Southern Caribbean Ports of Call

This has been way overdue, we're convinced you have been waiting very excited for the continuation of our Southern Caribbean cruise-story... with photos and reviews on our 5 Ports of Call:

•    Samana (Dominican Republic)
•    Tortola and Virgin Gorda (British Virgin Islands)
•    Antigua
•    Barbados
•    St Kitts

So here you are, enjoy it! Click on our Caribbean Map (to see the entire itinerary...)

(Believe it or not, we have very good reasons for taking it so long for us: Krisztina had some long working days, whereas Zoli studying with all his efforts - and time - for his coming exam ... meantime visitors, a wedding dinner and Zoli's training in Strasbourg... and lots of snow in Switzerland this year, so we couldn't leave out skiing either :-))

For those participating at our Gulliver-quiz: thanks for playing and Gulliver is looking forward to hand over your prizes in Kolozsvar!

Dear lazy Reader, if you're just looking for a quick link to reach ALL our Caribbean Albums, click here.
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St Kitts Island Tour, 30th country

St Kitts was our last Port of Call on our Southern Caribbean cruise and ... the 30th country we have visited so far. Our ship docked at the Port Zante cruise terminal in Basseterre, the capital city of St Kitts.

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

We learned from our taxi driver later that hurricanes in the late 1990s destroyed a huge part of the island, but the terminal - providing plenty of duty-free shops and restaurants - is finished and there is still an ongoing program of restoration running and, although the island still depends on sugar cane rather than tourism for its living, the restoration has made it a big hit with cruise passengers.

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

Palm-filled Basseterre has an old town charm filled with local color - one of its main landmarks being the Circus Clock Tower:

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

After a short walk around in the old town, we have easily found a nice taxi driver, who was not only willing to drive us around the island, but also offered local guidance and plenty of stories about the history and current life on Saint Kitts and Navis.

Our first stop was at Romney Manor, a huge garden containing the ruins of an old sugar plantation, a batic 'factory':

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

and a tree to be believed more than a 350-year-old:

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

It was also here where we learned that the travelers' palm name is coming simply from the fact that is always showing the direction from east to west, which helps travelers find their way across the deepest jungle:

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

Next, we headed towards Timothy Hill, a very spectacular look-out point, offering a gorgeous view over the southern part of the island, a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean (to the left) and the Caribbean Sea (to the right), with the volcanic hills of Navis, St Kitts' sister island in the background:

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

Being a very hot day, it was time to find a nice beach and take a little rest... so we just relied on the local expertise and let our taxi driver drop us off at the Cockleshell Bay, where we enjoyed a nice lunch, a relaxing massage with real Aloe Vera and our very last swimming in the Caribbean waves ... while Gulliver took his surfboard and headed towards the Big Caribbean Waves - however, he found a big barrel of rum on his way, which made him change his mind about his plans for the rest of the day:

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

We only returned to our ship after the sun went deep down the ocean, sadly thinking that our Caribbean holiday was almost over.

From CARIBBEAN - ST KITTS

You can visit here our entire Album on St Kitts.
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Barbados

Barbados is one of the most popular Caribbean cruise stops, there was a real "traffic jam" of cruise ships waiting to be docked when we reached the cruise terminal at the Harbour:

From CARIBBEAN - BARBADOS

There were plenty of cabs lined up in front of the cruise terminal; however, we weren't quite sure that we understood the 'rules of the game': taxi drivers apparently were not allowed to negotiate themselves, but there were some 'big guys' just asking (or rather shouting) around where everyone wanted to go and they tried to fill up the bigger cabs with passangers heading towards the same destination. It seemed to be a little chaotic, but it did work and was definately the most economical solution ... although we were wondering, why didn't they just place some signs with the name of destinations instead of running and shouting around? (but then, of course, what would the 'big guys' be doing??)
As usually, everyone was eager to head towards the beach, so it was not a big surprize for us that Big Guy couldn't find anyone else interested to go to the Flower Forest. After we managed to negotiate down the price to about 60 Bucks with Second Big Guy (First Big Guy having an offer for 80$), our taxi was finally allowed to leave...

From CARIBBEAN - BARBADOS

The Flower Forest was located inland, so on the way to St Joseph we could see the rolling countryside with sugar cane fields and plenty of plantation houses and sleepy villages around. In the Flower Forest, we walked down a pretty walking trail through lush tropical gardens,

From CARIBBEAN - BARBADOS

...trying to spot some green monkeys (as advised by our guide book), but without any luck. Mr Monkeys seemed to be too lazy that day, so all we had left were the very few (but really beautiful) flowers still blowing despite the "winter" temperatures in Barbados:

From CARIBBEAN - BARBADOS

We were booked to a submarine tour afterwards, but unfortunately this didn't work out due to the water conditions which were not "safe enough" to bring the people onboard, so all we got was a little introductory story and a ride back to the cruise terminal... thus we decided to settle for a lazy lunch at the Waterfront Cafe in Bridegetown

... and have some relaxing moments at the Bronze Beach later: From CARIBBEAN - BARBADOS You can visit here our entire Album on Barbados.

