Blogs

By Roy Heale

In the heart of Calgary's downtown is the trendy residential community known as the Beltline where comfortable and safe urban living is a recognised characteristic of the neighbourhood. Modern new high rise apartments blend with older historic buildings and everything architecturally in between to form a truly pleasant living environment for those who want to be close to the downtown commercial district. Naturally, this community is home to several new boutique hotels for the conveni

What to do in La Jolla, California? The most popular free activity in the village - especially if you're traveling with kids - is visiting the seals at The Children's Pool. The rope barrier that went up here recently indicates the beginning of the pupping season for the colony of harbor seals who call the cove home.

While the pups aren't usually born until March and April, the rope keeps onlookers at a safe distance from the rookery while the seals are most vulnerable. All onlookers, that is,

Once again, Diego was right. Actually, Jake thought blearily, these days Diego seemed elevated to frickin' oracle. Who knew? When they were at NYU together, the doofus was far less into books than pranks, from cute-but-harmless to dangerously dumbass. Like the time - a decade pre-Occupy - he'd sent out a press release from “the Coalition to Arm the Homeless” and the resulting brouhaha snowballed until their dorm was besieged with reporters from CNN, the Post, AP, even the London fucking Times --

We remember being told about YOLO (You Only Live Once) Stand-Up Paddle Boarding on a random trip to the Beaches of Walton, on the Florida panhandle.

A couple of beach-fit, broad-smiled  guys and ladies were balancing beautifully on small, colorful  board in a wide stream, polling themselves forward with skill, balance and great fun. They introduced us to YOLO, a branded paddle boarding sport presumably started in Hawaii.

Those were very early days when we too were one of the first people to try th

Costa Rica is a top world travel destination because it has something for everyone: tropical rainforest, green mountains, spectacular beaches, active volcanoes, wild rivers and lakes, and charming towns. The dry tropical forest and wide savannas of the north Pacific are as varied as the dense, steamy jungle of the south Pacific, the misty cool cloud forest high in the central mountains, and the distinctive character and culture of the Caribbean Coast as compared to the Pacific.

Here is our list

Some Greek islands suffer from the effects of ‘kalimari and chips’ mass tourism. But, sometimes, you only need to take a short trip in a ferry or a kaiki to enter a different world altogether.

Let’s look at one of the lesser-known islands, Leros. There are jails and mental institutions here, and the name is similar to the Greek word for a rogue or a rascal. This put a lot of people off visiting, for all the wrong reasons, because really, it’s quite a laid-back, pleasant place.

I suspect the averag

The latest celebrity stars of Costa Rica are cute and lovable, with masked furry faces that seem to smile beatifically. In a country full of exotic wildlife, sloths are one of the most well-known animals, and those at the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica are gaining fame on the popular TV show Animal Planet’s “Meet the Sloths”.

You can see these fascinating animals in person at the Sloth Sanctuary, just south of Limon Costa Rica in the small town of Penhurst on the Caribbean Coast.

The Sloth Sanct

A 40-minute drive east of Puerto Plata, Cabarete’s a phenom that started blossoming as a destination in the mid-1980s, as foreign visitors discovered the water, wind conditions, and nearly four miles of beach that have given this single-street town of some 37,000 a rep as one of the world’s top meccas for windsurfing, kitesurfing, just plain ol’ surfing, and sailing. That’s not to say you can’t have fun here if you don’t do any of these sports, but it sure does help.

Today, more than 20 years la

It's apple harvest time, and it's another crisp Saturday night on Calle Gascona (below right) in downtown Oviedo, an old university city that's the genteel, postcard-pretty capital of emerald-green Asturias in north Spain, with happy-faced students and snazzy locals of all ages roaming the sloping three-block stretch and jamming the café and eatery terraces.

Looking closer, you realize this isn't just another restaurant row in yet another Spanish college town. I spot waiter after waiter execut

Don't Expect This!

 

A Few Things to Know about Hotel Rooms in Europe

I learned about the basic American hotel room from Howard Johnson in the 1960’s.  Two double beds with back boards bolted to the wall, two fake oil paintings above said backboards, a stand in between the beds with a lamp and phone, a standard bathroom, and a TV.   The last time I checked, little has changed. When you book a room in the USA you know exactly what you are getting.

