• River cruising (this is a great way to travel through the heartland of a country without having to unpack!)
• London (the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is in June and the Olympics start in July, so London will be the place to be this summer)
• Literary tourism (everything from the Harry Potter theme park in Florida to the dark and snow-filled streets of Steig Larsson's Stockholm)
• Cuba (while the State Department guidelines are still strict, it's probably just a matter of time before Americans can get there more easily)
• Myanmar (since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit and Aung San Suu Kyi's call for responsible tourism, this remote country is attracting the interest of travelers)

We hope you'll join us on one of our small-group trips this year. And wherever your plans may take you, we wish you a healthy, happy, and travel-filled 2012.

Spring is just around the corner here in Portland, or at least I certainly hope so! It's the time of year when I take off my rain jacket, shield my eyes from that shining orb in the sky, blind myself and others with glimpses of my winter-white skin, and assess the damage from spending the winter eating frozen Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies and those skipped workouts in the rain.

"Travel, especially of the old laborious kind, has never seemed to me of greater importance, more essential, more enlightening."

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/travel/03Cover.html?src=dayp&pagewanted=all#

Initially, feeling somewhat taken aback, I assumed that there was something wrong with me. After a young man in Delhi asked if he could take my picture, I surreptitiously checked my teeth to make sure there was no remainder of my favorite lunch of dal tarka stuck among them. I felt the heat of embarrassment spread across my face, my apprehension assuming he asked so he could later ridicule my image with some derelict gang of his fellow high-school boys.

My tour through Delhi and Agra progressed, and my self-consciousness only grew as the question became more frequent. I felt hounded by people asking the question I wanted to use myself: “May I please take your picture?” It didn’t matter if I avoided eye contact, wore hats and sunglasses, or pretended not to understand. Two young men skulked around me at the Taj Mahal, pointing and laughing. At me, I assumed. A year earlier, I had a rather unpleasant episode of being groped in Egypt by two men who approached me in a similar manner. Now, I allowed my discomfort to lead me, quickly hopping across the bridge of the Taj’s reflecting pool to escape into the crowd.

Eventually, I realized I was being ridiculous. I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve been in uncomfortable situations, something that can be hard to avoid as a solo female abroad. If I didn’t want to interact with others, I should have stayed home. If people wanted to photograph me because I didn’t look like them, then so be it. So what if my photo was going to be the source of amusement across the Indian subcontinent? Who cares if my image went viral on Indian Facebook? Surely the desire to document things and people that are outside one’s daily experience spans the globe. Wasn’t it fair to assume that curiosity is universal? Didn’t I want to take pictures of them for the same reasons that they wanted to take pictures of me? Yes. And yes.

So, I relaxed. Later in my visit at the Taj Mahal, I again ran into the two snickering fellows. They renewed their request. I agreed, but only if they would be in the shot with me. We chatted for a while in the broken English and hand gestures of those who don’t share a common language. Now I’m not ashamed—I’m even proud—to know that somewhere in India, on someone’s cell phone, there’s a picture of me. Smiling.

• Put your name and contact information both on the luggage tag and inside the bag.
• Pack your valuables and important information (camera, laptop, prescription medication, passport, itinerary with contact names and numbers, etc.) in your carry-on.
• Make sure that your bag is checked to the correct destination (SJO and SJC are both San Jose, but in different countries!).
• Keep an inventory of the contents of your bag (may sound like overkill, but an inventory is very helpful if you need to file a claim).
• Make sure that you have a claim tag for each bag and that each person has his or her own claim tag.
• Leave plenty of time for connections if your itinerary has multiple legs.
• Pack a change of lightweight clothes and a toothbrush in your carry-on.

If Your Bags Don't Arrive

• File a missing bag report while you are still at the airport. The airline will give you a claim report with a file reference number that can be used to track the status of your bag online. The file reference number will contain five letters and five numbers -- the first three letters represent the airport, the second two letters represent the airline, and the last five numbers represent the unique claim number. So, for example, PDXDL12345 means that the bag was supposed to arrive in Portland (PDX) on a Delta (DL) flight. Enter the number on a site like My Lost Bag to track your bag's status.
• Also ask the airline representative for their customer service number so that you can call them.
• Keep the receipts from your additional expenses so that you can file your report with your travel insurance company.

