Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Sep 14

Don’t step any further than your own lap to find your next ultimate vacation!

There are so many holidays out there to search through – you need something these days to make things easier – and a travel search engine is the way to go if you are searching for cheap or last minute holidays.

No need to traipse around town into all the different travel agents – or to spend hours on hold listening to some terrible music from the ’80s. Just click a few dates and the computer does the rest!

1) The first way to start planning your next cheap vacation is location based thinking!
You decide on 1 or 2 places that you would love to visit and then search for them first in a search engine or travel website.  Usually you type the destination name and then a whole range of hotels come up and you then find ones you like and see if they have rooms for the dates you prefer – usually ranked on closeness to city centre, cost per night, or the websites favorite choices (sometimes influenced by sponsorship – sometimes influenced by other website users).

So for example if you wanted to find Barcelona hotels close to the city centre this would be the ideal way for you to search for your next trip.  You get to look only at the hotels that are in your price range within minutes walking distance to the sights you want to see. No one pressurising you to pick a hotel you hadn’t read all the details for.

What could be easier?

2) The second way is for group based thinking where your group size, available vacation dates or vacation budgets are the main interest points.

This type of searching require more specific details to be used before the searching begins – but can infact bring you up more holiday choices than you may have considered.

By inadvertently filtered out all those expensive 5* hotels and all the dates you can’t do – you actually end up with a wide spread of countries and a huge choice of locations and hotel facilities to choose from.

For example, there might be a lovely cabin in the mountains with a pool for a family of 6 that you would never have thought to look for in the first place, or a great harbour apartment for a September weekend in Croatia or Morocco that would never have even crossed your mind before.

And because you aren’t under any pressure from a sales person to make a decision there and then – you can open up a new window online and check out the location, hotels and even an entire country before you choose to book. Now you can’t do that in a travel agents can you?

So before you head into town or pick up the phone to book your next trip – consider doing the research yourself online – with websites specifically designed to make searching easier!

posted by Travel Cat on Sep 10

It has started raining here in the UK – so it must be the end of Summer!

We still have some great articles though – as it’s still warm and sunny almost everywhere else in the world I suppose!

Lets open up with a nice one that is great at any time of year – but especially when you don’t really want to go outside: so take a peak at Erin Lenderts 50+ Beautiful & Inspiring Books that Teachers Should Read This Summer to kick off!

If you still have the summer parties or birthdays/Halloween to consider, then maybe take some advice from Debra Jacobson who has strung together some great tips on How To Be Frugal: Saving on Child Entertainment.  And if saving money is your thing, then you may also find MoneyedUp’s article on Things to do on Vacation for Cheap if you have a trip already booked.

Then there are these 4 great articles about real trips that you have been on with your kids – as always with some great shots along the way! 

First up is Pamela with her interesting take on a trip to a Disney theme park with California Adventure, followed by Charla Pearen’s article with a ‘more pictures than words’ theme in High Park Home Daycare: Taking a Toddler to Paris.

And then One Family offers a short story on a day out hiking at a tourist spot in One Family’s Blog: Hiking in Oahu – A Trip Report and ending with a regular poster here with a though provoking article on overseas ‘petting’ zoo’s: A Tiger Petting Zoo « Travels with a Nine Year Old from Theodora.

See you in October!

posted by Travel Cat on Jul 10

Welcome back for the summer holidays – and if you are running out of ways to entertain the kids – then we have some help for you here!

There are always plenty of ideas of kids entertainment.  Some parents prefer to pay for a theme park or other activities like rides and zoos, whereas other tend to take them in a more creative direction with making things, playing close to home, wildlife skills and family time.  So we really get a wide range or articles here – and hopefully you will enjoy those given below in this summer carnival.

Lets start with the best thing a mother or father could have when it comes to traveling with kids: A planner. Here, Bill Tyler helps you decide which type would be best for you with: How to Pick the Right Mom Organizer – obviously they work just as well for dads!

And filling the Summer Holidays with just such a plan is Alejandra Halvorssen with Summer Plans, Again for this school break!

Next a lovely little photojournal of the next step in a regular: where Theodora and her 9 year old bring us: Round Halong Bay by Junk with yet more great photos.

And why not take a leaf out of Phillip Lopez book, and plan to take your kids on one of these 10 Amazing Religious Pilgrimages. Not only will they be away from all the regular holiday-makers, rides and cotton candy – they will be experiencing a different culture and learning the respect of the old ways – they don’t need to be religious to follow a pilgrimage, but it is certainly a great experience for anyone.

