Magic Ice, St. Thomas

We don’t usually associate freezing temperatures with a tropical vacation, but on our recent trip to St. Thomas we experienced just that – and enjoyed it!

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Located on the Waterfront in downtown Charlotte Amalie (just down from Bones Rum and Big Kahuna Rum Shack), Magic Ice might be a fun way to escape the tropical heat while checking out some intricate ice sculptures and an ice bar!

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Once you enter the lobby of Magic Ice, you are given a huge parka with a fur rimmed hood, velcro leg warmers in case you show up in shorts and mittens.

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After suiting up in our arctic gear, our guide led us into
the “cold room” filled with magical ice sculptures backlit with a variety of beautiful colors.

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When we visited, the sculptures included a myriad of sea creatures, an ice throne that you could sit in, an ice slide for the young or young at heart and various island and pirate themed pieces, such as this skull and crossbones.

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New ice sculptures are created every six months, when ice artists from all over the globe are flown in to create a new gallery of ice art.

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At the end of the ice room we came across the ice bar complete with a great variety of Cruzan Rums and were treated to our choice of a VERY COLD shot of rum…yum…

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After about 20 minutes, we exited the ice room, got back in to our tropical attire and left cooler and refreshed to go explore more of the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie.

Visit their website to find out more about Magic Ice, St. Thomas

Find Magic Ice on our St. Thomas Map

To see more posts on St. Thomas and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

 

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Poppin’ Strawberry Colada

We wanted to post this one sooner, but finding pop rocks turned out to be quite the feat! We thought this might be a good recipe for the holiday weekend – festive, cold and rummy – and with a little sizzle and pop! This can easily be made without rum for the “yung uns” and designated drivers! Be safe and enjoy!

*We love bringing you amazing rum recipes! Our recipes may contain affiliate links to products that we use. If you click the link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support in helping us to continue providing rumlicious, tropical recipes!

Poppin' Strawberry Colada

Servings: 2

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Blend rum, pineapple juice, strawberries and coconut cream until smooth.
  • Add ice and blend until creamy.
  • Dip the rim of two small glasses in a small bowl of pineapple juice, then dip in pop rocks (put the pop rocks on a plate for easier access). The rocks will begin to pop as soon as they get wet, but there is still some residual popping to enjoy as you sip! 
  • Add a garnish of blueberries for color. Cheers!

You may also like these recipes:

Firecracker Rum Shots

Red, White & Booze

For more recipes, visit our Rum Recipe Picture Directory
or Rum Recipes by Category

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Rum Therapy encourages you to always drink responsibly.

Dune Preserve, Anguilla

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On an picturesque stretch of sand on beautiful Rendezvous Bay, Anguilla, sits Dune Preserve, an ever changing bar/restaurant/music lounge owned by famous reggae musician Bankie Banx.

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Dune Preserve sits between the beautiful CuisinArt Resort and Spa and its Greg Norman designed golf course, and is ever changing because owner Bankie and friends continually add to the work of art with predominately salvaged and discarded wood and other materials found in the area.

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We loved checking out the funky decor and chatting with a few of the locals hanging out there the day we visited, but we’d love to go back someday to enjoy the live music.

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The Dune Preserve is home to the annual Moonsplash Festival, a several day event featuring world class musicians and usually a few surprise guests. Apparently both Jimmy Buffet and John Mayer have stopped in to jam at past festivals.

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Great place to enjoy a tasty libation and food along with a fantastic view of Rendezvous Bay and St. Martin and if you can time it right, some great live music.

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 Find out more by visiting the Bankie Banx Website.

Find Dune Preserve on our Anguilla Map

To see more posts on Anguilla and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

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Frozen Rum Concoctions

There’s booze in the blender and soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on…Jimmy B.

Nothing like a hot summer day to get ya thinking of a frozen concoction! If you think one might help you hang on this weekend, here are a few suggestions – with rum, of course!

Coconut Lime Freeze


Island Delight


Pineapple Breeze

Lime In De Coconut


Strawberry Banana Colada


Dirty Pirate Poptails 

Peach Daiquiri

Stay cool and enjoy your weekend!

