I was reading a blog post from the World Nomads about their Galapagos cruise and I was totally mesmerized by the pictures and experiences they had on the Galapagos Cruise Ship last April. While I was shivering my bum off in Boston, they were snapping the most beautiful pictures of iguanas, turtles, herons and other creatures on the beautiful Galapagos islands. The cool thing about Galapagos Cruises is that it’s really pretty much the only way to see the Island. It’s a sanctuary, so there are no resorts or hotels there. You can camp there if you’re like a researcher or something, and you’re held to very strict “leave no trace” standards, but the average traveler isn’t allowed to stay overnight, it’s just not an option. The islands are famous because that’s where Charles Darwin made his revelations about evolution. If I remember correctly, there were fish in a pond deep inside a cave and they had evolved to have no eyes or something because there’s nothing to see in that kind of darkness. It’s really quite amazing and there are life forms on the islands that don’t exist anywhere else on earth. It’s on my list of worldwide things I’d like to see, but I can’t imagine being able to go anytime soon. What about you, are you in the market for a cruise of the Galapagos Islands? What would you want to see? What time of year would you like to go?
Travel cents
Making holiday life more relaxing, it’s always a matter of reducing travel expenses. Luckily there are so many different ways to go about this. Here are some of my favorite ideas for making travel less expensive, for families, couples and single travelers:
Couchsurfing: Instead of booking a hotel or a hostel, look into couchsurfing. it’s a close-knit group of people who vouch for one another as they are able and leave detailed personal feedback on each other’s profile, so that you know who you’re dealing with. It’s a network of people who allow others to stay in their homes. Having a visitor from out of town is an adventure and visiting other people’s homes is a great way to immerse yourself in another environment and tour the city like a local.
The Internet: websites for travel (like the one I linked to above) provide travelers with the opportunity to search based on multiple criteria and plan vacations without having to commit to a certain date and time ahead of time, they have the ability to look at price schedules for several different dates and times and choose the one that fits your budget the best. SO the old paradigm of calling the airline directly or calling a travel agent is GONE. We never pay more than $300 for airfare and in the old days a flight could cost several hundred dollars or even more. Shopping online is just smarter.