Because travel is better with two - By writer/editor/photographer Melanie Wynne
Acacia trees at sunset in South Africa's Kruger National Park
Shawn and Laura, a Los Angeles-based married couple, are truly consummate travelers.
Engaged atop the Eiffel Tower and married in Bali, they’ve since been to Hong Kong, much of Italy, the south of France, Monte Carlo, London, Barcelona, Japan and more.
But it was their trip to South Africa that really fired my imagination…once I saw Shawn’s gorgeous photos.
Many years ago, when our friends Shawn and Laura saw their friend’s photos from a trip to Japan, they became curious about the country; by the time they saw the 2003 movie Lost in Translation, set in a moody, glittering version of Tokyo, they were hooked.
A Los Angeles-based movie trailer editor and real estate agent respectively, the couple works almost constantly. It took a few years to carve out the time and money, but in late May 2009, they were finally able to put aside 10 days to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary with their own trip to Japan:
6 nights in Tokyo, 3 nights in Kyoto and 1 (amazing) night in Koyasan.
My dear friend Christine Cantera has agreed to share why traveling couples would love Montpellier, her home in the Languedoc region of southern France. In her own voice, I present Christine’s compelling case.
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Somewhere in the basement of Condé Nast, locked in a glass case strewn with rose petals and compiled by the same experts who create Cosmo quizzes, there must surely be an official list of Europe’s most romantic destinations. It glorifies places like Paris and Positano that attract the lovers in us all, and there is no room for Montpellier, France.
But I moved to Montpellier for love, and because I have a skewed sense of the romantic, I’m stating for the record that I’d put it up against those towns any day of the week. Here’s why.
My friend Nellie Huang, writer of the one-stop travel guide WhyGo Spain, has offered to extoll the virtues of Mallorca, a romantic Spanish island not far from her home in Granada. When Adam and I went to Spain in 2007, we didn’t have enough time to see Andalucía, Barcelona and Mallorca, so I’m thrilled that Nellie is willing to share.
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Mallorca's northern tip, Cala Formentor
Earlier that week, my fiancé and I had arrived on Mallorca for our summer vacation — and we were very pleasantly surprised.
Despite what we’d been told, there were no truckloads of tourists or noisy, half-drunk college students. Instead of pumping techno music, we could hear only the soothing lapping of waves. The sun’s rays reflected on the turquoise Mediterranean, and sprawling in front of us were endless miles of clean, white, sandy beach.
We looked at each other and smiled, knowing we’d found our own slice of paradise.
Hippo in Botswana's Okavango Delta - photo by Brian Scott
So, today is my 40th birthday.
(It’s the one thing Matt Damon, Sigourney Weaver, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and I all have in common.)
A few errant age spots and some stubborn gray hair aside, I’m relieved to find that I’m really happy about it.
I have wonderful friends and family, the best husband for whom a woman could wish, a new role as an expert (genConnect)…
…and oh, I’m off for a two-week safari in Botswana and Tanzania!
