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Travel to Costa Rica

November 11, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

There are many ways to travel to Costa Rica. Most people arrive by plane of course, but you could have a great adventure going overland. From the USA you would travel through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

You could also go by boat, either from California to the Pacific coast or from Florida to the western side of Costa Rica which borders the Caribbean Sea.

Where is Costa Rica?

This central American paradise lies between Panama and Nicaragua. It has coast on two sides and it is a relatively small country, less than 20,000 square miles (about the size of West Virginia).

It has become a very popular travel destination in recent years. This is due to many factors, including the large expanse of coastline, tropical climate and stable political situation.

The country has been able to avoid the political revolutions and civil wars that have plagued many other parts of central America.

Costa Rica is a democracy with strong environmental policies. The country’s aim is to become the first carbon neutral nation.

With many acres of beautiful forest to protect, and a large proportion of the national income coming from tourism, the government has been wise in its emphasis on the environment.

What to See in Costa Rica

The Corcovado national park is one of the best places to go to spot wildlife. It is internationally known for its biodiversity and you may see big cats and tapirs as well as many species of monkey and birds.

Tortuguero national park is named after turtles. Several kinds of turtle nest there including endangered species. You can also hope to see monkeys, sloths, and many birds and reptiles.

Costa Rica is most famous for its top quality coffee beans. Its other main exports are bananas and pineapples. However, in the last 10 years the electronics industry has been a major player in the national economy, with many companies establishing a base here.

Tourism is now the main industry. Costa Rica is one of the best known destinations in the world for ecotourism, with many acres of national parkland and protected areas attracting almost 2 million tourists a year.

This is a huge number when you consider that the resident population is only just over 4 million. Tourists are appreciated and made welcome, perhaps not surprising when you consider that they spend an average of $1000 each during their stay.

Around half of the visitors are from the USA and Canada.

Many people also stay for extended visits. American entrepreneurs are almost as likely to have a second home in Costa Rica as in Florida, and it is a popular haven for raw food eaters who thrive on the many varieties of delicious local fruit.

The national language is Spanish and Roman Catholicism is the official state religion. Around 75% of the population are practicing Catholics.

All in all, Costa Rica is one of the most welcoming travel destinations that you could plan to visit. Its popularity is well deserved and if you have the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica you should grab it with both hands.

Planning A Cancun Vacation

August 24, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

It can be very difficult for you planning a Cancun vacation when it comes to not being there or having the experience of Mexico; this is a common problem for those in the United States or another foreign country.

Planning A Cancun Vacation

You will want to travel to Mexico, but since it is a far away place, you may have a hard time trying to get it organized. That is why you will want to do plenty of research and after you are prepared to organize the trip you will want to make sure that, you are planning a Cancun vacation thoroughly so that it can go smoothly.

Using a Travel Agency When Planning A Cancun Vacation

You may find that planning a Cancun vacation can be overwhelming and you may want to have a travel agency do some of the planning for you. You will find that this is a great way for you to save some trouble and headaches in the end.

You may have to pay the extra for the agent, but it is worth it. However, if you use a travel agency, there may be a few restrictions and you will not have as much control over your vacation. Planning on your own is a lot of work, but it can be done.

Finding a Hotel in Cancun

First, when planning a Cancun vacation, you will need to try to find a place to stay and you will want to research various hotels in the Cancun hotel zone. Pictures online can be deceiving, so look for reviews from people who have traveled to this area before. You may also want to call the hotel and ask them some questions about the things that they may or may not offer in their vicinity.

Word of mouth can also be handy when planning a Cancun vacation, so talk to your friends and family who have traveled to Cancun and stayed at one of the hotels. You will want to book to make sure that you talk to hotel about any specific accommodations that you may want or need and so that they can repeat back to you all the information about your hotel and reservation so that your reservation does not come up lost.

You will also need to get to Cancun. You will want to be ahead of the game in planning a Cancun vacation so make sure that you have the proper paperwork for you to get in and out of Mexico. You will need to have a passport and id so that you can enter the country.

