Planning vacations because of tortoises..

Status
Not open for further replies.

gummybearpoop

Active Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
760
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Has anyone planned vacations because they wanted to see a specific tortoise species in its natural habitat?

I plan to go to Madagascar, Galapagos, & South Africa partly or mostly because of the tortoises. Also, I would like to plan a trip to Mexico to see some Bolson Tortoises. When I go to Spain, Italy, & France, I plan to spend a few hours to look for some Hermanni... but not in the same vein as spending lots of time looking for tortoises in Madagascar, South Africa, & the Galapagos. Good thing my fiance' wants to do things in these countries as well. But of course this is over the next decade or so.

Has anyone or does anyone made vacation plans to see tortoises in their natural habitat?
 

GBtortoises

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
3,618
Location (City and/or State)
The Catskill Mountains of New York State
I dream of vacations planned around tortoise spotting in the wild! But alas, work & part time business commitments and three kids (two in college) currently prevent it from happening. Being a Mediterranean tortoise guy and especially a Hermann's guy, my first would be what your plans are-to search for Western Hermann's in their natural habitat in southern Europe. Next would be Dalmatians, Easterns and then Marginateds. Then I think the absolute ultimate tortoise vacation would be Madagascar! Not only is the island full of amazing tortoise species but other unique reptiles and other wildlife also.

Many years ago I was actually in Texas tortoise country with a fellow herper. It was awesome finding tortoises hiding under the brush in the wild. Definitely an exciting feeling. It was a dual purpose vacation planned to see some old friends and for tortoise spotting.
 

Laura

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2007
Messages
7,502
Location (City and/or State)
Foothills above Sacramento CA
I stopped at Yvonnes place a few years ago.. it was planned and I saw her tortoises.. does that count? :)
 

Cfr200

Active Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
233
Location (City and/or State)
Springfield, Mo
A few years ago I got to go to Madagascar, Seychelles and South Africa, but I did not have a lot of time to spend looking around. I was in the military and we were only in port for a few days each place. I would like to go back and really get to look around. I did get to see a few tortoises when I was in the Seychelles and got to go to the Montagne d'Ambre National Park in Madagascar. The park was interesting I saw some lemurs and plenty of chameleons, but no tortoises.
I will go back one day and take my time to look around a little more.
 

PeanutbuttER

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
863
Location (City and/or State)
Utah
Laura said:
I stopped at Yvonnes place a few years ago.. it was planned and I saw her tortoises.. does that count? :)

This may sound nerdy, but that would count as a dream vacation for me too :)
 

Nofx

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
Messages
60
Location (City and/or State)
Lucija, Slovenia
I have a 1-2h drive down by the coast, and i can find the hermanni hercegovinensis. :p

2 years ago i went to Greece - Zakynthos and saw the Caretta Caretta hatchlings..That.... was .....something!
And also with a lot of luck i saw a Golden Greek on some guys farm ( on mainland )
Then, the same year i went to Sardinia - La Maddalena, there some kids were playing with some bunch of the Marginated, they were pretending that the tortoises were some kind of gi Joes. One of the tortoises was dead, the others were mostly ok. I got my hands on the torts and let them free a few miles away from no civilization.

This September i went to Tunisia, done the backpacking tour of it, there I saw 3 BIG Tunisian Spur-thighed Tortoise ( wiki ) that some ugly, ugly....ugly! guy was selling for like..5 dollars. And! also I had the luck to get my hands on, in the middle of the desert, on the most peaceful Uromastyx ever! I saw him standing there on the rock, i grabbed him. And he was just standing in the middle of my hand..just watching us. Nice little guy. Here is a pic of him, just click on the pic to enlarge.


One thing is nice about living in the Mediterranean, everything is near!

The 2011 summer im thinking that i will go to Madagascar + Aldabra islands...Or to India. Torts torts torts! :D
 

PeanutbuttER

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
863
Location (City and/or State)
Utah
That's pretty cool NOFX. I didn't realize you were in slovenia. I used to live in Hungary for a couple years. Wish I'd have had time while I was there to take more vacations like that.
 

