Guest Blog
I met Saundra online at Twitter, where she’s @cruiselife8 and I’m @judybest, and we shared a common love of traveling. She is a wife 
and mother of two, who is always looking forward to her next cruise, as you can tell from this blog post. You may want to visit her blog as well, Boat Shoes on Deck. Enjoy, and please leave a comment to thank her! Here’s Saundra …
If you’re like me and have this strong desire to travel more, but cannot, this can be quite frustrating. There could be countless reasons why you may not be able to travel as much as you’d like. For me, I found out after being married with children that I wanted to travel a lot more than I could, but I needed to be able to stay at home base. My dear husband has the blessing of having a few weeks vacation a year (those starting off in most American jobs have only about five to ten days vacation plus most holidays). So here we are…what are our options?
After thinking things through, one of your options is to get a quick view of a lot of countries at once—and a cruise can fulfill that option. This doesn’t mean you get a thorough view of a country, you just get a “taste” (with exceptions). And this is if you pick your excursions to your liking. We found that taking a cruise allowed us to take the time to research a little more about each country, and learn more about what we may want to explore. This all the while enjoying the time at sea. As we continue on our travels we have found that people are more than willing to share what they know, and with the worldwide web there’s no shortage of information out there. From taking some cruises, you may find that you’d like to return to one, two or more countries and explore them more in depth. This is something that my husband and I plan on doing in the future.
Also, what we’ve learned is that when you travel you’ll find your “niche”. What you like, what you prefer. Do you like outdoor activities like hiking, safaris, or sailing? Or do you more enjoy laidback activities like lectures, guided bus tours, museums, or afternoon tea?
As time evolves you may find that you’d like to move to another country and actually absorb the culture. I have found that I’d like to do this one day, time will tell when this will come to pass. I do not know if it’s possible in my lifetime to enjoy all the places I’d truly like to, but I am hoping to come close.
Bon voyage…