I am a huge water person…always have been. I’ve done some introductory scuba diving in Israel where I swam with the dolphins and in Turks and Caicos, but I’m headed to Bonaire in a week, and since they are known as one of the top three places in the world for their marine life, I decided to finally get PADI certified. www.padi.com I hooked up with DEMA’s (Diving Equipment and Marketing Association) “Be A Diver” program. You may have seen their 20×40 15,000 gallon mobile pool at various events, fairs, and sports expos around the United States, which allow you to try scuba for the first time. You can learn more about what they do at www.beadiver.com.
I’ve always talked about getting certified, but for some reason I was little hesitant, maybe because I cut open my foot on some coral during an introductory dive, but I can’t be more thrilled that I finally went for it. PADI along with The Dive Shop in Cherry Hill is making the process so easy! www.thediveshopnj.com With PADI, you can choose to do the e-learning which takes up some time, but you go at your own pace online. After each of the five sections, you’ll be given a test to make sure you comprehend everything. If you get anything wrong, they will give you the opportunity to go back, clarify, and take it again. There is no failing…they just want to make sure you understand everything for your own safety.
The second component of the certification is your training in the pool. You can find a local dive shop in your area that runs the classes and instruction. If you choose not to do the e-learning, they usually hold group classes. I went to “The Dive Shop” in Cherry Hill for my pool instruction and I have to say, they made my experience phenomenal! David Barnes was my instructor and not only is he so knowledgeable, but he really makes you feel confident with all of your equipment in the water. In just two three hour sessions, we were able to go through all of the skills and he always asked if I had any questions and if there was anything I wanted to do over. Each day I left class, I was so excited that I was one step closer to my certification and that much more psyched for my trip to Bonaire. www.tourismbonaire.com
When it came time to picking out my mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit, and boots, Arin Centrone, the owner of “The Dive Shop” was so incredibly helpful. This is all new to me, so of course I had a lot of questions and she went through everything in the store and explained the differences in the gear. We also emailed back and forth a bit and any question I had, she or David was also a huge help in pointing me in the right direction. I would highly recommend getting your certification there. They really know their stuff, are so patient, friendly, and excited for you to explore this new world!
For the third and final part of my certification, I’ll be doing four open water dives in beautiful Bonaire! I’ll be sure to tell you all about my adventures and hopefully get some great pictures and video!
So many of us are looking for that perfect getaway, but can’t afford the time or airfare to go anywhere far away and if it’s going to be just for a weekend, we don’t want to spend several hours on the road. Well, I found the perfect family getaway just over two hours from NYC, Philly, and NJ, maybe less, depending on where you live in New Jersey. The 
There are over 30 miles of hiking trails and three waterfalls around the lake and throughout the resort, and they offer guided hikes as well as mountain bike rentals and tours. There is also a shooting center, indoor and outdoor pool, archery, fitness center, various fitness classes, guided yoga walks, tennis courts, a meditation garden, and an adventure center featuring paintball, rock climbing, geo caching, mountain bike courses, and wilderness survival classes. Most of the activities are included in the price, but some carry a minimal additional fee. Be sure you pick up your skylights sheet at the front desk which lists all of the day’s organized activities.
The next day, my cousin and his son joined me at Skytop. My cousin’s son is 8 and he had a blast paddleboating, shooting paintball targets, and building a turtle sand castle by the lake. The resort also offers Camp in the Clouds for kids ages 3-12 with plenty of activities such as hayrides, scavenger hunts, and water and land sports, for those parents who would like to have some alone time. 
the lodge. There is a game room downstairs with three ping pong tables, two pool tables, air hockey, mini golf, and video games. Also on that level is a tea shop which serves tea, coffee, and desserts, and a tap room for causal food and drinks.
There is nothing that turns me on more than someone who cooks healthy, and so when “Rock and Roll Chef” 
Our days were a great mixture of cooking and wine classes, and activities like kayaking, water ski lessons, snorkeling, pilates and yoga classes, spa treatments on the beach, and parasailing. Most activities are included with the resort, but if you’d like to go parasailing, you can contact the concierge and they can hook you up with Ray’s Watersports. You can even renew your vows, as the resort does an outstanding job at creating a romantic ceremony on a beachside gazebo, complete with a terrific minister, champaign, delicious rum cake, and Bob Marley music for the walk down the aisle.
Every Friday night, the general manager puts together a grand gala featuring over 100 local and international dishes and a room dedicated just to desserts. Plus, there is a live dance band after dinner to work it all off!
