Travel – Page 2

THREE REASONS WHY NAXOS, GREECE SHOULD BE ON YOUR TRAVEL BUCKET LIST

November 24, 2021 by Little Miss Honey

With its endless natural beauty and easy accessibility from Athens and surrounding islands, it is easy to see why Naxos’ reputation is flourishing amongst holidaymakers. In fact, according to a recent study by Rightmove, searches for Naxos rose by a staggering 80% this year, with more and more foreigners searching for their dream holiday home here.

Though typically classed as a family-friendly destination, there is something to do for every type of visitor in this Cycladic paradise. Whilst you may have overlooked it in the past, now is the perfect time to jump on the Naxos bandwagon and explore all that the island has to offer.

Here are three reasons why Naxos has to feature on your travel bucket list:

Historical value

It’s a familiar story across all of the Greek Islands, but Naxos’ historical and mythological significance should not be understated. Legend has it that Zeus, the king of the Gods, grew up in Naxos, and a visit to his purported birthplace at the Cave of Zas should certainly feature on your itinerary.

Another of the main attractions for culture lovers is the Portara, found on the islet of Palatia to the northwest of Naxos. The imposing marble doorway stands as the gateway to what should have been the Temple of Apollo, but the structure was never completed, and all that remains now is the Portara.

Besides the stunning archaeological hotspots, you can explore the island’s history with a walk through one of its many villages, which have retained their historic charm. The traditional Venetian architecture popular across many of the Greek Islands is still evident throughout the main villages in Naxos such as Filoti and Halki.

Natural Beauty

Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades group and is home to a variety of different landscapes, from rolling valleys and sandy beaches, to the world-famous marble quarries. Be sure to get out and explore all that Naxos has to offer during your stay on the island.

Mount Zas is a hotspot amongst tourists looking to get off the beaten path and try the stunning hiking trails on offer. A trek to the summit of Mount Zas will take you to the highest point in the Cyclades, and present breathtaking views of the neighbouring islands. This particular hike is also popular amongst birdwatchers and botanical enthusiasts due to the high concentration of flora and fauna found here.

Local delicacies

With some of the most fertile land found anywhere in the Cyclades, Naxos plays an important agricultural role within the Greek Islands. An extensive range of produce is grown here, from potatoes to olives to oranges, and exploring the local culinary scene is a must for any visitor. Head to one of the many tavernas, where the chefs will be all too happy to celebrate Naxos’ local ingredients with a range of tasty creations.

Naxos gruyère is one of the island’s hallmark products, and remains very popular amongst locals and visitors alike. Such is the quality of the gruyère, it has held PDI (protected designation of origin) status since 1996. Why not wash down a portion of the famous cheese with some citron? Made from the locally-grown citron fruit, it’s usually served as a post-meal shot and is very sweet-tasting.

STAYCATION EXPERIENCE AT HILTON GARDEN INN DURING RAMADAN & LOCKDOWN

June 15, 2021 by Little Miss Honey

Since staycations has been our official way of celebrating birthdays in our family, we booked ahead for our sons’ birthdays. Last May, we booked a stay at Hilton Garden Inn for our 3rd son’s 3rd birthday. We, however, didn’t anticipate that there will be a lockdown plus it coincided with Ramadan time. We planned to drop by Philippines Embassy for some transactions but we learned they are closed! Lesson learned that we should have checked the schedule first before dropping by. We also dropped by Oman Avenues Mall to learn that all commercial establishments were all closed. Oppss! We just bought take out from Jollibee before heading to the hotel. We couldn’t eat in the restaurant or even in our car because it was Ramadan. Out of respect for our Muslim brothers and sisters, we should not eat in public until sundown. This practice is not new to me because I experienced that too when I was studying in Saudi Arabia that we should be mindful not to eat in public before sundown even chewing gum is prohibited.

We, then, headed to Hilton Garden Inn which is strategically located in Al Khuwair. It just nearby Jollibee and Oman Avenues Mall.

We were greeted by a nice friendly Filipina hotel receptionist, Ms. Janet. She helped us with the checked in. Check in was swift and easy. We were informed that the pool in the top floor is closed because of the pandemic restrictions. We got the King Connecting Family Room. We was basically two rooms with one King bed in one room and two single beds in the other when our two older sons will sleep in, with a connecting door to both rooms. We got the room at 34 Omani rials without breakfast included.

The design of the rooms are pretty much basic hotel decor with lots of beige colour. The view from our room is the street with a nice little garden park and a playground below. I like best is the lighting streaming inside our rooms.

