island travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Perfectly situated amid a beautiful turquoise lagoon, Komandoo Island with its superb sandy beaches is an immensely attractive tropical holiday destination. Spectacular sunsets, soft white beaches and an aquamarine lagoon with exciting diving combine to make Komandoo a popular island honeymoon destination. This is an intimately romantic getaway for two, where you can celebrate your love for each other…

Komandoo Island Resort offers excellent accommodation with beautiful 45 beach villas. Each villa has a private sun terrace that overlooks the soft powdery white sand and turquoise crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean. Amenities includes partly open air bathroom equipped with hair dryer, air conditioning, safe, telephone, beach towel, CD player and coffee/tea maker.
 

Water sports are extremely popular in this island resort. Komandoo boasts world class scuba diving and a Pro Divers PADI five star dive facility with resident multilingual instructors. Apart from this one can also go for snorkeling, Canoeing, Beach Volley, Fishing, Excursion, Windsurfing, Catamaran Sailing and swimming.

Jeju Island is a popular vacation spot for travelers to South Korea and one of the top honeymoon destinations for Korean newlyweds. The area includes finest lava tube system of caves anywhere, multi-shaped rock formations and dark-colored lava walls. The Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes together comprise 18,846 ha and are added to UNESCO’ World Heritage List.

 

The island is mix of dramatic landscape, lush subtropical forests, lava caves, sandy beaches, spectacular craters, and majestic waterfalls. Also there is the Mount Halla – the highest peak in Korea, poised in the middle of the Island.

The frequent rains and temperate climate make it very similar to the Hawaiian Islands. The island offers visitors a wide range of activities: hiking on Halla-san, riding horses or just lying around on the sandy beaches.

Set among of 12 hectares of lush tropical gardens, with perfect beachfront location on popular Kuta beach, Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel Bali will helps you to deliver the truly romantic of this paradise on earth for your wedding ceremony and reception. This luxury beach resort offers a mix of 312 Ocean Facing Rooms and Family Suites set amidst an oasis of shady coconut palms.

 

The resort has a wide choice of restaurants and excellent sporting facilities. Sport facilities include one sparkling swimming pool for adult and one for children, tennis and volleyball courts, two squash courts, fitness centre with sauna and massage services. Water sports include parasailing, cruising, sailing, water skiing, scuba diving, snorkeling and etc. Also you could explore Bali Island from above by taking a ride of helicopter flight.

Hamilton Island is situated amongst the 74 tropical Whitsunday islands, at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The island is one of the Australia’s favorite destinations. Hamilton Island is the perfect choice for your ideal tropical holiday. Surrounded by amazing coral beaches, the island has its own Jet Airport and 5 Star International Resorts.

It houses underwater coral, tranquil clear water, secluded beaches, azure waters, and a calm tropical ambience. The island includes resort accommodation, boutique shops, swimming pools, restaurants, and etc.

Hamilton offers different activities to entertain including go-karts, mini-golf, the Wildlife Experience with kangaroos, koalas and crocodiles, and etc. Snorkeling and diving are among the most popular water activities. Beach cruises, water skiing, wind surfing, yacht race, sailing, kayaking, game fishing are also available.

For more information click here

Miami is a world of man -made islands and the original polo fields are new golf courses – Miami first make a loud at the beginning of the 20th century. Many times I wrote about Miami but this time I will mention some other interesting facts. I love Miami in part for all its flashy invention. In my opinion the big constructions are adding some serious substance to this subtropical city.

I suggest you this time exploring Miami on a two-day bike tour visiting city streets, galleries, delicious drives, one stop Haitian voodoo shops. You can covered 40 miles and 11 islands and used up an entire tube of sunblock.

One of my favorites building in Miami is Bacardi Building north to downtown Miami, at Biscyne and Northest 21st. This building is the greater example of how the International style meets the subtropics. I’m a modernist and I reckon we should protect the buildings of the past, but also the new architecture should reflect our own times and aspirations.

A fantastic way to experience Miami cultural diversity is through its culinary culture. Just north of downtown it’s Enriqueta, a delicious little Cuban spot with hundreds of fun and mostly family-run restaurants. There are incredible Cuban Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Brazilian and Argentine food. Miami has an extraordinary influence of cultures, but you have to get out of South Beach to feel it. The botanicas in Little Haiti are just an example for getting a sense of rich Haitian culture here.

