http://www.viewpoints.com/Destinations Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:33:30 GMT Reviews about Destinations http://www.viewpoints.com/Tennessee-Aquarium-review-33393 Tennessee Aquarium: Two separate buildings, one for rivers and one for oceans.  I especially liked the Ocean Journey with the butterfly garden on the roof and the penguins.  You take an escalator to the top of the building and can see the beautiful Tennessee River through the glass walls.  Then you start your walk down circling around a huge aquarium in the middle and also side ones filled with fish, turtles, sharks, sea horses, jelly fish. — It is set on the Tennesse River and landscaped with fountains and water that the kids can play in, very family friendly.  Live dulcimer music was outside on Saturday morning.  Also available is an IMAX theatre just across the street, tickets can be purchased as a package with the aquarium or separately. — A wonderful place! —... Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:33:30 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Tennessee-Aquarium-review-33393 Jonesy 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Cedar-Island-review-ddd70 We spent last week at Cedar Island, North Carolina. This was our second trip to the island. My son graduated in June, so the vacation destination was his call before going off to college. His pick was was to go back to Cedar Island. That says a lot right there. — I found Cedar Island when looking at Vacation Rental by Owner (vrbo.com). That's a web site where individual home owners rent out properties. I was looking at the beach for North Carolina and South Carolina. Prices were high but lower at Cedar Island, so I read up and thought about it and ended up on a small island tucked behind Ocracoke Island on the outer banks of North Carolina. — We rented a cottage on Cedar Island and headed out there - not knowing what to expect really. — Cedar Island is a small island - about 5 miles long and a mile wide. The bulk of the land is governement land for fishing and hunting. I am talking real small town America. If you like neon lights, you can click on out as this is not... Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:02:53 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Cedar-Island-review-ddd70 CyndiA 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Great-Smoky-Mountains-National-Park-review-6c481 Need a Getaway....Love your mate.....or should I say, Love to be around your mate....if so then this is a GREAT Romantic Vacation Spot. Imagine the two of you relaxing in front of a fireplace on a cold wintery night with two glasses of wine and some nice Jazz music playing in the background..... —  I absolutely love this place, we go up every February for 5 days....we both have recommended it to all of our friends who most have gone at least once and enjoyed it!!!!!! —... Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:55:12 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Great-Smoky-Mountains-National-Park-review-6c481 mj4 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Nosara-Costa-Rica-review-13ee5 Costa Rica's Pacific coastline is like a pearl necklace --- a long string of beaches, each a jewel in itself, but strung together, greater than the whole of its parts. It's a stunningly beautiful seascape, with dramatic high stone bluffs, soft golden sand beaches, brilliantly verdant green tropical jungles, and huge crashing waves that draw surfers to Costa Rica like bees to a honey pot. — — Nosara is in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, on the Nicoya Peninsula. While Nosara itself is a small village with a largely American ex-pat population, it's also the access point to a series of remote pristine beaches. There's at least seven major beaches here, many with isolated lodges that make for killer surf vacation spots. Around Nosara, you also find luxury villas that seem somewhat surreal given the remote character of Nosara (you have to drive like 30 miles on a pothole filled dirt road to get to the town --- either that or fly in on a small puddle jumper from San Jose).... Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:31:38 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Nosara-Costa-Rica-review-13ee5 mrkstvns 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Sea-World-review-d7e15 my husband and I and our 15 month old son just got back from sea world orlando.  It was an awesome vacation.  The park at sea world was very accomadating to our needs as a family, were disney (mgm) universal studios was not.  — You could take the stroller with a sleeping baby into any show, they had signed seats for people who chose to do that, where as disney  would not let you in anywhere, and they had plenty of room for strollers. so while my son was napping we had to sit there and watch him b/c there was nothing else we could go to. — sea worlds shows were outstanding, the shamu rocks show truely rocked.  My son sat for the whole show of 25 minutes with his jaw dropped, and so did we. — you should check it out, truely amazing what killer whales can... Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:26:56 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Sea-World-review-d7e15 donnasideas 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Best-World-Heritage-Sites-in-Mexico-review-56294 I'm an egghead and I admit it. I love visiting places that tell a great story or that are so spectacularly scenic that I know I'm witnessing one of the wonders of the world. I'm talking about places so significant that they should be right at the top of any list of "places to see before I die." One of the best lists of truly stupendous sites is the UNESCO World Heritage list. I love UNESCO's list because it's so international in scope and because its focus is on the shared heritage of all humanity. Countries can nominate sites to the United Nations committee that maintains the list, but that's no guarantee they'll be included --- the sites are evaluated academically by an international panel to ensure that they really do reflect almost impossibly high standards of significance to all humanity. The list, available on the web at whc.unesco.org/en/list, is simply one of the BEST "MUST SEE" destination lists in the world. — Italy has more sites than any other country... