Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Mini-Alaska
Sir Thomas Brisbane
Brisbane's demonym is a Brisbanite. The first European resolution in Queensland was a punitive colony at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres north of the Brisbane central business district, in 1824. That settlement was soon abandoned and moved to North Quay in 1825. Free settlers were permitted from 1842. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales in 1859. Brisbane also borders the Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Somerset, Logan and the Redland Areas.
Bali Island Villas Provide a Family Vacation With Class and Comfort
At World End in Apalachicola, Florida
Raja Ampat is one of islands on the Indonesia
Best places to dive in the World
Travel Reading Roundup
The BARONG RANDA SANGAR
The Exotic Niagara Falls
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands: The perfect equation for a South American break
Mauritius, The Best Tropical Island Holiday Paradise
Mauritius, The Best Tropical Island Holiday Paradise
Beautiful Destinations In Europe "The Isle of Skye. Scotland"
Explroing the beaches of Lanzarote
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Hakone Open Air Museum
Enjoy Exotic Beach Destinations With Your Family And Loveones
New South Wales The Blue Mountains Australia
New South Wales The Blue Mountains Australia
Great Romantic Getaways in South Asia
Australia Coffs Harbour
Sakhya Sagar Lake, Shivpuri
Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados
Lovina Beach is one of the existing list of beaches on the island of Bali
The Excellent Places to Hike Around Las Vegas
Kuta Beach Lombok Indonesia
Travel galery very interesting to visit the beach Kuta Bali
Top 5 Switzerland Tourist Attractions to See
Top 5 Switzerland Tourist Attractions to See
Introducing the world's weirdest museums...
Summer in Barcelona
Monday, March 29, 2010
Costa Holiday to Estepona tourism
There was to be no shopping, cooking or chauffeuring. No nit combs and definitely no haggling over pocket money. My girlfriends, Serena and Alice, and I had exchanged eight feral, hyperactive children for sand, sea and the luxuriously refurbished Kempinski Hotel Bahia on the Costa Del Sol.
We bought trashy magazines and sat in the airport making plans to have no plans.
When we arrived, we went straight to the restaurant, crying 'Mojitos'. The first meal was an encouraging sign of what was to come - although I'm not sure if goat's cheese ice cream with aubergine will catch on.
Our room with a balcony overlooking the sea was lovely and there was a Haribo-filled mini bar. But the following morning, we had stonking hangovers. Staggering our way to the breakfast terrace, we popped aspirins with our freshly squeezed orange juice, and marvelled at the spread. There was even a chocolate fountain.
Although the hotel was full, it felt very calm. The beautifully lush gardens - including an organic vegetable patch - were sparkling from the sprinklers.
Calm oasis: The gardens at Kempinski Hotel Bahia
There was no need to leg it for a sun-lounger - there are three pools and plenty of beach with oatmeal sand leading to clean-looking water.
We took a pedalo - with its own water-slide - and chugged off to explore the coastline.
I'd just bought an underwater iPod, which transforms the whole swimming experience.
After some fruit smoothies, we were lured back into the pool to do aqua aerobics with a very patient instructor.
We came across the instructor throughout the day in different guises. He seemed to be in charge of the popular kids' club and was multi-tasking heroically as a giant chicken, a clown and Mister Squirrel-head.
The hotel seems genuinely concerned to provide guests with the most pampered holiday possible. There are 230 employees to 340 inhabitants and the staff are assiduous.
The whole pool area is surrounded by lawns. And there are large double beds under canopies. Inviting. For a considerable sum they could be fitted with clean linen and decked with fruit baskets and buckets of Champagne
Sun-baked streets: Estepona old town
That evening, we went to watch polo in nearby Sotogrande - a strange combination of heart-stopping, decadence and fun.
Next morning, we had a minor crisis when we lost Alice's teapot. We had been making our drinks with her own special blend - she is in the trade, and an unrepentant tea snob.
