Hau'oli City

 

 There are only a few places on Melemele Island to explore, and Hau'oli City is the only city on the isle. That being said there is plenty of great tourist spots to check out in this coastal city. The city is divided into three sections; the shopping district, the marina, and the beachfront. There isn't much noteworthy on the beachfront, but is still a nice aesthetic of the city. The same can be said about the marina as it only has the purpose to travel between the isles.
   
                   

The shopping district is where all the action is. Lets start with the Alola Tourist Bureau. There are a bunch of little goodies lined up against the wall that I really wish I could buy and plenty of posters of featuring the Alola region. Talking to some of the locals can give you suggestions on places to visit on the island. This is also the location of the local loto giving you a chance to win prizes I just won a cold refreshing Moomoo Milk. 

Outside the tourist bureau is one of the many photo spots in Alola where you can take pics of wild Pokemon. I got a few nice shots of a Dunsparce. 

         The next stop on the city tour are the salon and apparel shop. These two are located right beside each other making it an easy stop get your custom look early on in your Alola journey.

Other places in the city include the local malasada shop, police station, photo club, and city hall. It's an easy go to location just to kick back , do some shopping, and relax.  I think I'll save the rest of the city for the next post. 

Apologies for hiatus

    Greetings trainers. It's been awhile since my last post. When fall classes started in 2014 I didn't have time to write any new posts and eventually abandoned & forgot about this little project of mine. I had planned to continue it when the 3rd instalment of Kalos was released, but Gen  6 ended with ORAS. There are still many places in Kalos I want to review and many in my home region Hoenn as well. However those will be slow to come out as I've decided to begin reviewing Alola. I only planned on doing 2 or 3 posts a month when I started this thing, but I may up it to 4.

     I will mostly be focusing on the current region of Alola but try to have one or two reviews on other regions and famous trainers. In all honesty I forgot that this blog even existed until I received an email notification that someone had left a comment on one of my posts. Thank you stranger for reminding me I had made this thing. Sadly that is the only comment and view I think this blog has received in a long time. I don't expect many to see this post to know I will be starting new posts by the end of the month. However for those who do view my blog thank you for stopping by and if you like what you read please feel free to share it. I would also love to read comments on my posts about your thoughts on the locations I review and hear suggestions on what to review next. Although expect Alola posts to be in order of the game since it's easier to follow. Also I may post pokemon themed products as well especially those related to travel and in game clothing. None of which are sponsored but shared because I'm sure there are others that would love to buy some of their fav in game clothes and travel goodies. See you guys in Alola!

                                                                                                  Safe travels trainers,
                                                                                                     Pokemon Tourist Zack

Product info found at http://pokeshopper.com/speciallines/travelgoods.html

Famous Trainer Diantha and Cafe Soleil

 Kalos champion, famous actress, and a Grand Duchess at the Battle Chateau. Diantha is one of my favorite champions. Her style her, her power, and an overall charming and friendly presence that you cant help but love.

A one the most interesting things about Diantha is probably her real life connections and references. Although it's not uncommon for character to be based on real life people there's something about Diantha that catches peoples eye. Fans have mostly seen her as references to Princess Diana and Audrey Hepburn. Personally I like the Audrey view point cause she is one of my all time fav actresses. If she's in it I'll watch it.

Now Breakfast at Tiffany's  is one of my favorite movies and to see Diantha recreate a scene form the movie in the anime was just awesome. It made me feel all giddy inside because I was able to pick up on the references. Not to mention other movie reference as well that you guys can check out for you self in the episode below, But I'll go ahead and show you.

Diantha is also the first champion to use mega evolution and will hopefully be setting a trend for future generations. 

One of her movie posters can even be seen in Lumiose City along with other advertisements. But now on to the cafe. Cafe Soleil isn't much different than the other cafes around Lumiose City except it has one major thing going for it. Can you guess? That's right it's the hang out spot for Diantha. 

                                   

Now how about the episode featuring Diantha, here it is so enjoy. 

Famous Trainer Viola and The Santalune Gym

       Viola is the  Gym Leader of the Santalune Gym and specializes in bug type Pokemon with her meadow pattern Vivillon being her star Pokemon. Now I'm not really a buy type person but seeing this girl use one of my favorite bug types as her signature Pokemon was pretty awesome, but then again she is a pretty awesome person and is described as, "The camerawoman who never lets a single smile escape her focus."

Besides being a gym leader, Viola is a Marchioness(now Duchess in the anime) at the Battle Chateau, also a professional photographer and has a lot of her work on display when you first walk into the gym. I have recently within the past few months been taking an interest in photography myself so it's nice to have a role model in the Pokemon world for that filed. I only wish that I could actually look at all the photos rather than just the two main large ones in the gallery. 

I love going to galleries and seeing an artist's work. So it's no surprise to say that I loved this gym; partly because of it's style and partly for the gym leader who runs it.  Even if you're not a trainer this gym's gallery is a must visit for any photography or art lover in general. It was a happy day when I visited this gym and got my Bug Badge, and I'm always happy to battle Viola again and again at the Battle Chateau.

Santalune City

   Santalune city may not have much but I found it to have a very friendly and charming atmosphere that makes you want to just stay awhile and enjoy your surroundings. This little city is localed in the southern central Kalos area

This city houses Kalos's trainer school, a boutique that only sales hats and accessories, and one of Kalos's gyms, plus Santalune Forest is just south of the city past Route 3.

 I wish I could say more but sadly Santalune's peaceful charm is about all it has going for it since there isn't much here. I was a bit disappointed with the two out door dinning areas that look like they are some kind of cafes, and when you read the signs there is a drinks menu consisting of: Café au lait, Chocolate Chaud which is French for hot chocolate, and Limonade which is French for lemonade.It would be nice to sit down and try these Santalune Cafe drinks but sadly the menu sign is as close as you can get.

 

Despite it's short commings it's still a great place to just come and relax and admire the the beautiful Roselia fountain in the center of the city. 

In other notes, Santalune City is based on the city of Fontainebleau, home of the nearby Forest of Fontainebleau.

Cafe Classe

Cafe Classe is  located on Vernal Avenue in Lumiose City. It's the place to go for lovers of shopping and fashion. With Gen 6's introduction of trainer customization this cafe is a great place to go to get information on what kinds of clothes are sold in all the various boutiques around Kalos so you can customize your character over and over.

Something else that's great about this cafe is that it's not full of annoying snobs who think fashion is all about looking a certain way or having a specific style. If you talk to some of the people in the cafe they will say some rather kind hearted word to give you a self-esteem boost. That is something I loved  about this place since I struggle with self-esteem on how I look and the clothes I feel I can wear, and with all the awesome clothes to be found in Kalos I envy my character in the game for being able to wear them and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Thanks to this I have been pushing my comfort zone with what type of clothes and actually started looking for real world replicas of the clothes in the games to expand my wardrobe with some Pokemon related apparel although it's not cheap lol.