iRainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world
journey, and they’re blogging about their experiences for us at
/iIntelligent Traveli./i iKeep up with the Jensses by a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/jenss-family-travels/”bookmarking their posts/a, and follow the boys’ a href=”http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/globalbros/”Global Bros blog/a at /iNational Geographic Kidsi.br /br //ispan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image”a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/Heart20Reef.JPG”img alt=”Heart Shaped Reef.JPG” src=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/Heart20Reef-thumb-500x375.jpg” class=”mt-image-center” style=”margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;” height=”375″ width=”500″ //a/spanIt goes without saying that not all travel destinations are created equal. Conventional wisdom says that places like New Zealand and Bhutan, for example, are best suited for adventure travelers, while China and Japan would favor history buffs or those in search of a more cultural experience. On the flipside, adventure seekers can find plenty to do in Asia, while Maori traditions and Himalayan Buddhism would appeal to anyone interested in cultural enrichment. But what happens when you travel in a group where some people are into one thing, while others prefer something completely different? Welcome to the world of family travel!br /br /Before the kids were born, Carol and I took a vacation to Australia, and like many of its visitors, planned the trip around diving the Great Barrier Reef. While researching the area around Cairns, where most scuba excursions originate, we learned about the town of Port Douglas and the Daintree Rainforest, which offered romantic and adventurous side-trips well worth investigating. While actually there, we discovered some terrific restaurants and atmospheric pubs that only the laidback Australian vibe could supply. We also did our live-aboard scuba trip, which allowed us to immerse ourselves in the marine world with eleven consecutive dives over the course of three days and nights, all in the company of a dozen other underwater enthusiasts.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;br /br /Other than the fact that the minimum age for taking up scuba diving is twelve, even our pre-teen boys wouldn’t want to be subjected to hanging around on a dive boat in the middle of the ocean for more than a few hours. And since swanky eateries and outback bars wouldn’t be too appropriate either, we kept Cairns and northern Queensland off the itinerary, opting instead for the more kid-friendly southern part of the state. So while I enviously bypassed the dazzling dive sites offered throughout the country, we set our sites on the a href=”http://www.metacafe.com/watch/733319/whitsundays_islands_australia_south_side_story/”Whitsundays Islands/a and the Sunshine Coast for aquatic pursuits. br /
After a 90-minute flight from Brisbane, we landed in the middle
of what looked like one of those dreamy tropical island postcards. Hamilton Island, surrounded by the clear blue-green waters of a marine
park within the a href=”http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/info_services/publications/sotr”Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area/a, is run almost
exclusively by Hamilton Island Resorts. At first I was a little weary
of spending time in the most heavily developed island within the
Whitsunday chain, especially when there were less traveled and
expensive options to choose from. But after a hectic month touring New
Zealand, a little Ramp;R to launch our month in Australia, no matter
how commercialized, just might be what we were looking for. br /br /To
my pleasant surprise, the island didn’t have as much of that resort-town feel as I expected (maybe because we were there before the
post-Christmas rush) and our need for marine activities where well
catered for. The fact that the island was divided into two halves, the
east with the accommodations and the west with the marina, restaurants,
and commerce, all within an easy walk or golf-cart ride away, made you
feel like you weren’t confined to just a single property. The
sun-drenched 85-degree weather also cooperated quite nicely, making our
time by one of their three pools most welcoming. br /br /span class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image”a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/Adrenaline%20Rush.JPG”img alt=”Adrenaline Rush.JPG” src=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/Adrenaline%20Rush-thumb-500x375.jpg” class=”mt-image-center” style=”margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;” height=”375″ width=”500″ //a/spanIn between
the rest and relaxation of my Ramp;R came the Adrenaline Rush, one
of the only operators in Australia offering the opportunity to get out
on the trapeze of a cruising sailboat. Our skipper, Rod, in addition
