ShareTrip: Share Your Trip in 3 Minutes

Ever had one of those incredible vacays where you came home after and all you wanted to do was yap your face off about it, but everyone's eyes just glazed over and started to avoid you like the plague? Or have you ever booted up iPhoto at a dinner party and shouted, "check out my holiday pics" to a suddenly empty room? Yeah. I have. But now there's a place to share your trips with people who actually want to know! Sharetrip.com allows you to post your photos, videos and trips and get feedback, all for free and all in minutes.

sharetrip.com, share trip, trip, travel, vacation, holiday

Get Your Passport Photo Done Online

idphoto4you.com lets you create your own passport photo online free. The site has built-in standards for 63 countries and automatic face detection for your uploaded photos. This is an awesome idea. A couple of years ago while living in Mexico, I lost my passport and my wallet. Getting a passport from the Canadian Government can be pretty painful when you're in Canada, let alone another country. One of the hardest parts was getting the passport photo right, with all the Canadian passport specs, while communicating in a language I wasn't yet good at. Not to mention the fact that the place the Canadian Consulate recommended for taking passport photos was in Cancun and I was living in Playa Del Carmen. That's an hour bus ride each way just for a couple of little photos. Irritating. This site would have saved me a lot of time and headache.

passport, passport photos, travel, id photos, new site, website

Ruba: Discover Your Next Perfect Trip

Ruba.com is a travel site with a touch of social networking, using crowdsourcing to collect reviews and amazing photos of tours, restaurants, sports events, camping, hotels and a lot more. It is an absolutely stunning web site and an unbelievably easy-to-use tool for travelers. Definitely worth bookmarking.

Also, follow Ruba.com on Tiwtter: @rubatravel

ruba.com, new site, website, travel, tours, travelers, photographs, hotels, restaurants, guide

Theme Park Maps

I'm in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico for the holidays right now, but for those of you who have decided to head to a theme park for your festivities, here's a totally "d'oh!" web site, as in "d'oh, I should have thought of that!". Theme Park Maps is just that, a database of maps of theme parks.

theme park, amusement park, maps, travel, holiday

Australia to Relax Bans on Objects in Flight

Australia makes the first step to normalcy in the air:

Australia's aviation authority has announced a return to sanity, allowing nail files, umbrellas and metal cutlery on its planes, saying that it will focus instead on "real risks."

The changes will see passengers again allowed to carry some sharp implements, such as nail files and clippers, umbrellas, crochet and knitting needles on board aircraft from July next year.

Metal cutlery will return to return to cabin meals and airport restaurants following Government recognition that security arrangements must be targeted at 'real risks'.

Read the Rest: Australian fliers will get their cutlery and knitting needles back Boing Boing

flight, fly, travel, air travel, australia, avaiation authority, banned

A Year of Free Travel From JetBlue

Here's a chance to in a year of free travel from JetBlue:

being a fan of the brand on Facebook could net you either free round-trip tickets, comped airfare and a vacation for you and three friends for five days and four nights, or even unlimited free travel on JetBlue for a year.

Social Media Consulting » Excellent use of social media by JetBlue

Technorati Tags: jetblue, travel, flight, contest, sweepstakes, win, free travel

What Kijubi Doing?

Great startup review from Mashable's Spark of Genius series:

Name: Kijubi

Quick Pitch: Kijubi is a new type of travel planning site that helps you discover “What Kijubi Doing” on your next vacation.

Genius Idea: Thanks to the Internet, planning trips online has become much, much easier. Not only can you book your flight, hotel and car rentals online, you can compare prices and features.

The one aspect of trip planning that hasn’t come completely online though is that of local activities. Plenty of places have online sites, but coagulating that information during the planning stages of your trip still isn’t as easy as it could be. That’s what Kijubi aims to do — help you find and plan the stuff you want to while you are on vacation.

Right now, Kijubi covers California, Florida and Nevada and catalogs more than 80 different types of activities from snorkeling, to water-skiing, to hot-air ballooning (if you want to have a “Balloon Boy” adventure of your own — you know, minus the huge media hoax).

You can search by price, whether or not children are allowed (or encouraged), and check for user reviews and booking coupons.

Read the rest: Kijubi Helps Find “What Could You Be Doing” on Vacation

Technorati Tags: kijubi, startup, mashable, web site, travel, trip, holiday

Skyscanner - Find Cheap Flights

Skyscanner is a really great site to search for flights on. The speed of the search is amazing and it returns your results to you in a two-paned window, one for your departure flight and one for your return:

It also offers a myriad of helpful filters displayed in a very unique way. I absolutely love searching for flights with Skyscanner.

Technorati Tags: skyscanner, cheap flights, flight search, travel, flights, fly, booking

Roomatlas

Roomatlas Makes Finding Hotels a Breeze

Name: Roomatlas

Quick Pitch: RoomAtlas simplifies hotel booking, showing live availability, pricing, reviews, landmarks and pictures on a rich interactive map.

Genius Idea: Remember when mashups were all the rage? Lately, they’re rarely mentioned, but that doesn’t mean a good mashup can’t be a fantastic service, even one that can replace several others.

