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About us
Americas
- A glorious day in the Sonoma Valley
Australasia
Europe
Middle East
- Egypt
Tips
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Walking the full Camino de Santiago - Pazo Santa Maria's beautiful restaurant setting

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20/05/2025 / 2000 x 2000 px

pazo Santa maria’s restaurant

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St Thomas in the US Virgin. Our last port of call

St Thomas in the US Virgin. Our last port of call before we start the return trip to New York.

Our ship had docked when we woke up. More catamarans and luxury yachts on the water. The scenery from our balcony looked calm and serene.

We spotted the waterfront esplanade and decided to take a good walk along it before exploring the city.

Almost immediately, we realised the road next to the esplanade is a major thoroughfare. Lots of traffic including many noisy trucks and American pick ups travel back and forth. Interestingly, the vehicles are left hand drive and they drive on the left hand side of the road.

The walk from the port towards the city took us past groups of coloured buildings which was obviously government housing.

The main township consists of one main street. Again, this is lined with jewellery and duty-free stores catering for tourists.

We took to the side streets to find some more colourful streets with beautiful old houses before walking up Blackbeard Hill past the old fort to the tower with its lookout on top.

There is a strikingly strong American presence in St Thomas. Much of the administration for the group of islands is conducted here by US citizens who live here.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

A day in St Maarten. The island of St Maarten is

A day in St Maarten.

The island of St Maarten is unique because it's divided between two countries with one part French and the other Dutch.

Once on land, we found the island to be completely different from all the others we've visited until now.

Imagine a tropical paradise with beautiful golden and beaches and bays, aqua blue sea coupled marinas filled with luxury yachts.

Three main streets along with the seafront promenade make up the township of Philipsburg where we docked. The promenade was filled with bars and restaurants, Front Street is lined with duty-free, jewellery and designer label stores, Old Street runs for just a few hundred metres between Front and Back Streets. Back Street caters for the locals with jam-packed clothing stores.

We wandered the colourful but most empty streets while most passengers from the four cruise ships in port went to beaches like Malo where they could have the iconic experience of having an aircraft fly low over them while lying on the beach.

We were disappointed not to see many locals about. We did, however pop inside the quaint Methodist Church to find many attending Sunday service.

Catering for tourists seeking sun and sea, St Maarten didn't have the same vibe as the other Caribbean islands we've visited so far. It certainly wasn't what we had expected.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

The sun was coming out as we cruised into Basseter

The sun was coming out as we cruised into Basseterre on the island of St Kitts this morning.

Once outside of the customary port area full of duty-free stores were had the opportunity to see how real life on this island plays out on a Saturday.

Locals were out shopping and socialising, a lone fisherman was on the beach selling his catch, fresh vegetable stalls (mainly root vegetables) were set up on the street and the marketplace and the supermarket was jam packed with Saturday shoppers.

We strolled to the township's main sights: children were having recorder lessons in the beautiful St George Anglican Church and reggae music emanated from the windows of houses in the backstreets.

Saturday traffic circled the roundabout where the Berkeley Memorial Clock (St Kitts' mini Big Ben) stands and unfortunately there was no match playing at the Warner Cricket Ground but the was lots of West Indian vibes everywhere.

Scroll through to see a little of what we found on this beautiful island today.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

Day 6 on the cruise and we woke to find ourselves

Day 6 on the cruise and we woke to find ourselves docked in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

Beautiful island scenery greeted us from our balcony which was very different from the bustling port of San Juan yesterday. It looked idyllic.

Christopher Columbus named it Tortola (Turtle Island) after seeing all the turtles when he landed here.

The island's economy is dependent on tourism and "financial services".

While most of our fellow passengers headed to the beaches or on taxi tours of the island, we preferred to wander the streets and surrounds of the island's main town, Road Town to see how the people here lived.

We explored the small town area, its backstreets and peeked inside the small Botanical Gardens. We found a laidback atmosphere, unlike the other islands there is a definite West Indian vibe (imagine WI music blaring from cars), and despite the pleasure craft around the port, poverty is evident on the town streets.

We hope you enjoy snippets of what we saw on our walk today.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

We docked in San Juan, Puerta Rico mid-morning and

We docked in San Juan, Puerta Rico mid-morning and were off the ship promptly. There was much to see in the Old Town where we wete docked.

More colourful houses and streets. Some well-preserved, others left to ruin! The two main features of the old town are the two forts built by the Spanish in the 1400's to protect their territory.

Beautiful old buildings, rum distilleries, bars and lovely squares everywhere!

We'd love to come back to see the rest of San Juan and the real Puerta Rico.

