Tag: Travel

Planning Your Next Vacation

Vacation Vibes

Follow these tips to plan a fun and hassle-free getaway.

Sweaters and scarves are packed away while pools are uncovered and boats are readied for warm days spent on the water. And, for many families, the ever-important summer vacation looms large.

Luckily, we have some great advice for how to plan the perfect summer trip for you and your family. So whether your choice of vacation is packed full of adventure and adrenaline or better spent lounging on the sand with a cold drink and good book in hand, these tips will help you make the most of your precious time away from those endless Zoom meetings.

Choose Your Vacation Mode

The first question to ask yourself and your family is, “What do we want to get out of this vacation?” Do you want the hustle and bustle of a big city or the quiet relaxation of the countryside? Are adventure sports on the agenda or is a leisurely afternoon spent floating in the pool more the order of the day? What you want to do is almost more important than where you go—Jefferson’s Monticello or the Smithsonian National Museum of American History might be very interesting, but if the kids just want to play in the sand all day, you can rest assured no one is going to be happy.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Boats

Once you’ve decided generally what you hope to do on your trip, think about how you want to get there before you settle on a spot. If Mom doesn’t do well with flying, then perhaps a cross-country flight is off the table. Consider how much time you have as well—if you only have one week off, you probably don’t want to spend two of those days driving to and from your destination. If a road trip seems the best choice, think about how long you and your family realistically (and sanely) can be in the car and then create a big circle on a map encompassing everything within a two-, three-, or four-hour radius of home. If you do plan on flying, set an alert with Google Flights to track ticket prices and snag them when they seem to be at their lowest. Keep in mind that flights are often most expensive at the beginning and tail ends of the weeks when both leisure and business travelers take to the skies. Consider a Tuesday or Wednesday departure to shave some precious dollars off that fare. 

On the Water

Planning a boat trip is a whole other oyster to shuck. If you already own your own boat, then you’ve likely got the planning process down pat. But if you’re hoping to rent anything from a center console for days spent fishing or a bareboat charter for the whole family, you’ll need a slightly more detailed itinerary.

The first thing to do is determine your comfort level when it comes to boating (maybe don’t jump into chartering that 54-foot Beneteau if you’ve never sailed before), and then spend a fair amount of time researching rental and charter companies. Check the reviews online, and don’t be afraid to ask questions of the company. Research what sort of licenses you’ll need, and if you’ll be doing a liveaboard vacation, consult the myriad online resources for things like provisioning lists, suggested itineraries, marina recommendations, and more.

Suffice to say, such a vacation takes a bit more work, both beforehand and during, but with the right amount of careful planning, these trips can create memories that will last your family a lifetime.

Location, Location, Location

Now it’s finally time to settle on where you want to go. You can certainly start with the destination, especially if it’s a spot your family likes to return to again and again, and work backward from there, but whichever way you attack the plan, picking the location is often the best part. Involve the whole family in the decision, if possible. Make it even more fun by having everyone write down places on scraps of paper and pulling from a hat or teach the kids a lesson in democracy by holding a vote (obviously, parents get to be the tiebreaker). Consider some important details about the destination when choosing, like average weather during the time you want to travel, cost of activities once you arrive, and availability of nearby amenities. A remote mountain cabin might be just what the doctor ordered, but it may also mean stocking up ahead of time if the closest supermarket is an hour away. 

Another thing to keep in mind is the popularity of your destination. If you and your family are seeking a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, then perhaps a packed beach or crowded theme park might not be the best bet. Consider lesser-known destinations that offer the same amenities as top-tier spots—Savannah, Georgia, might be a good option over Charleston, South Carolina, or Boone, North Carolina, instead of the more popular (and more visited) nearby mountain city of Asheville. What you do when you get there is almost as important, if not more so, than the destination itself, so make sure whatever location you settle on is able to provide the right vacation vibes you’re seeking.

