Yachting is the ultimate form of vacationing. You live in luxurious comfort being pampered by a five star crew. You, as the “Charterer”, in essence, become the “Owner” of the yacht for the period of the charter. You determine the yacht’s itinerary, within the constraints of the law and safety as controlled by the Captain. You fix the menu with the assistance of your culinary trained Chef. There are over 2000 privately owned yachts in the world wide charter market. These yachts have the latest in marine technology, particularly in the area of communication and navigation. You will have access to the World Wide Web via satellite and will be able to connect to any on line service you use at home. Investigating the yacht charter market is done through dedicated yacht charter brokers who have access to the fleet via personal contacts, charter yacht data bases, and visiting charter yacht boat shows. These brokers are members of international professional associations, such as Charter Yacht Broker Association (CYBA), Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association (MYBA), Florida Yacht Brokers Association (FYBA), etc. who establish professional credentials and industry practices. To charter a yacht you must answer five questions: How many guests will be staying on board? When do you want to go? What type of yacht do you wish to charter, power or sail? Where do you want to go? What is your budget? The last question is critical as to finding the perfect yacht that meets your economic parameters. The yacht’s charter rate is only one element of the cost of chartering. Expenses can be as much as 50% increase over the charter rate for such items as fuel, food, beverage, port fees, taxes, and crew gratuity. There are yachts that fit budgets of $10,000 to $1,000,000 for a week’s charter. Contact a reliable charter broker to book your ultimate vacation of a lifetime.

Ukraine has become a trendy destination for tourists from all over the world. And this is not surprisingly: traveling to Ukraine is cheap, interesting and quite unusual for many people from Europe, US and many other countries. There are many attractive places for a foreign tourist in Ukraine, but this article presents five little-known Ukrainian towns for a tourist to enjoy.

Vylkove
Vylkove is a town located on Danube Delta near the Romanian border. The main part of the town is located on islands washed by small water channels. These channels are used as streets in Venice: you move your boat down the street standing on the stern of the boat with a big rod. Vylkove has a very rich and unique fauna. There are many kinds of birds, water animals and fish. The town is also famous by its drinks – unique herbal tea and homemade wine.

Nizhyn
Nizhyn is the most atmospheric and picturesque town in Central Ukraine. Nizhyn was untouched during World War II, so many old wooden houses have preserved there. The architecture is very unique. If you want to see how Ukrainian province looked like in XIX – the beginning of the XX Century – go to Nizhyn. It will take you a couple of hours by train or bus from Kyiv!

Baturyn
From the first sight Baturyn seems to be a small and unnoticed Ukrainian village. But it’s definitely not. Baturyn is a place where Ukrainian history has made a big turn. Ukrainian Presidents had invested a lot in restoring the historical places of Baturyn. You can see Baturyn Fortress there, Hetman Castle, park, many houses churches of those times. Since 1993 there is a State Historical and Cultural Reserve “The Hetmans Capital”. Apart from historical values Baturyn has many beautiful country-side hilly landscapes.

Korsun
When you stare at the fabulous views of Korsun, you may think: “Oh, I would be happy to live here!”. Nowadays Korsun is a perfect place for walking, sightseeing and green tourism. You should visit the Korsun State Historical and Cultural Reserve with palace complex, landscape park, museum of the history of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Offensive, and the Lopukhins Castle. If you visit Korsun you’ll resuly enjoy great picturesque views of Ros river and beautiful sights of Central Ukraine.

Balaklava
Balaklava is a secret Soviet city hidden behind the rocks and washed by the sea. It has an outstanding history. Built by British intruders during the Crimean war, it was later closed and used as a military town with the top secrecy level. The mountains around the city are useful for coastal fortification and the deep and small bay is a great place for submarines. Nuclear weapons of USSR have been stored here. Also Balaklava is a lovely place to stay because of its mild weather and great seaside views. You can enjoy sightseeing here any season of the year.

Volcanic ash cloud has caused chaos in Europe with most internal flights being canceled and affecting long haul flights to and from European destinations.  Passengers are stranded all over the world as the volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused tons of volcanic ash to be carried into the atmosphere, covering most of Europe and reaching all the way across the Atlantic to Canada (map below courtesy of BBC and the UK Met Office).

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It’s a big world out there, and there are lots of things to see. If your favorite hobby is travel, then get out there and start visiting places. Some places have obvious sightseeing stops; New York has the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, Chicago has Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower, Paris has the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, and so on. But for some places, the really great things to see aren’t always that well advertised. If you happen to be traveling to the Philippines, one structure of great historical significance which you want to be sure to see is the Manila Cathedral.

The Manilla Cathedral

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As countdown to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup in South Africa, gets closer to kick-off of the first game, we look at some of the preparations for this huge event.  Cape Town will host a number of the pool games, leading up to one of the semi-final games.

Can there possibly be a more beautiful backdrop to any stadium in the world?

A fantastic new purpose-built stadium has just been finished.  The recent official opening of the Cape Town stadium, saw a local premiership game take place.  The stadium was put through its paces, to get rid of all the little snags before the Soccer World Cup. Continue Reading

Part of traveling is often staying in hotels. Of course you want to spend time in an exotic location actually seeing that location, but the right luxury hotel can be an exotic location in itself. Here are a few of the most memorable hotels throughout the world.

Hotel Cipriani, Hotel Plaza Athenee, Park Hyatt in Tokyo…

Does it get any better than this?.. a massage on a gondola

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