How to pack lightly for a long trip

With Christmas freshly finished, I’ve got my next trip planned: Blogmanay!  I’ll be celebrating New Year’s in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh, which I’ve long extolled as one of my favorite cities, has one of the world’s best New Year’s celebrations.  People come from all over the world to celebrate Hogmanay. I’ve been invited to be part of  Blogmanay , a groundbreaking initiative bringing 21 top travel bloggers from around the world to broadcast the celebrations live. Celebrating at Hogmanay Hogmanay is essentially nonstop mayhem for several days.  I plan to take in as much as possible.  Some of the highlights: December 30: Torchlight Procession — a beautiful parade of lit torches through Edinburgh’s city center. December 31: Concert in the Gardens  — Simple Minds are the main headliners this year.  If I play my cards right, I might get a chance to schmooze with them, too!  Also performing: Bwani Junction and The Vie...

If I had only known that as we sailed into Pučišća on the island of Brač in Croatia, that we would be seeing the single most beautiful village I had ever seen, I would have taken time to savor it. IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN! Pučišca was an all-too-brief stop on our trip between Omiš and Makarska.  It was only the second day of our sail.  We had lucked out, majorly, because the captain was responsible for all navigation decisions and decided that this would be a better place for a swim stop than out in the middle of the ocean. As we came into, Pučiśća, I admired the scene before me with my jaw scraping the deck — I mean, who wouldn’t? But at the same time, I assumed that all villages in Croatia would look just like this.  That?  Was not so.  Whatsoever.  As beautiful as Croatian’s seaside villages are, nowhere else in the world looks like Pučišća.  The gleaming white stone indigent to the island that makes this village one of a kind. To the Kate of Croatia Cruise Day Se...