“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
Jack Kerouac
Original content written by Jann Segal
Visiting the Chateaux in France’s Loire Valley
“The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments (the châteaux), and cultivated lands formed by many centuries of interaction between their population and the physical environment, primarily the river Loire itself.” UNESCO I was recently fortunate enough to take the Overseas Adventure Travel trip…
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Visiting the Heart and Soul of Paris
Actress Audrey Hepburn once said that Paris is always a good idea. I couldn’t agree more, especially after I returned to Paris after decades when I traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel. Our time in Paris at the conclusion of their French Impressions trip was truly a visit to the heart and soul of a throbbing,…
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Uncovering the Many Layers of Lyon
“How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” ~ Charles de Gaulle While I certainly agree with Charles de Gaulle about French cheeses (although some would argue the number of cheeses is much higher), I learned that the multi-layered city of Lyon, France is a masterpiece. There is…
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Exploring Brazil’s Diversity and Iguazu Falls
“Waterfalls teach us to let go, to flow freely, and to embrace the journey of life.” – Unknown “Let Brazil’s spirit inspire your journey. Unknown When I took the trip Brazil in Depth with Overseas Adventure Travel, we encountered the assorted variety yet distinctly unique nature that is Brazil. From Rio de Janeiro, the Carnival, the…
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Discovering the Barren, Beautiful, Fiery Uniqueness of the Atacama Desert
There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the Andean Atacama Desert that crosses both Argentina and Chile. Unique, fascinating, stunning and diverse are a few I’ve seen mentioned. But when I consider my surprise in seeing the desert and its dried salt lakes in some cases dotted by pink and white flamingos, in some cases filled…
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Exploring Cemeteries and Celebrations in Northern Argentina and Chile
“Serenity is the balance between good and bad, life and death, horrors and pleasures. Life is, as it were, defined by death. If there wasn’t death of things, then there wouldn’t be any life to celebrate. “ Norman Davies , Historian Tucked alongside the flamingos, the llama, their related furry friends, the beauty of minerals millions…
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Getting High in Northern Argentina and Chile
“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary This quote by Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountaineer who famously conquered Mount Everest, describes exactly what it feels like to go into high altitudes and become successful at the endeavor, whether hiking, walking, or in a bus. The challenge is taking on the…
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Learning About the Tango in Argentina
“The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina.” Yo-Yo Ma I experienced many musical highlights when I went to South America recently with Overseas Adventure Travel. I took two trips back to back. On the Brazil on Depth trip, I learned about the Bosa Nova,…
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The Interconnectedness of Life in the Brazilian Amazon and the Pantanal
“The Amazon, in all its enigmatic grandeur, embodies the paradoxes of existence. It is a place of untamed beauty and unfathomable complexity, where the fragility and resilience of life intertwine. It is a testament to the boundless wonders of the natural world, a reminder of our interconnectedness with all living beings. Here in the heart…
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Exploring Easter Island: The Middle of Nowhere or the Center of Everything
“Whether an island such as Easter Island can be considered remote is simply a matter of perspective. Those who live there, the Rapa Nui, call their homeland Te Pito Te Henua, ‘the navel of the world’. Any point on the infinite globe of the Earth can become a centre.”― Judith Schalansk, Author The above quote reminds…
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Rio de Janeiro: Come for the Sunshine, Stay for the Music
“I was awestruck by Rio – the way the ocean, city and emerald mountains merged into each other and held hands.” Dana Da Silva The above quote is exactly why I wanted to be an ambassador for visiting Rio de Janeiro. The city emerges from the Atlantic in Copacabana Beach, and the vibe couldn’t be…
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Giving Back in Zambia and Building Bridges
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ Martin Luther King, Jr. I felt truly blessed when I was in Zambia during “Green season” when I traveled with Overseas Adventure Travels on their marvelous trip, Ultimate Africa. Besides all the babies we saw in all the animal species we observed…
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Enjoying Extra Days in Johannesburg
