Blogs

When shopping for travel insurance, it’s essential to match your own needs with that of the policy. Here are a few coverage areas to be aware of:

Provides cash payment for accidental loss of life or limb while traveling.

Baggage  This benefit provides reimbursement for lost, stolen or damaged baggage or personal items. Coverage usually applies to your entire trip, not just your flight, but a subset of this coverage is for baggage delay, which offers reimbursement for clothing, toiletries and oth

It wasn’t so long ago that all hotels pretty much looked alike.

Just another pretty face, or not so pretty.

There were some differences in the design of a luxury lobby and bar, versus, say  the lobby and bar of a moderate-priced hotel chain. No one would confuse a Four Seasons with a Best Western.

But basically, the design standard and principles of hotel brands were fixed by Corporate with little flexibility and certainly no impulse to take many design chances.

Apparently the powerful prese

Being a motorcycle traveler, for me, “a place” is not as much a city or a village, but rather a region where I travel through. I rarely have a fixed route plan when I leave on a trip, just a general idea of where I would like to go, and the places I would like to visit along the way.

Most of the time I get tons of information about interesting things or places to see on the go, from local people, and that is how you come across some of the most amazing places.

Since I moved to Brazil, I traveled t

Muerte al GPS. Al igual que en las medinas de las ciudades árabes, lo mejor que le puede pasar en Lyon es que se pierda. Si se desorienta y aunque mire el mapa no sabe dónde se encuentra, no se preocupe. Eche a caminar y dará con rincones especiales de esos que no vienen en las guías. La tercera ciudad más poblada de Francia está repleta de callejones, como los famosos traboules, pasadizos que conectan una calle con otra a través de los patios de los edificios. Uno de los más famosos es el de la

42 stories above downtown White Plains’ Ritz Carlton, the tallest building between NYC and Boston, the glass paneled walls of 42 The Restaurant offer eye popping views of Westchester County and a distant Manhattan skyline. With 4 kitchens, banquet space, and a lounge that extends up to the 43rd floor, the even bigger attraction here is down home Portuguese cooking in a casual fine-dining setting. Accessible via an elevator ensconced in an alcove well beyond the hotel lobby, you would think that

After a 5 hour drive SSW out of Nairobi Iarrived at the Amboseli Sopa Lodge, located on the outskirts of Amboseli National Park.  The lodge is stunningly beautiful and comfortable. Yes, we are “in the bush.” I know, because there is no internet and cell phones do not work.  Actually the lodge has had internet, but it does not work anymore, and the cell phone coverage is limited to one carrier, the name of which is, wonderfully, Safaricom. The lodge provides every other creature comfort one would

Behind the Scenes at a Gilded-Age ´Cottage´

All the mansions of the late 19th and early 20th century in the Rhode Island coasts´s famed outpost of wealth the are over-the-top grand, for the self-made millionaires who built them wanted to look as if they came from old money, and to achieve that, they were willing to spend a lot of new money. Touring these summer “cottages” today, you gawk at expansive gardens, expensive European art and furniture, sumptuous ballrooms and guest rooms, and enough

• BAY OF ISLANDS: If you can survive the four-hour drive (for which I rented a car), I highly recommend checking out the Bay of Islands. I got some incredible weather and had the privilege of working with R. Tucker Thompson and meeting some awesome people. Paihia is a great place to make your home base, and you can check everything out in about four days. Kings Road has some cool bars and several good backpacking hostels.  If you have the time to kill, Russell is a cool town across the bay, and th

Talk about Nosara, Costa Rica, and you actually mean a stretch of several beaches on the Nicoya Peninsula – from Playa Ostional to Playa Nosara, Playa Pelada and Playa Guiones. This remote area of Guanacaste, just north of Samara in the country’s north Pacific, is known for long wide beaches, fantastic surfing, peace and quiet, and of course, it’s impressive wildlife.