A mashup called Roomatlas ended up in our inbox, with a fairly simple description: it combines Google Maps (Google Maps) with Expedia’s database of hotels and TripAdvisor’s reviews. Add to that the fact that RoomAtlas reduces the number of steps you need to take to get the information you need, and you get a great, simple way to find and book hotels.

Technorati Tags: roomatlas, travel, hotel, stay, booking

Stay Like a Rodent in French Hamster Hotel

A hamster-themed hotel in Nantes, France, offers rooms and layouts inspired by hamster-cages. Rooms have hamster wheels, the food is all grains and seeds, the water comes out of hamster bottles, etc.

Hamster Hotel lets you live like a rodent - Boing Boing

Technorati Tags: hamster, rodent, hotel, france, travel

Fido Factor

Mashable has written up a profile of the new web site fidofactor.com which allows you to find dog friendly locations in the city you're in. It includes restaurants, bars, parks, hotels, attractions and a lot more. This can make your next trip with Fido a lot easier.

Name: Fido Factor

Quick Pitch: Fido Factor is a dog-specific local search and review site and iPhone app built for dog owners. It’s a “Yelp (Yelp) for dogs.”

Genius Idea: We dog owners love our canines: it’s really that simple. We raise them, feed them, play with them, sleep with them, and fall in love with them. We want to take them almost everywhere we go too, but that’s where you start running into problems.

The problem is also simple: there aren’t a lot of places where you can take your dog. It’s only appropriate to bring your pup to certain restaurants, parks, and hotels, but it’s practically impossible to know which places are OK for your loyal companion.

Read the rest here: Fido Factor Finds Dog-Friendly Places in Your City

Technorati Tags: dogs, pets, animals, travel, hotels, restraunts, bars, attractions

routeRANK

routeRANK is a handy new tool for travelers in Europe that searches not just flight information, but public transit and road network to find you the fastest and cheapest route to where you are going. You can book through the site and it also has the capability of telling you which route is the most environmentally friendly. Totally brilliant, go check it out: http://www.routerank.com/

Technorati Tags: routerank, startups, web apps, travel, europe, booking engine, trip, route

The Marshall Islands

Bob in his infinite wisdom and benevolence has allowed me to post on this site. So welcome to my first entry.

I’m going to talk a little bit about the Marshall Islands. When people ask where the Marshall Islands are, I tell them that they’re between Australia and Hawaii – but I might as well say that Denver is between Honolulu and London. When people ask what other countries the Marshall Islands are near, and I tell them that they’re a mere 2500 miles from the Philippines, or, if you prefer, just north of Kiribati (but no one has heard of Kiribati), or east of the Federated States of Micronesia (but no one has heard of the Federated States of Micronesia).

Location aside: the Marshall Islands looks like paradise but is something much more interesting than that. If you want to find a place that feels untouched, you won’t be disappointed here. There are more than 1000 uninhabited islands, most of them smaller than a city block, all of them gorgeous. But the feeling of isolation is in some sense an illusion. The US tested nuclear weapons on a few of the islands in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. (The office of the displaced people of Bikini Atoll now sports a mural saying “One Nuclear Bomb Can Ruin Your Whole Day”, which is probably true.) The Marshall Islands is also one of four sovereign nations which might be uninhabitable within the lifetimes of its citizens due to sea level rise and other consequences of global warming. The people are Christian and have been for more than a hundred years. This is no Lost World – but one of the things that makes the country so intriguing is how the people adapt their Pacific Island culture to these foreign influences.

A great way to experience the Marshall Islands is as a volunteer or temporary worker. The Ministry of Education always needs teachers, and American citizens have the right to live and work in the country with no questions asked. (It’s part of the close relationship between the two countries; Marshall Islanders are surprisingly fond of Americans considering that whole H-bomb episode, and they were one of the countries in Bush’s coalition of the willing.) I went to the Marshall Islands as a WorldTeach volunteer, which offers a wide variety of placements. You might be living in the capital city with DVDs, hot showers, air conditioning, and dial-up internet. You might be living on an outer island with no electricity or running water, where your most frequent contact with the outside world is on a communications radio in a, well, radio shack.

The Marshall Islands is not the place to go for a cheap vacation (round trip airfare from Honolulu will cost you more than $1000). It’s not the place to go for fine dining. And if you’re honest about some of the threats facing the country, it’s not a place to go to forget your problems, either. But it is beautiful, safe, friendly, fascinating, and unique – not to mention untouristed.

Peter Rudiak-Gould is a writer and graduate student in anthropology. His book Surviving Paradise: One Year on a Disappearing Island has recently been published. Learn more at www.peterrg.com.

Airlines that Charge More Fees, Lose More Money

Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn't - Boing Boing

The US airlines that created the largest, most redonkulous and abusive fees this year lost the most money last quarter. Airlines with low or no fees lost the least.

Accountants have rigged the system. They create a stream to track the ancillary revenue from fees and they look like heroes when they can report they earned the airline millions of dollars of "new" revenue. But ask them if they can track the revenue we lose because passengers booked away or chose not to fly and they look at you like you have nine heads...

