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DIY

must haves!

Cant wait to get your vacation started but need something to entertain you until you say bye to work and aloha to the sunny beaches you're headed to?

DIY SLEEP MASK You will need: Mixing bowl 2 cups rice 1 tablespoon fresh herbs

It’s time to add some

color to your vacation

10 to 20 drops essential oil Sheet pan Parchment paper White sheet of paper

1. Measure and add the rice to a mixing bowl along with the fresh herbs. Rosemary, mint, lavender, or even fresh basil are all relaxing and rejuvenating scents. Amp up the soothing scent by sprinkling with your favorite scent of essential oil, and then stir the rice to coat.

2. Spread the rice on a parchment-covered sheet pan, pop into a 350ËšF oven, and bake for 15 minutes. This infuses the great scents into the rice, which will keep it smelling heavenly use after use.

3. While the rice is baking, create the template for making the eye mask.

4. Cut out the template, leaving one halfinch around the pencil line. Cut a square from the article of clothing and fold in half, with the patterned sides facing each other, and position the template over the fabric.

5. Now cut the fabric, creating the two sides of the eye mask. Thread a needle, and start sewing small stitches one quarter of an inch from the edges of the fabric.

6. Use a funnel to fill the mask, saving any remaining rice in a zip-top plastic bag for future eye mask making.

7. Use a small length of thread to stitch the mask closed. Cut an elastic headband in half, and then attach one end to the eye mask with a few stitches, securing with a knot. Do the same for the other side of the eye mask.

http://www.popsugar.com/smart -living/DIY-Eye-Mask-28915328

How to:Survive on a

Index

Desert Island Well, it’s happened again. You re shipwrecked and stuck on a lonely island once again, with only you handy travel magazine to keep you company. It’s happened to the best of us. Here are some tips on how to survive until that rescue team flies you to safety.

1.)Find fresh water, this is an essential to surviving for more than three days. So you should probably give it a go. If possible, boiling the water before you drink is the healthiest option.

2.)Go back to your roots and find a nice cave to reside in. Watch for: Bears, other predators, bats, cave people etc. No caves?

Time to construct a nice tent out of anything you can find. Leaves, mud, sticks, you get the idea.

3.

3)FOOD! Time to acquire an appreciation of sea food and protein packed insects. Keep in mind, cannibalism is not an option.

Please don’t eat your travel buddy.

4.)Try to create a fire, fire can have many uses. Including cooking, purifying water, warmth, and warding of dangerous animals.

5.)Its time to be the attention hog you try to suppress in everyday life. Figure out a way to signal your distress and get rescued! This can be done by having fires in visible places on the land, arranging rocks or branches into unnatural positions.

tanning studios

A

While many travel come to Madagascar for the wildlife, its landscapes are dramatic too. A trip drift in the Indian Ocean, the size of France but with about ten main roads, through Baobab Alley, preferably at dusk, is a must. As is visiting the strange limestone forMadagascar is one country where you can really mations in the Bemaraha Mountains. is a melting escape the influence of the modern age and espot, a vibrant mix of Indian, African and European cape to remote communities scarcely touched by cultures. Capturing the chaotic color of Malagasy the outside world. Increasingly it is being discov- life could well be the biggest challenge you face ered by naturalists and anthropologists as well as on your visit. (Well, that and getting a clear shot of a lemur.) Thankfully, Steve Davey is on hand with those who value its remote beaches. advice on capturing color on camera. Be bright, be bold, and contrast, contrast, contrast! If it’s inspiA stunning 90% of Madagascar’s flora and fauna ration you are after, then look no further than the are endemic, found nowhere else in the world. photos taken by our readers on their travels in These are protected in National Parks where rugMadagascar. http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/ ged hikes are needed to track rare species and in magazine/articles/advice/the-wanderlust-guide-to private reserves where, to appeal to the French -the-best-of-madagascar?page=all market, the lemurs are fed from the table and almost tame.

All this and natural beauty too. Straddling climate zones Madagascar has rocky wastes of spiny desert, patches of montane and tropical forest, intensively-farmed cool highlands and vanillascented lowlands basking in year-round warmth.

Life continues offshore: cross the golden-sand beaches and join the lateen-rigged wooden fishing boats: below the surface are little-dived coral reefs and big pelagics.

Madagascar is a dream for nature lovers, a veritable festival of wildlife, and Lyn Hughes knows just how to make of the most of it and the people who can help you. Lemur sightings guaranteed!

