We’ve come a long way over the past year at It’s About Travelling and we’ve got a long way to go. Here’s a look back over the past year at the top ten most read articles on the website.
1. Hotel Rancho Luna near Cienfuegos, Cuba
I visited Hotel Rancho Luna in January, 2012. I wanted to see just how horrible a Cuban all-inclusive resort with just a two star rating could be. It turns out, Rancho Luna was quite nice, just small and not really close to a major tourism area. The only issue with Rancho Luna is that it served as a rendezvous for Canadian men and Cuban prostitutes from nearby Cienfuegos.
I believe the reason why this article was the most used is because I referred to the prostitution issue. Google gathered up the keywords prostitution, Cuba, Rancho Luna and Cienfuegos and I believe that most readers were these lonely men from Canada looking for more info on this El Dorado: City of ‘Chica’ Gold.
2. Forks of the Credit Provincial Park
Forks of the Credit is one of my home destinations, just a 10-15 minute drive from the house. This is an Ontario Provincial Park with no camping but plenty of hiking and a really cool waterfall with the ruins of an old hydro-electric plant. Day trippers from Toronto flood the park on most weekends and are responsible for most of the traffic to this article – notably by the regular spike in traffic on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. My video and images on how to get into a few forbidden locations at the park are probably quite appealing.
3. Kinzua Bridge in Pennsylvania: Never to be Crossed Again
The high traffic to this article baffles me. It didn’t really come up in any search engines as the collapse of the Kinzua Bridge is well documented on the web. Yet, there was a steady flow of visitors to the article. There is a description of the history of the Kinzua Bridge and the ultimate collapse in a wind storm, not long ago. There are images that I took in the 1990’s that were scanned to digital.
4. Wakami Lake Provincial Park
We camped here in August, 2011. If you want to get away from civilization – which is precisely why we went there – this is the place to go. Wakami Lake is hours northwest of Sudbury, Ontario with half the trek on gravel logging roads. With MNR cutbacks and a rash of forest fires in 2012, I’m not quite sure of the fate of this secluded campground. However, if it’s still open for business in 2013, we plan on re-visiting.
5. A Day Trip to the Big City (Toronto, Ontario)
Recently, Toronto Surpassed Chicago to become the fourth most population city in North America. For most in the surrounding area (like us), when you must go to Toronto, it can be painful. However, as a visitor with no time restraints, Toronto is a beautiful city – especially in the summer.
6. Bruce Peninsula National Park
For a short time each summer, the Bruce Peninsula National Park is a natural playground. The perpetual cold waters of Georgian Bay warm up enough for July and August for swimming, snorkeling and cliff jumping. The water is crystal clear and the cliffs along the waterfront are dotted with interesting caves and massive boulders perfect for climbing and scrambling. The camping, although crowded during the weekends, is outstanding.
7. Cayo Largo, Cuba in Pictures
We went to this amazing tropical island in 2011. Cayo Largo is an island located off the southwest coast of Cuba. It is nothing more than a low-lying sand dune that runs about 25 km long and no more than 3 km across. There are few resorts and all are squished into the west end of the island, leaving the rest a secluded tropical paradise.
If you’re disturbed by the sight of the naked human body, this might not be the spot for you. Cuba can be a bit conservative but on Cayo Largo, anything goes. It is a popular destination for nudists. However, there are designated beaches for those who are going completely commando and it really isn’t much of an issue.
8. Fairbank Provincial Park – It’s All About the Water
Fairbank is an Ontario Provincial Park located not far west of Sudbury. Fairbank Lake was created by a meteor crashing to earth many moons ago. The lake is springfed and, therefore, crystal clear. The snorkeling is decent with good sized walleye and bass easy to find. However, if you don’t plan on playing in the water, there isn’t a whole lot to do at Fairbank. Go during the weekdays to get one of the much coveted waterfront camp sites.
9. Images of Fundy National Park
This is an article full of images from our September, 2012 road trip to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick, Canada. The province of New Brunswick is still a bit of a hidden gem in Canada. If you like wilderness and nature, this is the place to be. Fundy is famous for having some of the highest tide ranges in the world. However, there is much, much more to the National Park. The hiking trails in the park are quite extensive and more than a week could be spent without walking the same path twice.
We often visit Niagara Falls. It’s the cheesiest, most touristy location in Canada. Yet, the waterfall is simply amazing. These images are from the summer of 2012. With all the millions (possibly billions) of pictures of Niagara Falls on the web, it’s surprising that this article got any traffic at all. The kicker was a picture from the Maid of the Mist of the Cave of the Winds on the American Side. Not long after, there was a collapse that closed the Cave of the Winds. Because I did my background work right on that image, it played prominently with the search engines at just the right time.
Thanks for taking a look. Hopefully, what we write here at It’s About Travelling serves some useful person to you, the visitor. There will be much, much more to come!
