Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 186

Do You Love to Stay, Eat, and Play in Los Cabos, Mexico?

Photo courtesy of Los Cabos Tourism Board

For all its luxuries — crystal blue waters, fresh fare, and temperate climate — Cabo San Lucas remains affordable. Beaches here range from tranquil (Playa del Amor) to turbulent (Zippers Beach), so you’ll be covered whether you’re in the mood for serene, sun-soaked swimming or a bit of wave play with surfing and sailing.

Here’s how to make the most this beach-lover’s paradise.

Stay

The pool at Bahia offers a quiet oasis for floating the day away. Photo by Lindsay Tucker

Strong currents make many of Cabo’s hotel beaches unswimmable, so before booking a trip, make sure to look into your locale’s beach swimability. At Bahia Hotel & Beach House, you need not worry. Situated in Cabo’s Medano Beach district, the Bahia is famous for its vistas of sweeping sunsets, access to velvety white sandy beaches, and the hotel-front calm crystal waters ideal for swimming, snorkeling, and other water-sport adventures. To that end, the on-site water sports activity center offers snorkeling and stand-up paddle boarding set against the backdrop of the Sea of Cortez. Inside the hotel are beautifully decorated, minimalist guest rooms with stunning metal lanterns, while just steps away, there’s a quiet guest-only pool with swim-up bar, and a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant with bright dishes and generous pours. The Beach House, Bahia’s main restaurant and bar, offers a different set of flavors, with menu items inspired by global cuisine from Mexico, Peru, and Asia.

Photo courtesy of Los Cabos Tourism Board

Eat

If you manage to peel yourself away from the Bahia, there’s a host of dining options in Cabo proper. An open-concept, market-style dining experience, El Merkado Centro Gastronomico is home to many of the city’s most critically acclaimed chefs. Perhaps most notable is CarbonCabron, the culinary concept from chef Alfonso Cadena and his brother, architect Ignacio Cadena. The restaurant serves as a fantastical lair where rich flavors mingle with unexpected textures aided by smoky, burning wood and charcoal, culminating in a sensory experience full of warmth. Take a seat at one of the family-style tables, and order the Mexican-style street corn and carbon margarita to start.

Photo courtesy of Los Cabos Tourism Board

Play

The tours offered by Cabo Adventures span both land and sea. Choose from ATV off-roading, luxury sailing, swimming with dolphins, SCUBA diving, camel safaris, and more. Opt for a bit of both worlds with the off-road ATV adventure, which takes you over rippling sand dunes, through hairpin turns, and through dense brush before revealing the sparkling sea — and a completely empty beach — waiting as your reward.

By night, practice your best moves at Blue Marlin Ibiza Beach Club, which is quickly becoming one of the area’s hottest nightlife spots. The poolside beach club offers exceptional fare and cocktails (bottle service, anyone?) all times of day — and by night, avant-garde DJs and a 5,000-square-foot dance floor. Come for the lobster tacos and breathtaking views, and stay for the flashy-fun ambiance.

 Day passes to Blue Marlin Ibiza Beach Club are available to non-guests for a fee.

Photo courtesy of Los Cabos Tourism Board

When to visit

Those summers in Cabo are never-ending — as in hot, hot, hot! Opt instead for a shoulder season, or visit as a warm-weather getaway during winter, planning your visit around special events, such as the annual Extreme Sailing series racing event, which fills Cabo’s offshore with GC32 catamarans and its beaches with professional sailors.

The Extreme Sailing Series 2017. Act 8. 30th November- 3rd December 2017. Los Cabos Mexico, Cabo San Lucas Resort. Pictures of the fleet of race yachts crossing the start line on day 2 of racing close to Los Cabos. Photo by Extreme Sailing Series
Looking for Luxury in Los Cabos?

‘Stay and Play’ at the beautiful new Montage Los Cabos opening in May 2018

or try limitless luxury that is “Beyond All Inclusive” at Grand Velas Los Cabos!

 

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Foggy Morning on the Lake in Slovenia

lake Bled, Slovenia

minor adjustments only

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Pico’s Mountain in Portugal

Taken with Canon EOS 50D, without tripod, and with a Canon 50mm f/1.8

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The Little Joys of Life in Hungary

I used my camera Nikon D3200, manual mode; Postprocessing – Lightroom and Google Nik Collection (analog efex pro 2)

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Why is London a great first trip overseas with kids?

