It’s Christmas season in Southern California, which means two things: palm trees covered in lights and gorgeous sunrise and sunset skies! After a week of traveling when I landed at LAX last night, I decided to check the weather and noticed conditions were predicted to be ripe today in Laguna Beach for a nice sunrise. […]
This provides info on my favorite things to do in Joshua Tree National Park, and tips for accomplishing it all. Since it’s the closest National Park to Los Angeles (see our Ultimate LA City Guide for more on visiting), Joshua Tree is an easy stop on a California road trip. For me, this is the […]
Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji Temple) is one of Kyoto, Japan’s most popular zen temples and gardens located at the edge of the Higashiyama mountains. In this post, we’ll offer tips for visiting Ginkakuji Temple, photos of the silver pavilion and its beautiful gardens, and whether it’s worth your time to make the trek out to the […]
This Universal Orlando Resort trip report covers my first visit to Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure since the Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade areas opened. Actually, my first visit in a long time. Not to date myself, but my last visit before this was shortly after Islands of Adventure first opened, […]
This post offers a photo tour of Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios Japan, both inside and outside, to showcase this impressive feat of theme park design. This castle is home to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, and Universal Studios Japan theme parks. All of the interior […]
Everyone knows the best time to begin a trip report is a year and a half after you started writing Part 2 of that report. In the spirit of that, today’s post is Part 1 of my trip to Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Timing-wise, this trip falls shortly after my post about […]
This covers our visit to Zermatt, Switzerland, where we spent approximately 85% of our time gazing longingly at the Matterhorn, which is arguably one of the most recognizable mountains in the world. Along with a recap of our trip, we’ll offer a few tips for seeing Zermatt, and thoughts on Switzerland, in general. As for […]
Neuschwanstein Castle, or Schloss Neuschwanstein in German, is one of the world’s most famous castles, most notable to Americans for inspiring Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. To be perfectly honest, this was our big motivation for visiting, and because of the epic landscape opportunities of the castle. In this post we’ll share our experience visiting the […]
If you’re thinking of visiting Mont Saint Michel in the Normandy region of France, there are some things you should know prior to visiting. This post covers tips for planning your trip to Mont Saint Michel, photos of the area, and a general review of Mont Saint Michel. For starters, a little background is in […]
For today’s 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service, I wanted to share a hike I made over the weekend to the “Diving Board” in Yosemite National Park, a spot made famous by Ansel Adams’ “Monolith” photo. This location stands a stone’s throw from the face of Half Dome, offering a close-up view of that […]