After months of staying in one place this past Spring during the lockdowns for COVID-19, I knew this Summer would be a lot different in terms of the “travel” I’m used to and love. We have canceled so many trips this year due to COVID and honestly, it really started… Read more
One of the reader questions I get asked the most both on the blog and on Instagram is how to know what to see and what to skip when planning a trip and how to know which items are the best to have on your itinerary for a specific destination…. Read more
Travel can be expensive, there really is no way around that and there is no reason to sugar coat it. And while there are definitely ways to cut the cost of travel and save more money when booking travel, there are still costs that add up and it’s important to… Read more
I’ll be honest, after traveling so much, I sometimes forget how daunting it can be to just be starting out traveling or going on your first big trip. So if you’re a beginner to the travel world, I’ve rounded up new advice and old posts here on Land of Marvels… Read more
Nick and I, over the years of traveling around the world, have come to admire the ease of trains as transportation. We don’t have a great train system on the West Coast of the US and so when we travel, we love using trains to get around, particularly because the… Read more
I’ve always been a big advocate for traveling with carry-on only luggage, but this most recent trip to Europe we went even lighter and left an entire side of our carry-on’s totally empty on the way over knowing we’d want to bring souvenirs home with us. This meant that both… Read more
This year with the launch of my new business, I’ll admit, my income greatly dropped from previous years and along with putting a lot of money into our 1925 Dutch Colonial house renovation, our travel budget went down a lot from what we we became accustomed to spending in the… Read more
I’ve canceled a few small trips here and there over the years, but I’ve never canceled an entire 10 day International trip until a few weeks ago. Long story short, due to a family member finding out they have to have a large surgery related to an illness, where the… Read more
As a seasoned traveler, I’ve stayed in my fair share of hotels in different cities around the world. And I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that every major city has a different way it’s laid out which brings travelers the option of staying within the main tourist areas of the… Read more
Food is often a large part of why we travel. Tasting local flavors and having dinners at famous restaurants is all part of the allure for food for me when exploring. Certain places have certain foods or restaurants that you just have to try while there. The problem? Many times… Read more
A lot of people look at travel as a luxury, where you’re sipping cocktails on beautiful beaches or on a vacation where you get to escape all of your daily problems. And while sometimes, travel can be that way, it’s also important to realize that things go wrong while traveling… Read more
A month or so ago, I woke up one morning to an email from Norwegian Airlines, telling me my flight schedule had been changed. The fight in question – a direct flight from London to Seattle in late November after our trip through Scotland and London. When this particular route… Read more
If I’ve learned anything over the past several years of constant travel, it’s that I have a very deep emotional connection to places I visit. And if you know me or have traveled with (ok, that’s pretty much just Nick), you’ll know that when I like a place, I really… Read more
Nick and I love to be able to take trains when we travel over having to fly everywhere and unless flying really does make more sense, we’ll almost always opt for traveling by train. In Japan, the train systems are top notch so they are well worth taking instead of… Read more
For a long time, I’d always looked forward to seeing Japan during cherry blossom season and with the hype this season gets in Japan, I knew it would be amazing. So when our original idea for a Spring trip didn’t end up working out due to scheduling, we moved some… Read more