Cheapflights.ca Celebrates the Year of the Goat

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - Feb 11, 2015) - What do Julia Roberts, Barbara Walters, Thomas Edison, Mick Jagger, Robert De Niro, Muhammad Ali and Pierre Trudeau have in common? Besides success and fame, they were all born in a Year of the Goat (or Sheep) under the Chinese lunar calendar. When we welcome the Chinese New Year this February 19^th, we will once again enter the Year of the Goat, the eighth sign of the 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac. In honour of this New Year and all those born under the sign of the goat, the travel experts at Cheapflights.ca, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, pay tribute with their Top 10 Goat-tastic Places around the World.

Throw the goat for these five "must-goat-to" destinations in the U.S. to make our list:

• Goat Island, New York, United States - Goat Island lies between Bridal Veil Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls. It gets its name from a herd of goats owned by John Stedman, an early pioneer. In 1778, he moved them to the island to protect them from wolves. Sadly, the harsh winter of 1778 was a mightier predator and all but one of the animals perished. You don't need a boat to get to this island; two bridges connect Goat Island to the mainland. Goat Island offers visitors the most spectacular views of the Falls. There's a trolley that trundles around the island and a walking trail that encircles it. The Cave of the Winds is located here, too. An elevator takes sightseers down to the base of the American Falls. From redwood decks and platforms (removed each autumn and replaced each spring), visitors can walk right up to the base of the Bridal Veil Falls.
  
  
• Goat Lake, Seattle, Washington, United States - Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest stretches for more than 230 kilometres from the Canadian border to the northern edge of Mount Rainier National Park. Goat Lake, located at the Mountain Loop Highway, is a see-it-before-you-die wonderland of green-blue waters, snow-clad peaks and rushing waterfalls. It's a 16-kilometre hike round-trip and an easy day trip from Seattle. Switchback up through the dark and verdant woods. When you hear the rushing of McIntosh Falls, you'll know almost at the top. The ethereal waters will greet you when you emerge from the forest. There are some camping spots here, but they fill up quickly during the summer months so an early start is recommended.
  
  
• Goat Rock State Beach, California, United States - Goat Rock Beach is a sandy beach in northwestern California. It's dominated by Goat Rock, a huge sea stack with a flat, grassy top. It takes its name from the goatherds who used the grassy top of the rock to graze goats in the 20th century. Only goats were sure-footed enough to scale the steep sides of the rock. The beach is popular, especially in mid-summer, with beachcombers, waders, surfers and climbers. It's also a resting ground for sea otters, elephant seals, sea lions and harbour seals who pup between March and August.
  
  
• Gotham, AKA New York, United States - Goats might not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think about New York, but the city has a long association with the animal. In the late 1930s, when Bill Finger was thinking about changing Batman's hometown from New York City to a fictional one, he ran through a few options. Civic City, Capital City and Coast City were some of the suggestions. Then he looked through the New York City phone book and saw the name Gotham Jewelers. Gotham was a well-known nickname for New York City as far back as the 19th century. When Washington Irving in 1807 lampooned New York culture and politics, he took the name Gotham from the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, England. That was a place inhabited by fools. Derived from Old English, Gotham means a "homestead where goats are kept". Batman buffs will know that The Joker (in Detective Comics #880) cites this, telling Batman that the word means "a safe place for goats".
  
  
• Goat Island, Hawaii, United States - Goats were not known on the Hawaiian islands before Captain Cook sailed by in the 18th century. He unleashed goats on the islands in 1778 while Captain Vancouver released some more in 1792-1793. They're now found in lava fields, by the side of the road, living in the most hostile terrain, eating whatever they find. Mokuauia or Goat Island is a goat-shaped islet off the northeast coast of Oahu. It's an uninhabited bird sanctuary that you don't need a boat to visit. At low tide you can walk there and, at higher tide, it's a quick swim. The centre of Goat Island is a nature preserve for mating and egg-laying sea birds, but the beach is open access. If you're walking, wear some shoes or paddle out using a body board or surfboard.
  
  

To round out our list of goat-ly destinations apt for this New Year, we have Goat Island Marine Reserve, New Zealand; Essaouira, Morocco; Guangzhou, China; Goat Fell, the Isle of Arran, Scotland; and Poznan, Poland. Read the details on these and see Cheapflights.ca's complete Top 10 Goat-tastic Places around the World at www.cheapflights.ca/news/chinese-new-year-top-10-goat-tastic-places-around-the-world.

About Cheapflights.ca, part of the Momondo Group
Momondo Group is an online travel media and technology company that is driven by the belief that an open world is a better world. The group now serves travel search and inspiration to over 17.5 million visitors a month -- plus 7 million travel newsletter subscribers -- via its Cheapflights (www.cheapflights.ca) and momondo (www.momondo.com) brands.

Skygate began the sourcing of complex air-travel data in 1992, while Cheapflights pioneered the online comparison of flight deals for users in 1996 and momondo launched meta-search in the Nordic countries in 2006.

The Group has offices in London, Copenhagen and Boston with a consumer base across more than 30 core international markets but users all over the world.

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