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The Traveling Fool
Traveling off the tourist path. Talking about those places most tourists just don't know about because, well, nobody ever told them. Also travel tips and news about travel and tourism to make your trip a little easier, cheaper and more memorable.
The Traveling Fool
Warm Winter Getaways: 7 Sun-Filled Destinations to Beat the Cold
Escape the winter blues with us as we uncover hidden gems that promise warmth and adventure without the need for a passport. Ever dreamt of swapping snow for sunshine? From charming towns, outdoor activities like fishing, snorkeling and hiking, to casino escapades. Then, picture yourself basking in the sun on a beautiful beach with no stress. Enjoy National Parks or indulge in the bustling markets or immerse yourself in the local culture.
As we wrap up, we'll beckon you with a tantalizing hint of a lesser-known American wonder, teeming with Wild West lore and cinematic history, promising to be the highlight of our next adventure. Safe travels and warm wishes as you chart your course to these sunny retreats!
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Hi and welcome to the Traveling Fool. I'm your host, bob Bales, and this week we are talking about seven sunny destinations that you can go to to escape that nasty winter cold this winter, and none of them are in California, florida or Hawaii. So stay tuned and we'll be right back. All right, welcome back. And before we get started, let me just tell you something.
Speaker 1:I hate cold weather. Yes, I live in the South, but I spent 20 years in the military, most of it overseas and a lot of it in really cold weather, and then, 10 years after I retired, I went to work overseas as a military contractor for about, oh, eight and a half years, and it was cold. I don't like cold weather and I've lived in the States in cold weather and I don't like it. It's not fun, I hate it. So that's why I like to spend as much time as I can in the winter someplace nice and warm, and I know I can't be alone out there. I mean some of you people that live in the north where it gets bitterly cold and shoveling snow all the time. I know you're sick and tired of it. You say, oh, it's beautiful, the snow's so pretty and it's just so nice and peaceful. Come on about January, you're like you know what this sucks, I need to get out of here. So let me tell you about seven places that you can go this winter and get out of the cold. Now everybody thinks about going to Hawaii, california and Florida, because they're always crowded in the wintertime, with everybody escaping the cold weather, and the weather's great there and the beaches are beautiful and everybody knows about it. So let's just skip those three and we're going to talk about places that you can go where the weather's nice and, although there might be some tourists, it probably will not be overrun with them. Now, not everybody has a passport, although I think you should get one, just because it opens up the door to just a lot more travel opportunities, just a lot more travel opportunities. But, having said that, we're going to talk about places where US citizens can travel this winter without having a passport.
Speaker 1:Now the first word we're going to talk about is Mississippi. Yeah, I know a lot of people don't think about Mississippi when it comes to beach travel, but coastal Mississippi has 62 miles of shoreline and a bunch of stuff to see and do and, believe it or not, there's like 10 or 12 towns along that stretch of coast that range from a little town called Waveland on the western part, where you can enjoy not only the beach but fishing, charter cruises, great food and tons of outdoor activities, to Pascagoula, on the eastern stretch of the coastline. And Pascagoula has a lot of history, great outdoor activities and, of course, the beaches. And it's hard to pick just one city or town, since you can drive the entire stretch in about an hour and a half or two hours. But whether you visit Biloxi, gulfport or one of the others, you can rest assured that there's great dining, fishing, boating, shopping, history and outdoor activities and just a few miles in any direction you travel. And oh yeah, I forgot to mention the casinos. There's a bunch of casinos. There's like 13 casinos located in coastal Mississippi where you can try your luck, see a show and a whole lot more. And it's nice and warm there. You can fly into Gulfport, rent a car and explore the area and the average temperature in January, the coldest month of the year, is 50 degrees. Now, to me, 50 degrees is a little chilly. I don't like it. It's starting to get a little nippy Time to get out to Winter's Goats. But if you're from somewhere up north where you've got four feet of snow, 50 degrees isn't bad, and it's often a lot more warmer than that.
Speaker 1:Now, the second place is in my home state of Texas, and when you think of Texas beaches, what comes to mind? Well, galveston might come to mind, but South Padre Island Now. I grew up in Corpus Christi, which is down on the Gulf Coast, and spent many a day on Padre Island. Now, where I used to go on Padre Island is now called Padre Island, national Seashore, and vehicle traffic is limited to just certain areas and certain things you can do and cannot do. However, padre Island is a barrier island and it's part of the barrier islands that stretch all the way from Houston and Galveston area to just a few miles from Mexico. And while Corpus Christi is a great destination with a lot to do and Padre Island is a fun destination, jersey's a great destination with a lot to do and Padre Island is a fun destination. South Padre Island is home to hotels, resorts, beaches, nightlife and just a whole lot more.
