This view of paradise greets travelers who arrive at Bora Bora’s Motu Mute Airport.  Photo by Gene Korte

Ia ora na!

Greetings from Bora Bora — a tiny piece of heaven in the South Pacific.

The water is impossibly blue, except for those improbable shades of green, and everywhere you turn, it is — snap, snap, snap — picture postcard perfect. James Michener, author of “Tales of the South Pacific,” thought Bora Bora was the most beautiful island of all. No wonder.

Bora Bora, which lies about 150 miles northwest of Tahiti (http://www.tahiti-tourisme.com), is about five miles long and a couple of miles wide and surrounded by a barrier reef and a lagoon. Palm-covered motus, or tiny islands, form a necklace around the main island, while native hibiscus flowers spread their lush scent on the hillsides. Some visitors come to sail and swim, snorkel and dive these amazingly clear waters. While others come to sink in the perfect sand, experience the tropical beauty and channel their inner Paul Gauguin.

Here are a few reasons why this romantic island is so magical.

TI’A MOANA

Ships that sail the South Pacific stop here. Boats that travel within the borders of French Polynesia, an area bigger than Europe, stop here. And then there’s the yacht the Ti’a Moana (http://www.bora-bora-cruises.com ) that  sails in and around Bora Bora and its Society Island neighbors — Taha’a, Raiatea and Huahine.

The Ti’a Moana is a honeymooner’s dream. In fact, most of the 38 passengers on our trip were newlyweds from France and Spain. The ship offers all outside cabins, large windows and exquisite furnishing and passengers are pampered by a well traveled and trained international staff who seemed to read our minds and catered to our every want and need, providing privacy, though there were others onboard. The food on this stylish, Tahitian-owned yacht was the best French food we’d had in years. And because the yacht is so small, it was able to maneuver into many a remote beach.

OVERWATER BUNGALOWS

The first luxury resort bungalow on stilts over the Bora Bora Lagoon appeared years ago and now there are about a dozen upmarket resorts here with this feature.  These overwater bungalows can be found in other parts of the South Pacific, but if you’ve seen photos of these unusual places, chances are they were taken in Bora Bora. Although couples show up at these resorts, they offer special family packages as well.

We stayed in an overwater bungalow at the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort  & Spa located on Motu Toopua. It’s 10 minutes from the Bora Bora airport by skiff and a few minutes across the water from Vaitape, Bora Bora’s main town.

Although there were people around at the reception desk and in the restaurant, once you’re in your bungalow, it’s only you and the tropics. We had our own private steps into the warm water of the lagoon and when daylight faded, we could see into the water through our Tahitian television, that is, our glass-top coffee table that provided illuminated views of the fish. This resort is a place where you can enjoy views of Bora Bora’s classic mountain peak, Otemanu, and treetop massages, along with a full range of spa and aquatic offerings.

HAWAIKI NUI VA’A

For centuries, Polynesian warriors have raced across the open waters of the South Pacific in their outriggers. In today’s version of the race, six-person teams compete over three days in October in the Hawaiki Nui Va’a, the Super Bowl of outrigger canoe races, http://www.hawaikinuivaa.pf/.

Contestants wear matching T-shirts and baseball hats and their outriggers are covered with advertising like Indy 500 cars. Despite the presence of sailing ships and powered support boats throttling in the open waters just a few feet away, the racers still move their oars in perfect harmony at about one stroke per second and switch sides simultaneously in practiced choreography. We watched the finish of one of the 72-mile races on the deck of the Ti’a Moana while it was moored in the harbor on the island of Raiatea.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Travelers come mostly by air, but also by sea. Bora Bora’s busy Motu Mute Airport — about 45 minutes by air from Tahiti — was built in 1942 by the United States during World War II and was French Polynesia’s first international airport. Tahiti is five hours by air from Easter Island and eight hours from Los Angeles.

Air Tahiti Nui (http://www.airtahitinui-usa.com) is the leading carrier to French Polynesia and has a half-dozen daily inter-island flights to Bora Bora from Fa’a’ā International Airport on the island of Tahiti. Check their website for special travel packages, including family rates, from the United States and other parts of the world.

LAN Airlines (http://www.lan.com) is the dominant airline in South America. It’s also the only airline, and has been since 1968, that flies from Easter Island to Tahiti with two round-trip flights per week. Fly this way from North America and you’ll be stopping at two of the world’s most exotic destinations.

