Some people make the mistake of trying to do too much when they take a tour of Italy.  For instance, they will want to go to Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, Milan, etc. all in one trip.   My advice is to just take Italy in comfortable segments of a week or two.   In this blog post, I lay out a typical one week Italy travel itineary.

A typical trip to Italy might involve staying 3 days in Rome and another 4 in Florence.   Let’s take a look at what a trip like that to Italy would cost a traveler.   We’ll take into account lodging costs, meals, admissions, local transportation and miscellaneous items.  After reading the blog post, you should have a good idea of what it will cost you to travel to Italy for a week-long vacation.

What does a week in Paris cost?   The major expenses of a vacation in Paris will consist of lodging, meals, tickets to museums/monuments, and transportation.   In this blog post, The Traveling Professor will break down what it typically costs for a week-long visit to Paris.    We will talk about Paris lodging, admission to Paris museums and attractions, local transportation, and meals for a week-long (7-day, 6-night) stay in Paris during a typical “shoulder” season.

Can you do a day trip from Florence to Venice?  Sure you can.   It might be a better alternative than staying overnight, since Venice hotels can be pricey.  Venice is one of the most unusual places in the world.  I always enjoy traveling to Venice and we go there on my small group tours to Italy too.  I have done it as a day trip many times and you can go there too.   In this blog post I will show you the best way to get to Venice and what to do on a day trip to Venice.

I ran across this essay I wrote a few years ago during a tour of Peru.  It involved a "homestay" tour to Isla Amantani, an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca in Peru.  The people who live there have no electricity, no phones, no Internet, no newspapers.  Until recently, they have had no visitors.  My tour there was an eye-opener and is an example of how travel has the ability to make us all better people.  Please read my blog post on my tour to Peru.

Why would a traveler in Paris want to go to a Canadian pub in Paris where the bartender’s name is Mike, the barmaid is from Plattsburgh, New York, and Strongbow Cider is on tap?  The answer is simple:  to meet Parisians.  That’s right, on any given night, the Moose Bar & Grill, this Canadian outpost in the Latin Quarter, is filled with fascinated Frenchmen who want to see how the other half lives.  It's one of my stops whenever I am on tour in Paris and maybe it should be a place for you to go to also.

Public transportation is the best way to get around in Paris.  On all of our small group tours to Paris, we only take the bus and the metro.  It gets us where we want to go in Paris quickly and inexpensively.   The types of tickets can be confusing, so in the following Paris blog post I have outlined the most common Paris ticketing options.   

Before I ran tours to Paris, I used to do a lot of solo travel to Paris.   I would enjoy traveling on my own schedule, but there were times I wanted to meet up with other travelers, especially for dinners.   In this Paris blog post, I tell you where and how to meet other travelers while in Paris.

After an amazing tour of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, we head up to Lake Titicaca via the Andahuaylillas Valley and the central highlands.   Our journey today will take about 8 hours, and we need the rest after some strenuous hikes at Machu Picchu.  I think this group is still overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur of our Machu Pichhu experience, so this trip is a much needed relaxing day to reflect on our accomplishments.

The words "amazing", "unbelievable", and "wonderful" are overused these days.  But not when it comes to viewing the mystical Inca city of Machu Picchu.  Quite literally, there is nothing like it in the world.   On our small group tour to Peru, we spend 3 days at Machu Picchu to give it the time that it deserves to soak in the beauty and splendor of this amazing place.   Read the blog post and see the highlights of our tour of Machu Picchu.