Musings From Viator's Founder | Viator Travel Blog

An Open Letter to Complainers

31. August 2009

Being a frequent traveler has its memorable moments, and one of them occurred recently when I had the chance to dine at a well-known Georgian restaurant in Moscow, Russia. It was a great meal, and the restaurant’s location combined with the balmy summer weather provided the perfect opportunity for a late-night stroll through the streets [...]

Phuket, Thailand - Cruising to Phang Nga Bay

6. July 2009

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Phuket, Thailand - Cruising to Phang Nga Bay

Thailand is one of those special places that has it all: amazing scenery, super-friendly people, a colorful and vibrant culture, great food, warm weather... and it's all packed into a country that you can get around quickly, with low-cost air fares and plenty of other transport options. You could never hope to see it all in one trip, so the experience most travelers have is that they want to come back for more, and they do. Thailand enjoys great loyalty from its visitors, who know that each part of the country offers its own pleasures, a fact I discovered for myself when I visited Phuket recently.

Rome Photo Tour: Advice from Pro Photographers

17. June 2009

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Rome Photo Tour: Advice from Pro Photographers

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.

Vatican Tours - Which One?

22. April 2009

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It's no secret that the Vatican is one of Rome's (and the world's) most famous - and most crowded - attractions. The art, the sculpture, the architecture, the history - a tour of the Vatican is basically a tour of western history (the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly) over the past 1,000 years. The downside, of course, are the long lines to get into the Vatican. This is a story, though, with a happy ending. There are many 'skip-the-line' tours to the Vatican, where for a small fee you can (literally) skip the hours-long lines.

Muir Woods & the Redwoods

23. March 2009

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Standing in the middle of Muir Woods it's a little hard to believe that San Francisco -- and I mean downtown San Francisco -- is just 20 minutes away, over the Golden Gate bridge. It's so eerily quiet in this stand of old-growth redwood trees, you may as well be a thousand miles from civilization. That's probably why people find it attractive; like standing on a beach with raging surf, the force of nature here is overwhelming, and all your concerns and worries are quickly put into context.

Barcelona Tapas

20. February 2009

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Barcelona means tapas. Well, it also means Gaudi, and Picasso and a whole lot more, but when evening comes and you're starting to feel just a little peckish, tapas is the answer. In Barcelona you are surrounded by tapas bars, and it can be a little daunting knowing how the whole process works, what the different tapas are, where the best bars can be found, etc. etc. So our Barcleone tapas walking tour is just the trick.

Oahu Shark Diving

23. January 2009

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I was in Hawaii last week, on the island of Oahu, and took the chance to personally check out the Oahu Shark Dive we offer.You know, sharks. In a cage. Under the water. Yeah, sounded pretty good I thought.

Australia’s Gold Coast by 4WD

5. December 2008

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I was on the Gold Coast of Australia recently and wanted to check out a couple of the local tour operators and their offerings. The first - a Gold Coast hot air balloon tour - required getting up at 4:30am for the drive to the top of a nearby mountain. Sadly, the rain and fog we found meant there would be no lift-off on this particular morning, and I had to put my balloning hopes on hold for another day. But rain and mud and generally horrible weather conditions present no such problems for 4WD tours, and my plan to test-drive the Gold Coast 4WD Eco Tour was not going to be thwarted. Rain on!

Angels & Demons in Rome

21. November 2008

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I love it when a book I've enjoyed is turned into a movie, though I've just discovered an even better way to extend my enjoyment: the official tour. And this one -- the Angels & Demons tour in Rome -- is so good the movie's producer (Ron Howard) and star (Tom Hanks) have both done it... and loved it, which is not hard to understand. Although the story starts in Geneva (at CERN), almost all the action is in Rome.

Travel in the Footsteps of Barack Obama

12. November 2008

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Last year I wrote about some vacation ideas for George Bush: places where he might brush up on his knowledge of world affairs while at the same time getting some much needed respite from the rigors of Washington DC life. He didn't, alas, take my advice and now finds himself with only a couple of months left in office, and he has presumably used up all his annual leave allocation.