Just about every vacationer is interesting in keeping the cost of his or her adventures low. Most people work all year just to be able to enjoy a one or two week vacation from the cares of the world.
Unless you are independently wealthy and money is no object, chances are you will be interested in the following tips for squeezing the most value out of your limited vacation dollars.
- When planning for a particular destination, especially a popular one like Orlando, Europe or the Caribbean, it pays to plan ahead.
- Be sure to spend some time researching the local attractions, and comparing various lodging options. Be sure to look for discounts that are available, and see if it is possible to buy things like theme park tickets or museum admissions prior to arrival. Doing so can save you both time and money.
- Try taking your holiday in the off season or shoulder season. Avoiding the high season can provide many benefits, including lower prices and fewer crowds.
- Prices on airline tickets, car rentals, hates and cruises often drop significantly after the high season has gone.
- If you have friends or relatives near your chosen destination, consider asking them for a place to say. It can be fun for many people to show visitors around their town, and they may enjoy having the company.
- When taking this approach, however, be sure to chip in by doing chores, paying for groceries, filling the gas tank on the family car, etc.
- Try to plan flying vacations for the times of year when airfares are generally the cheapest. For most destinations, this period runs from February through May and September through December.
- The one exception to this rule is the week before Thanksgiving and the two weeks leading up to Christmas, when prices shoot back up. If you must fly during the high season, be sure to research the fares on low cost airlines.
- When traveling by car, be sure to pack lots of ready to eat food in the car to avoid expensive restaurant meals.
- When eating in restaurants, try to avoid those that obviously cater to the tourist crowd. Eating where the locals do will allow you to enjoy better food at lower prices.
- When planning your hotel stays, try to strike a balance between a convenient location and a low price. Hotels closer to a given attraction are generally more expensive, while those in suburbs and outlying areas tend to be less costly.
- Compare the amenities of the hotels carefully. Decide what is important to you, and use those priorities as a guide when choosing from among comparably priced hotels.
- For a low cost alternative to expensive hotels, consider renting an RV for your next vacation. There are a number of rental agencies that offer rentals, and an RV can often be a low cost alternative.RV campgrounds are generally much less expensive than traditional hotel rooms.
- When renting a car, choose the smallest, most fuel efficient vehicle you can find.
- Not only are compact and subcompact cars cheaper to rent, but they are cheaper to operate as well.
- If traveling in your own car, be sure it is up for the trip. A good pre vacation checkup or tune-up can save a lot of problems. Car repairs on the road can be both inconvenient and expensive.
- If the destination you are traveling to has good public transportation options, you may not need your own car, or a rental car, at all.
- Many large cities in the United States and Europe have such good bus, subway and train systems that a personal car is unnecessary.
- Camping can be an excellent, and very low cost vacation for nature lovers of all ages and interests. Campgrounds are easy to find and inexpensive.
- In addition, many campgrounds offer great amenities, such as swimming pools, sports and every movie nights.
- Planning activities that do not need a lot of money to enjoy, such as hiking and swimming, is a good way to maximize value and minimize vacation spending.
- In addition, museums and historical sites generally have very low priced admissions and can be fun
Archive for » March, 2009 «
Planning your first RV road trip might seem easy at first. You bought your motorhome, you have it all outfitted and ready to go, you know where you’re headed and you have all of your maps. What else do you need?
You want to be sure that you plan carefully for every contingency. Even the best dealerships do not have a service station in every city or every state. You will not have family or friends surrounding you everywhere you go, and you need to be prepared, just in case.
As with any travel trip, you want to be sure that you have your identification, insurance cards, prescriptions, and physician information in a safe place. But there are many other lists you need to make as well. Get online or talk to your local RV dealer to obtain a list of RV service stations along your route and at your destination. Write down the name of the service location or dealership, the phone number, and the address. You may even want to mark these on your map ahead of time. This way you know just who to call if you break down or have an accident.
Have the phone number and paperwork for your warranty, as well as the name and phone number of your dealer handy, also. Make sure that you have the call center or customer service number for the dealership, not just the guy that sold you your camper. You want to be sure that you get the right person on the first try if you need to order parts in a hurry. Your RV dealer should have the ability to order parts for you and have them shipped anywhere, including campgrounds.