Three top nature activities you must do on a visit to Nosara are:

Turtle watching at the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge

Hundreds

by Binoy Gupta 

Having lived in India my entire life, in all those years, often had I heard tales of the Sunderbans. Stretching across more than 10,000 square kilometers (almost 4,000 square miles) in the state of West Bengal and into Bangladesh, this delta is the world’s largest — and also its largest mangrove forest — an ecosystem so special that it’s been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. But even more than all that, we’d always heard tell of the mysterious realm of the endangered — an

It ain’t about the cost, it’s about experiencing a slice of history.       

I have filched this quote from a very famous tour guide book which shall remain nameless:

“A buzzer sounds, you bolt for the gangplank. A whistle blows, the Star Ferry chugs forward. This vehicle carrying you belongs to a fleet of legendary ferries that plies passengers between Kowloon and Hong Kong. At only US$0.30, the ride, with its views of skyscrapers and tenements against a backdrop of jungle-clad hills, must be

¡Horror! ¡Está nevando o está helado! ¿Ponemos cadenas a los aviones? Pues no, hasta ahí no se llega =).  Lo que sí se hace es pasar los aviones por los equipos de deshielo para retirar los restos de nieve, escarcha o hielo, un proceso necesario para que puedan volar con todas las garantías.

¿En qué consiste? ¿Cómo funcionan esos equipos de deshielo?

La temporada de deshielo en España va del 1 de noviembre hasta el 31 de marzo. El equipo de deshielo consta de unos camiones, que llevan incorpora

If you’re looking for a sales job in travel, now might be the time to approach Facebook.

The giant social media site is on a mission to elbow its way further into the travel space and has been reorganizing its sales force.

As HotelMarketing reports Facebook has been recruiting for travel sales representatives as it looks to turn travel, one of its fastest growing verticals, in to one of its biggest. Next year, 2014, is the target year.

All those images, and stories and happy travelers’ tales 

Morocco may not be the first country that comes to mind when contemplating the world's greatest wine regions. But despite its large Islamic population, Morocco has historically been a prolific wine producing country. As far back as 2,500 years ago, this part of North Africa completed an arc of wine growing regions spanning the Mediterranean weaving through Italy, Greece, Turkey.

Truth be told, Morocco saved France's ass during the late 19th century phylloxera devastation. French growers immigrate

Tuscany in the fall. You just can’t beat it. Long gone are the hordes of summer tourists from around the world, who travel in the height of season. It does get dark early and the weather is not balmy, however, in the fall you can live life as it was meant to be, meeting locals when the pace is slower.

I came to view the burnt orange colors of sunsets, drive through the rolling hills, eat in gastronomic heaven in small restaurants off the beaten path, and visit medieval villages. Tuscany speaks t

Hau Hin is a beach town 3 hours south of Bangkok by bus which offer foreigners everything Bangkok has to offer but in a concentrated area - a narrow town only a couple of kilometers wide at its widest.  

The bus to Hau Hin from Bangkok's southern bus terminal  runs near every hour and the bus station offers a variety of food options while you wait for your bus  to load (10 minutes before departing).  Just recently It has become either illegal or socially unacceptable to drink alcohol on the bus

Brunei, tucked into the big island of Borneo is the last Malay Sultanate which visibly expresses its proud history through magnificent mosques and traditional water villages. Bev Malzard listed a tourist plan then ticked the boxes as she went along.

1. Land in Brunei after only a six and a half hour flight from Melbourne.
2. Visit a stunningly beautiful mosque, the Jame ‘Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque which is the largest in the land. There are four main minarets and two golden (yes, real gold leaf) do

I'm not a travel hacker, not really. I enjoy the places, not the interfaces. And traveling in coach is just fine with me, thanks. As a matter of fact, I do much of my traveling BY coach—bus, that is. I went all over Mexico and Central America before I ever crossed an ocean thirty-five years ago. And the only time I've ever flown first class was when they bumped me up for free. Now don't get me wrong: I'm an avid collector of frequent-flyer miles, but I'd have to have an awful lot before I'd wast