Live from North America

[Petri]

Mustique seen and experienced. Now on Bequia, the options for the transfer were ferry from Mustique to St. Vincent followed by another ferry to Bequia, or flying the first part and taking a 30 minute taxi ride from the airport to the harbour. Being a flying nut I figured out there's also a flight from St. Vincent to Bequia and we booked that one; Stan didn't know that such a flight existed.

Definitely something different here. We had a single boarding pass for the flight with just 'x 2' written on it. The person at the St. Vincent airport security couldn't read our destination from it but they certainly did a very extensive security check, x-raying all the electronics and cameras one by one.

Firefly Bequia looks very nice, so did the local town.

Also booked the "exit US" flights to Belize later this month.. there's still some debate between the ocean and the jungle.

 

[LindaP]

Petri,
We stayed at Firefly Mustique , and were curious about their property on Bequia ......please post pics and let me know how you liked it.
As for Stan not knowing about the flights, I don't find that surprising,he's a little out there.
BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....

 

[Petri]

BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....

Macaroni Beach was our favourite, too. We rent mountain bikes for our stay and went there about every day. Saline and especially Colombier are our favourites on Sbh. Unfortunately we arrived to Mustique when Firefly was full and "had to" stay in Seashell. Not that we spent that much time in the room. Quite an unreal island really.

Luckily here on Bequia we got the best room. Feels like a real island, the rooms remind me a bit of some places in Asia. I may have to double check the numbers but the best of both worlds deal feels like a pretty good deal with all the meals. We got additional day on both island and the extra day on Bequia is just $300 (full board).

There's also Firefly in Zermatt. We thought first it was just a joke as there was a blackboard with the temperatures (-3 C in Zermatt) for the three places..

Photos do exist and one day I'll start to report more of the trip. I think the trip reports are still at Maui and that was two months ago

 

[Goooner]

How easy is it to get to Bequia? Seems interesting and off the beaten path. Is it too far off the beaten path such that getting there is extremely difficult?

 

[Goooner]

Petri,
We stayed at Firefly Mustique , and were curious about their property on Bequia ......please post pics and let me know how you liked it.
As for Stan not knowing about the flights, I don't find that surprising,he's a little out there.
BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....

Linda, how does Mustique compare to St. Barth?

I'm still searching for a place where I can really escape. No cities, no traffic, just an island where I can sit on a beach and eat fresh fish and local fruit and vegetables.

 

[Petri]

How easy is it to get to Bequia? Seems interesting and off the beaten path. Is it too far off the beaten path such that getting there is extremely difficult?

One can fly to Bequia from St. Vincent or Barbados, or 30 minutes by ferry from St. Vincent. Liat and SVGAir fly to St. Vincent from a number of places.


Compared to St. Barth, if you remove the french influence from an island, add some british, and demolish all but the very best and largest villas you're getting quite close. I believe all the villas come with a chef and driver, plus other staff for maintenance. Firefly Mustique is the low end.

When we asked Stan how is the Firefly Bequia different, he said that Mustique is a country club, Bequia is a real island. Very true.

What has been nice is that neither property had no check-in procedure. They knew we were coming, we never gave passports to anyone, filled no forms, and we haven't signed a single receipt (apart from cc slip at checkout).

 

[JEK]

What has been nice is that neither property had no check-in procedure. They knew we were coming, we never gave passports to anyone, filled no forms, and we haven't signed a single receipt (apart from cc slip at checkout).

We found that in Australia at a couple of places. One place had no keyed locks and another the key was in the drawer if you wanted to use it. Nothing to sign except at checkout.

 

[LindaP]

Good descriptions Petri.....I think we would like to try that best of both deal. Mustique is like nowhere else.... I felt there was like being on a place where it was over the rainbow !
Loved the mules to drive, did you go to Basils bar?
I hope to see pics ! Have fun!

 

[Petri]

I thought about going for motorized but we "went crazy" and had just the bicycles.. with the hills on the island and the climate, we never felt "clean" enough for a lunch at Cotton House .. but ordering lunch as a beach picnic worked like a charm.

We had just lunch at Basil's. Some other guests were there but it was pretty quiet, low season and everything. We spent a few days as the only guests in Mustique and all the other guests left Bequia today as well. We had Macaroni Beach for ourselves most of the time.

 

[Petri]

Any advice for the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce national parks?

As we're going to Belize for the visa (never got anything back from the US Embassy here in Barbados) reset, we're bit short on time. We have 6 days before Belize (compared to two weeks originally) and we could fly back to LAS after NYC (and skip Washington, sigh) and continue the parks, add Yosemite and head back home from SF.

