Archives for February 2011

Photo of the Day: Ephesus

February 28, 2011 By Jillian

A close-up of the incredible Greek ruins at Ephesus in Turkey. While parts of the site have been significantly restored, you can still get an idea of the original detail carved into the buildings.

Special thanks to Flickr user Diego Balinhas for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Turkey click here.

Our PHOTO PAGE has links to all of our collections on Flickr. Be sure to mark some of your own favorites so that we can include them on this column. We’ll be highlighting a different photo every day.

European Luxury: Hotel De Mallorca

February 27, 2011 By Guest Blogger

Thanks to Martin Ross for today’s guest post. If you are interested in guest posting with IShouldLogOff, email us at info [at] ishouldlogoff.com. Thanks!

Mallorca, a typical hub for British tourists or an unsung gem of the Mediterranean? Off the east coast of the Spanish mainland, this beautiful island boasts rugged mountains, sandy beaches and a rich, cultural history prevalent in customs, language and architecture. The weather forecast is just as impressive as the island itself; during July and August tourists can expect at least eleven hours of sun a day and scorching temperatures. As if that wasn’t enough, Mallorca has recently become a popular destination for the rich and famous- don’t be surprised if you see Claudia Schiffer sun bathing on her yacht off the coast of Palma. With such a prestigious clientele, the island must have equally prestigious accommodation. Mallorca has many exquisite hotels, cottages and estates on offer…

The Castillo Hotel Son Vida, a 13^th century castle with stunning views of the bay of Palma is the definite place to stay if money is no object. Surrounded by golf courses and sub-tropical parkland, this hotel has earned all of its five stars without question. Or, for those of you that like to indulge in total relaxation, why not stay at the Marriot Mallorca? This hotel is home to the most renowned spa facilities on the island and is only a stone throw way from local beaches and historic villages. The hotel rooms are also extremely impressive with breathtaking views of the ocean.

If hotels are not for you then fear not. Mallorca is home to a wealth of varied and exciting places to stay. For total tranquillity, the Puig Sant Salvador in Felantix, a former monastery, has opened its doors to tourists. La Creveta, a charming converted farmhouse in Pollenca is also well worth consideration. With a private pool and within walking distance to fabulous tapas bars and dining places, this is perfect for the ultimate chill-out. The villa of Fin es Fasser is equally stunning. Situated in the small village of Calogne, this villa boasts a large swimming pool, a beautiful, roomy dining room and is perfect for a family holiday.

So there you have it. Whether you are looking for hotels, villas, converted farmhouses or renovated monasteries of all things, Mallorca can offer it all. Typical tourist spot-maybe. Unsung gem of the Mediterranean- definitely.

Good Animal, Bad Animal & Ugly Animal

February 25, 2011 By Danny

There are a lot of animals in the world and we aimed to see all of them. Of course we didn’t but, we seem to have had a lot of animal experiences over our travels. Here are just a few:

The Good

Our first week on the road was an amazing one. Waking up the first morning in Guerro Negro, Mexico, jumping on a boat, and having what is probably the most amazing experience possible with a wild animal was fantastic. The boat tour that we took brought us out into the harbor where the gray whales literally just swam right up to our boat to play with us and allow us to pet them. The newborn calf led his mother and when a second boat stole his attention his mom swam right up so we could continue rubbing her skin. These were wild animals and we never gave them any food. The next few days, further south in La Paz, we took a boat ride around Espiritu Santo where we were visited by (not so nice) pilot whales, a humpback whale, jumping rays and for a finale we snorkeled with some very friendly and playful sea lions.

The Bad

Our trip to the Pantanal saw some practices that we find particularly upsetting. We went fishing for piranhas in the river, a perfectly OK activity and one we’d done just weeks earlier in the Bolivian Amazon, and then returned to the lodge with our catch. Upon our arrival we found the beach littered with caiman (the South American version of the alligator) who were just waiting to eat those fresh piranha…and they were fed, right there on that sandy beach. We consider it a bad practice whenever animals are given the opportunity to link humans with food, the reason we did not go diving with the great white sharks in South Africa. We were also annoyed when bait was tossed into the river for a hawk to come and catch…creating a nice, fake photo opportunity each time that hawk came down to eat.