To celebrate the victory of fees over profit, several airlines used their first-quarter reporting to add still more ancillary revenue initiatives:

+ Delta Air Lines, which lost $693 million in the first quarter and suffered a 15 percent decline in revenue, will now charge you $50 if you check a second bag on an international flight.

+ Alaska Airlines will charge a first-bag fee of $15 on domestic flights.

+ US Airways is raising its checked-bag fees by $5 each if you don't prepay on the Web.

Technorati Tags: travel, airline, fees, flight

TripSay

TripSay Brings Travel Recommendations From People Like You

Every travel destination has its fans – people that say, “You should go!” What if the person that says you should go just loves to sit in a pool and drink all day? (not that that’s a bad thing!)

But, let’s say it’s not your thing. Where can you find travel recommendations from people like you? Sure you could ask your friends, yet their travel experiences will be somewhat limited. What about having a site that matches your travel tastes with other people with similar interests?

tripsay_logoThat’s the niche the Finland-based TripSay is going after. I’d say they’re doing a pretty darn good job of it. I found this site using StumbleUpon, since I seldom travel or look at travel sites. The design intrigued me. It’s clean, kind of Web 2.0 with nice controls and a super intuitive interface.

Technorati Tags: travel, tripsay, social media

Occult New York

Okay, so New York is supposed to be the city of big commerce, literary culture, and high art - no room here for woo-woo spirituality, the odor of patchouli, or anyone who capitalizes words like Light or Truth. Well, actually not. This Sunday, October 11th I'll be conducting a walking tour of occult New York -- and hopefully giving participants a new way of seeing the city: As a once-upon-a-time laboratory for alternative spiritual ideas, which it helped to export to the rest of the world back before there was a New Age. Here are a few of the historic sights - familiar and obscure - we'll be viewing...

• The Lamasery (8th Ave and 47th Street). This is the five-story building that in the 1870s housed the famed salon of the Theosophical Society, whose earliest members included inventor Thomas Edison, Major-General Abner Doubleday, and the mysterious Russian noblewoman (and one-time New Yorker) Madame Blavatsky. This understated apartment building is where Civil War Colonel Henry Steel Olcott claimed to encounter Hidden Masters of wisdom and from which the nascent Theosophical Society launched a new vogue in occult ideas.

• The New York New Church (East 35th street). This beautifully restored Renaissance-revival Swedenborgian church was a wellspring of mystical ideas in America in the mid-nineteenth century, its pulpit presided over by Spiritualist-Swedenborgian minister George Bush - ancestor to the Bush presidential clan. Congregants included Henry James, Sr., and Al-Anon founder Lois Wilson

Read more : Mitch Horowitz on Occult New York - Boing Boing

Technorati Tags: new york, occult, walking tour, tour, travel

11 top tips for buying airfares

Here are some great tips on purchasing airfare and finding great prices on your flights, from MSNBC:

Airfarewatchdog.com has gathered some additional advice that might save you money next time you’re shopping for a plane ride.

Check fares often
Because airfares fluctuate like the stock market, you need to check them every day, or better still several times a day, if you’re serious about saving money. Airlines can update domestic fares three times a day during the week, and once on Saturday and Sunday (international fares tend not to change as often, but can be updated up to 5 times daily). Also, even if the fare itself hasn’t changed, seat availability at the lowest fares can change, so there might be just one seat available at 10 a.m., but the airline will open up more cheap seats later in the day.

Sign up for the airlines’ e-mail feeds and frequent flyer programs
Yes, we know, you already get too much e-mail, but the airlines want to develop a one-on-one relationship with you, so they’ll send you special deals, such as 50 percent off promo codes or two-fers, if you sign up. Airline sites sell much more than airfares these days (hotels, rental cars, credit cards and such), and they will entice you to deal direct rather than use a third party site such as Orbitz. Here are links to U.S. domestic airline sign-up pages and for international sign-ups. If you’re on Twitter, you might also want to follow the airlines’ tweets, which they’re using to promote exclusive Twitter-only deals. We signed up for Virgin America’s frequent flyer program and because we haven’t flown them yet we keep on getting promo code discount offers to give them a try.

Read the rest: 11 top tips for buying airfares - Tips- msnbc.com

Technorati Tags: cheap flights, travel, budget travel, travel tips, flights

AirBnB: Travel Like a Human

AirBnB is a new room search tool that allows you to find a great nightly rate on a room in "1208 cities in 84 countries". They are using the concept of peer-to-peer traveling, meaning regular people will rent their rooms to you rather than hotels, and thus, you find yourself saving a ton of money. Gog check it out!

