Recently, I’ve revisited a few posts I wrote early on in the history of this blog. The reason? I was interested in looking at them again to see if my predictions were close, if things I imagined turned out to be true and if things I wanted to do/try were still on my do/try list. I enjoyed revisiting what I expected to miss about my sticks-and-brick life as well as work I thought would be fun while living the RV life. It made me realize that in order to have posts to revisit in the future, I needed to start making more predictions, sharing more ideas for what the future will look like. So, today, I wanted to share some international travel and other non-RV travel that stand firm on the bucket list.
When I lost Solstice, several people asked if I was going to get another dog. Some suggested the best way to get over a pet loss is to bring more love (pets) into the home. My go-to response was that I would consider another dog once my heart was no longer broken. In a couple months, it will be two years since she took her last breath on earth and my heart is no less broken. I’m starting to think it simply does not unbreak. The best you can hope for is to build up a little scar tissue to ease the pain of the loss.
And, while all of that is true, there was also a second reason that I didn’t say out loud. I had a secret international travel (and other travel) wish list that didn’t include (or allow) animals. With Kitty nearly 18, a little more deaf and blind and slow each day, it won’t be long before I find myself petless. When that day comes, I can actually look at the list as a list of possibilities and not just a list of some-day dreams. Today, I wanted to share a few. And I hope you’ll share your travel dreams in the comments.
Train Ride
While nearly all of my wish list is international travel, I do have one item on the list that is within the US. I want to hop on an Amtrak train. Now, I’m not really that interested in a train ride for the sake of a train ride.
However, Amtrak offers these “vacation and rail tour” packages. You arrive at various destinations along the way via one of their trains and once there, you get off, have an excursion and stay overnight at a hotel. Then hop back on the train and speed off again.
Their vacation packages are where you simply take a train to a location and then they give you a tour package of the area. For example, you can do a 4-day excursion to Washington, DC. You arrive on Amtrak but then stay 3 nights in a hotel and the package comes with various tickets to things to do in DC. Now, that is NOT an example of what I’m talking about since, really, it’s just a regular vacation package where you reach your destination by train.
I’m talking about the multiple-stop train rides. In these, each night you stay in a different place as well as a few overnights on the train. For an extra charge, you can have sleeping compartment. They take care of getting you to your hotels. Then at each stop you get some kind of excursion or tour. The package even includes a couple of meals.
Many of the cities offer hop on – hop off tours. You might remember I went on one in Portland, Oregon. Those tours are an excellent way of seeing a lot of a city in the span of a day. I highly recommend them.
My Top Train Ride Tours
Nearly all of them sound pretty great. But three in particular spoke to me.
- Canada Coast to Coast: 17 days, from east to west with five stops in between Halifax and Vancouver.
- Grand Rail Experience: 14 days where you basically circle the US, starting in Chicago with stops in Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Washington DC and returning to Chicago.
- Old West Rail Journey: 13 days starting and ending in Los Angeles with stops in Grand Canyon, Williams, Sedona, Flagstaff, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. There is also a similar one that starts in Chicago and ends in Chicago.
These can be pretty pricy, especially when you add in a sleeping compartment and consider you’ll still have to buy meals, but I didn’t say my wish list was practical, only that it was my wish. Besides you never know what might happen to turn a wish into a reality. I, for example, never thought I’d be able to be a full-time traveler when the thought first came into my mind so many years ago. Look at me now.
International Travel: Big Picture
I have separate and specific visions for what I’ll do in each of the countries on my list which I’ll explain below. However, my overview list of places I want to visit focuses on:
- Mexico
- Spain
- Antarctica
- Greece
International Travel in North America: Mexico
My father owns a house in Mexico and has for 20 years. The feature photo is from the balcony of his second floor condo. When he bought it, you got there on a dirt road. It was a small fishing village called Punta Mita, 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. But word spread in the intervening years and it’s no longer a sleepy little fishing village. It’s quite popular for those who want to get out of PV. Because there is a fancy Four Seasons resort, celebrities and other people with lots of money are frequently in the area.
From 2001 to 2004 or so, I went down a bunch of times and then a few times in the five years that followed. But then I became more interested in spending my vacations at writing conference and then I was focusing on becoming a full-time traveler. Then I became a full-time traveler. In other words, it’s been a decade since I visited.
In the meantime, my sister fell in love with the place and especially the weather so moved down there in 2015. She’s lives in Nuevo Vallarta which is about halfway between Punta Mita and Puerto Vallarta.
Anyway, I’d like to go and spend a couple months with her. Not really as a tourist, just as a relaxer.
The Camino: Spain
The Camino de Santiago is an ancient pilgrimage. Back in the day people would leave from their front door and walk to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain to visit the bones of St. James. Today, there are about 20 “main” routes that pilgrims walk.
By far the most popular one is called the Camino Frances or the French Way. About 50% of the more than 300,000 people who walk each year take the French route which starts in St. Jean Pied de Port, France and goes for 500 miles across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It takes about 35 days. You can do the math to understand how physically arduous the task is.
I want to do that.
Antarctica
This one might sound unusual. But, actually, it’s been on my radar for decades, ever since I heard that they offer writers the chance to spend six months down there. To be honest, I don’t remember all the details. Or even the name of the program itself as it’s been a long time since I looked into it. But how could you not want to try to visit a continent that so very few people in this world have the opportunity to experience?
I mentioned in the vegan post that I enjoy watching hiking videos on YouTube. One of my favorites is a solo woman who is a full-time hiker, Sara Dhooma (trail name Carmen, as in Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?).
