Creating the Perfect Travel Memories Takes Planning as well as Being Open to Last Minute Ideas

On February 26, 2025February 26, 2025 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Blogging, Travel TipsLeave a comment

We have had several trips where we have spent several weeks in a location and others where we simply did so much while we were there that it seemed like a couple of weeks. Because we often have to spend the better part of a day just traveling to a destination, we definitely try to maximize our stay as much as possible. We tend to make sure that we have something planned for every day, but we also make sure that we aren’t on a rigid schedule for the entire trip. After all, we want to enjoy our time in a location, not just run from tourist spot to tourist spot. Here are some of our favorite trip ideas and itineraries in no particular order.

Seven Day Itinerary for Egypt – Egypt is a destination that is on almost everyone’s wish list to visit at least once in their lifetimes. With so many incredible sights to see across many different cities, you will want to plan as many days as you can to make the most of your time in Egypt. We found our trip to be ideal in many different ways, but with any destination, if we had more time, we would have seen even more. What we have here are the locations and sites that we chose to make our priority during a full seven days in Egypt. Due to the length of air travel, the total trip was twelve days, but much of that time was spent in transit. Although we landed in Cairo, we left early in the morning to fly to Luxor and begin a cruise down the Nile River to Aswan and then flew back to Cairo where we spent the remainder of our time in Egypt. It would be easy enough to flip the trip around and start in Cairo, but we found that it worked out well to finish in Cairo.

View of the Quilotoa Caldera and Lagoon in Ecuador

Top Things to Do in Ecuador – Ecuador is such a wonderful country in South America with so many different places to see and explore. It is a country made up of three distinct ecosystems from the coast, the peaks of the Andes Mountains, and the dense Amazon Rainforest. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is centrally located, making it the perfect location to start any adventure. Ideally, any visit to Ecuador would last for at least two weeks, but if you don’t have that much time, you’re going to have make some difficult decisions. During our trip, we made sure to make the most of our time there, but we had to decide whether we wanted to go to the Galapagos Islands or spend time in the Amazon Rainforest as we didn’t have time to do both.

The Perfect Itinerary for a Trip to Southern Spain – There are so many wonderful places to see in Southern Spain, so we have put together what we considered to be an ideal itinerary for visiting the region. We rented a car for the two weeks that we spent there, which is ideal as it is easy to get around and the highways are not very busy. Although we stayed at one central location so that we didn’t have to continuously pack and unpack, it could easily be done by going to each place individually. With such a rich history and wonderful culture, it is a great location to spend time relaxing and exploring.

Making the Most of a Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam – Visiting Hanoi in northern Vietnam is truly an amazing experience. We spent a little over a week exploring Hanoi and taking excursions into the countryside. We also did an overnight cruise in Halong Bay, which was certainly one of the highlights of our trip. We stayed in Hanoi’s old quarter, which has a variety of restaurants, street food, and many different boutique hotels. With so many options of things to do when visiting Hanoi, these are some of our favorite memories of our trip. We took advantage of our time there to fly to Vientiane in Laos for a couple of days as well.

View from Piazzale de Michelangelo in Florence

Top Things to Do When Visiting Florence, Italy – Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world with a rich history that includes architecture, art, and politics. There are so many wonderful sights to see when spending time in Florence, but if you have limited time in the city there are a few things that should certainly be on your itinerary. We would certainly recommend spending at least three days in Florence if at all possible as there so much to see and do. Depending on the time of year that you visit, you can expect plenty of crowds in Florence, so going during the off-season is advisable. Here are our top things to do in what we would consider to be the order of priority depending on the amount of time that you have to spend in Florence. If you have the time, we would definitely recommend adding a few days in Rome to your trip to Tuscany.

Maximizing Your Time in Chennai, India – Visiting the city of Chennai in India is a trip that we will always remember. We have mentioned previously that it was a trip that not only had a profound impact on us personally, but also changed the way that we have traveled since that visit. Although we only had a limited amount of time to spend in Chennai, we certainly made the most of the time that we had. We tried to see as much of the city as possible, but also made sure to take a couple of day trips to see the surrounding area. It can certainly be overwhelming to visit a city with as many people as live in Chennai and it takes a little getting used to as you visit the various sites.

Traditional Dance and Music in the Embera Village

Top Things to See and Do When Visiting Panama City, Panama – Panama is such a beautiful country with many wonderful sites to visit and growing ecotourism opportunities. It is a narrow country with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Pacific on the other, making it a strategic location that has been sought over by various countries throughout history. Today, it has its own independence and the people are very proud of their heritage and mindful of their history. Panama City is surrounded by jungles and mountains with strict restrictions on where populations can reside, so it is a city that is growing higher rather than growing wider. It is the perfect location to stay and to take advantage of all of the opportunities to take day trips to see the amazing locations that the country has to offer.

Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as trips and itineraries. We have also enjoyed many other locations in Europe such as Prague, Budapest, and Athens just to name a few. We are looking forward to having the opportunity to plan our next expedition.

