If you’re planning a beach holiday in Sardinia, there are a few things you should know. Most of the smaller, quieter, private beaches are hidden, or at least they seem so. No signs pointing you in the wrong direction, minuscule entrances that you’d hardly know lead you in the right way, few people walking by to give you directions, they’re already sun bathing or swimming!

Yet you know they’re there, you’ve heard of them and feel like spending an afternoon on a semi-deserted beach where it’s quiet enough to have a pleasant conversation, read a book, or fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

So what can a tourist do to reach these pieces of heaven?

First off, you need to say away from the hyped up beaches that are overly crowded with tourists. Rent a car, get a map or a local guide (if you’re lucky enough to have friends there) and go exploring. You can actually go beach hopping – meaning you never have to come back to the same beach while you’re there!

If you’re visiting the beautiful island of Sardinia and are looking for a green retreat that’s quiet, relaxing, breathtakingly gorgeous, friendly, inspirational and also has donkeys and a cool pool, Ca’ La Somara is just the place for you.

Friendly staff, enough grounds to loose yourself and let your thoughts fly mixed with a communal dinner table allowing for fun and light conversation with the other guests, a modern spa and an authentic barn and farmhouse design and decor, this hidden treasure (yes, literally hidden, as the local taxi driver had a bit of a hard time finding it) suits almost everyone.

I have been there in May, off-season. It was not fully booked, but there were enough people to make it all fun, it was hot enough to get a nice tan by the pool and the sea water was warm enough that you could actually swim in it.

Donkeys play a big part in the Ca’ La Somara scenery. The female half of the pair running this venue, Laura, told us she’s always loved donkeys. So when they opened the place, they got a couple live ones (which are very fun to watch and know how to properly act when cameras are around).

Rooms don’t have boring numbers. They are each associated with a colorful donkey. Which makes it all fun! If you’re having dinner at Ca’ La Somara, you can go for a meat or vegetarian meal and to specify it, you must go to this cool board with all the colorful donkeys stuck on it, take a round shaped magned (red for meet, green for veggie) and place it on the one donkey corresponding to the room you’re staying in.

Dinner is a feast! Everything is so delicious! And they do their best to accomodate guests with special culinary needs. They made sure they made not only vegetarian, but also gluten-free meals for someone in our group. By the way, if you must now (and I did, cause I am curious like that), gluten-free pasta is excellent. 4 courses, local wine and some stronger local spirits, deserts to die for, in a word, I could barely walk afterwards!

And the breakfast! The morning equivalent of the evening delights! Actually if you have breakfast and dinner at Ca la Somara you only need a very light lunch in between! Nothing more, otherwise you’ll explode!

Those seeking for space to think and find inspiration, be it for their work, art or just life in general, are bound to find everything they need here. This for example was my favorite spot to write (awsome for lunch as well):

I felt free, at peace and thought I could do anything while I was staying at this Sardinian marvel. I hope I’ll return soon enough, maybe next spring! Who else is comming with me? Not decided yet? Here are some more photos to convince you:

It’s extrmely hot in Bucharest. Somewhere around 40 degrees Celsius. It rained a bit, but the positive effect was short lived. So I started looking for places to run away from the heat, at least temporarily. And I am proud to say I found the perfect solution!

What do you think of when hearing Absolut Icebar? Nothing sounds chillier to me! A tiny bar with a constant temperature of -5°C where everything is made of ice – the bar, the chairs, the entire room, even the glasses you drink Absolut cocktails from! And not just any ice, but natural frozen Swedish Torne River ice! Usually part of a complex, together with a hotel and restaurant, Absolut Icebar welcomes a limited number of bar goers for only 20 minutes at a time. It is too cold to stay longer, on one hand, and there are lots of people that want to get in on the other. The friendly staff will prodive warm coats to you, to make sure you don’t catch a cold or freeze while visiting them

What I find extremely cool is that you can go to the very same Absolut Icebar year after year and still think you’re visiting a new place. They change the ice design every year to create a whole new experience.

In terms of where, you can find Icebars in Jukkasjärvi, Stockholm, Mojave, London, Oslo, Copenhagen and Tokyo.

So, who else needs to cool off and hide from the heat? Let’s meet at an Icebar!

Photos curtesy of the very friendly Press section of the Absolut Icebar website.

As you have probably guessed by now, I am all for taking charge of your vacation and planning it just as you want it to be. Being able to do it requires a few things: good knowledge of what’s available where you’re going, from hotels to places to visit to good restaurants, reliable advice from people who have been there before and a well thought plan that allows you to both experience everything you want, rest and have fun.

The new public beta release of social trip planner Stay.com gives you all that information: spots to check out on 50 major cities around the world, recommended guides created by Stay’s travel experts, a community to discuss your trip and to share your advice with, personalized travel guides you create from scratch with all the relevant data you need, from opening hours to maps and pictures of the place.

