Secluded Vacation

There are loads of websites online which can tell you what they consider to be the top ten holiday destinations. However, with these sites it is usually ones that they are trying to get you to arrange your next holiday to. But when it comes to really discover where the top ten holiday destinations are in any given year the best place to start your search is using the World Tourism Organisation website.

Each year they release information regarding which countries had the most visitors in a year compared to others. Also they provide information which clearly shows those countries which have seen a marked increase in the number of visitors from abroad visiting them. They also help to break down this list into the various continents showing which countries within Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas were the most popular.

A favourite holiday destination in Europe is Italy, closely followed by France, Spain, UK and Germany. 18% of all holidaymakers choose Europe because of its history and culture. The weather is even good in some places!

Some other destinations that are very popular with travellers are South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco – Travelling outside of Europe normally guarantees hot weather which is always great when holidaying.  Read more...

I am a professional photographer in Costa Rica. The experiences on my tours are many since I never know what my group and I will happen upon. Let me tell you about one of these surprising events.

During one of our Costa Rica Photo Tours, my group drove to a photography location in the beautiful and pristine Osa Peninsula which National Geographic has called “the most biologically diverse place” on earth. To get there we drove through the tiny village of Ojochal near where I live.

One of my groups discovered that moving day for some Costa Ricans can be rather unique. As my group and I were passing through the village we saw an incredible sight. But before I tell you the story let me tell you a bit about the man who was moving.

When we first moved to Costa Rica our only neighbours were Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves) and Senor Wilson (isn’t that Spanish or what?) brought us a house-warming gift of some flowering plants. It was quite humorous to see him standing at the top of our driveway holding some plants because, you see, he was too polite to come to our door without an invitation even though he was bearing a gift to welcome us.  Read more...

A Costa Rica scientific fin and satellite tagging expedition recently got underway at Cocos Island mapping its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.

Conservationists and researchers travel Costa Rica open waters for at least 30 hours in their quest of migration habits about these ancient marine animals.

They are engaged in a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that they hope will contribute to saving these marvelous reptilian mariners now endangered in much of their range.

Cocos Island was described by the famous oceanographer, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever encountered. The small island, only about nine square miles in size, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.

It was not the lovely sunsets and beaches that captivated Captain Cousteau. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have chosen as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. In those waters one finds incomparable treasure: huge schools of fish, porpoises, whales and turtles.  Read more...