Daily Archives: January 23, 2020

From the craggy romance of the North Sea, to the pellucid waters of Belize, theres a new wave of private-island holiday destinations, once the preserve of oligarchs and movie stars. New and refreshed openings abound for 2020. Of note is the just launched Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi Private Island Estate. In the ever-competitive Maldivian hotel market, 32,000sqm of Robinson Crusoe paradise in the South Mal Atoll make it the largest estate in the region, and the only one accessible by yacht rather than seaplane (so dreamy if youve already flown overnight to get there).

Read more: The Hottest Destinations And Travel Trends For 2020

Arriving a little before sunset, the last of the sun turning the lapping waters a soft pastel turquoise, the setting is grade-A paradise. Lusciously planted, the scale is impressive without being overwhelming. Rented as a one-key room, the island sleeps 18 adults and six children, and has villas dotted among the palm trees, done in a traditional style but packed to their six metre rafters with cutting edge comfort.

Thirty minutes via sea from the airport (naturally it comes with its own yacht), its the billionaire specs that make it. Staffed to the hilt, theres a private spa with an over-water treatment room, gym and yoga pavilion, as well as a sweeping central loggia housing a bar, state-of-the-art screening room, drawing and dining rooms, capable of hosting an army of party guests. Oh, and there are five pools.

Its no longer only royalty booking in for a month. The trend, according to Waldorf Astoria, is for three or four generations of a family to take over the island for a night or two for major landmark celebrations, before decamping to the resort next door. Major is definitely the word.

Japao

Courtesy of Japao

Thirty minutes by helicopter from Rio, Japao offers total privacy for two to eight guests in the stunning archipelagos off Brazils Angra dos Reis (the green coast).

Banwa

Courtesy of Banwa

The Philippines Banwa private island feels like stepping back in time. Ideal for nature lovers, it has six hectares to explore, six villas and its own organic farm.

Clapboard Island

Courtney Elizabeth Theberge

A mile from land, in the sailing waters of Casco Bay, the star of Clapboard Island, Maine, is the house, built in 1898. Best for living out Kennedy fantasies.

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Originally posted here:

Fantasy Private Islands Youll Want To Be Cast Away To In 2020 - British Vogue

NEXT time you check into a hotel, double check you have the right time on your watch.

That's because a number of island hotel resorts around the world have their own time zones for guests.

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According to The Points Guy, some hotels set their time to one hour ahead of the country's time zone.

For example, the 22-room Turneffe Island Resort in Belize is an hour ahead, despite being just 90 minutes from the capital.

Song Saa in Cambodia, an island resort off the coast of Sihanoukville, is an hour ahead of the time on the mainland.

A number of hotels in the Maldives have also adopted their own "island time" as many of them are located on private islands around the capital Male.

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The Shangri-La Villingili Resort & Spa boasts about having that extra hour on its website.

It said: "To enhance your experience on the island, we have moved our clocks on Villingili Island one hour ahead. You can enjoy an additional hour of daylight."

Many Maldives hotels and resorts have opted for this time difference to give guests "extra time" on the island.

The Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort, Olhuveli Beach & Spa and St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort also do the same, despite being just a few hours from the main island.

Two Four Seasons properties in the Maldives, Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru, are also an hour ahead.

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There are no concerns about missing flights - most of the hotels are aware of the "real" timings to make sure you don't lose track.

The St. Regis resort states: "For all transfers to and from Velana International Airport (MLE) to our resort, our dedicated St. Regis Butlers and professional hosts are well informed of the time conversion and will coordinate all details of your transfers accordingly."

Resorts in the Maldives are popular with celebrities looking for luxury.

Emily Ratajkoswi and Love Island's Molly Mae have been spotted in the Maldives this year.

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We've rounded up the best private islands in the world, although you will need deep pockets to stay the night.

A private island in Belize costs just 200 per person per night, which your own suite and boat.

After something more budget-friendly? Some private islands start from just 9 per person.

