For our fifth year anniversary I decided to surprise my wife with a trip to a place I had read about years before, but never made time to visit, called Ponta Dos Ganchos Hotel on the Emerald Coast of my native Brazil.  The question was:  what could I buy for my wife as a gift that would be easy to pack and make her deliriously happy at the same time? She had spent many years as a nature guide in Costa Rica before we met, and she really missed seeing the wildlife and jungles. A friend of ours who had recently returned from a luxury tenting African Safari gave me the answer.  Binoculars.

She recommended Swarovski – a brand I never would have thought of even looking at.  My wife in her trekking days would always have a pair of binoculars on her.  Her current favorite was a Nikon 8 x 42 Monarch ATB, but they were showing some wear and tear, and I thought this would buy me some serious brownie points!

As I had never even heard of Swarovski binoculars before, I did some research to find out why my friend thought they were so amazing.  After completing my research, I felt pretty comfortable with the decision to follow her advice.  I purchased the Swarovski 10 x 42 EL Swaro Vision Binoculars for $2,500.00.

The basis for the quality of the Swarovski binoculars are that they have “field flattener lenses”, which allow razor sharp vision right to the edge of the viewfinder.  They also utilize “HD optics”, where fluoride is combined with the HD glass, making for very accurate depiction of true color, and as we see on HD television, it increases contrast and resolution.

The other bonus of these binoculars is that they have what is called “Long Eye Relief”, a nice option for those of us who wear eyeglasses.  They have made eyecups to fit three different settings for glass wearers.

I gave my wife her gift on the romantic private island at Ponta Dos Ganchos, after enjoying a catered dinner for two by candlelight (see my Hotel Review if desired) .  She could not wait to try them out the next day on a trail hike to try and find some Toucans and other native Brazilian birds.

True to form, she had brought her Nikon binoculars along (I didn’t dissuade her from bringing them as I didn’t want her to become suspicious). We compared them with her Nikon from our terrace, looking out over the emerald hills and fishing villages below.  The difference in quality was astonishing to both of us.

Objects are so clear it is hard to believe you are looking at something far away.  The fact that they are so light and that they have a stabilizer also helps greatly.  The other part we really like is the focusing wheel.  With the Nikon, whenever I would try to use the focus wheel I would sort of lose my grip on the binoculars and it would slide away or slip as I tried to focus.  It was irritating, and when you are trying to catch sight of something like a rare bird, a one second slip can make a difference between seeing the bird or just the quivering branch it was sitting on!  Smooth is good with binoculars.

I thought it was really convenient that it only took a couple of turns of the wheel to bring it from very far away to a close focus of 1.5 meters.  You can actually observe butterflies and other insects really well – and because the focusing mechanism is so precise I actually didn’t have to wear my glasses when I was using them –they can adjust to different vision ability in each eye!

I can’t say how pleased I am with my purchase, and with how delighted my wife was with her gift.  The only problem now is that everything that moves in our neighborhood is now an excuse for my wife to use her new binoculars!

• SWAROTOP anti-reflective coatings, SWARODUR scratch-resistant coatings and SWAROBRIGHT mirror prism coatings have been enhanced to improve brightness and color reproduction, especially at dusk.
• SWAROCLEAN coatings are applied in a special process that affects the surface energy of the external objective and ocular lenses so dirt, water marks, tree resin, etc. can be removed effortlessly.
• Field of view: 336 ft @ 1000 yards
• Close focus: 4.9 feet
• Redesigned, smooth and tolerance-free focus mechanism – 1 turn to go from infinity to 10 ft.  Another full turn to go from 10 ft. to 4.9 ft.  This new focusing mechanism allows a correction of vision of at least 6 diopters, in order to compensate for near- or farsightedness.
• New larger ocular lenses improve resolution.
• Improved objective cover design.
• Rubber armoring on the inside portion of each barrel to enhance grip.
• Rugged, lightweight magnesium housing.

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About Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson is Co-Founder of New Jetsetters with over 20 years experience writing about luxury travel. You might say Steve was “born” with the travel bug. Born in the western foothills of the legendary Black Forest in Germany, he spent the first 12 years of his life tagging along behind his parents as they explored Europe. His first memories are of exploring German castles, and his early childhood education consisted of navigating the Austrian Alps, and mastering equestrian skills at the small sea-side town of Maspalomas, along the Spanish coast. Find out more about Steve below:

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