Resorts of the Mexican Riviera

In my opinion, absolutely nothing on this planet more fully embodies hassle-free travel than a nice long stay in one of the world’s many resort towns. The popularity of these all-inclusive resorts is definitely on the rise, as many find themselves wanting that spectacular beach getaway, without all the trouble of booking accommodations, researching destinations and planning itineraries, and instead just want a great, relaxing vacation without feeling like they have to put in the work equivalent to a second job to plan it.

One of the most popular places for travelers from the U.S. to visit when they get the itch for all-inclusive, no-stress travel is the Mexican Riviera. With such great (not to mention famous) destinations as Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, this locale offers an abundance of simple options for some of the most easygoing travel you’ll ever experience. Plus, if a little more activity is what you’re looking for, you still have to look no further, as a huge variety of daily excursions and adventures are easily planned with the help of resort staff.

RealTravelers FreqTravelers recently visited Cabo San Lucas as quickly fell in love with their hotel during their stay:

“We arrived at the hotel and immediately was greeted by the bell men and was given a complementary margarita (which wasn’t very good). We knew we may be early to check in, but decided to try. They said our room wasn’t ready, so we went to have lunch at the Sunset Pool Bar. The food was pretty good.

We were able to go to our room after lunch. AMAZING suites there! Ours was on the 6th floor and had an awesome view of the pool and ocean. The room decor was very bright and colorful and hacienda-like. The maid service was excellent during our stay, we always came back to “towel creatures” on our bed.” (more…)

Unlimited drinks, unlimited food and no worries about sticking to itineraries or finding where to eat to top it all off? What’s not to love? Hey, even on a cruise you have to go through the effort of getting on the boat. So take it easy, and get to planning. Here are some useful resources to get you started:

Puerto Vallarta Hotels
Cabo San Lucas Hotels
Mazatlan Hotels

Traveling to Austin this summer

Looking for an exciting, music filled getaway, and don’t mind a hot climate? Head to Austin Texas this summer. It’s going to be hot: pack light clothes, some comfortable shoes, a cowboy hat, a toothbrush…but leave the Ipod behind, because Austin is not only the capital of Texas, but renowned as the Live Music Capital of the World, and you’re going to want to soak this up. 

Home to the Texas Longhorns, this University Town in Central Texas receives an average of 300 days of sun, boasts of world famous summer festivals, over 200 live music venues and outdoor parks, and a progressive community that loves their quirky shopping centers as much as their hiking trails. Texas may conjure images of John Wayne and twang music, George W. and tumbleweed, but Austin’s mod and vigilant urban scene is an anomaly eager to defy any traditional expectations.

Start your weekend early and fly in on a Thursday afternoon; check-in, drop your luggage, step into your swim trunks, and purge yourself of salty fingers and airplane-clam with a dip in Barton Springs, a 1,000 foot long spring-fed pool that maintains a comfortable year-round temp of 68 degrees. Toss a Frisbee disc, check out the Botanical Gardens in the 360-acre Zilker Park, or simply soak up some U.V. rays until the sun sinks and a hankering stomach requires satiating. From there, settle into a romantic dinner for two before a five-course menu at the local connoisseur favorite Jeffrey’s Restaurant and Bar, or for something more casual, roll up your sleeves for some savory ribs, classic potato salad, and a margarita filled happy hour at Austin’s lakeside County Line BBQ.

If the night feels young, hit one of the ubiquitous music venues bumping on any night of the week or peruse South District’s eclectic shops for vintage jewelry and outdoor art shows. For something more upscale, head downtown to 2nd street district for the trendy shops or don a tie or a fancy dress and let a ballet performance enchant your evening. But whatever you do, rest easy; the morning, before the heat hits and limbs grow lazy, is the perfect window to adventure into Austin’s outdoor scene. Explore the Barton Creek Greenbelt by foot or bike, kayak around Lady Bird Lake, or practice your golf-swing on some of the nation’s most esteemed courses.

Real Travelers Dungroovin enjoyed their trip to Austin last summer, especially listening in on the music scene:

“At night we soak up the live music that is literally everywhere, in bars, on patios, in restaurants, in gardens, parks, city squares, rock, jazz, blues, folk C&W whatever you desire, it’s a great great place.”

On any given night, Austin’s going to be vibrant and loaded with entertainment, but when a city that’s known for its electric nightlife throws a party, you don’t want to miss it. Thousands flock to Zilker Park for the three-day world famous Austin City Limit Music Festival (Oct 2-4th). Featuring 130 bands across 8 stages, Austin’s music scene culminates into a cultural celebration of world music with local cuisine, arts and crafts, so awesome PBS made a television show to keep the tradition going all year round. The Austin Film Festival (Oct 22-29th) features film premiers, advanced screenings, and independent films; film and screenplay seminars and competitions draw actors and aspirers alike in this annual week long celebration of animation.

