Solomon's Castle

Located practically in the middle of nowhere (and about 1 hour from Sarasota), Solomon's Castle is quite the unique experience. Created by Howard Solomon, this castle is entirely made out of recycled material. Tours are offered on the hour, and are quite humorous, as your tour guide leads you through a museum inside, which mostly contains Solomon's art. The tour is pun-filled and very enjoyable. In addition, you'll even be led through a part of the residence, where Solomon and his wife still live today.

While this is far off the beaten path, it is well worth the trek and we'd highly recommend it!

Biosphere 2

The Biosphere 2 is quite a sight to see. If you take a tour, you'll get inside of it, and see how the biospherians lived (back in the 1990's). It's quite intriguing to see this environment that is completely separated from the rest of the world. This will be unlike any other tour you have ever taken and is quite educational. If you saw the movie Bio-Dome, this will definitely give you some flashbacks to it.

Make sure to get here early in the day, as the tours do fill up. You don't want to make the long trek here (about an hour from downtown Tucson) to find it sold out for the day.

Platypus Wine Tours

For our day exploring the wineries of Napa, we decided to use Platypus Wine Tours to take us around. This eliminated the need to drink and drive. The shuttle bus was very comfortable and the seats were laid out in a "U" shape making it easy for everyone to converse and get to know each other.

Our driver was very friendly and informative. She took us to Mumm Napa, Tudal Winery, Rutherford Ranch Winery (which included a chocolate tasting) and Razi Winery. All of the vineyards selected were very nice, and of course had great wine.

In addition, after the second winery, we had a really nice picnic lunch, provided by Platypus Wine Tours. This is definitely a service we would use again and would recommend to others.

Jelly Belly Factory

The Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA is a great place for anyone who is a fan of their jelly beans. During the tour you'll learn both about the history of the company, as well as the process to make the jelly beans. You'll also see artwork that has been made with their jelly beans including portraits of Mickey Mouse and various politicians.

Be aware though, that the line for the tour can get quite long. We had to wait about an hour for our tour. And then the tour itself takes about one hour. It is definitely worth the wait though, and you can also get a free sampling of jelly beans before and after your tour.

Viator's Vatican City Tour

For our visit to Vatican City, we decided to go on a tour with Viator on their "Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's" tour. This allows visitors to skip the gigantic line that can form in the high season.

Our tour guide was very friendly and spoke excellent English. He was very informative throughout the tour, told interesting stories, some fun jokes, pointed out some interesting things about the paintings and buildings -- overall it was worth it to pay for his guidance during our visit.

When in Rome, a visit to Vatican City is a must. During the high season, a tour like this definitely is worth it. If you're visiting during the off season, it isn't as necessary as there isn't a long line to enter, but it's still something enjoyable and educational.

The Old Jameson Distillery

Jameson is a name synonomous with Ireland. Their Irish Whiskey is world famous, and for good reason...it's an excellent whiskey. When in Dublin, you can take a guided tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. The tour starts with a video on the history of Jameson done in a humorous fashion. From there your guide will take you through the process of how the whiskey gets made from start to finish.

At the beginning of the tour, your guide will ask for volunteers for something later in the tour...you should definitely volunteer for this! You'll find out at the end of the tour that you get to participate in a tasting of Jameson versus other whiskeys. It's definitely fun, and the whole tour is worth the time, even for people who aren't whiskey fans.

National Leprechaun Museum

The National Leprechaun Museum was a surprisingly fun time. It isn't your typical museum where you just look at a bunch of artifacts and exhibits. Instead, you go on a guided tour through various rooms and your tour guide will tell you Irish myths as you travel into rooms that make you feel like you're in those myths. You'll get to experience what it is like to be a leprechaun in a room made of giant furniture, travel through a rainbow, see a pot of gold and more.

It was a great time and our tour guide was excellent. This museum is perfect for children and adults a like! Definitely make this a place to stop at during your visit to Dublin.

Casino Marino

Located right outside the center of Dublin, the Casino Marino looks pretty cool from the outside. In order to see the inside though, you must do a guided tour. When we took the guided tour, we found the tour guide to be un-impressive, and the inside of the house itself didn't have too much to see. The tour guide explained what was located inside the building back when people lived on the estate and used the casino for entertaining, but that was about it. Most of the artwork has been removed from the building and what is there is either modern art or replicas from the time the casino was in use.

The most interesting item was in the basement where you enter, a model of what the area looked like when the estate was in use, and what is now an urban center of Dublin city.

While this is free to do with a Heritage Card, it's something we'd still suggest passing on.

