In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, battles inclement weather to come face to face with a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Mount Athos - Cruising by the Monasteries. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
This is post #4 from the Greece portion of last spring's Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour led by the Canadian who knows more about Greece than most Greeks, our friend and tour leader Victor Romagnoli. In the last post, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Philippi and in this one, we'll see another. When Victor and I were planning the itinerary for this tour, we both agreed that the monasteries of Mount Athos would warrant a full day on the tour. For me, seeing Mount Athos was high on my agenda. Even though the weather was not as cooperative as I would have hoped, it was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I look back on with very fond memories. Here's why seeing the monasteries of Mount Athos should be on every traveller's bucket list.
Vietnam with Adventures Abroad
15 Day Vietnam Tour — TOUR CODE: VN1 15 Day Vietnam Tour
TOUR CODE: VN1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, offers an overview of his latest travel exploits to Vietnam with Adventures Abroad. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Vietnam.
This is my first post of many to come from our 2023 trip to Vietnam with Adventures Abroad. Alison and I did this trip in conjunction with visits to Laos and Cambodia as well, but you can also do it as stand alone trip. We spent the first nine days of the trip in Laos after which all but one in the group departed for Hanoi where we were joined by three new travellers. As is my usual practice, I will do an overview post of the entire experience focusing on the high points, but not shying away from one of the disappointing aspects. Yes, there was one, but it was far overshadowed by the many, many great things we saw, did, ate, and drank in Vietnam. So with this brief introduction, let's dive right into the history of this much misunderstood nation.
Philippi and Kavala - Via Egnatia Continued
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, makes two stops along this ancient route, both having a significant impact on Western history, Philippi and Kavala - Via Egnatia Continued. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
This is my third post from the Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour led by tour leader Victor Romagnoli since crossing over into Greece from Turkey. In the first of those posts, we visited the border city of Alexandroupoli and in the second spent some time in the magnificent Dadia National Park. Today we will move on to the famous Roman city of Philippi which once was a major metropolis on the Via Egnatia, but now is nothing more than a colossal set of ruins. Two of the most famous turning points in Western history occurred here – the final defeat of Brutus and Cassius by Octavian and Mark Anthony in two battles in October of 42 BCE and the establishment of the first Christian church in Europe by St. Paul in around 50 AD. After our visit, we'll follow Paul's route back to the ancient Greek colony of Neopolis, now the modern seaport of Kavala and explore its medieval battlements. This promises to be an exciting day for our small group. I hope you'll join us.
Vientiane - Laos' Surprising Capital City
9 Day Laos Tour — TOUR CODE: LA1 9 Day Laos Tour
TOUR CODE: LA1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, makes an arduous road trip but ultimately a fulfilling one to Vientiane - Laos' Surprising Capital City. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Southeast Asia.
In the last post from our trip to Laos with Adventures Abroad, we visited the mysterious Plain of Jars and learned about the aerial bombardment the area endured during the Vietnam War that still has repercussions to this day. In this post, I'm going to consolidate the last two days of the trip into one post for simplicity sake. The penultimate day involved a lot of driving with only a few stops of note before arriving at the small city of Vang Vieng. The next day we reached the capital city of Vientiane which is a francophone version of Viangchan, the Laotian name for the city. In this post, I'll stick with the Western version if only to get better search engine results. What we found in Vientiane was a complete contrast to anything else we had seen in Laos; a modern, bustling city of over a million inhabitants, but at the same time a city with deep religious roots. So with that short introduction let's begin the final two days of our Laotian adventure.
Dadia National Park
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, stops at Dadia National Park in a search for birds and takes in the "beautiful and rare forest". If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
When our guide Victor Romagnoli and I were planning the Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour we both agreed that we wanted to include as much natural history as possible. Since we are both avid birders visiting Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park or just Dadia National Park as I'll call it in this post, was a no-brainer. It is famous for its birds of prey as well as three out of the four species of vultures found in Europe. This is actually where we headed once we completed our somewhat hairy crossing of the border from Turkey into Greece rather than directly to the city of Alexandroupoli as I wrote in the last post. I blame the mistake on my Covid fevered brain, but there really is no harm as what I wrote about Alexandroupoli is accurate, just a little ahead of its time.
Plain of Jars - Laos' Greatest Mystery
9 Day Laos Tour — TOUR CODE: LA1 9 Day Laos Tour
TOUR CODE: LA1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, ventures to a UNESCO site that is shrouded in intrigue, Plain of Jars - Laos' Greatest Mystery. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Southeast Asia.
In this post, we'll visit one of Laos' three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the scene of one of the world's most intriguing archaeological mysteries, the Plain of Jars. Nobody knows who built the stone monuments that resemble gigantic jars or why they built them, but everyone who visits this remote place comes away with a sense of awe. Join our small Adventures Abroad group as we visit three different sites and then drop in at a museum dedicated to helping victims of the unexploded ordnance that remains from the Vietnam War.
