With no beach, no stoplights, and not even an airport, one might be surprised that San Miguel de Allende has been a magnet for Americans for decades. This strikingly beautiful and history-rich 16th- century town …
September 21, 2015
Travel Stories
San Miguel de Allende's got charm
Southern Indiana: the way vacations used to be
How often have you come home from a vacation only to need another vacation? Some places are just plain stressful: white-knuckling your smartphone, camera and cash from would-be criminals on the street. As it turns …
September 10, 2015
Overnighter in the Laguna Mountains
There is no need for hiking trips to be epic. The Laguna Mountains, less than 50 minutes from mid-city San Diego, are a lovely alpine retreat and world away from the city. Even quick trips …
September 4, 2015
Who says you can't do Paris in two days?
Arriving in Paris without your luggage might seem like a huge damper for the start of a mini–Euro trip. But with the sights and sounds of the City of Lights, all thoughts of my lost …
August 28, 2015
A glimpse of old Burma on Yangon's Circle Train
Nyein Sanda works in an office not much larger than a closet in the central train station in Yangon, Myanmar. His ticket booth on platform 7 hosts a constant stream of tourists looking to ride …
August 22, 2015
The real Hollywood
Written on an open Word document on my computer in a $30 Budget Inn motel room in Glendale, CA. The walls are lavender, and the money saved from not spending the night in Hollywood is …
August 15, 2015
Art meets nature in the Canaries
The island of Lanzarote, part of Spain’s Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa, is for many budget tourists synonymous with cookie-cutter resort towns and all-inclusive holiday packages. The truth is that the island’s …
August 9, 2015
Columbia, South Carolina: study in contrasts
South Carolina is a state of contradictions, and nowhere is this more apparent than in its capital. Last June, Kristin Morris, the Nickelodeon’s marketing manager, summed up contemporary South Carolina’s dichotomy, noting: “We’re a progressive …
August 6, 2015
Beijing & the Great Wall explored
Check out Derek's e-book How to Travel On the Cheap (...and Even for Free!): Turn Your Travel Dreams Into Reality, available in the Amazon Kindle store. “We Chinese people eat everything. Everything in the sky …
The Baja bucket list
If someone handed you a travel itinerary that included crossing a dangerous Mexican border town to jump in the ocean with 30-foot-long beasts and wander a graveyard at night, what would you do? I mean, …
July 23, 2015
Absorbed in history-rich Berlin
Berlin was always on our list of places to go someday, but the timing just never seemed right for one reason or another. As it turned out, May 2015 was the 70th anniversary of the …