If you’re like me you read for enjoyment every day, sometimes all day!  Maybe you especially like novels that weave a tale using historical facts, settings, and customs.  You might even imagine being part of the plot. Or, perhaps you love to escape into a movie, immersing yourself in the story as it unfolds. Above all, you might find it particularly interesting when the setting is far away, where you have never been.  In contrast, you may prefer familiar places and the memories they evoke.

Do you take walking tours when traveling to new destinations, and even some where you have previously been but never fully explored?  Learning about the way things were and how they are changing is fascinating and provides a new appreciation of the circumstances that surround us. It also allows us to gain a greater understanding of how things came to be.  Wouldn’t it be great if you had someone to travel with who knows interesting things about the places you want to visit? It would be even better if they could narrate tales of adventure, conquest, intrigue and romance.

That is what I am offering you, accessible in a variety of ways.

Learn how to be your own travel guide

Obtain valuable information gleaned through my research and travels, allowing you to enjoy experiences of your own making. The first step might be deciding when and where you want to go, and for how long. Tips for solo travelers should be useful, and services for seniors could be an important consideration. Identifying options, associated costs and benefits is another necessary step. This will allow you to make appropriate travel plans and book suitable accommodations. Similarly, planning your activities will help you know what to pack. Those are the broad strokes, but the devil is in the details and that’s where I do my best work.

Be my (virtual) travel companion

Accompany me as we choose destinations based on passages from books or movies about events in a specific location.  For example, the movie A Room with A View is based on an E. M. Forster novel of the same name features landmarks in the City of Florence.  Or maybe the movie we choose will be a classic about a rite of passage, such as the 1946 production of Great Expectations. Based on the novel by Charles Dickens, it tells the story of an orphan growing up in London and Kent. 

Maybe you’ve read or heard about retired expats in South America or Asia and wonder if living abroad is as good as it sounds. (I know a doctor who would have benefited from a realistic preview before packing up his family and moving to Turks and Caicos!) Or maybe the grass is looking greener just over the fence. You might like to know more than what you’ve read in books or seen in movies regarding places in the USA and Canada, where I’m located.

If you like living dangerously you might consider a trip to Nigeria to investigate those Machiavellian internet scams Canadian author Will Ferguson writes about in his tale of suspense, 419. If you like adventure and a good adrenaline rush, we can visit Venice and imagine we’re James Bond traveling through the canals in a gondola, recalling the fantastic chase scene in Moonraker.

Inspiration for destinations might also come from events that are told about in The Bible. Talk about life-changing passages! 

Experience travel vicariously

Read our blog to share in our experiences and discover places depicted in selected passages of books. In Magic, for example, Danielle Steel vividly portrays the glamorous White Dinner that occurs annually in Paris. As Lawrence Bergreen’s captivating prose in Over the Edge of the World reveals, you never know where circumnavigation of the globe might take you.

Regardless of how you choose to unwrap and use my gift, I hope it will bring you pleasure.

Sincerely,

Danita