Vacation

Inflatable Paddleboarding and 7 Other Water Sports to Try While Traveling

Published

3 years ago

September 12, 2020

curator

Traveling is all about new experiences, adventure, and leaving stress from daily life behind. That’s why if you ever travel to a natural attraction and are feeling like trying something new you should consider one of the following water sports. they are the perfect way to take full advantage of rivers, beaches, or lakes near you.

For some, you don’t even need travel guides, just equipment rental.

I know that summer is almost gone but the countries near the equator offer warm climates combined with beaches and lakes all year long, so you get to enjoy watersports all year long.

Personally, I’m not a water lover but my sons and husband love it and are always looking for a way to get in some additional excitement in the water into our vacations. So we have done plenty of these watersports. Here are some of their favorite so far:

Paddleboarding and Other Fun Water Sports for Travelers

Below is general information about some of the top watersports to try while traveling.

Stand-up Paddling

This one is a weird combination between paddling on a boat and surfing. For this sport, you need to have enough balance and coordination to be able to stand over the board while paddling. Aside from being a fun activity, it is also a great way to transport yourself over the water and a fun way to race anyone traveling with you.

Recently and inflatable paddle board has become a more affordable and portable option to the rigid ones.

Kayaking

This can be done in two very different ways. One of them is leisurely paddling away through a relaxed river or lake near the shore. These usually allow you to explore the beauty of the surroundings.

You can also take these to fast rivers and have some adrenaline-filled fun day trying not to fall in the rapids.

Which one would you choose?

Jet Skiing

Thrill-seekers tend to love jetskiing because of the fast speed that can be reached. As long as the environment is safe, and there aren’t people nearby you even get to do some fun races.

The best part about them is that you don’t have to be an expert to drive them. It is extremely easy to drive them. Even if you haven’t done it before, ask for the renter to give you a quick tutorial and off you go. Plus they are rented by the hour in tons and tons of places around the world.

Banana Boat Ride

These inflatable bananas are an amazing option for the whole family. You all get to sit on it while a small boat pulls from it. This is an exciting bumpy ride that everyone can enjoy since there isn’t too much risk of falling over.

Plus you are always made to wear a life jacket at all time.

Depending on your age and skill level you can ask for the boat to go faster or slower. So it can be customized to fit all ages and tastes.

Rafting

Rafting takes you cruising through river rapids. It is also an example of teamwork where you all need to be in communication and work on time to be able to direct the boat and avoid the dangerous parts of the river.

The difficulty of this sport is mandated by the water levels of the river and of how fast the rapids are. Some are slow enough for families that know how to swim and some others are meant only for professionals.

Surfing Lessons

Places like the Pacific coast of Central America offer great beaches for those who want to learn all about how to surf. The best part is that you can visit them year-round. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica offer some of the best options as far as I know.

My family and I have tried some lessons in all three countries.

They also have beaches with strong tides and big waves that expert surfers can also get a fund couple of days out of before moving to the next beach.

Go Sailing in Seach of Local Wildlife

This is an activity that we have enjoyed on the Caribbean side of Central America and places like Florida. These trips are a great and relaxing way to explore off of the shores of wherever you are traveling.

In some areas of the world, you might be able to see colorful fish through the crystal clear water. In some other cases, you might be able to find yourself sailing next to dolphins and whales.

Most tours take you out for lunch, making it an even better experience. This, I must confess is my favorite so far, since I don’t have to be in direct contact with water.

Diving and/or Snorkeling in Coral Reefs

Ok, I’ll repeat it! I am not a water person but snorkeling is something that I ended up enjoying. These tours offer a combination of relaxed sailing with being able to swim with all kinds of colorful creatures.

You do need special training for diving that takes a few weeks at a certified academy, so it won’t be a quick thing, but I have heard of people who dedicate a whole vacation to learning how to do this properly to be able to go on deeper water to enjoy its beauties.

Now that you have learned about these eight exciting options, which one would you choose for your next vacation? As you will see, even people who aren’t fans of playing in water can have a great time while trying at least one of these ones. So which one is it going to be?

Out of all of these the only one that my family I haven’t tried is paddleboarding, but trust me, it is high on my family’s bucket list and we want to include it in our plans for upcoming adventures. It sounds like a lot of fun once you learn how not to fall off of it.

