I had my heart set on traveling to Alaska for winter activities, skiing, dogsledding and just being out in extreme winter conditions. I was so excited when I was able to take my 2 year old son there and we were able to ski at alyeska ski resort and go dogsledding near the base of […]

Alaska — jaystraveladvice

I had my heart set on traveling to Alaska for winter activities, skiing, dogsledding and just being out in extreme winter conditions. I was so excited when I was able to take my 2 year old son there and we were able to ski at alyeska ski resort and go dogsledding near the base of mount McKinley. We flew into anchorage and took a white knuckled hour drive south to alyeska ski resort. The amount of snow on the ground here in January was unreal literally 3 to 4 feet of powder. The hotel alyeska was beautiful with nice ammenities and a beautiful setting. I was able to ski with my two year old son at Alyeska. Talk about a dream come true. We drove south to portage glacier which was just gorgeous and continued about 2 hours south to get to the coastal town of sewall. Here we encountered lots of bald eagles and saw thousands of awe inspiring majestic snow capped mountain peaks. Once we arrived we went to the aquarium which was world famous and home to a 2000 lb+ sea lion. It was so big. The coastal bay was so pretty but it was so cold!! I highly recommend getting a car with four wheel drive or studded tires. Haha. Another amazing day took us about 4 hours north to talkteetna which is a town close to the entrance of Denali National Park. Here we went dog sledding with some famous sled dogs which some have won the Iditarod in past years. We got to play with little 10 week old huskies and then got to go on an hour dog sled through the wilderness of Alaska. Overall Alaska is just to massive it is a must see. From the thousands of deer and moose scattered all over the place to the majestic snow capped mountain peaks and the amazing frozen bays which you would never realize was frozen ocean without the gps. This state could very easily be the prettiest state in the country. One thing skiing at Alyeska it is only about 4000 feet high but that is straight of the ocean so it is still a massive mountain even though the stats really don’t impress you very much. What a great trip hope to be back there someday soon!!

Leading up to vacation in Turkey this was much research and planning that went into making sure every day was planned out with great sites and keeping family safe and happy!  As we arrived in Istanbul  we were blown away by the size of the city and how many people were there.  Istanbul is the 7 largest city in the world containing upwards of $16,000,000 people. More than twice the size of New York City.  While in Istanbul we felt the warm welcoming affection of the Turkish people. They were so nice and hospitable. Looking to do anything to help you. The sites in Istanbul are endless from the beautiful Hagia Sophia Mosque to the Palaces and Bosphurus channel seperating Asia from Europe. The only thing I can say negative about turkey is everybody smokes cigarettes and cars drive a little aggressive. So as a pedestrian be patient crossing roads.  At no point on our trip did we feel in danger or scared. Turkey has very nice people and plenty of security.  The people absolutely loved my son and would spoil him everywhere we went. The roads are beautiful, wide open, no potholes and very scenic. There are endless amounts of ancient sites. Literally thousands of ancient civilizations ruins you could explore for months on end. We choose to explore certain places. On on way down to Troy we had to cross a channel with our car on a ferry boat connecting us from the European side of turkey to the Asian side of turkey. Diving down to Troy we passed hundreds of miles of fields of sunflowers, it was so pretty.  Troy was so beautiful from walking the grounds to going up into the Trojan horse. What a great place. Troy is far from the big cities of Istanbul and Izmir about 5 hour drives from each so keep that in mind if traveling there.  There were literally nice gas stations every mile throughout the entire country. Never had to worry about finding a gas station. Gas is a similar price to USA.  But good, drinks and other accessories are so cheap. Money goes a long way there.  Cappadoccia is one of the coolest place I have ever traveled.  The rock formations are so cool and most hotels are built into the rocks.  Sunsets there are unmatched.  The town of goreme is so much fun and so unique.  There is so much to do here from Jeep safaris to hot air ballooning the list goes on and on.  Moving onto Pammakale this was my favorite part of the trip. There is an ancient site called Hierapolis which was home to Cleopatra.  But below the ancient site was a lime covered thermal pools on a mountainside. 100’s of little pools to swim in and relax.  Which was my favorite was taken in the sunset. What an experience.  Ephesus is quite a place we stayed at the Ayasoluk boutique  hotel.  Definitely recommend this place nicest people and great location.  The ancient site of Ephesus is one of the most impressive sites in the world. Just amazing.  Another one of my favorite sites was the house of Mary. This is where Mary lived the end of her life. The story goes when Jesus was being crucified he said to his best friend John the Baptist please take my mother and keep her safe and this is where he brought her, to Ephesus!  What a place. Also this place is home to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world the Temple of Artemis.  We had to go to Antalya because of the fact that there were amazing beaches, beautiful waterfalls and the beginning of the Himalayan mountain chain. Working our way up the coast we stopped at Myra and St Nicolas church. Myra is a beautiful place with ancient tombs in the mountainsides. And the church of St Nicolas is the origination of how Santa Claus came to be. This story goes St Nicks parents died early and left him a lot of money so he decided to buy gifts for the children and spoil them. Hence this is where gifts for kids on Xmas essentially started.  There is a must see town on Kas that not many people now about but the beauty of the sheer cliffs falling to the beautiful ocean and the great night life and excursions make this a must see.  The beaches around this part of the country are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Kaputas beach and Butterfly valley are must sees. So pretty. Working our way further up we stayed in Oludeniz which is home to an amazing beach and the famous blue lagoon. The beach community is great for tourist tons of shops restaurants and excursions. The ocean water is 84 degrees and beautiful turquoise.  All day long here there are thousands of para gliders falling to the beach from the huge 7000 foot babadag mountain. One of the best places in the world to Para glide. The blue lagoons water is about 90 Fahrenheit and crystal clear.  And so peaceful no waves great for kids. Next stop was up to Bodrum which is home to the Bodrum Castle and the best underwater archeological museum in the world. Also Bodrum is home to another one of the seven ancient wonders of the world the mausoleum of harncarnisus. These days these sites are all ruins but still so cool to close your eyes and put yourself back 2000 , 3000 thousand years ago.  Along the south west coast of turkey is the sunken city of Kekora. About 2000 years ago a huge earthquake sank this city into the sea and so now you can take a boat trip along the crystal clear coastal waters and view the ancient site from the boat. Half the city is above water and the other half is below the water. There is two marinas in Bodrum one is great fro tourist for shopping dining and walking around having fun  if you are looking for a more upscale place to visit the other marina may be the richest place I’ve ever seen  thousands of enormous yachts from 100 foot to 300 foot yacthts  just amazing along with beautiful grounds, very nice restaurants and very glamorous surroundings  it is very expensive here so keep that in mind.

