One thing you might not think about is that you should shape up for travel if you want to really enjoy your trip and stay healthy.

Your doctor probably tells you all the time that you should exercise more… but some people find it hard to stay motivated to exercise just because they should.  Decide to shape up for travel, and hopefully you’ll stay motivated.

Exercise, do some serious walking, some physical training or practice…. Once you get on the road, you’ll be glad you made the effort to shape up for travel whether you’ll be hiking or biking or kayaking… or just walking around cities.

There are lots of active travel destinations where you know you should do some training before you leave home… hiking the Grand Canyon, hiking the Inca Trail… hiking anywhere. (more…)

So we’ve been encouraging you to make lists… lists like a travel preparation checklist and a packing list.  You do it for groceries and for projects around the house.  Make a list for your travel preparations too.

We thought that it would be a good idea to show you our list.  We actually have a file in the computer for each list so we can print them out before each trip.  These are items we think you need to think about in the last week or two before departure… a travel preparation checklist.

You could always start a list as soon as you begin planning your trip.  We’ve discussed that in the past too… the early things you need to do like research visa requirements, talk to your travel agent for complicated itineraries, make airline reservations. (more…)

You might think that with all the travel we do, we would have no travel trepidation.  I can see where you might be justified to assume that, but you’d be wrong.  We just got back from a wonderful trip that makes for a good example.

We had some vacation time in November… but at that time of year, weather has to play a role in where you’re going to go.  We talked about going wine tasting in South America or maybe going to Tunisia in North Africa… but we settled on Israel.

Or should I say, my hubby really wanted to go to Israel.  I slowly let myself be talked into the trip, but I have to tell you, I had more than a little travel trepidation about the goings on in the Middle East.

Counties that routinely end up in the news with stories about violence tend to set many travelers on edge, and you have to admit, Israel has had it’s share of unrest.  I was so ambivalent about this trip, that I didn’t do much of the planning at all… actually I didn’t do any!

When you start telling friends about a destination like this, you’re apt to get a lot of negative feedback.  We got that when we went to Jordan and later when we went to Dubai and Oman, but we didn’t let that stop us.  We definitely got some negative feedback when we started telling people we were going to Israel… things like, “Aren’t you scared going there?” …or… “Keep your head down.”

We both kept saying that things had been pretty quiet recently, and that if anything flared up, we’d just go to Pismo Beach, California!  But nothing flared up, and there we were on the plane.

We practiced what we preach.  We stayed in a local hotel… not a big name glitzy one that could be a target.  We left all of our jewelry at home.  We dressed conservatively so as not to offend anyone, and we tried not to stand out.

Just like we’ve found on most trips that make you stretch a little, my travel trepidations were pretty much unfounded on this trip.  We arrived in Jerusalem without any reservations.  The Israeli Tourist Information desk in the airport was able to get us reservations at a nice little local hotel about a five minute walk from the Jaffa Gate to the Old City.

People had warned us about walking in the Old City at night.  But it gets dark early in November, so once we got to our hotel, what did we do but walk into the old city to find a great little Armenian Tavern for dinner.

The whole time we were there, we walked in the Old City at night and had no problems.  There was all the usual hub-bub in the bazaars, but the “step-into-my-shop”, “you’re-my-lucky-customer” merchants were polite and friendly when we said no.

We took the local blue bus 21 to Bethlehem and had lots of help from locals once we got there.  When we looked lost catching city buses in Jerusalem, we also had help.

Each day that went by with more fantastic experiences, I felt sillier and sillier about the travel trepidation I had had.  The point is, if you have travel trepidations, but you really want to go someplace, do your research.

If it’s really unsafe, stay away… but most places are safe to travel to, even places that are often in the news.  Face down your fears.  Once you’re there, you’ll be glad you did!

We think lists are good to help you remember everything… a travel preparation list, grocery lists, honey-do lists.  Notice the order we put those in?  Might make you think that travel is more important to us than eating… and you might be right!  …But then you would expect that, wouldn’t you, since you know how much we love travel.

Our travel preparation list is a little different from our pre-departure checklist.  Actually, this one is kind of a combination.  There are just some times you want to make a couple of lists and check things twice….  You don’t want to be half way around the world and have an anxiety attack because you can’t remember if you turned the water off off somewhere.

