AndreiEV

Sending the Kids to Europe

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:48:33 +0000

Well, it’s already fast approaching final exams for the Spring semester at colleges around the United States. Soon, college students will be coming home for the summer, looking for jobs and planning fun visits with friends from back home who they haven’t seen in a while. For many of these students, this break from college will also feature their very first European tour. These trips are usually organized by faculty on the college campus and are attended with adults and travel tour company representatives for that college. EF College Tours is one of the world’s best known and most acclaimed student tour companies, and offers parents all kinds of useful tips for getting their kids ready for the overseas adventures.

“Last year I took a tour group to Great Britain and part of Iceland,” said one tour guide. ”There was a volcano while we were there though, a big one in Iceland, and our flight was delayed for a while. The trip itself was phenomenal! Fortunately, the tour company put us up in a nice hotel for a few days and we got to enjoy some extra time in Europe. Nobody really complained about that.”

For many college students, the two week trip to a foreign land marks their very first visit outside the United States, but some of these students will already be experienced travelers. The experience of going to another country, even for just a couple of weeks, is one that will broaden a student’s horizons and help them get a better grasp of the world and a new perspective on the plight of people in other parts of the world.

Before you go sending them off to Europe, make sure you have everything lined up that they will need: money, insurance, electrical adapters for outlets for using charging cables for personal electronics, and of course the passport.

Destination: America

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:43:52 +0000

Clearly, traveling is something that I love to do. I have been traveling pretty much my whole life because my parents were nutty hippies who owned a van and took to the road for most of my childhood. I never lost the desire to travel, but in the past couple of years my trips have certainly been few and far between. I miss what it is like to go somewhere new and explore and learn. So, while most people made goals and resolutions to lose weight or be healthy, I made a resolution to travel more once again. This time my trips are going to be a little different though. This time I want to see places and towns in the United States, my country. This year, 2012, will be my year of Destination: America. Where am I going to go? Well, I don’t have it all decided yet, but here are my top picks.

Phoenix, Arizona – The last time I was in Phoenix I was a toddler. There are pictures of me running around with other little ones whose parents were also in the “van club,” but obviously I do not remember that trip. I doubt my parents do either for other reasons. Phoenix seems super relaxed and outdoorsy, which is perfect for me. I love to play outside and I love relaxing. The southwestern scenery looks so inviting too. I am ready to see a new side of the desert.

Boston, Massachusetts – Okay, I am choosing Boston for one main reason, the clam chowder. Honestly, I am anti-New England sports teams, so I am not too sure how well I will fit in with the natives of this die hard sports loving city. I figure that I will probably find things to do outside of sports though so I will not have to defend myself too often.

Portland, Oregon – This is another place I choose based on the lifestyles of those who call it home. Portland just seems so chill about everything. And it does not hurt that it is beautiful and welcoming to those who prefer the outdoors to inside. Bonus: there is no sales tax in Portland. I see a shopping trip in my future, don’t you?

Wilmington, North Carolina – I have found a recent obsession with the writer Nicholas Sparks. Most of his books take place in coastal North Carolina and after much research I have chosen to visit Wilmington. The sand and ocean are the main reasons for the trip, but the abundance of restaurants and fun activities helped put this coastal town on my list.

What a Cruise Takes

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:40:59 +0000

Next time you are on that cruise you have been dying to take I want you to think of everything that goes into them just so that we will pay money to have fun on the open seas. Cruise ships can get massive and they aren’t likely to get any smaller, any time soon. Bigger is actually better in this case as the more rooms you have and the larger the public areas are, the more people you can fit onto the ship. More people equals more money and in turn creates a better experience the next time you go on a cruise. Cruise ships take lots and lots of time and money to get ready and small things like restocking the correct amount of food to beverages ratio can become a monumental task. All this so you can float on the ocean while swimming in a pool and sipping a cocktail. Isn’t modern life grand.

Be sure to visit flowland.net for your essential supplies before taking your cruise!

Rick Steves’ Eastern Europe Guided Tour

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:30:23 +0000

Enjoy the video below, and experience a test drive of Rick Steves’ 2010 Eastern Europe tour with Cameron Hewitt as your test guide. You’ll experience all of the rich diversity of Eastern Europe and the Adriatic area, from the vibrant cities of Kraków and Budapest to tradition-rich smaller villages across the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia. A waterfall wonderland of Plitvice awaits you, and the picturesque Alpine beauty of Lake Bled will be a sight you will remember always. On Steves’ Best of the Adriatic tour, you’ll travel across Slovenia’s Ljubljana and see the fairytale Lake Bled. There is really so much to see, we won’t spoil it for you ahead of time. Dive right in and enjoy the video, and if you are interested in more information and how to book an Eastern European tour, perhaps even one with

Rick Steves himself, visit his website.

Who Is Visiting Russia?

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:13:06 +0000

Russian tourism is, just as tourism does in many countries, helping to drive its battered economy during a time when the global financial markets seem to be most at odds with a nation emerging from years of socialist communism and trying to make it in a post-Cold War world. Still, many Westerners remain leery of the shadows of Russia’s past, and keep their distance with tourist dollars, preferring instead to spend their money on more culturally similar locales. Many people forget the greatness of Russia prior to the invasion of Mongol barbarians in the bronze and early middle ages, and how splendid was Kiev Rus before the onslaught of the Golden Horde in the 1200s. So rich is the history of Russia, and it’s natural beauty remains intact. It would be a shame for any serious European traveler to miss the opportunity to visit here.

Enjoy the infographic below. You will need to click it to make it large enough to read. It shows you where many of Russia’s tourists are coming from and what their spending trends have been like in recent years.

Eastern European Primer

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:53:46 +0000

This site will provide a foray into the rich heritage of mostly Eastern and Central Europe, with a focus on Eastern Europe. Learn about the disintegration of a life-experience that used to be handed down in spoken word or song in a genre that has evolved spectacularly in form and function over the past many centuries. There is so much to ponder in them – from the image of a ghostly churchhovering on a river near the Danube Delta, to the many abandoned buildings with facades crudely renovated overnight for the Communist propaganda spectacle that would unfold in all its dread splendor.See the fascinating wares bearing the aura of the past in a Sarajevo Market, and the land so rich in literary imagination. Truly, modern travelers and footloose immigrants living thousands of miles from America now live in the cool shade of their own versions of the American Dream. What of the old world has been lost to time? What has remained in tact?

After the fall of communism in much of Eastern Europe, a new day has certainly dawned on her hills and plains and in the hearts of her people, their eyes longing westward as their hearts, and souls, are one with their land and heritage. Some of the most preserved and lovely sights to be seen in all the wide world rest here, awaiting the arrival of new visitors in whose ears to whisper the tales of ages past. In Eastern Europe, the natural beauty will forever leave its mark upon your heart, eternally beckoning you back for a longer stay. If you are interested and curious about visiting, call your travel agent now to learn of great tours that will allow you to experience the majesty of this land in style.