After just a three and a half hour plane ride from JFK on Jet Blue, we were in beautiful Montego Bay. In the airport, there are lounges for the many resorts in Jamaica including the SuperClubs properties where we quickly dropped our luggage and were taken to a van and transported to Negril, where we checked in to the Grand Lido Negril Resort and Spa, the flagship for the SuperClubs all-inclusive resorts. The resort is extremely romantic, specializing in honeymoons and weddings. There is a two mile stretch of gorgeous white sand beach, two pools, five restaurants, and a fabulous spa which offers complimentary manicures and pedicures. There is also a clothing optional section. Of course as amazing as this is, I am probably the only single woman here and with my brother! Not that I’m not happy he’s here doing my video work with me, but how do I always end up in the most amazing of settings alone or with a relative?!
Since we were pretty tired today, we just drifted away on a raft in the rather calm sea, ate some great Jamaican food and had a few frozen drinks. I love resorts like this because everything is included and you can eat and drink as much as you want and not think about it! Also included are non-motorized water and land sports such as kayaking, snorkeling, windsurfing, tennis and volleyball.
After our time in Montpellier, we took the EuRail to Nice. I love the EuRail…it’s such a great feeling that you can go anywhere in Europe with a simple train ride. However, that day, the EuRail employees decided to go on strike and it took us a bit longer to get to Nice. They advise reserving a seat on the train before going as they tend to fill up. Our train was filled to the max, but I’m not sure how it would’ve been if everyone wasn’t trying to get on the one train to Nice that day. 
When we arrived at the Nice Rail Station, the rental car companies were right there. While EuRail makes stops along the coast, we decided to rent a car so we could drive up into the mountains to the Medieval Villages and we wouldn’t be locked into a schedule. We made Nice our home base, as it’s central to Cannes, Monaco, Antibes, and villages like Saint Paul de Vence and Eze. We even had a chance to drive into Italy to San Remo. 
The Palais de La Mediterrranee, a Concorde Hotel, is a spectacular property located on the Promenade des Anglais. Overlooking the beautiful blue Mediterranean, and a few minutes from Old City, the hotel has been a symbol of the French Riviera for over 80 years. While Palais de la Mediterranee is a luxurious and contemporary hotel, it retains its most symbolic features such as the monumental facade, and has been listed as a historical monument since 1989. It also has a great casino, a turkish bath, pool, sauna, gym, and a great restaurant, which serves a delicious buffet breakfast including various breads and pastries, dried and fresh fruit, salmon, popular Nice dishes such as ratatouille, and fresh squeezed juices. While it may be a bit of a splurge for some, I highly recommend staying here if you can.
So if your budget doesn’t allow you to stay right on the promenade, there is a terrific hotel just a few blocks in from the water. If you are like me who was out from morning until night and only used the hotel to sleep and for breakfast, Hotel Brice is the perfect answer. Set back in a beautiful garden setting, the hotel is priced very reasonably and also has a nice buffet breakfast. The front desk is very helpful with directions and things to do. You can also stop into the Nice Tourism Office located on the promenade, just a few steps down from the Palais de la Mediterranee.
There is so much to do in Nice and the surrounding Riviera region. I would give yourself at least five days in the area, so you can enjoy each place and not feel rushed to see everything. While it was neat to see Cannes, the home of the famous film festival, and the neighboring coastal towns including Antibes, Juan les Pins, and Monaco (you must go to the Monte Carlo casino!), I enjoyed the character of Nice the most. Its feel was both French and Italian with a wide array of shops, restaurants, museums, and attractions. Definitely walk to Castle Hill and take the stairs to the top. It offers spectacular views of the Riviera and Nice. The water was so buoyant and wonderful to swim in. However, I wish I knew to bring my rock shoes. Instead of sand, the beach is layered in rocks, which can be painful walking from your towel to the water! Be sure to check out the local fruit and vegetable, flower, and fish markets. 
The food and wine was spectacular. Some of the local dishes you should try are of course the salade nicoise, pan-bagnats, ratatouille, and pissaladiere, an onion tart with anchovy fillets and black olives. We also ate a lot of gelato, and it was delicious everywhere! 
The last few times I had been water skiing, I never quite made it up long enough to ride the waves, so I didn’t know what the outcome of this would be, but to my surprise and thrill, I made it up after falling two times and stayed up on the board for the length of the pool. Yes, we did it in the pool rather than the ocean, which was probably good since we were all first timers. It was such a freeing and exhilarating feeling when grabbing the chord and standing up on the board. The two time kite boarding world champion, Sebastian Garat was in attendance and he put on a great demonstration for us. 
