Costa Rica here I come!

My next visit to Costa Rica.

I am planning my holiday / work trip to Costa Rica for May. This time I am going to re-visit Tortuguero as it has been a while since I last went there. I really want to check out Manatus Lodge as it looks beautiful & very comfortable.
Then to Tiskita Lodge for a couple of nights- this is a favourite with my bird watching clients. Next is a stay @ the El Parador to see their fabulous new suites & maybe a few hours to relax- that will be nice!!
Off next to Arenal Volcano, perhaps to check out the new Springs Resort which is creating a lot of attention – so best I check it out.
Then I finish off with the holiday bit- 3 nights @ the Tango Mar. I have not been here for 10 years so am looking forward to seeing the changes – which clients have raved about after their visits. I cannot wait to relax on the gorgeous beach the hotel is on..

My last night will hopefully be spent @ one of my most favourite Hotel- The Xandari Plantation y Spa. A great end to what will be an amazing trip.

This year I am not planning on doing any adventure activities. Last time I did the white water rafting & the zip lines so I really think that once ever 10 years is fine!!.. I will leave these activities to my more adventurous clients!!

Nasca Lines in Peru- National Geographic Society article

Nasca Lines, Peru

I am delighted to share with you a recent article on the Mysterious Nasca Lines, in Peru, published by the National Geographic magazine in their March edition:

Below is the link to view the article.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/03/nasca/hall-text

The Nasca Lines are located in the Ica region, approx 460 km south of Lima. The lines decorate the desert floor & have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. These lines, which were made by the Nasca Civilization between 500 BC and 500 AD, are one of the world’s greatest enigmas because of their quantity, size and natural preservation.

At Worldwide Holidays we tailor-make all of our clients holidays so that your trip perfectly suits your specific interests, priorities & preferences- within the budget you have in mind.

If you would like to discuss a trip to Peru, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Take Your Family on a Galapagos Cruise – Under 18’s Get 50% off with Worldwide Holidays

Worldwide Holidays is now taking bookings for special family cruises to the Galapagos departing in July. A 50% discount for children aged 6-18 now makes this adventure holiday of a lifetime more affordable. With the children’s Galapagos discount extended to include older children up to the age of 18, this makes for the perfect trip for families with older children too.

On these special Galapagos family tours, age-appropriate activities are scheduled for both teens and younger children. You will be snorkelling in a real sea aquarium and swim with playful sea lions and giant sea turtles. You will enjoy exciting Galapagos treks with experts while strolling by incredible and unique animals only found in the islands. And what better surroundings to learn about the evolution of the species while participating in the Young Pirates workshops led by specialist naturalist guides?

Ayubowan.. (Sinhala for Hello)

Today is my 1st day home after a fantastic trip to Sri Lanka. When I decided to take a holiday to Sri Lanka it was amazing how many people asked me if it would be safe to go there. The press coverage of the problems the country is having between the government & the Tamils is so misleading.. I felt completely safe throughout my trip & in fact tourists have never been a target for the Tamils in the 3 decades this has been going on. It is such a shame that ambiguous press coverage has affected the amount of tourists visiting this very special country.

This time I only had a 1 week stay but I definitely will be going back to do a longer more exploratory trip. I am now desperate to visit other areas & experience more of the huge amount of diversity Sri Lanka has to offer..

Experience the Authentic Buenos Aires Tango!

Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina is the tango capital of the world. This improvised and passionate dance was born in the bordellos and immigrant neighbourhoods of the city in the late 1800s.

On my recent visit to Argentina, I wanted to find out what the whole tango fuss was all about and discovered that to experience the real tango you need to get away from the Broadway-esque stage shows and find the Milongas – tango dances housed in former cafes, community centres and even old basketball courts. Normally, when watching a show, you are purely a spectator, in the Milonga, you have the chance to be one of the active characters!

Cruise Galapagos on La Pinta

La Pinta is the newest boat to cruise the Galapagos Islands, with its arrival in March 2008. It is now the top boat sailing the waters, with wonderful guides & excellent accommodation. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin, there are now a number of special offers for a cruise on La Pinta or one of its sister yachts that sail around the Galapagos Islands.

