Caribbean Vacation Travel

Summer is here and many happy folks are looking forward to their caribbean vacation. If you haven’t booked your airline tickets yet, then you are in for a rude awakening as the fares keep going up faster than you can open your wallet.

This is the time when kids will be off school and concerned parents look for ways to keep their young ones busy and out of trouble. There is always television, video games, and sports, but getting away to an exotic island in the sun is a great family adventure. This is also the time when you can bond with your kids and make up for those days when you had to work late, or get out of town for a meeting with an important client.

Most kids love water and two weeks spent at an all inclusive resort in Barbados, St. Lucia, or Jamiaca will give them much to do. You need to remember to pack the suntan lotion in your suitcase and take precaution against the sun and its potentially harmful rays. Take along a good pair of sunglasses for you and the kids to help protect your precious eyesight. But it is always safer to allow your kids only so much time in the sun. You also want to schedule for activities for times when the suns rays are not as hot. Avoid the hours around midday and onwards to around 3 pm. Stay at the pool or indoor during these times to avoid sunburn and other harmful sun effects.

Make the best use of the summer by planning your activities before you go. However, do not overplan because you might create a stress-filled vacation for your family, and you might return home tired and annoyed.

Summer is a great time for beach activities and other fun-filled days, but you have to do things in moderation.

Follow these guidelines and you will end your summer vacation feeling relaxed and happy. Afterall, it is much better in the Caribbean!

Dear Traveler,

It’s time for a caribbean vacation! The weather is getting warmer and the clothes are coming off gradually. When you visit Antigua you just need to bring a few pieces of clothing and some sandals. You may want to pack a sweater for your late evening and early morning rendevous.

During the day, you can wade in the refreshing water of the Caribbean Sea or bask in the sun for as long as you need. You might also want to visit the local market to get fresh mangoes, oranges, and more. Or take a stroll along the beach with your favorite person.

Oh, it’s so lovely in Antigua.

Yours in spicy travel,

Sunny Dey

So when was the last time you got some entertainment? I suppose that this why you decide on a caribbean vacation. Of course, vacations mean relaxing by the pool or snorkeling among fauna, but many visitors to the islands come for the fun. The people in the Caribbean have a natural way of making people feel comfortable and will go a long way to do it.

Just recently a friend sent me a link to a You Tube video. In this video a male flight attendant with Southwest Airline found a creative way to entertain his passengers. He made a rapper’s rendition of the stale preflight instructions. You know the one where they talk about your safety and other flight details.

Well, this rapping flight attendant impressed his passengers by the improvisation, some claimed that it was the first time they ever listened to the emergency instructions aboard a plane.

It is a scary thought, but it’s a wake-up call to the airlines to Entertain! Enlighten! Excite!

Here’s the video:

Savvy travelers have much going for themselves when it comes to appreciating different cultures. After all, why would anyone want to travel on a caribbean vacation, for example, if they don’t want to know how the islanders work, play, and live. Of course, you can plan a holiday to Jamaica or Barbados to soak up the sun. Some vacationers will tell you they go for the rum or the food, or possibly, the nightlife. Others may claim the laid-back way of life gets their attention. But no matter what you do when you get to the islands, undoubtedly, you will want to know the people. Staying at your all-inclusive resort for 7 nights and not venturing out might seem like paradise but some travelers need more than that. The people in the Caribbean are friendly and fun loving. They are hospitable and will extend themselves to show you a great time if you just treat them with respect.

That goes for all people wherever they live. No one likes you to treat them as a doormat so you can walk all over them. Most cultures despise culture-phobes who are insensitive to the history and value attached to their artifacts, heritage, and traditions. You might call some practices superstitious but even in North American cultures there are many irrational goings-on.

Another thing is that most peoples of many nations can only meet through travel, and you can see this in the many friends North Americans have made while traveling to the West Indies over the years. We sometimes take our interdependence on one another for granted because we may not look like the natives in another country.

Most North Americans have a “better” lifestyle than that of many of these Caribbeannites. But even Americans lament about the toll on their nerves and body their lifestyle plays when compared to that of the islanders. At your vacation resort you may hear and repeat the mantra of “don’t worry, be happy.” However, as soon as you settle in your seat on your flight back to Chicago or New York, you repeat a different mantra. Possibly it is “how am I going to pay those damn bills.”

So it with this philosophy in mind that a friend referred me to an article in the American Chronicle about a spiritual teacher who holds meditation sessions for her devotees in Menton, France. The details of the article tickled my funny bone. I even think I grew a few more pleasure- bones while reading this story. The amusement didn’t come from the teacher but from her neighbors who frown on her buying property in their backyard. Well, some savvy travelers often say, “It is better in the Bahamas.” Perhaps it is. To see what all the fuss is about you can read the article here.

Most people enjoy going on a vacation, especially when it is a caribbean vacation. The hot tropical days make for fun and delight as you soothe away your cares and frustrations of working for a living. The dilemma for some people is the exposure of their skin to the sun and other elements in the islands.

