Travel plan idea blog

Actress Melina Kanakaredes talks travel

I found this article a week or so ago and have been meaning to share it. It's a travel interview with Melina Kanakaredes, one of the starts on CSI: NY.

She talks about traveling in Greece mostly. For example her favorite vacation spot:

Monemvasia, Greece. It's in the Peloponnese. It is one of the most romantic, beautiful places in Greece and it's where the Greeks go for their honeymoon. I've traveled to Greece so many times and it wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered it. It's a mountain that had been separated from the mainland during an earthquake in 375AD. It is now an island without cars. You are either on foot or donkey. The exterior of the buildings are 500AD, but the inside is 2009. You dive off the rocks into the ocean to swim. You are surrounded by amazing 360-degree views of the water. It has five restaurants, all great. It is the ultimate secluded honeymoon getaway.

Sounds like a nice visit but I wonder if you have to have TV star money to enjoy this island. With only 5 restaurants I guess they could charge whatever they want...

The closest thing I could find on this blog was a Santorini vacation plan.

Which hotels do celebrities like to party at?

Here's some celebrity travel gossip from The Kiwi Collection, which promises to find the best luxury hotels. This bit of news involves, "The only hotel in southern California to earn the distinction of an AAA Five-Diamond and Mobil Five-Star rating for 11 years."

I suppose that may not be an exceptional travel experience for Lindsay Lohan, George Clooney, and Cindy Crawford but it sure would be a new experience for a modest travel blogger like myself:

Diana Jenkins hosted a party at The Peninsula Beverly Hills to launch her book Room 23, featuring George Cooney, Cindy Crawford and others in that hotel's room 23.

As far as I can tell, the book is a collection of photographs taken in a suite at some hotel (maybe the same hotel where they had the release party?) and the subjects include lots of celebrities.

Anyway, if you check out that hotel and the pictures of some others I think you'll be pretty impressed. Of course you'll be looking at some of the most expensive hotels in the world...

Amy Winehouse misbehaving on vacation

This story (the original link stopped working - this is a new one to a similar story) may be a little funny for some and it has been a very long time since I've posted any celebrity travel gossip so here goes:

Resort staff has reportedly been ordered to refuse to serve her any more alcohol, so she's doing what anyone, and by anyone we mean 20-year-olds on spring break, would do — sneaking up behind other vacationers and snatching their drinks!

A source at the resort said: "We keep catching her crawling past bars, or hiding behind chairs. She grabs guests' drinks and runs off, like a squirrel with a nut."

I'll try to be back with some real travel planning stuff later in the day.

Fancy vacation packages, Celebrity honeymoons, Hawaii honeymoons

This article taught me about Hip Hotels, which is teaming up with Virgin Holidays to offer vacation packages that include unique hotel experiences. Apparently a few people had already heard of these guys:

Hip Hotels, a collection of 'highly individual places', was first published by Thames and Hudson in 1999. It became an immediate publishing success, briefly even outselling Harry Potter.

An interesting hotel can certainly make a vacation more memorable. When I went to Algonquin Park I saw a moose. I also pumped water for showers in the ecolodge we stayed at. I tell the pumping water story more often than the moose sighting story (although both experiences were pretty memorable).

This old blog entry has some stuff on weird hotels and the links still work.

With these Virgin Holiday / Hip Hotel packages, you have to be willing to spend some serious money:

Virgin says it is marketing the brand on the quality of service, rather than price, but there are some reasonable deals. Rooms at the Hotel on Rivington, a swish design palace in New York's Lower East Side, usually start at around $500, but Virgin and Hip Hotels are offering three nights, including flights on Virgin Atlantic and private transfers, from £935.

That might not be expensive enough for celebrities like Sandra Bullock and David Beckham, but if you want to know where they honeymoon this article lists a few. For example:

Victoria and David Beckham = the south of France
Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd = Italy
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher = the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I in Barcelona, Spain

You can see that the article is a bit short on details (we get Demi Moore's hotel but nothing about where in Italy Jennifer Lopez visited).

