Blogs

Security concerns have been increasing around the world during the past decades, not only related to major terrorism in the skies (such as 9/11) or on land (such as the Mumbai Attack), but also related to personal safety concerns arising from a growing number of pickpocket and mugging incidents in tourist destinations everywhere. At the same time, the number as well as the value of items carried by many experienced travelers has continued to increase. Wearing a suitable travel vest and hidden ca

EcoTraining wilderness camp, Mashatu, Botswana, Thursday 12 January 2012, is a day that will be etched upon my memory forever. I ran out of toothpaste.

Not life changing in itself, I agree, but it was the first in a series of interesting events that day which included having lasagne for supper (my favourite) and being charged by a lion.

Perhaps I should say a bit more about the lion thing. At approximately 06:00 that morning, a small group of us under the expert guidance of Chantelle chanced upon

Unbeknownst to most of us, Guam has had much of the same history as the Philippines, first coming to the world’s attention during Ferdinand Magellan’s famous booty call to the region in 1521.  I suspect he found more in the Philippines because he died there and Spain didn’t get around to formally colonizing Guam until 1565. That’s the way it stayed until the Spanish-American War, when ownership passed to the USA.  After WWII the Philippines became independent while Guam stayed Amer

Look up anything about Nosara, Costa Rica, and you are going to find mention of yoga and surfing. First surfing, and then yoga, has been a magnet for four decades to the quiet stretch of sand, ocean and tropical dry forest on the Pacific’s Nicoya Peninsula.

Starting in the 1970s,pioneering expats from the U.S. began trickling into the beaches of Nosara, most settling in the beautiful, broad horseshoe-shaped bay of Playa Guiones. They came to “get away from it all”, to surf and seek a healthier a

Travel is measurably one of Facebook’s fastest growing, strongest vertical, and this is the year Facebook will target travel as a major sales initiative.

As we reported in New Media Travel recently, impressively, 52% of the site’s users said that when they view Facebook, they already “started dreaming about a holiday even when they didn’t have one booked. And 95% use Facebook for ‘travel related activities’ prior to going on vacation.”

So what’s the bad news?

“Travel related activities,” may not me

por Cristóbal Ramírez

Es el laboratorio de ideas de Nueva York. Donde la contracultura se desparrama por las calles.Donde lo transgresor y lo divertido se unen. Donde las corrientes artísticas surgen. Donde caminan los coolhunters en busca del Street style del momento. Así es Williamsburg, dentro de Brooklyn, separado del Lower East Side de Manhattan por un puente que no es demasiado bonito pero tiene su encanto industrial. El barrio se puso de moda cuando jóvenes artistas se vieron obligados a a

 Old Parish Church Cemetery in Whitby, England

My obsession to travel to every site related to either the fictional Count Dracula or his real historical counterpart, Prince Vlad Dracula the Impaler, grew out of a visit to Whitby, England, where part of the novel Dracula takes place.  I stood on the cemetery hill (top) where, in Bram Stoker's Dracula Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray spent hour after hour sitting on their "favourite seat" (a bench placed over a suicide's grave near the edge of the c

Where can you get a varied, perfectly seasoned, five course rustic Italian meal with great wines and original cocktails in San Diego?  Pizzeria Mozza fits that bill.           

Pizzeria Mozza, sits on the western end of San Diego’s Headquarter’s, a rebirth of the historic San Diego Police Department Headquarters, built in 1939.  After 28 years in limbo, it is now on the national registry of historic places, with buildings and an open air plaza at the entrance to Seaport Village.  The Headquarters

Here, heritage lives. It is revered and celebrated. It embodies not just the culture and the traditions of the land, but epitomises a way of life. It is a source of pride and forms the crux of many conversations. The grandeur takes you by surprise, the intricacy holds you in awe and the legends leave you spellbound. This is heritage country, Nepal.

Nepal, with more than 60 linguistic groups, has always nurtured the reputation of being a country of contrasts, where gods and mortals live together.

When we picture the Rhine, we see castles and vine-covered hills. However, the river is more than that; it’s an “urban lifeline” passing through the high-quality-of-life state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and connecting the towns of Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Impressively, Dusseldorf ranked No. 6 on a list of high-quality places to live. See what these these hidden gems have to offer.

Dusseldorf

Düsseldorf

Walking through the Costa Rica rainforest in rainy season is the time to hear frogs: calling, croaking, barking, whistling, tinkling, trilling and making all manner of loud sounds.

Why are they so noisy? The quick answer is to attract a mate, and to defend a territory – especially in breeding season. In an evergreen rainforest, newly formed ponds, puddles and pools erupt into a cacophony of several species of frogs all calling and competing at the same time for mates.

The tropics hold many such na

One of the most amazing shopping experiences in Asia is a visit to a wet market. A wet market is basically a fresh food market make “wet’ by the liberal use of water to keep the poultry, meat and vegetables looking clean and fresh plus keep the fish and shellfish alive.

Traditionally they are open-air markets often on the bank of a waterway so the fish and shellfish making it convenient for fishermen. The traditional rationale for a wet market in hot climates where there was little refrigeration

The Spanish colonial city of Grenada

I remember traveling to Costa Rica in the early 90s. This was when travelers were just starting to take notice of this lush land of jungle and beaches. As an owner of a travel agency, I heard stories of clients of mine buying pieces of beachfront property for $8,000 on Costa Rica’s endless Pacific beaches. When I finally visited, I recall driving from the Pacific side east to the Caribbean and seeing few tourists. I was in awe of the landscape and ecosystem. L

One of the most fascinating and enjoyable day trips from Puerto Madryn, Argentina is the journey south to visit the penguin reserve at Punta Tombo. With stops along the way for Dolphin watching and a traditional Welsh Tea in the historic town of Gaiman this is a full day of unequaled activities. The Flamenco Tour agency offers this day trip starting at about 9AM in the morning and returning to Puerto Madryn by about 6PM. With bilingual tour guides who are knowledgeable on the region and comfort

Es el barrio favorito de los chilangos para ver y ser vistos. La Colonia Roma, en México DF, se ha convertido en el distrito de moda donde comprar ropa trendy, ver exposiciones, sentarse en una terraza con un buen libro, salir a beber mezcal y conocer gente interesante ycultureta. La zona se construyó a principios del siglo XX con viales rectos, amplios y llenos de arboledas donde se instaló la aristocracia. Luego vino el declive de la década de 1970, con la llegada de las oficinas, y el año neg

Millions of tourists flock to Florence (Firenze) every year, but only a handful get to take what may well be the best walking tour in the city. Actually, few tourists even know about the existence of the Percorso del Principe (Passageway of the Prince) tour, and even fewer visitors plan their trip sufficiently ahead to make the required prior tour reservations with the museum office!

Called the Vasari Corridor, the passageway lined with treasures from the Medici collection occupies the top floor

Europe is surrounded by sea on almost all sides, with a diverse coastline and of course fascinating culture and natural beauty. If you're thinking of a holiday on the continent that includes sailing, these ten destinations, are undoubtedly the highlights:

1. Ionian islands, Greece – It is the most common charting place for travelers around the Mediterranean, a beautiful place to begin your sailing journey with, starting from Lefkada and winding through its seven large islands, passing through the s

Some of my deepest understandings of place, my most intense sense of "being" somewhere come neither from actually being there, nor from reading a travel book about the destination.

They come from a novel or short story which, because they set out to tell a story and not to describe a location, actually create a powerful sense of time and place. 

At many  points in my life I was moved, touched by these non-travel travel books. Here are just four of them:

Travels with a Tangerine

In Travels with a Ta