Scotland Day 5 – Kirkton of Glenisla to Alyth

On our fourth day on the Cateran Trail, the day started off cloudy and drizzly. This didn’t particularly bother us given the downpour we’d had to endure for most of our first day. However, it did serve as a reminder that my boots were still not completely dried out from their soaking on day 1. Still, the fog made for some impressively misty views.

• 

• 

The weather actually improved as we continued and we were treated to patches of blue sky in the latter part of the day. The scenery wasn’t that different from what we’d already experienced over the past few days, with lots of farmland, but the landscapes were still varied and picturesque so walking through them was a pleasure.

Close to Alyth, the trail joins a dirt road heading towards town

One of the things you can do as you get close to Alyth is to take a short detour to climb the hill of Alyth which is just outside town. There are actually a number of paths that go up the hill and it’s not immediately obvious which one you should take. This was where having MotionX-GPS loaded on my iPhone was helpful, as we were able to see a map of all the different trails going up the hill. This was less important on the way up than it was on the way down where the paths were really confusing and it would have been easy to end up on the wrong side of the hill.

Markers at the top of the hill of Alyth

The hill itself isn’t terribly tall – it’s really just a short jaunt to the top, but you do get some nice views of the surrounding countryside and of Alyth itself. It was quite windy when we were up there soafter looking around and taking a few pictures, we headed down and into town.

It was just a short walk from the hill to the town of Alyth. After four days on the trail, Alyth felt positively metropolitan, after having stayed in villages that were just a small collection of buildings. Alyth, by contrast, is large enough that it takes a few minutes to walk from the outskirts to the center of town and has several restaurants and hotels. We were staying at the Alyth Hotel which was conveniently located in the center of town.

We had a few hours before dinner time so took the opportunity to walk around town. Alyth is not big at all and so it didn’t take us long, but there are some picturesque bridges that date to medieval times as well as an old church. It’s a pleasant little town, but doesn’t take very long to see everything there is to see.

After a short walk around town, we headed back to the hotel. It was still a bit early for dinner so we decided to sit down and get a drink at the bar before dinner.

One of my very favorite travel memories was many years ago traveling in Ireland when I popped into a pub in the middle of the countryside after we’d missed our bus. It was mid-morning, so there were just a few older gentlemen there. After sitting down at the bar, one of them turned t me and said “nah then yoong man” (now then, young man), and we proceded to have a lovely conversation for half an hour, despite the fact that we could barely understand each other becasue of our accents.

I was hoping to have the chance to chat with locals while in Scotland – we’d already had some lovely chats with folks we met on the trail, most of whom were people who lived in nearby villages and were out walking their dogs (in fact, I don’t think we encountered anyone on the trail who was doing a multi-day hike the way we were). I remember Rick Steves recommending that a good way to strike up a conversation was to ask for advice on what whisky to drink, so that’s what I did. We ended up having a lovely conversation with the bartender and another guy sitting at the bar whose daughter was competing in the Scottish version of American Idol (Scottish Idol?).

When in Scotland…

After a drink and a chat, we migrated to a table in the dining room, had a nice dinner and then retired to our room for a good rest before our final day of hiking.

Scotland Day 4 – Spittal of Glenshee to Kirkton of Glenisla

This was a long, but satisfying day of hiking. We got up in the morning, had breakfast, and the our hosts drove us to where we’d stopped the previous day in Spittal of Glenshee so we could continue the hike.

The day was once again clear and we had lovely blue skies for most of the hike. However, my boots were still damp so there was quite a bit of squishing to be had. Note: it’s hard to get waterproof boots wet, but if they do get wet, then they’ll stay wet for quite some time.

A small church we passed through as we left Glenshee

We followed the road for a short while before turning off to continue the hike up a hill passing through a number of fields. The views were lovely and I was very happy that as we passed through one field, there was a herd of highland cattle. We’d seen lots of cows up to this point, but no highland cattle until this day. I would have been very sad to have missed these very unique looking creatures!

