About Us

Rainy afternoon and we're at Plaza de las Cinco Ruas in Pontevedra- soon to take shelter inside Bar 5 Calles for Vino Tinto and Tapas

Rainy afternoon and we’re at Plaza de As Cinco Ruas in Pontevedra- soon to take shelter inside Bar 5 Calles for Vino Tinto and Tapas

Stephen and I have been traveling together for close to 20 years, and our favorite destination? Anywhere in Europe! But we’ll take anywhere and everywhere. So far we’ve visited 20 countries and put our experiences and tourist travel tips from our BIG trips on this website. If you find any of the itineraries and tips on the trips useful, feedback is always welcome!

There are 3 things I like to have planned on a trip:

How to arrive
How to leave
Where we’re staying

Everything else is a “what would you like to do today?” kind of thing.

“the code is more what you’d call guidelines…” Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

I don’t have every detail planned, but I do have a variety of Things To Do researched beforehand. Not a set itinerary, more like “guidelines”.

How We Travel

Luggage

Carry on luggage only! Wheeled carry-ons and laptop backpacks.

Flights

Advance planning – Award miles for Business Class travel to Europe. Gotta know where you want to go 331 days in advance for American Airline awards, and 336 days for United award travel. Deciding where to fly in and out is the start of the plan, and after getting our flights into one city and out of another, I have plenty of time to figure out where we really want to go and what to see.
- Getting that perfect flight into and out of the cities of your choice on award travel can be tricky – I have a couple of alternative to/from destinations in case the first one doesn’t work out.

Hotels and Apartments

Advance booking. We’re happy travelers when we know where we’re going to sleep at night.
- Lots of people go for weeks and just wing it, we tried that the last week of our driving trip in France in 2000, but found without a fixed destination we just keep driving…and driving…
- I love to use booking.com for reservations – it’s easy to make changes and, if you select the price that allows cancellations, then you’re covered if your plans change.
- Airbnb is the first place I look to find an apartments. We’ve had luxurious places in San Sebastian, Paris, Madrid, Budapest and Salzburg. I’ve also used FlipKey for an apartment in Vienna, and HomeAway for an mid-century modern house in Palm Springs.
  Whatever service you choose, you have to be sure to read the owner’s cancellation policy to see if you can live with it if plans change.

About This Website

Some people keep photo albums and scrapbooks, I keep a website. I don’t run any ads on the site or have any monetary motivation, it’s all my own opinion, plus it’s fun!

About Me

I’ve worn a lot of hats in my career… I was a technical and marketing resource for Unisys, a systems engineer for Exxon and a business development consultant for small businesses. Years ago I started my own consulting company, Software Services, the fulfillment of a personal goal to be an entrepreneur.