Blogs

Beautiful Portland, Oregon has been getting a fair amount of attention in recent years for its restaurant scene. Each café and restaurant of Portland offers something special, whether it’s a special dish or the other point of interest. However, only several ones are considered to be the best in Portland, and they are included into the following list…

Pok Pok

This lovely restaurant specializing in Thai cuisine, run by its owner-chef Andy Ricker since 2005, is one of the most popular culinary es

Heading to Australia's second largest city, located in the southern state of Victoria, but not sure about what there is to see/do? An excellent place to begin is with a free drive on the Town Group Tram, which covers an oblong route around the town past many of Melbourne's major attractions, along with a dogleg into the Docklands; along the way, hop off to see whatever catches your eye. The same free Town Tourist Shuttle offers the same service of picking a different direction through the city,

From brief gusts to strong breezes to howling winds – it’s always windy during summer season on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. That means it’s time for fun wind and water sports.

Why is it so windy in Costa Rica this time of year?

These high summer winds even have a name: Papagayo winds. NASA tells us that when it's freezing cold and snowing in North America, the cold air and high-pressure weather systems move south over the Gulf of Mexico. The cold air is drawn toward the warmer,

The “Rapid” Ferry

When we planned this vacation, Lake Garda's Simio Peninsula, Sirmione, and its Roman villa ruins became a magnet, and we scheduled a day trip back into history to visit an ancient vacation site of extremely wealthy Roman citizens.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - But We Choose the Ferry System

About 15 minutes from our hotel is the village of Saló, the location of the ferry service docks. The ferry system offers scenic lake steamers or the more time efficient hydrofoils; all

The act of drinking wines is to literally taste specific locations across the globe. I never cease to be amazed by how wines provide such an in depth lens into a particular country and culture. By far the best way to experience them is to of course travel where they're produced and visit the vineyards in person. But lack of time and/or money sometimes make this impossible. For those times, plan for some armchair traveling by tasting some reasonably priced and increasingly available local varieta

by Tom Bunn

Anxious fliers wonder how others fly with so little trouble. Confident fliers can’t quite understand why anyone has trouble. Why the difference? Feelings of inflight anxiety, claustrophobia, and panic are caused when stress hormones build up. These hormones are released when a tiny part of the brain, the amygdala, senses something unfamiliar or unexpected, such as when turbulence causes the plane to drop.

Some of us regulate stress hormones automatically and unconsciously. Others regul

Canada‘s third largest metro area (pop. 2.3 million), on the Pacific Ocean at the southwestern corner of British Columbia, Vancouver is known for its majestic natural setting and is also frequently ranked as one of the world’s best cities in which to live – as many visitors discovered during the 2010 Winter Olympics held here, and more than 9 million others continue to experience each year.

Vancouver is divided basically into the Westside, the Eastside (aka East Van), and city center. In addit

I crammed a lot into my one day in Flagstaff. Now it was time to move on, and my reservation for the next night was at the Grand Canyon's Yavapai Lodge. I was anxious to get going, but first thing in the morning I had a good breakfast, checked out of the motel and headed over to the Riordan Mansion State Park. Being a state park, I expected it to be outside of town. To my surprise, it is just a couple of blocks off the main road, right by the university campus.

Bento Gonçalves is a slice of Italy in Brazil's far south.  It's not overly well known outside of the country but a highly-regarded destination among Brazilians, who consider it a first-class tourist destination. This is because this city in Rio Grande do Sul state is one of the most beautiful and important in the Serra Gaucha mountain range, due to its landscapes full of vineyards and the expansive nature which make this place a most welcoming destination.

