Vacation packages for family

Looking back over the years, my New Year’s celebrations have been mostly low-key, largely unexceptional.  Oh, I’ve had some good ones — my Bangkok New Year’s was so much fun, and I’ve had a few memorable nights in Boston — but most of the time the night hasn’t lived up to the hype.  It’s hard to top anticipation like that. My visits to Edinburgh, however — and there have been FIVE in the past fifteen months! — have always been exceptional.  There’s just something about Edinburgh that has drawn me back again and again.  I once told Kash that returning to Edinburgh felt like getting a hug by a good friend wearing a fuzzy sweater.  It’s familiar and comforting, yet you know you’re about to have an amazing time. And in that vein, I gladly accepted an invitation to join #Blogmanay — a Hogmanay celebration for 21 travel bloggers. On this trip, we experienced the best of Hogmanay — and the best of Ed...

The Faroe Islands are famous for their exquisite beauty and isolation.  Yet of all the islands and villages and regions, one place stands out as the most unspoiled, most unique, and perhaps even the most beautiful. That place is a little island called Mykines. Mykines (pronounced MEE-chin-ness) is the westernmost point in the Faroe Islands, and a popular destination for the Faroese.  There is no bridge or tunnel leading there, so you must travel either by boat or helicopter from neighboring island Vagar. I arrive by boat and meet Harald, a septuagenarian guide with the legs of a mountain goat.  Right away, he takes me up a hill; an hour later, I realize we’re in the middle of a four-hour hike. The landscape is breathtaking.  For what seems like the hundredth time in the past few days, I marvel at the scenery before me.   How can a place this beautiful be completely unknown to most of the world? Sure, Mykines is incredibly to look at.  But it has something the other islands...

Celebrating Songkran in Bangkok was one of my favorite adventures during my six months in Southeast Asia. And while it’s incredibly hard to get good photographs while everyone is throwing water at you, I managed to get a few good shots.  Here are my favorites. Flowered shirts, water guns and the back of a pickup truck — the ideal way to celebrate Songkran! It wasn’t so bad getting drenched with the warm water hose at Wild Orchid Villa!  Ste attacks here. Think the water fights are off-limits indoors?  Think again.  (And Darren, you really do give us the best poses.) Thanon Rambuttri — one street over from Khao San Road — is filled with thousands of people, as are the surrounding streets. This little boy was the tiniest Songkran participant I saw, and absolutely adorable with his little water gun! Taking a tuk-tuk?  You might as well be painting a bull’s eye on yourself. ...

I’m not a huge fan of Christmas — I feel like a holiday that was originally fun and well-intentioned has evolved into an expensive, stressful and guilt-inducing ordeal.  I honestly wouldn’t mind if it was skipped altogether. Being away from home for Christmas was a no-brainer — and, believe it or not, this was my first Christmas outside of Massachusetts! I wasn’t sure where I’d be for the holiday.  Cambodia, definitely.  But Battambang?  Siem Reap?  Sihanoukville?  What about in transit? But come on…I couldn’t really spend Christmas Day on a 12-hour bus ride out of spite! I would create my own Christmas, a stress-free Christmas, and I would do it in a place that I adored: the amazing town of Sihanoukville! What did I love most about Sihanoukville?  Lying on the beach with a book while getting a foot massage.  Dancing all night at JJ’s.  Most of all, meeting new friends.   In Sihanoukville, you meet friends more or less constan...