Nicole Pensiero

Yahoo Life article: As the temperatures in New Jersey began plummeting, excitement about our December trip to Puerto Rico began to rise. After all, what can be finer to daydream about than a Caribbean getaway -- especially when the weather at home requires a ski jacket and gloves?

We hadn’t been to Puerto Rico since before the pandemic – and this trip was shaping up to be a bit different than previous visits. For one, we weren’t staying at a traditional high-rise hotel, but rather, an expansive resort on a 1,000...

As the temperatures in New Jersey began plummeting, excitement about our December trip to Puerto Rico began to rise. After all, what can be finer to daydream about than a Caribbean getaway -- especially when the weather at home requires a ski jacket and gloves?
We hadn’t been to Puerto Rico since before the pandemic – and this trip was shaping up to be a bit different than previous visits. For one, we weren’t staying at a traditional high-rise hotel, but rather, an expansive resort on a 1,000...

Next weekend marks the return of the much-loved Philadelphia Folk Festival, the oldest continuously run outdoor music fest in the country. Encompassing scores of performers that span genres like folk, bluegrass, rock, Celtic, blues, and zydeco music, the 58-year-old tradition draws up to 30,000 attendees annually.
But the all-day party in Upper Salford Township is more than just a concert: It’s a tangle of campers, hammocks, workshops, craft tents, food vendors, and activities — wrapped toget...

Taking Our Hotel with Us for Two Weeks —As much as I’ve always enjoyed cruising, the idea of taking a longer sailing journey – say, 10 or 15 days – never crossed my mind. That is, until some friends took a lengthy cruise around the South Pacific and came home raving.
The prospect of exploring several European countries in one visit — without lugging baggage or having to deal with planes, trains, and automobiles – soon took hold. It was then just a matter of picking an itinerary and deciding on...

They were two European cities that had been on my travel “hit list” for far too long: Athens and Venice. I never imagined I’d end up visiting both as part of the same vacation.
It’s hard to say what was more exciting to contemplate: traveling by sea to destinations we’d never seen before – including two stops in Greece, two in Croatia and a day in tiny Montenegro – or deciding what to visit in Athens during our two-day, pre-cruise visit.
We’d never done a “pre” stay while cruising before; thi...

It’s a city filled with visual, culinary, and cultural delights – the place the Beatles (in their pre-Ringo days) first won over audiences, and where Germany’s top tourist attraction – a literal “Miniature Wonderland” – draws in more than a million visitors each year.
The second largest city (after Berlin), Hamburg is a dynamic mix of old and new. Hugely popular with Germans – more than 75 percent of its visitors in 2024 came from other parts of the country – it has yet to be truly discovered...

It was time for our annual end-of-summer/early fall road trip, and we wanted to go somewhere new. The criteria was easy: somewhere less than a four-hour drive, with plenty of relaxation and gorgeous scenery.
We initially chose Northern Virginia – Leesburg, to be specific – for its easy proximity to New Jersey, and for the luxurious hotel that captured our attention: the nearly 300-room Lansdowne Resort. This sprawling yet intimate property had everything we needed for some much-needed R&R: gr...

It was so sunny and summerlike in early October that when a mid-month Nor’easter was predicted, I stayed in denial for a few days. Surely, nothing could change the picture I had in my mind of our upcoming Canada/New England cruise: pristine weather, trees ablaze in color, and smooth sailing on calm seas.
Well, that changed quickly as the October Nor’easter barreled up the coast, chasing our seven-day vacation with Princess Cruisesall the way from Brooklyn to Nova Scotia, Canada.
Still, we had...

It was a chance to visit a new place in the U.S. and reconnect with an old friend.
But I never could have imagined how enthralled I would become with Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City, sometimes referred to as the “Gateway to the West.” Until this particular trip, I’d never been all that taken with the American West; it had more than 20 years since I’d visited anywhere near the Rocky Mountains (Denver, to be exact).
But this unique city helped me see this part of the world with new eyes. From th...

Winter was slipping by without a longed-for getaway to the tropics, so we decided to “lean into” the season and find a nearby getaway to make the bitter weather seem tolerable, if not outright enchanting.
And while snowy landscapes and bare trees have never been my thing, we succeeded. Our visit to a beautiful, historic resort in the Poconos provided a mid-winter lift that might last straight through to spring.
The Poconos is always an easy choice for a quick getaway from New Jersey — for goo...

Nearly 25 years after David Gray released his career-making, home-recorded album, "White Ladder," he's gearing up for the release of new music and an international tour.
For this 13th album, "Dear Life," and accompanying tour, Gray is going big — the tour kicks off on Jan. 24 in Boston and is scheduled through early sum...

While we hadn’t really pondered it in advance, jetting off to an island two days after the November election ended up being a double win: we escaped both the cooling temperatures and the 24-7 news cycle, turning off our brains for a few days. To me, that’s what a Caribbean getaway is all about anyway: forgetting about your day-to-day life, while relaxing in the sun and floating in a turquoise sea.

For this autumn getaway, we knew we wanted someplace warm, relaxing and very sunny. We s...

Travel story about a fall visit to West Point, NY, and the mid-Hudson region of Orange County.

TRAVEL story: TravelWorld International Magazine, Winter 2025. Feature on Madrid during the holiday season.

The hard-and-fast rules so many of us grew up with regarding expressing gratefulness have become fuzzier with each generation, but giving thanks still matters

By Nicole Pensiero

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December 10, 2024

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Living

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Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, I learned it wasn't enough to just say thank you for a gift when I received it. Whether it was a my birthday or a once-in-a-lifetime event like my First Holy Communion, my mother insisted I send a handwritten note to the gift giver. I still remember h...