Category Archives: Destinations

Best Places to Live in California

January is always an interesting month. It’s the beginning of a New Year and everyone seems to get excited about, interested in and committed to lists. It all start with Grand Daddy list – New Years Resolutions. But there are plenty more lists this time of year too. Like all of the lifestyle decision lists – Cheapest Places to Live; Best Places to Retire, etc. With the crazy economic climate we’ve had these past few years one of the most popular and important lists people are looking for is the, Best Places to Live list.

The internet is a wonderful and amazing resource when it comes to this kind of research. We can start with the best places for employment – if it’s a job your after and then narrow down to make sure your lifestyle needs are going to met wherever you decide to go. In the past, say way back in depression times people would just hope on a rail car and wherever they found work was the place they decided to be happy. But we live in a different world today. Now work, where and how much money we can make are just one part of the decision making process. When it comes to find the best place to live it gets personal. It needs to be the best place to live for you.

For many people that means looking at a whole bundle of lists that include what is important to them for life and living. Often weather or climate ends up very high on most people’s lists. That seems to be the reason Florida and California often end up being on the ‘Best for Living’ lists. It’s may seem a bit simple but it’s reality – the weather has a lot to do with how we feel and therefore how happy we are. Perhaps that’s why San Luis Obispo is getting a lot of publicity these days. Just this past week Oprah feature this lovely California town as it was designated one of the Happiest Places in the world. I’m just waiting for the next Best Places to Live in California list to come out. What’s betting SLO will be top of that list!

Check Out The Tulum Ruins While Staying In Tulum Mexico

Just a short distance of about five miles north of Tulum Mexico you will find the rustic yet naturally pristine Village Tankah that offers what you might call more of a natural beachfront resort. The gentle surf is almost hypnotic as the water lightly washes ashore, while you take in the grand view of Tankah Bay. There are no cabana boy’s to bring you fruity drinks with umbrellas, nor are their Olympic sized swimming pools at the slice of paradise, but there is the restful powder white beaches that are so perfect that you would think they made it in a factory somewhere.

Getting to paradise is always on the road less traveled, and Tulum Mexico is not any different. Nestled away about one and half hours south of Cancun, you will find the village of Tankah and the semi private beach you will call home for the duration of your stay. If you need to be waited on hand and foot, then this may not be location of choice for you. The primary theme of this resort area is to enjoy the natural surroundings that have been untouched by commercialized resort industry. You may give up room service, but you gain the turquoise water that is only about five meters from your cabana’s front door. You might not have someone bringing you margaritas to your chaise lounge by the pool, but you can enjoy your the powdery white sand beach is the front yard to your room.

There are vacations, and then there are retreats that allow the soul to rekindle it’s relationship with nature. Family vacations are traditionally full of daily activity, and amusements to keep the kids occupied and happy with rides, tours, and water sports of all kinds. Fortunately by staying the village of Tankah, you can have the best of both worlds. If you want to spend a day doing the touristy activities, you can simply drive up the coast to Riviera Maya, and enjoy their fast paced offerings. Then come back home to the peaceful surroundings of your villa or cabana in Tankah to unwind and let the sounds, and sights of the day trickle from your body, and enjoy that much needed quality time with your family just sitting on the beach, and watching surf mark time.

Your visit to the Yucatan Peninsula would not be complete without spending half a day at the Tulum ruins. Enjoying the rich history of Tulum Mayan that started well over five hundred and twenty years ago, is a memorable tour that you and the whole family will enjoy. There are several archeological remains from this now extinct, this local site is the third largest in all of Mexico.

There is a trade of luxury amenities versus seclusion and beauty, but the lower costs of lodging will more than offset the difference. If you have vacationed in Cancun or Mazatlan in the past, you owe it to yourself to try a different type of vacation experience. The laid back and slow pace of a real vacation resort that allows you do to exactly what vacations where intended to accomplish.

Loving Life On Dude Ranch Vacations

Many people in today’s modern world long for the simpler times when people worked with their hands and took pride in their labor. Some people find the satisfaction they seek by taking time off work and going on a dude ranch vacation. This peek into the past offers people a glance at what life was like in the west for settlers. This type of vacation offers people the opportunity to run away from modern life and live a more rustic lifestyle for a while. Dude ranches also offer travelers time to enjoy horseback riding, open fires, and the life of the cowboys.

