Life's Little Adventures is filled with travel stories, both by myself and others. So many, in fact, that the "travel" category took forever to download and was a mess to navigate. So now I've replaced the category listing with this index, which gives a very brief description of each post and a link to it. The "Daytrips" listing is still so long that it gets its own subindex, directly below this introduction.
CLICK HERE for a detailed list of free complete chapters from the Daytrips series of guidebooks. These are from North America, Great Britain, Europe, and the Pacific. The list is growing frequently, so bookmark this site! Each chapter is an adventure in itself and can be printed out for your own personal use. If you like them, you might even buy a book and help feed me. Thank you.
TRAVEL POSTS OTHER THAN DAYTRIPS GUIDEBOOK CHAPTERS:
HOW I GOT STARTED IN TRAVEL GUIDES, PART I...the Great Trips story, or what happened when an impossible TV dream failed.
HOW I GOT STARTED IN TRAVEL GUIDES, PART II. How a realization of my limitations led to a new venture that changed my life.
HOW I GOT STARTED IN TRAVEL GUIDES, PART III. It all began with Great Trips/Europe, my brilliant but hopelessly unworkable and ultimately unsuccessful idea.
HOW I GOT STARTED IN TRAVEL GUIDES, PART IV. Selling Great Trips/Europe: How advertising and free publicity brought in orders but failed to produce a profit.
HOW I GOT STARTED IN TRAVEL GUIDES, PART V. It's off to Portugal and Spain for one last fling with Great Trips/Europe.
A REALLY GREAT WAY TO TRAVEL. How a guidebook called Turn Left at the Pub inspired me to take up travel writing.
AN ADVENTURE IN ISRAEL. It's January 1992 and I'm off to Tel Aviv to begin work on a Daytrips guide to Israel. This post covers Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Ramat Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Ashkelon, and Beersheba.
MORE ADVENTURES IN ISRAEL. This post is mostly about pious Jerusalem, but also includes Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, and Masada.
HAIFA— ISRAEL'S GREAT SEAPORT. In February 1992 I discovered the most enjoyable city in Israel, staying there two weeks and making a fascinating daytrip to Akko.
THE NORTH OF ISRAEL. My last week in the Holy Land was spent exploring several sites in the north, including Nazareth, The Sea of Galilee, Safed, and Caesarea.
THE LITTLE STUDEBAKER THAT COULDN'T...and why we should have taken the train. It's 1957, I'm in the army, stationed in Japan, and this is the first of my little adventures there.
THE CONQUEST OF MOUNT FUJI. Three of us army peons climb Japan's sacred mountain in 1959, and live to tell about it.
EAST BERLIN IN 1969. Come with me on a one-day stroll into Stalinist East Germany — where we eat their wurst, drink their beer, then make our break back to freedom.
VISITING YUGOSLAVIA IN 1965. This is the story of how I came to visit communist Yugoslavia twice in the summer of '65, and why I was drawn back the second time.
ADVENTURES IN SCOTLAND: An attempt to expand my London book, back in 1986.
EXTRAORDINARY PLACES...CLOSE TO LONDON. About two years ago I had the pleasure of editing an unusual and timeless book by Elizabeth Wallace that offers a personal and unique look into the life and history of London's Home Counties.
A NEW OWNER, A NEW BOOK...and a breathtaking rail journey through North Wales. Carefully following train schedules, I travel from London to Shrewsbury, then into Wales via Machynlleth and Porthmadog. From there an ancient narrow-gauge steam train climbs high into Snowdonia to the slate quarries at Blaenau Ffestiniog. Getting back by a completely different route required three more trains, really giving my BritRail Pass a workout.
THE FIRST TIME I SAW PARIS. While working for the famous photographer Richard Avedon, I got the plum assignment of assisting him in covering the 1962 fall couture collections in Paris. And got sent there a week in advance so I could get acquainted with the city. Well, here's what happened.
SEEING JAPAN FOR THE FIRST TIME. My exploration of this strange and exciting land begins during my army days, in 1957.
TOURING THE PACIFIC FOR PAN AM. A month-long 1971 assignment that took us to Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti.
DIGITAL TRAVEL GUIDES...the wave of the future? My thoughts on an emerging technology that could change the way travel information is made available.
WRITING FOR FODOR'S — PART I. My little world comes undone in 1989, and as my publisher goes through changes I get to work on a guidebook for Fodor's covering Eastern Austria. Here's how it went.
WRITING FOR FODOR'S — PART II. It's off to Graz, a wonderful small city that serves as a base for exploring all of Styria, including the home of the famed Lippizaner strallions.
FLYING HIGH ON AIR FRANCE. I produce two dining guides for the airline.
SAILING THE GREEK ISLANDS. We spend a week on a sailboat in 1974.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH. A 2007 trip to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.
INNSBRUCK MOUNTAIN WALK. An easy 8-mile hike in the Austrian Alps, taken in 1979 but still valid.
GAUDI'S BARCELONA. A one-day walk exploring the works of a great architect.
BEETHOVEN'S VIENNA. A tour through the haunts of the great composer.
SALZBURG, AUSTRIA. Visiting the places associated with Mozart.
ODENSE, DENMARK. A daytrip from Copenhagen to the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, a restored 19th-century farm village, and more.
HELSINGØR, DENMARK & HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN. A daytrip from Copenhagen to encounter the Prince of Denmark in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
A MOUNTAIN WALK NEAR VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN. This easy daytrip from Zürich in Switzerland takes you through the woods of a tiny nation.
BAYREUTH, GERMANY. This daytrip from Munich is a must for all lovers of Wagnerian opera.
VISITING JAPAN'S SOUTHERN ISLANDS. While in the U.S. Army, stationed near Tokyo in the 1950s, I traveled by train and boat through the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku.
VISITING NIKKO, JAPAN. Another favorite destination for soldiers stationed in Japan. We climb to the sacred shrines and then take in the natural splendors of Lake Chuzenji.
A FUN READ. Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? My comments on that controversial new book by Thomas Kohnstamm.
IRONBRIDGE GORGE, ENGLAND. A visit to the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
STOKE BRUERNE, England. A towpath walk along England's Grand Union Canal to a picturesque old village.
COOKHAM, ENGLAND. A country walk along the River Thames near London.
CUENCA, SPAIN. This daytrip from Madrid takes you to an amazing vertical medieval town.
JAPAN REVISITED. An account of a long vacation in 1964.
JAPAN REVISITED, Part 2. The adventures continue.
HEART OF THE AMISH COUNTRYSIDE. A rural adventure in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County.
STRASBURG, PA., U.S.A. A railfan's delight riding steam trains and playing with toy trains.
PLUCKLEY, ENGLAND. The country's most haunted village.
BATTLE, ENGLAND. 1066 and all that. The turning point in British history at the Battle of Hastings.
1066 — William the Conqueror at Pevensey, England. The beginnings of the Norman Conquest.
The 2010 New York York Times Travel Exhibition. A critique of the travel industry and why I'm not a part of it.
McSorley's Old Ale House. A 2010 visit to New York's oldest Irish pub.
Revisiting Ground Zero. A Sept. 2010 visit to New York's World Trade Center site.
Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.
AND NOW (2013) I'm off on Life's Latest Little Adventure:
iTravelGuides
Interactive digital travel guides with a difference, using innovative software developed by Sutro Media for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPodTouch.
What little adventures am I up to now? Click here to find out.
I just want to say that's a great blog! thank you for sharing and keep up the good work.
Posted by: | January 29, 2010 at 03:28 PM