Yes, there are many villa rental companies out there. Some of the best are actually companies from the UK. The British are very big on "holiday homes" and "self-catering" vacations, and there are scores of good British rental agencies. Also, as you noted, Dianne, many of the owners of these homes and villas are Europeans who live elsewhere and own the property as a vacation home, renting it out when they're not there. You found Danish books in the bookcase. In our rentals, we've found clues that owners or previous guests were German, Swedish and British.

I mentioned Interhome specifically only because I have first-hand experience with the company. But a Google search on "villa rentals," "vacation rentals," "self-catering" or terms like that will yield a multitude of agencies. One way to begin to gauge whether an outfit is a good one is to ask a series of questions in a series of emails. If you receive thoughtful, patient, thorough and quick responses, that's a good sign. If you don't, look elsewhere.

We're actually thinking of a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy for next April school vacation, and I'm going to start searching soon for a rental in the Positano-Sorrento area. The hunt is half the fun!

Lori,

WOW! That's all I have to say! LOL!

Dotsie sent me your way to see if you have visited the "Big Island" in Hawaii.

I would love some travel tips on where to go and what to see. Also, if you have a good book to suggest - that would be great!

I'm a military brat AND a Navy Vet myself. I was blessed enough to be stationed in Hawaii and Italy. From Italy we were able to explore a great part of Europe. My husband and I have also had the opportunity to visit Budapest, Finland, Iceland, and Holland.

I looooovvvvveeee to travel! I would rather travel then do anything else. (ha, who wouldn't!)

Danita

Danita, welcome! Yes, we are having some fun on this forum. September 11, magical destinations, Car-i-Okie, topless waitresses, pepper spray -- it's all here. Glad you joined us!

I haven't been to Hawaii (yet). But, I'm one of those people with travel in my blood and a recurring dream in which I'm crowned winner of the National Geographic geography bee (Alex Trebek gives me my trophy), so I consume travel literature like I consume food. I know the street maps of cities I haven't even been to (again, "yet"). Let me dig out some of my Hawaii resources and get back to you about cool stuff on the Big Island.

I can definitely recommend a must-read book for anyone traveling to Hawaii: James Michener's "Hawaii." Reading Michener is an enjoyable, eye-opening, thought-provoking history lesson, and if you're going to a place, check to see if Michener's written a book about it. Some dismiss Michener as a literary lightweight (I disagree), but his novels are all based on years of research, so you're simultaneously entertained and enlightened. "Hawaii" takes you from the island chain's early Polynesian roots, through the reigns of her kings and queens, including Liliuokalani, the last queen, deposed by sugar planters in 1893, through the missionary years, and up to and through U.S. statehood. In one thick, fast-paced gulp (my 1959 hardcover runs 937 pages), you'll learn enough to help you better understand and appreciate the islands and their people.

You'll find cheap used copies on Amazon. Check out "Ribbons of Highway" while you're there!

I'd like to hear about Finland. What is Helsinki like? Did you get beyond the capital? Do tell.

Iceland is gorgeous, isn't it? The kids and I visited a few Februaries ago. I recently wrote a blog story, "Iceland's banana tree," that you might get a kick out of. Here's a link to that post: http://RibbonsofHighway.blogspot.com/2005/03/icelands-banana-tree.html .

Back at you soon with Big Island info -- and D.C. doin's, too, for smilinize.

Smilinize, I just sent a quick email to Laurel Smith, founder of Mom's Minivan ( www.momsminivan.com ) and told her about our forum here at BWS and shared your ringing endorsement of Car-i-Okie. Any product that can make a carload of grandparents and grandkids survive a six-hour road trip and leave them thinking they're the next Osmonds is something her readers might want to know about. Her site is all about keeping kids and their adults happy and safe when they take to the roads.

The Big Island, Hawaii, is about being outdoors. Mother Nature rules here. On a single 50-mile drive, you can take in volcanoes, waterfalls, black-lava deserts, rainforests, alpine meadows on the sides of snowcapped peaks, and unique beaches, many of black sand. To some, The Big Island appears stark, but its volcanic nature is its allure. It's less tropical-looking than the other islands.

I don't know when you're going, Danita, but every October, the Kona-Kohala coast is the site of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. The Hawaii Ironman is the holy grail for triathletes. Two of my friends have completed this grueling event, and when you visit the searing black lava fields of Kona, imagine the athletes who attempt the Ironman here each year. They swim 2.4 miles in open ocean, then complete a 112-mile bike ride, and then they strap on their sneakers and run a full marathon. The Kona lava fields always figure big in any Hawaii Ironman competitor's war stories.

