Animal Kingdom Park in designed for this purpose. Animals don’t feel that they are restricted or held in cages and we can see their habitat from a reasonable distance too. Disney opened the park for public on April 2^nd, 1998 and has the status of being the 4^th park on the resort. It is also the largest park in Disney, covering more than 500 acres of land. Animal Kingdom because of its unique features, has the honor of being the 4^th most visited park in the United States and 7^th in the world.

Park has 7 separate but interconnected territories and construction of 8^th one is underway which is believed to be finished by 2013 and will be named as “Beastly Kingdom”, theme being based on the famous American movie “The Avatar”.

We decided to leave early that morning, as we were told this park is the most exhausting park in Disney. After refreshing breakfast we left for park in the Disney bus, in which driver kept telling about the history and parts.

By 10 am, we entered the 1^st part of the park, which is called Oasis. Oasis has many animals like giant anteaters, ducks, mantas, spoonbills, and wallabies. Some stalls and shops that were selling drinks and ice creams. From there we entered Discovery Island, which was once called Safari Village. This part features animals like kangaroos, black crowned cranes, lemurs and many others. This part connects to all other parts of the park and ahs iconic “The Tree of Life”, an artificially grown tree, which is 145-foot-tall, 50-foot-wide.

We took a Disney Safari trip of Africa too in a jeep. This was the most scary and exciting part of entire trip as we were in a jeep with 6 folks and jeep was jumping on all rough and tough trails of Safari jungle. During our trip we saw giraffe, buffalos, gorillas, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, lions and tigers, giant elephants. The most amazing part of tour was to see all animals in their natural habitat and out of cages, which definitely was scary too. Atleast I never saw a lion from a distance of just a few meters ever in my life.  It was a great adventure too as obviously we have to use our own vision to literally search animals from the running jeep in bushes and trees to capture photos.

 After that we went to Asia, which represents major countries of Asia and their cultures like from India, they had a temple guarded by monkeys, from China many souvenir shops selling Chinese garments and accessories and mosque set up representing the religious beliefs of Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh. There was a scary ride too, which was set up on a model of Mount Everest.

Last but not the least was Dinoland where we had our lunch. The place was full of huge statues and models of Dinosaurs and we ended our day with a scary 3D ride, which was a hustling bustling coaster but the 3D animation in the tunnel made it a horrific event.

Overall the best part of Disney I believe.

Poconos is a mountainous region located in Pennsylvania, bounded by Delaware Valley, Wyoming Valley and Lehigh Valley and has the status of a popular vacation spot, especially for those who live in near-by states and cities like New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and other cities.

Me and my husband are very fond of planning road trips, especially if it is just a long weekend like Thanks Giving weekend or New Years Eve. This time we thought of going to Poconos that our family friends suggested. From New York, the place is only two and a half hours away and scenery is so beautiful that I honestly wanted journey to never end.

The place is better known for magnificent gold courses and golf lessons. Since my husband is very fond of playing Golf, we especially booked Shawnee Inn Golf Resort for this purpose. Our resort was extremely beautiful with a beautiful lake view from front of the hotel, a bank from Delaware River. The hotel is located in Delaware, Pennsylvania and near attractions were Poconos Mountain for hikers, skiing, golfing, camping, gambling, fishing, Delaware State Forest, which is a natural rainforest with 7 water-falls.

History of the resort was very interesting, we were told that years ago, this part was a glacier known as Wisconsin Glacier, which when melted formed the Delaware Valley, part of which is now called as Shawnee. Indians were the first inhabitants and later populated by other peoples. Today Shawnee Resort includes a mountain area for skiing, golf course and other outdoor activities and hotel itself. Surrounding area is occupied by locals forming Shawnee Village.

Our first day of stay, we got to see a wonderful American wedding in the lawn by the lake and it was amazing view for the pictures and ofcourse very romantic place to start a new journey. Next day we planned to visit Bushkill Falls, which is just 10 minutes away from Shawnee resort. The unique part of the Bushkill Fall was perhaps the trail track, which were kept in natural condition and no paths were created for visitors. The entire tour was divided into 4 tracks or paths depending upon individual feasibility. God knows what got into me and I decided to take the longest track, which obviously was not a very good choice as we took almost 5 hrs to finish the track. But it was definitely worth it as we captured some spectacular shots that later on amused all my friends. Bushkill falls is also known as Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, is a series of 8 Falls, which are also called 8 sisters. Other attractions, besides hiking were paddle boating, fishing, miniature golfing and Native American exhibits. It was indeed a full day tour and after that we were not able to do anything

At our resort, we were told that the local farmers are organizing a Garlic Festival at Shawnee Mountains, which is supposedly a big event as we have seen the enthusiasm of all the locals and upon inquiring we were told that it is celebrated every year to celebrate the “Harvesting Season”. Garlic Festival was fun, primarily because of the beautiful scenery and location, but more so because of the excellent food items available at very reasonable rate. Atleast it was my first chance to taste “Garlic Ice-cream”.

