Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category
Enjoy French culture without visiting France
So you’re craving a taste of French culture – the cafes, the food, the bread, maybe even the language – but a trip to France is not in your immediate future. Well, there are places where you can experience French culture even if you can’t make it to Paris or Provence at the moment. Katie [...]
Venice in winter
Yes, it’s colder, though not unbearably so. But the rewards are more affordable prices and few tourists. Matt Gross, aka the Frugal Traveler, just experienced the mid-winter charms of Venice with his wife and young daughter. An excerpt from his report:
More important, and less quantifiable, than any of these practical factors was the pleasant aura [...]
Coastal Catalonia
If you’re searching for a more authentic and less glitzy destination by the sea, Sarah Wildman recommends Costa Brava – the sparsely populated coastal region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. She wrote about a recent trip there for the International Herald Tribune.
On the small roads between Cantallops and Llançà – two names that were barely dots on [...]
Resurgent Lisbon
The Portuguese city of Lisbon has often been an afterthought when considering the great capitals of Europe, but that seems to be changing. Lisbon is getting increasingly good press of late, culminating in this nice profile in the travel section of Sunday NY Times, which focuses on the city’s vibrant arts scene.
After all, this wasn’t a [...]
Old World meets the new in Bulgaria
Few people think of Bulgaria when contemplating a European vacation, but Tim Jones found the country to be an intriguing mixture of the old and the new. He reported on his experiences for the Chicago Tribune.
This is a dark, fascinating and, unfortunately, forgotten country, an Iowa-sized Balkan beauty with snow-capped mountains and lush green fields. [...]
Kayaking in Venice
Most visitors to Venice experience the famed canals in a gondola. That is, when they’re not walking along the canals, crossing bridges over the canals, or having dinner at a canalside table. But David Kocieniewski wanted a more authentic experience, so he and his girlfriend spent some days paddling the canals of Venice in their own kayak, [...]
Madrid versus Lisbon
Madrid and Lisbon. Since the capitals of Spain and Portugal are so close geographically and share a Latin European heritage, one would assume they have nearly identical cultures. In some respects this is true – if you’re doing business in either place, for instance, you’d better be adept at building relationships and be patient with time [...]
Irish cuisine on St. Patrick’s Day
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! What better way to mark the day than with a tour of Irish cuisine? Ambrose Clancy did just that recently, traversing the island and sampling a variety of Irish meals. He wrote about his tour for the Sunday travel section of the Washington Post.
The Irish have become prosperous and, of all [...]
The idea of Russia
It’s been two weeks since Time magazine named Vladimir Putin its “Person of the Year.” Now that the holiday craziness has ended, I finally got around to reading that issue of the magazine. In it, there is a fascinating portrait of Putin, but also an intriguing article about Russia itself (“In Search of Russia’s Big Idea”), which is the [...]
Hiking the Cinque Terre
Sure, Italy has Rome, Florence and Venice. It has Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. But Italy also has the Cinque Terre, a slighty lesser known region on the country’s western edge, where five colorful villages hug a rocky coastline and are linked by a stunning trail system. Barbara Bodengraven recently hiked the Cinque Terre with her [...]
Europe in the fall
Summer is rightly the high season for tourism to Europe. The weather is warm and it’s a popular vacation period. But autumn can be an equally nice time to visit the continent, especially since airfares tend to be cheaper and tourist sites less crowded. The NY Times travel section recently featured the fall attractions of eight [...]
Arctic tourism
The Arctic climate of Greenland hasn’t traditionally been a big tourist attraction, but interest is growing. Climate change, ironically, is one of the factors behind a rise in tourism to Greenland, as this Associated Press article notes:
Hunting is the central element of the Inuit culture in Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, but that immutable way [...]
Stay current with the Riel World
Subscribe by Email
Follow me on TwitterMeet Bob Riel
Bob Riel is a writer and a traveler. Go here to read more about Bob, his work and the Travels in the Riel World blog.
Two Laps Around the World
My travel memoir - Two Laps Around the World: Tales and Insights from a Life Sabbatical - is about two round-the-world journeys with my wife.
Great American Road Trips
Visit Travel Blog Exchange
