My trip to Amsterdam was AMAZING, and while I’ve not posted much of a recap about our journey, I do have pictures on Flickr, and quite the lengthy recap of our visit to the Anne Frank House on my other blog, Simple Kind Of Life. In the past 7 months, I’ve seen a lot of amazing things – natural wonders like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, and historic sites like the Anne Frank House and Old Montreal. Without a doubt, walking through the Anne Frank house was the single most moving experience in all of my travels, past and present!

I’m going on a trip next week – can you guess where I’m headed? I’m making it easy by giving you a clue each day to help you figure out where I’m going. This is the 6th clue:

The city I’m going to was founded in the 12th century!

If you can guess where I’m headed, you can win a Travelocity gift card! And don’t worry, there are 5 other clues, and more coming each day to help you figure out where I’m headed. By the end of the Where In The World Is Colleen contest next week, it’ll be quite obvious where I’m headed.

When you return home from a trip, are you the kind who gets everything cleaned and put away neatly? Or do the remnants of your vacation live on…in your bedroom and bathroom? I’m the latter, and it’s been a few weeks since my trip to Las Vegas, but I still haven’t put everything away! My travel cosmetics case is still out on the bathroom counter, and I’ve got a bag of S.W.A.G from the blog expo I attended in the corner of my bedroom. I’m not sure why I’m keeping it…do I really need my name tag and the bracelet I wore to get into the private party I attended?

I think not.

I’ve flown a LOT this year. In June we were off to Canada (via the Detroit airport), in July it was Pittsburgh, in September it was Boston, and with November came a trip to Las Vegas. I had a trip to New York City in the works for next week, but it never came together, and I’m honestly thrilled. I love traveling, until I take one too many trips, and I’ve officially reached my travel limit for the year. I could never travel for work and be on the go constantly.

And with that said, our next trip is in January. However, we’re not flying, and we’re spending a relaxing week in the mountains. Very low key.

Now that my 3 day, 60 mile charity walk is behind me, I can begin looking forward to my next trip. In just a few weeks (two, in fact!) I’ll be heading off to Las Vegas, followed by a quick one night stop in Los Angeles. My injuries from the walk this weekend should be healed by then, so I’m looking forward to walking up and down the strip and seeing the sights. We’ll be meeting friends for dinner one night, and possibly doing breakfast with bloggers on another day, so there will be plenty of sitting down and socializing as well, in case my feet get tired.

Most importantly, I don’t have to sleep in a tent, like I did this weekend!

I’m heading off for the 3-Day walk tonight. I just got done printing out the locations of all the cheering stations, complete with directions and maps to give to my husband. A lot of the places I’ll be walking by this weekend are familiar to me, and I know there are several stretches on the beach without shade. I hope we have decent weather for the journey! I don’t think walking 60 miles in this area will be quite as interesting as it was in Philadelphia. It’s hard to beat walking through downtown Philadelphia and seeing the old homes, churches, and historical sites.

A few years ago, my niece went on an educational trip through an organization called People To People. The group offers international travel opportunities to students, in order to “promote peace through understanding,” in the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who founded the program in 1956. She’s planning her 2nd trip with the group now. Her mother invited me to a parent meeting this month so that we could learn about it for our oldest daughter. I don’t think I’m quite ready to let her go off to Europe without me, but the group does give kids a great experience. Often, they get access to people and places that regular tourists can’t access, and of course, it’s educational!

My niece did her first trip with People To People the summer before she entered the 8th grade. Do you think you could send your child on a trip like this when they were still in middle school? That’s my biggest concern!

A few years ago, my teen aged niece had the opportunity to travel abroad with a student group. When I talked to my sister last week, she said my niece was looking into another trip to do the same thing. I so wish I had been able to do something like that when I was in high school or college. For example, when I took humanities in college, I had to settle for listening to my instructor tell us about her trips to Greece and Rome. It would have been a heck of a lot more interesting to see those sites for myself, while learning about the culture and people of ancient civilizations. CE Tours is a company doing business with a lot of colleges and universities, in order to provide a unique learning experience for students. They realize that it will make more of an impact on a student to see the Colosseum in Rome, or to sit at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, than it ever would to read about those same places in a textbook.

The great thing about the tours offered is that they can be customized to fit the needs of your group. Putting together a trip for Western Humanities students? You’ll probably want a package that consists of the highlights of Europe, with a focus on religious sites. American History? How about Washington, D.C., and Boston? Trips can be customized based on a specific curriculum or theme. Students get to see the sites that they’ve only read about until now, and they’ll learn so much more than they would from just picking up a text book.

