The Year in Travel

Lessons learned from travel stories in 2014 Travel never gets tiring. Or does it? Putting yourself literally “out there,” out of your comfort zone, and into the planes, trains, tuktuks and cyclos of the world is bound to lead to trouble. Here are some of my favorite travel stories from 2014 along with the lessons

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Oh, Grow Up!

Finding my inner child in Bangkok On average, at age five we engage in creative tasks 98 times a day, laugh 113 times and ask 65 questions. By age 44, the numbers decline drastically to two creative tasks a day, 11 laughs and six questions. ― Study conducted by the University of California (UCLA). Travel

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The Star Treatment

Does Vietnam have what it takes to compete in the luxury travel industry Try it: show anyone overseas a photo of one of Vietnam’s unspoiled, gorgeous tropical beaches – taken at one of those wordlessly beautiful resorts on Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Ke Ga or Ninh Van Bay – and ask them to guess which country

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Survival Gear

Ethnotek’s mission to keep culture alive, one bag at a time Trekking far off the beaten path amongst the solitude of the hills of Sapa, bag designer Jake Orak found himself in a different world, in more ways than one, far from his suburban upbringing in Minnesota (USA). By that 2007 trip, Jake was already

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Phu Quoc in Instagram: Part 2, The North Shore

Most visitors to Phu Quoc (pronounced: Foo Kwok) generally stay in the town of Duong Dong, towards the middle of the 31 x 16 mile island, where the majority of hotels and restaurants are situated. Some may take a snorkeling tour to the gorgeous beach of Bai Sao and the pearl farms and fish sauce

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The Mother City

A beginner’s guide to Cape Town, the city where two oceans meet at the very tip of Africa… Cloaked in a cloth of white clouds as the early afternoon collects at the edges of a pleasant summer day, Table Mountain looks every bit the pretty setting for the perfect, posh high tea. It’s a ritual

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Paradise for Sale

Finding the Old Hawaii on the island of Lāna’i Hawaii – the name alone is enough to conjure up visions of idyllic sandy beaches bordering crystalline waters just steps from world-class malls, resorts and restaurants. Most would-be travelers tend to think first of Honolulu on the island of Oahu, known for its famed Waikiki Beach and

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Island Life

Nusa Lembongan, a small island between Bali and Nusa Penida in Badung Strait, is the perfect holiday hideaway with few visitors and pristine unspoilt beaches. In all his wisdom, the Buddha once counseled, “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” Gazing out across the roiling waters of the Bali Sea where the tip

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