Disabled travelers listen up!

When traveling and you are legally disabled, remember to get a free, lifetime AccessPass to gain free admission at all Federal Parks across the United States. Along with this discount individuals who are handicapped may use the AccessPass to enjoy many other discounts including camping, swimming, boat launching, and guided tours. When taking your vacation, or going on a road trip, do not leave home without your AccessPass.

Vacation With A DisabilityAccessPass

The AccessPass is a lifetime pass to enter National Parks at no charge as you travel around the U.S. You must be medically disabled and will need one of the following as proof.

1. Statement by a licensed physician;

2. Document issued by Federal agency such as the Veteran's Administration, Social Security Disability Income, or Supplemental Security Income; or

3. Document issued by a State agency such as a vocational rehabilitation agency.

DisabilityNationalAccessPass

Where To Obtain an Access Pass To Take On Your Vacation — You can not order an National Parks Access Pass online since you need to provide documentation about your disability and residency. Go in person to one of these offices to obtain your AccessPass, 1. National Park Service;

2. Fish & Wildlife Service;

3. Bureau of Land Management;

4. USDAForest Service; or

5. Bureau of Reclamation.

If you are already traveling purchase your Pass at the entrance of any FederalPark.

Use the AccessPass, for the Handicapped, When Vacationing

This lifetime pass, for those who are disabled, will admit one vehicle into National Parks where there is an admission fee. The disabled person must provide a picture identification to verify they are the pass owner. As you determine your travel or vacation itinerary it is suggested that you contact the site they plan to visit to see if the AccessPass is accepted.

· The Forest Service,

· The National Park Service,

· Federal Recreation lands, Fish and Wildlife Service,

· Bureau of Land Management, and

· Bureau of Reclamation honor the AccessPass.

· Be sure to inquire before you leave for your trip.

DisabledAccessPass Travel Amenities

General discounts are available at many other venues while traveling and sightseeing. They include 1.individual campsite the card owner is occupying. 2. Utility fees at campsites when that fee is included in the cost of the campsite. 3. Guided Tours: Present your AccessPass to see is they honor it and only the owner of the pass qualifies for the discount. Some local amenities include Transportation Systems and Special Use Permit Fees. Anything local needs to be inquired on locally.

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I hope this helps you enjoy your travels more! I wish you all the best!

Travel Expert Shares Cheap Hotel Sources

Vacationing is more popular in recent years, thriving with tourists who love to vacation and who are vacationing more than ever. This boom in vacationers puts a burden on many holiday services important to the industry. Airplane pilots, taxi drivers, hotel management, tour conductors and more are experiencing a mass of confusion. The larger number of customers makes in difficult to manage their services as efficiently as usual.
Daily problems occur throughout the industry. All around the globe people who have booked rooms ahead show up to rooms that are not there anymore, they have been given to someone else. They also may find that there are more fees than expected attached to the rooms. As vacationers rum into these obstacles and as the obstacles mount up, it becomes more and more possible that they will tuck tail and run back home, forfeiting their vacations altogether.

Snags like this will happen often times when a person does not get professional help of some kind when booking his reservations. Airports, hotels and other commodities frequented by travelers have such a large turnover each day that it takes professional experience, like that available online through online travel booking agencies, to guide a vacationer around the bends and snags and give them a clear picture of what to expect and a smooth journey to their proposed accommodations with no rude surprises greeting them upon arrival. The booking services available online are very good at providing customers with an error free vacation package, that carries with it no snags.

What do vacationers see in these online booking services? Persons planning their vacations will find upon logging on to these sites, the professional appearance. As they proceed to investigate, they find they can choose a destination hotel and what type of room they desire easily and quickly for any destination city they like. After booking a room, they will also receive a confirmation through their email which offers them reassurance that their reservations will not be lost or confused with someone else. At the same time you are sent your confirmation email, the hotel you are going to stay at is also sent one. One more thing you will receive when you book online is a voucher to give the clerk at the hotel’s check in desk.
Another good thing for travelers booking with long standing online services is the royal treatment they may receive by doing so. A booking service builds up a positive image over the years with repeated bookings and gains the trust of hotels and others in the tourist industry. It is this good reputation that causes hotels and others in the travel industry to offer deals and star treatment to guests who book with these agencies. You can take advantage of this, even if you are a new customer, by using the long standing booking agency to arrange your trip.

One more professional advantage offered by online booking services, are the newsletters they provide to their customers. The newsletters offer hotel booking everywhere in the world at surprising discounts. Newsletters provided to travelers also provide other tips on saving money and ideas on how to vacation at these various destinations. The online companies will mail you their newsletters at your request.
Chris Linch has a website that has Great Hotel Rates. If you want to save a lot of money on your booking, follow the tips above and visit his website. They have the low price guarantee and all rooms are prepaid, save 40%!

