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Rock me mama to Wagon Wheel to Raleigh

24th November 2025 funtime65

Nathan Carter has done more for Irish and North Carolinian relationships than anyone, so we expect the inaugural Aer Lingus flight will rock me mama to Wagon Wheel to Raleigh.

Raleigh becomes the 26th Aer Lingus North American route when it takes off from 13 regional British airports through Dublin next April.

We’ve yet to hear a song around that odyssey so there’s an opening there for us.

There is one though famously out of Maine in New England and on to Raleigh, North Caroline.

Which Nathan and Carolinian Darius Rucker popularised.

With stop-offs in Philly and in Roanoke, Virginia.

Up in New England

And all because the lovelorn hitchhiker wanted to run from the cold and poker losses in New England.

Though we can’t understand that because we’d run to it.

Although he is clearly missing his baby.

Now as romantic as it all sounds, a banjo-playing wannabe fiddle player going to these lengths to get to his guitar-playing baby.

A Breeze of an alternative

He could always have flown with Breeze Airways (no, us neither).

From £132 from Portland and be in her arms in just over two hours.

But then it would have been a very different song, and maybe Boeing Wheels doesn’t have the same lyrical sound to it.

Sweet Caroline

Now while our hero clearly had a warm welcome waiting for him with his baby you’ll more than likely need your own billet.

Our friends at Rome2Rio have kindly pointed us in the direction of a range of hotels and Black Friday deals.

And their three sample nights in March at the Raleigh Marriott City Center has grabbed our eye at £574 for two, down from £820.

Rock me mamma

Now you’ll want to know what you and your loved-one can do in Raleigh.

So we’ll fill in the gaps, or rather Getyourguide will.

As American history buffs we’re clearly all over the full-day Historian Guided City and Raleigh African American History tours.

While of the ghoulish, fiendish or downright criminal can choose between ghost and crime tours.

But our interest is piqued most by the four-hour Raleigh/Durham: Mystery Date Night in the Triangle Area.

Which our pals in the song would doubtless of availed of, particularly after the long hours of hitching.

America, Countries

Tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont

1st October 20241st October 2024 funtime65

For those who struggle getting the golden nectar out of the bottle here’s a lesson in tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont.

Visitors to New England will inevitably tap first into the region in its showpiece city Boston.

And some of us linger for a summer seeing both sides.

Black culture in Tremont Street and working in Irish bars and the historic Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall area.

With the beauty of timeless Boston being that you can return 35 years on and it still feels the same even when they have totally transformed the harbour area.

Of course, once you’ve got a taste for Boston and Massachusetts you’ll want to venture further into New England life.

Dreaming of New England

The olde worlde charm and beaches of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Pizza culture and Yale in New Haven, Connecticut and art and Ivy League again with Brown and murals in Providence in Rhode Island.

Got it licked: With Handsome George at Yale

Which brings us to the New England states still on our to do list and a very attendant waitress Kelly who flagged up her own homestead of Vermont.

And how I just must get up there, and especially in the Fall, to tap syrup from the maple trees.

Now we know and have shared the fact that everyone’s idyll of a wholesome rural family settled there when the Von Trapps relocated to the US.

Very Vermont

And we just know that they would have tapped into the Vermont syrup.

You’ll stay in the Von Trapps‘ adopted town of Stowe on your Platinum Travel New England Fall Foliage trip.

And in Montpelier visit a maple syrup family where you’ll learn how to tap the golden liquid from the trees.

But as Maria once said, let’s start at the very beginning.

In Boston on the red-brick Freedom Trail, before moseying through the bronzing leaves of Vermont’s lush trees.

The Maine meal

New Hampshire’s White Mountains glisten at this time of year while on a clear day you can see as far as Canada.

While for lighthouse fans there’s Maine’s oldest in Portland.

Where it’s best to go native with a decadent fresh lobster dinner… now if only I had Kelly, the best waitress in New England there to serve me.

With pancakes and fresh maple syrup tapped from a Vermont. tree.

Fall for New England

Chowder cheer: Rhode Island or Boston, take your pick

Your New England Fall Foliage trip will see you leave on September 19, from €3790 per person including flights.

With single supplement €1630 per person and a deposit (including flights) for €650 per person.

You’ll get return flights from Dublin and transfers. and handpicked hotels over seven nights.

There’s authentic dining with seven breakfasts, five dinners and wine.

You’ll travel by customised coaches (twice legroom of standard coach.

And much, much more.

While you’ll return with extra skills from tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont.