Now, we come to the creative things for the kids to pass the time. Lets start with these 2 quickies from Joleen Parker; first up is Festive Flip-Flops « Jobie’s Crafts, then have some fun decorating your Summer Fun Tote « Jobie’s Crafts – just try not to get confused by all the ad’s in the posts……

Then finally – feast your eyes upon Olivia Davis seemingly endless list of things for the kids to do: Kids Summer Activity List: 100 Creative and Cheap Summer Activities For Your Kids. Maybe even getting the kids to spend time talking abut the list in the first place could kill another 3 hours!

Enjoy yourselves as much as the kids!

posted by Travel Cat on Jun 10

Summer is here again – and the sun is shining!

And just about the time of year when you are planning your summer vacations and short weekend trips – and also the time when the kids want to be out in the sunshine but you still have regular chores to do and need to keep them occupied!

So first off we have a short one for the journey to start the trip on the right foot, so Host Bee helps us with her Tip Tuesday – Easy Travel with Kids on Board!. Phew, step 1 complete!

And to add to this – for journeys, airports, bus stations or just while you just need some rest yourself try Wendy’s inspirational ideas for Summer Worksheets. Add to this with this short article – with ideas that could keep the kids quiet for hours – Rachel gives us her idea for a Fun Activity Box.

Mike Vogt steps in next with his twist on 10 Great Mission Trip Ideas, for an adventure that is totally different to anything else you might have planned.

Next up we have 2 stories about holiday adventures already in the making: First up is this little one from Michele Hays: Sundays with Sparky – Sparky’s excellent Strawberry Adventure, followed by Roger Elmore’s ideas for the 10 Best Amusement Park Resorts from his experiences.

And finally, a very helpful article from Sandrine Berges about her journeys with a special little person and how to overcome any difficulties with some forward planning with her experiences of How to get an autistic child onto a plane and out again..

So, I hope you can all use these stories and tips to make you vacation even better – and to make sure that you enjoy your trip as much as the kids!

Send me the photos!

posted by Travel Cat on May 26

It is really easy these days to get information on any type of travel – so why not try something completely different! 

Imagine being in the absolute middle of nowhere – places that noone else you know has ever seen. places that aren’t even on your friend’s list of places to see this year – or in the next 10 years – like shark-watching 10,000 miles east of Australia, or watching a hit movie just miles from the Antarctic?

You want this?  If so - you need to get yourself on a cargo ship.  You can find them heading out around the world every day of the year from almost every big port in the world!

Now I know that doesn’t sound appealing to everyone – but the things you see will certainly be ‘once in a lifetime’.  Imagine the adventure of being 3 months at sea! Or sailing through the Panama Canal – and out past remote uninhabited Pacific Islands.

The Ultimate Vacation?
It could really be a vaction like nothing you have ever done before – or are likely to do again!

Of course it doesn’t have to be that long a time away, and you can choose some routes that are a lot closer to land and stop of at some pretty nice looking destinations along the way.   And you don’t need to stay onboard for the entire journey – you can hop off at any port along the way and just see where life takes you.

Those less adventurous might want to know exactly where they are going in advance – but that’s OK too – as the ship’s cargo has to go from A to B – that’s the whole point of them crossing the oceans in the first place – so you can guarantee a definite stopping point at the end – whereas you can’t always guarantee a stopping point in the middle!

Maybe you would prefer a trip from the UK to Australia like in the pioneering days of exploration – thankfully there is luxury these days, and it only takes around 84 days rather than the 6 months it probably took the average passenger a few hundred years ago!

Or maybe the 2 month trip from South America to the Far East, the 35 day trip from the US to the Mediterranean, or even the 7 day voyage around the British Isles checking up on all the lighthouses!

The Result:
Well, rather than telling your travel stories like everyone else – ‘when I was in Mexico…..’ or ‘when my family went to Hawaii’ – you can start your story with how many continents you cruised past, or how many miles you traveled in 1 day!

It will certainly be like nothing you have ever experienced before.  The people you will meet, the countries you will encounter – and the extreme weather you could get to witness first hand!  Imagine writing a travel journal of your voyage – just like Darwin did!

It might be worth trying out a few shorter boat journeys before you settle for something long-haul - as if you get seasick, this might not be the vacation for you!

Of course, check that your travel insurance covers your whole journey, and your passport is valid for the whole time you are away – and your vaccinations are current for all countries you might stop off at on the way.  Bad weather or maintenance could land you at any time in any country – so be prepared!

If you are still interested, then visit GeoCities Freighter for other peoples experiences on Cargo Ships and read their tips before booking your own once-in-a-lifetime ‘mega-cruise’.