We know that wearing sunglasses is a good preventive measure for protecting the eyes, and sunscreen lotions make you look tanned, while protecting your skin from the sun. But too much of a good thing is always a problem so smart vacationers try to mix their activities.

Instead of staying in the sun for most of the day, they also enjoy indoor activities, like swimming in the indoor pool, or visiting museums and other places of cultural interest. So it is really important to pack your suitcases and other travel bags with plenty of natural-based lotions and oils to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

It is also important to remember that too much sun can lead to skin problems that will need the attention of a skin specialist. If you carry with you these skin essentials, then you would preserve your youthful appearance. Better still, you may be able to look as young and healthy as the natives in the Caribbean. Do have a sun-filled and safe journey!

I often wonder how people got along before inventing spectacles, glasses, reading glasses, and even binoculars. You probably take for granted the sunglasses that shield your eyes from the sun during your caribbean vacation.

Today you hear so many concerns about overexposing your skin and eyes to the sun that you would be better off staying in the shade for most of your life. Of course, other people have suggested the sun provides natural vitamins for your health and well-being.

You cannot dismiss these arguments without proper thought, but the main point here is that over the past hundred years we have seen many gadgets and devices that make our lives more comfortable and convenient.

Glasses make us see up close or at long distances birds and other wildlife that live in tropical terrain like St. Lucia’s tropical island rain forest. Binoculars give us that close feeling with the object in our sight. Imagine how difficult it would be to get close to a blue iguana or a scampering agouti in the forests of Trinidad and Tobago. And, of course, deep-sea diving enthusiasts know how important goggles are to staying alive underwater in the Bahamas or in Belize. Also, many vacationers use goggles while swimming in the freshwater pools on the islands to protect their eyes from chlorine.

You can name many more gadgets and devices which make a quick getaway to the Caribbean delightful. But one device in particular has been making the rounds and opening a whole new way of how we get information. Most of us have seen the audio boxes that deliver loud and sometimes grating sounds on the beach. We also use CDs, mp3s, ipods, smartphones, to receive information while we bask in the drenching sunlight.

While holiday goers enjoy these inventions, a wide gap did exist for bookworms and multitaskers. If you had to enjoy a good book on the beautiful Grand Anse beach in Grenada, you had to pack it with several other travel items. If you wanted to read more than one book, this proved challenging especially with airlines limiting the pieces of luggage you can fly with.

Well, Amazon.com solved this problem by introducing the Kindle more than a year ago. The Kindle 2 is its new release of wireless reading devices that lets you store over 1,500 books for your reading pleasure. This device is as slim as an empty wallet and light as a paperback. It comes with a wireless feature that allows you to read magazines, newspapers, and blogs as you sip a glass of orange juice on the sand.

You can read on the sandy beaches or you can take your Kindle to your room at the all-inclusive beach resort. You don’t need a PC or untidy cables to get in the way of enjoying your favorite books and periodicals.

I like the Kindle because it is portable. At home, I regularly use Text-to-Speech software to get most of my reading done on the computer. But I can’t lug the PC with me on a plane. Imagine the scene at the airport when the TSA security personnel see me approaching their station with a strange device. Of course, I can travel with a laptop, but I can only use it in the hotel room, but can’t use it on the sandy beaches.

So you think you have problems and decide to run away to a caribbean vacation hoping that all your troubles will go away. Well, that is a good strategy except you will eventually have to return to reality and confront your fears about your situation.

But you could devise a plot to fake your death so interested parties will write you off as dead, when in fact, you escaped with your problems intact.

Take the case of the money manager who ran afoul of insurance regulators in Indiana. It seems he was up to his neck in legal troubles, when he decided to fake his death.

His scheme is a lot clever and had duped police into believing he was in a canoe accident. They took him to a Florida motel and he made good his plan to carry out the second phase of his Caribbean getaway.

Marcus Schrenker did not have a chance to pack a suitcase and take toiletries, warm clothing for the tropical evening. Instead he took with him all his energy and despair by navigating through a wooded area on a motorcycle he had earlier stowed for his quick run from his tormentors.

While he was in the air, he radioed the control tower stating his windshield had imploded and his face was bloodied. This got the attention of the Air force who scrambled a couple of jets to escort the shrewd con man and his plane to safety. When they got to the plane, they noticed the pilot’s door was opened and no one was in the cockpit. By this time Schrenker had apparently parachuted out of the plane to safety before being picked up by police at a convenience store.

This is a remarkable story when you think about the economic downturn and the recent suicide of the German billionaire who couldn’t afford a Caribbean cruise after his financial empire came crashing down.

You must also be familiar with the case of Bernie Madoff, the alleged swindler, aka, money manager to the stars and very wealthy people.

The cycle of economic despair is really taking its toll on some of those highflyers who jet around on luxury vacations to the sunny islands in the winter. It is a shame because these guys don’t understand that amassing great wealth is not a substitute for happiness or contentment.

Perhaps they need to pay attention to the people who serve them in these holiday resorts. They would see that even though their monthly wages are much less than these guys spend on breakfast at the resorts, these workers are grateful for having a job.

