My Story

Last updated on December 19th, 2024 at 01:09 am

Thanks for stopping by! My name is Carol Cram and I love traveling, looking at art, visiting museums, going to concerts, and generally doing artsy stuff. If you’re looking for advice about finding culturally-oriented travel experiences (especially in Europe) and how to be a joyously independent traveler in a crowded world, you’ve come to the right place.

Why do I love travel and the arts? I was bitten early by the travel bug, and the arts have been a major part of my life ever since I can remember. I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me–giving me my first piano lessons at the age of five, taking me to concerts and museums, and encouraging my ambition to be a novelist. And that’s my other passion. I write novels (four published so far!) when I’m not traveling and blogging (among other things).

Carol Cram at viewpoint overlooking Lake Garda at the top end of Sirmione

I live with my husband, artist Gregg Simpson, 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, and of course, having artsy travel experiences and writing about them on Artsy Traveler.

My Travel History Started with 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 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 I both 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, Gregg and I travel to Paris almost every time we visit Europe. You’ll find plenty of posts about Paris on Artsy Traveler.

My First Solo Trip at 18 Years Old

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 free weekend exploring England and Scotland.

Living and traveling abroad taught me so much. I discovered that I enjoyed 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 took 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 (he’s an artist – check out his website!) and to facilitate the research for my latest novel.

Julia is all grown up now and works in the travel industry so I guess all that early exposure to travel left its mark! She and I travel together frequently, most recently to Iceland, Costa Rica, and Greece.

Travel Advice

Friends often ask me for travel advice. Where should we stay? Is driving in Europe easy? What should we see in Paris? Rome? Berlin? How do we decide where to travel? When? 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 to launch Artsy Traveler to 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, Costa Rica, and beyond. I’m writing content all the time, so on most visits to Artsy Traveler, you’ll find a new post or two.

Or sign up for my newsletter and you’ll receive my FREE Guide: Top Ten Recommended Museum Experiences in Europe and bimonthly emails announcing new posts and artsy travel news.

Where to Start on Artsy Traveler

Here are some ways in which you can explore Artsy Traveler to find the information you need to plan your own fabulous artsy travel experiences:

  • Click in the Search bar on any page or post what you’d like to see. Popular search terms include museums, art galleries, where to stay in Paris, tours of Greece, what to see at the Rijksmuseum, etc.
  • Click Destinations on the main menu or the graphic on the home page. Find artsy travel experiences in several countries in Europe including Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, and a few places in North and Central America, including marvelous Costa Rica. While the focus of Artsy Traveler is primarily on European destinations, I occasionally branch out and write about other places.

The Artsy Traveler Team

On Artsy Traveler, I often 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, and host of The Art In Fiction Podcast. Find your next great read on Art In Fiction before setting off on your European travels.

Carol Cram writing in Tuscany

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, was on faculty at Capilano University in North Vancouver for over two decades, and 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.

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. Purchase originals and reproductions online directly from his website – Gregg Simpson Art.

Gregg is featured in the BRAVO TV documentary New Arcadia: The Art of Gregg Simpson and has exhibited in work in Paris, Copenhagen, Venice, Berlin, Rome, Provence, Tuscany, Belgium, and Lisbon, to name a few.

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 in the travel industry, currently working for Rocky Mountaineer in Vancouver. She is also an accomplished crochet artist, the author of a book on Amigurumi, and runs a crochet blog called Wayward Pineapple Creations. Julia 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.