The pot had been mistakenly removed by the maid and was recovered instantly - the hotel dealt with the incident as though we had mislaid a diamond ring.
A range of mopeds and motorbikes are available for guests to hire, including a selection of Harley-Davidsons.
Sitting comfortably: Imogen Stubbs and her friend take to the wheel
We hired three gleaming, sexy black mopeds, unbelievably easy to ride. We felt at least as cool as those trans-global bikers Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.
I felt like a fabulous, carefree teenager - despite the fact that I was only going 15 mph and had one of my contact lenses hanging off my nostril.
We hit the nearest town - Estepona, which was touristy with a busy beach and had fresh sardines cooked on a fire in an old fishing boat.
We also scootered to a market. It was full of the usual ubiquitous knick-knacks and we made the same old mistake of buying floaty things in turquoise and orange.
Roaring to go: Imogen Stubbs sets off on a girls' weekend
The old port in Estepona,has little squares and avenues of lime trees. under which you can eat lunch. Our translated menu was delightful: 'Striped funny tuna, Iberian ham of acorn, Secret prey sirloins and Small buns of hard larded pigs.'
As we left the hotel, I realised that, having initially squirmed at the polished floors and vast, shiny foyers, I had become very fond of the calm of the Kempinski.
It was a really enjoyable break for three middle-aged mothers who wanted to have the illusion - even for a brief time - that they were hip, carefree and fun.
Travel factsNightly rates at Kempinski Hotel Bahia Estepona start at £161 for a double room & breakfast (00 34 95 280 9500, kempinski.com/estepona). Flights to Malaga from £77 return (08719 40 50 40, monarch.co.uk).
The Shard and London Bridge Quarter
Bordeaux France Info
The Burghal of Bordeaux France Tourism breadth accomplished shops and museums anticipate visitors
The Bordeaux airport is amid 6 afar west of the city, and offers approved flights to Bordeaux from about Europe. If you're on the continent, analysis for flights to Bordeaux France on bargain Ryanair and Air France. Rent a car at the Bordeaux airport to bout wine country, or booty a auto into the city. Bordeaux France offers abounding admirable places to stay. Be alert of the breadth about the alternation station, as it has a acceptability for actuality seedy. The top end auberge is the Auberge Burdigala, a modern, 4-star hotel. La Maison du Lierre is a adequate townhouse with a arresting staircase. The auberge de Seze is in an affected 18th aeon building. The Auberge Excelsior offers inexpensive, simple rooms.
Bordeaux France Info
Holidays Destination In Phuket THAILAND
Choosing a Maldives Holiday Resort
Arkansas' Natural Treasure: Maumelle Park in Amerika
Alaska Travel Tour: Discovering the Beauty of Alaska
Mentawai Surfing Beach
Pangandaran Beach Ciamis West Java Indonesia
Syria tourism,Ruins at Palmyra,Taking it easy in the Dead Sea,Damascus
Queen Petronella, take your throne, says my guide Abdul, while gesticulating wildly, his baggy pantaloons flapping like sails in the breeze. It is sunrise and I'm standing in the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
The light flickers from ochre to gold then rose. Abdul has been telling me about the beautiful third-century Queen Zenobia, who chased the Romans from Palmyra before being defeated and dragged to Rome in golden chains. The remains of her throne are just a few feet away from me.
'She loved Palmyra,' says Abdul. 'She killed herself when she was taken from it.'
The morning finally reaches its full splendour and the columns, which once adorned the main street seem to whisper exotic secrets, while a lone eagle wheels overhead.
There is something about Syria and neighbouring Jordan which is catnip to women.
Ancient Palmyra: Men on camelback at the UNESCO World Heritage Site
And not just to exotic eastern Queens. For hundreds of years it has held an extraordinary lure to upper-class English women. The 18thcentury Lady Hester Stanhope, niece of William Pitt the Younger, was the first society gal to hop off to the desert.
