Free Travel and Vacation Information

So, you planned all year for your holidays to Disney World and the first day you are suppose to go out and have fun there it's raining! Sure, most of the time it is sunny in Florida, but there will be those days that it's not and this is one of them. First off, this trip probably cost you quite a bit, so no doubt you don't want to give up the day and you don't have to. There are still ways to enjoy Disney World even in the Rain.

One of the first things you can do is go straight to Downtown Disney and check in for a day at the movies. You can sit and relax in their AMC theater and enjoy the huge movie screen they have. Get some popcorn and other yummy snacks and enjoy the movie with your family.

You can also utilize this time to do all that shopping you planned to do in Downtown Disney. Most of the shops along the street have awnings and you can easily get from one shop to another without getting too wet in the process. Also get an umbrella just in case.

Most of the hotels there at Disney World have nice fitness areas so why not use the time to have a little workout or do some swimming at one of their indoor pools? You can also spend some time exploring the hotel, a lot of people don't realize that hotels can be interesting.

You can also take one of their Disney Vacation Club Tours that are offered. Here you'll go on a tour of Disney and see a lot of the behind the scenes happenings and be able to find out about all of their new plans that are upcoming for the future.

You could also take a side trip to one of the several different malls that are just a few minutes away from the park where you can buy a bunch of Disney souvenirs for a lot cheaper than you could if you were to buy them inside of the park.

Go to the Animal Kingdom and take one of their safari trips. This might be one of the better times to see a lot of the wild animals because the rain often draws them out because they have been out of the heat prior to the rain showers coming.

Go backstage by visiting the Disney MGM Studios. Almost everything there is to see here will take place inside and you'll be able to see a lot of history and a lot of behind the scenes action that you don't see elsewhere.

Don't forget to check out the Boardwalk. Here is where the kids will find plenty of things to do at the Community Hall where there are tons of games to play. You can even play Yahtzee at the Belle Vue Lounge. And of course, let's not forget to hop on the Monorail. This is a great way to see the park from a different perspective.  

Just because you don't have a lot of money shouldn't stop you from getting together and planning yourselves a romantic and cheap holiday for you and your spouse. With the way the economy is shouldn't keep you from getting away and enjoying each others company. After all, you've worked hard and you've earned, even if you can't afford something extravagant, you still need to treat yourselves on occasion.

One of the first things you can do is to search online for different deals that might be available. Some good sites to search on are travelzoo.com, kayak.com or hotwire.com. Some sites like travelzoo even have special getaway rates that are offered on a weekly special basis. They can also help you find places in a pinch and for very low rates. A lot of the deals they offer you will include the airfare and the accommodations.

Even your budget is simply to stretched that you can't even afford to leave town, don't fret. Why not sit down and plan a wonderful evening at home. Take time out for each other. Go out and buy your favorite meal, decorate with flower petals, roses, candles, your favorite wine and turn off the phones and play your favorite music. If you have a fireplace and it's not too warm outside, why not pack a picnic type dinner and serve the meal in front of the fireplace. Make the foods easy to eat by turning them into finger foods that you can lazily munch on while lying cozy together in front of the fire.

Something that might sound a little weird to some people might be a camp out in your own backyard. But it can be something fun to do with your spouse. Simply set up your tent in your backyard, and don't cheat. Use all of your camping stuff and cook your meals outdoors, set up the camp chairs, do the whole deal, only difference you're doing it in the privacy of your own backyard. Then pretend you are a tourist in your own town and go for an outing to somewhere you've not been before in your own town. Even take pictures of your experience to give it a more vacation like feeling.

Find a book that includes places that are in your area or state. Make it more interesting if it's one of fiction but includes factual information about these areas. Then after you've read the book together go and find these places that were written about in the book. See how close the author was in describing these places and imagine you are his characters in the book.

Take time out to visit your local museums and different specialty shops. A lot of times when we live somewhere we tend to take things for granted and we never go and see the things that tourists come to see when they are on vacation. So pretend you are a tourist and go see all of those things you've been missing all the time you've lived there.  

Family vacations have always been important but when your kids were younger it was a lot easier to please them with a family vacation, a simple trip to the beach or a family camping trip was a piece of cake. However; now that they are teens camping is probably considered boring and dirty and simply not the "cool" thing to do.

But this does not mean family vacations are any less important than they were when they were smaller, in fact they are probably more important. After all, they'll be graduating soon and going off on their own soon. So, what can you do to entertain a teen while on vacation? Here are some ideas that might be of help in planning for your family vacation.

