Erika Bisbocci
Erika is an avid traveler and explorer of over ninety countries on six different continents. Since 2011, she has spent time studying Arabic in the Middle East, teaching English in Namibia and working as a flight attendant for a major US airline. When not traveling overseas, she loves exploring her own backyard in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
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Snorkeling Tour of Palau’s Rock Islands
Housing everything from untouched coral gardens to docile reef sharks and from manta rays to WWII shipwrecks, the small Micronesian nation of Palau consistently tops the list of best dive sites in the world. I’d had my heart set on visiting Palau since I first saw video footage of the country’s underwater sanctuaries and pristine seas a few years ago. The only problem was, I’ve always been too afraid to go scuba diving. Throughout my travels, there have been many times in which I’ve had the opportunity to strap an oxygen tank to my back…
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Day Trip to Jellyfish Lake in Palau
Imagine floating in a real life lava lamp, surrounded by millions of gelatinous golden orbs that drift gently through the water. These orbs swirl effortlessly around you, in search of sunlight. They swarm around your fingertips, brush up against your body, and coast right in front of your incredulous eyes. It might sound like a dream, but such a place exists on the tiny uninhabited island of Eil Malk in Palau. It’s called Jellyfish Lake. And it’s extraordinary. JELLYFISH LAKE IN PALAU: AN OVERVIEW Jellyfish Lake lies amidst Palau’s…
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How to Spend 24 Hours in Tokyo
With a population of nearly 40 million and over 6,000 residents packed into each square kilometer, Tokyo—the world’s largest city—is teeming with people. Crowds are everywhere in Tokyo—crossing the streets in hoards, packing udon houses to the brim and swarming in and out of metro stations at all hours of the day and night. And yet, though the city is nearly bursting at the seams, the metros are punctual, the streets are spotless and the city runs like a well-oiled machine. Even Tokyo’s residents seem to move about the city…
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Hong Kong’s Past and Present: A 24 Hour Layover Itinerary
When crew scheduling assigned me a 24 hour Hong Kong layover, I was ecstatic. Hong Kong is, with out a doubt, one of the world’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities. Its modern architecture rivals that of New York, while its culture is deeply rooted in Buddhist tradition. To add to its appeal, Hong Kong houses world-class restaurants, renowned tourist attractions and a vibrant mix of people from all corners of the globe. When I visited Hong Kong as part of a larger trip to China with my family in 2005,…
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Visiting Jasper National Park in Canada
The Canadian Rockies are a hyperbole of beauty and an exaggeration of nature. Home to sparkling lakes, towering mountains, and jaw-dropping vistas, they contain some of the most photographed and revered alpine scenery on Earth. It goes without saying that I had high expectations for the area. But despite these expectations, my four days in Jasper and Banff were everything I had dreamed of. They gave me a break from by hectic summer flying schedule and allowed me to trade my rollaboard for a backpack, my hotel room for a…
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Banff National Park: Jewel of the Canadian Rockies
‘Amazing’ might be one of the most overused words in the English language. We use it to describe everything from food to places to moods to people. Yet, as Dan and I drove into the Canadian Rockies and craned our necks to see the majestic peaks of Banff National Park in Alberta, I could think of no other word to adequately describe what I was seeing. Throughout our short Canadian Rockies road trip, I would try time and time again to come up with words that could convey the majesty…
