DES MOINES Iowa Unexpected Delight

Des Moines is not only the capital of Iowa, but it is also the largest city making it a prime spot for tourists to visit. You can find plenty of great things to do in Des Moines from fairs to museums to parks. There are family-friendly attractions for adults or young adults travelling alone or with a group of friend. Des Moines has taken many steps to develop as a vibrant cultural landscape with sculpture parks, botanical gardens, and a shopping and dining place. Whatever you choose to do on your visit to this friendly city whether it is touring impressive art collection or catching a baseball game under the lights, don’t be surprised if you find yourself wanting to spend a longer time at Des Moines

Tourist travelling to Des Moines has a wealth of activities to enjoy.

Different things to do in Des Moines:

There are plenty of things to do in Des Moines, a truly unique city to visit. Iowa capital has everything- outdoor activities like breathtaking nature, fun, and games to keep you entertained, art, history, and culture to immerse yourself in and to shop to suit any needs.

Blank Park Zoo is home to animals from all over the world from Koalas and kangaroos to penguins and pandas. Get to know creatures from all over the world in the zoo exhibits including the Aquarium, African Broad walk, Australian Adventure and the Caves. The zoo offers animals feeding for ostriches, small birds, and giraffes along with camel rides, a train that opens on the weekends, a gift shop and a cafe.

Downtown Farmer’s Market has been an iconic feature for 40 years.

It has more than 300 artists, crafters, bakers and farmers come from over 58 counties. You’ll find everything from fruit and vegetables to flowers and art.

The flea market is one of the best places to head to if you’re in search of unique items like antiques, collectables, and other goods. There are also beautiful places to find products like clothes, toys, and tools for meagre prices. The collection varies from new to slightly used, and this is a great way to cycle up something making one man’s trash another man’s treasure. Iowa has many amazing flea markets, some of which are open every day, all year long and others that are open for extravagant three days events seasonally. No matter the time you wish to visit, be sure to go home with something you’ll treasure forever.

Smash Park is the perfect place for some food, drinks, and games. Smash Park is the city’s social entertainment and events venue, offering delicious street food and handcrafted cocktails with games including shuffleboard, pickleball, ping pong, and bocce ball. You will definitely won’t be bored.

Great Escape is located minutes from downtown in Pleasant Hill. Great Escape is an excellent place for family fun, offering bowling, cosmic bowling, laser tag, and a game room. Social Eats and Crafts is a full restaurant inside Great Escape, allowing visitors to grab a bite to eat between all the laser tag and bowling.

Adventure Land Park is Iowa’s most prominent attraction with more than 100 rides and attractions. There are so many games like thrill rides, kiddie rides, family rides, and adventure bay is added water-related attractions. Chicken Shack, Main Street Creamery, Dippin Dots ice cream, and petunia Pig are some of the eateries at the park.

Des Moines unexpected delights.

Agro Adventures: Central Iowa is famous for canoeing, climbing, biking, fishing and winter sports. The goal is to make outdoor recreation fun, accessible, and educational. Argo’s home is a Water Park with a canoe day trip on the Raccoon River.

Backspin Golfers can play on the world’s great destination courses, such as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews indoor at Backspin Golf in Ankeny.

Greater Des Moines has various shopping destination with a blend of major national retailers and unique local boutiques. With several options right off the interstate shopping in Des Moines is convenient, affordable, and sure to find something amazing. Enjoy tax-free shopping at Greater Des Moines on first Friday and Saturday in August.

There’s fun for everyone in Downtown Des Moines whether you are a citizen or a visitor. Rock at a music festival or take a jog on the city streets. You can also relish delicious dinner or immerse yourself in the artistic experience.

Local entertainment: In Downtown Des Moines, you can dance to the beat of your drums, with a vibrant live music scene supported by a passionate community. You can find a cultural event from hip-hop to classical performances of opera legacy. Local artist stars and music legends grace the stages of Downtown DSMn to make it one of the most exciting places for music in Greater Des Moines.

