When pigs fly! (Or at least ride a motorcycle…)

We were walking from one small village to another - I think outside DaNang - and as we were on the edge of town, about to cross the rice paddies, this guy (with only one hand) pulls up on a motorcycle in front of a small house with an empty basket on the back. Mai (Classic Journeys’ guide) comments, "That's a pig basket. That guy is probably going in and trying to buy a pig at that house. Let me go check it out." She's back in 30 seconds saying the people in the house and the pig buyer are willing to let us into their house to watch the pig buyer catch one of the pigs. We go into the house, which is basically a bedroom, a living room (with a china cabinet, a few plates, tea cups and a stack of plastic chairs for a kindergarten class; but actually their living room furniture), and a small kitchen. Then out the back door into the pig sty (attached to the house) which has a massive sow and a couple of small pigs. This guy hops in the pen, does the one-handed pig scoop with the basket, and we all parade through the house with the pig, take it outside, and strap it to the motorcycle. The family is curious with this crew of foreigners. Through Mai, they start asking questions and we discussed the weather, snow, hard work, life in the States and some other topics.


It is this type of willingness to engage during the tour that makes someone like Mai - and this particular trip - so great. It would have been far easier to have just watched the pig come out from a distance and had an explanation of what was going on. But instead, we became part of the process, got to meet this family and pig merchant, and had a real experience.

15 minutes later we were in the middle of the next town's morning market - and same thing - the market stopped for 10 minutes while 50 women gathered to find out just who WE were. Shy at first, they started asking Mai questions about us, wanting to know if we were talking about them. We responded that we wondered the same thing about them, which brought peals of laughter. What could have been a "here is a typical morning market in rural Vietnam, now let's continue walking" turned into yet another impromptu and engaging cultural experience way beyond your typical tour. I would add that Corey and I are also jaded adventure travelers. We have traveled extensively. We are not easily impressed by guides. So our praise is most genuine. This was a great trip, but made exceptional by Mai in Vietnam and Pum in Cambodia.

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Editor’s note: A special thanks to John and Corey Fowler, Classic Journeys guests who just returned from our Vietnam & Angkor Wat tour. It turns out that Corey is an avid photographer and took over 2800 photos. John authored this blog. As you enjoy the photo, know that as they say in Hollywood, “no pigs were injured in the writing of this blog.”

If you’d like to share your experiences on any of our cultural walking tours, culinary tours or family vacations, drop us a line at blog@classicjourneys.com

The Li River without any rub-a-dub-dub

Reading a magazine recently, I was startled by an ad for the plumbing company, Kohler. You’ve probably seen the series. The ads are titled “As I see it” and show models in otherworldly settings created using Kohler bathtubs and showers.

This one really caught my attention. A model is lying in her Kohler Escale bathtub, floating on a bamboo raft down the Li River in China. Majestic karstic mountains erupt out of the water as she is transported beyond her daily life in midtown Manhattan or somewhere like that.

Maybe not a bad way to escape for an hour or so. Of course, you could accomplish that and more (minus the fancy porcelain) if you join Classic Journeys on our China adventure tour. You can see a photo from our cultural walking tour below. Save for the bathtub, the photos look remarkably similar.

On our China small group tour, we join the local cormorant fishermen on bamboo rafts in Guilin as they float down the Li River, cruising in that landscape of “dragon’s teeth” mountains to quaint Yangshuo. Along the way, we have the chance to practice Tai Chi with a master…lunch with a local family…and bike or walk into the lush, level farmlands. We’ll also take you to the least touristed section of the Great Wall, and for a special visit to the terra cotta warriors in Xian.

This Classic Journeys walking tour will take you to Shangri La, far beyond where any bathtub could hope to float. It’s the Tibetan plateau that inspired the James Hilton novel and where we walk through meadows, meet the ethnic Tibetan and Naxi peoples, and make a pilgrimage to the local monastery. (Keeping the bathtub theme alive, our spa resort in Zhongdian offers deep soaking tubs. Take that, Kohler.)

If you have a favorite daydream that we can make reality on one of our Cultural Walking Tours, Culinary Tours, or Family Vacations in any of our 68 regions in 31 countries on 5 continents, drop us a line at blog@classicjourneys.com.

Why did you become a traveler?