We actually have our travel preparation list (or should I say our lists) in the computer so we can print it out before each trip and check things off as we’ve done them or packed them.  Even as much as we travel, and as routine as packing is, we want to make sure we don’t leave something at home.

I actually don’t like packing.  It’s probably the part of travel I like least…. but my list gives me a starting point.  I print it out, and it helps get me motivated.

I try to get going a couple of days before we leave.  I know some people who say, “I always just throw some things in the night before.”  If that works for them, fine.  I’ve done that too, but I prefer having a day or two in case I need to do a last load of laundry or pick something up at the store that we’ll need for the trip.

You know we love telling stories on ourselves to illustrate our points, so here’s another…  We were going to Brazil a couple of years ago… to see Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu Falls, but the focus of the trip was the Pantanal.  We were going to see birds, and if we were lucky, jaguars.  So we packed our “safari clothes”, our bug repellant, and our Pepto-Bismol, and off we went to the airport.  As we were boarding the plane, we looked at each other and said, “Did you pack the binoculars?”

Neither of us had!  Can you believe it?  We were on a birdwatching trip without binoculars.

Good thing there was a duty free shop upon entry into Brazil.  That saved us some embarrassment…. but the whole incident shows you that anyone can forget something they’ll need on a trip.  It also proves the point we often make… that if you forget something, you can always get it there.

Now that DOES NOT mean you should pack everything you might need “just in case”.  We advocate packing light… and that means packing smart.

A travel preparation list, a packing list, a documents list, a pre-departure checklist…. any or all of those will help you keep your packing light, and give you peace of mind once you’re on the road that you haven’t forgotten something.

Multi-generational vacation ideas are not all that hard to come up with.  You do need to think about how you are going to accommodate the different generations, and how you are going to keep everyone occupied, but you have a lot of options if you just start using your imagination.

Some grandparents want to create once-in-a-lifetime adventures with their adult children and their grandchildren.

One way to vacation together as a family that seems to be very popular among people we’ve talked to is cruising.

Cruising offers the best of both worlds depending on the cruise line you choose.  You can be all together as a family as often as you want… especially at meals… and you can go off and enjoy different activities when you feel like you might want a little space for yourself.  Some cruise lines cater to families with small children, some don’t.  So choose your cruise line according to your needs.

Sometimes the planners choose multi-generational vacation ideas that are more out of the ordinary or meaningful… perhaps a safari in Africa or renting a house or villa far from home.  Villas in Tuscany and Provence are easy to arrange.  You can find places to rent for your family all over Europe and America for that matter.

You don’t have to go far, far away.  You could just choose to take a house in one of your favorite vacation spots.  Or rent a couple of condos, side by side in Mexico or Hawaii.  Two condos gives different generations more chance for some quiet time when they need it.

You could choose a resort someplace tropical.  The Caribbean is a great spot for this.  Choose the right one, and there will be something for everyone.  Be careful though.

Remember that not all resorts are open to the youngest generation.  At one of our favorite scuba diving resorts, children under 5 are not welcome.  If you want to go scuba diving together, the kids should be over 10 anyway to be certified.

If you’re looking at all inclusive resorts, keep in mind that some all inclusive resorts are for couples or singles only.

If your family is into winter sports, another multi-generational vacation idea is to go to a ski resort…. where the grandparents can ski and the younger generation will most likely be snowboarding in a different area.  Everyone can enjoy some family togetherness around the fire in the evening.

Dude ranches are another great option with lots of activities for all ages… horseback riding, swimming… why you might even get to try a little roping or something!

Exploring National Parks anywhere in the world can be a great educational opportunity for all the generations.

For families that love the outdoors, camping is a great option.  Tent camping is affordable.  Some families opt to take their own or rent recreational vehicles.  Wild areas and cities all over the world have spaces for these.

If your family is more the rugged outdoor type, you could try backpacking.  When we hiked into the Grand Canyon years ago, we encountered a multi-generational group of hikers.  The grandparents had hiked the Grand Canyon several times… everyone was keeping up and carrying their own weight.

I’m sure that now that we have you started, you can come up with some great multi-generational vacation ideas of your own… ones that will fit your budget and be just perfect for your family to create some great memories.

Here’s a different travel idea for you… take a pilgrimage.

“Whoa,” you say, “A pilgrimage?”

Does that sound a little heavy?  It doesn’t need to.

You’re right in one sense… a pilgrimage is, most often, to go on a journey to visit a place that is religious or has historic significance… and more often than not, it is a journey to a sacred place.