Do not forget to call your RV insurance agent, let them know you are preparing to leave town, and make sure you are covered under every possible issue or accident. Know what your policy covers, and have your insurance cards and contact information in the motorhome with you at all times. If there is a national call center for your insurance company you should have that too, as well as the address and phone number of any locations available on your route. You never know when you might need this information.
If you are on a schedule, you may want to consider RV Rentals as well. Prepare a list of dealerships on your route that will rent motorhomes. This way you will be prepared to not only repair your own vehicle, but to continue on your trip as scheduled in any event.
In the end, preparing for your first RV road trip could be a bit daunting. But once you get through the first steps and have all of the information in place, you will find that the planning gets easier for each trip. And, if you are ever in an accident, find yourself stranded on the side of the road, or simply need the pump to your bathroom repaired; you will be prepared and know just where to go!
Have you heard other people talking on and on about their “blogs” while all you could do was smile and nod?
Yes, “blog” is a peculiar word, conjuring visions of mosquito-infested swamps, and you can’t imagine why people would be eager to get more visitors to theirs.
But eager they are. In spite of the rather unfortunate name, blogs are the hottest things in communication since cell phones. Blogs are websites on which almost anybody can post information on almost any topic as often as they like. Blogs can be devoted to a single factual topic, or they can be the equivalent of personal diaries in which people record their private thoughts and observations about the world. The contents of a blog are limited only by the imagination of the blog’s creator, or “author”.
If you find the thought of your own blog appealing, and have an Internet-connected computer, here are some suggestions to help you both get a blog going and build an audience with whom you can share it:
First, choose a topic for your blog on which you will enjoy communicating, and prepare your material. You opinions on a subject are fine, as long as they are based on some underlying. There are always going to be those who know as much, about a topic as you, and if you want a credible blog, you need to be able to back up your statements.
Add some humor and personal experiences to your topic if you can. Writing a travel blog about places you have actually been, and about colorful locals whom you actually encountered, will make much better reading than just posting facts and figures picked up from travel sites and TV shows. Offer material which will appeal to both novice travelers–like how to avoid pickpockets–and more seasoned ones–like the best undiscovered attractions in a specific destination.
Don’t limit your blog to your own experiences. Keep it updated with news that might affect those interested in your subject. While your experiences can give people valuable insight, recognize that your opinions about what happened to you or about a specific product are, after all, just opinions. Give people factual information which they can weigh for themselves.
Keep you blog current. On the Internet, news can become old in a matter of hours, and what happened a month ago is ancient history. Telling people considering a trip to Thailand that Thailand experienced a coup last September will do nothing to help them decide about a trip next month. Updating them on the peaceful state of affairs in Thailand today, however, will.
Updating your blog will require a commitment from you. You’ll need to establish a regular time to search for and write about fresh news, and get it posted. There’ll be times when not much has happened, and there’ll be times when you can’t type fast enough. But two or three times a week are not too many to post something new. Even it it’s only to tell your readers that not much has been going on, share a few thoughts, and tell your readers when to next check in for your next entry, make an appearance. Your audience will keep coming back as long as they know you are.
Keep you blog as simple as you can, without sounding like you don’t have a complete grasp of your subject. You want to appeal to as many people as possible, and nothing will drive those newly interested in a subject away faster than lots of technical jargon and statistics. You can provide complex information, as long as you make the effort to put it in user-friendly terms.
Find a memorable name for your blog, and use your blog editing feature to post it in large, bold-face type. “My Hiking Blog” will probably sound interesting only to Mom and Dad and only because you never write or call them while you’re out adventuring. “Climbing through the Clouds” will appeal to those who either tackle the high places of the Earth, or want to.
Every so often, say, at the end of each month, archive your existing blog posts. Your blog editor will let you do this in a less than a minute. The entries will still be available for new blog readers who want to catch up, or those who want to reference your earlier writings. And list keywords for your archived work so that new traffic will be able to find its way to you.
Finally, make sure your blog is professionally presented. You have a spell checker, so use it. Proof-read your copy and correct any grammar or punctuation errors before you post your work. If you’re not sure whether you are using a word properly, get help from an online dictionary. Respect your readers as intelligent, well-informed people who could just as easily spend their time elsewhere.
These suggestions may make your entry into the world of blogging more successful, but it’s up to you to commit to building and keeping an audience.