaris through southern and eastern Africa with friends before I got married. I loved going on game drives and spending evenings at the lodges,… Read More
Packing List for a Family Safari
A Complete Safari Packing List As frequent travelers, we try to pack light. This was easy to accomplish in warm East Africa. Most lodges have inexpensive laundry services ($1-2 per item) and it’s easy to hand wash and quickly dry non-cotton items. We traveled around Kenya and Tanzania for 16 days… Read More
2014: The Best Travel Year Yet
I typically don’t spend a lot of time looking back – I would rather be planning the next adventure than thinking about (or editing photos from) the last one. But I started this blog to provide inspiration on where to go in the world, what to do and where to stay,… Read More
Ethiopian Airlines: The Flexible Airline (or, why you shouldn’t combine multiple tickets on one itinerary)
Ethiopian Airlines – a flexible Star Alliance Carrier Africa – it’s not exactly a place where one can stick to a schedule or have firm plans. And that’s usually fine. As they say in Swahili, “pole, pole” – slow, slow, take it easy. Years ago some friends and I were… Read More