Travel Tips Galore! |
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Odd name, you think? My sister once said, "If you take a trip with Mark and Judy... or if you explore like Mark and Judy, you're on a Mouse's Tour." And it grew from there...
And oh yea... MouseToursTravels! Follow along and learn from our tips!
We started roaming the world as a team 41 years ago when we got married. We’ve been fortunate enough to visit all seven continents since then, and we’ve loved every minute of it... and really... it IS easier than you think...
Budget constraints have you just reading and dreaming for now? We've got stories to entertain and entice you to dream... perhaps for trips in the future.
Friends always ask for tips on how we do it, so we’ll try to answer some of the questions that come up to help with your trip planning:
- Where to go? How to choose?
- Do you need a tour? Would you prefer to be independent?
- Can custom tour planning be affordable?
- What to pack? (We really think it should be one carry-on each!)
- Need packing tips to deal with today's security alerts?
- What about safety and health? Do I need shots?
- What are the people like?
- What is a visa? Do I need one?
- What about that foreign money? And the language?
We’re not rugged adventurers with tons of money... just an ordinary couple with an ordinary income, but perhaps an extraordinary curiosity about the world. With a few budget tips, any holiday can become more affordable. If we can roam the world and have these adventures, anyone can. Our tips will help you.
The world is a wonderful place--more welcoming than you probably think it is if all you do is watch the news at home. If you're open to people, they will invite you into their homes and hearts. Let us be your cyberguides to the world.
After five years I still say we're learning this web site business. We write about where we've been and tips we've learned and suggestions as we experience and think of them... and there is still so much we want to tell you!
We keep adding international travel tips and stories about destinations, so the best way for you to find something on our site might just be to search for it and keep checking back! There are pages to direct you to packing tips and tips on world destinations and trip planning, but we've almost given up on our site maps.... and we just use search ourselves!
and let Google find our page on it for you...
...That's what we have to do now. Really!
I've always said all of our travels were preparing us for something... and we're still searching for that, but... What are we doing while we're searching? We're visiting more countries and adding all the time to this website, so please come back and visit often.
This site has grown beyond our hopes and dreams for it... and all by following our passion. It just amazes me... but you, our visitors, inspire me to write more.
Grab your mouse and start clicking. Hopefully our globe-trotting tips and stories will inspire you.
Perhaps some of the destinations we’ve been to will click with you, and you’ll be hooked, wanting to visit them for yourself.
Here is our mission... to inspire everyone to experience other countries and cultures... because we believe that travel promotes understanding and understanding promotes peace.
Join us, Judy and Mark 
We add pages all the time. Those listed below come with links and descriptions for quick reference. Most are also on our navigation bar above. Some are listed in sections called "Navigate Our Site" in the right column on some pages.
Not all of our pages are listed here, so if you have a specific question or destination in mind, please use the Google Search we have on each page. It will take you to the pages on our site that we hope will give you answers and travel ideas.
