Mountain City's Travel Blog

February has been an even more romantic month than usual this year. Not only did countless couples celebrate their love in dream destinations on Valentine’s Day – one couple became the first to be united in matrimony on the White Continent. On an Atlas Ocean Voyage to Antarctica – that even departed on February 14,, 2022 – Valentine’s Day! Bride...

At 2021’s Climate summit in Glasgow, something pretty extraordinary for one of the natural world’s greatest treasures happened. Neighboring countries Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama got together and agreed to create an ‘ocean highway’ to allow threatened marine species in and around the richly and uniquely biodiverse Galapagos Islands to safely travel to the territories they need to survive....

Step away from the chocolates. Move over, diamonds. The most romantic gift is time together with your best-beloved, and shared experiences that ignite – or reignite – the flames.If it’s time to shake up your romance routine and create new memories of a lifetime on vacation, we have your back.The travel industry’s top executives are intimately familiar with the newest...

Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! Once every dozen years, the Lunar New Year celebrates the largest of all cats, one that Asian astrologers describe as uplifting, brave, and independent. All excellent qualities for the year ahead. Over 1.5 billion people around the world celebrate Lunar New Year. Festivities continue in some cultures for about two weeks, but the influence of...

Bears and whales and other marine mammals are high on everyone’s list for wildlife sightings in Alaska. But we think any trip to America’s Last Frontier is, well, ‘for the birds.’ With more coastline than the rest of the United States combined, as well as parks bigger than some countries, Alaska’s natural treasures include abundant populations of some of the...

Only once or maybe twice a decade, the Camino de Santiago becomes an even more remarkable hiking journey through Spain. Pilgrims and tourists have been hiking the “Way of St. James,” as it translates, since the 9th century. It’s a 500-mile (800 km) route across northern Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, the spiritual home of...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, but can you rank places that practically every traveler finds beautiful? One travel company in the U.K. wanted to answer that question, so they brought in some science and technology to help. They presented volunteers with dozens of images of famous natural destinations Eye-tracking software recorded data about which images the volunteers...

Anantara, the luxury hospitality company that connects travellers to the indigenous, grounds guests in authentic luxury, with over 40 hotels and resorts located in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, has had success this year hosting other types of guests – the pachyderm kind. The company’s charitable foundation, the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) works in partnership with local...

Looking at travel through five lenses: nature, adventure, sustainability, culture and history, and family, NatGeo’s experts have narrowed a world of travel riches into a list of 25 can’t-miss journeys next year.

Slow-moving, sweet-faced and gentle sloths have taken the world by storm, becoming one of the most beloved creatures in popular culture in the last few years. Formerly a synonym for laziness, sloths have become cultural darlings, with their famously adorable countenances that always seem to be smiling sweetly, 270-degree, slow head rotations, ability to hold their breath underwater for over...

This small French Caribbean island is known as the Isle of Flowers, the Rum Capital of the World, and now, its land mass, along with the marine zone around it, has become an over 12-million acre globally recognized eco-reserve. Martinique has been inducted into UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program, so now over 5% of the Earth’s landmass is recognized for...

To celebrate the release of the long-awaited new James Bond film, No Time to Die, the Jamaica Tourist Board is releasing some exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage. It showcases cast and crew from the movie, as well as some of the locations shot in Jamaica. The country has been part of the Bond legacy from the very beginning. Author Ian Fleming created the...

Sunken wrecks aren’t just fascinating destinations for underwater exploration or fantasies of pirate ‘days of yore’. Properly and carefully submerged, wrecks enhance natural reef ecosystems and provide new homes for marine plants and creatures. A new submerged ship is about to become a prime diving attraction in the 2nd-largest barrier reef in the world. It will also contribute to sustainability in a...

Canoes have become the ultimate symbol of Canada’s sub-Arctic indigenous people. Living where there are more freshwater lakes and rivers than anywhere else on the planet, they became one of the great inland water travelling cultures of the world.European arrivals quickly came to appreciate the indigenous people’s mastery of building and navigating their canoes. ‘Voyageurs’ and trappers adopted indigenous peoples’...

Whether African or Asian, elephants around the world are revered for their majesty, intelligence, and as an example of astonishing sensitivity in one of the world’s largest creatures. Seeing elephants in their natural setting remains a touchstone of travel for many who have African safaris on their bucket lists.August 12th is World Elephant Day, which celebrates these magnificent creatures. It...

There are more ‘Blue Holes’ in The Bahamas than anywhere else in the world, as well as the deepest Blue Hole on earth. From the surface, they can appear mythical, and in fact, Blue Holes feature in a number of Bahamian marine legends. But these distinct circles of dark blue water surrounded by an ocean of brilliant cerulean blue are not portals...

It’s one of the biggest trends in cruising. Not getting bigger, but getting out there. In style. Expedition cruises used to be only for the most intrepid travelers. You would join a working research vessel on its voyage to a very distant destination, tolerating the discomfort for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of getting up close and personal with the unique and fascinating natural...

New Zealand is in celebration mode in July with the arrival of Matariki. It's a constellation of stars that rises in New Zealand skies, shining their brightest in the first week of the month. Known to astronomers as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, Matariki is believed to have formed more than 100 million years ago, and this pre-historic cluster of...

Get out a sharpie – there’s a new ocean to label on your map of the world. Or globe, if you have one. You might have to update your travel bucket list, too. If you’ve already ticked off ‘visit all the oceans of the world’, you’ll have to uncheck that box. Even if you’ve seen, swum in, or sailed upon the...

The leaders of the world’s seven biggest democratic economies are meeting in Cornwall, England, and it’s putting the Southwest region of the country under a spotlight. Maybe you’ve heard of ‘bleisure’ travel? It’s about tacking on a leisure vacation to a business trip. We’re not sure if the leaders of the Western World have the time for a little independent...