I was thinking about vacations today in the shower. (I do most of my good thinking there!) We go on a family vacation at least every year. Sometimes, we go on two family vacations. At some point during the year, my husband and I usually go away with friends, separately. We also take a trip together, without the kids.

I guess what I’m wondering is, do we travel more than the average family?

I know of some families who never take a family road trip, or go to Disney World. I grew up spending at least 2 weeks in the car being driven somewhere by my parents. Sometimes it was trips to New Jersey, to visit my grandmother. Other times, we’d just drive for the sake of seeing new things. We once drove from our home in Florida out to Colorado, and back via a completely different route. I think it’s experiences like those that gave the itch to travel and see new things, and to expose my kids to as much of the world as I can. It’s fun to go to the same places every year, and do the same things, but I wouldn’t want that to be my only vacation.

How about you?

I went on my first cruise when I was 9, and my second when I was 11. I didn’t have the chance to cruise again until the year 2000, when I finally talked my husband into a cruise. Can you believe that he had to be talked into it? He thought he’d be bored! Once he got on board, it was a completely different story though, and we’ve been on several cruises since, as a couple and with the family. I love cruising because of the options you have. You can go almost anywhere on a cruise, from the Caribbean, to Alaska, to ports of call in Europe and Asia. While you’re getting to your destination, you can eat, drink, dance, and enjoy all sorts of new experiences. On our various cruises, we’ve seen magicians, participated in a wine tasting class, and played plenty of Bingo and other games.

Due to the popularity of cruises, and all of the options available to travelers, there’s a lot of competition between travel agencies and travel websites for a piece of the cruise market. I prefer shopping for cruises at a site that specializes in cruises, like DirectLineCruises.com – I prefer knowing that my travel website knows the cruise industry inside and out! Too many travel agencies try to handle too much, and your vacation plans suffer. When you book with a company like DirectLineCruises.com, you can rest assured knowing that they know their stuff, and can get you great deals on every type of cruise, from budget offerings to premium and luxury lines. Two of the premier cruise companies they work with are Celebrity Cruises and
Azamara Cruises. They’re known for their wonderful cuisine and 5 start accommodations. If you want to be pampered and dazzled on your next cruise vacation, either of those cruise lines can get the job done!

This is a sponsored review.

I’m off to Boston in a few days for a business trip, and just remembered tonight to check Weather.com so I’d know what to pack! I was hoping for a bit of Indian summer weather, and while it’s not exactly going to be cool enough to be considered Indian summer, I’ll take it! The forecast is calling for highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the 60’s, and the humidity will be lower than here in Florida.

It’s just a quick 2 night trip, and I’m actually disappointed about that. I’ll get to see Boston – from the air, and from a car! I’ll be in meetings and such, and at dinners with people, so I won’t have time to visit any of the historic sites I’m itching to see.

Has anyone used the new Netflix movies on your laptop feature? I’m scheduled to be in Boston in 2 weeks for a business trip, and the last time I was on a business trip, I was super bored in my hotel room each night. I’m wondering about the quality and download speed at which you can get the movies from Netflix, because it seems easier than carrying a disk along with me to watch. I think with my plan I can get 3 movies a month that way.

I use Google’s map feature quite a bit, but it annoys me at times. For instance, if I were looking at the driving directions to go from my house, to Disney World, Google attempts to send me a good 40 minutes out of the way on an interstate, deeming that it’s faster than the 2 lane back road I’d normally drive on. I’ve been both ways, and Google’s way is definitely not faster. I’d imagine that for people traveling in cities, you need more of a system than what Google can offer too. You may need to use public transportation to get where you’re going, and most public map sites don’t offer that option, forcing you to make do without.

That’s what makes Public Routes so neat – the system is smart enough to be able to give you driving directions, bus routes, walking times, and even subway information. If you’re in a major US or UK city, Public Routes can help. Maybe you need Minneapolis driving directions, or the fastest way to get from midtown Manhattan to Queens in midday? Public routes can do that, giving you a detailed map with the fastest combination of travel methods, be it on foot, or via public transportation.

Do locations where disasters and horrible events interest you? Would you willingly travel to a location where hundreds of people met their maker, in the interest of seeing history?