| MouseTours Travel BlogNew Tips and Stories From Our World Travels Mousetours Travel Blog keeps you up to date on our latest travel tips and trip ideas on mousetourstravels.com Changes and updates, readers additions, adventure stories too. |
| Read Our Recent Travels or Share Yours When we travel and are having fun, it is hard to find time to write the whole story for you. Here we can post our recent travels, adventures and tips - and you can share yours. |
| International Travel Tips - To Help With Your Dream Trip Our international travel tips - grouped by category to help you find the tip that will help with YOUR trip.... trip planning, hotels, health tips, budget tips and more... |
| Tips on Visas and Passports You're responsible for visas and passports when you travel abroad. It's up to you to know the rules for each country. Tips on your passport needs and when you need a visa. |
| Your Custom Tour Planning List for International Travel What to do; where to look; what to decide--a custom tour planning list will help plan and get ready for your custom tour. |
| A Custom Tour -- How We Planned Bhutan, China and Other International Trips Tips on how to plan a custom tour. Travel with a small group of friends allows you to see what you want; have more flexibility; and it doesn't have to be much more expensive. |
| When To Go On Your Trip? Best Time To Go Depends On Destination, Weather, Goals When to go? Once you've decided on a destination, you need to research when the weather will be good, when then animals migrate, when the crowds are gone or when the festivals are. |
| Free Travel Search -- Legitimate Search Engine Results If you can't find the free travel advice you need on our site, simply enter your search term on this free travel search page and search our site or the Web for more results. Free travel brochures too! |
| A Packing List For Any Kind Of Trip - Tips So You Pack Right For Your Travels Our packing list leads you to tips for getting everything you need ready for your trip. What are the basics you need? For hot weather? For cold weather? Medications? Cosmetics? |
| Carry-On Packing Tips - You CAN Pack Everything in Carry-on Size Bags! Your trip will be more enjoyable if you travel light. Carry-on packing tips on what and how to pack, and our reasons for thinking one carry-on each is best. |
| Packing For Road Trips When You Start By Flying There Packing for road trips is no different than packing for any international destination if you're flying to your starting point. Read our tips... |
| Travel Security Alert Packing Guide - Tips To Comply With Airport Security Rules Stay alert to what you can take and where to pack it. With terrorists and plots in the news, our travel security alert packing guide will help you prepare for your flight. |
| Travel Document Checklist A travel document checklist is a good reminder of what you need to take on your trip. Passports and visas, but what else? Our tips... |
| Make A Pre-Departure Checklist A pre-departure checklist will help you remember the things you need to do before you travel. Here are some of our tips. |
| Airport Arrival -- What Happens Now? What to expect upon your airport arrival in a foreign country. |
| Airport Departure -- How to Get Home What to expect for your airport departure from a foreign country. |
| International Travel Health Vaccinations -- Do I Need to Take Shots to Travel? Which international travel health vaccinations to get. How much time you need to get all your travel shots. |
| International Travel Health Tips - Stay Healthy For A Great Trip Which vaccinations to get, which prescriptions to fill... International travel health tips about diseases to be on the alert for, the water, jet lag and more. |
| Are Malaria Pills Really Necessary? Which Anti-Malarial Pills Are Best? Malaria is a problem in many areas around the world. Don't ignore this. Advice on where to find if you need malaria pills for travel and which anti-malarial medication to take. |
| I Do Testimonials for Pepto-Bismol for Travel Health An ounce (or two) of prevention...... but in this case literally..... Pepto-Bismol can help keep you healthy no matter where you travel. |
| Pepto-Bismol in Bhutan for Travel Health Pepto-Bismol keeps us in the pink in Bhutan. Bad pun intened! Lots of red hot chilis, yak butter tea, and yak meat could unsettle your stomach, but not with Pepto-Bismol. |
| Travel Advisories - Travel Warnings or Travel Alerts: Plan Your Trip Carefully Travel Advisories can be warnings or alerts. Governments issue them to warn you and keep you safe... Learn to read between the lines... what to do with each... |
| Foreign Travel Makes You Learn Foreign travel is a true education. You learn about foods and fashions and cultures. Foreign isn't strange... it's just different. Wonderfully different. |
| Travel Tips on Money Matters How to change money. How to protect your cash and valuables. A few tips on credit cards, ATMs, and tipping. |
| Dealing With A Foreign Language. Don’t Speak The Language? How To Communicate Don't let a foreign language be a barrier to travel. Travel with a language guide book or a translator app, a sense of humor and a willingness to makes mistakes. Locals will love you for trying. |
