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Packing your travel essentials for the great wide world

Over two decades of travel to 65+ countries, we've uncovered some tips and tricks for packing that can make the difference between comfort and complaints. If you’re a bit “high maintenance” like me, you should put some thought into your packing. It could lead to you having your own “travel drawer” of invaluable and quickly …

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Layover in Lebanon: a little taste and hope for a return in more peaceful times

I’m going to make an argument right now that sometimes a six-hour airport layover can qualify as a visit to the country. We had a more than six-hour layover in Beirut, Lebanon. The U.S. State Department currently has the country at a level three warning out of four, meaning we’d be at risk traveling here …

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Travel to Morocco: splash of color, taste of mint, kiss on the cheek

We’ve stopped off the Kingdom of Morocco’s National-8 road, traveling through the Middle Atlas Mountains.  N-8 – alternately paved, dirt, gravel and two, four and ONE lane – is an experience. In some areas, cantaloupe-sized rocks are used like traffic cones and are strewn randomly to restrict traffic, which occasionally includes donkeys and horse carts. …

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Swimming in the Devil’s Pool: on the edge of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

The first thing you need to know if you want to sit on the edge of the world’s largest waterfall is that you must go in dry season, between September and December. Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, is the world's largest sheet of falling water, almost double the height of Niagara …

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Travel in amazing Africa: transported to the golden era of train travel

If you want an incredible anniversary experience, we have a very good suggestion: Rovos Rail. This was our 20th wedding anniversary celebration and we wanted it to be very special. So how does this grab you: A steam engine and rail cars perfectly restored to their pre-1940s-era splendor taking you from Zimbabwe through Botswana and …

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Goodbye to a Culinary Legend at a Landmark New Orleans Restaurant

Five days before Christmas 2018, Leah Chase grasped my hands between her warm, papery palms. Her long fingers, steady and strong at then 95 years of age, one missing a tip, gripped mine for minutes. A beatific, genuine smile lit her face as we entered her kitchen at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in the Treme area …

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Curaçao: A Beautiful Country filled with Beautiful People … an Instagram Dream

So there was this young, very good-looking hotel employee with eyelashes for days. His goal is to be a fashion stylist in New York. He’s confident it will happen. He nodded to his skin: See, I’m lighter, he said. It gives him an advantage, he added. When we looked perplexed, he explained the thought process …

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