to getting Carol and the kids to overcome the trepidation of hanging
their entire bodies “overboard” a racing catamaran, gave us a tour
around the rest of the island and surrounding atolls of the
archipelago. br /br /But the real draw for us staying 35 miles
offshore was not the hotel room with the stunning view or golden sandy
beach. It was to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Albeit not for serious
divers who have better options for seeing the dazzling marine life that
earned this area its reputation, a ride out on the iFantaSea/i to a href=”http://www.fantasea.com.au/Reefworld/”Reef
World/a, a permanent floating pontoon and underwater observatory, is
perfect for those who want a brief first-hand taste of one of the seven
natural wonders of the world. As enjoyable as this day trip was, which
offered a chance to experience the reef through a window in a semi-sub,
snorkeling, and even scuba diving for both certified and first-time
divers, it was by far not the highlight. We opted for the Reef Sleep,
which basically kept us on Reef World for another 24-hours after the
iFantaSea/i returned to Hamilton, with just our guide and a few staff
members.nbsp; This allowed us to continue exploring the area without anyone
else around, including a private scuba dive for Carol and I and a
family snorkel with the boys. After the sun set, we enjoyed a
memorable surf and turf dinner under the brilliant night sky and
retired to the only two guest quarters available. The following
morning, the boys continued their private immersion into life on a coral
reef, including watching the feeding of the local 9-foot-long
Queensland grouper named George. We returned back to the resort with
the next group of day-trippers who showed up at 10:30 a.m..nbsp; Their arrival
didn’t dampen our experience, it accentuated just how special it
actually was.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;br /br /To complete our nine days in Queensland, we
headed for the Sunshine Coast, specifically to the Aboriginal-named
town of a href=”http://www.mooloolabatourism.com.au/”Mooloolaba/a, which I didn’t learn to pronounce correctly until
the day we left. At first, Carol and I thought we landed in Ft.
Lauderdale, just with an Australian accent. But without offending our
South Florida friends, it didn’t take long to realize that this beach
town was so much more laid back and less developed than what you
typically find in the U.S. Besides, you won’t find kids playing rugby
or cricket on an American beach and instead of dining on lobsters and
hamburgers, crayfish and meat pies are the local specialties. While
Carol spent the morning home schooling, I went off to one of the
hottest new dive sites in Australia, the wreck of the HMS iBrisbane/i, an
old warship a href=”http://www.cdnn.info/news/industry/i050801a.html”deliberately sunk/a off the coast of Mooloolaba. This
artificial reef has not only attracted an abundance of marine life, but
divers like myself, who have never swam through a submerged control
room or galley before.nbsp; Of the 80-plus dives I’ve logged, this could
easily have been the most memorable. nbsp;br /br /Like the more
aggressively built-up southern beaches of the Gold Coast, which offer
a host of theme parks like Wet n’ Wild and Sea World, this area is also known for being family friendly, which isn’t surprising when you
consider that it was Steve Irwin’s home turf. The ultra eco-friendly
a href=”http://www.australiazoo.com.au/”Australia Zoo/a, which he founded, is an almost mandatory stopover, one
that we eagerly anticipated before flying down to Tasmania where we
would spend Christmas. I’ll cover our visit there when I report
on the wilder side of Australia in my next post.br /br /iPhotos: Rainer Jenss/ibr /
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Tag Archive | "family-friendly"
Tags: family, family-friendly, guide, history, holidays, Intelligent Travel, sunshine, travel, video, world
Jenss Family Travels: Reef Encounters
Posted on 31 December 2008
Posted in Europe, Intelligent TravelComments (0)
Tags: animals, australia, black, calendar, destination watch, Europe, family-friendly, green, green-guide, mediterranean, science, travel, video, WorldWide
Jellyfish Gone Wild
Posted on 29 December 2008
span class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image”a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2865911846_e6a8b8f649.jpg”img alt=”2865911846_e6a8b8f649.jpg” src=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2865911846_e6a8b8f649-thumb-350×233.jpg” class=”mt-image-center” style=”margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;” height=”233″ width=”350″ //a/spanPlanning a winter beach getaway this holiday season? The world’s oceans have gifted us with quite the unpleasant surprise, and it comes in the form of swarms of jellyfish. From Hawaii to the Gulf of Mexico to the Mediterranean to Australia, jellyfish populations have reached a sort of unprecedented maritime gridlock, according to a a href=”http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp”new report/a by the National Science Foundation. But before we start griping, realize that human-caused changes in the oceans are most likely the main culprit. br /br /The study, entitled span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-style: italic;”Jellyfish Gone Wild/span, states that 150 million people worldwide are exposed to jellyfish annually. The invasions mean bad news in places like Australia, where around 10,000 people suffer stings annually from the highly venomous Portuguese man-of-war. According to the study, 200,000 people are stung each year in Florida alone.nbsp; br /