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
If I had unlimited amounts of money I would go all over the world just to see different types of tortoises.

In reality though I just can't justify the expense with a family to support. Mine are pretty cool to look at anyway, or maybe we could stop by your place and check out those crazy radiateds Norman! :)
 

moswen

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
903
when i went to greece i'm not going to lie i was searching EVERYWHERE for a tortoise... all those open fields and cacti everywhere... the only one i saw was on the grounds of the acropolis and it was dead with flies starting to find it. it must have died early that morning... it was really sad. i must confess i've still never found out what type it was, it was all black, even the head and feet, and about the size of an adult RF.
 

PeanutbuttER

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
863
Location (City and/or State)
Utah
I'd really like to go see wild RFs. It would be so awesome! Everyone I've talked to who's lived away from the big cities in RF territory says that there's plenty of 'em just roaming around.
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,695
Location (City and/or State)
CA
I went to hawaai's north shore with my turtle club to go see the only basking sea turtles.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,390
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
My tortoise partner does this. This year he gave up his plans to go to South Africa and look at wild tortoises in order to come help me with my pond.
 

onarock

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
1,190
Location (City and/or State)
Hawaii
Nofx thats a great story. I would love to go on a tortcation.
 

JourneyTort

Member
10 Year Member!
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
139
Location (City and/or State)
Ontario, Canada
I usually plan my vacation around my other passion which is dog sports and dog competitions and now we try and plan vacation to see torts as well. Canada does not have near as many torts as in the US and since most of my dog competitions are in the States I am trying to find Reptile Expos or Zoos or tort enthusiasts that we can visit to see other species that we just would not see in Canada. To go see torts in their natural habitat would be a dream especially for the big torts and radiated and also Indian Stars, maybe one day :)
 

datsunissan28

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2010
Messages
26
Location (City and/or State)
Ohio
My girlfriend and I don't specifically plan our vacations around turtles and tortoises, but if we can fit them in we can.

The resort we stayed at in Punta Cana, Domincan Rupublic had a large open air pond in the center with a ton of water turtles, mostly a lot of red ear sliders. We were allowed to feed them treats of grapes and bananas which they loved.

100_1192.jpg
100_1192-1.jpg
100_1196.jpg
100_1219.jpg
100_1217.jpg
100_1199.jpg
100_1213.jpg
100_1212.jpg


Shortly after that we bought our first turtles and then later the two Russian tortoises



Last May we went to Cancun and spent a day on Isla Mujeres a small island nearby. We specifically went for the sea turtle rescue there.

They had several large round concrete pools around twenty feet in diameter holding three or four one to two foot sea turtles

100_2426.jpg
100_2433.jpg
100_2440.jpg
100_2443.jpg
100_2445.jpg
100_2447.jpg
100_2449.jpg
100_2470.jpg


They also had a section of shore sectioned off for the bigger guys

100_2456.jpg
100_2460.jpg
100_2461.jpg
100_2464.jpg
100_2466.jpg
100_2466.jpg
100_2474.jpg


Then indoors that had an incubating area you could not see and a pools for smaller sea turtles and an albino sea turtle by itself

100_2488.jpg
100_2489.jpg


Also they took in all the foreign semi aqutic and land turtles that were confiscated, abandoned, etc. It was way overcrowded though

100_2415.jpg
100_2416.jpg
100_2419.jpg
 

daylalee

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
12
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Not sure if this counts, But.... I went to the turtle farm in the Cayman Islands while on a cruise. It was cool getting to see the turtles but I felt sorry for them because of the cramped living arrangements. I also swam with sting rays and that was almost as cool as the turtles.
 

SILVERSTAR

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
451
Location (City and/or State)
sacramento california
sumtimes i feel like going back to missouri for box turtle cuz where live now i never see em i miss stopping on back roads and checkn em out even though there not that exotic or anything.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top