The Ultimate Checklist for Traveling with Kids – Tips from a Mom of Two

Hello travel freaks, today I am going to share more tips with you if you are looking for travel tips for traveling with kids. For parents there are numerous things to take care of and to plan according to their child. I have two kids and I love … Continue reading The Ultimate Checklist for Traveling with Kids – Tips from a Mom of Two

Biscayne National Park – The Largest Watery National Park of the United States

Biscayne National Park – the Largest Watery National Park of the United StatesBiscayne National Park – the Largest Watery National Park of the United StatesIs anchored in the Florida Keys, just thirty miles away from Miami but light-years away in bountiful bliss.  Biscayne National Park is graced with a garland islands. Most of the park’s territory, over two hundred square miles, are covered by water. This is one of the largest marine parks in the national park system.

On the Bay’s shorelines grows the forest spidery mangroves giving sanctuary to thousands of thousands of coastal birds. But there is more than just bird watching to delight the travelers. The Dante Fascell Visitor Center at the convoy point is a launching point for many excursions. Off the main land, there is scuba diving.

Biscayne National Park’s Coral reefs offer some of the best underwater explorings in the entire United States. Visitors can explore the deep underwater deeps while keeping comfortably dry on glass bottom boat. By far, canoeing is the park’s prevailing activity. There are canoe rentals with instructions and guided trips to have wonderful canoeing experience in the region.

Pirate Infestation
These inviting waters, blue sky, exotic aquamarine, were once opaque with blood slick. These were pirate infested waters, the English Sea Dogs like the Blackbeard and Captain Kidd lying in ambush square rigged Spanish galleons laden with treasure.

Today, those park’s visitors seeking treasure can join a guided tour of the sunken wrecks. However, for travelers today, the real treasure of Biscayne National Park are vivid coral reefs, thickets of mangrove, the aerial ballets of sea birds, which are for everyone and for free.

Must-Visit Attractions of Biscayne National Park

Boca Chita Key:
After scuba diving, the sail boating and boating excursions to offshore Keys such as to Boca Chita Key is also the tourist’s most favorite thing to do in the Biscayne National Park. Boca Chita Key is a popular tourist’s destination featuring sixty-five feet tall ornamental lighthouse.

Miami Seaquarium:
It is located at the Biscayne Bay and covers over thirty-eight acres of land. Miami Seaquarium offers visitors to explore the charming marine life ranging from deep sea to exotic marine life in a variety of sections. Miami Seaquarium is one of the most recommended sites to visit while in the region.

Key Biscayne:
It’s an island situated between the Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Visitors can board on the sailing excursions from both Biscayne National Park and Miami. Key Biscayne is primarily composed of sand eroded from the Appalachian Mountains, beautiful scenery, vast beaches, greenery, and wilderness.

Charles Deering Estate:
For the history buffs, the Charles Deering Estate is paradise. This four-hundred-acre mansion was owned by the renowned American business man, Charles Deering. Step back in a century while exploring the artifacts and learning about the lifestyle of Charles Deering.

Best Hotels in Chicago

6010295859_307cb6a5b3_b

One is visiting Chicago for any purpose relaxed time out or a business meeting. The decision of hotel is critical as it will make your stay outstanding and fun or opposite. So, you should be very careful while deciding on a hotel. The best advice is to see the reviews of hotels online and then decide which one suits you the best. Of course, no one wants to get out of the budget, so choosing a hotel, keeping in mind one’s budget and setting priorities is very important. These are some best hotels that are best in Chicago.

The Peninsula Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States:

It was opened in 2001, and since its opening, it has received a huge amount of praise, and its rating is as good as it gets. With its luxurious bedrooms to outstanding food, Peninsula makes its priority to provide its clients with best and almost every facility. It is designed with so much aesthetic sense and every room in the place shout sophistication. Spa, and fitness rooms, with 24-hour services, it cannot get better than this.

Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile:

Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile, elongated recognized as the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, offers extravagance inner city Chicago guesthouse rooms. It is very close to tourist attractions like; Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, Lake Michigan, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and upscale boutiques. It was created by the French designer Jean-Paul Viguier. Chicago Illinois inn is a 32-floor prism of glass, swaggering 415 accommodations, with 33 comfy complements. The customers or tourists can embrace these modern designs with a slight touch of antique within it.

