With 117,000 visitors the Dutch Travel Convention Vakantiebeurs 2015 exceeded the organizers expectations (reported by nu.nl). It certainly felt crowded on some of the public days. As a travel professional and blogger this convention is my traditional start of the travel year. The convention consists of two parts: a two day professional conference and five public visitor days. Over the last years the Vakantiebeurs has slowly converted from a boring travel brochure exchange into a destination by itself. Together with my 14-year old daughter we turned our visit into a worldwide travel adventure in four hours, taking the challenge to capture the event in ten selfies. We were assisted by a selfie contest, with nine selfie spots posted at the convention floors, using the #selfievakantiebeurs hashtag. It wasn’t even easy to find all spots, but ultimately we even found one extra under water! So here we go on a virtual tour of Vakantiebeurs 2015 in 10 selfies: Continue reading
Countries
Blogposts about specific countries
Road trip: Father and son from Washington to New York
Over the past 20 years I have taken many great American road trips, crossing over 27 states in total. But the last one was the most special. A father-son road trip with my 12 year old son in October 2014. We started our US tour in Washington DC, which I wrote about earlier here. Being a true American road trip and the first visit to the US for my son we rented a cool all-America classic car, a Ford Mustang, to take us from Washington DC to New York City and back, taking in some of the great sights in between. Continue reading
Road trip: Best of Britain in a British Roadster
A few years ago I was able to purchase a small British sportscar, of a type that I had always really liked. An 8-year old MGF convertible in British Racing Green, with a beige leather interior. Two seats, central engine, rear wheel drive (meaning I couldn’t safely drive it in winter). When owning a British car there is only one country in the world where you truly experience the classic English sportscar feeling: England! As a member of the Dutch MG club I had the opportunity to join British MG events, the most famous of which is organized every year at Silverstone, the home of British motor racing! In 2007 and 2009 I attended this MGLive event, making it into a very cool road trip from home to Silverstone and back! The best of Britain in a British roadster! Continue reading
Road trip: Utrecht to Istanbul and back, in six days
This is one of the craziest road trip stories I have. It all happened in 2010. Through social media (how else!) I got in touch with an Utrecht-based artist who was hitchhiking through Europe, along all three European Capitals of Culture, with a caravan, but without a car. I got involved by being one of the very first ride-givers of the project, when I took Tjerk Ridder and his caravan from Arnhem to my home town Nijmegen. Continue reading
Road trip: Into the Arctic
I have long been a Volvo fan. My first car was a Volvo (343) and I have had several Volvo’s over the past decades. Volvo is proudly Swedish. So when I got an invite from the Swedish Volvo Owners Club to join one of their events in the Arctic I only hesitated shortly. I asked my father to join me and together we registered for a 4 day Arctic driving experience. To add some more Scandinavian fun, we decided to drive up to Northern Sweden via Denmark and Sweden, but return via Finland, after crossing the frozen Gulf of Bothnia by ferry. We would visit the cities of Vaasa and Helsinki and return by another ferry over the Baltic Sea. An epic European road trip in the Arctic winter! So here it goes: Continue reading
Road trip: From Amsterdam to Dakar and beyond
Admit it, participating in the Dakar Rally is on your bucket list! Well, it was on mine, but of course I am not a professional rally driver. Fortunately there are several alternative rallies for the less professional driver. When talking to a friend about my vague desire to once cross the Sahara Desert in my own car in 2007 he indicated he had the same dream. Instead of drinking to our common dream and leaving it with that, we committed to participate. A few months later we registered for the Amsterdam Dakar Challenge charity rally and bought a cheap (that’s a Challenge rule) four wheel drive car. Another few months later we departed cold Amsterdam towards unknown Africa! The ultimate road trip! As you will understand, the rest is history: Continue reading
The best 5 road trips in the world
This post was not entirely my own idea. I was totally inspired by a short blog post by fellow travel blogger We Are Travellers, who wrote about ‘the five coolest cars for a road trip‘ recently. Her post immediately reminded me of the many very cool road trips that I have done over the past years. It even made me realize for the first time that I am actually a real road trip travel addict. Many of my most epic trips were road trips and I still prefer taking the car wherever I can… or can’t… Let these road trip ideas inspire you: Continue reading
Summer holiday fun in winter: #Vakantiebeurs
For many people the first weeks of the year are the time to think about trips to make in the year ahead. This is also the time of the biggest annual holiday convention in the Netherlands. For me the ‘Vakantiebeurs’ has become synonymous with the beginning of a new travel season. In the past I always attended as a visitor, collecting brochures. Nowadays I also attend as a travel blogger, including the two professional travel conference days that precede the convention for the general public. So what will Vakantiebeurs 2015 have in store? Continue reading
Washington DC with Kids
Washington DC is a great destination to visit with kids. With dozens of historic sights it is a perfect place for a citytrip, or to build into an East Coast itinerary. I visited the city several times over the past years, most recently (October 2014) as part of a father-son road trip. Please travel along with me and my 12 year old son to my very subjective top-5 family travel sights to visit in the US capital. Continue reading
A space tourist on Earth
Earlier today I published the space bucket list, containing all flown manned spaceflight vehicles on public display around the world. Reason for compiling this list was ongoing debate about specific spacecraft locations and people (including me) questioning the authenticity of certain spacecraft on display in museums. I visited a record number of spacecraft in museums in 2014. This blog post is an attempt to describe a specific (geeky?) travel theme and the diversity of destinations this covers, rather than a story about a destination. Join me on a virtual tour of Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and the United States, all visited in 2014. Continue reading