I looked for Zion accommodation and they are very booked already in May. The 4+ hours of driving (e.g. LV to Bryce, or Grand Canyon to Bryce) are practically full day driving. I looked into the Bryce Narrows hike but the water is pretty cold and we don't really have gear for cold things with us, the limited number of permits a day, etc. I have the Lonely Planet guide for the parks but it's pretty useless for actual planning, fine for getting an overview with the details.

If I book just two nights near Zion, and two nights near Bryce, is that just going to disappoint us for lack of time? In the worst case we could just drive the road (or take shuttle) and figure out a few dry, simple half-day hikes around. I'm not a fan of sightseeing nature with a car.

PS. Absolutely loved Bequia.

 

[amyb]

Bryce is one of my favorite parks. Also there in early May Lovely, but cool

 

[george]

Different topic Petri... news from Helsinki:
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/05/08/smith-hat-trick-leads-us-past-finland/

just saying... :evil:

 

[Petri]

Different topic Petri... news from Helsinki:
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/05/08/smith-hat-trick-leads-us-past-finland/

Friends on Facebook have been saying "go away, we're playing ice hockey here" -- to the finnish team

 

[MIke R]

go to Moab....do some biking there...Bryce is gorgeous but I cant help you with lodging as we stayed with friends in Park City.....whenever we went to the Grand Canyon we stayed here http://www.usparklodging.com/grandcanyon/brightangel.php?gclid=CI-fh5i8ibcCFegWMgodIBsAJA and we loved it..close to great hiking too

 

[Petri]

Friends on Facebook have been saying "go away, we're playing ice hockey here" -- to the finnish team

Looks like the Swedes are performing even worse. So it's a win for us!


Mike, thanks, I'll check out Moab.

 

[george]

Looks like the Swedes are performing even worse. So it's a win for us!

yeah and the french beat russians today... wow!

 

[Petri]

yeah and the french beat russians today... wow!

ank Team GP W OTW OTL L GDF GF:GA PTS
Rank Team GP W OTW OTL L GD1


1 FIN 6 4 1 0 1 +8 20:12 14
2 USA 5 4 0 0 1 +8 20:12 12
3 RUS 5 3 0 0 2 +9 18:9 9
4 SVK 5 2 0 1 2 0 13:13 7
5 GER 5 2 0 1 2 -1 10:11 7
6 FRA 5 2 0 0 3 -5 10:15 6
7 AUT 6 1 1 0 4 -7 14:21 5
8 LAT 5 1 0 0 4 -12 9:21 3




We've got just fin-aut left, usa has ger and svk left. But Switzerland and Canada has been playing pretty well in Stockholm, too, so no celebrations booked yet

 

[Petri]

Yet another totally unreadable invoice from our hotel in Barbados. With the service charges, taxes and whatnot's on top of the actual charge it's pretty much impossible to know what charge is what.

Consider how many times I've spotted double charges or extra minibar charges on the bills over the years, I wonder if hotel billing is reaching a point of being a "scam"?

For our next hotel many of the TripAdvisor comments recommended to check the bill as there has been a lot of extra charges.

Is there an App for keeping track of hotel charges?

 

[Petri]

We just arrived to our new destination!



Is there really any better way to travel the US? First Hawaii, the to Florida for a cruise, followed by Key West, and now in Las Vegas! It's so amazing that one can do so much of Europe in one city -- Paris, Italy, just all of Europe! And we can see the real Eiffel tower from our balcony, try that in Paris with all the crappy buildings and parks blocking the view..

Ok Enough.. just about to rent a car so that we can leave to Bryce and Zion National Parks. Contact Zion Adventures for some gear. Amazon just delivered Go Pro Hero 3 Black and Olympus TG-2 Tough. I had a necessary hair cut. I fell in love with Moab on the interweb and we might back here after NYC to see Moab, Mono Lake and Yosemite (or whatever is out while heading towards SF). I blame the cold weather for our itinerary and as we finally after all the trouble got some light tan there's no way we'll let it go


My good old Tumi that has seen all the seven continents and travelled around the globe so many times couldn't handle the 5 minute flight from St. Vincent to Bequia. It's falling apart and just did the final flight.



and I just bought a new Rimowa Salsa today. This time I'll see how the famous german engineering works although it says Made in Canada.

The other Tumi is having zipper problems as well and we'll probably dump it after Belize. Rimowa luggage is a lot cheaper in Finland than in the US so we might try to find a cheap outlet Tumi instead.


Meanwhile back at home the dawn starts before 4am for a nice sunrise before 5am, and it doesn't go down until 10pm nor get dark before 11pm. Miss that.

 

[MIke R]

Im telling you..Moab is the bomb...just do it...you wont regret it

and Vegas is fun....enjoy...nothing no where like it...

get an IN and Out Burger before you leave