Vacation to Hawaii

Even though the Hawaiian Islands are part of the United States they are absolutely an exotic location to vacation. The culture is fantastic as is the weather and diverse landscape!

We escorted a group of 54 people to Hawaii. We flew from Ohio to Honolulu. Now at this time we had been using a third party travel company to arrange our group travel for us. They are out of NJ and will remain nameless. First class ground transportation was supposed to have been arranged for our group to take a short trip from the airport to the Marriott on Waikiki Beach. All we can say is never use a bus service by a person named Aunt Hattie! Seems our “used-to-be” travel company went on the cheap with our ground transportation. If you held your fingers near the window you could almost feel the AC in these vintage 1960’s buses. We ended up putting one of our suitcases on the ground for a step at the hotel because the hydraulics’ didn’t work and they couldn’t lower the bus closer to the ground.

Remember this blog is not all fluff. If we come across something you should be aware of we will mention it.

OK enough of that! The Marriott Resort at Waikiki was beautiful. The beach was spectacular as was our view of Diamond Head. Several of our group made the trek up Diamond Head the next morning.

We found there was a free concert at the open air bar every Sunday evening by locally famous Martin Pahinui and his band playing traditional Hawaiian slack key guitar, lap steel guitar and singing traditional Hawaiian songs. Very nice!

Waikiki is a vibrant and beautiful area. The prices are a bit spendy but that goes with the area. If you are a bit hungry or are just looking for small gifts to take home you will want to stop in the ABC stores. They are located everywhere. ABC’s carry inexpensive sandwiches and drinks along with basic needs like sunscreen, Hawaiian shirts and other gifts at better than gift store prices.

We did discover the International Market Place on Kalakaua Ave. This is a large open air market within walking distance of the hotel. There are many different vendors to choose from here. We also stumbled across a small open air breakfast buffet that was really great. Lots of fresh fruits, melons and regular buffet items. All you can eat for only $5. Our point being don’t be afraid to explore and ask the locals where they go.

From here we took a short ride to the cruise docks and boarded the Norwegian Cruise Line ship Pride of America.

NCL started the whole Free Style Dining experience for cruise ships. One tip I would pass on to you is: once you get settled in take a tour of all the restaurants and choose any that you want to have reservations in. Make your reservations the first or the second day in advance as the premium dining times do fill up. Just a tip to get you a head of the game.

Taking a cruise line, like NCL, is really the best way to see the Hawaiian Islands. All of your meals and lodging are already paid for. You don’t have to pay for inter-island transportation or any other extras, except maybe any shore excursions you want to indulge in. We took a couple excursions, but on two of the islands a group of us rented a van and shared the cost and driving and toured on our own. It was great!

Points to remember:

If you learn just two words in Hawaiian, learn these. They are two of the most important words in the Hawaiian language. Aloha and mahalo pronounced ah loh hah and mah hah loh.

The other thing you will see often is the unique wave. With your palm facing inward point your thumb up while curling your middle three fingers toward your palm and extending your pinky. Now flex your hand at the wrist up and down. That's it you have it!

You can view pictures of some of the sites we visited in Hawaii by clicking the link Hawaii Pictures to the left.

If you have interest in vacationing to the fabulous Hawaiian Islands please contact us at travel@sandtravel.com or visit our website at http://www.sandtravel.com/

Sally & Norm

Bermuda as a Destination

Thinking about traveling to Bermuda? Here are a few tips, highlights and pictures from a group we escorted there.

Bermuda is a unique culture blended with a proper English tradition and dynamic lively African natives, American and Spanish Caribbean people.

If you are fortunate you will catch a performance by a local Gombey dance troupe. They are unique to the culture. Dressed in colorful hand made customs and until recently having no written form to pass along their dance and music it was taught to very young children to carry on the tradition. For more information on the Gombey dancers you can easily Google them.

Tips on transportation: if you come by cruise ship one of the best deals is to purchase from the excursion desk a two day transportation pass. We spent $20 apiece and were able to ride the pink public buses all over the islands as well as take the water ferries. It is by far the best way to get around the island. Do bear in mind since Bermuda was under British authority they drive on the non-American side of the rode. So you Americans traveling think of it like looking in a mirror. Your bus stops are on the opposite side of the road than you would normally think and the buses travel in the other direction! There are no sidewalks to speak of so don’t be surprised when you see a road crew member turn sideways and flatten against a wall to let a bus go by.

