Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 133

Sir Walter at Night – Scotland

I took this photo with a Moto G5 (S) Plus which had the screen all broken. I used the phone because the snow killed my real camera two days earlier. I didn’t alter the photo at all.

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Where to Wander Next? Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show 2019

Being at the 2019 Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show
felt like a reunion with my travel friends.

It was great fun to walk the aisles and see familiar faces and places from around the world. It feels a bit like being a kid in a candy store as I want to go everywhere! I hope to see you next year at L.A.’s Favorite Travel Show on February 15 – 16, 2020 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, so you can discover your new favorite destination! You can: “Discover the World In One Weekend, All Under One Roof.”

I made a video from my day at the show so you can see who I spoke with and where I want to travel NEXT!

VIDEO: Visit the Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show with me.

Who did I see when I visited on Feb 16, 2019?

G Adventures has National Geographic Journeys and a new Wellness program that Kim told me about in Iceland! I have not been to Iceland yet. Maybe 2019 is my year to go!

MSC cruises is opening Ocean Cay in November 2019. Do you love to Cruise?

Do you want to go hiking this year? It is time to Visit Switzerland.

With Aggressor Adventures, you can go diving in the Red Sea near Egypt and then cruise from Luxor to Aswan.

You can hear speakers from Patricia Schultz author of 1000 Places to See Before you Die, to Kellee Edwards, Samantha Brown, Rick Steves, Pauline Frommer, Kelley Ferro and Angel Castellanos to get inspired by their travel knowledge!

Are you ready to visit Japan? Have you been to Tohoku? Let’s Go! ありがとうございますArigatou gozaimasu Thank you!

Bula! Meet me underwater in Fiji! I love the music, the friendly people and the beautiful sea.

Do you want to see more animals this year? It is time to go to Yosemite.

A quick drive from Los Angeles and you can be in Buellton! Want to join me?

Mark from Savinar luggage and I talked about packing cubes which are my favorite. I met Miss California, Mackenzie Freed, who loves compression sacks.

Where am I going next? I am going to Sandals Montego Bay in Jamaica! I cannot wait to go scuba diving.

What is on my bucket list? Papua New Guinea is one of the places I most want to go and explore. Did you know there are more than 800 languages in PNG?

Talofa! I went to Samoa and loved exploring the islands. We stayed at Monono Island where there are no dogs, no cars and you can walk around the whole island in the afternoon.

Fiji Islands can take you to the entire South Pacific including Samoa, the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

I visited the Solomon Islands in 2017 and wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal for Smithsonian and Saturday Evening Post.

Have you seen the gorgeous Cook Islands? I loved snorkeling in the amazing Aitutaki lagoon.

Do you want to road trip this year? Nevada has adventures including everything from skiing in the mountains to shopping to exploring in caves.

Stop by the Global Beats Stage and watch colorful cultural performances and dances. This year they even had a zipline!

Have you seen 40 shades of Green in Ireland? Aer Lingus flies every day in the summer from Los Angeles to Ireland.

Make sure to get your photo taken in the Visit Billings photo booth to have great memories of your day to take home and post on social media.

Check back with me to hear about my next adventure in Jamaica at Sandals Montego Bay.

At America’s Favorite Travel Show, you’ll:

Explore endless vacation options
Discover over 350+ destinations from around the globe
Plan your trip face-to-face with thousands of travel experts
Meet travel celebrities Samantha Brown, Rick Steves, and Pauline Frommer
Attend dozens of educational seminars on the Savvy Traveler and Destination Theaters
Immerse yourself in faraway cultures with song and dance on the Global Beats Stage
Enjoy fun for the whole family with zip line rides and SCUBA lessons in the dive pool
Plus, save big with exclusive show-only specials and trip giveaways

#FUN with #Travel #FRIENDS at #LosAngeles @TravAdventure Show!

