Set Sail On Your Dream Vacation: Luxury Cruises

BY  Abdul Aziz Apr 15, 2023

The Galápagos Archipelago, a remote group of islands in the Pacific Ocean situated more than a thousand kilometers from the coast of Ecuador, is one of the most interesting spots on the planet. There are many reasons why this is so, starting from its history and formation to its incredible diversity of wildlife and beautiful scenic spots. Created over many millennia, the Galápagos Archipelago was formed by the accumulation of magma from volcanic eruptions that broke through the seabed. Still to this day, the archipelago is considered to be one of the most volcanically active areas in the world, with 13 active volcanoes. What draws tourists to this place is not only the chance that they might witness a once-in-a-lifetime volcano eruption but the incredible diversity of flora and fauna, most of it endemic to the archipelago. If you are a biology buff, you might know that Charles Darwin visited the archipelago, and his research into the island’s finches, which are named in his honor, contributed greatly to the theory of evolution by natural selection. If you want to see the giant endemic Galápagos tortoises and sea lions, snorkel in the clear blue waters and sunbathe on the white sand beaches, or island-hop to explore hidden natural gems, you can do so on a Galapagos islands cruise. If you worry about the best time to visit this destination, fret not, as the Galapagos is a year-round destination with a stable climate and pleasant temperatures. Top Islands To Visit Although the archipelago consists of what seems like tiny specs of land in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, there are plenty of options for travelers wishing to venture out on a journey through the islands. To make things easier when planning a trip to the Galápagos, we have picked out some of the islands that are definitely worth visiting. Santa Cruz Island For a place with a total population of a little more than 30,000, the Galápagos Archipelago boasts no large urban areas, and this is one of the appeals of the archipelago for many visitors. However, it would be amiss to say that the archipelago’s largest town is not worth visiting. Puerto Ayora combines both the comforts of civilization with many shops, bars, and restaurants and natural life, as the town is a great place to catch sight of brown pelicans, golden rays, marine iguanas, and blue-footed boobies. For the brave adventurers, there is a secluded turquoise-water cove where snorkeling might get you to face the white-tup reef sharks, rays, and a plethora of different fish. But if you want a more laid-back activity, you can visit Tortuga Bay, named after the black sea turtles that lay their eggs on the beach, and enjoy its long-stretching white sand beach and the inviting blue water. Isabela Island Approximately one million years old, the largest island of the archipelago is home to the Sierra Negra Volcano, which has the second-largest crater in the world. Isabela Island charms visitors with its six coalesced shield volcanoes that are still active to this day. Being one of the youngest islands of the archipelago, Isabela has retained some of its massive lava fields and arid volcanic peaks. The sea-horse-shaped island hosts many wildlife species, many of them endemic, including the redheaded lava lizard, the pink flamingo, five types of tortoise, and the flightless cormorant. On the western side of the island, there’s a chance that you will spot migrating humpbacks and other whales, especially during the cooler period from June through November. The archipelago presents rich feeding grounds that attract orcas, endangered blue whales, sperm whales, as well as humpbacks, and Bryde’s whales. Floreana Island One of the things that Floreana is most famous for is the Floreana mockingbird, which is nowadays considered to have become extinct from Floreana and only resides on two small islands off the coast: Champion and Gardner-by-Floreana. But besides this, Floreana holds a ton of historical value as it was the place where the first official resident made its home and where the first “post office”, which was, in fact, a wooden barrel, was established by whalers. Today, visitors can visit this interesting piece of history and even leave their own postcards. Life on the island has always proved tough for most inhabitants as the island lacks a consistent supply of fresh water, but there are about 150 people still managing to live off the land by farming. When visiting the island, you can start off at the port town, Puerto Velasco Ibarra, and maybe spend the night at the Pension Wittmer, which is the only tourist accommodation on the entire island. From there, you can travel to the highlands for sightseeing and get to know the plants of Floreana, with 48 different species identified, and one-third of them are endemic. Additionally, you can opt to see Devil's Crown, the volcanic crater that allows for snorkeling among an oasis of coral reefs and plenty of marine species. Forge Treasured Memories These are just some of the fabulous and fascinating islands you can visit if you want to enjoy unique experiences and forge treasured travel memories. Read Also: Top 10 Best Travel Apps To Use In 2019 6 Expert Packing Tips That Will Make Your Trips More Fun Top Places To Visit In Italy On Your Next Travel Escapade

