by admin
An adventure tour is not your typical vacation. As indicated by the name, an adventure tour includes an element of excitement and exploration. For most travellers, the adventure lies in the destinations, the activities, and the tour group that you go with. A properly planned adventure tour can be a once in a lifetime experience. Taking adventure tours is part of a growing trend for those who want to get more out of their vacations than simply sitting on the beach. Many individuals in today’s world engage in regular exercise and other “extreme sports”, and are also interested in the culture and landscape of a foreign country. For these vacationers, a basic trip to a tropical island will just not do. If you mountain bike, mountain climb, or white water raft in your free time, why not incorporate that activity into your vacation? All of these exciting elements are combined in an adventure tour.
Choose Your Own Adventure
The extreme differences and varieties of landscape and climate of the four corners of the Earth come to life on an adventure vacation. At the heart of the adventure tour is the location or locations visited on the trip. Different people see different activities as adventures, so there are many options on an adventure tour depending on the traveler’s interests. Other vacationers can handle only a certain amount of activity, so that has to be taken into account as well.
In most cases, an adventure tour includes physical exertion of some kind. This type of adventure tour can include hiking, bicycling, kayaking, canoeing, and any other physical activity that you can think of, even ice climbing. Of course, all of these activities are enriched by the locale. White water rafting in the same old rivers in your home state can become ordinary. What better way to revitalize your interest in this extreme sport by travelling to New Zealand and trying you skills down a brand-new set of waterways.
Other adventurous souls who may desire a bit less physical exertion can still travel to exotic locations and experience the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and everything else that their chosen destination or destinations has to offer. They can still enjoy the complete experience of taking in all that a city or country has to offer. This type of adventure tour usually involves cultural traditions, such as taking part in an ancient ceremony in Mexico.
See and Do More
A good part of the adventure tour is spent travelling so that more ground can be covered. So many sights and highlights can be caught and experienced along the way that a simple trip can seem to encompass what may have taken multiple vacations to cover.
The advanced planning that an adventure tour includes allows for much more to be fit into each day than would be covered by a more relaxed and pampered. As you keep moving from stop to stop, you can see more of the state or country that you are visiting.
On an adventure tour, you may even be able to move from country to country, such as in Southeast Asia or Africa, to sample all of the radically different cultures that share borders. Any nomadic, adventurous spirit would feel right at home traversing a multitude of nations on one adventure tour. Upon their return, travelers often report feeling that they feel as if they have experienced several vacations instead of just one. A traditional vacation may scratch the surface of a destination, but an adventure our thrusts you into the heart and soul of a foreign land.
Strangers and Friends
An unforeseen benefit of an adventure tour is that you experience these exotic locals with a group of other people. They can come from different areas, from different backgrounds, and, consequently, from radically different lives. You are all brought together to experience something special on an adventure tour.
As you share experience after experience you bond within your own little group. You get the chance to share new experiences with people from different backgrounds, seeing how they react to the world you are discovering together. It has been said that you cannot understand this aspect of an adventure tour experience until you have lived through it. A great group of people travelling the world together can take an already amazing experience to new heights.
Adventure tours are an experience unlike any other. They take the time that you would spend on a traditional vacation and offer you an unparalleled chance for excitement and adventure. The great diversity and variety of an adventure tour ensures that there really is something for everyone. On an adventure tour, no two experiences are exactly alike. The chance to take such a tour is a once in a lifetime opportunity but requires you to answer yes to a very simple question. Would you like to have an adventure?
By: Mike Cole
Tags: Adventure Tour, Adventure Tours, Adventure Vacation, Adventurous Souls, Bike Mountain, Extreme Differences, Extreme Sport, Extreme Sports, Four Corners, Lifetime Experience, Old Rivers, Physical Exertion, Tour Group, Travelling To New Zealand, Tropical Island, Typical Vacation, Vacationers, Water Raft, Waterways, White Water Rafting
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While there are numerous wine regions in and around Cape Town, two of the best are definitely Paarl and Franschhoek. If you are a fan of French wine regions, you will definitely want to take a tour of Franschhoek. In fact, the area has been aptly nicknamed the French Corner due to the fact that it is just a bit like visiting Provence, with the exception that you are in South Africa. Even the names of the farms and the streets have a bit of a French twist to them. This is because beginning around 1688 French Huguenots began to arrive in South Africa in large numbers and settled in the region. You can even find a museum and monument that celebrates the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa. While the Huguenots were trying to escape religious persecution they brought with them their knowledge and experience in viticulture and rapidly began to establish wine farms in the local area. Today, these farms and the wine industry is flourishing in the local area.
Of course, wine is not the only reason to visit this lovely region. You will also find some of the best restaurants in all of South Africa in Franschhoek. The local cheeses and produce are absolutely spectacular and well complimented by the locally produced wines. The idyllic scenery along with the wonderful wines and foods makes this region an area that should not be missed while in the Cape Town region.
While you won’t find much in the way of traditional shopping, there is a fabulous chocolate shop as well as a local cheese shop where you can purchase items to take back with you. The chocolate shop even allows you to try your own hand at creating delicious confections.
Paarl is yet another area well worth visiting; known for its fabulous wines, eccentric art and plethora of monuments. In addition you will also find a number of antique stores that are well worth browsing as well as fabulous restaurants.