LESS EXPENSIVE HOTEL OPTIONS:

Luxury yachts and resorts in Bora Bora are pricey, but French Polynesia has more than 100 islands. If you’re looking to travel here more economically, there are about 250 pensions or family hotels throughout the five island groups in Tahiti, https://tahititourisme.com/en-us/vacation-packages/

AVERAGE TEMPERATURE: In Bora Bora it’s 82 to 85 degrees year-round with water temperature in the low 80s.

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© 2018  Diana and Gene Korte

Dubrovnik in Croatia on the Cote d’Azur coastline of the Adriatic is one of the best-preserved medieval walled cities in the world.       Photo by Gene Korte

The Adriatic is an inviting 500-mile-long sea with Italy on its western coastline and once isolated European countries on its eastern shores. Despite a delightful Mediterranean type climate, this region has been mostly off the American traveler’s radar until the last 15 years.

War raged in this region in the early 1990s, and before that the borders were commonly closed to the West for the 50 or so years of communist rule.  The jewel of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik in Croatia, was under constant siege for six months in 1991 by the Serbs. It was rebuilt in part with UNESCO funds and some say it is grander than ever.  Tiny Montenegro (population about 650,000) asserted its independence from Serbia and is one of the newest countries in the United Nations. Even Albania, one of the least visited countries in Europe, though still littered with hundreds of thousands of small concrete bunkers constructed in the 1980s to supposedly protect citizens from American invaders, now welcomes foreign travelers.

The Adriatic’s northernmost post is the Italian city of Venice.  Going south from there,  the Riviera-like coastline of Croatia (http://www.croatia.hr) showcases more than 1,000 islands, moored yachts and red-roofed coastal towns. Montenegro follows next with its towering mountains and bountiful beaches (http://www.visit-montenegro.com). And finally the sea reaches the colorful shores of Albania (http://www.albaniantourism.com), before the Adriatic flows into the Mediterranean.   Here are some of the finest stops along the way:

Dubrovnik in Croatia is one of the best-preserved medieval walled cities in the world. The best views are from the walls themselves – they are a mile-and-a-half in circumference – which circle the old city and date from the 13th century. During our visit, we viewed a passionate musical performance at the Dominican cloister. The Klapa Ostro Konavle group performed the traditional a capella klapa singing, famous throughout southern Croatia.

A half-hour from the Croatian port city of Sibenik, a town first settled 3,000 years ago, is the Krka National Park. Known for its waterfalls, wildlife and the terraced cascades of Skradinski Buk, I had the best ice cream of the trip here. Vanilija on a stick, bought for 50 cents from a park vender.

The small town of Trogir in Croatia, once controlled by Venice when it was an empire, is actually an island surrounded by a medieval wall with two giant gates that lead into a town of numerous small squares. It was in this town in particular that the Middle Ages seemed to be around every corner. A good example is the Cathedral of St. Lawrence. Among its timeless attributes are the 16th-century walnut choir seats and a legend of a local hero who was killed by the Venetians and carried away, but as the story goes, returned to Trogir with the help of the angels.

The most exciting moments in Montenegro after we landed at Kotor were driving on the 25 serpentine switchbacks with a speedy driver up to a small smokehouse that overlooks the fjords below. While there we were offered generous platters of the locally made prosciutto, cheese and bread along with honey wine. From this high point, we viewed the panorama of this country’s dark towering mountains, understanding the meaning of the word Montenegro–black mountains.

The 20-mile drive from the port of Durres in Albania to the capital city of Tirane was quite an eye-opener and not to be missed. Buildings are being torn down and simultaneously made new all at once with huge heaps of trash from both endeavors everywhere. While city planning and trash collecting are obviously backed up, the Albanians themselves appear enthusiastic about getting on with the 21st century. We saw young women in jeans and tank tops in Tirane walking in front of 24-hour gas stations, though neither sight was common.  This country of many contrasts also boasts outstanding Roman ruins.

We traveled for more than a week in the Adriatic as part of a longer trip that also explored the Mediterranean all the way to Portugal on Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Endeavour (http://www.expeditions.com).  The company has exotic itineraries around the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic and owns and/or operates many small ships. All of them have experts who lecture and accompany groups on zodiac excursions.

Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC. for World’s Fare Syndicate

© 2011-2014  Diana and Gene Korte

November through March is the season when ships make their way down through the rough-and-tumble waters of the Drake Passage from the southern tip of South America to the northern reaches of Antarctica. It’s the ice continent’s summer.    Photo by Gene Korte

Antarctica is home to 90 percent of the world’s ice. Because of that, it’s a thrilling other-worldly place. As our ship moved along iceberg alley, bergs almost as large as small towns appeared and ranged in hues from white to blue and green. Our ship, the Endeavor, occasionally stopped to cut through ice, sounding like the largest blender ever.