The Hon Jane Digby, a Regency belle, left her husband Lord Ellenborough to marry a Bedouin sheik, becoming reputedly the first European woman to wed a Muslim. (They honeymooned at Palmyra.)
She divided her time between the desert and Damascus. Every day, she washed her husband's feet with her hands, as one horrified English visitor exclaimed: 'Glorying in it!'
Then there was the Victorian, Isabel Arundell, niece of Lord Arundell who, as a young girl, read Tancred, Disraeli's novel about the Middle East, and confessed to having a ' hopeless craving for Bedouin Arabs and all thing Eastern'. To assuage that craving she married explorer Richard Burton, whose translations of erotic Eastern works made him infamous, and moved with him to Syria.
I am here to discover the inexorable appeal of the desert - and doing it the plush way.
Desert charm: Young Beduin and camel in Palmyra desert
Damascus has been called 'the pearl of the desert'. Its fragile white minarets yearn towards the sky. The old town has seven gates and is beyond the ruins of a Roman wall. There are white and pink marble palaces with mosaic floors. I see the remains of the house where St Paul converted to Christianity.
The town has the oldest souk in the world - a shopping centre that's 2,000 years old.
I repair to the Four Seasons hotel. It has a lobby out of the Arabian Nights, sumptuous rooms and wonderful Syrian restaurant.
In the morning I visit Jane Digby's house. There are still two perfectly preserved rooms, right down to the European wallpaper. Her husband, Sheik Medjuel, couldn't get used to houses and slept in a tent in the garden. Nearby is the street where Isabel Burton lived. 'Damascus has my heart,' she wrote. 'Oh, the glorious nights we spend looking at the clear sky and swapping tales of heroism.'
When I see some Bedouins, I immediately understand why upper-class misses fell like dominoes. Shorter than the average Englishman, they have classical features, questing eyes, slim figures and charming manners.
They all seem to speak good English. One is riding a white horse. It rears and he laughs carelessly, pushing glossy hair from his forehead. 'Will you kidnap me?' I plead. ' Tomorrow morning at dawn,' he says obligingly.
Almost everyone I meet is friendly and polite. One night I eat in a Bedouin tent, made from goat hair, as in Biblical times. The men do a strange, swaying dance for me and rush to refill my plate with sweet cakes
Indulgence: Taking it easy in the Dead Sea
The following day Abdul drives me into Jordan, leaving me with another guide. After a few hours we reach Petra, 'the rose red city half as old as time'. Lady Hester Stanhope was so captivated she lived in a nearby cave for two months. Petra has appeared in numerous films, including Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, but its reality surpasses them all.
The path to the city is rocky. It's night and the way is lit by candles. All at once I see the Treasury building, built in 500BC.
It is surrounded by caves where the Arabs once lived, and also used as tombs. More Bedouins ride by and I catch a lift. Jane fell in love with her sheik after she rode pillion on his mare, and Isabel Burton rode for weeks from here to the desert of Wadi Rum (where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed.)
The Wadi Rum looks like a delicious banoffee pie. The population used to be 25 per cent Bedouin; now it is only two per cent. This is partly because King Abdullah provided cheap housing.
A Bedouin in a concrete mansion block loses half of his appeal. 'Do you miss your tent?' I ask one man. 'No. Now I have TV and a toilet,' he replies disappointingly.
The Four Seasons in Amman, Jordan's capital, apple-white with its limestone houses, improves my mood. Instead of an umbrella by the pool you get your own tent. I have a facial, using 1,000-year-old methods, that leaves me looking Bedouin-ready. (I had looked 1,000 years old when I arrived, but now I look a youthful 500.)
Exotic delights: Bazaar in the old quarter of Damascus, Syria
I've two days left at the Dead Sea. Hester Stanhope is said to be the first Western woman to float on its crust of salt. I'm staying at the Kempinksi Ishtar, an extraordinary edifice 'inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon'.
It has swimming pools that look like natural lakes. Verdant gardens are literally suspended above. The hotel is so huge you need a map, which I am given. My room is more like a private cottage. From the terrace I can see Jericho on the other side of the glassy sea.