The bathroom has a bathtub which the kids are happy about. No pool? No problem, as long as there is a bathtub, they are happy. Also their toiletries are from Crabtree and Evelyn which smells divine and feels luxurious on the skin.

Once we settled down, we prepared Zeke’s birthday cake and our Jollibee lunch. We bought again at Isfahan Sweets for birthday cake. We got the Honey cake again which is the same cake we bought for my birthday.

We rested a bit and watched a bit of TV. Since there is no malls open or the pool is not open for swimming, we headed down to the playground for the kids to play. The kids enjoyed playing at the free public playground which my husband and I relaxed at the nice garden park. There were a few people jogging around and some using the public exercise installations at the park.

Since the lockdown was imposed at 7:00 PM, we ordered delivery via Talabat using their easy-to-use app. We choose Yellow Cab for dinner time and the delivery was fuss-free and punctual. We got our food from the Talabat delivery guy and headed up to our room.

We had a very filling dinner. We enjoyed the rest of the night in our hotel room.

In the morning, we woke up a little late. We, again, ordered our brunch via Talabat. We choose Chowking for brunch.

We made sure we had a heavy brunch before check out because we will be heading to do grocery before going back home.

REVIEW OF HILTON GARDEN INN

Service: The reception staff were all very nice and we were able to do a quick check in without any hassle. We commend Ms. Janet from receptionist for the wonderful welcome and accommodating us with our needs. There was just a bit of delay when we were asking for some utensils for our room and we need to call housekeeping several times. However, they compensated by providing us with more water for our room and extra toiletries as well.

Cleanliness: The room was clean and the sheets were comfortable. We saw some rooms that placed their bag of trash outside their room, out in the hallway but it was removed immediately afterward when we went outside the room.

Location: The location was perfected located at the heart of the city with lots of restaurant and malls nearby.

Amenities: Too bad we weren’t to access the pool. Even if we weren’t able to access their pool, it was nice to have the park and playground below near the hotel. The lobby was darkly lit but well-designed. There is the usual digital key and wifi is fast.

In conclusion, we plan to book next time a stay in Hilton Garden Inn . We hope that time we can already use their pool. If we ask the kids how they find our staycation, they just happy with the simple birthday of Zeke. Kids just love hotel staycations. We are looking forward to staying at Hilton Garden Inn Muscat again.

Hilton Garden Inn Muscat

Address: OM, Dohat Al Adab St, 118

Phone: 22 515555

5 NETFLIX SHOWS / MOVIES TO PACIFY YOUR WANDERLUST – FOR NOW

October 21, 2020 by Little Miss Honey

This pandemic has thwarted all our travel plans for 2020. Ticket and hotel bookings has been cancelled. Our excited itching travelling feet are staying put in the comforts of our home. The most exciting travel adventure happening in our day would probably an occasional trip outside of our house to check if the plants we occasionally water is growing. Most days are spent at home watching a lot of Netflix. So to appease that wanderlust looming inside of us and inspire us hopefully for our next year’s travel adventure, we have Netflix to turn to. Here are 5 Netflix shows / movies to pacify our travelling pangs:

EMILY IN PARIS – Paris, France

This Netflix show will make you wish to be assigned to work in Paris for a year even if the Parisians are stereotypically portrayed there to be very cold and snobbish. The backdrop of the show, highlighting the beautiful Paris in all its glory from its iconic Eiffel Tower, the River Seine and Pont Alexandre III Bridge (where the sexist perfume ad was filmed) are as breathtaking as a secondary characters to Lily Collin’s Emily. The cafe scenes make you want to have your own cup of coffee and eating your chocolate croissant. The shooting location of the street-side restaurants are found in the picturesque square in Latin Quarter, just a few steps from the Pantheon. It is just nice to fantasize that you are having a nice lunch of baguette at Jardin du Palais Royal and finding a new expat friend like Mindy to be your meilleur ami in your Paris adventure. The show also featured Musee des Arts Forains, a private museum for special events where you can take a ride in a 120-year old wooden merry-go-round; Cafe de Flore, nabbed as ‘the coolest cafe in all Paris’ according to a French man Emily met one night and also known one of the oldest coffee house in the city; and seeing a glimpse of the glamorous steps of Palais Garnier, a venue for ballets & concerts.

Ahhh, Paree, can’t wait to visit you someday, drink coffee at the street-side cafes and eat all the chocolate croissants to my hearts desire….