• 

  Lovely views

• 

  Highland cattle – check out those horns!

We had an interesting incident where we came across a sheep that had gotten stuck in one of the stiles used to cross the fences. The poor thing must have pushed its way in and now was unable to back itself out. We stood there for a few minutes debating what to do – we had no sheep wrangling skills, there was no one in sight, and from what I could tell, these sheep were mostly left to their own devices so it could be several days before a farmer came to check on them during which time we were concerned that the sheep might die of thirst, hunger or fright. We remembered passing a large building just a few minutes prior on the trail, and using Google were able to find that it was the Compass Christian Centre (thank you T-Mobile international roaming). So my wife called the centre to let them know about the sheep and asked them to pass the word on to whichever local farmer was most likely to own it. We were thereafter able to continue our hike with clear consciences

Not the sheep that we saw was stuck, but one that looks similar

We passed by Dalnaglar Castle, which I guess isnow used as a hotel. The path from there led through some managed forests before joining a paved road. This went on for a few miles taking us into Angus county and was probably the least interesting part of the trail as the views were a bit monotonous along the road. However, it wasn’t too long before we turned off the road to onto an unpaved track that took us by Forter Castle and from there the views were much more picturesque.

As we approached Kirkton of Glenisla, we passed by Auchintaple Loch and Loch Shandra, which was our first real Scottish lochs! From there, we passed through several lovely fields before arriving at the Glenisla Hotel where we would stay the night.

• 

  Dalnaglar Castle

• 

  Leaving Perth & Kinross, entering Angus

• 

  Forter Castle

• 

  A view of Loch Shandra

• 

  Look at how the sun glistens on that meadow!

• 

  A view as we approached Kirkton of Glenisla

The Glenisla Hotel was the largest place we’d stayed at up to this point. Whereas the previous places we’d stayed had felt like very B&Bs, the Glenisla Hotel felt like a true hotel, especially since it had been recently renovated so everything felt very modern. We rested our feet for a bit before going down for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant where I sampled a whiskey for the first time and also enjoyed a Banoffee Pie (yum!). As it had been a fairly long day of hiking (14.5 miles, according to our guidebook), we slept very well that night.

• 

  The Glenisla Hotel

• 

  Banoffee Pie – yum!

Scotland Day 3 – We hike from Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee

We got an excellent night’s sleep at the Strathardle Inn and had a hearty breakfast (although, sadly, the haggis at the Inn was not as good as what we’d had at Rosebank House). There were a number of folks staying at the Inn who were on some kind of hunting outing, as we overheard them talking about the relative merits of different guns and how to stalk various prey.

Although our clothes were dry by the morning, our boots remained sadly waterlogged. This meant that even though the day ended up being mostly sunny, we still squished the entire way. The ground, in any case, remained quite boggy in many parts.

Regardless, we started the day in good spirits and started on our way. This was to be the shortest day of hiking, with only eight miles to the end point at Spittal of Glenshee. However, because there is no hotel in Glenshee (the only one burned down a few years ago), we were to call our hosts at the Strathardle Inn who would come and pick us up at the end of our hike.

There are lots of cows in Scotland

We started by passing through more farmlands and then into a forested area. One thing that pictures can’t quite capture is how dark and green it is in the forests. It helped me understand the stories I’d read as a kid of British forests inhabited by faeries and other mysterious and supernatural creatures.

It’s hard to see in this picture, but the forests of Scotland are really dark and green on the inside

The Cateran Trail is generally very well-marked and it’s hard to get lost if you’re paying attention. In certain parts, you’ll see interesting carved markers similar to the one below.

The trail goes through several moors and was uphill for a good while. Despite the distance not being that great, I found this part of the walk a bit tough as I was already tired from the previous day so wasn’t in the best shape to handle the steady uphill climb. It was a relief to break for lunch at the Upper Lunch Hut (where apparently Queen Victoria rested when she visited the area). From there, it was just a bit further to the Lairig Gate after which it was a pleasant downhill walk to Spittal of Glenshee.