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There! More tips on how to save money!

Growth recorded in number of people booking flights online

More people are expected to book their flights using the internet this year as the online travel market continues to grow.

This is according to new research by PhoCusWright, which has predicted that online travel bookings will increase by three per cent in 2009, despite the difficulties surrounding the economy.

Almost half of Britain's travel market is now booked online, with leisure and business travel internet bookings totalling 45 per cent of the market so far this year.

Research director at PhoCusWright Carroll Rheem said "significant changes" in travel patterns have been caused by currency devaluation as well as the recession.

"For example, the blow to domestic travel has been relatively soft while the fall-off in UK visitors to the Mediterranean has been significant," she explained.

"Online channels also benefit from these trends as consumers turn to the internet to help them discover and sift through the many attractive holiday options in the marketplace."

A separate PhoCusWright survey recently revealed that corporate travel is expected to decline this year because of the recession.

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As I predicted, lots of growth in travel and entertainment. People wanted to forget about the recession. Well I have to say we still need to work hard, then that's the time to reward yourself and travel. XD

Most Popular Promotional Offers For Online Travel Websites

What kind of promotional offers do customers expect from the online travel agents websites? A little study by About.com revealed the following results (based on percent of respondents)

Discount coupons on airfare : 70%
Discount coupons on hotels : 67%
All-inclusive packages : 49%
Discount coupons on activities and food : 49%
First time buyer discount programs : 40%
Repeat buyer discount programs : 28%




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Eat it up travel-hungry people!

Hunt for the Best Vacation Packages

Finding the best vacation packages is challenging! It involves lot of research and investigations to find something best and feasible matching your deals and pocket. Generally travelers long to get the adventurous travel packages that are pretty feasible and budget-friendly. Prior deciding which part of the globe you desire to hang around, just make sure to check and examine the package received from the concerned travel agent of the company who is going to assist you in your trip.

Examining the vacation packages will help you to be aware of all the coverage plans and the total amount of money you should spend during your trip. Also, you can easily get to know if the tourist or travel agent is pretty generous and honest with you as well.

With the best access of top insurance mediators and representing several travel associates, there are number of travel agents and companies giving the best and stupendous assistance in discovering the best holiday destination that dearly matches your dreams under your budget. The underwriters and intermediaries are controlled and approved by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) and thereby it gives a comprehensive serenity of mind.

When researching on the internet, you can find the best service provider that grants top quality service with complete flexibility. Also, the travel agents or companies provide a sensible rate, which could really fix your budget very closer. With intent to give wide-cut service to public and the travel trade, these travel agents has specialized to cater the travel niches to the people.

Knowing the needs and demands of the people, cheap travelers or agents will dearly abet you in getting the best holiday travel insurance quote and policy. You can afford the policy that matches your price rate and budget. Basically, the holiday travel insurance quotes and policy begins from £5. Are you looking ahead to find the best service to assist you in your every travel workout? Finding the cheap travel agents is the best and wisest choice! Doing so, you can envision your desires and dreams. The outstanding benefits and quality features that cheap4travel offers is that, they take a complete responsibility in giving the utmost care in meeting the demands of their customer.

A good and capable team has been organized in order to produce an efficacious balance in financial, technical, marketing, travel expertise. Moreover, cheap travelers or agents provide the right service, what the customers expect and look for. With the right assistance of professionals, the online travel group grants a round the clock customer support in clearing out the queries of its customers. Through this stupendous assistance, people find cheap travel agents to be more reliable and flexible to meet their expectations right away.

Whatsoever may be the case, just make sure that you investigate better before finalizing the travel agent. Make sure to check through their reviews and customer ratings. All these will help you to conclude how legitimate they are! This is of course simple and easy to do, and try it you can save something good.


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Investigate, investigate and investigate some more! Now go on and travel! :D

How to avoid crowded airports this holiday season

By Joe Ascanio

We have all seen the lines – wrapping around the dividers at the check-in counters, jam-packing the security queues. And the worst part? That is just on a regular day. So what happens on, say, Thanksgiving – the busiest travel day of the year?

A new post by the Orbitz Insider Index has just announced the busiest airports for Thanksgiving, with Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver taking the top three spots. Interestingly enough, New York-area airports ranked 7-9, narrowly beating Seattle which squeezed itself into the number 10 spot.

Where to expect the smallest crowds? Check out San Jose, CA, followed by Nashville and then Richmond, VA.