America, Countries, Culture

Let’s turn on the juice and New England shakes loose

28th August 202428th August 2024 funtime65

The ghost with the most is back nearly 40 years on so let’s turn on the juice and New England shakes loose.

Everyone’s favourite sassy spectre Beetlejuice is revisiting his old haunts of Massachusetts which are also mine.

And our friends in New England have scared up some spooktacular spots from the movie to draw us to their states and Commonwealth.

Beetlejuice chooses Connecticut to come back from the dead.

Only despite the charms of the Constitution State the moviemakers modelled Winter River on East Corinth in Vermont.

With Melrose in Massachusetts also commissioned for some of the Halloween shots.

The Mass media

Benchmark: Robin Williams and Matt Damon

Now the Commonwealth has long been at the forefront of Mass media.

And we have all of us, who are not from Massachusetts, first made acquaintance with these New Englanders from the small and big screens.

And the classic bar sitcom Cheers which launched a merch marketplace which my travelling buddy got on board.

While in the Millennium Boston’s legal landscape was under the microscope with Ally McBeal and her pals.

Boston too is home to Hollywood acting elite in Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg and Uma Thurman.

And, of course, like all Bostonians they love to give back.

With Matt championing a campaign to put a statue up of the late Robin Williams near the bench where the duo shot a famous scene from Good Will Hunting.

Busting for Boston at the movies

Of course, those of who have spent a summer working in Boston and living on the wrong side of the tracks will recognise South Dublin from The Departed.

And enjoying any free time we got at Fenway Park, featured heavily in Brad Pitt’s Moneyball.

All of which you can take in on a Boston Movie Mile Walking tour or the Boston TV and Movie Bus Tour.

Where, of course, you can see why Boston is a picnic for every teddy bear as long as that bear is Ted.

All roads lead to Rhode Island

A dog’s life: With Handsome George in Yale, New Haven

Now the five states and commonwealth that is Massachussets bring the region all together under the New England umbrella.

And it is a joy to travel through them all as we have been doing, and taking in the landscape along the way, on Amtrak.

And so we have been able to marvel at the coasts of sailing Nirvana Rhode Island which have so appealed to artists and film-makers.

Rosecliff Mansion in Newport features in several famous movies like 27 Dresses, The Great Gatsby and True Lies.

The Mansions of Newport are also a major setting for The Gilded Age.

And fans can go behind the scenes and get all the insight on The Gilded Age Tour which takes in the four mansions featured in the series.

Dreaming of New England

Scorsese also returned to New England to use Otter Cliff in Acadia National Park for the cliff scenes in Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

With the movie set on an island off the coast of Massachusetts.

Popham Beach, at the tip of Maine’s Phippsburg Peninsula was featured in the 1999 film Message in a Bottle.

Many of the scenes of Cider House Rules starring a young Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine, were filmed at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park.

While the famous Mystic Pizza also inspired the movie of the same name starring Julia Roberts.

So we’d all agree then, it’s frightening how much movie talent and legacy there is in New England.

So let’s turn on the juice and New England shakes loose

America, Food & Wine

Connecticut Ah-beetz the competition for the American pizza crown

22nd June 202422nd June 2024 funtime65

Now sometimes you’ve got to get in there for a slice of the action… and that’s where they’re at in New Haven as Connecticut ah-beetz the competition for the American pizza crown.

All of which came to my attention as I wolfed down a Burrata cow’s milk cheese and cream primo, or starter.

At Contini in George Street, Edinburgh… while looking enviously at my host’s ravioli.

Too rushed after ah-beatzing about the bush around Edinburgh.

But worth it to meet old friends and new from Boston and New England.

And hear that New Haven’s relentless push to be recognised as the US’s prime pizza spot has taken on a new life.

Now, of course, there is the small matter of a Presidential race this year in the States which the good folk of the Constitution State will cast an eye over.

And for balance it is worth mentioning that both Bushes went to New Haven’s Yale University as well as Bill Clinton.

Slice of the Capitol action

But most important to New Haven’s politicians thus far this year is their Ah-beetz or apizza.

And that is why Connecticut governor Ned Lamont took the momentous decision on National Pizza Day in February.

To unilaterally declare the university town as ‘the Pizza Capital of America’.

While that was just the appetiser for the Connecticuters who took over Congress recently, all in the name of apizza.

House Representative Rosa DeLauro only took to the floor.

To enter an official statement into the Congressional Record declaring ‘New Haven the pizza capital of the United States.’

