Sun soaked Miami, Florida is a vacation destination for visitors across the country and world wide. Known for its year round warm climate, tropical beaches, and energizing nightlife, Miami has been a hotspot for decades. Palm tree lined streets and a beach atmosphere makes for a perfect travel getaway.

Miami is a crossroads of American and Caribbean cultures and the city blends its flavor and influences to share with the world. Any visitor spending a weekend in Miami can have a fun filled vacation, experiencing all the city has to offer, while maintaining a healthy, green lifestyle.

The Clifton South Beach Hotel brings the stylish, chic atmosphere of Miami living to its guests. It is one of the premier South Beach hotels, located just steps away from the famous tropical beach, restaurants, and bars.

The Clifton South Beach Hotel sets itself apart from other properties by putting in impeccable, environmentally friendly attention to detail. The interior furnishings are made with recyclable and renewable materials. This includes areas like the dry wall, to the mattresses. The paints used throughout the building have zero volatile organic compounds.

Each room comes with bath products that are good for the environment. The Carlton South Beach is a LEED hotel, and a carbon neutral hotel. The exterior of the hotel stays true to its art deco roots; a popular architectural style seen throughout beautiful South Beach. Staying at the Carlton South Beach gives guests an optimal location and can satisfy any environmentalist’s needs.

A first stop on any Miami itinerary is often to the legendary beach. Taking in the soft white sand and turquoise colored ocean is a breathtaking scene for any new visitor, or long time visitor, to South Beach. Finding an empty spot of the sand and spending the day at the beach is a fun, free, eco friendly activity for anyone to enjoy.

Bringing a picnic lunch with locally sourced food is a healthy option to a day at the beach. Working on a golden tan, cooling off in the clear ocean, and playing a game of volleyball are all popular ways to pass the time in South Beach.

Enjoying the outdoors is possibly one of the most fulfilling ways to appreciate the environment. However, while doing so, it is always important to keep the beach clean and the way it was originally found.

Getting around South Beach has never been greener. Walking is an easy, healthy way to get around the neighborhood. Visitors taking a stroll along famous Ocean Drive can get some exercise and pass through one outdoor restaurant after another.

Swoop, a newly introduced company, makes traveling through South Beach eco friendly, and free. Swoop is a line of electric golf carts, seating up to six passengers at a time, that brings people around the South Beach neighborhood. Passengers can go run errands, go grocery shopping, or be dropped off at their favorite restaurant.

Swoop operates every day of the week from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. This free service is now a well known way to easily get around town, without doing any harm on the environment.

South Beach streets are full of shopping opportunities. The pedestrian only street of Lincoln Road gives people an all around outdoor shopping and dining experience. People can browse through stores, sit at an outdoor café, and spend some leisure time in the relaxed ambiance.

Mango Tree, a shop located on 6th street, is full of products made from local artists. The store sells a variety of soaps, lotions, and incense. Shopping there is a green way to bring back some souvenirs and support the artisanal products made by locals in South Beach.

For some, getting pampered is part of the ultimate relaxing vacation. Uhma Spa is an organic spa in the heart of Miami where all soothing and pampering needs can be taken care of.

All organic products are used in the different spa treatments available. Anything from back massages, body treatments, and the famous Sabai Healing Massage blends professional skill with natural products.

Uhma Spa takes a cultural spread of treatment practices, from holistic Indian traditions to aromatherapy from Europe, and makes their services good for the customer and environment.

The shop at Uhma Spa also offers a line of organic products to take home, including makeup, hair products, candles, and items for children. A day at the spa will have visitors leaving rejuvenated and refreshed, ready for a night out on the town.

Dining out in style is made easy by the numerous amounts of chic and contemporary restaurants all around South Beach. Escopazzo is an organic Italian restaurant, serving up dishes made from fresh ingredients. Offering up a menu full of favorite Italian meals, including anything from pasta, fish, meat, and raw food, Escopazzo is a great place to have a nice meal with organic products.

After a meal of delicious Italian food, tropical cocktails and nightlife await on Ocean Drive, where it is easy to dance the night away until the early morning hours. Taking in the sights and scenes of Miami, from the shopping, dining, to the beach, is now full of green places to explore.

The article An Eco-Friendly Weekend in Miami appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

For tourists around the world, going to Barcelona could be a dream vacation. When they hear about the famous architect “Gaudi”, “Colon”, “La Ciutadella”, “Las Ramblas” and “Plaza Cataluña”, they will automatically think about Catalonia’s capital. Travelers get to know the city while visiting the most popular monuments, but from a local point of view getting to know the city takes longer.

Art, literature, and history are important reasons for visiting a city. However, Barcelona is not only known for cultural wonders. For football supporters, follow the Football Club Barcelona Tour. Only one ticket grants entrance to the New Camp, Barça museum or any VIP area popular among tourists.

Barcelona’s nightlife is breathtaking. There are clubs, bars, pubs or even karaoke bars for any age and style. You could find a wide range of bars and clubs:  House music, R&B, Latin music, Techno or Dance, whatever you feel like dancing.

One way to get a feel for the city is to check out a local party or tradition in town or around the city. Loriana Mitova, a Latvian girl coming from Ireland said, “The best way I could know the real lifestyle of the city was enjoying the best traditions and local parties. I also lived with a Spanish friend and that helped me to get different holidays which I have never expected to have.”

