A Lady in London

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is less than three weeks away, and London is in a state of anticipation. Some of the pre-celebrations of the monarch’s 60th anniversary on the throne are Diamond Jubilee afternoon teas. In March I went to one at the Andaz Hotel by Liverpool Street. In April it was The Petersham hotel in Richmond.

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After traveling all over Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East over the past few months, I was excited to get back to London for awhile. But I was still in the travel mentality when I got back to the UK, so when I was invited to stay a night at the Threadneedles hotel in London, I decided to do it. Even if I hadn’t been in a traveling mood, I wouldn’t have passed up a chance to stay at a 5-star boutique hotel in London. Would you?

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Yes, you read the title correctly. Today I am happy to announce that I am giving away two free Olympics tickets and a night’s stay at a London hotel during the London 2012 Olympics. Get excited, people!

Here’s the back story: late last year Thomas Cook contacted me to see if I was interested in making a video with them about my favorite place in London. In exchange, they offered me one of their Games Breaks to give away to one lucky reader on my blog. The video is below. The tickets and hotel room are yours to win!

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Tel Aviv wasn’t what I thought of when I thought of Israel. After a great stay in traditional, religious Jerusalem, I kind of expected more of the same. But when I traveled to Tel Aviv by sherut, or shared taxi, I discovered a place as cosmopolitan and trendy as any beachside city on the Mediterranean.

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In the homestretch of my 90 under 30 Travel Project, I visited countries in Southeast Asia in February and South America in March. With time running out, I focused my April travel on the Middle East, making Israel the 89th country on my list. In honor of counting countries, I will write about my travels to Jerusalem in a post-by-numbers.

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My first trip to Iceland took place during the summer. The sun shone 24 hours a day, the sky was clear, and the weather was as warm as it gets in a country with the word “ice” in the name. But Iceland is better known for its long nights than its endless days, and the country’s name is more readily associated with winter than summer. I wanted to go back to compare the two seasons, and I recently got my chance.

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After ten days of traveling in Peru and Bolivia, I landed in London ready to settle back into my life at home. Unfortunately, I only had one day to do so before leaving for a trip to Iceland. So what did I do with my sole day in the UK? I did the most quintessentially British thing I could think of: I went to afternoon tea.

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Throughout my recent trip to Peru, I took a lot of video footage. Here is the final product, from the Peruvian Amazon to Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, from Machu Picchu to the floating islands on Lake Titicaca. Enjoy!

Eight months ago I set a goal for myself: visit 90 countries in my lifetime before my 30th birthday. When I announced the 90 under 30 Travel Project, I had 72 countries under my belt. I needed to visit 18 more in seven months and 27 days. That meant an average of 2.25 new countries per month, which was pretty aggressive given that I had already been to every country that was less than a 2.5-hour flight from London. But I was determined to do it. And today I am happy to say that I accomplished my goal.

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Not many people like Lima. When I told my friends that I was traveling to Peru, they all advised me to skip the capital. From what they said, Lima sounded like a dangerous place with nothing to do and see. But I’ve heard the same thing about other cities, and I’ve never found it to be true. I had a feeling that Lima would impress me. And it did.

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The drive from Lake Titicaca to La Paz, Bolivia is one of the most adventurous I’ve ever experienced. Leaving the town of Copacabana, the road winds through thick green hills and along sapphire waters until it reaches a point where there should be a bridge. But there isn’t. There is only a wide stretch of water with no way to get across. So what did I do?

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It was cold in Bolivia. As my bus wound its way around Lake Titicaca, rain spat at the windows and wind whipped across the roof. Gone was my sunny day on the floating islands in Peru. I was entering a new country en route to the famous Isla del Sol, and I was beginning to think that that when the Incas named the Island of the Sun they were playing a cruel joke on the world.

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I wasn’t feeling well when I arrived in Puno. Food poisoning rendered me useless when I got off the plane in Juliaca, which was the nearest airport to the Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca. But I was in Puno for one reason, and not even illness could stop me from seeing what I traveled all the way there to see: the fabled floating islands.

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After two lovely days in Machu Picchu, it was time to head back to Cuzco. But when my train arrived at Ollantaytambo station in the heart of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, I still had one thing left to do: meet one of the town’s most important organizations.

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Most visitors to Machu Picchu don’t see much beyond the famous Inca site. But the town itself has some hidden gems, and after an excellent day of exploring the ruins of Machu Picchu, I set out to discover what else the small Peruvian town had to offer.

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