Why does a traveler become a traveler? Why do you like to go out and explore the world, while other people you know - many of whom are just like you in many ways - are happy to return time and again to the same resort or stick close to home. A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by the San Diego Union-Tribune. In the process, the writer Lori Weisberg got me to thinking about some of the early influences that channeled me into Classic Journeys. (Thanks, Mom & Dad, for buying me that unlimited airline pass when I was 12!) The article's here. Enjoy. And we'd love to hear from you about your own formative experiences that made you the traveler you are today.

http://www.classicjourneys.com/inthenews/documents/SDUT101710.pdf

Kids in college? Don’t plan an empty-nest vacation just yet!

The Walsh family of five just returned from our August 1 Costa Rica Family Journey. Among the reasons they chose to go on their second Classic Journey now: eldest son John is heading off to Denver for college on September 5.

As his mom Jill said when she reserved the trip with us, “This may be our last time to travel together like this as a family.”


Happily for the Walshes and many of us who are (or are about to be) in the same circumstances with our kids, that may not be the case.

Eileen Ogintz, who writes the travel column TakingtheKids.com, recently had a conversation with AP writer Beth Harpaz in an article called “College-bound kid doesn't mean end to family vacation”. “When they realize how much traveling costs, they will rethink traveling with you," she said, as long as the trip is "something they think is fun and exciting." And eventually, even college-age kids "realize what a good deal it is to have mom and dad pay the freight," especially because they get to stay in nicer places with their parents than they could ever afford on their own.

Eileen also said, "As they study abroad or spend a summer abroad, you will think, 'What a perfect time to visit Costa Rica, Thailand, Madrid, Paris, etc.,' and they will lead you in directions you never anticipated."

My own two boys are only 13 and 11, and I'm already asking myself, "Will they or won't they still want to travel with us?" once they head off to college.

Jill Walsh was a lot more upbeat when she returned from the Costa Rica trip with her husband and three sons, telling us, "After this trip, I honestly don't think we'll be empty-nesters when it comes to vacations!"

That got me checking...and I'm relieved to report that from what we're seeing on our tours, older teenagers are still traveling with their parents and even grandparents. While our typical Family Journeys do tend to attract more 7- to 16-year-olds, we are seeing a significant number of college-age kids on our Private Journeys. These larger family groups often consist of multiple generations, like the seven members of one family (including kids aged 19, 17, 14, 11 and 8) who recently traveled with us to the Amalfi Coast and Croatia, and the 19 members of a California family (aged 8 to 86) who celebrated their matriarch's 70th birthday in the Canadian Rockies.

I have to say that the grandmother who recently treated her twin 18-year-old granddaughters to a private journey to Morocco gives me reason for hope -- as do Eileen's words -- that our own two will still find time to travel with us when they've left home.

I’d enjoy hearing about how your family finds ways to continue traveling with the kids. And if you’d like more information about how we can help you make travel easy and interesting for everyone in your family in any of our 68 regions in 31 countries on 5 continents, send me a note at blog@classicjourenys.com.

When is 12 greater than 3500?

When you are one of 12 instead of one of 3500, of course!

I'll explain.

I just returned from our Greek Islands walking tour of Crete and Santorini. My week there reminded me how easy we make it to maneuver around and undertake each of the activities we offer our guests. This became clearer than the Aegean Sea one day while we were in Santorini. As I’m sure you already know, it's one of the most popular spots in the world and a staple on any cruise ship's itinerary in the Mediterranean. And so I'm sure the average traveler assumes that if your cruise includes Santorini, you'll get a chance to really see the island.

And so as my mother used to say, “that's why we don't assume.”

The cruise ship way to visit Santorini will get you to the famed island...

...but the Classic Journeys' way actually allows you to be a part of Santorini

The typical cruise ship now carries about 3500 passengers. When the ships anchor, the passengers need to be moved around for their shore visits and that's where the problems arise. The buses that the cruise companies use hold 50 passengers. 50 goes into 3500 seventy times!
Imagine 70 bus loads of tourists in any place at one time. There is no way that you are going to have anything like an authentic experience. One day, our small group ventured from our quiet eastern side of the island—where we were staying in Oia—to take a private boat to one of the uninhabited islands in the sparkling blue sea of the caldera. On our return, my wife wanted to do some dress shopping and by coincidence, it provided me the perfect opportunity to do a little experiment. I sat with a pistachio and coconut gelato, and from my cliffside observation point I watched a tender pull up to the dock and empty its passengers, who then boarded a bus and drove up the zig-zaggy cliffs to enjoy their four hours of bliss in the island's main town, Fira.

