Fyllis Hockman's Blog (23)

Provence, France: Hill Towns Plus a Plethora of Wine & Cheese Equal Paradise

Every hill town in Provence is mesmerizing in its own way. Photo by Victor Block

Naturally we started our trip off with a glass of wine at lunch. After all, it was too late for breakfast…  “Deux verres de vin rouge – um, uh -- pas sec. Un peu…” Finally I just threw my hands in the air and…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on November 12, 2021 at 3:51am — No Comments

Savoring Vino, Vistas & Villages in Tuscany

Wandering the hilly, narrow cobblestone streets in our home base of Montalcino, a medieval city of interlocking passageways, steps, and alleyways curving around and through and behind and beyond the main square, I reminded myself I was walking through history spanning eight hundred years.



Stopping for lunch, I…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on October 23, 2021 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia: Unparalleled Land-and-Water Adventures for Kids of all Ages

Great Wolf Lodge

 

“You want me to get on that and go down where?” I gasped high atop the Alberta Falls waterslide, looking down to an alleged pool that was well out of visual range.  My 11-year-old granddaughter…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on October 11, 2021 at 12:33pm — No Comments

Sicily, Where What’s Not on the Itinerary is as Important as What Is

The Valley of Temples in Sicily, Italy is one of the city’s most wondrous sites   Photo by Victor Block

It happens all the time with Overseas Adventure Travel. I start out expecting to write about the trip itself – in this case,…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on September 11, 2021 at 4:00am — No Comments

Brazil's Amazon: Not Your Typical Tourist Destination

 

Amazon Nature Tours

I am a hiker.  But at home, no one uses a machete to blaze the trail prior to walking on it as Souza, our Amazon guide, did, creating a path in the overgrown rainforest step by step.  Slicing, swatting, swooping, chopping, no branch, bush, vine or twig was…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on September 4, 2021 at 5:39am — No Comments

Yosemite National Park: Scenic Sights Overwhelm the Senses

Haveseen/Dreamstime.com





When I encountered my first giant Sequoia in the Mariposa Grove, my head did not tilt back far enough to see the top. Walking around the trunk practically required a GPS. Leaving noise and civilization behind to walk among these ancient trees brought us to the…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on June 23, 2021 at 12:38am — No Comments

In St Croix, History, Horticulture & Hospitality Reside at The Buccaneer Resort

 

Jumbie dancers at The Bucanner's sugar mill



The Manor House, which is still in use today, was built in 1653 by the Knights of Malta. The sugar mill, constructed in 1733, now serves as a venue for weddings. Former slave quarters dating back 250 years provide…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on May 25, 2021 at 10:20am — No Comments

Key West – Florida History Wrapped up in Fanciful Funk & Frivolity

Shops fashionable and funky line Key West’s Duval Street ;  photo by Dreamstime

Key West, Florida is more than a place. It's a spirit, a funky energy that enters your soul and takes residence in your worldview as well as your inner vision. A state of mind…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on May 22, 2021 at 7:30am — No Comments

Virginia’s Primland Resort: Where the Out of the Ordinary Happens Every Day

The authors riding an ATV at Primland

“You want me to go where?!” my mind shouted as I barreled down a 90-degree embankment leading into a wall of mud -- and gravel-encased woods. I was driving – or more accurately surviving – an ATV excursion at the…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on April 28, 2021 at 7:42am — No Comments

Monteverde Cloud Forest: A Costa Rican Tourist Attraction that Discourages Tourists

PHOTO OF CLOUD FOREST

The last 18 miles of the road leading to the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica, full of ruts and potholes by design, takes over an hour and a half to navigate. The locals like it that way. And they choose not to fix it because it would be too easy then for…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on April 16, 2021 at 4:48pm — No Comments

Deerfield Retreat and Spa:  Go for the Exercise; Stay for the Food

           Admittedly, I’ve never heard of Lo-Wei, a unique exercise class that combines yoga, strength training and flexibility that stretched my body in ways my mind never thought possible. But it is only one of almost three dozen fitness classes, all part of the dawn-to-dusk workout, weight loss and education focus of the one-of-a-kind, all-inclusive Deerfield Health Retreat and Spa in East Stroudsburg, PA where my friend Kathy and I spent three nights a while back.

