https://www.visittobago.gov.tt Archives - Page 3 of 4

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Flying, Food & Wine, UK

Nailed it in the Caribbean

5th November 20205th November 2020 funtime65

For all those poor souls going into lockdown in England today I too nailed it and spent yesterday getting my nails done.

Ot more accurately got my nails off.

After tripping when I was pressing down on the shopping trolley and then have it collapse on me.

Solo activity: Cocktails in Barbados

As is the way of such accidents (and there have been many) I was reminded constantly through the day of my plight.

Nail-biter

Not just by the tingling and throbbing in the tips of my middle and ring finger but also by how often fingers and fingernails come up in conversation.

From the This Morning presenter showing off her nails to Democrats and Republicans biting their nails about the Presidential race.

With my friend Cheryl from Barbados

To the Great British Bake Off making finger doughnuts to Family Fortunes and picking noses.

But sometimes it’s better not to fight it and rather just accept that long nails are best on women.

Crystal clear

Such as the legendary Crystal from Barbados.

Who I got to pose up with her fancy talons which she’d got done for Crop Over on my first visit to Barbados.

I’ve been back as you know and also partied with them in Dublin and now on Zoom meetings.

Alas, I couldn’t join them when they invited out a party of Friends of Barbados. I was out in Bergamo at the time.

Happy though to report that my friends at British Airways have joined Virgin Atlantic in flying out to Barbados.

And when you do you you can be sure you won’t lose out any on your experience because of Covid.

Anguillan bubble

We’re out of carnival season so maybe it’s time to stay on site anyway… at Club Barbados they’ve got the three Rs you’ll need for a fantastic holiday.

Rum, relaxation and Ruby the cookery teacher.

While I honed up on those skills in Tobago with ‘Uncle’ Kenneth.

On Anguilla, where they’ve not had a Covid case for months, they even got to hold their carnival this year back in August.

And the Anguillans have a Covid bubble thing going where you can do all the things you would do anyway…boat trips, snorkelling, golf.

And, of course rum on the beach. Irie!

America, Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Ireland, Music, UK

Rainy Days and Songdays – Holly Dolly Christmas

12th October 202012th October 2020 funtime65

So how many days out can you release a Christmas album? 84 if you dress up like a Christmas Tree like Dolly Parton.

Dolly has been trailing her Christmas album which she released at the start of the month.

While her god-daughter Miley Cyrus who herself has a new album to promote at the moment followed her onto the Graham Norton Show in the UK.

I know all about Christmas in Dolly’s neck of the woods, Tennessee.

Of course the best place for all things Dolly is Dollywood.

I visited there, Tennessee, though Dollywood itself is a pleasure I’ve yet to savour, and Mississippi.

And my party was treated to a Christmas song recital in an antebellum houses in the Deep South.

There’s some of the old standards on the Dolly album like Holly Jolly Christmas, All I Want For Christmas Is You and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.

But there are more Dolly originals.

There are others who are getting their Christmas requests in early…

It’s usually all about the bass with Meghan but but this proud daughter of my beloved Massachusetts is all about the gifts in October,

She has a new album A Very Trainor Christmas.

The Dolly that we know and love has always been adorably irreverent.

Although not as saucy as Tobagonian Soca Parang music.

We’ll bring you more about the culture and traditions of Parang as Christmas comes closer.

But for now I’ll leave you with something that will definitely lift your spirits, a hot new 2020 Soca Parang Mix.

America, Caribbean, Countries, Cruising, Culture, Deals, Ireland

Holiday Snaps… why we don’t want 24/7 sunshine

25th August 202025th August 2020 funtime65

Yes, you read that right, as 24/7 sunshine like we had been getting in the UK means the world is dying that little bit quicker.

While strewth, at the other end of the world, our Australian cousins have been shivering.

And that includes their kangaroos… and snowllabies.

No, best keep the hot places where they’ve always been and the cold ones too.

Imagine Barbados, Tobago and the Caribbean and its people without their sunny disposition.

