Michael Earle

#travel “Quit your job, buy a ticket, get a tan, fall in love, never return.”

#Travel My first visit to Corfu as a kid was about the land of Poseidon and his adventures there and the ancient Phaeacians who also founded my home city of Malaga. The beautiful Ionian Sea, gorgeous beaches, coves and cliffs throughout this magical island kept me coming back.

#travel Zakynthos, one of the western Greek Isles in the Ionian sea, is mentioned in the Odyssey and was known by Venetians for millennia as the "flower of the levant." Today travelers know Zakynthos most for "shipwreck bay" this oh so photogenic beach.

#travel Had this funny dream, was on a Greek Island but could not figure out which one. The Islands are incredible to explore. Food, friendly people, fascinating culture and so many different islands to visit. You have to do it once, many times is better.

#travel I love Asian beach towns that have Sino-portuguese or Dutch colonial architecture. Phuket town, Penang, Malacca, Macau and this one, Galle in Sri Lanka. beautiful streets to wander through after some time on the beach.

#travel My favorite desert? The year we sailed the Suez, we also went to Algeria's plateau of the Tassili n'Ajjer. It was mind blowing and the plateau has an incredible amount of prehistoric rock art in its caves, etc.

#travel With all the Suez Canal fuss, I was remembering my experience as a child boating down the top section as far as crocodile lake. Not much to it but it really impressed an 8 year old. Sand everywhere you looked and the grandiosity of the project.

#Travel I love Finland, gorgeous country, amazing culture etc, but whoever has deemed it the happiest country 4 years running either has never been there or has a different definition of "happy"...

#Travel I am amazed reading about private school kids, how they crack from pressure and well meaning parents only ask doctors for more study drugs. Maybe their "future" would benefit more from travel and understanding the stunning beauty of the world a bit. I know, sounds crazy.

#travel One of my favorite travel quotes is "life begins at the end of your comfort zone" and soon we can get back to testing that. I have been dreaming about the Himalayas.

#travel Come on now! I miss travel as much as anyone but getting on a packed flight that flies off and lands in the same place is just plain stupid. And paying thousands of dollars for it? Give me a break. That is not what traveling is about.

#travel People who live in Thailand like myself and normally travel the world, are scratching their travel itch with more in-country exploration. We all believe we know the country but deeper exploration means finding daily hidden gems, so beautiful, so inspiring.

#travel "If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears. " Cesare Pavese.... The road will make a lot of that come off one way or the other!

#travel Another great spot on the french peninsula of Brittany is Ile de Batz, north-west Brittany, wonderful beaches including the wonderful Grève Blanche beach stretching along its east-facing shoreline. Atlantic beaten coastline, not much made of wood. Gorgeous nature!

#travel Years ago, family trips from Spain through western France, it was the long way to Paris. We loved a few beautiful days in Brittany and then Normandy. The landscape changes dramatically, the north Atlantic is the boss here, rugged, windswept, charismatic beauty!

#travel As we begin moving cautiously, slowly but with a beating nomatic heart, I remind you “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

#travel When you are out in that region of Brittany, check out this ciderie just outside Quimper, Cidrerie Manoir du Kinkiz. This is a great experience, great ciders and brandies including the Fine Bretagne gold selection. Plenty of tastings there and you won't be disappointed.

#travel Around 1970, driving to the old walled town of Concarneau in SW Brittany as a young boy tickled my imagination, inside was 3 musketeers land for me. Built in the 15th century on a tiny island in the harbor, it was fore centuries an important hub for shipbuilding.