Speaker 1:Now, south Padre Island is separated from Padre Island by the Mansfield Channel and driving between the two is not possible, and driving between the two is not possible. So to access South Padre Island. You have to go down to the Queen Isabella Causeway, which is from Port Isabel a little further south, and you drive over to the island. It's about 287 miles from San Antonio to Port Isabel and about 400 miles from Houston, depending on which route you take. And you can always fly into Brownsville and rent a car and drive the 40 miles to the island if you want to. Now, once there, you can expect a lot of fishing charters for hire. There's live music venues. They have festivals all the time. They've got dolphin watching cruises, themed cruises, wildlife and nature excursions. There's some nature areas around there where you can do all kinds of stuff. There's tons of nightlife and great beaches and if you're there at the right time, you can watch a SpaceX launch from Boca Chica, which is just across the bay from Port Isabel.
Speaker 1:Just don't go during spring break if you want to avoid the crowds, because spring break it is a nightmare. You got thousands of people coming for spring break, but for winter. That's the time to go Now. Another place you can take off to this winter, guaranteed to have nice, beautiful weather Puerto Rico. That's right, puerto Rico is a great destination and it's easily reachable from the US, depending on what your interests are. There are three places that you can spenda warm winter vacation in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1:The capital of San Juan holds a lot of history, culture, nightlife, lots of stuff to see and do. You can explore old San Juan and visit the Castillo, one of the big forts. In El Morro, another one of the big forts, spanish built. They were built to guard the city. There's two of them there, beautiful. You can also explore the museums and historic sites, enjoy the nightlife. Maybe do a tour of one of the rum factories.
Speaker 1:Now, if a beach is more your thing, head out to one of the islands, the island of I know I'm going to screw this up Viquez and Culebra. Both are accessible from a short flight from San Juan, or you can just drive the hour and a half to Ceiba, near the town of Fajardo, and take the ferry to either island. Now Vicas you can go horseback riding, sailing, diving, visit the last fort built by the Spaniards in the Americas, or that 1890s lighthouse that's a big tourist attraction. It's now a maritime museum. Actually, 60% of the island is covered by a National Wildlife Refuge and the island's home to Mosquito Bay. Why would you want to go see Mosquito Bay? Well, it's one of three bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico. There's only five of these in the world and Mosquito Bay is probably the best and brightest of the one to view. Puerto Rico's got three of the five in the world. It's a sight to see at nighttime.
Speaker 1:Now Calibra Island has one of the best beaches anywhere. Calibra Island has one of the best beaches anywhere. Flamenco Beach is a mile long with a wooden boardwalk, got a little food kiosk and vendors along the way. It's located in a sheltered bay which makes for calm, nice turquoise blue waters. The island has a coral reef which makes it great for snorkeling. You can rent a jeep or a golf cart and take a drive around the island. You can go kayaking, hiking or book a fishing charter. There is just a lot of things to do there, and there's a wide variety of hotels, guest houses and rentals available to make for a nice, relaxing tropical vacation.
Speaker 1:Now here's one you don't hear very often. I actually had the opportunity to go there two years ago. Why I waited so long, I'll never know. The United States Virgin Islands, the USA's Caribbean paradise that very few people ever visit, and I was guilty myself. Like I said just a couple of years ago when I went there and I was just blown away. It's a little over 100 miles east of Puerto Rico and chances are, if you ever have visited there or know someone that has, it was because your cruise ship probably stopped there for the day. Now I had the opportunity to visit all three of the main islands that make up the US Virgin Islands, and all three are different. They each have their own little vibe. They're all totally type different islands. The Virgin Islands is a territory of the United States and, as such, you don't need a passport in order to travel there, as long as you don't stop in another country somewhere along the way. Now you do have to go through Customs and Immigration because it's out of the US Customs zone, but you don't have to have a passport.
Speaker 1:Now, when you get there, chances are you'll go to St Thomas, the largest of the islands, and it's the territorial capital and it's where a lot of the cruise lines dock. Territorial capital and it's where a lot of the cruise lines dock, and that island is primed for tourism, with tour buses taking people all over the island to see the sights. There's lots of things to see, and do they have some really nice beaches as well? I mean there's all kinds of museums there, there's lookout points, and when I say all three islands are different, they are because St Thomas is kind of hilly. You go up and down the hills, the little roads and you can get up on top of these hills and see out to a lot of the other islands out there and the ocean and see a lot of the beautiful beaches from a lot of tops of these hills. It is absolutely gorgeous. You'll have a blast on St Thomas, but you need to check out the other two islands as well.