In early 2020, Sara was hiking Patagonia (the southern tip of South America shared between Chile and Argentina) when the opportunity came up to go on a 10-day cruise to Antarctica for half the normal price.
It was February. My guess, as we learned how contagious the COVID virus was expected to be, travel restrictions from China freed up many spots on the boat. Then, once on the boat, through a lottery system, Sara even got to spend the night on Antarctica (she had to dig a hole and it was 15 below overnight). Now she has camped on all seven continents.
Anyway, watching her Antarctica videos sparked my interest once again in visiting. Not sure if I’ll do something like what Sara did. Or if I’ll revisit the idea of applying to go as a writer.
By the way, hiker Sara Dhooma has also walked multiple Caminos. In October, she hiked a few hundred miles of a 1,000 mile Camino starting in Vezaley, France where she planned to walk 560 miles across France to St Jean Pied de Port before crossing into Spain and making her way to Santiago when the second wave of COVID hit and the world shut down again. She was force to get off the route and return home to Canada.
Greece
Ever since I saw the movie Shirley Valentine, Greece has been at the top of my list of international travel I wanted to experience. You might even remember, my very first post of this blog. Nearly five years ago, I wrote all about how I decided to give up the idea of celebrating my 50th birthday in Greece. I exchanged that dream for the dream of an RV life. The post was even named Giving Up Greece.
But exchanging the dream never meant I gave up the dream.
International Travel or Other Travel: Where in the World?
Do you have an international travel bucket list? What about other types of travel? If so, share one or two places you want to visit in the comments. It’s so much fun hearing what places tickle other’s fancy.
Links to Relevant Posts:
- RV Life and What I Miss About Sticks-and-Bricks Life
- Work I Want to Try on the Road
- Obituary of a Supersize Dog
- The Road Cat: Introducing Kitty
- Portland, Oregon: An Overview
- Awesome Products That Happen to Be Vegan
- Giving Up Greece or Why I Started This Blog
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- Padarsey 79 in 1 Precision Screwdriver Set
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I did not realize Amtrack offered vacation and tour packages. I have only taken the Amtrack once from Denver to New York and back. I have already been to Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta on camping trips. But going through Canada by rail sounds like fun.
Yeah, I’ve taken Amtrak a couple different times too but it was always, like your experience, a way to get from one place to another. I think the tour package train travel would be a very different kind of trip.
WOW, that’s a lot of travel planning. Looking forward to the next adventure – now that is being positive minded.
Adding a new “pet” after losing one who was a long part of your life, is so hard, its a heart breaking event, one I’ve experienced almost to many times. To date we have moved on each time with a new 4 legged family addition. You can’t replace the old, just appreciated the quirks of the new. Yet, each time we ask if the heart break is worth the joy of the new. Pets and travel – especially international travel – don’t mix well. We have similar future travel as you, and have yet to really come up with a plan for keeping Harley. I guess we need to adopt a responsible 20 year old to care for him in our absence …..
I like the idea of camping – at least once – on all 7 continents. Goals, we all need them.
And lastly – the Durango to Silverton (and back) is a wonderful one day train ride – narrow gage, as is the one out of Williams AZ – to the Grand Canyon and back. (RV places close to each)
Happy Trails,
Russel
Thanks, Russell. I got a little teary. I love “just appreciate the quirks of the new one.” Having someone to pet sit is the best idea. I don’t think I’d be able to leave a pet for a few weeks at a kennel. It’s so hard when you cannot explain to them what’s going on and that you’ll be back. Oh, I have heard of that Durango to Silverton train ride from other RVers and heard it is awesome. I was just doing research to RV in Colorado. I was thinking thing summer for a few other things lined up instead. Yes, that one is now on the list. I’ll also look into the Grand Canyon one. Thanks for adding to my list. See you on the road…at some point.
Hey Deb, glad to see that you’re dipping your toe in the waters of international travel. I also wanted to do some train rides and I believe there is one that explores Alaska, which maybe you would not be interested in, since you lived there so many years.
There are two other train journeys on my bucket list: one in Peru’ and the other one is the Orient Express from France through Instanbul, which of course stops in Venice, for me, the most amazing city in the world and one that you should not miss visiting, not as a tourist (because that’s boring and Venetians hate that) but as a local, at least for a month or so. If you cannot afford that, then a train ride through is not a bad idea.
The Orient Express is pricey, but I like luxury travel and Omaze often offers it up for raffle, so I hope to get lucky some day.
Hi Laura. It’s funny you commented because I was thinking about you as I wrote waiting to walk to Camino in Spain since you did your year abroad there. I have taken a couple of Alaska Railroad trips, including up to Denali. It was neat. We added a helicopter ride to see the mountain up close. It was awesome and we got so lucky as it was a clear day. Many tourist don’t realize that there is only about a 30% chance they will see America’s tallest mountain because there is so much cloud cover most of the time. Oooh, I totally didn’t think of the Orient Express. That would be a kick too though I think I’d keep looking over my shoulder, never getting Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express out of my head. I’ll keep my fingers cross for you win a trip via raffle. How great would that be?
I don’t have a formal bucket list, I think I’m more of an opportunistic international traveler. We traveled as much as we could around Asia when we were living there, and since we live in Atlanta now, we’ll probably plan trips to the Caribbean or Europe next. I’m always looking for an adventure! I some ideas for the next few years- I’m ready to go as soon as the world is ready for me to travel!
Yeah, you’ve done a lot of international travel. I can’t wait to see what you guys do next and will look forward to hearing all about it.
Kittie & Solstice…they loved each other by pretending they didn’t ????????❤️????.
Cool plans you have!
Oh, how I wish that were true but I’m pretty sure Kitty and Solstice didn’t love each other.