Holiday destinations in Europe

With a huge thanks to Kyla and Susan lets make a little tour around the North and Center Europe. From Iceland to Montenegro, passing through Norway, Sweden and Romania, several proposals for a bit more adventurous holidays.

Europe offers a wealth of holiday destinations with everything from cities and beaches to cultural and culinary delights. You don't need to settle for noisy beaches and teeming cities. There are lots of enchanting places for holidays and adventure away from the crowds.

Iceland - a perfect destination for family adventure holidays. See the Midnight Sun in summer and the Northern Lights in spring and autumn. Climb a glacier or snorkel in clear blue water all on the same day. Iceland caters for all ages and all fitness abilities. Go hiking over grassy plains and lava-strewn meadows, or swim in a naturally heated pool. Even small villages boast swimming pools warmed by Iceland's volcanic heat. The countryside here is a dream for horse riders. Small, sturdy Icelandic horses are perfect for beginners and children and they can pick up a fast gallop for confident adults.

Varmland and Dalarna - travel a little further south to the borders of Sweden and Norway. The forests, farmland and lakes of Varmland are the most beautiful parts of Sweden. You can hike through the forests and kayak along the rivers. Get the whole family pedaling a special trolley that rides along the Klaralvs Banan, a disused railway track with stunning views of the surrounding countryside.

Hikers and older children with a reasonable level of fitness will enjoy the Dalarna Mountains, lakes and valleys just to the north of Varmland. Dalarna means "The Dales" in Swedish. It's where Swedes love to celebrate the midsummer holiday in June. The region is also a haven for skiing enthusiasts. The Vasaloppet, a 90-kilometre cross-country ski marathon takes place here in March between two villages. Add some culture to your adventure holidays when you reach Mora and visit the museum dedicated to Anders Zorn, one of Sweden's most famous painters.

Transylvania - there's more to Transylvania, part of south and central Romania today, than Dracula's Castle. This part of the Carpathian Mountains has been ruled over through the centuries by Romans, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Ottomans. Saxon merchants founded the region's seven major historical cities and Brasov is one of these cities. Dracula's Castle is close by and history and suspense are part of the adventure here.

There are leisurely walking tours for children and mountain trekking and rock climbing for fitter adults. Local guides will take you through the ancient forest where wolves, bears and lynx can be seen. Follow the minor roads down the mountains through old Turkish, Tatar, Ukrainian and Romanian villages to the delta of the River Danube. May is the best time of year to see traditional festivals in the villages and the bird settlements around the Danube delta's floating islands.

Montenegro - drive down the coast road from the popular Croatian resort of Dubrovnik and head for Montenegro. The Bay of Kotor, the largest fjord in Europe and which is surrounded by the Orjen Mountains, lies just beyond the tiny coastal strip of Bosnia. Montenegro (its name means "Black Mountain") is a perfect choice for family holidays, as long as all members have a head for heights. This is a country of dizzying mountains and pristine ancient forests.

Visit the Tara River Canyon in the middle of the Durmitor Mountains. This is the world's biggest canyon after the United States' Grand Canyon. Water in the river comes from numerous mountain springs and pummels through the canyon in over 40 cascades. Europe's adventurous destinations are only a maximum of four hours flying time away. Enjoy the thrills without the jet lag.

The usual thanks to Wikimedia Commons for the nice photos and once again to Susan who regulary writes on European family adventure holidays for a range of tourism websites and blogs.

Halloween in Transylvania

Everyone wants to scare you on Halloween, I want to make you feel safe and secure. Here's a 76-Second Travel Show episode from two years ago that tells how.

World's 10 best driving roads in the world

After the top 10 beaches of the world here's another guest post and photos from David - It's driving time today :)



There are some roads in the world that stand out from the crowd. Whether it’s the views, the terrain, the danger or the potential speeds that can be reached that make these roads stand out, anyone choosing to visit them will not be disappointed. This list brought to you by Moneysupermarket discusses 10 of these amazing routes and explains what makes each of them so special.



Great Ocean Road – Australia



Running along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool, the Great Ocean Road is a 160 mile stretch of road that was built by more than 3000 returning soldiers between the years of 1919 and 1932 as a memorial for the 60,000 Australians killed in World War 1. A scenic drive with spectacular coastline vistas, stunning rock formations and many other splendid sights including the Otways rainforest, the impressive views make this road undoubtedly one of the most inspiring in the world.





Millau Viaduct – France



Opened in December 2004, the Millau Viaduct is the world’s tallest vehicular bridge. Designed by the French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster, the Millau Viaduct spans the river tarn which is near Millau in Southern France. The bridge’s tallest mast is 343m tall which is taller than the Eiffel Tower and nearly as tall as the Empire State Building and the views from the bridge are quite spectacular. In fact, the views are so good that when the bridge initially opened drivers would regularly stop on the hard shoulder to admire the landscape and the bridge itself.





