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overwater bungalows

This is another in a series of shorter travel stories I’ve been writing called Travel Shorts. Today I’m looking at one of the world’s dreamiest destinations, Tahiti, specifically at great places to stay. TAHITI The main island of Tahiti is home to the major airport and also the capital, Papeete. There are several resorts quite close to the airport, including Te Moana Tahiti Resort. If you drive a little further south, and you definitely should, you’ll come to a circular peninsula called Tahiti Iti. Here you’ll find quiet beaches and family-style places to stay, including Vanira Lodge and Bonjouir Teahupoo Read more

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This was from a visit to Sandals Royal Caribbean a few years ago. It wasn’t the chilled Champagne. It wasn’t the hammock suspended over the lagoon. And it wasn’t the see-through glass floor in my room that allowed me to peer down into the warm Caribbean. Those were all great. But the biggest thrill of staying at Sandals Royal Caribbean overwater villas or bungalows, the first in Jamaica – and in the Caribbean – was the joy of silence and space; of soaking in my private pool and sipping an adult beverage as the sun dipped into the inky Caribbean while Read more

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My wife and I have been blessed with wonderful travel experiences. We’ve taken trips to Australia, as well as Ireland, Hawaii and Hong Kong. We’ve somehow landed penthouse suites at luxurious New York City hotels and enjoyed palatial hotel rooms in Paris. But I’ve never seen the kind of look on her face that I did when we walked along the elevated pathway that took us to our thatched roof, overwater bungalow at the Four Seasons Bora Bora. Incredulous is probably the best word to describe it, a slack-jawed, wide-eyed and utterly bedazzled look that workers here are probably used Read more

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With the stroke of a pen, or, rather, with the stroke of a bunch of ballot votes in favour of legalizing gay marriage, Ireland has suddenly jumped into the thick of the worldwide travel conversation. Not only does the country look good by most of the world’s standards in terms of embracing different cultures, it stands to benefit greatly from a tourism standpoint. I don’t know how large the LGBT tourism business is worldwide, but if guesstimates are right that 10 per cent of the world counts itself as gay or transgendered or what have you, then it’s big. Very Read more

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