       …

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on April 6, 2021 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Washington DC's Planet Word: Where Words Rule the Universe





I’m a travel writer. Words are what I do. My stories may not always sing, but I usually can put one word in front of another succinctly enough to craft a quasi-well-written article.  But when I heard about the newly opened Planet Word several blocks northeast…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on April 4, 2021 at 8:21am — 1 Comment

Yukking It Up at Western New York State's Comedy Museums

“You’re going to a what?” asked my friend apprehensively. Yup. A hotel. Three of them actually for a total of six days as part of an " Empire State Road Trip" in upstate New York in early September, sponsored by the Harbor Hotels…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on February 4, 2021 at 8:00am — No Comments

Austria's Mauthausen Concentration Camp: Because Turning Away Shouldn't Be an Option

Yes, of course, the four capitals of Central Europe we visited on our Danube River cruise with Grand Circle ToursPrague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest – were all wrapped in wonder, overwhelmed with their impressive…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on January 20, 2021 at 1:31pm — No Comments

Virginia’s Primland Resort: Where the Out of the Ordinary Happens Every Day

“You want me to go where?” my mind shouted as I barreled down a 90-degree encampment leading into a wall of mud -- and gravel-encased woods. I was driving – or more accurately surviving – an ATV excursion at the Primland Hotel in Meadows of Dan, Virginia.

On the hour’s ride, when I was willing to unclutch the steering wheel long…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on January 19, 2021 at 12:17am — No Comments

New York State's Mohonk House: Old-World Flavor Tastefully Wrapped in Casual Elegance





When the couple, here for their 20th visit, commented that it was the first time they had taken the house tour -– one of the staples of the Mohonk Mountain House experience -- I asked what they had been doing all those years. Liz and Dan Gleason from Haddon Heights, New Jersey replied:  “There’s just so much to do all the time, you just can’t fit…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on January 12, 2021 at 4:07pm — No Comments

Upstate New York Road Trip: Watkins Glen & the Thousand Islands

Leaving Chautauqua, NY in a continuation of an Empire State Road Trip in upstate, NY, sponsored by the Harbor Hotels Collection, I headed toward Watkins Glen and the 1000 Islands. When traveling from Harbor House to Harbor House along the way, each hotel gave us a little cooler full of water, fruit and snacks to fortify us for the 3-hour drive between the three hotels. Cool marketing ploy!

I left behind a museum devoted to one comedic icon to pursue a more subdued testament to…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on December 29, 2020 at 8:41am — No Comments

The Plantation Inns of Nevis - and Alexander Hamilton

A sugar-mill dinner at Montpelier



A few years ago, the fact that an island was the birthplace of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, would have elicited very little excitement. But in recent years, since the advent of the hit Broadway musical Hamiliton, Nevis is all…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on December 18, 2020 at 12:10pm — No Comments

Meow Wolf, Santa Fe's Mind-Bending Interactive Art Installation





A travel writer’s worst nightmare? Being at a loss for words to describe something. And so it is with Meow Wolf, an immersive interactive art installation and technological wonderland with unending surprises at every turn in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Oh sure, it’s magical, mind-boggling, awesome, inspirational - but no mere words can capture the…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on September 11, 2020 at 2:28am — No Comments

Walk Japan: Exploring the Head, the Heart and the Soul of a Country

It is not often that a toilet and a tea ceremony form perfect metaphors for the culture of a country, but so it is in Japan.

The toilet falls into the realm of delightful personal discoveries – albeit all of them in the hotel bathroom of the Kyoto Park Hotel. First, a warm toilet seat along with musical options with a variety of buttons that cleaned more areas with water spray than I have nether region body parts, a portion of the large bathroom mirror that…

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Added by Fyllis Hockman on August 29, 2020 at 6:13pm — No Comments

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