Take Care of the Details 

The normal precautions and pre-planning you may have done for a getaway in the “before times” still apply with a few more things to note. Be sure to take care of everyday pre-trip details like notifying credit card companies that you’ll be traveling, making sure you’ve stocked up on prescription medication (and a roadside emergency/first aid kit if taking a road trip), and stopping your mail with the USPS’s easy online request tool.

However, given the uncertainty with the global pandemic, you’ll want to take some additional planning steps. As airlines struggle with staffing levels, flights are being rescheduled and canceled more than ever, especially during busy travel seasons, so anticipate any extra costs of having to rebook flights or possibly stay at your destination longer than planned.

If you purchase travel insurance (and you should), make sure that the policy covers COVID-related costs like having to cancel if you or a family member test positive, or if you need to isolate at a hotel while on vacation. Be sure to research your destination’s COVID policies, like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. Upload photos of your family’s vaccination cards to your mobile device, and if you need to test before arrival, during your trip, or before departure, make sure you have that all scheduled.

A few extra moments spent taking care of these details before you leave can save you a massive headache (and potentially hundreds if not thousands of dollars) later.

Ready, Set, Go!

By now you’ve done all the planning and the prep, and all that’s left is the anticipation. Make it fun for the whole family with a weekly reveal of tiny clues about the destination for the kids to guess where they’ll be going or a countdown calendar of the days left until vacation. If you’ve followed these tips for planning, then you’ve laid the groundwork for a relaxing, fun, and carefree holiday. We’re in the third year of a global pandemic, so don’t we all deserve a little stress-free time away? Pack those bags, hit the road (or water), and happy travels! 

-by Matt Lardie

Kayaking through Cuba

South of Havana and the visiting hordes of Americans, Cuba offers a wilderness that even a half-century of revolution left unspoiled.

I spot the flamingos as I paddle my sea kayak around a corner in the coffee-colored lagoon. There are about a hundred birds along the mangrove shore, and it’s so quiet and I’m so close that I can hear their gurgled chuckling as they high-step through the shallow water. I remember what a taxi driver told me when I first arrived in Cuba and asked how far you had to go from Havana to really get out into Cuba. He laughed. “You don’t have to go very far in Cuba to go very far in Cuba.”

I’m on a weeklong sea kayak expedition with ROW Adventures (cubaunbound.com) along the southern coast of Cuba. They’ve promised me a chance to get off the tourist-packed streets of Havana and experience the island beyond frozen mojitos and joyrides in vintage Chevys. And now, halfway through our journey, Havana feels as far away as Miami. It’s just me, the muddy labyrinth of mangrove channels, the gorgeously delicate birds, and the misty blue mountains of the Sierra Escambray rising beyond.

Soon the spell is broken by the hollow thump-thump of paddles against plastic kayak hulls and the happy conversations of my fellow paddlers. The shy flamingos launch into a low, lazy flight and blur past me in a peach-sherbet smear. They climb, circle our boats once and vanish beyond the next bend somewhere deeper in the swamp. I lift my paddle and dig into the water. I’m only a half-mile into today’s five-mile paddle, but already my face hurts from smiling so hard.

Cuba travel restrictions for Americans relaxed a few years ago under the Obama administration, though rules on traveling there by boat were slower in coming. Now, cruisers (and kayakers) have fewer restrictions but are wise to consult with an experienced agency for the requirements to visit this North Korea of the Caribbean by boat. (See the resource list at the end.) It’s safe to say there is a mad rush to Cuba going on right now. In 2016, the island saw over 3.5 million tourists, with over a million visitors in first four months. “We have a joke here,” a taxi driver tells me. “All the Americans are rushing to see Cuba… before all the Americans rush to Cuba.”

