10 Things to Do in Rotterdam

The Netherlands’ second largest city, Rotterdam, is very different from its largest city, Amsterdam.  While Amsterdam is old-world architecture, Rotterdam is a very modern city.  The reason for that is because, except for a small handful of buildings, the city of Rotterdam was obliterated in less than 15 minutes by a World War II bombing campaign.  Rather than trying to rebuild in its old style, the people of Rotterdam decided to show their resiliency by using the devastation as an opportunity to start over with innovative and creative architecture.  The result is that the things to do in Rotterdam are an interesting mix of old and new.

Amsterdam Vacation: Things to Do and Neighborhoods to Visit

Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most popular vacation spots.  Based on feedback from 100,000 millennials, Amsterdam came in number two for most popular travel destinations on earth.  That’s not a huge surprise considering Amsterdam is a picturesque city of canals, architecture, world-famous museums, and more bicycles than people.  It’s also very affordable.  All of this also means Amsterdam is quite crowded, especially in the city center.  Fortunately, the many things to do in Amsterdam include a number of places to visit in Amsterdam’s unique neighborhoods just outside of the city center.

Volunteer in Kenya with Freedom Global, Make a Difference

We’d always liked the idea of combining travel and volunteering.  We’d talked about voluntourism.  We’d thought about voluntourism.  But we’d never actually done it.  There are lots of excuses, like a lot of volunteer trips are weeks or months long, which is hard for people like us with limited vacation time, or we’d think about volunteering for a day or two during a trip, but then the schedule got too full.  Then one day a friend was talking about an upcoming trip to Kenya, a trip that would be a week and a half, a trip that would be focused on volunteering.  Oh, and a trip that could include a 24-hour safari.  But that’s for another article.  This article is about volunteering in Kenya with Freedom Global.

5 Reasons Why You'll Want the Swiss Travel Pass

To drive or to take the train, that is the question.  In Switzerland, the answer is to take the train!  There is no place on earth that provides better train travel than Switzerland, and it is made so easy with the Swiss Travel Pass.  If you’re not sure whether it’s worth getting a Swiss Travel Pass for your trip to Switzerland, here are five reasons why you'll want to get a Swiss Travel Pass. 

5 Fun Things to Do in Saas-Fee Switzerland in Summer

Saas-Fee is a premier skiing village in the Valais region of Switzerland, so why were we traveling to Saas-Fee in summer?  It wasn’t for the skiing, though Saas-Fee is unique because you can ski there year-round.  While winter is Saas-Fee’s most popular season for travelers, summer is less crowded and there are many fun things to do in Saas-Fee in summer.

What to Do With a Long Layover in London

Nine-hour layover.  Those words can strike dread in any traveler’s heart.  Unless that is, that long layover is in London.  Then, all of a sudden, those words are full of opportunity.  We’re not strangers to the long layover.  We used a long layover to tour Munich in a day, and another long layover at the Munich airport (which included a spa visit and a brewery visit).  Given the distance between Heathrow and the city of London, we didn’t get to do as much as we did with seven hours in Munich, but we were still able to have a very nice morning wandering around London on a self-guided tour, taking photos, and seeing a couple things we hadn’t seen when we were in London for our honeymoon 14 years ago.

Four Days in Interlaken and the Swiss Alps

While we ended up spending a number of days in Switzerland’s cities, we wanted to spend plenty of time soaking in Switzerland’s nature, specifically the Swiss Alps and the Berner Obereland region.  To do so we spent four nights in Interlaken, giving us four-and-a-half days in the Swiss Alps.  We used Interlaken as a jumping off point for a number of day-trips to places like Thun, Jungfraujoch, Lake Spiez, Lauterbrunnen, and Gimmelwald.