College Touring Tips for Parents: What You Need to Know
When it comes to researching potential colleges, there's nothing more important than physically visiting college campuses. It's a great way to get a sense of the campus atmosphere, the environment, and the students.

         52 Books For Travelers of All Ages

Great reads and grand gift ideas for the intrepid explorer or the armchair traveler.  

A little rain..... A cancelled flight...... Lost luggage. 

In our family, when things don’t go according to “plan”, we say, “it will make for a better story later”.

Still, sometimes we welcome a little inspiration.

Some perspective.

A gentle reminder of why we travel and how fortunate we are to see so much of the world.

These travel quotes, old and new, provide all that and more:

1. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

2. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” - Moorish proverb

3. "Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled." — Mohammed

4."Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

5.“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

6.“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

7. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

8.“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

9.“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

10.“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

11.“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe” - Anatole France

12. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

13. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

14. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

15. “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G. K. Chesterton

16. It is not down in any map; true places never are. - Herman Melville

17. To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. - Charles Horton Cooley

18.“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” – G.K. Chesterton

19. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

20. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

21. “Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves” - Euripides

22. “We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” - John Hope Franklin

23. “You lose sight of things... and when you travel, everything balances out.” - Daranna Gidel

24. “I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Rosalia de Castro

25. “Make voyages! Attempt them... there's nothing else.” – Tennesee Williams

26.“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.” -Francis Bacon, Sr.

27. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

28. “My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunities.” – Diana Ross

29. “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

30. “Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking” – Antonio Machado

31. “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

32. “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” – Eudora Welty

33. “I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

34. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

― Albert Einstein

35. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

36. “Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.” – Lawrence Durrell

37. “Travel can also be the spirit of adventure somewhat tamed, for those who desire to do something they are a bit afraid of.” – Ella Maillart

38. You may not find a path, but you will find a way.  -- Tom Wolfe

39. "Travel penetrates your consciousness, but not in a rational way." -- Milton Glaser

40. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

41. "Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries." -- René Descartes

42. "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -- Henry Miller

43. "Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings." -- Hodding Carter

44. "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." -- Jawaharal Nehru

45. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

46. "The journey is my home." — Muriel Rukeyser

47. "To travel is to possess the world." – Burton Holmes

48. “Keep things on your trip in perspective, and you'll be amazed at the perspective you gain on things back home while you're away...One's little world is put into perspective by the bigger world out there.” – Gail Rubin Bereny

49. “One of the gladdest moments of human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.” – Sir Richard Burton

50. “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Scott Cameron

51. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

52. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

 Do you have a favorite inspirational travel quote?

Find more inspirational travel quotes here.

Photo: Copyright Lynn O'Rourke Hayes. The Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii.

A parents’ guide for avoiding attitudes and embracing adventure

If you’re contemplating travel with teens you may be feeling a bit of dread mixed with that vacation-anticipation. “Making memories” can be fantastic, but the pressure to do it right, keep your teen engaged, and above all have fun can drain the pleasure out of any vacation. 

One of the best trips I’ve taken was a recent journey to Italy with my teen daughter, a senior in high school, to explore Pompeii for my upcoming historical novel, Pompeii: City on Fire.

Here are my best travel tips for those heading out with teens this summer, to make your trip memorable for a lifetime: 

Secure the “Buy In”

From Day 1 of trip planning, give your teen the reins in some area. My daughter’s excellent sense of direction always trumps my tendency to get lost, so she knew it would be up to her to navigate us through Rome and Venice. If there’s a particular location that interests your teen, give him the task of planning your time there. How about one day that is completely his to plan, from activities to food? He’ll have ownership of the adventure, and probably be more agreeable to the plans you’ve made as well. 

Mix Both Your Interests

Our trip to Rome was primarily to research Pompeii for my upcoming novel, but my daughter really wanted to see Venice. It meant a side trip of a couple of days and some extra expense, but seeing something she was interested in made the trip more enjoyable for both of us. Because I had no agenda there, I found that the days in Venice were wonderful. Find out what is most interesting to your teen in the area where you’re traveling, and make sure you spend adequate time there to satisfy her curiosity. 

Make Transportation Decisions Up Front

Nothing is worse than a teen complaining about too much walking or driving. If your destination is a city, decide before you arrive how you’ll get from place to place. Walking always feels longer than you expect. Public transportation provides local flavor and saves money, but takes more time -finding stations and waiting for arrivals. (Though my daughter and I have some laughable memories of Bus #64 in Rome!) Taxis save time and sore feet, but can be expensive. A mix of all three will keep everyone from getting too grouchy. 

Stay in Sync on the Education

If you’re headed for someplace educational and want to be sure your teen gets all the info, I highly recommend audio tours. There are a number of companies online that provide downloadable walking tours for worldwide destinations. My daughter and I loaded several of these onto our iPods, hit play at the same time, and walked the cities with our own personal tour guide. We learned history, but it also satisfied some of that inherent need teens have to be “plugged in”!

Just chill…

Take your cue from the average teen’s attitude, and don’t get freaked out when things go wrong. Because things will go wrong! Be spontaneous and flexible and embrace the unexpected as an adventure. I can hardly count the episodes my daughter and I encountered – a missed bus at the top of Mt. Vesuvius, a surprise roadside downpour, late night searches for wi-fi – but every one of them is now an entertaining story we brought back. Don’t let detours ruin the fun.

Give them Space

Are you continually amazed at the amount of time your teen can spend asleep on the weekends? Don’t forget that they still need extra downtime when you’re traveling, too. Be sensitive to their need for a little space and some extra rest. If the crankiness starts to build, it’s time to take a break.

Preserve the Memories

Don’t forget to get pictures with your teen. It’s easy to forget while you’re sightseeing. You return home to find hundreds of shots of the sights, pictures of your teen,maybe a few of yourself. But make sure you find other friendly tourists and get some photos of both of you in all the important spots. It may feel awkward to ask a stranger, but you’ll be glad you did. Those pictures together, taken at such memorable times, are priceless. 

Then Share the Memories!

Once you’ve returned, don’t let those photos disappear into digital storage! When my daughter and I returned from Italy, I used an online service to put together the best of ours into a photo book, an 8 inch-by-8 inch hardback book with a montage of photos of the two of us on the cover. Include some anecdotes and fun captions. And remember, before you know it your teenwill be headed off to college or life outside your home. It’s easy to order two copies, one to send along into life with your teen. Someday maybe your grandchildren will love looking through it! 

I’ve traveled the world researching my historical novels, but the trip to Italy to research Pompeii was unlike any of my others because my traveling partner was 17 years old. It was an adventure for both of us, and a shared memory that we carry into the future. Don’t let concerns over attitudes dampen your enthusiasm. With a bit of forethought, travel with teens can be great!  

Historical fiction author T.L. Higley doesn’t just transport readers to the settings of her books, she transports herself as well. Her trips to Greece, Egypt, Jordan and Italy have found their way into her suspense novels, including the popular Seven Wonders series. Her upcoming Pompeii: City on Fire brings to life the lost Roman city buried by a massive volcano.