As part of stricter security measures, tourists are no longer allowed access to the statue’s crown and torch, but there are two ranger guided tours around the island.  The first of them lasts between 30 and 60 minutes and is a gentler informational tour that doesn’t require much exertion.  The second tour however is a little more strenuous but if you’ve got the energy, the view from the 10 story high pedestal observatory will be a memory you will carry with you for the rest of your life.

It’s only possible to travel to the Statue of Liberty by ferry.  The return visit allows visitors the opportunity to disembark at Ellis Island before returning to the mainland.  The Ellis Island Immigration Museum is an interesting array of artifacts, and photographs, which have been displayed amidst personal oral history stories, and which together create a great overview of what awaited most of the immigrants who arrived at America’s shore.  For most of them, they would eventually be allowed admittance to the mainland, but not all.  The archives allow those who are interested in researching their family history access to records which may help them discover more about their origins.

A trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is a must see if you visit New York.  Not only will you get to stand near one of the most treasured American landmarks, but you’ll have a greater understanding of those who came seeking a new life in America.

Culture

Italian is widely spoken and is the official language. English isnít very familiar to the locals. Family ties are of utmost importance here and hence social courtesies mean a lot to the locals. There is a great impact of the Roman Catholic Church on the culture here. There is a high content of chlorine in tap waters, so bottled water is recommended for staying fit during the trip. Since Italian is spoken on a wide scale, it is highly recommended to learn few common Italian phrases which can be of great use. Social gatherings call for formal wear, but one can dress in casuals otherwise. At some religious places, sleeveless shirt and shorts are frowned upon. So they are better avoided. Purses and wallets should be well guarded and in case of any theft, police should be informed about the incident.

Site Seeing

The first thing to check out is the leaning tower of Pisa, where Olympics originated. At places like museums and art galleries, photography, especially flash photography is restricted. Check out the ticket counter for more information. Italy should be majorly discovered on foot for a thorough viewing of all the beautiful buildings and monuments. Coaches and trains are a good option to get to a tourist spot.

Shopping

Shops here are open from 9am to 8pm, closed for lunch. Quality of goods is great although the prices are very less. Items like crystals, lacework, leather good, and jewelry can be bought at the stores. Remember to hold on to the receipt. Tipping of 10% is customary along with the service tax levied on the bill. Italy is famous for top designers of the world, so do buy clothes and accessories to update your wardrobe. Cruises have formal gatherings in the evening, so ensure to buy a cocktail dress or some formal wear, though casuals can be worn at other times.

Electricity

The voltage used is 220 volts and 50 Hz frequency.

Getting there

Alitalia is the national airline of Italy.  Many other flights connect to Italy from USA, Canada and Australia and there is big competition to attract passengers giving a wide range of offers to travelers.  Rome airport is located 26 km away from the city and it takes 45 minutes to get there from the airport.  Trains connect directly to Termini Station from where one can take taxi to get to their destination. Duty free shops, bank, car hire and restaurants are the other services provided at this airport. Milan has another famous airport here, which is at a distance of 45km away from the city.

Brindisi, Ancona, Naples and Venice are the major seaports of Italy. Italian State Railways connects many European cities. But, Eurostar provides the fastest train service.

If choosing to drive, donít forget to carry international driving license and international insurance certificate. Roads connect Italy to France, Austria and Switzerland. Many coach services are provided from the neighboring countries.

Duty Free Items

1. 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 100 cigarillos or 250g of tobacco
2. 2liter of wine and 1liter of spirits (over 22 per cent) or 2liter of fortified or sparkling wine
3. 50g of perfume and 250ml of eau de toilette; 500g of coffee or 200g of coffee extract (if over 15 years of age)
4. 100g of tea or 40g of tea extract
5. Gifts not exceeding Ä89.96 (if entering from an EU country), Ä175 (if entering from a non-EU country).

With its art deco architecture, the Empire State Building’s observation deck on the 80th Floor is where most visitors head.  There’s a charge to enter the observation deck but it’s not too expensive, especially considering the unique view of New York and the surrounding area you’ll get from the top.  There are 73 elevators in the building – these can take you from ground level to the 80th floor in a matter of seconds - but those who are more active, or like a challenge, the alternative is a 1,575 step climb – of course you could just take the elevator up and walk down if you prefer!

