My Bucket List

My Personal Bucket List Destinations

Santorini Greece

This Greek Island in the southern Aegean Sea is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Black sand beaches surround the coastline while white-washed buildings sit perched atop the cliffs overlooking brilliant azure waters. Santorini is what remains following one of the earth’s deadliest volcanic eruptions, leaving a pristine, picturesque city filled with fabulous Greek food and wonderful people.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the oldest and largest living coral reef on the planet, with more than 400 different kinds. The dizzying variety of marine species include dolphins, tropical fish, rays, sea turtles, giant clams and much more. Diving here is truly an experience of a lifetime.

Big Sur, California

Along this rugged region of Central California’s coastline, the Santa Lucia Mountains plunge into the Pacific. Near Big Sur, the highway twists through seaside cliffs, featuring some of the most impressive scenery, including a waterfall that cascades to the sand below at Pfeiffer Beach State Park.

Rome

As one of the oldest and most beautiful cities on earth, here you can visit sites where Julius Caesar once stood, like the Colosseum. It was completed back in 80 A.D. and remains the largest amphitheater in the world nearly 2,000 years later. From the Colosseum to the Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel, every street houses an imperial Roman Ruin.

BORA BORA, French Polynesia

Turquoise lagoons, soft white sands, and deep tangerine sunsets set the scene for romance on the island so nice they named it twice. Mingle with tropical fish as you flutter around Coral Gardens or Tupitipiti Point, or relax in a self-driving tour as you take in beautiful views of the once-volcanic Mount Otemanu. At the Lagoonarium you can watch shark feedings and swim with turtles. Cap it all off with a succulent meal at one of the island’s fine French restaurants, then sip a tropical cocktail under the stars.

Bora Bora won’t be just a trip but a marvelous experience.

Bora Bora won’t be just a trip but a marvelous experience.

How Travelling Can Help You Fight Depression

Sadness and anxiety is something we all experience. It is an extremely normal reaction to difficult times in life and usually passes with a little time and effort.  But depression is more than just a low or bad mood; it’s a serious condition that affects your physical and mental health. Lets talk about how traveling can help you fight depression.

When a person has or is in depression, it interferes with daily life and regular functioning. It can cause pain for both the person with depression and those who care about him or her. Doctors call this condition “depressive disorder,” or “clinical depression.” This isn’t a sign of a person’s weakness emotionally or a character flaw that he or she may have developed. It is an illness, and must be treated so. You can’t “snap out of” clinical depression.

A multitude of factors can play a role in depression, including genetics, brain biology and chemistry, and life events such as trauma, loss of a loved one, a difficult relationship, an early childhood experience, or any stressful situation and many a times a few of these coupled together.

But that doesn’t mean there exists no hope, no remedy.

Traveling opens you up to situations and moments that require you to pay attention to what’s happening around you. Your brain is made to think in different ways and solve problems that you wouldn’t necessarily face in everyday life. The life you know might be despising. Not only that, but you also open up to encountering new friends and that will create a much lesser chance for emphasis on your emotions and distract you from dwelling too much on those dreary and unfulfilling thoughts.

Not only does traveling enrich your brain power, but it also strengthens your heart health. The Framingham Heart Study found that those who didn’t take a vacation for several years were more likely to suffer from heart attacks than those who traveled annually. This is one the ways how traveling can help you fight depression.

Even the act of planning and dreaming of your upcoming trip can work wonders for your happiness levels.

Traveling creates inspiration which can help alter our perceptions of ourselves and those around us. When you meet people who have made life choices based on what they want, not what society expects, this can help open up new ideas and beliefs and you can choose to think this way too. When you see people achieve, despite their roadblocks, it inspires you to believe. When traveling, you have the freedom to eat what you want, see what you want and do anything that you want to do, which sometimes depression doesn’t allow you to think about or attempt in everyday life.

Depression, even the most severe cases, can be treated. So please, do not lose all hope. There is a way out. There is always a way out. Do seek professional help. Talk to people about your problems. It remains a downward spiral till you don’t try looking upwards. While traveling by and itself will not fix all your problems, it remains as one of your best bets to find reasons to look upwards.

What Kind of Traveller Are You?

Travelers are basically of a diverse breed as different travelers approach the same destination in varied ways. For some, it can be the destination of self-discovery, while for others travelling to the same destination is like broadening their cultural horizons or culinary quest.

Regardless of the type of traveler you are, travelling to any new destination is a form of rejuvenation and re-inventing urban dwelling, jaded souls, perpetually stressed that we all are morphed into. Below is the quick rundown of different types of traveler categories that we all fall into.

