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Los Angeles Things to Do

Orange County’s “Great Park”

Los Angeles often comes under criticism because it doesn’t have enough parks or green space within the city. Sure, there are mountains nearby and the beach is always available. The city does have the one of the largest parks within city limits in Griffith Park, but the average person in Los Angeles does not have a park within walking distance. There’s nowhere to just take the dog for a walk or go for a quick run.

Nowhere is this problem more pronounced than in Orange County, where traffic locks up and strip mall parking lots are the closest thing to open space that the city has.

Orange County is trying to correct for that problem in one large, ambitious bout of overcompensation. The “Great Park” under development aims to provide the residents of Orange County with one massive mega park, where all their park needs will be met at one central location.

Built over the top of El Toro military base, the Great Park is going to be 1,347 acres of recreation opportunities and open space, baseball diamonds and soccer fields as well as cultural centers, interpretive experiences and nature hikes through three miles of canyon.

The park will also feature a museum presenting the history of El Toro base as well as some of the military aircraft that flew from the airfield. The Great Park will stretch from the beach to the mountains and will be larger than New York City’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park put together.

Unfortunately, a construction project of this size takes years to complete and the park will not be ready for general use for quite some time. For the moment, the only open attraction in the park is a balloon ride which takes visitors up and over the park to see the the progress being made on the construction. The ride also incorporates views of the mountains and the surrounding county. The ride is free, but visitors must obtain a boarding pass when entering the park.

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Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Istria page of our Croatia photos page.

Garden in Istria

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Libya travel guide Turkey

Ferries in Turkey

FerriesTurkey is bordered by three seas –Black Sea, Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea -, which means water transport has always played an important role in the country’s transport system. If you are in a hurry the quickest way is to fly to Turkey but if you like to travel leisurely, you should definitely consider taking a ferry.

Ferries provide transport both for passenger and vehicles. They represent one of the best ways to get from Istanbul to the Aegean Sea resorts.

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Portugal travel guide Turkey

Turkey Entry Visa for Tourists

turkey visaBefore starting to plan your vacation in Turkey you should check if you need a tourist visa to entry the country. Then, you need to figure out if you can get the visa directly at the point of entry or need to apply at the consulate. Most likely you’ll need a single entry visa which means you can stay in Turkey for up to three months.

Need to know

E-consulate makes the job easy to figure out if you need a visa. However, the prices listed are those applied at the consulates and not at the point of entry.

Sticker-type entry visa upon arrival

Citizens of the following countries can get a sticker-type entry visa at the point of entry in Turkey: UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal.

Citizens of these countries need to have a passport and pay the visa fee at the point of entry in Turkey.

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Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Boats and Beaches page of our Croatia photos page.

Harbor Croatia

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Featured Articles Turkey

Turkish Delight (Lokum)

Turkish DelightPretty much anything that’s satisfying is either sinful or makes you fat. I don’t know about sinful, but Turkish Delight surely can make you fat. Reason enough to walk around and visit the sites when in Turkey, right?

What is Turkish Delight?

Turks call it Lokum, the rest of us call it Turkish Delight. It’s made of gelatin, water, cornstarch and sugar. The most common flavors are rosewater and lemon, which give it the pink and yellow colors. Turkish Delight can also be flavored with mint. Small nuts might also be added to the Lokum (generally walnuts, pistachio or hazelnuts). You’ll find it cut into small cubs and dusted with sugar and cornstartch.

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Featured Articles Turkey

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffeeFor any coffee lover, the Turkish coffee is probably one of the most interesting experiences in life. The aroma, the foam, the ritual…blended together they add something magical to the Turkish coffee.

What’s so special about Turkish coffee?

This magnificent coffee is made from Arabica blend, really finely grinded. To add a bit of spice to it, while the coffee is being ground, cardamom is added to the coffee beans.

There are six levels of sweetness, ranging from black to very sweet. Sade is the plain Turkish coffee, with no sugar but it’s fairly bitter. If you choose to drink a sweet Turkish coffee, sugar is added to the coffee while it’s prepared. As the coffee is being prepared in an ibrik -narrow-topped small boiling pot-, it begins to foam.

Turkish coffee is served hot in a fincan. After the guest drinks it, the custom is to turn the cup upside down, allow it to cool and then the hostess will tell the guest’s fortune reading from the remaining grounds in the cup.

