Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

A Tale of Two Cubas – Did We Really Have Fun Visiting There?

I want to tell you that we had a great time traveling in Cuba. I really do.

I’d like nothing more than to write a glowing summary about how much fun we had exploring the museums and forts of Havana, eating at the city’s numerous restaurants, and exploring the tobacco fields during our day trip to Vinales.

And, in a way, we did enjoy the trip because of all of these things.

But I hesitate to elaborate on this further because of one very simple reason. There are two different Cubas, and only looking at the one for tourists would paint the country in the wrong lens.

If you’re going to visit, you have to understand the bigger picture.

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A Sincere Apology to La Sagrada Familia from a Skeptic

On our recent visit to Barcelona, there was one attraction I had no interest in seeing.  In fact, you could say that I was dreading going but knew that as a thorough travel writer I would have to eventually. 

That attraction was Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia cathedral, and I am happy to report that everything I had ever thought about the still-being-built church was dead wrong. 

That horribly ugly looking building is actually quite a beautiful sight indeed and is probably the best of what there is to see in Barcelona!

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5 Things that Make the Jack Daniel’s Distillery Tour Unique

Jack Daniel’s is an iconic whiskey distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, that is a sort of pilgrimage site for those who love whiskey.

We made the journey to Lynchburg while attending a travel writer’s conference in Huntsville, Alabama, and took a tour of the facility with whiskey tasting at the end. During which we found a number of interesting things that made this tour unique compared to other distilleries we’ve visited in the region.

We wanted to share those with you today.

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Why We Leave Our Wedding Rings at Home When Traveling

One of the unfortunate sides of long-term travel is that we alter the subtle details about our lives in a way to fit in and be inconspicuous. 

If two Americans walking around gawking at food and architecture with giant cameras isn’t obvious enough, we really don’t want to draw more attention to ourselves and the valuables that we may or may not be carrying. 

So while we may look like tourists no matter what we try, we do our best to make sure we don’t look like rich tourists, especially ones that would be easy prey for pickpockets and robbery.

When looking at the items we typically carry with us, one stood out as being something that would easily jump out to all would-be robbers.

So sorry, wedding rings, but you have to go.

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