We also had the opportunity to ride a foot bike, which was a lot of fun. The next day we took a trip to Herault, about a half an hour outside of Montpellier where we had the option to scale some mountains, also known as ferretta with the Aupalya Cevennes Agency in Saint Bauzille de Putois. After a hike up with our harnesses and helmets, we were shown how to walk along a thin wooden piece while clipping our harnesses on and off the string above. I usually am a pretty adventurous person, but all of a sudden I found myself overcome with fear to the point of tears. I’m not quite sure why I was so scared, as I’ve rock climbed and repelled before. 
Maybe it was the fact of walking along the side of the mountain rather than up and down. However, the rest of the group loved their experience which included a few zip lines and cave exploration. After a delicious lunch, we went canoeing through some fierce rapids, which was a ton of fun, except for the time that the canoe hit a rock that we couldn’t move and I went flying out and hit my foot against the rock and then preceded to get dragged down, hitting rock after rock before getting back on the boat. That’s when I realized why they tell you to wear sneakers! All in all, it was a great day and a lot of fun!
In the center of town in the tourism office where you can find all the information you need about Montpellier and you can rent bikes for free through their network of free public bikes called velomagg.
wheelies on their bikes, and everyone else, drinking beer and lining the banks of the Lez, hooting and hollering for their favorite competitor. 
I love traveling, but absolutely despise the traffic you may get caught in on your way to the airport. I was so afraid we were going to miss the flight as the gate closed at 6 and we were still sitting on the Van Wyck in route to JFK Airport at 5:55. I was freaking out, to say the least. However, I called the gate and they were so nice to hold it open until 6:05 and at 6:04, I ran to the ticket counter…we made it! And not only did we make it, but we had the opportunity to upgrade to business class because of our type of ticket. I went from being completely frazzled to utterly relaxed and comfortable on my Air France flight to Paris, which would then connect to Montpellier.
I was so excited to find out that my seat reclined into a bed with a push of a button. Since France is ahead by six hours, when we arrived, it was going to be time to start the day, so sleep was very important and I was so happy this time I wouldn’t have to struggle with the perfect position so that my neck wouldn’t end up in my lap. All the flight attendants on the Air France flight were so friendly and the food was delicious! We had an appetizer of foie gras with chutney and an assortment of breads and cheeses. The main course was snapper with greens and potatoes, and for dessert, a peach tart.
It’s a creative city with beautiful architecture in the historic center. Comedie Square is in the center of it all with the beautiful opera house as the backdrop and this weekend, there is a book market as well as a craft fair with artisans selling everything including hats, earrings, shoes, bags, and plenty of bread and cheese. We took a tour of the Fabre Museum, which is the premiere art museum of Montpellier and features works from some of the most famous artists in the world. It takes you from the Renaissance Era through Romanticism, Impressionism right up into today’s contemporary art and into present. 
For anyone planning a trip to Lucerne, you must take a trip to Mt. Pilatus. While you can get there by train if you’re on a tight schedule, I’d recommend taking the catamaran across Lake Lucerne, which is a beautiful ride as the mountains surround you. The boat drops you off right where the railroad ride up the mountain begins. And what a ride it was! It is the steepest cog railroad in the world and takes you right along the snow that’s still on the mountains. After you step off the cog railway, you can hike up the stairs of the mountain for about ten minutes and arrive at the top of Mt. Pilatus which offers spectacular scenic views and great photo opportunities. 
When you’ve spent enough time to enjoy this all, you can stop for a great cheese fondue lunch at one of the few restaurants on the mountain before taking a cable car back down. You have the option of stopping halfway down to go tobogganing, tree walking, or 
ziplining in very well set up activity area on the mountain, perfect for even the younger hikers. Then at your leisure, step into an individual cable car for your smooth ride down the rest of the mountain, allowing for full 360 degree views all the way to the bottom.
center, and be back in enough time for dinner in Lucerne. Our farewell dinner was held at the restaurant at the beautiful Romantik Hotel Wilden Mann, where we stayed for our time in Lucerne. The hotel extends along seven buildings in the historic Old City of Lucerne. Each of the fifty hotel rooms has it’s own unique character. The hotel was first mentioned in Old Lucerne in 1517, and then again in 1529 as a pub without a license to operate as a tavern. The main building was originally a washhouse and the stables were removed from the ground floor when the Wilden Mann was listed as a hotel in 1860. To top it off, it’s right near one of many of Lucerne’s cathedrals, so with your window open, you can enjoy a cool breeze as you listen to the beautiful church bells ring throughout the city.
