Traveler With 1,000 Reasons Why

When I went to Bali for the first time, one of the things on my bucket list was to see the Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat. So it was awesome to see that there was a tour on the List that allowed me such an experience. There were actually two different tours that were recommended in the book, and since I was on a budget, I chose the cheaper of the two. I plan to save the pricier one for a future visit to this wonderful country (I better save up until then)

I never thought that I'd enjoy Taiwan as much as I did when we first put the country on our trip itinerary. But to my pleasant surprise, it was actually a fun city to be in! It also could have been because we went into it without any expectations of what to expect. My parents and I spent 3 days in Taiwan, and I thought that was plenty of time to explore all the major sights in Tapei.

For my mom's 60th birthday trip, the family did an Asia trip to Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (Korea), Taipei (Taiwan), and Shanghai (China). Our first leg of the trip was Tokyo, Japan and we were all excited to go! My mom had been to Japan many years ago, when she was touring around Asia as a dancer. So she was excited to go back and see how much had changed since those days. For myself, Japan is one of those dream destinations I’ve always wanted to visit.

First, to preface this article, I would like to mention that I had no idea about the ‘1,000 Places to See Before You Die’ travel book when I visited Hong Kong for the first time with my family. So the pictures will be sparse and taken more so as a true tourist of the city (rather than a blogger). I hope to head back there soon to take much more extensive photos of the city and its attractions!

When you have a place on the 1,000 list that has free entry, you take advantage of it! There are so many museums listed on this 1,000 List to experience, it was very easy for me to compare it to other museums that I already have been to. Let's start off by saying that this Shanghai Museum is a few stories tall and fairly secluded from other attractions.

The one thing I was pleasantly surprised about, in regards to my perception of Ireland, was the food. I know that British food had a bad reputation, so I assumed that Irish food would be just as bad. I’d like to admit today that I was completely wrong. The food I had in Ireland actually ended up being the highlight of my trip!

I have been religiously following Patricia along her journey in the book she wrote. And regardless of how boring it may seem or how expensive it may be, I’ve always made an effort to do it. But not all the experiences have been great and she disappoints me about 15% of the time. So, as I follow in her footsteps, I’m always willing to share my honest and personal opinion about everything she has recommended.

When I read through my travel book to see what was achievable on our short trip to Dublin, I thought the section called ‘Literary Dublin’ would be an easy thing to do, however, it ended up being too easy. Simply, not enjoying most of the sites suggested, I could not wait to move on to the next site. Let me start with the ones I did not enjoy and thought was a waste of time and money.

Up to this point in my life, I always held out on zip lining, because I wanted to have my first experience in Costa Rica (ie. canopy tours began). In fact, in the 1970’s, wildlife biologists set up zip-lines within the rainforest so that they can study and explore the area without disturbing the environment. And from that came the idea of doing canopy tours via zip lines!

Arenal Volcano was the second stop on our Costa Rican road trip, and it was a pretty smooth drive from San Jose to the district of La Fortuna. I originally reserved a small SUV for our journey, but when we got to Avis, they only had economy cars left over. So, unfortunately, we got stuck with a Nissan Versa.

During my 10 day trip to Costa Rica, I was able to stop in Puntarenas for a few days. Puntarenas is about a 2.5 hour drive from San Jose and is widely popular due to the National Park it has. Manuel Antonio National Park is the smallest of any Costa Rican National Park, but it has the most attendance based off of ticket sales.

We all know one of the main attractions people come to L.A. is for Disneyland. Well, it's not quite in the heart of Los Angeles but more like adjacent in Anaheim. It's about a 45 minute drive from my place, so it isn't too far out to get there!

For some months out of the year, I have the luxury of living in a new US city for a few months at a time because of work. One of those cities I got to live in was Las Vegas...Downtown Las Vegas to be exact.

If you live in Los Angeles (or even if you are visiting Las Vegas), the quickest way to visit the Grand Canyon would be via Grand Canyon West. If you want to have a taste of what the Grand Canyon can offer, the western side of the canyon is a great launch pad location.