| Border Crossings - What to Expect at Foreign Borders Border crossings can be easy to frustrating depending on where in the world you are and how you arrive at the border... What to expect... |
| Rental Car Travel Tips We love traveling with a rental car. Tips on renting or not. What to expect... questions to ask yourself and the rental car agency before you reserve. |
| Worldwide Road Trips - Exploring By Car Driving vacations are fun, and that includes worldwide road trips. Our tips to encourage you to start driving and explore the world by car... |
| Foreign Toilets -- What to Expect When You Travel Foreign toilets may be really different than you're used to at home.... some notes about what to expect. |
| Hotel Tips - Hotel Size? Rating Systems? Reservation? Security? What To Look For Hotel tips to help you choose. What kind? To reserve or not? What about hidden fees? What are hotels called in foreign counties? Explore these questions. |
| Adventure Cruises -- Sometimes the Only Way to Get There Sometimes adventure cruises are the only way to explore off the beaten track or experience a scenic wonder. |
| Try A Tented Camp -- For Adventure and Eco-tourism A tented camp? What is it? Why stay in one? It's not the tent camping of your youth.... They're sophisticated and ecologically friendly. Tented camps we've visited around the world. |
| African Tented Camps Safari You dream of Africa. You want to go on safari, but they want to put you in African tented camps? Don't worry, you'll love it!! See tented camps we've visited and why we think you'll love them too. |
| Road Trip Ideas Around the World If you love road trips, how about some road trip ideas for driving vacations all over the world... |
| Europe Travel Tips And Itinerary Ideas For Your Trip To Europe Travel stories about the places we've visited will give you Europe travel tips... to help you plan your trip. |
| Africa Dream List You dream of Africa..., but it's a BIG continent. Do you want a safari or something else? Our Africa dream list gives you tips and stories to help decide where you want to go. |
| Travel In America - USA and All of North and South America Travel in America starts in the USA... and explores our some of neighbors north and south too. USA travel tips and stories about destinations around both North and South America. |
| Our Country List Enthusiastic travelers keep a country list to keep track of where they've been. Here's ours and links to pages we've written about some of the places we've visited. |
| Norway... Finding Family and Visiting Friends Finding where your ancestors came from or visiting friends can make a trip much richer. We did both in Norway... Itinerary ideas for driving. |
| Scotland... Finding OUR Scotland Castle MacEwen Trip hook for Scotland? The Scotland Castle MacEwen. Clan history. Travel can make you feel like an explorer and leave you exhilarated when you find unexpected treasures... or your castle. |
| Australian Wine Tasting Road Trip Australia is a big exciting country. Australian wine tasting is fun and easy... a focus makes your trip more interesting. Why not wine tasting? |
| The Island of Borneo? Go Ahead, Explore It! Beautiful beaches, interesting cultures, primeval rain forests, giant flowers, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants and more. Sounds wild! The island of Borneo has it all. |
| Turtle Islands Borneo We went to Borneo to find orangutans; what we found first was Turtle islands Borneo where Green Turtles rule. |
| Our Botswana Adventure.... To Inspire Yours In truth we've had more than one Botswana adventure... we love Botswana. Fewer tourists give you an old time safari experience. |
| Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, the Pantanal, and Iguazu Falls Brazil is more than Carnival and beaches. See Rio with its beaches and mountains, but there's more. We explored the wild, wild west of the Pantanal and the jungles around Iguazu falls. |
| China -- A Great Little Corner of the World? China is a huge collection of great little corners of the world if you take it city by city. Where to start? Here are our travel tips for a custom tour. |
| Israel On Your Own Israel on your own is easier than you might think. Tips and suggestions for independent travel in Jerusalem and Israel... |
| Jordan! Petra! The Dead Sea! The Red Sea! Travel in the Middle East? Jordan is an easy place to begin and easy to do on your own. What's in Jordan? Petra, Jerash, and Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, the Red Sea and more. |
| Madagascar - Land of Endemics Madagascar is a real destination. It's not just a cute movie; the lemurs and chameleons as well as the fantastic scenery make for a wonderful adventure. |
| Panama Canal Drive Most people choose a Panama Canal Cruise, but if you're not a cruise person, a Panama Canal drive lets you see much of the canal and more of the country of Panama. |
| We Found Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda The Virunga Mountains of Rwanda are home to Mountain Gorillas. East Africa is known for safaris on sweeping plains, but there's more. Are Mountain Gorillas on your Africa Dream List? |
