Coastal Living Magazine has a great new list of their top 10 romantic retreat destinations.
Here's the list:
1. Bermuda
2. Manhattan
3. Big Island, HI
4. Whidbey Island, WA
5. Lovers Key, FL
6. Cumberland Island, GA
7. Princess Royal Island, British Columbia
8. The Grove Isle Hotel & Spa, Miami, Florida
9. Naples, Long Beach, California
10. Anguilla, Caribbean
Man, sounds like a great list to me. Of course, they forgot my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota! Doesn't curling up in front of a fire in the winter of northern Minnesota sound good to you? OK, yes it sounds good, but who can dispute some of the destinations in Coastal Living's list. I think they all sound fantastic, and would love to visit all of them! I was able to visit Manhattan for the first time last April, and I must say, it totally blew me away! I tried so hard to not look like a tourist, but just couldn't do it :) When you grow up in the wilds of northern Minnesota, you see New York City/Manhattan all the time on television. When you finally get to see this magnificent destination, it truly is awe inspiring. It was all thanks to Caribbean Jim that I got to go, and I will always remember this awesome trip.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Aquaventure Opens at Atlantis
A new 63-acre waterpark called AQUAVENTURE has just opened at Atlantis, Paradise Island. This experience, which redefines the concept of a waterpark, positions Atlantis as one of the largest water-themed attractions in the world, containing over twenty million gallons of water altogether. This non-stop water experience consists of thrilling new water slides, a mile- long river ride with high intensity rapids and wave surges, and never-before- seen special effects that add an extreme level of excitement to the overall experience.
AQUAVENTURE takes known water-based attractions such as water slides, river rapids, waterfalls and water holes, and adds first-of-its-kind special effects and technology, bringing them all together in a lush environment that is both immersive and interconnected. Once guests are situated in their inner tubes and enter the attraction, they are propelled along by water escalators, waves, water surges and master blaster technology. Unlike traditional water slides that require the participant to leave the water and climb back to the start, at AQUAVENTURE guests never have to leave the water as they are propelled back up the slide tower via conveyors.
The Power Tower is the grand icon of AQUAVENTURE. At 120 feet tall, the tower will offer guests the choice of four adrenaline-inducing water slides including:
-- The Abyss - an exhilarating body slide where guests drop a near-vertical 50 feet into total darkness, through a tumbling waterfall finishing in a deep cenote filled with menacing Alligator Gars.
-- The Drop, The Falls and The Surge - these three inner tube slides use "master-blaster" technology, creating roller coasters from jets of water that propel riders up and downhill at a fast pace.
Surrounding the Power Tower is a complex river ride system with waves pushing inner tube riders through lush landscape. The river loop, called The Current harbors 7-foot high elevations and drops, as well as an area called The Rapids, featuring white-water rapids.
The river loop consists of a transport system that allows guests to float along or return to the waterslides without ever having to get off their tubes, thus creating one continuous never-ending ride. A conveyor takes riders up to the highest point of the river, where one will either continue the loop around the Power Tower through rapids, or enter the slide complex to travel on a conveyor to the top of the tower to ride the slides. The tower slides, as well as the rapids loop, all flow into zero-entry pools.
Both the Power Tower and The Current incorporate special effects in the tunnels and caves to stimulate every one of the senses. A water curtain video technology, created by Technifex, gives guests a one-of-a-kind experience using fire, water, mechanical systems, smoke/fog and video technologies. For the first time ever, this technology is incorporated into a tube in darkness, offering riders an unprecedented thrill that will change every time they take the ride.
You can book trips to some of the resorts on Paradise Island right here at TravelHunters.com, or at the Atlantis.com website.
AQUAVENTURE takes known water-based attractions such as water slides, river rapids, waterfalls and water holes, and adds first-of-its-kind special effects and technology, bringing them all together in a lush environment that is both immersive and interconnected. Once guests are situated in their inner tubes and enter the attraction, they are propelled along by water escalators, waves, water surges and master blaster technology. Unlike traditional water slides that require the participant to leave the water and climb back to the start, at AQUAVENTURE guests never have to leave the water as they are propelled back up the slide tower via conveyors.
The Power Tower is the grand icon of AQUAVENTURE. At 120 feet tall, the tower will offer guests the choice of four adrenaline-inducing water slides including:
-- The Abyss - an exhilarating body slide where guests drop a near-vertical 50 feet into total darkness, through a tumbling waterfall finishing in a deep cenote filled with menacing Alligator Gars.
