Some Parts of Cape Verde are Overlooked – But Stunning!

If you have already decided to visit Cape Verde and have never been before, you’ll probably want to know a little bit about it. Cape Verde is an archipelago of nine inhabited islands, each characteristically different, located off the west coast of Africa in the North Atlantic. They average 350 days of sunshine a year with temperatures that soar to 29C and rarely drop below 16C. The islands are kept cool in the ‘Tempo das Brias’ (time of the winds) seasonsbetween October and mid-July by prevailing winds; because of this, windsurfing is particularly popular. The other season experienced in Cape Verde is the ‘Tempo das chuvas’, the rainy time in August and September.

Originally uninhabited, they were settled by the Portuguese in the 15thcentury, but mainly used only as a stop-off point in transatlantic slave trade for the next couple of hundred years. As a result of this, though the official language is Portuguese, the locals tend to speak a mixture of a Cape Verdian Creole. The country has invested huge amounts in tourism over the last couple of decades, and as a result is growing rapidly in popularity, and it’s easy to see why!

The Cape Verde islands are wonderfully unique with their individual beautiful landscapes. Some islands benefit from the volcanic soil and their isolation means that they have a huge amount of endemic species, particularly flora and birds. They also offer amazingly unspoiled beaches with crystal clear waters. If you plan to visit the islands, it’s a good idea to make sure you can travel in between them as there is so much to see.

The most popular islands are Boa Vista, Sal, Santiago and Sao Vicente, and each offers a different variety of things to do. For diving and snorkelling, head over to Boa Vista – you’ll be able to swim amongst the reefs in one of the top ten coral reef spots in the world. Sal is an island where you’ll want to spend a few days; not only does it have quad bike and jeep tours for the more adventurous travellers, it also has its main town of Espargos with spectacular colonial architecture. Santiago is the largest of Cape Verde’s islands and home to the capital city, Praia. Here hiking and bird-watching are the prevalent attractions.

One of the most attractive things about a trip to Cape Verde is the fantastic range of foods on offer, particularly the seafood. Specialities that you must sample when on the islands are the Cachupa Rica (stew with corn, pumpkin and vegetables) and Queijo de Cabra com Doce de Popoia (cabra cheese slices with popoia jam as a dessert). Most of the restaurants will also play live music while you eat. Remember that if you decide to go self-catering, your options will be small as 90% of food on the island is imported and deliveries will be limited.

The Large Crown Casino in Melbourne

The nation of Australia is gaining traction for its casino gambling, many locals and foreigners indulge in the activity. Holidaymakers could travel to Western Australia where they will find the Crown Perth. Formerly known as the Burswood Casino, the Crown Perth is open 24 hours, and provides over 1500 coin operated casino game machines including keno video poker and slots. Melbourne is also host to a huge Crown Casino complex, which also has an adjoining hotel, restaurants, nightclubs, bowling and other entertainment.

The city of Sydney also makes an ideal travel destination for those willing to part with some cash, for the Star Sydney Casino is located here. With four floors of casino gaming, the Star offers something to keep most people entertained. One floor has exclusive high roller table games, which require guests to apply to join, you won’t find any backpackers in there!

The main gaming floor consists of three major areas. These are table games, poker and electronic gaming. In recent years, the number of poker tables has increased to 30. Different varieties of poker can be found at the Star including Caribbean Stud, Pai Gow, three card and four card.

When visiting Star City, a game known as ‘Pontoon’ is available to play. Many confused Pontoon with a type of poker, which it is almost certainly not. The rots of Pontoon come from blackjack, the version found in Star City is commonly played in Australia. It should not be confused with the version played in the UK and online on sites like Jackpot City. The Australian Pontoon game is played on a blackjack table, the goal of each player is to receive cards worth more than the dealers without exceeding a card count of 21. One major difference with Pontoon in comparison to traditional blackjack found at online casinos, is that the dealer has no hole card in Pontoon.

Doing a little research on the local variations of games would be a good idea if you’re heading to Aus to gamble!

The Las Vegas Neon Boneyard Makes for an Interesting Visit!

Neon Boneyard

Since the creation of Las Vegas, hundreds of casinos and clubs on the strip have been torn down, remodelled and rebuilt. Staff have been hired and let go, managers have reinvented services and customers have grown in their thousands. One place that encompasses all these memories is the Las Vegas Neon Boneyard, and there’s nowhere else like it in the state.