After an obligatory tour of the capital and Hemingway watering holes, our group hops a brand-new Chinese tour bus and heads two hours south to Playa Larga, a small fishing village on the Zapata Peninsula. It’s a quiet town barely two streets deep from the beach with just a few rows of red-roofed pink shacks. Horse-drawn carts drop students off after school, and men mend fishing nets in the shade of coconut palms. There aren’t any hotels in town yet, so we’re split up into private homes. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba descended into an economic crisis, and Castro allowed individuals to rent out rooms in their homes as “casa particulares,” quasi bed-and-breakfast establishments. Mine, the Casa Tiki, is clean, the bedroom kept polar by an air conditioner and rotating fan; my private bathroom is shiny and smells of bleach.

Later that afternoon, Lerdo, our local kayak guide, leads us out of the bay. Miles of mangrove swamp line the scooped coast, broken here and there by the white flash of beaches. “Back in the 1700s, these forests were full of wild boars,” he says. “So the French sailors started a trade. They shot the pigs and cured the bacon on wooden racks called boucans. But the traders refused to pay tax to Havana and were considered outlaws. They were called boucaneros.” Lerdo waits hopefully for one of us to make the connection. “Pirates!” He finally says. “You’re in the bay where the word buccaneer was born!”

It’s a fun bit of trivia, but the rest of the world knows the bay for another reason. On April 16, 1961, more than 1,400 mercenaries trained by the CIA landed here in the Bay of Pigs and tried to lead an uprising. Lerdo ticks off the beaches as we pass them: Blue Beach, Green Beach, Red Beach. As the surf picks up, we tuck in closer to shore. A small resort fronts one of the landing zones. A couple of guys are trying to get a surfing kite airborne, while a Swiss couple snorkels out to say hello and ask if we’re Americans. Children splash in the waves.

The invasion failed, Lerdo says, sticking close to the official account of a heroic resistance and a united people. The invaders who weren’t killed were taken prisoner, and eventually swapped in a political exchange. The only reminder left of the invasion today are the miles of ragged coastline, still as wild as they were back then.

Playa Giron is poised to become famous again—not for an unsuccessful imperial invasion but as the gateway to the Caribbean’s last truly unspoiled wilderness. The next morning we drive down a sandy arrow-straight road deep into the heart of the Zapata Peninsula, Cuba’s largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was declared a national park back in 1936.

We spend all day paddling a glorious sky-blue lagoon so bright it hurts my eyes even with sunglasses. We paddle past islands of palmettos and tangles of mangroves. Rosette spoonbills step daintily among the shallows and white egrets probe the mud for crabs. Large schools of bonefish stir up the milky water. The sea is shallow, rarely more than a meter deep, and often my keel scrapes the sandy bottom. We’re the only ones in this vast wilderness today, maybe the only ones here this week. I learn later that more people summit Mount Everest every year than kayak the Zapata Swamp.

Over the week, we make our way ever eastward through the Zapata Swamp, through the lagoons around Cienfuegos and along the rugged cliffs off Trinidad. Near the end of the week, we reach our terminus at Cayo Blanco, a small crescent island. We can’t reach it by kayak since it’s nine miles offshore and the waves are too steep. So we take one of the rare motorized boats available from a marina outside the colonial town of Trinidad. Our Cuban escort can’t join us. Why not, I ask. He shrugs. “Cubans need a special permit to ride in a motorized boat. And I don’t have a special permit.”

The open sea is choppy and people are seasick. When our captain spots a fleet of wooden sailboats fishing a nearby bank, we detour out. There’s a shouted exchange as the fishermen sling three red snappers aboard and the captain tosses back two liters of cola.

We land on the island. Anywhere else in the Caribbean this sugar-sand beachfront would be lined with high-rise resorts and studded with candy-cane beach umbrellas. But here there’s only a small government-run café powered by about 40 car batteries hidden behind the kitchen. Sunburned Brits line up at the bar for rum over crushed ice, while large Russians stall out the buffet line as they carefully pick all the lobster bits out of the soggy, communal paella.