Technorati Tags: travel, airbnb, rooms for rent, rentals, stay, accommodation

Travel 101: Best End of Summer Destinations

With the summer weather coming to a close at the end of August, many vacation deals can be found. Where are the best places to find these deals? Popular tourist spots offer some splendid last minute deals in effort to fill up rooms as the high summer traffic comes to close. Here are some of the best deals popping up for August:

1. Marco Beach Ocean Resort: "Half-off. Enough said. During the summer, you can score a $339 room for $169 at this 100-suite boutique hotel. You'll find marble showers, spacious vanity tops, and a full kitchen including a refrigerator. Plus, it's right on the beach. 480 South Collier Blvd., Marco Island, FL 34145; 1-800-260-5089." (Southern Living)
2. Las Vegas, NV: 3 nights including airfare. Book by August 10th, 2009. Click here for details.
3. Rome: "Here's a sampling of the offers available through August 31: double rooms for €60 instead of €100 at the Hotel Montreal; tickets for an open-top bus tour at €15 euros instead of €20; the Roma Pass for €21 euros instead of €23, along with 10 percent off all purchases at 12 city-owned museums; and special menus from €5 euros at 30 restaurants." (Budget Travel)
4. Miami, FL: The Westin Colonnade, a AAA 4-Diamond hotel in historic Coral Gables is offering rooms up to half off ($99) for weekend getaways. Book by September 5th, 2009. Click here for details.
5. Myrtle Beach, SC: Deals for non-oceanside rooms as low as $71 per night at the Sea Crest Resort if staying between August 23rd and Sept. 3rd. Click here for details.

Travel 101: Where are the best end of summer vacation deals?

Technorati Tags: travel, summer, end of summer, destinations

Best Ski Resorts

Best Ski Resorts is your guide to the best ski resorts all around the world. Whether you're looking for top quality or value for money, family holiday or singles getaway you'll find it here. Full page reviews on each resort with a special emphasis on family traveling and luxury traveling.

From the best of the best to the cheapest of the cheap and everything in between we have a selection of the top resorts from all corners of the globe that will blow you away.

Technorati Tags: skiing, ski resorts, ski, travel

Asia the Place to be for Eclipse

I realize this isn't really travel news, but I figured I would post this story about the solar eclipse seen over parts of Asia yesterday. If I were traveling in Asia, this is something I would have made sure to see.

Tens of thousands of people — from renowned astrophysicists to farmers — descended on a muddy Indian village yesterday to watch the best solar eclipse of the 21st century from what was predicted to be one of the finest vantage points on the planet.

There was only one problem: when the key moment came, it was cloudy.

The luxuriously thick monsoon cloud cover that had formed over Taregna in northern India overnight obscured any view of the heavens from the moment “first contact” was made between the Moon’s shadow and the Sun to the point of totality — when the Sun was completely obscured and the sky turned black.

Over Taregna, where every rooftop was populated with throngs of spectators as the Sun appeared to set just an hour after rising, the eclipse lasted three minutes and 38 seconds. The descent into darkness was met with whooping and hollering from a massive crowd, who had spent an hour listening to a state-sponsored lecture seeking to dispel the belief that eclipses portend ill fortune.

Two billion people cast into darkness as total eclipse crosses Asia - Times Online

Technorati Tags: asia, eclipse, sun, moon,

Teenager Pulls One Over on the Air Industry

Teenager wings it with a fake airline - Times Online

A TEENAGE boy from Yorkshire succeeded in persuading British aviation executives that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline. Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, the smooth-talking 17-year-old told airport and airline executives that he had a fleet of jets.

Tait, who said he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week.

Other air industry bosses found themselves dealing by telephone or e-mail with Tait’s fellow executives, David Rich and Anita Dash, who proposed to launch a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe.

What no one realised was that Tait, Rich and Dash were all the same person: an aircraft buff with the gift of the gab and an overactive imagination.

Technorati Tags: hoax, airline, travel, airports

Tips for Travelling with your Kids in Mexico

Whether your ideal Mexican vacation is a succession of frosty margaritas delivered to your beach palapa by white-shirted waiters or busing at whim from village to village with your backpacks in the overhead rack, those days are gone once you have children in tow. With a little forethought, though, traveling with kids in Mexico can be a joy for parents and offspring alike. Mexico's reverence for children and its captivating traditions provide a world of fascination for kids, and locals will open up to you like never before, regarding you as a fellow parent rather than a stranger.

Forethought, inevitably, turns to swine flu. Media reports on the waning of the epidemic in Mexico have been just as subdued as reports of the outbreak in Mexico City were overwrought. The fact is, the World Health Organization reports this week that the United States has more than three times as many H1N1 flu cases as Mexico and has now logged more flu-related deaths as well; kids are more at risk of catching the flu in their own schools in September than in Mexico this summer. Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director, said during a summit of health ministers and representatives from more than 50 countries in Cancún last week that "Mexico is safe and a beautifully warm, friendly and inviting destination to visit," and declared her intention to do just that.

10 tips for taking kids to Mexico

Technorati Tags: mexico, kids, travel, fun

Stay in Tenerife, Spain

Benimar apartments Fanabe is a complex located in the south of Tenerife in the Fanabe/del Duque area. It is a well maintained complex with 2 pools and ample space around them for sunbathing. The interiors are modern and well decorated as the complex is quite new. It is suitable for couples and families looking for a peaceful relaxing holiday.

The nearest beaches Playa Fanabe and del Duque are only an 8-10 minute walk. There is also a marvellous shopping centre close by with restaurants and bars, including Biancos, which we highly recommend, an amazing Italian restaurant, which has a sister restaurant in Playa de las Americas.