I would. The question came up recently when my husband and I were talking about visiting Germany or Poland. My ideal trip would include a day at one of the concentration camps, like Auschwitz-Birkenau or Bergen-Belsen. I’ve always been interested in that dark time in history, and I would have to visit one of the sites to see it all with my own two eyes, and to pay my respects to the thousands of people who were slaughtered. I’d want to see the camps to remind myself of what can happen when the wrong people gain power. When the contestants on Survivor knelt at the entrance (death gate) of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, I found myself crying in my living room. I can only imagine how moving it would be to see it in person.

My husband thinks it’s too depressing and it’s not something he would be interested in seeing.

Who do you agree with? Would you want to see something like this on a vacation? Why, or why not?

Hurricane Dean is certainly doing some damage to a former vacation spot of ours. We visited Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica on a 7 night cruise in 2005, and those areas are currently being pounded hard by Dean. It’s a little ironic considering we went to Costa Maya, Mexico, instead of Cozumel because that area had been hit so hard by another storm. Those areas never seem to catch a break.

On the other hand, Florida is catching a major break this year on storms. We haven’t had a single one threaten us all hurricane season, and here it is – almost September! (Knock on wood!)

International traveler costs a pretty penny. When you add up airfare, lodging, foot, and sightseeing, you’ll often find that you’ve invested a couple of grand into your trip overseas. The very first time I went to London, I decided to save money by not purchasing optional trip insurance. Whoops! Not only did the airline lose my luggage for a few days, but the I missed my connection flight, and the delay caused me to catch up with my tour group 2 days late. We lost the first few days of our tours, and spent the next few days wearing the same clothes.

A few years ago, while in Mexico, we took a day trip to snorkel. One of the older men on our boat had chest pains and had to be taken by ambulance to a clinic. Of course, the care there was not covered by his insurance, he hadn’t purchased trip insurance, and the whole experience added several thousand dollars to his cruise cost.

Since those two incidents, I don’t think travel medical insurance is a waste anymore. Nor is trip cancellation insurance! If you’re investing thousands of dollars in a vacation, and / or going to a country where the hospitals aren’t as nice as they are at home, please make sure you’re protected!

When I was 12, we took a trip from our home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, through Missouri, all the way to Denver, Colorado, and then south through New Mexico and back east through Texas back home. We did this in 2 weeks, and our tight time line was the reason we didn’t go up into the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. We stopped to admire the arch, but the wait time to go up one of the two trams was 4 hours, and my father decided we couldn’t, or that he wouldn’t, wait.

Visitors to the Gateway Arch this summer will also have a wait ahead of them, as one of the two trams used to take visitors to the top has closed, and will remain closed for the next two months. A snapped cable trapped 200 people at the top of the arch this week, and in new cables have to be made and installed now. (Which makes me wonder – why don’t they have backup cables in a warehouse somewhere?)

When I was in high school, I briefly entertained the thought of becoming a foreign exchange student. Two things stopped me – I had only taken 1 year of French at that point (not what I considered to be enough) and I knew I’d be incredibly homesick if I went to Europe for 3 months. Had there been educational travel tours available back then, I would have been first in line to sign up. Rather than spending your time in the same house for a period of months, these tours allow students to visit places with a group of their peers and see all the major sites and attractions. For example, a tour in Germany allows for stops at:

• Olympic Stadium
• Nymphenburg Palace
• Black Forest
• A cruise on the Danube
• And more!

Believe me – your kids will have a much better time touring Europe with kids than they will with you! And it’s a great chance to let your teen have some independence and shine.

One more reason my home airport rocks – they offer FREE wireless access to travelers who are toting laptops around. Take THAT, Detroit! It’s a nice little perk for the torture my shoulder is taking by lumping this laptop bag around. I’ve got a DVD to watch on the plane, too. By the time I touch down in Pittsburgh, I should be all caught up on season 5 of The Dead Zone.

My husband and will be heading off for a beach weekend in August, ALL by ourselves! The reason for the trip is to attend my husband’s 20th high school reunion. It’s being held at a resort on Clearwater Beach, in Clearwater, FL. The resort is high priced – normally $300 for a suite, but thanks to the reunion organizers, we got our suite for half of that. The first night will be an informal night at a local restaurant, and the 2nd evening is a banquet and dance.

Even though the events aren’t until the evening, I plan on taking advantage of my time at the beach. We’ll be leaving home on the morning of the event so we can spend the day on the beach before schmoozing that night.