Wallets are feeling the sting, too. A comb jellyfish invasion in the
Black Sea in the 1990s saw more than 1,000 jellyfish per cubic yard in
some spots. It was a large blow to local fishermen, who suffered a
350-million-dollar loss because of damage to ships and mining
operations and reduced fish catch. More recently, this invasion was
tamed by the inadvertent introduction of yet another jellyfish that
eats the comb jelly. But the spread of invasive species has now reached
the Mediterranean, Azov, and Caspian Seas, the last of which underwent
fishing industry damages even worse than those of the Black Sea.nbsp;br /br /These
clogs in certain parts of the oceans aren’t the product of natural
migration patterns, the NSF says. Instead, human interference is the
prime suspect. The invasive species in European seas, for example,
were most likely dumped by foreign ships. And certain “dead zones,”
low-oxygen zones created by runoff pollution, attract jellyfish because
the lack of life there means little competition for space. Jellyfish
thrive in the warming ocean waters brought on by climate change. Beyond
that, jellyfish predators have suffered as a result of human activity
and the changing climate, including seven species of endangered sea
turtles.br /br /”There is clear, clean evidence that certain types of human-caused
environmental stresses are triggering jellyfish swarms in some
locations,” a href=”http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/indivfaculty.php?FacultyKey=695″William Hamner/a of the University of California at Los
Angeles says in the report.br /br /I suppose we’ve made our bed. Now we must swim with the consequences. br /br /bRead More: /bIT wrote about an oncoming swarm of jellyfish in Europe a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2008/04/a-sting-more-painful-than-the.html”back in April. /abr /br /diviPhoto via a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianmorley/”BrianMorley’s/a Flickr/ibr //divdivbr //div
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Tags: boys, country, environment, family-friendly, golden, harris, harris-hill, history, holidays, internet, jenss-family, science, tasman
Jenss Family Travels: Harris Hill Farm
Posted on 22 December 2008
Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world
journey, and they’re blogging about their experiences for us at
Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys’ Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.
It’s nearly impossible to travel anywhere outside of a major city in New Zealand without catching an eye-full of sheep within easy view of your car window. It’s well documented that there are about 40 million of them grazing the country, or ten times more than the four million human inhabitants of the North and South Islands. So why, after spending more than three weeks exploring this British Commonwealth nation, would we want to spend our final week surrounded by 300 more of them? Because a farm-stay offered us a chance to pack away the suitcases for a while and experience the country’s traditional way of life, not to mention its heart and soul: their people.
Having searched the Internet for just the right one, we realized shortly after pulling into the driveway of Maggie’s Cottage that Carol discovered a gem when she booked us on the Harris Hill Farm just outside the city of Nelson on the South Island. Unlike the countless farms we saw driving through New Zealand’s countryside, this small farm was perched high over a major city and had a view that would rival any in the region.
Harris Hill encompasses 475 acres of rolling hills and native bush overlooking Tasman Bay and the surrounding mountains. It’s run by Sue and Mike, along with their five children and numerous in-laws. Their guests have the option to help out if they wish, so Tyler and Stefan found their own unique way to lend a hand. After every meal, they raced to feed the resident pig with our leftovers and scraps. If this boar’s size is any indication, Harris Hill’s guests and residents must leave quite a lot on their plates! Although we couldn’t actually participate (for fear that we might seriously do harm to ourselves or the sheep), watching Mike and his son-in-law shear their sheep was certainly an impressive feat.
