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Beaches of Vendee-France, A Guide To France Best Beaches

WorldBeach — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:26:14 +0000

If you have an beach vacation in France, Vendee has some beautiful beaches making for great summer camping holidays. Whether you want to surf, sunbathe, build sand castles or enjoy beautiful coastal wildlife, you can find the perfect beach to suit your needs when camping in Vendee.

Bois de la Chaize Beach
Whilst camping in Vendee, a great place to get some sun is Boise de la Chaize, a picture-perfect beach on one of the Noirmoutier Islands. With bathing huts dotting the beach and sparkling blue waters as far as the eye can see, your beach holiday scene will be complete if you spend some time here whilst on a Vendee camping holiday.

Bretignolles-sur-Mer Beach
This beautiful Blue Flag beach is ideal for families while camping in Vendee. You can enjoy a day of family fun, with beach equipment on sale at the beach; buy a bucket and spade and you can build a family sand castle. You can stroll along this pretty coastline licking an ice-cream and enjoying the views. If your stroll should lead you just south of the beach, you’ll come across some mini cliffs. Continuing further, you will find another beach, La Normandaliere, where children can spend hours discovering the wonders of the rock pools at low tide, a perfect activity for a summer Vendee camping trip.

L’Aiguillon-sur-Mer Beach
A contrast to the golden sandy beaches typical of summer holidays, this beach will be most appealing to nature lovers who enjoy camping in Vendee. The town is known for its shellfish, sea and marsh. Bird lovers will enjoy watching wading birds in the muddy seabed, and the town is also home to some beautiful migrating birds, such as goldfinches, thrushes and innets. Whilst you can’t do too much sunbathing here, it nonetheless makes for an interesting day out whilst camping in Vende.

La Faute-sur-Mer Beach
If you have a love of oysters, this region is ideal to visit whilst camping in Vendee. The 8km of beach along the coastline here provide great fishing spots, and the water quality is of an excellent standard. You can enjoy beautiful scenery here, where a 140-year-old pine forest holds the dunes in place and provides an excellent place for coastal walks.

Le Pege Beach
During the summer months, this area is extremely popular for holidaymakers camping in Vendee. Ideal for family holidays, this beachside area has a great attraction for children – the Atlantic Toboggan – a water world of chutes and flumes. The beach is beautiful too, and is oriented towards family beach holidays.

Le Tanchet Beach
This beach will particularly appeal to surfers, and is a pretty beach located beyond Les Sables. If your Vendee camping holiday sees you spending some time in this area, you have more than just the beach to entertain you. An interesting zoo is located near the Casino des Pins, and your children will be delighted if you pay it a visit. You can feed the goats and watch the monkeys swinging carelessly about their enclosure, a fun way to spend an afternoon during your Vendee camping holiday.

Modern Adventures Amid Echoes of the Ancients, Sicily Island Italy

WorldBeach — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:06:35 +0000

Standing in the Sicilian sun with your feet washed by the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea, it’s easy to forget that there’s more to the tree-corner island than beauty. The beaches are magnificent—turquoise waters stretching out to the horizon, soft sand, gentle waves and some of he clearest water in the world. In the distance, on the rockier portions of the coast, volcanic rock juts out of the sea, its dark color and jagged edge adding drama to the vista.

Inland, the hills rise up and greet the sun, patched with golden fields of grain, vibrant citrus orchards, and the vineyards that produce Sicily’s fragrant nero d’avola wines.

There’s no mistaking Sicily for part of mainland Italy. Only a few blocks beyond the monuments to Vittorio Emanuele II outside the train station in Palermo are palaces and churches with the domes, mosaics, and geometric loveliness of medieval Arab architecture.

Baroque details line graceful, decaying buildings that shade sprawling markets and tanned children playing soccer in the streets. Most visitors come to Sicily for the weather: the climate is warm year-round, and in the summer months the sunshine is constant and temperatures hover around 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

One adventure worth having, though, is a voyage to the Aeolian Islands off the north coast. The ancient Greeks and Romans called these islands the home of the winds, and their breezes offer some relief from the constant beat of the sun. One boasts the forge of the fire god himself: Vulcano, a volcanic island reachable by ferry or hydrofoil with sulfur baths and dark umber beaches.

Here, the intrepid and long-winded can climb to the top of the sleeping volcano that spewed forth much of the island and peer into the crater once said to be the entrance to Hades. The rock that surrounds the crater is as brittle and sharp as ceramic. While the ancient Greeks assigned their gods’ homes on the outer islands, though, they worshiped them on Sicily itself. And after experiencing Vulcano’s primordial power, you can remind yourself of the force of human culture in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.

Here a complex of Greek temples was hewn from the native red sandstone and erected on a ridge overlooking the countryside, with the hazy cerulean smudge of the Mediterranean visible below the swell of the fields. Modern Agrigento rises to one side, and majestic sandstone forms cascade down the slope, linked by a pale road the Romans called the Sacred Way.

Each temple has its own appeal. The temple to Hera offers the best view and perhaps the most picturesque profile, perched atop the high point on the temples’ ridge. The temple of Zeus, meanwhile, is massive and almost completely destroyed, its ruins now poetically crumbling courtyards and staircases among the aloes and olive trees. Sicily’s mysteries are too many and too varied to explore in one short trip.