Whether you go for strictly religious reasons or for personal satisfaction, a pilgrimage can be a moving experience… it’s a journey inward as well as outward.

This theme came to mind because of our recent trip to Jerusalem.  Our trip was just for fun; we didn’t intend to take a pilgrimage.  Most people would say we didn’t, but when we were there, we went to all of the most holy sites of all three major religions represented there.  It was a moving experience.

Remember that if you want to take a pilgrimage, there are no hard and fast rules… it’s YOUR pilgrimage.  If it is a long pilgrimage trail like the route through Spain to Santiago De Compostela, you might want to take it in stages.

Do a section this year, another section another year.  Many people don’t have time to take a whole long pilgrimage all at once, vacation time being what it is.

Or you could do a one week pilgrimage in Jerusalem.  We felt we saw all the sights well in that time.  There, of course, we stayed in one hotel the entire time and ventured out each day to explore the sites. On other pilgrimages, you will be moving day to day.

Pilgrims in the middle ages made long difficult journeys to earn favor, or do penance, or hope for a cure.  Your pilgrimage doesn’t have to be long and hard, but part of the satisfaction for taking a pilgrimage comes from challenging yourself or learning something.

Pilgrims do go to specific places for a deeper, more significant experience than the casual tourist might.  Although pilgrimages may be spiritual experiences, they all don’t have to be “churchy”.  People even go on pilgrimages for somewhat less reverent reasons… a pilgrimage to Elvis’ birthplace for instance.

Whether you go to the Potala in Tibet, the Vatican in Rome, or the Western Wall or the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, you really feel like you’re some place special.

A visit to ancient caves like the Font de Gaume in France… connecting with the 25,000 year old art can feel like a pilgrimage.  You get that connected feeling in places like Stonehenge and Avebury too.

You can choose to just visit a site and stay in a hotel.  You can make the long walk like the Way of Saint James to Santiago de Compostela.  You can go with a group or by yourself.

However you choose to do it, take a pilgrimage for personal satisfaction to someplace that means a lot to you.  It’s a great way to give travel more meaning.

Do you love city walls?  Ancient walls?  Historical walls?  Mediaeval walls?  We think they add an extra dimension to any city.  You find them in cities with history… usually lots of it.

There are many cities around the world where the old city inside the walls has been preserved.  It’s fun to see what lurks inside those walls….

If you’re looking for a reason to travel, something like finding cities with walls is another lure to get you going.

Hopefully you didn’t miss our story about the W-A-L-L-E-D City of Rabat in Morocco, and how just hearing it mentioned, in just that way, set my hubby to dreaming about travel as a boy.

There are many other great cities with walls… or at least parts of their walls.

We just got back from exploring Jerusalem.  We were told before we left that we probably wouldn’t want to be inside the old city after dark, but those walls called to us.  We just couldn’t stay away, so we dove right in and found a friendly, welcoming, little restaurant the very first night.  The warning was unfounded.  We loved walking the walls and exploring old Jerusalem in daylight and in the dark.

Dubrovnik, Croatia is a real jewel of a walled city.  There was a lot of damage during hostilities a decade ago, but those famous red roofs were repaired with an international effort, and walking the city walls is a great introduction to that charming little city.  We just couldn’t stay at a hotel on the outside… we had to find a B&B inside the walls.

Lucca, Italy has great walls too.  We stopped there one time just because it was getting late, and we needed a place to stay.  Little did we know the treat we were in for.  You can walk the walls, and inside the city, you can find a ring of shops and restaurants around an oval plaza, the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, where the old Roman amphitheater was… a delightful place for an outdoor dinner.

Avila Spain is surrounded by tall, formidable walls, amazing for a city of its size.  Things are pretty austere inside the walls, but there’s a lively area for tapas and dinner right outside the walls.

There are plenty of cities where you can walk sections of the walls.  The city of York has had walls since Roman times.  York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England, though most of the walls have been rebuilt since the Romans started them.

The Romantic Road towns of Germany have well preserved city walls…. walk the walls of Rothenberg ob der Tauber, Norlingen and Dinkelsbuhl.

Carcassonne in France is famous for its walls… they almost look like a double ring around the city.  The fortifications have been completely restored.  Aigues-Mortes, further south in France, also has well preserved walls.