Read more: http://www.holidays4u.org/benimar.asp

Technorati Tags: Costa Adeje, Tenerife, spain, accommodations, travel

Battle of the Travel Websites

Last month, I outlined my methods for planning frugal trips, from setting up Google News alerts to reading local novels set in my destination. Many readers wrote in with tips of their own, including Web sites I’d never heard of or had yet to try. So I put them to the test.

Up first, the battle of the booking sites. Reader Haskel suggested Mobissimo.com, whose fares, he wrote, “are very often cheaper than those on Kayak. It is a must-stop Web site for me.” Whitney, meanwhile, suggested Vayama.com, writing, “it has negotiated deals for international flights, plus the ease of use of the site is wonderful.” Mark considers SideStep.com “awesome,” while Michael Madison calls Dohop.com “a must-go site.”

Travel Websites: A Click-On Showdown - Frugal Traveler Blog - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: travel, deals, web sites, cheap

Ryanair to charge for using on-board toilets?

Ryanair serious about charging to use toilets in-flight, may charge extra "breathing fee" for inhaling during flight - Boing Boing

Ryanair, the discount airline that operates virtual prison-ships in the sky, is serious about installing pay toilets on its aircraft -- it will cost a pound to go wee. They're also reducing the number of toilets on their cramped, miserable planes. What are the odds that this will improve relations between passengers and the surly, angry flight crew?

The (very) last time I flew Ryanair, they locked us all in a no-toilets departure area for an hour and a half before the flight, then threatened to have me arrested for using the toilet when I boarded, rather than waiting until we were in the air and levelled off (which turned out to be an hour later).

Technorati Tags: ryanair, airline, travel, flight

Economy can Lead to Great Travel Deals

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Need a vacation? Right now during the economic downturn might be the best time to get a good deal.

Southwest Georgia Regional Airport leaders say you should shop around. Many travel agencies, airlines, hotels and tourist attractions are hurting for business and are reducing prices.

Fares to the top ten destinations from Albany are down as much as 10-percent.

"We usually check them once a month just to see how we compare with the cities around us like Valdosta, Dothan, Columbus and also the Atlanta fares. Right now we're finding out that all of us have about the same fares except for Atlanta of course but we're also all competing for the same people because not that many people are flying right now," said Southwest Georgia Regional Airport Director Yvette Aehle.

Some pricey hotels in New York City have lowered prices as much as 50-percent.

Good travel deals during bad economic times - WALB.com News, Weather and Sports for Albany, Valdosta and Thomasville. Leading the way for South Georgia. |

Technorati Tags: economy, travel, deals, flights, hotels

United Offers Reduced Fares to Twitter Users

Like many other types of brands, airlines have embraced Twitter (Twitter reviews) as a medium for communicating with customers. One of them – JetBlue – is actually one of Twitter’s most popular users.

Now, United Airlines is getting in on the action, offering what they call “Twares,” which, you guessed it, are special fares being made exclusively available to followers of the company’s Twitter account. Earlier today, they made the first such offer available – a $63 each-way fare between Washington DC and Chicago.

Read more: Twares: United Airlines Offers Special Fares to Twitter Users

Technorati Tags: twitter, united airlines, airfare, travel deals, travel

Travel to the ends of the earth with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris!

Cheesemans'Ecology Safaris is a family-owned and operated safari company founded in 1980. After decades of teaching zoology and ecology at the college level, Doug Cheeseman now leads trips full time to almost every corner of the earth. He is joined by his wife Gail and his son Ted who are also wildlife experts. Cheesemans' has remained small in pursuit of quality over quantity, and have tailored all their safaris to provide the maximum wildlife and birding experience. Providing the most in-depth wildlife trips has always been a priority, with knowledgeable, friendly, and fun guides. The Cheesemans use their safaris as a way to encourage and support wildlife conservation in the richest ecosystems on the planet.

Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands
The Cheesemans' itinerary is now well known as the longest, most in-depth way to see Antarctica. With more time on shore plus amazing zodiac and ship cruises, you'll see the best this region has to offer. Imagine yourself among a colony of over 100,000 King penguins, or among Rockhopper, Gentoo, Macaroni, Adelie, and Chinstrap penguins and their young. Along the Antarctic peninsula, Humpback and Minke whales make appearances, joined by Leopard seals, Southern Elephant seals, Weddell seals, and Fur seals. See the itinerary here: http://www.cheesemans.com/antarctica_sg_dec09.html


South Georgia
Ted Cheeseman is a South Georgia specialist. One of the most remote islands in the Southern Ocean, This is where Sir Earnest Shackleton landed after his harrowing Antarctic journey, and where he is now buried. In addition to being a place of historical significance, South Georgia is a wildlife paradise. Known as "The jewel of the Southern Ocean", you can observe massive colonies of King penguins, and over four species of Albatross. See the itinerary here: http://www.cheesemans.com/a_south_georgia_oct09.html

