Dear Travel IQ: My husband and I are making our lifelong dream a reality: this summer, we’re going to Italy! And not just Italy – we’ll be making our way through Germany, France, Belgium and England! Unlike my husband, though, I’m pretty worried about “fitting in”: I don’t want someone…

Germany has hundreds of Christmas markets – Munich alone has twenty four. Contrary to what many visitors believe, the most charming Christmas markets in Germany are not always the well known ones, but the smaller ones that often have a unique theme. These are often the Christmas markets that are…

Johnstone Strait, a deep glacier carved passage running between the east coast of Vancouver Island and the west coast of British Columbia mainland, is one of the best places in the world to spot killer whales (also known as orcas). The deep waters of Johnstone Strait are home to the…

As a tourist to Germany it’s not likely that you will find yourself invited into a local’s house. Germans are famously  reserved at first, but if you keep your eye out for a broomstick over a door, consider it your personal invitation to enter into the house. The broomstick represents…

Some of the most charming villages in Germany look like they came straight out of a storybook, with their half timber houses, walled cities, and look out towers.  Put on your walking shoes, as they are best explored on foot, and prepare to feel you like you have stepped back…

I stood on the edge of the boat peering into the water in full scuba diving gear, hoping to catch a glimpse of what I knew lay below the surface – sharks and lots of them.  Sharks were the reason I had made the 36 hour journey to Cocos Islands,…

I love animals and decided to devote the better part of my summer vacation volunteering with animals, which was how I found myself on a marine conservation voluntourism holiday off the west coast of Scotland through the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.  Its website promised that volunteers would conduct cetacean…