My brain hurts from trying to unearth memories of my truncated career as a tour guide for preteens and teenagers in Europe nearly 45 years ago. I believe that the experience (both the disasters and my inability to evade them) …
Category: Women’s Travel
The Summer from Hell: Worst Trip I Ever Took
So the ad appeared as if sent by a celestial messenger: Help Wanted—Tour Leader in Europe. It was 1976, and I was out of work. I had a series of short-term jobs vaguely related to my education in broadcast journalism—a …
Travels with Babs Darling: On My First Tour
When I was growing up in the 1950s and early 60s I was an obsessive reader. One of my favorite subjects was travel, and I became fascinated by countries I considered “exotic” (definitely meat for a kid from a small …
Someday YOU’LL be a Mother and You’ll Know How It Feels: When Your Child Takes to the Road
It was 1970 and my first trip to Europe. My parents accompanied me to the airport, and, as I was on line headed for the plane, my mother said, “If you’re not back in six months, you’ll never see me …
(Mis)remembrance of Things Past: My Life (Not) in Coney Island
There I was, munching on a Nathan’s hot dog (relish, sauerkraut, brown mustard) and feeling the warm sun on my back, and I thought, “Why do I feel nostalgic about Coney Island, a place I had never visited until I …