This is the place where casinos and clubs live forever, and once you leave the strip and pass down town, you’ll see the turnoff for this lightshow museum. Hundreds of neon signs are displayed in this desert tomb, and from the original Aladdin lamp to Betty Williams’ Moulin Rouge sign, tourists can catch a glimpse of the signs that lit up the strip during Elvis and Sinatra’s Vegas reign.

Pinball Hall of Fame

Replace the neon signs with four legs and flashing lights, and you have the Pinball Hall of Fame – a mid-20th century nondescript building that houses some of the biggest and best retired pinball machines to have graced Las Vegas. Most of the machines may be inoperational, but that won’t stop you imagining the sound of ringing chimes and rapid fire bouncing steel balls!

Rows upon rows of these historic machines like the one-story squat arcade, and their owner, Tim Arnold, decided to keep the glowing sound boxes as memorabilia instead of scrapping them for a few dollars. Thanks to Tim, tourists have another foothold in the past of Las Vegas.

Black Canyon Rafting

Now this is one of the best alternatives to gambling in the Las Vegas casinos, and it’ll probably a lot more exciting too! It may not be white water rafting, especially with the backdrop of the Hoover Dam behind you, but it’s readily suitable for all ages and it will also allow you to experience the spectacular wildlife of the canyon.

Accompanied by instructors, you’ll be taught how to paddle all sides of the boat, and most importantly, taught how to work as a team. This will be a great introductory lesson to water rafting if you’re bringing your family along, and it will also allow you to spend some luxury time together. After the 12 mile stretch, we’re pretty sure you’ll be more than worn out!

Are you searching for flights to Vegas? Then go to Cheapflights and compare flights to Las Vegas for the best deals.

When you leave a place and take a look back, I think only then do you realise how good it was. I’ve decided to include a couple of places from the UK (at the bottom of the post) that I’ve never been to, but would like to visit some day.

Muddy Bridge, Goosnargh (My Home Village)

Even though I live down under, I’ll still be visiting my homeland and taking some short breaks in the UK from time-to-time. So here we go, get ready to find out about some of my favourite places in the UK!

The Lake District

The Lake District is a stunning formation of rolling hills, fells, mountains and lakes that lie in the north-west of England. I’ve been camping and hiking up in the lakes a few times during my life.

My favourite parts of the lake district are the Windermere area and Derwent Water. In the summer of 2012 I went hiking alongside Derwent Water and up Catbells (one of the local fells), which is a fell that gives you great views overlooking the lake.

Goosnargh

Good old Goosnargh! A strange spelling for a strange place! Goosnargh is my home village where I grew up and spent most of my life. Goosnargh Village is rural and surrounded by farmland, from the village you can see Beacon Fell and Parlick, which are (depending on how you look at it) basically the start of the Pennines.

The village is famous for producing the best duck in the land, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay orders hundreds of ducks for his restaurant in London, and you see Goosnargh Duck on many-a-menu nationwide.

Manchester

Manchester is basically the most accessible ‘big city’ from where I lived in England, there’s tons of stuff to do and plenty going in Manchester all year round. There’s loads of shopping, dining and entertainment in the city, if you’ve never been, it would be an ideal place to try out one of the city breaks in the UK that are popular right now.

One of my favourite times of the year to go to Manchester is when the Christmas Markets are on, there’s loads of great international food and drink on offer and the atmosphere is warming (the weather is cold that time of year!).

Bournemouth

I’d love to go down to Dorset on the south coast of England, check myself into a Bournemouth hotel and enjoy the area for a couple of days.

During my stay I’d definitely go and check out the beach, walk down the massive pier, try out some of the local food and drinks and do some sightseeing all around the place!

Penzance

Penzance is down at the far south-west of the British isles, not only is it a beautiful harbor town, but the climate is generally better than the rest of the UK in the far south-west.

I’d pretty much like to go to Penzance just to relax, maybe find a nice campsite, eat some fresh seafood, walk along the promenade and check the jubilee pool, which is a huge swimming pool on the waterfront.

You’ll see a lot of these red dirt roads down under!

I know a fair few backpackers who have moved to Australia already, or at least have visited and now have the desire to make the move down under sometime in the future. This post won’t go into detail about organising visas, as I may make a dedicated post about that in the future. These tips are basically for after you’ve got your visa sorted out and are ready to get going.

The Essentials

When you make the move to Australia, there’s a few things you’ll need to sort out once you’re there, these include: A tax file number, Australian bank account (I use Westpac bank), Medicare Card and possibly a superannuation account. All of these involve paperwork and filling out forms, but once you’ve get them, they are done.