She also admits she “didn’t want to be a normal tourist. That is why I looked up the most amazing tours I could find”.

Being in Barcelona on St George’s Day is unusual for tourists. On that day, the tradition is special for couples. The girl must give a book to the boy, and the boy must get a red rose for the girl.

Because of this, the streets are full of small stores selling books and roses. The popular tradition has grown up and nowadays they even sell Barcelona Football club roses and any book that is on the market. People go crazy and look around for the best book for their boyfriends or the nicest rose for their girlfriends.

It is also very easy to keep children entertained in Barcelona, due to the amount of amusement parks in the area. “Port Aventura” stays in the memories of tourists, as well as “Tibidabo”. In summertime, aquatic parks are the best decision.

Because of the usual hot weather it is very enjoyable for kids being inside a swimming pool the whole day. Also, every family is free to go around the most beautiful beaches of “Costa Daurada” and “Costa Brava”.

In the winter, Christmas lights of “Plaza Cataluña” brighten the sky. In spring, indulge in buying books or roses for your partners on St George’s day. In the summer, the wide range of beaches offers many choices. Finally, fall is the perfect season to enjoy the different landscapes of colorful trees.

Clearly, it is not possible to visit Barcelona in one or two weeks. But if time allows, it is possible to really visit and experience the authentic life style of the city.

Being a tourist in Barcelona means following any situation that might come up without hesitation. Whether it is winter, spring, summer or fall, any time of the year is perfect for a Barcelona vacation.

The article Barcelona: A Different Kind of Tourism appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Last summer, I visited Hawai’i for the first time and stayed on Oahu for five weeks. I immediately felt the humidity when I stepped off the airplane at my arrival late at night. It really was the perfect weather. I did not visit the island for vacation but instead participated in a university program.

I had a great introduction to the island when my professor took my classmates and me to a buffet in Waikiki, right on the beach. I stepped out and let the warm water rush up to my legs. I had never experienced an ocean with just the right temperature and transparent blue water, making it almost look like a swimming pool. But I wasn’t at the beach for the majority of my stay in Hawai’i. I was more on field trips and volunteered at a Native Hawaiian charter school, as part of my program’s requirement.

The dormitory was not located right by the ocean, but at Manoa, where it was much more green and full of trees. Many bug bites covered my legs and arms, and I danced around too many cockroaches at night when I walked on the streets. There were more cockroaches in the valley rather than within the city. I didn’t expect that either.

I was full of thrill and curiosity. My to-do list was set up. I wanted to try different foods, go to a luau, scuba dive and snorkel, learn how to hula dance and create leis, etc. I thought that’s how I would have been “cultured”. I was very wrong.

At the time, my professor was teaching us about Native Hawai’ian culture and the effects of tourism: good for American economy but not good for the natives. I learned that the Hawaiian kingdom was forced into giving its land to the United States, yet the majority of Americans may believe that it was a nation that wanted to be “saved” and protected by other countries.

Nowadays, only a certain amount of Hawaiians reach higher education, and being on a sports scholarship was usually the student’s ticket to college. Not only that but the homeless, or “houseless,” population there is quite large, which includes families.

The fewer typical activities I did when visiting the tropical island, the more I actually felt part of Hawai’i. As part of my studies, I had to do some on-site research. Instead of learning how to hula or create leis, I learned how to make poi the traditional way from a Hawaiian history teacher. It was delicious! He picked out the taro from the school’s garden and we cleaned it. Afterwards, he demonstrated how to mash taro with big stones almost shaped like a pushpin and used a long wooden board to press and mold the poi. He wrapped the food in banana leaves when we finished.

When it comes to learning more about the differences between people in Hawai’i, I learned three new connotations for local, Hawaiin, and mainland. People who are born in Hawai’i aren’t necessarily Hawaiians. They are locals. Hawaiians are the actual natives or with native blood. Mainland visitors are from mainland United States, and people could easily tell by the way you speak even if you look like one of the locals.

I’ve asked locals of their thoughts on mainland visitors, and some told me that they can be “superficial,” “uptight,” and “snobby”. (Those stereotypes were negative, but I wasn’t too surprised because how the media probably portrays America—it’s usually about the city life and its drama.) One person told me that he was afraid to visit Los Angeles because of its crime rates too.

But I did have other chances to do some “touristy” things. When it came to food, I ate spam musubi, loco moco, and flavored shaved ice (yet all can be eaten found in Los Angeles). I went kayaking for the first time and also jumped off a cliff into the clear blue sea at Waimea Bay, located on the North Shore of Hawai’i. That was probably the most thrilling and painful experience I did there.

Many others were diving, tumbling, and jumping too. I climbed on top of the rock. I jumped in a wrong position during the first time, keeping my arms out as if they were wings. In the next two jumps, I did the pencil drop.

Upon leaving, I wish I had crossed out more on my to-do list, but I did appreciate learning some of the island’s culture and the history of its people. If you’re traveling the world to learn about culture, it’s better to also include the other side of story—from the locals and natives, not just by what you read in the news or books.

The article Visiting Hawaii with Different Expectations appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.