As I see from the many intros here, I'm not the only person who is a former Slow Travel member. I joined ST around 2007, just before my first trip to Europe. I was fairly active on the boards for several years, through a trip to Ireland in 2008 (my first trip across the pond), then a trip to Russia in 2010 and Italy in 2011. I loved the forums and the helpful, friendly members. In 2012 I went to Israel on a tour, and when I came here it seemed the group had dropped off a lot, and there was little info about Israel. I let my participation lapse for a few years. When I was planning a second trip to Italy in 2015 I returned to ST and found it just about empty. The silence was saddening, but I realized that time, and forums, move on.
Last year my husband and I went on two tours. Peru in the fall and Cuba over New Years. The Peru trip was amazing and has me itching for a return to SA. The Cuba trip was disappointing, mainly because of failure of the tour company to live up to even half of it's promises. It was bad to the extent that the group I went with has a law suit against the tour company that arranged the tour. Ugh. However Cuba is beautiful and the Cuban people are wonderful and I hope to return some year soon.
So, new year, new hopes for a new trip. We had a shaky start in planning a holiday for this year. We initially wanted to take a bike/boat trip through Belgium and the Netherlands, but our procrastination and waffling went on too long and the trip we wanted filled up.
After considerable discussion we have settled on England for a fall vacation. We have yet to book a flight and hope to do so soon. When looking through old notes from a scrapped trip to England from several years ago I found Pauline Kenny's Cotswold site and that led me here. I will be posting to the boards for help and advice and want to thank everyone in advance.
A little personal info. I am 6o and newly retired this year. My husband is 63 and has been retired about 2 years. We feel fortunate in being able to retire this early and want to make the most of our time and our health (and our budget!) for as many years as possible. No kids, no pets. We are both fairly active in a few volunteer activities in our community. We love to walk/hike, but not for long distances (over 10 miles) and enjoy riding our bicycles when the weather turns warm. We live in Northwestern PA, about 10 minutes from Lake Erie.
Our overseas trips are all listed above. One of my few regrets in life is that I didn't start traveling to Europe until I was 52, but better late than never. We have traveled quite a bit throughout the US. We were tent campers in our 20's and 30's and have visited quite a few of our National Parks. Being only a couple hours from Canada, we've also been to a lot of Eastern Canada but still haven't seen Montreal or Quebec but they are on our list. A couple of our favorite places to visit in the US are Acadia National Park and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, so if anyone is ever thinking about visiting those locations definitely send me a message.
To finish up, we prefer to be "slow travelers", but do not rule out tours completely. Ideally we like to stay in a place for a minimum of 3 nights, and would rather be in an apartment/cottage than a hotel. We like to return to our home away from home at the end of a long day and make our supper and put our feet up and plan the day ahead. We'd rather see art work in place (like a church) than in a museum. Walking around ruins for a couple hours, especially if there are few other people around, is our idea of a perfect morning. We'd rather eat in a pub than a 5 star restaurant, or even better sit in a park with goodies bought fresh from a local market. Our needs on a holiday are pretty simple. We are there to see and experience the sites and the customs of another country and culture.
As usual, I've gone on and on. Never, ever ask me to write an essay.
Cindy P
Last year my husband and I went on two tours. Peru in the fall and Cuba over New Years. The Peru trip was amazing and has me itching for a return to SA. The Cuba trip was disappointing, mainly because of failure of the tour company to live up to even half of it's promises. It was bad to the extent that the group I went with has a law suit against the tour company that arranged the tour. Ugh. However Cuba is beautiful and the Cuban people are wonderful and I hope to return some year soon.
So, new year, new hopes for a new trip. We had a shaky start in planning a holiday for this year. We initially wanted to take a bike/boat trip through Belgium and the Netherlands, but our procrastination and waffling went on too long and the trip we wanted filled up.
After considerable discussion we have settled on England for a fall vacation. We have yet to book a flight and hope to do so soon. When looking through old notes from a scrapped trip to England from several years ago I found Pauline Kenny's Cotswold site and that led me here. I will be posting to the boards for help and advice and want to thank everyone in advance.
A little personal info. I am 6o and newly retired this year. My husband is 63 and has been retired about 2 years. We feel fortunate in being able to retire this early and want to make the most of our time and our health (and our budget!) for as many years as possible. No kids, no pets. We are both fairly active in a few volunteer activities in our community. We love to walk/hike, but not for long distances (over 10 miles) and enjoy riding our bicycles when the weather turns warm. We live in Northwestern PA, about 10 minutes from Lake Erie.
Our overseas trips are all listed above. One of my few regrets in life is that I didn't start traveling to Europe until I was 52, but better late than never. We have traveled quite a bit throughout the US. We were tent campers in our 20's and 30's and have visited quite a few of our National Parks. Being only a couple hours from Canada, we've also been to a lot of Eastern Canada but still haven't seen Montreal or Quebec but they are on our list. A couple of our favorite places to visit in the US are Acadia National Park and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, so if anyone is ever thinking about visiting those locations definitely send me a message.
To finish up, we prefer to be "slow travelers", but do not rule out tours completely. Ideally we like to stay in a place for a minimum of 3 nights, and would rather be in an apartment/cottage than a hotel. We like to return to our home away from home at the end of a long day and make our supper and put our feet up and plan the day ahead. We'd rather see art work in place (like a church) than in a museum. Walking around ruins for a couple hours, especially if there are few other people around, is our idea of a perfect morning. We'd rather eat in a pub than a 5 star restaurant, or even better sit in a park with goodies bought fresh from a local market. Our needs on a holiday are pretty simple. We are there to see and experience the sites and the customs of another country and culture.
As usual, I've gone on and on. Never, ever ask me to write an essay.
Cindy P