| Your Travel Tips - Please Share Them Your travel tips are just as important as ours... we can't think of everything. Reader travel tips help everyone, so share your travel tips with us and your fellow travelers. |
| Mouse Travel Stories Mouse travel stories - a place for YOU to share travel adventures and for our stories that don't fit anywhere else. Everyone has travel stories. Read ours and share yours here. It's easy. |
| Clan MacEwan Stories or Clan MacEwen Stories Clan MacEwan stories... or is it Clan MacEwen or... Clan Ewen? You tell us! We found Castle MacEwen and lifted a pint of McEwan's and told you. Now here's a place to share your Clan story. |
| Share Amusing Confusing Roadsigns Or Any Funny Sign Amusing confusing roadsigns? Share funny road signs here. Share ANY funny signs... We changed this page for more fun. We need keep travel safe and heed signs, but not take things too seriously. |
| Contact Us -- MouseToursTravels If you have questions, comments, suggestions or stories, use this form to contact us. |
| About Us: Our Travel Roots, Adventures and Tips and How We Learned to Share Them Who are we to give you travel tips? Experience counts. Here's our travel background, how we've learned the tips we want to share with you.... And how we learned to write this website. |
| About Us - Our New Life of Travel and Writing About us and our travel lifestyle. How we've traveled in the past and how our website will help us keep on traveling into the future. |
| Interesting Travel Links for More Fun and Information We've found interesting travel links -- they're scattered through our site, but here's one convenient page to find additional travel information for more fun in more corners of the world. |
| Frequently Asked Questions One of the most frequently asked questions... Have you been to all those places? The answer is YES, and we answer more of your frequent questions here... |
| Financial Disclosures and Disclaimers Disclosures and disclaimers. The legal stuff. Our financial disclosure about ads and affiliates, why we use ads, why our advice is only advice and why you need to think for yourself. |
| Privacy Policy Our privacy policy. We publish this to let you know that we value your privacy. |
| Mouse Site Map Our Mouse Site Map gives you one more way to travel the world with a click of your mouse. |
| Mousemap for Travel Stories to Inspire You Our Mousemap for travel stories -- a site map. With a click of your mouse, travel with us to some of the places we've been... may our stories about these destinations inspire you to travel. |
| 2007 Retrospective -- A Way To End One Year and Plan The Next Our 2007 Retrospective reflects on how lucky we're been to explore so much of the world and share it on our website. How we wrote the website and where we've traveled -- may this inspire you. |
| Our 2008 Travels Where our 2008 travels took us. Domestic adventures and international trips to Jordan and Madagascar. How to share travels with a website of your own. |
| Carry-On Size - How Big Can A Carry-on Bag Be? Carry-on size for luggage matters now more than ever with airlines charging to check bags. How big can a carry on bag be? We help you figure out what you can take onboard. |
| US Travel Authorization for Visa Waiver Countries Travelers to the United States need to be aware of the US Travel Authorization program. |
| South Africa - More Here Than Just Safaris! South Africa has great safari camps and wildlife, but it also has beautiful beaches, great wine country to explore, and plants that will drive a gardener wild... |
| TSA Self-Selecting Security Lanes TSA Self-Selecting Security Lanes are meant to speed up security and avoid stress at busy airports. |
| Find Other McEwans We asked for Clan McEwen stories, and many of you wanted to find other McEwans, so we're putting up this page to help.... |
| Site Sponsors Meet our site sponsors and partners. We believe in full disclosure and we want you to know who is advertising on our pages. |
| Airport Security Checkpoints - How To Dress And Pack For Them How to dress and pack to get through those airport security checkpoints. Tips on what to wear... and not wear... and how to pack. |
| Our 2010 Travels Our 2010 travels give a quick view of the places we visited. With links to some of our travel stories.... |
| Travel Preparation Checklist - To Help You Get Ready to Vacation We told you why you should use one, here's our travel preparation checklist... |
| Collecting Passport Stamps - One Way to Collect Travel Memories Collecting passport stamps is not a thing of the past... you may not get them in Europe, but you can get plenty in other parts of the world. How to get a bunch in Africa and great travel memories... |
| 2011 Travels Spanning the Globe Our 2011 travels took us to new and wondrous countries around the world. Brief descriptions show these countries are easy to travel in... |
New! Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Did it help with your travel planning and preparation? Eager to leave on that next vacation? Please leave your tips or comments in the box below.