Another major draw for spending a week on this particular farm was its central location to the plethora of outdoor activities and leisurely pursuits around the Nelson area. To appreciate just how much there is to do here, if my hometown of New York City is to entertainment and culture what Nelson is to the outdoors and adventure, then you’d have a pretty even match. This area, it seemed, offers so many cool activities and natural beauty, that it’s almost impossible to experience them all, but we sure did give it a go.
The city of Nelson itself is quaint and very accessible. Perhaps its most celebrated tourist attraction–that we were told not to miss–was the WOW Museum, a rather eclectic gallery featuring a strange mix of award-winning garments designed as works of art from New Zealand’s annual World of Wearable Arts Awards Show and an impressive collection of classic automobiles spanning three centuries of motoring. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when we walked in, but we were pleasantly surprised at how much we all enjoyed it–including the kids (for some strange reason!).
Something that we figured the boys wouldn’t appreciate quite as much were the renowned vineyards of the nearby Marlborough region. Knowing that we couldn’t subject them to hours of wine tasting, we settled for having lunch at a couple of the better known wineries, which seemed to work for everyone. It truly astonished us that with all the amazing natural beauty we’d already seen here that there’d be room left over for growing grapes for world-class wines. What does this country not have?
Something we knew would suit the boys just fine were some of the adventurous pursuits, like the ATV quad bike tour through the hills of nearby Happy Valley. We combined the tour with a ride down the world’s longest “flying fox” called the SkyWire. It’s a nearly one-mile-long zip-line that propels you at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, 400 feet above the region’s beautiful native forest.
But perhaps the area’s biggest attraction is the tropical beauty of Abel Tasman National Park (above right) and wonderful isolated beaches of the Golden Bays. Not wanting to subject the rest of the family to more windy roads and hours in the car, I took the drive to the Golden Bays on my own. Although the round-trip took up almost the entire day, it was well worth the effort to reach Wharariki Beach, where the wild surf of the Tasman Sea pounds one of the most dramatic beaches I’ve ever set foot on.
The next day, I piled everyone back into the car for a day-trip across the bay to Abel Tasman that turned out to be one of the trip’s highlights. It’s widely accepted that the best way to catch a glimpse of the golden sandy beaches along the coastline of this national park is by kayak. So we were quite frustrated to learn that the minimum age for most sea kayak rentals was twelve. Fortunately, we did find one operator, Tasman Charters, that would take our 9- and 11- year-olds on a full-day combination boating/hiking/kayak trip. This allowed us to not only see the most beautiful areas of the park, it got us up close and in the water with seals that colonize the rocky coast of the Tonga Island Marine Reserve.
Shortly before the end of our stay, we met a retired couple from Florida, who, instead of splitting their time in more traditional locales like the northern part of the U.S., spend six months of the year in a cottage on Harris Hill, and have done so for the last six years . . . an idea, that I told Carol, we might seriously want to consider when the time comes. For now, the time has come for us to leave New Zealand, a realization none of us were too happy with as we truly loved every moment in this wonderful country.
Photos: Rainer Jenss
Posted in Europe, Intelligent TravelComments (0)
Tags: africa, barack-obama, country, environment, Europe, family-friendly, green, history, Intelligent Travel, kenya, safari, trip
Obama Bump in Kenya: Plan My Trip
Posted on 22 December 2008
The tanking international economy has led to a tourism downturn throughout the world, with the notable exception of Kenya, where safari operators are reporting brisk bookings following the November election of Barack Obama, whose father hailed from the town of Kogelo in the western part of the country.
“We’ve seen a 12 percent increase since November over the same period last year and our Web traffic is up 17 percent,” says Dennis Pinto of Micato Safaris. “Given the prevailing economic conditions, we can only attribute this to the Obama factor.” The Kenya Tourist Board also reports large increases in recent arrivals numbers.
