Location: Crete, Greece
What's Cool: Hiking the beach's rocky outcrops
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With its cobalt blue waters, sun-bleached cottages, ancient ruins and red sandstone cliffs, Crete's Red Beach is picturesque to say the least. Made famous in 1968 when hippies from across Europe flocked to its shores, the resort at Red Beach has remained a naturist favorite for its rustic charm and its tolerance (nudity is allowed everywhere except the dining room). Visitors to Red Beach will find the area's ancient caves interesting, as well as sunken bits of his...
Sunday is the perfect day to go to the beach in Tonga – if you're a visitor; an islander found swimming on the Sabbath is subject to a fine. Yes, they do take their religion seriously in the "Friendly Isles."
Tonga, like its neighbor to the west, Fiji, is not just one island, but an entire archipelago of far-flung isles. In Tonga's case, the islands number about 170 (only about 45 are inhabited), geographically divided into four distinct groups. Tongatapu, with the capital of Nuku'alofa, is the hub of this island chain in western Polynesia. Two of every three Tongans live here ...
Geography
New Zealand is situated the same distance eastwards from Australia as London is to Moscow. So if anybody tells you it's right next to Australia, tell them to go away.
It is bigger than Connecticut, but smaller than Canada.
There are two main islands - The North Island and The South Island. There is also about a zillion other islands dotted around and about, none of which need concern you.
The South Island is slightly bigger than the North Island, but South Islanders that refer to themselves as "Mainlanders" are *&^%$#.
The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland,...
New Zealand, if you didn't know, is actually two islands. Generally speaking, the North Island equals beaches, and the South Island equals mountains. There is, as you might guess, a bit more to it than that, but the formula does reflect the great Down Under passion for the outdoors.
The unmatched scenery includes rain forests and glaciers, rivers and lakes loaded with trophy trout, alpine mountains with superb skiing, and the kind of hiking found on the Milford Track, touted as “the finest walk in the world.”. Yes, these Kiwis are an active bunch: They invented bungy jumping, believe t...
In the days when sugar was the engine that drove the economy of the West Indies, Nevis was known as the "Queen of the Caribbees. " That was a tribute in part to the island's natural beauty, and also to the glittering social life in the plantation houses – a time epitomized by the courtship of a dashing young British naval officer, Horatio Nelson, and his soon-to-be-bride, Fanny Nisbet. What's remarkable about Nevis is that it has lost neither its natural heritage nor its sense of history.
Until recently those plantation houses, transformed into stylish, intimate country inns, set th...
Kailua, meaning "two seas," is a beautiful community located on the scenic southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Kailua’s beach park has become known as the windsurfing capital of the world. Its steady off shore trade wind, a protective coral reef and consistent water temperature of 75° Fahrenheit (25° C) makes Kailua perfect for year round water sports.
Kailua Beach has been rated by Conde Nast as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world so many times that is has been removed from the Conde Naste list to allow other beaches a chance to win. This is also the most popular ...
Manuel Antonio National Park
The three sweeping strands of pristine white beach that flow into the Pacific Ocean are only part of what makes this place paradise. Manuel Antonio National Park is where the jungle meets the sea. The beaches are long, wide and covered with beautiful soft sand, bordered by tall evergreen jungle on one side, and blue Pacific Ocean on the other. Cliffs overgrown by dense jungle vegetation surround the beaches and in spots the forest sweeps down to the edge of the water sheltering swimmers from the sun. In order to protect the parks eco-system, entrance to the park...
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 o...
Several islands lay claim to their own “Bali Hai,” but it was on Vanuatu’s largest island, Espiritu Santo, that James Michener, gazing over the blue Pacific toward a nearby island during WWII, found his original South Pacific inspiration.
Like Fiji, Vanuatu is not actually an island but rather a chain of islands. Once known as the New Hebrides, the archipelago is an endless chain of fine beaches, amazing diving, volcanoes, the scent of frangipani in the air…in other words, all the stage settings for a few classic tales of the South Pacific. On the main island, Efate, the capital of Port Vi...
Some time ago, say in the 1930s and 1940s, the very mention of "Borneo" conjured up the world of jungle, orangutans, and adventurers such as "Bring 'em Back Alive Frank Buck". And in many ways, the island still lives up to the billing of one of the "last best places" for adventure. Geographically, the northern part of the island includes the tiny (but very wealthy) kingdom of Brunei, sandwiched between two, much larger Malaysian states – Sabah and Sarawak – while an Indonesian province, Kalimantan, fills the map of central and southern Borneo.
Most visitors these days head for the "eco...
