Cruise destination - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

We spent a day at Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam during our recent weeklong cruise onboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas.



This bustling city is quickly growing in popularity as a cruise stop, partly due to the reduction of passenger visa cost. These used to cost US$50.00 and have now been reduced to US$7.00 which the cruise company charges direct to your onboard account..



Market shopping in the city was great, but our tour guide warned us to beware of pickpockets in crowded spaces, so we walked around the central market compound with hands on pocket and handbags firmly secured.



This video is the result of our daytime wanderings in the downtown area of this interesting city. We would gladly return for another visit sometime in the future.

Las Vegas Strip revisited in 2014

In March 2014 we revisited one of our favourite world destinations, the always awake, alive and colourful 'fun capital' Las Vegas, Nevada. Our accommodation was at the  first class Nobu Hotel which is a quality boutique hotel located inside Caesar's Palace right in the heart of the Strip.

The video depicts random scenes shot during our regular walks and 'Deuce' bus-rides up and down the Strip and shows off renowned places like Wynn's, Caesar's Palace, Bellagio and others.

My Youtube channel has close to 100 travel videos shot over the past eight years in many parts of the world. At time of publication, our view count was just short of half-a-million, which is very pleasing. We look forward to reaching the one million milestone in the not too distant future.

We welcome your subscription. You can find the Travel With Ren video channel at youtube.com/renzwiers

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Monterey - the seals love it!

The Californian coastal town (and sardine capital of the western world) of Monterey is an attractive place to visit, despite the weather being a slight disappointment for our stopover during a cruise onboard Celebrity Century.

Drizzling rain stopped us from exploring too much, but a stroll along the waterfront from the jetty (our landing point by tender) was quite enjoyable.

An added bonus was the frolics by the friendly seals basking on rocky outcrops and other perches in the water.

After our waterfront stroll we headed into the downtown area and walked up and down the main street. Not a lot of activity there on the day either, but I'm sure Monterey cocmes alive on more pleasant days.

Enjoy the video above and please check-out the many other videos on my youtuble channel at youtube.com/renzwiers

Seaworld Whalewatch - the video!

San Francisco city sights

A trip on the local 'Hop on, Hop off' tour bus services is a must...it's the perfect way to get your initial bearings in most cities. San Francisco is no different.

The Big Bus Tour collected us from the cruise ship wharf, just up from the renowned tourist hotspot Pier 39 and showed us most of the city sights in just a couple of hours. We did the full round trip including a return crossing on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Unfortunately the weather changed and the rain started shortly before arriving at the bridge so it became impossible to film or photograph along the way...the wind blew a gale and all passengers on the top deck retreated downstairs for shelter.

Apart from this slight misfortune, the remaining trip was well worth the money.

The video in this post shows some of the city scenes captured from the tour bus as well as Pier 39 and its surrounds, just a short walk from our berthed cruise ship, Celebrity Century.

The next video, to be posted in the near future will highlight our next cruise stop, Monterey.

Santa Barbara, California

Home to many movie stars and other celebrities, beautiful Santa Barbara is on the Californian coast a short drive north of Los Angeles.

I have visited this district a number of times in the past, but most recently it was a daytime cruise stop on our Celebrity Century eight night Pacific Coastal adventure.

Time ashore was limited so we spent most of our visit strolling along State Street and onto Stearns Wharf.

A great facility downtown and along the foreshore is the electric trolley mini-bus which will transport you up and down lengthy State Street and to the wharf and beachfront at very low cost.

Santa Barbara is easy on the eye with a dominant Spanish influence on architecture, as the video shows.

It's a colourful town close to some great wineries and a huge number of quality restaurants and other eateries dotted throughout.

Cruising into San Francisco

Cruising into San Francisco on a large ship is an interesting experience.

We entered the Bay on the popular Celebrity Century during a Coastal Pacific eight night cruise on the morning of Monday, March 24, 2014 for an overnight berth, just up the street from Pier 29.

It didn't take long after first sighting before we were gliding underneath that majestic ochre red structure, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Of course, the top deck was the place to be, enabling a close-up view of the traffic traversing the bridge and obtaining a good idea of the huge size of its spans.

Standing right below the funnels with my video camera, it appeared to be merely a few metres of clearance for our ship. The video gives a good impression of this experience.

San Francisco is one of the most spectacular harbour cities to view from a ship.

The Century will relinquish its service as part of the Celebrity fleet after a final season in Australia during 2015. It's been sold to an associated smaller cruise line for its new 'career'.

Riding the monorail at Broadbeach

Now that I have changed my hometown from Brisbane to the Gold Coast expect to see more sounds and vision of this beautiful part of Australia.

For many years the Broadbeach monorail has run from two stations within The Oasis shopping centre to Jupiters Casino/Hotel across the busy Gold Coast Highway.

It currently costs $3.00 per ride to do either the one way journey or the complete roundtrip.

The monorail isn't the fastest mode of transport you'll ever enjoy - it falls well short of being a 'thrill ride'. However, it's a Gold Coast icon that is worth preserving.

I recently took the roundtrip with my trusty Sony Handycan aimed out of the window. The above video is the result of this excursion.

Cruise destination: Vigo, Spain

My partner Donna and I recently enjoyed an 11 night cruise from Southampton (UK) to destinations in Spain, Portugal, Gran Canarie and Canary Islands on Royal Caribbean's super-sized ship 'Independence of the Seas'. I had my trusty camcorder on hand to record the many colourful scenes in ports enroute. This is the first episode of my cruise destination video series: featuring the western Spanish port of Vigo. The next destination, Lisbon, Portugal will be 'in the can' in the near future!

