{"id":86,"date":"2026-07-15T05:19:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/martsmartravel.com\/?page_id=86"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:29:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:29:48","slug":"start-here","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/martsmartravel.com\/index.php\/start-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Here"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Welcome to MartSmart Travel \u2014 and a word on why this site exists.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Who We Are<\/h3>\n\n

For most of our lives together, my late wife and I were not travel bloggers in any conventional sense. We were not twenty-five years old, living out of a backpack, chasing the cheapest hostel on the continent. We were older \u2014 considerably older \u2014 and we had been doing this for a very long time. She passed away not long ago. This site is, in many ways, her memorial \u2014 a record of the places we discovered together, and a continuation of the conviction we shared: that travel, done with curiosity and patience, is one of the finest educations life has to offer.<\/p>\n\n

For most of my working life, I was a business executive. I traveled frequently, but always on someone else\u2019s schedule, to someone else\u2019s destinations, for someone else\u2019s purposes. When that chapter closed, my late wife and I made a decision: we would travel on our own terms, at our own pace, and with one overriding principle \u2014 we would not skim.<\/p>\n\n

That meant we never arrived somewhere on a Tuesday and left on a Thursday. We stayed for weeks. We ate where the locals ate. We learned enough of the language to be polite \u2014 and occasionally to be funny. We read the history before we went and read it again while we were there.<\/p>\n\n

We have stood on Omaha Beach and felt it in our bones. We have walked the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es at Christmas. We have watched horses race bareback around a medieval piazza in Siena and understood, finally, what the word spectacle actually means.<\/p>\n\n

We started sharing these experiences through a small booklet \u2014 Eight Unlikely Destinations You\u2019ll Remember for a Lifetime<\/em> \u2014 and the response told us there was an audience for travel writing that treats the reader as an intelligent adult.<\/p>\n\n

This site is the expansion of that idea.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Where Would You Like to Go?<\/h3>\n\n

We have organized our destination guides by region. Click the area that interests you and you will find everything we have published there \u2014 destination guides, practical tips, and a few opinions we did not bother to soften.<\/p>\n\n

\nEurope: Exploring Europe<\/strong>
\nHistory, culture, cuisine \u2014 the continent that started it all.<\/em>
\nNormandy \u00b7 Palio di Siena \u00b7 Tuscany \u00b7 Paris and Beyond
\nBrowse Europe Guides \u2192<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nAmericas: The Americas<\/strong>
\nFrom the wild south to the rugged American West.<\/em>
\nAround Cape Horn \u00b7 Patagonia \u00b7 The American Southwest
\nBrowse Americas Guides \u2192<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nU.S.: U.S. Hidden Gems<\/strong>
\nExtraordinary destinations most Americans have never fully explored.<\/em>
\nSedona, Arizona \u00b7 Hiking the Grand Canyon \u00b7 More coming soon
\nBrowse U.S. Guides \u2192<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nAsia: Asia & The Pacific<\/strong>
\nAncient history and landscapes unlike anything in the West.<\/em>
\nXi\u2019an & the Terracotta Warriors \u00b7 Iwo Jima \u00b7 More coming soon
\nBrowse Asia & Pacific Guides \u2192<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

New here? Start with our most popular piece: \u201cPalio di Siena \u2014 One Insane Horse Race\u201d \u2192<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

How We Prepare for a Trip<\/h3>\n\n

Over the years, we have watched fellow travelers wander past extraordinary things without the slightest idea of what they were looking at. A concrete bunker on a Normandy hillside is just a concrete bunker \u2014 unless you know what happened there on the morning of June 6, 1944. Then it stops you cold.<\/p>\n\n

Preparation is not a chore. It is the first chapter of the trip.<\/p>\n\n

Before we go anywhere, we ask ourselves four questions. We offer them to you as well:<\/p>\n\n

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  1. Have you read enough to know what you\u2019re looking at?<\/strong> History books, travel essays, even a well-researched novel set in your destination will transform what you see. A ruin becomes a story. A landscape becomes a battlefield, a trading route, a pilgrimage. We will always recommend reading in our destination guides.<\/li>\n
  2. Do you have a plan \u2014 but not too rigid a one?<\/strong> Book the lodging. Know the opening hours of the sites that matter most. But leave room. Some of our best experiences were entirely unplanned: a conversation with a local, a side street that turned out to be remarkable, a restaurant with no English menu that turned out to be the finest meal of the trip.<\/li>\n
  3. Can you manage a few phrases in the local language?<\/strong> You do not need to be fluent. You need to be able to say good morning, thank you, excuse me, do you speak English, and \u2014 critically \u2014 I would like the wine list. The effort is noticed and appreciated everywhere we have been. It opens doors.<\/li>\n
  4. Do you have local currency in your pocket when you land?<\/strong> One day I will tell you the story of why this question is on our list. For now, take it on faith: have some.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    If you can answer yes to all four, you are ready. Let\u2019s go.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    Stay in Touch<\/h3>\n\n

    We publish new destination guides, travel tips and the occasional strong opinion on a regular basis. If you would like to know when something new appears \u2014 and receive our original booklet, Eight Unlikely Destinations You\u2019ll Remember for a Lifetime<\/em>, as our way of saying thank you \u2014 leave us your email address below.<\/p>\n\n

    \nSubscribe to the MartSmart Travel Newsletter<\/strong>
    \nNo spam. No frequency that will annoy you. Just good travel writing, delivered when we have something worth saying.\n<\/div>\n\n

    \u2014 The MartSmart Travel Team<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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