Africa
Doug and Gail Cheeseman have been leading trips to Africa since 1978. Their personalized attention, and knowledge of African Wildlife makes each safari especially rich. Experience "The Great Migration" across the Serengeti and all of the amazing wildlife that the Rift Valley has to offer. They offer annual trips to Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, and Rwanda (to see the mountain gorillas). See the itinerary here: http://www.cheesemans.com/africa_tk_feb10.html

Other Cheesemans destinations include: Australia, Alaska, Bhutan, Madagascar, Peru, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Galapagos.
More information is available on their website: www.cheesemans.com
Or call (800) 527-5330, info[at]cheesemans.com

Voyij - Travel Deal Search

Voyij: Best Deals for Travelers With an Open Calendar

Voyij is a new travel site that launches today with a focus on aggregating tens of thousands of current deals and sales on hotels, flights, and vacation packages, for travelers that want to go where the best travel deal takes them (ie. plans not set in stone).

The site flies into the already densely populated online travel space, but with a team of seasoned competitors. In an interesting twist of fate, Voyij’s taking flight courtesy of SideStep alums, who managed to sell their travel search site to Kayak in late 2007, and are now essentially positioning themselves as a new challenger to Kayak.

On the surface, Voyij doesn’t appear to be anything more than a standard travel search site, but behind the scenes, the site is actually serving up some of the most comprehensive listings of discounted travel fare available.

The open-minded traveler just inputs their departing city, enters general travel dates (ie. this weekend, July, after August, etc.), and clicks to explore deals. Initial results are displayed on a summary page, where users can see the lowest price available for flight, hotel, and vacation deals in North America and the Caribbean.

Technorati Tags: voyij, travel deals, discount travel, discount fares, budget travel

The Economic Impact on Travel Trends

Travel Trends: Who's going where ... and how : Travel : Memphis Commercial Appeal

In terms of destinations, 12 percent of those planning a trip said they would stay in their home state, 67 percent will go to another state and 19 percent will travel outside the U.S. The poll also found that 20 percent of those planning a trip this summer will stay closer to home this year due to economic worries, while 23 percent will save money by staying with friends or family instead of a hotel.

Despite the downturn, travel bargains are tempting a small number of people -- mostly upper-income -- to

take bigger and better trips. Seven percent of all Americans and 18 percent of those earning more than $100,000 said they would take more elaborate trips than usual because of lower prices.

Technorati Tags: travel trends, economy, travel, budget travel

International Travel Trends

The future of tourism includes ultra-health-conscious hotels, a surge in river cruises, abundant choices for medical trips—and sky nannies.

Are you looking to get healthy while enjoying a nice getaway? More and more top-flight hotels—ranging from yoga retreat Kamalaya in Thailand to the fitness-oriented Rancho La Puerta in Mexico—are offering wellness expertise alongside the chance to coddle yourself.

Care to take it a step further and actually undergo a medical procedure? The burgeoning field of medical tourism has little or nothing to do with spas and inner peace and everything to do with surgery—albeit surgery in a beautiful destination with hospital accommodations to rival those of a four-star hotel.

Or maybe you’re a traveler who wants to get on the water but has no interest in joining the crowds on behemoth cruise ships. In that case, head for the river, whether you want a modern boat on the Rhine or something more offbeat, like Volga River itineraries on decidedly proletarian Soviet-era ships. One of the newest riverboats is the Mekong Sun, a 28-passenger Laotian-built vessel that follows a formerly inaccessible stretch of the Mekong River from Vientiane, past the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang, and into the Golden Triangle.

Read more: The Hottest New Travel Trends - International Business Times

Technorati Tags: travel trends, international travel, travel, trips, holiday, vacation

Where to go this Summer?

When it comes to choosing an international travel destination for leisure or family vacations this summer, Western Europe continues to dominate the top 10 locations, according to 2009 data by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).

International travel by Americans represents a significant market for the travel destinations selected. Roughly 25 million Americans traveled internationally during the summer of 2008 and spent about $30 billion, according to AAA.

However, projections for 2009 will be lower in both travelers and revenue because leisure travelers who tend to spend more on travel (i.e., international travel) will decline more rapidly this year than those leisure travelers who tend spend less on travel, says Carroll Rheem, director of research for PhoCusWright, Sherman, CT, USA.

So where do Americans plan to travel for the summer in 2009? ASTA identifies them as follows:

1. London, UK
2. Rome, Italy
3. Paris, France
4. Cancun, Mexico
5. Punta Cana, Mexico
6. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
7. Barcelona, Spain
8. Venice, Italy (tied with Barcelona)
9. Florence, Italy
10. Amsterdam, Netherlands (tied with Florence)

Top 10 Popular International Summer Destinations for 2009 / Travel News / Business Travel Blog / Travel Community / Business Travel Destinations - Business Travel - International Travel - Online Travel Guides

Technorati Tags: summer, 2009, travel, destinations

Florida Travel Guide

Our free Florida Tourist Guide offers a comprehensive listing of ways to get the most fun at the cheapest cost from your Florida vacation.

If you are still using a local travel agent to put together a Florida holiday package it may be costing a lot more than you would imagine.

