DVD Blog Review

There are lots of destinations for people interested in sailing and if you are tired of the Virgin Islands then try the rest of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean islands are part of an island chain stretching 2,500 miles. Given the enormous distance, it is no surprise that tourists spend weeks out there in order to get pleasure from the splendour that it has to offer.

Just like in the Virgin Islands, there are lots of charter firms you can try for various hobbies. These firms come in different sizes, but perhaps the best is the yacht charter.

When you charter a yacht, apart from the yacht, the other elements and benefits that come with it are meals, separate guest rooms, a galley, toilet and shower.

Since you are the paying guest aboard the boat, you can customize the menu by telling the crew before the voyage what you want to eat. You can help out by buying the provisions yourself, having someone from the crew do it for an additional fee or choose a set menu from one of their pre-composed packages.

Since most of the islands in the Caribbean are small and uninhabited, you are sure to explore places that not many have seen. But if you can’t afford to rent a chartered yacht, don’t worry because you can probably get one that will cost as little as $50 if you are able to book a pre-arranged trip with several other guests to share the cost.

One thing you ought to be prepared for during you sailing vacation is the possibility of a storm. These generally occurs during the months of June to November. If you are not sure that this is the best time, book the trip on another date.

But if you are adamant about going on your dates, there are some online tools you can use to check if the area you will be sailing in has ever been hit by a storm before.

The other option is to plan your itinerary to the Caribbean islands further south because they are less likely to be affected by a storm. These places include the islands of Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, and Turks and Caicos.

If you like the idea of going sailing around the Caribbean there are ample opportunities. You could do far worse than start in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands and travel south or west. If you start in St Croix, which the pirates of old used to call Santa Cruz, you will not need a passpert and can take your pets with you, but you will need more ID if you call into foreign islands.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Are you thinking of taking a vacation in the near future? How do you normally go? Do you fly there and then sort yourself out or do you take vacation packages? It is clear that vacation packages are simpler and usually cheaper too.

If you go DIY, you will need to book reservations on an airplane or a bus and a hotel and taxis and a car hire company. If you would rather avoid all this, you could book either a vacation package of one of the all inclusive vacation packages.

Although many vacation packages are extremely good, some people refuse to use them. This can be for several reasons, but the most common are out of a of feelings of adventure, independence and snobbishness. In fact, most of the people who do not take vacation packages are younger, single individuals.

Married people with families are the main users of vacation packages and especially all inclusive vacation packages. There is a difference between the two types. All inclusive vacation packages are grand for families with hungry children. You know, the normal kind, who are always saying: ‘Give me a dollar for an ice cream, Dad’ or ‘I’m hungry, Mum!’.

On an all inclusive vacation package, all of these snacks and three main meals a day and all drinks are included in the cost of the holiday – hence, the name, all inclusive vacation package.

However, there is more to it than that. All inclusives also incorporate on site games and amusements and some others as well. For example, a Caribbean all inclusive vacation package might include the use of snorkels and goggles, but it would seldom stretch to the use of scuba gear or wet suits.

Another benefit of the all inclusive holiday resort is that they often cater for families with young children. They may supply child alarms in the chalets and free entertainment for adult holiday makers in the evening and night too. The resort might also provide baby sitters and a free taxi into town.

All inclusive vacation packages are a very different product from normal vacation or rental packages. All inclusives are more geared towards families with young children between, say five and fifteen, because children of this age eat a lot, although it is usually junk food, which typically costs a lot on holiday, but is in fact, cheap to make. The evenings’ entertainment is also on site so that parents can be easily reached if there is a problem.

On the other hand a normal vacation package will usually provide breakfast only, so that you can go out for the day and do what you like.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix all inclusive vacations. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

The US Virgin Islands came into America’s possession in 1917 after Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to it for $25m in gold. At the time, the USA was worried that the Germans would gain control of the islands and use them as a base from which to launch attacks on America.

The status of the US Virgin Islands is one of an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. This means the residents of the US Virgin Islands are US citizens, but cannot vote in US presidential elections. Therefore, US citizens do not need a passport to visit the US Virgin Islands.

The US Virgin Islands are part virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward islands of the Lesser Antilles along with the British Virgin Islands. The three main islands of this American territory are called Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas. There is also a much smaller island called Water Island. All together, there are about 60 islands with a total surface area of 133.73 square miles, although most of the islands are uninhabited.

The four main islands of the US Virgin Islands are known to their residents by nicknames. These are ‘Twin City’ (St. Croix); ‘Rock City’ (St. Thomas); ‘Love City’ (St. John) and ‘Small City’ (Water Island) and their total population was 108,612 in the 2000 census.

Since the 1960’s, the islands turned their focus from agriculture to heavy industry and tourism and the US Virgin Islands are a very popular destination for American tourists and honeymooners. It is very easy for Americans to get there because a passport is not required, the islands are only 1,730 miles east south-east of Miami, the currency is the US dollar and everybody speaks English.

