Travel Like a Scotsman

One of the most memorable trips we took with our friends was right here in the good ole USA.  We covered six states: Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and 5 national parks.  The single best travel savings is the Senior Pass  now called America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass.  It is a lifetime entrance pass to United States national parks for those 62 years and older. It costs $10 per pass, but you only need one pass per couple.  When we purchased ours, we thought the price was so low that we each bought one, not realizing that we could have saved $10! Our friends flew to Phoenix and we left in our rental car the next morning.  Our first stop was the Grand Canyon  where we had reserved a cabin. Staying in the park was so nice since we were right there for a day of exploring the next morning.  We didn't see the condors, but we made up for that later on in the trip. ...

You can't go to Costa Rica without going to Manuel Antonio National Park, so we left the rainy mountain and headed for the beach. The single most interesting sight before we reached the coast was this bar we came across just sitting by the side of the road, nothing else in view.  It was time to stop for a beer anyway, so we decided to take a chance and go in.  We walked through the doorway and were astonished.  The entire floor was covered in a mosaic that was obviously done by hand.  It appeared that the entire place was the work of an incredibly talented craftsman.  Even better, the bartender had a video of Alan Jackson playing, so we felt like we were in Texas instead of the jungle.  There was a beautiful deck built in the rear, and it was only feet away from a rushing rapid of a river, running full because of all the rain from the hurricane.  You learn that surprises wait for you to be adventurous. After our thoroughly relaxing couple ...

The Monteverde Cloud Forest was next on our list, so, we packed up the SUV and headed for Santa Elena.  Here is what Frommer's says about driving to Monteverde.  "Whichever route you take, the final going is slow because the roads into Santa Elena are rough, unpaved dirt and gravel affairs." Make no mistake, driving these roads is daunting, and there were times when it seemed impossible that we would make it to our destination.  The Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Reserve is one of the most developed and maintained attractions in Costa Rica, so you would think there would be a decent way to get there.  The back seat of the Kia SUV was not especially comfortable and the potholes in the road meant we were bouncing up and down, swaying side to side, and hanging on to the straps to keep from hitting our heads on the roof. Thanks to my husband's driving skills, we made it to our lodgings in Santa Elena.  Exhausted, we had dinner in the restaurant and ...

This was our first trip together, and our first experience in Central America, so we made all the rookie mistakes.  They ended up costing us, but we learned what not to do. The first mistake was ever setting foot inside the travel agent located a few steps from the hotel.  Since our friend from Virginia spoke fluent Spanish, he talked with the agent who assured us he could make all the arrangements for a perfect vacation in his country.  First we needed to rent a car.  That part seemed simple enough, except that I gave the agent my debit card just to secure the car, and then we would pay the final cost with our credit card because our friends would be splitting the cost with us and we could settle up when we returned to San Jose. The agent made reservations for us at Arenal and at The Monteverde Cloud Forest.  He also talked us into signing up for a zip line adventure at Monteverde at a cost of $60 per person.  We would never do that now - sign up with ...

Flying to Central America is fairly easy from Phoenix, often a non-stop ride.  But no matter how easy your flight may be, going through immigration is always a pain.  There are always long lines, most often you're experiencing your first immersion in a foreign language, and nothing is familiar. And, if you are like my husband and are a picky, mostly vegetarian eater, you're probably hungry.  What's worse, if you're a smoker (like he is) you're on the ground but still not in a smoking zone. When we had arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, made it through immigration, and had our luggage, the first thing that happened was that my husband took off like a shot out the door to light up.  Left me just outside the doors with the luggage and about two dozen taxi drivers swarming over me rattling Spanish at me.  I just kept screaming, "No, no, no!" "Mi spousa!" Of course, I don't know if that's even Spanish, maybe it's Italian or totally m...

You can be bitten by the travel bug in ways you never expected.  In my case, it was a conversation I had with my friend in Virginia.  She told me that her grand-daughter had spent three weeks in Costa Rica doing some environmental work with her university.  Dani told her grandmother about the beauty of Costa Rica, how marvelous the people are, how natural and healthy and inexpensive the food is, not to mention the coffee, and how little money it takes to visit there.  My friend sort of casually said, "We should go." That's all it took.  Before you could snap your fingers, we had set a date, and were looking for flights.  Because both our husbands had birthdays in October, we decided we could more easily convince them to go if we said it was a birthday trip.  I don't remember now what sites I checked, but I am sure we bought the cheapest tickets we could find.  Although the best travel site on the web, Kayak, started doing business in 2004, I dou...

My husband and I had travelled quite a lot before he retired, but primarily in the U.S., either visiting friends or family.  Once we went to his homeland of Scotland so that I could see where he grew up until the age of 10, and meet some of his family who were still there.  While our daughter was in college, there really wasn't enough money for us to travel as much as we would have liked, so whenever we could we drove from our home in New Jersey down to Alexandria, Virginia where we knew some people to stay with.  During these visits we became closer to one couple and in the years since, we have travelled with them to Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, and Ecuador.  We have also done trips from our home in Phoenix up to the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert, over to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite, and the Grand Teton Parks.  We have also exp...