There are endless amounts of places to see and go in Turkey and the people are so nice. The entire time we were there we think we were the only Americans there. There are millions of tourist but they are all from Asia Europe Australia and Middle East. The people of turkey even said to us many times Americans are scared to come here because they think it is dangerous. It is really sad that America has this perception of Turkey because it is an amazing place to visit explore and enjoy. Between some of the best ancient sites in the world. Some of the best beaches in th world. And some of the friendliest people in the world Turkey is one of my favorite destinations I have ever experienced. At not one point on our trip did we feel threatened or scared. I highly recommend you plan a trip to Turkey and take in the sites and awesome culture. You will not be dissappointed.  I’m so happy that my wife and I give people a chance to don’t stereotype because of this we have got to meet some great people, experience wonderful perspectives and seen amazing sites.

I could go on and on about what we saw and experienced in Turkey but I’ll leave it at this and if you have any questions you can feel free to contact me.

Santorini
Lot’s of places we travel never live up to the hype. An example is Tahiti. You hear about the beautiful scenery, amazing beaches and remote locations. What you don’t hear about is the insane amounts of traffic, outrageous prices for everything and little history.
I was very impressed with Santorini! This island lives up to the hype! There is so much to do here, such amazing cuisine, unmatched scenery and great beaches. There are many places you can stay on this island, but the best 3 are Fira, Firostefani or Oia. The way these towns are built into the side of the mountains is so unreal. A lot of the hotels are old buildings converted to places to spend your vacation, so you will get the real feel of staying in a room built into the side of a mountain. The restaurants are so amazing, great food for a great value. Our favorite was Vanilla located in Firostefani. The scenery at almost any location on the island is jaw dropping. To catch the best sunset you will want to head to Oia, but be prepared to be overrun by tourist.
On Santorini I think the best way to get around is by 4×4 or moped. You can drive from one end of the island to the other end in about 1.5 hours. Oia to the lighthouse. On the way there are many amazing beaches to stop at. You can spend time at a white sand beach, a black sand beach or my favorite the red sand beach. Along the way there a many places to stop and take pictures of the Caldera. There is a monastery at the top of the highest peak with is home to 7 monks still to this day! Great views from up there! Renting the moped or 4×4 is only about 30 euro per day great value. The roads here are definitely some of the scariest in the world! A great day excursion is to go to the volcano by boat which is still an active. It last erupted in the 1950’s. From here you can go swim in the hot springs. Sail the water’s in between the island land masses. Do some island hopping and finish your day in Oia to see the sunset. There is a lot of hiking that day but I think it is well worth it! Times to travel here are anytime of the year but they have a climate much like South Carolina so their winter can be cool even snow on a rare occasion, but the summer is very hot! Great wine tours and vineyards! There is still so much more to talk about but bottom line is you need to travel there and experience it for yourself.
There are many places in the world they think the mythological city of Atlantis could be and Santorini is one of them because of the volcano erupting and sinking half the island in the sea, scientist believe Atlantis could exist here somewhere? The volcano eruption here that broke up the land mass of Santorini was considered to be one of the 3 largest volcano eruptions in the history of earth! If you have any questions let me know and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Back about 3 months ago we were about to embark on what was to be one of the most exciting trips to Greece.  Myself and 5 other group leaders took 40 awesome high school kids to Greece and explored the amazing sites like Delphi, Olympia and The Acropolis.  We met at the high school that afternoon ready to leave in a large bus for Logan Airport.  It was our Bonn Voyage with the parents, there was so much excitement and anticipation for this trip we were taking.  Off to the airport we went laughing having a great time arriving at the airport around 3pm.  We arrived at the airport a few hours early to ensure we had plenty of time to check in with the kids and get situated before we took off to Greece.  After our long wait in the terminal it was time to board the plane now it was about 6pm.  They called our plane section and we starting down the gangway onto our flight on British Airways.  