In earlier years when border crossings in Western Europe meant going through an official border checkpoint, we were driving on a country road from Austria into Germany when we had to stop at a checkpoint. The young official walked slowly around our car looking through each window, studied our passports, and eyed us for a long moment. Then he asked "Do you have a goat?" Startled at the question we floundered at what to say. He repeated the question. We said "no." "Ah, that is too bad. You will need one in the Alps." Totally confused we didn't know what to say or do. Was this some sort of request for a bribe? Should we offer to "buy a goat?" Turn around and find another crossing point? Mulling over our options, we heard the official say sympathetically "If you don't have a goat you will be very cold." Then the light dawned - it wasn't a goat he asked about, it was a coat!!! To this day when we leave our house in chilly weather often one of us will ask "do you have your goat?"

This is a horror story about Greer Lodge in Arizona's White Mountains. The Lodge promotes its "luxury cabins" but we were stuck in a filthy, dark cabin with a 4" hole in the bedroom ceiling, a foot-wide gaping hole in the bathroom wall, and exposed wiring patched with electrical tape throughout. They charged $199/night, but told us to get our own fireplace logs "down the road" and suprised us with news that our cabin was a "housekeeping unit", meaning no maid service. The sink leaked and a sign next to it advised that if dirty glasses were left behind, a fine of $100 would be imposed. Their website said "Dogs at no extra charge" but they added a $20 charge to our bill for "1 Pet". We complained repeatedly at the front desk, but were rudely handled every time and management never bothered to visit the unit. We wrote to the owner later and never got a reply.

My trips tend to start as a single bucket-list type of idea. The trip kind of builds from there, but the initial kernel that sparked my interest usually the best moment of the trip for me -- it's that feeling of officially fulfilling a travel dream.

So, "I want to stand in a volcano" became a trip to Big Island, and my favorite part was hiking the Kilauea Iki crater. "I want to stand in Anne Frank's attic" turned into four days in Amsterdam; "I want to swim in the Blue Lagoon" got us to Iceland. There's still a lot on my list -- I want to stay in a caldera-view hotel in Santorini, zipline in Costa Rica, and ride the WDW monorail with my new baby

We went on a horseback excursion into the Haleakala Crater in Maui. The lunar landscape was very rustic, serene and calming even though the ride was physically demanding. It was an experience that made me feel close to nature.

This is easy - it just happened last week on my trip to Bali, I experienced the 'perfect day':

Woke up to fresh bananas & tea on my 'huts' doorstep.

Went for a 2 hour walk on the beach & had the bonus of finding some beautiful shells.

Went to a spa for a facial & 1 1/2 hour pedicure.

Had a wonderful lunch of papaya salad with fresh prawns & avocado.

Read my book.

Had a masseuse come to my 'hut' for the worlds best massage.

Read another chapter.

Ended the day with dinner & family.

All this for less than $50.00!!!

Good Morning!
I want to write about my fist travel with my wife before the honey moon.
We went to SD, the travel was started the Thursday 14, we woke up at 8:00 am, we went to the airport and we made the check in online, it was really slow because i can't print my boarding pass because the web site of Volaris doesn't work.
The flight was delayed for 2 ours but we had a great time in the airport and there i realised that i forget my sit at home (We traveled to SD for the wedding for my best friend).
Then we arrived to Tijuana, we took the rental car and with the help of waze we drove to SD, suddenly we saw that two car lines, but our line was moved really fast and the other line is really slow, so we asked to a cap the reason, the cap told us that we are on the sentry line, the sentry line is only for the people that live in Tijuana but work in SD, but we only follow waze, to make story long short the migration of US inspected us and after 10 minutes we were on SD (I think we cross the border in record time).
We made check in in the hotel and then we took a walk in Fashion Mall and we ate on my favourite restaurant of douse The Cheesecake Factory and then we went to a Pub in downtown to drink some beers.
On Friday we woke up, we had breakfast in a great restaurant in downtown and then all day long in Fashion Mall, we also ate at the fast food in Fashion.
At night we wet to a Pub in Pacific Beach for a while.
Saturday was the wedding the we woke up and we went to La Joya Cove to take a delicious breakfast and then to La Joya to the Grums House to dressed him, we made a brindis and we had a great time, then we comeback to the hotel to prepare ourself for the wedding, all the afternoon and night we enjoy the wedding.
On Sunday we woke up really tired and drank we drive to Coronado to take a walk and we ate in a local coffee shop then we bought a ice cream and keep walking, then one of my friends prepare a bbq in his house for us so we ate there and then we returned to the hotel to pack everything and finally we had dinner at Hane (Sushi restaurant really good).
The last day of these fun travel was on monday, we woke up early and we drove to Tijuana we passed the border quickly we returned the rental car and we took the flight to Mexico that is again delayed for 2 ours.
The end….
My best regard.
George 10.

Hi! Good Morning everybody, i wrote last week but i made some mistakes because i am studying English!
This is my history without mistakes!

Good Morning!
I want to write about my fist travel with my wife after our the honey moon.
We went to SD, the travel started the Thursday 14, we woke up at 8:00 am, we went to the airport and we made the check in online, it was really slow because i couldn't print my boarding pass because the web site of the airline didn't work.
The flight was delayed for 2 hours but we had a great time in the airport and there i realized that i had forgotten my suit at home (We traveled to SD for the wedding of my best friend).
Then we arrived to Tijuana, we took the rental car and with the help of waze we drove to SD, suddenly we saw two car lines, but our line was moving really fast and the other line was really slow, so we asked to a cop the reason, the cop told us that we were on the sentry line, the sentry line is only for the people that live in Tijuana but work in SD, but we only followed waze, to make the long story short the immigration of US inspected us and after 10 minutes we were at SD (I think we crossed the border in record time).
We made the check in, in the hotel and then we took a walk in Fashion Mall and we ate on my favorite restaurant of course The Cheesecake Factory and then we went to a Pub in downtown to drink some beers.
On Friday we woke up, we had breakfast in a great restaurant in downtown and then all day long in Fashion Mall, we also ate at the fast food in Fashion.
At night we went to a Pub in Pacific Beach for a while.
Saturday was the wedding so we woke up and we went to La Joya Cove to take a delicious breakfast and then to La Joya to the Groom's House to dress him, we made a toast and we had a great time, then we came back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the wedding, all the afternoon and night we enjoyed the wedding.
On Sunday we woke up really tired and with a hang over we drove to Coronado to take a walk and we ate in a local coffee shop then we bought an ice cream and kept walking, then one of my friends prepared a BBQ in his house for us so we ate there and then we returned to the hotel to pack everything and finally we had dinner at Hane (Sushi restaurant really good).
The last day of this fun travel was on Monday, we woke up early and we drove to Tijuana we passed the border quickly we returned the rental car and we took the flight to Mexico that was again delayed for 2 hours.
The end….
My best regards.
George 10.

What a great topic and there are so many interesting stories. Here is my favorite experience:

In 1999, we met a UK Member of Parliament on an overnight train from Inverness to London and discussed politics with him, over drinks, in the club car. Based on this encounter, we were able to snag VIP passes to the House of Commons two days later.

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Glad I saw this was revived!