my dream St. Thomas

There is one place that I have been and where I want to be. That place as Zach Brown says is “knee deep in the water some where got the blue sky breeze and it don’t seem fair only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair” that’s right I want to be in paradise, more specifically the beautiful island of St. Thomas. St. Thomas Bahamas is my favorite place to be in the entire world. I will be discussing why it I where I want to be, the financial cost, and why it truly is paradise.

             St Thomas is where I want to live someday because it is truly paradise.  The weather is always nice. The water is always warm. Also the people are some of the nicest that you will ever meet. Because of its close proximity to the equator the weather never changes it is always bright and warm even in the deep months of the winter.  My dream is to live in a mansion there someday and just be a beach bum and hang out and have fun.

            The next reason I want to live there and just be there all the time is because the cost of living is fairly inexpensive. The total cost of a three to four bedroom house is an low two thousand five hundred to six thousand dollars. Also since it is apart of the USVI (united states virgin islands) there are all the benefits of living in the U.S. but still separate from the U.S.A.with much lower costs of living. 

            St. Thomas usvi is truly paradise and I want to live there someday because of its  pure beauty, friendly people and cheap cost of living. It is one hundred percent my favorite place to be in the entire world and I am shore that I want be there as much as possible for the rest of my life. 

Vacationing in Aruba

I have always dreamed of vacationing in Aruba. Every year during the summer my family and I either go to Cape Cod for a week, or we go down to Florida to visit some family. Those are affordable trips for my parents, lately my mother and I have been seriously discussing about going Aruba this summer. As I have been researching the trip, it has come to my attention how immensely expensive this trip is going to be. I did not find one hotel that wasn’t under 200 dollars for each night, and also I couldn’t find a reasonable priced flight. For one adult ticket from Logan airport in Boston, MA to Aruba it would cost you $667, just for one! The trip itself is very expensive, so I would be completely content just sitting on the beach and enjoying the resort for a couple days. It wouldn’t matter to me if we went and did anything, just being there would be amazing. If I were to go to Aruba I would stay at Holiday Inn resort Los Cabos. It has a beautiful view from the room and it is right near the beach, which are two selling factors of the place. 4 nights with air fair it starts anywhere from $789. Rates are much higher in the summer than they would be during the school year. I really like flying on jet blue, that’s what I always have flown on, even when it was called delta. I like flying with that airline because of how each individual seat has its own television. In Aruba there are plenty of things to do, you can rent jet skis, paddleboats, wave runners, banana boats, etc. There are plenty of cafes and shops to walk around and eat. There are national parks to go visit and tour. You can go learn about the culture, there’s the option of going to the international music festival. At night they have dances on the boardwalk and also fun carnivals. One day I hope ill be able to go here, and enjoy everything this place has to offer, I hear its beautiful and I would love to experience everything it has to offer. Not even that, just to be able to spend time with my mom, on in such a beautiful place, on a wonderful beach would be a blessing. 

Seth Drouin

For a holiday vacation, I would love to travel to the Bahamas and stay at the Atlantis Hotel.  My sister stayed there, and she came back telling me how much she had.  It is kind of expensive to stay there for an entire week.  Of course, keep in mind how much awesome activities you would be doing, however, it said on the website that a night there is roughly $200.

This is the Atlantis Price Website: Atlantis Nightly Price

However, another huge factor to take into consideration is the amount for the flight.  The flight would cost a lot too.  I would most likely catch the flight in my home state capital of Hartford.  This website gives some estimates on how much it would cost for the trip there and back: Flight Prices

There are so many activities that you can do while at the Bahamas.  First and foremost, I would get a stereotypical back massage.  I feel like whenever somebody thinks of the Bahamas, they think of massages.  Here's a cool video I found on massages in the Bahamas:

In this video, it demonstrates Thai massaging.  It is interesting because there are many different kinds of massages that can be done, and can focus on different muscle groups and certain kinds of stresses that are in your life. 

Furthermore, I would totally go swimming with dolphins.  I have always dreamed of swimming with them. They seem so playful, and it is stuff they do in movies, so I am assuming it would be fun.  I remember watching MaryKate and Ashley with my sister one time, and the episode was where they go to the Bahamas and go swimming with the dolphins.  This is a type of video I hope to film if I end up visiting the Bahamas:

Another activity that I feel is one of the most important things you can do while at the Bahamas is to take in the scenery of the beach, sand, sky colors, etc.  There are so many beautiful colors, and the whole point of visiting the island for me at least would be to get away from all the stresses that exist in college life.  Here are a couple of relaxing pictures taken of the Bahamas. I think they are so calming to the mind:

In conclusion, the Bahamas would be an amazing place to visit.  I wouldn't want to go by myself. Going with my family or friends would be the only possible way for me to enjoy all of the water slides, dolphins, and relaxing scenery.  I know someday I will visit the Bahamas.  In the meantime, I'll just keep dreaming.
: )