A view of the Upper Lunch Hut

One thing to note – much of the land we were walking through was active farmland where cattle and sheep were grazing. In parts, it took a lot of concentration to avoid stepping in the cow pies and where it was muddy it was hard to tell what was mud and what was cow poop. And avoiding all the sheep pellets is quite impossible! So the moral of the story is to make sure you have solid footwear that will protect you from whatever nastiness you need to walk through.

The rest of the walk was a pleasant downhill to the small town of Glenshee. Walking downhill was a relief after the constant uphill climb that had preceded. This part of the walk was quite pretty, with some of the trees turning for the early fall and little streams passing by.

• 

  Looking down on Glenshee from the Lairig Gate

• 

  There are lots of stiles along the trail to get you over the various walls and fences

• 

  Early autumn colors in Scotland

At the bottom of the hill, we arrived in the small town of Glenshee. We called our hosts at the Strathardle Inn who came to pick us up after a short wait. Because of the short distance this day, we were back at the Inn by mid-afternoon, so took the opportunity to walk around Kirkmichael a bit (which didn’t take very long) before sitting down for dinner in the pub section of the Inn and then turning in for the night.

Scotland Day 2 – We hike 15 miles from Blairgowrie to Kirkmichael

After a much needed night of sleep at Rosebank House, we went downstairs for breakfast. We had a lovely conversation with a mother and daughter at the table next to us. The mom was retiring to Blairgowrie and the daughter had come to help them settle in. I think that’s one of the nice things about staying at a B&B in a rural area is that you sometimes get to meet folks.

I had a full Scottish breakfast which I was very excited for. The only part I wasn’t so sure about was the haggis, but I figured I would try it since I’d probably regret it if I left Scotland without trying some. I have to say, the haggis we had at Rosebank House was excellent. It was fried and a bit crisp without any of the livery taste that I had feared. I actually really enjoyed it! Sadly, that was the only haggis that I liked on the trip – the rest of the haggises we had were, in fact, rather livery and a bit mushy in an unpleasant sort of way. But that very first haggis, which apparently came from the local butcher in Blairgowrie, was terrific.

After a yummy and fortifying breakfast, we left the bulk of our luggage with our host. It would be picked up by the taxi company and transported to the next B&B where we’d be staying that evening. I’ve got to say, this was a very pleasant way to hike – we could carry just what we needed for the day and find our luggage waiting for us when we arrived at the B&B each day.

The main point of our trip to Scotland was to hike the Cateran Trail which is a ~60 mile loop through the Scottish countryside. We’d arranged our trip through Absolute Escapes who booked all the B&Bs for us as well as the taxi company to transport our luggage. We also received a nice packet with maps and descriptions of each day’s walking route. Overall, they did a nice job and our trip went off without a hitch (except for them not letting us know we should warn the B&B if we arrived early).

The start of the Cateran Trail by the river Ericht in Blairgowrie.

We’d been expecting heavy rains during our hike but the day started somewhat promisingly, with just a light drizzle. The trail went along the river for a while and we passed through some neat forested areas. After a mile or so, the trail diverged from the river and from there, we had about 14 miles of hiking before we’d get to our next destination, the Strathardle Inn in Kirkmichael.

Even though the day started with just a light drizzle, the rain got steadily worse throughout the day. I’d thought I was fairly well prepared for rain – I was wearing a Columbia raincoat, was wearing Merrell Moab 2 hiking boots (supposedly waterproof) and wearing my brand new Outlier slim dungarees (which are awesome travel pants, by the way). Maybe an hour or two into our hike, we found ourselves experiencing a steady and heavy rain that would continue all day.

