Tag Archives: travel advice
A skeptic’s guide to travel guide books
I use guide books when I travel, but always selectively and with skepticism. Why am I a skeptic? Because many guide books are inaccurate and poorly updated. Here’s a perfect example: for the past 18 years I’ve worked at the same museum, and throughout those 18 years customers have steadily approached our staff looking confused […]
Wayfinding basics: how to find your hotel and catch your train
When it comes to travel wayfinding I’m old school—I use paper, as in maps and notes, and I talk to people. It’s not that I’m opposed to technology (although I am possibly the last non-grandmother alive still using a flip-phone), it’s just that technology can and will fail just when you need it most. How’s […]
The worst thing about traveling is missing my cat
I’m feeling it now, that stomach-churning excitement of imminent travel mixed with fear of flying and…guilt. Guilt has whiskers and four paws—meet our cat Janacek. Janacek is a big, lovey fellow whose hobbies include shedding, begging for dinner, shedding, sleeping in sunbeams and by the radiator, shedding, sitting like a pumpernickel loaf, playing hockey with […]
How to travel in winter
Around this time every year I open my email to find an inbox full of cheap airfare alerts–cheap winter flights to cold weather destinations. I feel cocky seeing those cheap winter airfares. And oh yes, smug. Just for a minute or two, I indulge in contempt for snowbirds, for sun-worshiping zombies, for geezer cruisers. While they’re flipping themselves […]
Travel advice from my mentor, the Wife of Bath
My blogging name, The Wife of Bath, has become a kind of secret handshake with English lit nerds. One of my readers commented “I saw your WOB handle and I just had to follow. I am a huge fan of both Chaucer and the bawdy and bodacious Alison”. For you not so word-nerdy sorts, here’s […]
How to get your coffee fix while travelling on a budget
My routine is the same every morning: I get out of bed, trip on my cat, and make a single espresso in my stove-top moka pot. It’s a safe bet that you, my reader, have a similar caffeine routine (though maybe not a 19 pound cat circling your feet). So how do you satisfy your coffee […]
Jetlag is like the third act of a Mozart Opera
Jet lag is part of the travel experience and once you learn to think of it that way, it’s so much easier to cope with. Opera makes a good analogy: there are some people who believe opera is a three minute clip on a reality tv show, you know those clips that end up on […]
How to make a budget-friendly travel itinerary tailored to your interests
I’m clumsy, my spelling is atrocious, I suck at math and I’m a total slob, but people, I am really super-spanking good at writing a travel itinerary. Here’ s what works for me: Research like crazy and keep a list. No, I don’t mean a bucket list of far away fantasies, I mean a realistic […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 