Driving on the great 80 transcontinental highway – about 120 clicks due west of Salt Lake City and a short drive from the casino town of Wendover in Nevada (with some large billboards advertising clubs with plenty of scantily clad girls), motorists will stumble upon a section of the state that is remarkably flat and white in all directions. These are the densely packed salt flats of Bonneville. Bonneville Speedway is located about 10 minutes from the 80 freeway. Motorists who do not want to deviate from this long boring […]

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We landed in Albuquerque (one of the more difficult to spell U.S. cities), New Mexico. The last time I was here was by car and the entire city was a ghost town; I recall it was difficult to find any open restaurants and we ended up eating from a fast-food cart parked across from the downtown Rail Runner Train Station. This time we rented a car and immediately headed up to Santa Fe. We stopped at St. John’s College, loaded up on fresh ripe apricots from a tree on campus […]

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The city was eerily ghost-town like, or at least as close as a major city like Los Angeles can be. Although it wasn’t nearly as empty as when we had LA and other freeways to ourselves during March through June of 2020, when we took full advantage of shelter in place policies, no traffic and cheap gas to explore this great country. The second to last week of the year is always one of our favorite times to explore Los Angeles because there’s very little traffic in comparison to the […]

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Murrieta Hot Springs, California,  Geothermal Resort Review I first discovered the benefits of thermal springs as a young bride living in Southern Germany.  My life there included visits to picturesque towns which evoked scenes right out of the “Sound of Music.”  But nothing quite surpassed the rejuvenation and relaxation I felt after a dip in one of the many thermal pools that dotted the Bavarian countryside. I had the pleasure of soaking in thermal mineral waters in Baden-Baden and Bad Tölz, as well as in many other geothermal spas throughout […]

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The lush, picturesque Valle de Guadalupe in Ensenada, Baja California, has come into its own as one of the leading wine destinations on both sides of the border. The valley is located 80 miles from San Diego, California, making it easily accessible by car to Southern California locals and visitors who want a taste of Wine Country–with an international twist! One of the premier winery destinations in this region is the El Cielo Resort. Tuscany in Baja California If you have ever visited Tuscany, Italy, the moment you enter the […]

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Garagiste Wine Festival: Urban Exposure brings together hard-to-find micro-production wineries from nearly every California AVA, all under one spacious roof in Glendale; events include Grand Tasting, a Rare and Reserve party and a tasting seminar that explores ancient winemaking techniques used by some of today’s most innovative winemakers Paso Robles, CA – America’s Best Wine Festival[1], The Garagiste Wine Festival, returns to LA July 22nd and 23rd with a dynamic line-up of over 40 of some of the best micro-production ‘garagiste’ wineries from across California, including Santa Barbara County, Paso […]

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Filoli. A rare and exceptional estate. Located just off of the 280 freeway near Woodside (about a 30 to 45 minute drive south of San Francisco), this property features 654 acres (it was originally 1,800 acres). Known for its gorgeous formal gardens and a 54,000+ square foot home. Built between 1915 and 1917, this was home to William Bowers Bourn II and his family. Both William and his father left their mark on San Francisco and the mining industry. Bourn I invested heavily into what would become the water supply […]

The post Filoli Estate & Gardens, Woodside California – April 2022 appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

The Site In December 1996 I began a very rudimentary travel site called Dave’s Travel Corner in anticipation of what would be a life changing college sponsored trip to Nepal. It was my first major international trip and was the direct inspiration for building a travel centered lifestyle focused around creating content for this travel site. I experienced cultural and religious activities completely foreign to me including bodies being cremated outdoors, poverty and extreme hardship in the Himalayas including severe altitude sickness combined with food poisoning resulting in having to […]

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I’ve been fortunate to have visited this city twice in the past 2 years. The first time was in May 2020 and like the other major U.S. cities I visited in the early to mid part of 2020, it was a ‘ghost town’. Returning this year, it was nice to see some life back in the downtown area. There is no other city like this in the U.S. – its heyday was decades ago, being built as a result of being the site of the early manufacturing of one of […]

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I had never followed any boxers or the sport before until many years ago when a friend told me about an up an coming young boxer named Andre Ward – who had taken a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics. My friend had already been following his fledgling career for several years and casually mentioned to me one day if I would like to attend a fight. We drove up to San Jose for one of Andre’s early professional bouts – the crowd was small but boisterous and we sat […]

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I awoke as the orange rays of the sun bled through my bedroom window. Nerves always eat at me before I travel, and so it wasn’t surprising for me to rise early. Day one of my cachaça trip. There were so many unknowns. I shuffled around my apartment, ensuring my belongings were together, made my coffee, and ate a bit of breakfast. By the time that was done, my wife and kids were up. Besides being a travel day, it also happened to be my kids’ first day of school. […]

The post Cachaça Trip, Day One, Part One—Brasilia, Porto Alegre, Ivoti appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

The best place to walk in the footsteps of John Muir is Yosemite National Park, where the famed naturalist and conservationist hiked and climbed granite domes, lovingly surveyed plants and animals, studied with rapt eyes “cloud mountains” in the sky, and developed his passion for wild spaces. Another place that evokes feelings for one of the visionary creators of our national park system is his old home in Martinez, California, about an hour and a half east of San Francisco. The four-story Italianate-style house, built in the early 1880s, is […]

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Even the driver seemed surprised! Bad sign, these guys have seen it all. In the center of the brightly painted wheel, where the hub should have attached to the axle, was a jagged gaping hole. We’d already used our spare wheel and our jack wasn’t working anyway, so we did what anyone in West Africa would do in this situation: we settled in to wait for help. The merciless sun bullied most passengers into the shade of a nearby tree. They sat nonchalantly, as if this happens every day, chatting […]

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Pity Angelinos, the unhappy residents of the City of Angels Automobiles. Few cities in the world are as car-centric as theirs. From the world’s first freeway (Pasadena Freeway) to the world’s busiest interchange (I-105 and I-110), Los Angeles was developed in the early decades of the 20th century as a marvel of modern transportation, the ultimate exemplar of mobility in a spectacular new era. Street cars, subways and light rails of east coast cities were eschewed for ever-wider asphalt roads. America’s progress revolved around the car and the freeways of […]

The post CicLAvia – When LA Ditches the Car appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

It’s easy to argue that California is the land freeways and automobiles. And with its massive scale and incredible geographic diversity, there are plenty of scenic routes to explore. We’ve all heard of the world-famous drives, like the section of the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur or Mulholland Drive through the Hollywood Hills. While I have plenty of favorites, I’d like to share three lesser-known routes. There are, of course, many more that I don’t have room to list or, more likely, don’t even know about yet. So with […]

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