Oddly enough, my arms and torso were the first parts to get wet, despite my raincoat. I learned that evening after doing some googling that raincoats made out of materials like Gore-Tex do not actually maintan their waterproofing indefinitely, and need to have a special wash or spray applied to them once a year or so to maintain their waterproofing. So, as it turned out, my raincoat was thoroughly useless and my torso quickly soaked through.

My excellent and water repellent Outlier slim dungarees actually stayed relatively dry for a couple hours of steady rain, but eventually they too succumbed and were soaked through. My Merrell Moab 2 hiking boots helped up pretty well for several hours, but eventually trudging through too many (often large) puddles and sopping marshes got the better of them and water filled my the boots and drenched my wool hiking socks. Basically, for the last 3-4 hours of the hike, I was a walking kitchen sponge which was decidedly unpleasant.

• 

  
  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Despite this, the Scottish countryside was absolutely gorgeous. The terrain on that first day was quite varied, and we passed through lovely forests, winding paths that went through famland, and open moors which made me think of Wuthering Heights. Several parts of the trail actually pass through private farmland, mostly sheep pastures. Apparently, Scotland has a ‘freedom to roam’ which basically means you’re allowed to walk on lots of private property as long you’re respectful.

Actually, the worst part of the hike was going through some of those sheep pastures which could get very marshy because of all the rain. You’d literally take a step and sink into muck ankle deep. There were some parts, especially near gates, where large pools of water would form and we literally had to walk through ankle-deep puddles of water to proceed.

We enjoyed the views tremendously and considered the rain as part of a ‘real’ Scottish experience. That having been said, the latter half of that first day felt really long and we were very glad to arrive in at the Strathardle Inn in Kirkmichael where our luggage was already waiting for us. It felt like an immense luxury to change into dry clothes and have a hot meal in the inn’s dining room. After that, we collapsed into bed and slept like logs.

We were very glad to arrive at the Strathardle Inn!

Scotland Day 1 – Arriving in Blairgowrie

OK, I’ve been super slack about keeping up with this blog, but I’m going to try to catch up and (finally) post about our Scotland trip.

For the flight to Scotland, I’d booked us on Aer Lingus for a very reasonable 34,000 Avios plus $138 in fees. We had a layover of a couple of hours in Dublin where I took advantage of the local Priority Pass lounge to grab a quick shower before our onward flight to Edinburgh.

After arriving in Edinburgh airport relatively early in the morning, we took the tram to the Edinburgh Gateway train station. We got off in the town of Perth and switched to a bus that would take us to the town of Blairgowrie, where we were starting our hike. I have to admit, I got a bit anxious because there wasn’t anywhere to buy tickets in advance at the bus station, but it was easy enough to pay once we got on the bus. I have to remind myself that many parts of the world don’t feel the need to have everything planned in advance to the nth degree!

The bus to Blairgowrie was a double-decker – we managed to snag the front seats on the upper level and got some lovely views of the town and Scottish countryside, despite being dead tired from our red-eye flight.

A view of the town of Perth, from the upper level of our bus.

After a few hours, we arrived in the town of Blairgowrie and walked the half mile or so from the bus stop to our B&B, the Rosebank House. We got there around noon, and they weren’t expecting us. This ended up being the only hiccup on our trip, which otherwise went very well, thanks Absolute Escapes who organized the entire hike for us but neglected to let us know that we should inform the B&B if we were going to arrive early.

We’d have loved a nap, but instead took the opportunity (after leaving our luggage) to take a short hike around town. The Knockie Path took us a bit outside town and then back in and was a great intro to the countryside, despite a light drizzle. We then went to Tesco to pick up some food for our lunches before returning to the B&B.

Looking back to Blairgowrie along the Knockie Path.

They were ready for us when we got there and were incredibly gracious and welcoming. We took a much needed nap in our gorgeous room before heading out for an amazing dinner down the street at Little’s Restaurant. The restaurant is located in a former church building and it was probably the best meal we had during our entire Scotland trip.

After dinner, we went back to the B&B for a much-needed sleep before starting the Cateran Trail the following day.