-- The Drop, The Falls and The Surge - these three inner tube slides use "master-blaster" technology, creating roller coasters from jets of water that propel riders up and downhill at a fast pace.
Surrounding the Power Tower is a complex river ride system with waves pushing inner tube riders through lush landscape. The river loop, called The Current harbors 7-foot high elevations and drops, as well as an area called The Rapids, featuring white-water rapids.
The river loop consists of a transport system that allows guests to float along or return to the waterslides without ever having to get off their tubes, thus creating one continuous never-ending ride. A conveyor takes riders up to the highest point of the river, where one will either continue the loop around the Power Tower through rapids, or enter the slide complex to travel on a conveyor to the top of the tower to ride the slides. The tower slides, as well as the rapids loop, all flow into zero-entry pools.
Both the Power Tower and The Current incorporate special effects in the tunnels and caves to stimulate every one of the senses. A water curtain video technology, created by Technifex, gives guests a one-of-a-kind experience using fire, water, mechanical systems, smoke/fog and video technologies. For the first time ever, this technology is incorporated into a tube in darkness, offering riders an unprecedented thrill that will change every time they take the ride.
You can book trips to some of the resorts on Paradise Island right here at TravelHunters.com, or at the Atlantis.com website.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Top 10 Travel Destinations for 2007
Forbes magazine has come out with it's list of top 10 travel destinations for 2007 and it offers some fantastic ideas! From snorkeling in Honduras, to honeymoons in Sri Lanka, it offers some great tips for thinking outside the box.
Here's the list of top 10 travel destinations for 2007:
Argentina: best wine tasting
Dominican Republic: best beaches
Ethiopia: best adventure safari
Honduras: best snorkeling
Laos: best sightseeing
Namibia: best family trip
The North Island, Seychelles: best splurge!
Oman: best bargain
Panama: best eco-tourism
Sri Lanka: best honeymoon
This list certainly offers some surprises. For one, how many people knew that Oman was next door to pricey Dubai? Hotel rates are apparently much lower in Oman. What's great about the list is that it gets you thinking about vacationing in unconventional locations - and what could be better than that!
If you'd like to view the entire list with Forbes' rationale, click here
TravelHunters.com can help you with your travel plans!
Vacation Packages
Flights
Hotels
Car Rentals
Activities
Cruises
TravelHunters can take you to nearly any place in the world.
Here's the list of top 10 travel destinations for 2007:
Argentina: best wine tasting
Dominican Republic: best beaches
Ethiopia: best adventure safari
Honduras: best snorkeling
Laos: best sightseeing
Namibia: best family trip
The North Island, Seychelles: best splurge!
Oman: best bargain
Panama: best eco-tourism
Sri Lanka: best honeymoon
This list certainly offers some surprises. For one, how many people knew that Oman was next door to pricey Dubai? Hotel rates are apparently much lower in Oman. What's great about the list is that it gets you thinking about vacationing in unconventional locations - and what could be better than that!
If you'd like to view the entire list with Forbes' rationale, click here
TravelHunters.com can help you with your travel plans!
Vacation Packages
Flights
Hotels
Car Rentals
Activities
Cruises
TravelHunters can take you to nearly any place in the world.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Branson, MO - A Great Whole Family Vacation
This is a great time of year to start planning a trip in 2007. That's basically what I'm personally doing right now.
As I reflect back over the past year our vacation to Branson Missouri this past spring comes to mind. We had the opportunity to stay at a resort called Sunterra. We stayed in one of their units with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and screened patio. The accomodations were very nice.
Most people know the demographic for people going to Branson is usually a slightly older crowd. We didn't know before arriving that this was also a great place to bring our children.
We did the duck boat tour and it was a blast (a WWII military all terrain vehicle). Everyone on the tour got a quacker to make noise. We rode around the town in our duck boat and quacked at people. The kids were laughing like crazy. Our vehicle drove on trails and then into the water, the kids were amazed. The driver made an announcement would any of the kids like to captain the boat. Both of our kids went up and got their turn (it was a great photo opp). It's a good thing that it doesn't go very fast in the water.
There were a bunch of places to play miniature golf so we picked one with a dinosaur theme. I believe one of them was a pirate theme too. There were tunnels and everything to go through. This was such a great family activity.
Our next activity was going to the Titanic museum. There were many hands-on activities for the kids to do here so we were pleasantly surprised. Things like how long can you keep your hand in this cold water, similar to the temp where the ship sank. There was a piece of a glacier to touch, lifeboats to climb into etc. They had even re-created the grand staircase and it was beautiful. We had a family picture on the stairs, a staff member took our photo. I would go here again someday.