And if they lose their jobs tomorrow, they will still be grateful for the opportunity to live a happy life with their family and friends. They don’t expect much and live most of their lives trying to make financial ends meet.

You can read the full story about 38 year-old Marcus Schrenker here, and his adventure in the air while flying a Piper PA-46 Turbo Prop.

I wonder what he was thinking while he was making his getaway.

Many people often ask me what they can get as a Christmas gift for someone on their list. Well, since this is a travel blog I can give you some ideas about what someone who spends time traveling will want. Further, I can even break that down to include holidaymakers on a caribbean vacation, or specifically a Caribbean cruise.

It is not that difficult to buy for the traveler because there are many online and off-line stores that cater to this market. You can also find prices in many ranges from low to high, and quality from not so good to high quality.

Recently, I spoke about how travelers can use the Apple iPod or other electronic information devices to listen to their favorite music while on vacation. Listening to talking books while basking in the sun, or relaxing by the swimming pool is also a great way to spend a vacation.

Travelers who have children who just thank you many times if you give them toys and games their children can play with while they ride a car or stay in hotel room.

Two tickets to a sunny island like Jamaica would make an ideal Christmas gift for people on a budget. They will thank you for a long time after the trip because they can use the discount coupons they collected to pay for local attractions.

Some people have more air miles than they need and can spare a few, while others do not travel often and would love a few to travel. If you are one of the lucky ones, then you can buy a set of luggage for the travelers as a Christmas present. Or if you are wealthy enough, you can rent a beach house or apartment on the beach in the Turks and Caicos islands.

Of course, you cannot forget that while sunshine is a good source of vitamin D, you still need to protect your skin from overexposure to the bright, stinging Caribbean sunshine. So you may want to buy a good skin care product that includes expensive ingredients. I say expensive because the less expensive ones would likely contain parabens and other harmful chemicals. With the pricey ones you normally get natural ingredients in the products.

Another great gift is sunglasses . Not only can the sun damage your skin, it can also damage your eyes. So you need to protect them while you are sunbathing or shopping, or even riding a boat during your stay.

These are some of the more natural gifts that come with traveling to the Caribbean. You can, however, find a few more selections by visiting an online Christmas store.

Christmas is fast approaching and no doubt you are thinking about spending your holidays on a caribbean vacation. You are not alone because many people try to get away from the hustle of dropping kids off at the baby-sitter, climbing behind the wheel of an SUV, or trying to make it looks like you like your coworker.

A vacation in the Caribbean comes as a means to getting back at those who for the past year thought that you were selfish, stubborn, lazy, or whatever. You are about to show them you can do without them.

At least, you can do without them for the Christmas week but you will think of hanging out your bikinis to dry while you wrap up plans to return to the place you dread.

Christmas does bring out the best in most of us. But it can also mean you have to be too nice to Joe because he only got one Christmas gift, while you had more gifts than the local Salvation Army Toy bank.

But you are not alone when it comes to boarding a plane and flying to your favorite Caribbean destination. St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, and all the other sunspots get many tourists during the Christmas week.

Of course, spending time on a Caribbean island, sipping martinis does not always mean you want to run away and hide yourself. It also can mean that you have a grand opportunity to sit at the beach, sucking up the sun for a few days while your business is slow, or circumstances have delayed your projects until the new year.

Booking a hotel during this time could pose a problem if you wait too long. However, you can get huge deals on travel, accommodation, rental cars, and so on if you shop around, or wait until the last minute to book.

So if you decide to spend Christmas on the islands, prepare for some sun and plenty of saltwater!

Sarah Kramer latest vegetarian book is a good bet for taking with you on your caribbean vacation. Yes, Kramer launched her fourth book, “Vegan a Go-Go” last week in Toronto. It was a simple launch attended by mostly friends and well wishes from the Toronto vegetarian community.

“Vegan a Go-Go” includes various meatless recipes for the traveler who finds it difficult to get good vegetarian or vegan food while on vacation. From the time you start your holiday, first boarding the plane to go to your island destination, in your hotel cafeteria, or on the beach, you meet a stinking smell. The odor comes from dead animals sacrificed to feed a hungry mob of tourists and other visitors.

I must admit the large resorts do have an assortment of dishes that will satisfy the typical vegan traveler, but most of them just serve up the same fare that makes you sick. Also, when you are traveling from island to island, you run the risk of not eating properly because you have to say “no” to most dishes you find in your travels.

Since the Caribbean islands is logically a part of a grand scheme of seas and rivers, naturally you would expect that most of the cuisine include fish cooked in many ways. Of course, this is not appetizing for the vegan holiday goer, though.

Yes, you need to get your proteins to preserve your health while you cavort the beaches and dance your nights away at the nightclubs on many of these islands. But as a vegan or vegetarian you want to ensure you get them in an ethical way.

So Sarah Kramer’s new book “Vegan a Go-Go” will always find a spot in your luggage. It is compact and comes with a sturdy cover that will withstand the harsh conditions of traveling in the Caribbean.

You can visit Arsenal Pulp Press, her publisher, to get a copy of “Vegan a Go-Go” before they sell out.