With winter winds blowing all across the Northern Hemisphere, I thought a touch of sunshine would be a great way to brighten up these long days of winter.
This month’s hosts offer the chance to get up close to nature in the Galapagos and Mexico, or battle with deep-sea fish in Costa Rica. For those seeking luxury you can charter crewed or bareboat yachts in the Caribbean or Greece, relax...
Tour Host Review
For those of you with a love of the sea, this month’s pick will indeed be a delight. After reading two separate articles this month on the joys of chartering a yacht, even I, fish phobic as I am, am ready to go to sea aboard one of Capt. Denny’s charters.
After over 25 trips chartering boats in the Caribbean, Dennis Dori is familiar with all the boats he recommends. The select...
Host of the Month
The elephant in The Cultured Traveler’s living roomI’ve never been to Carnaval in Rio, so I’ll be damned if I’m even going to try to fake saying anythi...
Festival Pick
Fringed by black, white and green sand beaches, Hawaii’s Big Island is the youngest and by far the biggest of the Hawaiian archipelago. Its volcanic center is overrun by tracts of black lava that spill into the pounding Pacific Ocean. One kind of lava, pahoehoe, has the appearance of melted licorice, while the other type, known as a’a, is rough and spiny.
Any visitor flying into Ko...
World Heritage Site
In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ great cinematic satire of the life of publisher William Randolph Hearst, Charles Foster Kane is building “Xanadu,” a bloated, overdone mega-residence somewhere on the Gulf Coast.
Xanadu is an obvious take-off of San Simeon, Hearst’s grand estate on the isolated central California coast. In a way, Welles, by placing fictional Xana...
Museum Pick
When the Rio Grande leaves New Mexico, it pushes southeast deep into the Chihuahuan Desert, marking the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Then, 300 miles past El Paso, right where the borders of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila run an imaginary line into the river, the Rio Grande makes a sweeping change in direction, looping to the northeast before curving back hundreds of miles later...
National Park Pick
Galapagos Magic
Written By Marika Roberson Posted on Nature
The Galapagos Islands – remote, uncivilized, wild – are not a typical vacation spot. But for a certain kind of traveler, they might be the best destination on earth. Their reputation as a place for a unique...
As the capitol of Guatemala from 1543 to 1773, Antigua was one of the most important cities in Latin America and one of the most elegant cities in the Spanish empire. Today, it is clean, quiet and colorful, and manages to maintain an air of dignity though much of its former glory lies in ruins.
When Antigua's founders built the city in a green valley with a mild climate, rich soil and...
Visit Our Web SiteTraveling to Yucatan has been an adventure full of surprises. Leaving Mexico City for the little fishing village of Celestún on the northwest coast of the Yucatan peninsula meant leaving the highlands for the Gulf of Mexico and finding an immense emerald sea, pristine beaches and an abundance of nature.
When the Rio Grande leaves New Mexico, it pushes southeast deep into the Chihuahuan Desert, marking the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Then, 300 miles past El Paso, right where the borders of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila run an imaginary line into the river, the Rio Grande makes a sweeping change in direction, looping to the northeast before curving...
Thailand is more than Bangkok and beaches. Consider exploring the national parks, tribal mountain villages, local restaurants, and Thai-style resorts and eco-lodges for a new view of Old Siam.
Thailand today at first seems deceptively comprehensible. We recognize mobile phones, freeways, busy airports and fast food franchises as familiar, globally-standardized attributes of a...
“Good morning, Ms. Mallin. This is Michael at the Quarterdeck with your wake-up call. It’s 8:30 and it’s a beautiful day.”
In a final nod to my stress-filled life, I have leapt from my soft, white, tropical Mombasa-netted full body luxury bed and grabbed the receiver of the wall phone to get my wake-up call. Now, I place the receiver slowly, slowly back on the antique phone....
I don’t think there is anything more beautiful on earth than an endless carpet of cobalt-blue ocean. Blue water trolling can have a hypnotic effect on a person. The teasers, sweetened with mullet or blue runner, skitter across the surface behind the boat wakes, skipping to the rhythm produced by the motors. Purples, pinks, greens, oranges, whatever colors the captain feels are lucky on that...
Winter in Greece has something for everyone and everything for some!
It is natural to think of Greece as a sunny, picture postcard island with blue sea and sky. Even in winter you may be pleasantly surprised to find that same image is true in a few of the Aegean Islands.
On the Grecian mainland in northwestern Epirus you can visit the tiny villages of Zagorhorio and...
I’ve never been to Carnaval in Rio, so I’ll be damned if I’m even going to try to fake saying anything relevant about it.
The best I can do is say why I’d like to go, or what I’d do if I ever get there. Each person who goes to Rio has his own reasons for doing so, although Carnaval’s fleshpots probably would overwhelm even the most sincere...
”Ni Sa Bula” (Hello) from Fiji. Do you want to see the real Fiji, experience the culture, traditions and feel the islands of Fiji? Seeing Fiji for my sixth time, I was excited to spend a few nights on the Coral Coast, float away on a Captain Cook Cruise and play a castaway at Castaway Island Resort.
I arrived on the main island, did some sightseeing in Nadi, stopped by a...
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With winter winds blowing all across the Northern Hemisphere, I thought a touch of sunshine would be a great way to brighten up these long days of winter.
This month’s hosts offer the chance to get up close to nature in the Galapagos and Mexico, or battle with deep-sea fish in Costa Rica. For those seeking luxury you can charter crewed or bareboat yachts in the Caribbean or Greece, relax...
For those of you with a love of the sea, this month’s pick will indeed be a delight. After reading two separate articles this month on the joys of chartering a yacht, even I, fish phobic as I am, am ready to go to sea aboard one of Capt. Denny’s charters.
After over 25 trips chartering boats in the Caribbean, Dennis Dori is familiar with all the boats he recommends. The select...
Galapagos Magic
Visit Our Web SiteTraveling to Yucatan has been an adventure full of surprises. Leaving Mexico City for the little fishing village of Celestún on the northwest coast of the Yucatan peninsula meant leaving the highlands for the Gulf of Mexico and finding an immense emerald sea, pristine beaches and an abundance of nature.
When the Rio Grande leaves New Mexico, it pushes southeast deep into the Chihuahuan Desert, marking the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Then, 300 miles past El Paso, right where the borders of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila run an imaginary line into the river, the Rio Grande makes a sweeping change in direction, looping to the northeast before curving...
Thailand is more than Bangkok and beaches. Consider exploring the national parks, tribal mountain villages, local restaurants, and Thai-style resorts and eco-lodges for a new view of Old Siam.
“Good morning, Ms. Mallin. This is Michael at the Quarterdeck with your wake-up call. It’s 8:30 and it’s a beautiful day.”