The islands enjoy an arid, pleasant climate. The average temperature in the capital, Charlotte Amelie, is 33c in the summer and 30c in the winter. September to November are the wettest months and February and March are the driest. The USVI are subject to hurricanes. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was particularly devastating, but the islands were also hit in 1998, 1999 and 2008.

Tourism is the industry that most of the islanders are engaged in and about 2,000,000 people visit every year, many of them on cruise liners. St Thomas and St Croix are the best equipped to deal with tourists offering hotels and resorts along with lovely beaches and fine restaurants. Water sports are the main activity, although tourists can also hire horses or jeeps to discover the interior of the US Virgin Islands.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Saint Croix is the biggest of the US Virgin Islands although the capital city, Charlotte Amelie, is located on St Thomas. Saint Croix itself has two towns Frederiksted (pop. 830) and Christiansted (pop. 3,000). The name of the island comes from the earlier Spanish name given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 – Santa Cruz or ‘Holy Cross’. As Santa Cruz, Saint Croix gets a lot of mention in swashbuckling stories of pirates and buccaneers sailing on the Spanish Main.

The populace before the Europeans arrived was Arawak and Carib and they had probably been there since about 5000 BC. After 1493 the population of the Caribbean became embroiled in a 100 years war with the Spanish and the kind of people living on the island changed forever.

Saint Croix has been owned and therefore predominantly occupied by the Spanish, The British, the French, the Dutch, the Maltese and the Danish all of whom had slaves and plantations

The slaves were manumitted in 1848, but many chose to stay on Saint Croix. Descendants of slaves still live on the island. The total populace of the island is now roughly 60,000.

English is the official language and is the most commonly spoken, although there is also some Spanish, French Creole and Virgin islands Creole, also known as Crucian, which is spoken by most inhabitants in informal situations.

This Hispanic section of the Crucian population is mostly of Puerto Rican descent. The US bought Vieques from Puerto Rico during the Second World War and evicted its inhabitants. Many moved to St Croix because of its resemblance to Vieques. These people have integrated well, but also kept a few of their old customs. They frequently speak a mixture of Spanish and Crucian English in a distinctive form of Spanglish.

Continental Americans make up about 13% of the population and mostly live on the eastern side of St Croix. Arab Palestinians are also a sizeable minority owning most of the petrol stations and supermarkets on St Croix. Other modern immigrants have come from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

There has been some tension between immigrants and those calling themselves ‘real Crucians’, but it has largely evaporated because of to intermarriage. There have been attempts to define a ‘real Crucian’.

The matter seems to have been sorted out when in 2009, the recommended U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention proposed three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: “Ancestral Native Virgin Islander”, who have ancestral ties (and their descendants); “Native Virgin Islander”, who were born on the island (and their descendants); and “Virgin Islander”, who are any United States citizen who has lived in the territory for five years.

Christianity, in the guise of Protestantism is the predominant religion, although the Hispanic community is Roman Catholic. There are also small groups of Jews and followers of Rastafari, Islam.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

After your wedding day, your honeymoon is one of the most memorable times of your life and so must certainly count as one of best vacations you will ever take. It is the beginning of a new life with the person you love. As such it is a good reason to visit somewhere you have always wanted to go, somewhere really special.

One of the most popular places for people to go to on a honeymoon is St Croix, The US Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is the first choice for many newly weds for several reasons: the romance, the people are happy and welcoming, the sand, sea and sunshine, the food and the music. St Croix in the US Virgin Islands is one of the most well-liked destinations in the Caribbean islands.

St Croix has beautiful beaches and that perfect tropical climate that is so appropriate for a wonderful honeymoon. The hotels and the island’s inhabitants love to take care of newly weds and go out of their way to make sure that the honeymooners have the time of their lives – a holiday that they will remember fondly for ever.

Expense is always a factor when one is planning a honeymoon in the Caribbean, but you do not have not be too worried on that front. A honeymoon on St Croix need not be costly and as it is only 1,300 miles from the USA, so travel costs and travel time are low.

You will not have trouble finding somewhere on the island to suit your desires. However, St Croix is a popular honeymoon destination, especially for Americans, so it is worth booking your honeymoon holiday as early as possible in order to secure the reservation that you want.

There are three main kinds of places to stay: a hotel, a vacation rental or a holiday home. The difference between a vacation rental and a holiday home is that the former is a condo or villa purpose built for holiday makers, whereas the holiday home is actually somebody’s house who has let it out for a short period.

When planning your honeymoon, you should think about when you will leave. It was traditional to leave for the honeymoon after a short reception on the day of the wedding, but many couples delay their departure date nowadays. Over the last few decades, it has become the standard to hold an extensive reception hours after the wedding, often at night. This will often go on until midnight or later, which makes leaving for foreign climes rather difficult. A hangover is not a good travelling companion either.