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Beach escape in Antigua

We woke up on a beautiful sunny day as we were approaching St John's, our third port of call early morning.

From CARIBBEAN - ANTIGUA

We decided to spend a relaxing and carefree day on the white-sand beaches of Antigua. First of all, we had to find a cab driver who was willing to drive us around for the whole day, and all this for 60$... finding a cab was easy enough as there were plenty of cabs waiting for the passengers of the cruise ship, but we had to do a little negotiation to get a good deal.

On our way to the beach, we stopped first at Devil's Bridge, a natural rock arch carved by the sea at the north-eastern point of Antigua:

From CARIBBEAN - ANTIGUA

then continued our way over the hill:

From CARIBBEAN - ANTIGUA

... to finally reach the beautiful, white-sand beach of the Half Moon Bay  we have been waiting for:

From CARIBBEAN - ANTIGUA

Even though our snorkeling plans didn't quite work out as the ocean was way too rough, we enjoyed a lot the sunshine, the waves and our rest ... until an American gang showed up next to us and the piece and quiet was all gone! Why always Americans are the loudest everywhere???
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Once back to the ship, we had a nice sail-away, leaving the coasts of Antigua in the sunset behind:

From CARIBBEAN - ANTIGUA

You can visit here our entire Album on Antigua.
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Secrets of BVI

British Virgin Islands: our favorite Port of Call, another Paradise on Earth (just like Phi Phi Leh on the other side of the world...) Our ship docked in Road Harbour, the Port of Tortola:

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

... and we headed off to explore the island. First, Cane Garden Bay (or was it Kindrgarden bay?), which is THE tourist beach on Tortola. It is stunningly beautiful with overhanging palm trees, powder soft sand and, pretty rough waves:

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

The 20-minute-ride to Cane Garden Bay was worth the excitement itself, with gorgeaus views from the top of the hill all around the island...

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

... and Road Town, dominated by OUR cruise ship docked in the harbour, which seemed to be higher than any building around:

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

Next, we took a ferry over to Virgin Gorda, having very high expectations towards The Baths, described in our guide book as "the island's best beach with the most enticing turquoise waters you'll see outside the South Pacific". Well, the beach indeed was really beautiful, but also packed with tourists as most cruise cruise ships run shore excursions to this "number one attraction of BVI":

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

Luckily there are not too many adventurous tourists on such cruise ships who decide to explore the island themselves (after all, it is easier and more comfortable to simply rely on the recommendation of the shore excursion agency, pay the fee and have everything arranged for your excursion to 'the best' beach). We chose however (as usually) to take our own way and walked down on a hidden path...

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

... to finally reach a Robinson Crusoe-style haven, a SECRET beach surrounded by palm trees and powder soft white sand, which we found THE MOST BEAUTIFUL beach all around. There were no tourists, no restaurants or gift shops, nothing around, just the nature... and us.

From CARIBBEAN - BVI

Thus we decided to keep the exact location of this place in secret - we may only disclose it upon exchange for a similar candidate of the "Top 10 most beautiful and untouristic places on Earth" anyone may be able to recommend. Feel free to comment and send us your "proposals", we can make a good deal! :-))

You can visit here our entire Album on BVI (Tortola & Virgin Gorda).
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Horseback riding in the Dominican Republic

Couple of weeks before the 2010 Haiti Earthquake ... on the other side of the island, in the Dominican Republic: local people have been welcoming us singing and dancing their traditional ritual as we reached the port of Samana with our tender boats. Nobody was thinking about the coming katastrophy yet distroying the lives of hundred thousands of people living on the island.

From CARIBBEAN - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In Samana we decided to go horseback riding into the jungle, to the El Limon waterfall which was said to be one of the most spectacular ones.

From CARIBBEAN - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Our horses were small, but luckily in a good shape and managed to encounter the very rough terrain up the mountain ... the last 1/2 mile we had to climb down to the waterfall on very very steep terrain, which wouldn't have been a problem if our guides weren't convinced that we were in a hurry (which was due most probably to our poor Spanish skills as we told them "to run" instead of "let's go"). So the descent was a little challenging, but it was worth it. The waterfall was really beautiful and Zoli had a lot of fun swimming in the pool, while local childern were jumping in from very high up...

From CARIBBEAN - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Before returning to our ship late afternoon, we made another stop at a nice beach to have a little rest after our adventures in the jungle.

From CARIBBEAN - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

You can visit here our entire Album on the Dominican Republic.

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Our Caribbean Cruise on the Norwegian Dawn

Wow! That was our first impression when we embarked the Norwegian Dawn in Miami with a welcome champagne in our hands. No wonder, we entered the ship on deck 7 and the first we have seen was the Grand Atrium with its glass-domed ceiling and Christmas-decoration, which offered a pretty stunning view:

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

This was our first ever cruise and may not be the last, thanks to NCL. We have booked a 9-day Southern Caribbean cruise sailing out of Miami on the 1st of January (an excellent start for the new year, isn't it?) with 3 days on the sea and 5 Ports of Call in: Samana (Dominican Republic); Tortola (BVI); Antigua; Barbados and St Kitts.
(Reviews on the Port of Calls will follow later in our next blog entry...)