It may not be a celebrity thing, but this blogger is having a nice honeymoon in Hawaii. I didn't see a lot of travel tips, but sometimes it's just nice to see someone sharing a good time. The pictures are excellent as well.

There is some Hawaii stuff on this blog of course. This one might have been the most recent. This is one of the oldest. A search will reveal many in between.

List of musicians who have died in plane crashes

I don't have much time because I have class in a few minutes, but I thought this article was pretty interesting. I hadn't realized that so many musicians have died in plane crashes.

Glen Miller (1944)
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson. (1959)
Patsy Cline, Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, and Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins (1963)
Otis Redding and four members of his backing group the Bar-Kays (1967)
Jim Croce (1973)
Ronnie Van Zant, Steven Gaines, and Cassie Gaines (1977_
Randy Rhoads (1982)
Ricky Nelson (1985)
Stevie Ray Vaughan (1990)
John Denver (1997)
Aaliyah (2001)

The only one I had really been aware of was the Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson crash in 1959 thanks to the song American Pie. Even though I really like Jim Croce, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Randy Rhoads, and Glen Miller I just had not known that they were plane crash victims.

What did Michael Phelps do on his last vacation?

This article talks about Michael Phelps' vacation in Portugal, specifically the Algarve.

By the way, over 3 years ago, we published a travel plan for Lisbon and the Algarve.

Anyway, it sounds like the greatest Olympian of all time just wanted to relax after winning those 8 gold medals - no doubt he would have found our travel plan a bit more active than his plan: relax, golf, go to nightclubs.

Of course there's one big activity missing from that list: eating! Then again, a guy who eats a pound of pasta for dinner is probably eating too fast to taste the food anyway so we wouldn't expect much of a restaurant review from America's biggest Olympic story anyway.

Now changing subjects just slightly, if you ask me, Portugal's tourist board made an error in its press release:

Michael Phelps left the Beijing Olympics with a record eight gold medals, adding to a career tally of 14, so where is the golden athlete heading next? The twenty-three year old American swimmer is on route with some friends to a golfing vacation in Portugal's Algarve region. He will relax at Hotel Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Resort and Spa, and enjoy some of the best golf in the world, up to par for one of the world's best swimmers.

How is Michael Phelps one of the best instead of the best swimmer in the world?

Anyway, Phelps did say he would return to the Algarve if he had a chance. Maybe next time he can try our travel plan. For now he's too busy giving swimming lessons. Have you ever seen a pool so crowded? Actually the water park I went to in Ducksan was close but there were more people in the water and fewer people taking pictures.

My apologies to all you golfers reading this. I can't say much about golfing in Portugal. I'm not much of a golfer (though I have a cool story about a Buddhist monk trying to teach me how to swing a club in a little driving range set up behind a temple) and all I have for you is this old article on golfing in Vegas.

Where supermodels go on vacation

Today I plan to teach you how to meet super models on vacation.

The lesson doesn't really come from me (not that I'm not an expert!); it comes from this article on where to go to meet super models while they are on vacation. Our society being what it is, educators just don't make the same money as super models so my chances of paying 19,200 dollars a night (is that one of the most expensive hotel rooms?) at Badrutt's Palace in St. Moritz are pretty slim. Not that Claudia Schiffer, Liz Hurley, and Kate Moss are about to try to steal me away from my wife anyway.

Hotel Guanahani & Spa on St. Barts = Selita Ebanks
La Residencia Hotel in Mallorca = Kate Moss
Surf Lodge in Montauk, NY = Tyson Beckford
The Standard Hotel in Miami = Karolina Kurkova
Marina All Suites in Rio = Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell
Heidi Klum's resort in Costa Careyes, Mexico = Christie Brinkley, Claudia Schiffer, Uma Thurman and Giorgio Armani

Which one will you be visiting? Me, I'll keep working on my Alaska vacation plan.