One of the best wine farms to explore is Seidelberg Wine Estate. Not only will you be able to tour the wine farm, but there is also an art studio located here known as Bronze Age and is home to functional pieces of art and metal sculptures. A sumptuous restaurant is located on the same estate along with a cellar that features a working glass blowing studio. If you have never had the opportunity to watch glass being created from sand, it is definitely an experience that should not be missed. You can also purchase glassware at the shop that ranges from perfume bottles to vases to sculpture.
At wine Valley Horse Trails there are stables right on site that provide you with the opportunity to see the best of the region while enjoying a relaxing horse back ride. This is truly a breathtaking way of seeing the beauty of the local area and should not be missed if you happen to be in the region.
By: Kadence Buchanan
Tags: Antique Stores, Best Restaurants, Cheese Shop, Chocolate Shop, Course Wine, Delicious Confections, Eccentric Art, Fabulous Restaurants, Fabulous Wines, Franschhoek, French Corner, French Huguenots, French Twist, French Wine Regions, Paarl, Religious Persecution, Viticulture, Wine Estate, Wine Farms, Wine Industry
by admin
The Best Compact Digital Cameras for Kenya Tanzania Uganda Travel, Safari Photography
Though our safari guides are dedicated photographers, they often don’t take digital cameras with them when they are on a safari in Tanzania Kenya Uganda as they rather not to have the interruption and concentrate on making the experience as enjoyable as possible for tourists who have paid for the privilege. Our guides do have lots of other opportunities to travel on their own and photograph incredible wildlife & scenery. With this “best digital camera information our travel guides hope to pass on advice to help you get the best digital camera for travel, safaris and wildlife photography.
Best Digital Cameras for Travel in Kenya Tanzania Uganda – the most important features are:
The camera should be Handy – This for a safari travel camera is vital, it should be easy to place in your hand luggage; it has to be simple to hold, we highly recommend a compact digital camera for touring Africa. Remember that professional photographers carry large photographic equipment because it’s their job and you are on Kenya Tanzania Uganda holiday with the idea being to enjoy it.
Don’t become a Target – Another thing to keep in mind is that if you travel around populated cities like Nairobi, you are immediately a target for thieves.
Safari Camera – When you travel on safari in Africa, you most probably will be traveling on a 4×4 and the size of your camera is not that critical as long as it is easily available, but if you plan on a walking safari, again a small easy to carry camera is highly recommended.
Best Cameras for Wildlife Photography
When photographing wildlife the most important features to look out for are:
Get in close to the subject – Big Zoom required – the principals of Africa wildlife photography are similar to photographing polar bears in the arctic, you need to get as close as possible.
Digital Camera Battery types and Battery life
Battery life and what type of batteries the camera takes is also an important consideration to take into account, remember if you are traveling to remote locations there may not be any electricity to charge your batteries, therefore buying a spare battery or two is a must.
Below are recommended best digital cameras for Africa travel and wild life photography, by taking into account three main features of large zoom and compact size camera
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 is the successor to the very popular FZ18 and has increased resolution: 10.1 Megapixels.
It has an amazing super-zoom with an 18x optically stabilised lens (27-486mm, 35mm equivalent) and if that is not enough there are options to add a 1.7x teleconverter to it. As well as the zoom for t great close ups of wildlife; the 27mm wide-angle feature is ideal for your broad Masai Mara and Serengeti landscapes allowing you to capture a wider view.
Canon Powershot SX10 IS
Canon’s latest super-zoom, taking over from the fantastic PowerShot S5 IS. Unlike the Panasonic, it uses AA batteries to power it. The massive 20x zoom (28-560mm equivalent), is perfect for getting close to large wildlife like elephants and rhinos. The Canon Powershot SX10 IS boasts 10 Megapixels with the latest DIGIC 4 processor adds AF tracking, more efficient video compression, and a clever self-timer mode which waits for a new person to appear before starting the countdown..
Canon Powershot SX10 IS and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28.
Both cameras are very alike in most regards
Canon Powershot SX10 IS Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Zoom tele (T) 560 mm (20 x) 486 mm (18 x) Dimensions 128 x 88 x 87 mm 118 x 75 x 88 mm (4.6 x 3 x 3.5 in) Image stabilization Yes Yes Format SLR-like SLR-like Price guide £322 £260 Max resolution 3648 x 2736 3648x 2736 Effective pixels 10.0 million 10.1 million Battery / Charger No Yes Battery AA batteries (NiMH recommended) Lithium-Ion rechargeable Weight (inc. batteries) 600g 417g
Other Super Zoom Cameras Worth Considering Other than the above recommendations for the best camera to take on Kenya safari, you may wish to also take a look at the options below, all great cameras and all that meet our requirements of being compact enought to easily carry whilst traveling, have a great zoom on it to get nice close up photos of the wildlife and must be not too expensive
By: Esther Muthoni
Tags: Africa Wildlife, Battery Types, Best Compact Digital Cameras, Best Digital Camera, Best Digital Cameras, Compact Digital Camera, Compact Digital Cameras, Digital Camera Battery, Digital Camera Information, Hand Luggage, Life Battery, Polar Bears, Professional Photographers, Safari Guides, Safari In Africa, Safari Travel, Target, Travel Camera, Travel Safari, Wildlife Photography