Also when planning a Cancun vacation be sure to book a flight that brings you right into the city, because you may or may not be able to find transportation to your hotel immediately from the airport. Most packages will include or not include transportation to and from the airport and the Cancun airport is a pretty long drive from some of the hotels.

It is important for you to learn all of the rules when it comes to the things that you enter into Mexico and out of Mexico when planning a Cancun vacation and you’ll want to check out all the rules of customs and what you can and can not bring home.

Lastly, you will need to plan things to do and places to eat. There are people who will end up taking a trip to Mexico spontaneous, but then you may not be able to get on the best tours or into the best restaurants. Plan ahead, but leave plenty of room for flexibility.

When it comes to Cancun, you are going to have to travel with flexibility. You will be taking a vacation that may not be perfect, but you will want to make every bit of an effort to making the situation to be a positive one.

You will also find that vacation in Cancun will take a lot of preparation and you will want to take months in advance planning a Cancun vacation.

Fairmont Hot Springs Camping Trip

August 11, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Once a year we go camping. On the August long weekend we spend the weekend trying to be campers, and although we tend to not be great at it we struggle, we fight a bit, we make mistakes, but mostly we have a lot of fun.

Some people are great at camping, I try to show you here on the blog what I have learned from others and I think we as a family do pretty good for people that don’t really make it out into the wilderness as much as we would like. If you’re travelling outside of the camping season like we did I recommend staying at Hotel Westman Islands Vestmannaeyjar, located midtown. Getting yourself a perfect one is not that easy if you look at the variations of the reflex sights, be it for their types or for their performance or for any other features. There are a lot of things that you will be needing to note down just before you get the best of them. You will get the top 5 best reflex sight online for your treaking.

So this past weekend we drove 4 hours or so out of Calgary out to Fairmont Hot Springs and spent time in a river, a lake, in the rain, and especially in the really sunny hot weather. You number one source for things to do in Ireland whether you want to visit the Cliffs of Moher or the Wild Atlantic Way.

Driving to Fairmont Hot Springs

Taylor and Jaiden standing at the sign for the Great Divide

The drive out to Fairmont is nice from Calgary. We go out to the main Highway 1 and take it just past Banff to Highway 93. Highway 93 is an interesting road as it goes North up to Jasper Alberta (as Highway 95) and also down south into Eastern BC in the Columbia Lake area and even farther south to Kimberley, Cranbrook, and on to the US border.

The drive along this highway goes from Snow and glaciers in the Winter to Okanagan type thin trees and desert like rolling hills in the hot Summer in the south. This weekend though the road was nice and dry during our drive up.

Fairmont and Spruce Grove Campground

Finally we arrived late in the afternoon at Fairmont Hot Springs. Our campground is Spruce Grove and is just a kilometer, or a half mile, south of the turnoff to the hot springs.

The Spruce Grove Campground is nice and tree filled, has a pool, and some pretty clean bathrooms. The great feature to me is that there is a river running along the eastern part of this little campground that even has a bit of beach and some mud for kids to play in (yuck).

We setup our big tent and met up with our friends and cruised around the campground, made a bit of dinner of hot dogs and then spent time in front of the fire. Oh and of course we had a swim too. The weather was hot on the Friday afternoon. We had a great sleep, my wife said that it was her best sleep in months and when my daughter got up to pee I got to see an awesome show of stars in the sky since we were so far from a town.

Saturday at Fairmont Camping

After the great sleep on the Friday night we got up and drove down to the Tim Hortons in Invermere. This was good for a couple of reasons. We needed coffee and breakfast and didn’t feel like cooking in the morning and in the end there was another reason. My wife, who was in charge of clothes packing (two people packing never seems to work), seemed to forget to pack me any shirts or shorts. So I had the clothes on my back and no extra shirts, She ended up buying me a cheap shirt in the local store.

After we got back to camp we wandered around and had a great time looking at the river and the rest of the campsite but what I really wanted to do was go to the Lussier hot springs. Lussier Hot Springs is a natural hotsprings area that just flows out of the mountain and then goes down through three pools that have been constructed from rocks by people at some time in the past.

My buddy from work Terry, his girlfriend, and I went out to try and go to the Hot Springs but sadly there was no chance to get there as the forest fires had come too close and the road was closed.