The Empire State Building is open daily from 9.30am until midnight – make sure you arrive in time to be allowed access as the building may shut at midnight, but they like the observation deck cleared prior to then.  Despite its closing time, it’s just as good an experience to see New York from the Observation Deck at night as it as by day.  Although you can’t see as far as you can in daylight, the lights of New York make the night visit special in its own right.

Although the Empire State Building is mainly for those who like to look rather than do, there is a hidden gem on the second floor for those who enjoy a thrill ride.  The New York Skyride is a flight stimulator which will have you hanging to your seat as the images take you on a fast paced virtual reality aerial tour of the “Big Apple”.

For its celebrity, architectural beauty, spectacular views and not forgetting the incredible Skyride tour, a visit to the Empire State Building should be on every visitor’s itinerary.

Today the Gettysburg National Military Park is a silent witness to the military strategies, human heroism, and the loss of life sustained during its history.  You should start your visit with a walk around the visitors center, even if you are familiar with the events of the battle, as it will help you to orientate yourself “on the ground”.  You can take advantage of joining a guided tour around the park, or pick up a map for a self-guided auto tour.  A film in the Cycloarma Center will also help with your orientation to the area before you set off exploring.  The Cyclorarma Center also shows other educational films as well as displaying civil war exhibits so you may like to spend time back here once you’ve taken your drive around the park, if not before.

If you are visiting Gettysburg to give your children a living history lesson about the Civil War, check out the programs of special interest to younger visitors – in particular, the summer months usually sees a program where 7-12 year olds enlist in the army for an hour, to learn what life as a solider was like during the period.  Another favorite is the Civil War storytelling which shows the roles children played during the time.

Whether your family was involved in the American Civil War or not, Gettysburg is an interesting place to visit.  Many of the names such as Cemetery Hill, and Devil’s Den are familiar from Hollywood’s adaptation of history, but here at Gettysburg you can separate the fiction from the fact, and see how life really was for the men who fought and died here.

Culture

The culture of Albania is majorly influenced by that of the mainland Greeks especially in the urban locality; nodding oneís head means ënoí where as shaking the head means ëyesí. To greet someone, handshaking is preferred, though Shoku (Comrade) was used before, which has been long forgotten now. People dress informally here. Swim suits are meant for the beaches, otherwise women are expected not to dress in a revealing outfit. When addressing someone prefix Zoti(Mr) or Zonja(Mrs) before the name and always remember to carry some gifts when visiting someone, although flowers arenít much acceptable. The guests are served with coffee, raki or sweets. Smokers donít have to worry much, but they should avoid it where they see a sign of Ndalohet Duhani or Ndalohet pirja e duhanit.

Travelling within the country

Buses with relatively cheap fares operate in the main cities of the country or taxis are another choice which provided service for some main hotels.
Visit Dajti Mountain and experience Dajti Ekspres Cable car for an unforgettable 15 minute ride passing through Dajt Oark to reach Tirana. The route is about 4.2 km long and the ride costs Ä6.5.Alpha Yachting provides crewed yacht which is a luxury in itself. Tirana Bank is the best place for withdrawing money as it allows access to Visa cards.

Eating Out

Restaurants are not always sufficiently heated, so always wear warm clothes if out in the night during winters. Foreigners are charged more than the locals. Both the entry fees as well as any merchandise will be on a higher scale, so itís better not to reveal the fact that you are a foreigner when out on the streets.

Site Seeing

If you enjoy canoeing, this is the right place to be. There are places right outside Tirana which is an amazing site for not just canoeing, but also rock climbing, hiking, and camping.

Accommodation

If you want a 5-Star ambience, try The Sheraton Tirana Hotel and Towers, which is situated in the middle of a shopping and entertainment center. There are about 151 rooms and 56 suites. So, along with the comfort, one can shop at once convenience here. Another hotel which provides all modern facilities is Hotel Mondial. It is located 1000 m away from the city and is also a good example of traditional architecture.