Over all, it you have just a few days off from work, Poconos Mountain is the best place to visit. However if you have weeks, I suggest you should pick some other place as you may not found any new activity after 5 days.

I have always lived in the biggest and cosmopolitan city of Karachi, previous capital of Pakistan, until I got married to a boy living in United States. Obviously after a very long visa procedure, I finally got Visa to come here, in New York, to start my life with my husband. It was my first time to travel outside Pakistan, so I was very excited but a bit sad too, as I was leaving my family, my loved ones and friends for someone I just know for less than a year.

After an extremely long flight of 18 tiring hours, I finally reached John F. Kennedy Airport of New York, place from where my new journey has to begin.

New York is the third most populous and indeed most popular state of America, indeed everybody’s dream to visit here at least once in life time.

When I came out of J.F.K. Airport, I thought I will get lost in the flood of running, hustling, bustling crowd of people. To my surprise and contradictory to what I been thinking, I came across people of all races, white, black, Asians, Europeans, tourists and locals. It was March, and still so chilly and cold that made me wondered how cold will it be in the December and January, where places like Karachi even get chilly.

New York has 5 burrows, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, 62 counties. My family lived in Long Island, which is island linked to Queens and Brooklyn. It has separate towns and good part is you will not have hustle bustle of city, no crowding, no traffic horns (P.S. you will get heavy tickets if you honk for no big reason). Manhattan is the business center and biggest tourist attraction in New York. Manhattan is known for its parks, sky scraper buildings and crowded streets in all seasons and round the year, round the clock loaded with tourists from all across the globe.

The most famous place, which is always on top of all places tourists plan to visit in New York, is Statue of Liberty. If you want to visit the green lady, you have to go to Ellis Island via ferry from Manhattan. Well I had never stayed in a line for 3 hours, but that day I did. Statue of Liberty is a gift from France, the Roman goddess “Libertas”, in a green robe, with torch in raised arm and holding a book in other hand is an emblem of freedom gained in July 4, 1776. The ferry ride was itself a wonderful experience, with clear blue waters. We took hundreds of pictures before getting there. The Statue is 151 feet 1 inch (46 meters) in height and height from torch to ground is 93m.

It is indeed the biggest tourist attraction in the world with more than 3 million visitors each year. There were so many gift and souvenir shops around that area, selling T shirts, pens, key-chains, post cards, and what not.

Over all, it was a wonderful and tiring full day venture. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, security is the biggest concern as the statue represents American Liberty and Freedom.

Santo Domingo, also known as The Gateway to Caribbean is the capital and biggest city of Dominican Republic has the privilege of being the first city of Modern World. It is located in Caribbean Sea and first city of Spanish rule. It also has the privilege of being the oldest city of European rule in America.

Santo Domingo was named “La Nueva Isabella” after the Queen of Spain by Columbus after 1496 and was called “Ciudad Trujillo” under the rule of Rafael Trujillo from 1930-1961.

The City of Santo Domingo is an excellent example of preservation of cultural and historical heritage, with some buildings as old as 500-600 years old, built in 1492, before the advent of Columbus.

It also has the privilege of having:

1. America’s First Cathedral
2. America’s First Castle
3. America’s First Monastery

Dominican Republic gained independence from Haitian rule on Feb 27^th, 1844. We planned our trip during summer season, which I believe was not a very good idea, since it gets really hot during summer season. Nevertheless, we flew all excited from New York, and after a flight of approx. 5 hours, we reached Santo Domingo. From there many cab services were available; we picked one and reached our hotel Mercure, which was located in Colonial Zone in the heart of Santo Domingo. Although I wasn’t really impressed by the surrounding and appearance of hotel, I latter found out we couldn’t find any place better than that as per its location.

Next day we went to explore the area, and we got to know just 5 minutes away from our hotel was Catedral de Santa María la Menor, believed to be the oldest cathedral in America and its construction dates back to 16^th century. The construction took 28 years to finish (1512-1540). The walls and roof were magnificent and full of ancient drawing work, silver and gold plating, carved woods and glass paintings.

