Jaunted

Beaches / South Beach / Art Basel Miami Beach / Winter Getaways / Baby It's Cold Outside / → All Tags

The Pretty People Have Arrived in South Beach

South Beach's high season officially begins this weekend with the annual Art Basel Miami Beach extravaganza, bringing hordes of pretty people to this thin barrier island off the Atlantic coast of Florida. Newspaper travel sections are filled with images of the young, fashionable, and childless frolicking in the sun, but the beauty of Miami Beach is that there's room for everybody to have a good time. And it's not even that expensive, unless you want it to be.

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Travel Deals / Hawaii Travel / Honolulu Travel / Beach Travel / Beaches / → All Tags

It's Friday; Go Ahead And Daydream About 5 Nights In Hawaii For $499

Whenever we're stressed and have to go to our happy place, we picture the beaches of Hawaii. But now, probably thanks to how hard the recession has hit tourism to the islands, everyone has a chance to actually go there, thanks to Travelzoo's $499-for-five-Hawaiian-nights package.

The deal includes round-trip airfare to Honolulu, where you'll be greeted with a lovely-smelling lei and thus the right to brag that you got "lei'd" in Hawaii, like tourists do for days after their arrival. Your accommodations will be at the Castle Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki. And if you want to upgrade to an ocean-view pad, the hotel gives you the option for $25 and up per person.

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Travel Deals / Spain / Spain Travel / Beach Travel / Beaches / Travelzoo / → All Tags

Escape Cold Temps On Spain's Costa del Sol For 5 Nights At $499

When January comes around with its hella freezing weather, you'll be dreaming of sunny beaches; shoot, we're doing that now. To prevent seasonal affective disorder, you'll need a dose of Costa del Sol, or "Coast of the Sun." According to Travelzoo, the beachfront locale has more than 300 days of sunshine each year. The company's offering a package to the Spanish coastal region along the Mediterranean for $499, which includes a five-night vacay with airfare, but you have to book by Oct. 28.

The deal includes round-trip airfare from NYC to Malaga, Spain. You'll also spend five nights at either Sol Principe or Cervantes, both of which are four-star hotels. If you opt for Cervantes, you'll get free breakfast daily. And if you're the type to tire from frolicking on the beach all day—crazy talk, we know—you can add day tours to Cordoba, Granada or Tangier to the package for an additional $71 to $91.

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Beaches / Beach Towns / Rick Steves / Brighton Rock / Graham Greene / → All Tags

Brighton Rocks: Rick Steves Finds Solace in London's Beachy Getaway

One of my favorite travel-related novels is Graham Greene's 1939 murder mystery Brighton Rock, because Greene summarizes better than any other writer why people go through the trouble of traveling. In its first pages, he describes the difficulties lower-class Londoners went through for a day at the beach, standing in packed carriages from Victoria and returning home in the bleary hours of morning.

In one of the most beautiful sentences I've read, he explains why they do it:

"With immense labour and immense patience they extricated from the long day the grain of pleasure: this sun, this music, the rattle of the miniature cars, the ghost train diving between the grinning skeletons under the Aquarium promenade, the sticks of Brighton rock, the paper sailors' caps."

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Chicago Field Trip / Chicago Travel / Beach Travel / Beaches / Lists / → All Tags

Sun, Sand and Deep-Dish Pizza: Chicago's Top Three Beaches

When you think of Chicago, LA-style beach culture isn't usually what comes to mind, but boy oh boy are the Lake Michigan beaches buzzing during the hottest days of summer. And they're true sand beaches even, with volleyball courts, snack stands and families toting mini Weber grills. With the expansive shoreline that Chicago has, it can however be difficult to settle on exactly which beach you'll be wiling away the day. We're going to help you make some decisions with our list of The Top Three Chicago Beaches:

3. Montrose Beach
Skirt the lakefront by driving north on LakeShore Drive to Montrose Harbor, and you'll discover the north side's best sandy secret: a stretch of beach frequented mainly by locals and friendly to dogs. There's easy free parking at the beach and harbor, and it's one of the surest stretches for some secret after-hours skinny dipping.

