Saba is an unspoiled relaxing island in the Dutch Antilles located just 12 minutes flight away from Dutch/French St. Maarten/St. Martin. You can get to St. Maarten via direct flights from Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and Toronto.
Saba is the northernmost island of the volcanic inner arc of the Lesser Antilles and was formed about 500,000 years ago, making her relatively young compared to other islands in this region. There is still a lot of geothermal activity.
The volcano Mount Scenery, which at 887 meters (2,910 ft) is the highest point within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This friendly and charming with exquisite natural beauty both above and below her waterline island, at around 5 square miles, is home to the Saba Marine Park, scuba divers, and snorkelers can see large coral formations, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. The lovers of hiking can enjoy breathtaking views!
There are a variety of shops and markets on the island, as well as a post office, police station and library. You can buy local Caribbean art at The Peanut Gallery, The Little Green Shop Saba or El Momo, or get your diving gear and sportswear at Sea Saba Dive Center. Visits the Harry L. Johnson Museum, which is a 160-year old sea captain’s cottage. You have the opportunity to see hot glass art, jewelry, and beads being made.
Photo credit: Radioflux Wikipedia
Even there are no franchises on the island, you still have plenty of choice for accommodation local hotels, lodges, villas and cottages that will satisfy your travel needs. One of the great places to stay on Saba is the Queen’s Garden Resort. It is a truly unique place with antique furnishings and artwork, and exotic furniture from the West Indies. It has the largest swimming pool on the island, a fine breakfast lunch & dinner restaurant, panoramic views of the turquoise blue Caribbean, and nearby mountains.
Another great thing about this island is that there are no mosquitoes.
This island is perfect for a serene and intimate getaway!
Saba is also known as the “Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean”, with less than 2,000 residents and no crime, no high rises, neither traffic nor traffic lights, no pesty insects, no crowds, no fast-food restaurants, no casinos, no cruise ships. You can enjoy a true life experience with the local residents in some of the local eclectic bars and restaurants after a hike in the mountain rainforest.
Hikers on the island can ascend to Mount Scenery, the island’s highest point, or take a more extreme North Coast hike that passes by old town ruins and culminates in ocean vistas.
The capital Bottom, St. Johns, Windwardside, and Zions Hill are the four villages of Saba.
Photo credit:Mark Yokoyama
The island’s flora and vegetation are lush, with tropical rain forests where one can find orchids, mahoganies, palms, as well as mango, orange, and many other fruit trees. Saba is a paradise for the scuba enthusiast. This island’s beauty extends below the waterline into an exciting marine environment rich in corals and active with fish life.
Saba Divers is an award-winning dive center with its main priority on non-crowded, safe and fun dives. They organize all you need on the beautiful island.
There are not so many islands in the Caribbean that offer such rich biodiverse as Saba for its size, with its three ecosystems (rainforest, cloud forest, and coral reef) and seven vegetation zones.
Check this video from John Coffey about why Saba is a paradise above all others!
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Costa Rica is a small country in Central America bordered by Nicaragua, Panama, the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea. Nearly 30% of Costa Rica is protected as a national park, wildlife refuge, or private reserve.
Costa Rica is inhabited by 5 percent of all of the world’s species. During your eco-vacation, you can see coral reefs, cloud forests, and mangrove estuaries. Costa Rica is one of the world’s frontrunners in sustainable travel, and while you’re here you can book ecologically friendly tours and hotels.
The benefits for the local economy through environmental tourism go to local communities and replaces industries harmful to the landscape as logging and mining. You can either go on your own, or you can join an organized eco-tour.
The eco-tours available in the country, causing a minimal impact on the environment, offered in Costa Rica attract people who have a common interest in nature, culture, and wildlife. These tours provide environmental education, allowing tourists to get involved in conservation projects.
But with so many options for things to see and do, it can be hard to decide which of the many Costa Rica eco tours is right for you.
One of the best ways to explore all of the beauty of Costa Rica is a few nights stay at one of the country’s jungle lodges.
Costa Rican coffee has grown to be much more than an economic boost to the local culture and plays an important role in the history of coffee. Some of the reasons Costa Rica produce quality coffee beans are the combination of ideal conditions such as higher altitudes, fertile soils of volcanic origin combined with cool climates and steady rainfall.
100% of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is arabica beans.
The government gave anyone who wished to grow the beans their own land and plants to get started and the industry quickly surpassed tobacco and cacao as the leading crop.
Whitewater Rafting Down the Pacuare
Rafting on the Pacuare River – rated one of the most exotic and scenic rivers in the world is an amazing experience due to thrilling rapids coursing through rugged canyons and verdant tropical rainforests.
The Pacuare is home to colorful toucans, parrots, sloths, frogs and morpho butterflies. You’ll experience some of the best whitewater that Costa Rica has to offer.
The river has been divided into three sections, the Upper Upper Section, the Upper Section, and the Lower Section. The most commonly rafted section is the Lower Section.