Getting There

One of the best and the easiest means is to go by air. Albanian Airlines is the national airline which works in collaboration with Tyrolean Airways, and provides service to almost all the big European cities. The airport, Mother Teresa, is 16 miles or 26 km away from the capital. A tourist bus is available every 3 hrs to get to the city center and takes about 30 minutes to get there. Taxis are available round the clock. While waiting for any transport service, tourists can check out the duty free shops, bank, eateries and car hire at the airport. A departure tax of $10 USD is imposed on all foreign nationals. Check out www.flyalbanian .com for flight times and offers.

If trying to get there by sea, try the ferry services which are provided by Adriatic Line and Agoudimos. The main ports are Durres (has ferry connection to Italy, Bari, Brindisi, Trieste, and Ancona), Vlora (has ferry connection to Bari, and Brindisi), Saranda (has connection to Corfu), Shen Gjini (has ferry connection to Bari). Check out www.adriatica.it and www.aqoudimos-lines.com for more information.

Bus is another option. Buses start from Istanbul, Athens and Sofia. Internal passengers have lots of options with bus services provided. If traveling by road in a private car, there is road network to the Kosovo region, but they are too dangerous to use because of the political tensions within the region. Crossings at Hani I Hotit, Bllata, Oafa e Thaes, Tushemisht, Gorica, Kapshtica, and kakavija can be taken. If tired one can take halts at hotels or other designated areas. There is a network of 18,000 km, out of which only 7450 km are main roads, for local travelers. About 2138km stretch of these roads is in poor condition and has pot holes, and utmost safety precautions should be taken when driving on such roads. Speed limit should be strictly followed on highways as well as within towns. Driving at night should be better avoided because of the absence of street lights on the road except for urban areas. Traffic should drive on the right-hand. There is a shortage of gas stations in the countryside, so filling the gas tank completely when passing through urban area is recommended and since there is lack of national recovery system; travelers should be prepared for an emergency or breakdown before hand. One should carry necessary documents like International Driving Permit and national driving license.

Duty Free Items

Following are the items that can be carried without customs duty being levied on them:
1. 1liter of spirits or 2liter of wine
2. 250ml of eau de toilette
3. 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco
4. 50ml of perfume.

Prohibited Items

Things that are prohibited to carry are firearms, narcotics and ammunitions. Special export permission should be taken for precious metals, books, antiques, work of art, or material of national or historic value.

After the Titanic sank, the White Star Line chartered four ships from Canada to search for survivors.  Two of them, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were from Halifax.

Of the 328 bodies recovered from the disaster site, 119 were so badly damaged or deteriorated they were buried at sea.  The remaining 209 were brought to Halifax for identification, where possible.  150 of those people were buried in one of three Halifax cemeteries, based on religion (Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish), giving Halifax one of the largest concentrations of Titanic passenger burials in the world.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax houses the largest collection of wooden Titanic artifacts in the world in their permanent exhibit, Titanic: The unsinkable ship and Halifax, which opened in 1998.

One of the centerpieces of the collection is a wooden deck chair, one of the only intact ones in the world known to match those in photos of the ship.  A grandchild of Reverend Henry W. Cunningham gave the chair to the museum. Reverend Cunningham received the chair in recognition for his services in conducting many of the sea burials for Titanic victims.

One of the most moving items on display is the log of wireless operator Robert Hunston, from Cape Race, Newfoundland.  It is a condensed log of all the distress calls from the ocean liner the night it sank.  Reading the log brings home the reality of the disaster and the amazingly short time in which it occurred.

Wolf Bluff is not your average castle.  It is new enough that its age is measured in years, not decades or centuries.  It is not crumbling or falling down—probably because it is made of cinder blocks.  You can even meet the man who built it.

Karl Triller, owner and builder of Wolf Bluff Castle (known locally as King Karl’s Kastle), grew up in Hungary dreaming of castles.  When he moved to Cortes Island, he decided to make his dream a reality.  When Karl was building the castle wolves were abundant on the island, hence the name.