On our last night we went to a dinner show. We went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. Since most shows started too late for our kids this was the only one we planned on going to during our trip. I noticed the kids were so much into the show that they hardly ate their dinner even though the food was good. It was really a great time and even today many months later the kids still say remember when this happened at the show. It was a great end to our trip.
Want to personalize a vacation package to Branson with flight, hotel, and car rental? Just go to the 'vacations' tab at the top of our website, then 'more package destinations', Branson Missouri. You could even stay where we did at Sunterra Plantation At Fall Creek, it was very nice.
Start your Travel Hunting here:
http://travel.wwte1.com/pubspec/scripts/eap.asp?goto=eta&eapid=11574-30001
As I reflect back over the past year our vacation to Branson Missouri this past spring comes to mind. We had the opportunity to stay at a resort called Sunterra. We stayed in one of their units with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and screened patio. The accomodations were very nice.
Most people know the demographic for people going to Branson is usually a slightly older crowd. We didn't know before arriving that this was also a great place to bring our children.
We did the duck boat tour and it was a blast (a WWII military all terrain vehicle). Everyone on the tour got a quacker to make noise. We rode around the town in our duck boat and quacked at people. The kids were laughing like crazy. Our vehicle drove on trails and then into the water, the kids were amazed. The driver made an announcement would any of the kids like to captain the boat. Both of our kids went up and got their turn (it was a great photo opp). It's a good thing that it doesn't go very fast in the water.
There were a bunch of places to play miniature golf so we picked one with a dinosaur theme. I believe one of them was a pirate theme too. There were tunnels and everything to go through. This was such a great family activity.
Our next activity was going to the Titanic museum. There were many hands-on activities for the kids to do here so we were pleasantly surprised. Things like how long can you keep your hand in this cold water, similar to the temp where the ship sank. There was a piece of a glacier to touch, lifeboats to climb into etc. They had even re-created the grand staircase and it was beautiful. We had a family picture on the stairs, a staff member took our photo. I would go here again someday.
On our last night we went to a dinner show. We went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. Since most shows started too late for our kids this was the only one we planned on going to during our trip. I noticed the kids were so much into the show that they hardly ate their dinner even though the food was good. It was really a great time and even today many months later the kids still say remember when this happened at the show. It was a great end to our trip.
Want to personalize a vacation package to Branson with flight, hotel, and car rental? Just go to the 'vacations' tab at the top of our website, then 'more package destinations', Branson Missouri. You could even stay where we did at Sunterra Plantation At Fall Creek, it was very nice.
Start your Travel Hunting here:
http://travel.wwte1.com/pubspec/scripts/eap.asp?goto=eta&eapid=11574-30001
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Exploring the Black Forest
A few years ago, my wife and I went to Germany, Austria and Switzerland for our 10th anniversary. It was our first vacation in Europe, and we chose this area because of the wonderful history, the food, and the amazing breweries :) Rather than traveling throughout a large area, we decided to hone in on southern Germany (Bavaria and the Black Forest regions), as well as bordering areas of Austria and Switzerland, visiting Basel and Salzburg.
I'll write more later on the rest of this trip, but for now I want to talk more about the beautiful Black Forest region of Germany - the source region for the Danube River. Our homebase for exploring the Black Forest was a small resort community called Titisee, part of the larger Titisee-Neustadt area. We couldn't have picked a more wonderful place to visit for several days. We didn't rent a car when we were in Germany, so we took backpacks and 'rode the rails' throughout our journey. It didn't take too long to figure out that we were a little out of shape, but by the end of the trip we were so used to walking and hopping from train to train that it was strange to get back in a car again!
On our two week journey, we stayed in small, independently owned hotels, pensions, guest apartments and farm stays, and we never regretted staying away from the big chain hotels! In Titisee we stayed in a guest apartment, and to this day, we are in email contact with the owners - who even had goats in their hilly yard to eat the grass! We even were able to help put the goats into their pen at night (which was VERY interesting, by the way!) It was a remarkable opportunity to really experience the culture in the Black Forest. In fact, one evening after we came back from dinner (yummy by the way!), the owner - Max - asked us if we wanted to go to town for a walk with him. We jumped at the chance, and ended up walking for at least two hours. Max loved showing off his community, and we asked him about a million questions, which he loved!
You can pick just about any community in the Black Forest as a base, and if you are going to Germany, please do not leave this off your itinerary. The train trip into the Black Forest is one of the most scenic in all of Germany, so if you have a chance to 'ride the rails' - I would highly recommend it as well! Also, be sure you don't miss a trip to Triberg, the home of the cuckoo clock and the best Black Forest cake I've ever had!
