Green and white awnings and a small sign are all that distinguish the Richmond home of Maggie L. Walker from neighboring duplexes that have been carefully restored to their appearance circa 1925.
What distinguished Walker in her day was her skill at overcoming all the obstacles society could place before a black woman living under Jim Crow segregation laws.
It was cool taking the walking tour in Richmond and learning some of the black history of the Southern city. Including about Bill "Bojangles" Robinson who was born in Richmond.
Which doesn't mean you can't celebrate tomorrow, November 28.
Pour yourself a cuppa, relax and treat yourself to some nice biscuits -- or cookies -- depending on your nationality. But if you find some McVitie's Digestive biscuits, all the better. Covered in plain or milk chocolate? You, my friend, are living large.
The British drink 165 million cups of tea daily, according to the Traveldudes' post. But tea for the British is often about more than the steaming brew in the cup.
It's about the atmosphere you drink it in. What you have with it. What you get to take a break from when brewing and drinking it. And nostalgia.
Tea doesn't have to mean something fancy. The way the fine hotels in London serve it. Yes, that's nice. But that's not typical. Plenty of down-to-earth tea shops and inns all over the country serve tea in an ordinary or even rustic atmosphere, without the bone china cups and saucers.
Fellow travel writer Laura Byrne Paquet ended up in Amsterdam's Red Light District doing...well...not what you think. Paquet and her husband, tourists from Canada, had arranged a special meeting.
Paquet chose dinner at the home of a couple who wrote on the site that they loved to cook traditional Dutch food. She whipped out a credit card to cover the cost for a four- to five-course dinner and voila. She had a "reservation" for dinner. At someone's home.
One of the highlights of such a dinner, in my mind, is learning about a neighborhood in richer detail than you can from a guidebook. Paquet's host described a project to restrict prostitution in the famed red-light district and encourage upscale businesses to move in.
Over multiple glasses, the foursome also talked about the intricacies of Dutch politics. We get some of those stories here in Washington, D.C. I would have enjoyed hearing a Dutch point of view.
You can't have the same experiences you get while traveling solo if you go as part of a pair. So says Elizabeth Gilbert, in a recent CNN travel piece on Eat, Pray, Love, the book she wrote that came out as a movie this past weekend.
Anyone who has traveled solo knows this. Traveling solo compels a traveler to open up more. See more. Explore more.
And be distracted less by conversations that could, and should, have been held at home because they weren't about the place being visited.
A story on the website Gadling says the movie has caused a surge in solo women's travel. "Suddenly, it's viewed by mainstream America as 'okay,' " the writer Laurel Miller says.
It almost seems as if solo travel is becoming the vogue.
The Los Angeles Times has a story on 10 vacations for solo travelers. It covers just about every option you can think of, from road trips to special-interest vacations to choosing villages over big cities.
Another highly useful LA Times story suggests ways to avoid the single supplement, from setting up a Google alert using the words "single supplement waived" to booking with companies such as Adventure Life to letting a tour company pair you with a roommate, which many will do.
A story in the Guardian offers strategies for traveling alone by a veteran solo traveler. And the rationale. "You travel alone, you do exactly as you want," says author Jenny Diski. Being on vacation with others makes her anxious. "Are they comfortable, happy, restless, bored?"
I totally get this. You feel selfish if you don't consider others' needs and yet you've paid all this money for a short time in a vacation place. Compromises make you feel resentful.
My absolute LEAST favorite words while on vacation are, "Do you mind if..." If I've had to say those words it means I've had to ask permission to do something I want to do.
Not permission, exactly, but I've had to let someone else know I want to do it and hope they come along happily or want to do the same. If not, I find myself thinking that I'm boring them or keeping them waiting. And how many times am I willing to do that? Argh.
Solo Friendly offers five reasons for solo travelers to take an organized tour. They include the ability to socialize, letting someone else do the driving and navigating and hearing the interesting stories of locals who are hired as tour guides on these trips.