Cruising on Amsterdam's canals

On my recent European trip I made a point of stopping in my birth city Amsterdam for a couple of nights. Of course, it's almost obligatory and do the tourist thing in this city, and that's hopping onboard a canal cruiseboat.

My partner Donna had never been to Amsterdam before, so that gave an extra reason for taking this easy and quick tour of Amsterdam. Especially as our accommodation, Hotel van Gelder was right across the departure point on the Damrak!

I had the video camera with me so shot some city scenes along the way. Hopefully the pictures of gliding through the waterways don't prove too boring! The video is posted below...

Surfers Paradise is looking much better!

Ever since first visiting the Gold Coast in the early 1960s, I have seen the gradual decline in Surfers Paradise as being a family-friendly destination.

In more recent years it has become a holiday haven for drunks and louts and it hasn't been a good spot to find a quality restaurant either. Broadbeach, just one suburb southwards,  has easily overtaken Surfers in recent years in all those departments.

However, there has been (and still is) much work going on reshaping the Surfers skyline and beachfront - so I eagerly look forward to revisiting Surfers more regularly before too long in the hope that the change in the air is permanent or at least, long lasting.

I spent a day in Surfers Paradise between Christmas and New Year 2011, when the surf was well and truly up (too big to swim in, thanks to king tides coupled with a recent cyclone in the Pacific Ocean) but that didn't stop people heading for the beach to watch the spectacle more reminiscent of an Hawaiian landscape!

I had my trusty camcorder at hand and produced this video for my youtube channel.

Sydney City Scenes captured on video

On a recent weekend trip to Sydney I shot some random city scenes in and around the downtown area, capturing sites like Pitt Street Mall (and the brand new very popular Zara store) and Hyde Park. We then boarded the Sydney City Sightseeing bus and headed through Kings Cross, Paddington to Bondi and stopped over at ritzy Double Bay with its exclusive (and expensive) shops on the return trip. Above is the video I posted on my 'Travel With Ren' youtube channel and on tripfilms.com. Hope you enjoy the sights!

Kuala Lumpur is an impressive city

I recently visited Malaysia's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur on a budget priced Gold Coast-KL flight with Air AsiaX. KL impressed me with its modern, clean appearance and great shopping centres as well as some worthwhile market facilities for a bit of bargain hunting. The night market in Petaling Street in Chinatown was the favourite. Above is a five minute travel video I produced on KL. Hope you enjoy watching it!

VIDEO: Venice, Italy 2009

Enjoy the cityscapes and vistas of the canal city in north east Italy, staying at the Hotel Delfino, Mestre (on the mainland) and visiting the main island of Venice as well as the beach resort of Lido.

VIDEO: Singapore revisited 2009

In this travel video we visit Clarkes Quay precinct at nighttime, Singapore's National Orchid Garden, Sentosa Island and finally enjoy a Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel. These scenes were shot during a two night stopover in Singapore (enroute to Europe). We stayed at Peninsula Excelsior Hotel, which is centrally located in Singapore's attractions.

VIDEO; Venice, Italy

I filmed this video on my most recent trip to one of my favourite cities, Venice. It explores the colour and spectacle of this canal-ridden haven which is slowly sinking into the massive lagoon. Most of the scenes are shot whilst wandering around town, on oboard one of the canal ferries but it also includes a demo of the traditional craft of glassblowing on Murano island. There is also a visit to Lido, where all good Venetians (and many visitors) enjoy their beach breaks. Click on the play arrow and 'enjoy your trip'!

VIDEO: Universal Studios backlot tour

This video was recorded by me on a visit to the Universal Studios backlot at Hollywood back in 2000. Amongst other classic movie sets it features the 'Back to the Future' town hall which was destroyed by fire recently. The film was shot on an old analogue Sony Handycam (which is no longer in use, I'm glad to say,so the quality is okay but not great.

VIDEO: Day tripping in San Francisco

I filmed this video about six years ago whilst on a visit to various places in California. It starts with a ride on the renowned cable trolley from downtown San Francisco to the waterfront where we boarded a cruise boat to glide us past Alcatraz and underneath the majestic Golden Gate bridge. Right at the end of the movie we see a skilled artist in Chinatown at work.

VIDEO: Road trip in Albania

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Take a road trip from the Albanian capital city, Tirana along the treacherous road through mountaineous country towards the country's north east. We undertook this return trip taking some five hours each way to visit my son-in-law's parents on their humble farm, approximately 15km from the Kosovo border in mid 2006. This road will be replaced by a new highway in a few years time, so the drive should then be much shorter and far easier.

VIDEO: Singapore - the Asian gateway

Singapore is the gateway to European flights for many tourists flying from Australian destinations, therefore it has become a major 'stopover' destination, breaking the 24 hours of flying from Australia's east coast into two manageable sectors.

The shopping in Singapore is not as cheap as it used to be, with major brand stores starting to predominate in massive centres and the famed Orchard Road has never attracted me - it's just more shopping centres selling stuff you can buy just about anywhere for similar or better prices.

Instead, head for areas like Chinatown and the River Walk for passing the time. The Singapore Gardens (as seen in this video) are great for finding a cool spot in a hot tropical city. Or check out my separate video on Sentosa Island, where all the locals go to play (and stay).