Smiths On Holiday

Traveling, either as holidays (vacation in the US) or moving because of work, has been a big part of our life. Over the years, we've taken a lot of photos. In this section, there is a page for most of the major holiday trips we've taken.

France and England

February, 1981

In February of 1981 we set off to visit our friends, Diane and Bill Pulleyblank, who had decided to use his sabbatical year to be a visiting professor at the University of Grenoble in the south of France.

We flew overnight from Calgary to London and arrived at 10 AM London time.  As we needed to transfer to a train that would leave in the evening, we checked our bags and skis, then spent a long day, dazed and jetlagged, wandering around London but never straying far from Victoria Station.  We expected to sleep on the train to Dover but no such luck ...more

Spain

October, 1993

We flew from Victoria, where we were living at the time, to Majorca and stayed at a funky old hotel near Palma for a week.  We spent the time driving around the Island seeing tourist sites like the Cuevas del Drach, a monstrously large cave that has a fleet of boats used for tours in an underground lake.  I played golf with a German doctor who recommended that we see the Abaco bar in Palma.  When you open the door and go in, you are transported to an ultra theatrical Majorcan home in the 1600's ...more

Italy

Fall 1996, Fall 1999, June 2008, September 2011, and May 2018

Our first visit to Italy was in the Fall of 1996 when we flew first class (on points) from San Francisco to Milan and rented a car for a driving holiday.

We drove to Genoa and hiked the Cinque Terre and then visited Portofino.  A few days later, we drove to Pisa to see the great leaing tower and the duomo and then on to Florence ...more

Thailand

February, 2002 

We had to cancel a Marriott time share commitment at the last minute the year before so we could only book a replacement on short notice. The Marriott in Phuket was the only one available, so we decided to travel to Thailand.

We flew from San Francisco to Taiwan and then on to Bangkok. We booked in to the Marriott Resort after a harrowing taxi ride with no airconditioning in 40C heat. But when we arrived, we loved it ...more

Mediterranean

May,2006

Diane Campbell took a Swan Hellenic cruise and told us about her experience when she got home.  We were hooked.  Not only were we looking forward to a comfortable trip around the Mediterranean in our own cabin, we decided that we needed a culture fix anyway.  And we got both.

We flew from Vancouver to London and then on to Cypress on  the Swan Hellenic charter.  It was quite exciting to meet the ship and get aquainted with our room and surroundings.  After an all night cruise, we landed in Antalya ...more

Galapagos

Spring, 2010

Steph and Ian visited Galapagos in March, 2010 with Celebrity and followed with a visit to Peru.

We drove to Seattle and then flew to Quito, Equador where we stayed for two nights at the first of many luxurious hotels that were included in the cruise itinerary. Although Quito was not my favourite city, the hotel and restaurants more than made up for it ...more

Kauai

January, 2012

Elspeth and Alan Davie invited us to stay with them in the condo that they rented in Princevile, on the north shore of Kauai and Steph wanted to go.  Resistance is futile she said and it turned out she was right ...more

Baltic Cruise and York

September,2013

We flew from Vancouver to Stockholm via Amsterdam, arriving in the late afternoon.  Checked into the Radisson Blu Waterfront to a great room ovelooking City Hall and the harbour.  We spent two full days walking through old town, visiting museums, touring the city, and eating at great restaurants ...more

 Pushkin: Alexander Park in St Petersburg              

Southern Italy

May, 2018

We flew from Nanaimo to Brindisi, Italy via Vancouver, Munich, and Rome, staying overnight in Rome to catch the last leg in the morning.  We were met at the Brindisi airport by a Road Scholar driver,  ...more

     Piazza Sant'Oronzo in Lecce

Croatia

June, 2018

We left the Southern Italy Road Scholar tour at the end of May and flew to Split, Croatia to begin a second Road Scholar tour while we were in Europe.  We stayed in Split at a wonderful boutique hotel called ...more