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Welcome Welcome to the first edition of my travel advisor newsletter. I help travelers turn dream trips into thoughtfully planned, memorable journeys—especially when the trip is tied to a once-in-a-lifetime event, milestone celebration, or destination that has been on the wish list for years. My role is to help you move from “someday” to a well-designed plan: matching the right destination and travel style, coordinating timing around hard-to-get events, identifying smart lodg

Susan’s Travel Blog – Christmas Markets Tour! Weather: Rainy, 48 degrees F° Place: Basel, Switzerland Food Overview:Eating and drinking are key elements of each Christmas market. Of course, one must have some Gluhwein to stay warm while strolling the market, and to offset the wine, food is in order! Gluhwein is a heated mulled wine with spices. While we did find it made mostly red wines, there were also some whites on offer (sorry, warm white wine doesn’t do it for me!). In a

Susan’s Travel Blog – Christmas Markets Tour! Date: December 9, 10 and 11, 2024 Weather: Rainy, 48 degrees F° Place: Strasbourg, France Information: Joyeaux Noel! Our group has moved onto Strasbourg, France, which has one of the largest and older Christmas markets in Europe. Our guide shared with us that there are actually 13 markets in the city, with the most famous in the City Center. It is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, at th

Susan's Christmas Markets Blog Date: December 7. 2024 Weather: Rainy, 48 degrees F° Place: Frieberg, Germany Information: Hello and Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas in German)! We are visiting Freiberg, Germany! Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, known as the Silver City, with around 41,000 inhabitants. It sits on the Freiberger Mulde, a tributary of the Mulde River. The entire historic center of the Silver City is under monument protect

Dates: December 7, 2024 Weather: 40 or so with lots of wind and rain As we traverse west towards France, we've spent time in Germany's Black Forest - home of Hansel and Gretl and cuckoo clocks! It's lovely country, heavily-forested and lots of agriculture. One of our stops was the Rheinfell waterfall - third largest in Europe! The Ravenna Gorge, within the Black Forest, is home to a unique Christmas market, located in the Gorge under a railway trestle that reminds me of

Date: December 5/6. 2024 Weather: Rainy, 48 degrees F° Place: Lucerne, Switzerland Information: Have been visiting lovely Lucerne, Switzerland for the last two days! It’s so beautiful here – and clean! Located on Lake Lucerne, it’s a middle-sized town, focused on sports and tourism! It’s been raining – not a problem for this Pacific NW person! Known for it’s lovely position on the lake, and it’s stunning Kapellbrücke (literally, Chapel Bridge) is a covered bridge and con

Date: December 4, 2024 Place: Portland, Oregon (Portland International Airport) Information: Departing today for our wonderful Christmas Markets tour, arriving tomorrow in Zurich, Switzerland, with a transfer to Lucerne, Switzerland! Traveling with some old friends, and I hope to make new ones in our group! Our tour is 10 days and will cover the Black Forest in Germany and parts of the Alsace region in France. We are ending in Strasbourg, France! More to follow!

So – we set off to see the Canadian Rockies by train, traveling from Lake Louise, Alberta to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Rocky Mountaineer boasts of world-class service, superior food, and stunning scenery! I’ll tell you that it met all three! Incredible Service: Beginning with our check-in at the Fairmont Lake Louise, we experienced wonderful, proactive customer service! I thought, in our post-Covid world, that customer service was dying a slow death until I got to the

Banff/Lake Louise: With Toronto and Calgary in the rearview mirror, we are now embarking on our Rocky Mountaineer journey! Our first day involved an early pick-up by bus to begin our visit to the Canadian Rockies! We made several stops, including a boat ride on Lake Minnewanka, located in Banff National Park. The lake is one of the largest in Alberta and has a town buried by waters redirected when a dam was constructed. The water was an interesting color – impacted by “ro

Can't believe it's been 4 days since we left Niagara Falls! We've visited both Toronto and Calgary in the last several days! Toronto is a big busy city with lots of construction going on. It's lovely with lots of parks (reminded me of NYC) but also Chicago with its own Lakeshore Drive showcasing Lake Ontario. Normally when I visit a city for the 1st time, I make use of the hop-on/hop-off bus. Unfortunately here in Toronto, there is so much construction the best stops wer

Niagara Falls! Blog #2: Niagara! Hello everyone! The last few days have been spent touring the Niagara Peninsula! This includes the charming Niagara-on-the-Lake, as well as Niagara Falls itself! Niagara-on-the-Lake: This small town is lovely! It reminds me of many of the small towns found in either the Willamette Valley or in South Africa’s wine country. It sits on the shores of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River. The flower-filled, tree-lined old town fe

Hi Fellow Travelers! Based on the above map, I’m sure you’ve guessed I’m traveling with several friends to visit our neighbor to the North! I’m headed out to Canada, flying into Toronto, where we’ll spend about a week, being introduced to the city, while visiting the area in and around Niagara Falls. Our specific itinerary includes our flight into Toronto, picking up our rental car, and driving to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small village famous for Canadian wine and history. A

Blog #7: Resting at Home After flying 19,100 miles, and completing 1400 miles of game drives, we safely arrived home! This was an incredible trip, blessed with new and old friends and unique experiences to savor! I’ve been asked about the food in the camps! It’s amazing what the chefs are able to do with small or temporary kitchens! And the service for each meal is lovely with unique table settings for each meal. The food mainly consisted of protein, a starch or two, l