Thankfully we don’t have to…

Woooah, we’re going to Barbados

With Sandals offering seven nights from £2375pp with travel dates May 1-June 30 at the Sandals Royal Barbados.

You’ll be staying in a south sea crystal lagoon club level Barbados suite with Balcony Tranquility Soaking Tub. With flights from Virgin Atlantic,

And I know a thing or two about Tranquillity Soaking Tubs.

A welcome from the Nations

And I’m channeling the good guys

We’re on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the First Thanksgiving Dinner in Plymouth, New England next year.

When the Pilgrims and the Natives shared harvest.

And that alas, if it happened like that at all, is when the sharing stopped and the newcomers took their land and sent them packing.

The pipes of peace

Which is probably where the Choctaw Indians and the Irish were sent to Hell or Connaught by the same British forged their links.

The Choctaw sent money to the starving Irish during the Famine and the Irish reciprocated during these COVID times.

And that’s the subject that remains hanging in the air from the last AIATA webinar.

I’ll return to it and my Native American friends whom I first met in Washington DC and then again in Denver and LA

Wigwam Jim

When I’ll get me the American Travel fair that COVID robbed me of in Vegas.

AIANTA’s will come from Albuquerque next month and will reach us all virtually with the organisers waiving the registration fees.

I’ll be there to bring you all the news.

And it’s gentle cruising

The sea oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide. Long may it stay between England and me. It’s a sure guarantee that some day we’ll be free. Oh thank God we’re surrounded by nothing. – The Dubliners

And for the uninitiated those strange Irish words mean ‘sweet love of my heart’.

The song is a celebration of Irish waters.

Including my favourite Meeting of the Waters in my erstwhile County Wicklow home which was immortalised by poet Thomas Moore.

My old friends at Travel Department are used to taking us to exotic places near and far.

And now in Ireland too.

Galway, Connemara and the Aran Islands is from €599pp for three nights including 3* B&B hotel, transfers, excursions and local guide.

Depart October. Ring (00353) 1 637 1600.

MEET YOU ON THE WATER (AND LAND)

America, Countries, Deals, Music

Rainy Days and Songdays – the real Hotel California

10th August 202010th August 2020 funtime65

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave

If only! Whether it is the steel pan band at Sunday Service on Tobago or the soft rock house band on the Maldives.

It’s how we would want every holiday to end… not ending that is.

The epic Hotel California by the Eagles with its riff which was voted the greatest of all time by Guitarist magazine has spawned an industry in itself.

Around what the lyrics actually mean, where the hotel is that inspires the song, and the hotel that was used for the cover.

The band credit the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel, the hang-out for party people, as being the vibe for the song.

Celeb hangout

Visit nearby West Hollywood where the celebs go these days and you’ll be on Beverly Hills‘ doorstep.

Turn left out of your WH billet, the Kimpton La Peer Hotel, and you’ll be going in the general direction.

You’ll know you”re in Beverly Hills when you pass the arty sign.

The Beverly Hills Hotel, which predated the town’s existence, was the place to be under vice-president of Bank of America Hernando Courtright.

Galaxy of stars

And Fred Astaire, Cesar Romero, Carole Lombard, the Rat Pack, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich were all regular visitors.

Amazon Marlene even got the Polo Lounge to change its policy on women having to wear a skirt.

I picture Marlene wearing a trouser suit and dominating the room in her husky cigarette drawl.

A day in the life

I’m taken here by CNN’s description of life in the hotel…

Back in the days when celebrity was worn with the elegance and grace of diamonds and mink the Beverly Hills was where the stars played. Humphrey Bogart and the Rat Pack tippled at the bar, Katharine Hepburn did a back flip into the tennis pool in her tennis clothes and Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned in the bungalows out back – six times.

I belong here!

The biggest star of them all

And perhaps the greatest star of them all, Marilyn Monroe, left her mark, staying at the hotel during the shooting of Let’s Make Love.

