Cannes. Nice. Monaco. So much glamour packed into so small an area. Everywhere you turn there are celebrities and stupid-hot model types making this gorgeous little stretch of French coastline even more beautiful. No matter which city you’re staying in – Cannes (which is where our 2020 Royal Clipper Mediterranean cruise sails from), Nice or…
Let’s say your passport was stolen and you had to get a new one. OR you’re renewing your passport for the 8th time (hey, it’s possible, and if that’s you, you GO, girl). ANY time you get a fresh new passport in the mail, there’s one thing you have to do to avoid a cluster****…
Who hasn’t fantasized about having a “King of the World” moment at the bow of a masted sailing ship? Okay, maybe that fantasy is mostly about Leo DeCaprio, and sure, he was on an ocean cruise sailing that didn’t end very well, but still. Sailing is a totally unique experience, unlike either big ocean cruises…
Lounges make life prettier. Everyone eventually tires of sitting around departure gates that look like detention centers, where one guy’s eating smelly tuna fish and another is clipping his toenails. Most of us have limited tolerance for unhappy infants shrieking like banshees, or people who yell at gate agents, “Do you know who I am?”…
Hat tip to our friends and frequent guests Neal Williams and John Berger for recommending this excellent article! 10 Tips on Purchasing Souvenirs Here are some additional thoughts from them: Tip #8: If we’re wanting to purchase multiples of some item, we politely ask, “What could you do if we bought two (or three)?” Even…
(photo credit: One Mile at a Time) When you’re flying 8 or 10 or 12 hours, who doesn’t want to fly business class? Lie-flat “pod” seats. Big screen TV’s. Unlimited food and drink, served by flight attendants who don’t look at you like you should have udders and a tag on your ear. International business…
Think a gay trip to South Africa is just lions and tigers…and bears taking pictures of the lions and tigers? Then you’ve barely scratched the surface of what this amazing country has to offer. South Africa has fabulous safaris, to be sure. But it also has amazing sights – there are 153 UNESCO World Heritage…
Girls make every trip more fun. And while female guests typically make up only 15-20% of any given Brand g trip, we couldn’t be happier to have them. They make the group more diverse, more interesting, and more fabulous (although some guys will try to go toe to toe with them on the fabulous quotient).…
Check out this fascinating blog of what it’s like to tour Japan, from two of our delightful guests, Dan Evans and Jim Kelly-Evans. https://hardtoport.blogspot.com/2019/05/sunday-in-tokyo.html Note: This is the initial post; click “Newer posts” at the bottom of the blog entry to read their posts from subsequent days!
To put it succinctly, it means this: We only want you to pull out your wallet to buy that fabulous piece of art or to tip a stripper. We include just about everything else. From the moment you arrive at the destination airport, you’re under our care. Airport transfers are included, of course, and these…
No, it’s not a driver’s license where they replace your picture with someone hotter. Nor is it where a stylist does your hair and your photo is taken with Vaseline on the lens. (Although I’d pay extra for that. My current driver’s license photo looks like I drove to the DMV straight from a fraternity…
NOTE: We have no relationship with companies mentioned in this post! I have friends who were in Cabo when one of them had a medical issue and had to be airlifted to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles for treatment. (If you’ve ever been in a hospital in Mexico, you don’t have to ask why.) That Medivac…
So, you’ve always wanted to call yourself the African Queen, and you’re finally gonna make it a reality. Lucky you. A trip to Africa is a life-changing experience. But there are special preparations you need to make for travel to this continent that’s split in half by the Equator. For the purposes of not writing…
If you don’t hold a premium credit card, you probably think they’re for insecure boobs who desperately want a status symbol to flash – the credit card version of a Hummer limo. But the credit card companies have been working hard to lure new customers to these cards by providing a raft of travel benefits…
by guest blogger Ali Bond Europe has long been home to progressive and open-minded countries, with Denmark being the first place in the world to legally recognize same-sex unions in the late eighties. Now, years later, most countries in Europe embrace the LGBT community. In fact, gay tourism is worth more than 50 billion euros in the…
River cruising has become the Kim Kardashian of travel, except you don’t want to slap it. Everyone is talking about it, you can’t avoid it, and the number of ships and itineraries has exploded in the past 6 or 7 years. So, what’s the big whoop? Why are they so popular? Well, river cruises take…
Believe it or not, we don’t just spin a globe or play drinking games to select the destinations for our vacations. Careful deliberation, name-calling and hair-pulling goes into the selection of every trip. Okay, in truth, the process is based on a number of factors: Input from guests In annual surveys and occasional social media…
If you’ve ever imagined living in a castle and yelling out things like, “Where are my jesters? I’m sad!”, Germany is the place for you. And a Rhine river cruise is the ideal way to see these castles, which are best photographed from the water. (Brand g’s 2020 Rhine cruise does a daytime cruise through…
On many of our exotic trips like Asia and India, a feature that our guests refer to as one of the most memorable days of their lives is the philanthropic component. Since our inception, we at Brand g have felt that, as Americans, since we have so much, we owe it to the countries we…
France in general is a food and wine lover’s orgy – the kind of place where, after two weeks or so, your body is going, “Please, for the love of God, STOP.” But oh, what a way to overindulge. Considered the gastronomic capital of the world, France’s third largest city has both Michelin-starred restaurants and…
Christmas in Germany & Austria is like living in a fairy tale, except nobody gets eaten at the end. It’s incredibly enchanting. Of course, you’re probably thinking, “Why the hell would I want to go somewhere cold at Christmastime?” Here’s why: The holiday decorations and markets are beyond magical. There are about 1/10 the number…
So, you’re thinking about traveling to the southernmost point of the southern hemisphere…? BOOM. Mic drop. Just try to top that one. Less than 40,000 people a year get to visit Antarctica – primarily because, like the Galapagos islands in Ecuador, tourism is heavily restricted so as not to destroy the ecosystem. (Some big, ocean-going…
If you’re geographically challenged like I am (as my husband always tells me I need GPS to get out of a parking lot) you probably think of Antarctica being in the frozen northern sector of earth. But it’s actually south of South America, in the southern hemisphere. (The Antarctic Peninsula, where most cruises explore, is…
Hotel rooms where the power routinely goes out. Scammers wanting to give you a private tour (of the back of their van). Getting a delightful case of the runs from a local restaurant. These are the joys of journeying to India on your own. All can be easily avoided, of course, if you travel to…