Hi. We're Tom and Kris

We're former newspaper and magazine publishers who shed
our last publication, our house, and most of our possessions
and set out on a journey to see the world.
Join us.
CHECK OUT OUR BEST RESOURCES FOR YOUR TRAVEL

Get all our best travel tips
sent straight to you

Start Planning Your Trip

Explore Destinations

Click here to see all the places we've been and see what we've written about them. And see this page for other inspiration.

Join Our Community

Click here to join our Facebook community. Ask more than 7300 of your fellow travelers for advice.

Get Travel Insurance

We wouldn't go anywhere without our Allianz travel insurance package.  Read more in this group of posts.

Get a Hotel Room

More often than not, we book with Hotels.com or Booking.com.

Our Latest Blog Posts

Hue Imperial City and Citadel, Hue, Vietnam

|
Hue Imperial City and Citadel, Hue, Vietnam

The Citadel, built by the Vietnamese emperors in the early 19th Century, was severely damaged in Vietnam's two wars of the 20th Century. In 1947 against the French, and again in 1968 against the Americans, the center of Hue was the site of ferocious battles. The citadel area once held over 140 buildings. Only about 20 remain after extensive restoration since the 1990s. Most buildings were completely destroyed in the fighting and cannot be restored.

, ,

The Two Most Important Things About Chiang Mai

|
The Two Most Important Things About Chiang Mai

For those who have never had a Thai massage, you're in for something different. In contrast to the soothing, along-the-line-of-the-muscle Swedish style prevalent in the US, the Thais believe that they should rub hard across the grain of the muscle. This has the effect of stretching your connective tissues, such as tendons and ligaments, in directions they've probably never been in before. Honestly, it hurts. But, after it's over, you'll ask yourself why the hell haven't I been doing this all my life?

, ,

Sometimes You Have to Go Home

|
Sometimes You Have to Go Home

I grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa. According to my grandfather, Council Bluffs was, “the only town that ever hurt Chicago.” I've given his pronouncement a lot of thought over the years and I've still never quite figured out what it meant.

Maybe it was because Council Bluffs made fun of Chicago on the playground when they were kids. Or maybe it was because someone from CB wrote a letter once to someone in Chicago saying that having broad shoulders and being hog butcher to the world wasn't really that great. Especially when Carl Sandburg went on to mention that it was also the city of skanky whores and slimy gangsters.

,

Cruising the Bosphorus

|
Cruising the Bosphorus

It may be a bit of an oversimplification, but you could probably say that Istanbul exists because of the Bosphorus. It was the first thing I wanted to see when we got there. We dropped our bags at the Empress Zoe hotel, and headed right out. We were only a few blocks away, and so our first impressions of Istanbul were those of the strong current flowing from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, the ships lined up waiting for their pilots to take them through the strait, and the lines of fishermen with their lines in dark water.

, , ,
1 … 100 101 102