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Animal Travel / Animals / Pigs / Beaches / Beach Travel / Caribbean Travel / → All Tags

Caribbean Beach Overrun by Family of Cute Pigs

I like animals as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure I'd be thrilled about swimming with pigs. It would be impossible not to think about that scene from Y tu mamá también where the porcine invaders befoul a tent that the protagonists had pitched on a remote beach, rendering it uninhabitable. But if you've never seen the film and you're not particularly bothered by pig shit, then make a beeline for Big Major Spot Island in the Bahamas. There, on aptly-named Pig Beach, a family of cute piggies frolics and swims with tourists, hamming it up (sorry) for the cameras and generally proving that they're just as smart as dogs and twice as funny. The brown and pink boars and piglets are known as the famous Swimming Pigs of the Exumas, and they've been an island fixture for generations, rooting around in the underbrush and living off scraps fed to them by passing boaters. You won't see me there, though, as I'm skeeved enough by the water quality of non-pig beaches.

[Photo: worldmaxtravel.com]

Related Stories
· Never Mind Swine Flu, These Pigs are Swimming in the Bahamas [worldmaxtravel.com]
· Animal Travel [Jaunted]

Reef Check / Reefs / Beaches / Booze / → All Tags

Save The Reefs With Malibu Rum Summer Internship

Don't just drink to forget, drink to save the world! Beverage company Pernod Ricard is offering the of-age a chance to win a volunteer vacation sponsored by Malibu rum where you can get SCUBA certified, help monitor precious reef ecosystems and just maybe relax on a picturesque beach with a cocktail when you're done.

Up for grabs is a 10-day internship with Reef Check, a global nonprofit dedicated to protecting coral reefs. 10 winners will be sent to Thailand, the Maldives or the Philippines to help monitor the local reefs on controlled dives. The trips will take place between October 15 and November 15, fortuitous for Northern Hemisphereans dreading the change of the seasons. (Airfare, room and board and training are all covered; visa fees and buying rounds for the locals, not so much.)

Besides knowing how to swim without a flotation device, applicants have to disclose previous jobs and references, answer a few questions (like "what are your hobbies?"); photos and videos are "highly encouraged," which means you'd better break out your best bikini. We're impressed that Malibu has taken what could have just been a booze-it-up photo op and made it something that one could conceivably put on a resume.

Related Stories:
· Malibu Beach Internship FAQ [Malibu-Rum.com]
· About Reef Check [ReefCheck.org]
· Volunteer Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Save this Maldives reef! Photo: Johnny Shaw]

Best-Bonfire-Beaches-Map / Beaches / Bonfires / California Travel / → All Tags

Feel Free to Light Up at San Francisco's Ocean Beach

Has anyone else noticed that the number of beaches left where you can have a bonfire party are few and far between? We understand it can be dangerous, especially if people don’t clean up after themselves properly, but heading back to the beach at midnight with a sweatshirt and s'mores is just about our favorite part of summer vacation.

So we're continuing with our map of beaches where you can still light up. California is the unquestionable leader in bonfire-friendly beaches, and San Francisco residents can enjoy a beach bonfire without even leaving the city, at Ocean Beach.

Fires are allowed only between Lincoln Way and Fulton Street (i.e. west of Golden Gate Park), they've got to be above ground, and no more than three feet in diameter. As long as you've got fewer than 25 people, you don't need a permit. Now who's bringing the lighter fluid and who's got the s'mores chocolate?

Related Stories:
· San Francisco Beach Bonfires [Official Site]
· Get Your Bonfire On At LA's Dockweiler Beach [Jaunted]
· Beaches travel coverage [Official Site]

[Photo: John Curley]

Beaches / Tourism Boards / It's Summer Somewhere / Webcams / Seychelles Travel / → All Tags

Escape the Rain with the Seychelles Beach Cam

We usually save the “it’s summer somewhere” stories for the horrors of mid-winter, but since much of the eastern United States has apparently been turned into Seattle, we’re thinking some of you may have forgotten what a genuine sunny day looks like.