Five Essential Tips for Travelling to Countries Other than Your Own

On January 23, 2025January 23, 2025 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Travel TipsLeave a comment

When travelling to countries outside of your own, there are few simple things that can make your trip more enjoyable and the locals more likely to treat you with respect. There are plenty of tips for travelling, but these are focused on things that can apply to any country that you visit. These are the things that we’ve learned over the years and we keep them in mind whenever we travel outside of the country.

Learn at least a few phrases of the language. Whether the only thing you can say is good morning, good day, how are you, or thank you, by speaking (or attempting to) in the local language, the people you meet will appreciate your attempts. Many people from English speaking countries will assume that English is spoken everywhere and just expect everyone to speak in English. The people of every country are proud of their heritage, traditions, and language, so we believe it is a matter of respect to at least try and learn a little of their native language.

Eat where the locals eat. Depending upon where you are travelling, there are often many restaurants that cater to tourists, but we’ve always found that by asking our hotel manager, local bartender, even the policeman on the street, that you can find more authentic meals by eating where the locals eat. They might not be as fancy and often won’t speak any English at all, but if you’re adventurous, you can end up eating something that you would have never expected just by pointing to something on the menu and taking a chance.

Act like you’re a local, not a tourist. This is more about a state of mind than anything else. If you walk confidently as if you belong in your environment, it is less likely for bad things to happen to you, such as being the target of a pick pocket. Figure out directions to where you’re going before you go so that you’re not walking around with a map in your face. This has the added benefit of allowing you to keep your eyes on your surroundings instead of reading pamphlets or maps. The more you’ve prepared in advance and know what to expect, the easyier it will be for you to relax, enjoy the people instead of fearing them, and see more of what the city or town that you’re in has to offer.

Stay at or go to as many different cities and towns as possible. Sometimes when we’re in a country, we’ll have a base camp where we do our exploring from, but we usually still add a couple of nights in different cities as well as day trips to nearby towns and attractions. Other times, we’ll spend two days in one location and then we’re off to the next. Some of the most fascinating things we’ve seen or done have happened when we’ve left the larger cities and spent time in the smaller towns.

Respect the local customs, traditions, and religions. The greatest thing about travelling is learning about all the different people that inhabit this world. Not all of our belief systems are the same and in our opinion, the world is a better place for that diversity. So, learn about the culture of the place where you are travelling. Learn simple things such as whether certain hand gestures are offensive, what body parts should be covered, and what types of public displays of affection are allowed. We always do our homework and read up on the do’s and don’ts when visiting a country, which was something that we learned from a friend of ours who is a cultural anthropologist. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make sure that what you do while you’re in a foreign country doesn’t offend or upset anyone’s belief system.

Going to foreign countries is truly a magnificent experience, but one that is made even better if you do a few simple things that will make it that much more enjoyable. Perhaps it really is as simple as following the golden rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but sometimes, when we get out of own environment, we tend to forget that it is the simple things that make everyone’s lives a little better. Hopefully, the next time you travel abroad, these simple tips will help make your trip a little better.

There is Always One More Place to See

On March 8, 2024March 8, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Travel Tips1 Comment

We originally posted this back in 2017, but the sentiments that we expressed remain as true today as they did seven years ago. No matter how much time you spend in a country, or even a city, there is always one more place to see or thing to do. Sure, it may not be the most important thing to see or do, but it probably something interesting or fun that someone else has done. After returning to the United States from spending six months in Europe, our least favorite question that people asked us when we got back was “did you go to…?”. We were working during the week, so we only had weekends to travel and didn’t have an unlimited budget, so obviously we couldn’t go everyplace. We also wanted to take advantage of our close proximity to other countries in Europe, so we couldn’t see every place in Germany, let alone Europe.

The same is true of many other trips. We spent two weeks in Spain and upon our return people inevitably asked whether we went to Madrid, Barcelona, or Portugal. We concentrated on southern Spain, so we did not make it to those places and we had a wonderful time and treasure every memory of our trip. We leave for Lisbon, Portugal in five days, so we’ll finally be able to “tick that box”. We also spent two weeks in Bolivia, but didn’t make it to the Uyuni Salt Flats due to the distance and costs from where we were. When we spent a week in Paris a few years ago, we decided to go to the Catacombs on the next to last day of our trip and it turned out that they had closed the Catacombs that day to do some repairs. It was just bad timing.

Eiffel_tower_color_cropped — Eiffel Tower in Autumn

IMGP9227 — Temple on Sun Island with Moon Island in the Distance on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

DSC_0113_day2 — Geysir Erupting in Iceland

The point that we’re hoping to make is that it is okay that you don’t see everything. Don’t worry about the places you didn’t get to see, restaurants you didn’t get to try, or the attraction that happened to be closed during your visit. Our standard response to people these days is that those are just reasons to go back sometime in the future. Worrying about the things you missed is like complaining about the half empty glass. Keep traveling and your glass will only get fuller and fuller.