Imagine falling asleep to the soothing sound of waves gently crashing upon the shore just outside your window. Imagine waking up to the tranquil sound of exotic birds calling from your balcony. Imagine a breakfast buffet full of exotic fruits and juices, mouthwatering pastries, and an enormous assortment of hot delights, with a delicious smell which wafts through the entire resort.
Swim up bars, a secluded beach, nightly entertainment and a midnight lounge with dance music; you’re imagining paradise.
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You haven’t known adventure until you have zipped down a 300 foot sand dune headfirst, screaming for your life, eating sand the entire way down. You haven’t known adventure until you have strapped yourself into a sand buggy and flown through “Everest of the Desert” at high speeds, clutching your seatbelt until your knuckles turn white. You haven’t known adventure until you have visited Huacachina, Peru.
The sand buggy tour was the most thrilling and exhilarating experience of our lives. We strapped ourselves into the 12 seater dune buggy as our driver flew over towering sand dunes at high speeds. We gripped the seats in front of us for dear life as he floored the gas and took dunes 90 degree angles. We whizzed through the desert, screaming at the top of our lungs as we blew through the most spectacular desert scenery you could ever hope to see in your life.
At 4pm we arrived at the Desert Nights Hostel, and it wasn’t long before we realized this wasn’t going to be a smooth ride! For $22 USD each, we had honestly expected a fairly tame ride through the desert, however we quickly realized that this was going to be an extreme thrill ride, not for the light of heart!
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At Doubletree by Hilton, they know the little things mean everything when it comes to a great travel experience. That’s why they have welcomed guests with a warm chocolate chip cookie for more than 25 years. The Doubletree gesture of a warm chocolate chip cookie on check-in is a symbol of the little, bright moments in life. No matter where you are or how you’re feeling, a cookie has the power to make you smile.
May 15 2014 was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, and in spreading the Cookie Care, Doubletree hotels worldwide took to the streets to hand out their signature chocolate chip cookies. Anyone who walked into one of the brand’s 370 hotels worldwide was treated to an iconic cookie, and surprise cookie giveaways were held all over the world.
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Picture miles upon miles of white sandy beaches, clean surf breaks, epic waves, and water so warm there’s no need for a wetsuit.
Costa Rica is a surfers paradise, and a world class surfing destination for beginners and surf pros alike. With beaches less crowded than that of California, Indonesia, Hawaii and Australia, Costa Rica was the perfect location for an uncoordinate like myself to learn to surf. And believe it or not, by the end of my lesson I managed to stand on the board!
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Lima is the culinary capital of the world, and there’s no better way to enjoy mouthwatering local Peruvian cuisine than taking in dinner with a show!
The Junius Restaurant at the El Pardo Doubletree by Hilton Hotel combines delicious cuisine with a spectacular, colorful, and live folklore show. The show features typical dance from every region in Peru, including the most impressive dances of the Peruvian Andes.
A fully interactive show which is lively, playful and upbeat, the most entertaining spectacle was Danza De Las Tijeras.
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Day one of our Doubletree by Hilton DTour was spent soaring over the jungle on Costa Rica’s famed zip-lines! This is one of the top tourist attractions in Costa Rica, and consists of platforms connected by thick cables stretching across tree-ladden ravines, hillsides and valleys.
We were strapped into harnesses, clipped into the cables and sent flying from one platform to another! I was really impressed overall by the length, speed, height and views offered!
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Flying into Costa Rica you realize this is a country truly touched by mother nature. Even from the window seat before landing we were awed by views of long stretches of deserted white sand beaches, dense jungles filled with a rich diversity of exotic wildlife, lush rainforests and raging rivers.
As we touched down in San Jose, the scenic beauty was unlike anything I had previously witnessed. Lush, vivid green forests backed by the blue silhouette of towering volcanoes. A staggeringly beautiful backdrop, and an amazing welcome into a country which prides itself on its overwhelming natural beauty.
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Only in Africa do warthogs have right of way! Coming in as #1 on the list of most interesting and amusing road signs abroad, drivers outside the Nairobi Animal Orphanage must watch for both pedestrians and rouge warthogs.
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A campervan trip is one of the cheapest, best and most rewarding ways to explore some of the world’s most scenic destinations.
Offering the freedom and flexibility to go wherever you want, wherever you want, without having to bother about finding a place to stay, campervanning truly is the greatest way to travel, and, with your own transport, the ultimate way to venture away from the tourist trail and get off the beaten path.
Here are the seven top destinations in the world for a memorable campervan trip; remember however to book Campervan Insurance before you hit any of these amazing destinations.
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Tunisia is a shopper’s paradise. Colorful markets packed full of all sorts of locally made goods line the streets; shady and narrow side alleys burst with a tempting variety of places to relax with a glass of mint tea; and rich, exotic colors and scents of spices flood crowded marketplaces.
From high quality, brightly designed rugs and carpets, to jewellery, ceramics, perfumes, henna and gold, the medinas and souks of Tunisia are full of endless possibilities. And, in a country where the price is never fixed and haggling is expected, shopping is a thrilling and exhilarating experience, and has never been closer to a sport!
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Potentially the most fun we had while in Costa Rica was spending three days white water rafting with Rios Tropicales.
Costa Rica is one of the best places in the world to ride rapids, offering a variety of rapid ‘classes’ for all skill levels including both beginners and the most experienced rafters. We definitely weren’t experts; in fact, I had no rafting skills at all! Regardless, we had an absolute BLAST riding the river rapids!
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South America is a diverse continent comprising of some truly phenomenal cultures, each with their own authentic, local cuisine. And from Guinea Pig in Peru to Frogs Legs in Bolivia, it’s the food that travelers tend to remember the most during their time here.
There are many books to learn about traditional food of South America, though to start you off, here are the single foods you must try while traveling through South America!
