TIDBITS 4 ROMANTIC GET AWAYS

December 15, 2009 at 6:59 pm · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, tidbits, travel, vacation

This tidbit is 4 the romance in your life, or if you want to have romance in your life.  The romance of travel… Here are ten places where I have bec This tidbit is 4 the romance in your life, or if you want to have romance in your life.  The romance of travel… Here are ten places where I have become starry-eyed, beguiled and bewitched by the moment, the place and the person with me. I dare you to visit and not fall in love!

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Undeveloped, unspoiled and cloaked in emerald green rain forest, the mother island of St. Vincent also boasts an archipelago necklace of pristine tropical islands for the most perfect get-away-from-it-all experience. This is the spot we have chosen to renew our wedding vows after 30 years of marriage.

Treetops Lodge, Kenya
There is something wonderfully powerful, primeval and romantic about staying up all night together in this atmospheric old wooden lodge built on stilts among the trees overlooking a waterhole and watching the nocturnal activities of the animals of the African plains. This is where Elizabeth arrived as a princess and departed as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.

Heidelburg, Germany
Imagine an ancient castle ruin standing atop a wooded hill overlooking a medieval university town, with the Neckar River meandering through the town, old cobbled streets, quaint taverns, marketplaces and coaching inns dating back centuries…We wandered the streets just soaking up the atmosphere.

Kashmir, India
Once upon a peaceful time in this Shangri-La land, I stayed in blissful peace on a Victorian houseboat on Lake Dal beside a medieval town, with the Himalaya perfectly mirrored in dazzling waters…and I was lost to the magic of Kashmir. One day it will be possible to visit again and I will return with the love of my life.

Taj-Mahal, India
I was so prepared to be disappointed with the Taj…and yet was blown softly away on the river breeze when I first saw it, by moonlight, from a distance. Close up, the love affair deepened. It is, quite simply, the perfect architectural embodiment of love and everyone should write it down now on their Bucket List if it isn’t there already.

Moorea, French Polynesia
A thatched hut built on stilts over the warm waters of a turquoise lagoon, a tiny verandah over the natural aquarium around us, and steps that led us gently into the clear warm waters…heaven on earth…well, heaven on water really I guess – but heaven nonetheless!

Cambridge, UK
OK, so this is a very personal choice…it’s where my romantic fate was sealed, arm-in-arm together on the medieval Magdalene Bridge as the moon’s reflection rippled across the River Cam and the spires of King’s College Chapel were silhouetted in the distance…I placed a ring on the finger of my girlfriend that is still there over thirty years later

Le Château Frontenac
Our very own romantic hot spot: winter or summer, this castle-like hotel occupies an eminence in between The Citadel and Old Quebec in Quebec City and epitomizes the chic grandeur of our most beautiful Canadian city. This was where I took my wife for our first romantic weekend getaway when we arrived in Canada.

Tuscany, Italy
Romance spices the Tuscan air, infuses the Tuscan wines and hangs miasma-like in the early morning mists that often surround the hill-top villages; stay in a castle, a villa or a farmhouse and let the essence of Tuscany seep into your soul! We stayed in the Villa Pitiana, a converted Benedictine Monastery on a hilltop outside Florence with views that went on forever.

Frégate Island, Seychelles
A 20 minute flight from the main island of Mahé, itself an island speck in the Indian Ocean, this tiny island                     boasts a single luxury lodge, unique flora and fauna and perfect granite coves all to yourself. If you ome starry-eyed, beguiled and bewitched by the moment, the place and the person with me. I dare you to visit and not fall in love!

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Undeveloped, unspoiled and cloaked in emerald green rain forest, the mother island of St. Vincent also boasts an archipelago necklace of pristine tropical islands for the most perfect get-away-from-it-all experience. This is the spot we have chosen to renew our wedding vows after 30 years of marriage.

Treetops Lodge, Kenya
There is something wonderfully powerful, primeval and romantic about staying up all night together in this atmospheric old wooden lodge built on stilts among the trees overlooking a waterhole and watching the nocturnal activities of the animals of the African plains. This is where Elizabeth arrived as a princess and departed as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.

Heidelburg, Germany
Imagine an ancient castle ruin standing atop a wooded hill overlooking a medieval university town, with the Neckar River meandering through the town, old cobbled streets, quaint taverns, marketplaces and coaching inns dating back centuries…We wandered the streets just soaking up the atmosphere.