Consider a family vacation to one of the many major amusement parks throughout the country. Disney World and the various different Six Flags across the country are always teen favorites and will give your teens hours of thrill rides and other attractions to keep them busy.

You can spend several days at any of these parks enjoying the rides, the entertainment, the variety of different foods to eat and there's tons of places where they can get souvenirs of their trip. Plus these places don't stop with just rides the kids will be able to get them game fix while on vacation as well. Many offer game arcades as well as the various other attractions.

If your vacation is during the winter months you might want to consider taking the kids to a ski resort, especially one that is family oriented and offers a vast variety of activities. Other than skiing your teens can do snowboarding or even ride a snowmobile for excitement. There are also classes they can take if they have never skied before and as parents you can enjoy the time a lone as they go off with the ski instructors.

Another fun vacation idea is to take your teens on a cruise ship. A lot of the cruise ships offer a variety of special things to do that are directed for teens like skating, ice skating, rock climbing, miniature golf, swimming, basketball and other activities that might interest teens of all ages.

Hollywood, California might also be a destination your teens might get a kick out of. Teens can never get enough info on movies, TV and superstar gossiping and this is the area to get all of that. One place they really might enjoy is Universal Studios in Hollywood. Although it is an amusement park it a lot more than that.

You might want to think of it as a movie and special effects Disneyland or Disney World. There are tours that show behind the scenes of movies and TV shows. There are a lot of cool replica sets both from old and new movies from the Bates Motel from the movie Psycho to a more recent movie such as War of the Worlds by Steven Spielberg.

If you can afford it, take a trip to London with your teens. With the way the technology is today, your teens have already taken virtual tours of the world, why not offer them the real deal. If you travel during the off season it should be cheaper. Once there, there are a ton of things to keep a teen interested, especially the Tower of London or the first Hard Rock Cafe to ever open, these are just a couple of things most teens would get a thrill out of seeing.  

If you are planning your holidays to a place you have never been before especially if you are planning to travel overseas you really should be able to recognize some of the most common scams that are pulled on tourists.

Those that pull the scams will look for the travel who is most vulnerable looking and those scammers can be anything from muggers to swindlers. If you follow some of these common sense suggestions you should be able to avoid becoming a victim on your trip.

The most important thing you can do when you are traveling is to do your best to try and blend in with everyone else on the street. Make sure to not draw attention to yourself. Don't wear clothes that are going to draw attention to you, don't wear a lot of fancy jewelry or go around carrying an expensive camera, make sure that if you do have a camera to carry it in your bag or under a jacket if you are wearing one. The less you look like a tourist the better off you are going to be.

Make yourself a hard target to attack. So, make sure that you know what's going on around you at all times. Don't let yourself get distracted easily and make sure that you don't bring out your map in a public place. It's a better idea if you study the map before you decide to go out and explore and make sure that you already know where you are going and you know the route you will be taking. That map is an immediate red flag for the criminal on the street.

Of course you will have to travel with a lot of things but it's important that you protect your items. It's best that you carry a bag that has an across the body shoulder strap or wear your backpack in the front and not in the back. Try to avoid a backpack if at all possible. They are extremely hard for you to have control over but extremely easy for the criminal to get into without you realizing it.

Make sure that all you carry with you while you are traveling about is cash and not any of your bank cards or credit cards. One of the most common crimes that happens to a tourist is someone forcing them to go to an ATM and take out money. You also shouldn't carry your passport with you. Make a copy of it and carry that with you. Most places will accept the copy over the the original because they are well aware of people getting their passports stolen often.

When taking your money with you, don't carry it all together. It's a better idea to put some in your purse or wallet, put some in a pocket and some emergency cash in your shoe. It is highly unlikely that a criminal is going to check all of the places that you have hidden your money.

A common scam in a lot of countries is for the criminal to disguise themselves as a police officer. A lot of tourists fall for this one. You can easily avoid this one by asking for the so called police officer to walk you to the nearest police station and then you will show them all the necessary information they are looking for. A real officer usually will not have a problem with that, a criminal on the other hand will simply lose interest and move on to the next victim.

Be wary of strange things happening around you or simple distractions like someone dropping a ton of change in front of you or spills a drink on you or food for instance. All of these things could be a way for them to catch you off guard while someone else finds a way to relieve you of your valuables.

If you still end up finding yourself in the middle of a scam do your best to show no interest and try to walk away from it, if that is not possible then simply give them your valuables and cooperate with what they ask. It is more important to be safe and save your life than worry about losing your wallet or backpack.  