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Croatia

Croatia’s Hot Springs

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When the Romans traveled around their Empire, infantry and officers alike would get road weary and battle worn. As a way of combating fatigue and the dreary months enforcing the borders of their territory, Roman soldiers would stop for baths at the natural hot springs that dot the countryside of Croatia.

Today, these hot springs have become health spas and resorts catering to a slightly different clientele than armored Roman soldiers coming off of the front lines. Now, travelers drop into the warm water pools as a respite from the stresses of traveling and as a way to improve their health.

Istarske Toplice

The most famous and popular Croatian hot-springs resort, Istarske Toplice provides travelers a place to stay while spending their days in Sveti Stjepan, the mineral spring that most travelers bathe in. The spring is touted for its therapeutic properties and half of the resort is given over to water and mud therapy, the other half devoted to beauty treatments. Istarske Toplice is one of the purest springs in Croatia as well, an examination of the water recently revealed that the water has the same level of purity as an examination completed in 1858.

Krapina

The hotel at Krapina-hotel Aquae Vivae, combines premium hospitality with available rejuvenatin hot springs baths. The entire hotel is not given over to a resort with spa treatments and instead you are left alone to appreciate the rest of the natural valley surrounding you.

Daruvar

The town of Daruvar was known as Aquae Balissae when the Romans were setting up their tents in the surrounding fields and while the name has changed, the reason for the town’s being has not. Daruvar still has some of the most inviting hot springs in the area and in addition to the hot springs, offers sites other than the spas to see. Several ancient monuments still stand and their is a rich and historic tradition of grape growing and wine cultivation stretching back over 2,000 years.

Daruvar is also something of a unique city in that it is near the Czech border and the cultures have combined over the centuries in a way that is not found in much of the rest of Croatia. Daruvar is a destination worthy of even the most discerning independent traveler.

Categories
Los Angeles

Malibu

malibu.jpgMalibu may have recently been threatened by the raging wildfires that ate up much of the southern California hillsides, but you’ll soon find that the city has retained the qualities that make it a desirable place to visit while touring through LA on your next vacation.

There is a quality to Malibu that makes it mysterious and appealing. Most people call it the beach, but there’s more than that. This is the home of Malibu Barbie, the Chevy Malibu, and the Go Karts of Malibu Grand Prix. This is the land of celebrities and movie stars. So much has been made of Malibu as a world class destination on so little evidence that most travelers feel the need to check it out for themselves to see what all the fuss is about.

It turns out that all the fuss is about the beach. Malibu is one endless stretch of sand next to the water and the beach has a different feel to it here than on the LA and Orange County beaches where the houses come right down to the water and the streets run right into the sand.

In Malibu you feel separated from the city on the beach. Instead of a grid of houses behind you, there are a few dozen mansions tucked neatly into the best viewpoints on the hills. Instead of a steady parade of people descending on the sand there are a few dozen surfers in the water (on most days), a few volleyball games going on and some families walking by near the water.

Granted, there is more to Malibu than the surf culture, although not a lot more. The most popular roadside business on the Pacific Coast Highway that runs through town is a surfboard rental palace and even the restaurants share parking lots with public beaches.

But enough about the beach. Malibu is also home to a great number of natural disasters. For such a desirable place to live, Malibu is awfully treacherous. The recent wildfires notwithstanding, there are mudslides whenever it rains for a few weeks in a row and houses go slip-sliding down the hill into the ocean. Luckily for the celebrities, entertainment moguls and TV producers who live in this 27 mile long narrow strip of ideal real-estate, most can afford to rebuild.

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Articles Los Angeles

The easiest way to LAX

300px-flyaway_union_station.jpgDepending on where you live, picking someone up at LAX ranges from a minor inconvenience to a major problem. Unless you’re extremely local, like El Segundo or Manhattan Beach, the prospect of getting to the airport means that you’ll spend a bunch of time sitting on the freeway probably during rush hour, and you’ll have to dodge in and out of traffic and figure out which terminal you’re supposed to be near.

The new FlyAway bus from LAX to Union Station solves all those logistical problems and might even save a friendship or two. The bus runs from Union Station to LAX every half hour and the return trip runs just as often. In the wee hours of the morning the frequency slows to once every hour.

The FlyAway bus costs $4, but if you’ve just arrived on a flight, the service is free from LAX to Union Station. The driver usually checks your baggage claim to determine if you are worthy of a free seat.