The Gwen Chicago:

It has a taste of brilliant food in one of three expensive eating sites, or customers can relax with a glass of lilac and sneak preview at the Porch Inn. It also can host very outstanding professional seminars and public proceedings in more than 14,500 right-angled feet of gathering area. It has received many awards including. The best weekend getaway with Chicago, Top 50 Five Starts Alliance Hotels in 2006, The Best Kid Friendly Hotels for 2013 and much more.

Thompson Chicago:

It was reopened in 2013, and it is present in the heart of Chicago. It has various offering for its clients, including luxurious environment and setting of hotels to very high standard customer services. The rooms are a piece of art with king size beds or whatever customer chooses is provided to him/her. A king suite is about 450 square feet. And they tend to provide best customer services.

Park Hyatt Chicago:

This hotel has best customer services and the building, and every room is built with a lot of sophistication and elegance that can be observed. It is said to be one of the twenty top World’s best hotels, with a touch of a classic it’s every ounce is perfection. Any guests who want any extra services or have some kind of allergies are treated with utmost care, and they are provided with whatever they need.

Best Winery in the USA-Napa Valley & Sonoma

Best Winery in the USA-Napa Valley & SonomaOf all the places in America, California has the best wineries ever. The Californian wineries made legacy when they broke the record of the then famous French wines, in 1976, for being the best wines in a contest held which had all blindfolded French judges.

Wineries a year ago were California’s second most prevalent traveler destination, with more than 21 million guests. What’s more, no big surprise, for California is one of the world’s biggest wine-creating zones. On the off chance that it was a nation, it would rank fourth behind France, Italy and Spain. Its creation, at more than three billion jugs every year, is a third bigger than that of Australia. Why the noteworthy figures? Atmosphere, for the most part: a tried and true developing season and over 200 days of daylight a year mean California has 3,000 or more wineries.

You can discover heavenly wines over the state, and the best bet is to join a guided tour in California to explore these wineries. Even better, you will have the capacity to test a striking assortment of wines, an aftereffect of the state’s climatic and geographic differing qualities. Uneven plants inland appreciate gentle evenings and hot, clear daylight, a marriage that makes for the finest merlots and cabernet sauvignons. Beach front mists and breezes are ideal for chardonnay and pinot noir.

At that point there are the sultrier, drier states of southern California and the Sierra Nevada, and a phenomenal scope of soils, changing even inside a solitary vineyard. Such differing qualities take into consideration more than 100 grape assortments over the state. In the event that all you need is lunch in a vineyard that is simple: wherever you are the odds are there will be a winery not far away. In any case, in the event that you need to make wine a more genuine piece of your vacation, recollect California is around seventy-five percent the measure of France, so investigating one wine district amid an excursion instead of the entire state bodes well.

The North Coast is California’s most prestigious wine range, home to the names a great many people know: Napa and Sonoma. Their notoriety and nearness to San Francisco — around an hour’s head out, make them occupied, with a multiplication of wineries, convenience and all way of visits. Napa and Sonoma focus on two north-south valleys, isolated by an edge of mountains, with Napa the bigger at 35 miles in length and all the more easterly. Napa is celebrated around the world for its cabernet sauvignons, a portion of the best of which originate from three nearby zones: Oakville, St Helena and Rutherford. A number of Napa’s wineries are on or close Highway 29, yet the generally parallel Silverado Trail makes for a calmer visit. Prestigious names here incorporate ZD Wines and Joseph Phelps, or Mumm Napa for a glass of shining wine. Calistoga, toward the north, is additionally calmer, with the Schramsberg Vineyard here another diamond for devotees of shimmering wine.

Then, crosswise over in Sonoma an alternate atmosphere considers more assortment (for all intents and purposes each California grape assortment is found here), with fine cabernets in the Alexander Valley and superb pinot noir and chardonnay in Russian River Valley. Once more, it pays to search out calmer corners, for example, the wine street in the north or Dry Creek Valley, particularly Bella Vineyards, and its commended old-vine zinfandels.

