Small Luxuries in Travel (Sarah Murdoch article)

Got that article in my email today, totally worth a read and great ideas.

Love the article and I've done some of these things. Thanks for sharing. I remember Sarah used to do the packing for women demonstration at Rick's travel festivals. My favorite suggestion was bring your favorite real down (or down alternative) pillow; light weight & easily shmooched (is this a word?) in your bag.

I used to travel with 2 fold flat vinyl/plastic vases and would buy myself flowers. When I started doing more tours and moving every couple of days I got out of the habit. Small luxury, granted, but it was a special treat in my solo hotel room. I’ve got to put them back into the carryon again!

Mardee,

Thank you for sharing this article, very interesting ideas!

Years ago while traveling with my mom, who was in her late 80’s, we took a taxi back to the hotel after lunch.
I called the taxi driver who had picked us up at the train station a few days prior and asked him to take us back to the hotel but to go the long way and to show us some favorite sites. We got a tour of his city and we were very grateful.

So sorry to hear you have crutches…
Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Fun article - thank you for sharing it, Mardee! And, empathy re: the crutches. The next five trips you have coming up are going to be SO well planned, with all that time you have to research and dream...

I love these ideas and plan to take inspiration from them. I used to do a no-cost version of the one about going into a high end hotel bar. Specifically, I found that in places like San Francisco where public restrooms are hard to find, it was best to go to a swank hotel, walk in like I was staying there, and head for the restaurant area, which was always going to have a restroom nearby. Voila! I think this worked better in SF, where everyone dresses like they are going for a hike, than in Milan or elsewhere where my clothing would immediately reflect that I could not afford to stay there.

Mardee sorry to hear your mobility is limited. The following suggestion has nothing to do with travel. Merely a suggestion to alleviate boredom.

Have you seen such acclaimed TV series as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Succesion, Six Feet Under, BOSCH or The Sopranos?

Good wishes for a speedy recovery!

Hope you heal up quickly!

I'm a huge proponent of spending on what makes a difference and being ruthlessly frugal in what you don't care about. Which is how I can go on European vacations.

Luv2Travel, it really does have some great ideas and I was so excited when I read it. Her tours are a little pricey for me, but they're probably totally worth it.

Laurie Beth, you know, that's not a bad idea about bringing your own pillow. If you could get it tight enough so that it slips in a suitcase or something, it would be worth it. I love my pillows at home.

Lyndasgh, that's a great idea! I still remember the tulip that the host gave me at a restaurant in London on Mother's Day. I put that in a glass on the window sill, and it just buoyed my spirits every time I looked at it. I might have to try that on my next trip with longer stays.

Priscilla, how are you doing? I haven't heard from you in a while. Oh, that's cool what you did with your mom. That kind of goes with what Sarah's saying. I think that's a really neat idea to use a taxi driver as a guide. And thank you! I actually got my injury while traveling.

KC, ha ha, I love that idea of finding bathrooms in high-end hotels! My sister, who lives in Colorado, and I both went down to visit my brother and his wife in Naples, Florida, last January. One morning, we decided to get up and walk along the beach. About a half mile from his condo is the Ritz Hotel, and they have an entrance right onto the beach. They always have a buffet with coffee set out in the morning for their guests, so we just walked up there from the beach and acted like we were staying there and helped ourselves to some coffee and sat out on the terrace overlooking the ocean. There were so many people milling around and nobody was checking anything, so I figured we were good. It was actually kind of fun, and we felt very sneaky.

Claudia, thanks for all the ideas for TV watching! I have seen all of those except for Breaking Bad and Succession so I might try those two. I've heard Succession is really good, and I know my siblings have all watched Breaking Bad and loved it. I tried it once and couldn't get into it, but that was years ago, so I might try it again. I'm also trying to work on my Romania blog six months after my trip is over. Hopefully I'll get that done, too.

Thanks, pbscd! I'm kind of the same way. There are certain things that I will spend a lot of money on, and other things that I go budget all the way. What's interesting is that I find the things that I will spend a lot of money on have changed over the years, especially now that I'm older. Go figure... 😊

I love views and roof top terraces. I absolutely will get myself a pricey cocktail to nurse as I sit and enjoy a view.
@KC, I used to tell my kids, just walk into the hotel like you own the place. Restrooms in a restaurant or often down or up a flight.

Jules, you are a person after my own heart. That's one thing that I loved about the "Inn at the Market" hotel in Seattle—that rooftop terrace! Unfortunately, they didn't have a bar up there, but I bought a bottle of wine so I could bring my own drink while looking out over Puget Sound. Heaven!

Mardee, you know how you are a bargain shopping DIVA, well I'm a pillow DIVA. Like the princess & the pea, it has to be JUST right.

I'm a huge proponent of spending on what makes a difference and being ruthlessly frugal in what you don't care about. Which is how I can go on European vacations.

I like this philosophy, pbscd. That's kind of how I approach things

Laurie Beth, we lived in the Seattle area for a long time, so I knew about Sarah from her presentations in person & her pillow. : ). I bought a half-size dimension down pillow because I was a stomach sleeper, and I took that on many week-long work trips. I had it in the “possibilities” stack for taking to Europe but always left it at home. I placed it in a plaid flannel pillowcase folded over in half, so the hotel staff wouldn’t accidentally grab it with the sheets.

Mardee, it looks like Sarah is repackaging some of her previous advice, and it is excellent! Here’s some ways I have incorporated some of it:

Hammam baths in the Andalusia area of Spain are inexpensive compared to US spas & feel like a splurge. Plus the atmosphere is Spanish, so it feels like more than a spa. i’ve done them in Cordoba, Malaga & Sevilla.

My recent trip to Spain had an extra special hotel in tiny Jerez de la Frontera, chosen to be that relaxation day in the middle of the trip. (Fun to remember that from Sarah’s list now.). My gorgeous room at the Hotel Casa Palacio María Luisa also included a beautiful clawfoot bathtub with chrome feet in a huge bathroom with a balcony window. Yes, it felt luxurious! : ). In the past, I would pick a small town during our trips to select a nicer hotel than our normal because it does stretch the dollars for something very memorable. Our Annecy hotel & St. Wolfgang boutique hotel come to mind.

My favorite little splurge when in northern Italy is to spend the last evening in Venice at the outdoor tables of the Florian. For the price of one drink & a music added charge, I can watch the evening slow back into a soft rhythm of people relaxing vs. hurrying or crowded, the lovely ambiance of lovely music & the sunset over the piazza with lights later illuminating the piazza perimeter, and I can dream of returning. It’s always a contented short walk back to my hotel that evening.

I was going to say the same thing as Jean about the Hammam baths in Andalusia. I loved the mini splurge of the baths and a massage in Cordoba. So much more affordable than at home.

I did that when I was in Brasov in Romania. I never would’ve thought of it on my own, but TexasTravelMom told me she was planning on booking a massage and I thought that sounded like a great idea. And the price was fantastic!