Mark Stratton went in search of one of the island’s more enigmatic residents, the Aye Aye. It’s a lemur too, but rather ugly... Staring eyes, ratty teeth, big ears and a long skeletal middle finger – but Mark discovers that they do have their charms.

The

Wanderlust

A Photo free vacation – Page 6

guide

A trip to remember—Page 8 Zodiacs go to Europe– Page 9 Unusual places to go in the USA – Page 10 The Wanderlust guide to the best of Madagascar— Page 12 How to: Survive on a deserted island— Page 14 DIY & Entertainment– Page 15

To the best of

Madagascar

A

Photo free

“Snap, snap, snap!” Millions of shutter buttons are clicking away around you as you reach for your own camera bag. “You can’t go to a monument or a concert or even a sunset without scads of pedestrians fiddling with their electronics, trying to save and share the experience.”

Joshua Fields Milnurn says in his article “Reasons I don’t Take Photos on Vacation”.

You have to show everyone back home the European wonders you saw in your Parisian trip across the ocean. You join the other tourists and begin clicking away; taking safety shot after safety shot just in case

Vacation

the previous picture was overexposed or didn’t capture that moment perfectly. But what moment are you really capturing?

“Oh remember that time we went to Paris and hid behind our DSLRS?” It’s time to change the way we vacation.

Though taking pictures and capturing the beauty of a special trip or event can be great to look back at, it can consume you and overtake the entire trip.

That pressure to get the perfect shot and to capture the environment around you is definitely there once you start and takes away from all the things you could have

kitchenette, tables, chairs, a sofa and bunk beds for six. The outhouse latrine is just 15 steps from the front door. There's no running water at the yurt; you can either carry bottled water on the 20-minute hike from the road where you parked, or use the buckets provided at the yurt to bring water up from the nearby brook, though be sure to boil the water first before bathing or drinking it. (I showered outside in full view - there's no one for miles around - by dousing myself in liters of Poland Spring.)

What started out as an underwater research station eventually inspired Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, one of the world's few operating underwater hotels. Dive down 21 feet below the surface and stay in one of three 20-foot underwater chambers where you can sleep, eat, and watch whatever swims by your window. Diving experience is a plus, although beginners can take a brief introductory course provided by the lodge before enjoying their accommodations. Forget bellhops!

Your luggage is brought to you in a watertight container. If you're feeling peckish in your capsule, order a pizza - also protected by a container from meeting a watery end. Founder and owner Ian Koblick, who is president of the Marine Resources Development Foundation, says the neighbor's are often as curious about the guests as he other way around.

"What can the fish see, that's what I say?" Koblick jokes. "There are manatees in the lagoon, and fish coming and going. It's a unique experience and the closest you'll ever come to living in another world other than going into outer space."

Step back in time

Route 66 stretches over more than 2,400 miles of scenic highway between Chicago and Los Angeles, and one of the quirkiest stops en route has to be a place where you can sleep in a Native American-inspired tipi. Wigwam Village )in Holbrook, Arizona, is a time capsule. Home to 15 one - and two-bedroom wigwams or tipis, the motel is on the USA National Registrar of Historic Places.

Opened in the 1950s, it has a mid-century appeal with vintage cars parked on the property, including an old Studebaker that once belonged to the owner.

Each wigwam is 21 feet wide at the base, 28 feet high, and contains handmade hickory furniture, beds, a sink, a toilet, and a shower. There is also a small collection of Native American artefacts and Route 66 memorabilia.

Love animals?

So do your hosts About 115 miles north of the Big Apple is the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary near legendary Woodstock, where the hippie movement came of age in 1969.

Opened in 2012, the sanctuary's new guesthouse, a renovated 19th-century farmhouse, has four bedrooms, a common kitchen and living area, and 23 acres of rescued goats, chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, sheep and a donkey named Diane. Volunteer on the farm by shovelling poop or cleaning coops and receive a discount on your stay (we are repeat visitors and volunteers!). Says co-founder and director Jenny Brown: "People love being able to see all the activity at the sanctuary from the windows and front porch. It truly creates a feeling of tranquility to be able to watch the http://www.lonelyplanet.com/interest/luxury-travel/ best-of-luxury-travel/content/travel-tips-and-articles/ unusual-places-to-stay-in-the-usa

Unusual places to stay in the

U S A

W

e all know that lodging can make a break or vaca-

tion, but staying somewhere unique - a tipi, say, or a giant bird's nest, or even spending the night underwater - can turn a humdrum holiday into an unforgettable trip.