For the first time, there is massive residential development in the downtown area that will transform what was once a dark working center into a great downtown. In addition to Museum Park (the new Miami Art Museum/Museum of Science complex) and the Performing Arts Center, over the next several years we will see a new Frank Gehry Soundspace for the New World Symphony and new Herzog & de Meuron and Enrique Norten buildings here in Miami Beach.

 

No man is an Iceland. Iceland is a mysterious land, nestled between Europe and North America with ties to Scandinavia. The countryside includes dramatic textures like moss, magma, roiling hot springs and glacial crevasses. Much of it tiny population lives in highly rational architecture in the capital, Reyjavik. The national language is literal and lacks preciousness. The highly efficient brand of economy is tempered by faith in fairies, the hidden people who inhabit stones.

 The population of the country is really small, only 300,000 in the whole land and it is always cold. Summers are more playful and people do not take work too seriously (like everywhere in the world). You also may see a sign on an office door reading ” Due to very pleasant weather, we are taking the rest of the day off”. Pleasant weather means more than 68 degrees. I reckon that many creative inhabitants fill their heads during the summer. You know winters are more for sitting down at your table taking those things that you collect in your mind during summer lifestyle.

Reykjavik has many designers, whose work is very craft-based, with materials like ceramics, wool and fish skin. Good examples of this are shops like Kirsuberjatred, Kraum and the work of ceramicist Kogga. You can sight see city shining in the creations of young desgners. For instance Mundi Designs is an exiting new fashion label directed by a young graphic designer.

Reykjavik is a big part of culture, but the countryside is even bigger. Many people have summer houses in the country. They take inspiration from nature and their sagas. They know where to look to create something new from their past.

Go to a local pool and you will find out that important conversations take places – about politics, culture, gossip, design and etc. During the winter go outside and fill the weather in all its strength.

The Marquesas Islands also emerged as ”The land of men” are a small group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, a collectivization of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The highest point in the region is the peak of Mount Oave, located on Ua Pu island at 1, 230m above sea level. Ua Pu is the third largest of the Marquesas Islands and the only major island that was unified under a single monarch prior to the arrival of European explorers.

The capital of the Marquesas Islands is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva.  The Marquesas Islands are the island group farthest from any continent in the world, lying between 900 and 1,200 km (550 and 725 miles) south of the equator and 1,371 km (852 miles) northeast of Tahiti.

Besides the lush tropical vegetation that goes culturally, the Marquesas are remarkably dry islands. They are the first major break in the prevailing easterly winds spawned from the extraordinarily dry Humboldt Current. The Marquesas Islands are thought to have formed by a center of upwelling magma called the Marquesas hotspot. The islands are divided in six communes. French and Tahitian are the only official languages of French Polynesia, and therefore of the Marquesas Islands as well, the Marquesan languages, in their various forms.

Accommodations are available in only a few hotels (Nuku Hiva and Hiva Oa) and small family homes on each island. The islands offer a wide range of activities, as Landrover excursions, horseback riding, hiking over mountain trails and to inland cascades, picnics on the beach or mountains, deep-sea fishing, sailing, motorboat rides, visits to archaeological sites, visits to artisansí workshops to buy wood carvings, tapa hangings and monoi perfumed oils.

To get there by boat try the mixed-freighter ARANUI takes up to 100 passenger in air-conditioned cabins for a 16 day cruise from Tahiti to the Marquesas through the Tuamotu archipelago and back. It includes  deluxe accommodation and meals as well as land excursions in the various islands.

 

 It is one of the largest and most desirable resorts in Maldives archipelago. Located along the island’s sandy beaches, Sun Island is about 1.6 km in length and has 426 elegantly decorated rooms, including 72 water bungalows. Considered as the Maldives’ most luxurious resort it is surrounded by tropical vegetation and coconut palms. There are a large variety of water sports, including exciting scuba diving, fishing, wind surfing, catamaran sailing, and canoeing. Explore the fine white sandy beaches and swim with the beautiful fish as they move between the corals.