This is a much-needed boost to a country which is still attempting to
recover from the blow to tourism caused by riots sparked by a contested
presidential election in late December 2007 and early January 2008.
I, for one, am getting on the bandwagon. An African Studies major
taking Swahili classes, I first visited Kenya on a volunteer trip to
build a school in 1985 (see vintage photo of me at right). In 2002, I returned on safari and took a side
trip to visit the school I helped build (now grown into a complex of
buildings housing students learning trades). Now, seven years later, I
plan to return next summer, to take the temperature of the
country for which I have developed a special affinity, this time with
my children. Help plan my trip. Tell me about safari outfitters,
volunteer opportunities, ecolodges, people making a difference,
anything that will make my trip authentic and meaningful. And, oh yes,
affordable.
I’m already brushing up on my rusty Swahili (Rosetta Stone to the rescue). Asante sana (many thanks).
Need help planning your own safari? Check out our safari planner.
Photos: Above, by Erico Hiller; Below, Norie Quintos
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Tags: calendar, family-friendly, holidays, inauguration, middle-east, resources, travel
IT’s Guide to the Inauguration!
Posted on 19 December 2008
Nearly four million people could descend on Washington, D.C., this January 20 for the inauguration. We’ve just launched the ultimate guide to the capital city and the big event, complete with practical tips,  44 must-see places, Traveler editors’ picks, where to get a taste of Obama’s native Hawaii, a D.C. photo gallery, and much, much more. Check it out!
Photo: Krista Rossow
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Tags: environment, Europe, family, family-friendly, green, green-guide, history, holidays, jenss-family, queenstown, science, travel
Jenss Family Travels: South Island Road Trip
Posted on 19 December 2008
Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world
journey, and they’re blogging about their experiences for us at
Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys’ Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.
I realize I misspoke in my last blog post–we hadn’t quite yet taken all possible forms of transportation on this trip–I forgot about helicopters!
For us, Thanksgiving fell during our second week of cruising New Zealand’s South Island by camper van, so to celebrate, we set our sights on the village of Franz Josef to visit one of only three glaciers in the world that meets a temperate rain forest. In fact, it almost reaches the ocean. One of the others, Fox Glacier, is just 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) down the road. So to make it memorable, we treated ourselves with the ultimate way to experience these imposing ice flows: a 40-minute aerial “flightseeing” tour over Westland National Park, which included a loop past Mt. Cook, the tallest peak in the country. Simply put, it was spectacular and easily one of the highlights of New Zealand, if not the entire yearlong trip. And in a country with so much awe-inspiring natural wonder, that’s saying a lot.
Now if we included hang gliders, four-wheel ATVs, speedboats, gondolas, and a luge on this list of mobile options, they too would have been checked off after our visit to Queenstown, the home of every kind of wild thrill imaginable, all amidst a magnificent scenic backdrop. The boys have never been ones for extreme adventure, so going to the top of Bob’s Peak via a slow-moving gondola to see the city from a dizzying height was perfectly suited for their age level. Even better, however, was the half-mile-long winding Skyline track that hurled them down the hill on hand-controlled luge carts.
One of the city’s premiere adrenaline-inducing activities, besides bungee jumping (the commercial version of which originated twenty years ago at the nearby Kawarua Bridge) is jet boating. We’re not talking about simply flying down a river at breakneck speeds. Operators like Shotover Jets will launch you down river surrounded by tall canyon walls while doing multiple 360-degree spins. Although they would gladly have taken our 9- and 11-year-olds for the 30-terror-stricken-minute ride, I decided the less harrowing, lengthier and more picturesque Dart River Jet Safaris, a two-hour drive north of Queenstown in Glenorchy, was the better bet. It proved to be a wise move because the Dart River passed by several areas used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings and our driver was more than happy to provide us with the occasional full spin to add some sheer excitement into the mix.