One of the big reasons people are drawn to dude ranch vacations is because of the wonderful hospitality that the Western culture offers. Dude ranches also offer many different activities that travelers enjoy. Some of these include cattle drives, camping and hiking trips, canoeing, and of course horseback riding. For people looking to reconnect with nature, a dude ranch vacation is perfect. Imagine sleeping under the stars, listening to the crackling of the fire as it dies down, or the excitement of dust flying through the air as a horse runs. These are only a few things a person on a dude ranch vacation can expect.

Of course there are a number of different dude ranches that can be chosen between. Some ranches will allow the people to work in the way the real cowboys would have by driving cattle and offering rodeos. Other ranches that are more commercial offer many more modern activities for people to enjoy, like golf and spa treatments. The working dude ranches tend to be smaller and have ten or less customers at a time, while larger dude ranches have many more people. No matter which dude ranch vacation a person chooses they are sure to have fun, and make memories that will last for years.

A Brief History of Accommodation in Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan is a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, just 12 km from its sister island of Koh Samui and a 1 hour boat journey away from the diving Mecca of Koh Tao. In the 1980s the first intrepid travelers arrived on the island of Koh Samui and as legend goes they found paradise and since then Koh Samui has gone from strength to strength. But what is the story with Koh Phangan?

After the initial excitement over Koh Samui quickly led to a flurry of development on the island leading to the opening of Koh Samui airport, everybody imagined that Koh Phangan would be ‘the next Koh Samui’. But it didn’t turn out that way.

The earliest travelers to Koh Phangan gathered on the sunrise and sunset beaches of Haad Rin. Haad Rin accommodation expanded quickly but catered nearly exclusively to the lower end of the rental market. Koh Phangan quickly developed a reputation as a more ‘hippy’ place than Koh Samui.

While Koh Samui quickly built roads around the island and expensive resorts and private villas for sale to foreigners, investors were reluctant to move the cash bonanza to the neighboring island. Instead Koh Phangan developed at a much slower pace. Until the early 2000s many of the beaches still used generators. It wasn’t until 2007 that the old crumbling power lines were upgraded around the island. The locals seemed content to cater to the nature lovers who preferred the less developed nature of the island. The locals resisted big supermarkets such as Tesco Lotus setting up on the island until 2009. And they still resist the building of an airport.

At the same time there has been a steady rise in Koh Phangan of better quality accommodation that seeks to attract tourists who look for unspoiled nature. There used to be just one hotel on Koh Phangan – the Panviman on Thong Nai Pan Noi. Now there are three 5 star hotels. There are also numerous mid-range accommodation options on Koh Phangan and a few villas have been built for private rentals.

The roads and other infrastructure continue to improve on Koh Phangan but the Koh Samui boom never happened. Koh Samui landlords are probably pleased about this, but so are the locals of Koh Phangan who have seen the environmental damage caused on Koh Samui and the seedy nature of many of the beach resort areas and are happy to have avoided these unsavory aspects of rapid commercial expansion.

Visiting Darjeeling

Visiting Darjeeling is a great experience as one walks up and down the labyrinthine alleys of the hill town, crossing Tibetan shops selling artifacts and tea stalls offering the latest harvest of the famed beverage, hearing the instruments from nearby monasteries and the laughter of kids coming and going to school – all to the backdrop of the awesome Himalayan mountains which grace the horizon which makes for spectacular Darjeeling pictures.

To get to Darjeeling, one can take a train to New Jalpaiguri station and from there hop on a shared Jeep going to Darjeeling. Otherwise, there is the nearby Bagdogra airport (3 hours away) which allows travelers to skip the train journey but it will still be necessary to get on a Jeep or bus to make the rest of the trek.

Because it is a popular destination with travelers, Darjeeling has a lot to offer in terms of accommodations and restaurants (in various budget ranges) as well as other services such as banking facilities and internet connections. It is an easy place to be in India and the pace is much more chill than most of the country.

The town is home to a very large Nepalese population which is in favor of independence (or wanting to be annexed with Nepal). Before being part of India in the state of West Bengal, it used to belong to Sikkim, the Buddhist kingdom which is also today a part of India (though this is contested by China). In any case, tourists are welcome here as it supplies a large percentage of the income of the residents. There are also Tibetans and Indians residing in the town’s territory but they are in minority.

In Darjeeling, one can visit the remains of British India, including churches as well as Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples – as such, it makes for an interesting destination for those interested in spiritual travel. Also interesting are tea estates, a natural history museum, a botanical garden and a war memorial.