Salta Province - Argentina

Traveling in this province is rough. Even on a guided tour and traveling in comfortable vans and cars, I encountered bumps. I bounced over miles of unpaved road, got stuck in a tour van in treacherous sand, gasped in fear at steep drops and sharp switchbacks, and gave up sleep for days that started before dawn and ended too late for dinner.

But every bit of discomfort was worthwhile, because Salta's scenery is spectacular. The remote, crescent-shaped province in northwestern Argentina has dramatic gorges that stretch for miles, mountains that show off brilliant mineral hues and castlelike rock formations, green fields, cactus-strewn desert and treeless tundra so high that the clouds float far below.

Much of this province is uninhabited. Llamas roam free. Wild burros munch scraggly plants and nose at water seeping through rocks. Condors circle overhead.

I first heard about Salta while touring in Argentina's Mendoza wine country, where I tasted Torrontes, a lovely floral white wine unique to Salta. One sip and I wanted to visit the region to learn more about the wine.

So I came here in April, which is autumn in Argentina. The lowlands were warm, but fierce, frigid winds drove me from a summit.

Except for one overnight trip, I toured by day from my base in the province's capital city, a two-hour flight north of Buenos Aires.

You can find the article here

Croatia

Croatia has had a barnstorming couple of summers, with everyone from Sunday Times readers to Lonely Planet scribes voting it their number-one, absolute favourite for a Mediterranean escape. But even if you’ve visited in the past year or two, it’s unlikely that you’ve done the place justice just yet.
Seen Dubrovnik? Then look to inland Istria, terra magica for the Romans, terra incognita for foreigners. Done Brac and the islands? Then you really ought to try the rugged wine country of the Peljesac, or sleepy Vis, which are only just waking up to tourism. There are pristine highlands where bears roam and griffon vultures soar; and there is continental Croatia, as picturesque as an eastern European folk tale.

Lately, strong balance sheets and competition from stylish, family-run guesthouses have emboldened the country’s resort hotels to rip away the spirit-sapping decor of socialist Yugoslavia. Croatia has banned the cement mixer from its shores and begun to get to grips with fancy French words such as boutique and gastronome.

Not everything is new, of course.

In a nation bequeathed the legacies of Romans, Venetians and Hapsburgs, many long-standing attractions remain: mazy medieval towns, a glittering constellation of islands washed by super-clean seas, sensational diving and the charmingly unfussy lifestyle that sees Croatians decant home-made plonk into old pop bottles, rustle up their rustic konoba cuisine and sing sentimental klapa after a few rakijas.

You can find the article here

San Vicente - Argentina

James Marrison escapes the Buenos Aires heat to bask in the cool spray of waterfalls hidden deep within the jungles of north-east Argentina, and finds the ultimate getaway at a remote guesthouse

Swimming in beauty ... the owner of La Bonita Guest House searched for months to find the right location for his lodge. Photograph: James Marrison

In January in Buenos Aires it is sometimes so hot that you can fry an egg on the road. I know this because one of the local news channels actually did it a while back, just to prove it. Most of the inhabitants flee to the coast. Some head south to the lakes in Patagonia, others to the nightlife of the very fashionable Punta del Este in Uruguay and some, like me, head north to the province of Misiones.
Misiones is located in the far north-east of Argentina and borders both Paraguay and Brazil. It is best known for the jaw-dropping grandeur of Iguazú Falls ("Poor Niagara," Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Iguazú) and for the mournful 17th-century ruins left by the Jesuit missionaries who gave the province its name.

Iguazú Falls is an absolute must for the tourists who are now flocking to Argentina in record numbers. But a great alternative to the more populous parts of Misiones - with their increasing crowds and travelers - is La Bonita Guest House, a two-hour drive from the quiet frontier town of San Vicente.

