Friday Favorites

Hi, all! I am still in Egypt today and hope that you are following along on my Instagram or Snapchat, which is agirlpassport. I am writing this before I leave Qatar, so this week’s Friday Favorites is from last week. Does that make sense?!

Are you out traveling this week or soon? Let us know where in the comments.

Destination News and Tips

How to Visit a Country that Doesn’t Exist – This sounds like a trick travel destination, but there are 50 countries that don’t officially exist! One of them is Greenland.

Ultimate Mongolian Adventure Camp – These pictures will make you want to visit Mongolia. Although going to this camp is pricey!

Where to Go in Manila – Some people say to skip Manila, but based on this article and friend’s recommendations, Manila looks like a happening place to be!

Travel Health Tips

What Travelers Need to Know About Zika and Dengue  – I am not going to let mosquitos dictate where I travel to, but it is always good to know what to expect and how to prepared. This article also offers some hotel and airline policies relating to changing your tickets or reservations.

How to Buy Good Travel Insurance – Given the Zika article above, I thought it would be a good idea to share a fellow travel blogger’s article on buying travel insurance. I had to buy some for this trip to Egypt because the tour required it and for some trips, I would definitely not leave home without it.

Don’t forget you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to receive posts via email in the top part of the sidebar. Also, if you like my posts, please feel free to share. You can share by using the buttons below! I would appreciate it. Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Favorites.

I hope you all have had a great week! As you may have seen from Monday’s post, I spent the last weekend in the desert camping with students. This was the coldest weekend in Qatar I have ever experienced and with winds that were about 20 mph. Since I ended up sleeping in my Jeep, I was pretty tired, and it took a few days to get caught up on sleep. I also spend the week trying to find a dress for a Qatari birthday party! Expats don’t always get invited to local events such as birthday parties and weddings, so I am excited to see what this is like. Unfortunately, it is a ladies only event, which means no cameras are allowed, so I can’t share any pictures. I have also spent the week getting stuff for my trip to Egypt next week! I am thrilled to announce that I bought a GoPro to share video of my trips. Let’s hope I am good enough of a videographer, so I can show you Egypt! What did you get up to this week?

Airplane News

Plane with a Detachable Cabin – A Ukrainian man has come up with an idea in which the passenger section of a plane, would detach in case of an emergency. Not sure if I would be comfortable in a plane that would come apart. Would you fly on it?

Qatar Airways in Race to World’s Longest Flight – Qatar Airways is talking about launching the longest flight from Doha to Auckland that would be 18.5 hours. This would be longer than the current longest flight Qantas’ flight from Dallas to Sydney, which is 16 hours and 55 minutes. Personally, I have a hard enough time with my flight from Doha to Dallas of 15.5 hours. Would you take a flight that long?

Passport News

What If You Could Take a Selfie As Your Passport Photo? – If you could take your own passport photo, would you? It might mean you get a photo you might actually want people to see. There is a new app called It’s Easy that allows you to do just that and to make sure that you do it to the standard required by the government. So cool!

Destination News

Seduced by Tuscany in Winter – Italy always sounds like a good idea and going to Tuscany in the off-season sounds amazing! Of course, this could be because cold weather and a fire sounds really nice right now.

36 Hours in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – Maybe you want a warm climate destination instead of cold, like me. Here is a great and quick beach destination. The DR has been on my list for a while.

Weekly Post Wrap-up

The Year of Traveling Fearlessly: Planning Your First Solo Trip – This is my new monthly series on in-depth tips on solo travel. There will be a new post on the last Friday of every month. Please send comments or questions you would like me to cover!

Art in the Qatar Desert: Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East – My trip into the Qatar desert to see a large art sculpture.

Don’t forget you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to receive posts via email in the top part of the sidebar. Also, if you like my posts, please feel free to share. You can share by using the buttons below! I would appreciate it. Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Favorites.

What a great week! I was busy at work and that made the week go fast. I also met one of my favorite Doha bloggers, finally, PinayFlyingHigh! She writes about food, travel and expat life. We don’t have a large blogging community here, but I haven’t managed to meet everyone in person, so this was a nice change. We had dinner at Nonna Zanon, which neither of us had been to before and we were nervous. It turned out to be good. Not only that, but the service was good and in Doha that can be a rare thing! The next night I went to an archeology lecture about Purple Island in Qatar. If you don’t know about Purple Island, you can read all about it in my post here. I am always surprised how many people who have lived in Qatar for a long time have never been there and some I have never heard of it. It is a beautiful place to visit and is actually one of the few green spots in Qatar. What did you guys get up to this week?

Travel Tips

How to Eat Street Food Without Getting Sick  – We all want to eat street food when we travel, but many of us are afraid to try. Legal Nomads gives us some great tips on how not to get sick. I have had food poisoning and it is something I would like to avoid again.

Airline News

11 New Airline Routes That’ll Change The Way We Travel Next Year – The headline says 11, but only lists 6. Anyway, if you live near these cities, there are some exciting routes on this list. I especially like San Francisco to Fiji!

The world’s most punctual airports and airlines – This is always helpful to know when scheduling connections!

Destination News

World events that’ll shake up your 2016 vacation – A few events to keep in mind while making your travel plans in 2016. Some you might want to avoid while others may inspire you to go there!

New York insider: Top tips from the Waldorf Astoria’s concierge  – I lived in New York City for 7 years, I only know about one of these tips. I think the VIP Experience at the Empire State Building would be very worth it considering the lines there.

Weekly Post Wrap-up

Dallas Arboretum, a Must See in Dallas! – This is one of my favorite places to visit in Dallas! All year-long there are events going on in addition to seeing the amazing gardens.

Don’t forget you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to receive posts via email in the top part of the sidebar. Also, if you like my posts, please feel free to share. You can share by using the buttons below! I would appreciate it. Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Favorites.

Hello, friends! Is it just me or is January flying by?! Work has been busy with the school year starting and getting back into full swing. I might be crazy, but I have agreed this week to be a chaperone on an overnight student camping trip at the end of the month. Luckily, the students are tasked with all the planning. We are also going to get some survival training from an ex-military man! If I learn anything, I will try to pass it along here.

Destination News

A Surprise Texas City Is Named the Second Best Travel Destination in the World: Who’s Boring Now?  – I was born here and we used to visit all the time. I don’t think many Texans, would say this city is boring!

10 most beautiful alpine ski resorts – I don’t ski, but I would love to go see these anyway! Have you been to any of these? Tell us in the comments.

8 of the best new cruise ships hitting the seas in 2016 – I haven’t wanted to go on a cruise for a while, but the Viking River Cruises look so nice. I spoke with some of their passengers in June while I was in France and they loved it. Have you been on one?

Airline News

10 Ways Air Travel Will Change in 2016 – I will be honest, I am a little worried about how airlines may get creative with seating. They are already squeezing in extra seats as much as they can!

What are the world’s safest airlines for 2016? – Did your regular airlines make the list?

Weekly Post Wrap-up

2016 Travel Plans or No Plans – Did you catch Monday’s post? Tell me where you are going in 2016!

Don’t forget you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to receive posts via email in the top part of the sidebar. Also, if you like my posts, please feel free to share. You can share by using the buttons below! I would appreciate it. Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Favorites.