When we got back from the unsuccessful hot springs trip I took the opportunity in the early afternoon to try and drown my kids in the river at the Spruce Grove campground. The river flows pretty hard but is not too deep. I walked across and the water was nearly to my waist. I thought it would be great if I could get the kids across and as we made it across with my holding Taylor and Jaiden’s hands I was having some trouble keeping my balance while holding a 10 and 14 year old trying to keep me going.

We made it ok in the end and there was a little stream that was a bit warmer than the river, colder than we expected though so we tried to make a muddy way back through the river. I sure wish I could have gotten video because the kids were trying not to panic, my son was having trouble keeping his feet on the river floor, my daughter almost had a dead fish run into her.

All in all this was a great story and we all got across without a problem but with lots of drama. I still laugh thinking about it.

Michelle and Taylor at the river I tried to drown her in

We went back to the site and brought Michele back so that we could show her the river and we got lots of pictures, told our story again, and reveled in all the great stuff to see by the river.

It rained off and on in the afternoon but got really hot so we decided to go to the town of Invermere.

Invermere is a tourism based town and is about a 20 minute drive from the Spruce Grove campground. Invermere has a very distinct downtown main street with lots of shops and a beach at the end of town. The beach was very very busy with all of the long weekend visitors.

Walking through Invermere with Veggies and a shirt three sizes too big

We always travel with some food in the car in case the kids or I get hungry so I thought I would take it on our walkabout. The heat was a little unbearable and we looked around, browed and bought an inexpensive spotting scope and had a great time as a family looking around at stuff.

Back at the campsite we finally had dinner. I had been eating a fair amount of trail mix and my daughter had a great easy recipe for Taco in a bag and they worked out great for us. I loved it and it was easy to make

Taco in a Bag

Cook up ground beed with taco seasoning
Put in a plastic baggie once it has cooled
Add cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes
Close the bag and shake it up!
Get out a fork and eat the Taco in a bag

After dinner we had a nice time talking, playing with the fire, hanging with our friend Terry and then went to bed and read on the iPads and phones. Things in this way have changed a lot since I was a kid. Usually we would tell ghost stories in the dark but my poor son is a bit frightened of the murderers in a campsite as we noticed on the Friday evening so there was no talk at all of ghost stories 🙂

Sunday – Last Day Camping

Sunday came and my wife and kids woke up late. We were going to make french toast but out little breakfast maker Taylor didn’t feel like cooking so it was another run down the road to Tim Hortons for coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

Once back we had a great time talking to Terry and the folks next door to him (I tend to be a little overly social and it drives my wife and kids a bit crazy. We went for a nice swim in the campground pool, walked by the river and then decided to find a beach!

Just a few minutes south from Spruce Grove is the town of Canal Flats. Canal Flats has a boat launch and although I thought it was only $3 to park there I found out when we got there that it was in fact $12 for the family to just use the beach. I have never paid to go to a beach but we did this time anyway and spent the afternoon there.

We brought food (as we always do) and ran around in the water, saw lots of little fish, and sat in the grass just off the sand.

I think we all loved this part of the trip, maybe the best, because we really had a great time as a family talking and playing in water.

Michelle and Jaiden are mad that I am taking their picture

Fantastic few hours that I have to think was worth $12 for us even though I still am not sure why there was a charge.

In the evening we had sausages and a pot luck dinner with our friend Terry, his girlfriend, and the people in the next site over and sat and talked about the weekend, the rest of the group went out to Radium Hot Springs which is about 35 minutes from the campground and we stayed back.

I was getting a bit nervous because my wife and daughter were both not feeling well so we decided after looking at out plans to drive back that night to come home instead of staying the night and then packing in the morning and driving.

This ended up being a bad idea maybe…

Coming home from Fairmont Hot Springs

We had a bit of a drive ahead of us and we were looking after one of our fellow campers dog as well so we made our plan. Pack up, drop off the dig, drive back home.

Packing took only about 45 minutes, we are pretty organized and even though we have a lot of stuff we were able to get it all packed up better than how we came. I was able to text our friends at Radium Hot Springs and since that was on our way anyhow we met them on their way back to the campground to do the doggy drop. Now just through Radium and the highway home.