I’ve gone as far as I’ll go on this journey through Cuba. On our homeward journey, I climb to the bow. The emerald water rushes beneath my bare feet. Far ahead the mangroves guard the shore. Beyond them climb the Sierra Maestra. The horizon to port and starboard is empty, just endless green waves heaving under a blue sky. A tern drops in and keeps pace with the boat. And for the moment at least, while the rest of the paddlers’ nap in the shade of the bridge, Cuba all around me is wide and open and unbound.

— Story and photos by Jad Davenport, Southern Boating Magazine February 2017

cruising to Cuba resources
Cuba Seas
cubaseas.com

International SeaKeepers Society
seakeepers.org/cuba  

Exploring the Enchanted Isles of Galápagos

Experience the untouched wonder of the Galápagos, an adventure you’ll not soon forget.

Straddling the equator off the coast of Ecuador is an enchanted archipelago with some of the strangest wildlife on the planet. Roughly half the size of Hawaii but with barely enough residents to fill Yankee Stadium, the Galápagos Islands are a biological laboratory. Here, amid the cactus-covered landscape, wildlife evolved in nearly total isolation. There are blood-sucking finches, tree-climbing sea lions, underwater iguanas, and tortoises that hatched more than a century ago. Because of its unique wildlife and remoteness, the archipelago has become a mecca for cruisers wanting to experience Charles Darwin’s “Enchanted Isles.”

Since most of the archipelago is within a national park—and the surrounding waters are part of a marine sanctuary—the laws controlling mooring sites and island visits are extremely rigid. The best and easiest way to voyage through the Galápagos is not by private yacht but aboard one of the licensed expedition ships that offer voyages from a few days to a few weeks.

The Bishop of Panama, Fray Tomas de Berlanga, accidentally discovered the Galápagos in March 1535 when strong currents pulled his ship 600 miles off the mainland traveling from Panama to Peru. The cleric was stranded for three weeks, and his faith was shaken at his first glimpse of the bleak basalt mountains prickled in towering cactus forests. He wrote, “It seems as though at some time God had showered stones and the earth is like slag, worthless.”

It was, however, Charles Darwin who brought fame to the Galápagos. Although the naturalist voyaged through the islands in 1835 aboard the HMS Beagle—he only visited 4 of the 19 islands—it wasn’t until 1859 and the publication of his work On the Origin of Species that the islands became known to the outside world. But it would be another century before intrepid tourists ventured there when in 1969, the first cruise carrying just 58 passengers voyaged through the islands. Today, tourism generates a half-billion dollars per year, with nearly a quarter-million visitors exploring the islands annually.

Most tourists fly first to Quito, Ecuador, and spend a night or two exploring this Andean capital. From there, flights hop to the port city of Guayaquil and then to Baltra International Airport in the Galápagos. From the airport it’s a quick transfer by taxi and boat over to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, the hub of tourism.

The town, the largest in the Galápagos, is lorded over by a giant, paint-chipped, albatross statue. The cobbled main street is lined with dive shops and souvenir stores. Visitors can explore the nearby Charles Darwin Research Station and see the successful tortoise captive breeding program, with opportunities to wander through enclosures that hold adult tortoises. More adventurous travelers can sign up for tours into the surrounding highlands, winding through eucalyptus forests and past banana plantations and coffee farms. There, among some of the last forest stands, guides can lead you to the last wild tortoises. The reptiles weigh as much as 500 pounds, are the size of coffee tables and spend much of their time grazing among the tall grasses in forest glades. Darwin and his crew brought 48 of them on board but, unfortunately, not for scientific study. He described them as such: “The breast plate with the flesh attached to it is very good, and the young tortoises make excellent soup.”

Abercrombie & Kent is one of the best cruising operators exploring the Galápagos. From Santa Cruz, their luxurious M/V Eclipse makes regular voyages among the islands. With only 24 cabins (all with sea views), this sleek 210-foot ship feels more like a private yacht; your shore parties are also smaller at 12 people per guide versus the standard 16.