US Naval Academy Tour

The United States Naval Academy is an exclusive higher education school for the future officers of our Navy and Marines.  Many people apply each year, but few are accepted as the educational and physical requirements are strict.  When visiting Annapolis, you can take a tour of the facilities and learn what life is like for the students.

The campus is gorgeous, and is located right in the Annapolis harbor area, an easy walk to the main touristy area.  The tour will last about 90 minutes and you'll get to see a good amount of the campus.  Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable and proud of the academy.

This is definitely the highlight of any trip to Annapolis, and anyone with any interest in the US military would enjoy their time spent here.

Covered Bridge Tour of Lancaster County

Bitzer's Covered Bridge

Written by Leann Pettit
A lovely (and free!) afternoon out with the family is to spend it driving through Lancaster County discovering the covered bridges and learning the history that goes along with them. We chose a few of the bridges to explore in the Ephrata area (check the interactive map for the bridge locations!).

Bucher's Mill Covered Bridge: Located at Rose Hill Rd. and Cocalico Creek Rd in Ephrata, is hidden amongst some trees along Cocalico Creek Rd. The original bridge was destroyed in 1881 and the bridge that stands today is the second shortest open to traffic.
Bitzer's Covered Bridge: At the intersection of Cats Back Rd. and (aptly named) Covered Bridge Rd. in Ephrata, this bridge is also known as Martin's Mill Bridge and is Lancaster County's oldest covered bridge that is still in use today.
Red Run Covered Bridge: Located at the Red Run Rd. and Martin Church Rd. in Ephrata, next to Red Run Campsite, Red Run Covered Bridge is privately owned and no longer open to public traffic.
White Hall Mill Bridge/Weaver's Mills Covered Bridge: Weaverland Rd. at Agape Ct., in Morgantown, was built in 1878.
Pool Forge Covered Bridge: Nolt Rd. and S. Pool Forge Rd. in Morgantown. According to PA Dutch Country, Pool Forge Covered Bridge is where James Buchanan met his fiance.

Looking for more covered bridges or more driving tours? Check out Pennsylvania Covered Bridges and PA Dutch Country for their suggestions.

Rosenbach Museum & Library

The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia is located on Delancey Place between 20th and 21st street.  This hidden gem of the city offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the Rosenbach family, as well as see their extremely rare book collection, which is what I found to be the highlight of the tour, which lasts about 1 hour.  The tour is given by a very knowledgeable guide, which definitely helps to enhance the experience.  You'll get to see rare books such as Alice In Wonderland, Moby Dick, Ulysses and The Bible. The reason why these books are rare are explained on the tour, which is what makes this visit so unique

Green Day's American Idiot

Green Day's American Idiot is a top notch rock opera.  If you're a fan of rock music, this is definitely a performance you should see.  Basically, Green Day fans will already know the music, but seeing it on stage is completely different than just listening to the album.  There is so much going on during the performance, you'll find it difficult to see absolutely everything and all of your visual and hearing senses will be pleased.

The show is currently touring around America, so be sure to check out if it's coming to a city near you.

Bear Fever in Boyertown, PA

There are bears, of all shapes and sizes, all over Boyertown, PA, as well as in neighboring towns. Many of the bears are in or on private property, a number of them you will drive past unsuspecting. However, there is a map and addresses for all the bears available on the Bear Fever website.

The largest grouping of public bears is along Philadelphia Ave., which is Boyertown's main strip, and also has parking.

At Fairview Cemetery in Boyertown, just past the intersection of Philadelphia Ave. and Reading Ave., is G.I. Joe Bear, a memorial for servicemen and definitely worth seeing.

Harpoon Brewery

For $5 per person, you can take a tour of Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT. The approximately 1 hour tour takes you from beginning to end of the brewing process: from bringing in the water to bringing the kegs into the bar.

Throughout the tour, you're able to taste "green beer" - beer that has not been filtered or had the carbonation correction and tastes very different from the beer you get at a bar or purchase from a distributor.

You'll also learn how Harpoon Brewery keeps the beer consistent between their Windsor, VT location and their Boston, MA locations.

At the end of your tour, you'll be able to taste Harpoon beers, including their IPA, the UFO lines, and more. Our tour had the pleasure of tasting every beer on the tasting taps!

Long Trail Brewery

Long Trail Brewery, in Bridgewater Corners, VT, has a self-guided brewery tour where visitors and diners can watch as the beers are being brewed, right on site.

Having visited a few other breweries, mostly on weekends when the factory floor is quiet, visiting Long Trail on a Monday was a stark change. It was loud (they were bottling), warm, and smelled like warm beer.

Signs along the walkway tell visitors what they are looking at and what's going on at each stop.