If you are planning a trip for the holidays to a destination that is not out of the country, you still are going to run into a lot of things that could make for a stressful trip and it's always a good idea for you to make sure that you have a good plan for your trip, no matter where you travel to. Making sure that you plan well in advance is going to help you lower the stress of traveling during any holiday.

One of the first things you should probably consider is to try and pack as light as you can. If it is all possible you should try and just take a carry on bag with you and try to avoid a lot of excess luggage that needs to be checked in and in most cases will cost you extra for each additional bag these days. It is also a good idea if you do some research by going online and checking the airlines website to see what they do and don't allow you to bring on board.

If it's during Christmas and you have gifts that you need to bring with you, you can save yourself a lot of stress and money if you simply mail the gifts a head of time to where your final destination is. A lot of airlines don't allow wrapped gifts on board and you may have to check them in like luggage. There also is the chance they could get lost or even stolen.

When picking out the dates of your travel, you really need to do this smartly. Some people who do not travel often don't realize that the days before the actual holiday and the days right after are usually the days that the airlines charge more money. If you can wait to fly out on the actual day of the holiday you will save money because the air fare is usually cheaper on the holiday itself.

Don't take your own car to the airport so you can avoid the outrageous prices they will charge you to keep your car there. You should either arrange for family or friends to take you and pick you up or just take public transportation instead. This will save a lot of money and stress.

You might also want to see if your airline gives you the opportunity to be able to arrive at a regional airport that might be just outside of your destination instead of flying into a large airport that will be over crowded and more than likely cost more to fly to.

Early morning flights, as much as they may be inconvenient for you are probably the best times to fly because they are usually cheaper and the crowds are not as bad. Early flights also generally have less of a chance of being delayed. You also might consider a non-stop flight as well because they are delayed less than other flights.

It's always a good idea to try to come and check in as early as you possibly can. The earlier you check in the shorter the line will be. These lines can be extremely long and even some flights might end up being over booked and you could end up having to take a different flight. So get there early and bring something with you like music or a good book for your wait after checking in.

Make sure you bring plenty of snacks with you, bring extra batteries for anything you have that requires them. Make sure that what you are wearing is really comfortable. If you are on any medications make sure they are not packed away and are with you. Smile, keep with the spirit of the holiday at all times and everything should be OK.  

If you have never traveled outside of the United States this probably means that you do not have a passport and have probably never even tried to get one. A passport will be needed for generally every foreign country you might travel to and is always needed to get back into the United States when you have been out of the country.

If you follow these simple instructions, you should have no trouble acquiring your first passport. Remember, no matter where you are taking your holidays to, if it's not in this country you need this document proof of who you are and where you are from.

The first thing you will have to do is fill out an application for a passport which is called a Form DS-11 which you can get from online and download it. Fill it out completely and then bring it with you when you apply for your passport in person.

You will need to find a place that takes passport photos and it is required that you have them take two photos that are exactly the same. They can be no bigger than two inches by two inches. The photos have to be your full front view of your face, definitely no profiles are allowed and it must be from your shoulders to the top of your head and it must have only a white background. Photo studios and even many post offices will take these types of photos for a fee.

To find your local Passport Acceptance Office you can get on the U.S. Department of State site and find one near you by just putting in your zip code and it will give you a list of offices that are in your surrounding area. When you have found the one closest to you, you can then take all necessary items to them to apply.

You will need to make sure that you have proof of your citizenship in the United States. This will generally be your certified birth certificate or if not born here it will need to be a naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship. If this is not your first passport and you have an expired one you can bring that instead.

You will need to also have identity proof. This would need to be your driver's license, state ID or some sort of government or military ID. These all will have a photo on them with your most current information for them to verify who you are.

After you have done all of this you can take all of your information down to your Passport Acceptance Office a long with an application fee as well as what is called an execution fee in order to get your passport. You will need to give these fees to them when you turn in your application. This can take as long as six weeks after you hand in all of this.

So it is very important that you get this done several months before you actually plan to go on your vacation. However; if you waited to get your passport, you can pay an additional fee and they can have your passport ready for you in two weeks.

Try applying for your passport from September to February, the reason for this is that there are less people applying for passports at this time of year. You should also note that when taking your passport photo do not even wear a hat and make sure your eyes are wide open and keep a natural and relaxed look on your face when taking the photo.  

If your plan is to take your holidays to New Orleans it's a good idea to plan a head of time and to go with an attitude that is in the mood for fun. New Orleans is probably one of the best places to travel to in the entire Continental United States. This is a city of proud citizens that have risen above the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and have open arms to the millions of people who come to visit them every year. Going to New Orleans can be one of the greatest experiences of a lifetime.

