Menjangan Island-the name means "deer"-hangs just offshore of the mountainous point in far northwestern Bali. Because the island is in a protected position, currents and wind-generate waves are rarely a bother, and the reefs here offer fine diving, particularly for beginning and intermediate divers. Occasionally, the water can be crystal clear-a snorkeler, distinct, 50 meters above you-and the rest of the time visibility seldom drops to less than 25 meters.The island is part of Bali Barat National Park, a protected reserve area that encompasses much of Bali's little-populated western end. ...
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
What's Cool: Browsing hand-made crafts on Vendors' Row
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Named for a hulking, wrecked vessel that once sat on the sand, Wreck Beach is the shore of choice for Vancouver students. Just several hundred steps below the University of British Columbia, the three-mile-long beach is a wildlife and nesting area for both bald eagles and bald bodies. Other sections of the beach assume a more carnival-like atmosphere. One stretch on the beach known as Vendors' Row is a one-stop shop for souvenirs, refreshments an...
Location: Australia
What's Cool: The annual Nude Olympics
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Relaxed and lively is the only way to describe Samurai Beach, which backs up onto Bardot's Clothing Optional Resort in Port Stephens. On this half-mile stretch of white sand, nudists let it all hang out while taking part in volleyball, tug-of-war and Frisbee. As one of the sportiest nude beaches worldwide, it is only appropriate that Samurai Beach hosts the annual Nude Olympics every November. Events include the Nude Torch Relay, Nude Surfing and the Nude Beach Girl and Guy Competitio...
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...
Nude Beach. The very mention of these two words often arouses feelings of titillation, embarrassment, outrage or even a combination of the three. For the thousands of people involved in the naturist movement worldwide, however, the idea of a nude beach seems, well, natural. After all, we all come into this world wearing only our birthday suits.
Nude and topless beaches first became popular along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of France in the 1950s. Since then, several beaches from Crete to the Caribbean have become "clothing optional."
Below is a list of some of the best stretche...
St. Lucia is the sort of island that travellers to the Caribbean dream about--a small, lush tropical gem that is still relatively unknown. One of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located midway down the Eastern Caribbean chain, between Martinique and St. Vincent, and north of Barbados. St. Lucia is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide, with a shape that is said to resemble either a mango or an avocado (depending on your taste). The Atlantic Ocean kisses its eastern shore, while the beaches of the west coast owe their beauty to the calm Caribbean Sea.
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 s...
Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, is widely known as the home of Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor. If we viewed the island from the air (a look at the Acadia map will do), we would notice north and south aligned gouges scooped out of the land as if by a very large hand. Indeed, in this case, the hand was that of a huge, slow moving, continental glacier over a mile high,... 2 miles thick in some places. When this giant glacier finally melted and retreated, it left rounded mountain tops, long lakes, many boulders, and the 7 mile long Somes Sound - the only fjord on the ...
Ten thousand years ago, glaciers pushed their way down the East Coast and left behind the rocks and soil that was to form this little paradise that we call home. The result was a cozy community (only around 800 folks in the winter), a land of stunning vistas and a very fragile ecosystem that we have had the good fortune to preserve for all to share. Because of the particular forces of nature that went to work on Block Island, no other place on earth shares its geography, nor its balance of species. A rarity, indeed.
Block Island is a rarity in another sense; it's a place that moves at ...
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 w...