Ibiza's quiet side where Zidane and Jagger have vacation homes

This article talks about Ibiza, which has a reputation for being a party spot. If you travel where the celebrities vacation, I guess you can get a totally different experience:

Both European designer Jade Jagger and reclusive French football player Zinedine Zidane have long been seduced by the island's quieter alter ego and own vacation homes in the less-touristed north, where a more tranquil scene rules.

And speaking of different experiences, I'll be going to the LARP (live action roleplaying) site I wrote about last month. This weekend I won't be posting new blog entries or approving comments.

One & Only Ocean Club Bahamas: how is it?

If you want to see celebrities on vacation, one possibility might be the One & Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas on Paradise Island. I'm told that it was featured in the opening scene of Casino Royale and that Julia Roberts and Clive Owen shot scenes of Duplicity there. Robert Deniro supposedly rented out the entire hotel for his son's wedding.

Even this place gets mixed reviews, however. Has anyone been there? How was the service? Any celebrity sightings?

By the way, I would have linked to the official site, but One & Only (funny name for a chain, isn't it?) has an annoying flash website so I can't link directly to the Bahamas resort.

Spa vacation ideas

There aren't too many people who wouldn't enjoy a spa vacation. I mean who doesn't want to get pampered on vacation?

This article reminds us that celebrities do. The article promises to tell you about "rates from $422/night at exclusive, pampering holiday hotels" and while that is expensive is nothing compared to this next place.

This article talks about a new spa being built that will have "high-end teepees, spa packages and music shows to the green-minded vacationer."

Interesting how they combine the pampering of a spa vacation with teepees. And what is a high-end teepee anyway? They better be nice for $2,000 / night.

If that's too expensive, maybe Glenwood Springs is more your style. This article calls it the working man's spa town. Here the Hotel Colorado has the world's largest mineral bath:

The 90-degree main pool measures 405 feet in length, with a diving section and Olympic-size swimming lanes; an adjacent 104-degree therapy pool is a mere 100 feet long. On a night last month, the pool glowed turquoise, steam rose 30 feet, and “Le Freak” by Chic played over the sound system. Bodies appeared and disappeared as the mists tumbled over the water’s surface.

At $169/night (and up) it's a bit more affordable than the new teepees being built.

Back to expensive stuff, this article mentions Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort & Spa and Jaguar Reef Lodge and Spa as top 5 dream vacation destinations.

This article on romantic vacation ideas for couples who have been together for a while also mentions spa vacations, namely learning a sport like golf at a resort with a nice spa. If you don't like golf, you can always "court each other at a resort in a couples' sensuality workshop." If you love golf then read this article.

This article reminds us to think about both the spa and the overall experience. That means pick a place with nice surroundings and good food. Of course most spa resorts have nice stuff around them and good food...

And this is an old article I've been hanging on to for a while. Time to get rid of it! It has got spas from New York to Africa and that focus on yoga, spirituality, etc.

Hills of Chocolate in the Philippines: picture and information

I first heard about the Hills of Chocolate in my Cebu Pacific in-flight magazine. I read that these hills are Bohol Island's most famous attraction. The city of Tagbilaran is likely to be your base for exploring the Hills of Chocolate, Baclayon Church, a waterfall in the rainforest, the Tarsier (the world's smallest primate) Visitor Center, plus beaches and dive spots.

The Hills of Chocolate (but not all 1,268 of them):

Apparently this is a popular place with celebrities: Robin Williams (one of my favorite actors), Daniel Radcliffe (the Harry Potter guy), and Eugene Kim (it says "Korean star Eugene Kim" but that could be an actor or an actress since Korea has both a famous male Eugene Kim and a famous female Eugene Kim).