-Seth Drouin

My dream destination, Alaska

My dream destination is to go to Alaska.  One of my true loves is to go fishing. There is no match to the adrenaline-like feeling of reeling in a monster fish. I love fishing so much that I always watch fishing shows on TV every Sunday morning and a fair amount of them are based out of Alaska.  However, fishing is not the only aspect of Alaska that I am attracted to there is also the brisk weather and true beauty of the landscape. Living in New England has made me a lover of cold weather.  My personality is more outdoors-like rather than an inside kind of person meaning I prefer to do something with more than just my hands in front of a television set. After browsing the internet, I found a man named Rudy who wrote,” Rudy’s fishing blog” from when he went fishing in Alaska at blogspot.com.  Rainbow trout is one of the most common fish caught in Alaska.  Another one of my favorite activities I like to do outdoors is go hiking, nothing feels better than the fresh forest air deep inside my lungs. In Alaska the landscape is more than accommodating for hiking in the deep forests. After browsing various travel sites looking for cheap plane tickets to Alaska and cheap hotels to stay at, I found that a round trip ticket from Boston Massachusetts to Anchorage Alaska would cost $570. In addition to the cheap plane tickets, I found that a hotel in the downtown Anchorage  plaza would range anywhere from $95 to $108 per night depending on which hotel you choose to stay at.  This information can be found on kayak.com. For a college student in my current monetary situation, this is a quite plausible trip to take. I would recommend anyone like me who is dying to go to Alaska for the trip of a lifetime to do the kind of research that I did and follow up on your dream vacation. I myself have put the trip on my bucket list and plan on traveling there before I graduate from Nichols College.

 

Jamaica!

If I were able to pick anywhere in the world for my dream destination, I would have to choose Jamaica. I don’t know what it is about that place, but I’ve just wanted to go there my whole life. Just seeing pictures online and from movies and just hearing about other people go there really sparked my interest.

There are lots of things that can be done while in Jamaica. One thing that sounds incredible is the Seven Mile Beach in Negril. It is said that pirates once haunted this beach, but now it is just inhabited by people looking to relax in the sun along with some pesky salesmen. But, as long as you know how to push them aside, they wouldn't really be much of a problem.

Another amazing place to go in Jamaica would have to be Blue Hole Mineral Spring that is also located in Negril. There is a resort located around a mineral spring that you can either jump in, or climb down into. The hole itself is more than 25 feet below the earth and the water is pure and crystal clear. Also, after you're done jumping yourself, you can watch locals dive from platforms that rest in the trees above the mineral spring hole. The platforms can reach as high as 60 feet in the air! The area around also has a lot of beautiful flowers and well-kept grounds. There are also other things to do around the mineral spring, but that is just the most exciting part.

To take a vacation there, it definitely isn't going to be like going somewhere close. But for the hotel, it is about $142 per night at a four star hotel that is right on the beach. That's not a bad deal at all for a four star hotel. For a flight there both ways is about $576. That's not as bad either, so it's not too expensive of a vacation. The only thing I would have to bring is extra money to go shopping for me and family and friends of course.

Dream Destination, Miami

            My favorite vacation place where I have been going to for the past couple of years is Miami, Key Biscayne to be exact. Key Biscayne is literally 5-10 minutes down the road from South Beach, which isn’t bad at all and plus it’s a nice drive. It’s more secluded from the city and you don’t hear all the noise and partying.  My aunt and uncle have a place in key Biscayne and it is one of my favorite places to go.

            I usually go with my mom, sister, aunt and uncle, my cousin and her husband. As long as my mom, sister and I are able to get plane tickets, then we don’t have to pay for really anything while we are there. Each year, we plan on going sometime in the middle of January and we usually leave on a Friday morning and come back either on a Tuesday or Wednesday.  We’re not there for a long time but it’s nice to go down for a couple of days, enjoy the nice weather, eat delicious food, see your family and have a good time. There is nothing really better than that.

            While we are there, we go to different restaurants in Miami, go to the beach and pool, shop and go basically where we want.  Last year, I went to Miami ink, which was awesome and I ran in the Tropical 5k race with my brother, mom, cousin and her husband. It was a cool experience to have but I wish I train some more before doing it.  Even though the race was in the morning, the weather was humid, the air was dense and after I finished, I thought my head was going to explode.  I couldn’t believe how many people were in the race and all the people who I thought I was going to beat, beat me. That goes to show that you cannot underestimate anyone whether how old or young they are. 

            Maybe this year we will run in the race again and hopefully I will be faster. Like I said before, going to Miami is one of my favorite places to go and I recommend anyone to go there and enjoy it as much as I do. South Beach doesn’t disappoint and I look forward to going there again.

My dream destination

          

If there is any place in the world that I dream of visiting the most, it is definitely Hawaii. Everybody is drawn to Hawaii because of its warm weather, and beautiful landscape, but there is an additional reason why I am so eager to visit; the care-free and relaxed nature of it. Everybody in Hawaii (both the residents and visitors) is just so friendly and care-free. At least that is what portrayed in the movies. It's almost as if obligations do not exist in Hawaii, and if they do, your only obligations are to have a good time and relax!

Obviously, a trip to Hawaii does not just happen on its own! It takes planning that may be long and tedious. It can also be expressive between the cost of flight, food, hotels, and other accommodations. Flights to this destination can be very expensive! Most of the flights start at around $650! I would probably want to land in Honolulu, and once I arrived, I would want to know that I have a place to stay. The average cost of hotels is around $200 a night. I feel that if I had around $7 thousand to spend, it would be a solid vacation.

Once I got there, I wouldn’t want to do a lot of touring. I would be completely content with just lying on the beach all day and soaking up the care-free atmosphere! However, I might try to get a professional surfing lesson. That is something that I have always wanted to do.

This is a trip that I would want to take with my girlfriend when we are a little bit older. I wouldn’t want there to be any age restrictions on what we can do. I would just want to enjoy our time in paradise and have a blast while doing it!

I feel like a trip like this can go either way in terms of expenses. It can be extremely expensive if the party wants to go and experience everything on the island, but if the party just wants to relax, and enjoy themselves, I feel like this could be a beautiful and relativelyinexpensive destination to vacation to!