Laurie McAndish King

Wandering in Bali

Spud Hilton, Travel Editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, says, “Like renting a frangipani-scented hut, kicking back and sharing the sensory wonderland that is Bali with a bunch of your fast friends — if your friends knew how to tell really good stories.”

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The Western Med: See before you go

From megalithic ruins that predate Stonehenge by 1,500 years to a futuristic Arts and Sciences complex designed by one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary architects, from Tunisian carpets to rococo cathedrals, and from the Moorish marvel that is the Alhambra to what some believe is the Holy Grail—the western Mediterranean is home to many […]

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Wandering in Costa Rica

Wandering in Costa Rica evokes the rainforest: brilliant butterflies and twisting lianas, poison dart frogs and tropical quetzals, fearsome snakes and opulent orchids. And it introduces Ticos: determined farmers, a menacing outlaw, kindly caregivers, a machete-wielding jungle guide, and a Monkey Whisperer, to name a few. The intimate voices …

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Olmec exhibit at the de Young

Considered the mother culture of Mesoamerica and recognized as America’s oldest civilization, the people known today as the Olmec developed an iconic and sophisticated artistic style as early as the second millennium BCE. Their monumental head sculptures remain among ancient America’s most awe-inspiring and beautiful masterpieces.

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Volga River Cruise: See Before You Go

Discover charming historic towns along the Volga River in this 100-page, full-color book. The view is superb from the elegant Volga Dream, the most beautiful cruise ship on the river: magnificent Russian Orthodox churches with their “onion domes,” beautiful lacquerware crafts, the Vodka Museum, traditional wooden architecture …

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Mandrogy Collective

Even though there is an extensive Vodka Museum at Mandrogy, there are two inviolable rules: Nobody drinks alcohol and nobody steals in the village. This collective on the Volga River is complex of farmstead-type ornate houses, craft workshops, a school, a mill, horse stables, and a rabbit farm.

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Keys to the Outback

By Laurie McAndish King. The instant we climbed out of the car, flies covered us. Making themselves at home on my bare arms, crawling up my legs, doing their best to creep into my eyes and mouth. Billions of them live there; maybe trillions. There are more than 650 separate species…

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Apulia, Italy: See Before You Go

This full-color, 76-page book includes Apulia’s delicious and healthful culinary and spa traditions, charming and historic trulli homes, hand-made ceramics at Grottaglia, singer Al Bano’s (who popularized the song Volare) personal castle, Matera’s iconic sassi homes, idyllic hilltop towns, churches, museums, and castles …

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Best Mother’s Day Present: Napa

Napa Valley is more than a place to taste excellent wine and enjoy famous California cuisine; it’s also sublimely beautiful, with roses alongside winding roads, Spanish moss dripping from sturdy white oaks, and red-tailed hawks soaring above charming towns and whispering ghost pines.

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Searching for Sheela-Na-Gig

By Laurie McAndish King. Sheela-na-gig’s invitation is fraught with danger. Our relationship began with my quick peek at a wildly pornographic image in Thomas Cahill’s popular book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. An ancient goddess, Sheela is rendered symbolically, stripped of all but the essential features. She is naked, bald, and breastless, and reaches both arms behind her bent legs, using…

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