Our New Destination – Argentina

As our clients know we specialise in travel to countries that we feel offer something extraordinary & unique. Our portfolio ranges from the undiscovered stunning wilderness of Madagascar to the ancient civilisations of Jordan, Sri Lanka & Peru to a more recent history of Cuba to the abundant nature of Costa Rica, Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands. As some of our clients are now running out of destinations to travel to with us, we are always looking for our next special destination.. after speaking to our clients & listening to what they want we decided on Argentina..

So once decided we have to plan the hard work of going over there on the first inspection trip.. Now believe me they are hard work as we visit so many hotels in each region as well as trying to fit in all the activities our clients may want to do. We even visit hotels we know we will not like but take a look so that if a client ask about it we can point out why it is not a good option etc..

Argentina is an astonishingly diverse country, you can be in the North in a tropical climate & later the same day be in the Glacier National Park in the very south of the country. In-between there are many other stunning areas to visit. All this magnificent diversity allows Argentina to boast, quite correctly, that they have something to offer everyone.

Within a trip to Argentina you can be inspired by the amazing Tango dancers, enjoy the colourful & stylish city- Buenos Aires, visit the most dramatic waterfalls in the world Iguazu, go to the “land of sunshine & wine” Mendoza, visit the colonial towns in the far Northwest region, include the beautiful glacial lakes of the Lake District, see the elephant seals, penguins, sea lions & Arctic Right Whales in Punta Tambo & Peninsula Valdes region, experience the stunning centrepiece of the Glacier National park and the dramatic sight of the Perito Moreno Glacier.

All of this, & we have not even mentioned the famous Polo horses, world class Skiing, the welcoming working estancias that you can stay in & enjoy incredible horse riding, the shopping, the treks available, golfing, adventure sports, the food (& not just the famous beef which Argentina is famous for -vegetarians will be very impressed as well!), the wonderful welcome all visitors receive.. & the list goes on.. Argentina offers so much more than you could ever expect from 1 country you can even stay in the most southern city in the world “ Ushuaia“ which is the gateway to the icy continent of Antarctica.

So Helen & I have just returned from having an amazing trip. We started the trip together & then split up so we could cover more areas. We both stayed in Buenos Aires for the first few days inspecting the hotels, visiting the different areas & enjoying a Tango Show & afternoon tea @ the opulent Alvear Palace Hotel!! This is a great city to visit & has something for everyone.. There is a wide range of hotel types & standards & the food & wine of course is superb.

We then flew up to Iguazu to visit the falls.. It would be a real shame to visit Argentina & not visit the falls as they really are a must see.. The Falls are the most spectacular waterfalls in the world & act as a natural border between Argentina & Brazil. On the Argentine side you are more within the falls & so close to the powerful water. There are several nature trails & the iron work walkways over the river & some falls are wonderful. You can easily spend a full day enjoying the numerous walkways. A really fabulous walk is the route that takes you across the upper river to the Devils Throat, where the water plunges 240ft.

It is also worth having a half day visit to the Brazil side of the falls as from there you get the magnificent panoramic view of the falls. On the Brazil side there is only 1 walking route, so it gets busy & I recommend getting there for opening time before the coaches arrive, before it gets too hot & most important before the sun comes around & inhibits the view.
This is a very busy, touristic region & there are several hotels to choose from. You can stay on either the Brazil or Argentine side or even both.

A 2-3 hour transfer away you can get completely away from the tourists & stay within nature @ Yacutinga Lodge. The lodge has 20 cabins & guided tours are included within your stay. Only 4 hectares out of the 570-hectare area of the property have been used to build this unprecedented ecotourism complex in Argentina. During the construction process special care has been taken to minimize negative impacts on nature. This lodge and its surrounding nature reserve are part of a sustainable eco-project which protects the sub-tropical rainforest. It offers its visitors an exciting ecological experience whilst staying in its comfortable lodgings. Excursions are focused on providing guests with an understanding of the area by walking through nature trails, floating down the river on a raft or relaxing in the grounds listening to the birdsong.

