How much of my story came from this place? Would I still be the same person had I grown up elsewhere? How much of this city is in me? Or I in it? Brand Boulevard has certainly changed in the forty-one years since my birth, though it is still - and probably always will be…
Now I understand what you tried to say to meHow you suffered for your sanityHow you tried to set them freeThey would not listen, they did not know howPerhaps they’ll listen nowDon McLean, “Vincent” It’s a bit of a surprise to me that Don McLean’s song about Vincent Van Gogh isn’t part of the Immersive…
Another year has come and gone. It is hard to believe 2021 is already over. (Read my year in review here.) I guess it’s time to preview 2022 here on The Royal Tour! A necessary caveat: all travel plans are subject to cancellation due to Covid. Omicron is ravaging the world right now, and the…
It wasn’t as bad as 2020; I’ll give 2021 that. While it began slowly, my March vaccination opened the world a bit, and I was able to take some wonderful trips, especially over the second half of the year. 2021 also was a big year here at The Royal Tour. We added some new guest…
Sunset at Marichi Beach in Willemstad’s Punda district is my evening ritual. A fifteen minute walk from my rental apartment in Otrobanda takes me across the Queen Emma Bridge and past the colorful historic buildings to this urban oasis, just a small patch of sand between a couple of parking lots fronting an equally small…
Editor’s note: what a wonderful story of bonding with a newborn through travel! Sam’s adventures may be changing, but I have no doubt that his stories, while a bit different, will be just as inspiring to all of us. For more of Sam’s incredible writing, click here to visit his index page. As everyone knows,…
Editor’s note: with new CDC guidelines that fully vaccinated people can travel safely domestically, our TRT writer Christian took to the skies again. My return to travel is only a week away (more later), but my first flight won’t be for a while yet. I wonder what my emotions will look like. For more of…
This isn't the article I wanted to publish today. Today was supposed to feature an incredible look into Serbia by Sam Spector. But the events of the last twenty-four hours a) need to be responded to, even by a small travel community, and b) leave me in no mood for a normal day. I warn…
Today, I turn 40. (Well, today when you read this, not today when I write this, as it's a few days prior. Anyway.) The big 4-0. An age that, while it doesn't sound old, no longer really sounds young. It's as good a time as any to pause, to reflect, and to examine where things…
At the beginning of 2019, I made the decision to become a full-time nomad. Over the prior decade, my mental health had deteriorated to the point I had to stop working, and even join an intensive outpatient program to work things through. In putting my life back together, travel was one of the things that…