Despite being the continent with the most hostile environment, last season there were 37,000 visitors to Antarctica, about 1/3 of whom are from the USA. They come in the southern hemisphere’s summer, November through March, when temperatures likely reach from 30 to 50 degrees, and the sun is out a glorious 18 to 24 hours a day.

Most travelers get to Antarctica by flying to Buenos Aires, Argentina or Santiago, Chile and continuing on by air to Ushuaia, the town on the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego, at the bottom of South America. It’s in the harbor of this colorful place where passengers board ships that travel through the Drake Passage, an often tumultuous body of water where the world’s oceans mix. Some 40 hours later, they arrive in the calm waters around the northern Antarctic Peninsula.

Although there’s no government, as such, down here, dozens of nations have research stations and most tour operators are members of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), http://www.iaato.org, which advocates environmentally responsible tourism travel.

Here are some favorite parts of the Antarctic experience.

The penguins

Yes, you’ll find dozens of sunning seals and diving whales spraying water through their blowholes on a trip to Antarctica. And, sure, there are hundreds of birds to admire from the albatrosses that surf the wind of the Drake Passage to the white petrels that pester the penguins. But the penguins steal the show with their charming waddling walk, devoted parenting, chirpy chatter, and total obliviousness to human presence. These birds never paid any attention to us, even when we stood only a couple of feet away. Of course, visitors are forbidden to touch any animal here. Penguins have no enemies on land in Antarctica. It’s not until penguins go into the water to feed or migrate that they are in danger from seals and whales.

Our first landing was on a brown sandy beach. Even if we hadn’t seen the many thousands of penguins on the hillside, the smell of their guano miles away announced their presence. Home for most penguin couples is a dry rock or side of a hill. Perched about 18 to 24 inches from their neighbors, they crowd their nests close together like big city apartment dwellers.

We saw rookeries of Adelie, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins, all basically black and white and three feet tall with a few subtle differences. The Chinstrap, for instance, sports a black line under his chin. Our biggest sighting on this trip was an estimated 6,000 Adelie penguins in one place. Penguins return to the same rocky islands each year to nest, and will usually return to the same spot they had the year before.

The place

What visitors see in Antarctica in the summer is mountainous islands, bays, sandy beaches, and the occasional field of orange-and-green lichens with snow never far away. The numerous icebergs have strata, which are many thousands of years old. Imagine looking at ice that was laid down before recorded history. Our brief close-up moment to all this was from the seat of a kayak inches from the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. Away from this northern peninsula where ships visit, this continent is somewhat flat and covered with a mile or two of ice topped with a layer of icing-like snow.

Port Lockroy, once a British research station, is now a tiny museum and post office station, complete with the sounds of Benny Goodman. It’s home to Gentoo penguins that live right outside the door and two staffers who sell stamps and pens and will mail your postcards to anywhere in the world.

The food

Sure we dressed in red parkas, long underwear, insulated clothes and knee-high rubber boots whenever we left the ship. But onboard, we had hot water for showers, three meals and often pre-dinner appetizers every day. I thought of those early explorers, like Sir Ernest Shackleton, who came down here in wooden boats. These adventurous men wore wool that was usually wet — not the water-resistant micro fibers we had. And they ate penguins, from all published reports not the tastiest of meals. We, on the other hand, dined on smoked reindeer mousse, Swedish pancakes, and cream soups, while admiring the world of ice and water outside the panoramic dining room windows. On one occasion a snowstorm chased us all inside just in time for afternoon tea. Because the weather outside was frightful, crustless egg salad sandwiches, muffins and the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate marble cookies were the tastiest of tea offerings.

The ship

The optimal way to visit Antarctica is on an icebreaker expedition ship because the ship’s smaller size — about 100 to 125 passengers — allows access to areas unreachable by the big ocean liners. If you’re going to go all the way to the bottom of the world, wouldn’t you want to get off the ship and walk on the land? You can do that if you travel on an expedition ship. They have zodiacs, inflatable boats that hold a dozen people, just for that purpose. The ship’s staff is experienced in getting people of all ages, sizes and physical condition into these boats. If you can walk, you can manage this exotic trip. Expedition ships are low-key with no swanky shows and casinos, and evening entertainment is usually a briefing by one of the several naturalists onboard.

Lindblad, http://www.expeditions.com, was the first company to take non-scientists to Antarctica more than 40 years ago and the first to offer kayaking when weather permits. They have numerous Antarctic departures as does the Silversea Explorer, also an icebreaker expedition ship, http://www.silversea.com.

