Linda and I will be departing on a 21-day small group tours to Paris, Normandy Invasion Beaches, Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands.  Everything, as usual, goes in our carry-on.  We will take one suitcase each and a small backpack.  We will take into consideration the weather, the terrain we will be walking on, the sites to be visited.  21 days is actually a short trip for us, we have gone on trips as long as 44 days with just a carry on.  Look at the blog post to see how we pack and what we pack.

Last month, The Traveling Professor took 11 travelers on a scenic tour to the Scottish Highlands. Scotland has some of the most beautiful scenery to be found, and much of it can be seen via stunning train rides.  In today's blog post The Professor will summarize the highlights of the small group tour to the Scottish Highlands.  At the end of the post, please view our photos from the tour.

On our small group tours to Florence and the rest of Italy, The Traveling Professor usually stays at 3 star deluxe or 4 star hotels. But sometimes when traveling on your own, you want a good 2 or 3 star hotel at a reasonable price.  This is understandable since the most significant part of a travel budget is usually lodging.  In today's blog post, here are two selections from The Traveling Professor's Guide to Florence, by Melanie Wilson and Professor Steve Solosky, recently published on Amazon.com.

While we appreciate the concern for tight security at airport screening stations at every airport, London's Heathrow Airport has a particularly thorough procedure.  Along with lengthy times to transfer between any of its 4 passenger terminals (terminals 2-5), passing through LHR to transfer to another flight can be a particularly stressful exercise in making a connection on time.  For instance, on a recent trip from Glasgow to LHR to Dallas, we had a 2 1/2 hour layover.  We needed almost every minute on that layover in London to make that connection.  In this blog post, I give tips on what to consider, and how to deal with transferring through London's Heathrow airport.

No one can figure out how airlines price fares. There are a lot of theories like always fly on a Tuesday or Saturday, buy airfares on a Tuesday, and many other ideas.  The Traveling Professor prices out airfares for hundreds of travelers each year, and although it is difficult to find any consistency to how airfares are prices, check out some of the techniques The Professor uses to find the best fares.