Is International Health Insurance Valid in the UK?

Some returning Britons are discovering that their so-called ‘international’ health insurance plans are no longer quite as valid and as valuable when they return to the UK, leading to an increase in complaints against insurers - according to a recent report in the Telegraph. 

The trouble is, the cost of health care at home and abroad differs greatly, therefore insurers look at where an individual is resident when they are initially insured, and tailor their quotation accordingly. As soon as you move the goalposts by moving to another country or by repatriating, you need to be very wary of changing policy wording and/or of changes to the premiums that you pay! 
If you’ve been living abroad for some years and have taken out a health insurance policy, you need to look into the usefulness of it if you’re now thinking of returning to the UK. Do this sooner rather than later or you could find yourself underinsured, or worse still, uninsured.

Some expats are temporarily relocating to the UK, they are being forced to because of the global financial situation which has had a negative effect on everything from exchange rates to jobs markets around the world. For those who are only intending to return for a short while whilst they regroup and seek out alternative employment prospects elsewhere, it makes little sense to give up a decent international health insurance policy – after all, surely it is of use and of value in the UK too. 

Other expats have had to give up their dream of a new life abroad for fiscal reasons, health reasons, family reasons or just a personal preference that rates the UK over and above any other nation. For such Britons a private healthcare policy can have a great deal of benefit, particularly if the individual in question is reaching an age when perhaps greater medical treatment may be necessary in time. 

Chances are people who fall into the above example categories will assume that the international health insurance policy that they took out as expats will still be of value to them now that they are repatriating and returning to the UK. However, they could be very sadly mistaken. When it comes to the UK there are often additional exclusions, exemptions and restrictions placed on policies – even by the same provider who has been giving the returning expat in question their insurance abroad! 

So, once again it may well be the case of having to shop around for a new insurance provider when you return to the UK – a nightmare for anyone who has an established track record with a given insurer, and an even worse nightmare for anyone over the age of 65 when the majority of insurers cut off access to their policies for new customers. 

If you’re thinking about repatriating, relocating or indeed moving abroad for the first time, you need to take a broader and longer-term view of your health insurance. You need to make sure that your insurance will cover you at home and abroad, that any insurance you have in place already will cover you if you do move back to the UK, and that if your insurance is not suitable, that you work with a financial adviser to find the right policy for you and your family. 
Be sure to read the small print and make sure you really do understand it and how it may apply to anything and everything, from pre-existing conditions to critical illnesses, to the duration of cover available or the limit on an amount payable for a given condition and so on. Do not assume that all policies and all policy providers are the same – they are not! And it all differs depending on where in the world you’re living…so be careful.

Robert Reid Talks about the Future of Travel Guidebooks

Robert Reid is a Lonely Planet writer who publishes an amazing internet guide to Vietnam, and doesn't mince words in his recent interview with WorldHum. He laments the demise of experienced travel guidebook writers for novices who will work for peanuts under the illusion it will lead to fame and riches, and thinks internet travel guides will someday replace traditional published guides, when technology advances and handhelds can display the chief advantage printed guides continue to have over internet sources: maps.

Robert Reid: I used to think the most important thing we guidebook authors did for travelers was hotel reviews. People like to have some sense of security that the $5 or $300 place they’re staying in won’t be a brothel or rat-infested dump. But the Internet has already completely changed this. Previously if I had a new budget hotel in a town center, or a mid-ranger with pool, travelers would have to wait nine or 12 months from the time I “discovered” it until it appeared in a guide.

Now Internet booking sites often get them immediately. When I went to China a couple years ago, I stayed at a brand new hostel in Beijing that the Trans-Siberian author had just found, but that hadn’t yet appeared in the guide. It was already full! I was amazed at how nearly all the people there had found it online, and were booking their full China trip’s accommodations online.

At a Lonely Planet workshop a couple years ago, I asked a high-up at LP who they saw as their biggest competitor, and they immediately answered “Google.” I was impressed. So publishers like LP definitely see the Internet as a growing competitor, and have for a while. When the BBC bought LP a couple months ago, one of the key things they cited for future development was online content.

Another thing is that many sites with travel content online don’t have maps. And maps are HUGE. I sometimes think seasoned travelers need only a map, with barebones details of few places to stay, and barebones details of what to see and where to eat. If they trust the author—and that’s a big if, of course—not as much needs to be said as some people think. This, again, is for seasoned travelers only.

The only other thing I fear regarding online guidebooks is if they follow the “I stayed here and it was great” TripAdvisor or Amazon.com model. Those are useful, no doubt, but they’re only based on isolated experiences. If publishers turn things over at some point to reader-generated content, you won’t have the authoritative overviews that guidebook writers can offer, and it’ll end up with deeper beaten tracks, with more travelers doing the same thing.

