Welcome to our site. Here's a link to some of out Most Popular Posts

If you like what you see why not subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also help us by bookmarking this page with any of the buttons at the bottom of each article. Follow us on Twitter for travel deals and travel related news, questions and conversations. Thanks for visiting!

Halloween is right around the corner and many cities around the United States are offering deals to haunted hotels and other ghostly locales.

Salem, Massachusetts, home to the famous witch trials in 1692, offers many ghost tours and other special Halloween events. From just under $700, you can get a three night package that includes tickets to the annual Halloween night costume ball at the historic Hawthorne Hotel, as well as a three night stay at the nearby Emerson Inn. You can get more information and book this deal at emersoninnbythesea.com.

New Orleans, Louisiana is a great place to celebrate Halloween. Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter has been home to many mysterious events. They are offering a special Haunted Halloween Weekend package that includes two night hotel stay and murder mystery activities for the three days from Oct 31 to Nov 2. Rates start at $479 per person and can be booked online at hotelmonteleone.com or by calling (800) 535-9595.

San Antonio, Texas offers a variety of ghost tours and other haunted events around the famous San Antonio River. Stay at the historic Gunter Hotel for a special rate of $169 for Halloween with a two night stay. The deal includes breakfast for two at Barron’s restaurant. Call (866) 716-8134 and ask for rate plan FMLTO1.

photo credit: Svenstorm

If you are a student who does a lot of traveling, you are well aware of how quickly the expenses add up. It is not uncommon for a student who goes home during the holidays while in college to rack up a significant amount in travel expenses.

Thankfully, Southwest Airlines now has a program that can help college students save money. The program, which is called the Southwest Airlines College Rapid Rewards Program, allows college students between the ages of 18 and 23 to earn free airline tickets. Simply pay for three round trip tickets from Southwest Airlines and you will then be eligible for the free ticket.

In Southwest Airlines’ normal Rapid Rewards program, it usually takes at least 8 round trip flights (16 credits) to earn a free ticket. However students will earn four bonus credits for enrolling, plus they’ll get one bonus credit for each one-way flight they make while they are enrolled in the program.

With 60 destinations, Southwest Airlines reaches most major college cities in the United States. To enroll, students can go to Southwest.com/rrenroll/college. On that page, you can read more about the program and complete your registration for the Southwest Airlines College Rapid Rewards Program. Every little bit of savings helps. Read more from the Seattle Times to learn about other special travel programs for students.

photo credit: Ack Ook

As expected, the economic crisis is taking a large toll on the travel industry. For September, both major airlines and hotels are reporting steep declines in business. According to the New York Times, the seven major airlines carried 9.2% fewer passengers, domestically and internationally, in September 2008 compared to the same month in 2007, while many fares are 15-25% higher than last year.

According to Smith Travel Research, domestic hotel occupancy was down 5% over the previous September as well. As the holiday season isn’t far off, things may get worse for the travel industry before it gets better. Traditionally, the holidays are extremely busy. But with many people choosing to stay home rather than travel over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the travel slump many continue into next year.

Many four- and five-star hotels, which usually aren’t effected much by economic downturns, are also reporting a decline in business. Third-quarter profits dropped 28% for Marriott International, one of the global giants in the hotel industry. With the Presidential election a month away, the banking crisis and the recession, airlines, hotels and other travel companies are in a scramble to lure the dwindling number of business and vacation travelers.

photo credit: richard winchell

With many people in the world “going green” and lending a helping hand to the world around them whenever possible, it is no surprise that the travel industry has seen a rise in the number of green travelers in recent years. Ecotourism is the name given to this still relatively new phenomenon that is quickly gaining steam.
Read the full story

If you are planning a vacation to a Walt Disney park, your best bet is to delay your trip to 2009 and get ready to celebrate your birthday Disney style. The reason being that Disney recently announced that free admission will be offered to those people celebrating a birthday.

To get the free admission, all you will have to do is show identification and proof of your birthday and you’ll be admitted at no cost. This deal is available at Disney parks in the United States such as Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

Although a birthday will get you into the park for free, everything else within the park will cost the same amount of money. Additionally, most birthday goers are expected to bring along friends and family to celebrate. For those reasons, many experts expect this marketing maneuver by Disney to make the company a substantial amount of money in the long run.

Disney will begin a series of television ads to promote their free birthday admission policy. Hollywood stars are already taking note, as Miley Cyrus has already announced that she will visit Disneyland on her 16th birthday.