Just close to it was the entrance of Columbus Park also called Colonial Park, which is basically a huge bricked ground, with the statue of Christopher Columbus in the middle of park, made by French sculptor Gilbert in 1897. The area serves as a nice neighborhood for locals and tourist with many gift and souvenir shops. Many tour guides came to us to offer services at very reasonable rates. There is an excellent coffee shop by the park and to sit on their benches or chairs and seeing children feeding pigeons was a wonderful experience.

The Alcázar de Colón is also located in Colonial Zone, where we stayed and has honor of being the First Castle in America, and is a part of Colonial Zone World Heritage site of Dominican Republic. The palace served as residence of Columbus son and government mansion too. Due to lack of maintenance, the building was abandoned but renovated in late 1950s.

The Fortaleza Ozama is built near river Ozama, and is believed to be the first military fortress still standing in America. After exploring all these areas obviously we were very tired. However we did hired a guide for the next day. Before retiring on bed, I was sure, my next day was going to be even more exciting.

Manhattan is full of amusement, fun and adventure. It has everything for every person of any age or interest. I will start from Times Square which is tourist favorite destination.

Times Square in Manhattan serves as the main hub and one of the top tourist attractions. The New Years Ball Drop Event has made Times Square even more famous in the whole world. It is major commercial and business center located in between Broadway and 6^th Avenue. Before 1904, it was called Longacres Square, it was only after April of 1904, when New York Times, America’s and perhaps world’s most famous known and read newspaper moved its headquarter here, after which it became famous by its current name, Times Square. Due to many crossing roads and avenues, it is also called “Crossroads of the World”.

Since 1907, it has been known for its New Year’s Eve Celebration, which is marked by the ball drop from the top of pole, to say good-bye to old year and to welcome New Year on the night of 31^st December. To celebrate this, hundreds and thousands of people gather around the area and as soon as the ball drops, couples kiss each-other to mark the beginning of New Year. On Dec 31^st 2010, me and my husband went there too, but the place was so crowded and local bands were also performing on a stage. Unfortunately after taking a few pictures, we went to a New Year’s party with friends.

Times Square is just a few blocks away from Penn Station (Pennsylvania Station) located at west 32^nd-34^th street. History of Penn station is very interesting, as it didn’t make any sense to me that why New York or Manhattan Train station be named as Pennsylvania Station, Upon inquiring, my husband told me that the station connects New York and Pennsylvania in the very beginning days. However, now Penn Station connects Manhattan to all 5 boroughs of New York and to New Jersey, Pennsylvania upto Boston and Washington D.C., and Upstate New York.

When I first came here, to me it appear a whole city. It indeed is the busiest train station in the world. Especially during peak hour, which are the office hours it is difficult to get a seat if you are just 5 minutes late after the track announcement. All big franchises have their stores and shops here and invariably makes a lot of business on daily basis.

New York City is full of parks and gardens, however biggest one I believe is Central park that covers 843 acres of land and considered a National Historic Landmark, with a history of 138 years old. It is one paradise for tourists and for public, especially those who are fond of photography. I remember when I got my first Cannon T3, first place I thought to test camera was Central park. There are many activities for tourist and public like boating, birding, rock climbing and jogging. During winter administration also opens an ice-skating ring for public and during summers open air theaters provide entertainment to general public. There are about 29 sculptures too like King Jagiello, Cleopatra’s needle and Alice in the Wonderland

Finally second day, we went to see Magic Kingdom, place where I wanted to come, since my childhood. In morning, after having breakfast, we left for Magic Kingdom in our bus to Epcot center first and from there via mono-rail to Magic Kingdom, however depending upon the location of hotel, Walt Disney World Monorail System, the Staten Island-style ferryboats were also available directly from resorts for the transportation of guests.

Magic Kingdom is the first theme park built in Disney World, and was opened for public on Oct. 1, 1971. It has the honor of being the most visited park in the world. The main attraction of Magic Kingdom is ofcourse Cinderella’s castle, which is in the center of all 46 attractions and stand out like a rose in bouquet. The area of Castle is about 107 acres and it was crowded throughout the day, as people wanted to take pictures of and with the castle. On special occasions Cinderella also shows up on terrace with her prince to see her fans. Most fascinating part was of little girls, they were all dressed up as princesses like Snow white, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine. Disney definitely makes dream come true. I wanted to see one princess in real and wow! There were plenty!

There were other Disney castles too like The Beast’s Castle with dining experience, Belle’s cottage and Gaston’s tavern.

