Search results for "santo"

Largest of the many Islands of The Bahamas (104 x 40 miles), mysterious, mangrove-choked Andros is also the least explored, which means that you'll be sharing space with more terns and whistling tree ducks than humans--and maybe even a chickcharnie or two, those mischievous mythical inhabitants that are exclusive to this island. Reputed to be elfin creatures with three fingers, three toes, and red eyes, chickcharnies bring lifelong good luck to anyone lucky enough to see one. Andros even has its own "Loch Ness Monster," a dragon-like sea monster called the Lusca. No wonder the island was c...

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...

Captivated by the island he named Hispaniola on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, Columbus returned here the following year to build the first Spanish city in the Americas. Five centuries later, the natural beauty that attracted the explorer is still evident in the D.R.'s magnificent mountains (including the Caribbean's loftiest, 10,414-foot-high Pico Duarte), rivers, waterfalls, and flawless white-sand beaches. What Columbus couldn't have envisioned are the upscale resorts that line some of those beaches and the 20-plus golf courses (including some of the Caribbean...

In 1940, author John Steinbeck and his marine biologist friend, Ed Ricketts, journeyed into the seldom-visited Gulf of California to begin a Baja collecting expedition that was later immortalized in the book The Log from the Sea of Cortez. And what makes Baja’s many islands magical is that now, six decades after Steinbeck’s visit, they remain virtually unchanged. Which is why these remote, mostly uninhabited islands have become a prime destination for adventurous travelers looking for that rare combination of desert and blue sea. Not all of isles bordering the 800-mile-long peninsula a...

Santorini is a one-of-a-kind Greek island, a place where whitewashed villages seem to have been dropped gently from the sky onto steep cliffs overlooking the cobalt blue Aegean. Arriving at the island's old port is one of the great moments in travel: You anchor in the vast submerged caldera of a volcano, surrounded by crescent-shaped walls that rise dramatically from the sea.