You can find the article here

St. Petersburg

A convoy of glittering new Mercedes snaked down Nevsky Prospekt, weaving among the dilapidated Ladas and battered buses. The residents of St Petersburg either didn't notice or didn't care to look as the cavalcade glided over the Griboedova Canal and on towards the Admiralty. The shameless flaunting of newfound wealth has replaced queuing and revolution as the most popular pastimes for those Russians who have benefited from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet not even the billionaire oligarchs come close to rivalling the sheer wealth and extravagance of the tsars, and nowhere symbolises their excesses better than the palaces that lie beyond the suburbs of St Petersburg.
I joined the part of Russian society still saving up for the Mercedes and caught the bus to Peterhof, 20 miles west on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Peter the Great was a tsar used to getting his own way, and equally used to executing those who tried to stop him. Not content with building the city that bears his name in the middle of a swamp on the edge of the Baltic Sea, he decided he needed a palace near his naval base at Kronshtadt. Understandably no one disagreed with him. Peter wanted something to rival Versailles, and no expense or lives were to be spared in making it a reality. By 1723 an army of designers and craftsmen had created a palace so magnificent that even the demanding Peter called it his "Seaside Paradise".

I descended from the bus in front of a pair of vast, ornate gates. Ahead of me stretched a formal garden of truly epic proportions, filled with golden fountains, marble statues and avenues of lime trees. It was filled also with an equally enormous crowd of Russian and foreign tourists streaming towards the Grand Palace, whose 300-metre long yellow façade and golden domes gleamed in the sun. As far as displays of wealth are concerned this made a modern-day oligarch's collection of helicopters and football clubs look like pocket-change. Little did I realise that everyone was rushing towards the more impressive façade on the other side.


You can find the article here

Laos

One hundred years ago, French explorer Marthe Bassenne forged a path for solo female travellers in Indochina. Inspired by her diary, Susie Stubbs retraces her steps.

"You alone?" asked the owner of the guesthouse as I checked in. I nodded. "You no friends?" I shook my head. "You no husband?" I shrugged my shoulders and spread my hands in a gesture of helplessness. For the rest of my stay, this matriarch gave me a cuddle and a home-baked coconut cake every time we met, clearly pitying me as a lonely "falang" tourist.
Travelling through Laos, prying questions and genuine curiosity are the greatest irritants a female traveller is likely to encounter. One of Indochina's least developed countries and still - just about - off the beaten track, Laos' incredible landscape and friendly populace offer a balance of adventure and good company, making it a perfect destination for women adventurers.

And long has it been so ... in 1909, Frenchwoman Marthe Bassenne, the wife of a colonial doctor, kept a diary of her adventures - In Laos and Siam - as she travelled north from the capital Vientiane and across into Thailand. The ruggedly beautiful country she found was, she wrote, "the refuge of the last dreamers, the last loved ones, the last troubadours". Almost 100 years on, I set out in her footsteps to discover whether Laos was still as entrancing - and as welcoming to female travellers.

You can find the article here

Lisbon - Portugal

If you want to search out Lisbon's treasures, fine; if all you want to do is sip coffee while watching the world go by, that's fine, too. Lisbon is a city built for the ultra-relaxed, aimless fl3/4aneur, with its shuttered houses clad in beautiful blue and green tiling, and shimmering suddenly at the end of narrow streets a hilly vista of dusty red, blue and mustard rooftops, with the golden castle of Seao Jorge glowing atop one of the city's seven hills. Many buildings are in an advanced state of dilapidation: cats enjoy leisurely tongue-baths in the windows of overgrown empty stone houses. As Portugal's most celebrated poet, Fernando Pessoa, who lived nearly all his life in Lisbon, wrote: 'All is scattered, nothing entire./ O Portugal, fog you are...'

The cutest example of Lisbon's rather lackadaisical attitude is the clanking, old, wrought-iron Elevador de Santa Justa, a 45m lift built in 1901 by a pupil of Gustav Eiffel to connect the west end of Baixa, the shopping district, with the Carmo church in Chiado. Unfortunately, the viaduct these days is closed, as the buildings on the hill are in danger of collapsing. So you buy a ticket and go up, and once you've done that, er, you go down again. It doesn't matter, though, because there is, surreally, a little cafe perched at the top, dispensing beverages against the ferocious wind and affording an impressive view of the city.