Anyway, I just wanted to share this very cool picture with you. I'm definitely putting Bohol Island, Tagbilaran, and the Hills of Chocolate on my places to go list. It's a beautiful place for hiking and it's not the kind of mountain scenery you can see in a few places. As far as I know, Tagbilaran in the Philippines is the only one place to go to see something like the Hills of Chocolate.

For more on the Philippines see: Plantation Bay 1, Plantation Bay 2, Plantation Bay pictures, Manila and Palawan, when to visit Boracay.

See our small but growing collection of travel pictures.

Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) & Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs) destination wedding gossip + Punta Cana resorts in Dominican Republic

Eva Longoria was apparently seen visiting the ancient French church of St Germain L'Aucerrois.

The gossip is that the wedding will take place in St Germain L'Aucerrois and the reception in the Chateau de Chantilly, a 16th-century castle seen in the James Bond movie A View To A Kill.

Obviously this coule doesn't need to worry about affording a big wedding and a nice honeymoon (although the honeymoon has to wait). After all, they are paying $30,000 for the wedding cake...

Here's an article on fancy honeymoon suites in various hotels but these $300+/night rooms are a bit more affordable then French castles...

One thing they mention are a pair of resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic:

Excellence Punta Cana, formally Secrets Punta Cana, is a couples-only resort with a $562 a night honeymoon suite (ocean-view private terrace with indoor and outdoor private Jacuzzis). The resort has a pool that runs the entire length of the hotel but it can't possibly be as big as the lagoon in Plantation Bay.

Ocean Blue Golf and Beach Resort starts at $300/night for the honeymoon package (Dominican cigars, private dancing lessons, aromatherapy massages, private sailing lessons and romantic horseback riding). This one is all-inclusive.

I also have a friend who personally recommends Punta Cana Sunscape. This is what he writes:

Best all inclusive I've been to. People were very nice. Accomodations were excellent as was the weather. Went deep sea fishing and our boat with 7 passengers landed 2 marlin (one 240 blue, one 150 white) and a 75 lb. "cuda". Snorkeling about 35 yards from shore and saw a "ray".

Definitely a couples place or a honeymoon spot. In fact there were 44 weddings over a 6 day period.

There isn't a great selection of beer. They have Presidente and another beer. Presidente is a great beer, especially cold. I have found it in South Florida and it is always good. The other beer is nothing to write home about. It is Soberano and it tastes like moose piss... they try to pawn that off to you a lot.

There are plenty of activities for the kids. They have a daily schedule and when I was down there there were plenty of them.

The food wasn't bad. I actually liked it. There was a Japanese place which was good and grill place which was very good. Then there was a classy place, were you had to dress up which was great. I paid extra for the lobster. The room service food wasn't great. The pizza was okay. Just one word of advice, drink only beer and nothing with ice and coconut milk. They use goat cocoanut milk and the ice is not pure. I think that is how I got sick (Montezuma's revenge). I drank only beer and wine from then on.

It was one thousand per person. We stayed for 7 days. It was a great deal, in my eyes. I am not sure if I would go there again though. There just weren't enough different activities. Maybe when I have a family of my own.

I did blog about Punta Cana Sunscape once before.

Upgrades, honeymoons, celebrity vacations, and a little extra

I travel fairly often and have never gotten an upgrade so I thought this article on how to position yourself for possible upgrades was an interesting one. I had a male colleague once who claimed he had never flown without getting an upgrade because he was always able to charm the ticketing agent and ask for an upgrade. Then again he was also a professional French horn player, ran a free homestay for missionaries, and trained Navy SEALs on silent assassination techniques. Pretty good for an English teacher in Korea but I'm not entirely sure that everything he said was true...

The upgrades thing reminds me of the Friends sitcom where Chandler and Monica on their honeymoon see the couple in front of them (also honeymooners) getting upgraded. I've read that honeymooners should let everyone know that they are on a honeymoon as this increases the chances of getting an upgrade.