In the Maldives there are 26 atolls and 1190 islands. Only 200 islands are inhabited and 90 of them have been transformed into resorts. One & Only Reethi Rah is highest world-class standards hotel, boasts some of the largest villas in the world, with a minimum area of 135m2. Set on one of the largest islands in North Male’ Atoll, all villas have direct access to the turquoise lagoon with beautiful ocean views.
A chic 6-star resort offering a level of style, all 130 villas are luxurious and stylishly decorated and surrounded by the crystal blue ocean and twelve powder soft white beaches. In the national language Dhivehi it meaning “beautiful island”.
  One & Only Reethi Rah offers the perfect holiday for relaxation with an extraordinary 6 km of coastline and plenty of activity on the water. Guests can enjoy activities such as: snorkeling, diving, windsurfing, catamaran sailing, volleyball, football, canoeing, waterskiing, aerobics, swimming pools, billiard, tennis, dolphin watching and of course, spa and beauty center. There are three restaurants that serve a variety of cuisine – Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Asian. 
   
Rooms go from $625 to $2,395 a night

 Dhoni Mighili is a luxurious resort, located on a private island in the Ari Atoll, Maldives, to the south west of the capital Mahe. Mighili has six thatched beach intimate bungalows with outdoor bathroom, waterfall showers and private pool which engage all of the senses.

Also there are six luxuriously personified traditional Maldivian boats – Dhonis. These 65 ft handcrafted Maldivian yachts are with own crew. In-cabin entertainment includes 20” LCD televisions, Bose DVD players, air-conditioners and king-size beds. 

Resort Facilities:
- Thakuru – butler services. It is all yours from the moment you alight from your intercontinental jet, until you return.
- Dining – be it on your private Dhoni or a secluded spot on the beach and enjoy with exotic dishes, freshly prepared at any time of day or night
- Spa – The Aquum Spa offers treatments to satisfy body, mind and soul
- Diving – PADI certified
- Water sports center including kayaking, sailing, canoeing, windsurfing and snorkeling
- 65ft Luxury Cruiser
- Catamaran Sailing
- Beach Volley
- Private excursions – including night fishing, deserted island snorkeling

Prices & reservations: click here

Barbados is an independent continental island situated east of the Caribbean Sea in the western Atlantic Ocean. The east coast of the island is home to clean, perfect and enormous waves. The island’s west coast is emerged as: powdery beaches, clear turquoise water, maincured estates, really maincured resorts and even though maincured golf courses. As well as this part of the island is known as the Platinium Coast, due to the color of its sparkling coastline. But this is Barbados of the travel agencies and guidebooks. This is only half the story. Let me tell you about the wild Barbados.

The eastern coast of Barbados is a whole other world. Hide away from the luxury resorts by acres of sugar cane fields, thick verdant forests and trees full of wild monkeys, this is Barbados’s real side. You could spend all your time in the west and never know the real Barbados. The east is run by the locals, not the tourists.

The main town in eastern Barbados is called Bathsheba. The town look as if it was once the playground of mythical creatures, because of the enormous limestone boulders strewn in the shallows. The wind sweeping along the hillside, which is hollowed by the warm blasts and palm trees. It’s a coastline carved by centuries of wind blowing from thousands of miles away.

With such an identity, come characters. This is a place, where people have names like Biju, Yellow and Chicken. But the real celebrity in town is Soup Bowl, the island’s biggest wave. ” When Soup Bowl is good, it gives you goose bumps”, said Ms. Pitcher – a surf teacher.

On a map, Barbados looks as if it is drifting out into the open Atlantic, which is exactly what makes Soup Bowl ideal. Soup Bowl is one of the tip three waves in the world. This wave can travel nearly three thousands miles in the open ocean, undisturbed by sandbars, reefs or land, before it breaks the island.

Aquatic life in Barbados isn’t just for world champions, professional athletes and people who want they could surf before they could walk. Much of the coasts offer makeshift beer bars, street food, vendors selling fried fish and cheap guesthouses that are so appealing to people who prefer to watch surfing, than waxing a board. But the locals will remind you one more time: What makes Barbados unique is that there is a single wave for everyone.

Anyone can surf Barbados and I mean anyone. You can close your eyes and point to the calendar – any day you hit, Barbados will have great beginner and intermediate waves. Action! Do you want a drink? Listen if I say Jamaica you think reggae right, but when I say Barbados nothing comes to mind and that has to change. But I would say also: Popular is good, too popular is dangerous!

American Airlines has nonstop flights from Kenedy Airport in New York to Grantley Adams International Airport in Seawell, Christ Church on the south side of Barbados, about a 25-minute drive from the surf beaches near Bathsheba.