After staying here Helen & I split up.. she had a night in Buenos Aires before heading to an authentic Estancia (read more on Helens own blog). I flew down to Trelew to visit the wonderful Peninsula Valdes. Within the Patagonia region the Valdes Peninsula is one of the most important wildlife reserves in the country & was designated a World Heritage site in 1999. It is the breeding ground for southern right whales, elephant seals, sea lions & the nesting site for thousands of shore birds - including pelicans, cormorants etc. I saw so much & was in a boat literally feet away from huge Arctic Right Whales. I was also on the beach with huge Elephant seals, that even made me look small!!! I have to tell you about the most amazing place that I stayed in.. El Pedral Lodge.. El Pedral Lodge is the most wonderful lodge & I will never forget my time there. It is located 1 hour from Puerto Madryn & 1 hour 20 mins from Trelew airport in Punta Ninfas across from Valdes Peninsula. The lodge will only ever have a maximum of 12 guests to ensure the personalised service they offer, the food is wonderful with freshly baked bread & cakes a real joy. The whale season runs May to November with the high season months being September, October & November you will not fail to be impressed by all the wildlife etc. I loved it & without a doubt was the biggest highlight of my trip.

I then flew down to El Calafate to visit the glaciers.. I have to admit that it was a bit of a come down to be in the town of Calafate after such a special place like El Pedral Lodge. But I later visited & stayed in some other really special hotels & estancias in the area so I can make sure my clients do not experience the initial disappointment I felt. Parque Nacional Los Glaciers & its most famous attraction – the World Heritage site of the Perito Moreno Glacier is another must see area & a wow factor photo opportunity. This incredible wall of ice & snow is one of south America’s greatest natural wonders. I visited the glacier by walking the balconies & also got really up close on the boat trip. I did not get the time to walk on the surface but hopefully next time!

So that was the end of my first trip to Argentina - apart from a last night back in Buenos Aires before taking my BA flight home. The biggest highlights for me were definitely my stay @ El Pedral Lodge with the boat trip to be so close to the whales, visiting the glacier & being surprised that Buenos Aires was such a lovely city.

Now I just have to put the work into set up of the website pages & the brochure. I am sure my existing clients will really enjoy a tailor-made trip to Argentina (as well as new clients of course!!) & I am excited to talk them through the possibilities & designing their perfect trip.

I am now an adrenaline junkie – sort of!!

As any of my existing clients will already know I LOVE Costa Rica. It is without doubt the most special country I have ever visited or sold. In the 10 years I have been working here and selling Costa Rica I have always had amazing trips there and all our returning clients also come back loving this very special destination.

I try to visit at least every 12 to 18 months and this year I decided to take one of my best friends there for our annual trip away. September and October tend to be the rainiest months but I seem to go in September a lot and I have to say I always have an amazing trip. This trip was no exception.. Now my friend likes adventure I am not so keen. So a compromise was made.. How I ended up white water rafting and flying along a cable 650 metres above the ground I have no idea – it does not sound like much of a compromise to me!!!

First we went to the really stunning Pacuare Lodge. It is a really wonderful jungle lodge and the accommodation is out of this world. BUT the best way to get in and out is to white water raft. Now I have never done anything like this before and the thought of it makes me physically sick but I did it I rafted into the lodge and celebrated with a couple of G and T’s that evening!!! The rapids to leave the lodge are more heavy duty so I opted to take the bumpy 4X4 route out. Justified by saying that I would need to know how both options worked for clients. It was a bumpy uncomfortable ride but if anyone does not feel confident to raft in or out this is also an option and you still get to stay in an amazing location. I have promised to raft out next time I visit, so watch this space for an update next year perhaps!!!

So white water rafting is under my belt, we move on to Arenal Volcano. This is an area I always visit on every inspection trip or holiday. The volcano amazes me and I never tire of it. This is also one of the best areas to do another adventure activity – the Zip wire canopy tour. Now in previous trips I have backed out of doing the zip wires 3 times but this year I said I would do it.. Oh my God it was the scariest thing ever.. you are in a harness and you fly along a wire from one platform to another platform.. now the highest one is 650 metres above the ground and on the longest one I flew through a rain cloud!! An unbelievable experience. I can say I did it but I doubt very much I would do it again.. If I can do it then any of my clients can..

