We know what crowded beaches mean to surfers. But check this crowd in a huge pool in Japan - including artificial waves…

[Technorati Tags: surf - news - Costa Rica ]

This is only possible in Japan: an artificial beach (length 300 meters!) with swell, surf board rental and roof. If the beautiful sand, the warm water and the always nice wheather is an argument, than maybe the artificial volcano with smoke and fire. The artificial beach is called Ocean Dome and is on Kyushu Island, 1.500 kilometers south of Tokyo.

[Technorati Tags: surf - artificial beach - Japan ]

Camilla stayed with us for one week in December and said she enjoyed most the relaxing atmosphere at the camp and the fellow surfers she met there. Also, an applause to Simon, the Cook: great food served!

Camilla from South Africa but also liked the way Europeans tried to speak English: “There was a guy called Stefan saying ‘I will go down for you’ I liked that! ;D”

As a beginner, the coolest thing about surfing was to be able to stand on it and have some white water surfing. But she really felt comfortable with us, thanking for the great time and experience: “This place is well looked after!”

After one week of escape of civilization, she returned back home to the southern tip of Africa.

[Technorati Tags: surf - news - Costa Rica ]

I read a nice post about the mostly by tourism untouched Carribean coast of Central America - from Belize to Panama. The Carribean - synonym for mass tourism - can be still a lovely place. Forget Cancun, forget the Dominican and Jamaican Resorts, check the true side of the Carribean.

At Condé Nest you will find a great online guide (”the coast of utopia“) with lot of tips, hints and ideas what to do and what not.

[Technorati Tags: travel - news - Costa Rica ]

A user-generated content site for travelers, by travelers. Keep track of your travels, share your trip photos, reviews, and blogs with friends and family, as well as research destinations before you book a trip.

Similar to wayn.com or epic trip.

Link: Driftr

[Technorati Tags: surf - news - Costa Rica ]

Hi Everywhere! is kind of a social network / platform for local guides who offer their help and knowledge to people new in a country. It’s for free and simple to use:

1. Post your travel plan to the site
2. A local guide books your request
3. You both met
4. You both write and post pics on the site!

Check it out, it’s great! You will learn far more about a city and their people with a local guide than on your own.
Link: Hi Everywhere!
[Technorati Tags: travel guide - network - Costa Rica ]

Kango is a travel search engine, but different than Kayak or other air fare comparison services. Kango wants to help you to get your travel plan right. Once you’re where you want to go, that’s where Kango is getting interesting: normally, you would collect information from thousands of microsites (like this!) and notes from other travelers. Kango indexes all of them and with the help of semantic technology, it detects destinations, activities and so on.

At the moment it’s limited to California and Hawaii, but this will change soon.

Link: Kango

[Technorati Tags: travel search - search engine]

When planning a trip, and I mean planning, not booking, than it may be worth to have a look at airfares. Why? Airfares are very volative, that is they rise and fall over a certain peroid quickly. If you have time to follow them, it is wise to buy when they are are their lows. But how to track them? This is where Yapta comes into play.

Yapta is a plugin for IE and Firefox (Mac and Windows) which helps you to track and compare airfares for as long as you want. You can bookmark certain flights, and get messages. Handy!

Alternatives are Vayama and Farecast.

Link: Yapta

[Technorati Tags: airfare - travel ]

[Technorati Tags: surf - news - Costa Rica ]

This is an important site for any travellers:

” Step Up Travel is a travel classifieds site, established to allow local small enterprises and individuals publish web-page advertisements of their own unique cultural services, activities, and goods so that travelers can connect directly with them as an alternative to larger more commercial options.

By using Step Up Travel Classifieds and connecting directly with locals, travelers are able to learn of more obscure and fascinating activities, while also helping redirect money away from the commercial tourism industry and toward the people who make their culture what it is.

Step Up Travel was founded to help empower local enterprises compete in an industry dominated by tourism agencies. Aligning itself with the United Nations’ ST-EP initiative (Sustainable Tourism-Eliminating Poverty), Step Up Travel prides itself in being an freer marketplace for the travel industry, granting equal access to all service providers and helping redistributing wealth in a world that suffers from broadening inequalities.

Step Up Travel is also a trusted network of socially-minded travelers who can exchange ideas and recommendations, advocate for responsible travel practices, and seek meaningful interactions with local people when they travel. Through www.stepuptravel.org, Step Up Travelers have the unique opportunity to recommend and promote specific service providers they have met along the way, in order to help travelers and local people find and come to know one another.”

Well, we at Zopilote feel part of the Costa Rican lifestyle and, even don’t have a classified at StepUpTravel, we will show you the surroundings and the art of living here around Santa Teresa.

Link: StepUpTravel

[Technorati Tags: eco travel - Costa Rica ]