How to plan a delightfully romantic honeymoon

I went through a long-haired, tie-dye-wearing hippie phase in high school – just without the drugs. And, even though I've always been somewhat of an independent free spirit, I was the last person my friends and family ever expected to get a tattoo. And yet now, at 32, I have four tattoos. And I can trace all of them back to my love of travel. Here's a look at my travel-inspired tattoos: My travel tattoos and their stories 2006 – The Quote In 2005, right after I graduated high school, I used my passport for the first time to go on a Lord of the Rings tour of New Zealand with my mom. On tour in Wellington, we got to meet Daniel Reeve, the man responsible for the mapwork and calligraphy in all the “Lord of the Rings” films (he's since worked on tons of other movies, including the more recent “Hobbit” trilogy). Me and Daniel Reeve in 2005 When I was contemplating my very first tattoo nearly a year later, I kept coming back to New Zealand and...

T he view out of the small plane window was largely unremarkable as we reached cruising altitude above the foothills outside Wellington. The aerial view of the Rimutaka Range, the low mountains that force New Zealand’s capital city to hug the Pacific coastline, would likely have been stunning on that late winter morning. There may have been a few last traces of snow present on the first day of August, or perhaps the first hints of the prickly, yellow gorse bushes that would begin to cover the hillsides in spring. Both of these views — and any others in between — were made impossible, however, by the thick, low clouds that had settled right at the base of the Rimutakas. Crossing my fingers and hoping for clearer skies later, I settled for watching fat droplets of water condense outside the thick window pane as the New Zealand landscape slipped by beneath a soggy grey blanket. Fortune must have been looking favorably upon me that morning, however, because the skies began to ...

If you've followed along on my adventures for any length of time, then you can probably guess that I'm the type of person who's used to being “connected” all the time. In fact, you could easily call me a bit of an internet addict. Along with publishing regularly here on my blog, I also post daily on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I've recently gotten into Snapchat (find me – dangerousbiz!), I add to my Pinterest boards regularly, and let's not even get started on how often I check my email. Like many of my fellow bloggers (and, well, millennials in general), I've become dependent on my smartphone. On Google. On Facebook. On being able to be connected 24/7. In fact, I AM connected nearly 24 hours a day – as a travel blogger, it's basically my job. But I know this isn't healthy. Along with getting headaches from staring at a computer screen so much and putting on extra pounds from working from my couch 10+ hours per day, my addiction to being conne...

I know I already gave you a taste of my 2012 in photos (and with copious links) last week. But this week I wanted to sit down and look back at my most memorable moments of the past year (most of them travel-related). It was tough to narrow it down to just 12, but here's what I came up with: 12. Visiting Rila Monastery in Bulgaria Ever since reading “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova nearly 7 years ago, I've been obsessed with the idea of visiting Eastern Europe. And, when I finally decided that this year would be the year, I put Rila Monastery at the top of my list. This Orthodox monastery up in Bulgaria's Rila Mountains is not the easiest to get to (in fact, it involved the single worst 3-hour bus ride of my entire life), but as soon as I walked beneath the first painted archway and into the monastery's big courtyard, it was all worth it. The bright frescoes, bearded monks, and calm atmosphere were 10 times better in person than in any novel. >> Read the p...