Arenal Volcano is an active andesitic stratovolcano in north-western of the country. Arenal is considered a young volcano and most active of all the volcanoes, and it is estimated to be less than 7,500 years old. It is one of the few historically active Costa Rican volcanoes along with Poás, Irazú, Miravalles, Orosí, Rincón de la Vieja complex, and Turrialba.
Travelers to Arenal will still enjoy its bountiful sights, sounds and activities— there are mountains to be hiked, lakes to be fished and rivers to be floated. If you are visiting this area consider an exciting and scenic trip to the national park surrounding Arenal.
Many visitors do not realize that Arenal National Park is actually home to not one, but two volcanoes.
Manuel Antonio was listed by Forbes among the world’s 12 most beautiful national parks. Located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio is easily one of Costa Rica’s most famous tourist attractions. It’s the country’s smallest National Park, complete with exotic toucans, lizards, howler monkeys.
This park has impressive landscapes and several coves with many white-sand beaches and lush foliage amidst great mountains and forests. our beaches are contained within the limits of the park: Manuel Antonio, Espadilla Sur, Teloro, and Playita.
The Central American squirrel monkey, Panamanian white-faced capuchin monkey, black spiny-tailed iguana, green iguana, common basilisk, white-nosed coati and many snake and bat species are also common in the park.
Mario Boza lead the effort to preserve the region and to have the government declare the volcano a protected area.
Active volcanoes are the most exciting features of Costa Rica’s geological composition. The Poás Volcano is an active 2,708-metre stratovolcano in central Costa Rica and is located within Poas Volcano National Park. It has two unique crater lakes – lake Botos to the south is an inactive crater with cold clear lake water and the north is Laguna Caliente, a mile wide volcanic crater filled with water so acidic that no plant or aquatic life can survive.
Tamarindo Estuary Kayaking Tour, Guanacaste
This tour gives you the unique opportunity to enjoy the spectacular views of the beautiful mangrove in Tamarindo and observe the wildlife. You can observe abundant wildlife of the tropical dry forest while learning about the unique ecosystem of the mangrove forest. You will see brown pelicans, brown booby, magnificent frigate birds, and neotropical cormorants.
During your tour, you can stop and have a deeper explanation of the local flora and fauna, specifically the famous local Guanacaste trees, Costa Rica’s National tree.
Tortuguero is a village on the Northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in the Limón Province. Tortuguero National Park can surprise you with its network of canals, rivers, lagoons, beaches, and dense rainforest here are interlinked. You can explore these canals and observe the wildlife by boat, kayak or canoe and it makes it a great and relaxing way to experience nature.
Its beaches are famous nesting grounds for sea turtles, including endangered green turtles. The surrounding rainforest is also rich with wildlife with many bird species. During September and October many local “guides” will offer tourists the opportunity to watch turtle nests hatch.
The National Park is also host to an incredible biodiversity of insects, resident and migratory birds, and mammals, including jaguar and four species of monkey.
Some of the tours also includes a stop at the world-famous Wildlife Rescue Center, a not-for-profit organization that rescues wild birds and exotic animals, helps them rehabilitate and then releases them back into the wild.
The passion of the owners, the dedication of their staff and the generosity of volunteers and donors makes everything possible.
It was established in 1978 as a biological reserve, but due to the growing popularity after 1990 its status was changed to a national park. Carara is one of Costa Rica’s most popular National Parks, mostly because it is located close to San José.
You can watch for the 150-200 scarlet macaws that nest and feed throughout the reserve. There are two hiking trails in Carara. Bordering the Pan-American Highway, this park is unique as the Amazonian and Mesoamerican ecosystems.
This national park has 10 of the most uncommon and rare hardwoods in the country.
Also, it can be found in the park many pre-Columbian archaeological sites dating back 2,000 years.
Leatherback Turtles National Park was established in 1991 to protect Leatherback turtles species from extinction. The park is part of Caravan’s Costa Rica eco tours.
Leatherback turtles can grow as long as six feet and weigh up to 1100 pounds or more. Along with the Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, Leatherback turtles use this area of Costa Rica as their annual nesting grounds and each year thousands of turtles return here to nest.
Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females must return to land in order to lay their eggs. Scientists believe that nesting female turtles return to the same beach on which they were born.
The flora in the area includes mangrove trees that are greatly common and for instance monkeys and crocodiles can be observed in the park area. The park is the ideal place for hiking and after that sunbathing and relaxing at the lovely Playa Grande.
During your visit to the park you are not allowed to use flash cameras or flashlights, and to approach a turtle.
Featured image photo credit: Coral Blanche Hummer / Flickr
Tasmania is known for its spectacular beauty, rich heritage, and abundant wildlife. The island was permanently settled by Europeans in 1803 as a penal settlement of the British Empire.
The first humans arrived in Tasmania around 40,000 years ago. Tasmania was known by its Aboriginal inhabitants as Trowunna and was divided into nine tribal areas.
Tasmania is an archipelago of 334 islands with the size of Ireland. There are often flights and it takes less than an hour’s flight south of Melbourne to visit Tasmania. This is Australia’s only island and the last landmass before Antarctica. It is an ancient, heart-shaped land, an extraordinarily diverse from New Zealand, South America, mainland Australia.
