I picked up A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel completely randomly during a long afternoon spent browsing the shelves at the local library. My intention was to take it home and flip through the pages at the breakfast table, but I was greatly mistaken at how involved I would get with this book.

A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel is written by Annie Griffiths Belt, who was the youngest photographer at the National Geographic Society when she arrived to work there in 1978. A photographer by trade, Annie has compiled A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel as an autobiography / coffee table book, and it works. Early in the book, she writes about her journey of becoming a photographer (it all started with a college newspaper assignment) for one of the most-renowned associations known for its vivid and authentic photography, the National Geographic Society.

She talks about meeting her husband (Don, a writer for the magazine), and then having two children. For many people, this would result in the end of their world travels, but having children simply fueled Annie and Don’s desire to share the world with their family, so for many years, the four of them have traipsed from the Galapagos Islands to Jersalem to Wyoming and beyond. (The kids, now in their early 20s, still travel frequently with their parents.) Annie writes a lot about what it’s like to travel with kids, thus providing valuable information to people who would like to do the same.

Continue Reading

One of the things that many people can’t seem to get past when they travel is feeling like an outsider. They may eat in the same restaurants and walk the same streets as the people who live in a particular place, but they still find it hard to differentiate one destination from another because the traveler experience is all they really have.

This is not the case with Alice Steinbach, author of Educating Alice, who employs a completely different travel technique. This book follows Alice’s adventures as she travels from country to country immersing herself in an educational or cultural experience that goes far beyond the random show or museum tour. She takes an intense cooking class at The Ritz in Paris, separates from her tour group and settles in at a local club in Cuba, follows in the footsteps of Jane Austen in England and takes dancing lessons in Japan.

I most enjoyed following her adventures in Scotland — where she stays on a sheep farm and lends a hand at herding with border collies — and Provence — where she embarks on an extensive study of the area’s artfully designed gardens. Each chapter follows one of her educational encounters, which often last several weeks in order to get the most out of the experience and the destination.

Continue Reading