Best place to eat: Downtown Des Moines is a city bursting with flavour. Locally owned breweries, wineries, and restaurants are unique to downtown DSM. You can find the perfect pairing for any craving. Strange things in Des Moines: Stick out your tongue at Raccoon River Brewing Company. Des Moines locals are proud of their home breweries such as Raccoon River Brewing Company. But there’s a special drink at this brewery called Confluence Cream Soda that is tasty, but it turns your mouth bright blue.

High Trestle Trail: this outdoors multi-use trail is scenic and well worth a visit. It used to be a railway line. It’s now mostly smooth and flat, perfect for cycling, running or walking. Most visitors head to iconic High Trestle Trail Bridge. As one of the most extensive trail bridges in the world, it’s a must to see. Check out the bridge after sundown. Blue lights shine on the steel frame of the bridge representing the main river channel running below.

Romantic places for couples in Des Moines:

Splash Seafood Bar & Grill: grab a dish at splash seafood bar and Grill. It has fine dining, premiere oysters, crab and lobster, and world-class wine list. It is a perfect night out for many couples. Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack and Hotel: catch live horse racing at Prairie Meadows, beautifully renovated Casino, more than 2000 slot machines, meadows event centre, and hotel are all within one property.

Blue moon Dueling Piano Bar: Catch a tune at Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar and Restaurant, Where piano players dazzle with entertainment and laughter. Enjoy cocktails for an added evening of delight. Check what you’ve been missing and start planning your next trip to Greater Des Moines.
     

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The Most Stunning Deserts of the World

Desserts in the world are underrated. They receive a significantly small amount of rainfall. They can be either a hot desert or cold desert. Most deserts are quite barren as the dry living condition is too hot to host most plant and animal life. We shouldn’t disrespect the desert because it is so much more than that.
If we imagine, deserts often conjure up a vision of vast empty areas with no life insight. But this isn’t always the case, despite the harsh condition some are home to diverse animal and plant life. They often carry a rich history that can be traced back to millions of years. The continent of Africa is no exception. One-third of the vast African continent is covered by deserts.

Desserts are harsh places, and we love exploring, photographing and learning more about these mystical places. These regions form when regional climate changes resulting in long-lasting drought conditions. Africa’s deserts are home to some of the most extreme landscape and stark conditions on Earth. From volcanic mountains to sand dunes to chalk rock formations, the desert offers a combination of striking beauty and geological wonder.

Take a look at the favourite deserts across the world. 

Syrian Desert 

Syrian Desert is unique for being a combination of a real desert and a steppe meaning low grassland. It is located in the North of the Arabian Peninsula in Syria. The desert is flat but very rocky. The landscape was formed by lava flows emerging from volcanic activities in the region of Jebel Druze in Syria. This desert covers the parts of Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

White Desert Egypt:

While Egypt‘s most popular tourist attractions are the Great Pyramids of Giza and Luxor’s valley of the kings, the country has much to offer than just those spectacular sites. Its lunar looking White Desert is located to the West of the Nile River and is bordered by Sudan to the South, Libya to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the north. The white desert is home to a chalky, surreal rock formation that looks like a natural sculpture from another planet. If you visit the White Desert, make sure to head to its northern portion to see the impressive crystal mountain; it is a sizeable sparkling rock entirely made of Quartz crystal. These unique formations were, in fact, formed by sandstorms and wind erosion. The White Desert was formerly an ancient sea bed when it dried up. It left behind sedimentary rock layers formed from dead marine plants and animals. The wind swept away the softer rocks leaving behind, the harder rock of the plateau.

Wander through the Namib Desert:

It is the oldest desert in the world. The Namib is a lovely coastal desert that stretches along the Atlantic coast from Angola to the Western Cape province of South Africa. This rugged barren landscape is home to the highest sand dunes in the world. For a truly remote experience, travellers should plan to stay in the Namib Rand Nature Reserve or in Solitaire, both of which are accessible by road. The best times to visit are at any point between June and September when temperatures are manageable and not too hot.

Sahara Dunes, Morocco:

Is a part of the Sahara Desert. It is most welcoming to visitors, accessible from the northern part of Morocco. Let Berbers guide you on a hike from the town of Zagours or camp in Tazzarine; a destination famous among runners for the yearly Marathon des Sables.