2. CRASH LANDING ON YOU – Switzerland

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Crash Landing On You was the first kdrama that got me into the kdrama fever – a story of love against all odds. It was just beautifully made – the story, the characters, the cinematography, everything. Though most of the story was situated either in South Korea or North Korea, there were parts of the show that was filmed in Switzerland. Despite Switzerland’s brief cameo in this series, you can’t help but wanted to be transported into the tranquil and romantic landscape of the Swiss. Who cannot forget the landing stage where Captain Ri play his own composition with his piano in front of Lake Brienz? There was the Sigriswil Panoramic Bridge where Captain Ri asked scared Seri to take the photo of him and his fiancé, a great place to take photos of the Bernese Alps. If you are into adrenaline rush, you would want to try paragliding in First Flieger in Grindelwald where the couple reunited in Switzerland. But if you are more into shopping, you can check out the Schwiezer Heimatwerk, a chain of souvenir shops in Zurich where Seri and Seo Dan went to buy chocolates. Of course, the scene of the picnic in Lake Lungern surrounded by lush greenery & clear blue lake like Captain Ri and Seri had seems to nudge me to go to refrigerator and make myself my own tuna sandwich with a glass of iced tea.

3. FALLING INN LOVE – New Zealand

If we have series of bad things happening in our life, we couldn’t help but want to escape, right? That it is what Christina Millan’s character in this romcom movie, Falling Inn To You. After a break-up and losing her job in San Francisco, she claimed an inn in New Zealand (?!!) she won from a spontaneous entered Internet contest. With nothing to lose, she flew to the Land of the Long White Cloud to check out her inn, which was nothing but a rundown old thing. (It, later, became her passion project to fix it with a help of a handsome New Zealander and turn it into a lovely Bed and Breakfast.) But apart from the broken-down inn, everything was idyllic and charming. Most of the film as shot in the North island of New Zealand. The lovely village and one of the Bed & Breakfast featured in the film was filmed in Thames. There is, of course, the lovely scene having picnic and a swim at Bethells Beach (Te Henga) with new Kiwi friend. Sometimes, we just want to rediscover ourselves as we get lost in a new country, reinventing ourselves, discovering a pet project and letting things unfold as we journey on.

4. EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF THE FIRE SAGA – Husevik, Iceland

Best thing to bring during your travels is our humour. We need to have good laugh when we travel because usually things don’t go the way we plan it. This movie gives me lots of hearty belly laughs, good music and an yearning to go to Iceland to visit elves & create my own homemade music video. I am not a big fan of Will Ferrell’s weird type of comedy but Rachel McAdams has an amazing ability of creating magnetic chemistry with almost everyone (if not all) she is paired with. The movie was just a perfect tourism campaign for Husavik, Iceland. Check out the song they made for Husavik. I love it! It is spine-tingling. Husavik is known to be the country’s whale watching capital. There you will find the Skogafoss , one of the magnificent Icelandic waterfalls where the singing duo made of their home-made music videos. The Husavik harbour looks colourful and interesting panorama to photograph. Though if I were to travel in Iceland, Husavik may not be the main place where I want to go to but the movie gave me a peek of Iceland, tickling an interest in me to see more of it. The film gave me more of a curiosity towards Iceland than the raved Filipino movie (also available in Netflix), Through Night & Day, a bittersweet story of engaged couple travelling around Iceland which made them reexamine their whole relationship. The Eurovision movie didn’t only feature Iceland but also some film locations were in Scotland, Israel and England.

5. THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS – Barcelona, Spain

Nothing feels more like you are really travelling when you hear the people around you speaking a foreign language. So brush up on your Espanol and check out the Spanish film, The Laws of Thermodynamics featuring the lovely Berta Vasquez. The story is about a physicist played by Vito Sanz show how his relationship with Elena played by Berta Vazquez will end up in a disaster because it was determined by the laws of physics. The film was shot in different parts of Barcelona, showing off the various streets of Cuitat Vella like Paseo Picasso & Merce Square. Some of the scenes were located at University of Barcelona, Mossèn Verdaguer Gardens, Carles I Park, Ciutadella Park, Horta Labyrinth Park and Somorrostro Beach.

Hmmm, Barcelona, you are so muy hermosa. Hasta la vista!

I hope these films made you travel safely in some way in the comforts of your own home and give you some tips where to go to when travel bans will be lifted. Hopefully we can go back to days when we can leisurely plan our escapades without any fear of health risks. If you have other movies / shows to recommend for our home-travel, pls do share…