The Ugly

The whales of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula were wonderful, many of the mammals we encountered in Africa were not quite so accommodating. After spending gobs of money to see the rare mountain gorillas of Uganda, we were more than a bit surprised when our welcoming by these animals was one of dominance by one of the group’s males. The gorilla charged us, actually knocking one of the guides to the ground; it was an authentic experience but more than a touch scary. Runner Up: Also in Africa, one elephant in Kruger National Park just didn’t want us get past him. This elephant just stood in the road, blocking our passing, and when we finally were able to make a run for it, he turned and reared his head….VERY unhappy at our having passed by. Jill wasn’t able to enjoy elephants again, which was problematic because we saw lots more.

This column of ishouldlogoff.com aims to answer those questions that we always get asked. What was your favorite this, or your worst that. Every week we aim to highlight a new topic and will do so until we run out of ideas. If you have an idea for a Good-Bad-Ugly post, feel free to tell us in the comment section below or send us an email. To read all of them, click here.

Photo of the Day: Elephant Family

February 25, 2011 By Jillian

Momma is watching over the new elephant calf while her teenager is taking the opportunity to tell the inbound safari vehicle that it better stay away. Although this is common, with ear flapping and trunk blowing to boot, it doesn’t make things any more comfortable to us. Add to that the dirt this guy has thrown on his trunk to keep cool, which looks to us like war paint, and we get the hint.

Special thanks to Flickr users Art Wen Photography and Imagery for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Tanzania click here.

Reflections on our Budget

February 24, 2011 By Danny

We recently participated in a column where several travelers compared their budgets head-to-head. We were surprised to see that we spent less per month than any other traveler featured on the page. This got us pondering why and how this happened and reflecting on if there had been anything we regret skipping on account of our budget.

More to the point though; did keeping to our budget leave us with any lingering regrets? We have a few, but as we discussed them last night a certain peace came over us as we realized there weren’t too many, and they weren’t huge things that we feel cheated from enjoying.

Patagonia – We spent a lot of time busing down to the tip of Argentina and back up again. In hindsight we wished we’d take the ferry down the Chilean coast of Patagonia to where we hiked the W and then worked our way back up. We would have seen far more (courtesy of the ‘cruise-like’ ferry) and broken up the return journey north a bit better. We also might have had slightly nicer weather in Bariloche , Argentina. Cost was the principle driver in not taking the ferry but timings, a desire to hit some whitewater in Pucon, and a hope of getting to Antarctica all combined to help us make the wrong decision.
After hiking Kilmanjaro, enjoying a Safari, whitewater boogie boarding in Jinja, and paying the bill for Gorilla tracking in Uganda…we were feeling like we’d completely destroyed our bank accounts in a matter of days. This led us to bus across Kenya from Uganda to coastal Lamu. We soon wished we’d flown. The flights didn’t work out perfectly but it would have been better than that hectic 24 hours of bus after bus after bus. At that point in time we also had no idea how we were going to be heading north to Ethiopia and were expecting to fork over some major cash for big, last-minute African airfares in the coming weeks.

It seems that there were two very big keys to keeping our costs down. First, overland travel meant sleeping on buses and trains rather than paying for constant airfares. We decided early on that we enjoyed traveling this way and don’t regret that decision. Second, we spent only one month in Europe and skipped on Australia and New Zealand. Although we’d hoped to make it to the South Pacific, we were simply too tired and homesick when the time came. Our route also kept us traveling most of the time in shoulder seasons where the climate wasn’t quite perfect (not a lot of vacationers driving prices up) but still good enough for us to enjoy ourselves. The only time the whole trip we had to deal with high season was while we were traveling through Turkey.

While in the Americas we generally erred on the side of keeping to our budgets and passing on the big items (e.g. Galapagos Islands) because we are from United States and those sites are much easier to enjoy to later in life than say, Uzbekistan. For the rest of the planet, we adopted a mental policy of treating ourselves to the big ticket items if we wanted to do them. Faced with $100-$200 bungee jumping and adventure swings in South Africa and Zimbabwe, we decided to skip and don’t regret those decisions….We also don’t regret the big bucks we spent for game viewing, visas, and climbing mountains.

Although many travel with philosophies that differ from ours, we all have budgets and all make decisions…both good and bad.