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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / St Lucia Field Trip / St Lucia Travel / Caribbean Travel / Islands / Island Travel / → All Tags

A Beach, A Banana, And A Flight From Britain: Plane Spotting In St. Lucia

Seeing as how it's been a little bit since last we focused on the lovely pastime of plane spotting, we decided to turn our recent Saint Lucia island experience into some useful (not to mention scenic) plane spotting advice for when you too are on the island.

Whether you're heading down on the new Jetblue flight from New York-JFK like we did, or coming all the way from London-Gatwick on the direct Virgin Atlantic flight, you'll want to get a load of the air traffic that sporadically makes its way into St. Lucia's Hewanorra airport at the very southernmost tip of the island, and here's how...

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Tags: Island Travel / Islands / Alcohol / Booze Travel / Trampolines / → All Tags

Russian Barbers Agree: The Dominican Republic is the Place to Go This Year

I got my hair cut this morning at a barber shop on Union Avenue in Brooklyn called Model Barbers, where Jack and Oksana work. I like going there, because I can practice my feeble Russian on them and they always correct my mispronunciations and grammatical errors. Jack and Oksana are from Uzbekistan, but they refer to the whole former Soviet Union as Russia and personally identify as Russians. No matter what bad thing happens in America, they'll remind you that things are worse in Russia. As I sit in the chair, they banter with each other in rapid-fire Russian, and I can only pick out a few odd words: rabota (work), kanyeshna (certainly), zhopa (ass).

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Tags: Volunteer Travel / Cook Islands / Rarotonga / Island Travel / → All Tags

A Truly Exotic Volunteer Vacation: Saving Animals In The Cook Islands

In 1993, an American tourist visiting Rarotonga befriended a dog named Honey and quickly realized that there were no veterinary services available for the thousands of dogs and cats on the island. That same tourist, Cathy Sue Ragan-Anunsen, took action as soon as she returned home and, with the help of her Oregon community, established the Cook Islands' only veterinary hospital, including an all-volunteer veterinary team.

In its 14-year history, Ragan-Anunsen’s organization, which she named The Ester Honey Foundation after her grandmother and Honey, the first dog she met in Rarotonga, has treated 24,000 animals and sterilized 10,000 for free. EHF has also recruited nearly 200 veterinarians and hundreds of other volunteers from a dozen countries.

The organization has now reached out to animals in additional remote locations, like on the islands of Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia, Mauke, Mitiaro and Bora Bora via more than 100 "Vet Trek" clinics. Their next trip to Mangaia leaves Monday.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / SXM / Island Travel / American / → All Tags

Island Danger: Jet Blasts May Cause Death On St. Maarten

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

No list of plane spotting locations is complete without highlighting the amazing daredevil antics that occur daily at Princess Juliana Airport on the French/Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

Due to the island's small size, mountainous center, and popularity with international tourists, jumbo jets from as far as Europe and island hoppers from neighbors like St. John zero in on a short runway that dead-ends right at the beach. This beach, Maho Bay, is open to the public and consistently draws aviation geeks, photographers, and curious tourists to the Sunset Beach Bar for some serious eye-level plane spotting.

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Tags: Sex Travel / Island Travel / Cruises / Sex / Cyprus Travel / → All Tags

Party Cruises From Cyprus Developing Reputation For Orgies

Looking for some whipped cream and strawberry contests to liven up your vacation? Apparently they're happening on overnight cruises off the coast of the Cyprus resort of Ayia Napa.

By day, Ayia Napa is a beautiful beach resort and it's at least partly marketed as a family paradise. But locals are furious about the night cruises which attract young party-going tourists that have led to orgy photos being published in Norway.

The Cypriot police check the boats every day once they're back at the port, and have found no evidence of anything illegal going on, so the cruises are continuing. Sounds like Cyprus doesn't want to encourage this but hey, isn't diversifying your tourism industry important these days?

Related Stories:
· Cypriots Angry Over Claims of Wild Sex Orgies By Tourists [Telegraph]
· Cyprus Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: Niro]

Tags: Beach Travel / Germany Travel / Island Travel / → All Tags

The NYT Visits Germany's 'Singing' Sand Nude Beaches

We haven't yet met a stretch of sand we didn't like; Bermuda's pink sand has tickled our toes and Stromboli's volcanic black sand made us wonder with awe, but what are we to think of Germany's "singing sand?" In this last Sunday's New York Times, the paper visits the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, formerly famous for its nude beaches but now known as a spa mecca and a recent setting for some Roman Polanski filming with Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor and Kim Catrall.

Perhaps what sets apart this seasonal resort town the most however, is the super-fine quality of its sand beaches and their tendency to make squeaking noises which the NYT describes as "like music from a tiny orchestra of invisible violins." This we might have to hear to believe, but luckily the NYT has all the visit details for us along with the hint that the island is only two-and-a-half hours from Berlin. We'll see you there.

Related Stories:
· Off Germany, an Island of "Singing" Sand [NYT]
· Germany Travel Coverage []

[Photo: Wikimedia]

Tags: Ecotourism / Socotra Travel / Island Travel / UNESCO / → All Tags

The Lost Island Of Socotra

The bad part about vacationing on Socotra, a four-island archipelago off the coast of the Horn of Africa: pirates. The good part about vacationing on Socotra: now that it has an airport, the island's freaky deaky biodiversity is accessible to tourists year-round.

And freaky deaky that biodiversity is. The last time the island was attached to any mainland we didn't even have real continents. It separated from the super-continent of Gondwana tens of millions of years ago and has been ecologically isolated ever since, though it's been continuously inhabited since ancient times.

Today there are over 700 endangered plants and animals on the island, a full 1/3 of them found nowhere else in the world. The island is a UNESCO recognized world heritage site. You can check out their Conservation Programme for more background.

