On Weekends

No one can say no to a lover who is proposing during a cruise. You’re like Romeo and Juliet struck in an amazing moment of pleasure, the only difference is you won’t find yourself gasping for breath due to ship sinking. What’s more if he proposes while on board a classic ship? Romance, love, affection and pleasures; every positive word that could enter your mind is exactly the feeling which will envelope you.

There are ships that were created long time ago, thus they project classic look. But wait, you need not to worry about being drowned or something because all of them are still highly functioning. Thus, people should be thankful these days that they are able to have a taste of how it is to live during older generation. However, because of the new SOLAS regulation which simply stand for Safety Of Life At Sea, cruising using these ships may no longer be possible in the nearing 2010. Now that you have still the time, grab the opportunity right ahead! A number of ships will be covered by this ordinance except the QE2. Read the rest of this entry »

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Iceland is a country roughly the size of Kentucky but with a lot fewer people.  It is located a little below the Arctic Circle roughly between Greenland and the United Kingdom and about a 5-hour flight from the East coast of the US.  It has a population of just over three hundred thousand people which means that the population density is very low.

Population numbers and geography aside, Iceland is an amazing country for many reasons though, I don’t think that it’s a country that is top of mind when it comes to vacation planning.  Maybe that’s what I liked about it.  I live in a very crowded, southern California city where traffic is always a problem and getting away from the crush of humanity, ironically, requires a lot of driving.

As many of you already know, many of the world’s top tourist locations are being loved to death by the millions of visitors who come every year to see the sites, walk up the same staircase in an old church, or get a photo holding up the Leaning tower of Pisa.  If you go to Paris or Rome, or some of the other top European destinations, you wait in lines, you sit in traffic; hell, if I wanted that I could just stay in California.  I am not saying that visiting these famous cities is not worth it.  I am saying that it is getting harder and harder to enjoy these cities and landmarks because everyone is visiting these cities and landmarks.

Of course, everyone’s idea of fun is different.  But, for me going to a place where I could almost literally leave civilization behind sounded pretty good.  I have read about Iceland and was taken by the exotic and unspoiled nature scenes.  I wanted to be there, in those pictures, camping, hiking, exploring glaciers and high mountain meadows.  Sound like a set up for disappointment?  Turns out it wasn’t.

Certainly there is always a difference between your imagination (perception) and reality.  But I have to say that my experiences weren’t that far off from my perceptions.  I traveled there in the late summer when the temperatures are decent (mid 50s to low 60s F) and the days are long – real long.  I did all the usual tourist stuff while I was in Reykjavik and then I booked a 5 day backpacking and trekking tour into the highlands of Iceland, from Thorsmork to Landmannalaugur.  Each day we hiked for 5-7 hours stopping along the way to learn about the history and geography of the various locations, at nigh we slept in tents, ate good food, and played music or just talked about our days till sleep overcame us.

When I got back to Reykjavik, I booked a jeep tour that took us right up onto a glacier, called Langjokul (the long glacier).  This too was a real experience.  Once we got to the top of the glacier, we all got out of the jeep to look around and experience the surroundings.  The two things that stuck with me about this were the silence and the amazing view from atop this glacier.  I could see so far that I think I was seeing the curvature of the earth. Read the rest of this entry »

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There are so many wonderful destinations in Tuscany that it’s difficult to know which you should visit on your vacation. All Tuscan villages have interesting restaurants, coffee shops and wine bars, but each has an amazingly varied and interesting history on show in their many buildings and museums.

If you are short of time on your vacation to Tuscany here is a small, diverse selection of villages and towns that will give you an excellent feel for the fascinating past and present of this stunning region of Italy.

Lucchio

The scenic village of Lucchio, in Lucca Province, with the sparse remains of its ruined medieval castle and quaint stone village houses, blends into the side of a mountain. The castle, dating back to the 11th century, was built to control the main road that followed the river Lima between Pistoia and Garfagnana. Read the rest of this entry »

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There are plenty of other sites to see and enjoy. For example, Valencia is home to several museums, including several art museums, several history museums, a bullfighting museum, and an incredible science museum.

The Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies in Valencia, Spain.

The science museum, called the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies (City of Arts and Sciences), houses five main parts. The first is an opera and music house with four main halls. Next is the Oceanografic, which is a complete oceanographic zoo, including many aquariums. This is the biggest aquatic exhibit in all of Europe and hosts a variety of different types of ocean life. Not only does the Oceanografic showcase life from the nearby Mediterranean Sea, it also shows penguins and belugas from the Polar Regions. There is also wildlife from the Red Sea area.

The Prince Philip Science Museum is great for children, and shows some of the laws of nature. The museum uses a hands-on approach to help children learn all about science. L’Hemisferic is the Spanish name for a gigantic IMAX 3D theater where visitors can really feel like part of the movies they watch. Finally, there is L’Umbracle, which is a beautiful botanical garden and walkway for guests.

Valencia, Spain’s Beaches.

For those inclined to spend their Valencia vacation on the beach, there are three primary beaches; playa las Arenas, playa de Malvarossa, and playa de Patacona. Nearest to the city, beachgoers will find the playa las Arenas. This is the area of the beach with bars and pubs, and has a promenade for those wishing to walk along the beach without getting too much sand in their shoes. This area is also the area where visitors can find hotel accommodations. Heading north, visitors will reach the playa de Malvarossa. This is a sandy beach, suitable for family swimming, building sand castles, and playing beach volleyball. The fine sand makes it a really great place for walking barefoot. The playa de Malvarossa is the most popular beach in Valencia, and it quite full during prime season.

Those looking for a quieter, more private beach, can opt for the playa de Patacona. The playa de Patacona is farthest north, and is quite far from the city center. As a result, it is slightly less popular. Tourists who are looking for a more peaceful beach without quite so many children running underfoot will find the longer travel distance worthwhile. Don’t expect a private beach, though. There are still plenty of sunbathers and swimmers at the playa de Patacona.

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Yorkshire is a historic county in the north of the uk & its the biggest county in the uk. in actual fact, the massive county covered around 6,000 sq. miles in 1831 & these days, it has got a population of about 5 million.

Yorkshire is widely known as the greenest place in the uk thanks to the friendly amount rural countryside in the Yorkshire Dales & the North Yorkshire Moors. These gorgeous places have led to Yorkshire being given the nickname God’s Own County.

Yorkshire is a extremely historical county, especially in york, it’s county town. Indeed, York is a beautiful roman city, but its also has some wonderful viking historical, which can still be seen in the city today. During the first millennium, the rest of the county of Yorkshire was also occupied by vikings & romans.

Later on, Yorkshire became renowned for its traditional coal, wool, steel & shipping industries, especially throughout the industrial revolution. There’s lots of stuff to do in Yorkshire, including a handful of great museums & art galleries. One of the finest art galleries is the ruskin gallery in sheffield, which houses a great collection of drawings, medieval manuscripts & books that belonged to john ruskin.

Whether you’d rather have enormous brand stores or kooky independent shops, Yorkshire boasts a handful of great shops.  If you like designer brands, you should head to leeds. often named the ‘knightsbridge of the north’, it boasts a harvey nicholls, as well as branches of louis vuitton and other designer stores. However, Leeds also offers a number of high-street stores, including new look and Top Shop, which means that it suits any budget.

Yorkshire is such a big location that it boasts everything you need for any kind of night out. The smaller towns have some fabulous inns, although party animals should visit the cities including Leeds, York and Sheffield for excellent clubs and vip bars.

Sheffield and leeds have some fabulous night clubs, so you will be able to spend a fabulous night there. in addition to this, these cities also have a handful of fabulous live music venues, so you can go to see a touring act or even a local band.

