The Choices We Make

When our son was younger, our travel plans were dictated by his school holidays.  Airline tickets were expensive during holidays and we travelled less frequently.  Tickets were also a little cheaper after Christmas but had to return much before schools started.  Hence, we were able to have shorter vacations closer to the New Year and my son’s birthday in January.  We have found that vacationing on such special days can help to create good memories. Although we are not Catholics, my most memorable travel was to the Vatican on Christmas Day in 2004.  Along with thousand other people, we attended Pope John Paul II blessings outside in Saint Peter’s square (photo) . It was an opportunity to listen to the Pope give an address in Italian, followed by prayers, and at the end of the ceremony, the Pope blessed any religious articles we had in our hands. Through religiosity we had rosaries in our hand but through uncontrollable emotions we had tears in our ey...

I have traveled to 19 countries but places that I want to visit in my bucket list keep growing.  My spouse and I enjoy traveling and creating memories.  Given time and money constraints, we are often forced to make choices about where to travel and when to travel to make each visit special and a memory to cherish. Thinking of places we have visited, the question of where to travel is relatively easy in hindsight.  Most of the places we have visited are for cultural tourism.  Cultural tourism is a kind of tourism that involves learning about the history of a given region, the lifestyle of people in a particular geographical locale, architecture, oral traditions, religions, festivals, cuisine, etc. Activities of cultural tourism involves visiting museums, theaters, art galleries, and learning about indigenous cultural communities and their traditions, lifestyle, and values.   The countries that we have visited that can be included in this category incl...