You get the Medicare Card by simply walking into the Medicare Centre, with your passport and visa on you, fill out a form and your card will arrive around three weeks later. You can apply to get a tax file number (TFN) online here at the ATO website, and as for the bank and super account, simply walk into whichever bank you prefer with your ID and visa, they can set up a bank account and possibly super account for you.

Finding Accommodation

All the major Australian cities have a huge variety of different accommodation types to choose from, these include: Apartments, units, houses and shared houses. If you’re not sure of where you want to stay, or which type of accommodation you prefer, staying in a temporary apartment, room rental or even backpacker hostel to get your bearings could be a good idea.

If you need to get furnishings for an apartment or unit and don’t have a lot of money, you could pick up a bargain at australialisted.com, where you can find classified ads for furnishings or other household items all around Australia.

Getting a Job

Finding a job can be easy or difficult, depending on your skillset, location, and how picky you are! There’s nothing stopping you from taking a look at (and possibly applying for) jobs before you’ve moved.

The most popular website for jobseekers in Australia is called SEEK, there’s so many jobs on there you could look at the website all day. When I was back home, I took a look at the number of jobs available in Perth, there was 20,000!

Get Involved

Many Australians live a very active and social lifestyle, there’s a very high chance that you could be invited to a BBQ, the beach, the pub, to go fishing, hiking, boating or camping at the early stages of your arrival.

My advice here is to just go! Accept the invitations and get involved with the active Aussie lifestyle, make some friends, try some new activities and enjoy your new country. If the Aussies lose, just don’t mention the cricket!

I’ve been living down under for almost three weeks now. I flew down to Perth in Western Australia from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. I like to make the most of long-haul flights so I flew into Phuket and had a two week trip to Thailand before heading to KL for the flight.

I swapped rainy England for this, an easy decision!

I’ve had two previous trips to Australia, once was a month-long holiday back in 2003, then after I started backpacking I ended up spending a year out here on a backpacker working holiday visa in 2008/2009. I absolutely loved every second of my previous visits, during my year working out here, I had plenty of experience of a ‘normal’ Aussie lifestyle.

Knowing what a great time I’d had here in the past, when I was faced with the opportunity to move here permanently, it was a no-brainer for me. The climate, lifestyle, natural landscape and opportunities for having fun out here simply appeal to me so much.

What’s perfect about my situation at the moment is that I’m in Western Australia, I’ve only spent one night here before, that was back in 2009 and I hardly saw anything. Everything is new to me over here in WA, as I’d spent most of my time in Victoria and New south Wales on my previous visits.

I’ll be based in Perth after this long break over the festivities, but I brought the new year in down south, in a small coastal town called Albany, this is where I am now. If you looked on a map, you’ll find that Albany is just about as far south as you can get in Western Australia.

Western Australia is a huge state, to give you an idea: WA is almost 4.5x the size of Texas, or 20x the size of England. There’s endless reading and research to be done if you want to know everything there is to see and do here.

At 31 years old, I’m more excited about travel than I’ve ever been, so I did do a fair amount of reading on what WA had to offer before I got here, I made a mental list of what I wanted to see, but when I did get here, I found out that I didn’t even know 1% of the sights and activities that WA has to offer.

One thing that really struck me by surprise after I arrived was the quantity of absolutely stunning beaches that span most of the Western Australian coastline. In just three weeks, I’ve already visited a number of beaches here that are absolutely the real deal, think crystal clear glassy ocean water, white powdery sand surrounded with spectacular hills, cliffs and unspoiled scenery.

Some of the beaches in WA look like the Maldives

I put the photo you see just above up on my Facebook page and asked people to guess where in the world it was, some of the answers included the Maldives, Philippines and Thailand. The photo was actually taken at ‘Brambles’ beach in Albany, it’s a 5 minute drive from where I’m sitting right now. Most of my Facebook followers know their stuff when it comes to travel and geography, but nobody guessed Australia at first sight.

There is 3411 of these amazing beaches in Western Australia, if you spent one day on each beach, it would take you over 9 years. Going to the beach is one of my favourite activities, so I’m not going to run out of things to do out here!

I started to develop an travel blog dedicated to down under before I moved to Australia, but I ran out of time and it isn’t ready for putting a load of content on yet. Over the next few months I’ll finish off the website and get it rocking with ll my travel adventures that I have, there will be plenty since I’m living here now!