But, regardless of your departure site and/or destination, there are some friendly and useful tips that just may make your holiday travel a little bit easier.
Go small and flexible

You will find that planning in advance can make all the difference. One thing to think about before buying those tickets is whether or not you can fly out of smaller, alternative airports. Typically, these usually commuter-based hubs are much easier to navigate and less crowded. For example, if you are traveling in or out of New York, consider White Plains Westchester County Airport (HPN). Heading into or out of Los Angeles? Check out the scene in Burbank (BUR) or Orange County (SNA). Sure, tickets in or out of these airports tend to be in a higher price range, but you never know. Besides, sometimes time and aggravation outweigh all costs.
Save time

If at all possible, use online check-in. You will instantly bypass half the line-time. Print your boarding pass at home, and have them (and your ID) ready as you approach the security line. Most major airports now offer easy-to-use baggage check kiosks if you are traveling with luggage.
Stay informed

Check the status of your flight before you leave for the airport, as well as traffic conditions en route. There are a multitude of online and mobile tools that offer free flight status updates for your PDA or mobile phone. Also, most airlines offer real-time flight stats on their websites.

Also, staying informed means staying safe. Airport security can be a daunting endeavor - Keep anything and everything you need to show airport security such as ID, boarding passes, liquids in a zip-top bag, or medication, in a separate compartment of your carry-on bag. Digging for these items once you get to the front of the security line will cause delays and certainly not make you any friends.


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Don't leave for the airport without reading this article. It might save you from potential headaches.

How and Why You Should Pack a Single Bag

This holiday season Virgin America has announced a plan to reward travelers who save the stuffing for their turkeys rather than their carry-on bags. But you'll need a few extra skills to get where you're going without breaking your budget or ditching your wardrobe.
Travelers can hardly be blamed for loading up the overhead compartments. Boarding an airplane is always a cattle call during the holiday season. Since airlines began charging for bag-check it's become more of a stampede. Baggage fees for the industry topped $670 million in the second quarter of 2009, and people are now doing all they can to avoid them. In fact, plane aisles have become so packed before takeoff that Virgin America recently began letting those without any carry-ons board first.
Enter the conundrum: Check an extra suitcase, and you'll pay for it. Stuff it all in a carry-on and you'll wait forever to board, get to your destination later, spontaneously combust, etc. The answer? The One-Bag Movement--a corps of uniquely efficient pack-rats pushing us all to "travel and even live indefinitely out of one [lightweight] bag." Coupled with Virgin's new offer, it could seriously reduce the weight of holiday travel stress.
While "bundle" packing might sound a bit hobo, it's actually quite a space saver. Check out this One-Bag diagram:

The pictures should give you the gist of it, but get a step-by-step guide at Onebagger.Squarespace.
Other helpful tips: Swap out that electric razor for a less bulky manual one. Give away books when you are done reading them, or at least use online networking sites like this one to exchange them with other One-Baggers who have left novels adrift in various towns. Most importantly, remember that you are ditching all non-essentials--including the pressure to always bring home those cheesy souvenirs.

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Plus a single pack is more convenient to tag along with you on long lines and stuff.

Do you think you have what it takes to be a travel writer? Then submit a travel essay based on your personal experience and you may just get Win a Travel Writing Scholarship 2010 with travel mentor, Simon Richmond. The scholarship includes airfare, accommodations, meals and travel expense to Tokyo, Japan where you will be staying for 7 days to write for "The Rough Guide to Japan" travel guide and another 4 days to enjoy "Flavours of Tokyo" tour with Intrepid Travel. This is a great opportunity for non-professional writers!

Contest Requirements:

• Open to students, emerging and non-professional writers and lovers of travel looking for a career change
• High degree of proficiency in written English
• Must be comfortable doing some travel on your own
• Minimum age 18 with a current passport
• Be available between February 15 - 26 2010 to participate in 'The Rough Guide to Japan' writing assignment and "Flavours of Tokyo" independent tour with Intrepid Travel
  

Contest Mechanics:

1. Write a 500 word (or less) travel focused essay based on a personal experience around one of the following themes:
   
• 'A Journey that Changed Lives'
• 'Responsible Travel'
• 'Adventure in an Unknown Culture'
• 'A Memorable Experience Involving Food in a Foreign Country'
2. Judging Criteria
• great descriptive ability
• strong eye for detail
• ability to uncover and tell a compelling story
• excellent spelling and grammar and a knack for avoiding clichés
3. Entry Guidelines
• Complete an entry form which includes contact details and a 200 word (or less) essay on why you should be chosen and what the opportunity will mean for you
• must be submitted in English
4. One entry per person
5. View complete contest mechanics

Contest Period: November 6 - December 21, 2009 (11.59PM AEST)

Contest Prize:

• Scholarship Prize (Total prize value of scholarship is approximately AUD$7,760)
• 1x return economy flight to trip destination Narita Tokyo departing from the nearest international airport to the scholarship recipient's home
  
• 7 day assignment in Tokyo, Japan, reviewing and updating for The Rough Guide to Japan, including a stipend of AU$100 a day to cover meals and local transport
• 7 day 3-4 star accommodation in Tokyo, Japan with Hotels.com
• 4 day "Flavours of Tokyo" independent tour with Intrepid Travel including accommodation, activities and some meals
• Mentorship with travel writer Simon Richmond of Rough Guide
  
  

Upside:

• FREE to do
• Online submission
• Great opportunity for non-professional writers
  

Downside:

• Open worldwide
• Only 1 winner

For more information, log on to journals.worldnomads.com


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This is great! If you want to join then dont hesitate to look at the website shown abovc.


