Exotic Vacations

Brazilian tourists in Central Florida spend the day shopping at the Orlando Premium Outlets near Disney World.

Orlando — “Oi — Sejam bem-vindos!” — meaning “Hi, welcome!” — is a Portuguese phrase heard more and more these days at Florida’s tourist spots.

That’s because Florida is the top U.S. vacation destination for Brazilians, who are taking advantage of a favorable exchange rate and low prices. Brazilians outnumbered all other international travelers to Florida in 2011, up 41% from the previous year, according to state tourism officials.

And there’s no sign of this Brazilian invasion slowing down: The U.S.

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There’s nothing quite like the freedom of a sailing vacation. What else matches the excitement of choosing your yacht and then, if you’re anything like me, counting the days until you set sail.

 It’s easy to lose yourself in preparing your itinerary and deciding which exotic part of the world to visit. The luxury of taking things at your own pace and in your own time is hard to beat.

Sailing on a bareboat charter isn’t like any other vacation, mainly due to the freedom that comes with setting sail for the open sea, with your destination completely in your own hands. But as Spid

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Most people do their best to stay out of prison, but in a few special cases they actually have to pay in order to spend the night in jail. You might think that willingly staying in a prison sounds crazy, but some jails converted to hotels are at the height of luxury. Of course, it all depends on what youre looking for: some prison hotels retain only the aesthetics (prison chic has never been better than now), while others take the jail treatment further and will also give you a taste of what life in the cell was like before.

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There is a very old advert for electricity being re-run on RTE television at the moment called ‘Coming Home’ which depicts the emigrant (prodigal) son being picked up by his Dad at the airport and driven home to his doting (Irish) Mammy who is busy preparing the house for his arrival.

The beautiful old house is lit up like a Christmas tree, the immersion is on, so himself can have a hot bath while the electric blanket warms up his bed and something nice has just been popped in the oven.

No wonder its striking a chord nationally and globally thanks to YouTube etc as it evokes perfectly what Christmas means not just to the Irish, but universally, that elusive warm fuzzy feeling of coming home to the perfect family set up which so seldom happens in reality?

It’s been a tough year in Ireland and to be honest we’re barely holding it together and while we have no choice but to work our way out of this recession there will be a lot of broken hearts this Christmas with so many families fragmented by emigration. There i Full post…

When some people choose to travel, they want to keep up with their exercise routine in order to stay fit. However, a new study is suggesting that a number of people who travel for business rather than pleasure were more likely to adopt unhealthy habits that could lead to obesity.The Montreal Gazette is reporting that researchers from Columbia University examined more than 13,000 business travelers for a one-year period. They found that individuals who travel the most were more likely to have a large body mass index (BMI).Although the research covered business travelers, it’s important that those on vacation keep the results in mind, particularly if they like to go away frequently.As a result of this study, travelers may want to consider keeping up with their healthy habits even while on vacation.

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