Hughes Travel Ridgetown

Uniworld versus Viking River Cruise

In short, we liked Uniworld much better. Admittedly, we have only been on two river cruises – Grand European Tour (Amsterdam to Budapest) on the LIF with Viking in 2014 and Venice and the Gems of Northern Italy on the River Countess with Uniworld in 2015. This is a somewhat subjective comparison based on two quite different cruises. However, I believe that it still has validity.

On Uniworld, the staff and crew were a very happy bunch, w...

We went to the Bahai Principe all-inclusive resort in March of 2015 for my niece's wedding.  We had a good time laying in the sun, both at the beach and around the pool.  However, I must admit that all-inclusives are not really "our thing".  When one stays at an all-inclusive, it is like bringing a piece of Canada (or the USA) with you.  We prefer experiencing the culture, the food and the sights.

We have been to Hawaii three times and plan to return.  It is one of our favourite places for a personal holiday.  Our first trip was with a group.  We stayed at a hotel on Maui for three days (on our own) and then took a 7-day 4-island cruise with Norwegian Cruise lines (with our group).  On our second visit we stayed in a condo on Maui for 15 days.  On our third visit, we stayed in the Maui condo for 5 days and then in a condo on Kawai for 10 days. 

Don't stop for pedestrians in Beijing: It's illegal for cars to stop for pedestrians in Beijing, China. If you do, you'll risk a fine. This law is something pedestrians should be aware of as well, especially if they're thinking about jaywalking.

Feeding the pigeons in Venice: No feeding the birds! It's illegal to feed pigeons in St. Mark's Square in Venice. Tourists will be fined if caught.

No spitting in Vancouver: It's illegal to spit on th...

Who knew that a salt mine built in the 13th century could still be in operation (albeit limited) today? And who knew that a salt mine could be so beautiful and so historic? Wow!

To access the mine, you must begin by descending 378 steps. We knew that. You get to go back to the top by elevator. We knew that too, What we did not know is how many steps one had to descend to get to the bottom of the public part of the mine (about 135 meters or about 440 feet). The answer, according to our g...

The Victoria Falls National Park is all about the Falls and they are truly magnificent. I have wanted to visit Victoria Falls for a long time and I expected it to be wonderful. While these two things are often a sure setup for disappointment, this was not the case. The Falls still exceeded my expectations. We visited on a beautiful, sunny day in mid-February. The Falls were still close to peak flow, so the sound, the view and the mist were all magnificent. Our guide, who had visited many...

When we knew we were visiting Krakow, we also knew that we had to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau, not that we really wanted to, of course. We re-watched Schindler's List and googled the camps. We read the guide-books and even read Michener's "Poland". We thought that we were ready; we weren't! It's the sheer scale that gets to you. The camps are so big.

We were on a tour with Krakow Tours, not that this makes a whole lot of difference. They take you to the camps and turn you over to a ve...

Our next trip is to Brazil, Argentina and Chile in May

Then to Venice, Italy in June

And our July 9 trip to China (see  more under trip information).  This is the first trip that is MAY still be OPEN for BOOKINGS.

We are off to Calgary on a personal trip for our son's wedding in August

Another personal trip in November - to Las Vegas and the Mexican Riviera

FINALLY, there is our wonderful trip to Indochina (Vietnam and Cambodia with ...

We visited Lithuania and Poland in May of this year and had many wonderful experiences.

A very good friend offered to show us around Lithuania as he was finishing his 57th trip there.  Who could say no to that?  We toured Lithuania for 10 days, met many wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed a very personal visit to that great nation.

Since we had to stop in Poland anyway (to change planes), we decided to stay for a week and see a bit of the country.  This was...

New postings to this blog will happen occasionally, typically once or twice per month.