Skip to main content

Travel tips

Mercure Hotel, Sighisoara

Accommodations

https://www.travelswithcharie.com/search?q=Budget+friendly+lodging

Safest countries for solo female travelers

https://www.travelswithcharie.com/2023/07/the-safest-countries-for-solo-female.html

Tour operators 

Chaika Tours, Latvia

For tours in Latvia and to the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, I traveled in 2023 to Hill of Crosses from Riga with Armands who operates chaikatours.lv. There’s no easy connection between Hill of Crosses and Riga. This was a solo trip for me and was I glad I didn’t have to share the car with anyone. 

Get your Guide, Bulgaria

I took a small group tour with five people from Sofia, Bulgaria to Niš, Serbia and that was far better than a tour bus with 30 people or 15 sightseers in a minivan. getyourguide.com.

Nicolas Experience Tours, Romania

I found that the best way to discover Romania (or other countries for that matter) is to travel with a tour operator who will take care of logistics and is flexible with schedule adjustments so I can relax and enjoy the view. As a solo traveler, it’s not easy for me to find a tour that will accommodate a single person only. They always require a minimum of 2 people to operate a tour. I normally take the train to go around a country and sightsee on my own but with only a week in Romania and the number of cities I wanted to see, I was glad to find Nicolas Experience Tours to take me to Sibiu, Sighisoara, Biertan Fortress, Cozia Monastery, Brasov, Bran Castle, Snagov Monastery, and so much more in two days. Nicolas also has tours to Chișinău, Transnistria, and Bulgaria. https://experience-tours.ro/

Tico Shuttle, Costa Rica

I took Tico Shuttle to go from Escazu (suburb of San Jose) to Jaco Beach on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and back to San Jose. Their drivers were prompt, careful, polite and even stopped along the way to show me some of the sights of Costa Rica. ticoshuttle.com

Transportation options

I always check rome2rio.com on different options of traveling from country to country or city to city. It’s an invaluable tool.

*****

Image by TravelswihCharie 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Filipino Struggles in History - Carlos Botong Francisco

In 1968, Antonio Villegas (then Mayor of Manila), commissioned Carlos "Botong" Francisco to paint the history of Manila for Manila City Hall. The series of large scale paintings was called  Kasaysayan ng Maynila  (History of Manila).  The paintings deteriorated over time and no attempt was made to preserve these historical canvases until 2013 when Mayor Amado Lim sent them to the National Museum for extensive restoration. Four years later, in 2017, Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada and the Manila City Council signed an agreement with the National Museum to leave the paintings at the museum so they may reach a larger audience in exchange for museum grade reproductions to replace the originals. Kasaysayan ng Maynila was later renamed Filipino Struggles in History and is now on display at the Senate Hall of the National Museum . Carlos "Botong" Francisco died in March 1969, a few months after completing the paintings. He is one of the first Filipino modernists and
Post a Comment
Read more

The Art of Carlos Botong Francisco - Progress of Medicine in the Philippines

Pre-colonial period Pag-unlad ng Panggagamot sa Pilipinas (The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines) is a group of four large-scale paintings depicting healing practices in the Philippines from pre-colonial times to the modern period. Carlos Botong Francisco was commissioned in 1953 by  Dr. Agerico Sison who was then the director of Philippine General Hospital (PGH) together with   Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing of the National Museum, Dr. Florentino Herrera, Jr. and Dr. Constantino Manahan. These oil on canvas paintings measure 2.92 meters in height and 2.76 meters in width (9.71 ft x 8.92 ft) and were displayed at the main entrance hall of PGH for over five decades. Owing to its location, the artworks were in a state of "severe deterioration" at the beginning of the 21st century from exposure to heat, humidity, dirt, dust, smoke, insect stains, grime, termites and an oxidized synthetic resin used in an earlier restoration. These canvases were restored three times, the last was
1 comment
Read more

8 Heritage Houses of Iloilo

Lizares Mansion The province of Iloilo on the island of Panay has a rich trove of heritage houses, left over from the sugar industry boom in the 19th century. Iloilo also had the largest port in the Philippines at that time which facilitated the export of sugar to foreign shores and deposited money in the hands of the sugar barons. The barons dropped their earnings into the acquisition of properties in Negros and the construction of beautiful homes in Iloilo, many of which are located in the vicinity of the Jaro Cathedral. The Lizares Mansion was built in 1937 by Don Emiliano Lizares for his wife, Concepcion Gamboa and five children. The family fled to safety when World War II broke out and the house was occupied by the Japanese military. The family returned to the house after the war but left once again after the demise of Don Emiliano. It was sold to the Dominican order in the 1960s and was converted in 1978 to a private school, Angelicum School. The mansion now houses the
2 comments
Read more