Top Notch Choices For Traveling In The Caribbean Islands

If you have never traveled to the islands of the Caribbean you don’t know what you’re missing, it is truly paradise if such a place exists. The Caribbean Sea runs from South America up to the Gulf of Mexico and meets with the Atlantic Ocean on the East.

It is not surprising that it is the vacation destination of choice for North and South America with natural beauty rarely seen any where else on the planet. Some of the islands feature lush mountains lined with coconut trees and valleys filled with sugar cane and bananas but it is the beaches and the azure waters that bring people back time after time.

When you see how beautiful the Caribbean Islands are you will understand why the British, Spanish, and the French fought over them for centuries after the area was found by Columbus when he got lost trying to find a short cut to India. You will still find the influences of the former colonial dictatorships on St. Croix, Bermuda, Aruba, and other islands with a mixture of both the native cultures and the culture of the colonists who settled there.

There are well over fifty distinctive island vacation spots to choose from with some of them, like the Bahamas, having dozens of islands themselves. One thing is sure; you will never be cold in the Caribbean!

The island of New Providence in the Bahamas is sometimes called Nassau by mistake because that is where the capital of the Bahamas is located. This island, which is a short hop from the east coast of Florida, is home to the majority of Bahamians and is also an offshore financial center with millions of dollars being invested and sheltered there. There is also of course, the famous shopping on Bay Street and the little side streets nearby. Be sure to take in the flavor of the local music as well, which is as famous as the azure waters around the islands.

Another top choice in the Bahamas is Eleuthera, one of the outermost islands and also one of the least developed. If it is your goal to go to a beautiful place that is sparsely populated and a little more primitive, this would be my suggestion. Eleuthera has little night life to speak of, unless you consider the little bar, Elvira’s where Lenny Kravitz is known to hang out sometimes. Lenny owns a house there, his mom is Bahamian.

Almost anyplace you stay will be walking distance to the beach and the different areas of the island are so diverse you would probably have to make several trips to be able to appreciate them all. We stayed for a month and still didn’t get to see everything we wanted. You will definitely want a rental car though because the taxi service is unreliable at best and there is no public transportation. Picking up hitch hikers is an everyday occurrence and a fun way to integrate into the culture.

Top Notch Choices For Traveling In The Caribbean Islands / Gregg Hall

Gregg Hall is an author and internet marketing consultant living in Navarre Florida. For more on car rentals for your vacation go to http://www.economycarrentalagency.com

Is Hotel The Rich Cousin of Motel?

No one can claim he/she has not stayed in a hotel at least once in life. For those traveling for business, pleasure or for that matter, any other reason, hotels have come to become home away from their homes. Why travelers prefer hotels over motels when all they provide are same? Well, motels by far differ from hotels in their functionality, additional services, and construction. Motels have their room doors opening to exteriors to their driveway while hotel rooms open to interiors. Apart from other regular guest services that hotels provide, you can also plan your business meetings, conferences or even large conventions in some hotels, which is a far cry at motels. What is more, even the locations of hotels are also conveniently located unlike the traditional motels, which invariably cater to highway travelers who just stay by night.

The word hotel has originated from French, which referred to townhouse before being known universally as it is today.

What Is Star Classification of Hotels The star classification of hotels indicates the type and quality of service available at any hotel. The enormous explosion of tourism in the last century has necessitated star classification for the benefit of discerning tourist public.

International and national tourism agencies along with respective governments rate and classify hotels on a scale of one to five stars. However, if you thought there is a standards body which classifies all the hotels of this world, here, you are in for a surprise. The attempts by interested industry captains have failed thus far and the standardization has been elusive till date.

What Do Star Ratings Mean Briefly the ratings mean this: One star: An inexpensive, low budget hotel which may not have maid or room service. Quite affordable by middle class Two star: Marginally expensive and may have once a day maid service Three star: A budget hotel which boasts of maid and room service, internet and health club service in addition to having a swimming pool Four star: Expensive hotels by even middle class travelers; offers many luxury services in addition to afore mentioned services Five star: Stands testimony to final word in luxury and are very expensive anywhere in the world. They offer countless innovative extras. Some of them boast of private airports and golf courses.

