The Travel Blog by TravelPod

Travel writer Ben Groundwater has come up with some destinations that are deceptively delicious. I thought I’d see what our travel bloggers had to say about the same places. In no particular order, here they are:

Utah, USA

Cmbuchholz in the desert in Utah

Large canyons and several very impressive vistas off the interstate.  Very difficult to explain how beautiful the scenery was, and not a lot of traffic on the interstate made for a very nice drive. Got into Moab about 8:30 and was a bit surprised.  The city is a bit of a recreation mecca for outdoor sports.  Has rafting on the Colorado river, hiking, 4×4 adventures, sky diving, etc. – Cmbuchholz

Croatian Islands

Hanna.patterson spent a day on a deserted island in Croatia

I would be remiss to write about Croatia without mentioning all of the water. The colors of the Adriatic Sea are beautiful! We spent a day relaxing out on an island and actually swam out to another island very near to the shore which is home to a Franciscan monastery. There were probably about 10 people on the entire island and it was very peaceful. – Hanna.patterson

Uganda

Rockobatty getting comfy with a silverback gorilla

We began to have some lunch when myself and another fellow noticed some movement. We asked our guide what it was, and he replied that it probably was an antelope or something. Within a couple of minutes he said quickly put the food away that is not an antelope it is the gorillas, THEY WERE ONLY FEET AWAY. After we put our food away, we followed the trackers into the bush where we saw the first gorilla laying on his back in a tree just enjoying the sun. Soon there were gorillas everywhere: babies, teens and mothers. Brett was trying to get a good angle for a picture when you could hear some more just behind a bush near her, although this was no ordinary gorilla it was the SILVERBACK. He made very scary sounds, the trackers tried to imitate their sounds to let them now it was us. – Rockobatty

Bolivia

Joelrose on the salt flats of Uyuni

The Salar de Uyuni – nothing prepares you for this amazing bright white landscape – the result of an ancient sea which dried up over time and left 5 metres of pure salt across 12.000 km² of salt desert. It is situated at 3.650 metres above sea level so you get quite breathless moving about which we did a lot of as it is perfet for distance distorting visual illusion type photos (will upload these this weekend). – Joelrose

Country Netherlands

Kathryn77 found an amazing sand castle in Scheveningen

Scheveningen is the setting for an international sand sculpture competition each year in May – as I was there on 1st June, I only saw one sand sculpture, so I’m assuming that’s the one that won, as it was very well protected.  Now THAT was a sandcastle!! – Kathryn77

New Zealand

Codownsean went sperm whale watching in New Zealand

The whale watching tour was great. There were two different sightings in spite of the choppy seas – well by choppy I mean 10 metre swells.  The boat journey was frightful. After the whales we moved on to see some dolphins and fur seals.  All grand stuff. – Codownsean

Moscow, Russia

Promking22 saw Eurovision in Moscow this year

Lowlights included: Belgium – A guy dressed as Elvis convinced he was the real King and that Elvis was a fat, dead, copycat. Czech Republic – gypsies led by weird dude in a red cape. Finland – bringing out their own Vanilla Ice…..and making it through to the final?? The Hosting – A model constantly showing her discomfort around her old co-host trying to get too close. We thought the winners of the night were Iceland and Turkey and the two poms that sat next to us. Possibly the only other people that spoke English. – Promking22

Namibia

Dwfromuk got to see some cheetahs in Namibia

The morning we arrived here, we got to experience a cheetah run.  The CCF has a number of cheetahs in large enclosures that were orphaned and can’t be released back into the wild. The resident cheetahs need to be exercised on a regular basis and we got to see it first hand, in fact we were inside the enclosure with three cheetahs. Totally and amazingly brilliant! – Dwfromuk

Tasmania

Tracymiller is adjusting well to life in Tasmania...

One day i went to a place called Liffey Falls, with beautiful falls in a lush, green forest. Another day a drive to the coast, a place called Low Head, where the ocean meets the Tamar River..nothing much there except beach, coast on both sides, lighthouse, a small town (small is big in Tassie) and nobody around. Lucy and I went to Josef Chromy vineyard for lunch which was just lovely. It’s set on a lake with hills all around and a nice terrace to sit outside…and a vintage bottle of sparkling wine always helps as well. – Tracymiller