You see bits and pieces of the old city wall in Krakow, Poland….  Lots of cities have preserved parts of their old walls.  More cities have bits and pieces of their walls preserved than have the whole wall.

You can visit ancient city sites… like Mycenae in Greece.  The city is in ruins, but the Cyclopean Walls are still there to see.  (Called that because of the size of the stones.)

Circling the globe, there are walls around the old city of Cartagena, Colombia and the abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri in India.  We had a great time bicycling the city walls in Xi’an China.  It was fun to peer over the walls and watch groups of people exercising and playing music.

The list of cities with walls goes on and on.  And of course, the ultimate wall… though it isn’t a wall around a city… is the Great Wall of China.

If city walls intrigue you, go and find a city that has them.  It’s one more great reason to travel and explore.

Some people love shopping.  I’m not one of them, but I do like shopping on vacation.  While I LIKE shopping on vacation, I think some people vacation to shop!

Travel for what ever reasons you want… and if shopping is one of your loves…. why not shop while you’re traveling?

I like wandering in bazaars and flea markets, but I like looking at big department stores in cities like London and Paris or almost anywhere else too.

Exploring big stores lets you see what the fashions are like in the country you’re visiting, and it gives you a different perspective on the country and it’s people.  If you’re a real shopper… you probably just love shopping someplace new!

I love prowling museums and historical sites, but grocery stores, department stores, and bazaars give you a glimpse of everyday life.
I like going to small boutique stores almost anywhere.  You find more local flavor… less “mass marketed” items.  If I can find a jacket that Bhutanese women wear over their “kira”…. I’ll have a jacket at home that no one else will have… unless they, too, have been to Bhutan.

I like going into grocery stores.  There are supermarkets now all over the world in addition to small local markets.  It’s fun to look at local grocery items and see what else is for sale.

There are places like Carrefour and LeClerc in France and Lidl all over Europe… not to mention IKEA!  We went to a Safeway in Amman, Jordan.  It was fun to try to buy lowfat milk in Arabic and see the kinds of goods they had for sale.

Small markets are fun to see too…  You see exotic fruits and vegetables.  And if you’re lucky enough to be in a town for the weekly market, you’ll probably be doing some cheese or sweets shopping on vacation!

It’s fun shopping for arts and crafts made by local artisans.  Sometimes we shop for something for ourselves to bring home.  We have gone looking for carpets in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Turkey… and we came home with a few.

We have bought “made for tourist” items like Tibetan horns, and African wood carvings, and sometimes jewelry.  We try to find things that are small and pack easily… except for the carpets anyway.

Sometimes we shop for interesting items that will make fun gifts for friends and relatives at home.  The amber earrings that we bought in Gdansk will make great gifts for my nieces come Christmas.

It’s interesting, in researching this article, I found thousands of sites trying to entice readers to go THERE and shop…. and THERE was any place in the world!  There are whole tours set up for shopping on vacations… either near home or far away!

We prefer to think that we go to those department stores and boutiques and bazaars for the cultural experience.  If I come away with an interesting new “ethnic” outfit that I could never get at home… that’s a souvenir.

If we come home with a new carpet… that’s a wise purchase.  If we come home with a “tacky tourist curio” to hang on the Christmas tree… that’s just plain fun.

Psychologists say that the act of shopping someplace new can dose the brain with dopamine, a natural chemical that provides deep satisfaction and that often starts to flow when we confront something novel and exciting….  Maybe that’s why I like shopping on vacations better than shopping at home!

The one in San Jose has more than 2,000 booths and sprawls over 40 acres… eight miles of booth-lined walkways with arts, crafts, jewelry, antiques… and junk!  Lots of junk.  It’s been there forever….

The old saying tells you something about them…, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  Well, that isn’t always what you find anymore.

It’s gotten a lot more commercial since I first went with my Mom and Dad, but it still draws huge crowds… vendors hoping to make some money, and shoppers hoping for a bargain or at least a day of fun.

Now I’m not much of a shopper, and we usually go more for museums and history when we travel, but sometimes you can have lots of fun at flea markets around the world, and learn something about that country’s culture at the same time.

At the very least, finding one of these giant jumble sales will keep you from getting museum sensory overload!

Probably the first one we ever found abroad was the Marche Aux Puces de Clingnancourt in Paris.  All the French guidebooks mention this one.