We were so excited the kids were beyond eager to take off on this journey and us chaperones were equally as excited to see what our 10 days had in store for us.  We were all shuffling around on the plane get our seats in order putting our luggage in the overhead compartments and just the buzz was electric from our travel group.  We felt a little nudge in the plane, did not think anything of it.  Five minutes later the announcement over the speakers was to evacuate the plane.  The luggage cart collided into the plane and punctured the shell of the British Airlines Plane.  Due to this crash the integrity of the plane was compromised and they had to have an engineer check out the plane and see if it was safe to fly.  After about 30 minutes in the terminal off the plane was evacuated there came an announcement saying our flight has been cancelled and get this “There are no flights out for 3 days!”.  Well you can imagine the chaos that ensued with a 500 person plane being unloaded and then cancelled.  The people in the terminal became enraged and everyone stormed the service counter looking for answers.  This people are all guests of British Airways who spent hard earned money to take once in a lifetime trips and then all of a sudden there trip has been cancelled and postponed for 3 days!?  We patiently waited our turn to speak with the ONE British Airways representative,  all the while being on the phone with British Airways and the Group Leader was on the phone with the travel company trying to make sense of this and get these kids out asap on the next flight.  The representative told us we need to go back out to the front and rebook our flight.  I told him we have 46 people and that is not possible, but he kept insisting there is nothing he could do.  Still on the phone with the travel company and British Airways getting no where we had the 4 other chaperones take care of the kids and make sure they were OK while we went out and tried to handle this matter.  As you can imagine the the airport was a mob scene and we were way back in line trying to get to the ticket window to figure out  this matter.  I was in one line and the group leader was in another line.  I weaseled my way to the front of the line and started speaking with the attendant.  I tried explaining to her we had 6 chaperones and 40 kids that need to get to Greece asap and start there tour tomorrow so please get us out on the next flight.  She said to come back tomorrow and then you can rebook these kids but you won’t be able to get out for at least 3 days.  Well I was beside myself no way was the group leader and myself gonna let this happen. She kept resisting my requests but because this was for the kids I kept on and kept on with my persistent request for these flights to be re-booked.  She said to speak with another lady when she was done with the customer.  We started a new conversation with her and still we were not getting help re-booking these flights they kept saying come back tomorrow after 10 pm and then you can rebook these flights.  Well we would not accept that as an answer. While this ordeal was going on we told the other chaperones to have the kids call for rides that we were not flying out tonight and we would be in touch with them by phone and email as soon as we new something definitive.  Around 9pm we finally got through to these British Airlines workers and they started helping us.  Of course because it was summer the busy season and we had a large group the only way to get out to Greece in the quickest manner possible was to book the kids on all 1st available flights to Greece.  So we decided to tell the attendant just get us there the quickest way possible, but every kid will need a chaperone with them.  Around 11pm they finally started finding flights to rebook us on and she started booking us 1 chaperone with as many kids that there were seats for on the plane.  There were flights with 3 seats, other flights with 9 seats and others with 6 seats and so on and so on.  They booked us as they found seats available and around 1 am we were almost all booked.  At 2am we were completely booked on 6 different flights flying out all at different times over the next 3 days.  We had to inform the kids and chaperones asap of the changes so some of the kids could get back to the airport in a few hours to fly out.  Needless to say it was a trying, exhausting unreal 10 hours but we made it through and had a great trip once we all arrived in Athens, Greece.  British Airways was not very helpful just kept pawing us off on other people and telling us there was nothing they could do and to come back the next day to re-book.  One would think they would offer a free flight or some sort of refund for this horrible ordeal they put all the customers through that night.  Luckily for our group we had the greatest group of kids and chaperones to stay their course and have a great time regardless of what took place.  In the end this was one of the best trips I have ever been one because of the amazing people we traveled with!