Marilyn’s back yard

Her favourite bungalow being No.7.

You’ll be surprised though where and who Marilyn is spending eternity with!

Listen here to The Eagles’ definitive version of Hotel California.

And get out your guitar and practise the riff.

And live like a star

Your Ultimate Staycation Offer at the Beverly Hills Hotel will give you a Superior King Room from €575, or the Stanhope Suite from €860.

When they’re back and open.

I might have to bring my own tennis clothes though!

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe, Flying, UK

Holiday Snaps – We’ll all be safer in Tobago

28th July 202028th July 2020 funtime65

Life was so much simpler and safer in Tobago in December when I was standing in the Nylon Pool… and it is again.

After the Tobagonian island was granted a ‘Safe Travels’ stamp by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Which means it is a standard-bearer for health and hygiene.

In fact judging by my own experiences out there you’re more likely to have your goat run away from you or fall out of your hammock.

Give me a call next time Boris

Everything in the garden is rosy

I could give you five minutes if you didn’t waffle and got to the point… Boris Johnson should make a special case for the Canaries and Balearic Islands.

So when will our politicians start following the best practices of our neighbours over localising quarantines?

The Canary Islands have had just 2,483 COVID-19 cases over the pandemic, while the Balearics have recorded just 2,290.

And have been proportionately below UK rates.

I just hope the rest of the world don’t think we’re all of us Europhobes in the UK.

And where else?

And hard on their heels France, Germany, Greece were flagged up by scaremonger broadcasters.

A daily increase of 931 in France, 305 in Germany and 31 in Greece have spooked our communicators of information.

The two European superpowers are mainly mainland but Corsica is proudly independent if not politically so.

While France owes the Med island for giving them their biggest hero Napoleon.

There’s an island over there

There are a plethora of small islands too and St Patrick and the Cistercians had the right idea setting up a monastery in Saint Honorat, off Cannes.

And a scattering too of German islands in the Baltic too which you can spot in your Fjords cruise from Kiel. Oh,, they’re off to.

And Greece. Well, this is the best argument of all.

Six thousand islands. And while Greece has been ahead of the curve our politicians would surely be only too quick to shut tem down too.

And who would visit my honeymoon island Corfuhttp://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/ionian_islands/corfu and my getaway island Kythera.

Stars of Ireland

Ireland has a galaxy of stars and in the 13 years I was there one shone brighter than any!!

But it also has beautiful uncluttered and unpolluted skies where the night sky lights up.

The Mountgreve Gardens in County Waterford is one such place. And they are hosting their first Star Gazing night in their 70 acres site on August 15.

Why then? Well why not?

But also because that’s the date of the most spectacular meteor shower of the year, the Perseid Meteor Showers.

Tickets are €12. The Harvest Shop will provide hot drinks and snacks.

The evening runs from 8.30pm-11.30pm and is for over 12s. Pre-book.

Asia, Caribbean, Countries, Europe

My beardie cut around the world

22nd July 202022nd July 2020 funtime65

By order of the management and because barbers reopen today I’m off to get my beardie cut.

And I’m lucky enough that my new hometown of North Berwick, south of Edinburgh, has a Turkish barber.

Because the Turkish barber experience is the pampering I never got.

When I was a kid when it was always a short back and sides.

While nowadays you can get a Turkish haircut and shave.

In every major town or city back in the day you needed to go to Turkey https://www.bodrum.org/.

Bodrum barber

For me it was that favourite hotspot of Bodrum where I got preened and pruned, lacquered and layered.

And got the hairs on my nose and ears burned off with a lighter.

It was natural then that when I visited Marrakech https://visitmarrakech.com/en/

And https://www.visitmorocco.com/en and was given some free time that I went for a Turkish shave.

Only the ‘friendly’ Moroccan proved to be a ‘false guide’.

Morocco rocky road

Who took me around the squares and souks of the Pink City before we got to a mall.

