Hot answers tagged nature-and-wildlife
18
First I have to say that is very difficult to answer your question, because is near impossible to say "hey, this volcano will be launching lava on this dates". If you remove Hawaii from your list, I believe the only places you can see lava are:
Mount Erebus: Antarctica, not very easy to reach and really difficult to climb. Has a lava lake.
Erta Ale: ...
17
I've just been in Rovaniemi, Finland a couple of weeks ago. It's currently impossible to see the aurora as the 24-hour day is in place; obviously you need a dark sky to see it.
However, Rovaniemi is just by the Arctic circle, is easy to get to (fly or train from Helsinki overnight), and is also the home of Santa Claus!
I stayed at the Borealis ...
17
I would work this out strategically, and look up lists like The Ten Most Active Volcanoes in the World.
There are approximately 1,500 active volcanoes in the world today and 75 percent of them are located in the "Pacific Ring of Fire." On average, 50-70 volcanoes erupt every year.
As the article text below provides descriptions, I've included photos along ...
12
Right, despite missing out on the first day of my tour there while my train broke down, the rest of the gang went and unfortunately for me, I missed out on an opportunity to see Nessie. One day though, one day...
Firstly, you need to be aware of the geography. Loch Ness is in a natural cleft between Fort William and Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, ...
11
Parks in Paris' vincinity: Bois de Vincennes and, a bit wilder, the Bois de Boulogne. Even though large and not in Paris center, these are both city parks, and you should not expect anything wild there.
Closest “real” forest to Paris: Fontainebleau forest. This one has a few deers, but you should not expect to see any (French Wikipédia says less than one ...
10
I would also recommend Pacaya in Guatemala, it is easy to get to and you can stand pretty much next to the lava, even though many people have melt their shoes while doing this.
The main reason why I would recommend Guatemala is that there are several other smoking volcanos in the area.
My highlight in Guatemala though was watching an erupting volcano from ...
10
According to this Wikimedia image you can find cheetahs around Africa and Middle East.
Image is in public domain
One of the easiest places to see Cheetahs (I saw a lot there) is Masai Mara National Park (Kenya).
9
I was in Iceland for a weekend in March and although we did see the Northern Lights, they were quite dim and not that spectacular.
The guide did say that only a few days earlier they had a really good one.
Wherever you go, try to allow a number of nights to get out and see them as you may not get lucky on your first try.
9
The Pilar Festival is held every year around the second week of October in Zaragoza. The festival features a huge flower offering on October 12th in which thousands of flowers are piled into a gigantic pyramid in the center square next to a huge basilica. It's a great photo op.; here's a (not so good) picture I took of the flower pyramid from last year's ...
9
Well yes and no. Because it depends what you mean by "near Sydney".
Sydney is too far north to have penguins but further south there are plenty of penguins at Phillip Island in Victoria. That's a bit over 1,000 km or 600 miles away from Sydney.
There is a very famous "fairy penguin parade" near a town called Ventnor that you can begin reading about on ...
9
This map shows the tropical rain forest in the whole world. As you can recognize, the rain forest in Africa are geographically located closest to Europe.
Other references also state that the rain forest in Gambia are the closest rain forest to Europe, for example here.
A quick matrix flight search turns out that you can get there from central Europe (I ...
8
Not my region (lavender is mostly found in Provence, but there are occasional fields in other regions), so I need to rely on Wikipedia. Lavender flowers from late June to late August. It is typically harvested well before the flower wilts, because the heat makes the essence rise towards the flower's glands, so the plant's aroma becomes less strong as the ...
8
There are a few things about California that are simply difficult concepts for people to get their heads around. It doesn't matter whether or not you've been to the US before; even if you've lived in the eastern US your whole life, you'll still get bit by these when visiting California. Here's two of them:
Public transit
You can generally get from one part ...
8
On the Kona side of Big Island, a lot of companies offer daily a trip to snorkel or SCUBA-dive with manta rays at night. I guess you can also just swim there and join the party if you're unwilling to pay, but I don't think that's simple or safe to do, especially as this is a night activity.
I did a dive there recently and it was absolutely amazing, easily ...
8
If you and your girlfriend are willing to go for a hot summer hike and cold swim, there is Upper Little Stoney Falls in the Jefferson National Forest - Hanging Rock Day Use Area, near Dungannon, Virginia.
Waterfall photos: http://www.waterfall-picture-guide.com/upper-little-stoney-falls.html
8
Would you believe, Wikipedia has a list of dolphinariums!
