Travelsmartplanet

For those who are truly adventurous,there’s a tour Cycling the Castle Houses of Southern China. It’s always a tough decision to leave Hong Kong for a few days, but this two-wheel foray into the Guangdong Province offers one of the best ways of swapping the city lights for more rural delights.

The unique castle-like dwellings (diaolou) of Kaiping have UNESCO World Heritage status and display a flamboyant fusion of Chinese and Western architecture. Émigré Kaipings returning to their home country from overseas in the 1920s and 30s built these fortified towers in this distinctive style to protect against bandits.

This unique three-day cycling tour starts (and finishes) in Hong Kong, where participants board the ferry to Jiangmen and then take a coach to Kaiping, the location for saddling-up and setting off to spend the next few days travelling along rural country roads, village paths and forested tracks. The heritage sites of Kaiping and Chikan, as well as the diaolou clusters in Liyuan Garden, Zili Village and Majianglong, are all included on this fascinating itinerary. Arriving back in Hong Kong will provide an exciting contrast to a lovely rural trip.

www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see-do/tours-walks/guided-tours/explore-hong-kong/kaiping.jsp

www.DiscoverHongKong.com
https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverHongKong
https://twitter.com/Travel2HongKong

Tags: architecture, bandit, castle, Chikan, China, Chinese, city, coach, country, Cycling, diaolou, ferry, forest, garden, guangdong, heritage, Hong Kong, house, Jiangmen, Kaiping, Liyuan, Majianglong, province, rural, tour, tower, track, UNESCO, village, western, world, Zili

At Domaine Summum in Quebec, they believe that your furry best friends should be free, to be able to enjoy life with you. So they can  run, bark, romp and roll throughout their hiking trails, and jump, splash and swim in their private lake.

Besides the pristine  lake. there’s 200 acres of forest, with trails everywhere. Chalets are spotlessly clean and are well-equipped with a complete kitchen, grill, and a fire pit. You can order delicious frozen ready homemade meals prepared by their “Top Chef”.

The chalets are near Mont Tremblant Village and St-Jovite so that adds options for dining, hiking, golf, mountain biking and any number of other activities.

The owners love dogs (they are breeders of Bernese Mountain dogs) and understand what you need to have a great vacation with your pet running and barking, leash-free!

– No size restriction
– No breed restriction
– No extra fee for 2 dogs
– Pets can be left alone in the room ( without having to be in a crate )
– On site SPAWS (B&B for dogs)
– Special A La Bark menu for your pet
– On site Tail Waggin’ Day Camp

www.domainesummum.com

Tags: bark, biking, Canada, chalet, dining, Domaine Summum, fire pit, forest, furry, golf, grill, hiking, jump, kitchen, lake, leash, Mont Tremblant, mountain, Quebec, Saint Jovite, splash, swim, trail, vacation, village

Grandson of Jacques Cousteau, Fabien Cousteau was entranced by his grandpa’s films and underwater life. Right now he’s in the Florida Keys with a 5-person crew making a documentary and doing science experiments about the ocean.

They will live there for 31 days in the 37-sq. ft Aquarius Reef Base, a school bus size laboratory which is 18 metres below the ocean’s surface a few kilometers off of Key Largo, Florida. Cousteau raised the cash to save the lab which was threatened to close due to US federal budget cuts.

Remaining in an underwater lab allows them to scuba dive for extended periods of time without having to return to the surface to decompress. This Mission 31 will add to the legacy of Jacques Cousteaus’s 1963  Conshelf II 30-day underwater experiment in the Red Sea. He filmed the Oscar winning documentary “World Without Sun” there.

This mission can be broadcast live online. The aquanauts will communicate with public through social media and video chats. It ends on July 2nd. “For the first time, I’m able to invite the world on a Cousteau expedition in real time”, said Couseau.

http://aquarius.fiu.edu
http://aquariusreefbase.org
www.ustream.tv/aquariusreefbase
www.facebook.com/AquariusReefBase

Tags: aquanaut, Aquarius, budget, bus, chat, Conshelf II, decompress, dive, documentary, expedition, experiment, Fabien, Florida, Jacques Cousteau, Key, Key Largo, lab, mission, Mission 31, ocean, Oscar, real time, Red Sea, reef, school, science, scuba, social media, underwater, US, video, World Without Sun