As you enter the city you will find a

You don’t necessarily have to ski or snowboard to have fun playing outside during winter travel– nor do you even need a mountain! Right in the middle of many urban destinations, renting a pair of skates and mingling with the locals is a fabulous way of getting both exercise and often a spectacular new perspective on old cities. Here are some of my top choices:

Boston 

In the northern zone of the 50 groomed acres (20 hectares) of the USA’s oldest park, the Boston Common Frog Pond offers a fu

Ludovic Péron

Zanzibar is a beautiful Tanzanian archipelago (of two large islands and many small ones) off the coast of East Africa. It's the perfect place to get away from hectic modern life and enjoy the wonders that nature has to offer. If you are travelling to Tanzania, there are two main things you have to do: Tanzania safari tours and visit Zanzibar. You will see that Zanzibar’s reputation as an island paradise is definitely on the mark.

If the Tanzania safari tours give you an insight i

Guests visiting the luxury Esplanade Spa and Golf Resort will adore its excellent location in the lovely spa town of Mariánské Láznĕ (also known as Mariendbad), two hours from Prague. The five-star residence is close to many attractions and landmarks and found in the pretty countryside of the Czech Republic. The lodgings are close to another spa town, Karlovy Vary, as well as a lovely golf course, Royal Golf Club Mariánské Láznĕ, that’s ideal for a game. The residence is housed in a gorgeous bu

If you plan to visit the Golfo Dulce/ Osa Peninsula region on your Costa Rica vacation, one of the most wonderful excursions you can take is to Casa Orquídeas Botanical Garden, one of the oldest and most interesting botanical gardens in southern Costa Rica. As the name implies, especially phenomenal is its collection of orchids.

The beautifully landscaped private tropical garden shows off hundreds of species of ornamental and edible tropical plants that have been collected and cared for by U.S

On my New Zealand trip, after windy Surat Bay, I drove along the South Island's southwest coast to Te Anau. Where famous sounds are -you know, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. Te Anau was a really beautiful place with a beautiful lake and the sounds in the background. It was a little town, that mostly popular was in summer because now it was almost deserted.

But no worries - without the tourists it was even more beautiful! :-)

The next day I headed to Milford Sound - 120 km to the sound and

Spain can be a romantic place indeed - and in a country crammed with crenelated castles, Arabian Nights palaces, and dreamy beaches, it’s a tall order indeed to zero in on the “most” romantic. It’s true, too, that one way to enhance the romance of almost any spot here is to opt for one of the paradores (inns), usually sited in some of the most gorgeous spots and historic buildings imaginable. But as I have traveled the length and breadth of the peninsula and its islands over the years, I have am

by Cristóbal Ramírez


The small country of Uruguay and its progressive president have been making a good bit of news lately,  but its pleasant capital – the Western Hemisphere’s southernmost – on the oceanlike Rio de la Plata remains pretty much as laid-back as it’s always been. And one thing you notice after walking around this city (to which Iberia starts flying four times a week on Sept. 1) is how muchMontevideo residents truly love their mate, an herb tea also popular in Argentina and Parag

Choosing to rent a car during your business trip or holiday in Dubai is a great way to explore Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates at your own pace. However, you want to make sure you are well versed with the local rules and driving culture.

Especially if you have come to Dubai from a relatively quieter city or a suburb, you will find that driving here can be quite an overwhelming experience. Regardless of how experienced you are as a driver, when driving in a foreign country, you

The TAMAR Sea Turtle Project was founded in the 1980s, although it all began in the 70s when some students who loved oceanography documented the mistreatment of sea turtles on Brazilian beaches by some people, and it has grown since to form the large organization it represents today.

Praia do Forte, in Bahia, is the national headquarters of the project. Around 30 kilometers of the beach are monitored, also ensuring the protection of the young of four species of sea turtles. This is the center th

恭喜發財 (That's Kung hei fat choy! to you). As hundreds of millions ring in the Year of the Monkey for Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year) today, I'm reminded of one of the Chinese diaspora's great gifts to travelers across the planet: funky Chinatowns where the age-old culture of the Middle Kingdom (and increasingly, other parts of Asia) meets a variety of others in sometimes fascinating ways.

The best ones are the traditional ones, which developed organically, as opposed to a recent trend