Karl designed and built the five-story, triple-turreted, eight-bedroom castle from the ground up.  He even made all 13,000 cement blocks used to construct the castle and spent 12 years completing it.

In the past, Wolf Bluff Castle was a bed and breakfast, but age has forced Karl, a former professional chef, to stop preparing and serving guest meals.  The castle’s modern full-service kitchen is available for self-catering during longer stays.  It is also a base of operations for caterers serving events in the dining hall, a room with space to seat up to one hundred people.

What castle is complete without a dungeon? Karl’s dungeon is also a torture chamber and features homemade dummies in various states of torment with placards announcing their sins.

Karl himself, who does not charge admission but does ask for a donation, leads castle tours.  Do you want to relive that childhood fantasy of being lord of all you survey or a damsel in a tower?  It can happen – talk to Karl about staying the night in Cortes Island’s Wolf Bluff Castle.

Visitors to the region will need to be hardy and prepared for the sub-arctic climate.  The temperature in the province goes over 50° F (10° C) less than four months of the year.  The average winter temperature is between -4° F and -26° F (-20° to -32° C) but, since it is drier than many parts of southern Canada, the cold is considered more bearable than the same temperatures would be further south.

The Yukon is so sparsely populated that it is the only Canadian province not subdivided for the Census.  The entire province, all 186, 661 square miles of it (483,450 sq km), is a single Census division with an estimated total population of 31,500.

The Yukon is best known for the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896.  The rush to hunt to for gold ended 3 years after it began and by 1902 most of the hopeful miners had left.  Gold production peaked in 1911 and the last dredge shut down in 1966.

The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush.  Be sure to visit the Tourist Information Center before heading down the Klondike Highway to Dawson, ex-fishing village, ex-boomtown on the Yukon River; closest town in Canada to where the gold was found.

Today the main industry in the Yukon is tourism.  In the Yukon tourism is a $164 million per year business, a number that has grown steadily since 1996.  The recent discovery, in the 1990s, of diamonds in the Northwest Territories has led people to wonder if the precious stones might not be the next big thing in the Yukon, too.

Another contrast to the larger parks is that at Discovery Coves visitors are put into small groups, each with its own staff member to lead it around the park.  There’s an age limit to the dolphin swim so if you’ve got under 6’s you’ll need to consider that before deciding on a visit to this park.  Another “housekeeping” tip is that trips to Discovery Cove must be pre-booked, and lunch is included – as is all of the equipment hire such as wet suit, snorkel and even a towel if required.

Apart from being taught how to communicate with the dolphins and being allowed to swim with them in your small group, you will be able to spend the rest of the day enjoying the birds that fly over beautiful beaches on the property, together with snorkeling off the various reefs packed with marine life, and exploring hidden grottos.  It’s an unforgettable experience!

For anyone who is interested in working in this kind of environment, Discovery Cove offers a Trainer for a Day program where the limited number of visitors who are on the program are allowed a closer connection with the animals and get to work alongside the regular staff members for that day.

Discovery Cove may be missing the wilder exhibits that its neighboring theme parks are noted for, but it more than makes up for this in terms of sheer magic, beauty and wildlife.

Upon entering the park, you’ll be on Hollywood Boulevard.  This is a place to shop merchandise of both a traditional souvenir nature, and also more limited edition collectors pieces, as well as find restaurants and other kinds of retail outlets.  Walk to the bottom of the Boulevard however and you’ll find the Great Movie Ride.  Although the queue for this may be long, it does move quickly and the journey through well known movie scenes is well worth the wait.

Around the rest of the park there are shows such as the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular which shows how stunts are performed and re-enacts scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, a car and motorcycle stunt show called Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, and Fastasmic! A night-time show in the Holywood Hills Amphitheatre.

For the young, and young at heart, there’s such things as the Jim Henson’s Muppet Vision 3D show, the Little Mermaid show, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, Beauty and the Beast show, and Playhouse Disney live on stage.  Thrill seekers aren’t forgotten completely however with the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s indoor Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

With the Journey in Narnia, and the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour, there’s a great day of entertainment to be had at Disney’s MGM Studios.  If you love Disney, it’s well worth a visit!