Taking off Travel blog

Charlene wrote a glorious article on wine and hiking last week. Although mixing strenuous activity with my imbibement isn’t my cup of tea (or glass of pinot noir, as the case may be), her mention of Roshambo winery out of Healdsburg, California piqued my interest.

Roshambo injects a playful hipness into their whole operation – from their industrially-decorated tasting room/art gallery (now at Cornerstone Gardens) to their Roshambus (a tour bus cum-wine-tasting mobile), decorated by local artists, which will bring their wine to the masses. But is it all style and no substance? Read more »

Hitchhiking used to be the domain of happy hippies and kings of the road like Kerouac. But in these days of serial killers and just plain distrust of your fellow man, is it still possible to bum a free ride?

While many hitchhikers have perfectly wonderful experiences and meet lots of oddball characters, hitching is now generally frowned upon. Whereas guidebooks used to at least provide the best places to hitch, most of them now totally advise against it.

Let’s Go publications, which had a hitchhiker’s thumb as its logo for decades, dropped it in its most recent edition. Editor Tom Mercer said: “Though Let’s Go readers might still choose to hitchhike in certain circumstances, we felt that the logo was no longer emblematic of budget travel.” Today’s budget travelers are most often backpackers. The writers at artoftravel.com said, “…the vast majority of travel backpackers rely on public transportation and never hitch rides.”

So how do budget travelers get around? Read more »

It’s the middle of winter. I’m stuck indoors, with nothing to do but surf the intarwebz and think about sweets – and chocolate, glorious chocolate. Walking tours of local chocolate stores are a dime a dozen – so how about a chocolate travel tour? They come in two flavors: (no pun intended).
Tour Type 1: The Pretty Side of Chocolate
These tours are gentle and refined. We walk. We talk. We eat samples of chocolates. We visit chocolatiers’ beautiful shops. Read more »

If you’re like me, the idea of spending a vacation lounging on a beach sipping margaritas is like inserting two felting needles into my eyes, and having them slowly twisted. By this guy.

I feel the same way about sitting on a veranda imbibing wine, even if it’s a great Gewurztraminer. But – suggest some some blood pumping activities and you’ve got my attention. So you can imagine how bundled my undies got when I discovered California Wine Hikes and its accompanying blog, winehiker witiculture.

This site offers a sumptuous pairing of wine tastings, tours, and hikes in Northern California, Central Coast, and the Sierra Foothills regions. You can choose from one day or multi-day packages, and even choose based on your fitness level (easy to strenuous). Read more »

Thrifty and not afraid of strangers? Try Couchsurfing. I’m sure you remember when you were poor and in college, you “couchsurfed,” as in, stayed on a friend’s couch. Those sorts of accommodations-options dissipate as you get older and a) have enough money for hotels or b) your friends get more money and have guest rooms with actual beds.

However, the Couchsurfing Project (355,000 members in 223 countries) and others like it have taken advantage of the Internet to organize couchsurfing to build community and make new friends. Couchsurfing.com was dreamt up by Casey Fenton when he booked an impromptu trip to Iceland. Read more »