Celebrating the sixth annual Punta Cana Carnival

This year I will be traveling to Punta Cana, the most called for tourist spot in the entire Caribbean area. Punta Cana is one of the most beautiful places in the Dominican Republic, with white sandy beaches exceeding over 50 miles of area. Punta Cana also offers travelers with turquoise blue waters, blue skies, and coconut trees. Over all a totally picturesque landscape perfect for a picture.

I had heard about the famous Punta Cana Carnival and had a great desire to attend this great event, which attracts a large number of tourists from world over. I’m planning to buy airline tickets soon and hope to get the best flight deals. The Punta Cana Carnival will be held on March 9, 2013 and I just don’t want to miss out on this fabulous event. 

The 6th Punta Cana Carnival conducted yearly will be celebrated on March 9 at Boulevard November 1st, situated opposite the Punta Cana International Airport, in a village called Puntacana. I am looking forward to reach Punta Cana soon and immerse in the celebration, which officially begins at 3.30 pm with a parade. International relegation's from Curacao, Aruba, Saint Martin and Haiti will be participating in this parade. Apart from the international delegation the very best of Dominican will also be taking part in the same.

I will be simply thrilled to see more than 15 of the lead carnival companies featuring in the parade when I reach Punta Cana from Philadelphia by Frontier Airlines flights. The carnival troupes will don colorful masks and costumes showcasing the folklore and cultural traditions of the Dominican Republic to thousands of locals and tourists from across the world.

A live concert having music genres, such as reggaeton, bachata and meringue, will be played in order to conclude the Carnival. The visitors would not be charged any entrance fee to participate in the Punta Cana Carnival. However, those who want to be seated on a stage while the event is on will have to shell out an additional $15 for the same.

The Grand Carnival Gala will be taking place on March 8 at Puntacana Galerias, where the visitors would be able to enjoy local costumes, enjoy the regional music and meet the performing artists who would be participating the following day. The Punta Cana Carnival began in 2008 and is since then conducted yearly throughout March’s second week.

The Punta Cana Carnival is indeed a great event as it attempts to advertize Dominican culture and lore across the globe. I have already made plans to book flights tickets and attend this magnificent event.

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Spending a nice weekend getaway at Atlanta

I frequently travel to Atlanta for business. This is the place where I like spending much of my time. I am from New York and consider Atlanta to be a nice weekend getaway destination for me. I usually prefer traveling by AirTran Airways because most of the time I manage to get low fares for my flights to Atlanta. It only takes 2 hour 45 minutes for me to reach Atlanta from New York. I planned my trip in a way that it became a fantastic leisure-cum-business trip for me.

I usually prefer staying at Holiday Inn Express & Suites, near Princeton Lakes Court. The price of hotel rooms is modest. This is a wonderful property to stay in when on pleasure ore business. The property has a beautiful, large deck overlooking a small lake which is used for slalom water ski training. You’ll have great chances for some lake entertainment as well.

I had already decided that this visit of mine would be more of a leisure weekend getaway, rather than for business. After spending a comfortable night, I was ready to visit some of the popular landmarks in Atlanta. I first headed to the Centennial Olympic Park. This is a beautiful park and you’ll love walking through it. When you are traveling in the summer it would be absolutely wonderful to spend your evenings here when the weather is nice.

George Aquarium was my next destination. It is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It has a wonderful and gorgeous architecture. The Ocean Journey exhibition was thoroughly enjoying. Here I got to see whale sharks, manta rays and hammerhead sharks.

I then paid a visit to the World of Coca-Cola. This is right next door to the George Aquarium. My visit here was good. Here you’ll get to know how the Coke giant was established. You’ll see the Coke historical artifacts. If you are traveling with your kids, the 4-D movie shown here would attract them and they are really going to like it.

Atlanta is really nice, and it surely makes for a nice weekend getaway. It is one of my favorite cities and I would love visiting it again.

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Singapore - The tiny and beautiful Island!

Test Singapore has always been my favorite place. I have visited it a number of times and prefer to visit it whenever I can. This is a fantastic place which everyone must visit. After a couple of years I again got yearning to visit this amazing city-state and decided to book China Airlines flights to Singapore from Los Angeles. I mostly travel on this airline as I find it comfortable. Being a frequent flyer, the travel company Fare Buzz through which I buy airline tickets offers me great deals enabling me to save for my trip. 

I was now headed to Singapore. I boarded my flight at Los Angeles International Airport. It took nearly 20 hours for me to arrive at Singapore International Airport. The journey was grueling indeed, but my overall stay in this tiny, beautiful island was rather pleasant. I want to acquaint my readers about what attractions to see here. This would act as a ready reckoner for them to know beforehand and accordingly prepare for their visit here.

Singapore appears as only a dot on the world map, but is indeed a tiny and beautiful island worth visiting. Whenever I visit here I feel simply at home – quite safe and completely free. It’s quite a unique country in its own way. The people are hospitable and friendly. The country is in fact multi-racial with people speaking varied languages. Tourists find this quite interesting. It’s a place where you will find many kinds of food. You just need to try these to get the real taste. The place also has many shopping centers and visitors are greatly attracted to these.