Planning a trip to Scotland

So my next big trip is to Scotland and Belgium. The Belgian part of the trip is to visit my wife’s family, so not a ton of planning involved in that, but I’ve been working on our flights and activities in Scotland so I’ll write about that over the next few blog posts.

The main thing we needed to sort out before I could get going on planning was dates – my wife’s work schedule tends to be more constrained than mine so we plan our vacations around her. In the end, we settled on the two weeks we could make this trip, so from there it was all systems go!

A few years back, I’d come across a travel article about inn-to-inn hiking in Scotland. It sounded glorious – you hike through an amazing landscape seeing lots of natural beauty and arrive at an inn at the end of the day where your luggage is already waiting for you. You enjoy a charming and relaxing evening and then repeat the process the following day. What could be better?

For this trip, the most important thing was to make sure that my wife had enough time to visit with her family in Belgium. She wanted a full three days to do this, so I blocked off the last three days (plus a travel day on either side) and that became our time in Belgium, which meant the balance of the time could be spent in Scotland.

In addition to the inn-to-inn hiking, I was hoping to get some time in Edinburgh as well. I’ve been to London several times, but have never had a chance to elsewhere in the UK so I was eager to experience all that Scotland has to offer.

Not including travel days at either end, we’d have six days total in Scotland, so I was hoping to find a hike that we could complete in five days to allow us a full day to explore Edinburgh.

Over the next couple of posts, I’ll talk about the process of booking our airline tickets and figuring out our activities in Scotland. I’m really excited for this trip!

Trip Report: A Wedding Weekend in Seattle

This will be a pretty short trip report as I was mostly along for the ride on this one.

When I booked our JetBlue flight to Seattle, the flight left at 8am. However, a few months later, I got notification that the flight was now leaving at 6:30am, which meant we would have to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to get to the airport. Ugh. That was no fun.

When we got to the airport, the PreCheck line looked as long, if not longer, than the regular security line. I guess that’s the consequence of more and more people signing up for PreCheck (which I guess is a good thing overall).

In any case, the flight to Seattle was uneventful. I looked longingly at the Mint seats as we passed them on the way to our seats in economy, but the flight itself was fine and up to JetBlue’s usual standards.

Our time in Seattle was spent mostly hanging out with friends. We spent a day visiting with one of my good friends from college and her husband, and the rest of the time attending the wedding of one of my wife’s good friends on Whidbey Island. It was a good time all around!

The flight back, sadly, had to be a red-eye because my wife needed to be at work the following Monday. This was made somewhat better by booking Mint seats for the flight back, and because I’d booked so far in advance, I was able to reserve the ‘throne’ seats that I’d been wanting to try for some time.

I ended up sleeping for pretty much the entire time, but here are a few thoughts about the flight back:

The seats were spacious and comfortable. You get plenty of room to spread out, and with the throne seat, it’s to feel like you have so much personal space. One minor annoyance is that there’s a bit of a gap between the seat and the side of the plane and I imagine it’s pretty easy for things to fall into that gap and get lost. But otherwise, I thought the seat was terrific and very comfortable.

Sleeping was quite comfortable. I would have liked to have had a plusher pillow, but I was able to get the right amount of support by folding in half. The blanket was thick and quite warm. My only other complaint was that the footwell was a bit small which meant having to adjust my feet a bit if I slept on my side, but overall I’d say the seat was excellent.

I like the amenity kit, although since my wife and I got the same kits (they were waiting for us at the seat when we arrived) it looks like they don’t give different kits to men and women like they used to. Most of what’s in the kit is the standard stuff – I did particularly like the socks which I found very comfortable. Also, the kit itself is a good size to keep travel stuff and I use my Hopper amenity bag from a previous Mint flight as a container for all of my random electronics (more on that in a future post).

