5 Reasons to Get Excited About Booking an Expedition Cruise This Year
Leave your evening gown at home and pack your hiking shoes instead. For more and more travelers, an expedition cruise is on the horizon.Expedition cruises speak to our inner adventurers. Smaller ships, more remote and tiny ports, untouched destinations, natural beauty, deep cultural interaction.They're perfect for travelers who want to explore the world's natural wonders and the most distant reaches of the planet in an active way: out of a zodiac, in a kayak, hiking to the tops of peaks,...
You Can Celebrate Richard Branson's Birthday With Him on his Adults-Only Cruise Line
With flamboyant Sir Richard Branson at the helm, the 2020 launch of Virgin Voyages is one of the most anticipated events in travel. The party-loving, trend-setting celebrity entrepreneur promised his latest travel venture would do to cruise what Virgin Air did to flying: rediscover a whole new level of tongue-in-cheek, escape-with-your-friends-to-a-private-party fun. Only this time, at sea. Bookings are now open for the inaugural season of the Scarlet Lady, the first Virgin Voyage ship, in April 2020. The ship's homeport is a splashy...
Ponies and 3 More Reasons to Visit Scotland's Shetland Islands
They say on St. Patrick's Day everyone's a little bit Irish. So it's fair to say that on Rabbie Burns' Day, we're all a little bit Scottish. The national poet of Scotland – he wrote the song you likely sing every New Year's Eve: Auld Lang Syne – was born on January 25, 1759. And every year on January 25th, Scots and people of Scottish ancestry world-wide celebrate the man voted the 'Greatest Scot' in the country's history.In Scotland and in...
Have You Heard About OceaniaNEXT?
Oceania Cruises is making a triple-play of transformations, breathtaking in scope, that have already begun. When complete over the next few years these three tremendous changes will elevate all of the things you love about Oceania, and give you even more to experience.A $100-million re-imagination of its four, 684-guest Regatta-class ships to make them 'better than new'A thousand artisans have been deployed in the process to up-convert the Regatta, Insignia, Sirena, and Nautica. Inspired by their newer big sisters in the...
11 Best Places in the World to Go Whale Watching
70 percent of our planet is covered by oceans, and whales are not only the largest marine mammals, but the largest animals alive. No wonder humans are drawn to the oceans and these mammals who dwarf us and remind us how small we are in the universe. Whale watching tops many travelers' wish lists. Seeing whales in their natural environment touches every traveler, no matter how young or old, and it's an experience accessible to travelers of all budgets.As with any interaction...
Channel Your Inner Van Gogh on this Avalon Discovery Shore Excursion in Amsterdam
What happens when you put three non-painters in a painting workshop? Can you really learn to paint like Van Gogh in an afternoon? Those were the questions on all our minds as we walked to an art atelier near where our river cruise ship, the Avalon Vista, was docked in the heart of Amsterdam.By: Lynn Elmhirst, BestTripTVI'm creative but I have zero artistic skill. Even my handwriting is famously illegible. My friends, travel expert Ryan McElroy and travel and gardening journalist Tara Nolan,...
The Chinese New Year Dish You Need To Try This Year
Kung Hey Fat Choi! Chinese New Year celebrations brighten up the winter months throughout Asia and Asian communities around the world. It's the most important date on the Lunar calendar and includes weeks of festivities with family and friends from late January through March. Many activities give everyone a chance to get into the spirit of a fresh, healthy, happy and prosperous upcoming year.Among the many outstanding traditions like lion dances, flower markets, decorations of lanterns, red and gold banners, and orange...
Video: A Canadian Veteran of DDay Explains Why You Should Visit the Juno Beach Centre
There are fewer and fewer veterans of the DDay Landing Beaches to tell their stories, but Canada's Juno Beach Centre introduced us to Jim Parks, who shared his memories of landing on DDay as a young soldier, and why he believes all of us should travel there today.DDay remains the iconic symbol of Allied unity and sacrifice to end World War 2. Thousands of soldiers from the US, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations landed on the beaches of France...
8 Facts About the Panama Canal
Panama is one of the fastest-growing destinations in Central America, and the Panama Canal is the country's star attraction. Although it's on everyone's list of things to experience, the canal is more important as a global shipping transit than tourist experience. Whether you sail the canal on your next cruise or watch in action from land, here are 8 things you need to know about this wonder of the modern world.1. It's a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.The...
You Can Stay in this Spa Hotel Over Top of Iceland's Blue Lagoon
A primeval landscape of black lava rocks covered in moss. Pools of chalky, ice-blue healing waters heated by the earth's core. Iceland's Blue Lagoon is mystical and almost surreal to see even in person. It's even been called one of the Wonders of the World. Now, there's a spa hotel where you can sleep overtop of one of the earth's most remote and celebrated wellness destinations. What is the Blue Lagoon?Iceland's Blue Lagoon is man-made; water pulled from the depths of the earth...