But I couldn’t leave New Zealand without adding a new form of adventurous pursuit to my resumé. Because I have already satisfied my aspiration to bungee jump and skydive, it didn’t take a lot of coercing to get me to try tandem hang gliding, especially when you’re surrounded by some of the world’s most amazing views. Please note that I said tandem, for if it weren’t for my Kiwi pilot, I could easily have ended up in Lake Wakatipu from the thermal updrafts swirling around Queenstown’s Coronet Peak.
Safely back in the camper van, we headed for the small laid-back town of Wanaka, primarily as a stop-over to the west coast’s more “must-see” attractions. But as is so often the case during a road trip, it’s the road less traveled that seems to deliver the unexpected surprises. Always up for going to a movie, I stumbled across a place called Cinema Paradiso in the local paper that looked inviting. Because the feature film that night was rated R, this would not be a family outing. Instead, I went on my own to discover an eclectic art-house that included a café/bar serving up some terrific light fare and locally grown Brewski Lager. The theatre included old lounge chairs and sofas to recline in and they had an intermission so everyone could refresh their drinks and grab some freshly backed chocolate chip cookies. I later learned that this eccentric little cinema is considered a national treasure by the locals, and it proved to be one of quite a few unconventional attractions we would run across.  
Before leaving town, I inadvertently learned of a strictly New Zealand sport called Golf Cross. I was in a sporting goods store (which in New Zealand, seem to outnumber Starbucks) when I noticed an oval golf ball shaped like a football behind the counter. Initially, I mistook it for a gag gift, but after inquiring further, I learned that it’s used in golf cross, which is played like golf, but uses suspended goals instead of holes.
Because there was one of just four places to play just five minutes away, I suggested to Carol we cancel the day’s planned hike for a family round of golf cross. When she found out the course was located on Rippon Vineyard, she was sold. So we spent a gorgeous New Zealand early summer day wine tasting and playing golf cross as a family, all while admiring Lake Wanaka and the Remarkable Mountains in the near distance. And because the “ball” flies much straighter than a traditional round one, the boys loved it.
On yet another unusual and equally as interesting family outing, we ventured to the Te Anau glowworm caves. This mysterious place can only be reached by crossing Lake Te Anua by boat and traveling the 656-foot-long (200-meter) network of caves by foot and then by small raft far into the darkness to marvel at the thousands of glittering luminous insects.
But when we weren’t busy sampling various forms of transportable pursuits, plain old hiking boots proved to be the mode that carried us to perhaps the most marvelous spot of all. ‘Tramping’ the Key Summit trail (pictured), a classic 3.8-mile (6-kilometer) hike through stunning alpine scenery between Mt. Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks along the renowned Routeburn Track had no problem keeping even the kids mesmerized and rewarded us all with some of the most dramatic views in the entire country, and that’s saying a lot. Wait, I misspoke again . . . I already said that!
Photo: Rainer Jenss
Posted in Europe, Intelligent TravelComments (0)
Tags: calendar, environment, Europe, family-friendly, flickr, green, guide, middle-east, shipka, travel, video
Global Eye: 1,000 Steps to Shipka
Posted on 18 December 2008
Photographer: Iliyan Hristov, Sofia, Bulgaria
The Details: Sony Cyber-shot W1
Getting the Shot: “Shipka is a historical place in Bulgaria; the inspiration to build it came from a famous battle on a peak called Shipka,” says Hristov. “The Bulgarian revolutionaries fought to death when trying to free Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke. There is a special feeling when you get there and know what happened over a century ago. Other than climbing the 1,000 some odd steps to the top of the peak, I did not have any trouble taking the picture.”
We like this photo because of the beautiful autumn colors. Think you have photos worthy of Global Eye? Add them to our Flickr pool.