Read the rest here:

How hotels around the world have their own time zones - The Sun

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The Bahamas recorded another record year for tourism arrivals in 2019, according to Tourism Minister Dionisio DAguilar, who noted that it would have been an off the chart year had it not been for Hurricane Dorian.

DAguilar was speaking on the sidelines of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Marketplace conference at Baha Mar.

He said: When you look at it 2019 was an exceptional year. I think when the final numbers come in it will be another record year. It will be a record for cruise arrivals and a record for stop over arrivals.

A number of individuals islands within the archipelago will have record arrivals. Were it not for Hurricane Dorian it would have been an off the chart year.

Tourism director general Joy Jibrilu noted that between January and November 2019 there were a total of 6,535,789 air and sea arrivals compared to 5,951,607 for the same period in 2018, representing a 9.8 percent increase.

She also noted that forward bookings for the next three months are behind 5.5 percent and that seat capacity is expected to increase by 2.5 percent over the next three months.

DAguilar said: With the passage of Hurricane Dorian, September, October and November were months that saw substantial decreases in stop over arrivals. That was obviously because we lost Grand Bahama and Abaco but in Christmas there was certainly a bounce back.

I think that a lot of people had made reservations and those who were interested in coming went to other family islands. If they were interested in going to Abaco they ended up going to Eleuthera or Exuma. Reports from those islands were that they had never seen numbers like they saw in Christmas of 2019.

Im very excited and proud. I think the country did extremely well. We have a great product and great people.

DAguilar however acknowledged that there remains work to be done.

I think there is a lot work still to be done, he continued.

There are hiccups here and there that we need to smooth out but by-in large we have a great product and its been recognizer iced world wide. The record arrivals is the result.

The most important component of your visitor arrivals are the stop over visitors. They spend twenty times more than your cruise visitor. When your stop over arrivals grow that is so much more impactful on our economy, employment and money getting into the hands of the average Bahamian.

DAguilar said: Cruise passengers while they spend considerably less because they are only here for three to five hours, those numbers are growing double digits. With the opening of Coco Cay, with the opening of Ocean Cay The Bahamas is the leading cruise destination in the Caribbean.

The private islands are obviously bringing more and more cruise passengers to the destination but our challenge to the Bahamian entrepreneur is how do we leverage this incredible opportunity into money in our pockets and economic impact.

Ten thousand cruise passengers arrive in Nassau every single day of the year. Our challenge show do we monetize that and ensure that those visitors that come here are significantly economically impacting our people and eating employment opportunities for them.

Read more here:

D'Aguilar: 2019 another record year for tourism arrivals - EyeWitness News

Alright folks, the decade has officially ended and what a decade it was. It seems like a lifetime ago we were participating in the juvenile fun of the 10s, aimlessly singing along to Keshas TiK ToK and making meaningless six-second videos on Vine.

Perhaps those days of joy seem so lost because they were immediately followed by a much more solemn period of social and political hysteria, the rise of reactionary politics and a growing nihilism as a result of our ever-growing chaotic reality.

Much like climate change, undoing years of cultural damage takes time and persistence, but perhaps even more importantly, it takes self-awareness. Looking back, there are a few popular trends from the last decade that we might want to reconsider as we head into the 20s.

Here are five trends that should die in the next decade.

Heres a bleak fact: one of the most prolific political satire writers of all time, Kurt Vonnegut, admitted the futility of activism through art (aka his entire lifes work).

The power of (art) turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder 6 feet high, he said of the anti-Vietnam resistance art movement during the late 60s.

Fifty years later, the performative outrage in popular culture and contemporary art enjoys less of the countercultural roots of the anti-consumerist 60s. Instead, the politicized art movement is seemingly more tied to elitist virtue signaling than structural change, revealed through long-winded Academy Awards speeches or feminist multi-million dollar budget superhero movies.

It makes sense, after all, that the people who stood the least to lose from a Trump win could also afford to be among the most vocal about its administrative failures and moral excesses, said Anna Khachiyan in Art Wont Save Us. For those who prefer to do their activism from the comfort of booze-fueled gallery dinners and Wi-Fi equipped airport lounges, political dissent is not so much an inalienable right as a lifestyle perk.

