My Story
Thank you for stopping by! My name is Carol Cram and when I’m not traveling, I live on Bowen Island, a 20-minute ferry ride from Vancouver in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. These days, I divide my time between writing novels, hosting The Art In Fiction Podcast on which I interview novelists who write novels inspired by the arts, managing the 2000+ entries of arts-inspired novels on the Art In Fiction website and serving on the Board as the Marketing Chair for the Historical Novel Society North America, conference.
And of course, traveling and writing about it on Artsy Traveler.
Why do I love travel and the arts? Well, I was bitten early by the travel bug, and the arts have been a major part of my life ever since I can remember. So, of course, it was only natural I put my two loves together to provide you with my suggestions for artsy travel experiences.
Europe on $5 a Day
Believe it or, back in the 1970s, touring Europe on $5 a day really was possible. When I was fourteen, my mom and I traveled around Europe for a month. We each had one small suitcase (no rollies in those days), a mix-and-match wardrobe, and coupons for hotels that cost $5.00 a day.
We landed in London, visited relatives in Wales, and then flew to Amsterdam. A highlight for me was a trip to Madurodam, the wonderful miniature village near the Hague. Many years later, I took my own daughter there and was just as entranced!
In Amsterdam, we validated our Eurail train passes and headed to Copenhagen where we fell in love with Smørrebrød, the scrumptious Danish open-faced sandwiches. After several days enjoying Copenhagen, including a memorable side trip to Kronberg Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we took the train to Stockholm. Mom and both really enjoyed touring Stockholm, although I do remember we had a hard time finding food that my fourteen-year-old, unsophisticated stomach could handle. On one memorable evening, we splurged ($7!) on an authentic Swedish smorgasbord. Tasty delicacies included raw reindeer meat and pickled herring and a lot of other things I refused to eat. Needless to say, I left hungry.
After Stockholm, we caught the overnight train south to Munich. The train was so crowded, we ended up sitting on our small cases in the corridor for half the trip. In Munich, we explored the fabulous Deutsches Museum, which for me was the first really massive museum I’d ever seen. I was hooked and now seek out museums wherever I travel. You’ll find many of my recommendations on Artsy Traveler.
After Munich, we popped into Lucerne, which was like fairytale land to me, and then finally ended up in Paris before flying home. Funnily enough, I did not like Paris as a fourteen-year-old. I’ve since gotten over my initial dislike, so much so that I set my fourth novel there (Love Among the Recipes). These days, my husband Gregg and I travel to Paris almost every time we visit Europe. You’ll find plenty of posts about Paris on this site.
On the Road at 18
In 1974, four years after my first trip with Mom and fresh out of high school, I headed back across the Atlantic with two friends for a six-week journey around Great Britain.
Our $70 BritRail passes took us to just about every corner of the England, Scotland, and Wales. With no cell phones, little money, and buckets of naïveté, we traveled from London to Cambridge and then north to York, Edinburgh, Inverness and the Isle of Skye. We then turned south to the Lake District, ventured into northern Wales where we climbed Mount Snowdon, and finally made it all the way to the tip of England at Land’s End in Cornwall.
We stayed in youth hostels or budget bed-and-breakfasts, stepped far out of our suburban Canadian comfort zones, and had a marvelous time.
After my epic summer trip around Great Britain, I stayed in England and attended the University of Reading for three years to earn my BA in English Language and Literature and attended the University of Durham for a year to earn my Teaching Certificate. During holiday times, I traveled as much as I could on a student budget, venturing to Austria, France, and Spain, and spending every weekend I could exploring England and Scotland.
Living and traveling abroad taught me so much. I discovered that I loved exploring new cities and visiting museums, galleries, and historical sites to learn about history and art. I also enjoyed sampling unfamiliar food (once my palate matured after the Swedish smorgasbord incident), meeting new people, and writing about my experiences.
Family Travel
Fast forward a few years and I met my husband Gregg Simpson who had taken his first trip to Europe when he was eleven. One of the many things that drew us together when we first met was our mutual love of travel. Eight years after our daughter Julia was born (and we could finally afford it), we set off on what was to be the first of numerous trips to Europe together.
Since our first family trip to Europe in 1994, we’ve returned many times, often to exhibit Gregg’s paintings and to facilitate the research for my latest novel. Over the years, I wrote about our travels on my personal blog where you can still find my musings.
People who enjoyed reading about our adventures often asked me for travel advice. Where did we stay? Is driving in Europe easy? What should we see in Paris? Rome? Berlin? How do you decide where to travel? What’s the best apartment rental agency? What are the must-see museums in London? What about restaurants? Any recommendations?
You get the picture.
