Swim Sports

In the previous part of this article I began covering the top ten locations for UK tourists to visit this year in South America, already covered was Panama City, The Atacama Desert in Chile and cookery classes in Mexico.  The rest of this list continues with some destinations a bit further south including Brazil, Peru and even director Francis Ford Coppolla’s lodge in Guatemala.

7.    Pantenal, Brazil

Brazil is famous for their football team, carnivals and the enormous statue of Jesus that overlooks Rio de Janeiro but aside from these iconic symbols there is a wealth of nature lurking just miles away from the cities.  One such location is Pantenal; it holds the title of the world’s largest wetland and many people in the know claim that the amount of nature present rivals even the Amazon!

Pantenal is just one of the many emerging holiday hotspots in Brazil as well as the Serra Geral Mountains in the southern part of the country.  Recently interest in Brazils has been sparked by the sighting of tribesmen in the jungles within Brazil.  You may not be looking to join a native tribe but the nature in Brazil can certainly rival the draw of the big city.

6.    Peru

Peru is a popular destination amongst backpackers and gap year students partially due to all the ancient ruins which are a spectacle to see.  Manchu Picchu is a popular hot spot for hikers, but beware; the hiking is tough going. 

The culture of Peru is a historic one too with many of the communities sticking to traditions that have lasted generations free of the trappings of modern life.  Some holiday companies have an easy time getting people to come to Peru because in some cases the locals will insist you stay with them as hotels are few and far between in the mountainous areas. 

By sharing the living space of a local family you can get the most authentic feel of what life is like in the region, plus all you’d need to pay for is your flights to the country which doesn’t hurt!

5.    Guatemala

When the man who directed the Godfather and slaved over Apocalypse Now to the point of exhaustion chooses a holiday spot you can rest assured that it will be worth it. Francis Ford Coppolla owns a lodge in Guatemala called La Lancha and is set in an amazing area of Guatemala that should impress the Indiana Jones’ out there.

There are many ancient Mayan ruins which served as inspiration for the latest adventure of Dr. Jones this summer nearby such as Tikal which is home to the enormous pyramids and encroaching jungle undergrowth seen in many movies.  Similar architecture can be found at Uaxacatún which is home to large stucco sculpture traditional to the area.  Yaxhá is a wonderful lakeside location that many people who have seen Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skulls will be familiar with.  It is most definitely worthy of booking flights, packing the fedora and bullwhip to go exploring if you are looking for a more historic and interesting holiday.

In the final part of this article I’ll be covering the final four destinations that I recommend for holidays this year.  With cheap flights to Mexico and other countries now may be the best time to explore new grounds.

They say that they do everything bigger over in the good old United States of America; buildings, technology and even food (leading to bigger waistlines too). This fact can be attributed to their sports too. American sports are popular all over the world not just for the average Joe American.

Major sports such as American Football, Baseball and Basketball games are syndicated all round the world for fans to watch on TV. But nothing quite beats being there in person, cheering with the crowd, taking in the electric atmosphere. Many British holidaymakers are timing their holidays with sporting events in the States so that they can add a bit of variety to their holidays.

There’s plenty of regular season games for all the big four (Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey) and tickets are rather easy to get hold of, with many arenas and clubs using online booking systems such as Ticketmaster so you can get your tickets sorted early.

In other cases most hotels’ concierge services have connections to the stadiums and may be able to pull a few strings for visitors looking to make the most of their holidays.

One point to be careful of is ticket touts, yes these vultures exist stateside too, and prey upon impressionable tourists, my advice is to stay clear, it isn’t uncommon for tickets to be fakes or getting a child’s ticket instead of an adult’s one. After all you didn’t come thousands of miles to get swindled.

The main attraction of American sports is how much effort and style goes into their big events, the Football has Superbowl, a national treasure in itself. American football is as popular (possibly even more) than football, sorry, I mean soccer, is in the UK.

This is the ultimate in sporting entertainment with fireworks a plenty, pulse pounding action and the halftime shows. The halftime shows are like an arena concert unto themselves, with past performers such as Prince, Paul McCartney and the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake incident! This year Superbowl XLII is going to be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona and is in March.

The NBA basketball goes above and beyond Superbowl with not only an All-Star game but an entire weekend devoted to the festivities. Apart form the game itself showcasing the cream of it’s NBA basketball players there are other events such as a celebrity game (last year including names like The Green Mile’s Michael Clarke-Duncan and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) and the high-flying Slam Dunk contest. Basketball is a growing sport over here in the UK and what better way to see the pros than getting to New Orleans for February the 17th.

These are just two stand out spectacles on offer, people that have gone on holidays to America and seen sporting events like these have had a great time, especially families. One activity I have done myself is visit the historic Madison Square Garden arena in New York which was due to host a boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant in 2000, and whilst we were unlucky in trying to get tickets we were still able to get a great guided tour of the arena including trophy rooms, locker rooms and the Theatre upstairs that has hosted awards shows and events such as VH1’s Divas Live. Many arenas in the United States offer these tours normally during the day even whilst they’re setting up for events like the boxing match previously mentioned.

In general if you can get tickets good and early then you could easily add some interest and value to your holidays this year!