The Namib Desert Namibia:

The beautiful Namib is one of the world’s oldest and driest deserts. Its name means an area where there is nothing in Nama a language spoken by some locals in Namibia. The landscape of this stunning region features the biggest sand dunes on the planet and granite peaks. It is home to an impressive amount of wildlife adapted to the area’s dry climate. It’s possible to visit this incredible place by foot, on horseback or by a helicopter.

Great Karoo South Africa:

The Great Karoo is South Africa‘s vast dry heartland. This semi-arid desert is full of exciting features, attractions, craggy mountains, vibrant wildflower, quaint colonial towns and unique wildlife. Visitors come to see the national parks, attend many small-town festivals, go fossil-hunting and stargaze under the big sky.

Makgadikgadi pan:

It is a massive area of bone dry salt pans in Southern Botswana. It is so quiet that you can hear the blood rushing through your veins. The Kalahari Desert landscape is not very welcoming. It is formed by a giant lake that dried up a million years ago. However, if the winter gets substantial rain, the area sprouts bright green grass. It welcomes wildlife like zebra, wild beast and flamingos.

 

Sahara Desert

Sahara Desert: It is one of the largest hot deserts in the world and is the third-largest desert behind Antartica and the Arctic which are north cold deserts. The name of the desert comes from the Arabic word Sahara which means desert. Winds and the rainfall have shaped the Sahara into a landscape of dunes, valleys, flats and sand seas. Camels are some of the most iconic animals of the Sahara. They are known as “Ship of the desert”. They are well adapted for the hot and arid environment according to the San Diego Zoo. The humps on a camel’s back stores fats which can be used for energy and hydration in between meals.

Black Rock Desert

The Black Rock Desert is found in Nevada. It is a quite famous site of The Burning Man. There is an annual weeklong event showing how the construction of Black Rock city took place. During the festival, all traces of it are removed until the following year. Most of the desert is composed of lava beds and alkali flats.

Mojave Desert

Mojave contains Death Valley which sits at an elevation of 282 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point in North America. The trees delineate the boundaries of the region. Las Vegas, Nevada is the Mojave’s largest city.

Greenland

Greenland is the largest non-continental and coldest desert in the world. It is famous for having the largest national park in the world; the North East Greenland National park.

The Atacama Desert is situated in South America. It is considered the driest and non-polar desert in the world. It is noticed that the Atacama Desert has been described as very similar to the Mars surface.

Do visit the amazing African deserts with unique landscapes that merge natural beauty and impressive geological phenomena.

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Kigali Rwanda, The Land of Thousand Hills

Kigali is famous for its lush hillsides, flowering trees, winding boulevards, and bustling streets. It is one of the most attractive capital cities in Africa as well as one of the cleanest and safest cities. Kigali is emerging as a proud city known for its progressive start-ups, energetic art scene, and great dining and coffee.

Kigali offers many interesting places to see and things to do. 

Entrance to the Kigali Genocide Memorial:

No trip to Kigali is complete without spending some quality time at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The Kigali Genocide Memorial is a final resting place for more than 250000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. This is the best place to learn about the worst human tragedy that affected the country and one of the most awful historical times for Africa.

Fly from the sky: 

Skydiving is a popular sport that has been introduced to Kigali. It is the ultimate thrill and not for the faint-hearted. The activity can be done by anybody but needs great mental preparation. Jumping from a small plane to the ground will raise your adrenaline to phenomenal levels. You will need to take a course explaining how to pack your parachute and their safety advice. When you venture out you are not alone, your instructor will be with you all the way.

Kimironko Market: 

The best way to learn about the culture of a country is to visit the local markets. Kimironko Market is a large market where all sorts of items are available. Here you can find handicrafts and souvenirs, colorful baskets, fabric and seamstresses ready to make you a dress, fresh vegetable and fruits and a host of other household items. This market is more spacious allowing you to mingle with the locals as you get to know about their products. So it is better to move along in the market with your guide to help you with translation where necessary.