I didn’t experience the food because I went straight to sleep, but I did appreciate that when I woke up about a half hour before landing, there was a bag of breakfast snacks sitting on the shelf by my seat. Now that’s good service! The pumpernickel bagel bite with spinach and artichoke dip was just ok, as was the juice, but I did very much enjoy the Milk Bar cookie.

Speaking of service, I’ve read quite a bit about how the service on Mint is consistently excellent and this flight was no exception. When we sat down, the friendly flight attendant came over to introduce herself, offered a pre-flight beverage, and asked if I wanted to woken up for meals or if I wanted to sleep. I really appreciated the proactive attention.

Anyway, I managed to get a solid four hours of sleep on a five hour flight which I consider to be pretty good. Hopefully, I’ll have more opportunities to fly Mint in the future!

Planning a Wedding Weekend In Seattle

This trip was an easy one to plan because there wasn’t much I had to do! One of my wife’s good friends is getting married in Seattle. My wife is a bridesmaid, so our plan is to get in a few days early so she can help with wedding prep and other bridesmaid activities.

Most of the logistics were taken care of – the date of the wedding was fixed, there’s a house where members of the bridal party plus families are staying, and there’s a schedule of activities. We do have an extra day before the wedding stuff starts which is great because one of my good friends from college lives in Seattle with her family, so it was an easy decision to spend that extra day visiting with them. Plus, they’re graciously letting us stay with them that night, so lodging for the entire trip was taken care of.

So the only thing to really arrange on this trip was airfare. We were tightly constrained on this because my wife needs to be back at work Monday morning, but wanted to stay most of the day on Sunday so she’d be available to help with post-wedding stuff as well as to visit her great aunt who also lives in Seattle. This means having to take a red eye, which I am not a fan of, but seemed like the only option for us.

Since getting back was the tightest constraint on our schedule, I planned our return flight first. I love JetBlue and had read in various travel blogs that they were launching direct service between Seattle and Boston. I’ve had a chance to fly their Mint class product once and loved it – you get a spacious, lie-flat seat, plus real food and good service. I figured if we could fly JetBlue Mint back to Seattle, we’d at least have a shot of getting a few hours of decent sleep, even with a red-eye.

Real food on a domestic flight? Yes please!

With that in mind, I checked the JetBlue website every few days starting six months before our trip. JetBlue doesn’t have a fixed time when they start selling tickets, but generally will make seats available 5-6 months in advance of the travel date. As soon as I saw availability for the date we wanted, I booked Mint seats. At $599 per person (one way), it was definitely a splurge, but for me it was worth it so we could show up for work on Monday having had a bit of rest.

When it comes to booking Mint, the sooner you can book the better. The first few seats sell for $499 or $599 one-way and get progressively more expensive as seats are sold. The other advantage to booking early is that you can select one of the ‘throne’ seats which have significantly more space. There’s no additional charge for these seats – they’re first-come first-served when you select your seats in Mint.

With our return flights taken care of, I turned to booking our flights to Seattle. One-way tickets were about the same price on the various airlines, so I decided to book JetBlue since I prefer their economy product over other airlines. Given I’d just splurged on buying Mint seats, I used JetBlue points to book our flight there, so those tickets were effectively free.

And that’s pretty much all the planning I had to do for this one! I do enjoy planning, but it’s also nice sometimes to not have to do much work and just be able to show up.

What are the pros and cons of a tour guide or tour group?

I generally consider myself a pretty independent traveler, but there are times when I’ve found hiring a tour guide or company to be helpful. As a broad generalization, there are three categories I think about when it comes to whether or not to engage tour guides:

• Totally independent: This is how I do most of my travelling. I decide my own itinerary and make all the arrangements myself, including lodging, transportation and activities
• All-inclusive tours: In this model, I pay someone else to arrange the trip so I can just ‘show up.’ Usually, I have to arrange airfare to and from the main destination, but beyond that, I’ll expect the tour company to arrange everything in between in this model. Within this category, there are two sub-categories: the group tour, and the private tour.
• Occasional guidance: This is like being totally independent, but with the occasional hiring of a guide to show you around a specific place.