By viewing this Florida Tourist Guide site and making use of the links and money saving advice you could make enormous savings on Theme Park & Attraction Tickets, Florida villas, hotels, car hire, fishing, golf course fees and much more. Why pay a Travel Agent to put together a holiday package when you can do exactly the same thing yourself by making use of our Free Florida Travel Guide and thereby save on commission? A few minutes of viewing a site like this is all it takes to organise your dream vacation.

http://www.hotfloridainfo.com/

Technorati Tags: florida, travel, guide

West Sussex Travel Guide

West Sussex has a thriving tourism industry and rightly so. The county of West Sussex boasts breathtaking natural beauty, miles of coastline, stately homes, country gardens and so much more.

Our free West Sussex Travel Guide outlines things to do in W. Sussex, accomodation, sussex attractions, stately homes to visit and much more.

http://www.westsussexinfo.com/

Technorati Tags: sussex, uk, travel, guide

CKN Holiday Homes

CKN Holiday Homes provide static caravan holidays in West Sands, Selsey, West Sussex. West Sands holiday park forms part of the Bunn Leisure Complex. The holiday park consists of  three sites, Green Lawns, White Horse and of course West Sands, where our private static caravans are situated. West Sands is the liveliest and most popular of the three static caravan parks and provides excellent facilities to suit all the family, whatever their age or fitness level may be. All three caravan parks can be used by our guests and a free courtesy bus is provided by Bunn Leisure although all parks are within easy walking distance

http://www.cknholidayhomes.com/

Technorati Tags: west sands, caravan park, sussex, uk, holiday, travel

Travel Agent Central

Travel Agent Central offers travel agents worldwide the most complete web resource available. Here, agents can access web-exclusive content, inclusive of video, audio, and community-based tools. Additionally, agents can log onto our other products in the portfolio including, Travel Agent University. Travel Agent University has graduated more specialists than any other agent education program and is the industry's largest on-line travel education site.
Travel Agent Magazine is the leading publication serving travel professionals and has been the established leader in the travel trade for almost a century. By keeping in touch with agent needs, and boasting the largest circulation of any trade magazine, Travel Agent has consistently evolved and led the way for readers and marketers alike. Publishing every two weeks in print, supplemented with substantial daily, and weekly online delivery of news, supplier profiles, destination guides, marketing/sales programs, and educational material, Travel Agent's portfolio of print and online products provide agents the tools in ways agents can use to sell more travel, more effectively.

Travel Agent Magazine is the preferred trade publication of the agent community*  and boasts not only a powerful readership but one that's active and engaged.Its readers are responsible for driving nearly half of all agent bookings! Because of its reputation in the industry, Travel Agent Magazine has become the publication of choice for agents nationwide.

Technorati Tags: travel, travel agent

Traveling as a Single Parent

Travelling as a parent can be difficult itself, but as a single parent it is even more difficult. I have found a web site with many tips on single parent travel. The site also offers single parent trips. From their site:

Single Parent Travel was born out of a need by Brenda Elwell in 1983.  As a single mom with a love for travel and two rambunctious children (at the time), Brenda decided to share her knowledge of traveling as a single parent with children with the world.

Today, Single Parent Travel is a multi-faceted organization. First and foremost, we are a resource for advice and opinion. On our site, you can find:

• Travel Tips
• Parenting Tips
• An Informative Blog
• Our Monthly Newsletter
• Our Single Parent Trips

In addition to the web resources we provide, we have a monthly newsletter. There is no cost and this newsletter will keep you up to speed on our current trips, general information, travel and parenting tips, and much much more. We value and respect your privacy and will never sell, rent or loan out any information you have given us in confidence.

Finally, we travel! Yes, we love it! Yes, our kids love it! Why not do it together. Check out the trips section and find a perfect trip for you and your family. We offer weekend getaways as well as longer cruises and tours. From the seemingly mundane to the exotic, Single Parent Travel likely has a perfect trip for you.  And if you are unable to join us on one of our trips, we would be happy to lend a hand planning any of your other trips.

http://www.singleparenttravel.net/

Kitesurfing

I was just down at Tulum and saw some kite surfers. This is truly an amazing sport and looks like a lot of fun. Here is a school that teaches it:

Approved by the British Kite Surfing Association, Mobius offer lessons of the highest quality by experienced, fully qualified and insured instructors, including two female instructors. All lessons include the latest equipment with the best safety features. The use of different beaches to suit changing wind directions for kitesurfing lessons, means our cancellation rate is a lot lower than schools on fixed locations. Our teaching locations are Perranporth (Nr Newquay), Hayle (Nr St Ives), Marazion (Nr Penzance), Pentewan (Nr St Austell) and St Mary's on the Isles of Scilly. Total beginners to very advanced flyers, group bookings, stag and hen parties, armed forces and corporate work away days all welcome.

http://mobiusonline.co.uk/

Technorati Tags: kitesurfing, kite surfing, kite school, mobius, travel

Birding Tours and Bird Photo Tours to Exotic Places

Exotic Birding is a family operated tour company offering specialty bird watching and bird/nature photo tours to Central and South America. Tours are carefully planned and organized to visit the best sites at the best times of year for seeing and photographing birds in each destination country. The company offers competitively priced tours to Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama in Central America, Ecuador, Guyana, and sometimes Brazil in South America, and the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador in some years. Tours are limited to 8 paid participants, making for a more personalized experience and giving everyone a better opportunity to get the most from the tour while avoiding the disruptive impact larger groups have on birds and animals in tropical rainforests.