Most voyages start with a wet landing on nearby Las Bachas Beach, where you might get lucky and see some Caribbean flamingos in the lagoon or nesting green sea turtles on the beach (November to February). Bring a pair of water shoes or sturdy hiking sandals for the wet landings and dry, lightweight hiking boots for the island hikes.

Another favorite stop is Puerto Egas on Santiago Island. Here, guides lead you on a hike along an old salt-mining road to the Fur Seal Grottos, beautiful tide pools and caves where penguins sleep and play. Ask to see “Darwin’s Toilet,” a cool lava tube that fills and empties with the swirling tides. Later that afternoon, the ship sails to Bartolomé Island for a hot, hour-long hike up the 300-plus stairs to the summit for beautiful views of Pinnacle Rock and Sullivan Bay. Afterward, take the ship’s zodiac out to the snorkeling grounds, where you’ll spot harmless whitetip reef sharks and Galápagos penguins. Bring bug spray to ward off the pesky horseflies on the beach.

Rare land iguanas are the draw when the ship circles back to Santa Cruz Island to explore the cactus forests of Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill). Wear a yellow shirt or hat. (Land iguanas feed on yellow cactus flowers and will scamper over to you for great photos.) Then it’s off to the blood-red beaches of Rabida Island to photograph sea lions.

Another favorite landing is at Tagus Cove on Isabela Island (Darwin was here), where you can hike through the palo-santo forests up the rugged slopes of a cinder cone to photograph the views and see some of the famous finches and mockingbirds. There’s also wonderful kayaking in the cove and a chance to snorkel with penguins again, or traverse a mangrove swamp by panga at Elizabeth Bay.

Few tourist boats make it to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island, so count yourself lucky if your ship’s itinerary includes dropping anchor here at the only approved mooring spot at the island; you’re about to see a slice of “the real Galápagos.” A mere million years old, Fernandina is the newest and westernmost of the Galápagos Islands and also the most volcanically active. Its misty caldera rises more than a mile above the surrounding lowlands and erupts spectacularly about once every 10 years. Fernandina is a glimpse of the Galápagos as they were long ago when life first found them. There are no introduced species on this remote volcanic island. Out on the shimmering black surface, only a scattering of lava cactus—a pioneer species—cling to the cracks and crevices. Red-throated lava lizards scamper across sometimes drawing the attention of the islands’ most dominant land predators, Galápagos hawks, often seen perched on palo santo trees. The lava field you’ll walk over is cabled and sinewy, frozen in long, ropy braids. It’s so sharp that it tears the soles off tennis shoes and can cheese-grate your knees if you trip, so wear boots and long pants for the hike.

An afternoon sail to nearby Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island offers a fantastic few hours of snorkeling with inquisitive sea lion pups and sea turtles. Sea lions want to play, so don’t just sit there. Spin, blow bubbles, make noise under water, and don’t be surprised if they tug on your dive fins and mouth your snorkel.

Gardner Bay on Española Island is one of the longest white-sand beaches in the Galápagos, and you’ll have complete freedom to explore it without a guide (but not into the desert beyond). Leave your boots but bring your hiking sandals, swimsuit, towel, and snorkel gear, and spend the morning swimming in this stunning bay with frisky sea lions. The next stop to nearby Punta Suárez includes hiking the 2.5-mile trail through colonies of blue-footed and Nazca boobies. Near the high sea cliffs, you should pass some of the 12,000 breeding pairs of waved albatross. From April to December the babies are learning to fly, an amazing and amusing sight.

On your last night, you’ll pack your bags for an early departure, followed by one last zodiac ride through the mangrove swamps of Black Turtle Cove and a stop at the ship’s store for souvenirs. Choose something that brings to mind your epic adventure to this land that time forgot, but you surely will not.

EXPEDITIONS:

Abercrombie & Kent; abercrombiekent.com
AdventureSmith Explorations; adventuresmithexplorations.com
Lindblad Expeditions; expeditions.com  

Words and photos by Jad Davenport, Southern Boating Magazine December 2016

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