Archive for the 'Central America' Category
Family travel: Get a free cruise when you book an Adventures by Disney vacation
October 27, 2009 5:58am
Adventures by Disney is giving away a three-night Disney Cruise to the Bahamas when you purchase a vacation on select Adventures by Disney trips to Europe, China, Australia, Costa Rica and the American Southwest. There are 19 itineraries to choose from including “Southwest Splendors in the Grand Canyon,” “Safari to South Africa,” “Path to Pura Vida” in Costa Rica and “Taming the Last Frontier” in Alaska.
I thought I’d look into some trips close to home as a way of keeping the cost down, but even Adventures by Disney trips in Northern California had starting costs of $3,279 for adults and $2,949 for children for a weeklong trip to Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and San Francisco. The trip includes accommodations, many meals and VIP touches that Disney vacations are known for. When I looked for prices on 3-night Disney Cruises to the Bahamas, I saw rates starting at $1,464 per person for a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom departing Jan. 7, 2010. I found a range of dates to choose from in both the Adventure trip and the Disney Cruise to the Bahamas vacation.
Top 10 snorkeling spots: Catalina, Hawaii and more
September 22, 2009 8:56am
Grab your goggles and flippers and head for Lover’s Cove on California’s Catalina Island, which rates among the top 10 places to snorkel in a list compiled by Coastal Living Magazine. Papalaua Wayside Park on Maui, Hawaii, was another entry on the magazine’s list in the July-August issue.
The snorkeling spots, compiled by underwater photographer Tanya Burnett-Palmer, are all in the U.S., Central America and Caribbean. The complete list includes Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas; Buck Island, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; Crystal River, Fla.; Rockhouse, Negril, Jamaica; Pigeon Cay, Honduras; Stingray City, Grand Cayman Island; Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Belize; and Bimini Islands, the Bahamas.
The article says Catalina’s Lover’s Cove is a “protected area [that] sports kelp forest, rock reef, and a menagerie of cool-water inhabitants. Guides and operators can help you in by boat, or try heading out on your own from the Pebbly Beach access stairs; just don’t forget your flag marker.”
—Rosemary McClure, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Photo: Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas is prized for its snorkeling. Credit: Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
Cruise ships shift course to avoid Hurricane Jimena in Baja California, Mexico
August 31, 2009 5:42pm
At least four cruise ships sailing out of Southern California are making last-minute itinerary changes to avoid powerful Hurricane Jimena, which today, Aug. 31, is heading toward Baja California, a resort-studded peninsula in Mexico. Although Jimena’s course is unpredictable, landfall could occur by Tuesday, forecasters said.
In Cabo San Lucas, part of the area under a hurricane warning, workers this afternoon nailed sheets of plywood to storefront windows in the marina, and hotels and restaurants cleared away umbrellas, chairs and other outdoor furniture, the Associated Press reported. Jimena has been classified as a Category 4 hurricane.
Among the ships being rerouted:
Carnival Elation, which left San Diego on Aug. 29 for a five-day cruise, will call on California’s Santa Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico, rather than Cabo San Lucas.
Discovery Channel offers adventure trips inspired by shows
August 19, 2009 10:55am
If you’re hooked on the Discovery Channel, you might enjoy the network’s new venture into reality travel for viewers: Discovery Adventures.
The travel site offers soft-adventure-style trips to 18 domestic and international destinations that will “immerse viewers in the diversity of cultures as seen every day on Discovery Channel,” said Elizabeth Bakacs, a spokesman at Discovery Channel. Travelers will be able to explore regions featured on programs such as “Man vs. Wild” (Costa Rica, Mexico, Alaska), “Out of Egypt” and “Discovery Atlas” (China).
“Each tour is developed to include off-the-beaten-path experiences and deeper exploration into the history and traditions of each destination, delivering a non-traditional tourist vacation,” said Bakacs.
Trip lengths are from three to 24 days, with prices starting at $499 per person, excluding airfare.
— Rosemary McClure, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Photo: The ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru are featured on some of the new Discovery Adventure trips. Credit: Courtesy of Discovery Adventures
Pleasant Holidays offers cancel-for-any-reason coverage
August 6, 2009 10:26am
Pleasant Holidays, the giant package-tour operator based in Westlake Village, this week began offering cancel-for-any-reason coverage to customers who book its trips to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and Costa Rica.
