Viator Travel Blog

Personally I have rarely been tempted to take guided tours. The times I have were usually accidental; faced with some complicated monument in the depths of India, an ageing guide has approached me and very softly urged me to take a tour at a wonderfully reasonable price. This is the sort of guided tour that possess a little travel exoticism. But I recently had a rare insight into the big business industrial tours of Rome, the Vatican and its huge museum.

Editor’s note: The contest is now closed and we’re pleased to announce the winners! It was not an easy decision, there were a lot of great entries. But we’ve selected 2 runners-up and 1 grand prize winner for answering one simple question: “Why should Viator give YOU free tickets to a Las Vegas dinner & show?” The catch — your answer must be 10 words or less! We’ve written about the new Dinner in the Sky in Las Vegas, involving a large crane, an elevated outdoor table, and amazing views of the Las Vegas skyline…

When you travel to Venice, it’s easy to tramp around the narrow streets of the historic centre, getting lost at every turn and not caring because everything you see is beautiful, magical and wonderfully old. And at the end of the day, if your feet are aching and your eyes are popping out with an overload of looking, you can sit in an outdoor café sipping on a Spritz or a Bellini and gaze out over the water of the lagoon to relax.

But the lagoon deserves a bit more attention than just that. It’s because of the lagoon and its many tiny islands that Venice is even here. Take time to hop on a boat and see a little more than just the Piazza San Marco.

Copenhagen is one of those cities that just works. I’m not the only one who thinks so; it always rates highly on those coveted “Best in the World” lists for livability, environmental friendliness, and various other desirable traits. And the shopping is pretty sensational. Packed with palaces and castles, littered with gardens and snaked by pretty waterways, I can think of countless reasons to suggest a visit to the Danish capital.

In Paris, it is often easy to just settle for the clichés; sit in a café, gawk at the Eiffel Tower, join the scrum to view the Mona Lisa and walk hand-in-hand along the banks of the Seine. And that’s just fine. But look a little further, and you can stumble into some of the fabulous oddities that give the French capital a slightly quirkier character.

You’ve probably been getting the idea lately that I’ve been all over the place like some kind of bad euro-rash – y’know: everywhere at once and no matter what you do you can’t seem to get rid of it.

I’ve had more than my share of disorder and, dare I say it in a public arena, distress in my days in the Northern Territory. And to tell you the truth I’m not even sure what I’m doing in Europe anyway.

If you are at all like me you have a pretty cool camera and you just love taking pictures. But none of them look like they would make it into National Geographic, and you really can’t put your finger on exactly why. It’s not that you don’t go to interesting places, or take enough shots, or try hard enough. There’s just something missing. That’s how I feel most of the time when I look at my travel photos. Lately I’ve been feeling better though, and it’s because I took one of our photography walking tours in Rome.

I had three homes in Seattle recently. Number one: a performance studio in heart of Capitol Hill called Studio-Current. Two: just down the block, a new restaurant/café called Oddfellows. Three: A fabulous old home in the Madison Park neighborhood. I’d driven up from Portland for a brief artist residency and performance/art gathering for the Easter Island Project’s Participation Tour.

South Australia’s capital, Adelaide, must be Australia’s most underrated city. It’s also one of the country’s most attractive cities with lush botanic gardens, shady parks, charming beachside suburbs, elegant historic buildings and splendid old churches. In short, it’s the kind of city that makes you want to explore it on an old-fashioned bicycle with a cane basket on the front.

Most visitors to Iceland are blissfully unaware of the fact that the popular whale watching tour boats they happily bundle onto in Reykjavik share a dock with commercial whaling vessels. The same dock that is also home to a popular eatery that serves fresh whale kebabs daily. Funny, right? Or shocking?