The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 19.4 km (12 mile) hike in New Zealand’s North Island with emerald lakes, views of semi-dormant volcanoes, and ever-changing terrain. Our complete guide covers everything you need to know to plan your day. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is often labeled as the world’s greatest single day hike. Located on […]
Roys Peak Track is one of the best hikes to do on the South Island of New Zealand. Located in Wanaka, this trail takes you high into the mountains for breathtaking panoramic views over Wanaka and Lake Wanaka. The hike itself is not all that exciting, but the main reason for hiking Roys Peak Track […]
Prior to our trip around the world, we would never have gone bungy jumping. That’s just for crazy people, right?! But as we passed bungy jump locations around the world, the idea grew on us. Once in Queenstown, the birthplace of bungy jumping, the idea didn’t sound so crazy anymore. How could we circle this […]
The Milford Sound (also called Piopiotahi), one of New Zealand’s most popular sights, is located just a few hours away from Queenstown and Te Anau on the South Island. In 2008, the Milford Sound took the #1 spot on TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice World Destinations. And nearby Queenstown took second place. That just goes to show […]
Ahhh…Fiji. Paradise. Fiji was everything we expected and more. Crystal clear aquamarine water, white sandy beaches, amazing sunsets, beautiful islands. We joke around that Fiji is our vacation from our vacation…a very long vacation, I know. Here we got some much needed R & R from our fast paced travels around the world. I can’t […]
Ahhh….Fiji. This has to be one of the most beautiful places we have been to yet. No wonder it is such a popular location for filming movies. Movies such as “The Blue Lagoon” and “Cast Away” were filmed here. During our short stay in Fiji we took a tour out to Modriki Island (also called […]
Stinky tofu, pig’s blood soup, and chicken feet, oh my!! We ate some weird things while in Taiwan and believe it or not, we even ate out of a toilet. Our two weeks in Taiwan was a culinary adventure and tons of fun. We wandered through night markets, ate at delicious Japanese restaurants, and feasted […]
Add Taroko National Park to the list of beautiful places in Taiwan. This national park, located on the eastern coast of Taiwan very close to the city of Hualien, is a huge draw for visitors to Taiwan. It was a huge draw for us as well, as our family can’t resist hiking trails, rock scrambles, […]
Before our trip around the world I knew very little about Taiwan. It wasn’t even on our radar as a destination for our journey around the globe. While browsing through hotels on Trip Advisor, tourism advertisements and facts about Taiwan kept popping up. After the tenth advertisement, Taiwan captured my attention and I took my […]
Hiking Teapot Mountain was a fantastic experience. This hike would end up being our favorite in Taiwan as it had all of our favorite elements: stunning scenery, rock scrambles, steep ascents that required basic rock climbing skills, and an almost deserted trail. We saw hardly anyone else on this hike leaving us to wonder where […]
Our introduction to Taiwan was its largest city, Taipei. We spent five awesome days here. There is so much to do, with night markets to explore, Taipei 101 to climb, so many wonderful restaurants to choose from, and tons of day trips to take. This was yet another city that we all really liked. National […]
Towards the end of our trip around the world, we received a lot of questions about what a typical day is like for us. That is a little difficult to answer, as no day is ever the same. Having every day be different is one of the things that makes travel so exciting. Note: This […]
Hong Kong is an amazing city and one of our favorites so far. It is hard to beat this skyline…a forest of skyscrapers with a backdrop of mountains. The view of the city from Victoria Peak is hard to beat. With four days we were able to tour part of the city as well as […]
Traveling through China can be a very rewarding experience but it does come with its share of challenges. With the right expectations and a little preparation (such as reading our China travel tips), a visit to China can be an amazing experience. Many people travel here on a tour, eliminating the challenges of arranging itineraries, […]
We spent several days exploring Shanghai while on our trip around the world. For part of our visit to China, we were joined by my mother, Kathy, and Tim’s mother, Valerie. While traveling, most of the time we feel like we fit in with our wardrobe. Traveling with only five shirts and several pairs of […]
We had one wonderful week to spend in the city of Beijing, China. For us, this was the perfect amount of time to visit Beijing’s main sights, pay two awesome visits to the Great Wall of China, and have some quiet time at our hotel at the end of the day. Our mothers joined us […]
The Great Wall of China…one of the world’s most iconic sights and one of the top ten things to do on many traveler’s bucket lists. We couldn’t visit China without seeing this amazing place. It was so amazing that we actually visited the Great Wall twice. Our first visit was to the restored section at […]
Zhangjiajie, China…a place you may never have heard of but have seen if you watched the movie “Avatar.” When we learned that there was a place on earth that served as the inspiration for one of its most scenic landscapes, we put it at the top of our list. Zhangjiajie…the Inspiration for the Landscape in […]