I’ve had both good and bad experiences with all these models, although I generally prefer to travel independently so I have more control over what I do and when, rather than having to adhere to a fixed schedule. But there are times when each of these models might make sense, so let me talk a bit about the pros and cons of each.

Being totally independent

This is how I normally like to travel because it affords you the most flexibility. Want to spend an extra hour at that really cool landmark? Great! Too tired and want to hang out by the pool instead of going out? No problem! Basically, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, with an itinerary that is specific to you.

There are definite downsides to this way of traveling, however. First, you’ll need to do all the planning yourself, which can start to get complicated if you need to juggle multiple destinations, or if there are timing constraints that make planning a challenge. In addition, a lot depends on how comfortable you are with the destination – planning a trip to a country where you know nothing about the norms and expectations can be a recipe for a frustrating trip.

In general, I’ll do my own planning if I think I have a reasonably good grasp on how things “work” in that country, or if the country is similar enough where I can learn from reading guidebooks and online resources. In practice, this means that I’m ok planning trips in most of the world, with the exception of developing countries that are particularly chaotic.

One note – in some places, you are required to travel with a group or have a guide. This is the case with the Inca Trail where you can only hike the trail with a licensed tour company as part of a group.

All-inclusive tours

Some people prefer just to show up and have someone else take care of everything. It can be really nice to arrive at the airport and have someone already waiting to take you to the hotel and from there, just have to show up while someone else takes care of all the logistics and details.

There are definite downsides, though. The biggest for me is the lack of flexibility, especially if you’re traveling as part of a group because then you need to stick to the itinerary. If you have a private tour, that’s less of a concern. But in any case, you always run the risk of having a bad guide which can totally ruin the experience.

Another downside is cost – naturally, tour companies will charge more than what you’d pay if you arranged everything independently. On the other hand, they often save you the time of having to do research and making bookings on your own. Personally, I enjoy the process of planning vacations which is part of why I tend to lean towards travelling independently.

I think the only time I’ve been on a group tour was when I hiked the Inca Trail. For that, you have no choice because you are required to hike the trail as part of an organized group. To make sure we had a good experience, I did a lot of research ahead of time on which tour companies were good, both in terms of guest experience but also in terms of treating their porters well (apparently, there are some less-than-reputable companies that really take advantage of their porters). We ended up hiking with Llama Path and had a terrific experience, both because of the amazing guides and because we hiked with some really nice people from around the world.

Winay Wayna, an amazingly well preserved settlement along the Inca Trail.

I’ve done private tours in a few places. In the case of Bhutan, you’re required to pay a fixed daily price that includes lodging, transportation, a guide and a driver. Again, I did research ahead of time and went with Bridge to Bhutan. We had an amazing experience trekking through the foothills of the Himalayas and visiting many of Bhutan’s cultural landmarks. Our guide, Kunzang, was amazing – he was clearly passionate about his culture and wanted us to develop a deep appreciation and understanding for his country. I’d say that having a guide like Kunzang was essential to that trip because he shared this historical and cultural context that was so critical to appreciating the country.

The Tiger’s Nest monastery in Bhutan – what an amazing experience!

By contrast, our experience with guides in India was decidedly ‘meh.’ A business school classmate of mine who is Indian had told me once that the country can be very confusing to navigate, so when we finally went, we made arrangements with a tour company recommended by a family friend. On the one hand, it’s true that India can be very confusing to navigate (it took us 15 minutes to cross the street once) so having someone to handle all the logistics was great. On the other hand, our guides were decidedly mediocre. They seemed knowledgeable enough, but when they explained sites to us, it felt like they were reading from a script and had very little interest in helping us to really understand the history and culture. I’m sure there are many excellent guides in India, but when you hitch your travel wagon to a tour company, you always run the risk of having bad guides.