An Unforgettable Weekend at Santa Catalina Island, California

channelislandSanta Catalina Island is situated at the off shores of Los Angeles, CA. The island is thirty-five miles long and eight kilometers in width, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. Every year over two million visitors are recorded who visit this place either they take air or bus tour, the reason is simple of the vast number of people visiting because there are so many things to do in Santa Catalina Island, the fun is never ending and the beauty of it is spectacular. Visitors can reach this place by means air and water.

Top places to visit in Santa Catalina Island.

  • Catalina Island Casino

It is also known as the main house of Catalina Island. As the Catalina Island Casino doesn’t only have a Casino and bar but this also have a theater to watch movies and a small auditorium to watch cultural talent performances.

  • Aficionados Gallery Store

It is located at the beach area of island. The store has art related to water wildlife creatures but mostly fishes, depicting previous culture in the Island. Visitors visit this store for interesting items of art relating to fishes such as bone structures of extinct water species.

  • Catalina Island Museum

It is the 3rd oldest building in Catalina Island, constructed in year 1953. There was great need of museum as the cultural heritage was getting lost, the Island’s organization built a museum to keep its cultural heritage safe. The museum contains all the information about previous settlements depicting their culture. It’s one of the recommended visiting place in CatalinaIsland.

Things to do in Santa Catalina Island.

Exploring the island

  • Hiking:

As the island is quite enormous and half of the island is cover in wild. Exploring the island is quite adventurous because the flora and faunas is quite unique and fascinating. Hiking is adventurous and fun to explore the island while climbing those steep clips. Visitors can do camping, out the island.

  • Biking:

There are few rental biking agencies to hire mud bikes to explore the island of cliffs and amazing view of the sea lying all around it.  Biking tracks are there in the wild to be followed. Biking agencies charge hourly and visitors can easily hire the bikes.

Fun Water Activities:

  • Snorkeling

Water coveringCatalinaIsland off the coasts is crystal clear, and you can dive in the water while wearing a mask to watch the surroundings beneath the water with visibility, in a the daylight.

  • Scuba Diving

Majority of the visitors recorded who just simply come to this island to scuba dive in the sea water covering this Island, visitors can rent an oxygen cylinder from the island organization and scuba dive into the water. However, the sea is teamed up with octopus, lobsters, horn sharks, bet rays and several other wildlife creatures, but the diving is completely safe to scuba dive in the nearest areas of shores.

  • Boating

Boating is quite common in this island, there are hundreds of yachts and boats. The famous thing around this place is Glass bottom boating, where the visitors watch the wildlife under the water in a glass boat.

Summary:

Catalina Island is a big island, there are many things to do and places to visit. As you can go to the island casino, museum and gallery store to completely satisfy the island itself. Boating, hiking shouldn’t be missed out in this island.

Getting In Touch With Traditional and Modern Hawaiian Culture

The-Oheo-Pools-at-Haleakala-National-Park-Maui Island:

Traveling to Hawaii is exploring the lush idyllic island of Maui and the super diverse island of Oahu. A place where you will find clear blue water height to an elevation above 10,000 feet and splash of epic water falls. Everyone says that you need at least 10 days to fully enjoy a single Hawaiian island. Make sure you request a first floor room so you can walk right out to paradise.  It’s a good start if you begin your journey from Maui, there you will find scuba gear, and paddle boards and you can hang out at the beach for all day. Also you can enjoy the best tacos of your life. If you are interested you can book tour to Hawaii Island online.

Haleakala National Park:

To visit Haleakala National Park, you have to wake early in morning, a massive volcano that makes up 75% of Maui, and the highest point is thousand feet above sea level is a popular place to catch the sunrise. Make sure you bring some snacks because there is absolutely no food for sale in the park and it is very cold. Another Maui’s famous attraction is its magical road to Hana. It is a small undeveloped authentically Hawaiian town on the island East side. The journey itself can make you start feeling fresh, the road zigzags through 59 bridges, lush rain forest, and plenty of water falls.  Up there you can look for a guide, who will tell you all about mythology and cultures of Maui.