I decided that I needed to do more than just chronicle my travel adventures. On Artsy Traveler, I share my passion for showcasing the hundreds of marvelous, artsy experiences that make travel so enticing. Mostly, I travel to Europe, but every so often, you’ll find a post about other travels in my home province of British Columbia, and across Canada, the United States, and beyond.
Where to Start on Artsy Traveler
As you’ll discover when you start exploring Artsy Traveler, there’s lots to enjoy, with more posts being added as fast as I can write them now travel is again on my horizon. What a relief!
Here are some ways in which you can explore Artsy Traveler to find the information you need to plan your own fabulous travel experiences:
- Click in the Search bar on the home page or in the sidebar on any other page and type what you’d like to see. Popular search terms include museums, art galleries, where to stay, Paris, etc.
- Click Arts & Culture on the main menu: Here you’ll find posts about artsy travel experiences, activities, and destinations with several roundup posts such as Favorite Concerts & Performances in Europe, Top Cathedrals in Europe–My Best Picks, Paris for Art Lovers: Nine of My Favorite Art Museums and a LOT more.
- Click Destinations on the main menu: Find artsy travel experiences in several countries in Europe including Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, and a few places in North America. While the focus of Artsy Traveler is primarily on European destinations, I occasionally branch out and write about other places.
- Click Travel Smart on the main menu: Here are several articles to help you plan your own awesome travel experiences. Learn my trip planning steps, tips for driving in Europe, accommodation and food suggestions, must-have travel gear, and more.
The Artsy Traveler Team
On Artsy Traveler, I tell stories about my travels to support my recommendations for artsy travel. Three people animate these stories—me, my husband Gregg, and our daughter Julia who has been an integral part of our travels since our first family trip to Europe.
The Artsy Traveler team also includes Stephanie Williams, my friend since kindergarten. Stephanie edits and proofreads every post, provides invaluable suggestions and advice, and is all-round fabulous. I couldn’t have created Artsy Traveler without her.
Carol M. Cram
Carol is the author of four award-winning novels: The Towers of Tuscany about an artist in 14th-century Tuscany, A Woman of Note about a composer in 1830s Vienna, The Muse of Fire about a London actress in 1809, and Love Among the Recipes, a second chance romance set in Paris. She is also the founder of Art In Fiction, an extensive database of novels inspired by the arts. Find your next great read on Art In Fiction before setting off on your European travels!
Carol also enjoys helping authors through mentoring and her work as Artistic Director of Write On Bowen: A Festival of Writers & Readers on Bowen Island and as Marketing Chair for the Historical Novel Society North America.
In addition to writing fiction, Carol has written over sixty best-selling college textbooks in computer applications and communications for Cengage Learning, a major US publisher, and was on faculty at Capilano University in North Vancouver for over two decades.
Carol has also facilitated numerous communications workshops for corporate and government clients. Carol holds an MA in Drama from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. When she’s not writing and traveling, Carol teaches Nia, a wholistic dance/fitness practice on Bowen Island.
Gregg Simpson
Gregg is a prolific and critically recognized artist and musician who has exhibited his paintings, drawings, and mixed media works around the world. His work is included in academic studies, art history books and journals published in Canada, Europe, and Australia, and has been exhibited in historical surveys on surrealism.
He is featured in the BRAVO TV documentary “New Arcadia: The Art of Gregg Simpson”. Simpson has had exhibitions in Paris, Venice, Berlin, Rome, Provence, Tuscany, Belgium, and Portugal. In 2022, he’ll be exhibiting his “Dream Gardens” series in Copenhagen, Paris, and Rome. Find Gregg online.
Recently, Carol and Gregg published Pastel & Pen: Travels in Europe, a non-collaborative collaboration that pairs Gregg’s artwork with Carol’s stories.
Julia Simpson
Julia is Carol and Gregg’s grown-up daughter who for many years shared their European adventures. All that traveling led her to a career as a Travel Designer with Discover Holidays in Vancouver. In 2019, Julia moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to pursue her passion for crochet as the owner of Wayward Pineapple Creations. Julia recently returned to the west coast where she continues to create and sell her awesome designs for crocheted dolls and teach crafting workshops. She has also just completed her first crochet book on Amigurumi for a major US publisher. She still adores traveling and often takes her dolls along to photograph and blog about.
Stephanie Williams
Stephanie is the editor extraordinaire at Artsy Traveler. A Vancouver native, she recently moved back to the west coast after a long and fulfilling career in television production in Toronto. Most notable on her lengthy list of professional credits is her 11-season stint as Supervising Producer of the multi-award-winning television series Degrassi. In this capacity, Stephanie was a four-time Primetime Emmy nominee, with five Canadian Screen Award wins to her credit. Stephanie brings a love of travel and a passion for the arts to her editorial work with Artsy Traveler and is committed to helping reach, engage and build relationships with a wide audience of travelers.