One part of Magic Kingdom was especially reserved for scariest ever rides. The coolest part was the ride fee, if you have ticket, you don’t have to buy extra tickets for the rides. However, the worst part was the lines, I believe everyone who was coming to the park wanted to enjoy rides too, so because of that I had to wait 2.5 hours in a line to wait for my turn to enjoy the ride. Well, that was my 1^st and last ride, though it was scariest and exciting.

However, ride to Big Thunder Mountain on a small rail absolutely abolished the grief of not taking all rides. Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise are now my favorite rides.

I realized why it is called Magic Kingdom, as you can see all Disney characters in real life, walking, moving and dancing. Be it genie from Aladdin, Pinocchio, Snow white or her 7 dwarfs, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine from Aladdin, Belle from Beauty of the Beast or the Beast himself.

a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn — together.            ”

—Roy Oliver Disney, 25th October 1971

I absolutely loved it and I have also requested my husband to take me to Disney again after my 1^st child. It is indeed the best place ever.

It was opened for public on October 1, 1982 and is ranked as 3^rd most visited park among all the parks of United States and 5^th among all parks in the world. Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is given with the thought of displaying all the technical innovations and advancements in the world.

The park consisted of two parts: Future World and World Showcase.

We started off with the world showcase, which have 11 sections, each representing a separate country. These are Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, U.K. and Canada.

Each section or pavilion consisted of the classic architecture of the country, with restaurant area serving traditional food in locally used utensils and served by people of respected country in their traditional costumes. I mean it is an amusement for me and I felt as if I am actually travelling in all these countries and not standing on the soil of America.

For example in Mexico, the architecture shown was a meso-american pyramid, Mexican restaurant name “San Ángel Inn”, a tequila bar “La Cava del Tequila”.

In Norway, the section looked more like a Norwegian village with Stave Church, Restaurant Akershus serving Norwegian cuisines, a lot of traditional shops selling souvenirs and gifts,  Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe a bakery selling assorted Norwegian pasteries and Norwegian nationals dressed up in traditional dress bunad.

I was fascinated most with the Chinese pavilion which was full of Chinese styled architecture, temples, gold gods and goddesses, gift shops selling Chinese handicrafts, (I bought a few for family and friends) restaurants serving Chinese food. The pavilion was decorated with bridges, ponds and acrobats displays.

Next was Germany, where we had our lunch at Sommerfest, food was great, and my first ever experience of German food too. Germany pavilion was designed like a German town and a very cute miniature train and village which was a working model.

Layout of Italian pavilion was a perfect sample of Florentine, and Roman architecture, with Bell towers and palaces, again topped with Italian cuisine and souvenirs and gift shops.

American pavilion was familiar ofcourse, and displayed architecture of colonial style, flags exhibit and American cuisines like hot dogs and cheese burgers.

Japanese Pagoda, castles, gardens and Japanese pools, Bijutsu-kan (collection of Japanese myths and arts), Japanese departmental store selling classic Japanese handicrafts and a Japanese band playing traditional music were the highlights of Japanese pavilion.

Moroccan pavilion looked more like a Moroccan market, with minarets, local plants like date, palm trees, fountains and a shopping area for gifts and souvenirs like mirrors made from camel bones, and daggers, clothes, silver utensils, handmade baskets, rugs and restaurants like Restaurant Marrakesh serving roasted Lamb.

France pavilion as expected was displaying Eifel tower, shops selling famous brands of perfumes, a bakery, the Boulangerie Patisserie, two French restaurants, the Bistro de Paris and Les Chefs de France, comedy juglar show.

United Kingdom pavilion gave the impression of a street in London, crowded and narrow alleys, with shops displaying beatles merchandise, British beer (Guinness), liver pool and Chelsea shirts and a sports shop which was selling signed and autographed accessories of famous players.

By the time we reached Canadian pavilion, we were tired beyond word, Canadian pavilion consisted of canyon, waterfalls and garden with many birds.

I suggest if you are planning a trip, leave one day only for Epcot Center, wear very comfortable shoes and dress and don’t forget to take shades or caps as it is mostly sunny weather in Orlando, Florida.

Time flew and our 1^st anniversary came, and to my surprise my husband booked a trip to Disney world, Orlando, Florida. We went there in Feb, when it was very cold in New York, so for me it was a very pleasant get away from New York’s brutal cold.

Walt Dinsey World is a small wonder world, it is so big that you will definitely be lost if you are not guided. We booked Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, which is built on the theme of Caribbean beaches and islands. Since I have been to a couple of islands, I was very fascinated with the work and effort put in.