With low-cost airlines like WOW and Norwegian Air Shuttle (and the majors price matching in many cases), families can now get to Europe from the U.S. at very affordable prices. Add a strong U.S. dollar against the Euro and British Pound, and it’s an awesome time for your first journey to Europe.

But, where should you go once you hop across the Atlantic? There are so many incredible options each with a different culture and magnificent sights to see– from the bustling culture and streets of Paris to the ancient city of Rome and the picturesque mountain views of Switzerland, there are dozens of epic trips.  It’s really hard to choose with so many incredible options. However, for a first trip overseas with kids, the land of Harry Potter, Mary Poppins and Paddington Bear is an excellent destination.

More than any other vacation that we’ve planned, our young boys were really eager to explore London. They have read books and seen movies with London as the setting.  And, knew enough about history and famous sights like Big Ben, the Queen, the London Eye and Stonehenge to get excited about visiting and helping us plan the itinerary.

Although it wasn’t our first time traveling overseas with our kids, a trip to London is a good entrée to dip your littles’ toes into the international scene:

No language barrier takes away one of the stressors of international travel;
Food is similar to U.S., well maybe not mushy peas, but chips (fries), burgers, breakfasts, pizza and Italian food all stack up to American fare.
Transportation is easy and accessible– in London, most sights are walkable or accessible via a great subway system or cabs (just be sure you look left first before crossing the street).
There are iconic sights that they will recognize from books, TV shows and movies.

And yet, it is also different enough from the U.S. to be intriguing and to give kids a taste of a different culture such as driving on the left side of the road; using a different currency; and experiencing how delightful afternoon tea is.

The other great thing about London, is that you can tailor your adventure according to your interests. Bookworms will delight retracing the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Poppins, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Harry Potter-oriented tours; history buffs won’t be able to get enough of the Tower of London, The British Museum, and Parliament and architecture lovers can gaze at buildings built back as far back as 1066 (Tower of London) or modern marvels like The Shard and sports fans can catch a football game, see the venues of the 2000 Olympics or wander over to Wimbledon.

Our must-do list hit a lot of the big sites:

Day 1 –first stop off the plane was a pub for a pint and fish n’ chips. Walk around Parliament area and see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

Day 2 – stop at Kings Cross for photo opp at Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter and shop in Harry Potter Store; walk through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace; walk along the Thames (see London Eye from afar).

Day 3 – photo opp at red phone booth, British Museum (easily a 3-4 hour visit and one of the most treasured and incredible museums in the world).  THE Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island maoi, Egyptian art and stonework are breathtaking. Double decker bus ride.

Day 4 – private driver and tour of Stonehenge (approximately 1.5 hours from the heart of London) and stop at Salisbury Cathedral to see one of the four copies of the Magna Carta and the oldest working clock in the world.

Had enough energy to go see Changing of the Guard later that day in London and Piccadilly Circus.

Day 5 – Took water taxi on Thames over to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater; walked across London Bridge to the Tower of London; found area where Diagon Alley was filmed in Harry Potter.

Day 6 – Paddington Station to see statue of infamous bear and shop in Paddington Store before heading to airport.

We barely scratched the surface of all the wonderful things to do and see in London, but it is definitely one of our favorite trips we’ve done. And who knows, maybe you’ll bump into J.K.Rowling or Daisy Ridley on the street!

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Bandman in India

i used olympus omd em5 with 45mm 1.8 prime lens. Lightroom software was used to minor color enhancement of raw file.

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I’m Watching You: Tiger in India

This image was taken with a Nikon DSLR camera with an 75-300 lens

Image was put through photoshop with basic crop lighting adjustments

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The Lonely Little Tree in Wyoming

I used the Nikon Coolpix with no filtering. The picture was taken on June 25th.

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The Spirits of Quebec

I took this picture with my Nikon camera. The image is a composite of two layered pictures of the same street in Old Town Quebec City. One photo full color no people or traffic, the other black and white semi transparent with people, and traffic.

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Mesmerising Kalpa in India

Kalpa is a town with a history of ancient temples. The Sutlej River below hurtles through deep gorges, the winding mountain road is bordered by chilgoza forests. The serenity of this sleepy hamlet is so breathtaking with the view of the mighty Kailash Mountain Range. The architecture of the houses are Buddhist influenced and are called Kinauri houses. This photo was shot during the blue hour with a Nikon D800 camera with 24-70mm lens. The beauty of this photo is its just edited with a minimum of editing tool using colorefex for lightroom to enhance the colours.

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