Blogs

Story and photos by Mary Gallagher

Next time you see one of those special airfare sales to LAX or are there on business seriously think about visiting lovely Redondo Beach for a few days. Just a 7-10 minute cab ride from the airport opens a whole world of relaxation and fun and a number of beach side hotels. Best of all you won’t even need a car.

Redondo Beach with its population of fewer than 70,000, its Redondo Beach Pier, International Boardwalk, and soft Redondo sand, is a wonderful place

Iguazú Falls are located in Iguazú National Park, in the extreme north east of Argentina and bordering Brazil. Surrounding the beautiful waterfalls at Iguazú are tales of ambition and power, fruits of the imaginations of travelers who have ventured within them. Before the falls can be seen, their murmur can already be heard, with the violent battering of the waters growing louder and louder as you approach.

The falls lie on the border of Argentina and Brazil, just a few miles from the Triple Fron

I recently got back from a family vacation to a place we’d never been before: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. When I say a family vacation, I don’t just mean my husband, son and I. Oh, no. Every so often my extended family swarms together to go to some exotic place for a celebration. The last one that included my father was in 2005, to Italy, for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Last year, after my dad’s passing, we all went on an odyssey to memorialize his life from East Texas to Tucson, bir

A television programme dealing with the some of the thousand-odd islands around the British Isles caught my attention. Brief visits were made to many of my favourite islands, including one to my very favourite, the little-known but fascinating Piel.

Piel lies off the Cumbrian coast, at the mouth of the Walney Channel, near Barrow in Furness. It isn’t a large island. It’s only 19 acres in area, and barely 500 yards across at its widest. But it has a king.

He doesn’t gain his title by inheritance, t

The slow-moving sloths of Costa Rica are streaking into the limelight with their own weeklong online special program. Starting June 20, 2014, Animal Planet and Animalist will stream daily footage from the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.

Cute and cuddly sloths of the Caribbean Costa Rica have been in the spotlight since last year’s program “Meet the Sloths” aired on Animal Planet. The two-hour special program will run again on June 21 at 8:00 a.m. EST. The story follows a year in the lives of five

Having started my career in the travel industry right after I returned from a yearlong backpacking excursion, I learned at a young age how to live with locals and experience familiarity wherever I traveled.

And now, over the past few years there has been a shift in travel values. More than ever, travelers are seeking out original experiences to get immersed into a culture by living like and with the local people. Traveling to a new destination is exhilarating , staying with someone who knows the

San Telmo, en Buenos Aires, es una fiesta. Casi toda la capital argentina es vibrante, charlatana y colorida pero en San Telmo uno encuentra la felicidad de las pequeñas cosas. Por ejemplo, al tomarse un café, un auténtico ritual para los porteños, que se tragan la bebida sorbo a sorbito a medida que van escupiendo sus temores, dudas y alegrías como en una sesión de psicoanálisis gratuita. La afirmación es más verdadera en lugares de este distrito como el Café del Árbol (frente a la Plaza Dorreg

The southern spice trail of India offers aromatic plants and scents – temples, history, fragrant curries, plenty of cows and the odd elephant. Bev Malzard explores. ‘India is a land of contrasts.’ These are the words I read when I first heard about India in primary school.

I missed the hippie trail through India in the late 70s and somehow it missed my ‘trip list’ for the next 30 years. It’s a long time since the 70s and I am no longer young and fearless – I don’t have the time to meander on

Apologies to my friends and colleagues in the cruise industry or who are cruise fans, but I’m just not that into cruising –  I’d much rather spend my time and money actually experiencing destinations rather than spending most of my trip on a ship (no matter how tricked out), with just occasional, usually frustratingly fleeting tastes of ports of call. There are, however, some cases where a cruise is clearly the best way to experience the most in the most efficient amount of time (unless you hav

Interesting little towns located very near big vacation destinations like San Francisco often go missing from the holiday planner’s radar. In the case of Pacifica, California, that would be most unfortunate.

Just 15-minutes south of San Francisco on famous California Hwy 1, Pacifica is a great place to enjoy a change of pace from the hustle and bustle of a City vacation. It’s a place to stretch out and watch the waves, and experience the community life of a small Bohemian style California coastal

People go to Majorca in the summer in search of beautiful beaches and great weather, but if you are also looking for fiestas and local culture, summer is the perfect time to visit as there are all kinds of fiestas and events taking place on this beautiful and lively island!  Many towns and villages have their own particular fiestas and open-air dances, not to mention music festivals where national groups and reputed international artists come to play.

In Majorca, summer kicks off on the eve of Sa

As the plane is landing at Chinggis Khan International Airport in Ulaan Bator, I look down at the dirt tracks swirling through the pastures surrounding the runway.  They look something like a beginner’s guide to chaos theory, the likely paths and the harder ones, converging and re-converging according to some logic or design.  I figure this must somehow be the map to the Mongolian persona if not history.  I mean, you’ve gotta’ give these guys a lotta’ credit, not just for conquering half the kn

There are as many reasons for moving to Costa Rica as there are foreign residents living here. Every year, millions of tourists come to Costa Rica on vacation. Some choose to stay longer and make the leap to move here permanently.

The small, country town of Atenas Costa Rica, is one of the leading places that have captured the hearts of foreign residents.

“I love living here,” said Atenas resident Anna Hunt, who is originally from Poland. “One of the main reasons we picked Atenas is because we wan

Our goal in taking a month-long cruise around Hawaii and Tahiti on the Golden Princess was to experience – and then write about – how a major cruise line like Princess caters to its suite passengers. It was one of our most enjoyable projects.

Suites for two

Over the past ten years, we have photographed and written about suites in B&Bs, hotels, resorts, and on cruise ships. It is our writing practice to always consider our subjects from a “couples” perspective. In that light, we have found many sui

Perched squarely at the confluence of the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, Saybrook Point Inn and Spa isn't the first property to take advantage of this coveted location. Originally occupied by Native fishing encampments, the Pease Hotel was the first property built in 1870 to accommodate overnight visitors to Old SayBrook Point. Lasting until the 1950's, this historic gem was then replaced with Terra Mar Hotel featuring modern amenities expected by 20th century travelers. Then the Tagli

Fertility Tourism: Selling Women’s Eggs for Bucks and Travel. How right is this?

“Female Eggs For Sale” may not be a sign you’ll see any time soon, but for all intents and purposes that’s what the global market for harvesting and selling women’s eggs is all about.

The in vitro fertilization market is a billion dollar industry that touches almost every country in the world. It touches the wealthy neighborhoods of London and reaches  into the Americas, Asia and the IVF capital of the world, Cypr

Indira Gandhi International was clean and surprisingly well ordered, which was good because we were both hellishly tired. After clearing customs, we collected our luggage and then found an ATM so we could get some rupees. That done, we wandered over to the parade of men waiting with name boards. My name was on one of them, and I was thankful we’d arranged our airport transfer in advance of arriving. After shaking hands with Rahul, we were led past the trolley boys and babbling taxi wallahs towar

Estos colores son tan naturales como poco vistos. Azules, turquesas y verdes con una película en Technicolor. Provocan un cortocircuito en la mente, pero uno se acostumbra pronto a lo bello y a lo bueno. Cuando salga del archipiélago de Bocas del Toro, en el noroeste de Panamá y a pocos kilómetros de Costa Rica, todo le parecerá pardusco, viejo, comido por el sol. Son nueve islas en total y multitud de islotes perdidos como si una mano gigante hubiera echado puñados de tierra en mitad del Océano