India is a truly breathtaking destination. It’s not possible to overhype how amazing the sights are!

On the other hand, our recent experiences with a tour company in Egypt were excellent. In addition to doing research, I identified three tour companies and requested proposals from each of them, and ended up going with Djed Egypt both for their good reviews and their responsiveness. On that trip, our guides were consistently excellent and we felt extremely well cared-for the entire time.

Yeah. Egypt is as awesome as you think it is.

Getting occasional guidance

There may be times when you want the flexibility of planning your own itinerary, but want a guide for a specific part of your itinerary, perhaps to explain and give context on an attraction. At a lot of major attractions around the world, there are guides hanging around outside, ready and eager to show you around (for a fee). In general, I prefer not to go this route because it’s totally luck of the draw whether the person you work with will be any good. If I think I need a guide, I prefer to arrange things ahead of time, ideally by getting recommendations and references.

Bottom line – so what’s the best way to travel?

In the end, getting a guide or not is all about your personal preferences and level of comfort with the destination. Having spent a lot of time overseas, I’m quite comfortable traveling to most places in the world and making my own arrangements. However, for countries that can be especially challenging for newbies (Egypt and India being the ones I’ve been to most recently), I prefer having a tour company arrange things, at least the first time I go.

Ultimately, the point of a vacation is to get the most enjoyment possible out of the experience, so you should travel in whatever way feels best for you.

 

A night at the Metropolitan Opera

The anchor for our New York weekend was to see Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera House. I love opera, but because of my wife’s schedule, it had been several years since we’d last had a chance to see a performance at the Met.

Our dinner reservation at the Grand Tier restaurant was for 6:15pm. We decided to walk to Lincoln Center, since it was 30 minutes and public transportation going crosstown isn’t so convenient. This was all well and good until we got to Columbus Circle and I realized at I’d forgotten the tickets in our hotel room. Panicked, I hailed a cab deeply concerned because I knew it would be 20 minutes each way to and from our hotel, which would mean we’d likely miss our dinner reservation.

Thankfully, it only took me a few minutes to remember that the tickets had been emailed to me and if I could find a place to print out the tickets, that would be a lot quicker than running all the way back to the hotel to get them. I asked the cab driver to detour us to a nearby FedEx Office and was able to quickly access my email and print out the tickets. We arrived at Lincoln Center only about 15 minutes late. Phew, crisis averted!

The Metropolitan Opera House

Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of the Met.

The dramatic curtain for the Met’s performance of Tosca.

The entryway of the Met. Notice the recurring ‘starburst’ motifs.

In my opinion, the Metropolitan Opera House is one of the most beautiful performance spaces in the world. To me, it feels tastefully elegant while also feeling thoroughly American.

I have to say, my expectations for dinner were not high, but we ended up having an amazing meal. I started with a lettuce soup that was light and fresh. For my entree, I had a beef tenderloin that was more medium than medium rare, but was still flavorful and juicy. The accompanying potato croquettes were delicious.

The highlight, though, was coming back for dessert during the first intermission. I ordered the chocolate soufflé which, while not the best soufflé I’ve ever had, was very good. It was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend the first intermission, especially because intermissions at the Met run half an hour!

Service was what I would call ‘efficient.’ We were greeted warmly by the host, but the servers, while responsive, weren’t especially welcoming. Given the tight time constraints one has to work under when you’re serving many people at the same time, all of whom have to get to an 8pm performance, I was totally fine with efficiency winning out.

As for the performance itself – I was excited to see Anna Netrebko perform, as I’d read about her quite a bit but had never seen her live. However, I realized that Tosca isn’t my favorite. I love Puccini, and I could listen to La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, or La Fanciulla del West until the cows come home. But Tosca didn’t really do anything for me. There isn’t any particular aria that I love, and I don’t find any of the characters especially memorable. It’s a good thing that the Met is doing La Fanciulla del West in October, because I definitely plan on coming back to New York for that!