Although we can't guarantee you'll have a life-changing epiphany on our trips (wouldn't that be a heck of a business!), I hope that in some small way we allow a chance to step outside of their daily lives, relax, experience something new, and create lifelong memories and friendships. I hope you'll join us on one of our small-group, escorted tours or let us help you craft the custom itinerary of your dreams. There is no time like the present to see the world!

It's a question we're asked all the time. It's a question we ask ourselves even more frequently. The world is there to explore--a taxi ride, a jetway, a restless flight and a second taxi ride away. One thing I look forward to is the where-to-go-in [next year] lists. And the New York Times does one better than most, I think. Plus, the slideshow is fun.

When the 2011 NYT list came out recently, I was happy to see where they've chosen. Not only does it include several places I've been eyeing (what a trendsetter I must be!), it also has a healthy dose of local Northwest jewels that makes me thankful to live in this corner of the world.

The list includes several must-see "checklist' destinations (London, Belgium, Thailand, Milan, Singapore, etc.). But I was delighted most of all to see a handful of locales on my personal see-soon board:

Iceland. Iceland! Yes, the place with the wrong name, being an island of remarkable geo-thermal activity filled with hot springs and warm people. Land of Bjork and other Bjork-related cultural delights. Despite the economic and volcanic difficulties that have befallen the North Atlantic nation, all reports are it remains a fascinating destination. Easy non-stop flights from the west coast to Reykjavik don't hurt, either.

Cali, Colombia. Adios drug wars; Hola! the thriving cultural scene in beautiful Cali. Long considered the world capital of "if only" (if only the violence would subside; if only it were easy to get to and easy to get around in; if only it's reputation for crime & drugs could end), the conditional if has finally been lifted off of Colombia and Cali. Now you really can discover the beauty of the land, the charms of the city and the vibrant culture that abounds there. Let's go!

The Danube. If you've been keeping up with the Pat and Mike’s newsletters, you know that we are bullish on river cruises, and the Danube (along with the Yangtze) may be the king of them all. I was soThe Daube winds its way through Budapest, Hungary glad the NYT's list included it. There may be no better way to see central Europe in a short time than a 7- or 10-day cruise through Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. Castles, art, beer and sausage: What could be a better way to spend a summer's week?

Tallinn, Estonia. It's not where you think it is. OK, where I thought it was, anyway. I've been hearing wonderful things about Estonia for a couple of years now, but even as someone who fancies himself a geography buff, I get a little foggy in the Baltic areas about what is where. But Estonia is, well, up there. I mean St. Petersburg-and-Helsinki up there. The three cities form a 75-mile elongated triangle, and all three on my list. Way up there on my list. Wouldn't it be fantastic to visit Tallinn around the summer solstice to experience the mid-summer festival, where the sun shines 19 hours a day? Sure sounds good as I write from the Pacific Northwest in the heart of January.

Zanzibar. Speaking of "where is?". Zanzibar! Top-10 all-time geographic names! Zahn-zi-baaaar! What does one see and do there? Just a hop and skip from Tanzania's capital, Zanzibar island is an unspoiled beach-lovers paradise. Magnificent beaches, snorkeling and diving sites galore, and newly minted 4- and 5-star resorts. Is it far? Yes! But sometimes that is the point. When you've done Hawaii, Mexico or the Caribbean (not that there's anything wrong with those!), Zanzibar calls. Accept the charges! And after a week Tanzanian or Kenyan safari? Get my Pat and Mike's agent on the phone!

Tozeur, Tunisia.* Tunisia has long been a favorite North African destination for Europeans: modern, secular, beautiful, fun. And after the magnificent beaches and bustle of Tunis (the capital), the desert oasis of Tozeur is one of its greatest attractions. Palm trees sway, clear pools of water fed by deep springs pool up to hotels, and at night you can almost hear the echoes of Sir Lawrence himself whisper in the winds. If you're a desert-lover like me, this should be near the top of your own list. Oh and by the way, there are still a few spots left on Pat and Mike's Tunisia trip in May, and it does include Tozeur. Be quick, you desert foxes! Don't leave Tunisia entirely to the Europeans.

*Update: As this was about to post, news of unrest in Tunisia hit the headlines. While we at Pat and Mike's Travel are certainly paying close attention, we feel strongly that the small (in comparison to many others, anyway) political crisis will resolve in the coming days. We do not expect the unrest Tunis has seen to affect in any way the tourist areas of Tunisia or anyplace along the Pat and Mike's itinerary. We will continue to monitor the situation with the assistance of our reliable business partners in Tunisia.