Ecuador re-visited

I was all set for my return trip to Ecuador & to have a wonderful cruise in the Galapagos Islands in February. But unfortunately I had some bad news the day after I arrived in Quito I had to fly back to UK.

The exciting news is that in 2 weeks time I am going back to Ecuador & will also have a really special treat as I am having a 8 day / 7 night cruise on the newest boat sailing around the Galapagos Islands – the Yacht la Pinta www.yachtlapinta.com
I cannot wait!!. As it is always a good idea to arrive in Ecuador at least 2 days before the cruise I have time to visit the hot springs @ Papallacta & visit the hotel there. As if my trip was not already perfect I am also having a night @ the Finch Bay Hotel in Galapagos before my cruise starts..

I am flying with American Airlines, so it is a bit of a pain going through Miami but it does give me 2 duty free opportunities in both directions, so every cloud has a silver lining!! Also as I have traveled with American quite frequently I have enough miles to come back Miami to London in Business Class but of course they are not confirming that to me now as I guess they want to try & sell the seats @ the hugely expensive full price first!! Fingers crossed for my upgrade though as that would be an amazing end to what is going to be a wonderful trip.

I will obviously be adding a new blog after this trip, so watch this space!

I love Jordan – the country!

I am just back from an amazing trip to Jordan & absolutely loved everything about it.. I definitely want to go back & would not hesitate to recommend Jordan to anyone that will listen to me go on & on about how great it is.

We (Sam & I) started off by flying with Air Jordanian on one of their new aircraft which has had the interior specifically designed for them.. the entertainment system was great, the leg room & space was wonderful & as Jordan is not a dry country we also managed to have our obligatory G&Ts – there is no better start to any trip!!

On arrival into Amman airport we were met by a chap from our ground agents who helped us @ the visa desk & then through to collect our luggage. The journey into Amman city took around 45 minutes but as it was late evening there was not too much traffic. As soon as we arrived in Jordan the people could not have been friendlier. The next morning we had a buffet breakfast, which was great & with lots of choice. Then we were off with our driver to start work & do all the main hotel inspections.. Amman is the capital city of Jordan & there is a lot of construction work going on so in a year or so I guess the modern part will be completely different. The main hotels are the big International hotels so really not a lot to report about them, they are the same the world over.. we even had time to wander around the shops & had a great lunch in a regular Jordanian cafeteria type place. Everyone was so helpful & patient as we choose our food, especially with our lack of Arabic!

The next day we have the tour of the historical part of Amman & the amphitheatre before heading north to Umm Quais & Jerash.. Jerash & Umm Quais are definitely worth a visit & it is so amazing how they have been so well preserved – you can really imagine how it would have looked in Roman Times & that makes history seen more real than just reading about it & having to simply believe what others have written – that was profound of me!! I even had a little sing along with the pipers to Amazing Grace.

We had another night then in Amman, which if you were having a private tour can be avoided by traveling down to the Dead Sea or Madaba.

Our next stop was the Dead Sea & oh my God what an amazing place and it is so bizarre to actually float on the water so easily. We went off to do our hotel inspections & fell in love with the Movenpick Spa Hotel – I so wanted to stay but alas we were not schedules to stay the night in the area & as it turned out the hotel was fully booked. This can be a problem in Jordan, especially for the Dead Sea & Petra – hotel availability can be a problem & early booking is generally essential. Jordan is only now becoming more known by tourists, & especially as Petra is now 1 of the New Wonders of the World more people want to visit but the country do not have the hotel capacity to cater for everyone.
So we did the Hotel inspections & then had time to rush down to change into our swimmers & have a float! I even took along a well known magazine to have my picture taken floating whilst reading it so they could publish it & I would win a new camera.. not heard back from them though, typical!!

