Visiting Xcaret was definitely the highlight of my recent trip to Cancun, Mexico. There are some things that I would do differently when I return. I definitely plan to return as I love Cancun and Xcaret is such an amazing way to spend a day or two. I really wish that I had Spent two days at this amazing attraction as I felt there was too much to see in one day! I will be writing two posts about Xcaret because I have so much to share.
In July 2014, while in Austria I visited the gorge called Liechtensteinklamm. This gorge is in a small town about 45 minutes drive from Salzburg called St. Johann. It was by far one of the best experiences I've had traveling in a long time - and definitely while in Austria so far. Somehow the locals manage to make Liechtensteinklamm sound like one syllable while I can't say it period!
The only bad parts was I did not heed the advice given to me by everyone where I was staying telling me it was too far to walk. They said it was only six are seven kilometers. This did not sound like a long ways to me, however, I live in Florida where all of the land is flat while here in Austria there are many hills. Once you get to the gorge there are even more hills and stairways to climb which is quite a workout. It is not a difficult walk as the paths are well kept, but after walking 6-7 kilometers to get there, it did become a little more difficult for me.
I would have taken a taxi home, but I didn't have a cell phone with me...so I just decided to walk - AGAIN. I'm just estimating, but if I were to bet, I would say I walked close to 20 kilometers that day which all seemed uphill. I was really tired afterward and my legs and feet hurt really badly afterword. It also did not help that I wore the wrong shoes, as you can see from one of my photos, for much of the trip. I also brought a rather large bag instead of a backpack which would have been a lot more practical and made the trip much easier!
The pathways are well kept and is a nice walk if you're wearing the right footwear and haven't already walked several kilometers/miles ;). Thankfully my hotel had a nice pool and hot tub to sooth my aching feet and legs! The cost is only 4.50 euros and you need approximately two hours at the gorge according to most people. Overall, I think the gorge is a very well priced and a fun experience.
My ticket stub and a house I saw in the way back:
AND finally the pool and hot tub...awww :)
Thank you so much for stopping by. I will leave you with a very short video of one of the waterfalls in the gorge. As always, I love to hear your comments and answer any questions. Have a great week.
I wanted to add something to this post because it is getting quite a bit of attention. I don't want to make Bali sound like a bad place to visit. I simply had a bad experience there. I am a huge animal lover and have a special place in my heart for cats. When you read this story you will see that on the last day I was there I tried to save a young very sweet, pregnant cat. I was traumatized by the experience and that is why I wrote what I did.
I made two very big mistakes when I visited Bali. I had very high expectations and I stayed too long. For some ridiculous reason I envisioned Bali being similar to Thailand. Why??? I'm not sure. I guess because they are in the same continent - Asia. I loved everything about Thailand and I was hoping that I would feel the same way about Indonesia.
There are many pros to visiting the so-called island of paradise in Indonesia. There are many things to do, many beautiful sites to see, and the activities are not terribly expensive. I got some really beautiful photographs while there. The trouble is I don't care to look at them at this point.
Some of the cons are that Bali is a tiny overpopulated island and there is a lot of poverty. There were many times that I felt as though I were being scammed. It actually started when I got to the airport and I was asked if I wanted VIP access to getting my visa on arrival which meant jumping ahead of 10 people and saving five minutes. That cost me about $20 USD. I then was asked by one of the police officers if I was there because of "troubles at home" - that made me uncomfortable. I guess the last straw was the ordeal that I went through with a young pregnant cat that I fed during my final few days there. I did everything I could to help the cat including having a vet visit the hotel and fed her sugar water in my hotel room. When I ended up needing to catch my flight, I really couldn't get anybody to help the cat. I called a couple of days later and she had passed away.
Here is the post with the story about the cat I tried to save :'(
you can go to the rice terraced fields in Ubud: You can go to the orchid gardens which are beautiful:
You can go dolphin watching in Lovina :
it is relatively inexpensive to stay in a nice hotel. This hotel is called "The Mansion" and is in Ubud:
During my trip to Bali I stayed there for two weeks went on to Melbourne, Australia stayed there for one week and considered buying a one-way ticket back to the United States I tried to justify going back early and buying an extra plane ticket by telling myself I would save money on a hotel in Bali the visa on arrival in the exit tax which totals $50 I wish I had done it now because trying to save the cat was very traumatic to me as an animal lover if I were to give advice to someone who is planning a vacation in Bali I would tell them to stay with their tour group to make sure they don't go too far off the beaten path and beware of scammers.
I do like this picture of two little girls that I bought some fans from. They were selling them for money to go to school. They were super sweet and grateful!
I will leave you with a hopefully "feel good" video about how to open a coconut:
Have you ever "outstayed" your welcome so to speak or been incredibly disillusioned by a vacation? Thanks so much for visiting! Until next time