I’ve been a tree-lover most of my life. The observation of, and communion with trees has added much pleasure to my existence. So when it became clear that a trip from my home in Seattle to the San Francisco Bay area was in the near future, I decided to drive and see some sights along the way. I planned to do a large portion of the drive on Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. The number one place to visit was anywhere I could see a forest of ancient redwood trees. They grow in more than a few locations, mostly in California; so I needed to do some research. I very quickly focused on The Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, just south of the Oregon border. That is where these photographs of the redwoods and the Smith River were taken. The park has many trails through the mighty trees, and campsites, too. One could spend days enjoying the incredible beauty of just this one forest.

Most of these pictures were taken in one particular grove of trees, the Stout Memorial Grove which covers 44 acres of pristine forest. In 1929, Clara W. Stout, widow of lumberman Frank D. Stout, donated this tract of old-growth redwood forest to the Save the Redwoods League. She did this in memory of her late husband. Stout Grove then became the first dedicated grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It is considered by many to be the heart of this California state park. The grove is accessed by driving east on Highway 199 from Crescent City, CA and turning right onto the South Fork Road east of Gasquet. This turns into the unpaved, one-lane Howland Road. You take this adventurous drive for about five miles to the parking area. The potholes lining the route and the narrowness of the road force the sensible driver to not exceed 5 or 10 mph. Even at that speed, I was concerned about breaking an axle; but to my relief, made it successfully to the parking area, and then back to the highway on our departure. I had the time and energy for one full day to experience the majesty of the redwood trees; and the visit to Stout Grove and the Smith River was a day well-spent.

Enjoy the slideshow.

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Photographs by Dennis Cox, text by Clark Norton

At a time when travel has come to a complete standstill, award-winning photographer Dennis Cox releases the perfect antidote for cruise-starved readers – a luscious, photography-laden look at all aspects of the worldwide cruise phenomena that defined the last decades. This retrospective of river, canal, sea, and ocean cruising – from small boat to large ship – presents the colorful history of our fascination with vacationing on the water. Whether you see this as a eulogy to the cruise industry or as a temporary diversion until you can again walk the decks of your favorite ships, “Cruising the World – From Gondolas to Megaships” is just what the (travel) doctor ordered.

For years I wrote the port excursion tours for one of the largest resellers of cruises, so I know the tourist attractions in and around most port cities. I also know how many people can descend those gangplanks in each port. Often it was many times the number of people the infrastructure was designed to service. That leads to a conflict between residents and tourists that major destinations like Venice and Barcelona have been waging for years.

Combine that with the norovirus contagions of previous years and the current COVID-19 shipboard spread that had passengers and crew quarantined on board for weeks and months at a time, and you have a genuine fear of cruising building in the tourism sector. What’s a cruise industry to do?

Cruising is a $45 billion industry that helps support local economies. When COVID-19 locked down the cruise industry, popular destinations that depended heavily on visitor spending, sales taxes, and port fees, struggled to survive. The same destinations that once decried the thousands of day-trippers ruining their quality of life realized that it was the tourists bringing the money that helped to keep their local economy alive.

Citing stepped-up cleaning and sterilizing procedures in place, with self-service buffets and snacks closed, cruise lines have to hope tourists will return. But if one miss-step leaves tourists trapped onboard, dying in their floating petri dish, the cruise industry as we know it will likely sink.

With a few cruise lines now planning to restart itineraries in July, 2020, and others no later than 2021, local governments, businesses catering to tourism, even street vendors, have to wonder if the newly clean, uncongested, and quiet streets (and in the case of Venice – canals) they enjoyed when the tourists stayed home are worth giving up for the revenues generated. Perhaps a new balance – one that juggles a trashed destination’s engorged coffers with a citizen’s right to peacefully exist in their neighborhoods – could be realized.

This book “Cruising the World – From Gondolas to Megaships” doesn’t address that dilemma directly, but it does, just by its very existence, offer a pleasant alternative to cruising. That in itself can be a partial solution. It can also be the fix needed by committed cruisers that can’t wait until next year for the full menu of cruise options beautifully illustrated on these 208 glossy pages. So this book is perfect for those who wish to travel vicariously, those who wish to explore all the cruise options available to them, and those just jonesing for their next cruise.

From Dennis Cox’s preface: “A cruise can last for minutes or months. It can be shared with thousands of other people or with just a few. It can be luxurious or bare bones. It can carry you to sunny beaches or to great cities, tiny villages, and exotic landscapes. The choice is yours.”

