About Sand In My Suitcase

This award-winning blog is about luxury travel (splurgey and affordable).

Exploring both exotic and close-to-home places. The wonder of discovering different cultures. Tasting the world via food and wine. Dreaming where to go next.

All interwoven with a twist of adventure!

We’re Janice and George Mucalov, once practising lawyers, now travel writers – much more fun, don’t you think?

Passionate travelers, we’ve been roaming the globe ever since we were young. George was born in Romania and raised in Germany. Janice was born in England and raised in Australia. We met in Canada.

We started our travel writing careers as travel journalists contributing to leading print magazines and newspapers like USA Today, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, South China Morning Post, Islands, Vancouver Sun, TravelAge West and AAA Carolinas GO.

In 2012, Janice launched this luxury adventure travel blog, with George’s enthusiastic support.

Today, it’s a top-ranked source of travel content, welcoming 3.6 million readers annually.

We confess – we’re luxury lovers.

Yes, that includes swank villa resorts with private pool suites. But also more affordable boutique inns oozing charm and character.

We’ve visited Mexico (especially Los Cabos) so many times, it’s almost our second home. (For more Los Cabos goodness, see our Cabo Visitor blog.)

And we know Hawaii intimately.

But we also love all the gorgeous places in Italy and unique Greek islands and venturing off the beaten path. (Hello Sri Lanka!)

Discovering all the fun things to do in Victoria (where we live) – and other beautiful places in Canada – is always a joy as well.

Oh, we should mention we also have a crush on cruising, especially small ship and river cruises.

When we travel, you’ll find us hiking, snorkeling and bicycling.

Sussing out cool museums. Gaping at UNESCO sites. Strolling city streets from end to end (poking our heads into this and that).

And taking lots of photos!

Ethnic cuisine and good wine? Losing ourselves in long conversations with local guides and people?

Also a big part of the enjoyment of our travels – which we like to share with you, our readers.

Meaningful travel

We’re not totally hedonistic though :-).

We try to travel responsibly. And if we can, we prefer to write about hotels, cruises, tours and experiences that help in some way to make this world a better place.

We also like to donate some of what we make each year from our travel writing and blogging to Doctors Without Borders.