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:01:11 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Best-World-Heritage-Sites-in-Mexico-review-56294 mrkstvns 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Presleys-Country-Jubilee-review-0ab55 After the 12 Irish Tenors we took Johnny back to the Angel Inn for a nap. We had a non-eventful dinner and then headed to the Eight O'clock show at the Presley's Country Jubilee. I had first seen this show when it sat alone on Highway 76 in Branson, the first theater show on what is now the famous Branson Strip, Country Boulevard. Back when my still young family and I traveled to Table Rock Lake for bass fishing and did a ltte touring in the evenings, this was the closest place to see quality entertainment. Back in those days it was not the flashy place on the outside that it has become. The entertainment by the, then much younger, Presley family was, however, just as good as it is today. —  Lloyd Presley took quite a risk when he moved his show from a cave in Springfield, MO to this place he had built. Just in case, he had large doors put in the back so he could use the building for boat storage if the show didn't work out. As far as I know he never had to store... Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:22:18 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Presleys-Country-Jubilee-review-0ab55 epsgambler 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Parque-Nacional-Santa-Rosa-Costa-Rica-review-d3cc3 Costa Rica's Parque Nacional Santa Rosa is the country's oldes --- and one of its biggest --- national parks. The park is a massive peninsula jutting out from the northern end of Costa Rica's long Pacific shoreline. The park is over 100,000 acres of rugged wilderness that lets nature lovers experience several very different kinds of ecosystems in one area, and although well-known, big enough and dense enough to easily escape the fairly small number of rugged outdoor-type visitors.  — The park has endless miles of rugged seashore featuring craggy cliffs, the occasional soft, golden sand beach, and endless stretches of deserted shoreline where dry forest, tropical jungle, or spartan rocky plain meets crashing waves. — — High Points of Santa Rosa National Park: — —... Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:26:25 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Parque-Nacional-Santa-Rosa-Costa-Rica-review-d3cc3 mrkstvns 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Freeport-Grand-Bahama-Island-Bahamas-review-24731 Freeport, Bahamas —  My husband and I traveled to Freeport in October 2005 for our Honeymoon. We stayed at Vivia Wyndham Freeport All-inclusive Resort. At the time we spent about $800 dollars on the room and we only had $1000 to spend. We were given 3 meal a day, drinks all day long and the option of seeing the sights. We traveled to the near by town and went shopping, had some lunch and went horseback ridding; that was a blast. I would love to go back again and see the beautiful water; the nice people, everyone there was friendly; and just go to get a way from "everyday life". —... Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:05:49 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Freeport-Grand-Bahama-Island-Bahamas-review-24731 hearsequeen 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Natural-Bridge-of-Virginia-review-ef277 Natural Bridge — — The Natural Bridge of Virginia — — www.naturalbridgeva.com — — Natural Bridge is both a natural wonder and an historic landmark.  Visitors can take a short shuttle ride or a slow walk down the Cedar Creek gorge to view the amazing phenomenon of this natural rock bridge.  After passing under Natural Bridge 215 feet above, there is an easy path winding between Cedar Creek and wooded hills dotted with the Saltpeter cave and Lace Falls. Along the trail there is a replica of a Monacan village where visitors can experience what life in a Monacan Village would have been like 300 years ago. The Natural Bridge and cedar Creek Nature Trail is open year round and the Monacan Village is open from April through November.   Natural Bridge is a fun family day trip, school or home school field trip or a nice romantic hike for couples.  — — The History of Natural Bridge: — — You’ll see... Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:53:38 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Natural-Bridge-of-Virginia-review-ef277 awlafon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/North-Country-Rivers-review-bcbb3 A bunch of us stayed in the platform tent- yikes! first off, the door was missing a screen and the mosquitos would have killed us- we TOLD the front desk and they gave us another one that the door was NOT the size of the frame...therefore the great outdoors was actually indoors! we all slept in one platform tent (rather than two). The tents are NOT cleaned-swept nor sanitized in any way,shape or form. spiders, old socks,trash,sticky stains,debris from people who stayed before us was still in the tent- I was disgusted. The employees were great-knowledgable and fun... NEVER  would i stay in the platform tent again! I would bring my own tent before I did that.- Our rafting trip was great yet the life jackets and the helmets stunk, literally. our guide was fantastic, food on the rafting trip was good, lodge food was okay.-  hm, im not sure I would stay again-actually I wont. (The cabins did look pretty nice though) — ... Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:41:14 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/North-Country-Rivers-review-bcbb3 ilikeclean 1 http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-01b83 Just went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. They have great new ticket specials besides having to buy a season pass. The price to pay for parking at $15.00 I thought was very high. The rides are very nice the lines were not bad for the big coasters but were horrible for the water rides. The Brand new coaster for the season was great they were running it very smart and fast which meant no lines. Wish there was more shade. I would recommend buying tickets online because the lines to buy tickets are very bad and long, along with being very slow. If you are going to ride the big rides don't bring any bag. They will not let you leave anything besides shoes on the outside of the ride anymore. Which sucks because they don't tell you that before someone you get there, which means someone doesn't get to ride. Overall It was... Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:18:54 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-01b83 campbear18 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/St-Augustine-FL-review-a37a2 My husband 6 yrs ago were married in St. Augustine. — We both had visited the area previously when we lived in Tallahassee, FL. — We both loved it and our wedding was nice overlooking the beach. — We can't wait to go back.   Lovely charm and spanish influence.  —... Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:59:20 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/St-Augustine-FL-review-a37a2 rbjllj 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-a74e1 We currently have season passes to Six Flags.  