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Vietnam has a passion for cycling. Though it’s a developing country, it is relatively safe and its roads are for the most part in good shape, making it an ideal region to experience by bike.
Suitable for cyclists of all fitness levels, while it may not be in your Vietnam travel guide, experienced peddle heads tend to head for the hills and beautiful landscapes of the northern highlands, and beginners and leisure riders favor the flats of the Mekong Delta in the far south.
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As the doctor prepared my knees for an injection on a cool spring day in Colorado, he looked at me skeptically when I told him I needed to be able to run from elephants and climb trees to escape charging rhinos.
He was probably thinking he needed to transfer me to a psychiatrist to address my fanciful delusions after he fixed up my knees. But that’s what the application form said when I applied to the Walking With African Wildlife volunteer expedition in South Africa through Earthwatch International. “I need this kind of mobility,” I told him.
Indeed, such skills were needed and utilized by others of my volunteer team, though I was fortunate to evade or stare down elephants, rhinos and others, without resorting to these particular measures. And the moments in which I did so were some of the most thrilling, mind-erasing, exhilarating, adrenaline-soaked moments of my life.
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A 40 minute ferry ride from Playa Del Carmen will land you on Mexico’s biggest island – Cozumel. This island is one of the world’s premier destinations for scuba diving enthusiasts because of it’s large, brightly colored reefs.
Scuba diving and snorkeling here guarantees you’ll see all kinds of sea life, some of which can be found nowhere else in the world. Not a diver? No problem – you can snorkel, or take a snuba tour! It’s common to spot eels, turtles, nurse sharks, lobsters, crabs, and a huge variety of Caribbean fish.
Read on for more amazing underwater locations in Mexico.
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Before you visit Antarctica you have an idea of what it might be like. It might be cold there. The landscape is likely to be white. You might see penguins. There’s a high probability that you might see snow. It can get windy. You might even get sea sick.
Well forget all that, the only way to find out is to head there for yourself and see what the white continent is really like! So I did.
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This week has been an account of my time climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, and while the first two days were recorded in excruciating details for you, the last 5 days were unfortunately not – sadly I guess I was too exhausted as the climbs became more difficult to keep a diary.
So this is an overview of the best and the rest!
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During our time volunteering in Costa Rica during January 2012, film-maker Keira Austin followed us, documenting our conservation efforts. We joined a project organized through International Student Volunteers, which allowed us to take part in animal welfare projects in Costa Rica.
The first half highlights how the research obtained from our volunteer work has helped maintain a key habitat for dolphins and whales in the area of Golfo Dulce. This research was used to discontinue the establishment of a tuna farm in the bay of that is commonly used as a breeding ground for these marine creatures.
The second half follows as we help biologists collect research data for Poison Dart frogs, dolphins and whales in the Golfo Dulce region. This data was then obtained by the Costa Rican Government to help provide sustainable systems for conservation of wildlife in the area.
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An African Safari is generally quite high on the bucket list of any traveler, and between Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia, there is no shortage of options or availability!
Each country is a popular safari destination in their own right, however when Mike and myself had the opportunity to spend two weeks traveling through one of these countries, we opted for Tanzania.
Figuring that we couldn’t go wrong on safari in the Serengeti National Park, we chose an absolute classic African Safari setting which pretty much guaranteed that we would spot the “Big Five!”
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3 Irishmen, a South African and an Australian go Canyoning in the Swiss Alps…not the start to a joke, just my Thursday in Kandersteg. We caught a train to Interlaken to hit the canyons.
Instead of telling you about the adventure…why don’t you watch it?! We went through a canyon called Grimsel, which technically was the advanced canyoning experience…the fact that we were all beginners probably made the 65m abseiling and the 6m jumps off a cliff face into the water along with the 10m + slides and ziplining slightly more terrifying!!
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The majority of the previous night had been spent continuously waking up after spending the night rolling up and down my tent…upon reflection probably wasn’t the best idea to have set up my sleeping bag horizontally in a tent which was on a slope!
After being served Milo and tea in my tent (almost as good as breakfast in bed!), I stumbled out to breakfast with extremely low expectations of what I was about to consume.
Previous to leaving for Kilimanjaro we had heard horror stories about the breakfast ‘gruel’, so you can imagine the pleasant surprise when our porters walked in bearing platters full of eggs, sausages, tomatoes, cucumber and toast! For some reason I decided the ants would appreciate the first real breakfast I’d had in weeks more than I would so proceeded to drop my food in the dirt…fantastic!…lucky there was gruel available!!…it tasted like an extremely watered down, grainy chocolate porridge with the tang of light and tangy potato chips.
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Ascended 1500 m on day one, or 18km in 4 hours, to reach an altitude of 3,000m. Climbed through rainforest and camped in the desert. Very grateful for climbing boots…should have done more physical fitness training before coming! That being said, made excellent time and even though exhausted was in good spirits at the end of day 1 from a challenging but not unbearable climb.
Have an excellent group of climbing buddies and we’re now all fantastic friends. Glad I don’t have to carry the port-a-loo!
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On looking out the plane window before landing in Nairobi, the landscape looked strangely familiar. If I hadn’t known any better I would have almost sworn I was flying over Australia: expansive brown fields spotted with trees here and there and the occasional hill.
On walking off the plane and into the arrivals lounge however, you could tell we were a long way from home!! After handing over our fingerprints and adding to the collection of stamps in our passport we were greeted by 4 fellow Australian Rover Scouts who really weren’t that hard to find in the end due to the extremely small airport!!
No one seemed shocked about the fact that the airport security were carrying rifles, or that there were wild giraffes in fields just opposite the airport and monkeys hanging from the trees, no – the more shocking fact was apparently my excessive luggage!
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