Posted in Europe, Intelligent TravelComments (0)
Tags: calendar, family-friendly, flickr, global eye, green, green-guide, guide, history, holidays, Intelligent Travel, middle-east, photography
Global Eye: 1,000 Steps to Shipka
Posted on 18 December 2008
Photographer: Iliyan Hristov, Sofia, Bulgaria
The Details: Sony Cyber-shot W1
Getting the Shot: “Shipka is a historical place in Bulgaria; the inspiration to build it came from a famous battle on a peak called Shipka,” says Hristov. “The Bulgarian revolutionaries fought to death when trying to free Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke. There is a special feeling when you get there and know what happened over a century ago. Other than climbing the 1,000 some odd steps to the top of the peak, I did not have any trouble taking the picture.”
We like this photo because of the beautiful autumn colors. Think you have photos worthy of Global Eye? Add them to our Flickr pool.
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Tags: browser, environment, family-friendly, free tickets, green, green-guide, it news, music, photography, picture, travel, video
Free Flights to Thailand!
Posted on 17 December 2008
Now that I’ve caught your attention, let me explain. Asian budget airline AirAsia announced yesterday that it would offer 100,000 free tickets to Thailand as part of a regional marketing campaign to boost its tourism industry, which suffered greatly from recent political turmoil.
The Associated Press reports:
AirAsia said it would collaborate with Tourism Authority of Thailand
to bring back tourists and businessmen by “reinstating the core message
that it is now safe to travel back to the Land of Smiles.”Under
its campaign themed “Get Your Baht To Thailand” — a play on the Thai
currency — AirAsia will give away 100,00 free tickets to Bangkok from
Vietnam, Cambodia, Myammar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China,
as well as for flights within Thailand.Passengers will only have
to pay airport taxes and administration fee. AirAsia last month
abolished fuel surcharges on all its flights.“We hope that this
campaign will instill the confidence among travelers and also help to
boost tourism which is vital at this juncture,” Group Chief Executive
Tony Fernandes said in a statement.
You must act fast, however. Tickets can only be purchased until Friday (Thailand time - they are 12 hours ahead of D.C.!) for travel between January 6 and March 31, 2009. Unfortunately, while there are no free tickets from the U.S. to Thailand, anyone who is already planning on traveling around Asia in the New Year might find this useful.
(Note: When you are asked to select a country on the AsiaAir homepage, select Thailand, then select English as the language. We had a hard time finding the promotion when we pretended to be a Brit wanting a flight from Malaysia to Thailand)
Image: AirAsia.com
Posted in Europe, Intelligent TravelComments (0)
Tags: best practices, calendar, environment, family-friendly, green-guide, history, houses, Intelligent Travel, middle-east, science, travel, video
Tree Houses Grow Up
Posted on 16 December 2008
As a kid, didn’t you want a tree house - a little getaway all your own? I surely did, and growing up in south Louisiana, I always thought the centuries-old oak trees would make for a perfect perch. To this day I’ve yet to climb into a tree house, but thanks to Forever Young Treehouses, anybody can have the experience.
Bill Allen and Phil Trabulsy, co-founders of the nonprofit organization, started their project after hearing an older  woman reminisce about her own childhood playhouse, as they were building one in her area. “Gradually, as we neared completion, she started asking us questions about how we were going to get in and she urged us to build stairs rather than a ladder because young kids would need to have handrails to hold onto,” says Bill. “We knew that really, she wanted in, and that made us think about access. The next thought was, why not kids in wheelchairs?”
Forever Young’s goal is to have a tree house in every state, complete with a ramp so that the young-at-heart of all ages can enjoy nature with a bird’s-eye view. To date, Forever Young has completed 28 universally accessible tree houses, including those in schools, camps, and for Make-a-Wish kids.  Eight of these three houses are open to the public daily.
Check out the list after the jump to find one in your area.
The Desert Museum, Tuscon, AZ
Charles Wilson Park, Torrance, CA
Citizens Park, Barrington, IL
Mt. Airy Forest, Cincinnati, OH
Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA
Nay Aug Park, Scranton, PA
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA
Oakledge Park, Burlington, VT
Photo by Jason DeBiasi; The Forever Young Treehouse in Nay Aug Park, Scranton, PA