Receptionist at our resort told us about the history of Walt Disney World Resorts, it was constructed on October 1, 1971 with just one theme park, the Magic Kingdom, but today Disney have 4 theme parks, 23 themed resorts, 2 water parks, spas, fitness centers and what not. It indeed is a little city, with people visiting from all over the world.

Our resort, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort was opened since Oct 1^st, 1988, having over 2000 rooms for guests divided in 6 villages each sharing common resources. Villages are named on famous Caribbean Islands and are Martinique, Barbados, Jamaica, Aruba, Trinidad North, and Trinidad South. We stayed at Jamaica after reading excellent reviews on web before planning trip. The place was beyond beautiful, just 5 minutes away was an old building named Old Port Royale, where restaurants, gift shops and food court service was available 24/7.

On the first day of our arrival, we were so tired that we preferred to stay in room and relaxed. Resort itself was very huge and it took us that day to explore everything. They had facilities available for bike rentals and water craft rentals like pontoon boats, sailboat, pedal boats and canopy boats, heated pools and beaches.

After getting very tired, we had a very good night sleep that helped us enjoy our very hectic trip to Epcot Center.

We fly from JFK to The Punta Cana International Airport which indeed is one of the busiest airports in the Caribbean, and has the honor of being the first privately owned international airport in the world. By a report published by U.C.L.A, Punta Cana is ranked 79 in the top 100 places to visit before you die.

We stayed in an all inclusive resort, which was located close to the beach, and it us only a few minutes to hit the sand. We went there to relax but the place was awesome. There was so much to do like visit to Manati Park for a dolphin encounter, Snorkeling in warm Caribbean water and amazing part was the tour rates. Our guide took $100 from each of us and gave us our individual speed boat to drive in the sea, when he along with other guests was leading us. In the middle of sea, we stopped our boat and with all equipments jumped in water, I never saw sea life that closely, we were given fish food and nothing beats feeding fishes in sea from your hands. It was a once in life experience. Our guides assisted other people in seeing the sea world who was not swimmers.

Other activities available were Boating, Rowing or canoeing, Water skiing, Whale-watching, Skydiving, Aerobics, Helicopter/airplane tours, fishing kayaking, parasailing, motor boating. For people who were interested in sports, all types of outdoor sports were available like Golfing, Basketball, Tennis, Bicycle rentals, Mountain biking, horse riding, swimming, surfing, and bowling alley.

Our rooms were equipped with all types of facilities like air conditioning, phones, refrigerators, cable TV, hairdryers, and more. Some of the rooms have terraces or balconies. The Resort also had a Spa and a variety of shops. For dining we had option to dine at any of the 7 onsite restaurants. Food was amazing and variety was huge. On the evenings, local DJ hosts a party by pool and we used to drink and dance as much as we can. Other recreational and relaxing activities available were spa, a sauna, a steam room, and a fitness room, Massage center, Beauty Salon, Body Treatments and facial Treatments.

We Stayed there for a week and I had the time of my life.

We picked the evening time to explore the area, as it was just 10 minutes walk from our residence. People of San Juan are very family oriented, if you go for a walk in the evening you will come across local families having fun in the area. During weekends, you will come across abundant small shops and stalls by the roads, selling refreshments, Italian dough toys, local art and craft items. If you visit the area during day time, you will come across all types of stores like Coach Factory Store, Hilfiger outlets and Polo, Louis Vuitton and art galleries like Exodo and Botello.

The best place to eat on the island was a Mexican restaurant Tijuana’s. I must say, during my two week visit, I never saw that place empty. Even if it is not lunch or dinner time, people still come there for coffee or for drinks. The marvelous location, reasonable pricing, warm service and sea facing sitting arrangement with deck made it the most popular place among tourists. In words of a tourist:

“Pleasantly surprised by the food and the prices were very reasonable. If you look at the menu and think about $11 or $14 is too much for a burrito, you will think again when it comes out. The portions are huge and the food is excellent. Amazingly, it is one of the few places we have found that don’t overcharge for drinks.”

Transportation was not a problem in the city, since public transport was abundant, however we preferred to walk. If you are planning to take heels and slippers there, let me warn you as brick roads are not very nice for walking with uncomfortable shoes.

San Juan is wrapped with world famous forts, such as the Fort San Felipe del Morro, Fort San Cristóbal, and El Palacio de Santa Catalina, also known as La Fortaleza. These acted as the primary defenses and guarded the city for centuries from numerous attacks. La Fortaleza is still used as Governor of Puerto Rico office.