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
As many of us start contemplating travel again during this season of COVID-19, even if that travel is close to home, now is the time to start looking into credit cards and points programs that can help you pay for some of the costs of travel once we start exploring… Read more
Last week, Nick surprised me with flights down to Southern California to visit my parents for Father’s Day weekend. We had visited them a few weeks ago when they first moved to the LA area but that time we drove as we were helping them move in and had our… Read more
My parents recently moved to Southern California to the LA area and are getting settled into their new home in that part of the world. After living in Saudi Arabia and Hawaii, it’s been so much fun over the years to visit them in the various places they’ve lived. Going… Read more
A few years back I wrote a post on what to do when you miss a place, when you can’t travel but you miss a place you love so badly that it hurts. It’s still one of my top posts on Land of Marvels all these years later and I… Read more
Over the past week, we’ve heard from so many incredible voices on how to be an ally to people of color. And like many of you, I have been listening and taking in a lot of information, a lot of knowledge and diving into how I can personally and professionally… Read more
Looking forward to the next year ahead during this season of COVID-19, I’m more and more coming to the conclusion that we might not be doing much, if any, international travel for a long while. And to ready myself for that circumstance, I’m starting to daydream about the opportunity to… Read more
With so many of our upcoming trips canceled for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19, I’ve been thinking long and hard about the local Pacific Northwest spots that I’d still like to explore this upcoming Summer if we can. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do more local travel… Read more
After Part 1 of this series last week, I’ve got another few travel bloggers sharing their thoughts on this uncertain time of COVID-19 and how it’s affecting travelers around the world as well as sharing my own thoughts on these questions. As we stay home to keep each other safe,… Read more
I’m currently at the point in my self-isolation where all I can think of is travel. Just to look through travel photos right now is really helping me process all of this and think ahead to future travel, when we’re free to roam the world once again. And while we’re… Read more
When I wrote out my thoughts last here on the blog, it was 4 weeks ago, right after we had gotten home from our quick trip to Hawaii. It was before the stay-at-home orders, before grocery shopping became like an olympic sport to get everything you might need to sustain… Read more
In the time of COVID-19, the world has watched slowly as the travel industry has almost completely disappeared for the time being. Planes aren’t flying, people aren’t moving freely, monuments are left empty around the world. I’ve had so many emotions over the loss of travel, so many emotions about… 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
A couple months ago when I was in Myanmar, a reader messaged me asking if I’d do a post on how I determine when is appropriate to take photos when I’m in other cultures around the world. The request was a great one because while I’ve talked about being respectful… Read more