Back to Asia: Discovering Taiwan

The last time we were in Southeast Asia was in 2019, which now seems like a lifetime ago. Our first trip to that region was Thailand in 2013, followed by India in 2014, Japan in 2016, China in 2017, Cambodia in 2018, and finally Vietnam in 2019.  On our first […]

France Flashback: Châteaux of the Loire Valley

If you’ve ever skimmed our blog, you already know our usual pattern: go to a country, spend two weeks there, enjoy the hell out of it, swear we’ll return, and then never set foot there again. It happens every single time, no matter how earnestly we insist that this time […]

A Year in the Windy City: Unique Things to Do in Chicago

With 2026 underway, we’re excited for all our upcoming trips this year. But globetrotting aside, our own city of Chicago offers enough adventures to fill a whole calendar.  We love being tourists in our own backyard, exploring it even after decades of living there. And because we are always obsessed […]

The U.S. Virgin Islands: Unlikely, but Possible

After getting back from the U.S. Virgin Islands, we calculated our total expenses for two people for six days, one week before high season, and it came out to $1,875 for everything, including flights, accommodations, a rental car, food, and all entrance fees. Nowadays, whenever you don’t know how to […]

The U.S. Virgin Islands: America, But Not Quite the America You Know

“So, did we travel internationally or not?” We asked ourselves this question recently after returning from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Before the trip, we felt we weren’t traveling outside of the United States. The USVI is not a country. It’s a territory and part of the United States. The “U.S.” […]

Part II:  It’s Good to Be Home

By Julia / April 18, 2024

Start with Part I here.  Short version: Victor became terribly sick with a fever and rash on our 15-hour flight from Dubai to Newark. There was good news and bad news.  Good news – Victor did make it back to the U.S.  Bad news – we were landing in Newark […]

Long Way Home

By Julia / April 11, 2024

On the morning of December 31st, Victor started running a fever.  It wasn’t too bad, and he didn’t even want to slow down or skip any of the sightseeing we had planned for that day.  I gave him a few pills of ibuprofen and forgot about it.  We celebrated that […]

Unexpected Oman

By Julia / April 5, 2024

There were many ways Oman surprised me, mostly due to my complete lack of knowledge about its history, politics, and, as crazy as it sounds, geographical location.  For whatever reason, I only considered countries separated by a land border to be Oman’s neighbors and cultural influencers.  It never occurred to […]

Paying the Price for Visiting Oman

By Victor / March 28, 2024

Recently, we did something we had never done before.  We went for an extended trip to a very expensive country. Or so we thought we did. Oman was our first Gulf country, and all we heard before our visit was that oil-rich countries of the region were not the friendliest […]

In the Heart of Oman: Exploring Sharqiya Sands

By Julia / March 21, 2024

One of my favorite memories from Egypt was the two days and one night we spent in the White Desert with the endless starry sky, surreal white rock formations, and sand dunes glowing in the sunlight.  I’ve wanted to go back for over a decade, and Oman finally offered a […]

Essential Oman – Forts and Castles

By Victor / March 7, 2024

Ten years ago, we went to Thailand, and one of our main concerns was how to see as many temples as possible without being “templed out”. By the end of the trip, beautiful Thai temples did start to resemble each other, but we left just in time before they became […]

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