Another benefit of moving to Australia (for me and for my readers) is that I’m now based a lot closer to Southeast Asia, therefore I can visit Thailand, look for some places to stay in Krabi or go to the Full moon party in Koh Phangan and all those awesome places on a more regular basis. My readers can enjoy more travel tips, news and travel stories from the region.

Right now, I’m just happy to be getting some sunshine!

Phuket Airport is gaining traction with more and more international flights signing up to fly directly to the popular Thai holiday destination, but how much should it cost to get to your favourite beach in Phuket? The answer is NOT MUCH, but you can easily end up paying TOO MUCH very easily if you’re not careful!

Airport transfers from Phuket airport are way overpriced, you could end up paying anything from 600 to 2000 Baht if you’re not careful. I’m going to describe below how to get all the way from Phuket airport (to the north of Phuket) all the way to Patong, Karon and Kata beaches (to the south) for around 115 – 135 THB, and it’s very easy to do this cheap transfer, you get to see a bit of Phuket Town on the way, too!

Saving money on the airport transfer = more money to spend in Phuket!

First, on your way out of the airport, head out of the exit and walk about 30 Meters directly to your left to find the bus stand. You’ll have to go past the usual taxi touts inside and outside the airport exit, you don’t need to say much to them, just smile and walk on.

The bus stand is basically a few benches below a big sign that tells you the bus times, you can’t miss it. Sometimes when you’re waiting for the bus at the stand, the odd taxi hawker/tout will wander up and try to tell you the airport bus has had an accident or is not running for some other reason, these are all lies, just wait and the bus will show eventually.

The price of the Phuket Airport bus is 85 Baht, and it takes you to the main bus terminal in Phuket Town (bus terminal 1), easy and cheap.

Once you’re at the main bus terminal in town, it will take around 10 minutes to walk to the downtown market area (which is also the backpacker area of Phuket Town) where you will see a row of blue songthaew style buses parked on Ranong Road.

Depending on whether you want to go to Kata, Karon or Patong Beach, just ask one of the bus drivers that will be stood around Ranong Road, and he will point you to the correct bus.

These buses are brilliant, and will only cost you between 25-50 Baht depending on your destination, I made the trip from Phuket Town to Karon in December 2012 and it was only 30 Baht, they are a bargain.

So once you’re on the bus of your choice, the driver will collect the fare from you at some point of the journey, and then get off when you’re there! This is a very easy money-saving trip.

Those blue songthaew buses are great for getting around, if there’s something you want to see, or need to get something from Phuket Town, it’s a cheap trip on these. You can work those buses into other cheap trips to get out of Phuket too, I used a cheap bus from Karon Beach to Phuket Town as part of a cheap trip from Phuket to Koh Lanta when I moved on from Phuket in December.

If you’re a savvy backpacker, the price you should pay for the ferry ticket is 1,500 THB with Tigerline Travel, plus 40-80 THB for a tuk tuk ride to the pier, depending on which beach you’re staying on. The further south you are in Koh Lanta, the more you will pay for the ride to the pier. If you’re staying on one of the beaches to the north of Koh Lanta Yai, such as Klong Dao Beach, the pier is actually walkable if you’re feeling energetic.

Get your ferry ticket for 1500 THB from the Tigerline office at Ban Saladan Pier

Ban Saladan Pier is where the Tigerline Travel ferries depart from, at the pier is an official Tigerline ticket office where I bought a ticket for 1500 Baht in mid December 2012, so I guess that price should be about right for January 2013 and beyond. In high season, the ferries are more frequent than in low season, the timetable is changeable so check for ferry times before planning your day.

If you don’t already have a ferry ticket, the Tuk Tuk driver will probably try to take you to a small travel agent that is just a few meters before the Tigerline office, so he can get some commission. Just hop out and go to Tigerline a few feet down the road.

Ban Saladan Pier has places to buy tickets, drinks, travel sickness pills and restaurants for food. I can’t vouch for any of the restaurants at the pier as I didn’t eat there.

The ferry stops off at a number of different islands that lie between Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe, I counted four or five of them, the total trip time was around 5 hours. Once you arrive on Koh Lipe, remember to have some Baht on you, because no boats are allowed to land on Lipe, they land on a big floating deck, then you transfer to a longtail boat owned by the local sea-gypsies to take you to shore. This extra trip costs you 50 THB per person.