In other words, the issues that impact the most people are rarely represented in modern political art, as it is often a lifestyle enjoyed by those who do not live paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps some of this art is substantial, but it would be nice to walk into a movie and not constantly be reminded We live in a society.

Let people enjoy things is a Remark people use when they cant effectively defend their interests. instead of building a coherent argument in favor of the thing, they judge the person in disagreement for being spiteful or petty.

2. Oversharing on social media

The argument in favor of sharing personal details online posits that talking about issues candidly is cathartic and normalizes certain issues to make people who experience them feel less alienated.

This consensus has extended to issues with mental health, romantic rejection, revelations in therapy and even darker subjects like toxic relationships. Some evidence shows that finding a community online with shared experiences can help people cope, but these interactions are shown to also have negative outcomes.

In a study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, oversharing, defined by disclosing private details online, was shown to have adverse effects on adolescents, sometimes creating a negative feedback pattern.

Instead of dismissing people who overshare online as narcissistic, it might be time to look deeper into why these compulsions exist. Still, this fairly recent trend should be replaced by encouraging individuals to confide in licensed therapists, close friends or family members rather than a bunch of strangers.

3. Celebrity worship

Many people have described their obsession with Keeping Up With The Kardashians, a 17-season ongoing reality show peeking behind the curtain of the ever-growing Kardashian empire, as a way to live vicariously through mega-rich and beautiful people on their vacations to private islands or in their decorated mansions.

In this way, celebrity fetishes are a form of escapism that dont involve drugs or, perhaps the more healthy option, reading an engaging fiction book.

The waning obsession with celebrities will likely come as a result of a few things. Firstly, the growing rise of the online influencer may eventually cheapen the status of celebrity. If anyone can be one, it wont be as important. Secondly, growing class divisions may lead to a disinterest in excessive displays of wealth.

4. Viral meme formats

Weve all been guilty of posting _______ can have a little _______ as a treat or the famous distracted boyfriend meme with our own unique twist its netizen custom.

Many years ago, before everyone became irony poisoned from being Extremely Online, copying the exact structure of an idea and claiming it as your own would have been seen as plagiarism. Admittedly, meme formats are a fun game; theyre online ad-libs for people to tailor their individual opinions into an already existing format.

Because of this, I dont think they should go away entirely. I do, however, think people who have curated an entire sense of humor with hack Twitter premises should reconsider their use of the internet.

It is also not lost on me that wishing the decline of the viral meme format makes me sound like a boomer, but at the very least, the people who start them should be given credit.

5. Let people enjoy things

Its very likely that the Let people enjoy things crowd will hate this entire article. Ironically, if cultural criticism is something I enjoy, these people will have to go by their own logic and let me criticize things as I please.

Let people enjoy things is a remark people use when they cant effectively defend their interests. Instead of building a coherent argument in favor of the thing, they judge the person in disagreement for being spiteful or petty.

Such is the case with especially popular things, like Marvel movies or The Bachelor. There is nothing wrong with liking these things, but ultimately, people should have two options when it comes to the discourse around them: either stand by your interests by defending their content or, since some refer to them as guilty pleasures, admit they are dumb and therefore indefensible.

Elena Waldman can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @WaldmanElena.

See the original post here:

5 trends from the previous decade that should stay there - Rocky Mountain Collegian

Love Islands Eve Gale reads DMs from Tyga (Picture: Capital FM/Backgrid)

Love Island twin Eve Gale is standing by her claims Kylie Jenners ex Tyga sent her private messages even though he debunked the scandal immediately.

The 20-year-old was hurled out of the Love Island villa on Friday night becoming the first islander to be dumped from series while her sister Jess is now coupled up with national treasure Nas Majeed.

Eve wasted no time whatsoever revealing her claim to fame, but after spilling all to her housemates about her liaisons with the US rapper, he mocked the model on Twitter.

