Beaches and Islands

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne lies three miles from the mainland of Northumberland, England, not far from the Scottish border. It’s not only a picturesque site but a religious and historical place well worth a visit if one is traveling in northern England.

A little history
Since the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway at low tide, visitors must check the tide timetables located at the entrance to the causeway so as not to be stranded on the island for a much longer time than planned.

(First of four parts, jump to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4).

Freestyle Holidays (Somerset Mews, 9/5 Rosebery Place, Balmain, NSW 2041, Australia; phone [61 2] 1300 799 197 or visit www. freestyle.co.au) offers many different tour packages, and we chose their 12-day “North and South Islands” tour. Tourmasters (120 Albert St., Box 949, Auckland, New Zealand; phone 64 9 359 8380 or visit www.tourmasters.co.nz) helped us book the tour, March-April ’05.

Tourmasters also has “Thrifty” tours and the “Magic Traveler’s Network.” Tourmasters limits their business to domestic transportation and tours in New Zealand and local hotels, etc.

On the island of Crete, we stayed at the Minoa Palace Resort Hotel (73014 Plantanias, Chania, Crete, GREECE; phone 011-30-28210-36500 or visit www.minoapalace-chania.gr) in September ’05. Our third-floor room with a king bed overlooked the garden and pool and (if we stood on tiptoe) the ocean. €170 ($210) included a fantastic buffet breakfast.

The dinner buffet surpassed any buffet we’ve been to in recent memory. It cost €48 ($59) including wine.

My wife and I spent four days in Viña del Mar, Chile, in March ’06 prior to embarking the Rotterdam in Valparaiso for a cruise. Having been to Santiago before, we decided to try the seaside resort of Viña. The weather was perfect and the crowds were gone, since the “summer” school holidays ended early in March.

Driving oneself is one option for experiencing New Zealand’s scenic diversity. However, I want to describe an encounter my wife and I had with police on the South Island so that future drivers can at least be forewarned.

Heron Island Resort (write GPO Box 478, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia, fax +61 2 9299 2477, e-mail bookings@voyages.com.au or visit www.heronisland.com) is wonderful and right on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, about 40 miles from the shore of Queensland.

For those who fervently believe that “less is more” and “smaller is better,” we recommend Hebridean Island Cruises, Ltd. (Griffin House, Broughton Hall, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 3AN, England; phone 44 [0] 1756-704704 or visit www.hebridean.co.uk).

by Rick Steves

by Harvey Hagman, Ft. Myers Beach, FL

Little Paxos embodies what most people think of when they conjure up an image of an idyllic Greek island: brightly painted fishing boats; transparent, deep-blue water; small beaches in hidden coves; seaside tavernas; silvery olive groves; enchanting hiking paths, and little traffic.