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Tags: Island Travel / Travel News / Guantanamo Bay / Cuba / Bermuda / Palau / → All Tags

Uighur Travel: Bermuda Raises Its Profile by Taking In Four Ex-Gitmo Prisoners

First Palau, now Bermuda? Bermuda tourism has been on the decline for several quarters, with visitors passing over the sophisticated Atlantic island in favor of cheaper and glitzier destinations in Florida and the Caribbean, but a surprise deal with the U.S. has given it four new visitors that locals weren't expecting. In a move that has annoyed British authorities to no end, Bermuda agreed to admit four ethnic Uighurs from the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The former inmates were cleared of any wrongdoing years ago, but their status created a political hot potato because officials believed they'd face repression if returned to China, and no U.S. state would agree to accept them.

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Tags: Island Travel / Travel News / Guantanamo Bay / Palau / → All Tags

Guantanamo Bay Detainees To Get a Permanent Palau Vacation

When it comes to tropical island paradises, the Pacific archipelago of Palau totally fits the bill; it's got world-renowned diving, impressive nature, an average temperature of 82 degrees, and plenty of take-out Asian food.

For this reason, we think we're allowed to be a little jealous of the 17 Uighurs (Chinese Muslims) of Guantánamo Bay who will soon be transferred here and "resettled." After a US court ruled to have them released into the United States, a decision which was eventually overturned, the prisoners' fate has been up in the air while the US waited for any country to take them out of the government's hair. Palau was the only one to jump at it as a "humanitarian gesture," and now the group will be moved from Cuba and repatriated in the Garden of Eden. Says the NYT:

'What they will encounter in Palau is paradise,' said Stuart Beck, an American lawyer who is Palau’s permanent United Nations representative. 'From the time the first British vessel hit a reef in Palau in 1783, it has welcomed refugees.'

Yea, refugees and tourists. The full-time population of the islands is only around 21,000 people, and let's not forget that it hosted not one, but two seasons of Survivor. What a history for a little group of islands; we only hope that this doesn't become a third season of Survivor.

Related Stories:
· Palau To Take Chinese Guantanamo Detainees [NYT]
· Travel News Coverage [Jaunted]

[Palau photo: Cleer; Jail image: Mississippi Family Law Blog]

Tags: Memorial Day Travel / Travel Promotions / Barbados / Caribbean Travel / Island Travel / → All Tags

Barbados Will Be Sunny and Warm, Or Your Money Back

Are you whacking your desk repeatedly with a pen because of anxiety over Memorial Day travel plans? Good; it's nice to know we're not the only ones. To relieve the stress of finding a great spring getaway for a long weekend, which will also have amazing weather during your visit, Barbados has introduced a "Perfect Weather Guarantee."

Say you book the $549 airfare + hotel + breakfast deal on CheapCaribbean.com, only to arrive to Barbados during an unexpected rainstorm. If that rain accumulates to over a quarter of an inch, and the temperature falls below 78 degrees, you'll be entitled to a $100 per bad weather day rebate.

It's free to enroll on the Perfect Weather Guarantee website, just be sure to do so before June 7 for travel between May 28th and December 18th, 2009. This might not include Memorial Day Weekend, but booking through CheapCaribbean comes with the very same deal valid now, just that they call it "SPF100 Protection." It'll be nice to let someone else worry about the weather for once.

Related Stories:
· Barbados Perfect Weather [Official Site]
· Barbados Issues 'Perfect Weather' Guarantee [Luxist]
· Flysteady Mon: Jetblue Adding Routes to Barbados, Jamaica [Jaunted]
· Baggage Fees Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Paranoid Black Jack]

Tags: Private Islands / Private Beaches / Island Travel / Contests / → All Tags

Four-Year-Old Boy Wins Taiwanese Island; We're Jealous

We've just heard about an island in the Taiwanese county of Penghu that we want to visit: but it's occupied by a four-year-old boy until September, so we'll have to wait our turn.

In a national lottery, the kid won the exclusive right to visit the island, with up to seven family members, for five months this year. It'll be their very own private tropical island, full of white beaches and clear water, they say, and although it's totally uninhabited it does have running water, electricity and a cabin.

There are 64 islands in Penghu, so there's probably still room for us. They lie off the west coast of Taiwan, towards China, but since Taiwan and China have become friendlier recently we figure it's no cause for concern. And how many worries can you have while chilling out on a white sandy beach, anyway.

Related Stories:
· Boy Wins Rights to Tropical Island in Lottery [Reuters]
· China and Taiwan Now Joined By Air [Jaunted]
· Taiwan Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: lu-Dan+Cuter]

Tags: Supersize Planes / Island Travel / Air Austral / Airbus A380 / → All Tags

Air Austral Wants Crowded Planes

Air Austral is a little-known airline that has nothing to do with Australia--it's actually the official airline of Réunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. But lil' Air Austral has hit the headlines because they've just ordered two A380 superjumbos and they plan to start carrying record numbers of passengers.

While other A380 owners like Emirates and Singapore Airlines have endeavored to fit some luxury into the huge aircraft, Air Austral's going cheap on us. They will configure the plane to carry some 840 passengers.

You might wonder whether an airline most people have never heard of would need a plane that seats over eight hundred people, but they reckon that their routes between Reunion and Paris will fill up easily. Squeezing in so many people makes the flights more fuel-efficient per person so Air Austral's sounding proud.

This flying sardine can won't be delivered to Air Austral until 2014 so they have a bit of time to take bookings. We're curious, but not convinced.

Related Stories:
· Air Austral [Official Site]
· Airline To Turn A380 Superjumbo Into Sardine Can [SMH]
· A380 Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mwanasimba]