Long-favored as a site for the Costa Rica national surfing competitions, the white sandy beach of Playa Guiones at Nosara hosted the sixth tournament of the Costa Rica National Surfing Circuit kölbi 2015 in June.

Presented by Adrenaline Rush, the Beach Club Tournament was held June 13-14, the last of the 2015 Costa Rica pro surfing season before the Costa Rica National Surfing Championship finals in July at Playa Hermosa near Jacó.

On the north Pacific Coast of the Nicoya Peninsula in Guanacas

When it comes to renting a car, you're not settling for a minivan or subcompact economy special. You want reliability, comfort, and some zing under the hood to make those S curves extra exhilarating along with the views. After sitting on a plane for hours with your legs folded up like pretzels and a debilitating case of jet lag, the last thing you want is to wait in line for a sales pitch designed to get your signature on additional insurance coverage for a vehicle you really don't want.

Now in 1

In this day and age it´s crucial to utilize technology in almost every aspect of our lives.Traveling is no exception since there are hundreds of thousands of helpful travel apps out there and more coming out every day. These programs make our vacation planning less stressful, our payments and transactions seamless and our quests for places to see easier than ever. What follows are some of the best travel apps for 2015 and, hopefully, the list will provide you with much needed insight into how to

                                             Winter in the Country (photo: Katoomba-nsw.com)

                                                Mountain Heritage Hotel during snowfall (photo: Mountain Heritage)


Did you know that the concept of "Christmas in July" started in Australia’s Blue Mountains? Here in the southern hemisphere, July is the middle of winter. In 1980, some vacationers from Ireland were staying at the Mountain Heritage Hotel and mentioned that it felt just like Christmas, with

Historic Saratoga Springs in upstate New York is a fun place to visit any time of year. However, there’s a special excitement in the air with the approach of another annual opening day at the historic Saratoga Race Course – the oldest thoroughbred racetrack in America.

Health, History, Horses

That’s Saratoga’s slogan. The earliest recorded history goes back to the mid-1700s, when the area’s Native Americans were said to be using the healing powers of the naturally carbonated mineral springs that

by Diana Rowe

Tequila — the liquor, not the town — continues to grow more and more popular beyond Mexico, even as along the way it's also pick up a bit of a bad rap (as in, margaritas and shooters, a cheap and surefire way to get — how can I put this — majorly wasted).

And yet…ever more folks are coming to appreciate the spirit’s finer points — there are reposados the equal of any single malt or Cognac, and a lore nearly as varied and distinguished as either. It was this pedigree — plus a ta

Cave Kapsia is located in the Peloponnese peninsula region of Arcadia, near the villages of Kapsia and Levidi. Experts have ranked it among the ten most remarkable caves of Greece. Remains of human bones have been found in the cave, and also lamps thought to date back to the 4th and 5th century AD.

When I spent a year studying in Spain and we went on one of our class trips, without question a top highlight for me was getting to Cuenca and beholding the stunning sight of houses hanging over an abyss. The casas colgadas were (and of course still are) the iconic symbol of this city in Castile-La Mancha, two to three hours from Madrid by car or train, a city dating back 1,300 years, when the Moors ruled this land. And back then, gazing up at them ensconced seemingly precariously on that sheer

by Javier Pedreira

Even with all the signs and signals on the roads and motorways, all of us have at one time or another gotten lost whilst driving. It would be natural to imagine, therefore, that in the vast expanse of the sky it would be quite easy to get lost without any signals for guidance. However, the fact is that there are indeed signals up there to rely upon.

Going back to the early days of aviation, it’s true that the intrepid pilots of the day did have to rely upon navigation by sigh

The clear Pacific Coast waters of Malpaís and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are excellent for stand-up paddleboarding. There is no better way to explore the southern Nicoya Peninsula coastline, and no wetsuit is needed in this warm water!

Stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) is fast growing in popularity in Costa Rica. In fact, in Malpaís this past May 23-24 was the third competition in the 2015 season of the Costa Rica National Circuit of Stand-up Paddleboarding (SUP), Masters and Longboard Surfing. The com

César Manrique (1919-1992)  left his mark throughout all of the Canary Islands with his architecture, painting and sculptures. A prolific artist, in this article we present a beautiful tour of these islands analyzing his work.

Here are some of his most important works.

TENERIFE

Parque Marítimo

This 22,000-square-meter space possesses a collection of pools with water extracted from the sea, restaurants, a gym, play center, thermal water jacuzzi, entertainment areas for kids, sports facilities

When I returned my worn out Osprey backpack to the place where I bought it to get it repaired, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't see it again. I casually handed my inanimate traveling companion over the counter to the sales clerk, signed the papers and meandered off to look at more stuff. Little did I know how the Osprey lifetime guarantee would affect me.

I originally bought the bag with my 16-year-old son. We went together and purchased "his-and-mom's" bags (I say that because his was a t

by Cristobal Ramirez

Brazil’s exciting, vibrant commercial capital isn’t just Latin America’s most populous metro area (not to mention the world’s sixth largest): São Paulo also boasts the curious distinction of being home to the world’s largest Japanese community outside Japan. Many of thesenipo-brasileiros are to be found in Liberdade, a central São Paulo neighbourhood just a hop and a skip from busy Avenida Paulista, also home to other Brazilians of Asian descent including Chinese and Korea

Bánh Xèo With Prawns and Pork

½ (one-half) cup rice flour pancake mix
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 eggs
½ (one-half) tsp salt
2¼ cups water
1 cup coconut milk
3 stalks spring onion, diced
2 prawns, cooked and peeled (or 4 large shrimp)
2 oz cooked pork, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper as desired for prawns and pork
2 tsp oil per pancake
1 oz bean sprouts
3 leaves of lettuce
2 oz of Vietnamese fresh herb leaves (can be spring onions, basil, cilantro, mint, and/or lemongrass
3 stalks spring onion, dice

Did you ever notice how many Manhattan hotel exteriors are often buried in the jumble of surrounding architecture and obfuscated by the frenetic street activity? Without signage, you'd walk right past many of their entrances without noticing.

An exception to this scenario, Sofitel NYC, rises 30 stories above 44th and 45th streets, sheathed in a contemporary pattern of limestone and glass among midtown Manhattan's concrete canyons. Upon stepping through the doorman-attended glass front doors, y

After more than 45 years of traveling the globe, we have finally put together a list of our favorite travel destinations of a lifetime.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, as we can think of additional wonderful places which could be considered for such a list. We have to draw the line somewhere, and so we selected twelve of our favorites.

After reading several similar lists available on the internet, from well known publications as well as from other bloggers, we felt that we should

If you were lucky, you went to a terrific summer camp when you were a kid. Well, now you are all grown up, and your luck is holding up – because we have found the adult luxury equivalent of your bygone summers. So come with us and relive those halcyon days of yesteryear at the Lodge at Woodloch in Hawley, Pennsylvania.

A Region of Kids' Camps and Adult Resorts

We found the Lodge at Woodloch during our writing swing through luxurious vacation destinations in the northeast Appalachians, which in

Sharing a birthday, July 11, with the national day of this landlocked, mostly Buddhist country wedged between China and Siberia (a bit smaller than Alaska and with a population around 3 million) has helped drive a longtime fascination. In the early Middle Ages essentially a world power thanks to the westward conquests of Genghis Khan, in the 1990s Mongolia made a transition to multi-party democracy after 70 years of Communist and Soviet domination (one of the remnants of which is that its lan

The thing that amazed me most standing on Playa Hermosa on a recent Saturday morning was not the beautiful deep blue and turquoise barrel waves, or the warm sunlight glinting off the black sand. It was the nearly complete absence of people.

There were maybe 30 surfers in the water, but so spread out that everyone got a wave to surf regularly. There was a young photographer alternating between shooting images of surfers and his model-looking girlfriend in her bikini. A lone jogger headed down th