Using my iphone's stop watch (I don't wear a watch anymore, but that's for another blog), I timed how long it took 50 people to board the bus. At 30 seconds per passenger it was 25 minutes. Then from my vantage point I could see as another bus let off the cruisers. Again, 30 seconds per person on average, for another 25 minutes. In total, 50 minutes just loading and unloading the bus! I couldn't believe it. Nearly a full hour just getting on and off the bus. That didn't include any of the time to get on or off the tender (100 passengers at a time) or what the waiting times must have been like for the lunches or shopping once in the town. In all, those four to five hours in Santorini must have been a blur. Or maybe actually one long dull ride.

In contrast, our time on Crete and Santorini was in a small group (we average 12 and never take more than 18 guests on any of our cultural walking adventures). We hopped on and off a small Mercedes minicoach whenever we needed to make a transfer or if anyone was abbreviating a walk. Often, we were not in a vehicle at all, as many of our visits with locals were at the culmination of a memorably scenic walk. For example, in Santorini, we walked from Fira to Oia along a blissfully deserted seaside footpath for about two hours, right into our hotel overlooking the sea. On other days during the week, we shared a path with some donkeys, and in Crete with vineyard and olive grove workers; and even some goats with their bells tinkling in the morning air.

Our visits with George the baker who still makes phylo dough by hand, Poppee the lacemaker, Joanna whose family grows olives, Nikos the vineyard owner, and George the potter (George is a popular name in Greece) were private affairs and each memorable in their own way. Each new friend talked to us about their family history and what life was like now pursing ancient crafts in modern Greece. We left feeling that we’d really immersed ourselves in the history and culture of these famed islands.

I hope the cruise passengers had a great time and I'm sure in their own way they did. But for some reason, I don't think we'll be able to share anecdotes very easily about any common experiences in Santorini.

If you'd like to learn more about small group guided tours of Greece, you can read the itinerary at www.classicjourneys.com/greece or drop me a line a blog@classicjourneys.com

Adventure Girl Strikes Again

My wife does not work out. Mind you, she works, a lot. She spends a good part of every day at Classic Journeys running our accounting and HR functions. What time she does not spend at the office is given to her efforts with Las Patronas, a La Jolla women’s philanthropic organization that raises significant sums for many homegrown non-profits here in San Diego County. To all that, she is a wonderful mother and wife to our sons and me. (Mother to them, wife to me!)

With all of that, it leaves virtually no time for her to go to the gym, take a run or walk, or get in an hour of yoga. Now, I’m not convinced that even if she had all the time in the world, she wouldn’t choose to use it working out, because as Susie says, “I don’t like to sweat.”

But something happens to her when she goes on a Classic Journeys’ cultural walking adventure or family vacation. It’s like she is a super hero who has stepped into a phone booth. (Let’s be honest, we’re all old enough to remember phone booths and how necessary they were for making calls and helping transform super heroes back in the days before cell phones.)

She steps out of that phone booth and into vacation mode and she becomes adventure girl. I first got an inkling of this adventurous side of her about four years ago, when we took our two kids and joined our Costa Rica Family Journey over spring break. Along with four other families who we met on the trip, she went river rafting, kayaking and zip lining; all things I thought she might never want to do. It continued the following year when she informed me that she wanted us to join our Peru and Machu Picchu Family Journey so that she could hike the Inca Trail on her 41st birthday. Seeing her, our boys and the other adults and kids complete that trail and walk into the famed site through the Sun Gate was a remarkable day, and another notch in her Adventure Girl belt. Last year, she rode camels in the Saharan Desert, bargained with shopkeepers in Marrakesh, and mountain biked in desert oases in Morocco. And this past week, she kayaked off a deserted island in the Gulf of Chiriqui and hiked through coffee plantations on the slopes of Baru Volcano in search of the Resplendent Quetzal on our Panama Family Journey. Each day, she came back to our hotels sweaty and a little sunburned, but smiling from ear to ear over the experiences.

So why am I writing about this?