BY  Abdul Aziz Oct 4, 2019

In Afrikaans, a kloof is a narrow mountain river valley or a canyon. And South Africa off-the-beaten-path adventures have followed a course parallel to the antics of European and American canyoneering enthusiasts.   Kloofing is following a mountain river from its beginnings down through waterfalls, rapids, whirlpools, hiking, and climbing your way in between swims. It’s a bit like high diving, hiking, and being put through a spin cycle—all at once. If you are still confused, I am referring to Southern Africa and its off-the-beaten-path adventures.   Do you want to know about more hidden gems in Southern Africa? Keep reading!  THESE Are the Best Southern Africa Off-The-Beaten-Path Adventures Southern Africa, with its eclectic culture, has been attracting tourists to its iconic monuments and natural landscapes. Here are some off-the-beaten-path adventure spots you must add to your itinerary list.   1. Kloofing Near Cape Town  In the mountains behind Betty’s Bay, a short drive from Cape Town, are South Africa’s two best kloofing day trips.   Choose between the regular route, where you’ll have to leap 20 feet off a waterfall into the pool below, or Suicide Gorge (heads up: this means a leap of 60 feet).   To date, no one has been hurt seriously on a kloofing trip. However, if you’re subject to vertigo and aren’t at least halfway fit, then don’t do it.   The company Day Trippers will provide guides, wetsuits, lunch, transport, and moral support.  2. Lesotho on Horseback  The mountain kingdom of Lesotho, in east-central South Africa, serves up stone villages atop remote hillsides.   Villagers, called Basotho, live draped in blankets and robes, almost like ancient Greeks. Shepherd boys sit on the slopes, playing flutes. Vultures and eagles cruise overhead.   In Lesotho, the horse remains the chariot of choice, and this is how you’ll want to get around as well.   Semongkong Lodge, near Maletsunyane, southern Africa’s highest waterfall, offers horseback treks for several days. You’ll stay in timeless Basotho villages and ride some of the subcontinent’s steepest terrain.   The Basotho ponies, schooled in a special “tripling” gait, are tough, sure-footed, and afraid of nothing. A tip: Book a trek that coincides with Semonkong’s horse races. They’re wild spectacles involving carefully nurtured thoroughbreds, child jockeys, and epic bouts of drinking.  3. Hike Chimanimani To Make The Most Of Southern Africa Off-The-Beaten-Path Adventures  As South Africa fills with travelers, more and more are heading into Zimbabwe, and several areas have been developed for hiking, fishing, riding, and other types of tourism.   But the mountainous Eastern Highlands, east of Chimanimani in southern Zim, are hardly developed at all, and that’s their appeal. Besides, this area, part of the Lebombo Mountain range that marks the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, provides year-round cool relief from the heat of the plains below.  For the serious hiker, a stiff climb-in is rewarded by an upland paradise of high pastures, waterfalls, forests of flowering protea trees, and caves large enough to sleep in.   Because the water up here is pure and drinkable, you can live here for days if you bring enough food with you. The only downside: Don’t cross over to the Mozambique side of the mountains, as old land mines from that country’s now-defunct civil war are still scattered on the range’s eastern slopes. Stick closely to the maps (available in Chimanimani village).  4. Learn Polo-Cross  Hugely popular in Zimbabwe and a growing equestrian sport around the world, polo-cross means falls, body crunches, and glancing blows with the lacrosse stick.   But those with a go-smack-em attitude and sufficient riding experience can learn this fast and highly skilled equestrian sport on trained horses at Mopani Lodge, near Kwekwe in the Midlands area.  Relax between sessions by riding out on the ranch (which has a cross-country course if you still need an adrenaline fix) or just by sunning at the pool. And because of the favorable exchange rate, what would be an extremely expensive riding holiday anywhere else in the world has become one of adventure tourism’s best bargains.  5. Hunt with Bushmen  If you’re after Southern Africa off-the-beaten-path adventures, you can’t do any better than traveling with the Ju’Hoansi. Ju’Hoansi is the last Kalahari Bushmen clan to pursue the traditional hunting and gathering lifestyle.   They’ve decided to open to small-scale tourism in their remote Namibian locale. You’ll camp near the Ju’Hoansi village of Makuri, go hunting with the men, and gather with the women.   This is no theme-park experience: If the hunters stick an animal with an arrow, you may have to track it for up to two days and then carry out your share of the meat. If you love hunting, you can take the best hunting bow with you.   