So we like the Seychelles’ online tourism campaign, which includes just about all you need to convince someone to go to the Seychelles—a continuously updated webcam focused on Mahe Island’s Beau-Vallon Beach, a 3-mile-long, Northwest-facing stretch of idyllic white sand that looks to be beach heaven on earth.

The beach cam, along with another focused on the Seychelles’ bustling Victoria Market, is updated every 15 seconds, so you can pretty much just sit there and drool through the entire work day. Watch long enough and you might even see some pirates.

Related Stories:
· The Seychelles Webcam [Official Site]
· Seychelles For Everyone Now, Not Just Royalty [Jaunted]
· Prince William Sneaks To Seychelles [Jaunted]

[Photo: Oliver Cochard-Labbe]

Best-Bonfire-Beaches-Map / Beaches / Bonfires / Los Angeles Travel / Dockweiler Beach / → All Tags

Get Your Bonfire On At LA's Dockweiler Beach

There are definitely some negative aspects to Los Angeles' Dockweiler Beach. It's at the end of LAX's runway in Playa del Rey and sits directly below planes' flight paths, requiring beach goers to tune out and talk around low flying passenger jets.

In August 2000 an engine part actually fell off a 747 and landed on the beach. It's also adjacent to a sewage treatment plant that you can smell and overshadowed by electricity towers that you can see. Oh - and recently the beach has developed something of a gang problem.

All that said, Dockweiler remains one of LA's more interesting beaches. The west-facing shoreline's proximity to LAX also means that it's accessible by all the freeways that converge on the airport. It's got the requisite bike paths and volleyball nets. The parking lot has 2000+ spaces, more than most other state beaches.

And most importantly it has dozens and dozens of fire pits, drawing in everyone from high school kids to RV campers to weekend revelers.

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Cheap NYC / New York City / Events / Central Park / Beaches / Tel Aviv / Israel / El Al / → All Tags

NYC Keeps the Faux Beaches Coming By Trucking In Tel Aviv

New York City may not be the first location that comes to mind when you think "tropical vacation," but for those who don't mind sandy strolls lacking the exotic, the Big Apple is fast becoming the worldwide leader in faux beaches.

Already featuring three locations of Water Taxi Beach, NYC will be trucking in yet another sandy lot this Sunday for the one-time-only Tel Aviv Beach in NYC event.

As part of the city of Tel Aviv's 100th anniversary celebration, organizers will bring a slice of the Mediterranean to Manhattan, putting together a 1,300-square-foot beachfront by the bandshell in Central Park. The beach vibe will come complete with backgammon and paddle ball (omnipresent activities along the Tel Aviv shore), while sunbathers will be serenaded with live Israeli music and a midday DJ set pumping out Euro club hits.

And for those who aren't quite sated by Israel-on-NY, representative of El Al will be on hand offering special airfare deals. L'chaim!

Related Stories:
· The Tel Aviv Beach in NYC [Official Site]
· Marathon on the Mediterranean [Jaunted]
· Where Does Bar Refaeli Dine When She's Home in Tel Aviv? [Jaunted]

[Photo: shyb]

Bridget's Sexiest Beaches / Television Travel / Beaches / Playboy / Bridget Marquardt / → All Tags

Camels, Belly Dances, And Cactus Tacos Wrap Up Season One With Bridget

This week, Bridget's back in Morocco and hopping a ride on a camel named Scooby-Doo, in addition to revisiting Mexico to see what’s shaking south of Cancun in Tulum. As always, Bridget does her best to give us the scoop on the local scene while making sure to throw in a little entertainment for us at home as well.

This week’s first stop is the modern coastal city of Agadir, Morocco. After checking into the posh Sofitel Agadir Royal Bay Resort to change into something a little more comfortable, she hits the beach. At this point, she’s seen so many beaches that she got a little bored and headed back to the hotel to get a henna tattoo while catching some rays. Thankfully she resisted getting the Playboy bunny, and chose a traditional design.

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