Aug 21 2024 - September Vacations

 

We've had a few cool days and it brings to mind the upcoming September weather.  Perfect temperatures, everything green and lush, so isn't it time for a vacation?  I seem to be noticing ads for vacations and articles on vacations.  The articles are about the high costs of vacations or the high impacts on the residents being vacationed upon.   The ads give the promise of big discounts - can you imagine promising up to $4,000 off per couple.  What would that river cruise vacation cost?  A budget cruise is said to cost $250 per person per night and go up towards $1,500 per person per night.  The comparison is called purse-friendly vs budget-busting.   So I go on a "virtual tour" of these river cruisers, and what I see is the same as realtors videoing the inside of homes for sale - a wide angle lens that makes the 10 x 15 foot room look 20 x 30 or more.   What if we could add some scent/smell of the place we're wanting to visit, some of the breeze in the air, wouldn't we be able to reproduce a vacation at home? And not have to worry it is a wide-angle lens, just enjoy it. Welcome to Virtual Vacation - the website that lets you experience the world from home!  It is HERE.   So I chose a walking tour of Toronto and the video begins - it is winter, it is snowing and snow has accumulated on the sidewalk. It is early evening.  What street are they on?  I'd say maybe King West - the theatre district or Dundas Square (now renamed). It is Dundas Square and we just walked past the subway station entrance.  Looks frigid.  Walking across Dundas square is a little boring and where does it take you?  To class at Ryerson (renamed as well).  We circle back to the intersection of Dundas and Yonge.   This is boring.  It doesn't make me interested in seeing Toronto in any way.  It was a thought, though, seeing other places with no effort involved.  I'd put this in the category of distraction websites and not virtual vacations.  Once they get the reproduction of all the senses, it will be something interesting Here are a few places one would like to see on a walking tour of Toronto. The Aga Khan Museum, the CN Tower from Bloor Street, and the fabulous City Hall.

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Feb 27 2022 - The Packing Cube

 

The US will be getting out there on vacation according to CNN. Their question is this:  Do you have your packing cube?  My question in return reveals how much I travel. What is a packing cube? Wikipedia says:  packing cubes allow for grouping items together in a variety of ways. Pack clothes for each day of the trip into separate cubes, or keep similar items together like tops in one cube and bottoms in another.  It is a series of small bags designed to organize clothes inside luggage and compress clothing to ensure optimum use of space.  Packing cubes came out in the 2000s.  Rick Steves' Europe has them for sale. His website says that tour buses are rolling on his many tours which are all named  "Best of ..."   And I guess we should get ready for the travel visitors - CNN outlines its list of the 10 best Canadian places to visit for a vacation during the "holidays."  I assume that means their spring break vacations given this article was written this month. Spring break in the US varies between the end of February through to April and is specific to colleges and universities. Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake are on their list with the other famous places such as Whistler, Lake Louise and Quebec City. Ottawa seems to be missing... Today's picture is another nice Spring view of the Royal Botanical Gardens in spring.

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Where To?

We have an obsession with vacations.  Would your life advice be which 10 places to visit before a person dies?  That's what the life advice question retrieves   - trips to take.   How should a person decide which place to visit?  For example, where would a person go to visit the most heritage sites in the world?  As of July 2017, there are 1,073 world heritage sites.  There are cultural, natural and 'mixed properties'.  The country with the most sites is Italy - with 53 entries.  China is second with 52, Spain third with 46.  One can get a lot of culture in with one visit.  One can find a website to help one choose. The website jauntaroo.com has a simple quiz to guide a person through the decision.  It has 6 categories.  These are:  Vibe, Activities, Geography, Weather and Budget per person.  Here's the site HERE.  It is quick and fun.  One retrieves a long list of cities with a few catchy sentences about each one.  I might take the advice to check out Niagara Falls.  No need to get in an airplane for this vacation, and the budget is under $100.   Heres what jokesforus has to say about vacations: Where do math teachers go on vacation? To Times Square. Where do crayons go on vacation? Color-ado!  Where do sharks go on holiday? Finland.  Where do sheep go on vacation? To the baaaaaahamas.  Gardens are pretty messy this time of year.  When we visited Longwood Gardens in February, this plant caught my attention with its curious winter foliage. It is Agave-leaved Eryngium, with the common name is Sea Holly.

August Vacations

I don't think of August as a travel month.  I get the impression the travel industry thinks the same:  the articles give a few examples, and then skip ahead to September and autumn.  TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice Awards says that the best vacations in the world are: Bali London Paris Rome New York City Barcelona Prague Phuket Dubai These all look like expensive vacations.  Back in 2012, the Globe and Mail had an article on how much is too much to spend on a yearly vacation? The article says that Canadian should allocate no more than 4 per cent of their after-tax income to yearly vacations. According to American Express, the average vacation expense per person in the United States is $1,145 per person or $4,580 for a family of four.  "In the States, financial experts suggest that the average family vacation costs between 5-10% of total income.  If your family makes $40,000 per year then experts say your yearly family vacation budget should average between $2,000-$4000." That's double what the Canadian article recommended to Canadians. It doesn't seem like there's an intersection between a trip to London and taking pictures of clouds as vacation activities.

A Train Vacation in Cuba

What Next for Cuba?

It was a surprise and much welcomed news just before Christmas that Cuba is no longer an enemy of America. How fast can progress be made and we get to visit Cuba on a train vacation?

It looks like quite a while as the U.S. and Cuba try to settle outstanding issues such as lost property on the American side and damage by the CIA.  There seem to be lots of roadblocks in the news analysis.

We can expect something in April - there will be news on our front pages.  That's when the Seventh Summit of the Americas happens in Panama and the two presidents will meet face to face.

For now, we Canadians can continue to enjoy inexpensive vacations to the sandy beaches of Cuban resorts or to the hubbub of Havana with its historic architecture.