You’ll find yourself at ease as everybody speaks English. For a visitor, whether traveling for the first time or regularly, it is seemingly easy as road sign and informative board are all in English. For English-knowing this is therefore a great relief. 

Tourists find Singapore a unique place. This is perhaps the only country in the world having two zoos for different durations of the day. One zoo is open to the visitors during the day time only, while another zoo can be visited during the night time only. The Zoological Garden can be frequented by the visitors only during the day time. The night Safari is available in the night time.

Sentosa Island, a recreational island, is another important attraction to pay a visit. Here you’ll get to see a lot of things, such as Siloso beach, butterfly garden, underwater aquarium, and the water musical fountain at night. You can also climb the top of Merlion to get a beautiful view of the surrounding island and southern part of Singapore. Hope you liked it and I strongly recommend Singapore as a must-visit destination.

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Must dos for backpackers in Mexico

Are you a backpacker and traveling to Mexico? Of course, before you buy airline tickets and travel by Aeromexico flights or by other international airlines, you must first of all prepare a list of must dos that would be convenient during your trip. I am a backpacker and already been to Mexico and thoroughly enjoyed my visit in this great destination. Let me share my experiences as a backpacker that would indeed prove to be beneficial to you during your visit here.

In my view, here are some of the most important things that one should typically do as a backpacker. The first thing in your priority should be to explore the pyramids and historical sites here. Huge pyramids and elaborate cities with beautiful and intricate artwork were constructed by the Mayans, Aztecs, Teotihuacans and other pre-Columbian cultures. During the Spanish conquest or simply over time most of the treasures have been lost. However, some large ones still remain. You’ll find it simply fascinating to visit several ruins that contain pyramids, such as Ek Balam, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Xochicalco and Teotihuacan. 

The culture and arts scene in Mexico is quite diverse and rich because of loads of Spanish influence and dozens of indigenous traditions. Being a backpacker I found it exciting to stumble upon dancers, street artists, music shows and much more while traveling through various cities in the country. During my visit to the city of Mérida I was fortunate to see dance shows, music, street concerts and buskers etc being held around the Zócalo (central plaza) for the entire day. It was simply awesome.

While visiting the historic sites and other places of tourist interests, do make it a point to avoid being trapped by the “special price for you” type stores, where you can just end up paying more if not cautious. This typically happens with tourist at several souvenir shops, artist markets and places to buy trinkets. On a visit to Yucatan I found many shorts-wearing camera-wielding resort-going tourists sitting in tourist buses and going for visits to exclusive art shops. If you are not careful enough you always run the risk of being fleeced.   

These are some of my experiences that I preferred to share. However, there are many more experiences that I have as a backpacker, which I would reflect in my other writings. Hope, you will love reading this and implement wherever you going as a backpacker.

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Enjoying Oslo in summer

Oslo is great to visit in the summer. I live in New York, but always make it a point to visit some of my friends living in Oslo once every year. I have loved being in Oslo, particularly in the summer, as it is fascinating indeed. The summer in Oslo gives you a completely out-of-the- world experience. Last year, I again visited my friends here and had good times. I succeeded in get the best flight deals and made Icelandair flight reservations from New York JFK. I was longing to meet my friends and the day had finally arrived to board Icelandair flights to Oslo from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was a grueling journey indeed as my flight took 9 hours to reach Oslo after a brief 50 minute stopover in Reykjavik.

 My friends were anxiously waiting for my arrival and were visibly pleased as I came out of the airport. They then took me to their home. My friends are musicians and are in a band called Gazpacho. I have a gala time throughout my stay here. Even my friends eagerly look forward to my visit as it feels like a little vacation. I simply cannot forget those exciting times here. It’s a true boy’s night out for us. The thrills of listening to some good music, barbecuing sausages, washing them down with cold beer, and talking about life, the universe and everything.

Summertime is incredible in Oslo. Though you won’t be able to experience the midnight sun, but it doesn’t really get dark either. I saw the sun just dipping behind the mountains at around 2 in the morning, only to reappear again at almost the same spot a couple of hours later. This happened only once during my stay. However, summer days are usually long and the sun sets around 10 pm in the evening.

You get plenty of scope for outdoor activities in summer with Oslo’s unique location between the fjord and the forest. I found many Oslo citizens summer to the hilt with a number of activities on the fjord and in the parks. The fjord in Oslo is the most popular recreation area for relaxing on one of the many beaches, swimming, sailing and fishing. To get a feel of the summer life of Oslo even more, hop on to a cruise on the Oslo Fjord for a short 50 minute trip. You may also consider taking a sunset cruise including a large Norwegian prawn buffet for a more complete summer experience here. A summer evening on the fjord can simply not be missed in any case. It’s simply awesome. My 15-day stay with my friends has now ended. I will look forward to visit them again to enjoy Oslo summer to the fullest.

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