This is not the case overseas. Europe has a 1-5 star

Bolzano is the capital of the province of Alto Adige (South Tyrol or Sudtirol) in Italy. Originally a Roman settlement, after the fall of the Roman Empire, immigrants arrived from Barvaria to the north, and it has been settled by German populations since then. Before World War 1, Bolzano was part of the Austro-Hungarian county of Tyrol, and became part of Italy at the end of this war. This cultural heritage is still prevalent throughout the region, from its bilingual street signs and town names,

In the heart of San Jose, Costa Rica, the National Theatre (Teatro Nacional) remains one of the capital city’s most popular tourist attractions. 

The ornate Neo-Classical theatre is considered the finest historic building in San Jose, and is known for its exquisite interior decorated with lavish furnishings and beautiful murals.

One of the theatre’s main ceiling murals, in fact, was just named one of “10 great ceilings around the world,” according to an article in USA Today. The famous painting is

Una de las primeras cosas que nos cuentan en el colegio cuando empezamos a estudiar geometría (geometría plana en realidad, pues esta es sólo una de muchas) es que la distancia más corta entre dos puntos en un plano la marca siempre una línea recta.

Años después, esto es algo que seguimos recordando, aunque a esas alturas ya hemos olvidado aquello de «en un plano», que es una parte importante del asunto, ya que por ejemplo sobre la superficie de una esfera, donde se aplica la geometría esférica

by Denise Pulis

Beautiful Zurich, Switzerland always ranks high in Mercer’s cost-of-living surveys, but does it really have to be one of Europe’s most expensive cities for the visitor? Not necessarily, if you follow my insider’s tips to Zurich on a budget.

Hotels that Are Always Good Deals

 Finding inexpensive accommodations in  Zurich is no easy feat, but it can be done. For rock-bottom prices, consider camping at Camping Seebucht (July to early October), just 2½ miles (4 km) from downtown,

I stepped out of my hotel and into a time machine.

Transported back, not in the typical resurrected town like Williamsburg, Va. or quaint seaport village like Mystic, Ct., but truly back where I remembered with emotions raw enough to bring tears to my eyes. I cried tears of grief, and tears of joy. The images I saw were contemporary and vivid. I lived them, and here I relived them. I was standing in the Newseum, Washington DC's newest museum of the news media, hence it portmanteau of a name.

No

As I enjoy the autumn of my years, I have embraced a new found need for a search for passion. Not necessarily a steamy love affair, though that would not be out of the question; but rather a purpose to my life. My travels as a single senior female afford me the opportunity to enjoy that journey.

My most recent destination on this path to fulfillment was the sacred grounds of Sedona, Arizona. A most amazing place to be sure. My friend Patty and I left from southern California and enjoyed a scenic

Skiing on the cheap has always been a serious challenge. When we start booking your holiday and calculate the prices for accommodation, flights, equipment and lift passes, you may well start to wonder whether all this is seriously worthwhile. However,  if you are prepared to make your own travel arrangements, cut the accommodation expenses in half by renting a self-catered ski accommodation, shop around, avoid eating out three times a day and stay in the lesser-known resort, you can still get fa

Returning for its fourth year to Costa Rica’s southern Pacific Coast at Uvita, the Envision Festival will transform the rainforest into a global village of art, music, yoga and spirituality.

Envision 2014 will be held Feb. 20–23 at Rancho La Merced in Uvita, Costa Rica, home of the renowned Ballena Marine National Park, an important migratory site for the world’s Pacific Humpback Whales. Thousands of festival-goers come every year to Costa Rica for the popular multi-day event.

The Envision Festiva

On a rare, warm, spring-like winter night in a farmhouse in La Marche, Italy, it was also a bright sunny Sunday morning in California.  I was cutting up a chicken and potatoes in my PJ’s, while chef Jason Bartner, in La Marche, instructed me.  Jason told me to make sure my chicken was dry, and to use a towel—it won’t get stuck and it will wash.  All I had to do was roll out of bed, turn on my IPad, click a link, and there he was—live, available for any questions I had.   We braised the chicken a