The Russian finance minister and his entourage are staying here.
They drink Champagne for breakfast and have their own private entrance to the spa, which is the largest in the Middle East.
Lady Hester said sunsets on the Dead Sea were worth 'a hundred English summers'. The hotel has a minaret with a terrace bar, so I sit and watch as the sky turns from peony to aquamarine and emerald.
At night, myriad fountains come alive with tiny lights. Flares throw the lemon trees into relief. I sit outside the Italian restaurant with the Russian oligarchs. They order lobster. There is no camel meat here - it's not standard fare any more, so I have a pizza. When I go to bed, I dream of Bedouins dancing wildly until they drop with exhaustion. Would I follow the example of those other English women and wash their feet? Just try to stop me.
Travel factsAbercrombie and Kent has a ten-day itinerary in Syria and Jordan from £3,682pp based on two people travelling together, including economy flights with BMI, transfers, guide and driver (0845 618 2213, abercrombiekent.co.uk).
The Timit in Beautiful Hong Kong Tourism and Travell Guide
There are only two places in the world that do not disappoint when you first glimpse them. The first is Manhattan - I always tell my cab driver to make sure he takes a bridge rather than a tunnel, and the first sighting of the jagged skyline never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
The second has to be Hong Kong. I've booked myself into the luxurious Peninsula hotel and it has sent one of its fleet of vintage Rolls-Royces to collect me from the airport. Consequently, I doze in the back, lulled by its squashiness and smoothness, and so only get my first glimpse of the harbour as I enter my room - a penthouse suite.
The scene spread before me is like something out of the movie Blade Runner:
skyscrapers, low-flying helicopters (the hotel's helipad was used in The Dark Knight), and the harbour with its low-tech boats crawling to and fro. Every building is a light show and so every night at eight I make sure I am in my spa bath, windows on all sides, to treat myself. Much of Hong Kong is built on land reclaimed from the sea, and on money, but it's good to know it still, precarious in the midst of a recession, knows how to have fun.
What I like most about the Chinese is that they try to make everything beautiful: even a humble delivery of vegetables, which I find myself sitting next to on the green and white Star Ferry from Kowloon, is trussed up in Chinese newsprint, bound with pink raffia, and nestled in reed baskets.
The ritual surrounding afternoon tea at The Peninsula - an event that always seems to make those 100 Things To Do Before You Die lists - is like watching an elaborate dance: the waiters never hurry, despite the queue for a table that snakes out of the door and alongside the luxury stores outside. (Prada and Versace have numerous size zero clothes - here, it seems, and on Rodeo Drive, are the tiniest women on the planet.)
Just like Manhattan, the best way to see Hong Kong is on foot. And so I decide to take two very different guided tours: one relentlessly urban, the other romantically rural.
The first is an architectural walk through the glass-and-steel cathedrals in which is worshipped the biggest religion of the Far East: money. On Saturday morning, I find myself at the Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery. I love skyscrapers, the Machu Picchus of our own (probably equally doomed) civilisation.
I've taken similar tours through Manhattan and Chicago, and there really is no better way of understanding a city than to appreciate it through the eyes of its architects.
We start at the HSBC HQ, designed by Norman Foster in 1985, wind our way using the Central Elevated Walkway (so clever - the commuters rushing to work don't have to compete with traffic) to gaze at the round windows of Jardine House, and finally end up at the Bank of China, designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei, the man who gave us the Pyramids at the Louvre in Paris. Outside, the edges are sharp, like the blade of a knife - the building created a stir when it was approved, as it had no curves, considered essential in Chinese culture, and the approval of feng shui masters had not been sought first.
Inside, the building is hollow, like a piece of bamboo. As long as you take your passport, you can whizz up to the 43rd floor to drink in the view. Right next to it is the International Finance Centre, the seventh-highest building in the world, with its spectacular crown.