#cruise #puertarico #travel #traveltips #travelblog

A day exploring Puerta Plata in the Dominican Repu

A day exploring Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic.

Walking distance from the port, we spent this afternoon leisurely wandering through the streets of the small Dominican town.

The beautiful town square is the hub and the colonial buildings around it beautifully restored. We took to the side-streets afterwards to find many buildings that would have been equally stunning in their time were unfortunately abandoned and dilapidated.

The townsfolk seemed typically laidback happily sitting back tourist-watching. Mining was one of the town's main industries.Today, it's cruise ships!

Coffee and chocolate are also a big commodity. Lots of our fellow US cruisers were buying up coffee beans and chocolate to take home.

Puerta Plata is compact and can easily be walked around in a hour. We stretched it to four hours by taking to the backstreets and walking along the seafront promenade to the fort.

A nice introduction to the Caribbean. More shots and in-depth detail on this lovely spot in the Caribbean to come once we return home

Tomorrow we're in the much larger city of San Juan in Puerta Rico.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

Another day at sea. Cooler conditions still prev

Another day at sea.

Cooler conditions still prevail but on the brighter side we're glad that we were able to escape the blizzards that New York has been experiencing.

The sun has come out, the sea is calmer and we continue to pass our time by catching up on reading, listening to podcasts, enjoying the delicious meals and in the evenings, watching the variety of entertainment.

We reach our first port of call, Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic tomorrow.

Keep an eye out. We'll share some of what we come across on our wanderings.

#cruise #cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

A day at sea. We started our time on the Norwegi

A day at sea.

We started our time on the Norwegian Cruise Liner's Breakaway with a lovely meal last night.

Rough seas due to the bad weather on the American east coast has restricted access to the outdoor facilities on the ship so we've been using our at sea day to use the gym, familiarise ourselves more with the ship (we won't be using the Casino!) and lots of R&R.

The weather has been settling during the day and with one more day at sea to go we're hoping it continues to improve so more facilities become available.

#cruise ##cruising #travel #traveltips #travelblog

We woke to flurries of snow this morning. And, swa

We woke to flurries of snow this morning. And, swapped our hotel room for a ship cabin!

With blizzard conditions expected in New York, we're glad to be on our way to warmer climes.

Our passion for independent travel means we're a little out of our comfort zone on a big ship so you can imagine how we felt boarding our cruise.

While the majority of the passengers were filling up on food and alcohol we were checking out the fitness facilities. We waited until the dining areas had cleared before enjoying our lunch without the pandemonium.

We have a couple of days to get used to shipboard life before we reach our first destination in the Caribbean.

Stay tuned!

#cruise #cruising #caribbean #travel
#traveltips

Saturday in New York! #newyork ##newyorkcity #tra

Saturday in New York!

#newyork ##newyorkcity #travel #traveltips #travelblog

A day of walking, walking and then more walking in

A day of walking, walking and then more walking in Manhattan today.

The rain cleared and we saw patches of blue sky and felt the warmth of the sun as the day progressed.

Central Park still has lots of snow on the ground and the lakes are frozen over. This doesn't deter the locals from their regular walks, runs and Saturday catch ups in the Park. There were lots of people making the most of the good weather.

In the afternoon we made our way to Lower Manhattan via the Vessel, Highline Walkway and Hudson River promenade. We paid our respects to the victims at tne 9/11 Memorial and looked inside the Oculus before walking over the Brooklyn Bridge with hundreds of others.

As we passed through Times Square last night it was filled with Muslims attending night prayers during Ramadan. Tonight, the Square was closed off again. This evening, Jewish youth filled the Square to celebrate Jewish pride and unity. Both are long-standing events hosted in Times Square annually.

Waling gave us a chance to observe New Yorkers and the thousands of tourists currently in town going about their day. The best part of travelling independently 😊

The rain arrived as predicted today so it was a sl

The rain arrived as predicted today so it was a slower start with no morning walk. Instead, we made use of our well equipped hotel gym before heading outside.

We spent a considerable amount of time in the city on a previous visit and have seen all the major attractions so we don't feel any pressure to run around seeing them all again. Instead, we're just enjoying the city vibes and seeing where our feet take us.

Our wanderings this afternoon took us past the ice skating rink at the Rockefeller Centre, then into St Patrick's Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows, then revisited the New York Public Library and Grand Central Station.

Our day ended with an Italian meal at @trattoriatrecolorinyc
Delicious food, exquisite wine and great service.

Fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞

#newyork #newyorkcity #travel #traveltips #travelblog

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