Or so we thought.

Radium is quite a ways from the next town on Highway 95 and there are no gas stations in between. I should have thought of this earlier but I had plenty of gas. The real trouble is that the highway is very mountainous and hills up and down and speeds up and down as well make for terrible gas mileage.

Around half way down the highway I was watching the gas gauge very closely and things were looking worse and worse. I could picture our family sleeping in the minivan in the middle of nowhere and then my walking for a few hours in the morning to get gas and come back.

Eventually we made it to a gas station but it had been 20 kilometers since my gas tank started dinging at me that the tank was empty. And….

Gas station was closed.

Worst thing now was sleeping in the van at a gas station until they opened in the morning but of course my wife came up with a better idea – drive another 25 kilometers to Lake Louise where the closest gas station was. Well again I could picture myself walking in the morning but at least it would be closer than my walk looked like an hour ago.

I have no idea how but we made it to Lake Louise but we somehow rolled into town. Two gas stations both closed, we even tried the police station to see if they knew where there was gas but they were closed too.

So we went to sleep in the gas station parking lot.

Around 4:00 in the morning my daughter woke up and had to go pee. Michelle said to pee in front of the truck but Taylor was a bit scared becasue there was a guy staring at our truck and he had a big dog. I hear Taylor and Michelle fighting about the guy with the dog and wake up and was about to get out to find out what the heck he was doing there. But there was no guy with a dog. My daughter was seeing things (bless those 14 year old imaginations) and she was still too scared to go out so we drove across the street to a hotel to use their bathroom

Now if we run out of gas we will at least be only across the street to push the minivan

Lake Louise at 6:15 in the morning. Beautiful as always

We made it back and fell asleep again. I woke at 6:00 and we were the first customers of the day for the gas station and then just before heading home we took the quick 5 minute drive to the Lake Louise and my son and I took the walk down the path to see the lake, his first time there we will need to go again sometime for sure.

The rest of the two hour trip was uneventful. Thankfully. We got home around 8:30 in the morning and have a ton of stories to remember about our trip.

All in all I have to say that preparation was the worst of our trip. We tend to be really organized thanks to my wife and her lists but this time not so much. I know that this trip was one of our funnest, funniest, and crazy trips but I love how it worked out.

Portola Inn and Suites

June 18, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Last week when our family went to Los Angeles my wife looked around for a motel that would be nice and clean and would be cheap. Cheap is always the way that we go when it comes to family vacations and our accommodations.

We stayed in Buena Park which is really close to Knotts Berry Farm and about 10 minutes or so drive from Disneyland.

Portola Inn and Suites

The motel my wife chose was the Portola Inn and Suites because the location was good enough for us and because it was quite inexpensive. The reviews we found led us to believe that it would also be quite clean and it included breakfast.

Well the hotel is a bit of a ways from the airport and we got in early so after having some lunch and doing just a bit of driving around we checked to see if we could get in early, fortunately we were able to checkin a couple of hours early and the hotel was clean and comfortable.

One of the real problem with motels is that since there is no hallway and your door is facing the parking lot the carpets are always, always, dirty and we wore our Vessi waterproof sneakers in the room most of the time.

Nice Hotel Overall

We found that the room was pretty quiet, we did not really hear any street noise and besides the earthquake that we experienced the morning before we left the beds were very comfortable and let us sleep well, plus the construction was very nice, the rooms had wooden details, you were able to see how the construction workers made sure that the baseplate or shoe of the saw sat flat on the wood before making the cut .

The breakfast at the Portola Inn and Suites is interesting. Everyone that is excited about a continental breakfast included with a room has not stayed in many motels. This is no different. There is coffee, wrapped danish pastries, bread, jam, and some oranges and apples. Just enough breakfast to get us going but not enough to hold us until lunch. There is lots of fast food and a Dennys down the street though. The puzzle room are a great way to celebrate, regardless of the occasion! Whether you’re young or old, you’ll have a blast solving our intricate puzzles and trying your luck with our escape rooms. PuzzleWorks will be by your side as you plan your party celebration for your friends, coworkers, or family members.