You must also carry your own water and food. Don’t just spend a couple of days here: Allow at least a week for the people to become comfortable with you. If you’re lucky, they may also invite you to attend a trance dance, at which miraculous healings often take place.  6. Dune Boarding  The seaside town of Swakopmund, where the Namib desert falls into the sea, has become southern Africa’s dune-boarding capital. You’re driven out to the foot of a mountain-sized sand dune, given a large oblong sheet of hardboard, some furniture polish, a pair of heavy industrial gloves, and some welding goggles, and the next minute you’re flying almost vertically downward.   It feels suicidal; even on the easiest descents, the board can pick up speeds of 60 or 70 km (about 43.5 mi)/hr. Steeper ones are much faster. Then you graduate to jumps, finally ending the day with the “Knucklegrinder,” an 800-foot whoosh down to a hard gravel plain.  7. Ride the Namib  It’s easily one of the most spectacular rides in the world: You’re galloping through the Namib Desert, the world’s oldest, surrounded by 2,000-foot-high, blood-red sand dunes.   Thousand-year-old plants that resemble exploded cabbages grow on gravel plains that see rain once in a century. Lonely canyons echo the barking shout of baboons and the nighttime cough of leopards.   Then, suddenly, green oases spring up, overgrown with camelthorn and tamarisk trees, where herds of desert antelope gather in the shade. Continue to sun-blasted mountain ranges where ice-cold springs bubble straight from the rock.   Trot through this barren wilderness with Reit Safari, which offers 10-day rides on Namibian Hanoverians (German horses) and rehabilitated mustangs, starting on the mountains west of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, and ending in the ocean of the aptly named Skeleton Coast.  8. Earthwatch Cheetah Project  The lion really can lie down with the lamb—or at least the cheetah can. So, the biologists of this Earthwatch cheetah conservation project believe, anyway. Your job: to assist in live-capturing and radio-tracking cheetahs and other big cats on the wilderness ranches of central Namibia—the last place on earth where cheetahs still exist in reasonable numbers.   Local ranchers used to shoot them on sight. However, now many are cooperating with the study, which seeks to prove that cats only rarely hunt livestock if their natural prey is readily available.   You, the paying volunteer, have the satisfaction of contributing directly to the conservation of these cats while at the same time experiencing the adventure of chasing after and handling them.  9. Bike the Botswana Pans  Why would anyone want to bike through the Makgadigadi Pans—two vast, shallow expanses of mud? In the scorching Botswana summer, they fill with rain, releasing millions of tiny brine shrimp, which in turn attract breeding flocks of pink flamingos.   In the dry winter, they bake to a hard white crust. A perfect surface across which to go roaring on a quad bike. So wide are the pans that when out in the middle of them, you can’t see the “shore.” And the stars in this part of the Kalahari are unrivaled.  From Jack’s Camp, a luxurious place at the edge of the pans. You take quad bikes out to a table set out in the middle of the emptiness to find dinner laid and ready. By day, you go walking, look at the game, and pick wild foods with a Bushman guide called Cobra.   If you go during the sweltering summer months, you can’t quad bike the pans (too glutinous). However, you do see the flamingos. Further, if you’re lucky, you might see the eastern Kalahari’s summer zebra migration.  10. Deep Kalahari  If you have at least two weeks to explore Southern Africa off-the-beaten-path adventures, hire a 4×4 and blast off into southern Africa’s most remote country. The bigger-than-Switzerland Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Aha and Tsodilo Hills.   This is rugged driving on some of the toughest tracks in Africa; you must know what you’re doing in a 4×4. You must carry all the fuel and supplies.   And if you get stuck, well, suffice to say it’s best to go in a convoy of two vehicles. Highlights of this once-in-a-lifetime trip include the desert lions of Deception Pan.   The Bushmen communities at Molapo and Xai-Xai (where you can go out with the hunters). The stalactite-filled caves of Drotsky’s Caverns and the ancient rock paintings of the Tsodilos. When you emerge at Shakawe at the northern edge of the Okavango Delta, you’ll forget what civilization looks like.  Final Words on Southern Africa Off-The-Beaten-Path Adventures  With dense vegetation, rugged cliffs, and fascinating wildlife, the Southern Africa Off-The-Beaten-Path adventures promise an unforgettable experience. These trips are also about learning about various fascinating cultures and respecting nature.  So, if you plan to visit Southern Africa soon, you can visit any of the places I have discussed here. Don’t forget to share your experience once you come back! Happy journey!   Read Also: Planning A Hunting Trip To Africa – Here’s What You Should Know Top 12 Amazing Sahara Desert Animals You Need To See Beginner Tips For Your First Camino de Santiago.