Who did I see?#VIDEO: https://t.co/BPmzACG9Ex

More #photos @facebook https://t.co/Nat8haVpNE#adventure #explore #WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/COsiA7k7ZS

— Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) March 24, 2019

 

What happened at the Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show in

2019: Where to Wander Next?

2018: Are You Wondering Where You Should Travel Next?

2017: Click here to see who I met!  What Inspires You To Travel?

2016: Savvy Travelers visit the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show

 

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Happy 85th Birthday Dr. Jane Goodall and Thank you!

Happy Birthday Dr. Jane Goodall and Thank you!

Dr. Jane Goodall turns 85 today and she has changed the way we understand primates on our planet with her 50 years of love and research in Africa and around the world.

When she was a little girl, her mother “supported her love of animals that she was born with.” She brought earthworms to her bed to investigate them when she was one and a half and her mother helped her bring them back to the garden so they would live. When she was four and a half, she was on a family holiday in the country and went to visit the hens in the henhouse for four hours. Her parents were so worried the police were called but when she was found, her mother patiently listened to her observations about the animals.

Video: Dr. Jane Goodall at LA Zoo in celebration of United Nations International Day of Peace on September 23, 2018

Goodall explained to a group at the LA Zoo in celebration of United Nations International Day of Peace on September 23, 2018 about how her time in the henhouse is how we create scientists: “be curious, ask questions, search for the right answer, decide to find out for yourself, make mistakes, not give up and learning patience.”

Goodall wanted to learn more about animals and read books in the library and saved her pocket money to buy books at the second hand bookshop. When she was ten years old, she bought the book, “Tarzan of the Apes.” She told the crowd that she “fell passionately in love with the lord of jungle but he married the wrong Jane.”

Lisa Niver and Dr. Jane Goodall

She told us, “That was when my dream began. I will go to Africa when I grow up, I will live with wild animals and I will write books about them.” As with many dreamers who dream great dreams, Goodall told us, “Everybody laughed at me. They said, ‘Jane how will you go to Africa? You don’t have any money. The dark continent is far away.” Goodall explained that: “Girls did not have opportunities like that back then.”

Dr. Jane Goodall speaking at the LA ZOO for UN International Peace Day

But her mother said: “Jane, if you really want to do this thing, you are going to have to work really hard, take advantage of all opportunities but don’t give up.” And Goodall explained that “I have taken that message to young people all around the world particularly to children in deprived communities. I wish my mom knew how many children and people have come up to me and said: Jane you have taught me that since you did it, that I can do it too.”

Goodall stayed in school until she was eighteen but did not have enough money to go to college. When a school friend invited her to Africa, she worked for six months as a waitress to get enough money to go to Kenya by boat. There were no tourist planes at that time.

While in Kenya, she was introduced to Louis Leakey, the curator of the Natural History Museum, who spent his life searching for our earliest ancestors. Leakey offered her a job and suddenly she was surrounded by people who could answer all her questions about plants, birds, animals and insects. It was Leakey who decided Goodall was the person he had been looking for to study the animal most like us —the chimpanzee. She made the observation that a chimpanzee is capable of using a piece of grass to fish termites from their nest that he is capable of modifying an object by picking a leafy twig and stripping the leaves which is the beginning of tool making. At the time, it was believed that only humans used tools. This observation allowed Leaky to go to National Geographic Society and they agreed to provide money to carry on with the study with photographer, Hugo Van Larete to document their work. The recent Geographic Documentary called Jane, Making Use is footage from their work together.

Celebrating Roots and Shoots at the LA ZOO

Leaky arranged for Goodall to go Cambridge and work to receive aPhD in animal behavior. She told us her days at the research station were the best of her life. She spent hours every day in the rainforest understanding the interrelatedness of all living things.

In 1986, at a conference at the Chicago Academy of Science, there were people studying chimpanzees in 6 parts of Africa. Goodall learned about chimpanzees being treated badly in circuses, about research facilities doing painful procedures on chimpanzees and about forests disappearing. Goodall said she “went as a scientist planing to continue my wonderful life, but left as an activist and knew I had to do something.”