Find more recipes here:

Rum Recipes by Pictures

Rum Recipes by Category

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Baie de l’Embouchure, St. Martin

Heading north on Rue de Coralita on our way to Le Galion Beach, St. Martin for the day, we turned the corner to Baie de l’Embouchure and saw what appeared to be a couple of people walking on water – a good distance from the shore – toward one of the small islets in a protected area of the bay. We immediately pulled over to see what was going on.

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The area is called Ilets de la Baie de l’Embouchure and is a protected area on the southern edge of Baie de l’Embouchure. From the parking lot, walk up to an observation platform overlooking the beautiful bay and check out the plaques providing information about the area, history and ecosystem. From the platform you can look north to Le Galion and to the south and east you can see St. Barths.

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We talked to several people who had just returned from “walking on the water” to one of the small islets, and they showed us the route to take across the water. There’s a shallow path of pebbles from the shore to one of the islets where the water is only a few inches deep.

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It’s about a 10 minute walk across the watery path to one of the rocky, windswept islands. You’ll need to wear water shoes or sandals. The path in the water is made of pebbles and the island is comprised of sharp rock.

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Be sure to climb to the top and leave a rock on the cairn.

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And check out the view of the bay behind you.

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Find Baie de l’Embouchure on our St. Maarten/St. Martin Map
Press the 
Baie de l’Embouchure bar (Attractions) underneath the map

 

To see more posts on St. Martin and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

 

Copyright©Rum Therapy Beaches, Bars & More, Tropical Travel Guide, 2013
Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC

Palm Trees in Paradise

Nothing is quite as calming as a pictures of a palm tree next to beautiful blue water, and over the years we’ve amassed a nice collection of these types of pics. So…we thought we’d put some of our favorites together to share with you. Actually, we can’t verify that they are all palm trees – sorry- we’re far from palm experts, but they’re definitely palm looking plants that give us the same tropical feel! Since we couldn’t narrow it down any more than this, this is a sort of Tropical Palm Pictorial Journal. Pull up a glass of rum and enjoy a little tropication!

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No wonder it’s called “Palm” Island…(The Grenadines)

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Gorgeous palms on Saltwhistle Bay Beach, Mayreau.

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Shoal Bay, Anguilla. This one gets extra points for the hammock :)

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Palm Tree Tire Swing in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

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O.K, these are palm fronds on a palapa (and a small palm to the right), but we’re gonna count it anyway because it’s just super fun to look at and remember. Extra points for the rum punch at Guys Driftwood Boat Bar in St. Maarten.

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Hard to believe there could be palm trees on a manmade conch shell island off of Union Island in the Grenadines, but as you can see, there certainly are palms on Happy Island!

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Lovely palms and boats at Smathers Beach, Key West.

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Gorgeous palm sunset on Kauai

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Cool leaning palm at Bolongo Bay, St. Thomas

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Amazing palms and scenery of Tobago Cays, The Grenadines

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The palms burned (cinematically – thank goodness) on Petit Tabac in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

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The perfect twin palms of Maho Bay, St. John

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A palm tree shadow at the gorgeous Magens Bay Beach, St. Thomas

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View of the palms at Spring Bay, Virgin Gorda from the crystal clear blue water

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A palm and a beautiful beach, what more do you need on Prickly Pear Cays, Anguilla?

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A palm and a view at Smuggler’s Cove, Tortola

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And I guess it wouldn’t hurt to end up with a palm (or two) and a Painkiller (or two) on White Bay, Jost Van Dyke in front of the Soggy Dollar Bar…would it?


To see more posts on these and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

 

Copyright©Rum Therapy Beaches, Bars & More, Tropical Travel Guide, 2013
Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC

Helicopter Ride in Kauai

I’d never even been on a helicopter before and as I’ve mentioned before, have a bit of a fear, well, of falling, so I was pretty impressed that the other half of our team was able to talk me into not only a helicopter ride over Kauai, but a DOORLESS helicopter ride. After all, (he said), with no doors to block the view, this would be THE BEST way to get photos of Na Pali. Don’t tell him I said so, but, he was right…

We booked a 90 minute morning ride which took off from Lihu’e Airport.

Helicopter 1 (600)

We each had the back seat with a totally unobstructed view. I was a bit nervous until our pilot strapped us in – tightly – with large straps over the shoulders. We were each given a headset to hear the pilot and  to ask questions. And then we took off.

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Heading south towards Nawiliwili, we got an excellent view of the harbor where the cruise ships dock.