© 2011-2015 Diana and Gene Korte

The Silver Wind, anchored here in Copenhagen, is one of ten Silversea ships, a fleet that travels to every continent and is often ranked first among small cruise ships. Photo by Gene Korte

Over the centuries one of the stars of this celebrated city has been Catherine the Great.  She ruled as Empress of Russia 250 years ago and were she around today she might be crowned the bad girl star of 24-hour celebrity news, at least among the royals.  She was probably the one who had her husband Peter III killed. During her marriage she had dalliances and children with numerous boyfriends, and palace rumor has it her last lover was 40 years her junior. And over three decades she added glorious architecture to St. Petersburg, expanded Russia’s borders and was a political powerbroker in Europe.

Fortunately for the rest of us, one of her other passions was art. Thanks to her, the Hermitage Museum (http://www.hermitagemuseum.org) exists today in St. Petersburg. Because subsequent czars added on to the collection, the museum is now many times bigger than the original and is housed in six buildings. To the credit of the Russian people, this gigantic monument to art has survived many wars and in both good times and bad.

We visited this historic city from the dock of our ship, the Silversea Silver Wind, http://www.silversea.com.  Our twice-daily excursions from this luxurious floating five-star hotel took us to some of Catherine’s greatest loves — art, music, ballet and a grand hotel.

A ROOM FULL OF MADONNAS & A LITTLE MOZART

One of the largest museums in the world, the Hermitage, has more than 3 million pieces of art, though not all are on display at the same time. It would take weeks, not days, to go through the areas of the Hermitage that are open to the public.    Among the famous Western art are the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Rembrandt, Rodin, Monet and Matisse. After ascending the Hermitage Grand Staircase on our evening tour and walking at a steady clip, we pass through 15 rooms, admiring the work of all these artists. Imagine what treasures lie in the hundreds of rooms we didn’t visit.

One features only Madonna and Child paintings, another offers an entire wall of Rembrandts. A champagne reception is included and, much like an evening in one of Catherine’s palaces in the 1700s, that is followed by an evening musical presentation. The State Hermitage Orchestra performs mostly Italian music in the Great Skylight Italian Hall, beginning with the rousing “Overture to the Marriage of Figaro.”

SWAN LAKE AT THE PALACE THEATER

In this renovated theater with its comfortable side-by-side chairs and grand acoustics, on another ship excursion we are presented with a performance of one of Tchaikovsky’s most well known ballets, Swan Lake.  Afterward, our small group meets with one of the ballerinas, a slender young woman who stands in front of us in a remarkably graceful pose. In answer to our questions about her daily schedule, through an interpreter, she tells us that she rises at 6 a.m., practices ballet every day for six hours, and doesn’t retire for the evening until nearly midnight. She went on to say that it’s the life she aspires to and one that is led by all the ballerinas in the company.

A GRAND HOTEL

The Grand Hotel Europe (http://www.grandhoteleurope.com) wasn’t around during Catherine’s time, but some of her Romanoff descendants certainly must have stopped by.   Built more than 130 years ago, this renovated luxury hotel is so full of local charm and history that it couldn’t be anywhere else.  In our experience that is a hallmark of Orient-Express hotels around the world.

When we arrived, the Sunday Jazz Brunch in the L’Europe Restaurant was in full swing. Performances on stage vary, for instance, Friday night is ballet night.  On entering the majestic Art Nouveau restaurant, an attendant offered us each a small plate perched with a mound of black caviar.   Just inside the doorway a huge block of ice resting on its own table has captured a large orchid frozen inside with a spigot in place to pull for vodka. Catherine would approve.  Among the many artfully arranged table presentations in this room, some with tiny tureens of soup, others with robust displays of meat including a roasted pig, one end of the seafood table was awash in shades of orange. Salmon eggs, lobster, giant crab, shrimp and red snapper. Yes, of course, there are tiny plates of dessert, too, but who wants to linger for those when the  hotel offers 35 varieties of its own chocolate.  Catherine, a chocoholic herself,  demanded in her 18^th century royal manner that her hot chocolate be served only in  Parisian silver dishes.

SAILING ON SILVERSEA

We spent three days in St. Petersburg’s harbor after docking at several Scandinavian seaports and crossing the Baltic Sea.  Every summer Silversea offers many such departures, as well as voyages to all the other continents as well. Among the many pluses of this all-suite cruise line and its ten ships are bigger cabins, fewer passengers — between 100 and 500 — a no tipping policy and free alcohol that made us feel more like guests than customers running a tab. Silversea has been voted the world’s best small ship cruise line many times by readers of travel magazines and travel agents around the world.

Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC. for World’s Fare Syndicate

© 2013-2014 Diana and Gene Korte