We bought them without going first, and wish we hadn't spent the money. — I am so disappointed wtih how old and run down everything looks.  Just a coat of paint would help.  You would think that having all winter closed they'd be able to paint. — The bathrooms are always filthy. — The rides are fun, and the kids always have a great time.  But as the adult I see all the ickiness. — Bottom line, fun rides, but dirty park. —... Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:39:53 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-a74e1 nollidttam 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/12-Irish-Tenors-review-ab3b2 On Monday we continued our enjoyment of sampling some of the over 130 shows Branson has to offer. This afternoon we went to the Branson Variety Theater to listen to and watch the two hour performance by The 12 Irish Tenors. Honey had wanted to see this group last year during our cross country trek but the theater was dark during our stay. One of the concerns we had this trip was getting Dad to his seat with a walker or transport chair. This theater was less accommodating than many, but an usher showed us how to get around the steps and to our close-in seats. —  The four of us settled in for a relaxing afternoon treat.  The 11 (one was away) tenors started the show with Danny Boy. They did a good job on this Irish standard. It brought back memories of a late night in a suite in Cedar rapids, Iowa when a friend of mine from Ireland told the story of the song and then sang it. There wasn't a dry eye in the suite by the time he finished. As they introduced themselves... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:49:35 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/12-Irish-Tenors-review-ab3b2 epsgambler 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Kauai--155606-review-6d824 This has to be the best of the Hawaiian Islands. If you could only go to one of these magnificent islands, this would be the one. It has everything from the Grand Canyon of the Pacific to bird sanctuaries at lighthouses, a rainforest, unforgettable beaches, waterfalls and... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:47:05 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Kauai--155606-review-6d824 Molly418 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Walt-Disney-World-Orlando-FL--24548-review-60550 Definately great fun for the whole family. So much to do for every age level, you can't possibly see it all in one week. I reccommend the value resorts. Since you don't spend a lot of time in your room, the value is great. Plus they have a lot on-site if you want to have some down time from the parks. Pools, arcades and a reasonably priced food court, also a very nice gift shop. Plus transportation right to any park you want to see. With everything included, it's definately the best value vacation you can get. But, if you can't stand the heat, don't try to go in the summertime. Right after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas is the best! Really comfortable weather, not too crowded, hardly any waiting in... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:49:03 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Walt-Disney-World-Orlando-FL--24548-review-60550 xenawannabe 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-c7b02 While visiting this park on July 4, my family and 2 guest encountered several problems.  We were directed to First Aid upon entering when we informed the security guard at check in that we had a Type 1 Diabetic and a child with severe food allergies.  He stated that we would be issued a pass to all rides allowing us to take the needed medications on the restriced rides.  When we arrived at First Aida10 am, we had to wait 10 minutes for them to answer the door.  They then informed us that security at the front gate has the passes.  We also had to endure their stories about other diabetics who had abused the privelage of taking needed items on rides.  We chose not to ride the special rides which would not allow us access to epi pen and gluco gon shot for diabetics.  Then, to top off a frustrating crowded day, my husband was accused by a young staffer of standing up on a water ride at the end of the ride.  We still can not figure out what or why... Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:57:11 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Six-Flags-Fiesta-Texas-San-Antonio-review-c7b02 outraged 1 http://www.viewpoints.com/Chicago-Illinois-review-ed3f2 There are plenty of attractions to please most travelers. There is a wide variety of things to do. It is possible to walk to avoid traffic problems. Downtown parking is very expensive, especially if you want to visit several places. However, you can get a one day or a few days CTA visitor pass and use public transportation very inexpensively, plus there are free streetcars to various tourist locales. There are plenty of places to eat and shop. Navy Pier is one of the attractions that makes the visit to Chicago very worthwhile. The Shedd Aquarium is outstanding. City passes can be purchased to visit the various museums and landmarks for a much cheaper price. Millenium Park is also a very wonderful attraction because it's free and there's so much to do.The water fountains have added so much to the summer visits to Chicago.... Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:08:37 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Chicago-Illinois-review-ed3f2 mommartin7981 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Hale-Ono-Loa-409-review-ab161  My family just visited Maui. We have been to Oahu and the big island which are all great destination places.  I use a web site called virbo.com for most of our vacations. They offer condo's and houses from individually owned people.  I found Hale Ono Loa #409 on virbo and decided it looked like the best place in Maui for the price.  What a find! The pictures on the website could not do it justice.  It was directly on the ocean with all the kitchen supplies and all the linens provided. We stayed for 10 days and enjoyed the view and the community which you could walk to most any place you would need. It was $275.00 a night but when you figure the cost of a hotel, and eating out every meal, well you do the math.  We ate out once in a while, but at the local fish market we could buy all the seafood we wanted at a great price. I highly suggest Hale Ono Loa #409 if you ever go to Maui, you will not be disappointed! Check out their website at... Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:06:53 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Hale-Ono-Loa-409-review-ab161 msmaui1 5