Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Jul 30

Travelling With Your Pets.

If you wish to take your pet on vacation with you, there are many things to consider before you set off.

You firstly need to think about the whether the destination is suitable for your pet - for example tropical fish can live in a heated tank in any country, but your cat may not be able to go outside if you move to a city. Similarly it is OK to take a 2 week vacation abroad with your dog, but it would really be a hassle to journey 400 miles with your horse for just a few days.

Secondly, there are practical and financial decisions to be made - and sometimes over 6 months preparation is needed for your pet to complete the trip with you depending on where you are going - or where you are returning to.

Additionally, there are legal rights and wrongs to battle with - preparation really is the best method of making sure that you have everything in order plenty of time before you need it.

Unfortunately, relying on word of mouth from well intentioned friends or colleagues has caused many travel plans to be ruined or seriously delayed. Only rely on the actual facts given by the companies or government bodies involved in your specific countries. Never just assume anything.

Finally - even if you don’t take your pet away, there are still some important things to bear in mind before you head off without them, including rules and regulations for leaving pets alone or in paid care.

In this continuing series, I hope to cover the basics for each occasion, highlighting any laws or potential problems along the way. It should also offer insights into real life cases and the joy of vacationing with your pets.

Articles in this series will include: Travelling Locally with your Pet, Pet Passports for entry to the UK, Vaccinations recommended for pets in general, Airline Travel Regulations for animals, Transporting your Pet Long Distance, Identifying your Pets, Getting Veterinary care abroad, Diseases and Illness Abroad, Quarantine and Kennelling Regulations.

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posted by Travel Cat on Jun 17

Want To Learn A New Language?

Just a quick note here to say that Rosetta Stone have recently been advertising a great deal on their language courses.

If you are like me, you want to learn a new language as you travel a lot, and you really want to be able to communicate with the locals. Maybe this is for you.

I’ve Tried Before…… 
We’ve all tried learning a language in dribs and drabs from various short courses from the library, and always find yourself starting of at the beginning again after you gave up the last time. So there you go again with saying ‘where you are from’ and ‘how to order a cheese and ham sandwich’ for the 5th time!!

Not so anymore. The internationally recognised Rosetta Stone language school is offering you a money-back guarantee with their teaching packs - basically if you haven’t grasped your chosen language within 6 months - they will give you a full refund!

Full refund - after 6 months. Now there’s a deal worth investigating, and there are some reasons to learn a foreign language other than to get a drink.

What Levels Are There? 
With 3 different levels for each language offered you can start at the beginning only (around $250/£125), or set yourself up for the whole deal with a package for all 3 levels ($610/£305) - with over 50 hours tuition with each level, 1:1 feedback throughout the courses and easy to use software - you may finally be able to have a conversation with that Russian chess player you always wanted to get some tips from or ask that Argentinian cowboy what it feels like to gallops across the plains of Patagonia.

With over 30 different languages to choose from including both Spanish (for Spain) and Spanish (for Latin America) Brazilian Portuguese and American English, you don’t even need to worry about the known variations and pronunciations of these common languages to get by.

Go online to www.rosettastone.co.uk/mac03  to get more details and take advantage of this offer. I don’t know when the offer ends - so this link won’t last forever…..

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posted by Travel Cat on Jun 8

SocialSpark From Izea.

A new social marketing network has begun to rival all others!

It connects bloggers like myself (and possibly you) with advertisers who prefer to use the blogosphere as a way to promote visitor numbers to their sites - with the possibility of earning some money for doing what you already enjoy!! They are already paying people (like me now) to go an investigate this new site and see what it’s all about - to get the word out.

What’s it all about? 
It’s actually a great place to meet other bloggers in your subject area, and those who are writing about some of the most unusual things!!! I went inside the site for a look myself and found a growing community of both bloggers and advertisers already in there …..

I went in as a visitor first, to see how everything was set up, and how the information I entered was going to be displayed, and found some great blogs - and there is so much information on offer from each profile. And it’s really a bonus to be able to view all this without having to set up an account as well, as it encourages you to go in and have a look around before plunging in to something new.

Green Me: 
I searched for ‘Travel’ and browsed a few people already there, and found one I particularly liked - she was called ‘green me’ which I liked straight off, and her photograph was very welcoming - and a quick browse of her interests and subject tags were a good match for mine.

She is apparently very well liked here - with 455 friends after only being a member of the site for less than 8 weeks! She has also got a high number of ‘props’ - I’m not 100% sure what they are, but the symbol is a ‘thumbs up’ so it must be good news!!!

Also - just off to the right of the page is a link to her blog itself as well as a link straight to her latest blog post. So rather than clicking through a number of pages like some other sites have you do, to get a look at what she has to offer - you go there in one click.

It’s a bit confusing with the rankings on the site, as there are different scores for your profile and each of your blogs, so there’s going to be a lot of ‘ranking jargon’ to work my way through to get to grips with how it all works - but I really like the way it can introduce others to your current blog posts, so after filling in my profile details (yes, I became a member) - I can’t wait to start earning some more money……….

Care to join me at SocialSpark???

This is a paid post.

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posted by Travel Cat on Apr 28

Yep, it’s true - 3 months in and look at how much we have covered!

All the categories are starting to fill up with vacation info and tips, readers are making comments and sending in their Reader Postcards and I am having just the best time.

After a fantastic month in Costa Rica I am hoping to start introducing my photo’s to new vacation posts (which are a bit behind due to having too much fun while out there!!).

There are plenty more tips to come your way as well as facts about some of the most amazing places on earth, as well as locations closer to home. Add to this some alternative holidays and volunteer placements and you won’t get bored!

Hope you are enjoying it so far, and as always, any comments are welcome.

Cat

posted by Travel Cat on Apr 2

Sorry.  Couldn’t resist…..

Cat