Did I want to fly over the Costa Rican cloud forest like superman? Absolutely, yes! This is why I came to Monteverde, Costa Rica—the adventure capital of the country. I was there to experience the longest zipline in Latin America from the unique angle of head first.
I’ve never done a major ziplining experience before—just shorter single ones back in the USA. I wanted to experience more beautiful rainforest but from a different perspective and with the adrenaline kick that ziplining provides. What I wasn’t expecting was the giant swing into the canopy below at the end. Yikes!
I did it anyway, in honor of my last swing in New Zealand almost 10 years prior. Overall, my zip-line experience with 100% Aventura was amazing—fast-paced, thrilling, and, most importantly, safe! And I got it all on video.
I am so glad I listened to the advice of a local on what to do my last day on the Osa Peninsula. Lynch, my dive master from the day before, recommended Corcovado National Park as a must see guided tour destination.
So I booked it straight away. I knew that guided rainforest walks are the thing to do while in Costa Rica. I just wasn’t entirely sure where I would do one. But then I learned that Corcovado National Park is considered “the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity” by the National Geographic.
Referred to as the “crown jewel” of the Costa Rican park system, it was a tour of this 164-square mile conservation area or no tour at all for me! I ended up seeing everything from the endangered tapir and all four species of Costa Rican monkeys to the adorable coati and the iconic three-toed sloth.
This was hands down the best decision I made for seeing wildlife in Costa Rica!
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the continental US. The city was settled by Spanish colonizers in 1565!
In 24 hours, Kim and I had a whirlwind, self-guided tour of the main walking part of the city called “Old Town.” We ate delicious food, explored shopping, observed various opportunities for museum visits and tours, and so much more!
In this post, I give twelve recommendations for various experiences you can have. Each suggestion is accessible along the main tourist street or just beyond it.
I don’t do paid tours all that often but sometimes they are worth it! When Kim and I visited the town of St. Augustine, we decided to also check out the famous lighthouse nearby.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum have been there for almost 150 years! It’s a beautiful, actively working lighthouse overlooking the East coast region just across from St. Augustine.
This was a great activity to do during relatively clear skies—there were no thunderstorms to keep us from climbing to the top (unlike our first visit to the Castillo Del San Marcos the day before)! I also learned a bit about maritime archeology, which I loved to see as a SCUBA diver!
While up north in Seyville, I could not pass up the opportunity to visit St. Augustine. St. Augustine is the oldest city in America founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers.
One of the most famous tourist attractions in St. Augustine is Castillo de San Marcos. I decided to do this very typical tour because castles are just cool!
Along the way, I discovered that accessing one of the coolest parts of the castle is only an option when the skies are clear of lightning! This meant that I went back to visit twice in 24 hours—worth it!
Two years ago, I visited Cape Town, South Africa. While there, I made sure to take a tour of Robben Island. This is where Rolihlahla “Nelson” Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years following his armed rebellion against the oppressive white nationalist British government.
I decided to write about this tour now as an intentional juxtaposition to the coup attempt by white supremacists at the United States Capitol building last week. I felt covering this experience is particularly timely in the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the historic second impeachment of Trump is underway, and the inauguration of Biden is next week.
I never wrote about this experience but I find myself thinking about Mandela and this tour often, especially since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. I find myself thinking about racism and its history both at home and abroad. Read on to learn all about my experience touring Robben Island and to hear my reflections on current events.
Three things I love: unique art, colorful lighting, and amazing food. I managed to experience all 3 in the second half of my last day with Dasha in Colorado.
Little did I know, this was going to be my last few hours of true domestic travel for a while. With physical distancing about to hit the United States a week later, I am so grateful that I had such an amazing experience the night before I flew back to Miami.
In this post, learn all about the Ice Castles, take in some of my favorite photos from the experience, and drool over the amazing meal we had in a small Colorado town on our way back to Denver. All around this was a 10/10 experience and I’m so excited to share it with you!
After a terrible experience witnessing unethical animal tourism, I was ready to finish up my safari tour on a better note. The rest of Day 4 for me could only get better—and it did!
I had a nice time getting a personal tour of the tree house lodging where I was staying. I even spotted some baby warthogs on this walking tour. Then I had a final game drive in a very special reserve. There, I saw cheetah, lion, and rounded out my Big 5 sightings with a white rhino!
On the ride back to the airport in Johannesburg, we stopped at Blyde River Canyon. I caught gorgeous views of mountains, forests, and the river below. It was a great final 24 hours on my 5-day safari tour in South Africa!
On day 4 of my African safari tour, I found myself bursting into tears and walking out of the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. What upset me? It was a culmination of unethical animal practices that I saw, ending with the enslavement of cheetahs.
Yes, I said enslavement, and I'll tell you why I use that word in this post.
I have been very vocal on this blog about animal tourism around the world. There’s a lot that goes on that we don’t know about until we actually go there and see it. My hope is that this post sheds a bit of light on what is going on in South Africa, even at the best of the options among the various tourist attractions that exist.
Moholoholo does a lot of good for endangered African species. But, in my opinion, it has improvements to make. Either way, you can take in the information I provide and decide for yourself what’s right for you when you visit South Africa.
The 3rd day of my 5-day safari tour was spent inside Kruger National Park. On the other days, the tour took me to private game reserves on the outskirts of the main park. This time we would be going in for a full day of safari adventuring!
This post will be filled with photos and anecdotal stories to provide some context for various animal sightings throughout the day. The goal of the day was to see as many of the "Big 5" animals as possible. We missed spotting rhino but were lucky enough to see buffalo, elephant, lion, and leopard! I saw many more animals, too, such as wild dogs which are super rare!