1. The Photographers

2. The Tech-Savvy Travellers

3. The Holiday Makers

4. The Good Planners

5. Adventure Travellers

6.The Party Go-er

7. The Chill Out and Recharge Retreaters

8.Frequent Weekenders

9.Budget Conscious Travellers

10. The Typical Tourist

11. The Soul Searcher

12. The Guidebook Follower

13. The Resort Hopper

14. The RV Travellers

15. The City Slickers

16. The Groupies

Take the Traveler Quiz

What's Your Travel Personality

Where Should You Travel Next--Wine Lovers, Skiers, Treasure Hunters

Napa Valley, California

The region that put American wine on the map has a lot new going on. Forget mansion-size tasting rooms; there’s a crop of intimate places from small lot producers like Tom Garrett’s Dakota Shy and Favia Wines (from Screaming Eagle’s Andy Erick-son and his wife, Annie Favia). Casual dining is better than ever, with newcomers like Charter Oak, a shrine to open-fire cooking.

Park City, Utah

© Dan Campbell Photography

There are few ski areas in North America where a morning flight can have you floating on dry champagne powder by early afternoon. That accessibility has long made Park City a favorite winter playground. Auberge Resorts’ Lodge at Blue Sky, on a3,500-acre ranch, will bring the mountains even closer: A helicopter can pick you up at the airport and have you skiing on untouched terrain before check-in. The 46-suite lodge debuts in May, and it will have daylong “teaser” heli-ski packages, which include meals in a fire-warmed yurt. Once open, it will have signature Auberge service and warm and cold weather activities (for kids, too) and a range of lodgings. Our favorite: the 500-square-foot tents. Park City’s High West Distillery already has a tasting room and restaurant on-site, so you can toast your achievements.

Panama

The islands in the Gulf of Chiriquí, 20 miles off Panama’s Pacific coast, have always been a bit of a secret, sparsely inhabited for centuries, if at all. The difference now? Brand new, high-end lodges committed to preserving the area’s unspoiled environment. Isla Palenque (of the Cayuga Collection brand) opened last July with eight casitas and a beach front villa estate on 400 acres of protected jungle. Its organic garden dictates the restaurant’s menu, lunch is sustainably caught by fishermen in nearby Boca Chica,and the island’s seven beaches mean you never have to share a patch of sand. In January the sustainable luxury bar gets raised further still with the opening of Islas Secas Reserve & Lodge, on the archipelago’s Jurassic-esque Isla Cavada. The property sleeps just 18 in nine tucked-away wooden villas, and everything has been engineered to leave as small an environmental footprint as possible: Ocean breezes do the cooling, water is treated, the sun powers everything. Divers and snorkelers can explore a wonderland of some 750 species of fish in the surrounding sea, and there are private marine safaris and deserted island excursions—with picnics—at their beck and call.

Top Gay-Friendly Destinations in Caribbean and USA

TOP GAY FRIENDLY DESTINATIONS

Here are the top 5 gay-friendly Caribbean destinations to check out this year.

#1: Key West, Florida

This jazzy margarita-ville island is only a short 3 hour drive from downtown Miami and is a great place to be 'out' and about. There are loads of gay-friendly bed and breakfasts and bungalows to stay at. You will notice little rainbow stickers on shops, tour company windows and hotels that represent a gay-friendly abode and staff.

#2: St. Martin/St.Maarten

French St. Martin and the Dutch side of St. Maarten have been welcoming gay and lesbian guests for years and they have a fantastic reputation as a major gay-friendly hot spot for fun in the sun. There are numerous secluded beaches and private villas where straight and gay couples blend together.

#3:Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Many tourist areas in Mexico are quite gay-friendly such as parts of Cancun and along the coast. Puerto Vallarta is open and carefree and it welcomes pretty much anyone, of any sexual orientation, race, age and so forth. There are numerous Caribbean beach escapes where you can stroll the beach freely, hand in hand, without worry about nasty comments from insecure others.

#4: Curacao

Curacao is publicly open about its 'welcome' to gay and lesbian travelers. The island offers a relaxing and adventurous escape, numerous gay-friendly hotels and attractions, as well as many gay-friendly nightclub venues. They embrace their mission to provide services for all guests when visiting the island.

#5: St. Barts

This beautiful island escape has been referred to as the most gay and lesbian friendly destination in the Caribbean. With a variety of colorful private villas, glorious smooth secluded beaches and turquoise-blue waters, this is no doubt the place to check out when seeking gay-friendly travel options.

                                                         TOP GAY DESTINATIONS IN USA

North America is perhaps the capital of the gay world. This is where you can find gay hotels, thriving gay neighborhoods, and in most large cities a fairly open minded population.

1. San Francisco, California

2. Toronto, Canada

3. Honolulu, Hawaii

4. Miami, Florida

5. Key West, Florida

6. New York City, New York

7. Boston, Massachusetts

8. Columbus, Ohio