When you think of England, what comes to mind?  Royal palaces, museums, shopping, theatre and of course rain! But if you go in the summer months when it's warmer and less rainfall, you won't be disappointed.

In July, my family travelled to England to spend 10 days between London and the countryside of Somerset. Upon arrival, we picked up our car rental as we wanted to have the flexibility to discover quaint small towns and beautiful cliffs along the sea. Driving on the left side along narrow country roads  is not for the faint of heart. If you can easily drive in downtown Toronto then be confident you can do it there.

We began with 4 nights in the Somerset area and then 6 nights in downtown London (with a few side trips along the way). 

If you are wondering if you should visit Costa Rica, stop wondering! PURA VIDA...that's their motto. It means "pure life"or "simple life". It's a way of life for Costa Ricans. They use it to say hello, goodbye, cool....we heard it a lot! 

Do you love wildlife? National parks and volcanoes? Latin American food? 4 different types of rainforests? Water activities?

​If you answer YES to any of these, then perhaps your next trip should be there.

There are so many islands in Greece, it's hard to choose which ones to visit. Santorini and Mykonos are definitely two of the more popular ones.  But be prepared in the summer they are quite busy.

Greece begins it's tourism season on Greek Orthodox Easter weekend until October 31st of each year. In 2020, my family and I had booked a trip to Crete along with a small island called Naxos but it had to be cancelled. You know why!!

It took us 3 years to take this trip but in July we flew to Crete to spend 8 days there. It is the largest of the Greek islands and one trip cannot cover even a fraction of it. It takes almost 4 half hours just to drive from the east side of the island to the west.  Renting a car is a must if you plan to explore and try to get the smallest one you can. The roads are narrow especially in the small villages. One thing we learned when driving is when someone wants to pass you, be courteous and move to the right edge of the road so they can.

We decided to stay in eastern Crete near a small village called Plaka. I did very little research when planning this trip but I must say the eastern side was a great choice.

Eastern Crete is much less developed than the western side. It is more rugged with small villages interspersed throughout the mountains. The western side of Crete is more touristy and I think it's because they have the best sandy beaches there. They also have the Samariá Gorge which is a major tourist attraction. We spent most of our time along the eastern coast with a couple trips into the capital city of Heraklion.

My family and I decided last fall it was time for a vacation outside of Canada. It had been exactly three years since the last time I had flown. We booked a trip to the San Diego area looking for sunshine and beaches.

We packed for a beach vacation but Mother Nature had something else in mind. It was much colder than normal and some days were super windy (plus some rain). We had one nice day for the beach which was the first day we arrived. Now what? We looked at the weather fore cast for the next 5 days and here's what we did.

I am going to begin by saying 2 days in Prince Edward County is not enough but that's all the time we had for this trip in August! Read on to see how to spend 2 days in PEC and surrounding areas.

The last time I visited Mont Tremblant was in the winter and it was freezing cold and windy. I was not rushing back until we decided to visit this summer.  

Our last family vacation was before Covid so we were looking forward to a change of scenery. We experienced the beautiful landscape of Quebec while enjoying some fun family activities.