Our safari vehicle encountered so much throughout the day, including a run-in with a very disgruntled (and aroused!) elephant. It was during that encounter I learned the meaning of "Elephants have 6 legs."
Finally, the day had arrived for my first ever African safari tour! In early June of this year, after a week in Namibia and a weekend exploring Pretoria, I was pumped to search for and see the Big Five animals (and more) of Africa.
This first day of the tour involved bonding with others on the drive to the reserve, a sunset game drive with tons of wild animals sightings including elephant and lion, and a BBQ dinner in the African bush.
I honestly could not have asked for a more fulfilling first day. Hopefully, this perfect day wasn't going to spoil me for the remainder of my 5-day tour!
An African safari tour was a dream experience of mine since I saw the Lion King as a kid. But I always assumed the cost of such an experience would be astronomical. Most safari tours I looked into casually required thousands of dollars. As much as I wanted to have this experience, I really didn't want to go bankrupt because of it! And so the research began!
I'm all about balancing the cost of things when I travel. I'll lay out money for a really extraordinary experience—but it better hit all the marks in all the right places. That's why I spent lots of time researching tour options for my trip to South Africa. Through my research, I found the perfect tour. For a minimum price, I maximized the experience for my first African Safari tour in Kruger National Park. It offered the kind of accommodation I wanted, the right number of days, and, most importantly, the best chance at seeing tons of wildlife!
This post is all about the decisions I made: Why I chose Kruger, why I chose a guided tour instead of self-guided, how I searched for tour options, which tour fit all my needs, and what the actual benefits were. Perhaps the approach I took will help you find and plan your perfect African Safari Tour, too!
As a lover of cheetahs, I was very excited to learn that the "Cheetah Capital of the World" is Namibia. But, with less than 8,000 left in the world, the chances of seeing the endangered cheetah in the wild is very low! Still, I wanted to see these beautiful creatures in person and in the most ethical way possible.
Before I traveled to Namibia, I researched and identified the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). After carefully assessing their ethical practices, I booked 2 tours with CCF.
In this post, I share a full review of CCF. I include how I got there, what I learned about cheetahs, my experience seeing the cheetahs, and learning about CCF's efforts to save them.
It's a secret that was only exposed less than 90 years ago. Before that, Mother Earth had been busy painting waves into stone with water. The result is a photographer's dream location.
And the photographers show up in herds. This is why you need to know how I got to see it before all the crowds got there and without paying premium ticket prices.
In this post, I use my first-hand experience to answer everything you need to know about Antelope Canyon.
On my last full day in Bali, I hopped on the back of a motorbike with a local who showed me the highlights of the lower Karangasem Regency. My tour guide was Han, a local who offered to take me around the region. His tour turned out to be the perfect wrap up to my time in Bali.
There really is no experience like the one you can get from a local showing you around. I got a personalized tour of the region with opportunities to learn about Indonesian culture and take in some of the sights on my own terms. Han ended up driving me to 5 separate locations, including a traditional Bali village, two water palaces, a chocolate and soap factory, and a chilled-out, sandy beach. Below, I describe my experiences visiting each of these places, but the real story to share is how wonderfully well-rounded Han had made this tour.
Whales and dolphins bring in the majority of the few thousand tourists who visit Niue every year. This South Pacific island country and “coral atoll” has the ideal conditions for seeing (and hearing) these beautiful marine creatures who play within 50 meters off shore. It’s also one of the few places in the world allowing visitors the chance at getting in the water to swim with whales in their natural habitat!
The whales and dolphins were a bit too preoccupied to swim with us during my time in Niue. But I had an amazing experience seeing them almost every day and closer than I ever have before. I also became a bit of an expert on the tours offering the chance to swim with them. While the tour company we used turned out to be a huge disappointment, the other one we heard about may be your ticket to a better experience!
The Arahura was late. I had already been waiting in the terminal for over 4 hours. I was hungry and eager to board the ferry which would bring me 3 hours across the Cook Strait to the port town of Picton on the South Island. I had to make it to the South Island tonight. The Crakers were expecting me to arrive in Christchurch tomorrow. I was a stranger to them—a solo female traveler whom they were entrusting with their pets, home, and vehicle for a week while they took a trip to Australia.
For the first time in weeks, I was without the company of other travelers. I was ready to make my own way from one island to the other. Little did I know, the experience getting there would be yet another example of the benefits of solo travel: Doors otherwise closed suddenly open.
I spent 2 weeks visiting Berlin where I stayed in the neighborhood of Kreuzberg. I walked all over this neighborhood and got to know it very well. Walking around there, I couldn’t help but notice all of the amazing street art everywhere I looked. While I could admire the street art for what it was, I knew absolutely nothing about any of it. Who did it? Were they allowed to paint there or was it illegal? Is it valued by locals or seen as a defamation of property?
ll of these questions and more were, thankfully, answered by going on a free (tip-based) walking tour with Alternative Berlin. This tour was perfect for getting an authentic, off-the-beaten path understanding of the Kreuzberg neighborhood and culture. Guided by an Australian turned Kreuzberger/Berliner, I learned so many stories about the counter-culture and community of Kreuzberg, including its street art, squatter settlements, neighborhood resistance against capitalism and authority, and much more. I gained so much respect for Berlin and its people as a result of the knowledge I gained from this tour. So I am very excited to finally get to share these stories now!
![Attempting to swim with whales and dolphins in Niue [Video]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53b6ec86e4b09a1fb529c6b8/1489712629493-0EH4S87BJPDKFWE2WIH6/dolphinniue2.png)