On most peoples list of places to go but you never get to is Africa.  This is a shame, you need to find a way to travel to Africa at some point.  The wonders there are just to amazing for words.  Lots of people are scared to travel to Africa because of the violence and diseases, but I can attest that Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia are safe, if your cautious there is a low risk of disease and the people are very nice.  From the sunrises to the sunsets and the animals around every corner Africa are beautiful.  Looking to go on a safari I suggest you go to Kenya and Tanzania.  You have many options here on how to stay, you can either rough it in pop up tents which I loved, you can stay in nicer tents that are luxury in the tent world or you can really spend some money and stay in a safari hotel and live it up.  Depending on what you choose you could pay anywhere from $50 a night to camp to over a $1000 a night for some of the posh resorts.  These are definitely the popular places to travel too in Africa, but for good reason.  The amount of animals you see are bountiful.  You will see a few Cheetahs and Leopards if your lucky.  You will see millions and I mean millions of Wildebeest, Zebras, Cape Buffalo and Thomson Gazelles.  As for every other animal you think of you will see hundreds and even thousands of Lions, Giraffes, Elephants, Warthogs, Hyenas, Vultures to name a few.  Not only do you see these animals but you watch them interact with each other and even stalk each other for food.  To see a Lion stalk a Warthog and chase after it in a violent assault is so unreal.  To watch 10 Lionesses leave the 10 cubs behind in their pride to go hunting is such a sight to behold.  Those little cubs are so helpless and to watch them try to stay alive while the protectors are out hunting keeps you on the edge of your seat.  You get so close to these animals, if they would not bite your arm of you could touch them.  In the winter months their weather is spectacular, cool to cold nights and mild to warm days.  And very very rarely does it ever rain.  Their summer on the other hand is very hot and rainy.  If you travel to Africa in dry season then you will be saved from getting eating alive from the mosquitoes.  It is only in their rainy season where you really have issues with mosquitoes.  The food is delicious and you get to try some amazing cuisines.  The people are one of the best reasons to come here, they are so nice and accommodating.  To see how they live in their villages makes you really appreciate how lucky we are to live where we do.  There does come a point where the locals can be overwhelming with their pursuit to sell you anything they can, but they are just trying to make $$$.  The Masai Mara and the Serengeti definitely live up to their billing.  They are so amazing words do not do those places justice.  Want to take a break from the Safari life you can head over to Zanzibar, Mauritius or Seychelles where you can enjoy some island life for a while.  Another amazing destination is Victoria Falls in this location you get to see the worlds largest waterfall and upgrade your self to a little nicer accommodations if you want.  Vic Falls is home to so many unreal adventurous activities.  From swimming on the edge of the falls in the “Devils Pool” to taking a safari walk looking for White Rhinos, this place has it all.  Some of the resorts here like the Royal Livingston Hotel are just absolutely stunning.  But so stay at a modest, nice and very affordable resort I would suggest you stay at the Zambezi Waterfront Lodge, great location, great price and great people. I have so many awesome suggestions and travel advice that if you need any questions answered about Africa you are more then welcome to let me know and I will give you some great info.

1.  Lynn Woods Reservation, Lynn

In the Lynn Woods there are many different trails to hike, run, walk or bike.  There are many ponds, lakes and rivers to go swimming in and the fishing is unreal.  For dogs it is great so many fun places to have fun with your dog.  You will always need to be careful of coyotes and ticks but besides that you can let the dog run free.  There are usually lots of dogs in there with their owners and they tend to play all together.

2.  Bradley Palmer State Park, Topsfield

Similiar things to do as Lynn Woods but they also have a amazing river that flows for miles through the area. 

3.  Sandy Point State Refuge, Ipswich

4.  Breakheart Reservation, Saugus

5.  Harold Parker State Forest, Andover

Always remember to pick up after your dog and have fun!