Whatever your choice, as soon as you see “Cruising the World – From Gondolas to Megaships” you’ll want to pick it up and lose yourself in the splashy, colorful, and exotic cruise options and destinations.

This book has it all! Full and half-page color photos of everything from mega-ships with all the amenities for thousands of people, to duck boats and gondolas – along with descriptions of the places they’ll take you – fill these pages, wrapped by coherent and entertainingly descriptive text from award-winning cruise writer Clark Norton.

“Since 1970, the cruise industry has swelled from more than half a million passengers a year to more than 30 million annually – triple the growth rate of world tourism as a whole.” according to Clark Norton in the induction. “And to meet the demand, ships have gotten progressively bigger. Eleven cruise lines feature ships that can carry at least 2,200 passengers . . . and the five largest ocean-going vessels can now accommodate nearly 7000 passengers, resembling virtual floating resorts on the sea.” He goes on to compare them to the many luxurious small ships that can dock at lesser-known ports, even plying the scenic rivers and lakes of the world.

After his captivating introduction and a few dozen pages of historic overview, the book is arranged by region. It can be read cover-to-cover, or dipped into at random, always promising an engaging look at the industry and destinations you enjoy. If your interest is in a specific region, or type of cruise, the table of contents pinpoints it for your immediate pleasure. You don’t have to slog through Southeast Asia cruises if your interest is European River cruises – and vice versa. Just let your fingers do the walking to exactly what you are looking for. But don’t be surprised when the next eye-popping picture pulls you into a whole new section of the book – one you may find yourself enjoying even more!

Cruising the World – From Gondolas to Megaships: ISBN 978-0-578-45960-8 – 208 page, 9.5” x 12” full-color hardcover coffee table book features 535 photos depicting 37 varieties of cruise vessels representing 77 countries on all seven continents. $40 – can be ordered here: Photo Explorer Productions

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5 Smartphone Photography Tips from Thanda Safari

Christian Sperka Resident Wildlife Photographer and Field Guide at South African safari destination says you can travel light and photograph like a heavyweight.

There’s a wildlife photographer inside of each of us – all it takes is a smartphone and good technique to bring out the talent. Christian Sperka, the Resident Wildlife Photographer and Field Guide at Thanda Safari in the heart of Zululand, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, has 5 tips to share for capturing striking imagery while traveling light on safari.

• Private Game Reserve vs. National Park?  Stay on a Private Game Reserve – Destinations such as Thanda Safari are great for smartphone photography, as travelers can usually get much closer to wildlife than at a national park. Professional and experienced guides knows exactly how close they can get to animals – safely – for you to snap a good picture. Get as close to eye-level with your picture subject, and you will create some great shots.
• Smartphones are Excellent for Macro-Shots – Everyone wants to bag an image of a lion, but some of the best shots will come from something smaller scale. Anything from plants to small creatures can be captured very well with a smartphone. Just be sure to check with your guide to be sure it’s safe to get close.
• Clip-On Tele-Focus Lenses are Available for Very Little Cost – Speaking of lions and the like, having a tele-focus lens for your smartphone will make it possible to get good shots of faraway targets. Binoculars can also serve the same purpose – just be sure there is a small distance between the camera lens and the binoculars’ ocular, and focus first with the binoculars before using your smartphone camera.

“90 percent of the people in a safari vehicle have a camera, and for 70 percent that camera is a smart phone. The smartphone-crowd is a very important part of safari today.” 
                                                                        — Christian Sperka, Resident Wildlife Photographer & Teacher

• Smartphones are Great in Difficult Light Situtions – Sunsets, sunrises and interesting cloud formations over beautiful scenery are often easier to capture with a smartphone than with a regular camera. Combined with a good ‘enhancement app’ – such as the excellent Camera+ for iPhones – can yield amazing pictures.
• Smartphones are Very Good for Wide-Angle Pictures – Focus on beautiful scenery with wildlife and you will create great memories. Zooming in on pictures (a.k.a, ‘pinching’) should be avoided as most smartphones only provide digital zoom (equivalent to picture cropping). Better to take the picture ‘un-zoomed’ and crop it later. Some very advanced smartphones – including iPhone 7+, 8+ and X – have a second tele-focus lens, which provides optical zoom capability.

Bearded and fun, Sperka has traveled the world photographing animals in wild game reserves in South Africa, Namibia, Costa Rica and Yellowstone National Park, as well as in zoos across Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in wildlife magazines, zoo publications and books, including Thanda Cats (2014), his tribute to the felines that make the wilds around Thanda Safari their home.