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For a cheap holiday in lovely accommodation overlooking Marigot Bay, which is self catering, and therefore you gain independence why not check out Oasis Marigot

A St Lucia Holiday not in a mainstream hotel, could be a lot more fun, and of far better quality than you might believe. There are a number of condominium type self catering places available with some of the facilities of an hotel, but few better than Oasis Marigot at Marigot Bay. In fact the Oasis Marigot is rated very highly by well qualified judges as one of the top hotels in the Marigot Bay area.

The Oasis Marigot is in fact a vacation community consisting of 12 private sea houses on the hillside overlooking Marigot Bay, all well furnished and fully equipped, offering both privacy and intimacy. If you are looking for an out of the way destination to unwind and relax ten a St Lucia Holiday at Oasis Marigot would be ideal.

Oasis Marigot has different accommodations to suit different budgets. For example you could stay at Ocean Cottage which has four bungalow style units which share a private pool. If you choose this, then make sure you book an upstairs room which have much more room, and a much better view, and yet cost the same.

On the other hand you could book the top priced Emerald Hill two bedroomed Villa with its own plunge pool, or the Great House with its own pool, or Villa St Lucia, with pool, or the Caribbean Blue Suite which has air conditioning in the bedroom.

It is worth knowing that Oasis Marigot has a property is Soufriere called Villa des Pitons, right between the Piton Mountains. This is just unbelievable accommodation with incredible attention to detail, and uninterrupted views of the sea and the Pitons, that quite frankly you wouldn’t believe

Whatever accommodation you choose, Oasis Marigot is a special place, with views to be staggered by from all of them. Read the rest of this entry »

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I know there is some old saying to do with the first half of your life you are looked after by your parents and the second half you your life you look after your parents. Well I’ve been looking after my mother my whole life especially on occasions when my father isn’t around and she goes into complete competency melt down. The first time my dad went on a business trip abroad, she managed (and don’t ask me how) to put her hand in the bottom of the lawn mower whilst it was still running. I can still see, and will forever have imprinted in to my brain the moment when she shoved her hand in a sink full of water which instantaneously turned a deep shade of red, a bit like in the movie ‘Jaws’. Duggan women aren’t of a strong stomached nature and on my mother passing out, my sister ran out of the room with the good intension of phoning a family friend from down the road for help, only to pass out on the way due to “sight of blood”. So you are left with nine year old Alice running between relations with wet towels and sugar water trying to revive both. Needless to say I was rewarded on my Dad’s return from Hong Kong with a big bag of Haribo for being ‘daddy’s brave little girl’ and my mother was never allowed to mow the lawn again.

So this gives you an idea of the mental status of Mrs Duggan when embarking on a journey in to the depths of the Caribbean with her least responsible daughter, without the only man in the world that can salvage any situation no mater how dire. I’d like to say I was sympathetic towards this but in honesty if I see weakness in some one I kinda play on it? “You’ve got the passports right?”, “Flight IS from Gatwick not Heathrow right?” etc.. Cruel really, but highly amusing. Anyhow the joke was on me on arriving at Gatwick at 4.30am to find that our 07.55am flight to Havana with Cubana airways was not anywhere to be seen on the board, and after half an hour frantic running around to discover that the plane on which we were meant to be flying on (that was meant to arrive in the UK at 6.20am from Havana) had not even left Cuba yet. Another half an hour later it was revealed that the plane was faulty and another plane was being shipped in from Madrid and due to leave at 2.30pm. Marvellous. Anybody got any great suggestions how to spend 9 hours in Gatwick airport departures? No me either. Reading maybe – well I cleverly packed all my nice easy going books in my main luggage and was carrying only Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, trying to embrace the whole Cuba thing, which is not the easiest read to pass time, believe me. So giving in I bought a puzzler, plugged my ipod in and watched the weird and wonderful existence of the airport departure lounge inhabitant (and it is no wonder they make so many tv shows about them!)
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The oldest city of Ireland, Waterford, has change for good as it maintained the small-town Irish feeling in every traveler. Waterford overwhelm tourist of its relaxing vibe compared to other bigger busy cities of Ireland but the old city have a lot of pubs too.