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So I was at an event where he was performing so I tagged him in an Instagram story like @ed him and he liked it and replied WYA?, like, where you at? she revealed during Roman Kemps Capital FM Breakfast Show after defending her row with Jess during last nights Aftersun.

Ive got it on my phone! And I was just like erm, London but he was going back to LA and he was like so sorry about that and then we spoke again when he was in Ibiza and I was in Ibiza at the same time. But he was leaving Ibiza and Id just got to Ibiza.

Twitter was abuzz following Eves claims on Love Island, with many doubting the 20-year-old had actually received any such message from star.

And one of the responses came across Tygas radar. The 30-year-old, real name Micheal Ray Stevenson, liked a scathing tweet that compared a picture of himself to a white lookalike and wrote: The Tyga that she claims dmed her vs the Tyga that actually dmed her #LoveIsland.

The Taste hitmaker replied with three laughing emojis, but didnt specify exactly what tickled him so much.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 while Capital Breakfast With Roman Kemp airs weekdays from 6am.

If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you.

MORE: Love Islands Eve Gale defends picking Callum Jones in recoupling after heated row with twin Jess

MORE: Sinnise Fudges death stare at new girl Rebeccas entrance is Love Island 2020s first truly great meme

Continue reading here:

Love Island Eve Gale reads out private messages from Tyga - Metro.co.uk

The Government of the Virgin Islands spends upwards $9 million annually for the vast number of buildings it rents across the territory. The figure is staggering, but over the years, administration after administration, instead of building government-owned facilities that could house a variety of government offices, have instead chosen to utilize buildings belonging to private owners at the expense of taxpayers.

Take for example the Dept. of Labor on St. Croix. D.O.L. officials in 2015 revealed to the Senate that the departments St. Croix arm was locked into a 20-year lease with the owner for $322,000 annually.

But according to Property and Procurement Commissioner Anthony Thomas, who started the job last year, this current administration is working on reducing the annual cost. The commissioner revealed the figure to the Consortium during an interview Tuesday night where he spoke about the myriad of positive changes coming to P&P that would first ascertain that every last cent of the billions of federal dollars slated to be spent in the territory will indeed be exhausted. This will be accomplished, he said, because the administration through P&P is putting in place the right set of levers for accountability and training. And Governor Albert Bryan's vision of a government that is up to date with 21st century norms i.e., the digitization of many of the government's operations will also signal to the federal government that the territory is serious about accountability, and has the capacity to manage the vast sums already allocated to be spent here.

"Right now we're spending in excess of $9 million a year in rent," Mr. Anthony said. He said that while the number of private facilities being rented by the government went up following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, there was never any funding in place to repair or tear down and rebuild government facilities that had done their time.

"Whatever the reason is, there was no dedicated funding but we're beginning to change that and the Legislature, the administration we're all working together to find solutions because the truth is most of the mechanical things we have, it has a lifecycle, and this is procurement, right? It has a lifecycle. So when you build it, there has to be a plan to tear it down and build something new. But this thinking, it's a paradigm shift in the way we operate the government. We have to come to a place where we understand that whatever is new comes old and it has to be rebuilt. So you have to put provisions in place to do that. It wasn't done for whatever the reason is, but we're working to rectify that, and this transformational change that we're going through, we're going to make it possible to be followed. We're working to reduce that cost tremendously."

P&P is currently working on expanding the amount of details relative to contracts and other public information provided. Currently, anyone can go to the P&P website and see contracts. "Our new structure that we're doing is going to show the ability for vendors when a contract is coming in the next year. Not only that contracts have been executed, but what is coming up. We're also going to be able to start showcasing our properties. So you will be able to come online and see the government's properties. We're going to be able to do so many different things using technology. And what is so amazing is that in the 21st century, when you work with manual processes it is a more expensive proposition. So to transition into a digitized system reduces cost, and we need to find ways to reduce cost. So we're on the right track and I believe that the people are going to be very satisfied," Mr. Thomas said.

