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 ...
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 m...
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...
Divers and fly-fishermen know Caye Caulker well, but it’s only in recent years that the island has become a popular Belizean getaway for that vast tribe of savvy travelers who judge a place by the availability of hammocks, cold beer, and time for a good book.
The island, which sits less than a mile inside Belize’s long barrier reef, is just four miles long and the streets are white sand (which helps explain why golf carts are the most popular way of getting around). Locals say that if you want to know what San Pedro, the main town on neighboring Ambergris Caye, 12 miles to the north, was l...
It's never been all that easy to get to Hiva Oa – and that was part of the attraction for the likes of Paul Gauguin (who came here to escape the "Western influences" in the Tahiti of 1901), and Thor Heyerdahl (who, a decade before sailing Kon Tiki across the Pacific, came here with his young bride to live the "simple life. " And some things haven't changed – particularly the drop-dead natural beauty of the Marquesas Islands.
The most northern island group in French Polynesia, (nearly a thousand miles from Tahiti), the Marquesas are rugged volcanic islands: There is no barrier reef ...
Lanai was the quiet, overlooked Hawaiian island, a large pineapple plantation – until a little over a decade ago, when its owners decided that the island's future rested with tourists rather than pineapples. The result is a pair of high-end resorts – one nestled in the mountainous uplands, the other on the sea – that pride themselves on providing sophisticated creature comforts on an island whose only other distractions are its natural beauty.
Visitors to the seaside Manele Bay Hotel favor snorkeling, exploring tide pools, trolling for tuna, and scuba diving, while guests at the inland...
Ask any surfer about the curls at Jeffreys Bay - J-Bay to anyone who ever waxed a board - and watch their eyes frost over with delight at the thought of that swell, those tubes and the most consistent wave formations in South Africa, a place that knows about surf.
J-Bay is in Eastern Cape, an area with some of South Africa's wildest coastline, which is backed by some of Africa's most spectacular sub-tropical rainforest. Once a sleepy hollow, J-Bay is now a flashy town with rampant development: low-rise apartment blocks, beachside resorts and chrome-benched cafes are becoming the nor...
Bali, a tropical island in the Indonesian archipelago, is so picturesque and immaculate it could almost be a painted backdrop. It has rice paddies tripping down hillsides like giant steps, volcanoes soaring up through the clouds, dense tropical jungle, long sandy beaches, warm blue water, crashing surf and friendly people who don't just have a culture but actually live it. In Bali spirits come out to play in the moonlight, every night is a festival and even a funeral is an opportunity to have a good time.
Bali Island, the perfect holiday destination for all ages offers something for eve...
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 ...
You might say there are two types of visitors who come to the Mamanucas Islands of Fiji: Hardcore surfers and anyone else looking for a small, private island paradise.
The surfers have been making the journey to these stunning coral islands since the mid-1980s, since word first started to get around about an extraordinary surf spot called Cloudbreak off Tavarua Island. Meanwhile, the trend toward exclusive private island resorts blossomed throughout Fiji, especially in the Mamanucas, close to Fiji's international airport in Nadi on the island of Viti Levu.
Tavarua remains a surfer’...
