VACATIONS TO ENRICH YOUR LIFE
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
The 100 best worldwide vacations to enrich your life
(National Geographic) ISBN 978-1426202797 1426202792
Pam Grout expands her list of learning vacations and experiential travel in this sequel to The 100 best vacations to enrich your life. She describes eclectic holiday activities like pottery-making in Ban Chan, Laos, quilt-making in Prince Edward Island, writers workshops in Paris, wood-turning and carving in North Carolina, samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, learning herbology in Ashhurst, New Zealand and Tasmania, Australia, maintaining trails on Kilimanjaro, helping scientists research bottlenose dolphins, conducting biodiversity surveys, helping villagers start a cottage industry in El Salvador, learning business tips from the Chinese, training to be a geisha and beer-making in Germany.
Off-the-beaten-track travel
Her 100 best worldwide vacations to enrich your life book describes off-the-beaten-track trips that are not found on the shelves of travel agents. Ranging from volunteer holidays (working at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Girona, Spain) to adventure vacations (bicycling across Cuba), they motivate readers to take meaningful trips rather than resort package holidays.
Each vacation idea includes a travel quote, a description of the vacation experience or activity, information about the organizer of the trip and a sidebar with interesting facts (e.g., the world's best places to go fly fishing).
Panama Canal ships
Simple green and white illustrations punctuate concepts. Sidebars contain fascinating details about destinations and learning activities. For example, the Panama Canal requires 52 million gallons from Gatun Lake for every large ship that transits the Panama Canal and the Bocas del Toro (an archipelago of 68 islands, off northwestern Panama), supports four endangered sea turtle species (hawksbill, green, leatherback and loggerhead).
Another example of experiential travel describes attaya tea ceremonies in Senegal. The brewing and drinking of gunpowder tea (rolled into hard pellets) takes several hours.
What to do in Luang Prabang
Other sidebars provide tips. For example, in Laos, the experiential vacations book lists things to see and do in Luang Prabang (monastery of Wat Xieng Thong and the gold Pra Ban Buddha in the Royal Palace).
Ever wonder what it would be like to experience a camel trek across the Sahara Desert? The author describes the KE Adventure Travel Libyan Acacus Mountain trip with Tuareg nomads, which begins in Tripoli, Libya.
Greek Islands cruise
Pam Grout's book discusses how to charter a yacht in Greece and cruise to some of the 2,000 Greek islands. This National Geographic travel book explains the differences between the Saronic, Cyclades, Dodecanese and Ionian Islands. It gives readers contact information for Globe Merchant Yacht Charters, a U.S.-based broker, and provides a range of prices for chartered boats such as the S/Y Stressbuster.
Do you want to learn the secrets of Kung Fu? Pam Grout explains how to obtain Zen Buddhist martial arts training at Shaolin Temple in Songshan, China, where David Carradine, Bruce Lee and Jet Li studied.
Contents
- Chapter one: arts & crafts getaways
- Chapter two: volunteer vacations
- Chapter three: learning retreats
- Chapter four: wellness escapes
Author
Pam Grout has authored 14 travel and self-help books.