Helicopter 2 (600)
Then turning west, we headed into the ultra lush and green mid-section where we were treated to one spectacular waterfall view after another…

Helicopter 10 (600)
And could see why so many films, such as Jurassic Park had chosen Kauai to film scenes in their movies.

Helicopter 9 (600)
We soon came upon Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.
Note the small hang glider below us…

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Helicopter 4 (600)
And suddenly popped out on the rugged and colorful Na Pali Coast.

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Nearly at visual sensory capacity, we were then flown into the center of an extinct volcano which was eerie and beautiful at the same time…

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More stunning scenery of the North Shore on the way back to the airport.

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This was an experience we will not soon forget.

 

To see more posts on Kauai and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory


copyright©Rum Therapy Beaches, Bars & More, Tropical Travel Guide, 2013
Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC

Pineapple & Rum Sorbet

Pineapple Rum Sorbet – perfect treat for the warm and lazy days of summer! We used an ice cream maker to mix our batch up, but if you don’t have one, just put the mix in a freezer safe container, freeze overnight, then re-mix in the blender and freeze a little longer. Easy and delicious!

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Pineapple Rum Sorbet

Pineapple & Rum Sorbet
(makes 4-6 servings)

1/4 c. gold rum
1 c. water
1 c. sugar
1 fresh, ripe pineapple

Peel and core the pineapple. Cut into chunks and place in a blender. Pour the rum in the blender. Heat water and sugar on the stove until the sugar melts. Cool, then add to the blender. Blend all ingredients just slightly – it’s ok to have small chunks of pineapple (in fact, we prefer it!) Using an ice cream maker (or the method above) freeze the mix. Garnish with pineapple and enjoy.

 

For more recipes, visit our Rum Recipe Picture Directory
or Rum Recipes by Category


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Hawksnest Bay, St. John

It’s hard to pick a favorite beach on St. John – there are just so many gorgeous ones. There’s one after another on St. John’s north shore and one of the closer ones to Cruz Bay is Hawksnest Bay.

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Hawksnest is easy to get to, has parking close to the beach, has good amenities such as BBQ grills, restrooms and covered pavilions, and because of these conveniences – can get busy. What we like the most about Hawksnest is that it’s a great place to have a picnic, is great for swimming and snorkeling (unless there’s a north swell) and has some terrific shady areas and a little privacy in and amongst the lush foliage.

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Walk along the beach to the west then on a trail through the woods next to the water to get to Little Hawksnest Beach for a little more seclusion, or drive .3 miles past the Hawksnest Beach parking lot to park and enter Gibney Beach, which is actually part of Hawksnest Bay. Gibney has very limited parking but is beautiful and usually quite secluded.

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Looking towards Little Hawksnest Beach

Hawksnest 7 (600)
View of Gibney Beach

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The clear water makes for great snorkeling in areas

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One of the paths to Hawksnest Beach

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Find Hawksnest Bay on our ST. JOHN MAP


To see more posts on St. John and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

 

copyright©Rum Therapy Beaches, Bars & More, Tropical Travel Guide, 2013
Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC

Nature Boy Beach Bar, Tortola

We stumbled by Nature Boy Beach Bar by accident a few years ago while walking Long Bay Beach in Tortola.Unfortunately the bar was closed at the time and so on our recent visit to Tortola we decided to stop by once again.

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The bar itself is small and has been assembled with materials found on the beach and land, but it’s located on stunning Long Bay Beach, just about where the road takes a left for Smuggler’s Cove.

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Secluded and quiet, Nature Boy Beach Bar is a great place to relax, take in the scenery and enjoy a cold beverage.

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Chat with Winston, aka Nature Boy, about Long Bay and the surrounding areas history. He eagerly shares his story about how he has built his own place in the sun – the bar and his home behind it.

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If you’re in the area, or headed past it on the way to Smuggler’s Cove, be sure to stop in to say hi to Winston, enjoy a cold beer or Rum Punch and checkout the amazing scenery. As Winston says, it’s “Natures Little Secret”…

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To see more posts on Tortola and other islands, check out our Island Blog Directory

All information is correct to our knowledge at the time of writing, but be sure to verify current information before your visit.
Pictures and other content may not be re-used without written consent from Rum Therapy, LLC