The commissioner spoke about partnering with entrepreneurs both seasoned and budding to help them start businessoperations in theterritory that would see both the business and government benefiting.Specifically, Mr. Thomas was referring to the government's major but mostlyunknown business of leasing property toindividuals to start or expand businesses.

"We're looking for young,enthusiasticentrepreneurs" and those not so young with great businessideas and business plans "that need a partner, and we the people of the Virgin Islands are willing to partner with you," Mr. Thomas said, referring to P&P's leasing program. He saidthegovernment leases property to businesspeople to develop theirbusinesses and business models. "And it works very well, and you'd surprised of some of thebusinesses thatactually lease from thegovernment," he said.

There will be more storiesfrom theinterview,which can be viewed here.

More here:

V.I. Government Spends More Than $9 Million Annually In Rent; Property And Procurement Taking Steps To Change That - VI Consortium

PRINCE Andrew's pal Ghislaine Maxwell's personal emails have been hacked sparking fears that damaging information about the royal could come out.

Details of the revelation came out in the defamation case made by Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex slave against the British socialite.

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Maxwell's lawyers sent a letter on December 5 to New York federal court Judge Loretta A. Preska, but it was made public last week.

Ty Gee wrote about "the difficulty and complexity" of process as there are more than 8.600 pages, and that is "difficult-to-overstate importance to the lives of Ms. Maxwell and the non-parties", DailyMail.com reported.

The letter adds that the project "could not be accomplished by scanning or speed-reading' as each page had to be carefully analysed to redact, for example, 'a surname or an email address'".

Gee is referring to details that were released on accident in the 2,000 pages that were made public by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

It revealed that Maxwell was accused of procuring underage girls for the dead paedo Epstein.

Maxwell has denied those charges.

Gee wrote: "Despite the Second Circuit's best efforts, it made serious mistakes. For example, it redacted a non-party's name in one location but not another; so the media immediately gained access to that name.

"As another example, it redacted Ms. Maxwell's email address (which linked to her own domain name) in one location but not another; shortly afterward hackers breached the host computer."

The email hack may hack could cause problems for the Duke of York after a BBC Panorama documentary revealed the royal allegedly exchanged emails with Maxwell in 2015 about Roberts.

The emails were sent after Roberts lodged court papers in Florida claiming she had been forced to have sex with Prince Andrew.

The Duke is said to have written: "Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts."

Ms Maxwell replies: "Have some info. Call me when you have a moment."

The court papers were later struck from US civil court records when a judge ruled them immaterial and impertinent to allegations against Epstein.

Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands at the age of 17 in 2001.

Prince Andrew has strongly denied the claims.

sympathy for the victims ofEpstein, who was found hanged in jail in August while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

The Duke was also ridiculed over his repeated denials of any sexual relationship with then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts.

He claimed he had taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking on the night he is accused of sleeping with Roberts, a "sex slave" of Epstein.

Andrew also said he did not regret having been a friend of Epstein, who killed himself in jail aged 66.

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The Duke announced he was standing back from all of the organisations of which he is a patron as the fallout from the interview continues.

Epstein was first jailed in 2008 for procuring an underage girl for prostitution. He got an 18-month sentence, during which he was able to go on work release to his office six days a week. He was released on probation after 13 months.

This July he was arrested on sex trafficking allegations. On August 10 he was found hanged at the New York Metropolitan Correctional Centre three weeks after being found unconscious with neck injuries.

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Prince Andrews pal Ghislaine Maxwells private emails are HACKED sparking fears info could be leaked about ro - The Sun

More details have emerged about how Jeffrey Epstein sexually trafficked girls as young as 11 to his private island in the Caribbean and how he evaded law enforcement by ferrying them on jets and helicopters then keeping them against their will on the property.

Epsteins estate is being sued by the US Virgin Islands which wants to confiscate his island Little St. James which is valued at $86million.

The local governments top prosecutor says Epstein flouted their laws to routinely bring underage girls there and abuse them. She filed a lawsuit last week and on Tuesday was interviewed by CBS This Morning about it along with one of the women the late financier is said to have trafficked.

