Browsing: Beach Vacations

Africa isn’t normally associated with tropical islands where you can wallow in luxury. It’s a continent painted with the brush of poverty, but beneath that false impression lie some wonderful countries waiting to be explored – and you don’t even have to be adventurous or a fan of roughing it to do so.

For an exotic holiday where the taste of Africa is wrapped in style, take a magnifying glass to your map and find …

Read More

Tour guides often refer to El Salvador as “the country of 40 minutes.”  Because it is the smallest country in Central America, flanked by Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the northwest, you can easily hike a volcano in the morning, grab lunch at the beach, and end your day with a zip-line canopy tour near the Guatemalan border.

Today, El Salvador boasts seventeen volcanoes, nine of which are active.  There are also over …

Read More

 

 

Brrr, it’s getting cold outside! The temperatures are dropping, the days are getting shorter, and keeping warm inside the house has become a top priority. But fortunately for travelers who are seeking a winter vacation, January is the cheapest month to fly away. At that point, the annual big rush to get home for Christmas is over and the must-visit destinations to stay for New Years have already come and gone, so airlines

Read More

If your family is lucky enough to be one of those which has kids starting school after Labor Day, you still have time to plan a trip to the gorgeous Emerald Coast of Florida. And you should immediately do so. The pure sugar white sand and amazing Gulf of Mexico simply can’t be missed. If your kids also have a fall break, plan your getaway for then as the area is still warm and beautiful …

Read More

Five, four, three, two, one…HAPPY NEW YEAR! Cue the traditional song of Auld Lang Syne to usher in the dawning of another New Year. From Times Square in New York to Trafalgar Square in London, voices ring out, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display on the stroke of midnight. So, where should be heading this year for the most dazzling New Years Eve experiences? Here are some of the best free world-class events around the …

Read More

     Before we drove to the lovely and historic Amelia Island on the Atlantic coast of Florida, I had never heard of it. Amelia Island is one of the Sea Islands, a chain of barrier islands that reaches along the east coast of the United States all the way from South Carolina to Florida. It’s only about 13 miles long and 4 miles wide, but it’s a charming place full of beautiful Victorian mansions. It’s the …

Read More

Nowadays in the Caribbean, an all-inclusive resort experience does not have to mean that your own special interest in travel  gets lost in the wider shuffle.  Big no longer translates to a lack of attention or absence of  options for your own travel focus. This is certainly the case around the island of Jamaica – where the all-inclusive hotel concept is said to have originated back in the Sixties – and where that same  concept …

Read More

So Spring Break is rapidly approaching and you have made no plans whatsoever? And your family is clamoring for a beach getaway? No problem. The Gulf Coast of Florida awaits in all its magnificent sugar white sand and turquoise water splendor.

Although people have their favorite beaches and I have visited plenty of them, none compare to the gorgeous beaches which line the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. With plenty of family-friendly accommodations, great seafood …

Read More

My French came back to me with remarkable clarity as I staggered out of the ocean clutching my stinging ankle.

“Je suis blessé,” I wailed, then proved I was injured by tumbling over as my ungainly flippers snagged on the volcanic rocks peppering the beach. Something that felt suspiciously like a crown of thorns had gripped my ankle as I’d waded through the murky water. Now my ankle was punctured by five black splinters and …

Read More

I travel frequently, and always prepare for my various jaunts doing fact-finding, participating in forums, asking friends, and even reading literature from my destination country. I’m prepared, but not too prepared, ever open to the spur-of-the-moment experiences traveling promises. For my month-long voyage to Southern India I spent an excessive amount of time planning. Hours, days, and months were spent investigating the merits of the SteriPEN® and concocting a route south from Mumbai. I weighed …

Read More

You might feel like you have escaped to the edge of the planet, but in fact you have just reached the edge of the south Caribbean when you arrive on the island of Roatán. Best of all, that impression of distance continues as you make your way around this best known of Honduras’s Islas Bahias (Bay Islands), thanks to the pristine beaches and interior, the low-impact tourism, and the size and scale of everyday life …

Read More

The official first day of fall has come and gone, the weather is slowly getting cooler and the days shorter so beach vacations may seem like a thing of the past at this point but, in reality, this is absolutely the best time of the year to visit many beaches. After Labor Day, the crowds diminish as children head back to school, and the prices are lowered, but the weather in many of these areas …

Read More

 

I’m writing this article in a luxurious, five bedroom beach house on Tybee Island courtesy of Tybee Joy Vacation Rentals called Quit Yer Crabbin’ that is just a couple blocks from the beach and is so huge and elegant, we could live here forever. The two of us are rattling around in this huge house, never even using the expansive upstairs.

We are here to cover the annual Tybee Island Pirate Fest and we …

Read More

If you’re looking for cosmopolitan urban culture or beautiful buildings, Port Elizabeth won’t be your first choice for a South African holiday destination. It’s a busy yet relatively crime-free industrial city (important to the South African motor industry) that marks the eastern end of the Garden Route. Although the city has been ravaged by industrialization and thoughtless modernization, one or two buildings do stand out in an otherwise featureless city centre. Thankfully, a couple of …

Read More