The Democrat had led a delegation of more than 100 pizza makers from around Connecticut to Washington DC to showcase the state’s pizza industry.

Now Connecticut has more than 1,300 pizza-making establishments which is the highest portion per capita in the country.

And they produce more than 150 million pizzas, equalling $3.5 billion in sales per year. All of which the proclamation related.

While New Haven’s 75 pizza-making establishments support thousands of jobs and over $100 million in sales, feeding 2 million customers annually.

Taste of New Haven

‘Many things are debated in the Halls of Congress and Washington DC.

But one thing that’s not up for debate is that New Haven has the best pizza in the country.’ reported New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.

Justin being on the trip along with the Connecticut pizza delegation, including Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally’s Apizza and a raft of others.

Hat’s-a-boy Colin will take you on a tour

All of which will be music to my old friend Colin M Caplan, of Taste of New Haven

For it was he who turned me on to their distinctive Naples-inspired and infused pizza.

The Ah-beetz is from the Neapolitan accent of those early immigrants to the New England state.

And it is a no-nonsense tastefest, a thin-crust, coal-fired Neapolitan.

Franks for the pizzas

Originating in 1925 at New Haven’s Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.

And now served at many other noted pizzerias in the area, like Sally’s Apizza.

A ‘plain’ New Haven apizza is typically comprised of crust, oregano, tomato sauce and a little bit of grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

But don’t just take our word for it as to its zing… well, do.

Conan’s smokin: And a big New Haven apizza fan

But Frank Sinatra, no less, and Sir Paul McCartney, Hillary Clinton and Conan O’Brien have all been fans.

And Conan once signed a pizza box for the staff at Sally’s.

And wrote that the shop is ‘not the best pizza in New Haven — the best pizza EVER.’

Flying tonight

A word in the ear: Mascot Handsome Dan IV at Yale

Now we’re well served for Connecticut with the Bradley International Airport connecting to Europe.

So let’s all ah-beetz a path there to sample (in my case, again) the best in the States.

Because Connecticut Ah-beetz the competition for the American pizza crown.

And it’s up to you now, Chicago, where I hope to head next year.

And my old friends and family in New York to prove me wrong.

Countries, UK

Wish you were Vermeer… in Edinburgh’s National Gallery

21st June 202421st June 2024 funtime65

Wish you were Vermeer… in Edinburgh’s National Gallery Johannes is, Vincent is, The Glasgow Boys are and the New England masters.

Those who have come to see me to share the state of their five states and one Commonwealth.

All of which I have come to love since I first started visiting there 36 years ago.

Only the New Englanders’ flight is running late and our morning meeting has been pushed back to the afternoon.

Giving me longer than I’ve ever had to saunter around The National Gallery.

Despite having lived in Edinburgh’s seaside resort of Portobello for ten years.

And now four years back in Scotland, and staying in North Berwick just down the east coast.

Art of the matter

Hit the Jackpot: Jack Yeats in the National Gallery in Dublin

Filling in a couple of hours in the art gallery before travel meetings became a regular pastime in my 13 years in Ireland.

When I would lose myself in the Da Vinci sketches, the Impressionists and the Jack Yeatses in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

For Dublin 2010s, now read Edinburgh 2020s when two and a half hours is still not enough…

To truly appreciate the Renaissance, the Impressionists, all of Scottish art and the Flemish and Dutch masters.

Virginal territory

Centrepiece when I visit is the Vermeer on loan from the National Gallery in London, Lady Seated at a Virginal (there’s a Vermeer exhibition in Dublin too btw).

One of only 34 canvases the Delft artist painted, your eye is immediately drawn to Lady at Virginal.

For her similarity to her more famous compatriot Girl With A Pearl Earring.

And for those already asking the question, I did the same of our guide, a virginal is not a comment on the model’s virtue.

But a rectangular spinet, or harpsichord, with the strings parallel to the keyboard which were popular in Vermeer’s day.

Playing to the Gallery

Now while the rest of the world seems still seduced by the Mona Lisa smile in the Louvre.

I would be more taken by Johannes’ women and would advise anyone either living in Edinburgh and its environs.

To take an hour or two out of your day, or tour, to visit Lady at her virginal, and Cupid with whom she shares the frame.

Spend time with Rembrandt or go a wandering into Van Gogh’s or Monet’s fields and Canaletto’s Venice.

And scoot along to the minister skating on the ice or maybe learn about The Glasgow Girls.

Yes, women painted (and still do) and at last galleries like Edinburgh and further afield have come to recognise that.

