Few cultural forms are more associated with the Dominican Republic than merengue music and the brisk, shuffling, hip-wagging dance that goes with it (no one’s exactly sure where the name comes from – sweet,…

I often miss the delightful ignorance of childhood, when the most important things in life were the simple pleasures of life itself.  We keep those memories somewhere in the archives of our brains, to be brought out occasionally by specific triggers such as smell and sound.  Our childhood friends were the best we ever had.  Most of us have people we take for granted, they’re called “parents”. It’s almost expected of that ignorance to limit our ability to appreciate.  But as we…

The tiny nature reserve at the extreme southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica seems too pretty and unassuming to have changed history, though it did.

The Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve – Costa Rica’s first privately…

Choosing seven wonders of the world seems like a very difficult task. Just like choosing seven wonders in a single country. The year 2008 saw the foundation of an internet movement to select the seven wonders of Brazil. The result of this selection is not very clear, so, here, we propose something more substantive and real in the country: a visit…

When our boat sailed into Patmos, we used the harbour at Grykos, rather than the main harbour at Skala. We shared the jetty with the Old Fisherman. The crew of our boat said that he was almost always there, patiently sitting in his little red boat, mending his nets. When he was out fishing, you know he’ll be back, when you see his three friends waiting for…

El sol siempre brilla sobre Guayaquil. La ciudad más poblada de…

If you've flown on any of American Airlines' 737s in the past year or two, you've seen bolted-in seat trays in rows 16 and 17 that prevent the middle seat from being occupied. The result: Seats A (window), C and…

Simply put, travelling abroad is one of the most enriching endeavours any person could undertake. The adventures savoured and…

In summer I decided to do some trekking with my friend. But I did not want to go to the place with lots of people there. We sought much, read many blogs and forums to find a proper place. Some places were too far, some were reserves with special restrictions, some too populous and etc. At last we made up our mind to ask for help to a travel company. We made up our mind to use the service of …

Just the other day I had the chance to get an all-too-brief taste of Norway’s second city before boarding a weeklong Hurtigruten cruise up the coast, and OMG what a right little gem I found Bergen to be. Well, if you can call a city of 266,000 “little” – but honestly, how the locals describe it really does feel totally true: essentially,you could think of it as the world’s…

With the beach facing west, the winds coming from behind pushed us away from shore until the beach was a distant white line. I was surprised that my sailing instructor had let us float that far out, so I said something about the first-ever sailing lesson at a…

Story and photos by Mary Gallagher



Next time you see one of those special airfare sales to LAX or are there on business seriously think about visiting lovely Redondo Beach for a few days. Just a 7-10 minute cab ride from the airport opens a whole world of relaxation and fun and a number of beach side hotels. Best of all you won’t even need a car.



Redondo Beach with its population of fewer than 70,000, its Redondo Beach Pier, International…

Iguazú Falls are located in Iguazú National Park, in the extreme north east of Argentina and bordering Brazil. Surrounding the beautiful waterfalls at Iguazú are tales of ambition and power, fruits of the imaginations of travelers who have ventured within them. Before the falls can be seen,…

I recently got back from a family vacation to a place we’d never been before: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. When I say a family vacation, I don’t just mean my husband, son and I. Oh, no. Every so often my extended family swarms together to go to some exotic place for a celebration. The last one that included my father was in 2005, to Italy, for my parents’ 50th wedding…

A television programme dealing with the some of the thousand-odd islands around the British Isles caught my attention. Brief visits were made to many of my favourite islands, including one to my very favourite, the little-known but fascinating Piel.

Piel lies off the Cumbrian coast, at the mouth of the Walney Channel, near Barrow in Furness. It isn’t a large…

The slow-moving sloths of Costa Rica are streaking into the limelight with their own weeklong online special program. Starting June 20, 2014, Animal Planet and Animalist will stream daily footage from the…

Having started my career in the travel industry right after I returned from a yearlong backpacking excursion, I learned at a young age how to live with locals and experience familiarity wherever I traveled.

And now, over the past few years there has been a shift in travel values.…