She visited medical research labs and saw the conditions, went to some of the bad zoos and led to a campaign to release all chimps into sanctuaries. She learned about the plight of African people living in and around chimpanzee habitats with crippling poverty, lack of good health and education facilities and very often the ethnic violence. She wanted to save the chimpanzees and the local villages. In 1994, they started programs with twelve villages and worked to restore fertility to farmland, create youth education programs, add more health facilities, create water management programs, develop microcredit for an environmental sustainable program, scholarships to keep girls in school after puberty and information about family planning. It was so successful that now 72 villages are involved and it has spread to 7 other African countries.

Goodall said that “people have become our partners in preserving the environment for future of their own children and not just to save the chimpanzees but to save the future of our environment for all.”

In 1991, Roots and Shoots began with 12 students in Goodall’s home in Dar El Salem, Tanzania. The students told her: “they were not just worried about wildlife, also worried about homeless children with no where to live, illegal dynamite fishing that was destroying the coral reefs, some were worried about the poaching in the national parks and why wasn’t the government prosecuting the poachers.”

Dr. Jane Goodall speaking at the LA Zoo

Her main message has been: “Every single one of us makes an impact on this planet every single day. We all have a choice as to what kind of impact we are going to make. Are we going to leave the world a little better after today or don’t we care?”

Goodall explained that she does have hope for the future. There are now young people participating in Roots and shoots in 80 countries, with 150,000 active groups and it is growing all the time. There are 2,000 groups in China, and it is growing fast in Canada, Latin America, across Europe and in many African countries. The first groups have just started in the Middle East. She continued: “Young people who are so passionate and so determined to make change and so empowered and you cannot help but have hope. It gives me my greatest reason for hope. We are not the only beings with personalities, minds and emotions. It is changing how we think and act each day.”

Dr. Jane Goodall speaking at the LA Zoo

Goodall told us “if we get together, if we each realize that each day we make a difference, and collectively we make a huge difference, if we realize at least in democracies, we can influence the government and as purchasers we can influence business in the way it conducts its business, there is a lot of hope in the future but only if we all get together. The young people and Roots and Shoots that is our great hope for the future, the young people, their parents and their teachers. We can make this a better world.”

Happy Birthday Dr. Jane Goodall and
thank you for all you have done to change the world.
Lisa Niver at the LA Zoo to hear Dr. Jane Goodall

I heard Dr. Jane Goodall speak at the LA ZOO for UN International Day of Peace on September 23, 2018.

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Palm Tree Heaven, Samoa

I took this photo in Faleoupo on Savai’i island in Samoa. There is a peninsular on the island which seems to be entirely made up of palm trees, it was quite magical to walk through. This photo was taken on a Panasonic g7 with a 12-35 2.8.

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Who is a cruise expert for Travel and Leisure? Lisa Niver

Thank you to Travel and Leisure and Hannah Lott-Schwartz  for including me in: “10 Amazing Ways to See the U.S. by Cruise Ship” “Domestic cruising is brilliant,” says Lisa Niver, a Virtuoso travel advisor and cruising expert who spent seven years working on cruise ships. “For a while, travelers felt they had to fly far away to see something interesting or exciting, and now they’re realizing how much the United States and nearby has to offer.”
One major benefit: Because you won’t have to deal with jetlag for the most part, you won’t spend part of your vacation in recovery mode. In some cases, you can even drive to your departure port. “Everything is just easy,” Niver says. “You get on the ship, you unpack once, and you go to many destinations.”

Lisa Niver worked and lived on cruise ships for seven years for Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Renaissance Cruises.

