NomadGirl Travels

I recently had the opportunity to travel the "Road to Hana."  It was incredible! It is believed by a lot of people to be really treacherous to drive. Not at all. It is very curvy, but the road was in very good condition. My friends and I were advised to leave before 6am. We left at 5:45am - a very good idea. This way we stayed well ahead of the traffic, including the tour buses that came hours later.  We had to stop to let vehicles through from the other direction on the bridges. Bridges are one lane only, but are very short, thankfully. There are yield signs to allow for traffic coming from the opposite direction. We passed the town of Hana and headed into Haleakala National Park. The road in this stretch was not as good as previous sections, but not awful. A bridge on the Road to Hana The scenery was amazing! That is why you drive the Road to Hana! There were incredible views of the ocean, waterfalls, and the foliage was amazing! The road is very curvy. I was okay,

There is so much history in the Banff Springs Hotel. It is great just to walk through and see it all! It is great at Christmas because there are Christmas Trees throughout the hotel, but any time of the year the Banff Springs is beautiful! View from the 11th floor I had a private tour which started at the old entrance. The old entrance is at the back of the hotel. When the Banff Springs was built, the architect flipped the blueprints, so the entrance was at the back instead of the front! It was this way for years! it is only in the last 15 or twenty years that the front of the hotel was refinished so that it could be used as the main entrance. The back entrance is beautiful and really showcases what the hotel is about. Upstairs you can really notice the details that make it the "Castle in the Rockies". There is a medieval banquet hall, complete with a knight in shining armour! Our tour took us down a wing that overlooked the pool. This was an open hall with chair