Speaker 1:Now, st John Island is a smaller island and this is accessible from St Thomas by ferry. I think it took us like 30 or 40 minutes to get there by ferry. It wasn't very long and it wasn't very costly. It was, I don't know, $5, ten dollars and you take the ferry over and when you get to St John you will see it is just totally different. It's a lot more laid back, a lot calmer, a lot less people actually, and two-thirds of that island is a US National Park. But it's different than national parks on the mainland where you pull up, you pay an entry fee, you go into the National Park, they have campgrounds and all that stuff Over there. You're just driving down a road and you see a sign that says welcome to the US National Park, and the reason it's different is because there's actually private property within the National Park that people own and there's houses there and some others.
Speaker 1:There's hotels in the National Park and there's a lot of the beaches are on the National Park grounds, but all of the beaches are public beaches and as long as you can get to them, you can visit them, even if it's even if somebody owns that land next to the beach and it's private property with a house there. If you can take a boat and go up to that beach, you can go visit the beach. And the National Park is pretty cool. There's a lot of old ruins there from the sugar plantations that they had years ago and it's just beautiful, beautiful area. But the main attraction on St Thomas is the beaches. That little bitty island has over 20 beaches. Some of them have been continually voted the most beautiful beaches in the world and once you see them you will understand why they are absolutely gorgeous. I went to one beach and it was kind of it had little pebbles Instead of sand. There were little pebbles all along the beach Shiny little pebbles, beautiful waters, and it was gorgeous. Then I went to another beach and it was white sand beach. So they're all a little bit different and they're just stunningly beautiful.
Speaker 1:And there's some shopping there. There's a big shopping center there. That's kind of an open-air shopping center, but it's not totally closed. You have to kind of experience it. I mean, you go up steps and there'll be three or four shops. You go up some other steps, there's a few more shops and then there's a courtyard that's open outside and across the way there's a half a dozen more shops and restaurants and it's a great shopping area. There's a lot of stuff to do there. There's eating places, there's bars, there's restaurants. There's just all kinds of things to do there. Then there's another little section where the ferry comes in, where there's some shopping and a couple of bars and restaurants there, and then the resorts are all around there and it is absolutely stunningly beautiful. You'll also see some really nice, magnificent beach estates that very rich people own and you're sitting there wondering where did I go wrong? How come I don't own one of those things? Some people go to St John and spend three or four days. I just went over there for the day, had a blast and then took the ferry back over to St Thomas.
Speaker 1:Now the other main island is St Croix and they get a lot of cruise lines coming in there as well. But to get to St Croix I believe there's a ferry you can take, but it's like two or three hours long and, depending on the weather, you may not want to be out on the water if the weather's bad, so most people just take a flight. You can either take there's two kinds of flights. You can take a regular flight out of the airport. It's pretty small, I mean it holds like eight or nine passengers and it takes, I don't know, 45 minutes maybe and you're there. Or you can take a seaplane, which a lot of people do, and the seaplane you get on it and it lands right on the water when you get over to St Croix.
Speaker 1:And St Croix is totally different from the other islands because it's mainly flat and there are two main towns in St Croix, a lot of history there, because these islands used to belong to Denmark, so there's a lot of Danish forts in St Croix, a lot of old Danish houses and customs houses and things of this nature, so you can learn a lot about the history of the Virgin Islands. The people are fantastic and there's a lot of great shopping to do there and there's some beautiful beaches on St Croix as well, but there's just a lot of things to see and do there. They've got some fabulous hotels there. One is a big historic hotel that I stayed at Absolutely gorgeous Private beach, which I'm sure if you could take a boat and get there you could go to it, but nobody does I mean it's the hotel that uses it. Had a big golf course and just all kinds of stuff. It was gorgeous property and you really should at least once go visit the US Virgin Islands.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'll tell you another little thing. When you get to St John, the little island with all the beautiful beaches, your cell phone will switch over to Roman because it picks up the British Virgin Islands towers. And the British Virgin Islands are just a very short distance away. In fact you can see one of the islands from the hilltops on St John if it's a nice clear day. And you can take a ferry and go to the British Virgin Islands, but you need a passport to do that. But if you ever get a chance, go visit the US Virgin Islands. You will have a blast and you will definitely want to return. Oh, and when I say it's warm, well, mid-january it's temperatures are anywhere from like the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Now I went there in, I want to say late October and it was mid to high 80s when I was there and it was nice and cool at night. It wasn't a lot of humidity, it was gorgeous.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to mention some other places that no one ever thinks of, but you don't need a passport to get there. How about the South Pacific? You can go to Guam, and Guam has a tropical climate in the South Pacific, and I looked up flights from Houston and Houston in January to Guam. They're around $1,900 round trip. Well, you pay that a lot of times just going to Europe or going to Hawaii, depending on where you're flying out. Of. Now, once you're in Guam, you can take a four-hour boat tour into the jungle where you can learn all about the island and the Chamorro Islanders. You can visit their Chamorro Village, experience all kinds of culture, the lively street market where the food and produce and native handicrafts are sold, and, of course, they have absolutely gorgeous beaches. You can just relax, soak up the sun in the South Pacific, not that expensive to get there and the prices for hotels are not that bad either. Oh, and did I mention the average temperature on Guam in January 80 degrees. You're in a tropical climate.