Kashmir, India
Once upon a peaceful time in this Shangri-La land, I stayed in blissful peace on a Victorian houseboat on Lake Dal beside a medieval town, with the Himalaya perfectly mirrored in dazzling waters…and I was lost to the magic of Kashmir. One day it will be possible to visit again and I will return with the love of my life.

Taj-Mahal, India
I was so prepared to be disappointed with the Taj…and yet was blown softly away on the river breeze when I first saw it, by moonlight, from a distance. Close up, the love affair deepened. It is, quite simply, the perfect architectural embodiment of love and everyone should write it down now on their Bucket List if it isn’t there already.

Moorea, French Polynesia
A thatched hut built on stilts over the warm waters of a turquoise lagoon, a tiny verandah over the natural aquarium around us, and steps that led us gently into the clear warm waters…heaven on earth…well, heaven on water really I guess – but heaven nonetheless!

Cambridge, UK
OK, so this is a very personal choice…it’s where my romantic fate was sealed, arm-in-arm together on the medieval Magdalene Bridge as the moon’s reflection rippled across the River Cam and the spires of King’s College Chapel were silhouetted in the distance…I placed a ring on the finger of my girlfriend that is still there over thirty years later

Le Château Frontenac
Our very own romantic hot spot: winter or summer, this castle-like hotel occupies an eminence in between The Citadel and Old Quebec in Quebec City and epitomizes the chic grandeur of our most beautiful Canadian city. This was where I took my wife for our first romantic weekend getaway when we arrived in Canada.

Tuscany, Italy
Romance spices the Tuscan air, infuses the Tuscan wines and hangs miasma-like in the early morning mists that often surround the hill-top villages; stay in a castle, a villa or a farmhouse and let the essence of Tuscany seep into your soul! We stayed in the Villa Pitiana, a converted Benedictine Monastery on a hilltop outside Florence with views that went on forever.

Frégate Island, Seychelles
A 20 minute flight from the main island of Mahé, itself an island speck in the Indian Ocean, this tiny island   boasts a single luxury lodge, unique flora and fauna and perfect granite coves all to yourself. If you are looking for the perfect tropical island romantic paradise, this is it – and we would return in a heartbeat

Have a loving and fun adventure

Jaye

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TIDBITS 4 TRAVEL AUCTIONS

December 11, 2009 at 1:28 pm · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, tidbits, travel, vacation

This tidbit is 4 travel auctions!!!  Europe from 99 cents? That was the starting bid on a new auction Web site from Contiki Holidays that went live today.

The tour operator, which specializes in travel for 18- to 35 year-olds, is auctioning off a 14-day European Discovery trip through London, Amsterdam Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Paris, valued at $2,200 a person. Bidding ends Dec. 15. Just two hours after the auction opened, the bidding had jumped to $1,260.

Auctions like these have been gaining popularity as tour operators seek new ways to dispose of unsold inventory amid the recession.

Take Abercrombie & Kent. It held a six-hour online reverse-auction in February in which starting bids were lowered an additional 5 percent every half hour until the discount reached 60 percent or the trip sold out. The sale was so successful it’s hosting a similar sale Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. E.S.T.

Travelers can also bid on vacations at sites like Luxurylink.com and FloridaVacationAuction.com.

This is a very interesting concept I will have to watch and see how good the deals are.  Let me know what you think .

Safe and Happy Holiday Travel

Jaye

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TIDBITS 4 $18.00 FLIGHTS

December 9, 2009 at 9:09 pm · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, tidbits, travel, vacation

This tidbit is 4 $ 18.00 flights

http://top20.travelzoo.com/Sign_Up.aspx?id=707250&source=fbhpg127

Have a great and wonderful trip

Jaye

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TIDBITS 4 ST JOHN’S CASTLE

December 7, 2009 at 9:42 am · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, tidbits, travel, vacation

This tidbit is  about St John’s Castle in Limerick Ireland.   This is a 13th century castle,  There are 800 years of medieval history brought to life in this exhibition.  There are excavated pre-Norman houses,  fortifications, siege mines and the battlement walks.  Found this a very interesting site to visit very different from the castles of royalty.  The town of Limerick can be reached very easily from Shannon airport,  Ennis, and is about a 3 hour drive from Dublin

Had a safe adventure

Jaye

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TIDBITS 4 KAYAK TRAVEL SEARCH

December 4, 2009 at 6:40 pm · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, tidbits, travel, vacation

This tidbit is 4 Kayak travel search site,  I have found that Kayak is really one of the best travel search sites and now they are offering even more information.  