I won't list them all, but basically there are several in Germany (Allwetter Zoo Münster, Duisburg Zoo, Tiergarten Nürnberg) and Lithuania is also pretty close, depending where in Poland you are (Lithuanian Sea Museum, Klaipėda) - but I'll leave it to you to check out the list.
8
San Diego is located in a desert region, which means that unless it has rained recently (it is expected to rain from time to time from November through March), there will be flowers only in irrigated parks.
If you have the opportunity to go look for flowers in January through March (or later if it rained a lot), then parks like the Mission Trails Regional ...
8
There are a lot of possible day trips from Reykjavik to explore the surrounding area. If you only have the chance to do one I would suggest the Golden Circle, the tour will pick you up from your hotel and return you to it at the end of the day. During the day you will see geysir - the water spout that others are named after. Whilst geysir doesn't erupt ...
7
I went with some friends in 2004, in April.
From Hervey Bay we took a day trip across to Lady Elliot Island. They offer everything as a day trip, or you can stay on the island for longer if you wish.
This included a flight in a small plane for the 40 minutes to the island, walking in reef shoes around the island and seeing the coral and shallow-water ...
7
(Image credit: Connie Lianto)
Mount Merapi is an active volcano in central Java, Indonesia and most recently erupted in 2010. Visitors typically make the town of Yogyakarta a base from where there are organised tours which ascend part of the mountain by car and then begin ascent on foot past/around midnight to summit before dawn. If I recollect correctly ...
7
If you're expecting to wash / play with a 'family-owned' elephant, perish the thought! Elephants are expensive creatures to care and feed for, and you aren't going to find personal families owning elephants.
Here's what you can do: go to a wildlife sanctuary / national park in India. Mark's answer mentions Jim Corbett National Park, which is in Northern ...
7
There are at least 2 tours that I could find that could fit your criteria:
Undiscovered Carribean
and
LeatherBack Volunteer Vacation
I am sure that you could probably get to those beaches on your own if you choose to but I think these would be better. There is actually a whole slew of tours just like those at SeeTurtles.org
EDIT
More on Turtle ...
7
The most northerly Australian animals I've personally come across were at the Copenhagen zoo.
In addition to the not-so-unexpected Kangaroos they also have a few Tasmanian Devils, and at least one Kookaburra! According to my GPS, it's at about 55.672° N, 12.523° E.
Heading even further north, the Helsinki Zoo in Finland has both Emu and Red-necked ...
7
The best way is to go with a tour as the trip requires crossing Lake Manapouri and there's an hour long coach trip to Deep Cove. For more information see the NZ Fiordland webpage.
There are a couple of tour options, including overnight stays on a boat, a couple of companies:
Real Journeys
Doubtful Sound Cruise
As far as I remember the overnight stay ...
7
It depends on what you do. The park has a variety of "safaris" that you can take, some of which are included in admission and some of which are extra. The caravan safari gets up close and personal, but the tram safari is pretty well separated from the wildlife.
There are also walking paths, which are more like a traditional zoo; you'll be between 3 and 20 ...
6
You are looking to walk the Camino de Santiago. It joins hiking, nature, historic architecture, photo opportunities and is very cheap (eat about 6-8 € per meal and sleep 4-8 €). Additionally, you'll know the real Spain, meet interesting people (mainly Spanish, but you can find people from around the world and you will complete one of the mythical mid age ...
6
Judging from this list of sightings, your best bet is in the month of August, but no later than October. May also seems pretty common as well. Most of the time the sun was not out when the reports were filed (a fairly easy thing to imagine, honestly).
6
You could always hit Molokini, off the island of Maui, which is a heavily traffic'ed snorkeling spot - great for spotting coral reefs. Plus the guided tours ensure that you are informed about what you see. Summers around Maui are great for whale spotting - though I seriously doubt you will get to swim alongside them :)
If this is your first time in Hawaii, ...
6
We recently took a trip to Hawaii and went to Hanauma Bay in Oahu. It was a lot of fun. What I liked was that it had several different sections to the bay. The farther you swim out, the more wildlife you will see. The water was rough when we went so we stayed in the area closest to the shore, but I still saw a turtle!
6
It's a bit of a drive, but when I was there I saw lots of wild koalas at Kennet River. It's along the Great Ocean Road though, so at least there's lovely scenery for the 160km drive! On local advice, we went up the road behind the caravan park into the hills (I think it was Grey River Road from looking on a map, but you might want to check if you can't spot ...
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