Speaker 1:Back when your buddy at home was shoveling snow. You can send him a little postcard or take a picture on your phone and text it to him. Say, hey, man, I may have to stay here a couple more days. Flights are bad, but do me a favor and shovel off that snow. Now I'm a big history buff. Flights are bad, but do me a favor and shovel off that stool. Now I'm a big history buff. So these other two well, guam also, but these other two especially are just full of history.
Speaker 1:But another place you can go which is also in the South Pacific, the Northern Marianas, which is a US territory about 180 miles north of Guam. The Northern Marianas consists of 14 islands, of which Saipan is the largest, and the islands are great for snorkeling and scuba diving and just a treasure trove of history. And of course, the beaches. Now the Marianas. They were the site of some of the fiercest fighting during World War II and it has a lot of historic sites you can visit fighting during World War II, and it has a lot of historic sites you can visit. As well as a very well-preserved World War II buildings and posts, there's an old Japanese lighthouse, the jails and the Banzai and suicide cliffs. If you know anything about World War II history, that's where the Japanese soldiers and civilians leapt to their death instead of being captured by Allied forces. So if you like history and military history and things like this, the Northern Marianas is full of it. But it's also full of absolutely stunning beaches, friendly people.
Speaker 1:Hotel prices are nice and cheap. Well, not cheap, but not overly expensive. You can have a gorgeous South Pacific tropical vacation in the dead of winter. You can take a bike tour, do an off-road 4x4 tour to some of the secluded areas and just spend time exploring the islands and taking in the beauty of the South Pacific. Oh, and the temperature in January Well, it's in the mid-80s, which I would much rather enjoy instead of bitter cold winds and four or five feet of snow. I tell you, man, I just hate cold weather. Now this last one. You've heard of it, but I doubt very seriously if you've ever been there or even know of anybody that's been there, if you've ever been there or even know of anybody that's been there.
Speaker 1:American Samoa it's another territory but it is the southernmost territory of the United States. It's actually 2,200 miles southwest of the state of Hawaii and it's one of two territories southwest of the or south of the equator. The other is a little island called Jarvis Island, which is not even populated. No one's ever heard of. It's just a little bitty rock island. I think the National Fish Service or something like that has, or I don't know. It's a bird sanctuary or something, but nobody lives there. Nobody can even visit it.
Speaker 1:So if you want to go to the southern most populated territory of the United States, american Samoa is the place. You want to go to the southernmost populated territory of the United States, american Samoa is the place you want to go. And it is kind of far to get to. I mean, flights from LA take you about 14 hours. But once you get there gorgeous beaches, national parks, there's a national marine sanctuary, there's a big cultural museum that's housed in the old World War II era Navy Commissary building, there are several World War II historic locations and fortifications, along with just really friendly people and very few tourists.
Speaker 1:Now, I was in the military for 20 years and I was stationed with and knew a couple of Samoans who were in the military and they were friendly as all get out. A couple of Samoans who were in the military and they were friendly as all get out. But I mean, if I knew then what I know now, how beautiful that island was, I would have went back with them on vacation. But it's just another tropical destination that people have heard of but very few ever visit. And anytime you can enjoy a year round temperature, yearround temperatures in the mid-80s, and combine it with beaches, nightlife, culture and very few tourists, well, that's a win. I mean, imagine hanging out in the South Pacific on a beautiful island and there's hardly any tourists there. I mean that's worth it all in itself. For me it's like you have the island all to yourself. I'm telling you it's gorgeous, it's a great place to visit.
Speaker 1:So there you have it Seven places that you can visit in the dead of winter. Instead of shoveling the snow and freezing your butt off, you can go and enjoy the sand and the sun and get away from it all, all without a passport. Now, I know a lot of people love the snow and the winter, but a whole lot more just want to escape it for a while, especially if you live in a place where it just gets bitterly cold and you have to shovel that snow every day just to go outside. Those are seven places that you can definitely get away, enjoy the sand, enjoy the sun, the beautiful temperatures and not have to worry about it. So I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got some tips out of it and book one of these flights and go to one of those places and if you haven't done it already, check out last week's podcast on how to save some serious money on traveling and snag some cheap flights and hotel rooms. That'll help you determining on where you want to go.
Speaker 1:So next time we're going to delve into a place I went to a couple of years ago. This place at one time was home to a Wild West legend, the birthplace of an Oscar-winning actress and the home to the founding of an iconic food restaurant in the United States. I went there a couple of years ago. It had more than I could ever imagine. It surprised the heck out of me. So next time we'll go there and I'll tell you all about it. So until then, safe travels, thank you.