Kaanapali Beach, Mendes Ranch, and Whale Watching:

Surfing is extremely popular on the island of Maui, with crystal clear transparent water;Kaanapali Beachis most famous for surfing. The calm water makes the great place to snorkel and dive. For Horse Riding, visit Mendes Ranch, it is a family owned and operated ranch that offer scenic rides to lush forests and mountain tops.

Whale Watching is another amazing thing you can do at Maui;February is the best time to go to whale watching, where you can enjoy watching some rare types of whales from a boat.

Wai’anapanapa State Park and Black Sand Beach:

The next trip that most of the tourists visitbefore Hana is Wai’anapanapaState Park. There is so much to see there, drive through lava rock formations, fresh water caves, and famous Black Sand Beach. The water caves are magnificent and are the favorite tourist attractions.

Oahu Island:

Diamond Head and NuuanPali Lookout:

Next Island is Oahu, first thing you ought to check out is a place called Diamond Head, which is a massive saucer shaped crater and its Hawaii’s most recognized  landmarks, its known for its hiking trail, its amazing costal views and of course its military history. The hike is hard, it takes around 2 to 3 hours to reach at NuuanPali Lookout, and this is the site of one of the most important battles of history where the king drove up the enemy army up and over the cliff.

Hanauma Bay State Park andDole Plantation:

Modern Honolulu also has a night club and a bar and if you are not interested in city life then you can buckle-up again for a ride to Hanauma Bay State Park which is the world famous snorkeling destinations, where you can scuba dive to look at corals and fish.

Also there are hundreds of beautiful sights at Hawaii’s magical island but it is not fair to leave Hawaii without visiting Dole Plantation.It is known as pineapple king, for developing pineapple industry in Hawaii. What started just as a food on Dole’s pineapple fields in 1950’s, it’s now a living museumwhere you are able to take a tour through the agricultural land on the pineapples express and enjoy a lot of food items and goodies, likepineappleice-cream. This plantation is also the world’s largest maze, but nobody is interested in it.

Place to Eat in New York Chinatown

Port-Arthur-Restaurant-New-York-ChinatownThe streets of Chinatown are lined with restaurants representing every province of China and every kind of Chinese cooking, as well as some other oriental food traditions. With hundreds of restaurants, stands and markets within a few crowded blocks in which English is not always understood, finding what you want and like can be confusing.

Fortunately, most critics and publications over the years have extensively surveyed the Chinese restaurant scene and ranked restaurants in areas such as cheap eats, fiery cuisine like Szechuan and Hunan, Peking duck and dim sum. Most of the following places can be reached by subway to Canal Street, and most do not take credit cards.Learn More

Grand Sichuan on Canal Street, with another location at 24th Street and 9th Avenue, is among the most frequent critics’ picks, and has an illustrated booklet for a menu listing more than 100 dishes, most of them eye-watering as well as mouthwatering. Peking duck is represented on most lists by the eponymous Peking Duck House on Mott Street, which has many other dishes on its menu although almost everyone has the famous duck; the restaurant differs from most Chinese places by not requiring that Peking duck be ordered in advance and in taking credit cards. Great New York Noodle Town at the foot of the Bowery has almost every kind of noodle dish and serves them with duck, chicken, fish and shellfish, as well as their specialty of suckling pig.  Oriental Garden on Elizabeth Street catches your eye with live crabs waving at you from their window tank, and has a wide range of dim sum and fresh seafood, ranging from an $8 prix fixe lunch to a $68 bowl of shark-fin soup. Chinatown and New York history fans are fascinated by Nom Wah Tea Room, located at the “bloody angle” of Doyers Street,between the Bowery and Pell, that became notorious during the tong wars of the 1920s,the first New York dim sum house.

Notable options for inexpensive dining include Xi’an Famous Foods at Bayard and Mott Streets as well as 5 other locations, a favorite of Anthony Bourdain that averages $5 for a main course. New Green Bo, just down Bayard Street has a unique decorating scheme, plastering walls and windows with rave reviews from the English-language press, and averages about $14. NhaTrang Centre, on Centre Street near the Precious Blood Church, leads many surveys of Vietnamese food at bargain prices.