Cruize Cast Blog: A Cruise Podcast Full Blog with More Pictures
When looking at the cost of a cruise in the Mediterranean, one of the largest expenses is shore excursions. Most people assume that since they are in a foreign country, it makes sense to pay the high price for cruise sponsored excursions. While these excursions do provide the traveler the guarantee that the ship will not leave without them as well as a licensed guide, many ports are so easy to tour on your own that the DIY option
Euskadi huele a campo verde. Y en medio de ese color se encuentran sus tres capitales de provincia: Vitoria, Bilbao y San Sebastián. por
La primera, la menos conocida aunque sea la capital de la región, es una delicia. Calificada como una de las ciudades españolas más habitables por calidad de vida, zonas verdes y filosofía ecológica, Vitoria no defrauda. Sería un error pasar de ella, porque sorprende y engancha con su arquitectura medieval.
Los palacetes renacentistas se suceden ante nuestr
Seeking the perfect travel website is a bit like seeking the Holy Grail. A long, usually fruitless endeavor.
But if the perfect travel website is ever built, we're pretty sure "they will come."
And maybe the website that Fi designed is it.
For now, at best, most if not all travel web sites are pretty "ho hum," especially airline and hotel websites. At worse, they are an insult to easy access and intuitive interaction.
Or as as Hotelmarketing acerbically points out, travel websites pretty much
Three images are especially iconic when it comes to Turkey: the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, the library at Ephesus, and the whirling dervishes of Konya. But despite all the time I’ve spent in this country, until I visited the dervishes’ annual festival last December, I didn’t truly know what they were all about. “Konya offers a unique opportunity to learn about the Sufi philosophy and the significance of the dance in the place where it all originated,” my Turkish friend
Mountain bikers around the world: There's a new adventure race happening in August in Costa Rica – the 100-mile Rincón de la Vieja Challenge.
The mountain bike endurance race is set for Aug. 24, 2013, starting off from Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin at Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste. The 100-mile race is the first of its kind in Costa Rica and Latin America, and according to race promoters, is the only race in the world to circumnavigate an active volcano.
Located in Costa Rica's northern Pa
Tourism is to a great extent a world of marketing. In reality there are three major parts to the tourism product 1) the product itself, 2) the way the product is presented by both the provider (marketing) and perceived by the customer (reputation), and 3) the product delivery or service that is given as part of the product experience. Often tourism professionals become so enthralled with one part of this triangle that they forget one or two of the other sides of the triangle. This triangle ho
Being one of the oldest cities in the southern Brazilian state of Paranã, Morretes is a most charming colonial town, tucked away in one of the largest and best preserved areas of Atlantic rainforest of south Brazil.
Oldest building in Morretes. Today it is a restaurant where you can enjoy the local cuisine...
Just like the rest of Brazil, the region where Morretes was founded in 1721, was initially inhabited by indigenous tribes, like the Guarani and the Carijó, who eventually had to give way
The birth of empathy between siblings is a beautiful thing to witness. One of the many unexpected joys of living abroad is watching the way such a powerful experience changes your children. For the better. Kids who travel together, learn to rely on each other in a deeper way than life in suburban America demands.
When we left for Italy, Katie and Matt were fifteen and eleven. At that time they were attending different schools, played different sports, had different sets of friends, and had de
Oklahoma´s capital (pop. around 681,000) is a place that exudes charm, character, a dash of sorrow, and overall a spirit that inspires visitors to live their lives more meaningfully. There´s the proverbial something for everyone here, and I recently spent three fascinating days it all - and like others who came before me and those who will follow… my soul was changed forever.
Arriving at the easy breezy Will Rogers Airport I picked up my luggage in record time and headed off to the
Whether you’re looking for a relaxing break sunbathing on the beach or the thrills and spills of surfing, the beaches of Morocco are guaranteed to satisfy your wishes. Morocco boasts miles and miles of clean, unspoilt beaches bathed by the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. From Saïdia to Tangier, the Mediterranean coast alone has 120 beaches, and there are a further 238 from Tangier to Essaouira and 54 from Agadir to Dakhla.
