Montage Resort

Are you considering a visit to Cancun or the Riviera Maya, but are concerned with the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma this past October? You are not alone. I will share information from unbiased travel agents and travel industry experts that have seen the repair progress first hand. Hopefully, this will ease some of your concerns and get you back to the beach with a Margarita in hand!

The downtown Cancun region was the hardest hit of the resort areas in the Yucatan Peninsula and vacationers would be wise to avoid Cancun until late summer 2006. If you are a bargain hunter, you might be hard pressed to find discounts. Many of the overflow visitors scheduled to stay in Cancun have filled the resorts in the Riviera Maya.

As you might expect, the work to rebuild the tourist areas of Cancun and the Riviera Maya started immediately after Wilma had passed. The Mexican Government and the people of Mexico are working day and night to restore their beautiful resort destinations. They look forward to welcoming you back to relax on their white sand beaches. When you do return, you will find that many of the beaches in the Riviera Maya have been expanded. Some have decreased; it varies from resort to resort. Some of the properties are listed below. Cancun will begin a $20 million beach restoration project in December 2005.

The airport is fine, and undergoing minor repairs. Here is a breakdown of some of the individual resorts in the Riviera Maya that are accepting vacationers. You can find additional details and photos at GoAwayTravel.com.

Iberostar Paraiso Maya - looks great, beach is fine
Iberostar Paraiso Lindo - one restaurant is being repaired near the beach, property and beach are fine
Iberostar Paraiso del Mar - freshly painted on the outside, property and beach fine
Secrets Capris - looks great, gained more beach
Bahia Principe Tulum - at 100%, gained beach
Bahia Principe Akumal - at 100%, gained beach
Bahia Principe Coba - new hotel complete and ready to open
Sunscape Tulum (Dreams as of 12/15) - gained beach. New pool and some oceanview rooms will be ready 12/15.
Grand Palladium Colonial and Kantenah - looks great
Grand Palladium White Sand - new hotel, rooms are complete. Construction still going on with pool and restaurants but still scheduled to open on time
Barcelo Maya Tropical and Colonial Beach - new hotel, looks great, beach is great
Barcelo Maya Beach - everything was fine, freshly painted outside, beach is great
Adventura Spa Palace - repairing one restaurant, everything else is great. All spa facilities are fully functional.
Iberostar Tucan - hotel and beach are great. The jungle area is sparse but the animals are still there
Riu Yucatan - fully operational, still a great beach
Riu Playacar - fully operational, still a great beach
Riu Palace Mexico - fully operational, still a great beach

Jack Reidelberger is co-creator of the online travel website GoAwayTravel.com, a website that specializes in treating your vacation like it’s their own.

Tags: beaches, cancun, damage, hurricane, repair, Resort, riviera maya, update, vacation, wilma, yucatanbeaches, cancun, damage, hurricane, repair, Resort, riviera maya, update, vacation, wilma, yucatan

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Heavenly turquoise blue waters, lush tropical islands and Robinson Crusoe type isolation - these are just some of the images that come to mind when we think about travelling to the Maldives. Picture yourself lounging on the white sand beaches of the Maldives. In this article you will discover a new world altogether - a beautiful world beyond the imagination of most people. A world where you can be one of a small handful of people that have an island all to themselves. This world is called The Maldives.

Location Of The Maldives

The Maldives are a group of tiny islands that are set in the Indian Ocean - the closest countries to the Maldives are India and Sri Lanka. There are approximately 1200 separate islands in the Maldives and only about one sixth of these are populated. The capital of the Maldives is Male - the most densely inhabited island. But while Male, it seems, is simply bursting from the seams, there certainly are no space problems on the other islands. Male holds about a third of the Maldivian population while the remaining are scattered around various other islands.

Flora & Fauna That Inhabit The Islands & Surrounding Waters

Contrary to the first impressions of many, the Maldives islands are not especially hospitable to plants, mainly because the soil does not have the nutrients to support a large and varied diversity of plant life. The main type of vegetation include coconut trees, vines, banyan trees as well as mangroves. Also found are Breadfruit trees and Bamboos. Flowering plants include Bougainvillaea and Frangipani.

The islands have an incredible number of colourful, tropical fish and when you visit you’re bound to see many of them. A few of these include Butterfly fish, Dolphins, Anglefish, Parrotfish and Flutemouth. The colours and shapes of some of these fish are as varied and intriguing as their names would suggest. Divers are sure to have an experience of a lifetime in the Maldives.

While there are a healthy variety of birds inhabiting the islands, there are fewer varieties of land based animals. Common to the islands are flying foxes, geckos and garden lizards.

There are over 100 species of birds - expect to see crows, parakeets, and waterhens as well as koel birds. Also present are herons, seagulls and noddys.

Activities In The Maldives

The Maldives offers its guests a huge range of activities & recreation and depending on the resort that you choose you may get to sample a few or all of them.

Some activities are diving - canoeing - night fishing - island hopping - water and land sports.

According to Word Net, The noun Maldive Islands has one meaning: a group of about 1,200 small coral islands (about 220 inhabited) in the Indian ocean.

Make Maldives your luxury vacation and you can be relaxing on one of these islands!

To discover more about the Maldives, you can subscribe to Travel Maldives Network
Newsletter and receive every week more details, pictures and videos.

Tags: beaches, boating, diving, fishing, islands, maldives, Resorts, travelbeaches, boating, diving, fishing, islands, maldives, Resorts, travel

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The Seychelles islands cluster, off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is a tropical remote location. This collection of 115 islands is home to some of the world’s rarest wildlife. Unlike many of the other island clusters in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is large enough to support a healthy population of natives. Because some of the islands are fairly distant from one another, travel between them is accomplished by small airplanes, ferry or helicopter. If seeing nature is the goal, a private helicopter transport between islands is breathtaking.

On the capital island Victoria, there are marketplaces filled with cultural arts and crafts, museums detailing the rich French culture of the area, five-star restaurants featuring exquisite local cuisine and even a golf-course. Many Seychelles hotels and resorts are attractive destinations in and of themselves. On some of the smaller islands it is possible to schedule a local guide for a hiking trip or boat tour around the island. On these nature excursions, a glimpse of the rare giant tortoise is not uncommon. In addition, the islands feature lush green jungles alive with local birds, like the glamorous Seychelles Flycatcher. In fact, the Garden of Eden, from the Judaeo/Christian faith, is said to be located in the Vall

Tags: beaches, diving, fishing, holidays, hotels, islands, leisure, Resorts, seychelles, travel, vacationsbeaches, diving, fishing, holidays, hotels, islands, leisure, Resorts, seychelles, travel, vacations

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