My Travel Inspiration

Now travel is a huge part of our marriage. It brings us closer together, it threatens to drive us crazy, it forces us to compromise, it expands our boundaries & sense of adventure, it gives us something to always look forward to. Travel has made us experts on cruising, introduced both of us to our new found love of sea kayaking, taken us places we only could have once dreamed of & turned New York City into our second home.

I can’t imagine life any other way right now & I can’t imagine traveling with anyone else – after all, who would carry my camera bag?

What – We are probably some of the most random travelers on the planet. There are very few travel related things we wouldn’t do, although you’d have a hard time convincing me to camp & an even harder time convincing me to stay in a hostel. Our travel falls into a category I like to call “moderate to luxury couples-focused travel”: I have a little money & I’m willing to spend it on things that don’t involve anything to do with kids.

There is one definite: hotels can make or break a trip for us. Even when we’re looking to stretch our dollar, we go with the best available at that price point. On the other hand, we love luxury (who doesn’t?) & I see many more stays at the Four Seasons in our future. I’ve been told that I’m “obsessed” with hotels & that may not be far from the truth.

Furthermore, we each have such different travel styles that it often leads to interesting trips. My husband likes to do as many “must see” tourist things as possible just to check them off the list, while I prefer to stroll a local farmers market & sit at a cafe & people watch. He is very active, always working out at the hotel gym, which has been great since I never would have taken up sea kayaking or cycling on my own – & those have been some of my favorite travel adventures.

Another definite: cruising is something that not many 30-somethings like to do & we have discovered that we not only like it, we love it. It gives you a huge bang for your buck, takes you to destinations that are as interesting as you make them & introduces you to a wide variety of people. Cruising has taken us to gelato shops in Florence, ruins in Pompeii, quaint fishing towns in Canada, white sand beaches in the Caribbean, & tapas bars in Barcelona.

Our epic 10-day road trip up coastal Maine last August was the perfect summary of our travel styles. It incorporated almost everything we love about traveling into one trip. We stayed at luxury inns & budget boutique hotels. We kayaked & cycled & sailed & read books in Adirondack chairs & visited farmers markets. We discovered new local places to eat (managing not to eat at a single chain restaurant the entire trip) & new local beers to drink.

Where – I often say that my travel bucket list is a world atlas. The other night I said to my husband: “Do you ever feel like there are so many places you want to go, there’s no way you’ll ever be able to visit all of them in this lifetime?” He agreed.

Petra. Iceland. Paris. Australia. San Francisco. Bryce Canyon. The Canadian Rocky Mountaineer train. Tokyo. Istanbul. Prague. The list goes on & on & on.

We used to keep a running list in our kitchen, drawing a line through places as we visited them. But the list kept getting longer & the lines fewer & soon it was too depressing & overwhelming. So the list keeps growing in my head instead.