If you thought this was all, sample this. There are some unusual hotels too. · Treehouse hotels · Underwater hotels · Cave hotels · Ice hotels etc

Hotels are not far behind in records making. For example: Burj-al-Arab, Dubai, is the tallest hotel at 321 meters and the honors for being largest hotel goes to Ambassador City Jomtien with 5100 rooms at Pattaya Thailand.

Is Hotel The Rich Cousin of Motel? / Namsing Then

NamSing Then is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Hotel and Motel

Med Island Defends Tourists

Frequent incidents of tourists being confronted in the street while on holiday in the Mediterranean has led to Malta taking action against the timeshare companies who employ sales staff to seek out possible visiting buyers.

Complaints have risen in recent years from holiday makers who have had their time on the island spoiled by being approached on a daily basis to attend presentations – that can last up to four hours -in the hope that some will buy into holiday property ownership and timeshares.

But the Malta tourist authorities have seen the damage it is doing to the island’s economy, and have decided to act.

‘It has come to the stage in Malta’, comments Roger Munns of Malta travel guide YourMalta, ‘that some holiday makers are being approached on a daily basis – sometimes twice a day – by timeshare touts who get paid a commission for every potential buyer they persuade to take to a presentation. As well as the feeling of not being able to go out without being accosted by these people some were giving verbal abuse to those who declined, or simply followed them down the street after being told no – and hounding tourists’.

With the tourism market vital to the Malta economy, the Malta Tourist Authority recognised that some visitors would be so put off the island by high pressure sales people that they wouldn’t return – potentially losing Malta millions in lost revenue from repeat visitors.

‘In today’s world,’ explain YourMalta, ‘Malta has to compete with new destinations in Europe as well as Spain and her islands. Cheap Malta flights aren’t in themselves enough to sustain tourism at reasonable levels anymore, although this will be welcome, but the trick of sustained tourism is to have repeat business, and timeshare touts bothering visitors to the island are enough in some cases to make sure that repeat visits don’t happen.’

The legislation the tourist authorities needed to be able to protect the tourists has recently been passed, and the Malta Tourist Authority is planning to outsource security patrols to police the timeshare touts. And in a clever move designed to enforce the legislation effectively, the Malta Tourist Authority are being paid around 3000 Euros for each rep the timeshare companies employ for a bond that will allow them to work in a regulated way. Instead of waiting to take each incident through the courts the MTA will be fining the companies found breaking the rules and taking the money out of the deposited bond money, with the timeshare companies having to make it up immediately to the required amount.

Hotels In Malta

YourMalta say they welcome the stance the Malta Tourist Authority are taking to protect the visitors to the island, and cite recent examples of why action has become necessary.

In two recent cases, British tourists have been targetted, by young male and female timeshare reps, and while some were based outside hotels in Malta others were driving around in cars and stopping tourists as though they were going to ask for directions pointing to a map of Malta before delivering their sales pitch, with some more persistent than others.

The timeshare reps are predominantly from the UK and targetting UK tourists who visit the island for the good weather in Malta, and the UK is a main market for Malta. On occasions the British tourists have had to resort to threaten violence to be left in peace, with the timeshare reps retorting that they were only trying to make a living.

‘In truth’, comment YourMalta, ‘While the timeshare reps are trying to make commission, for every penny they earn they could be losing the Malta economy far more with every approach they make as the tourists soon get fed up with the persistent efforts to sell them something they don’t want. Those tourists are sometimes having their whole holiday spoiled and are less likely to return.

The last thing the island needs is for tourists to step off their Air Malta flight to be accosted before they even reach their hotel with a sales pitch that reminds them of double glazing salesmen back home. The Malta Tourist Authority tell us they will come down on any culprits like a ton of bricks.

We welcome the pro-active stance taken by the Malta Tourist Authority to protect the British visitor and to ensure that they can enjoy their holiday, which will hopefully be the first of many to Malta. The Malta Tourist Authority is to be commended for not only recognising the problem, but taking action to ensure the Maltese economy doesn’t lose millions in lost revenue from unhappy Brits who might otherwise take their spending money elsewhere in the future’.

Time alone will tell if Malta can protect her visitors.

Med Island Defends Tourists / Roger Munns

Your Malta produce a travel guide for Malta and Malta property . It includes a map of Malta and the weather in Malta