Cookie travels

After posting about a luxury cruise to Alaska which is best to experience this summer, how about spending summer vacation by way of camping? The idea of camping this summer has been in my mind lately. It would be an exciting activity for our family especially if it’s near the beach, a popular place for our kids, including the pool. They just love to splash in the water and swim. One of the camping sites I have browsed is the Top Camping Yyteri which is near Yyteri beach so maybe we can try this one first. I haven’t gone camping yet in Finland so if pushed thru this will be one of the unforgettable family activities for summer. I can feel the excitement now…

Some people are just addicted to sports. Take for instance the American football or simply football, a popular sport in the United States played solely by male gender in leagues of various size, age and quality, throughout the country. A football fanatic might consider traveling to any region in America just to watch and cheer at their favorite football team. Is that so? Perhaps, coz he’s a sports fanatic. So if I mention here that you can catch some free football picks online to go together with your passion, maybe I will hear some cheers. Some though might just be happy talking the same language with other sports enthusiasts or following sports information online.

Addictsports.com is an online website that can provide sports enthusiasts with a daily dose of sports. You might want to check out their recommended sites such as fan blogs and NFL picks, their sport forums, and the humor in sports. And may I remind you that you need to be registered in order to get full advantage of this website. So register now and meet other hard core sports aficionados, fanatics, enthusiasts, addicts, whatever… so no more traveling to watch a game? I bet you still will. Cheers coming up.

I know that spring is just over and summer is here, referring to Finland’s season. But this one’s part of the many travel stories I want to post before they fade in my memory so please bear with me…

To start with, if I forgot my travel buddy – my digital camera – last year during our first family trip to Yyteri, this second time around, I made sure that our outing here is captured through the lens. I brought my camera this time so I will be posting photos as soon as I upload them.

If I make a comparison between then and now, the scene last autumn (or end of summer) and this spring was somewhat the same. There were few people strolling along the beach side. I could count them. The weather was also similar, still chilly and windy, and the sea was icy cold. This time though we had an added activity aside from the usual picking of cute white shells and building sand castles with bare hands. We brought a soccer ball so we had fun playing family soccer, kicking the ball and running after it.

As we started to feel the chilly wind coming thru our bodies, we then decided to leave the place. And we were hungry as well. It was about 2pm. After our short trip to this beach, we went back to the city to enjoy a pizza buffet treat to celebrate in advance hubby’s birthday. I posted one photo there and more photos coming up here at cookietravels…

I had been in a sightseeing tour cruising the Halong Bay of Vietnam and each journey along the bay was always a very relaxing experience. I loved it. But I’ll share here another kind of cruising experience travel bugs might want to explore. It’s the Alaskan luxury cruise arranged by TravelStore’s experts every year. Briefly, what’s in store in this vacation cruise is the magnificent view of the wonders of nature in this cold country, the imposing view of the mountains, the wildlife, the ice age glaciers, and much more.

You can visit cruiselocators.com from TravelStore to learn more about their Alaska luxury cruise. Here, you will get information on why Alaska cruises are so called ‘hot’ or on what are the best cruise lines operating in Alaska, and more. Just some few notes that you might want to know about this cruise. The best Alaskan cruise itinerary is a 7-day itinerary so that you can visit Denali National Park. And when booking for an Alaskan cruise, it is recommended to book for a balcony stateroom so you can enjoy the stunning scenery during the daylight. Since we are now in the month of June, better start planning for your Alaskan cruise coz the best season to visit Alaska is from May through September. Having said those, I also recommend those interested vacation cruisers to visit the website and read the many interesting things you should know regarding this vacation. You may also contact their Alaskan experts if you need more assistance. Get into another kind of cruise experience through the Alaskan luxury cruise.

Our first family trip to Yyteri was towards the end of summer last year, August to be exact if my memory was right. It was not our intention to visit it that time so my camera was left in the house. The whole family was driving to Rauma to see hubby’s new work place and on our way back we decided to drop by this famous beach in Pori coz it was still bright at seven in the evening that time. We were amazed by the vast sand dunes that covered the beach. At first I thought we went to the wrong place. It was a matter of crossing the sand dunes before we could see the beach. I felt it was a long walk from the parking area then going up the hilly sand dunes before the sea was in sight. Excitedly the kids ran towards the sea but then it was for their viewing only. The water was cold and the weather was chilly. Dare to take a plunge? Instead, the kids just made sand castles with their bare hands, picked up sea shells, and ran around the dunes. I know the kids have been missing our trips to the beach when we were still in Thailand but here it was just too windy and cold. It was on this day too that we touched part of the Baltic Sea for first time. Too bad there was no ceremony. Haha. Aside from us, there were few people who were around strolling and enjoying the fresh sea side air. We couldn’t stay too long now…brrr and dinner? It was an indication for us to go home.