Unlike its regular Protection Plan, which refunds trip deposits if you cancel for reasons such as illness, death or job loss, the new Cancel Anytime Protection Plan Plus covers you for virtually any unforeseen cause, said Jack E. Richards, president and chief executive.
The downsides: Cancel Anytime Protection costs more (starting at $119 instead of $89 per adult) and reimburses you for only 80% instead of 100% for many of the covered causes. And of course, as with all such plans, there’s plenty of fine print.
For plan details, visit Pleasant Holidays’ website, call (800) 448-3333 or contact your travel agent.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Photo: Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Hawaii. Credit: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
A look into the world of Peace Corps volunteers
June 10, 2009 7:00am
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Anybody remember those words from President John F. Kennedy’s Jan. 20, 1961, inaugural address? Besides inspiring a generation of young Americans, they served as an unofficial motto for the U.S. Peace Corps, founded the same year. Since then, more than 195,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 countries around the world.
To find out what volunteers are blogging about, you can visit an informal website maintained by two Peace Corps veterans and an engineering student.
Swine flu travel warning lifted for Mexico
May 15, 2009 5:13pm
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, Friday lifted its recommendation that U.S. citizens avoid nonessential travel to Mexico because of the swine flu outbreak there, and the U.S. State Department followed suit. Cruise and tour operators wasted no time trumpeting the news, although port calls may not resume immediately.
In lifting its warning, the CDC said, “There is evidence that the Mexican outbreak is slowing down in many cities though not all.” It also said that the “risk of severe disease” from the H1N1 virus “now appears to be less than originally thought.”
Carnival Cruise Lines said it would resume Mexico port calls for ships departing May 28 and later from Mobile, Alabama, and June 19 and later from Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »
Roundup: Belize’s Great Blue Hole; Southwest Vacations’ 4-night Ski Utah deal; Northwest passenger had TB, health officials looking for seatmates
March 16, 2009 8:57am
Offbeat Traveler | Of course you’ve heard of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but have you heard of Belize’s Great Blue Hole? It is located in the Lighthouse Reef Atoll and is about 1,000 feet in diameter and 412 feet deep. The Offbeat Traveler photo gallery takes you above and within the hole to have a look.
Travel deal | Think outside the state for your next ski trip. Southwest Vacations has a noteworthy deal from Ski Utah at the Canyons in Park City. Get a fourth night free, fourth-day lift ticket free, daily breakfast for two and $100 off when you book a flight + hotel at the Silverado Lodge or the Sundial Lodge through Southwest. Use promo code “SNOW” and book by March 31 for travel through April 10, 2009.
Glad we lugged a surfboard to Costa Rica. Not.
January 4, 2009 2:45pm
Six months ago, my fiancée, Johnny, began planning our December trip to Santa Teresa, a village on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. We didn’t buy a guidebook for the country, but by the time of the trip, his purchased-new copy of “The Surfers Guide to Costa Rica” was well-worn and dog-eared. He shopped around for surf-travel bags, at one point looking for a double bag so he could take two boards of varying size (he eventually decided to take just his shorter board). That he was looking forward to this vacation is an understatement.
He knew that bringing along his board would cost an extra $100 through American Airlines, our carrier to San Jose, Costa Rica. But he didn’t bother checking oversize fees on Sansa Regional Airlines, the domestic carrier that, from San Jose, would get us to Tambor, near our destination, as he assumed any fees would be nominal.
It turns out fees wouldn’t be the problem — the issue would be surfboard size. Read the rest of this entry »
12 books of Christmas: ‘Odysseys and Photographs’
December 23, 2008 6:00am
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I am completely in love … with Albert Schweitzer.
How could you not be after looking at his photograph in “Odyssey and Photographs: Four National Geographic Field Men — Maynard Owen Williams, Volkmar Wentzel, Luis Marden, Thomas Abercrombie (National Geographic, $40)?
If you look at the picture that Wentzel shot of Schweitzer, the medical missionary in Africa, you see what Wentzel meant about the doctor’s “reverence for life” as two kittens make themselves at home on his cluttered desk.