America's entrepreneurial spirit knows no bounds, and that includes one-of-a-kind lodging you won't find anywhere else.

For those wishing to forgo hotel chains, consider taking a break at these places, which range from cozy, country bed and breakfasts to something more akin to an aquarium.

America's is at Tree-

only "Human Nest" for rent bones Resort (treebonesresort.com), a glamping hot spot in Big Sur, California. Built for two by eco-artist Jason Flynn, the Nest overlooks the Pacific and gets booked up several months in advance.

Call the design "twigecture", and if you don't mind sacrificing some privacy, the nest offers a one-of-a-kind view as you sleep in a tree under the stars (it doesn't rain much in Big Sur). "Although the nest is completely open to the elements, with no amenities besides an outdoor mattress, and a spectacular ocean view, it is our most popular accommodation," says manager Megan Handy, the daughter of owners John and Corinne Handy. "It is a very unique experience. We have 'nesters' who come back year after year."

Treebones also provides swish yurts, but if you prefer a more rustic experience, visit Falls Brook Yurts in Minerva, New York, hidden in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, which are part of the Appalachian Trail stretching all the way to Georgia. Yurting is great for lovers of the outdoors on a budget who don't want to invest in or haul all that camping gear. Inside the fully furnished yurt you'll find a working

experienced in your new environment.

Snap a few shots and then put the camera away. Don’t watch the world through a lens, because you will miss so much. “I do look differently at the world through the lens.

I’m trying to grab something; time, space, newness. What I’m not doing is really experiencing my surroundings.” Peter West Carey says in his article “How to take better pictures: leave the camera at home.” He continues “I’m not listening or smelling or feeling as much of the world around me…”

The more practical side of this argument could be that: You don’t need any gear to lug around. No heavy camera bags, lenses etc.

It’s just you and your memory capturing the beauty around you.

After all, you didn’t pay this much to show off to everyone back home, (At least I hope not.) You paid to experience, to feel On another note, nobody likes the culture and music and beauthat annoying family member that holds ty wrap around you and add a new point of up the group with their relentless picture view to your mind. Milnurn reflects on his taking. own time spent vacationing without his camera “I was able to enjoy each event for all its worth, not attempting to put a piece of it in my pocket to save for later.” Now I am by no means saying I’m against photography and using your tools to capture a moment forever, but everything in moderation.

A Trip to Remember “It just had a ruggedness to it” Loretta Thorleifson reflects as she reminisces about her long awaited trip to Ireland.

The trip included her husband and three more couples who were ready to take in the beautiful Irish landscape and charming accents.

The midJuly trip in 2014 would greet them with a pub in every town and an influx of music and culture.

underground heart of the grounds, and the most incredible part yet was the detail and thought put behind it. The entire mound was oriented in a way so that at the winter solstice, the first rays of the rising sun would shine directly through the heart of the burial grounds.

When asked what she took away from the her trip she recalls “they emApart from getting to know the country’s people, the group did some ex- brace their history and their culture and it runs really really deep” The writer also ploring. A particular location that stood asked if Ireland was portrayed correctly in out was the ancient burial ground they the media; Thorleifson states “The peovisited. It was used by ancient cultures in ple we met were so down to earth- it a way to honor the dead. They would sounds cliché but they were just like us” leave the ashes of their loved ones in the

Zodiacs go to Europe!

What inspires a local high school to host the ultimate field trip? History.

The 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge is what will bring GVC across the ocean in April 2017. One of the trips chaperones, Mark Wilson hopes to get around thirty students involved in this European adventure.

The nine day excursion will include traveling to London, Normandy and Paris.

the trip. The trip will be a learning experience since this will be many of the chaperones first time hosting a trip the size. “I think it’s going to be amazing”, Wilson states. Though it won’t all be fun and games, Mark Wilson informs us that this trip “does have an academic component”.

This exciting and unique opportunity will require a well thought out plan for the entire trip “Just moving a group of eighteen Though this is a school “field trip” kids around require some thought” the school will not be providing any Wilson expresses. Over all Wilson funding, students will have two states “ I don’t see a ton of issues, years to come up with the funds the kids are choosing to be there”. themselves if they want to go on