Ag-Quip, Australia’s largest annual exhibition of agricultural equipments and machineries, held at Gunnedah, a town in New South Wales is scheduled this coming 19 – 21 August 2008. This 3 days major trade fair event will showcase not only agricultural equipments but also cropping, livestock and services. This annual event attracts over 100,000 visitors and about 500 exhibitors from 2000 companies so it’s quite a huge number for a town of over 7,500 people.

I’m sure organizers are now busy preparing for this major trade show. But this one won’t be a major problem coz there’s a business dedicated in the design and sale of trade show displays. These companies can design booths that can be easily set up using the portable collapsible or compact modular truss or employ one of those telescoping banner stands for graphics presentation. There are more types of trade show displays actually, but no matter what type there is, if you are interested in agricultural products, you better head off to Gunnedah this August and experience the largest agricultural fair in the Southern Hemisphere.

When we were still in Thailand, we used to travel to Chiang Mai by van. Using a van for long distance family travel is convenient for us coz of its larger space. Travel time would take about ten to twelve hours from the capital city Bangkok so traveling this far would entail us to stay in Chiang Mai for two to three days to make the most of our travel time.

Using a van is preferable but it requires some level of responsibility. With more number of passengers the van is carrying and a special type of driving skill needed, safety is important and should be an utmost concern. You have to make sure the insurance responsibilities in driving a van are met. More so you might consider adding to your insurance policy (at an additional cost) some add-ons or technically termed ‘automobile insurance endorsements’ which would be advantageous if you drive a van.

The cost of insurance premiums for full sized vans is extremely high due to the safety risks involved in driving it. However, you can find the best deals by comparing auto insurance policies of various insurance agencies. In order to compare prices, you might find the task of filling out separate forms from different insurance companies somewhat time consuming. There’s one company I know who offers their service of simplifying this task for you to only one form. The American Car Quotes. Using their service, it only takes to fill out one form and they will take care of forwarding your form to the right insurance agencies. The insurance agencies will then send you a quote based on the form you have filled out. You can now start comparing each of the quotes you receive and hopefully decide on the right quote. With insurance responsibilities taken cared of, driving a van implies driving with peace of mind.

Before we moved to Finland, the primary thing I did was search the internet for a beach. Are we going to stay near a beach? coz in Thailand beach is a famous getaway for our family. I don’t want the kids to be feeling so blue in a new country. Lo and behold, we are lucky to be staying in a city near one of the famous beaches in Finland. It’s even nearer compared to our Pathumthani to Pattaya trip in Thailand which would take us about 3 hour’s journey. Here in Finland, Pori city center to Yyteri is just less than an hour’s trip. Great right?

Yyteri is considered to be Pori’s holiday resort located about 17 km away from the city centre bordering the Baltic Sea. The beach is one of the longest in Finland and all of Nordic countries, with a vast six kilometers of fine sand and many distinctive dunes. The dune area itself is probably the only one of its kind in Europe due of its size. The biggest sand dune found at Yyteri beach (”Keisarinpankki”) is where Yyteri Information Centre is situated.

Want to see what’s happening in Yyteri now? Take a look at their updated webcam view and see how less crowded the beach is at this point in time. You have to wait till mid summer perhaps before you can see the multitude of beach goers, holiday makers, kids, adults, sunbathers swarming this place. If you visit their website you can get information about the sights, the services offered, the activities, and events in Yyteri. Below is the contact detail in case you feel like enjoying the sand and dunes of Yyteri beach here.

Yyteri Information Centre
open from: 11 June to 12 August, 11 am to 6 pm.
Red Cottage (office) in Keisarinpankki
Yyterinsantojentie, 28840 Pori, Finland
Tel: 0800 90290 (free info)
Website: www.yyteri.fi/eng