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A TRAVELER'S HANDBOOK By Arnie Greenberg (Above,
the enchanting Adriatic) So you're tired of staying at home. You have some savings and you want to join the beautiful people who travel near and far. Well, dear reader, you've come to the right place. I've always been lured to far-off places. So I got started and never looked back. I've been on most continents and in most major cities, but my list of where to go gets longer and longer. Along the way, I learned a few things about travel and would like to share them with you. Where You Go Is a Matter of Choice Where to go is a matter of choice, of course, but the average traveler is not always aware of the possibilities. I've visited enough places to know that some are more exciting than others. Sometimes it depends on when you go and how you go. It also depends on how long you stay. For example, I've been to Paris at least 30 times and I have never tired of the city.
(Arnie Greenberg in Paris) But I realize that you need time and enough to do. Paris, of course, is limitless. My wife Dana and I rent a tiny studio apartment there for a month at a time. We walk the streets, visit the museums and sit at bistros and watch the crowds go by. After a month or so, I'm ready to return to my own bed, newspapers, friends…and bills. But
seeing a particular city is only one reason to go. Travel means something else
to each of us, and we look for that which touches us, even if it's because of
our ancestry, religion, love of certain food or desire to get out on the sea or
in the mountains. Traveling Great Distances Is Not Necessary Traveling great distances is not necessary. One man's home, as they say, is another man's castle. As a young boy, I couldn't understand why foreigners would select Montreal, my home city, for a vacation. A holiday can be spent anywhere, but it's the journey that counts. During the last month I traveled out of Montreal four times. The first was for a day on a pristine lake, where friends recently bought a home on a Laurentian peninsula.
(Montreal from the Jacques Cartier Bridge) It was a day in the forest and on the lake. Then I returned to a different lake just an hour south of Montreal in the Eastern Townships. Spending a weekend with good friends in a chalet overlooking a lake through trees that were changing from green to gold was a mini-holiday, and I returned rejuvenated. A three-day trip to the Adirondack Mountains in New York State afforded me a view of the countryside from atop a mountain. Add to that our visit to Vancouver…and we had the most satisfying month. But our travel plans are still formulating, and after 14 years of running a small tour company, I've had the chance to see places beyond my dreams. From the Ordinary to the Special I have delighted in recounting places visited, people met and things learned along the way, whether in ordinary places like Rome, Paris and London, but also in Bohemia's tiny village of Czesky Krumlov, Bellagio in Northern Italy, Siena in Tuscany and along the Amalfi Drive. We've stood atop a mountain in Taormina, Sicily and looked over Mt. Etna.
(Watching a Barcelona street artist at work) We've walked around Beijing, and Hong Kong and Moscow and St. Petersburg. We've toured France by car and visited chateaux beyond description. We spent January in Barcelona and cruised the Mediterranean and Adriatic in May before returning to Greece and Turkey. Life
without travel is meaningless for us. We're addicted. And, remember, if you have a specific question about travel, I'll try my best to answer it. Write to me at ultours1@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
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