If I had the choice I would stay here for 2 or 3 nights, depending on the routing of my itinerary. It is not far from Amman airport (the airport is quite a bit south of the city) so is ideal for the last few nights or even @ the beginning. It all depends on your preferences & unfortunately availability!

Next for us was Karak castle, which again is an amazing piece of living crusader history. Definitely was worth visiting & easy to visit en route to or from Petra or Wadi Rum..

We were on our way to Petra & were so excited we arrived @ the hotel & had time to quickly freshen up before we heading out to experience ‘Petra by Night’. I had no idea what to expect which added to the excitement.. as you walk down before entering the Siq the surroundings are strange as they look snow capped, entering the Siq was incredible . There were paper bags all along the route with candles in them, the candle light off the rocks was just beautiful & then the moon would shine through every so often.. Ideally it is best to see Petra first this way & then, as we did the next day see it in a completely different way in day light.. the night we visited it was really busy so we would have our clients hold back a bit & go down after the main group, then it is quieter (some nationalities just do not know how to be quiet!!) & makes it so much more special. Sam & I came back up before everyone else (there is music etc @ the Treasury) & it was much better in the quiet.. They are talking about extending this to more nights a week- which would maybe help keep numbers down a bit.

The next day we had a full day in Petra & believe me 1 day really is not enough. There is so much to see there that you could easily have 3 days. It all depends on how much walking you want to do but there is the option of riding the horses or donkeys. I am very proud to say that I made it up all 900+ steps to the Monastry & it was well worth the effort. Some people took the donkey but I took the challenge & even though at some points along the way I wondered what the hell I was doing, I carried on & got to the top.. It actually was not that difficult for everyone else but I am not the fittest person so it was a bit of a work-out for me..(another note to myself – must get fit for next time!!)

The following day we did all our hotel inspections so did not have the time to go back on to Petra to visit the High Place of Sacrifice, little Petra & many other sites we would have loved to have seen. But the hotels are also important so off we went.. Close by the entrance to Petra is the 5* Movenpick & the 4* Crown Plaza Hotels. The Movenpick is a beautiful hotel & the Crown Plaza has some rooms with a view of parts of Petra. But again these hotels are very popular so availability can be a problem. However, if you are staying in the area longer than just 1 or 2 nights to have 1 day in Petra it would be worth staying outside the town & we loved the Taybet Zaman Hotel. It was originally a Bedouin village & therefore has heaps of character. I would definitely have liked to have stayed there & you can get into Petra on a hike from here, taking one of the various routes to the Treasury.

Next for us was Wadi Rum, made famous (for me) by the Lawrence of Arabia film. I will be honest to say that I was a little concerned as to how basic the facilities would be @ our camp, especially considering it was my birthday the next day.. Well it was a very pleasant surprise & spending the night in the desert was fabulous. Waking up with a little bit of a G&T hangover (took supplies with us & drank around our fire) & to Sam singing happy birthday was not quite so fabulous!! If you have the budget we can arrange a private camp for you as well to make it even more special (& yes there would be proper toilets!)

Nearly finished! Next we went to Aqaba & of all the areas it was my least favourite.. it is a very small coastal area & is absolutely packed with tourists as well as Jordanians in search of the sea & tax free shopping. When we first arrived my heart sank, that was until I saw the stunning Movenpick Aqaba Hotel. It is a great hotel, with beautiful gardens (designed by a UK company) & had a wonderful atmosphere & set up.. Aqaba is the ideal place for those clients wanting somewhere to relax, do some diving, be close to the ocean & like to have options outside the hotel for places to eat.

We finished this trip with 2 nights in Madaba, as this is the closest town to the airport closer even than Amman. This town is famous for its mosaics & the 6th century mosaic Madaba Map. Again this is worth a visit & the ideal start or end of your trip to connect easily with the airport.

To summarize, I had a fantastic trip to Jordan & I was already excited about it being our new destination, but after being there it surpassed my expectations & is definitely somewhere that I feel that clients, especially those that have travelled to some of our other countries, would really enjoy visiting. It is hard to explain all that Jordan has to offer & what makes it so special, as it is the actual experience of being there that makes it so wonderful & thought provoking.