Travelsmartplanet

Held on the white sands of Fort Lauderdale Beach Park in a beautiful oceanside setting, Tortuga Music Festival is a 3-day, multi-stage music festival featuring some of the biggest names in country, rock and roots music.

Tortuga Music Festival brings like-minded fans together for an unforgettable beach weekend experience that pairs music with meaning to raise awareness for marine conservation.

The Academy of Country Music named it the Festival of the Year in 2017 when more than 100,000 folks attended, including fans from all 50 states and 22 countries. Friday headliners are Florida Georgia Line, Snoop Dog and Lee Brice. Saturday’s biggies are Keith Urban, Dwight Yoakam, Kim Moore and Shaggy. Sunday’s featured acts are Eric Church, the Brothers Osborne and Cheap Trick.

Tortuga Music Festival works hand in hand with the Rock The Ocean Foundation to increase public awareness about the issues impacting the world’s oceans and to support scientific research, education, and ocean conservation initiatives.

Over $1,000,000 has been given back to the Conservation Village partners as a direct result of ticket sales and donations from Rock The Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival.

Check out the lineup here, and learn more about ocean conservation and how you can help. All ages welcome,  children 6 and under will receive free general admission.
Single-Day & 3-DAY Passes On Sale click here

Location: Fort Lauderdale Beach, 1100 Seabreeze Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316.
Dates: April 6-8, 2018
Time: 12pm – 10pm daily
Tel: 512-674-9300
tortugamusicfestival.com

For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: sunny.org

Raise funds by diving into the frigid Atlantic Ocean in New Castle, NH to benefit the thousands of animals that will turn to the NHSPCA in need of warmth, nourishment, medical care and love this year.

Are you willing to freeze your tail off for the animals? Join the New Hampshire SPCA’s 8th Annual Doggie Paddle Plunge. Take the plunge for New Hampshire homeless animals. Register, raise funds, and dive into the frigid Atlantic Ocean alongside hundreds of other animal lovers on February 24th in New Castle.

Don’t want to freeze but want to support the animals? Register as a Virtual Plunger for $15 and raise funds without diving. Or make a donation to one of the many excited Plungers to help them reach their goal. No matter what you choose, you’re supporting animals in need.

Funds raised will help the New Hampshire SPCA continue its lifesaving mission. Now this is a cause worthy of freezing your tail off. Four-legged friends can watch from the beach but no doggie plungers permitted.

Location: New Castle Great Island Common, 301 Wentworth Rd, New Castle, NH 03854
Date: Saturday Feb 24, 2018
Time: 10am – 2:30 pm
Tel: 603-772-2921
nhspca.org/Doggie-Paddle-Plunge
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: portsmouthnh.com

Running into the chilly Atlantic might not be the typical way to celebrate New Year’s Day, but for the last 18 years, the Tybee Polar Plunge has done just that.

The annual Tybee Polar Plunge, is a tradition held every New Year’s Day at the Tybee Island Pier and Pavilion. Join thousands of hearty and brave souls as they take a group  plunge into the into the icy Atlantic Ocean at noon or just come out and see who’s crazy enough to take the plunge and cheer them on.

The fun kicks off with the legendary Gang of Goofs costume contest and parade on the Tybee Island Pier and Pavilion at 11 am before the plunge. So gather up your gang of goofy friends and family, dream up your wackiest costumes and compete for great cash prizes before a panel of celebrity judges.

So don’t hesitate, take the leap…Funds raised support the renovation of the historic Tybee Post Theater.

AVOID LONG LINES AND REGISTER IN ADVANCE!  Click Here

Location: Tybee Island Pier and Pavilion – Tybee Island, GA 31328
Date: Sunday,  January 1, 2018
Time: 10am
Tel: 912-472-4790, 912-786-5444
tybeepolarplunge.com
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: visittybee.com, visitsavannah.com

Celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by visiting the our home and native land. Parks Canada is offering all Canadians a FREE 2017 Discovery Pass so there will be no cost to visit any of their sites. You have the option of visiting 148 locations everywhere in the country. You probably think  they’re all about national parks but Parks Canada is way more than that – their mandate includes marine conservation areas and national historic sites.

You could visit the wreck of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in Nunavut, view Canada’s highest peak, Mount Logan in Kluane National park, ice fields in Jasper, our country’s birthplace within the fortifications of Quebec, Alexander Graham Bell’s inventions,  walk amongst the flower pot rocks on the ocean floor in the Bay of Fundy, Haida Heritage sites, or even Anne of Green Gables‘ writer, Lucy Maude Montgomery’s house.

Here’s a challenge: See how many of their iconic red Adironack chairs you can find and Instagram them. If you want to drool – and – plan ahead, get copies of the National Geographic books Guide to the National Parks of Canada and Guide to the National Historic Sites of Canada.

Yes, you can camp, but you can also reserve a yurt, a goutte d’Ô which resembles a water droplet, a micro cube, large modern houses called oTENTiks or be one of the first to sleep in a hanging Cocoon in Cape Breton.

www.parkscanada.gc.ca
Tel: 888-773-8888

This summer is your moment to finally get to see Cirque du Soleil AND enjoy a beach vacation at the same time. The show KOOZA  will be performing under their iconic blue and yellow tent from July 17 to August 16. If Patrick John Ross is playing Trickster, say hello from us.

However, Virginia Beach is way more than a beach and a circus full of fun:

– Zip through the trees at The Adventure Park at Virginia Aquarium
– Fly in a vintage airplane at the Virginia Military Aviation Museum
– Share the water with dolphins on an ocean kayaking excursion
– Eat a fresh oyster dinner, on a table in the middle of the water where you just caught them
–  Have a paragliding adventure
– Learn to hang ten – go surfing
– Take a selfie in the sky in the Cape Henry Lighthouse
– Pick fresh crab and then eat it fresh – on newspaper with the tide rolling in

www.visitvirginiabeach.com

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

CT: Exit 90 on I-95: Mystic Seaport – Step back in time in this 19th century maritime village offering you everything from tall ships to boarding the very last wooden whaling ship.

See a scale model of the area in 1870, figureheads from the bows of ships, a planetarium, a visitors’ gallery overlooking  restoration when in progress and the world’s largest collection of nautical photography.

The permanent seafaring exhibit covers immigrants, traders, explorers, fishermen, artists and vacationers on oceans, lakes and rivers. Try to catch the “man overboard” or “dead horse ceremony” aboard a sailing ship, and leave time for the large museum and fabulous gift shop. Your second day is FREE

Location: 75 Greenmanville Ave, Mystic, CT
Hours:  Apr-Oct 9-5, Nov-Jan 2 & Feb 16-Mar 30 Th-Sun 10-4
Tel: 888-9seaport  (888-973-2767) or 860-572-0711
www.mysticseaport.org