That woman insisted on having her identity obscured. She revealed that Epstein held her against her will in a bedroom on the property where he kept a gun taped to the bedpost.

She also said he raped her in his office on St Thomas.

A new lawsuit alleges Jeffrey Epstein ran a conspiracy to traffic and abuse girls appearing to be as young as 11 years old on his private island.

Were getting a closer look at the secluded island and hearing a first-hand account from one of those alleged victims. @MolaReports: pic.twitter.com/5L3haCQsja

He raped me. He brought me off the island to his office in St. Thomas and he actually raped me in his office.

He also trapped me in his bedroom on the island where he had a gun strapped to his bedpost. I couldnt leave.

The only means of getting off the island was either helicopter or boat, she said.

She criticized the Caribbean islands local government for only now taking action, saying: Im actually quite confused by it. Why now?

Its been a little bit, its late in the game, and to me its sort of last minute and, you know, if they knew about his you-know-what he was up to then why didnt they try to stop him before?

Epsteins elaborate trafficking system was enabled by his wealth, Denise George, Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, said.

By buying an entire island to carry out the abuse on, he was able to keep it hidden, she said.

He brought the girls to the Caribbean on his own planes then used his own helicopters and boats to get them to the house.

He felt that he could basically be protected. He could get away with it, George said.

She revealed that authorities tried at least once monitor the property to investigate but they were blocked from entering.

They were stopped at the dock, and they were told No, this is as far as you can go because this is my private property, and I would not allow you to go in any further.

Once the girls were on the island, there was no way for them to escape.

One woman told in a lawsuit in the past that she tried to swim away because she was so desperate to be free but that she was hauled back to the shore.

Remember, he owns a whole island.

So it wasnt a situation where a child or a young woman would be able to just break away and run down the street to the nearest police station, George said.

She resisted the criticism from Epsteins victim that she authorities did nothing when he was alive, saying: I cannot speak to what happened in the past.

What I do know is that because of Epsteins wealth and power he was able to conceal a lot of this, she said.

The lawsuit against his estate is one of the dozens that have been filed.

The pedophiles August suicide remains under investigation and the FBI continues to look into whether anyone who is still alive facilitated the abuse.

Here is the original post:

Epstein victim says he kept a gun taped to bedpost in the Caribbean - Infosurhoy

Wasn't it great to be a kid? We had no idea what stress was, could eat whatever we wanted, and had more energy than the average power station.

Then adulthood hit - alongside a tsunami of stress, the metabolism conked out, and energy costs $5 a cup.

In other words, when we go on a family holiday - we're after different things. Kids want action; parents want to unwind. And finding that perfect mix is the secret to unlocking a great family holiday.

The answer is two-fold: a beach or pool for relaxing - sprinkled with activities that adults and kids will equally enjoy.

In Fiji, I found four day trips that do precisely that.

BROOK SABIN

Malamala Beach Club is for day-trippers only.

READ MORE:* Inside the world's coolest pizzeria floating in the Pacific* Move over NZ: Fiji's the new adventure capital* Stuff's Monday Escape: Swimming with sharks

Private island paradise

Many families head to Port Denarau to base themselves for a Fiji escape; it's an artificial island packed with big-name resorts like Hilton and the Sheraton.

There's one problem, however. The island isn't surrounded by dreamy turquoise waters; you're not getting that tropical holiday the brochures sell you.

There's now an easy solution. The world's first private island beach club has opened a 20-minute ferry ride from Denarau - and they'll pick you up from your hotel.

It's called Malamala Beach Club; the island is a perfectly-round sandy paradise with loungers for adults, while the kids can enjoy the beach, kayaking or snorkelling.

Get the heart racing

BROOK SABIN

Malamala has great places for parents to relax, while kids head to the beach.

For a day out the whole family will never forget, try a shark snorkelling tour.

Kids as young as five are welcome, and from what I experienced - parents are more scared than the younger ones.