Travel comparison site Kayak just opened access to its search data. Best known for aggregating travel deals on roundtrip flights, hotels and rental cars, Kayak is now offering the public a peek under the hood. The company is laying bare its most popular destinations and searches via a new trends page. The site offers users a look at what people are searching for, where they’re searching from and the most searched hotels in the company’s top 50 most popular cities. With the travel industry slowly recovering from what has been a tough two years, this data can go a long way towards reinvigorating businesses.

In addition to the most popular searches and destinations, Kayak is also offering users a look at the Kayak Travel Index. The data from the Index tells users how much the average traveler is willing to spend to visit a particular destination. While economic stability would affect many of these trends, short spikes are often more likely related to peak season rates and seasonal factors. For example, in mid July travelers were willing to pay 25% more for a trip to Seattle, but since then as the weather cools so does the willingness to spend. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Travel Index shows a completely different set of travel spikes.

With information from 404 travel sites including Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, and information on more than 150,000 hotels, Kayak trends offers a great snapshot into the demographics of a destination’s most frequent visitors.

Says CTO Paul English, “People have conducted hundreds of millions of travel searches on KAYAK in the past year, generating a tremendous amount of data on travel demand trends. We’re happy to make this information available to the travel press and to the general public.”

Happy and safe holiday travel
Jaye

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TIDBITS 4 CRUISE TRAVEL TIPS

December 1, 2009 at 8:04 am · Filed under INFORMATIONAL, curises, travel, vacation

 This Tidbit is 4 tips for when you travel.  Some of theses tips are for Cruises, but no matter how you are travelling these tips will be helpful.    

• Once your major wardrobe selections are complete and the suitcases are ready, devise a streamlined packing strategy. Here are some suggestions:
• Make a packing list. Assemble everything on the list before starting to pack, and check items off when they’re folded and placed in the suitcase.   You can find a packing list in the ”pages” column that you can modify so it works for you, then you can print it.
• “Just in case” is never the case. Resist the urge to toss items that you are almost positive you won’t need.
• Zipper-top storage bags—a packer’s best friend. Undergarments and knits take only a third of the suitcase space they normally occupy when they’re compressed in these bags.  They also work well if you need to pack wet items.
• Go mini. Plan ahead and shop for sample containers of favorite toiletries.   You can usually find the 100ml (3 oz) bottles at the dollar store.  Please make sure if you are flying all liquids in your carry on must fit into a quart Ziplock baggie.
• Guarantee a smooth sailing. To help keep garments wrinkle-free, leave them on their hangers, cover them with dry-cleaning bags, and fold over once before placing them in the suitcase.
• Use the facilities… If the ship has self-service laundry facilities you can pack lighter and wash clothes midway through the cruise.
• …but remember life is short.  Use the ship’s laundry service instead. It’s pricier, but who wants to spend valuable cruise time washing clothes?
• Share space.  Cross-pack your luggage with your travel companion. Chances are if a suitcase is missing, it’ll turn up eventually. In the meantime, you’ll both have fresh clothing

Making Dining Arrangements on a cruise 

Cruise lines understand that strict schedules do not satisfy the desires of all modern cruise passengers. Many cruise lines now include alternatives to the set schedules in the dining room, including open dining room seating, casual buffets, and specialty à la carte restaurants.

However, when you’re sailing on a traditional cruise with assigned dinner seating, your seating selection can set the tone for your entire trip. Which is best? Early dinner seating is generally scheduled between 6 and 6:30 pm, while late seating can begin from 8:15 to 8:45 pm. The best seating depends on you, your lifestyle, and your personal preferences.

Choose early seating if:

• You have small children accustomed to an early meal and bedtime
• You retire earlier in the evening and are an early riser
• You do not want to experience that full feeling at bedtime
• You want to attend the early shows, enjoy the casino and other activities, and take in the midnight buffet

Choose late seating if: 

• You’re a night owl and do not mind finishing dinner after 10 pm
• Your itinerary is port-intensive and you don’t want to rush to get ready for dinner after a day of touring
• You like to sleep late in the morning or indulge in a late-afternoon nap
• You enjoy leisurely dining and linger over coffee at the end of the meal

Other factors to consider:

• Families and groups lean toward early seating, particularly when several generations are traveling together and ages vary widely.
• Older passengers tend to select early seating.
• Americans are more apt to select early seating than European and South American cruisers, who are accustomed to later meal times.
• Early seating diners are encouraged not to linger over dessert and coffee since the dining room has to be readied for late seating.
• Late seating is viewed by some passengers as more romantic and less rushed.

Have a safe and wonderful cruise

Jaye

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