Travel Guides Site Summary

Travel Guides is the personal travelogue of UK residents Kim and Steve Larkins. This web site and all its resources have been built up over years of exotic worldwide travel and many hundreds of man hours of web design.

Travel Guides now covers more exciting and rewarding destinations than many other Internet travel sites. It has the highest quality pictures of some of the most visually spectacular worldwide destinations. We hope you enjoy browsing through the many images and travel tips contained on the site. We would value your feedback, click here to contact us with any suggestions for the site.

Barbados

Travel Guides provides a fantastic virtual tour of Barbados; a fabulous island set in the beautiful Caribbean Ocean. Barbados has a fantastic year-round climate with friendly, hospitable people and a wonderful laid-back culture.

Barbados is only about 20 miles from North to South but has very varied scenery, from the hills of the Scotland District to the bays of the south and west coast where the finest beaches can be found. It is far more accessible than it used to be for many people. Whilst it is still the home (or second home) to many rich and famous people, it is now possible to travel there on a budget and this site helps you do just that!

Travel Guides also provides some world-class photographs of The Grenadine Islands. The Grenadines are part of the Windward Islands, lying some 90 miles west of Barbados, near St. Vincent in the Caribbean. The Grenadines are home to the Tobago Keys, some of which are kept as uninhabited islands for everyone to enjoy. The Tobago Cays offer some of the best diving outside of the pacific with shallow reefs and excellent snorkelling.

The Grenadines make a spectacular day trip from other nearby other Caribbean islands. The sea is incredibly clean and has an amazing turquoise hue. The Grenadines have been opened up to tourism by the building of airports on Bequia and Union Islands. Mustique lies in the chain of Grenadine islands chain has an airport made largely out of Bamboo, Mustique offers true tranquillity and solitude to travellers who have the necessary dollars!

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park

Situated in California, Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park are home to some of the finest Sierra Nevada scenery. Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon have the advantage of offering scenery similar to Yosemite National Park, but without the crowds. This allows visitors to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks the ability to hike and take in the breathtaking scenery without masses of other people spoiling the tranquillity.

Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park are also easily accessible via major roads from the valleys of Central California. Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park also offer some opportunities to see rare wildlife such as Black Bear. Sightings are remarkably frequent!

Yellowstone National Park has to be one of the best places in the world to witness geyser activity and it is also one of the places where you can see some of the United States' best Rocky Mountain scenery and the highest waterfalls. The volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park causes heating of the rivers, which steam and create some amazing photographic opportunities early in the morning. The canyons of Yellowstone National Park are also extremely spectacular.

Indeed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park, is arguably more impressive than the Grand Canyon, certainly in terms of the vivid colour on the canyon walls caused by the thermal activity even if the canyon does not quite have the scale of the more well known Grand Canyon in Arizona.

We hope you enjoy the photographs enclosed in the Yellowstone National Park travel guide - most of these were personally taken and we believe that they show the true beauty of Yellowstone National Park. Everyone should visit Yellowstone National Park in their lifetime!

Island of Jersey - Channel Islands (UK)

Whilst, not many of my International readers will know where the Island of Jersey is located, they may be more familiar with New Jersey - I provide a brief introduction to this special island which is actually located just off the North French coast. Jersey is also a very friendly place and has great scenery and fine standards of cuisine due largely to the French influence. Jersey is a great place to go for a short break and has some of the finest beaches in the UK.

The weather is generally better (at least in terms of sunshine hours) than mainland Britain. The temperatures may be slightly lower than southern England though, so it is probably best to visit in the summer time.

Jersey is also a tax haven which has obvious attractions to UK visitors most of whom pay through the nose for everything thanks to successive government tax hikes! You will notice much cheaper petrol prices than in England as well. If you are taking your car from England, fill it up in Jersey before you catch the ferry back it will save you pounds! Jersey is also a great place to buy diamonds - so for my male readers, why not "pop the marriage question" when you visit and treat her to a nice diamond ring?

Southern England - Dorset and the Isle of Wight

No visit to Southern England would be complete without taking in areas of outstanding natural beauty, such as The New Forest, The Isle of Wight and Dorset. These areas have a lot to offer, including idyllic villages, thatched pubs and unlimited walks through the unspoilt forest. A trip by ferry to the Isle of Wight from Lymington is also well worth while and the topology is very different from that of the New Forest. The Isle of Wight is situated just off England's south coast close to Southampton.

On the Isle of Wight there are impressive cliffs, beautifully kept villages and good beaches. The ferry from Lymington takes you into Yarmouth which is a good starting point to explore the island. The Needles on the West side of the Isle of Wight are well worth a visit as they are visually spectacular - you can often see them when flying to the UK from the USA as the approach often takes you in over Southampton. Even from the air, they look impressive.

If time permits, do take a drive across to Dorset and tour the West Dorset coast around Lulworth Cove. This area is fantastic and has some of the best coastal walks along the south west coast of England. You can walk for miles from the cove west along the 'South West Coast Path' over impressive cliffs, stopping off at St Oswald's Bay, Durdle Door and Bat's Head along the way. It's best to wear good walking shoes as the Dorset cliff climbs can be quite strenuous and slippery especially at Swyre Head. Why not stay at Lulworth Cove in a beautiful thatched cottage? We would recommend Rose Cottage along the Main Road in West Lulworth, Dorset for a warm welcome. See the main Southern England travel guide page for more details about Rose Cottage.

New Destinations

Travel guides to new, exotic destinations are being added all the time to compliment this site. The latest additions are sightseeing guides to the island of Menorca, California's cities and coastline, Yosemite National Park and New Zealand (links at page bottom).

Click here to go to the main Island of Barbados, Yellowstone, Sequoia, Kings Canyon National Park, Dorset and Isle of Wight travel guides index page.