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Holidays/Vacations in Sharm el Sheikh

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:09:24 +0000

Sharm el Sheikh, in Egypt, is a city at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the coast of the Red Sea. Called The City of Peace because it is the home for many international peace conferences, it is the starting point for an amazing underwater wonderland and a heaven for divers from around the world. There are many water sports available including snorkelling, wind surfing, parasailing, kite surfing, canoeing and boating, but diving is the number one activity. Holidays to Sharm el-Sheikh are some of the most popular in Egypt.

In the crystal clear water, the coral comes almost to the surface and it is possible to see the beautiful coral gardens with the vast variety of tropical fish swimming just a metre below the surface. There are dive sites in the Red Sea with 800 metre deep reef walls that go on into the deep for the serious divers. The boats used to take divers to the many diving destinations are about 20 metres long. They are designed for divers to have easy access to the water, with a large dive deck and a ladder out. They have a saloon where a good buffet lunch is served and a sun deck upstairs with a shaded area. Diving is from the Straits of Tiran to Ras Mohamed as well as regular trips to the Gulf of Suez to see the wrecks of Thistlegorm, Dunraven and in the area of Nbu Nuas.

Another great adventure is a trip to the desert. There are trips to visit the Bedouins and see the Coloured Canyon and St. Catherine’s Monastery. You can even go on to Mount Sinai. For a vacation that travels back in time you can ride a camel through valleys and by oasis and see every star in the galaxy at night. For those who prefer to remain at the hotel there is horseback riding, golf and go cart tracks.

Sharm el Sheikh is a world class beach resort that caters to five star hotels as well as budget accommodations. Egypt has been developing the area for over 25 years as a holiday destination and you will find all the facilities and amenities you need. It is the home of the Sharm el Sheik Hyperbaric Medical Centre where they research and assist with illnesses related to diving. This is another reason it is considered a divers paradise. With great sites like dealchecker.co.uk it is possible to have a relatively inexpensive holiday with all the activities associated with the best beach resorts in the world.

How to Create the Ultimate Blog 101’s

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:54:15 +0000

How to Create the Ultimate Blog 101’s

One wonders where all that pent-up rage, radical views, strong opinions and peculiar beliefs would be deposited without blogs. For some people, blogging offers a cathartic experience in that they are able to write about who or what is troubling them. Yet for others, by simply being able to put an idea out there is help enough for their egos and self-esteem. Writing in a blog would definitely be much cheaper than a session with an overpriced shrink. Entrepreneurs, newsmakers, tech tutors and a whole lot of others also employ the use of blogs for profit or for up to date information. There are numerous reasons for putting up and maintaining a blog but all of them have one common goal, how to get your thoughts across clearly and effectively.

Blog 101’s are as ubiquitous as blogs themselves in the Internet. The obvious way to go here is to look for an excellent site that will be able to deliver the goods on creating and keeping up a blog. These sites offer guides, tips, how-tos and even some useful tools that will help you in the wonderful world of blogging. The topic commonly discussed initially is finding a home for your blog or the seemingly thankless job of looking for a host, free or otherwise. You might think that it’s easy enough to look for a host, google “blog host” and you’ll see that it’s not as painless as it appears. The wealth of choices available simply overwhelms the soon to be blogger. Now, let’s say you finally found a suitable home for your blog, the next challenge that you need to hurdle would most likely be the design. If you build an attractive and well-arranged blog, then they’ll most certainly come. Most blog hosts have built-in tools that will help you with that but the myriad “ready-to-wear” designs will almost certainly baffle the unversed. Blog tutorials have simple yet useful guides about designing blogs that includes topics ranging from text positioning to color schemes. Now comes the best part, content. A truly good blog tutorial site will stand out from other pretenders when it’s able to supply bloggers with relevant information concerning content. Ideas on where to get content are very crucial. The only way you are going to get considerable amount of traffic in your blog is if people are INTERESTED in it. Your content plays a very critical role in your blog’s success, it is the lifeblood of every single blog out there. If you keep good content flowing steady and fresh, that can only stand to help your blog achieve a level of greatness. Tips on the finer points of increasing traffic for your blog are very abundant in the tutorials. Be sure to take heed because dealing with keywords and search engines will be a joyful task if done properly and with decent supervision.