The first thing you should do is to sit down and figure out when you want to visit this great city. Remember that the weather in the Fall, Spring and Winter months are the mildest and it's the middle of summer when it's extremely hot and humid. You also might want to consider crowds, if you really aren't much for huge crowds then you definitely want to avoid Mardi Gras and the April Jazz Fest.

Next thing you want to figure out is how are you going to get there and what does your budget allow? You can get there by every mode of transportation available from car to even a cruise liner. There are about 14 different airlines that will take you there with Southwest probably being the least expensive of them all. You can easily book your flight online and it is generally discounted when you purchase your tickets this way.

After you have figured out a time to go and how you are going to get there you will now need to figure out where you are going to stay for your visit. If you want easy access to the Mississippi River and all the great sites to see within the city, you are going to want to reserve a room in one of the many different hotels that are located in the French Quarter. Check with the Chamber of Commerce or their Visitor's Center for a list of the many different hotels that are available, many of which have their own websites that allow you to reserve right online.

Once you get to New Orleans you will be overwhelmed at all there is to do, see, taste and experience, a lot of which are free. There are many parks that are free, several different museums in the area that are free, listening to music as you experience the French Quarter is another free attraction especially if you use one of their free audio tours.

Other attractions that are not too costly are taking a tour of one or more of the incredible plantations that are all within a short driving distance of town. The most famous being the Oak Alley Plantation, we all know that one from “Gone With The Wind” and many other movies focused on the South.

You can also take tours such as voodoo tours, a variety of different historical tours, swamp and bayou tours a long with tours of the famous cemeteries that you often see in a variety of different movies that have been filmed in New Orleans.

Don't forget the Garden District. You can take a trolley to this part of the town and visit many of the different historical homes including the home where Interview with a Vampire was filmed and even the home of Anne Rice.

You can even become what they call a voluntourist and that is someone that comes to New Orleans and wants to help the areas that still need help due to Katrina. Tourists can go to the Visitor's Center or Chamber of Commerce to get information about how to sign up to volunteer a few hours of their time while they are on vacation.

And don't forget to get your beignet fix. Although there are many, many places that serve the famous beignet, there is no better place to get it than the original at the Cafe du Monde. Word of warning though, never wear black when you go out to Cafe due Monde, you'll be sorry.  

So, you are planning your holidays to New Orleans. This is great news, however; did you know you are probably traveling to one of the most notoriously haunted cities in the United States? That's right besides millions of visitors to Madi Gras, the Jazz Fest and just for the city itself, there are others there that we can't see, or can we? That's up to you and your own fascination and imagination. If you are going to New Orleans for a different kind of excitement, you might want to check out it's colorful and even checkered history and discover some of the most haunted places in the area.

To be able to enjoy the darker more haunted side of the city you must let your natural curiosity run wild. You need to just completely let go and make sure that you visit all of the places that most of the locals guarantee are haunted.

Be brave and don't let the thought of ghosts and spirits stop you from having some pretty thrilling times. Your bravery will help a lot when you go inside one of the many homes that are considered to be haunted, or if you decide to go to a cemetery that you have heard is one of the scariest in town. Some of the more famous spots you might want to check out would be Madame Lalaurie's Mansion, the St. Louis Cemetery as well as the Saint John Bayou. There are many tour guides that will be more than willing to take you to any of these locations with a little bit of prodding and some good hard earned American cash.

While you are doing your walking around some of these places that are reported to be haunted make sure that you let your imagination revert back to your childhood so that you are up for anything. See, even if you don't actually see a ghost, let your imagination visualize for you, you may not see one, but you still might experience the presence of one nearby.

We all know, there is a world other than ours that is a supernatural world, a world that we can't enter until it's our time, but there are certain circumstances that may enable them to have a way to touch us from there. So let your mind be an open book. You need to have an open mindset so that you will freely step into the unknown and be willing to accept what happens.

It is always a good idea to bring either your digital camera or camcorder with you when you are on one of these haunted tours. Not only are the places you going wonderful to capture, but you never know when something might happen that you want to capture. Also, even if you can't see something, there is something about the camera or camcorder that sometimes enables them to capture strange things that can't be seen by the naked eye.

Note: This is not meant to be funny, if you decide to go for a walk in any of the cemeteries in New Orleans, never do this on your own. No matter where you go, it's important to know that there is always far much more safety when you travel in numbers. So take friends or go with one of the tour groups that have special tours that you can take through these eery yet beautiful places.  