Where he placed me in his friend’s barber’s chair.

I asked how much it would be and when he quoted me a high price I proceeded to leave only to be pinned back in the chair.

I did manage to manoeuvre myself off the seat and meandered.

Around the mall, all the time trying to ignore the hawkers and barterers.

After a suitable time in which I had hoped I would have lost him I found the front door.

Where he was, shouting ‘F*****g thief, you pay me, I am your guide.’

I ran out onto the streets only for the heavens to open.

Colour me

It was only the beginning of my Moroccan adventures which I will tell you more about anon.

The answer, of course, is to grow out a beard which I started to do on my Camino www.CaminoWays.com and A pilgrim’s prayer.

And coloured at more than one party around the world.

And from natural plants, as in Tobago where I also got my bouffon cut down.

To a more comfortable crew cut for Caribbean heat www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.com/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/.

Now it’s hard to wash that out because you then return to the humdrum of normal life.

Daddy’s Little Girl

Nowadays I have Daddy’s Little Girl to colour my whiskers.

Although I watch to see if she’s got any scissors to hand.

She’s under orders from the management.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe, Food & Wine, UK, Uncategorized

Hungry and Thursday – pre-drinks and limin’

2nd July 20202nd July 2020 funtime65

A teleprinter runs above your head in the Bridgetown, Barbados bus station carrying the news of the day.

We read that there has been a violent crime in the capital…

Hundreds of thousands are expected at the Grand Kadooment closing ceremony for the Crop Over carnival…

And the best places for limin’ are…

This is pre-drinking Caribbean style.

Way of life

Pre-drinking is one of the great modern inventions.

We know all about that from excitable teenagers and Twentysomethings around the house.

But while pre-drinking is something for the weekend for the young of Ireland and Britain limin’ is a way of life for everyone in the West Indies.

All of which brings us to British and Irish visitors being welcomed back now with famously open Bajan arms through Grantley Adams this month.

With flights from Gatwick on board Virgin Atlantic https://www.virginatlantic.com (July 18).

And Heathrow with British Airways https://www.britishairways.com and Jet Blue https://www.jetblue.com (July 25).

Crop Over next year

Crop Over https://barbados.org/cropover.htm#.Xv2Vp-R4WEc which runs from June through the first week of August is off this year but will return in ’21.

But no Crop Over 2020 won’t stop our Bajan pals from doing what they do… limin’ and dancing which is really just our craic.

It’s just that they’ve got the sun and the Soca.

And a welcome drink of rum punch on your arrival at Turtle Beach, Sandals or Club Barbados…

While Tropical Sky are your go-to holiday providers https://www.eleganthotels.com/turtle-beach?utm_source=local&utm_campaign=gmb&utm_medium=organic, https://www.sandals.co.uk/sandals-barbados/, https://www.theclubbarbados.com

And also check out Let’s rumba in Barbados and My kiss with Rihanna.

Of course hospitality is in the Caribbean gene and you’ll find just as big a welcome on Tobago.

Acting the goat

And I can’t say I’ve seen anything in the guidelines about social distancing with goats…

And I trust my kidder Bandanaman won’t have been putting his hooves up in lockdown.

See https://www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/.

America, Asia, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, UK

Meditate on the world

26th June 202025th June 2020 funtime65

There are some people whose company just sends you to sleep… and then there are the professionals like my pal SLM who put you into dreamland.

Travel and Yoga Nidra professional Sarah Lloyd-Morrison is one of those precious gems you discover on your life’s journey.

You know the type: chilled, funny and unstintingly patient.

And I’m glad to say that she’s not blocked me since we returned from Tobago www.tobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/.

Or at least this is what she told me to write when she had me under…. in her meditation class.

Tobago beyond: With SLM and pals in Tobsgo

And it’s just what I needed in lockdown and it’ll help me from killing my family.

Although there’s no guarantee that they’ll not kill me first if I say I’m meditating when there are chores to be done.

Of course now I can self-meditate I’m going to seek out a zen break.