Kona Coast State Park has bathing beaches and archaelogical and historical sites. About four miles south is the small White Sands Beach, a rarity on this volcanic island. I've read that one of the most spectacular beaches on the Big Island is Anaehoomalu Bay (the locals call it A-Bay). It has golden sand and is fringed by palms, and there's an area at the end of the bay where you can dive or snorkel down to a spot where endangered green sea turtles gather to have small fishes clean them.

There's lots of smorkeling and kayaking and diving, but some of the more unusual takes include a one-hour submarine ride 100-feet below the sea. Atlantis Submarines is located across from the Kailua Pier.

You'll want to go to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea, one of the park's monsters, is still erupting. You can drive 50 miles of roads in the park and see highlights of the eruption from your car. You get to the park either from Hilo, about 30 miles away, or from Kona, about 100 miles away. There can be about a 20-degree temperature difference between the coast and the high altitude volcanoes, so bring warm clothing. One of the best drives in the park is to the end of Chain of Craters Road, where Kilauea gushes hot lava into the sea, creating a huge steam plume. If you're in the park at night, you can watch the red-hot lava glowing in the dark. You can also hike to the Kilauea crater on the 4-mile, 2-hour Kilauea Iki Trail that begins at the visitor center.

If you're into horses, Paniolo Riding runs an 11,000-acre working cattle ranch, and you can ride across pastures and through groves of trees with the wranglers.

There are Humvee expeditions into the rainforest and the Kohala Mountains. HMV Tours is located in Kohala.

The Big Island is less about tropical beaches than it is about the power, fury and beauty of a volcanic landscape that is still very much alive. And Danita gets to see it up close and personal. Should be thrilling. Just don't touch the lava.

It is a stunning day here in Boston. A day for a good long run with my new MP3 player, all loaded up with classic rock n'roll and splashes of Lee Ann Womack, Lee Greenwood, Tennessee Williams and The Chieftains.

Before I head out, I wanted to give you a few links to websites I found especially helpful in researching and planning the "Ribbons" journey and a link to my hands-down favorite overall travel site, Tripadvisor.com.

Whether you want to get away for a weekend or a year, these sites are useful in planning a U.S. road trip, and many are rich in links that will bring you to other sites that specialize in niche subjects like camping, RVing, historical travel and the like:

www.roadtripamerica.com -- a one-stop site for tons of links and info to help you travel America

www.randmcnally.com -- maps, driving directions, trip planning tools. I used a Rand McNally road atlas, along with individual state maps, to plan our 12,000-mile odyssey. (Anyone who's read "Ribbons" knows that the resulting "Route Narrative," the most precious piece of cargo on our trip after my children, my Nikon and my wallet, a document that distilled our journey down into three exciting, organic pages of adventure and possibility, was created after months of poring over maps and devouring every print and online brochure I could find. I'm happy to send a copy of both the Route Narrative and an itinerary that shows daily mileage between every point on our trip and overnight stops to anyone who orders a copy of "Ribbons of Highway." These tools represent months of planning and might prove useful -- or just interesting -- to other travelers.)

www.nps.gov -- the National Park Service. You could spend a whole day crusing this site, which has information about every park, battlefield, forest, historic area, monument, lakeshore, seashore and property in the National Park system. In addition to info about the well-known parks that we've talked a bit about in this thread, you'll find info on small hidden gems you might not have known existed. On our journey, we experienced utter uncrowded magic at less-celebrated sites like Newberry Volcanic Monument in Oregon, Idaho's Craters of the Moon, the Civil War battlefield at Vicksburg, Mississippi with its haunting roads and woods and trenches and rows of soldiers' graves, Petroglyph National Monument outside Albuquerque. So many gems. You might want to consider a National Parks Pass, which, for $50, gives you unlimited free etnry into NPS sites for a full year. If you're over 62, you can nab a Golden Ager lifetime pass for only $10.

www.tourstates.com -- this site provides links to the official tourism offices of all 50 states. Then, from each state's individual site, you can order maps and brochures galore to be sent to you via snail mail. I had my poor mailman, Tom, bent under the weight of such deliveries for months.

www.byways.org -- describes and maps out scenic drives and routes all over the country

www.tripadvisor.com -- I love this site because it's one of the only places I've found where you can get a plethora of good, meaty, unbiased opinions about tours, hotels, resorts and restaurants all over the world from actual visitors. Tripadvisor now boasts about 1.8 million reviews, and, while it's a little unwieldy to navigate, once you get the hang of it and zero in on what you're looking for, you get a boatload of eye-opening information from regular folks who've "been there." They tell you straight whether a destination is thumbs-up or thumbs-down. I've found Tripadvisor to be a great money-saver. You can cruise through this site and uncover great reviews about small, unknown, inexpensive places that the big sites like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity don't tell you about. I found the Sunset Beach all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica by crusing Tripadvisor. I wouldn't have found it anywhere else. It was nearly half the price of the other all-inclusives, and we had an absolute blast. I booked based on the hundreds of reviews I read on Tripadvisor, and those visitors/reviewers were right on. Going to Europe? Look for a secret gem of a 3-star hotel in Tripadvisor instead of booking at a chain hotel through one of the other sites. This site is a mother lode of information.