The day trip from Denarau whisks you out to the idyllic Yasawa Islands on a high-speed ferry, before being met by a longboat to head out to a small reef - home to white and blacktip reef sharks.

This is not some sanitised aquarium visit; the sharks are very inquisitive - and will come right up for a look. You get to spend about 45 minutes swimming with the friendly locals, as they dart around the reef. While a few of our fellow day trippers were a little hesitant to get in the water at first, we all ended up not wanting to get out when it was time to go home.

Coolest pizzeria on the planet

BROOK SABIN

Shark snorkelling is not as scary as you think.

Floating on crystal clear water, on the outskirts of a magnificent lagoon, is the world's most beautiful pizzeria.

Just a warning: Cloud 9 is also a bar, with live music, so it can get a little loud. But it's still packed with families, enjoying a pizza and diving in for a snorkel. Children under seven aren't permitted.

BROOK SABIN

Cloud 9 is a 45 minute ferry ride from Port Denarau

Fly through the trees

BROOK SABIN

Kids will love jumping off Cloud 9s second storey - while adults enjoy a drink.

Zip Fiji has a 16 line course that zigzags through the jungle, joined together by boardwalks that squeeze through boulders, have sweeping views over the coast, and even lead to one of the biggest caves in the Pacific.

The ziplines require you to slow yourself down which involves a bit of practice with a specially designed glove. Don't worry if you brake too late; the guide will give you a big Fijian hug at the end to slow you down.

MORE INFORMATION:

Malamala: $120 for a day pass, includes hotel transfer, ferry, entry to the island and non-motorised water activities. See: malamalabeachclub.com

Shark snorkelling: $230 per adult, or $136 per child. This includes transfers from hotels in Nadi or Port Denarau, a return scenic cruise on the Yasawa Flyer to Barefoot Kuata Island, lunch, the shark snorkel trip, and snorkel equipment. See: ssc.com.fj/day-cruises

Cloud 9: $160 for bus and ferry transfers, including a $40 food and beverage credit.

Ziplining: $166 per person including transfers and lunch. See: zip-fiji.com

Getting there: Air New Zealand flies daily from Auckland and seasonally from Wellington and Christchurch. See: airnz.co.nz

Carbon count: A return trip to Fiji from Auckland flying economy class would generate0.31 tonnes of CO2.

The author's trip was supported by Fiji Tourism and Air New Zealand.

This article was produced as part of a partnershipwith House of Travel. Read more about our partnership content here.

BROOK SABIN

There are 16 zip lines to go down at Zip Fiji.

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Fiji: The secret to a great family holiday - Stuff.co.nz

On an island in Norway's remote Steigen Archipelago inside the arctic circle lies an eco-retreat called Manshausen Island.

Founded byBrge Ousland, the Norwegian polar explorer who was the first person to cross the Arctic solo, the private island was once a trading post for fishing communities way back in the 1600's.

Today, four timber-clad cabins designed by Stinessen Arkitekturcall the island home, and just last year, three newer steel cabins were added to the offering. Perched on a rocky outcrop on the northern edge of the island, these hardened structures stand independent of each other and overlook the Barents Sea.

Manshausen

Each of the seven cabins offer unique layouts and aspects, but all boast floor-to-ceiling glazing on three sides for maximum immersion in nature.

The master bed is placed in the main room, set slightly back from the glass so guests can feel sheltered in privacy while still being able to enjoy the dramatic scenery and Aurora Borealis.

Kjell Ove Storvik

Kjell Ove Storvik

Kjell Ove Storvik

Situated in the middle of the Grtya strait, only 500 meters from the small village Nordskot, Manshausen Island is a 55-acre isle in the shadow of the Lofoten Islands.

In the summer months, guests can enjoy diving, kayaking, and fishing, while the off-peak season provides ample time to wait patiently for the northern lights to appear or explore the surrounds with snowshoes.

At first glance,Manshausen Island will set you back circa AU$1,200 for two nights over a weekend in low season.

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Manshausen Island Is A Norwegian Winter Hideaway - Boss Hunting