Therefore, you may want to put your going away date off until two days after the wedding, although I think that flying out on the wedding day is still the best idea. If you decide on a holiday home or a vacation rental on St Croix, you will have to make all your own preparations for getting to the airport, flying to St Croix and getting a taxi from the airport to your place of stay, so I suggest that for this, your first visit to this beautiful island, you take a package holiday, which will take care of you from your local airport to your hotel on St Croix and back again.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

The Florida snakes, together with the turtles, lizards, alligators and other reptiles are all part of a complex wildlife structure that plays an incredible role in the maintenance of Florida’s ecosystem. There are numerous species of Florida snakes. There are forty-four species living in an incredibly varied habitat, ranging from salt marshes and fresh water marshes to dry uplands and coastal mangrove swamps to residential regions.

Only six Florida snakes are venomous, and they happily live with their non-poisonous cousins, even venturing into towns and cities too. The best way to stay out of trouble with snakes is to care enough to learn about their morphology and therefore become able to identify the Florida snakes. A relaxed attitude of avoidance is the wisest thing a human being could show in relation to snakes.

The Coral snake and pit vipers are the most dangerous Florida snakes. They can be identified by a wide range of characteristics. Pit vipers include the Rattlesnake, the Cottonmouth and the Copperhead. They all have vertical eye pupils, a v-shaped head and facial pits: one between the eyes and nostrils and the others on each side of the head.

The venom of this type of Florida snakes is haemotoxic, which means that their poison works on the red blood cells, destroying the walls of the blood vessels and causing uncontrolled bleeding. Coral snakes however, use a neurotoxic venom, the toxins of which act on the body’s nerves causing paralysis.

Most of the snake bites reported every year in the United States are caused by Florida snakes or by rattlesnakes to be more precise. Because their venom spreads very quickly throughout the body, the victim will die within less than thirty minutes without immediate anti-venom.

A big exception in this group of Florida snakes is the copperheads, the venom of which rarely requires an antidote. Their toxins are the least potent and so they are considered t be the least dangerous of the poisonous Florida snakes.

It is precisely because of the danger that they present that poisonous snakes get the most attention, although the most common of Florida snakes is the Black Racer, which is a non-toxic species that depends on its sharp fangs to hold onto its prey.

Although home owners usually try to remove snakes from their gardens, specialists point out that, without them, rodents would soon multiply out of control giving us an even more cause for concern.

So, unless you have special causes for concern, like snakes breeding in great numbers in your garden or outhouses for instance, there is no valid reason to interfere with the lives of these usually retiring, helpful animals.

Interested in the Florida snakes? To learn more about snakes visit Caring for Snakes our new web site.

People work harder these days than ever before. If not physically harder then longer hours and we are entitled to a break from that once in a while. The majority of us go on holiday and we look forward to it months in advance and we plan for it even further ahead. Where do you like to go or what do you like to do? I personally like to go on a cruise and a Caribbean cruise is a good choice.

People think a cruise, specially a Caribbean cruise as being expensive, and cruise operators want to uphold that elite image, but I see the cruise as being an up-market all inclusive holiday. Probably, it is the original all inclusive holiday, because once you walk up and off that gang plank, everything aside from drinks is free. Everything and everything is first class hotel style too! We are not talking pizza and chips here, but five or six course meals and five or six times a day.

It is common knowledge, that if you go on a cruise you can expect to gain a pound or two a week (I put on five pounds on my last cruise), unless you do some exercise. What exercise? Cruise liners have swimming pools and gymnasiums! Not only one but several. Some even set aside a deck for running at certain times of the day. There really is no excuse for not exercising on a Caribbean cruise.

Caribbean cruise liners offer more sports facilities than just gymnastics too. In fact, except for horse riding, I think that most sports are catered for. Basketball, volleyball, swimming, clay pigeon shooting, fishing, bird watching … You name it. Caribbean cruise liners also have Internet connections, games machines and full office facilities. During the evenings there are first class shows, often two a night, movies in a cinema and a casino.

If you have never been on a Caribbean cruise, it is difficult to explain the amount of luxury that is on offer. It is more than a first class hotel. In a first class hotel, you pay first class prices for everything too, but on a Caribbean cruise liner, everything but drinks is free and even drinks are cheap because they are duty-free. The cruise liner will have a shop too where everything it sells is duty free!

Some Caribbean cruises are themed and it is worth noting this fact. Also some times of the year, especially early February are predictable. I once naively went on a Caribbean cruise for a fortnight which spanned St Valentine’s day. I was a single man then and the other 1200 were amorous couples. There was only one single woman on the cruise and there was no rapport between us. I did not not enjoy that Caribbean cruise, because people took we under their wing, but it made me think about the time of year when I next booked up.

Caribbean cruises, especially the better ones, will fill up quickly, so this is one holiday that you really ought to book well in advance. A year in advance is not too early. I like to book my Caribbean cruise a year in advance, but put my name down for any last minute cancellations, in case I can pick up a bargain.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.