You can use Stay.com as your planning advisor: research hotel rates, book your stay online, then decide how to better fill your time at the destination of choice. To get a better idea of what you can get, here’s an example of a featured city, San Francisco. You can search through the tourist attractions yourself and use the available templates or start with one of their featured guides submitted by Stay members: one for active travelers, one for those traveling with kids and needing to entertain them, or maybe a special one featuring the San Francisco bay area is better for you.

All in all, Stay.com is a great and much needed tool for those taking the DIY approach to travel planning. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did when reviewing the services they provide Oh, and when you start using them, please let me know what you think!

More info on TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb or PRWeb.

When we travel, we often get sucked into this powerful vortex taking us at a wild place from one tourist attraction to another. We have a plan, we need to stick to it if we want to see everything that’s beautiful in a certain location. We are dedicated tourists with a plan in our mind, a map in our hands and determination in our hearts.

But an important part of experiencing any place is allowing it time to surround us, take us over and introduce us to its spirit. To do so, we need to slow down, put the map away and just go where our intuition takes us. Stop for a coffee on a terrace, talk to the people we meet, look around, observe and just get lost in all the marvelous details surrounding us. Colors, scents, the light, the way people act or walk, they all differ from one place to another.

Besides, you can always discover little treasures! A passionate kiss of two dark statues…

Amsterdam

….a secluded, small beach where the locals know more than yourself about the football players in your country…

Gemiler Beach, Oludeniz

…a nice little park with a miniature lake at a time when the clouds are impressive…

Park in Amsterdam

No one would ever want to miss out on such treasures, especially when they’re not even really hidden, just there, in plain sight, waiting for you to take the time and ask the right questions. So make sure you plan a day or two for strolling aimlessly at your preferred destination. It’s always rewarding!

A couple of photos taken during a boat ride in Istanbul, taking us from the European side to the Asian part of the city.

After reading a very interesting post on the differences between male and female travelers on the 501Places blog, and having too many comments on what was said about women and their concerns while traveling , I thought to keep the comment short and turn the rest into a post over here.

A few things about me, the Travel Wizard. First off, I live on the Internet. It’s where I talk to my clients and my friends (real-life and virtual alike), it’s where my blogs and business are located, it’s where I do business and where I fuel my passion for writing. I do go out a lot, but I have a smart phone with an internet connection, a laptop and a netbook. And a lot of my friends are like me. Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot to mention traveling is my drug of choice!

So here’s what’s important for this type of woman tourist!

Choosing a hotel

Wi-fi is the king of all that’s important when selecting a hotel. If times are tough and the hotels in the area present fewer options, we’ll go for wired internet as well. Worse case scenario? Written note from hotel managers that there’s a coffee show around the corner with good wi-fi.

We have blogs to check, business to take care of, tons of spam emails to delete, the works!

Location, location, location! The hotel should either be very close to the sights we’re interested in, or the business center we need to get to, or at least 2 minutes away from public transportation. Travel time is holly! It shall not be wasted on long drives or bus rides that take forever!

Of course, it should be clean! And my personal favorite – great breakfast! I tend to skip breakfast in my everyday life, so it kind of turns into a ritual when I’m traveling.

At the airport

We need to be there on time! 1-2 hours early. Cause missing a flight is out of the question! It never takes too long to have everything checked and approved, so there’d better be enough chairs to sit on to read a book/watch a movie on the computer etc. My personal thanks to all airports that allow me to plug in my laptop and have enough battery during the actual flight

I admit I am a sucker for duty free. And I buy two things: perfume and cosmetics. I have expensive tastes in both so why not save some money? Oh, yeah, and local sweets if I didn’t have time before the airport to have something to be able to give my friends a taste of where I’ve been.

On arrival

The fastest we’re out of there, the better. I always pray the luggage comes in fast, mine wasn’t lost and I can be out in the blink of an eye. Why? Remember what I’ve told you about travel time being sacred?

In the rental car/cab/shuttle

Way too excited about being there to worry about last night. There’s planning to do, places to see, people to get to know. Souvenirs to buy! Busy-bees all the way. Plus, if the airport is far enough, that gives us time for mental notes with sights to be added to the list.

This is, of course, a biased approach! So please read the original post and let us know what your take is on women, men, traveling and what makes us tick!

Now that winter is here, I’d so wish I were back there, in mid September, enjoying the sea, the breeze and the warmth.

Did you notice how a country-specific cuisine tasted differently in said country and abroad? Chinese food tasted differently in Germany than it does in China. Italian pizza you have at your local Italian restaurant is rarely the same as the one you have in Italy. Basically because foods and drinks are tailored to meed the specific preferences of each country. Just make a simple experiment on your next trip, try the Coca Cola drink in your country and the one they sell in the country you visit. You most likely will notice the difference!

Same with large fast-food chains! I love McDonald’s salads in Romania, I hated them in the US. I hated Burger King in Turkey, loved it in other countries. I used to go to Pizza Hut once a month, I went once in Toronto and I still regret it.

What does this have to do with travel? It’s simple, when you’re traveling, just because you know and like a brand in your home country, it really does not mean you will like it in another country you are visiting. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s wise to go there prepared, cause nothing makes a trip worse than a disappointment that could have easily been prevented!