Years ago, Mike went to visit the Elephant Nature Park during his trip through Thailand. Here’s why you should go there too… There are about twenty different elephant experiences within an hour or so of Chiang Mai. They run the spectrum from very-elephant-friendly to downright cruel. The worst feature circus shows and pile clumps of tourists on the over-worked elephants (even the Frommer’s guide has a photo of people riding elephants) — and the nicest of concierges have no idea why visitors would even have an issue about this. I’m no PETA activist, but I couldn’t have enjoyed myself if I thought I was helping mistreat elephants. So after some…
Pack for a Purpose: How to use your vacation to bring needed supplies to local communities
When we were planning our honeymoon safari, Courtney — the fantastic African Travel Resource agent who booked our trip for us — let us know about a charitable program called Pack for a Purpose. It’s a program that encourages travelers to Africa (and so many other destinations!) to bring much-needed school supplies with them. We were really lucky to be able to do this for several reasons: One of our places to stay was Gibb’s Farm, and they’re one of the places that works with Pack for a Purpose. Plus it was our second stop on our trip. Which meant we wouldn’t be taking many vehicles that would force us…
How to use your stomach to help Puerto Rico
This week in LA (October 7-14, 2017) 60+ restaurants, bars, and food trucks are donating all the proceeds from certain meals and drinks to Unidos Por Puerto Rico — providing aid and support to those affected in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane María. Which is awesome, because Mike and I can help Puerto Rico (beyond our previous donations) by just doing the thing we do every day — eating at restaurants! But since most places only have just one or two charitable things on their menus, I broke down how you can turn this into a restaurant crawl and put your helpful money where your hungry mouth is…