National Geographic says it chooses these tours for the "outfitters' commitment to authenticity, immersion, sustainability, and connection."
One example is a tour in northern India that "has you riding camels, rickshaws, rafts, and jeeps
to observe leopards, rhinos, monkeys, mongoose, and more at five
national parks and wildlife refuges." Er, except that it costs more than $7,000 for the 19-day trip.
My rich friends, please tell me how fabulous it was when you return!
The reporter went on a Caribbean cruise specifically to check out the solo sailing on a cruise line has taken notice of the solo traveler market.
Norwegian Epic offers private rooms on a seven-day cruise for $1,271-$1,409. It would cost nearly twice as much for a solo traveler to book a double room, as they have to on most cruise ships.
The Epic "shows promise of being great fun for those who travel solo," the reporter says.The 100-square-foot studios are, however, a "small shock,"althoughthere was plenty of storage space for her stuff.
And the size didn't seem to bother other folks who took advantage of the low price to stuff two people in the room.
The writer met other solo travelers who told her they chose the ship not for the destination but for the solo cabins. Still, Epic could lose up to $5 million in the first year due to the lost revenue of two people in a cabin.
I sure hope they find some major advantage in offering benefits to solo travelers. And that other people in the industry take note.
I don't want to rewrite the whole story here but I was amazed to read that not only are solo travelers freed from the nasty single supplement, they actually get special treatment. Like a lounge for solo travelers only.
What a great way for people traveling alone to connect. I'm impressed.
I saw the whole show yesterday in Lynchburg, Virginia, so I loved watching the backstage shenanigans of these three guys on video. I felt the personal connection.
So, you know how usually when you're by yourself you tend not to laugh out loud? Well, I was all by my lonesome at the theater yet I laughed out loud. A lot. While sitting next to strangers.
And so did most everyone else. These guys were working the room and boy, they killed.
Even during intros. "Was there a long line for the ladies room," actor Michael Stablein, Jr. asked after intermission. Waits a beat.
"I HATE that."
Okay, was that "you-had-to-be-there" humor? Or does a joke about a guy concerned about the ladies room line translate?
"I went to Maho Bay alone in November," he wrote. "I enjoyed my stay and found that meeting people, although not my forte, was not hard to do. Dinner time at the pavilion is a good place to sit next to someone and chat."
So were the glass-making demonstrations and the kayaking lessons, he added.
AND...Maho Bay Camps offers discounts on the room rates for solo travelers from now through December 14! Hallelujah. Instead of $80 a night, it's $60. They're actually "tent cottages" with private balconies and shared bathrooms and showers. Hence the low rate.
And, once you're at a place like that, you don't walk away from the kayaking, never to see the person you met again. You run into them and then you're likely to smile and say hello, or hang out with them again somewhere. Especially if they came alone too.
The resort offers an 80-degree aqua ocean, reefs and colorful fish for snorkelers and a white-sand beach.
A 40-year-old woman who went alone described Maho as an "adult summer camp," with plenty of people around. Now THAT'S my kind of place! I'm not a beach bum in a lounge chair with a book in my hand, looking for a tan. I'm a doer! Especially if it's trying something I haven't done before. Like glass blowing.
If you're an antiques freak, I highly recommend a trip to New Oxford, Pennsylvania, to get your fill of Victorian, Civil-War era and other antique furnishings, toys and kitchenware.
I don't see it as an ideal place to travel solo if you don't love antiques because it's not exactly a hoppin' town, but for a couple of days it would be absolutely fine as a place to relax too.
New Oxford is a one-horse town in rural Pennsylvania that, as I said, doesn't have the bustle of an urban center. However, considering you could spend HOURS perusing goods from hundreds of dealers you would be quite the busy shopper/browser.
I went with a friend because I'm writing a story for The Washington Post on learning to like, or at least understand, antiques. So I took along a friend who has furnished her house in solid-wood oak pieces, green Depression glass and Watt pottery. (If you don't know what these are you're in the same boat that I started out in. I, at least, have begun to learn how to paddle.)
Recent Comments