We booked a vast majority of our travel right here at TravelHunters.com. We booked our flight, many of our small hotel/pension stays, activities, and more - right from one site!
To book a small hotel/pension throughout Europe, just visit this link
To book a flight to any International Gateway, just visit this link
To book a air/hotel vacation package to Europe, just visit this link
AND, last, but not least! To book an activity, such as a castle tour, city tour, brewery tour, beer hall tour, or other activity in Europe, visit this link - you will likely be surprised at all the opportunities!
I also highly recommend going to the famed Oktoberfest in the fall - we had a blast ;)
I'll write more later on the rest of this trip, but for now I want to talk more about the beautiful Black Forest region of Germany - the source region for the Danube River. Our homebase for exploring the Black Forest was a small resort community called Titisee, part of the larger Titisee-Neustadt area. We couldn't have picked a more wonderful place to visit for several days. We didn't rent a car when we were in Germany, so we took backpacks and 'rode the rails' throughout our journey. It didn't take too long to figure out that we were a little out of shape, but by the end of the trip we were so used to walking and hopping from train to train that it was strange to get back in a car again!
On our two week journey, we stayed in small, independently owned hotels, pensions, guest apartments and farm stays, and we never regretted staying away from the big chain hotels! In Titisee we stayed in a guest apartment, and to this day, we are in email contact with the owners - who even had goats in their hilly yard to eat the grass! We even were able to help put the goats into their pen at night (which was VERY interesting, by the way!) It was a remarkable opportunity to really experience the culture in the Black Forest. In fact, one evening after we came back from dinner (yummy by the way!), the owner - Max - asked us if we wanted to go to town for a walk with him. We jumped at the chance, and ended up walking for at least two hours. Max loved showing off his community, and we asked him about a million questions, which he loved!
You can pick just about any community in the Black Forest as a base, and if you are going to Germany, please do not leave this off your itinerary. The train trip into the Black Forest is one of the most scenic in all of Germany, so if you have a chance to 'ride the rails' - I would highly recommend it as well! Also, be sure you don't miss a trip to Triberg, the home of the cuckoo clock and the best Black Forest cake I've ever had!
We booked a vast majority of our travel right here at TravelHunters.com. We booked our flight, many of our small hotel/pension stays, activities, and more - right from one site!
To book a small hotel/pension throughout Europe, just visit this link
To book a flight to any International Gateway, just visit this link
To book a air/hotel vacation package to Europe, just visit this link
AND, last, but not least! To book an activity, such as a castle tour, city tour, brewery tour, beer hall tour, or other activity in Europe, visit this link - you will likely be surprised at all the opportunities!
I also highly recommend going to the famed Oktoberfest in the fall - we had a blast ;)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Road Trip to Chicago
I just got back from a wonderful road-trip to big city of Chicago. In the past going to a big city never really appealed to me. This time I thought why not go, it was a chance for my wife to visit with her family members living there.
We started out on a Thursday morning from northern Minnesota and arrived late afternoon right around rush hour. The great part was that we were going the opposite direction heading into the city. It was amazing how many toll booths we needed to go through to get there. I do have to say that having a DVD player in the minivan is a great way to keep the kids quiet and happy. We arrived at my wife's aunt and uncles house and stayed there through Monday.
On Friday we started out early to go to the Brookfield Zoo. Well not really as soon as first hoped, it's not easy getting everyone going at the same time in the morning. We had a great time at the zoo and really enjoyed seeing the monkeys in this huge building that seemed to keep going on and on. We bought tickets to the dolphin show and this was really fun for our kids to see. One of the dolphins had the same name as my daughter and she was thrilled. It was getting close again to rush hour, so we rushed around the zoo as quick as possible. Just one of those things that we don't think about where I live. I felt like we must have seen almost everything. Then I looked at the map and noticed there was a large outside loop around the zoo that we didn't even get to. I would suggest going two days to this zoo, it's big.
http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/
Our downtown Chicago day was Saturday. Learning how to follow someone in this traffic was interesting. Especially because I'm driving a minivan and trying to follow her uncle in a very quick BMW. I guess I did alright, we never lost each other on the way there or back. We started out at Millennium Park and it was really neat to see. There were a bunch of huge sculptures in the park. One kind of looked like a huge bean shape and it was polished like a mirror. You could take pictures of this and you would see yourself and the city buildings behind you, lots of fun.
http://www.millenniumpark.org/
We had lunch at a place that was featured on Saturday Night Live. If anyone remembers cheeseburger cheeseburger with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murry. This place was really old and plain looking but it was the history that made this fun to go to.