Having been on so many of our Cultural Walking Adventures and Family Journeys over the last 15 years, Susie and I have spent a lot of time with other “adventure girls” as well. (I can think of Rocket Grandma who brought her six grandkids, a 77 year old who has taken six trips with us in seven countries with her equally amazing husband, a 50 year old veterinarian from Arizona, a New Yorker who grew up in Beijing, and a mid 40s single mom from San Francisco among many others.) These are women who do not think of themselves as jocks at home, but who really enjoy taking on a half day of walking or some time in a kayak or rambling through a rainforest, medieval village or kasbah when they are on vacation. And they appreciate being able to take on these challenges knowing that Classic Journeys has provided a safety net of support in the form of exceptional local guides, sublime hotels and memorable cuisine. It’s knowing that Classic Journeys takes care of all the little details that frees them to really push themselves a bit and fully immerse themselves into the history and culture of the regions they explore with us.

If you know an adventure girl of your own and would like to share her story, drop me a line at blog@classicjourneys.com

Panama Hats: Why the Boquette Women's Garden Club caused us to flip for the isthmus

If you check in with my blog occasionally, you know that I just spent last week on our Panama Family Journey with a total of four families (8 adults and 8 kids, ages 8 to 18). We were joined by our two exceptional local guides, Beny and Christian, who made all of the rain- and cloud-forest hikes, kayaking, zip lining, mountain biking, snorkeling and cultural explorations go seamlessly.

Two things they didn’t plan really provided an opportunity for me to share why Panama is so worth seeing…now. You see, it’s an incredibly authentic place, even in a world that is so touristed that many once-great places have become homogenized. Panama is one of those destinations that’s still authentic.

Ok, some details…



Take the Boquette Women’s Garden Club as an example. It’s a group of ladies that meets every month in the dining room of our little country inn. (Good choice by them, as Condé Nast Traveller has rated it as the #1 restaurant in Latin America.)

This past week, we returned from a day of hiking through a stunningly scenic cloud forest, past indigenous Indian families and waterfalls, and visiting a coffee plantation, to see that the garden at the hotel had been set up with four tables of 10 for the ladies. What caught my attention was that they were all wearing beautiful hats that reminded me of opening day at our famed Del Mar race track. When I paused to ask why they were dressed so beautifully, they informed me it was hat day for the garden club. Then they went on to ask about our day, how we were enjoying their town, and even asked me to retake the photo because one of the ladies blinked on the first picture.

The next day, I was returning from a walk along a scenic valley having just seen several Resplendent Quetzals and a jaw-dropping waterfall. We were met along the footpath by a little boy and his three sisters, all native Nove Indians, whose parents work in the coffee plantations nearby. They were dressed in traditional colorful clothes. We immediately began speaking to them through our guides. Perhaps since they are not accustomed to Americans coming through on this footpath, they speak no English. (In fact, they didn’t speak Spanish either; instead they spoke Nove, which our guides are able to speak as well.) They willingly allowed us to take their photo, and were thrilled when we showed them their images on the digital camera. I’m sure you’ve been in this situation before and the friendly locals ask you for money, in English. Our encounter was a little different. They thanked us for taking the photo, and only then, sort of sheepishly, did they ask if we had any candy with us. One of us had mints, and shared them with the kids. Their faces lit up.

The next day, I was walking along the main street of the village with my oldest son, Jack, when he told me that what he liked best about Panama was that the villages we visited had “real shops and restaurants, not just Bennetton and McDonalds”. We stopped and I took a look around the village. He was right. There were many more locals than tourists, real people going to the market, and kids in their white and blue school uniforms walking home from Pius XII primary school. The following day, we were on a drive down to the coastal lowlands. We passed incredibly scenic stretches of valleys with very little development, just cows grazing or cashew plantations. As Christian and I talked about Panama’s rich cultural history (the native Indians arrived here 1,000 years ago, probably from South America) and its abundant natural resources like the watersheds that feed the Panama Canal, I asked him if it in ten years it will be as sweet and genuine as it is now. “We hope so”, he said. “But there are plans underway for 10 hydroelectric dams to be built over the next decade, and that is going to change some of the river valleys, as well as some of the villages, towns and cities.”

I’m not a doomsayer, preferring to enjoy every place I go for what it has to offer in that moment. I know that some things I am seeing are better or worse than what they were 25 years ago or 25 years from now. But if I had my choice, I’d see Panama now, and enjoy it in this special moment in time. When local people have the time and interest to ask about your day, local kids invite your kids to play soccer with them on their pitch, and you can look down a pristine valley for miles and only hear the sound of an occasional howler monkey or keel billed toucan.

If you’d like more information about our Cultural Walking Adventure or Family Journey in Panama, or any one of our 67 other destinations around the world where we have found memorable ways to immerse you into the history and culture of the regions we visit, drop me a line at blog@classicjourneys.com.