Transfagarasan Road – Romania



The most popular road in Romania with driving enthusiasts has to be the Transfagarasan Road and it’s easy to see why. Connecting the historic towns of Transylvania and Wallachia, this dramatic route reaches as high as 2,034 metres above sea level in some places and provides drivers with a real challenge. This winding road is dotted with steep hairpin turns, long S-curves, and sharp descents which is a big reason why drivers rate this road so highly. Constructed between the years of 1970 and 1974, the 90km stretch of road also has more tunnels and viaducts than any other road in Romania with the longest tunnel being 884 metres long. Due to its layout and altitude, weather dictates that the road is usually only open between June and early October.





Stelvio Pass – Italy



Regularly voted as the best driving road in the world due to its 60 hairpin bends and the fact that it is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern-Alps, the Stelvio Pass in Italy is a driving enthusiast’s paradise. Reaching 2757 metres altitude, it is the second highest mountain pass in the Alps, only 13 metres lower than the highest mountain pass in the Alps. The road was built between 1820 and 1825 and has changed very little since then. The northern side of the pass is far more challenging with 48 of the hairpin bends located on this side. The steep ascents add to the excitement/terror as drivers often have little or no visibility of incoming vehicles.





Overseas Highway – America



The 127.5 mile Overseas Highway in America was built back in 1938 following the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 that heavily damaged and partially destroyed the Overseas Railroad that had previously been in place. The route which is mainly over water runs from island to island across 42 bridges and it arcs through the Florida Keys. If you drove the full route in one go it would take less than 4 hours but with so many great sights to take in like the ocean, mangrove vistas and fantastic sunrises and sunsets, the journey often takes visitors slightly longer!





Guoliang Tunnel Road – Japan



Located in the Taihang Mountains which are situated in the Henan Province of China, the Guoliang Tunnel Road was amazingly built by a group of villagers who raised money to buy the hammers and steel tools needed to build the tunnel. 13 villagers initially started the project which took around 5 years to complete and cost a number of villagers their lives. The tunnel itself was completed in 1977 and is 1.2km long, 5 metres tall and 4 metres wide. As you might imagine, the road is regarded as one of the most dangerous in the world but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Guoliang Tunnel road is a stunningly beautiful scenic route.





Hana Highway – Maui



Connecting the small town of Hana to the rest of Maui, the Hana Highway is a 60 mile stretch of road that is extremely popular with motorists. Firstly there are the waterfalls, beaches, ocean views, rainforest and other stunning natural sights that make this route so attractive to visitors. Then there is the road itself which has over 600 turns, 54 one-lane bridges, blind bends and narrow pavement edged by cliffs which make this route one of the most thrilling in the world. Together, these two things make this road stand out as one of the must visit routes for car enthusiasts.





Autobahn – Germany



If you were to look at the Autobahn you might struggle to see what all of the fuss is about. Just like highways around the world, Autobahns have multiple lanes of traffic heading in each direction which are divided by a central barrier. However, in many ways the Autobahns are the ultimate road for driving fans. The reason for this is that parts of the German Autobahns have no speed limit (except at junctions and various danger points) which means that motorists are free to drive as fast as they want. Obviously this is a hugely attractive proposition to motoring fans, meaning that the German Autobahn had to be included on this list.





North Yungas Road – Bolivia



High in the Andes Mountains in Bolivia is the North Yungas Road. The road is also known as Death Road and it’s easy to see why when you see the figures relating deaths and injuries sustained whilst travelling on the road each year. On average, there is a fatal accident on the road every few weeks and there are also remains of numerous cars, lorries and buses at the bottom of the abyss which serve as a reminder of just how dangerous the road is. Built in the 1930’s, the road stretches 43 miles between La Paz and Coroico and has huge ascents and descents, extremely tight hairpins and very narrow passages. What really makes the road dangerous though are the vertical drops off the side of the road which in some places are more than 1,500 metres and there are no guardrails to prevent vehicles falling. The North Yungas Road certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted but it’s also this danger that attracts so many people to the road.





The Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road – UAE



This amazing road is located in the Jebel Hafeet Mountain and spans 7.3 miles, climbing over 1,200 metres along the way. The perfect road surface and 60 corners make this road unquestionably one of the best driving roads in the world; its mix of fast straights and sweeping curves are what driving enthusiasts dream of. A 90 minute drive away from the city of Dubai, people flock to the Jebel Hafeet Mountain to experience the tight, technical and thrilling driving experience.

Highlights off Bucharest, Romania

With a big thank you to all of you who sent me your guest posts, I'm glad to inform that today, for the first time ever, all the posts on Vacation and Travel Photos front page are yours! For this last one about some of the highlights off Bucharest it's thank you Paul from I Love Romania Travel :)

Hello, my name is Paul and I write a blog about the country of Romania. This is my first time writing a guest post on a different blog, so please bear with me as I stumble through it. I am here to tell you about the beautiful city of Bucharest, Romania which was once inhabited the Dacian Empire, before being concurred by the Romans, and much later it was a temporary home to Vlad Tepes (the real Count Dracula).

The first mention of Bucharest in written documents date back to the year 1459, and you can see remnants of the city from that era being unearthed today by archeologist around Lipscani St, note the removed bricks from the road on the right, and construction curtains on the left in the picture below.

