Archive for February, 2011
Map Of Greece Offering Unique Holidays
A very popular tourist destination Greece is a beautiful country favorite for all kind of travelers whether they are the tourists on leisure party lovers art and history lovers to outdoor lovers. Tourism in the country has always played an important part in Greece as it has everything to offer to its visitors. A unique country that Greece is it offers number of unique holidays whereby the travelers get a chance to enrich their holidays with unique experiences. The alternative forms of holiday serves the purpose of the holiday relaxing and touring as well becoming a part of special programs giving a peek into the countrys culture nature and more. With the varied and diverse regions that the Greece map provides numerous options for holidaying. Some of them are enlisted here:
Religious holidays
Greeces religion and rich national heritage have helped the development of religious tourism to the country. Today the country is attracting a large number of visitors to the ancient Greek monuments and with the religious tourism getting the right promotion in the tourist policies being framed it leaves no reason that it is becoming a hot favorite. Through the centuries the country has closely followed its religion and traditions. The countrys treasures like the imposing churches monasteries chapels shrines all speak highly of the countrys history.
Sports holidays
Embark on a Greece travel for a holiday and if a sports lover Greece is the country. It is the same place where the Olympic Games were born and it is perfect for various sports activities as well as holding sports events. The country has witnessed number of big sports events taking place here including the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens. This has led to number of sports facilities coming up where both the local people and visitors get an opportunity to practice their favorite sports. Looking at the emerging popularity of the sports tourism many hotels have geared up and today provide with not only excellent accommodation but also sports facilities to their guests.
Ecotourism
With the Greece varied and rich ecosystems the country offers with some of the best holiday ideas. Though a small country it is gifted with long stretches of coastlines lakes rivers caves gorges natural habitats and above all a mild climate making it a very popular destination for ecotourism. On a holiday to Greece undertake a number of activities like exploring the forests and woodlands in the mountains and the islands. Visit the fantastic monuments natural caves and waterfalls. Admire the rare species of animals and birds in their natural habitat.
Agrotourism
Agrotourism is a great way to combine your holiday with business. It is a small form of tourist development which involves the Greece countryside and offers excellent way of getting aware of the countrys agricultural areas and occupations local cuisine culture and traditions. This kind of holiday gives you a chance to come close to nature even participate in the various activities along with the joy of touring exploring and learning. With number of specialized programs being organized for agrotourism like various exhibitions for agro products workshops tours of ecotourism this holiday form is becoming popular among the visitors.
Spa holidays
Spa tourism is on the rise all over the world and Greece is not far behind with its natural wealth of springs which has therapeutic properties. From the ancient times the therapeutic properties of the water has been recognized and has been used fro many cures. Spas are an important national treasure and one will come across number of them spread out all over the Greece map. Due to the temperature or the chemical composition the water of springs is marked as mineral water. Besides there are cold mineral springs hot springs and these are the ones used in therapeutic treatment.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Nancy Eben is an associate editor of http://www.quickbooker.com . The website offers exclusive information of Greece and
map of Greece . We also provide online hotel reservation of Greece travel. We appreciate your feedback and queries at nancyquickbooker.com
Maldives Top Five Scuba Dives
The maldives have long been known as wonderful vacation resorts beloved of scuba divers. The thousand or so islands each sit in lagoons of coral that have built up over a quarter of a million years. The shallow waters are abundant with sea life. Eveything from the tiniest nudibranch to the great Whale Shark can be seen here. The real stars for most people are the pelagic Manta Rays and the loggerhead turtles which are often found in large numbers. They are attracted by the abundance of food as are plenty of sharks.
But when faced with such a mass of options which islands shoul you choose? The readers of The Maldives Review have given their approval to the isllands of Dhiggiri Kudahithi Ellaidhoo Fihalhohi and Filitheyo as the five Maldives destinations that tick the scuba diver’s boxes most fully.
According to editor Nicola Brown the scoring is based not only on dive quality which in most cases in the maldives is a given but also on accomodation qality standard of food and drink on the island party atmosphere and general levels of customer service.