Here are five of the best.

Rockies of ages

Shambhalah Mountain Center, Red Feather Lakes, Colorado: America’s hipster state where Brad and Dexter are so chilled.

Because of the Great Outdoors, the freestyle rock-climbing, white-water rafting, horseriding and maybe too the substances.

Where better then to zen out than Red Feather Lakes, 50 miles north-west of Fort Collins?

They’ve a variety of programmes from ‘Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction’ to ‘The Path of Simply Being’.

And they also have nature-based programmes with astronomy.

Stay a month, week or weekend in a tent or lodge suite. Visit https://www.shambhalamountain.org www.colorado.comand The New Frontiersmen.

Portyogal

Shamballah, Sintra, Portugal: I’m reminded here of the friendly Wolverhampton masochist who had me contorted during yoga in the Algarve www.quintadolago.com, www.visitportugal.com and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/28/sportugal-2/amp/.

Shamballah puts on a Yoga and Meditation Retreat.

And you know that Portugal is throwing its doors open again.

Before all this kicked off they were quoting three nights single room €350 per person. See https://www.shamballahretreats.com/retreats.

O Lotus Flower of Scotland

Kagyu Samye Ling. Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland: And this is the first Buddhist retreat in the west of Scotland.

They have all manner of accommodations including retreat rooms, camping and camper vans.

And five golden rules including: no killing, no stealing, no lying, no drink or drugs and no sexual impropriety.

You will, of course, be so zenned out you’ll love everybody because you’ll love yourself.

Or in the words of Choja Lama Yeshe Losal Rimpache: ‘Meditation means simple acceptance.’

See https://www.samyeling.org and www.visitscotland.com.

Ireland’s Garden County

Bobbio Centre, Co. Wicklow, Ireland: Now Irish sisters and brothers were a fixture of my upbringing.

My Dear Old Mum had a family of cousins who all went into the Holy Order.

And they would regularly turn up on our doorsteps in their long beards and shawls.

The Bobbio Centre in my beloved old stomping ground of Co. Wicklow is run by the Columbine Sisters.

They have 11 bedrooms and one en-suite single, special needs bedroom.

You have your meeting room and prayer room as you would expect and also a beehive which has created quite the buzz.

See https://www.columbansisters.org/bobbio-retreat-centre/ and www.visitwicklow.com..

Himalaya stayer

Vidya Niwas India Hotels, Himalayas: Hippies the world over will tell you that Dharamsala is where you need to go to find your inner zen.

And the Dalai Lama’s resident region in exile in India does have everything you need for meditation.

You can choose from the likes of The Rose Room, the Golok Princess Room, the Kotha Basant Room and the Sherpa Everest Room.

The views are gratis and the zen is guaranteed. See https://www.dalai-lama-dharma-dharamsala-miniguide.com/vidya-niwas.html

Where is your favourite zen retreat? Let me know and we’ll share.

And now we’re feeling all floaty here are some yoga guides… My Sporting Weekend International Yoga Day and Yoga-dabba-do – International Yoga Day.

And look out for my Meditation Diary with my Yogi Sarah Lloyd-Morrison in these pages.

MEET YOU IN NIRVANA

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Ireland

Rainy Days and Songdays – the Cucumba rap

22nd June 202021st June 2020 funtime65

Cucumbers are my kind of vegetables. They’re not in the league of mushrooms I grant you, but who is?

But they are easy to prepare… and if you want to go to a lot of bother you can even slice them before eating.

Which we’ve been doing for our new house guests Poo and Pee, our lockdown gifts to ourselves, our guinea pigs.

All of which prompted Daddy’s Little Girl to point me in the direction of this Jamaican rapper and his contribution to the panoply of music.

I give you Macka B and Cucumba https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dRGlon_ezvU.

I should by now already have visited Jamaica.

