Faiza-Ifrah's VirtualTourist Home Page

We just returned from an awesome trip to Fathom Five National Marine Park and the neighbouring Bruce Penninsula National Park in Ontario. These two parks offer unique geological and ecological features. Since we are practically still in the mode of travelling, I have not started building my pages yet. We will be travelling to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio, USA soon. Since we had resolved to make the year 2009 a year of visiting the national parks, 2 other Ontario national parks, and Shenandoah (yes yet again) and Great Smokey Mountains are on our travel itinerary for this year.

Carassauga - The Festival of Cultures in Mississauga was held on May 22, 23, and 24. I have uploaded a few videos from this year.

Please enjoy our travel reports and photographs of deserts, forests, lakes, vales and mountains bashing mini-adventures in 10 countries that we have visited to-date.

This is a picture that was taken at a waterfall in the beautiful Shenandoah National Park of Virginia. The hike down to this fall was a pleasure, but the steep climb back to the Skyline Drive took couple of hours to complete.

We love national parks, state parks, provincial parks and other conservation parks. Our tips on these pages are mostly about vacationing for or day tripping into conservation areas of all kinds.

"A tourist visits to confirm what he already believes of the world. A traveler journeys to challenge the unknown. A family traveler takes a mid-route - going off the beaten path."

Our pages cover destinations that are less visited, but offer equal or more fun and learning, especially for women and children.

Moreover, you will notice that our travels are done with family and family friends. There is more fun in numbers, even though they say that two is company and three is a crowd.

We have found that traveling off the beaten path with families has been a good way to increase our awareness and to educate our children on world cultures, religions and environment.

We love aquariums, wildlife conservation parks, zoological and botanical gardens, museums of natural history, and observing fauna and flora in National and other conservation parks.

In the picture here, my husband caught an Egret, Anhinga, and a turtle sharing a lakeside in Orlando, Florida.

Yes, we are family travelers and also beginner eco-tourists. This does not mean that we would go adventure traveling into the rain forests of Brazil to see how Jaguars live, but would certainly take any opportunity that comes our way to enjoy nature.

Whether it is airboating in Florida, canoeing in the lakes and rivers of Canada or pontoon boating in Massacusetts, we like it all.

Canoeing is the best way to enjoy wildlife and is exciting activity on its own. All 4 of us have been involved in minor accidents when it comes to canoeing, but none of us would give it up.

Canoeing and boating appear prominently in our vacation trips.

During our trip to Mount-Tremblant in Quebec, we enjoyed canoeing and boating in many lakes and rivers. Here is the picture from one such 'voyage'.

VT is a good place to make friends and meet them. Here, I am standing with two VT friends Catherine (Drolkar on VT) and Gianluca (janchan on VT) outside a restaurant in Dubai. The two made a brief stay while on their way to Afghanistan. My family loves this dynamic duo on all kinds of social work that they are doing across the globe. My external page will take you to their impressive website.

Dubai itself has blossomed as a tourist destination and is considered hot. But then why hangout in Dubai only. Venture out with us into the deserts and valleys on our UAE pages.

A trip to Malaysia would be incomplete without a rain forest experience. Here, Razali, the Elephant Man (banditLeader on VT) chats with his favourite elephant in a sanctuary devoted to the protection of Malaysian elephants. More recently, Razali, who loves elephants and was brutally gored by a wild elephant during a rescue effort, gor married to a beautiful girl at Malaysian High Commission in the UK.

Discover the road less traveled and go off the beaten track with us on our Malaysia pages.

These page have been created by our mother and daughter team. The pages are maintained by me, pictures are selected and uploaded by my daughter. My husband used to take most of the shots before my son got his digital camera as a Christmas gift. My husband also helps me in writing the tip on word document that I cut and paste ;-), which also explains why my daughter and I take so much time in putting our tips on the VT. Finally, my son reviews critically, whatever that means :-)

The picture shows Scarlet Ibis, national Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, which is on our list for visiting.