But I do want to say David Stanley is right, it’s sad and reckless if an old author who did good work on several editions is cut for a new author. In my opinion, in-house editors don’t completely understand what goes into researching these guides—I was an editor for years, and only figured it out once I started writing full time. The best experience for writing a guidebook to X is not living in X but actually having written a guidebook to X. Sometimes publishers forget that a bit.

Sometimes I think we’re living a doomed profession, and that we’ll look back on the wacky wild period from the 1970s to the 2000s when scores of notebook-toting travelers went and sought out the mysteries of places that are no longer mysterious. People will look back on the era like reading Graham Greene books about far-flung places at wilder times.

Will guidebooks in book form die? Probably so. But to be honest, I think there will always be room for the perspective of the “guidebook author,” at least online. Once hand-held devices get even more sophisticated, so that maps and reviews are more easily referred to—or we old folks die out and the younger generations who are not so soft on books take over—things will probably go online completely.

But I sometimes think people like holding those books. So far, though, the TripAdvisor-type sites are excellent resources, but don’t account for perspective. One person goes to Y hotel and says “it’s super!” But they don’t realize A, B, C are similar and $40 less. Who goes to all 15 museums in Bucharest but a guidebook author? So only they can tell you that something like the Romanian National Museum of the Peasant is about the best museum in the world?

The Rivers of the North of Colombia

A little less than a month ago I picked up Aaron Rettig, Tyler Bradt and Lane Jacobs at the airport in Bogotá and we made a round about kayaking tour of the Northern half of Colombia. During the journey we definitely spent more time driving around in our ’94 Chevrolet Trooper than we spent paddling down rivers, however in the last three weeks we managed to paddle the Rio Negro, Rio San Juan, Rio Guatapé, Rio Mogoticos and Rio Palomino which are all classic rivers in their own right. We were also turned away from several sure classic rivers because of the guerrillas, the paramilitaries and probable land mines. Perhaps the Rio Mogoticos could be excluded from the group of classic rivers. We made a low water descent which was probably the rockiest class 4 and 5 river I have ever paddled. I broke the seat of my kayak, bruised the muscles of my buttocks and hips by bouncing off rocks and I cut my right forearm and right leg on barbed wire in two separate incidents. I fell three times and once dropped my paddle in the river. While I was kayaking down the river nothing happened with the exception of breaking my kayak seat during an abrupt encounter with a rock, but when we got out to portage the jungle of Colombia beat me down. 

 
River exploration and the jungles of Colombia are not always rainbows and butterflies. The jungles of Colombia are also full of various parasitic creatures such as regular sized ticks, seed ticks, mosquitos, tiny black flies and the parasites play host to even smaller parasites. The jungles of Colombia are also full of various non-venomous and venomous spiders, some of them the size of tarantulas, and non-venomous and venomous snakes. Most often it is the smallest and least pervasive of the dangers that beat me down in Colombia. Most recently I believe I contracted some sort of tick fever or dengue fever on the Rio Palomino in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, My achilles tendons have shrunk to a couple of inches and walking is painfully, I regularly have a high fever and my entire body aches. Several other veteran Colombian kayakers have contracted similar ailments after exposure to ticks, mosquitos and black flies, and they report similar symptoms that usually last a couple of weeks. I am about five days into whatever I have contracted and I hope it passes soon. If not I may have to consult a physician and acquire some antibiotics.


My tour of the Northern part of Colombia has temporarily come to an end where it began about three weeks ago in San Gil. I left my van here before I went to pick up the rest of the crew, but the market for 1955 Volkswagen hippie vans is minimal, so I think I will take a day or two to move it to Bogotá and leave it with the used car salesman that we bought the Trooper from. He seemed to be one of the most trustworthy Colombians I have done business with, so I think I will pay him a commission to sell my van. The van holds a lot of sentimental value, a baby was born in the van with me at the wheel, but it breaks often and parts are hard to find outside of the major cities. It is time to part with the van. The Trooper breaks less frequently, but still requires periodic repairs. 

 

The rest of the crew continued towards the Eastern slope of the Eastern Cordillera this morning. I will catch up with them after a day or two of rest which will hopefully result with an improvement in my physical state, after I perform my civic duties to the U.S. and prepare my taxes, and after I relocate my van to Bogotá or someplace where the hippie van market is thriving. From wherever I end this little side mission, hopefully in two or three days, I will take a bus to wherever the rest of the crew is and resume the kayaking mission. We still have the East and the South of Colombia to explore before the end of March. The kayaking should continue to improve, although it has not been bad, as we move into a couple of areas with the more large volume rivers and more frequent rain.


Even deep in the throes of whatever I have contracted this time, I can say that the rewards of seeing some of the places we have seen and paddling some of the rivers we have paddled outweigh the discomforts of the jungle and endless hours of the four of us cramped in the Trooper. Life would be better if I were not ill, but life is still good.