Another tip while traveling about, don’t just walk up to a Bermudian and ask a straight forward question. Make pleasantry’s first. As an example, don’t walk and ask, “Is this the bus that goes back to the cruise ship?” You may get ignored or you may get a lesson in Bermudian culture such as a come back, “Isn’t the sky blue today, isn’t it a beautiful day today?” Once you ask or answer that and are pleasant then ask away.

Bermuda is famous for its pink sand beaches. They really are pink! We rode the pink public buses to Elbow beach and spent a great afternoon exploring and walking. From there we hopped on and off the bus making our way back toward our cruise ship dock. We explored different bays and villages. We stopped at out of the way shops and had lunch overlooking a beautiful bay while sipping a local favorite rum drink called a Dark-n-Stormy! It consists of 2 oz of Gosling’s Black Seal rum and 4 oz of Ginger beer. Very refreshing!

Taxes are high in Bermuda. We found from conversations with locals that many of them will do major shopping on the U.S. mainland in order to save on taxes. Since we ate most of our meals onboard our Royal Caribbean cruise ship we were little affected by this.

You must be a Bermudian to own a car on the islands. There are no car rentals. You can however brave the roads on a rented Moped. The main reason for this is the limited road infrastructure.
Bermuda has no natural source of fresh drinking water. You will notice while traveling around the island beautiful well kept homes of all sizes with curious looking roofs. A very unique feature of Bermuda roofs has been their role in water supply. Water is collected on roofs where wedge shaped limestone glides are formed into sloping gutters. These divert rain water into larger gutters that lead into cisterns in the foundation. It is a fairly simple and ingenious system. Now they also convert seawater into drinkable water.

We escorted a group of 60 people on this cruise and all in all we had a great time on Bermuda. We would return again.

We have posted the Bermuda slideshow to the left. We have also posted a utube link so you may watch short video clips of Gombey Dancers in action. Click on each frame and its video will play for you.

If you are interested in booking travel to Bermuda you can find more information at www.sandtravel.com

Resorts Report Riviera Maya Mexico

A group of us were invited by Apple Vacations on a FAM (familiarization) trip to tour fourteen properties in the Riviera Maya just south of Cancun Mexico.

Apple Vacations and the fabulous Grand Sirenis Resort hosted us for four days. We worked hard but had a great time touring these outstanding properties.

The Riviera Maya is a beautiful and upcoming coastal resort area just south of well known Cancun Mexico. Riviera Maya tends to be more historical and considered by many to be the gateway to the Mayan ruins. Riviera Maya is quiet close to the famous Tulum region.

We found the people to be very friendly and hospitable, granted once you leave the resorts and venture into the tourist areas you will be treated like a tourist. This area tends to be quieter and less touristy. Inside the resorts hospitality is practiced to the highest degree.

We toured several well established resorts and some that were still under construction. This area is really becoming the new vacation hotspot with great beaches!

One of the main differences you will notice between the established and the newer resorts is the vegetation. Very simply put in a resort that has been there for a few years the vegetation has had time to mature and establish its self, while the newer resorts vegetation is still growing. On the other hand the newer resorts are very willing to please and work all that much harder to make sure you have a great experience in order to establish themselves as a place to remember and return to.

All in all we loved this area and recommend our clients travel here as well. One tip we do pass on to our clients is to use a travel agent that utilizes Apple Vacations or other such group. If you ever run into a problem at a resort Apple Vacations has a dedicated staff person at the resort to assist you. Not to mention the all inclusive nature of their vaction packages.

Enjoy the pictures we have posted in Links We Like section named Riviera Maya. Included are pictures of Grand Sirenis, Iberostar Grand, Secrets Carpri, Secrets Moroma, Secrets Silver Sands, RIU Palace and a map of the coast line to orient yourself.

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Have an amazing day!

Sally & Norm
http://www.sandtravel.com/