For a lot of people the thought of holidays to Hawaii is just a dream, something they think they probably could never afford. They more than likely have heard from others how expensive it is to visit Hawaii and to plan on spend more money on this type of vacation than if you were going to Europe. But if you plan it just right, you too can have your dream vacation in Hawaii, even on a budget.

The two biggest costs that you are going to have when planning travel to Hawaii are the airfare to get there and a place to stay. So the first thing you should do is to visit all of the different travel websites and see which one might be offering the best deal. One of these sites is bound to be offering a deal that you should be able to fit into a tight budget. Your best bet is to look for deals that are during the off season times. The slowest months for travel to Hawaii are September and October and this could be the best time for you. So if you are use to going on vacation in the peak summer months, convince yourself to change the time you go on vacation.

After you have found the best deal on the tickets then you going to have to figure out where you are going to stay during your vacation. There are a variety of different ways you can do this. Most of the resorts in Hawaii have all of the same amenities and accommodations so it's best that you simply choose the one with the lowest prices available. Whatever you do, don't pick the hotel because the shops, beaches or restaurants offered there or in the vicinity. Remember all beaches are public beaches in Hawaii so it doesn't matter where you stay you will have access to any beach you want. One suggestion is to rent a condo since there will be less amenities to be paying for and it will also be more private.

You also might want to check out expedia.com and travelocity.com for some sort of package deal. Sometimes you can find combination flight and lodging deals that are far cheaper than what you could put together yourself.

The next thing you'll probably want to do is include a rental car in your plans. The best thing you should do is pick the smallest car with the best gas mileage available. If you think gas is expensive here, wait until you see how much it is in Hawaii.

When you are traveling on a budget it's probably a wise think to limit your stay in Hawaii to just one or two of the islands. It is actually cheaper to fly to another island after you get to Hawaii and even if you stay on just one island there is plenty to see and do even on one island.

Before you get there you should figure out what kinds of things there will be to do and how much they are going to cost. Make sure to set up a budget just for the things you plan to do and then make sure to book reservations for those things that require them. Try to limit the things you do that will cost money because there are still a lot of things to see and do that won't cost you a dime. Try not to fill up your vacation time with all the pay tourist things to do because sometimes you can have more fun simply checking out the island or islands on your own.

If you want to do a little shopping on your trip make sure to stay away from all of the shops in the resorts, you're going to pay double or triple the amount you would elsewhere. So shop where the locals shop. When eating, try to stay away from all of the resort restaurants, there are plenty of other great places to eat locally. Also consider buying your own food and preparing it yourself a couple of times while you are there.  

If you are planning a vacation or even a business trip that you know you are going to need to travel in a car once you reach your destination, you probably are not going to want to have to hassle with all of the details of renting a car once you get there. You probably want to also be able to pay a little as possible. If that's the case then you may benefit from some of the pointers given below.

It's really important for any trip to make sure that you do your homework. When looking for a car to rent it is always best if you spend a good amount of time researching different sites on the Internet. You should compare as many prices as you possibly can from the different companies that rent cars. While doing this you need to take into consideration the size of the car, you should try to get the smallest that you can get away with. You need to know how long you are going to need the car for and the amount of money you are willing to pay for it. A lot of times you will discover that if you deal with the companies yourself and not through a package deal that you may actually get a better deal.

It's really important that if you don't have AAA or AARP that you seriously consider joining one of them. If you have either one of these most places that rent cars will give you an additional discount. This is also true with a lot of hotels and restaurants so it's worth it in the long run.

Another way to save money when renting a car is to pay for it a head of time. When you prepay for your car rental you can save up to 15% on the total price. Make sure you ask them about the terms of service and make sure that you know what their policy for refunds is as well. This is very important that you know this before you commit to renting from them.

A lot of rental agencies offer their services at the airport but you might be better off if you pick up the car from one of their locations that are not located at the airport. Of course you will have to take some sort of public transportation to get to it, but this will still save you a large amount of money for a short time of inconvenience.

If you have good enough car insurance that will cover you when you are driving vehicles that are not your own, then there is no need to pay the extra money for the insurance they try to sell you when you rent a car. Check with your own insurance provider first before considering getting rental insurance.

When you rent a car most of the companies will require that you make sure that the tank is full of gas when you bring it back. It is very important that you do this at a gas station on your own and not bring it back for them to fill it up. They will more than likely charge you triple if not more than the average price you would pay elsewhere!