The more practical downside of laid-back Lisbon is that you may well turn up to a museum only to find the main hall closed, or search out a cathedral cloister to find a messy web of scaffolding disfiguring the space. And be sure to avoid Lisbon if you're a lobster, as you will be piled into a restaurant window's tiny aquarium six deep among your suffering comrades, antennae futilely awaggle, with only the boiling pot to look forward to.

Lisbon is a waterside city, but the shoreline is a dirty strip of pebbles, cut off from the conurbation by a choking motorway. The Atlantic is first and foremost the city's larder - bacalhau, the national dish of salt cod, or any number of grilled seabass, grouper and so on are the main fare in restaurants. Seen from a high vantage point, in fact, the precarious jumble of white and rosy buildings plonked up the hillside that constitutes Lisbon seems to be all a-huddle, a city at Europe's westernmost tip seeking consolation before the seas whose mastery was once its country's glory.

Travellers to Lisbon should start the day like the Lisboetas do - shaking off cosmic-historical woes at a cafe. The celebrated Cafe A Brasileira is a Rua Garrett institution that has been serving short, strong coffees and pastries since 1905, and its green-and-gold facade invites the visitor into a narrow interior of carved dark wood, brass and mirrors. It was also a favourite hang-out of that man Pessoa, who is immortalised in a bronze statue outside, sitting forever at his regular table, dreaming up new poetries of metaphysics.

You can find the article here

Machu Picchu - Peru

There’s no doubt about it, the four day trail to the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu is a hard walk - up and down slopes with crazy gradients, battling mountainsides furnished with huge steep Incan stone steps. Altitudes of up to 4200m hinder breathing and bring out strong sloth-like tendencies that make climbing next to impossible. Backpack straps dig into sunburnt shoulders. Muscles you didn’t know you had keep you awake at night, pain seeping through your entire body as you lie shivering in your tent. And just as you’re getting to sleep, someone comes to tell you it’s 5am and time to get going for the day.

But in case you think this sounds like pure masochism these hardships are incongruously combined with great touches of luxury. You actually get your hand held the whole way. Early morning wake-up rounds are accompanied by mate de coca in bed. Amazing three course meals are served up with silverware by porters who run along the trails wearing sandals made out of old tyres (carrying kerosene, tents, food and cooking equipment on their backs) and arrive at camp with ample time to conjure up these magnificent feasts. And of course what’s really driving you forward is the awe-inspiring Andean scenery along the way, the Incan ruins scattered through the mountains, and the promise of Machu Picchu at the end.

You can find the article here

Trekking in the Ruwenzori Mountains

The Ruwenzori Mountains- or the Mountains of the Moon - rise to very high altitudes along the border area between the western Uganda and Zaire in central Africa. Apart from being one of the main sources of the Nile, they are among the strangest and most mysterious mountains in the world.

The lower parts of Ruwenzori are covered with dense tropical rain forest separated by powerful rivers. Everywhere, there is an immense fertility due to the very heavy rainfall all year round (as an average, it rains 300 days during the year). Trekking here is a tough walk for hours by hard accessible trails blocked by fallen trees, crossing muddy swamps. The forest is very different in appearance and species. Some of the remarkable vegetation in the lower regions consist of plenty of 2-3 meter high fern trees and extensive areas covered by thousands of 10 meter high bamboo trunks swinging over your head. Sometimes the trail disappears, and the direction leads you through big, muddy swamps. It's quite a good comparison to imagine, that you have just left your time machine after a long time travel back to a remote geologic age. Most of the vegetation feels unfamiliar and over-sized, and the whole landscape makes you think of the earth in a prehistoric time.

You can find the article here

Barcelona - Spain

It's 5.15am in Madrid, and Spanish motor racing champ Fernando Alonso is driving me to Barajas Airport, 16kms northeast of the sprawling city.