Life’s rollercoasters

Only I had double-booked by sending a colleague to Orlando to satisfy his rollercoaster addiction and who can blame him? See www.vistorlando.com and Aaawlando… Orlando, the rollercoaster capital, See off Voldemort, then for a beer at Moe’s and Why I love The Donald.

So Jamaica had to be put on hold while I did the TV column that week… something by the remarkably unfunny Amy Huberman I remember.

The good folk from Jamaica promised they would have me back… cannot wait https://www.visitjamaica.com.

Irie!

To add it to my Caribbean scrapbook http://www.visitbarbados.org, Let’s rumba in Barbados, My kiss with Rihanna and http://www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/

The last dance

Our friends in the Travel Trade have been showing remarkable resilience and bonhomie as they wrestle with the worst thing ever to have hit our industry.

And few more than our friends at Travel Biz http://travelbiz.ie who have been putting on a Friday night Zoom disco over the last couple of months.

It was bittersweet then to take to the dance floor (my study) on Friday for the last time.

But it does mean that TravelBiz and all our other Trade professionals and holiday providers who are the most important people of all are ready for the off.

Here’s a little more of the fun.

MEET YOU ON THE DANCE FLOOR

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Sport

My Sporting Weekend International Yoga Day

20th June 202020th June 2020 funtime65

There’s no point trying to duck out and watch the yoga from the thicket outside… Derek!!!

And, of course, the women in our company, and the men to be fair, in Tobago https://www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/. were never going to allow him to be a bystander.

Tomorrow is International Yoga Day snd I’ll be doing a downward dog in Scotland.

When I could, of course, have been aoammmming in India.

It’s the kind of surprise and challenge I miss from my time in the office.

When Incredible India called and invited me to send a member of staff to India for a few days…. only they needed a name by the next day.

And confirmation that they had an appropriate visa.

It would have been easier had I gone myself but big softie that I am I sent the ditziest, most entitled member of staff because she said she was a yoga nut.

A nut all right… she only threatened to report the PR I was dealing with to their superior while having me to sort out her mess.

And then dissing me further down the road.

All of which reminisces brings me around to what is being done around the world to tempt us for the future.

Yoga at altitude, Denver, Colorado: And where better to stretch your limbs than in the stunning backdrop of Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

We settled for watching down on high the early-morning exercisers while we did move our limbs later when OneRepublic entertained us.

Visit https://www.redrocksonline.com/yotr/, www.visitdenver.org, Go West and The New Frontiersmen.

Beach yoga, Huntington Beach, California: Zen out on the beach where Snoop Dogg plays sets.

And dogs go surfing.

Well it is the Californian life. See www.visitcalifornia.com, https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/03/holiday-snaps-surf-dog-huntington-beach/.

LA Rooftop Yoga, West Hollyeood, California: Try rooftop yoga in laid-back WH where one Sunday per month you can join in a class at the Andaz West Hollywood.

They’ll even throw in a complimentary Zico (I thought he was a footballer) coconut water drink.

While you’ll also get 20% off bottomless brunches at the Riot House restaurant on the first floor. See www.visitwesthollywood.com and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/19/my-weekend-with-marilyn-2/amp/.

Tobago: And we’re back to the eccentric Derek who as well as trying to spy on us doing yoga also wore a suit on the hottest day of the year to one of Tobago’s most secluded beaches.

They also love to roll out the coconut water in the Caribbean. Stretch out and get yourself over next year. https://www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/.

Quinto da Lago, Portugal: Have you ever noticed that yoga teachers are sweet assassins.

Ours in The Campus, Quinta do Lago on the Algarve couldn’t have been smilier as she got us to use muscles that hadn’t been exercised in tears.

See https://www.quintadolago.com/en/sports-wellness/the-campus/ and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/28/sportugal-2/amp/.

And I’ll be back tomorrow with some more yoga, this time from its spiritual home, Asia.

That’s unless I get a last-minute invitation to get out there myself. And guess what, I’m keeping it for myself this time.

Altogether now… aoam.

MEET YOU ON THE MAT