The tallest flowering trees in the world, reaching more than 100 meters in height, tower over millennia-old precious wildlife-filled alpine plateaus and button grass plains that release tannins that stain the pure water streams the color of tea. Some 2,800 miles of coastline, including the highest cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere, hug a landscape of such raw, ravishing and largely untouched natural beauty that it leaves one gasping in astonishment at almost every twist and turn as one travels around Tasmania.
Explore Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is located in the middle of the island of Tasmania.
This is one of Australia’s most beautiful national parks. With magnificent views of alpine lakes and majestic mountains, it’s no surprise the Overland Track remains the number one way to explore this stunning national park.
Stop by waterfalls and explore myrtle forests with beech trees more than 60 million years old.
Tasmania has year-round opportunities to see the southern lights and will give you a chance to see this amazing phenomenon.
The southern lights or aurora australis are visible in the southern hemisphere only. The scientific explanation for aurora australis is the same as its northern sibling aurora borealis. When charged particles emitted by the sun strike atoms in the atmosphere of earth, electrons in those atoms change energy states and when they return to their resting state they emit light.
Hobart, capital of Australia’s island state of Tasmania, sits on the River Derwent. It is famous with its Salamanca Place, old sandstone warehouses host galleries and cafes.
With its captivating history, picturesque waterways, rugged mountains, and gourmet experiences, the city has something for everyone.
Hobart is close to many of southern Tasmania’s best travel experiences such as historic Port Arthur and the rugged Tasman Peninsula to Bruny Island, the Huon and Derwent Valleys and Mount Field National Park.
Freycinet is a national park on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, 125 km northeast of Hobart and home to Tasmania’s most photographed view and situated on the breathtaking east coast
The powder-white beaches and transparent waters of Tasmania’s oldest park, formed over 400 million years, are home to native wildlife of 49 species that can only be found in Tasmania.
You can Kayak, snorkel, dive or swim in the clear waters to get up close to abundant marine life.
The Tasmanian Devil Unzoo is not a nature park and not a zoo. It is a four-in-one wildlife nature experience that combines up-close animal encounters, wildlife adventures, a Tasmanian native garden and original art.
Tasmanian Devil Unzoo is the world’s first intentional Unzoo—a revolutionary project to create a model wildlife and nature experience of the future. During your time with us, you’ll be inspired, intrigued, challenged and entertained. Sometimes, you might even find us a little outrageous. Our hope is that your visit to the Unzoo will challenge you to think about the natural world and your place in it, in a completely new way.
After 10 years of effort, it is now working well with wild wallabies, echidnas, possums, native fish and nearly 100 bird species living around our Unzoo bush garden.
The Centurion is the world’s tallest known individual Eucalyptus regnans tree. The tree is located in southern Tasmania, Australia and was measured by climber-deployed tapeline at 100.5 meters
The diameter of Centurion is 4.05 metres, its girth exceeds 12 metres, and its volume has been estimated at 268 cubic metres. The tree is in a small patch of very old forest surrounded by secondary forest.
The mountain ash Eucalyptus regnans is well represented in Tasmania but also grows to some extent on the Australian mainland in Victoria and southeast Australia. More than 140 specimens have been recorded in Tasmania above 85 metres in height with a number of these well over 90 metres.
Famous for its soaring sea cliffs and monumental rock formations and the World Heritage-listed Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman National Park is an area of dramatic beauty and natural diversity.
Tasman National Park takes up more than 107 km². Tasman National Park is also renowned for its golden beaches, sculptured granite cliffs, and its world-famous coast track.
The tracks are carved throughout the park and range from pleasant and leisurely strolls to challenging multi-day walks.
Bruny Island has some of Tasmania’s most beautifully preserved natural environments with abundant wildlife and stunning cliff top views.
The island is Tasmania’s premier island destination. Including the Bruny National Park, the island provides the ultimate Tasmanian wilderness experience with many spectacular bushwalks, coastal tracks or beach strolls.
The island showcases a variety of artisan cheese, oysters, seafood, berries, fudge, wine, whisky, gin, beer and a selection of cafes and restaurants. There are lots of places to stay with accommodation ranging from friendly campsites to luxury beachfront retreats.
Famous for its crystal-clear waters, white sandy beaches and orange lichen-covered granite boulders, the Bay of Fires is one of Tasmania’s most popular conservation reserves.
The bay was given its name in 1773 by Captain Tobias Furneaux.
The Bay of Fires is located on the northeastern coast of Tasmania. It includes a gorgeous coastline that stretches over 50 kilometers from Binalong Bay. The Binalong Bay and nearby Humbug Point Nature Recreation Area include lovely spots like Skeleton Bay, Grants Point, and Elephant Head.
Liffey Falls is considered one of the island state’s prettiest waterfalls and is a series of four distinct tiered–cascade waterfalls on the Liffey River, is located in the Midlands region of Tasmania.
The area surrounding Liffey Falls was a meeting place for Tasmanian Aborigines for thousands of years.
The waterfall is best viewed towards the end of winter through to early spring.
Feature photo credit: Steven Penton / Flickr
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