During the time Nicolae Ceausescu led the country, some historic buildings were replaced with communist government buildings. One of those buildings is the “Peoples House”, now called the “Parliament Palace”. The Parliament Palace measures 270 m by 240 m, 86 m high and 92 m below ground, it has 12 levels, and holds 8 titles in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Parliament Palace (photo below) is the second largest building in the world next to the Pentagon building in the United States, and if you travel in the opposite direction on the main road that leads to it, you will see Bucharest’s version of the Arc de Triomphe, which is found in Paris, France (in the early 1900’s Bucharest was know as the “Paris of the East”).

Bucharest is certainly worth visiting at any time of the year, it is home to 37 museums, 18 concert halls, and 22 theatres. You can also find many top rate restaurants, discos, and a nightlife that is equal to any large European city. The city has hosted concerts performed by music legends such as Madonna, and Sting in the past, and in June of this year, Bob Dylan will give a concert. Bucharest is also able to boast about having one of the lowest crime rates of any European capital city, and the lowest prices for hotel rooms compared to any European city of equal size. If large cities are not your cup of tea, it is a relatively short trip to the Carpathian Mountains, or Black Sea from Bucharest.

I hope that you enjoyed this post and I would like to include also a couple of pictures of other buildings you may wish to see in the city of Bucharest:

Above the Palatul Justitiei, in English the Palace of Justice who is next to the beautiful Dambovita River and bellow the Ateneul Roman, which is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international music festival.

"I hope you enjoyed this post"?! Paul, I loved it and I'm guessing I will not be alone in this opinion! I'm sure that thanks to you, Bucharest will surely be added on some traveler wishlists - mine is one them! ;)

76-Second Travel Show: "Halloween in Transylvania"

Episode #004

F E A T U R I N G * 3 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Transylvania is best known for a possibly bi-curious fanged creature who was concocted by a Irishman, Bram Stoker, who never visited the country. Some who visit have Dracula in mind, but it starts to dissipate around the time one sees the hokey Dracula souvenir stands outside Bran's "Dracula Castle" -- s0-called because the real-life, quite-moustached Vlad Tepes (after whom Dracula was based) may have come by for an overnighter and a steak sandwich. Or not.

The book took places in the valley northeast of Bistrita, far north. The campy (in a bad way) "Dracula Castle Hotel" built by enterprising communists in the '70s is far from the medieval flavor you'd expect. And the $1 trip to "Dracula's tomb" one-time so startled a Canadian tourist, he suffered a heart attack when a costumed Drac burst out of his coffin. It's not really worth the drive.

But TRANSYLVANIA is wonderful, weird and gorgeous, possibly the most bizarre and interesting part of Europe I've seen. With countless Saxon villages with churches and homestays to the south and the ethnic Hungarian heart of Szekely Land, including great destinations of Cluj Napoca and Targu Mures.

You can hike, ski, castle-hop you're way across the huge area between Bucharest and Hungary, but best -- if you don't mind the drivers -- is renting a car and hitting backroads, where you are the alien to most locals, who whip off mountains, over the road, and up another hill via horse cart.

Cars? Roads? Who needs them in Transylvania?

Three things I tell my friends to do in Transylvania:

1. Spend a couple nights at Mioritica, a homestay in Sibiel village west of Sibiu. It's run by a local teacher, who shares the drinks, invites clarinetists over and puts the beer in the chilly brook running by the few rooms. Email coldeasv [at] yahoo [dot] com.
   
2. Rent a car a couple days. Roads can be awful, but back roads to random Saxon villages, with churches and homestays, opens up the region's past.
3. It's fine to go to Bran Castle (the over-billed Dracula castle), but spooky castle at Hunedoara (an otherwise gray, communist town most miss) looks more the part.

This episode's footage includes a Roma (gypsy) horse fair outside Odorhieu Secuiesc, the Praid Salt Mine (I think -- maybe its the one in Turda?), the mountains of Apuseni Mountains west of Cluj, and a certain scientist from the Pharmacy Museum in Cluj. Some of it may seem a bit grim. That's on me and this Halloween theme. Transylvania is worth it.

Regretable Travel Brochures

HOW NOT TO MAKE TRAVEL BROCHURES
Romania is a wonderful country to visit -- I might call it Europe's most fascinating, considering its mountains, traditional life, and its horse carts rolling over highways and onto ancient paths as if the new age had never come. But there are somethings about it that is a bit unnerving.

• The drivers are crazy.
• The stray dogs of Bucharest.
  
• Then there's the Dracula thing, which manifests itself in hokey 'Dracula hotels' and restaurants and at least one castle where Vlad Tepes -- the real life Dracula -- may or may not have dropped by and defecated on a lone overnighter in the 15th century.
  

None of this can rival the horrors found in even a random sample of Romanian tourist brochures, each peppered with unexpected collage techniques, models in painful positions, actual torture, blurry borders on aged photos, scary guys with beards.

Of course, Romania is not alone in poorly conceived travel brochures, so I've thumbed through a stack and come up with TEN TIPS on how you can make your own travel brochures.

--> ACTION POINT: If you've come across questionably planned travel brochures, REPORT THEM. Please scan and post at the new 'Regretable Travel Brochures' group on LonelyPlanet.com.