Dreaming of New England

Sound as a Mound: The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant

As for the New England masters I picked up that Bostonian JS Copley had a part to play in bringing the glory of the military hero Lord Duncan to our attention.

And that he was a compatriot of Benjamin West whose painting Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin FitzgeraldI also scanned on my trip around the gallery.

As for the other New England masters, well I wish they were Vermeer… in Edinburgh’s National Gallery.

But they were half a mile away from here, here being The Contini Scottish Cafe & Restaurant at the National Gallery.

No, not to be seen in this prime spot on The Mound, next to Princes Street, near the Sir Walter Scott Monument, above the Princes Gardens and on the doorstep of Edinburgh Castle.

But rather in the parallel thoroughfare of George Street in Contini’s sister restaurant.

I did break bread with Visit New England, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island.

And even in the short time I still had left learned how New England is still leading the way in the worlds of sport, culinary and the revolution.

All of which, of course, I’ll share with you.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

America, Countries, Sport

Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics

18th June 202418th June 2024 funtime65

Eurocentrics listen up, there is other sport around the world, and the green bunting is up all around Beantown today as fans throw a Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

Bostonians rightly beam about their famous basketball team, and rightly so, as they are now inarguably the most successful NBA team of all time.

The Celtics had reluctantly shared that mantle with their greatest of rivals, the LA Lakers, on 17 titles before this week.

But the prospect of the exclusivity of an 18th title drove Jason Taytum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics to a historic title.

With a 4-1 win over the game Dallas Mavericks.

Bostonians flying high

Now as well as the fanfare and receptions that will last all summer and right through to the resumption of the NBA.

The Celtics will earn an 18th pennant to be draped on the walls of Logan Airport alongside the other winners in New England’s proud history.

This millennium has been particularly kind to New England’s teams.

And not just because of Tom Brady at the Patriots.

Boston’s Big Four sports franchises have now delivered 14 titles this century.

And soon they’ll be needing to build another terminal at Logan.

To hang all their banners which includes the city’s other successes!

Now having been hosted like a Tom Brady or Larry Bird by the good people of Boston in the grand old city.

Back with my Boston buddies

It will be my pleasure to reciprocate this week in my adopted city of Edinburgh.

Where we will celebrate the Celtics’ success and hear what else is going down in New England.

As New Englanders, of course, the sports of the Olde Worlde have a foothold on the north-west coast.

And so the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough will be front and centre in two years’ time for the football World Cup.

With five group matches, a round of 32 match and a quarter-final booked for Boston.

Babe’s base and Tom’s temple

Now if you like your city break doused with history, culture, culinary.

And the best sports teams then Boston is waiting for you.

And following my travel mantra of going where people play and pray then see for yourself their sporting cathedrals.

The TD Garden for the Celtics and the Boston Bruins ice hockey team.

And Fenway Park, where they’ve been coming to watch the best baseball.

From Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Jim Rice through Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs to David Ortiz and beyond.

And Tom Brady’s temple at Foxburgh.

Frequent flier from Dublin

Around for tea: The Boston Tea Party Museum

Now whatever your sporting special is you’ll find it in New England where the action never stops.

And the stadium tours like the Sam Adams tour is always in tap.

As ever with all things transatlantic the best route is through Dublin Airport with pre-clearance and Aer Lingus.

So, if you’re in Beantown lap up the celebrations and the Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

And if not find yourself some New Englanders to break bread with and plan your next trip out to Boston Sports City.

America, Countries

Frost, the Fall and New England

3rd September 20233rd September 2023 funtime65

Whose woods these are I think I know… but then I do know a man who does as I leaf back through Robert Frost, the Fall and New England.

As we turn the calendar into September and the seasons change.

That New England has claimed the season of Autumn is undeniable.

And they have the American Poet Lauriate Frost (and Mother Nature) to thank.

Whisper it around Massachussetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont but Frost was actually San Franciscan.

He did though relocate to New England perhaps his ‘road less traveled’, and he did more than most to promote the north-east of the US.

Avoid those leaf peepers

New Englanders obviously welcome the visitors to their woods and lakes and rivers but urge us to allow plenty of time.

Because of leaf peepers, those who slow down and stop to take in the wonders of the foliage.

My answer is to let the train take the strain as we did when we got Amtrak to guide us through the region.

The rail thing

And yes, there is a joy to going solo but if you prefer someone to do the heavy lifting for you then Great Rail Journeys are experts in this field.

They’ve got just the thing for next Fall with a 10-dayer from £2,795pp.