See some of her recent cruise voyages by video with Norwegian Bliss, Carnival Breeze, Fathom Travel to the DR, Christmas Markets on the Romantic Danube with Viking Cruises

VIDEO PLAYLIST: CRUISE WITH LISA

 

 

Bio:

Lisa Ellen Niver, M.A. Education, is a television host, travel journalist as well as a passionate artist, educator and writer who has explored 101 countries, 6 continents and sailed on cruise ships for seven years on the high seas and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of We Said Go Travel which was read in 212 countries in 2018 and named #3 on the top 1000 Travel Blogs. Find her talking travel at KTLA TV and in her We Said Go Travel videos with over 900,000 views on her YouTube channel. She has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on both Twitter and Facebook, has over 140,000 followers across social media and ran fifteen travel competitions publishing over 2500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.


She has been a finalist for five Southern California Journalism Awards in the past two years and won an award for her Jewish Journal article. Niver has written for AARP, American Airways, Delta Sky, En Route (Air Canada), Hemispheres (United Airlines), Jewish Journal, Luxury Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Myanmar Times, National Geographic, POPSUGAR, Robb Report, Saturday Evening Post, Scuba Diver Life, Sierra Club, Ski Utah, Smithsonian, Trivago, USA Today 10best, Wharton Magazine and Yahoo. She is writing a book, “Brave Rebel: 50 Adventures Before 50,” about her most recent travels and challenges. Look for her underwater SCUBA diving, in her art studio making ceramics or helping people find their next dream trip.

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Fewalake: The paradise -Nepal

Samsung J5

No filter

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La Maison des Têtes in Colmar, France

Taken with a Canon Rebel ESL1 with a 50mm prime Canon lens and edited with Lightroom.

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Watch me on TV! Thank you KTLA Los Angeles!

Travel Advisor Lisa Niver on KTLA TV with Lynette Romero and Mark Mester. Spring into Summer Travel with Rocky Mountaineer
Thank you KTLA, Lynette Romero, Mark Mester, Ashley Adams-Regan, Angel Kim, Kimberly Cornell  and the entire news team for welcoming me back to KTLA.

I loved sharing RockyMountaineer train travel with you. Thank CHOO!
Lynette Romero, Lisa Niver and Mark Mester on KTLA TV March 31. 2019
Did you see us on TV yesterday? Watch it now: Click here
Lisa Niver at KTLA TV March 31 2019
What was the KTLA Spring into Summer Giveaway? First Passage to the West Classic for two people in Rocky Mountaineer’s Goldleaf Service.

Get your Rocky Mountaineer Questions answered here in my post that answers all of my “dumb” questions. Having worked for years on a cruise ship, when I started to think about my first Canadian Rockies train journey, I realized I had many questions.  I thought you might appreciate the answers here and let me know any other questions you have.

Special Hotel Night Promotion book by June 28, 2019: First Passage to the West Classic

“Available for guests traveling in 2019 season, blackout dates apply. Guests booking qualifying packages of five days (four nights) or more receive one free hotel night in Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary or Victoria. The free hotel can be applied as a credit within the package (to one of the four nights – however, Victoria is excluded from this), OR it can be applied at the beginning or end of the package to extend the journey by one night. Bookings can be made by contacting Rocky Mountaineer or your local travel agent.”

This was my fourth time on KTLA in 2019.
Learn more about my earlier segments:

Critics Choice Awards with Waldorf Astoria and Glamsquad

President’s Day Founding Fathers and Mothers Giveaway in Philadelphia with Visit Philly
Lisa Niver on KTLA with Lu Parker and Glen Walker
Oscars Countdown to Gold with Kimpton La Peer and Glamsquad
and from 2018
Thrill and Chill in Palm Springs
Lisa Niver Live on KTLA with Lu Parker, Mark Mester, Kaj Goldberg.
Valentine’s Giveaway to Ogden

Thanksgiving Giveaway Getaway to Napa Valley

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Spring Into Summer Train Travel with Lisa NiverThe post ...

Spring Into Summer Train Travel with Lisa Niver

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Tunes in Dunes, Rajasthan, India

Used Nikon D90 DSLR with 18-105Vr Kit lens

Edited by Adobe Photoshop CS 5 Extended

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