Let's start at the beginning: we had an amazing sail-away from Miami with one of the most beautiful sunsets we have seen:

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

There was a lot to explore on our first "sea day": plenty of restaurants, bars and lounges, a fitness center and spa, a Broadway-style theater, casino, pools & jacuzzis (not to mention the library, art gallery, jogging track, etc, etc) ... we ended up spending the entire day wondering around with huge open eyes and trying to cope with the type of luxury we aren't really used to (e.g. we asked the roomservice to serve our breakfast in the cabin, but woke up earlier the following day and didn't have enough patience to wait until the breakfast actually arrived) So we headed off to explore our over 2,200-passanger-capacity ship...

The two main restaurants were Aqua and the Venetian, both with very nice interior and top quality service.

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

What do we actually mean by top quality? Well, how many times do you think it is "normal" to have a waiter coming to your table (either bringing or taking away something or simply just asking whether everything was all right) during a three-course dinner? WE stopped counting at 20 ...

Garden Café was the place to go for buffé breakfast. They had lots of things to choose from from fresh fruit (including MY favorite watermelons) to Zoli's daily on-demand scrambled eggs "with everything" prepared by an Indian cook in front of our eyes and, last but not least, OUR daily Pecanbons (the only food we've been missing from the US since we left in 2003)

We also tried one of the specialty restaurants, the Salsa Tapas Bar, offering Tex-Mex specialities - their tacos, fajitas and Sangria were out of the world! Well, have to admit that we are not very familiar with the Tex-Mex cuisine, so no idea how an 'original' salsa was supposed to taste like, but our food was really delicious.

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

Our favorite place however was Gatsby's Lounge, which was in fact an Art Deco piano and champagne bar having a regular piano-entertainer playing well-known hits. The atmosphere at Gatsby's was really pleasant, which is why we have spent some time in most of our evenings onboard here. 

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

To be fair, the ship had so many entertainment options (parties, shows, karaokes, etc) that we have not even come close to experience them all. The focus of the ship's entertainment though took place in the elegant Stardust Theatre, a Broadway style, over 1,000-capacity theatre,

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

where we could enjoy a variety of performances ranging from Magician and Comedian Shows to India’s Bollywood and even a Show presented by the International Crew of the Dawn.

The Oasis Pool was a nice place to relax with a refreshing cocktail when we got tired of running around the ship (not on the jogging track, of course, just from one show to the other ;-))

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

Overall, what we found amazing on the Dawn was the resort-style experience. Like we were really in a 5-star floating hotel/resort. We did WHAT we wanted to do, WHEN we wanted to do it and IF we wanted to do it, and there was plenty of "WHAT" to do. Besides, all services have been offered at premium quality (we weren't quite sure why was it important to make our bed twice a day and exchange the towels every time, but really appreciated our room steward's efforts to still find San Pellegrino for us even though they 'officially' ran out of it...). They even put away Gulliver neatly in his place every day!

Speaking of Gulliver, he also had an awesome time on the cruise ship, most of the time just comfortably relaxing at our balcony on the 9th floor or wondering around and introducing himself to Captain Paul:

From CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

And now, ATTENTION! GAME-TIME. We have a game and we have a prize:
Guess what was Captain Paul von Knorring asking from Gulliver ??? The funniest and most authentic "guess" will be rewarded with a real Caribbean prize! Game is open until the 31st of Jan, we expect your responses by posting a comment (no emails).
Have fun! (or rather, WE are looking forward to have some fun)

Again, if you would like to skip our stories and just simply jump to the pictures, you can find here our full album on the Dawn:

CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Norwegian Dawn

Winter escape in Sunshine State

Hi all!
As briefly mentioned already in the previous post, we flew to Florida to spend the last days of 2009.
We first picked up our car, a Sebring convertible which according to the rental agency is a "Mustang or similar". Well I said it also has 4 wheels, but the similarities end there. Anyway even though as most US made cars it was made 99% from cheap plastic, it was fun having a convertible for a change.

Then we headed exploring Florida (see the linked map for the rest...best view fullscreen, press F11)

If you are getting tired of reading our boring stories again, simply jump to the pictures:

USA - FLORIDA

P.S. Hold on, another map and other, even more amazing pictures from our Caribbean cruise will follow shortly (I love these vague relative terms).
And don't forget: there will also be challenging quizzes with real prizes to win!

The Everglades

Upon our return from the warm Caribbean, Florida welcomed us with literally freezing temperatures. This did not stop us from going on our planned airboat tour in the Everglades:

From USA - FLORIDA

To warm herself up, Emese gave a hug to Jack, the alligator:

From USA - FLORIDA