Boldly Go Solo
How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.
Category: Travel
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USTOA says you can save a lot of money on vacations by signing up for packaged tours instead of planning a trip on your own. Well, of course, they’d say that. Their members are the ones packaging those tours, and making money from them. The thing is, they’re right in a lot of cases. Particularly…
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<–Turtle sighting! I did not go solo on a 15-mile hike on Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday. Six of us set out on the annual cross-island walk. That turned into a whopping baker’s dozen during a mid-morning break. That’s because my friend Joan, whose house we were staying at for the weekend, knows about a zillion…
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Most people don’t like eating alone at fancy restaurants. What they mean by alone is not having company at their table. How about being the only one in the whole restaurant? That’s what happened to me the other day. I got a same-day reservation at the Sooke Harbour House on Whiffen Spit Beach on Vancouver…
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I feel like I have hit every block of Victoria, British Columbia, in the past two days. In Chinatown, I visited the Gate of Harmonious Interest and Fan Tan Alley, Canada’s narrowest street, and former home to gambling joints and opium dens. First thing in the morning, I was at the First Nations (Native Americans)…
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If I hadn't traveled alone to Ecuador, I wouldn't have met Ariana, a sweet six-year-old who sings one heck of a Christmas carol. I met her dad Agustin towards the end of my 10-day vacation. A travel agent in Quito arranged for him to drive me to the monument and museum at Mitad del Mundo.…
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Ever sit in a "snug?" In the Crown Bar, a former gin joint also known as the Crown Liquor Saloon, the snugs are private, carved wood booths. Wait staff can pass drinks over the top of the cubicle-like snugs, or open the door and hand them in. The Crown Bar is in the heart of…
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Want to kayak where the kayak was invented? How about go dogsledding, snowmobiling or on a musk ox or whale safari? Then Kalaallit Nunaat is the place for you. Also known as Greenland. A place where you can view icebergs from a hotel terrace. A place where dog sleds have the right of way. Seriously. …
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I met Marilyn the same day I met the World’s Top Whistler. She’s American. He’s English. We all converged in Saddleworth, in the north of England. A bit of a drive from Manchester. Surely you’ve heard of Saddleworth? And the villages of Bleak Hey Nook, Brook Bottom, Crompton Fold, Delph, Diggle and Dobcross. No? Well,…
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Who knew how hard it could be to hit a banana hanging from a tree with a blowgun's dart? From 20 feet away. Take my word, it's tough. I can only imagine the challenge of using that blowgun, loaded with darts coated with curare, to target a monkey swinging from branch to branch. Or a…
Boldly Go Solo 