And you’ll take in some of our old favourites in Boston (tick), the White Mountains and Falmouth on Cape Cod and pilgrims port Plymouth (bucket list) and Providence (tick).

And get this the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire.

The future is orange: New England in the Fall

So here’s what’s included:

TOUR MANAGER
- Expertise of a UK Tour Manager from start to finish
TRANSPORTATION
- Standard Class Rail
- Heritage Rail Excursions
- All rail and coach travel throughout your tour
ACCOMMODATION
- 8 nights’ hotel accommodation
FOOD & DRINK
- 5 breakfasts
FLIGHTS
- Return flights from London Heathrow to Boston

GRJ come highly recommended by our very own outlaws here, the Frosts (it all comes around in the end with Frost, the Fall and New England).

And that they’ll factor in regional differences with departure points from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Newcastle, Manchester and London Heathrow.

America, Countries, Deals

Connecting the Twain and Stowe dots

18th July 202318th July 2023 funtime65

You can only be in Connecticut if you’re connecting the Twain and Stowe dots which helpfully isn’t difficult as they were good neighbours.

And lucky for us literary tourists that they were as visitors to the Constitution State can immerse themselves in Mark and Harriet in the one trip.

And more fortunate still that their hood, Nook Farm, is just a 15 mile drive down from Hartford Bradley International Airport.

Which we all know has the best connections with Aer Lingus flying New England lovers (that’ll be us) to Bradley with the added bonus of pre-clearance.

And coming in at €483.90 for a sample October round trip.

Now Mark Twain, as well as giving us Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and championing bushy moustaches, is a figurehead of travel and travel writers.

And we could all do worse than follow this sage advice…

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

“And many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

Although even the most travelled of us would do well.

To match his adventures of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

A proud Connecticuter

If the walls could talk: The Twain interior

Twain, or Samuel Clemens to give him his birth name, was clearly a proud Connecticuter.

And he loved Nook Farm where he built his dream house in 1874, next door to Harriet.

You can book a tour ahead of Twain’s house.

Either a general house tour for $26 for adults, $24 senior citizens, and $14 for kids and a living history tour for $29 for all adults and $21 for kids.

We’d always plump for living history, particularly when it’s interactive.

With an actor playing one of Twain’s servants and sharing his wisdom.

Including tales of the Great Eccentric such as the cats he would keep in the pockets of his billiards table.

Families are well catered for in Nook Farm with a Growing up in the Gilded Age interactive tour, best-suited for children between the ages of four and nine.

While Twain’s sense of fun is to the fore in a Cluedo-based tour with the victim Huck-themed and named Pap Finn.

And a Graveyard Shift Ghost Tour.

Stowe way

The long and short of it: Stowe and Lincoln

Harriet Beecher Stowe was well ensconced, having moved into Nook Farm in 1871.

And going on to live here for the last 23 years of her life.

By then abolitionist Harriet was firmly embedded as the most famous woman in America.

On the back of her pioneering book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

All of which prompted Abraham Lincoln to greet her in Washington DC in 1862 thus: ‘So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.’

Look out for that reference in a framed photo near the foot of the staircase in the Stowe House.

And seeing you’ll be in Hartford then you’ll be sure to take the Riverwalk.

And dwell a while at the statue of Lincoln and Stowe built by Bruno Lucchesi in 2006.

Of course we’re studied in the state and Yale and New Haven following last year’s drift through New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut).

But alas not visiting Hartford on our Amtrak tour.

We’ll be back, though, again, connecting the Twain and Stowe dots.

America, Canada, Countries, Cruising

New England and Canada is a cruise

6th July 20236th July 2023 funtime65

What would our Fiftysomething iteration tell our 21-year-old self… well, maybe that New England and Canada is a cruise.

The only bells and whistles though back in 1988 when I took the high road from Boston to Canada were on the bus.

How times and my fortunes have changed in the intervening years.

Embarking then on a scribbling career which 35 years later has afforded me the privilege of swapping buses for cruises.

Where you can take your time to get to your destination and relax when you get there.

Fall on good times

Our old friends at MSC Cruises have released their autumn programme.

And they want to take North Americanophiles up the eastern seaboard on MSC Meraviglia.

You’ll get to disembark from New York and there’s the added bonus of Bermuda on your horizon.

MSC are offering 10 or 11-night cruisings this September and October from £629pp, which, of course, is their famed Fall.

The Fall in Central Bark

New York: And when in NY do like the New Yorkers and kick through the leaves in Central Park.

Imagine… well, you don’t have to. And pay homage too to John Lennon at his shrine within view of his Dakota Building home.