The post Inflatable Paddleboarding and 7 Other Water Sports to Try While Traveling appeared first on Travel Experta – Family Travel Blog.

By: Marina Villatoro
Title: Inflatable Paddleboarding and 7 Other Water Sports to Try While Traveling
Sourced From: feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTravelExperta/~3/asfjBUv3rsM/inflatable-paddleboarding-and-water-sports.html
Published Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:25:34 +0000

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Vacation

What could you order from Ansett Airlines’ inflight bar in the early 1970s?

Published

2 years ago

November 19, 2020

curator

People have always liked to drink on board flights, especially people from Australia. Therefore, it should be no surprise to anyone that there was an inflight bar offering in the 1970s.

Ansett Airlines were a major player in the Australian domestic market up until their demise in September 2001. For many years, there were two domestic airlines, Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) and Ansett.

Ansett’s Inflight Bar

At the time, Ansett operated Boeing 727s, Douglas DC-9s and Fokker F27 Friendships on domestic routes in the country. Airline tickets were quite expensive, with tariffs agreed upon by both airlines thanks to Australia’s weird two-airline policy at the time.

While tickets were expensive and food complimentary, you still had to pay for a drink at the bar. Here is an inflight bar menu from the era, showing the drinks available and their prices.

Clearly the pricing is astounding by today’s standards – 30 cents for a beer? I’ll have thirty-three please! I like how Australian gin is 35c while the imported gin is just 5c more. Which would you choose?

You can tell it is from another era as you can buy cigarettes on board. These price up at 45c, a far cry from the extortionate prices people in the west pay these days for a smoke!

Overall Thoughts

The on board offering is pretty comprehensive for internal flights, and I imagine you’d be hard pressed not to find something you might like. In those times, all payments would have been by cash as well, which would have meant a lot of coinage being handled on board.

Of course, things haven’t changed too much over the years. On many airlines you pay for your drinks just as they did back in the 1970s. Shame the prices aren’t the same of course!

Did you ever buy drinks on board flights from the inflight bar back in the day? Do you still? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Daniel Tanner on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Menu image by Ikara on Australian Frequent Flyer.

By: The Flight Detective
Title: What could you order from Ansett Airlines’ inflight bar in the early 1970s?
Sourced From: travelupdate.com/ansett-airlines-inflight-bar-menu/
Published Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 15:03:14 +0000

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Vacation

These Shrimp Leave the Safety of Water and Walk on Land. But Why?

Published

2 years ago

November 18, 2020

curator

The shrimp stop swimming at dusk and gather near the river’s edge. After sunset, they begin to climb out of the water. Then they march. All night long, the inch-long crustaceans parade along the rocks.

The parading shrimp of northeastern Thailand have inspired legends, dances and even a statue. (Locals also eat them.) During the rainy season, between late August and early October, tourists crowd the riverbanks with flashlights to watch the shrimp walk.

Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp first learned about the parading shrimp, and the hundred thousand or more tourists who come each year to see them, about 20 years ago. When he started studying biology, he returned to the topic. “I realized that we know nothing about this,” he said: What species are they? Why and how do they leave the safety of the water to walk upstream on dry land? Where are they going?

Mr. Hongjamrassilp, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to answer those questions himself. His findings appeared this month in the Journal of Zoology.

Working with wildlife center staff members, Mr. Hongjamrassilp staked out nine sites along a river in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province. They found shrimp parading at two of the sites — a stretch of rapids, and a low dam.

The videos they recorded revealed that the shrimp paraded from sundown to sunup. They traveled up to 65 feet upstream. Some individual shrimp stayed out of the water for 10 minutes or more.

“I was so surprised,” Mr. Hongjamrassilp said, “because I never thought that a shrimp can walk that long.” Staying in the river’s splash zone may help them keep their gills wet, so they can keep taking in oxygen. He also observed that the shells of the shrimp seem to trap a little water around their gills, like a reverse dive helmet.

DNA analysis from captured shrimp showed that nearly all belonged to the species Macrobrachium dienbienphuense, part of a genus of shrimp that live mostly or fully in freshwater. Many Macrobrachiumspecies spend part of their lives migrating upstream to their preferred habitats.

Most parading shrimp that Mr. Hongjamrassilp captured were young. Observations and lab experiments showed that these shrimp probably leave the water when the flow becomes too strong for them. Larger adult shrimp can handle a stronger current without washing away, so they’re less likely to leave the water.

