With birding sites not difficult to access, thus lending itself well to day trips and tours which can also be combined with trips to our magical beaches.
Villa collection
Within Easy Reach: And you won’t want to leave
Timely then that our friends at Villa Collection are teasing us with their Easter villa offerings which they will share with you on their site.
Easy Reach on Mullins Beach is a three-bedroom, sleep six,. contemporary beachfront villa.
It is just a few feet from white sands, including the services of a cook who will prepare two consecutive meals per day.
While on Gibbes Beach Bonavista Barbados is a beautiful four-bedroom with a large covered terrace and dining room.
And a wet bar that is accessible from the pool gardens.
And it’s on the Platinum Coast between Holetown and Speightstown, where the it crowd (and us) love to go.
Dip your toe in: Banyan’s
So a gang of you can avail of it, with four bedrooms that sleeps eight.
While if you can get ten of you then the five-bedroom villa Banyan House in Queen’s Fort.
Nestled among mature trees complete with newly added fire pit with seating and soft lighting.
And that’s where rum expert Jack Widdowson (Founder of Old Road RumCompany) will teach rum theory and the history of rum production.
While there it’s worth considering too who might have come before you.
And the recently excavated distillery is found on the 18th-century sugar cane plantation owned by a direct ancestor of Thomas Jefferson.
And yes, you’ll be sipping Old Road Rum and learning the history.
While there will be a chance to see a preserved aqueduct, chimney, mill house, boiling house, and lime kiln and learn how to label their own rum bottle.
And little about this tranquil location betrays its links to an Oscar winning actor other than the framed painting of Joshua Cumberbatch, his seventh great-grandfather.
Thank you 2022, old friends and new so now let’s party in 2023.
As is tradition at this time of year it’s fun to look back on what we all did over the past 365 days.
Of course even the most travelled of us will spend most of our time at home.
And we’re blessed to live by the sea near one of the great cities, Edinburgh, which is why we have been fortunate to receive visitors from around the world.
Swish Swiss
Put them on a podium: With Fran and Myriam
Auld Reekie’s winds and bends have long captivated the most imaginative which is why it’s oft-used for film locations.
And that’s part of the fun of it all as even those who thought they knew Edinburgh’s streets found themself taking detours around building works.
Before alighting on the charming Ondine on George IV Bridge, in between St Giles’ Cathedral and the Camera Obscura.
Royal watchers, of course, would become acquainted with the historic Royal Mile and St Giles Cathedral.
With Queen Elizabeth taking up residence there in September (but more of that later).
We rounded off the afternoon warming ourselves with Scottish drink in the institution that is the Greyfriars Bobby pub which like Bobby we always come back to.
As we will Switzerland, and had, earlier in the year when we tarried as long as we could in Zurich airport and the Montreaux Jazz Cafe Geneva which does exactly what it says on the tin.
Ski and easy in Val D’Isere
Way to go Jo: In Val D’Isere
There was dancing in ski boots on the slopes of Val D’Isere too as skiing got back on the slopes after Covid.
It’s safe to say that I’m more comfortable at the apres than the ski as I raved at La Folie Douce.
And fell on the magic carpet up to the slopes.
With the help of my new amis I managed to stay upright on the mountains.
But it was now and beckoning me on from my Envoy Hotel window.
As was a return to my old haunt, the Irish Black Rose pub and Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.
And a trek on the tracks to other wonders of New England in arty Providence in Rhode Island and kooky Connecticut with its academia and culinary pizza and hamburger heritage.
More America
Don’t forget the Motor City: Detroit
I wasn’t finished with the Oo Es of Eh, and it hadn’t had it with me either, and while we weren’t dancing in the streets of Detroit we were singing its praises.
I have certain writing rules built up over years of scribbling about Travel, one of which is never to use the cliche ‘paradise’ but every rule has an exception and that applies to Grand Cayman and the paradise capers.
The story begins, as so many do on a foreign shore.
And a Travel fair, the American IPW, when an invitation came through to visit Grand Cayman.
Which, alas, I was unable to attend because there were still parts of America I had to explore.
Lie back and think… Of the Eastern Caribbean
Fortunately though I was in a position to share the love.
And I knew exactly the person who would do such a trip to the Eastern Caribbean justice, my fellow award-winner Melanie May.
And so I went about my travels and Melanie got her passport out and scribbling pad for the Caribbean.
Come what May
Tree-mendous: Fort Lauderdale
Of course she returned with a headful of ideas, pictures and honeyed phrases to do the island justice.
And all that was left for me to do was to design it into my award-winning Travel section.
And put an eye-catching headline on it… Grand Cayman the paradise capers.
And soon you’ll be lounging on Aruba‘s impeccable white-sand beaches.
Coral singing
Lapping it up: In Bonaire
And dive in the vibrant waters of Bonaire, full of pristine coral reefs.
Now, I’m sure you’re all naturals with the scuba-diving.
So you won’t make the mistake of the amateur who stands on and kills the reef in, say the Maldives.
You’ll visit Curacao too which, of course, my own Scary One has visited.
On her well-told voyage around the world from when she came back from Australia as a child.
She usually reminds me after I get the Blue Curacao out for our Saturday cocktails.
For those of you who like to tick off continents too.
Colombia is a picture
All the colours: Cartagena in Colombia
Then you’ll be pleased to know that you get time too in the cathedral city of Cartagena in Colombia.
And when you’re in the south Caribbean then the urge is to mark South America on your map.
As was the case when we visited Tobago on the doorstep of Venezuela.
Deal us in
If you’ve been saving, or if you can put it on the long finger then the 10-night cruise comes in at from €2,6999pp including flights from Dublin, drinks, wi-fi and tips.
And $400 on board spend per person.
Now go ahead book before December 5 for up ot 75% for a second guest and up to $800 onboard credit per stateroom.
And drink in the Eastern Caribbean and Grand Cayman and the paradise capers.
It’s been a cause for desolation rather than celebration that everybody’s favourite mini-chocolate is being cut from your Christmas box, and it’s prompted us to ask where is the Bounty island of the iconic advert?
And all with the payoff tagline A Taste of Paradise.
It was a natural location, of course, with coconuts aplenty all across the Caribbean.
Dom rule
Now you would be forgiven for thinking that the Dominican Republic on the east of the island of Hispaniola is a relatively recent tourist discovery.
With Boris and Carrie Johnson and their brood of little blondies the latest celebs to grace the island with their presence.
Following in the sandsteps of the Bill and Hillary Clintons of this world.
But the location managers looking for the taste of paradise plumped for Saona beach from all of the idyllic options throughout the Caribbean and the world.
Now we’ve been over BoJo’s Casa de Campo retreat in these pages over the Isla Saona.
Isla Saona
Room with a view: Dom Rep
So today we’re focusing on the Bounty Island, or Bounty Isla, or Isla Saona.
Saona Beach House tell us that they have cosy houses that offer the opportunity to enjoy virgin nature.
On an almost deserted island where you will have the chance to relax on beaches just for you.
So if you want the con vista la mar, that’s seaside view to you and me, but always better in Spanish then it’s from $79 a night.
And it’ll be pure peace apart, of course, for the beautiful people posing out front.
A coconut falling from a tree. And somebody out of shot singing Try A Little Tenderness.