At least this taxi driver thinks he's Fernando Alonso, weaving in and out of lanes at speed, tearing towards intersections before executing last-second swerves. So, my last minutes in Spain are spent with eyes shut, reviewing some experiences I've had in three cities over the past eight days ...

Nothing can prepare you for the throat-grabbing sight of Barcelona as you approach the medieval coastal city from the air, the Lufthansa Airbus circling above the azure Mediterranean before swooping in to land.

Immediate impressions: the prevailing shade of terracotta, with the compact city of 1.6 million rising gently from the sea, back through a plain bordered east and west by rivers, before rising to the northern slopes of Montjuic (Jewish mount). At the base of Montjuic, overlooking the central heart of Barcelona, is an extraordinarily imposing castle, the Palau Nacional, now home to the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya.

What's apparent from the air, or any elevated viewpoint, is that there are few high-rises in Barcelona and much of the city's layout is ordered in grids, with the corners cut off. The design is known as L'Eixample, the Extension, created by architect Ildefons Cerda in the 1860s as a solution to the city's dire overcrowding.

You can find the full article here

France

Why France?
The landscape is unmatched, the culture is humbling and the present, though unsettled, is intriguing, says Sebastian Faulks

I sometimes think the real France " the one that people love " exists only in the imagination. In reality, you can sometimes find glimpses of it, but even those are harder to come by these days.
I suppose we all have a similar idea of what that "real" country is. It’s something you find in the pages of Proust and Flaubert, in the paintings of Millet and Monet, in the smell of the Métro and in the landscape of the Auvergne. You can see it in the tight lips of the patronne of the hotel in the town square with its flowered wallpaper, failed plumbing and rattling china-lozenge door handles. It’s in the plane-flanked avenues of the routes nationales; it’s in the family inns of Burgundian villages; it’s in the old Michelin Red Guides with their crossed-out dog’s heads.

Modern technology came late to this sparsely populated country, and after 10 minutes down a D road you were back in a way of life that had disappeared from England decades before. As close as Normandy and as recently as 1975, you could effectively travel back to a pre-war, prelapsarian world, where Jacques Tati was your postman. You were through the looking-glass all right, in a world where even the village cafe cooked food better than you’d ever tasted at home; but something about it seemed mysteriously insubstantial. It had a dreamlike quality.

Critics of the country " and it has never lacked for them " will say that this sense of otherworldliness is caused simply by the fact that France has, over the centuries, failed to take sufficient interest in the lives and cultures of other countries. Believing itself to have the greatest thinkers, soldiers and scientists, as well as the most naturally blessed landscape in the world, France developed a sense of profoundly contented self-reliance that made it a world apart. "

Heureux comme Dieu en France", they said: as happy as God in France. Therein lay its glamour and its charm; therein, also, lay a danger.

If you look at France today, you see a troubled country. Most people feel crushed between the Anglo-Saxons on one hand, with their free-marketeering, awful films and foreign invasions; and, on the other, by the unstemmable tide of North African/Arab immigration that has started setting fire to the cities.

It is also fair to say that French literature and art is at such a low level that even a professional francophile such as Edmund White, long a resident of Paris, could claim in his recent book, The Flâneur, that France has only one artist and no writers of note. And the cuisine, once the brightest feather in the cockerel’s plumage, has, I think any objective traveller would admit, been eclipsed by the cooking of California, Italy and New York.


You can find the full article here

Sri Lanka

The tropical island of Sri Lanka, which lies just off the southern tip of India, has long been a travelers' paradise. Only 25,000 square miles, about the size of West Virginia, its diverse landscapes encompass lush tea plantations, jungles, arid bushlands and palm-fringed beaches. Its cities and countryside are full of ancient Buddhist temples and historic monuments.