Above all that the standards of the Scuba dive center invariably a PADI centres in the Maldives are what mark out a first class scuba diver’s island as opposed to just a good one. The staff of the dive centre must be patient professional knowledgeable environmentally aware multilingual and also friendly too. When they can deliver on all those fields then what you have is a top five maldives dive resort.
About the writer: Read The Maldives Review for yourself. Author CB
Lyon – Theres No S In French
Its about 450kms from Paris to Lyon or Lyons if your prefer in English but forget about the fourandahalf hour drive and instead save money time and the environment by taking the highspeed TGV train service. After all the journey time is just under two hours.
Added to which theres a regular service although youll need to reserve your seat in advance a requirement when buying a ticket on a TGV as even though ours was one of those doubledecker jobs it was packed. Clearly proof that plenty of people regularly commute between the two cities.
This was my first trip to Lyon primarily to see a production of Porgy and Bess at the opera house. But it was also a chance for a glimpse at whats reputed to be one of the most beautiful of Frances cities the countrys third largest and something of a gastronomic paradise. Although I knew a late arrival and an early departure the following day wouldnt really give me the chance for any fine dining.
As fate would have it our arrival at Lyons Part Dieu station was heralded by the opening of the skies as the heavens fair chucked it down. This was a case of April showers bringing forth more showers in May.
No it doesnt scan properly and it deviates from the original but sadly it was the case and arriving umbrellaless meant standing in line for a taxi to take us to the hotel.
After checking in and freshening up it was time to jump into another taxi yes it was still pouring to make the short hop to the Opera house.
Now Lyons Opera house is a grand old building dating back to 1831 although it had a bit of a facelift in 1993 as part of a modernisation drive.
Unfortunately that seems to have resulted in a pretty dated look in the bits that have been updated with the interior of both the downstairs bar and the main auditorium boasting a wonderful blackred colour scheme very much of its time.
Then there are the tiled shiny floors of glossy marble that turn into a veritable skating rink for those wearing leathersoled shoes the moment a spot of rain hits the surface.
No prizes for guessing who had squeezed himself into a brand new pair that turned into skates once his feet hit the ground.
On to the performance which was sold out and our third row black plasticbacked of course seats gave us a splendid view of the stage a definite plus given the rather special nature of the production because it wasnt just all about singing as fabulous as the voices were.
The directors of this particular version were the choreographers Jos Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu whose contemporary dance company would add an extra element to the opera.
That proved to be vital factot especially as George Gershwins opera is long very long very far too long even for my operaintolerant companion for the evening who insisted on trying to listen with eyes and presumably ears wide shut.
Mind you I had to have some sympathy as apart from the frequently reprised Summertime and Aint necessarily so there arent a great deal of instantly familiar and hummablealongable tunes.
The music was as brooding as ever and the vocal performances marvellous but what really sold this production to me and most of the rest of the audience were the dance and visual effects.
Both were spectacular. There were some exhausting yet evocatively hiphop moves to reflect mood changes and interpret both the music and lyrics. A sort of double effect complementary rather than repetitive.
The performances were electrifying and although sometimes they appeared perhaps a little clichd they kept most of us on the edge of our seats mesmerised by not just the power and strength but also the grace and beauty.
An extra visual effect was the video backdrop something of a Montalvo Hervieu speciality.
It was sometimes a little disturbing particularly when showing recordings of the dancers doing exactly the same routines they were performing live but purposefully just a little out of synchronisation.
Maybe its just an age thing but there seemed to be a few too many assaults on the senses at the same time very much an MTV generation comes of age sort of thing with the ethos seeming to be lets sling everything at them the audience at once and see how they manage.
Mostly though the video worked magnificently especially when it complemented something that was happening slightly off stage such as a bloody murder or a torrid love scene.
The bottom line was that the production wasnt one that could be listened to with eyes closed and fully deserved the rapturous applause it received at the end.