The Atlantic Coast, Ideal for Water Sports
If you’re keen to indulge i
We set out down the beach under a leaden sky stuffed with clouds. It was 8:00 at night, close to my bedtime (I know, I’m on Costa Rica “country” time). At first it was hard to see, with the nearly full moon sliding in and out of clouds; but soon our eyes adjusted to the dimness. A light mist began to dust us, and not a soul stirred nearby.
We were on sea turtle patrol.
Five of us were decked out in dark colors to blend with the night. Sea turtles don’t like bright lights – and, ergo, light-colored
I've been experimenting a bit more than usual with spices recently, and so pungent Hungarian paprika has been very much on my radar, bringing back memories of a three-week stint in Hungary several years ago. This spice is used in cookery throughout much of the world, but boy do Magyars love them some reddish pepper powder – and in some cases in much stronger versions than the capsicum annuum you might use in your own kitchen.
The word paprika is itself Hungarian but derives from Serbo-Croat
Greece is for lovers, and everyone loves a Greek island. Having spent childhood summers in Greece, I find this to be true. Depending on what your definition of an island is, there are between 2,000 and as many as 6,000 Greek Islands - "over 3,000" is a number one hears quite a bit around Greece. However, only a little over 200 are inhabited. Ferry services connect most of the islands, making it easy to hop from one to another. Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands, Mykonos and Ios are popula
So it was an easy chat with a friend who knew I had something to do with the travel biz. He knew I traveled. He knew I produced content (videos, Audio PostCards, travel news reports, trends) for our own site, New Media Travel, Technorati Travel and Tripatini, among others.
But he was fixated on the actual travel. The grand act of "going places," as he called it. But this was the surprise: he thought it (travel) was a waste of time, money and energy.
The usual responses to my hitting the road
Las palmeras son altísimas. Recife, ubicada en el noreste de Brasil, resulta cautivadora y la prueba de que el país carioca es mucho más que Sao Paulo y Río de Janeiro. Aquí verá cuestas empedradas, calles elegantes y fachadas de colores. Puede que le encuentre un aire a La Habana, pero está mucho más cuidada. Se ven cuerpos esculturales, fibrosos, de un moreno envidiable, y si uno no está en forma le dará cosa sacar a relucir sus carnes en la playa.
En las playas, porque Recife tiene kilómetr
On your visit to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, or Cuba, at some point soon you’re likely to find on your plate one of the locals’ favorite starchy staples: cooked plátanos (plantains -- and not just these three countries, by the way, but also various other Latin lands with Caribbean coasts and/or tropical regions, such as Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, etc.). Yes, they’re long, curved, and greenish or yellowish, and they do peel back to reveal white flesh inside. But, for those
At first glance, it may seem that luggage tags, portable electronic device protectors, and smart phone stands don't warrant a spot on the latest must-have travel accessory list. But as travelers know, simpler is better and the devil is in the details. Is your smart phone protected from twisting and bumping? Is your neck pillow too bulky for stuffing in your carry-on? Can you quickly identify your luggage at baggage claim or are you one of the stragglers staring at the rotating sea of Samsonite
Here is an excerpt of the interview I gave for THE BOOK BLOG. It is British blog about publishing and writing and has a section on featured authors. Since my novel Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships is the "Tripatini Read of the Week," I thought you might like to know a little more about our story.
Tim I am so happy to be appearing on a British blog because my book is such a blend of the British and Americans. It is set on a British ship with many nationalities in the crew
I called this post Hoi An Part 1. I should probably have called it Hoi an BCC (Before Camera Class) and the next post Hoi ACC (After Camera Class). I took an excellent camera class in Hoi An and hopefully you will see a marked improvement in my photography skills in the next post.
Hoi An is a wonderful little city. It has the 3rd largest GDP in VN behind Hanoi and Saigon, and it is almost all based on tourism. The center of the tourist industry is what they call ancient town. Hoi An was spared a
When I first visited Turkey, I did something I won’t be able to do again. I gave the coach driver a 2 million lira tip! Shortly after my visit, the revalued their currency, simply by deleting the word ‘million’. The Turk with the price of a packet of cigarettes in his pocket is no longer a millionaire!
But, we weren’t there to marvel at the currency. Most of the shopkeepers in the resort town of Kusadasi, where our cruise ship called on its tour around the Aegean Sea preferred to take Euros, an
