My favorite place to go on vacation is nothing special, but it is like home to me. The best vacation that I can go on, is to spend a week at The Anchorage Inn Hotel, in York Beach, Maine. This is nothing fancy, or expensive, but ever since I was a kid that place has been one of the only places in the world where I feel no stress or worries. The trip is cheap, It costs around $100.00 or so a night, for one of the suite rooms. Which is a very resonable price, especially with a view over looking the ocean.
At the Anchorage Inn, there are three pools and three hot tubs right on the property. There is one indoor, heated pool and two outdoor pools. One of the hot tubs is indoors, and the other two are outside as well. There is also two gyms and fitness centers on the property. One is located on the floor below the pool, and the other is located on the third floor of the suite rooms.

There are many activities that are within a 5 minute drive of the Anchorage. First off, the beach is just right across the street. Long Beach, at York was voted one of the nicest, most family friendly beaches in allthe US. Also, just about a 5 minute ride down the street, there is downtown york, filled with shops, restraunts, and even a homemade salt water taffy shop. Just next to the downtown area, is Yorks wild Animal Kindom. A Combination of a zoo, and a great amuesment park


The simplicity of York beach is one of its best qualities. While it is very typical and not out of the ordinary. It is somewhere I can go to always de stress and just have a nice, fun, relaxing week. Spending a week in York beach is honestly the best vacation I could have, even if it is something I do once a year. To me, it is the perfect, dream vacation.


You can book your own stay at their homepage:
www.anchorageinn.com

Blog #4 Kristen Connery

If you could chose a dream vacation to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Well, if you needed help choosing, I would suggest you visit the Virgin Islands. Growing up my father always had to move around for his job, and being that my siblings and I stayed at home with my mother, it was always a mini vacation wherever we went to visit him. However, once my dad moved to St. John, Virgin Islands for his job, it was a real vacation.

                                                                         Above is a photo of the view from the Westin Hotel in St John, where my father works and I've visited many times

There are a lot of great reasons to go to the Virgin Islands. First of all, there are a 3 islands which make up the Virgin Islands. They are- St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. I would have to tell you that my favorite of all the islands would have to be St. John, for many different reasons. St. John is the smallest of the islands, and it has a very home-y feel. However, if you are more of a "city" person, you would enjoy being on St. Thomas, because it is the capitol of the islands and has the most shopping and commotion of all three islands. St. Croix is the island you would go to if you are looking to relax, because it is the most calm and peaceful of the three islands.

On the islands life is very different. In New England, we often would not be startled to walk outside and see a squirrel run by. On the islands however, it is always common to see large iguanas (pictured on the left) walking around. I found this very startling. Also things on the islands are very expensive, with living expenses averaging at 33% more expensive than in the US.


Flying to the Virgin Islands may also be a bit of a hassle.  There are no direct flights there, and usually you must first take a flight to Florida, or a surrounding state to get on a smaller plane into St. Thomas. This makes the flights a bit more costly, ranging from about $250-$500 seeing as you must take 2 different flights there and back. Also, if you aren't staying on St. Thomas, you must now take a ferry, which averages between $10-$14, to travel to the other islands because there is one airport in St. Thomas.

Even though there may be some down sides of travelling to the Virgin Islands, I highly recommend you do. It will be the vacation of a life time and you will never regret it! If you would like to learn more about the Virgin Islands, this website can give you a lot of helpful information!