Ravenous after the performance it was up to the seventh floor for a late night twocourse meal. The set menu at 30 was all right but nothing special. There again at almost midnight there wasnt really any other alternative so a return trip to Lyon will have to be made just to confirm that it lives up to its gastronomic reputation.
Fed and watered strolled back to the hotel hallelujah it had stopped raining.
If the Opera house left me questioning the tastes of Lyons interior designers and architects then our hotel Beaux Arts left me flummoxed.
Its officially now the Mercure Beaux Arts part of the Accor group and therefore second only in the category of hotel to the chains Sofitels. Maybe the price 99 for a double room should have signalled what to expect nothing special.
While it describes itself as an Art Deco hotel unfortunately it manages only offer a very poor copy of what could be the real thing. The sad fact is that the heart and soul of the place have been ripped out with no real thought of aesthetics.
Our room should have been a delightful tribute to the past. Instead it had been stripped of all its original features to the point where it was almost devoid of character. True it was vast in volume with floortoceiling windows on two sides opening out on to small balconies. But a stale musty smell hung around even with the windows flung wide open and the room wasnt made any more appealing by the mustard coloured plastic lined fulllength curtains.
The functional durable dull blue carpet only inspired a desire to tear it up to check whether it was hiding some glorious old parquet and the bathroom well it really isnt worth mentioning. So I wont.
And it wasnt just our room that had been thoughtlessly madeunder. There were signs everywhere in the hotel of what might have been if only a little more TLC had been spread in renovating.
The winding staircase could have been creakingly magnificent but instead it had been thoughtlessly painted over. There was rendering on the indoor walls which had then been daubed in a nondescript colour and even the tiny oldfashioned lift seemed sadly neglected although it should have been full of charm. There was just the occasional glimpse of what was missing in some of the original giant wooden frames.
But overall the impression was a miserable one. Shame on Accor hotels!
The group could and should take another look at what could be done to a fabulous old building to bring it up to the promise of the blurb.
On the plus side and thankfully there is one is its location. The hotel is bang in the heart of the peninsular between the cities two rivers the Rhne and the Saone and a few minutes walk from many of the tourist sites and some fabulous shopping.
The service was a bit hit and miss. Front desk had only one person on duty when we arrived and the poor guy while friendly and efficient had to split his time between answering guests queries such as booking us a taxi and serving behind the bar.
Breakfast the following morning was rather a unique experience which can best be described as offering service with a grimace. The two ladies greeting the guests certainly seemed to be full of attitude which from an onlookers perspective was mildly amusing although simultaneously they appeared totally overwhelmed by the number of people stumbling in to eat. Almost as though this was their first morning on the job. Perhaps it was.
They bustled about quite determinedly marching in and out of the kitchen with lists. But apart from taking down our room numbers breakfast is never included in the price of a room in France and is always charged separately seemed to do very little else.
Apart that is from scolding one guest presumably still half asleep for taking a cup from a pile next to the coffee machine.
There are cups already on the table to use was the information given by one waitress as she almost ripped the cup from the poor guys hands.
Yikes. I guess nobody DARED question why there was a pile next to the coffee in the first place.
The food was passable. But for 14 a pop I had been expecting something a little more wholesome than rubbery lukewarm omelette and manky sausages. Two words spring to mind RIP and OFF.
There was just time for a quick coffee outside the hotel and a spot of window shopping on the whole stores open up for business at 10 oclock before taking a taxi to the station to catch our train back to Paris
And heres a word of warning when looking for a taxi in Lyon. Dont. It can be a real hassle for the visitor.
If you turn up at the nearest rank theres no guarantee youll find a taxi. Even if there are a couple waiting with available lights illuminated the drivers might simply not be around.
As there seems to be nothing to hail down on the streets of course your best bet is to ask your hotel reception to book one for you.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Johnny Summerton is a Parisbased broadcaster writer and journalist specialising in politics and sport. Visit his site for a look at some the stories making the headlines here in France http://www.persiflagefrance.com
Or for more of his travel pieces check out http://www.urlswurld.blogspot.com