Every tour is led by a professional birding guide who lives in the country full time, speaks excellent English as well as the local language, and is expert at finding and identifying the often baffling diversity of birds found in the tropics. Photo tours are also led by a professional photographer with years of experience photographing birds and other animals in the tropics. Birding tours concentrate on seeing as many species of birds as possible in a short period of time. This is accomplished with carefully crafted itineraries designed to visit many different habitats and altitudinal zones along with specific sites where rarities and range-restricted birds can be found. Photo tours are designed to provide numerous opportunities to photograph a wide variety of birds and mammals in the wild. They differ from traditional nature photo tours in that participants go into the field with an expert guide who is invaluable finding and identifying birds, monkeys, and other animals to photograph. Participants walk rainforest trails, enjoy boat trips along remote waterways, and explore out of the way places while photographing a wide array of non-traditional subjects including hawks, eagles, toucans, trogons, antbirds, tanagers, and many other kinds of birds in addition to more traditional subject matter such as herons, egrets, and hummingbirds.

Interested persons can obtain more information by calling 877-247-3371 or emailing to info@exoticbirding.com. The company website www.exoticbirding.com includes full details of tour itineraries and prices as well as many photographs taken on prior tours.

Technorati Tags: birds, birding, bird tour, tours, travel

Traveling in Cornwall

I was reading more about Corwall after seeing those beautiful pictures from the yacht charters. Seems like a great place to visit. If you are planning to holiday in the beautiful, rugged area of Cornwall, UK then I would suggest taking a look at www.activecornwall.co.uk. It has a great portfolio of some of the very best activities in Cornwall and what's more you can check availability, book online and they send you vouchers with directions. From horse riding to helicopter flights, canoeing, charter boat fishing, coasteering and sailing plus much more. They have something for all ages and abilities. All activities have been approved, have fully qualified instructors and insurance cover.

Cornwall has a first class reputation for good food. Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver both have restaurants there, however much of Cornwall's character comes from the fact that it has the highest proportion of small independent businesses in UK so whilst there, try to support the local economy by buying local. At www.purelycornish.co.uk there is a wonderful selection of Cornish produce from Cheeses to Cider and Chutneys sourced from the area and they make up beautifully presented hampers which they can post as gifts for you.

Technorati Tags: cornwall, uk, jamie oliver, rick stein, tours, travel

Birding and Bird Tours

I have a friend who is very much into bird watching and he has introduced me to the fact that there is a massive bird tour industry. I have always wanted to try a bird tour. It seems like a very relaxing way to get outside and get some fresh air.

There's a site I have been reading on the topic as well. The Birdtours web-site (http://www.birdtours.co.uk/ ) is a collection of over 1500 bird watching reports from over 130 countries. No one has counted precisely, but we think that over 9500 bird species are documented. Many new reports are added each month. Reports are sent in by travelling bird watchers worldwide, amateur and expert alike, who wish to share their experiences with others. The site is run primarily as a hobby page and as a free source of bird watching information by its owner, John Girdley.

Technorati Tags: bird tours, bird watching, travel

Charter Yachting in Cornwall

I have been speaking with the owner of a yacht charter company in Corwall, UK and some of the pictures he's shown me are devastatingly beautiful. This seems like a spectacular trip! They cruise in Cornwall, Devon and the Scilly Isles. From their web site:

"Falmouth on the South Coast of Cornwall is an excellent cruising area, with beautiful harbours, wooded creeks and fabulous coastal scenery. The sheltered waters provide excellent sailing in Carrick Roads and the Helford Estuary.

Offshore sailing to Fowey, Plymouth, Salcombe, Dartmouth going east and west to The Lizard and The Scilly Isles is great sailing, sail south to Brittany. These are all achievable cruising from Falmouth. The coastal scenic beauty, sheltered anchorage's and many onshore attractions sets the Cornish Coast apart from other cruising areas.

Brittany offers many challenges for the adventurous as well as great sailing, coastal scenery and Islands and harbours as well as good food and much warmer south of Brest.

If you haven't been to the Scilly Isles, then now is the time to enjoy there beauty and tranquility, wildlife, walks and Mediterranean flora .

Have the time of your life sailing aboard a 33 ft Westerly Skipper charter by myself Richard Lannowe Hall for skipper charter cruising in Cornwall, Devon & the Scilly Isles and Brittany.

The yacht is safe, comfortable and stable , well equipped, and fulfills all necessary safety requirements for the YDSA Certifying Authority.

As an experienced skipper I offer assisted cruising holidays for small groups or a family, one day, weekend and 7-day breaks. There is a expectation for charterers to partake in all activities."

Http://www.sailaday.co.UK/

Technorati Tags: cornwall, devon, scilly isles, uk, yacht, charter, travel, trips