Browsing: Accommodations

So Spring Break is rapidly approaching and you have made no plans whatsoever? And your family is clamoring for a beach getaway? No problem. The Gulf Coast of Florida awaits in all its magnificent sugar white sand and turquoise water splendor.

Although people have their favorite beaches and I have visited plenty of them, none compare to the gorgeous beaches which line the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. With plenty of family-friendly accommodations, great seafood …

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When John Cabot set sail to discover Canada back in 1497, Bristol was already a wealthy trading port – and has been for more than a thousand years. Post WW2 Bristol became and industrial centre: home of the Concorde, Rolls Royce and where the wings of the A380 Airbus are manufactured. More recently the buzzing multicultural university city of 500,000 has morphed into a large commercial centre, one of the most popular cities for business …

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Panama is a small nation with a capital that offers an astounding cross-section of cultural and historic experience: from the colonial legacy of its old quarter to a newly energized modern city, to the legacy and continued expansion of the Canal to the easily accessible countryside just beyond.  While all these different routes to exploring within and beyond this vibrant city depends on a visitor’s own interests and time, some of these options to experience …

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Yeah, traffic may be backed up because of those drivers who are freaked out by ice and snow, the temperatures are so low you simply can’t put on enough clothing, and school has been called off yet again. Why not forget about all that and actually enjoy this fabulous winter? This is pretty easy to do if you head to Michigan to check out three equally marvelous resorts, all of which provide enough winter sports …

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You might feel like you have escaped to the edge of the planet, but in fact you have just reached the edge of the south Caribbean when you arrive on the island of Roatán. Best of all, that impression of distance continues as you make your way around this best known of Honduras’s Islas Bahias (Bay Islands), thanks to the pristine beaches and interior, the low-impact tourism, and the size and scale of everyday life …

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Soon after missionary and doctor David Livingstone described the sight of the Victoria Falls to the outside world they became a tourist destination. Thus, following the routes he described in his journals, hunters, explorers and missionaries descended upon them. By 1898 a small settlement of white pioneers had sprung up on the banks of the Zambezi River and in 1904, when the railway arrived, the development of the two towns either side of the Victoria …

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While many other Caribbean island destinations have become dominated in recent decades by all-inclusive resort and large scale hotel presences, little Grenada has managed to prove that a thriving independent and smaller-sized hotel sector  is often much more attractive to the discerning traveler – along with being a long-term sustainable model for the island environment.

With a diverse and still unspoiled coastline punctuated by distinct harbors and marinas, this still tranquil eastern Caribbean island has

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The official first day of fall has come and gone, the weather is slowly getting cooler and the days shorter so beach vacations may seem like a thing of the past at this point but, in reality, this is absolutely the best time of the year to visit many beaches. After Labor Day, the crowds diminish as children head back to school, and the prices are lowered, but the weather in many of these areas …

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Toulouse is the birthplace of Concorde, the Ariane Rocket and home to Airbus. It also boasts sixteen-hundred boutiques, a thousand restaurants and a myriad other gourmet finds which demand further investigation. Which is why, upon arrival at Toulouse Blagnac Airport, I made my way to the prestigious Victor Hugo market, famous throughout France for its gourmet stalls and where I was told, I would definitely to find something new to like.

Across the street from …

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Iceland has neither McDonald’s, Starbucks nor, as of this writing, one single 5-star hotel in all of the country, population 320,000. Does Iceland need a 5-star hotel? Perhaps. What is certain is that Iceland, and its largest metropolis, Reykjavik, need more hotels to meet rising tourism levels. Here’s a look at the newest accommodation offerings on the tiny island nation, ideal lodging choices for your next trip:

Opened in 2013 – Ion

Double room

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I’m not advocating necessarily waking up with a glass of “vino tinto” (red wine) with your scrambled eggs and jamon…Although that isn’t out of the question in this area where wine flows often more freely than water.

La Rioja is in Spain’s far north, just below the sunny shores of San Sebastian and nestled between the popular towns of Bilbao and Pamplona. The towns and villages in this area are quiet and sleepy, with the …

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If you’re looking for cosmopolitan urban culture or beautiful buildings, Port Elizabeth won’t be your first choice for a South African holiday destination. It’s a busy yet relatively crime-free industrial city (important to the South African motor industry) that marks the eastern end of the Garden Route. Although the city has been ravaged by industrialization and thoughtless modernization, one or two buildings do stand out in an otherwise featureless city centre. Thankfully, a couple of …

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There’s an exciting moment whenever you set off on a game drive and the ranger asks what you’d like to see.
It always makes me laugh, as if this khaki-clad Dr Doolittle can conjure up spectacular animal sightings on command.
But if you do yearn for a specific view of wildlife – a leopard in a tree or a wild dog hunt, perhaps – you can increase your chances enormously by picking a destination slap …

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Before we arrived at lovely Navarre Beach, we stopped at a Publix grocery on the way to pick up drinks and snacks to stock the fridge in our condo. We stopped before we got to Navarre because the last time I was there several years ago, there was no grocery store. You had to drive to nearby Pensacola or Gulf Breeze if you wanted to pick up groceries.

As we pulled up near the bridge …

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