Climb Mount Kigali for those who love adventure

Climbing Mount Kigali could be just the thing you need. It is not a mountain as such but the highest hill in Kigali reaching 6000 feet. From the top, you can see a view of the entire city of Kigali. It’s gorgeous, there’s a lot of farmlands, coffee, tea, and beans being tented by local farmers, it is so peaceful and quiet. Overall hiking to the top of the mountain is easy because of its gentle slopes. Mount Kigali offers amazing views of the city and with opportunities to take beautiful photos. While on top you can stop for food and beer at the Mera Neza Bar or visit the Fazenda Sengha Horse Ranch for horseback riding.

Go for sauna and massage: 

While in Kigali you will have no shortage of places to go, that offers pedicure, facials or manicure. Healing spa is one of the best spas in Kigali. It offers massages, facials, and a wide range of body treatments, body slimming and toning in an opulent and serene environment. Massage and sauna aren’t reserved for only the high-end hotels but also for the specialized outlets scattered around the city center.

CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES IN KIGALI: 

Bambino Super City is a one-stop-shop for kids. At Bambino, there are children’s rides, carousels, restaurants, swimming pools and lots of beautiful spots for a picnic or outdoor walk.

There are weekly events like sports clubs and lessons that can keep your child busy and active week after week.

Dream Team Football Academy, Nyarutarama Tennis club and Fazenda Sengha are some of the clubs.

Are you ready for a night out? There are new ideas for you and your special someone to relax and enjoy a night away. Kigali isn’t exactly known for its party scene. In the last few years, night out in Kigali has grown tremendously. There are several rollicking dance clubs and nightspots if you know where to look. Bars and nightclubs have sprung up all over the city.

Cocktail bars, happy hours and live music can now be found several nights a week and options for going out to have diversified. One of the best Papyrus sits within stumbling distance of Repub Lounge. Papyrus is a restaurant, bakery, and lounge situated upstairs, but in the basement, it’s a sweaty, full volume disco that only really gets going after the clock strikes midnight. When you are tired or need a break, Kigali has some great restaurants and cafes where you can smell some of the local dishes or indulge in a cup of locally grown coffee.

Choma’Dm restaurant and bar in the Nyarutarama neighborhood are one of Kigali’s hippest spots.

Sundowner is popular with expat and intern set. Sundowner is the place to go on Friday or Saturday night to listen to P square and dance until dawn.

Executive Car Wash is located in an actual car wash. This bar serves some of Kigali’s best brochettes alongside a selection of cold beers. It also hosts karaoke nights.

For a romantic time, there are tonnes of unique date opportunities around Kigali.

Go for a couples massage or yoga together: Nothing says I love you more than a relaxing spa date! Surprise your loved one with such an experience this holiday season as Kigali has enough spots for this to cater for all your budget needs.

Enjoy a picnic on one of Kigali’s hills: though Kigali’s public park options are limited, snag some sandwiches from Turambe shop and vanilla éclairs from Baso Patissier before making your way to one of Kigali’s many beautiful hills. Find a quiet spot, lay down a blanket, and enjoy a date in the land of a thousand hills. Travel by taxi, bus or motorcycle to the top of Mt Kigali or pick any of the other surrounding hills at random.

Do a Go Kigali tour: for an in-depth experience of Kigali look no further than Go Kigali tours. These half or full-day tours led by Rwanda guides take visitors through five neighborhoods on an action-packed day of sightseeing, eating and learning about the city. The tour visits markets, milk bars, and local restaurants.Mt. Kigali and more in the course of just a few hours and is a great way to see this beautiful city.

Nyamirambo being Kigali’s colorful neighborhoods is known throughout the city as one of the loudest and interesting areas in town. The neighborhood is historically Muslim and the play host to the famous Gaddafi Mosque as well as a series of fantastic restaurants.

Travelers come from all over to catch a glimpse of the magnificent gorillas, yet there is so much more to see and experience.

With so much to see and do in Kigali, it’s hard to decide where to start when visiting this exciting and vibrant city.

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