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Tags: Celeb Travel / Island Travel / Caribbean Travel / St. Barths / Baseball Travel / → All Tags
Derek Jeter Doesn't Care How Short St. Barth's Airport Runway Is
Apparently the D-Jeet didn't listen to our warnings about one of the World's Most Dangerous Airports, that of the Caribbean island St. Barths, since he and girlfriend Minka Kelly are busy celebrating the Yankees' World Series win with a little swimming on the island beloved by the rich and famous.
According to the NY Post, Derek Jeter and Kelly were spotted arriving to Saint Barthélemy over the weekend, and then they promptly holed up in a beach house, so now news on what exclusive hotel. We wonder how white Jeter's knuckles got during the heart-stopping landing, one that takes the plane almost right onto the beach before you've even got your swimsuit on.
Truthfully though, we much prefer St. Barths over New York nightclub 1OAK for a World Series celebration; maybe next time Jeter will invite us along so that we can comfort him during the scary final approach.
Related Stories:
· Jeter Having A Beach Ball [NY Post]
· Derek Jeter Lays One Down in St. Barths [TMZ]
· The Yankees Just Won The World Series, And This Is Where They Went [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel stories [Jaunted]
[Photo: Fame Pictures/NY Post]
Tags: World's Most Dangerous Airports / Caribbean Travel / Island Travel / Airports / → All Tags
World's Most Dangerous Airports: Saint Barthélemy
We're still adding to our list of the world's most dangerous airports. Know a stomach dropping, palm sweat inducing airport we should check out? Send it along.
The French island of Saint Barthélemy in the Caribbean might be the winter playground of the rich and famous, but unless you arrive via private yacht or boat charter, all the gobs of money in the world can't save you from enduring the white-knuckled landing on the short airstrip at St. Barth's Gustaf III/St. Jean Airport (SBH).
The concrete runway begins at the base of slight hill, and goes for only 2,100 feet before landing right on St. Jean's beach and the harbor of the island's second largest town. Sunbathers can totally lie out right next to the sand strip at the end of the runway, this it's a hugely popular plane spotting destination for those who enjoy small, prop planes. You see, because of the itty-bitty airport and runway size, major flights must land at the neighboring island of St. Maarten, where they have a big, modern airport. From there, the Barths-bound folks either jump aboard a ferry or hop a WINAIR, Air Caraïbes, and St-Barth Commuter flight in planes usually holding twenty or less passengers.
An airplane crashes, after the jump.
Tags: Easter Island / Chile Travel / Tourists / Island Travel / → All Tags
Easter Island Is About To Get Even More Difficult To Reach
With good cause, we once decided Easter Island was the loneliest place on earth, but apparently that hasn't stopped the problem of too many tourists making their way to the historic and scenic spot, a ways off the coast of Chile.
The locals are of course happy that they get a reliable income from tourism, but they would also be happy with less. Thanks to Easter Island's energetic tourist industry, largely led by visitors wanting to see the much-photographed statues of ancient chiefs, the immigrant population of Easter Island is now about equal to the native Rapanui people. We guess those stone statues so beguiled the visitors, that many decided to make the island their expat home.
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...
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