BY  Abdul Aziz Oct 20, 2021

Do you know why every time we take a flight, we tend to remember the bad experiences more than the good ones? This is because air travel has become something that we expect to be comfortable, convenient, affordable, and great! Individuals, families, and professionals take flights for several reasons. It might be for business or pleasure. However, one thing is for sure. All of us want the experience to be a non-stressful one. With the world slowly opening up after the pandemic, you might be planning to go on your next business trip or vacation. With so many different airline options out there, choosing the right carrier to fly with can be an overwhelming experience. In this resource article, we help air travelers make an informed decision about choosing the best airline to fly with. We list down seven factors that should be taken into consideration when booking and flying with an airline. List of 7 Major Factors to Consider when Choosing an Airline for travel 1. Address the Value-For-Money Proposition- There is a reason why everyone wants the best deals on airline travel tickets. This is primarily because when it comes to air travel, we are looking for the best value-for-money proposition. This necessarily does not mean the cheapest tickets available. It means assessing whether the kind of money you are paying is commensurate to the level of experience you are expecting. For example, if you look to book air asia on a travel portal, you know that you will be getting a fantastic experience in terms of pricing, availability, check-in features, and more. 2. Explore Loyalty Programs on Airlines- If you are someone that uses air travel a lot, you would have some credit card type of benefits. In this day and age, most airlines offer loyalty programs and memberships. This allows you to enjoy facilities like upgrades in seating class, use of the lounge, last onboarding and first deboarding benefits, and more. Make sure you check the website of the airline and cash in those loyalty points that you have steadfastly acquired over the years. You can also explore whether you cash in your credit card points on a flight to gain added benefits or not. Consider Reading: 5 Tips To Protect Your Passport While Travelling Abroad 3. Consider the Comfort of the Seats- Budget carriers are notorious for compromising on the legroom, shoulder room, and overall sense of space. While these are common concerns across airlines, there are some carriers that offer better seating positions as compared to their competitors. If you are taking a long flight, you need to ensure that you are sufficiently comfortable. This is even more important if you are traveling with senior parents, who can feel uncomfortable if they are unable to move their feet sufficiently. For taller individuals, seat design and positioning are very important. This is one of the leading reasons why travelers book air, Asia. 4. Check out the In-Flight Entertainment Options on board- Most of us are so wired to our laptops and smartphones that we feel that they will be sufficient on flights. That is not the case. If you have in-flight entertainment in the form of screens, headphones, and streaming platforms, your travel experience will be better. For starters, you will not feel the strain in your hands from holding up your mobile device for long hours. Secondly, you will not start looking for battery sockets. A good in-flight entertainment system can make a major difference to your travel experience. 5. Look at the ease of Web Check-Ins and Reserving Seats- If you are taking a flight, you want the last-minute hassles to be out of the way. A cool way to reduce them is to opt for web check-ins. While most carriers offer this, the experiences vary drastically. Look for how easy check-in options are on the carrier’s website. Make sure to book seats in advance if they allow that. You can book aisle or window seats depending on your preferences. This is a great thing if you are traveling with kids or senior parents. You might have to look at so many other things. Striking out web check-ins can reduce your pressure. 6. Examine the COVID-19 Safety Protocols on the Airline- We are living in difficult times and you need to make sure that the airline you are choosing is as cautious about safety as you are. It is best that you go for an airline that prioritizes social distancing norms, has sanitation, distributes masks, and ensures that all their staff is vaccinated. The best airlines disinfect common areas, touchpoints, seats, and toilets after every flight. Be sure to go on the website of the airline and see what steps they are taking to follow the COVID-19 safety protocols. A little cautiousness goes a long way in ensuring safety. 7. Read Reviews on the Customer Service of the Airline- There are so many small things that can make a huge difference to your overall airline experience. One of them is customer service. From the way your tickets are processed to the manner in which the steward or air hostess addresses your concerns with a smile, everything can make a difference to customer service. Leading airlines like AirAsia have been regularly voted as being the best when it comes to customer service. You can understand it through checking up an airline’s social media pages or heading over to platforms like Quora. You can also see the importance of customer engagement, customer satisfaction, and customer experience for a business at https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/customer-engagement/ where it is clearly explained. Consider Reading: 10 Tips For Traveling Across Europe The Final Word There are other factors that you can also take into consideration. Many travelers look for airlines that have been voted highly on the quality of food. If you are traveling for business purposes, you might need to work on a last-minute presentation or send emails. In this regard, you need an airline that offers network connectivity in the form of Wi-Fi. Most experts recommend that if you are looking for the best prices on airline tickets, you should compare travel platforms. You also need to be flexible, if you are traveling for personal reasons and not professionals. Shifting your flight by a day or two can translate into lower prices, better amenities, and a newer aircraft. If you have any other questions, you would like us to address on choosing the best airline for travel, please let us know in the comments below. We will be more than happy to address as many of your concerns as possible. Read Also: Travel Insurance: What Is It And Why You Should Get One Improve Your Travel Experience By Hiring A Limo