But this beautiful island, until 1972 known as Ceylon and described some 700 years ago by Silk Road explorer Marco Polo as one of the best of its size in the world, has seen its share of troubles. Civil war broke out in the 1980s after the Tamil Tigers, the rebels fighting for autonomy for the Tamil minority, pressed for self-rule. Most of the fighting was restricted to the north, and visitors who avoid well-publicized trouble spots on the island's northern tip will enjoy a pleasant and hassle-free stay. But tragically, when I visited in June, the scars from the tsunami that hit the island's entire southern coastline a year ago on Dec. 26 were poignantly visible.


You can find the full article here

Lima - Peru

In this sprawling city of 8 million people on the Pacific edge of South America, old and new coexist in startling proximity. The old structures, huacas, hearken back to the Incas and those before them, the people who created some of the first urban centers in the Western Hemisphere. The new construction, which Limeños have embraced in fits and starts, represents the country's next big epoch, a wave of urban development that has brought restaurants, museums and shopping malls, and a general tidying-up of the city's core.

Already, these changes have had a discernable impact on the traveler. Until recently, Lima was nothing but a stopover for tourists on their way to Cuzco and Machu Picchu, an urban nightmare that U.S. travel agents advised their customers to avoid. Now, however, especially during summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the Peruvian capital has become a destination in itself, a city of artists, museums and restaurants embracing more than 2,000 years of history. Granted, the traffic and air pollution have yet to be vanquished, but it's worth adding a couple of days here to your Peru itinerary.

You can find the full article here

Kerala - India

Snake bites, sickness, sun stroke - you'd have to be mad to take a family to India, wouldn't you? Not if you go to Kerala, says Jon Stock.

Anyone would think we had just returned from a war zone. How did you survive? Are the children okay? Actually, we are all fine, I replied. Nobody died, no one was ill. In fact, we've never felt better.

Telling friends that we had been to India for a family holiday reminded me why we had seen so few other British children on our travels. India is not generally seen as a family destination, particularly if you have young children. If they are not laid low by "Delhi belly", they are sure to catch malaria or be bitten by a cobra. That's if they haven't been run over by a rickshaw or suffocated in the traffic fumes.

I've lived happily in India, first in Kerala and then in Delhi, so I am a little biased, but it is a shame that so few British families take their holidays on the subcontinent. The general environment is, of course, more challenging than ours, but if you know where to go, there are some fantastic - and safe - family holidays to be enjoyed.

The south of the country is a much less stressful destination than the north, and few places can match Kerala for comfort, climate or, crucially, childcare.


You can find the full article here

Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval

A single voice rises, calling to order the dancers and musicians who make up Mangueira, one of Rio de Janeiro's premiere samba organizations. The deepest bass drums answer, their rumble punctuated by the tinkling sounds of hundreds of tambourines, and Mangueira's 5,000 participants sweep out for the Carnaval parade.
Sequined costumes, some small enough to fit in the palm of one hand, are often topped with feathers in Mangueira's traditional pink and green. Dancers shimmer and shake, following the frenetic samba rhythm set by the 500-person percussion section.
About 30,000 spectators crowd the bleachers, dancing samba and singing Mangueira's theme song, which has been playing on the radio for weeks. The roar of voices and drums echoes in my belly. I forget the awkward shoulder harness bearing my load of feathers, my too-big shoes and the plastic parts of my costume, which stick to me in the heat.
After a lifetime of watching Rio's Carnaval parade as an expatriate Brazilian, I'm part of a 5,000-person river of light and sound under the floodlights of the Marques de Sapucai, an avenue outfitted to accommodate Rio's yearly celebration of excess and hedonism.

You can find the full article here

Galapagos Islands - Ecuador

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - No matter how many National Geographic specials you’ve seen or how many stories you’ve heard, nothing prepares you for the Galapagos Islands. This is a place where you can swim inches away from sea lions and sidestep hundreds of marine iguanas. The catch is, to explore the islands, you need to travel by water.

I went with the well-established Lindblad Expeditions, which operates the 80-passenger MS Polaris here.

Sailing everywhere from Antarctica to the Columbia River in Oregon, Lindblad is deeply committed to ecologically sensitive tourism. Strong parternships with National Geographic and the World Wildlife Fund have helped it build a large base of loyal passengers who, like the infinitely curious Charles Darwin who made these islands famous, want to see, do and learn as much as possible.