Walking on land is dangerous for the little shrimp, even under cover of darkness. Predators including frogs, snakes and large spiders lurk nearby, Mr. Hongjamrassilp says. “Literally, they wait to eat them along the river.”

And the shrimp can survive on land for only so long. If the parading crustaceans lose their way, they may dry out and die before they get back to the river. A few times, Mr. Hongjamrassilp came across groups of lost shrimp dead on the rocks, their once-translucent bodies baked pink.

Yet most navigate upstream successfully, and scientists have spotted other freshwater shrimp around the world performing similar feats, scaling dams and even climbing waterfalls.

Leaving the water when the swimming gets tough may have helped these animals spread to new habitats over their evolutionary history, Mr. Hongjamrassilp said. Today, the number of parading shrimp in Thailand seems to be declining. He thinks tourist activity may be a factor, and learning more about the shrimp might help protect them.

The study’s authors made “some really excellent observations,” said Alan Covich, an ecologist at the University of Georgia who was not involved in the research. But understanding why the Ubon Ratchathani shrimp move upstream, and how far they travel, will require more research, he said.

“The most surprising thing to me was that it attracted so many tourists,” Dr. Covich said. He doesn’t know of any other example of people gathering to appreciate a crustacean in quite the same way.

“We have crayfish festivals, we have all kinds of things,” Dr. Covich said, “but generally it’s people eating them, not watching them move.”

By: Elizabeth Preston
Title: These Shrimp Leave the Safety of Water and Walk on Land. But Why?
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/science/shrimp-parade-thailand.html
Published Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2020 17:02:07 +0000

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Vacation

Will Aer Lingus launch transatlantic flights from Manchester?

Published

2 years ago

November 18, 2020

curator

There are reports that Aer Lingus have applied for 1,500 slots at Manchester Airport for the Summer 2021 season. This will allow the airline to base four aircraft there and service flights to the United States.

At present, there have been no press releases from the airline stating what is going on. Even so, it probably makes sense for the Irish airline to do this in the current market.

Aer Lingus And Manchester

From what is known, there will be three Airbus A321LRs and an A330 based at Manchester. These will operate non-stop services to New York JFK, Boston, Chicago and Orlando, and the season starts on 28 March 2021.

With Thomas Cook having gone out of business, there is likely space for another competitor. New York and Orlando will see competition from Virgin Atlantic, while the other two routes have no airline flying at the moment.

Aer Lingus has been connecting passengers over Dublin very successfully from the UK regions for a while now. Due to this, they will have visibility on traffic patterns, potential yields and more, making this an informed decision.

I imagine they also hope to cream off some of the connecting traffic that routes through London Heathrow on British Airways and Amsterdam on KLM among others. It would prove to be quite successful.

Transatlantic Joint Venture Approval

The US Department of Transport has tentatively given its approval for Aer Lingus to join the oneworld transatlantic joint business. This is operated by American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and Finnair.

These airlines coordinate schedules and pricing, share revenues and expenses. For the consumer, it means more choice – those making a booking on British Airways across the Atlantic will also see options on American Airlines on the BA web site as one example.

Theoretically, it would allow people seeking flights on the British Airways web site to automatically be given options to fly non-stop with Aer Lingus, along with the Manchester-London Heathrow-US city connecting itinerary.

Whether Aer Lingus will join the oneworld alliance, even in a oneworld connect capacity remains to be seen. Frequent flyers would welcome it, especially those in Ireland.

Overall Thoughts

No doubt the boffins have been working behind the scenes to see if the business case for transatlantic flights from Manchester stack up. As things have proceeded as far as a slot application, I would guess chances are good that it will go ahead.

Either way, let’s see if this happens and if it does, whether Aer Lingus will stay for the long haul. If they can make more money elsewhere, they’ll up sticks and leave. Regardless, it is an interesting development in European aviation.

What do you think of Aer Lingus starting transatlantic services from Manchester? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by N509FZ via Wikimedia Commons.
Aer Lingus A321neo LR by Pitmanaaron via Wikimedia Commons.
Business class cabin via One Mile At A Time.

By: The Flight Detective
Title: Will Aer Lingus launch transatlantic flights from Manchester?
Sourced From: travelupdate.com/aer-lingus-manchester/
Published Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:03:48 +0000

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