IUMy23
Maya Northen Joined: March 24th 2008
Logged in: June 15th 2009
Logged in: June 15th 2009
I began traveling abroad at the age of 16 and have since visited 6 continents (yet to visit Antarctica). I also lived/studied in Australia for 6 months in college, a fantastic experience that further developed my love of exploring and learning about different cultures and destinations. In addition to travel, I enjoy anything active or adventurous, exploring new places, discovering new restaurants, reading, writing, yoga and spending time with my friends and family.
Travel Blog Posts
Seoul Side Street
When I found out I had the opportunity to make a return visit to South Korea this past month, I was incredibly excited. Seoul is one of my favorite cities and during this trip I would have the chance to visit Busan as well. Then North Korea started testing missiles and making nuclear threats and riots broke out in South Korea over the suicide of their former president. Many people asked me if I would still be going. In fact, I was quite intrigued and excited to visit a country at such a historic time and have a first hand view of the situation from as close to a local perspective as I would ever get. What I found in South Korea was quite the opposite than what I expect you’d find in the U.S. if ... read more
Sunset on the Chobe
To access the Chobe area in northern Botswana, it’s easiest to fly into either Livingston, Zambia or Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We chose Zimbabwe for two reasons. First, the visa requirements were less stringent - you can get a visa upon arrival for Victoria Falls, where as you need one ahead of time (or at least my research indicated this) to fly into Zambia. Secondly, it gave us the perfect opportunity to squeeze a trip to the falls into our already packed itinerary, which we probably wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. The flight was quick and easy and we were soon in our transport down through Zimbabwe into Botswana. Our guide explained a bit about the country to us and even gave us old Zimbabwe notes that are no longer used - one for 50 ... read more
Palace of the Lost City
The first stop on our trip was in Sun City, South Africa. Every year the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) holds and International Destination Expo (IDE) in a different region of the world to educate travel agents on that region through educational seminars and first hand experience. This year, Sun City was the chosen destination and myself and my mom were attending. We wouldn’t have chosen Sun City as a destination in and of itself, but we couldn’t pass up the excuse to visit Africa and I do gain a lot of value from many of the opportunities offered at this conference each year. To note, there are five of us traveling, but not everyone attends the conferences as they are just here as our loved ones, not as travel professionals. If I had ... read more
On Saturday, March 7th we eagerly loaded up our luggage on the shuttle from the Comfort Inn for the five minute ride to JFK airport (we’d taken a transfer up the night before and stayed overnight). We knew we were going to be early, but hoped we’d be able to check out bags in an hour or two and then could just kick back, grab some food and wait for our flight to board. As expected, when we arrived at JFK we saw no check in line for South African Airways so waited patiently until we saw someone at the SAA ticket line - it wasn’t check in, but we figured they could point us in the right direction. When we asked about the SAA flight departing at 5:45 PM that evening, they just laughed at ... read more
Putting On My Adventure Hat In four days I will depart on what I anticipate to be possibly the most exciting trip I have ever taken. It was certainly one of the most challenging to plan. Luckily, I like a good travel challenge! Every year the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) hosts there International Destination Expo (IDE) in a different area of the world to feature education on the surrounding destinations as well as suppliers that specialize in the region. Past expos that I have attended include Jeju, South Korea and Lyon France. This year, the IDE will be hosted in Sun City, South Africa. So, five of us are getting on our adventure hats and heading off to Africa for two weeks. I am particularly excited about this trip for three reasons: First, it ... read more
Putna Cana Beach
Last weekend I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic as part of a (complimentary!) leadership retreat for my local chapter of MPI. We stayed at the Moon Palace Casino, Golf & Spa Resort, a brand new property which is still in the process of being finished and just had its soft opening a few weeks ago. This was my first time to the Dominican Republic and though I had heard various reviews from friends and clients, I always try to travel with an open mind to create my own impression of a new destination. After temperatures in the high teens and low 20’s here in Philadelphia, arriving at the open air grass-hut-looking airport in Punta Cana where the temperature probably hovered around 85 degrees was a wonderful way to ... read more
Union Square Christmas Tree
I am currently in San Francisco on a “working vacation” with my boyfriend. I have heard so much about this city, and yet much to my chagrin had never set foot anywhere near it until yesterday at around 11:20 AM. (My parents might beg to differ on this as I may have been here when I was under a year old, but if so I do not remember it and therefore do not count the visit). We are here until mid-day Wednesday, but as my boyfriend has something work-related most of the day Tuesday and the weather is supposed to be less than favorable for part of the time, we decided to make the most of our day yesterday despite being up since 4:30 AM for our flight. We are staying in South San Francisco, mainly ... read more
Seattle Skyline
I started this blog sitting in Seatac Airport and am now finishing at home, so it's a bit delayed but my thoughts none the less. As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to get a different view of Seattle this time around, just for perspective's sake, and I think I have accomplished my goal. Since Liz and I both love the water, we decided to do the Argosy Cruise of the Locks which included the harbor, a view of the various neighborhoods from the water and passing through the locks, which move the boat from the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of the Lake Union area. I have seen the process before from the shore but never actually taken part in this and it was a fun and certainly unique ... read more
Fremont Waterfront
Welcome to Seattle! I chose the title for this entry because I have been to Seattle before, but this time I get to look at it with a whole new set of eyes. When I visited five years ago, it was a family vacation and we stayed with my sister in West Seattle, which is a more suburban section of Seattle. This time I am on a "girls getaway" with my cousin Liz and we are staying at the Westin which is right downtown, a mile or less from basically all of the major sites. This time I am also looking at it more from a travel planner and traveler perspective, as opposed to a family visit perspective and I think that they way you view a trip has a great impact on your impressions of ... read more
This time my travels take me a little closer to home for the wedding of a college friend. I have been to Chicago 4 or 5 times (in fact this is my 3rd time within the last 12 months) but this time I am traveling solo and am actually staying in Itasca, a suburb Northest of the city. At first, I was a bit skeptical about staying so far outisde of the city and of course, I would love to be downtown but I must say the hotel is wonderful - more on this in a minute - and for $5 I got a weekend Metra (yes Mertra, with an "a") and took the very easy 40 minute train ride right into Chicago's Union Station. Backing up. One piece of advice I can most certainly give ... read more