We did some shopping for our daughter at the American Girl store. We also went to the Hershey's store, Disney store, and a few others.
http://www.americangirlplace.com/agp_chi_splash.php
http://www.hersheys.com/discover/chicago.asp
We had a special invitation to go to "The MIX" radio station. My kids really liked getting to see a DJ live on the air (nice to have family members that work at such a cool place). There were great views out of the Prudential building overlooking the city and the water.
http://www.wtmx.com/
We ended up quite far away from our parked cars. We really didn't want to walk that whole way back. We decided to take a crazy taxi ride back. I was amazed how fast we were going but we all survived the ride.
We drove to Wrigley field on the way back, again the history to this place, it was great to see.
The rest of the time was spent in the outside areas of the city visiting with family and having some great Chicago style deep dish pizza, yummy!
The overall trip experience was great and I would love to go back to Chicago again sometime.
Do you want to experience Chicago on your own? Just go to our homepage at http://travelhunters.com/ and click on 'Vacations' at the top of the page. Select 'going to: other', later a long list of destinations will show up, click Chicago.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Thanksgiving Travel Deals
I've never actually booked a trip to a fun location over the Thanksgiving holiday, but it sure is gaining in popularity! While it may have been unheard of to travel to Cancun over Thanksgiving, families are more and more traveling to vacation destinations over the holidays. I've heard from many visitors who arrange trips with family members, extended families, friends and more over Thanksgiving and Christmas. More and more, people are forgoing the homemade turkey and cranberries to share a vacation with friends over the holidays. Finding a deal for this time period can be a bit on the challenging side (with the best deals typically coming just after Thanksgiving - during the so-called dead week), but with some travel "hunting" you can still find a great deal to popular destinations. Here are some of the places to find great Thanksgiving travel deals on TravelHunters.com:
1. Vacation Package Search - I found tons of great deals through our wholesale packaging system, including the Dominican Republic for less than $800 FROM MINNEAPOLIS! So, if you live near an airport that typically offers even lower fares, you will likely see even lower prices. You can also use the vacation package search from the search box right on our homepage, or on the side of any of our other pages.
2. BookingWiz deals - BookingWiz finds some amazing deals on flights, vacation packages, car rentals and more, and we have their deals right on our site!
3. CheapCaribbean.com deals - I dare you to find a better deal on a package to the Caribbean or Mexico. We list the top 3 on our website, and the deals are constantly updated to offer you the best of what is currently available. The cheapest trip in our top 3 at the present time is $589 for an air/hotel package, and they have some of the best customer support in the industry.
4. Area Specific deals - OK - do me a favor - just go to http://www.TravelHunters.com. While there, click on some of the destinations in the left hand menu. These deals are continuously updated, and are the best available from our wholesale packaging system at the time. Our goal over the coming months will be to increase the number of deals available for each destination.
There are many other ways to save on TravelHunters.com as well. I encourage you to play around and see what you can find. I've even found vacation package deals to tiny islands in the South Pacific for a little over $1000 per person. Play around with the vacation packaging system, and see what kind of deals you can find.
Happy Travel Hunting!
1. Vacation Package Search - I found tons of great deals through our wholesale packaging system, including the Dominican Republic for less than $800 FROM MINNEAPOLIS! So, if you live near an airport that typically offers even lower fares, you will likely see even lower prices. You can also use the vacation package search from the search box right on our homepage, or on the side of any of our other pages.
2. BookingWiz deals - BookingWiz finds some amazing deals on flights, vacation packages, car rentals and more, and we have their deals right on our site!
3. CheapCaribbean.com deals - I dare you to find a better deal on a package to the Caribbean or Mexico. We list the top 3 on our website, and the deals are constantly updated to offer you the best of what is currently available. The cheapest trip in our top 3 at the present time is $589 for an air/hotel package, and they have some of the best customer support in the industry.
4. Area Specific deals - OK - do me a favor - just go to http://www.TravelHunters.com. While there, click on some of the destinations in the left hand menu. These deals are continuously updated, and are the best available from our wholesale packaging system at the time. Our goal over the coming months will be to increase the number of deals available for each destination.
There are many other ways to save on TravelHunters.com as well. I encourage you to play around and see what you can find. I've even found vacation package deals to tiny islands in the South Pacific for a little over $1000 per person. Play around with the vacation packaging system, and see what kind of deals you can find.
Happy Travel Hunting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)