I wasn’t sure I would ever return to the complex city of Johannesburg after I was there with Overseas Adventure Travel in 2016. However, I knew that if I did return, there were things I wanted to see that our tour didn’t cover, or not comprehensively enough for me, anyway. I wanted to truly go…
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Observing Life, Death, and Survival in the African Savannah
“You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the Hand of God. You watch the slow lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else…
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Staying at Ger Camps in Mongolia
On my recent trip with Overseas Adventure Travel, Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, one absolute highlight was staying for nine nights – three nights each – in three different ger camps. One was a couple of hours drive outside of the capitol city of Ulaanbaatar, one was on a serene and azure lake, and one…
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Hiking in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert
On my recent trip to Mongolia and the Gobi Desert with Overseas Adventure Travel, one day scored high on the wow scale, and there were many terrific days. The day was packed with two hikes due to rain the prior day. The first hike in the Gobi Desert was in the hilly and fauna filled…
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Learning About Mongolian Culture by Playing the Ankle Bones Game
Mongolia is a country that will challenge a traveler on every level. Creature comforts, the unforgiving weather, the culture, and even the history and the local food will not be like anything a traveler has thus far experienced outside of Central Asia. But oh, how mighty and rich are the experiences when you leave your…
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Learning About Mongolia’s Horse Head Fiddle
Pianist Herbie Hancock once said that music is an art form that transcends language. As a former guitarist for over a decade I learned this on my first trip to Europe as a teenager one August, when I picked up my guitar and sang for over a hundred fellow students under skies that were aglow…
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Exploring the Surprises of Ulaanbaatar
“Don’t go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. They are ecstasy machines. Follow your eyes wherever they lead you…and the world should begin to change for you.” – Jerry Saltz When I visited Mongolia with Overseas Adventure Travel on their trip Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, one pleasantly surprising…
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Yearning to Return to Sri Lanka: Five Reasons Why
“Sri Lanka is an island that everyone loves at some level inside themselves. A very special island that travelers, from Sinbad to Marco Polo, dreamed about. A place where the contours of the land itself forms a kind of sinewy poetry.” Romesh Gunesekara I was able to explore the magnificent island nation of Sri Lanka…
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Discovering the Fountain of Youth in Tunisia
“Here we go round the prickly pear, prickly pear, prickly pear/Here we go round the prickly pear/At five o’clock in the morning.” TS Eliott Many people know this as a child’s nursery rhyme that mentions a mulberry bush, not a prickly pear. Poet TS Eliot must have gone to Tunisia or some other North…
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Celebrating Cultural Holidays While Traveling
“Spring is far more than just a changing of seasons; it’s a rebirth of the spirit.” —Toni Sorenson Travel always allows me to have a renewed spirit. But the two-month trip I took to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal enabled me to celebrate literally every culture’s spring holiday, in some of cases all at once.…
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Rolling Down the River in Nepal
Water is an eternal symbol of life, and every time I take a trip where I am comfortably on a boat or water vessel as part of the other travel activities, I truly feel like I’m living. Although I booked the Overseas Adventure Travel trip Nepal and the Mystical Himalayas knowing white water rafting was…
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Exploring India and Culturally Complex Punjab
I was a soul in need of wanderlust, seriously seeking out unstructured travel yet wanting to combine a trip with a tour to enjoy the best of both worlds when I decided to go to Southern Asia. I traveled for two months and explored two different areas of South Central India, three weeks in Sri…
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Exploring Kathmandu
I recently took the Overseas Adventure Travel trip, Nepal and the Mystical Himalayas, and had the opportunity to spend a full week in Kathmandu. It’s an experience nobody should miss. Anyone planning a trip like this would do themselves a favor by arriving a few days early to see all seven UNESCO world heritage sites…
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“The most beautiful thing in the world is the world itself”
Wallace Stevens
Travel the World with Passion 