I have written many times about the miraculous country called Cambodia. But this time I will present a really different look of the country. To many tourists Cambodia means only two things: the majestic temples of Angkor Wat and the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh. But the southern coast of the country is ”Another Cambodia” and during the recent years emerged as an alternative to the heavily trafficked beaches of Thailand.

Some people said that almost every place in Cambodia has a ghost story attached to it. This is why Cambodian people practice Theravada Buddhism. Their Gods are able to cross between the border of the world. When you are in Cambodia I strongly recommended you to go in Kep, where a series of funky bamboo and wood tree houses, many with terrific views of the Gulf of Thailand and the Vietnamase island Phu Quoc.

The image shows Rajana in Sihanoukville, a chain of nonprofit stores with wonderful textiles and some clothing and knickknacks. Sihanoukville is a place with white sands, authentic shops and non-restaurant-based night life.

If you stroll down to Serendipity Beach will bring you in contact with fire throwers, mystics, British Vogue photographers, sex tourists and many, many opportunities to indulge in something called a “vodka bucket.” Several airlines, including Cathay Pacific (with a stop in Hong Kong) and Korean Air (with a stop in Seoul), have flights from Kennedy Airport in New York, with round-trip fares in April starting at about $1,300, based on a recent Web search.

Hainan Island is often called the Chinese Hawaii, and it is the only tropical beach destination in China. It puts its arms round the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin, about a 90-minute flight southwest of Hong Kong. The island is a paradise, he sea is a pale, minty hue and empty of people, the sand gleaming white!

The picture displays the south coast around the port city of Sanya, which is experiencing a luxury hotel boom: Ritz-Carlton, Banyan Tree, Le Méridien and Mandarin Oriental. In the past, Hainan had a romantic air. It served for centuries as a place of banishment for criminals, exiled poets and political undesirables.

After Hainan separated from Guangdong to become its own province in 1988, a development boom was started by a bust that left many building projects on the island half-finished. In the recent years, Hainan has welcomed back investors and become a fashionable spot for Russian tourists. The picture shows a dinner at the Resort Horizon in Yalong Bay.

The island also has a reputation as a surfer’s paradise. Between April and September, waves tend to come from the south, while October to March brings a northeastern winter swell.

These ingredients Star anise and coffee beans are used for spa treatments at many hotels.

Despite rapid development on Hainan, stretches of rice paddies and green, mist-covered mountain slopes remain. The warm, humid climate makes the island a bounty of tropical crops.

The Cayman Islands is renowned for its luxurious lifestyle and Caribbean charm. Marriott Grand Cayman is located on West Bay Road on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman BWI in the Cayman Islands. The Resort is located next to Treasure Island and just north of George Town. The hotel beautiful complete with a courtyard to hang out in the palm trees and relax.
All 305 spacious rooms are drenched in tropical hues of melon and other accented with rich dark woods. Each room is equipped with high-speed Internet access, private balcony, an in-room safe, mini refrigerator, coffeemaker, hair dryer and an iron with full-size ironing board. The bathroom was functional and large if not luxe with a single sink and shower. The resort boasts 4 restaurants, some offering oceanfront dining. Restaurants are pleasingly placed for charming environment and also serving delicious foods.

Hotel’s Amenities: spa, fitness room, outdoor freshwater pool, salon and other.

Activities: Snorkeling, Volleyball, Water Skiing, Tennis, Sailing, golf.

Alexandria is a tremendous city situated on the north coast of Egypt. This is where Euclid sired geometry, Aristarchus deduced that Earth revolved around the sun and of course, the young Alexander the Great founded the city as his capital in 331 B.C.

The city developed through the 19th century as the place of Egypt’s commerce, especially the trade with cotton drawing a cosmopolitan mix of Greeks, Italians, French and Jews, who brought their languages, architecture and food. The picture shows the Roman Amphitheater.

White and Blue Restaurant, also emerged as the Greek Club, is in the Hellenic Nautical Club at the end of the Corniche by Fort Qaitbay. A full dinner including grilled sea bass, served the Egyptian way (with tomato and basil) or Greek (with potatoes), is 120 Egyptian pounds.

During the last years preservationists and the government have made an effort to restore its luster after the city’s cultural grandeur began to crumble [around the 1950's]. The first sign of the city’s renewal was the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the glimmering vision in steel and glass that opened on the Corniche in 2002.