On the right Rhode

Art of the matter: Street art in Rhode island

Newport, Rhode Island: And a chance here to reverse my first views of Newport from the train looking out to the big yachts.

From the sea this time where you can channel your Gilded Age in the US’s smallest state.

Now one of the joys of cruising is a shore excursion or free time.

And memories of being tripped by trolls disguised as stones on our MSC Bergen stop-off come flooding back.

As we’re directed towards the historic Cliff Walk with a walking trail along the beautiful rocky shoreline.

Love of Common people

Boston: And whatever New York does, their historic rival Boston claims to have done it first.

With Bostonians only too happy to tell you that for all Central Park’s appeal, Boston Common is the oldest public park in the US.

While for all that Yankee Stadium may be the House that Ruth built.

The Boston Red Sox had Babe Ruth first making home runs at Fenway Park, the oldest, at 111 years, in the States.

New Scotland

Nova Scotia: And when you’re done with New England then the natural progression is New Scotland.

The new Scotland of olde worlde fishing villages, beautiful beaches and captivating shorelines.

Guests can enjoy a stroll on one of world’s longest continuous waterfront boardwalks in Nova Scotia capital Halifax.

Neuw Brunswick

New Brunswick: And if you were wondering then NB which is billed a maritime province is named after British royalty.

And George III, who was also the Duke of Brunswick.

For all New Brunswick‘s fish, and its inhabitants are mocked as Herring Chokers and there are whales and seals aplenty, look out too for its moose.

Maine event

Portland, Maine: And what goes up must come down so cruisers will sail back via Maine, and New England again.

Make sure too to sample the local beer and try out the world-famous Maine lobster.

Specs appeal

At 315 metres long and 65 metres tall, Meraviglia boasts an impressive 19 decks and up to 5,700 guests.

There are ten different types of cabins to choose from, including solo cabins, popular balcony cabins, and stylish accommodations in the MSC Yacht Club.

A 90-metre promenade lined with shops, restaurants and bars with an LED sky screen… all for the big party.

Indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs, together with a water park and ropes course.

And different theatrical extravaganzas in Meraviglia’s 985-seat theatre.

So much better than bussing it up the eastern seaboard then when we know New England and Canada is a cruise.

America, Countries

Upstate New York will do it fa ya

4th April 20234th April 2023 funtime65

Now we all love the city that never sleeps but those who know know that upstate New York do it fa ya.

And while as a hard-up student I travelled upstate on the Greyhound bus I have since become an Amtrak convert.

Letting the train take the strain (you know how we were promised in Britain)!

On my coastal journey down New England.

Taking in the sights of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Now I’d put that journey past the Gatsby yachts right up there in the list of Great World train journeys.

With the ten-hour Adirondack trip which was named in top ten.

It runs from NY through the wine country of Hudson Valley and Albany and the mountains to Montreal.

Caravana love

You can, of course, get off along the way and it’ll be worth it.

Stay at the Hotel Caravana onsite at a retro drive-in movie theatre.

And transform movie night into a sleepover experience.

Newly available as Hotel Caravana at the Four Brothers Drive-In Theater, in the heart of Hudson Valley.

The two vintage airstreams are named ‘1967’ (sleeps up to four) and ‘2041’ (sleeps two) and have been fully renovated with a funky décor.

Of course as hard as parents try they know that nature will always take second place among teenagers to video games.

Game for a laugh

Play time: Sesame Street and gaming heaven

Why not then do a trade? And give them a day out at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester.

The Rochester attraction will this year welcome a new World Video Game Hall of Fame exhibit.

And a 90,000-square-foot museum wing dedicated to video game history.

From strolling down Sesame Street to leaping into the world of American comic book superheroes.

The museum is home to the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world.

Unraveling the history of play through toys, dolls, board games, books and electronic games.

Of course if your idea of outdoorsy fun is cohabiting with the locals then Upstate has an experience to rival any.

Wolves at the door

Sleeping with Wolves is a popular adventure experience that takes place in the summer.

It offers guests a chance to safely camp out overnight with more than 30 wolves.

Those that call the Wolf Conservation Center in the Hudson Valley home.

In response to its increased popularity, 12 new weather-proof camping pods will debut in 2023.

And that will allow the experience to extend from spring to autumn.

See, we told ya, Upstate New York will do it fa ya.

And all major airlines travel to New York with us again advising you to skip pre-clearance.

By flying out of Dublin with Aer Lingus with a sample trip next month circa €700.