You can find the full article here

Birdwatching Around The Globe

Spend the year ahead birdwatching around the world with these wildlife breaks.

Combine travelling the world with your love of birdwatching with these intrepid holidays specially designed for bird lovers. As the destinations are fascinating in their own right, many trips are suitable for a wide range of enthusiasts from the keenest birder to the most casual naturalist.

The nature-loving travel agency WildWings have come up with these twelve wildlife holidays, one for every month of the year so you'll never be stuck for ideas!

January - Goa Bird Festival
February - Antarctica, the Falkland Islands & South Georgia
March - Atlantic Odyssey
April - Colorado
May - Poland
June - Pioneering Birdwatching in the Ukraine
July - Ultimate Galapagos
August - Eastern Hungary
September - Trinidad & Tobago
October - Beidaihe, north-east coast of China
November - Sub-Antarctic Islands of New Zealand
December - Christmas Island

You can find the full article here

Sao Tome - Sao Tome and Principe

Hovering below the brilliant blue waters off the coast of this tropical West African archipelago, French scuba diver Jean-Louis Testori spots a tiny sea horse huddled by a rock on a pitch of white sand.

The sea is clear, aquarium-like - thousands of red soldierfish and spidery arrow crabs peek from a bank of coral-covered rocks. Jackfish hunt a bubble of darting silver sardines. Electric rays fly across the seabed.

Testori extends an open palm, and the tiny sea horse swims onto it in slow-motion, its tail gently curling around one of his fingers to balance upright.

"Never grab them," Testori says after the dive, explaining how best to hold the fragile creatures. "They'll panic. They could have a heart attack."

The tranquil scene is one of many to be had in palm-fringed Sao Tome and Principe, a remote pair of volcanic islands smack dab on the equator whose attraction lies in what this undeveloped corner of the world lacks: No mass tourism. No traffic. No terrorism.


You can find the full article here

Camping in Tenerife - Spain

Tenerife is a camper’s paradise, all the fun and adventure awaits outdoors. You won’t have to travel very far to be at one with nature. Tenerife has a remarkably stable climate, which ensures great weather all year round. Every year many hesitant first timer takes to the hills towards a return to the most basic and natural way of life, and for all but a few, survival is the key to having great fun outdoors, a challenging break away from the norm and gaining a sense of adventure.

A sense of achievement gained from a night or two spent in a tent under the stars will stay in the memories of you and your children for a long time. Without a doubt, a positive camping trip can be a life changing experience, and we know that many first time campers never look back.
There are many pluses to camping, like the advantages of having complete solitude or all the fun of an organised campsite; there are so many interesting things to consider. At ‘Simply Outdoors’ we try our hardest to present the natural side with as much information possible and correct sound advice on how to camp safely.
In order to camp in Tenerife it is necessary to obtain licenses from the appropriate authority and you will need to consider transport to and from your camping location.
Your choice of three of the most popular camping areas on the Island
1. Tenerife south: Vilaflor Mountains is a great place to begin your adventure this location has good facilities geared for short stays.
2. Tenerife North: El Lagar is a much larger site with superb facilities geared for longer stays
3. Tenerife South: - San Miguel a coastal campsite set in the most idyllic location with great facilities.

You can find the full article here

Indigenous Culture in Brazil

Xingu is probably one of the few places in the world where native indigenous people can still be found living according to their traditional culture.

Located in the center of Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso, the Xingu Reservation stands almost like an independent country, with its own rules and principles, gathering 14 different ethnic groups with a total of 5,000 people. With an area the size of Belgium covered with virgin forests and snake-like rivers, Xingu struggles against the growing invasion of soy, cattle, and lumbering.

It was in this lost paradise that I landed, invited to film the most important ritual of all times for the Xingu Indians -- the "Kuarup," in honor of Orlando Villas Boas. Orlando was the last of the three Caucasian brothers who battled to create a reservation in the 50s that assured the health and rights of these people for over 50 years.