My walk, too, takes me on the famous half-mile network of escalators towards Soho (it is located south of Hollywood Street), where I can peer into people's living rooms, and marvel at the jumble of gaudy neon street signs strung across the narrow roads, past the Victorian police station, and the old governor's house in the midst of its leafy gardens.
But it's the new buildings that set your pulse racing - the sheer optimism and audacity of constructing the 118-floor International Commerce Centre on the waterfront in West Kowloon, with the top 15 floors reserved for the Ritz-Carlton hotel, which opens this year. Its rooms will surely have the best view in the world. Hong Kong has a vitality you don't find anywhere else.
The brightest minds in the world come here, make money and leave (I cannot tell you how many beautiful children I see, in a crocodile from the International School, the progeny of rich bankers and beautiful women), making the atmosphere uniquely charged. But while cities like London and New York are surrounded by tangles of motorways and suburbs, the surprise is that Hong Kong is incredibly wild and unspoilt: more than 70 per cent is made up of rural mountains, forests and outlying islands with deserted beaches, where you can spot the famous white dolphins basking.
First, though, I take a very steep tram to the Peak, a good place to get your bearings, and take in the view. Then, with a couple of hours to spare, I take a walk through bamboo forests to the Dragon's Back, on the south-east corner of Hong Kong Island, where rich city boys paraglide at weekends, but where I am content to just gaze at the inappropriately named Repulse Bay, which is quite stunning, and at the multi-million-pound mansions squatting around the golf club.
If you have a day to spare, do as I do and take a hike in the Sai Kung East Country Park, on the easternmost edge of the New Territories, a place accessible only by foot or boat. But remember to bring a sunhat, sun cream, rucksack containing bottled water and walking boots. Slightly more leisurely is a trip to Macau, a World Heritage site, where the villages date back to the 16th Century, and betray their Portuguese colonial past to this day in a fabulous fusion of cooking styles.
Rich culture: Shopping for Chinese delicacies in one of Hong Kong's teeming markets
I do my walks - to the Dragon's Back and the country park - with Marco, a former Swiss banker but now an extremely knowledgeable guide from a small company called Walk Hong Kong. Feeling more adventurous, though, I catch a ferry on my own to one of the 260 outlying islands. Lantau, the largest, is an hour by ferry from Hong Kong Central. This is where the real Chinese live, or expat hippies desperate to escape the rat race, in a jumble of houses overlooking a sandy bay, the mountains looming behind.
If you don't have vertigo, you can catch a Crystal Cabin cable car into the hills, from where you can watch the fishermen on sampans in the harbour and see the bronze statue of Buddha. Cheung Chau is lovely, too, only 20 minutes from Central.
On a beach I cool off by dipping my toes in the sand, and feel a million miles from the teeming humanity of the city.
Travel factsBritish Airways (www.ba.com) flies to Hong Kong twice daily from Heathrow. The flight time is about 12 hours. Return fares start at £571.20.
Room rates at the Peninsula start at HK$4,200 (about £330). Suites cost from HK$11,800 (£1,004) per night. Call 00800 2828 3888, www.peninsula.com. For further information on Hong Kong, visit www.discoverHongKong.com.
Liz Jones's latest book, The Exmoor Files: How I Lost A Husband And Tried To Find Rural Bliss (£6.99, Weidenfeld & Nicolson), is out in paperback.
The original of this article appears in the April edition of High Life magazine, available on all British Airways flights and at bahighlife.com
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Tropical Beach Vacation Ideas
Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam tours and travell
First time arrived, I wasn't struck although I couldn't speak their language because the situation in The international airport there which is called Tan Son Nhat was clean and tidy. The immigration officer also welcome us warmly. I just prepared not so much Dong (Vietnam money)as I have no plan to stay long at first. This is a city to explore on bike or foot. The city was so crowded but clean enough. Districts 1 and 3 are very well kept up and contain many nice restaurants, hotels, museums and many of the attractive tourism. We could take a look at historical French buildings in District 1 that still well taken care although already 50 years. Later from Ho Chi Minh City, traveled to the Cu Chi Tunnel and War Remnant Museum that used to be a war place long time ago. Don't miss to travel with small boat to the Mekong River Delta where you can felt the traditional atmosphere of local inhabitants.
Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
Japan a beautiful places
Japan a beautiful places
Mangaladevi Temple, Mangalore
Bengkulu Tourism
Niagra Falls New York - Must Visit Location
Niagra Falls New York - Must Visit Location
Sightseeing Prambanan is a place for tourist destination in Central Java
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore,near Keystone, South Dakota, is a Monumental Granite Sculpture in United State tourism
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941), located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (left to right): George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km2) and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately two million people annually.
Mount Rushmore
Best travel locations world, Travel destination and vacation
Activity holiday in Kenya: Sailing, scuba and safari on the sultry Indian Ocean
James Bond Island
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Chiang Mai - Orchid and Butterfly Farm
Cambio de hora 2010 EspaƱa / horario verano – horario invierno
Gone Hunting
Komodo Dragon, best attraction in indonesia
Bali Island, a beautiful island and exotic of Indonesia
Bali Surfing Beaches, Kuta Beach, Bali beach Vacation
Nicaragua Travel Destination
Borobudur Temple is very beautiful in this world
Ancient Egypt cruise: Exploring Abu Simbel and Lake Nasser on the MS Prince Abbas
Springtime in Paris? A treasure trove of Easter events and festivals across France
Goa India Accommodation at The Taj Holiday Village With Fun-loving Ambience
MOUNT CAIN "North end of Vancouver Island, near Woss"
Friday, March 26, 2010
Japanese Pro-Surfers Returns to Hikkaduwa, One of Sri Lanka�s most Exciting Beach Spots for International Tourists
Maui Beach in Northern California
Chiang Mai Hotels & Resorts - U Chiang Mai Resort
Disney Hilton Head Island Resort
Hilton Head Island South Carolina
Travel to the Caribbean " Caribbean Vacation Rentals"
Tourists overcharged for New York cabs as price-fixing is uncovered
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Beautiful Beach Destination in California
Romantic Getway in Beach
Happy Travel : Disneyland Paris is a holiday and recreation resort
Happy Travel : Disneyland Paris is a holiday and recreation resort
The Nature in Perfect Harmony on Hilton Head Island
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wonderful Sailing Destinations in the Caribbean Islands
dubai hotels underwater
A New Dream for Disney
USA by rail: From Seattle to San Francisco on Amtrak's 'Coast Starlight' train
France holidays: Six things you must do in... Biarritz
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I love Caneel Bay
Open Your Eyes
Thousand Islands or Pulau Seribu
Ko Samui Island In Thailand
ACCESSIBLE SAN DIEGO (California)
Nikki Beach Koh Samui Bungalow Resort Echo
Paris Tourist Attractions
The best spring ski destinations from Val d�Isere in France to Colorado in the U.S.
4 Best Exotic Honeymoon Destinations in Exotic Island
is no doubtedly the next favorite and popular honeymoon destination.Each and every island of this place is exotic and unique.Every island offers you different taste of life, be it experiencing active volcanoes, waterfalls or whale watching etc.
Bali, an Indonesian island is a perfect destination for couples who want romance and a little bit of intimacy. Bali, offers newly wed couples to stay in there private villas with private swimming pools, gardens and good house keeping facilities.
If you are in love with water and looking for a honeymoon full of exciting water activities, then Turtle Islands is the best destination for you. Sailing, Saltwater fly fishing, snorkling are some of the water activities that you can enjoy with your beloved. Turtle islands concists of some 14 white sand beaches in which some of them are isolated and covered with high cliffs and coves.
are honeymooners’ paradise. It is located in eastern Africa in the west of Indian Ocean. These exotic islands are a year round honeymoon destination, especially for people who are in love with beaches and sunshine.