Bottom line is that blog tutorials are essential partners in your blog making travels because they serve as competent and experienced guides. Up until such time that you get your blogging legs true and steady, I recommend not letting go of these sites.

Costa Rica Eco Travel

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:05:22 +0000

The evolution of ‘Ecotourism’

As a world-wide leader in nature-oriented travel, with 5% of the world’s biodiversity within only .035% of the world’s land, Costa Rica continues to be in the spotlight for ecotourism. Since 1993, tourism has been the top generator of foreign revenues for Costa Rica, surpassing both bananas and coffee. The ICT (Costa Rican Institute for Tourism) acknowledges that the tourism in Costa Rica has become mainly ecotourism. It is easy to see why, with Costa Rica’s 26 national parks, 58 wildlife refuges, 32 protected zones, 15 wetland areas or mangroves, 11 forest reserves, 8 biological reserves, as well as 12 other conservation regions. The array of flora and fauna is staggering. Martha Honey of the CESD (Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development) cites the following:

“This West Virginia-sized country boasts more bird species (850) than are found in the United States and Canada combined, more variety of butterflies than in all of Africa, more than 6,000 kinds of flowering plants (including 1,500 varieties of orchids), and over 35,000 species of insects. Costa Rica is, as former minister of natural resources Alvaro Umana put it, a biological superpower.” (Honey 2003)

All of this natural wonder in the most stable country both socially and politically in Central America, perhaps even all of Latin America, is heaven for especially the ecotraveler. To its credit, Costa Rica has the highest percentage of protected land in the world (Fenell and Eagles 1990). Further, Costa Rica has preserved these lands and natural habitats in such a way that they are more accessible to tourists than those of any other country in the region (Budowski 1993). The small size of the country is a huge factor as well; a traveler has the opportunity to visit more destinations per visit if desired.

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as:

“Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.”

The history of ecotourism is interesting. The term ‘ecotourism’ was coined in 1983 by Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, one of Mexico’s top architects as well as renowned environmentalist and Ecotourism expert. Ceballos-Lascurain is the Director General of the Programme of International Consultancy on Ecotourism (PICE), and special advisor on Ecotourism to the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The following definitions are quoted from Ceballos-Lascurain in an ecoclub.com article Meet the Architect of Ecotourism.

1983 definition: “Ectourism is tourism that involves traveling to relatively undisturbed natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural aspects (both past and present) found in these areas.” His hope was that the result would be that people would become more knowledgeable and aware of nature and thus likely to be more involved in conservation issues. This very desire came to fruition.

He revised the definition in 1993, which was then adopted by the IUCN in 1996 as its official definition, which states: “Ecotourism is environmentally responsible travel to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy, study and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features, both past and present), that promotes conservation, has low negative visitor impact, and provides for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local populations.”

What began as a niche in the early 80’s has grown exponentially with far-reaching effects. From the roots of ecotourism sprang ‘responsible’ and ’sustainable’ tourism, and as seen above ecotourism is now defined to include the latter. In October of 2008, United Nations Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner joined the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to announce the first-ever globally relevant sustainable tourism criteria at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The new criteria was developed to offer a common guide to the burgeoning practice of sustainable tourism and to help consumers, businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations and education institutions to ensure that tourism has positive, rather than negative effects on local communities and the environment. To find out more, check out www.SustainableTourismCriteria.org.

In order to promote tourism providers that practice sustainability, the Costa Rican ICT developed the Center for Sustainable Tourism (CST) which provides certification to businesses that are committed to sustainable practices. The certification is given at levels from 1 to 5 green leaves, with many businesses currently certified and in process. The Rainforest Alliance recognizes the CST as a valid entity to promote and ensure sustainable practices in Costa Rica. Countless others in tourism are involved in sustainable practices in Costa Rica that are under the radar. Also there is the newly formed Costa Rican National Chamber of Ecotourism (CANAECO) which is Rainforest Alliance affiliated. With all of these organizations to help promote and enforce authenticity, backed by huge consumer demand, there is sure to be more and more in the tourism sector on board to protect Costa Rica’s priceless ecosystems and communities.

NatureAir and NatureVacations are proud to practice environmental and social responsibility. NatureAir is The world’s first certified Carbon Neutral Airline and presents an informative video at http://www.natureair.com/carbonneutral/ . Also to learn more about our biodiesel program see http://blog.natureair.com/.