Categories
Layovers | Stopovers

Istanbul Layover: Touristanbul Half Day Free City Tour

We had previously taken advantage of Turkish Airlines stopover program where you get a free hotel room simply for adding a day or two to your itinerary to spend in Istanbul. For shorter stops, Turkish Airways also offers their Touristanbul program with a variety of tours at different times of the day and different venues […]

Categories
Trip Ideas

Manila, Philippines: A Half-Day City Tour

With only a day to explore Manila before heading out to our dive resort for some scuba diving in the Philippines we opted to take a half day tour to visit some of the city’s most important attractions. Some of the most notable places we visited were located in and around Intramuros, the historic walled […]

Categories
Layovers | Stopovers

Qatar Stopover: Doha City Transit Tour Excursion

While we love flying Qatar for the service and comfort, one of the drawbacks on many itineraries from Miami are the long layovers in Qatar. Don’t get me wrong, the airport is beautiful and has many wonderful lounges and shops, but, when you have 8 or 10 hours like we did recently on our trip […]

Categories
Dive Vacations Trip Ideas

A Pre- and Post- Scuba Vacation Stay in Bali, Indonesia

We were on our way to scuba dive in Wakatobi, a small island in Indonesia, and added a pre- and post- stay in Bali to acclimate and give us some buffer between our international and domestic flights. From Miami we flew Qatar airways through Doha, where we also had time to do a little sightseeing […]

Categories
Dive Vacations Scuba Diving

Scuba Diving Vacation at the Wakatobi Dive Resort

With all we had read about the Wakatobi Dive Resort, we had high expectations. And we weren’t disappointed! We have to admit that all the good things we had heard turned out to be true. Run like a Swiss clock, every detail was taken care of making the experience of staying at Wakatobi simply a […]

Categories
Trip Ideas

A Few Days in Phuket, Thailand

We finished up our Cambodian holiday and since we were connecting through Bangkok, we decided to add a short 3-day stop in Phuket, Thailand. We had visited Phuket over 10 years ago and had fond memories of the scuba diving and the beautiful beaches. This time, we also decided to see some of the local […]

Categories
Dive Vacations Scuba Diving

Phuket Scuba Diving Adventure

We had recently done a trip to Cambodia where we flew through Bangkok and this gave us the perfect opportunity to do a short local flight to Phuket for a bit of scuba diving. We had also explored diving destinations closer to Bangkok, but most reviews suggested that the diving would be better in Phuket. […]

Categories
Trip Ideas

Temples of Angkor and Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap, Cambodia, is of course best known for Angkor Wat. In reality there are numerous temples in the Angkor area that were constructed between the 9th and 14th centuries during the Khmer Empire. It’s interesting to see a sampling of these temples, especially with a guide that can help explain and describe the history […]

Categories
Layovers | Stopovers Trip Ideas

3-Day Stopover in Istanbul, Türkiye

We had been trying to get to Istanbul for many years. We had at first booked a cruise that was cancelled due to the pandemic. Then had a second cruise booked with a scheduled overnight stop, but there was an incident, and they cancelled the port again and took us to Izmir instead. This time […]

Categories
Scuba Diving Trip Ideas

Scuba Diving Outing in Phuket, Thailand

One of our first exotic dive destinations was Thailand. While we were just newly certified and this was mostly a traditional holiday, we could not resist the opportunity of diving in the Andaman Sea. Diving in Phuket was the perfect conclusion to our Thailand adventure and a great dive destination. Up until then, we had […]