It’s a great place to prowl around and find all sorts of vintage French items.  I have to admit… we never bought anything, but it was a fun way to spend a morning.

If it wasn’t the Marche Aux Puces, then perhaps our first international “junk prowl” was Portobello in London, or maybe it was the Camden Passage to look at antiques.

(Certainly not to buy… we couldn’t afford that on those early trips!)  There are antique and junk markets all over London, many have become touristy, but if you look hard and bargain, you might still find a treasure to take home.  There are lots of websites to direct you to all of the possibilities.

You’ll find markets like this all over the U.S….  From the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market in New York to the the Pasadena Rose Bowl Swap Meet which is supposed to be the largest on the West Coast.

There’s the “127 Corridor” in the middle of the country.  It’s actually a giant once-a-year yard sale that stretches over 600 miles through 5 states in August.

There’s the Mercat Gotic in Barcelona, Spain.  In South America, there is the San Telmo Flea Market in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in Japan, there’s the Togo Antique Market in Tokyo.

You can find them in many less developed areas too…. but what really differentiates a flea-type market from the local bazaars?  Flea markets typically sell second hand goods….  The question sometimes is when do they become antiques?  ….And, in those developing counties, the next questions is… what is really an antique, and what is just made to look like one?  Remember, anywhere you shop, it’s always buyer beware.  Far from home, it’s hard to return what you bought.

Go ahead and explore those markets where ever you find them… and if you find that one man’s junk is YOUR treasure… buy it and enjoy it.

I love world bazaars.  Souks, suqs, markets.  Call them what you will, they’re just so much fun to prowl in.  By definition bazaars are shopping quarters… especially in the middle east.

They were probably the precursors to our flea markets, shopping malls, and supermarkets all rolled into one.  The word seems to have originated in Persia, but now you find bazaars all over the world.

You can bet I’m not talking about the somewhat new definitions like church bazaars or Christmas bazaars or anything like that… I’m talking about those great chaotic, crowded, colorful marketplaces set amid shadowy passageways and arcades around the world.

We were recently in Jerusalem.  Getting lost in that crowded, covered, jumbled maze of narrow alleys of the Souk was as much fun as seeing the holy sites of three religions and uncovering all that history.

Khan el-Khalili in Cairo is a major souk in the Old City.  There are streets and streets of tourist curios, but there are also streets full of cloth, spices, perfumes, and traditional jewelry.

The Grand Bazaar or Covered Bazaar of Istanbul, Turkey is just amazing.  It’s one of the largest covered markets in the world, and maybe the oldest.  There are something like 56 interconnected covered passages and over 4000 shops.  I think you could wander for days looking at the jewelry, pottery, carpets, and spices.

India and and Pakistan have bazaars too.  Chandni Chowk in Delhi, India has miles of streets, each dedicated to different professions:  cloth, gold, pots and pans.  We wandered in the Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan years ago when we went to Lahore for a wedding.

And oh… isn’t it wonderful getting lost in the souks of Marrakech, or Fez or even Rabat or Casablanca in Morocco.

Dubai touts the world’s tallest building and its great new shopping malls, but it was the Old Souks in Dubai that called to us.  The Gold Souk is one glittering shop after another… amazing stuff.

We loved prowling the spice souk… and we bought some frankincense and myrrh.  It was fun to see all the glamorous fabric in the textile souks too.  Sure we stopped to see Ski Dubai in the mall, but we spent way more time in the bazaars.

We bought a camel saddlebag in the Old Muttrah Souq in Oman… guaranteed to be old of course…  but we loved it, no matter what.  We got it for the price we wanted to pay… and we were able to bring it home as luggage.  It looks great next to our elephant howdah…. elephant saddle, camel saddlebag…. great memories.

World bazaars can be bad for your budget.  If you stop to look, you will soon be in a discussion with the merchant, and they can be very persuasive.

You will, of course, be expected to discuss the merchandise and haggle over prices.  You will undoubtedly be offered coffee or tea.  Do not start the bargaining process unless you are serious about wanting to buy.

Remember, they are absolute professionals at bargaining and persuasion.  Unless you’re a real expert, it will be hard to tell if something is old or not… even if they tell you it is.  If you find something you love, and you can get it for the price you want to pay… that’s good enough.  Get it and enjoy it for the memory.

I love those marketplaces and souks and world bazaars for the cultural experience… it doesn’t matter if I buy anything or not.