Bali Beach Resorts, Indonesia

WorldBeach — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:17:16 +0000

Bali beach resorts is the world’s most famous and one of the most beautiful beach resort. The beauty of Bali is so well known that it has brought the biggest names in the resort industry like Sheraton, Hyatt, etc. to build their palaces here. The beach resorts here in Bali mostly represent the Indonesian culture and specially the luxurious ones are designed in a proper Indonesian theme exhibiting beauty and peace in form of their structures. All the major beach resorts of Bali are located at the beaches famous for tourism in Bali. These beaches are Kuta, Sanur, Jimbaran, Nusa Dua and Benoa. Before choosing the beach resort, one must understand properly which beach of Bali suits their likeness as every beach at Bali has a different personality.

People should go for beach resorts at Kuta, if they prefer the chaotic and crowded environment, as there are lots of shopping malls and small traders surrounding the resorts. The moment you step out of your resort you will find surfers blocking your space for swimming, and nightlife is also very strong in this part of Bali. Even the resorts have so many nightclubs inside them and in most of them outsiders are allowed to step in. If people are looking for a quiet, peaceful vacation at a beautiful beach resort than they should choose from the other choices. Jimbaran beach has some of the best beach resorts of Bali, including Four Seasons and Pansea Hotel, and the best part of visiting these resorts are the famous sea food restaurants of Jimbaran providing their delicacies at very low costs. If people wish to enjoy their time with the breathtaking scenic views of natural beauty, then some very good beach resorts can be found at the Benoa beach such as the Novotel Benoa, Grand Mirage, etc. Some of the biggest names associated with beach resorts such as Sheraton, Hyatt, etc. can be found at Nusa Dua but this beach mostly exhibits artificial beauty and lacks natural scenic views. Most of these resorts are surrounded by beautiful manmade gardens and generally the hotel rooms lack sea views. The food at these resorts is also found to be very expensive and is usually quoted in US $. However the plus point is that this area is secluded, preferred by most of the up-scale guests & couples, and gives you access to one of the best resorts & a beautiful beach. Amanusa is one of the luxurious beach resorts found at Nusa Dua with a brilliant & beautiful location. The resort has maintained a balance between physical & spiritual beauty of Bali and provides its guests a soothing atmosphere.

Exotic Vacation of Koh Samui Beach(Samui Island), Thailand

WorldBeach — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:40:15 +0000

Koh Samui is located in the Gulf of Thailand, roughly 40 kilometers north-east of Surat Thani town. This fantastic tropical island is also sometimes referred to as the Coconut Island, because of countless number of coconuts that it produces per month. Koh Samui is actually an “Amphoe” (district) of Surat Thani province.

The amphoe of Koh Samui is further sub divided into Ang Thong, Li Pa Noi, Taling Ngam, Na Mueang, Ma Ret, Bo Phut, and Maenam. Each of them has their uniqueness and significance, and presents a diverse range of attractions. Today, tourist from the whole world go to this easygoing paradise. It´s located in the Gulf of Siam and surrounded by more than sixty other islands, some small and inhabited, some bigger as Koh Phangan, Koh Tao (divers island) Koh Nang Yuan and Angthong Islands, the National Marine Park.

Koh Samui Beaches

Chaweng Beach
The most popular beach on Koh Samui is called Had Chaweng and it is located on the island’s east coast. On the six kilometer long beach, you’ll find many hotels and cozy resorts. Chaweng Beach Road is perfect for those who appreciate affordable shopping, intense nightlife and fine dining alternatives.Even a spectacular golf course (Santiburi Golf) and the islands’ airport are in relatively close distance from Chaweng.

You will find many dive schools here as well as thai boxing, internet cafes, tailors and many restaurants that serves Thai food and cuisine from the whole world.If you enjoy beach activities, there is no problem to engage in jet ski riding, banana boat riding, water skiing, wakeboarding, windsurfing or parasailing (after a motorboat which involves a ride high above the water and a fantastic view overlooking Chaweng). It is also possible to rent a kayak or a canoe.

Lamai Beach
Located south of Chaweng on the east coast of Koh Samui. The beach is beautiful, especially the southern parts. The number of tourists is noticeable less here than in Chaweng but you’ll find a couple of smaller clubs and many small bars and pubs.
Lamai beach also offers a variety of water sports including jet ski, water skiing, wakeboarding, windsurfing, parasailing and you are also able to rent a motorboat for a private tour.

Bo Phut Beach
Bo Phut beach is about three kilometers long and has a relatively fine-grained sand and coconut palm trees at it’s side. Bo Phut beach also located near the island’s airport and very close to one of the islands’ larger piers, from where ferries depart regularly to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Here you’ll get a superb view overlooking Koh Phangan and the Gulf of Thailand. Before the tourists began to discover Koh Samui, Bo Phut was a small fishing village and still there are some fishermen with their characteristic boats active here. But nowadays, there are not only fishing boats departing from Bo Phut. Also smaller ferries and speedboats are transporting divers and the tourists, who are going on various tours around the island.