Try It For Yourself - Risk Free Psst... What's BB2? Read the buzz...  We want you to feel comfortable out in the world and on our pages - so surf away in your own language... The almonds and mustard are blooming The grapes will soon bud out  It's Fall in the Southern Hemisphere... Great time for an Australia Wine Tasting Drive. It's a great time to travel almost anywhere in the world! Are you planning your travels? We're planning a custom tour on the TranSiberian/Trans-Mongolian Railway. We'll travel for a month using our packing lists. Our Mixed Weather Packing List should be perfect. You too can get great travel clothes and supplies at... Magellans Travel Supplies Threads 4 Thought and Eco friendly clothing At Exofficio Do YOU need some trip ideas? Europe Travel Ideas Africa Dream List Travel In America Foreign Is Fun - Not Scary! Travel Planning International Travel Planning Tips Guidebooks can help you plan What About Your Passport? Time to get one... or renew... We'll need visas for Russia and China. What about you? Answers about Passports and Visas Get Planning and Get Going! We always say shop and compare at several sources. Here are some of our favorites... Cheap airfare, hotels, car rentals, vacations and cruises at Expedia.com! All the best hotel sites in one place right here. Hotels Combined... We are not travel agents, but we're affiliated with these and other great companies. What's Yours? We have lots of fun traveling... and we've had lots of fun creating this website. It earns us money too! No get-rich quick scheme here.... just honest pages about our travels. Is this something you've ever wanted to try? Are you passionate or knowledgeable about something? An expert even? Boats ...or... business? Plants ...or... parenting? Anything! Turn it into a web business. Click on the SBI TV icon below and learn how a new life could be yours...
Why NOT you? If you're like me, you like to talk to a real person and get answers to your questions... We get that! Honest answers... honestly ...Promise! Like Our Site Top Left Like Our Fanpage Below Thank You!  "Your carry-on packing tips helped me so much. I never thought I could pack light enough, but with your packing tips and your packing lists, I CAN do it. I thank you, and my husband thanks you!" --Debbie, Florida "I love your website! It's easy to read, informative and engaging. I will come back and explore it over and over because I know there will be interesting things I missed the first time." --Dave, California "I tried Pepto-Bismol on a recent trip, and it really worked. Now I want to read all of your travel tips." --Joe, New York "Thanks for this site.... it's great stuff!" --Jim, Canada "Thanks again for the wonderful information, especially as regards motion sickness." -- Didi, Oregon "I just started reading and love your site! I haven't even read much, but I had to stop and tell you 'yeah!' I am excited to pack well for this trip and start planning the next one!" --Natalie, U.K. "What a wonderful discovery your site is! We are planning a trip in China and would love to follow parts of your itinerary..." --Lynda, New Zealand "I found your website recently, and have been reading stories of your travels with great interest. Your travel stories and itineraries helped me plan my trip to Brazil." --Lindsay, U.K. "Thank you for taking the time to share your video. I traveled alone to Bhutan and now I can show my husband what he missed." --Violet, Washington "I keep coming back to your web site. I love that I can travel all over the world with you! I recommended your site to a friend of mine who has been to many of the same places you have." --Boyce, California |