I did find a fellow blogger who chose Puerto Rico over Hawaii for her honeymoon: Travels of Lizzie Bean: Puerto Rico Honeymoon!. Speaking of Hawaii, it is still on the top of the list for Americans looking to get married somewhere special, but fewer people are actually choosing Hawaii. I think the blogger above is a perfect example of that. Hawaii was their first thought but Puerto Rico won in the end.

By the way, to really go all out on your honeymoon you can go wherever the celebrities go (if you have the money to follow them). This article talks about some popular celebrity travel spots. This article for Indian travelers talks about some off the beaten path options. Interesting (it makes perfect sense of course) that Canada and Alaskan cruises are exotic destinations from an Indian perspective.

Not every marriage produces babies, but it's common enough for me to link to this New York Times article on babymoons next. I've written about babymoons before and even taken some criticism for my opinions but I still think a lot of babymoons are silly - especially ones that include free gifts like photo albums. Don't people want to choose their own?

The last article I have for you is this one titled "Vacation trend: immersing yourself in a different culture". It also devotes a good chunk of space to discussing why the internet has not put travel agents out of business yet, although their numbers are decreasing.

Marriage advice from pamela Anderson: not on vacation

I'm not sure that anyone should listen to Pamela Anderson's advice on marriage, but here it is anyway: "Now that things have calmed down - I think - I just want to say it's great to get back to normal life. We are doing great. Thanks for all the support. Don't get married on vacation!"

A 39-year-old woman with some marriage experience might be expected to know better than to get married on a whim (vacation or not isn't really the issue, is it?) and she has filed for divorce from Kid Rock (after four months of marriage because of "irreconcilable differences)."

Pamela Anderson had previously described her St. Tropez wedding as "the best, most romantic wedding of all time." Maybe if you know what you're doing getting married on vacation isn't so bad after all.

Cruise & Holmes dancing in the Maldives

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, currently on a yacht leant to them by the richest man in Australia off the Maldives capital Male have been invited to dance with locals while on their honeymoon.

Love them, hate them, or ambivalent about them, you have to admit that's pretty cool. Getting to meet the locals is what traveling is all about. Government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said, "People would really love to meet them, show their culture and say 'hello' at the least. People are really curious and they feel they should show some of their culture, especially dancing."

Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes married in Rome, honeymooning in the Maldives

Tom Cruise got his Italian wedding, although he and Katie Holmes were officially married in LA (the commenter on my previous post wrote about how he did the paperwork in America but the ceremony in Italy so this must be how it's done).

We've got a ton of articles on the Cruise - Holmes wedding. One is cleverly named Marriage Improbable:

AS one might expect from Tom Cruise, it was a production of Hollywood proportions. His wedding to Katie Holmes yesterday in the 15th-century Castle Odescalchi outside Rome had a budget of more than £1.2m, with guest stars including Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Brooke Shields, a lavish banquet, fireworks and thousands of rose-scented candles.

Then there's the list of celebrities that attended the wedding and a few other details. And here's something that includes a little blurb on their honeymoon in the Maldives.

Celebrity travel gossip: Eddie Murphy & Scary Spice in Hawaii

Maui's Four Seasons Hotel has a $10,700-a-night luxury suite, where rich and famous people stay on vacation.

According to People.com, Eddie Murphy and his 5 kids, ages 4 to 16, vacationed with his girlfriend Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) and her 7-year-old daughter. Apparently they did some body surfing and boogie boarding. "There was a lot of togetherness between the families," a source told People.

Murphy’s big brother Charlie of “Chappelle Show” fame told the magazine: "(Eddie) seems very happy with her, and that's what's important to me. He's in a good place. If she does that (for him), then that's great."

Gwyneth Paltrow takes surfing lessons on vacation

Gwyneth Paltrow was on vacation in the English coastal resort of Cornwall, where her parents-in-law live. The big news is that she has started learning to surf: "Gwyneth donned a wet suit and braved the chilly waters for an hour-long surf lesson on a chunky beginner's surf board."