Gotta run before the temperature hits the predicted 80 degrees.

Lori,

Iceland was one of those "Oh my goodness" trips. We were actually (willingly) bumped off a flight there - and got to spend 24 hours being pampered by the airline. We went to the blue lagoon - and I did the unimaginable... I rented a swimsuit. There was NO WAY I was going to miss the experience. I would go back at the drop of a hat. The seafood was fresher then anything I have ever had!

Finnland is a blur for me - all I remember is beautiful buildings..and pastries. Ha. Perhaps we traveled from bakery to bakery around the city! lol. We were there for a church conference - so our range was limited.

I do remember an incident where my husband and I and another couple were venturing onto the underground tram. We had decided in advance that we wouldn't be our normal "loud American selves"..(at the time there was alot of thievery of tourists)..so the tram stops, all these people get off, and we quietly get on. We are standing there in the tram, and people are looking at us snikering. We were like, "huh"?! So, the underground tram starts to go, it goes 10 feet, and then it stops. We were at the end of the line. We watch the conductor walk past the car - without even a glance our way. We were dieing! Like, how long would we be trapped here. It was one of those magical moments. You know what I mean. We laughed hysterically at our situation! Needless to say, it was just a 15 minute break, and we had to keep straight faces when we got to the 1st stop (10 ft down the track) and perplexed riders got on. LOL! So much for "blending in"!

I love European countries - so full of history. So interesting. Did you ever make it to Budapest. Love that city!!! So beautiful!

I just made reservations for South Dakota for Memorial Day wk. end. I can't waittttttttttt!

Danita

Lori,

oops, thanks sooo much for all the info about the Big Island. We will be there in Sept. I can't wait!

hugs,
danita

Danita, your enthusiasm is infectious. I laughed out loud as I read your posts. I can tell you are full of life, girl. And on the move! South Dakota for Memorial Day weekend (where, what?) and Hawaii in the fall. Very cool. (Check out the National Park Service site in my last post for lots of info on Hawaii Volcanoes National Park : www.nps.gov . )

If your airline bumps you in Iceland, the best thing to do, which you did, is soak in the geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon. Awesome, isn't it? The kids and I stopped off in Iceland on our way back from Scotland, and it was a magical experience. I, too, would return in a heartbeat. As we waited in the Glasgow, Scotland airport for our flight to Reykyavik, Iceland, Adam ripped and busted the zipper on his down jacket. It was February. I figured the travel gods were testing me: "Okay, Lori, world traveler. How will you manage a trip to Iceland, one of the planet's coldest places, in February, with two young kids, one of whom no longer has a winter coat?"

"Hah!" I said. "Easy!" I took a giant, hooded fleece sweatshirt from my suitcase and made Adam wear it over the broken-zipper-jacket. He was warm as toast and grew so attached to the hoodie that he asked to keep it when we got home.

You should write your Finland tram story down. It's a classic. Those unexpected, seemingly banal travel encounters and experiences remain so vivid in our minds and come to define how we think about a place. I can just picture the four of you standing there, staying cool, "blending in." And you'll remember that 10-foot subway ride forever. What it's all about.

Yes, I've been to Budapest, one of the great beauty cities of Europe. The Danube floats between the two halves of the city -- the hills of Buda and the flats of Pest. The architecture alone is worth the journey.

Lori,

Thanks for enjoying my journey with me! :0)

I immediately checked out all the links you posted. Awesome!

We are going to Custer state park - staying there IN the park in a "camping cabin" on the lake.

We visited the area about two years ago..did Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. When we drove through Custer State Park, we were all like, "ahhhh, we should have stayed here".

So, this time we are. IN the park, WITH the buffalo (however you spell that). Have you been yet? There is a hike that we did last time (that we will do again) that was just magnificant! It's like you get to the top of the world. There was even a shaggy mountain goat up there to greet us! LOL

I can't believe how you have traveled all over the world WITH your children. What a life changing experience they have had so early in life! All Americans should travel overseas to see how good we have it in America!

Do you homeschool?

Danita