Once you come back down from the self-guided tour, head towards the bar, and get a different view of the brewery from the ground floor.

Salzbergwerks Salt Mines

For a different, but very entertaining tour good for people of any age, the Salzberwerks Salt Mine in Berchtesgaden, Germany is an excellent choice.  You'll be provided with overalls to go over your clothing to keep you warm during this tour into the depths of the salt mines.  To get there, you take a type of train that you ride on like a horse into the depths.  Afterwards, you explore the mines on foot led by an expert tour guide explaining to you everything you're seeing.  You'll also get to ride on a "slide" to get further into the mines, although there is the option to walk down.  We'd recommend the slide though is it is actually pretty fun.  The tour will last about an hour and you'll be entertained the entire time.

Beware that it can get very crowded here and everything is very time controlled, so if you don't want to have a long wait, plan to get here when they first open.

BMW Welt Tour

BMW is an iconic car brand with aficionados from around the world.  Whether or not you're a big fan of their automobiles and motorcycles, visiting BMW is a must-do when in Munich.

First, they have many different things for tourists, including a BMW Museum, the BMW Welt, and the factory itself.  In order to best experience all of these, booking a Premium Tour is our advice, but please note you should do this several weeks in advance to ensure you get in.  You must call them up in order to book this.  We saw people get turned away who just showed up expecting to be able to get on a tour.

If you do this tour, the first part is the BMW Museum.  While this can be easily explored on your own, the tour allows the guide to give you plenty of context about what you're seeing and also give you a full history of the company and how they've evolved over the years.

Next, the main portion, is a tour of the factory (no cameras allowed).  You'll be able to see every single portion of the manufacturing process including the process for painting the cars, welding the cars together, quality control, and much more.  This is a very unique experience that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of your enthusiasm for cars.

Finally, you get a tour of the BMW Welt, which includes seeing a motorcycle stunt show.  You'll also learn how you can get a personalized experience if you purchase a car directly from the plant here.

This was definitely a highlight of our trip to Germany and we'd recommend it to everyone!

Alexander Keith's Brewery Tour

In Nova Scotia, when one thinks of beer, one thinks of Alexander Keith's line of beers.  This brewer has become the de facto beer for the province over the years and can be found at basically any bar in the region.

At the original site of the brewery, you can take a tour giving a glimpse into the history of both the brewery, as well as Halifax.  Actors and actresses dressed up in 19th century clothing provide the tour trying to make you feel as if it was still the 1800s.  They even put on a singing and dancing performance for you while you get to sample Alexander Keith's beers.  During the tour, you get to have two full beers to try, including the famous India Pale Ale.  For those underage, there are lemonade and iced tea options as well.

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses

The Legend of Zelda...one of the most classic video games of all time.  And now...it's a symphony!  Touring around the country for the remainder of the year, this show takes a full symphony orchestra, as well as a vocal chorus, to reproduce many of the amazing pieces of music from the history of The Legend of Zelda.  During the music, you get a video presentation of the music from the games they originate from.  The nostalgia this will bring back for any Zelda fans is immense and is highly recommended for anyone that played these games.

For more details, click here.

The following dates are currently on the schedule following the Philly performance we attended...

• June 26th - Vienna, VA
• June 27th - Pittsburgh, PA
• June 28th - Pittsburgh, PA
• September 15th - Toronto, ON
• September 22nd - Minneapolis, MN
• October 18th - Boston, MA
• October 25th - Chicago, IL
• November 3rd - San Antonio, TX
• November 6th - Calgary, AB
• November 28th - New York City, NY
• December 8th - West Palm Beach, FL
• December 9th - Miami, FL
• December 14th - San Jose, CA

Zappos Tour

Love Zappos? Yup, can’t beat free shipping and great deals, right? Well, if you’re visiting Las Vegas and have some time to spare, schedule yourself a tour of Zappos. Currently located in Henderson, the company has purchased the old Las Vegas city hall building and has plans to move in there in the near future.

The tour takes you around the company’s main headquarters and shows you that the company’s culture of fun isn’t just something they talk about, but something they live every day.

As tour groups approach different areas of the company, such as couture of teens, the employees have different ways of welcoming you, from jingle bells, to cow bells, clappers and more.

They also have a throne room, with tiaras, crowns and even a Zappos scepter with a banner above that reads, “I am royalty and part of the Zappos family” where you can stop and take pictures.

Water, popcorn, and sodas are all complimentary during the tour. We also received a copy of the CEO’s book, "Delivering Happiness" and the 2010 Culture Book as gifts for taking the tour.

While you’re waiting for your tour to begin, register your name and e-mail address and a 20% off coupon for Zappos will be e-mailed to you.