Thanks for joining me on the journey.
I’m an American travel writer dividing my time between Seville, Spain and California. I travel the world seeking intriguing curiosities and outrageously delicious comfort food so I can have the fun of writing about them here. — Karen McCann
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How to Buy Ultra-Light, Super-Functional Luggage
My husband — as he’ll be the first to admit —has a serious luggage fetish. Over the years, our closets and attics have become jammed with suitcases, backpacks, daypacks, duffle bags, satchels, stuff sacks, and zippered pouches of every configuration. In times of stress, I can always divert Rich’s thoughts to a more cheerful direction…
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Crazy Travel Experiments You Might Actually Want to Try
As you may have noticed, I’m a big fan of quirky travel adventures. To me, there’s nothing more exhilarating than taking a step into the unknown – even if it’s simply poking my nose into some unexplored corner of the city I’ve lived in for more than a decade. I recently stumbled across a kindred…
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French Mystery Village Attracts Grave Robbers (and Us)
In place of a welcome sign, the tiny French village of Rennes-le-Château has posted a stern warning against digging, and in case you don’t get the point, they’ve locked the cemetery gates. The residents – all 100 of them – are fed up with people disturbing the tombs of their dear departed, and who can…
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Luggage-Free Travel? Try It, You’ll Like It
“Bags? We have no bags.” Each time I said it, I stood back to enjoy watching the stunned disbelief bloom on the face of our host at the hotel or B&B. This would invariably be followed by a hard stare at the floor beside my feet to see if this absurd story was an attempted…
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Our Luggage-Free Trip Is Starting. Are We Nuts?
I still can’t believe Rich got me to agree to this crazy travel experiment. “Remind me again why it will be fun to travel without any luggage whatsoever,” I said recently. “The freedom to move through the world unencumbered,” he replied, growing a little starry-eyed. “To get on a train with nothing but a toothbrush…
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Are You Ready for the World’s Smallest Hotel Rooms?
“I’m not kidding,” Rich said. “I think this carpet is made of cardboard.” I bent down to take a closer look. “Could be some sort of plastic. Or maybe ridged asphalt covered in vinyl? Whatever it is, don’t put your bare feet on it.” We were standing at the entrance/entire floor area of the smallest…
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7 Things You Should NOT Pack for a Trip Abroad
Right after we got married, I went down to Kmart to replace my diamond wedding ring with an inexpensive gold band. “It’s just for the duration of our trip to India,” I reassured Rich. “In a place where people have so little, it just doesn’t seem appropriate — or safe — to wear good jewelry.”…
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The Laughter Project
“I just can’t take any more close-ups of blood dripping on snow,” I told Rich recently. At home or on the road, we love spending lazy evenings watching mysteries and thrillers, matching wits with unorthodox but brilliant detectives and the ruthless master criminals they’re hunting down. But after a glut of bleak Scandinavian suspense dramas…
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First Airbnb. Then Uber. And Now . . . EatWith.com
“Why would you want to go to a stranger’s home and eat with people you don’t know?” a friend asked incredulously. “The hosts aren’t picked at random off the street,” I protested. “They’re professional chefs and fabulous cooks who open their homes to small groups for private dining. It’s a pop-up restaurant, like a small…
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10 Great Travel Photography Tricks (Stolen from the Pros)
During the first two days of our Cost Rica honeymoon, Rich and I took dozens of snapshots of friendly locals, exotic jungles, and each other, until I finally thought to ask, “Say, how many shots do we have on that roll of film, anyway?” And that’s when we discovered neither of us had remembered to…
TRAVEL with CURIOSITY
These days I’m cultivating curiosity, which science says will keeps my brain agile. I figure spending more time on the road and indulging my natural nosiness about the world will be good therapy and a cheerful counterpoint to today’s headlines. And I will never run out of quirky stuff to write about.
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