Located in the River Suir or south east of Ireland, Waterford was formerly known before as “the most important European ports”.

With known medieval history, the city became mature on its own and retained its scenic value to the tourist who continued to travel and explore the treasure hidden in the old city.

In Waterford and other parts of Ireland, their season is mostly rainy and windy. However, do not think that it wouldn’t be a good place to discover because despite it’s whether, the scenery remained on its top shape. Remember to bring your umbrella with you because it will be a wet adventure for you.

If you have plans to use a car rental Ireland or your own vehicle in going to Waterford, it is important for you to know the information about its destination. Actually, Waterford can be reached from any point in Ireland. The old city is residing 65km west of Wexboard or 126km east of Cork. It can also be 53km west of Rosslare Harbour or 153km south east of the busy Shannon airport.

However, the easiest would be to travel by air which most tourist do. The airport in Waterford is 6km south of the old city. The airport can be reached by specific areas in United kingdom, Europe when its summer, and other international airports in Ireland.

As you arrive, if you haven’t booked any car hire Waterford airport yet, you can contact them from your hotel.

When you cannot book any flight straight to Waterford airport, you can use Dublin and Cork’s airports.

Unlike other county and cities, you can use a boat to get in Waterford. The nearest stations of boats for Waterford are Rosslare then ride a bus to head straight to the old city.
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For most people An African safari and especially an African beach holiday is a once in a life time experience to remember. Often travelers opt for a beach experience after an African wildlife safari or a cultural safari or even a busy African business trip.

A beach experience helps you unwind. But what most people don’t realize is that an African beach holiday/vacation can do more bad than good to the environment and the locals.

Most people have the understanding that tourism in developing countries actually helps the locals and the country as a whole. This however is not always the case. Especially when you consider the fact that huge businesses are often involved in the lucrative tourism industry.

Travel is big business and in fact a billion dollar industry.

As with anything when profits come before anything else including the environment then it is easy to see how some places that have been created as tourist areas can do more damage to the environment than good.

For starters some African governments have been selling prime beachside locations to foreigners, sometime displacing the communities nearby and other time affecting even their livelihoods by making some beaches exclusive. In some areas of Africa virtually all the infrastructure is foreign owned from the shopping centres to the restaurants, hotels and curio shops.

In some places this has lead to local resentment.

so while on an African beach vacation or safari, doing some of the following can make a big difference in the lives of the locals and the environment.

Whenever possible buy souvenirs from locals- When you do this you are supporting the local community because much of the money you spend on huge establishments hardly trickle to the locals.

Game fishing isn’t exactly a game - The effect of picking off the ocean’s largest and finest creatures could kick off devastating chain reactions. This surely isn’t worth it when you consider that it’s for fun and not for food.

Be gentle with coral - Avoid touching coral while scuba diving or snorkeling because coral is a living thing. Also be careful with your flippers because one careless swipe of sand can easily suffocate a patch of coral. Read the rest of this entry »

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Any foreigner like myself, when coming to the UK, knows that driving on British roads is nearly impossible without any practice at first, as they have the routs and the cars build the other way around. For us — the “wrong” way. However, not only foreigners make a lot of accidents on UK’s roads, many local people, even though they are used to this driving structure, still make mistakes on the road, some of which result in small accidents, others in tragedies.

Let’s not take the worst scenarios, however, if you are located in the UK you should be aware of the accident compensation claim.
What does it mean?
It means that if you, God forbid, had an accident, you are eligible to receive monetary compensation from the person who hurt you or, in most cases — their insurance. You can go with the “no win, no fee” option, which is best for anyone as you don’t pay unless you win, and in that case even if your compensation is not guaranteed (roughly speaking) — you don’t lose anything by trying to claim it. Read the rest of this entry »

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