Highly opposed and criticized in those days by anthropologists, the Villas Boas dared to place together in the same territory tribes that were enemies, and stimulated intermarriage among them. Today Xingu stands as an example to the rest of the world of one of the few initiatives that was successful in keeping indigenous culture alive. Tribes that were on the brink of becoming extinguished, with as few as 12 people remaining, have grown to include up to 400 strong and healthy people.

You can find the full article here

Silk Road

The 2,000-year-old Silk Road, stretching about 6,400 kilometers total, is part of the ancient trade route that connected the empires of China and Rome. You may want to fly between some cities, but be prepared to spend long hours on the road and in the train; allow at least 21 days to explore the entire route.

You can find the full article here

Evora - Portugal

In a cobbled plaza in the middle of the walled city of Evora, Portugal, 14 Corinthian columns rise on a stone base, a skeletal hint of what was a second-century Roman temple. Across the way stands a former 15th-century monastery, now the Pousada dos Loios, the city's best hostelry, and just beyond, a turreted tower of the medieval cathedral.
Nearby streets are lined with whitewashed houses decorated with colorful azulejos (tiles) and wrought-iron balconies, many dating from the 16th to the 18th century.

No wonder everything within Evora's walls is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Everything - the 22 churches, 4,000-plus buildings, plazas, bubbling fountains, Moorish arches and arcades - is listed as "the finest example of a city of the golden age of Portugal after the destruction of Lisbon by the earthquake of 1755." The wonder is that, despite its glorious treasures, Evora is so little known.

To Americans, Portugal is Lisbon, the golf courses and beaches of the Algarve, and maybe Estoril and Sintra. What a pity. The enchanting surprises of Evora are less than 100 miles east of Lisbon.


You can find the full article here

Lanzarote - Spain

Lanzarote's other-worldly volcanic landscape is one of the most dramatic on the planet and is in danger of being consumed by package-deal tourism. While vast expanses of Lanzarote are protected by a national park and several preserves and Unesco designated it a Reserve of the Biosphere in 1994, there is still the quiet creep of development.
The Bar Cueva in Nazaret is in a house Manrique designed for Omar Sharif in the 70's.
The easternmost of the Canary Islands, part of Spain about 100 miles off the coast of Africa, Lanzarote is nearly 40 miles long, culturally rich and blessed with an average temperature of 72 degrees, which may be why its expatriate community ranges from surfers to the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago.

For visitors, the island's mix of natural beauty, white-sand beaches and quirky lava-rock-studded architecture are usually enough to necessitate the purchase of an extra photo card during a weeklong visit. Much of that architecture is the work of César Manrique (1912-1992), a local artist and architect who set out to save the island from the destructive forces of mass tourism storming the Spanish coast in the 1960's.


You can find the full article here

Travel to India

A land filled with spiritual wonders, India also delivers great cultural, architectural, historical, and more recently, commercial delights. Having become one of the world's most high-tech resource centers, India has added another dimension to its impressive travel portfolio. From the house boats of Kashmir to the palaces of Jaipur to the slums of Calcutta to the dance-filled beaches of Goa to the film studios of Bollywood, India has outgrown its inexpensive, backpack-filled roots.

You can find the full article here

Traveling with Pets

According to the ancient Chinese calendar, we just crossed over into the Year of the Dog. Why not show Fido or Fifi just how much you love them this year with a special trip away? People love their pets -- so much so that there is an entire sub-industry out there of pet related leisure wear, accessories and travel gadgets. There is also a plethora of travel sites aimed at pet owners looking for resources, tips, information, accommodations and booking services.

You can find the full article here

Visiting Vanua Levu - Fiji

Ni Sa Bula! This week we continue our dream vacation to Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu. We begin by visiting a local village, drink some kava, then check into a moderately priced adventure resort as we follow the bands at the Second Annual South Pacific Music Festival.

You can find the full article here