Guided by his motto, “keep it simple,’ Sperka offers a wide range of instructional programs to guests of Thanda Safari including a complimentary 30-minute Smartphone Photography Lesson for those staying two nights or longer (subject to availability). All sessions should be booked well in advance.

For a fee, guests can book private game drives in Sperka’s Green Mamba — outfitted with special photography seats and arms to rest cameras on, plenty of legroom, and even a full martini bar and Nespresso machine — to test their newfound skills in the wild under his watchful eye. Or if you’d rather enjoy the game drives and have someone else document them for you, Sperka can shoot the experience on guests’ behalf — from capturing stunning shots of each animal encounter to snapping beautiful images of the guests taking it all in.

For more information or to reserve travel at Thanda Safari, please contact
T: +27 (0) 27 32 586 0149;  E:

re**********@th****.za











; or visit www.thandasafari.co.za.

Changi Airport Singapore is Voted the World’s Best Airport for the 6th Consecutive Year at the 2018 World Airport Awards

Singapore Changi Airport has been named as the World’s Best Airport by air travelers for the sixth consecutive  year at the 2018 Skytrax World Airport Awards, held at Passenger Terminal EXPO in Stockholm, Sweden.

Best Airports by Passenger numbers

A-Z of 2018 Award Winners

A New Hotel on Skis Is Launched in Finland, Perfect for Watching the Northern Lights in Bed

Northern Finland is the site of a new hotel experience where a well-appointed glamping cabin is towed into a remote wilderness location, deep in the Arctic Circle. The cabin is one of three rooms that are then moved to an optimal spot for lying back to experience the Northern lights from the comfort of your bed.

The new mobile rooms set on skis include a clear Aurora viewing roof and are located six kilometers east of Kilpisjärvi, Finland. Creating the Aurora Wilderness camp, the three rooms are available to book through Off the Map Travel until mid-April 2018. After the end of the season, the Aurora Wilderness Camp will reopen in January 2019.

Those staying in the new wilderness rooms will enjoy a cozy cabin which measures 2.5m wide, 4.5m long and 2m tall, and includes a comfortable, wide bed to lie back and take in the night sky; a table; dry toilet; a gas heater with thermostat; and gas stove to ensure a warm and peaceful night.

Guests will also have exclusive use of the cabin’s snowshoes and kicksleds, offering the chance to explore the local area during the stay.

“The wilderness surrounding Kilpisjärvi is known for its remote and uninterrupted Arctic tundra,” notes Jonny Cooper, founder of Off the Map Travel and Arctic travel expert. “Away from any manmade light pollution, it is here that that the wilderness camp is placed for the winter, giving guests the best possible opportunity to experience the Northern Lights and simply enjoy the silence of the Arctic plains.” The camp is located 6km east of Kilpisjärvi.

The new cabins provide a combination of adventure and comfort. They allow those looking to completely escape from the modern world to be with nature as they hunt for the Northern Lights from their bed. With three mobile rooms available to book, each comfortably sleeping two people, the new cabins combine to create the Aurora Wilderness Camp situated optimally for Northern Lights hunting. Once the winter ice has thawed, the rooms (on skis) will then be relocated to a new home for the following season.

The experience starts at 6pm where an experienced guide transports guests by snowmobile to their room before teaching them how to make a campfire and grill some local sausages. After the wilderness grill, guests will have the camp to themselves to hunt for the Northern Lights and enjoy the peace of the Arctic wilderness. To fuel guests’ Northern Lights hunting, local snacks and hot drinks are provided, with a warming breakfast also included in the overnight experience.

Statistically, the Kilpisjärvi area has more clear night skies and records more Northern Lights activity than any other place in Finland. Experts have estimated that if the sky is clear, visitors have more than a 70 percent chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

As with any itinerary from Off the Map Travel, every itinerary can be tailor-made to fit the wishes and requirements of any guest. As an example, a 3-night, 4-day itinerary costs from £1599 per person based on two adults sharing on a full board basis. This includes private transfers to and from the Airport in Tromso, accommodation for two nights in a cozy log chalet and for one night in the new Aurora Wilderness Camp including all meals. Other activities are available on request. Flights are additional.

For more information on tailor-made travel itineraries visit Off the Map Travel; call +44 (0) 800 566 8901; email

in**@of*******.travel











.

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