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![]() On this Indonesian island, the hills are alive with the music of gamelan - By Mary Roach The telephone directory for Pengosekan, Bali, is short but confusing. Of 200 listings, almost all contain a Dewa, the name of the person I'm looking for. Dewa is a much used Balinese caste name, and while not everyone chooses to be called by their caste name, that's still a lot of Dewas.
"Better you just go there," says a waiter at my hotel, in the neighboring town of Ubud. I mention that the Dewa I am seeking is a gamelan musician.
"Walk down the street and listen," says the waiter. "You are sure to find him."
The advice is astute: Bali is an island best navigated by the senses...
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Location: Articles |
![]() North America If the wilds of coastal Alaska seem a little tame for you, head west to Unalaska. Set in the heart of the 1,000-mile-long Aleutian chain, this rugged outpost was a Russian fur trade outpost in the 18th century and a U.S. military stronghold in WWII. Today it’s home to Alaska’s largest commercial fishing fleet.
Nearly all of the island’s residents are tied to the fishing industry in the town’s working port of Dutch Harbor, but visitors can hike amid fields of wildflowers, pick wild berries, go mountain biking, climb several volcanic peaks, kayak along wilderness coastlines (sea otters and whales..
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Location: North America |
![]() New Caledonia This is an Ile des Pins story: During the world windsurfing championships held in New Caledonia in 1999, board sailors suddenly stopped in the middle of the competition and dropped their sails to take in the sheer beauty of the Isle of Pines…Yes, another contender for the most-beautiful-island-on-the-planet title.
Capt. James Cook named it in 1774 for the tree-rich landscape, but it’s the gloriously clear waters offshore, bordered by some of the most stunning beaches (Kuto and Kanumera are the best known) in the entire South Pacific, that enthrall travel-weary visitors. This is an island made..
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Be the first to RankLocation: South Pacific |
![]() Canada Look across the landscape – red dirt, green fields, blue ocean – and you could swear you're in Hawaii, not in eastern Canada. OK, so the field crop is potato, not sugar cane, and the water can freeze to the shoreline in winter, but Prince Edward Island has – hold onto your aloha shirt – fine beaches and nearly two dozen golf courses.
P.E.I., as the island is often called, is a perfect playground for bicycling and hiking, and working up an appetite has its rewards – perhaps Canada’s finest cuisine, based not just on potatoes but lobster, the island’s renowned blue mussels, and Malpeque oysters.
Music..
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Location: North America |
![]() Florida Keys As you drive south into the Florida Keys, you’ll see the signs for the first of the islands…Key Largo. If you’re a fan of old movies, you’ll probably think of Bogart and Bacall, trapped with some gangsters in a hotel during a hurricane. Key Largo was mostly filmed on a Hollywood sound stage, but the script was written in the island’s only hotel at the time, and the 1948 classic helped create the mystique of the keys as the last-chance, tropical end-of-the-road on the Atlantic Seaboard.
Today Key Largo, the longest in the island chain, is a popular bedroom community and a favorite stop for..
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Be the first to RankLocation: North America > Florida Keys |
![]() Portugal In the 1800s, the island of Pico was a familiar port of call for Nantucket whalers, a remote Atlantic island famed in both America and Europe for its fine verdelho wine, and considered perhaps the loveliest of the Azores. Sadly, those grape vines were lost to disease before the century ended, but reminders of the isle’s whaling heritage are still evident on Pico today – and although jets have made the Portuguese archipelago a little less remote, the world of modern tourism has mostly passed by this chain of nine islands.
And a lovely chain it is, with vast green patchworks of farms and fields..
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Be the first to RankLocation: Europe |
![]() your idea of vacation fun starts with sand, sun, sea, and nonstop action, then you'll love Cancun. It wasn't always that way. In the 1970s Cancun was just a long sandspit and a small fishing village. The Mexican government, however, had a different future in mind for those white-sand beaches and that turquoise water, and now the resort island is dotted with about 100 hotels that can handle some to 2 million visitors a year. Much of the Cancun experience has been crafted to reflect popular American tastes. If you want to party till dawn, it's no problema.
You can also shop till..
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Location: Caribbean Islands / Central America |
![]() South Pacific Bora-Bora has been called the world's most beautiful island so many times, it's almost a cliche. But as the saying goes, there's a lot of truth in cliches: Spectacular peaks soaring over the world's most beautiful lagoon (not much argument there) offer a vision of the classic South Pacific paradise. It's a vision that many visitors (a sizable number of them honeymooners) experience from the luxury of an overwater bungalow at one of the several world-class resorts scattered around the island. When you can swim, snorkel, or canoe from your front porch, you may not feel an urgent..
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Be the first to RankLocation: South Pacific |
![]() Islands of Fiji In a world where even small remote islands have become popular tourist destinations, it's increasingly rare to find a sizable South Pacific isle that has remained largely undeveloped. And therein lies the basic charm of Vanua Levu, the second largest among Fiji's 300 or so islands.
Just over 100 miles long Vanua Levu (pronounced vah-NEW-ah LAY-vu) is a good base for adventurous souls who prefer rainforest hikes, bird-watching, and snorkeling to, say, golf, tennis, and spas. The interior of the island is rugged, and green fields of sugar cane cover the north and west coasts like a scene..
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Location: South Pacific > Islands of Fiji |
![]() Islands of Fiji Taveuni is sometimes called Fiji's "Garden Isle," and while it has spectacular landscapes, the island is best known for its diving – some of the finest in the South Pacific.
But this is not diving for the novice. Sites in the Somosomo Strait, a narrow channel between Taveuni and the larger island of Vanua Levu, are renowned for their amazing walls of soft corals – and for the strong currents that can unsettle beginning divers. For the experienced, the rewards of diving the famed 20-mile-long Rainbow Reef include tropical fish beyond count (one site that lives up to its name: The Fish Factory,..
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Location: South Pacific > Islands of Fiji |






