Koh Lipe is well worth the trip

Koh Lipe now also has an environment or conservation tax that you have to pay, it’s only 30 THB. So that’s a total of 80 THB you should make sure you have on you when you’re heading to Koh Lipe. Take note that there’s also no ATMs on the island either, so take plenty of cash out in Koh Lanta beforehand. If you do run out of cash on Koh Lipe, some of the restaurants, resorts and shops will allow you to get cashback from your card.

It’s even expensive to go from Pakbara pier, the closest one to Lipe on the mainland, even that will set you back 600+ Baht and that’s only a one hour trip.

During my research, the most common way from Phuket to Koh Lanta was a long ferry trip direct from the south east of Phuket to the south Koh Lanta island (there’s two islands that make up Koh Lanta). This trip was listed as 1050 THB, too much for us backpackers!

I finally got all the way from Karon Beach to Koh Lanta in December 2012 for just 290 THB in total, and I’m about to explain in three really simple steps exactly how I did it. The trip will be almost exactly the same from the Patong and Kata Beach areas, maybe give or take 10 or 20 Baht, I found out the prices had just gone up before I took the trip, so the prices on this page should be good well into January and February 2013 and beyond.

Step One: Get to Phuket Town

Price: 30-50 THB

Catch This Bus to Phuket Town

No matter which of the main three beaches you’re staying on, jump on one of the blue buses that go down to all the beaches and back to Phuket town. The prices for the buses vary slightly, I’ve done the trip twice, once it was 30THB, another time it was 40THB.

The buses all end up near the downtown market in Phuket Town, this is where you get off and step one of your cheap trip from Phuket to Koh Lanta is complete.

Step Two: Get to the New Bus Terminal

Price: 10 THB

Take this bus from Phuket Town to the new bus terminal

Once you get off the bus from your beach, you’ll be on a street by the downtown market in Phuket Town, you need to walk for around 5-10 minutes to the main bus terminal. The bus terminal is easy to find, just ask around for directions or have a map with you, the streets around here are fairly easy to navigate on foot.

From the main bus terminal, you need to get on one of the pink buses (see photo above) that go to the ‘new bus terminal’, which is also referred to as ‘bus terminal 2′, a woman on board will collect 10 Baht from you. The new bus terminal is a fair distance out of town.

The trip from terminal 1 to terminal 2 on the pink bus (songthaew) is a nice ride that takes a fair few minutes. You will know when you’re at the new bus terminal, it’s big and the bus pulls right in to the terminal, you don’t need to worry about looking out for your stop, just enjoy the ride.

Step Three: Catch a Bus to Koh Lanta

Price: 240 THB

Catch one of these from Phuket to Koh Lanta

Once you’re at the new bus terminal 2, go inside to where the ticket offices are and buy a ticket to Koh Lanta. It was a huge surprise for me, as it was only when I was stood at the ticket office that I found out the real price that locals pay to get from Phuket to Koh Lanta is only 240 Baht, plus a free mini travel guide book to Koh Lanta was included in that price, what a bargain!

The ride is in a minivan/minibus and takes 6 hours (always allow for delays in Thailand, though), two ferry crossings across to Koh Lanta Noi then across to Koh Lanta Yai are included, the bus drives onto the ferry.

Once you’re on Koh Lanta, everything is pretty close together, the bus stops close to the main beaches on the north west of the island.

As always, please feel free to get involved, leave your comments and questions about the Phuket/Lanta route below or on Facebook, and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Is Taditional Paris for you? Or somewhere different?

Luckily, for anyone looking for a cultural escape, the many amazing cities of Europe are in easy reach. Only a short distance away and offering plenty of opportunity for sightseeing, Berlin is a great destination for couples with culture on their mind. Steeped in vast history, Berlin offers impressive sights, such as the famous Berlin wall and the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Couples who embrace the great outdoors may prefer something closer to home. Scotland has a lot to offer ramblers and climbers, as well as vibrant cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow. For the most adventurous couples, a short break to the Scottish Highlands might be in order. Not for the faint-hearted, the Highlands are home to the UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis.

Those looking to re-ignite their spark may prefer a more relaxing romantic break. Aside from the traditional Parisian holiday, Venice is a great destination for a romantic getaway. Beautiful architecture, charming streets and romantic rides on the famous gondolas make for an amorous weekend. Beware of high tide, though, if you want to avoid damp shoes.

With so many options to choose from, it’s easy for busy couples to find the perfect destination for their weekend away. Even last-minute breaks can be arranged, which is ideal when your partner’s weekend off arrives at short notice. Many insurance companies offer single trip travel insurance too, putting your mind at rest and ensuring you have a relaxing break from start to finish.