There is a pool and hot tub but it was not working for the week we were there as it was only mid March and no one really expects you to use the pool in California this early in the year. My son tried to swim but the pool was unheated and a little cold.

finally the staff. I think that the Portola Inn and Suites is owned and run by a family the man and wife and their baby that we dealt with any time we went into the office were great, their office was amazing, so stylish with the best furniture from www.office-furniture.com.au, very friendly and very helpful. Although they were able to help most of the time things like the pool and smallish breakfast there was not much they could do about, and in the souvenir store there were many gifts and even more customizable lovies for babies perfect for our family.

The only drawback to the Portola Inn and Suites is the location for some people. We spent one day and Disneyland and did not go to Knotts Berry Farm so we had a fair amount of driving to get to Hollywood and the beaches, we knew this and had a GPS and cheap rental car so it was fine. The room although clean had a dirty bathtub, I think someone had burned it with cigarettes years ago (yuck) but the carpet and walls and bed were in good shape so who knows.

I think the next time we go to California we will try to stay closer to the beach but if you are looking for a fairly cheap motel and have rented a car for your trip the Portola Inn and Suites is quite good and although not really close to Disneyland is good if you can not get anything closer to Disney.

West Edmonton Mall

June 16, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

West Edmonton Mall has a lot to see. My family lives in Calgary and we are about a 3 hour drive from Edmonton so a couple of weeks back we took a trip down to Edmonton just for the opportunity to go to West Edmonton Mall.

West Edmonton Mall is the biggest shopping mall in the world and is definitely a destination weekend trip and we had a good time, with a couple of exceptions.

West Edmonton Mall Highlights

So when you go to a shopping mall you are supposed to shop. And shop we did for about 3 hours. Actually West Edmonton mall is huge and there are even multiples of the same stores in the mall. The mall was originally built in 1981 and it is really starting to look dated although there is always a turnover of stores to keep things fresh.

On this trip the new Victoria Secret store had just opened and unbelievably there were lineups to go in and buy lingerie (strange to me). The stores are a real mix with upscale and downscale as there is a lot of stores, about 800, in the mall.

There are a few big attractions in West Edmonton Mall. There is an indoor amusement park, the worlds biggest indoor waterpark, a seal and fish exhibit, a big pirate ship, indoor mini gold, and a public ice rink.

Because of all the secondary attractions a trip to West Edmonton mall can be expensive. I can only speak for my family but we had to choose on the Saturday between going to the amusement park ($32.95/person) or the Indoor Waterpark (also 32.95/person). We shose the waterpark and had a fantastic day riding down all the waterslides and playing in the wave pool.

We also spent some time in the middle of the day in the Marine Life Park, which was $26 for the family and saw not only the sea lion show but also the feeding of the sharks and a touch and feel tank that the kids got to feel stingrays and sea cucumbers and stuff.

Accommodations and Food at West Edmonton Mall

This was a real falling down for us. Both the food and the hotel itself.

We stayed in a regular room in the Fantasyland Hotel. The Fantasyland Hotel is attached to the mall and was built at the same time as the mall. The themed rooms are neat looking but kind of small.

Our plain old regular room was still $235 a night and did not even include free wifi, the rooms were dated and it was just a regular hotel to us. Fantasyland did have a package though that included 2 free tickets to the waterpark so we did take advantage of that.

I was very disappointed with the hotel overall though for the cost. You can stay within a block for less than or around $100 per night which is a much better deal for any family.

The West Edmonton Mall has a huge food area but it is the same only greasy expensive food that you find in the food fait at any mall in any city and that is where we ended up eating. In retrospect there are many much better choices.

One of the ideas built into the mall are themed areas. There is a New Orleans Bourbon Street type area, a European street and there is a nice mix of restaurants instead of crappy fast food that you can eat instead.

With the kids it is always so hit and miss though that it drives me crazy trying to find good food that they will eat at a decent price.

Overall our trip to West Edmonton Mall although fun was expensive compared to most weekends. My wife who controls our money groused about the cost of “just a weekend” but it was really nice to get out of town and check it out.

You can learn more about West Edmonton Mall at the Mall website.