For more information or to register your birthday visit, go to DisneyParks.com.
photo credit: mrkathika

United Airlines announced they are doubling their fee for a second checked bag. The new $50 one-way fee will apply to airline tickets bought beginning Tuesday, September 16 for travel beginning November 10. The airline cited fuel prices for the reason behind the increase.

The new fee will be applicable to flights within the United States, to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgins Islands. More and more airlines are beginning to up fees for extra baggage, inflight services, ticket changes and more.

In recent months, we have seen United along with Delta, Continental, U.S. Airways, Northwest and several other smaller airlines start to charge coach passengers for a second checked bag. United, Continental, U.S. Airways and Northwest also charge $15 for the first checked bag. Delta does not. Additionally some carriers are charging $100 or more for a third checked bag.

United says that airline fuel prices are still more than 50 percent higher than 2007, despite the fact that oil prices have fallen in recent weeks. After reaching a high of $147 a barrel, the price of oil was $96 on Monday. Hopefully this decline will continue and soon be reflected in jet fuel prices.

photo credit: ny156uk

The prestigious World Travel Awards North and Central America Ceremony took place this past weekend in Orlando. Everybody and anybody in the world of the travel was at the event, which was held at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin and sponsored by Eurostar.

American Airlines took top honors as “North America’s Leading Airline,” while the St. Regis Hotel, New York was named “North America’s Leading Hotel.” The 15th World Travel Awards winners were voted by travel agents around the globe. Read the full story

Today marks the opening of a new travel service that caters to the needs of plus-size and tall travelers. Big & Tall Travel, the new service out of Dallas, offers special rates for optimal seat assignments and affordable hotel and suite accommodations. Additionally, they handle many other unique needs of big and tall travelers.

“Sitting in a coach seat for a transcontinental flight or an international flight can be unbearable for those who need extra room, which is why we started Big & Tall Travel,” says owner and President, Charles Brossman.

Big & Tall Travel offers the handling of second economy seats, upgrades to first class and a variety of other special services for vacation and business travelers. You can learn more about Big & Tall Travel by visiting their website at bigandtalltravel.com. Their website states that you can sit in business or first class “at a significant discount (up to 60% off).”

Travelers who need more room are oftentimes embarrassed or just don’t know how to go about buying a second airline seat or getting an upgrade at a reduced rate. Big & Tall Travel was created to help simplify the travel plans and accommodations of the plus-size and tall travelers.

photo credit: irishflyguy

Do you want to take a trip into space? Well you can make your reservations now for the Galactic Suite Space Resort, even though the first trip into space isn’t scheduled until 2012. The much talked about project already has 38 people who have booked their space trip.

Galactic Suite Limited is private company that is developing a space tourism experience that includes an 18-week space travel training program at their space port on a Caribbean island. On the beautiful island, you will go through a brief astronaut training process and learn everything you need to know about heading out into space. After the training is complete, you take off on the Galactic Suite spaceship on 4-day trip that takes you 300 miles into space. Once on their spaceresort orbital station, you will complete 15 orbits of earth a day - seeing the sunrise every 45 minutes or so. Estimated cost is €3 million.

If you always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, now is your chance. To learn more about the project, visit galacticsuite.com or send an email to reservations@galacticsuite.com to make your reservation. The website doesn’t say how much money you have to put down to hold a reservation, but it’s expected to be 25% of the total cost of the space trip.

If you are planning to travel on Labor Day weekend, you may be surprised by the lack of crowds at airports. According to numerous reports, Labor Day weekend travel by air is expected to drop by almost 6% when compared to the 2007 numbers. Within the United States, the decrease could be as high as 8-10%.

Labor Day weekend in terms of travel is actually judged for the whole week. This year Labor Day is on Monday, September 1. Therefore, travel from August 27-September 3rd is not expected to be as hectic for travelers as this time of year is historically. While travelers should still head to the airport in plenty of time, they should also expect to find quicker than usual lines once in the airport.

Many factors are coming into play that will limit the Labor Day weekend travel. First of all, the skyrocketing fuel prices are forcing airlines to charge more per ticket. Fuel prices are up almost 80% from last year at this time and with most people having less disposable income, that isn’t a good combination. In addition to fuel prices, airlines simply aren’t traveling to as many destinations as they were this time last year.

If you can afford to travel during Labor Day weekend, this year would actually be a good year to travel. With less traffic at the airports and on the planes, you should be able to enjoy your airport experience much more than in recent years.