Just One Suitcase

WHAT A TRIP

4 April 2023 ♦

Read my new book WHAT A TRIP on Kindle Vella. In one day, Jo loses her daughter (to college), her husband (to a hot young chick), and her job (effective immediately). Jo’s best friend Carly talks her into joining a ‘life-affirming’ tour to India. For enlightenment, of course. Who knew…

TRAVELING SOLO [Tricks of the trade]

19 December 2018 ♦

STORIES

I’m a woman and I travel the world. Alone. (With some occasional exceptions.) Alone, I’ve stayed in a stone cottage on top of a mountain in Tuscany, an 11th-century fort on an island off the coast of Brittany, an estancia in Argentina, and a riad in Tangier. Alone, I’ve shopped…

BEFORE YOU GO TIPS | Booking the trip

20 April 2017 ♦

DON’T MISS

Before booking an international trip, there’s some research you can do to lay the foundation for success. This is a comprehensive list—I’m covering all bases. Take what you need from it. (more…)

INDIA | The Land of Dreams and Romance

5 March 2017 ♦

STORIES

In 1896, at age 60, Mark Twain traveled throughout India for three months. As I read his words, I saw my photographs of India… “This is indeed India; the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine…

STYLE MOMENT | Narlai, India

25 January 2015 ♦

STYLE MOMENTS

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers.” – Pat Conroy (b. 1945) American author

People of the World

14 November 2013 ♦

STORIES

This is Bob Beveridge, in his secondhand violin / collectible shop in Falkland, Scotland. He is playing the prized guitar that was given to him by Roseanne Cash, when she and her famous father traced their roots back to this small village in the Kingdom of Fife. At the risk…

India | Namasté

30 September 2013 ♦

STORIES

Wherever I am in the world, I am inspired by the beauty and color and character of unfamiliar cultures – the architecture, the landscape, the artifacts, and, perhaps most meaningful, the people. I have also found that my feeble attempts to speak even a few words of the language are…

Style Moment | Narlai, India

14 June 2013 ♦

STYLE MOMENTS

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” Jawaharial Nehru (1889-1964) First prime minister of independent India

COOL HOTELS | India | Rawla Narlai

10 June 2013 ♦

DON’T MISS

At the foot of a great mystical rock where sages have meditated, in the heart of a colorful Rajasthan village, sits Rawla Narlai, the 17th century villa used as a hunting lodge by the Maharaja of Jodhpur. It’s now a charming boutique hotel, with cozy rooms opening onto a courtyard…

The World in a Little Blue Book

27 December 2012 ♦

STORIES

My passport is full. Each of the stamps on those little blue pages represents an encounter, an adventure, an education, an accomplishment, a story. I had to go to the passport office to have new pages inserted, and as I sat there waiting, I flipped through, and remembered. These are…