I wish you luck!

Cheapest Travel Destinations

Cheapest Travel Destinations
By: Cheap Travel Deals

Greetings,

Actually there are two ways to look at
what constitutes the cheapest travel
destinations.

We all know that the air fare we must pay
to get to any destination is the largest single
expense of a trip….always….so cheaper
air fare to whatever destination makes
that a cheap destination even if you
are going to spend more money while you
are there.

The other thing that makes a cheap destination,
even if you must spend more on air fare getting
there, is if you are going to spend a lot less
while you are there.

More Information:

The way to decide what the cheapest
destinations really are for yourself is
to know what is the most important to
you…..where you are going or how much
you are going to pay to get there.

Really cheap airfare to a place you
never had any desire to see isn’t a
bargain. A more expensive air fare to a
place you cant wait to see where the
cost of being there will be less might
be the best bargain. It really is up to
you.

More Information:

The exchange rate is the most important
thing to look at when deciding how
expensive visiting a destination will
be. You can find online exchange rate
calculators free by typing “exchange
rate” into your favorite search engine.

You will find that the better exchange
rates are in Mexico, South America and
less developed countries….which are all
great vacation spots.

More Information:
Cheap Travel Deals
Here are my top three picks for vacation
destinations that wont break the bank:

1. Las Vegas: You can find
amazing vacation packages. Las Vegas has
long been known for its cheap vacation
packages with hotels and resorts that
offer discount rates for rooms, meals
and entertainment in hopes of attracting
people to their gaming tables.

2. Buenos Aires: South American
also has many destinations that are
affordable because of the savings once
you arrive.

3. Tioman Island: It is located
at the southern end of the east coast
of Malaysia on the South China Sea. The
rates are amazingly affordable, with a
two night lodging package for a suite
at a lovely ocean side resort averaging
around 100 U.S. dollars.

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Well if you're in the west, then these travel ideas are really a good option.

But!

If you're living in asia, Hongkong is the cheapest travel destination to go to. Cheap things to buy too. :D

TravelDaddy.com - For Those Who Love Traveling

Travel Daddy can be defined as new online community which is aimed at travelers everywhere. Here, people from across the globe can network and share their traveling experiences and photographs. Besides (and perhaps most importantly) they will be capable of finding the best travel partner for them in order to embark on journeys together. The information which is provided on the site makes it very easy to research destinations, as the photos and reviews which are shared are illustrative enough for anybody to make up his or her mind.

By now, it is entirely obvious that the travel industry is one if the industries that has been benefited the most by the World Wide Web. That was only to be expected, in a certain sense. This particular networking site, now, fills in a gap as it lets travelers who are always looking for a fun travel partner get to know one, and also learn more about the destinations they can hit together at the very same time. If you are already a seasoned traveler, you are bound to maximize it. And if you are just taking your first steps, a site like this one will most likely guide you in the right direction.


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Another good online option for travel bookings and destinations. :D

Traveling Cheap For The Holidays

Traveling Cheap For The Holidays
By Von-Anise McCoy November 11, 2009 2:28 pm



The Holiday Season is a time when family and friends get together but if you are living in another state of country away from your family, then this can prove to be difficult because no one wants to be alone for the holidays. Traveling this season has proven to be especially challenging due to the financial climate so plan ahead. Booking early is key and if you have not done so by today’s date, most of those deals are coming to an end but there is still a bit of hope.

Travel by train: Train fares do not change much based on need but the fairs will vary based on dates. Go to Amtrak.com where you can view the weekly deals sections.


Travel by bus: Bus fares do not change much based on need or time of travel like airline flights.

* If you book on-line a day, in advance on greyhound.com then the fee can be up to %50 off.
* If you look at local bus services in your area that provide deals, like Chinatown bus in the Northeast or California shuttle in California for local frequently traveled routes.

Travel by plane: Plane fares are the hardest to get a discounts on because the holiday season is when the airline industry makes most of the money. The industry has even added a $10 fee for holiday travel in addition to the $20 per bag for more than one piece of luggage therefore, make sure that you travel lite.

* If you travel early on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning then you will see a considerable discount.
* Call and speak to an actual live person on the phone, as long as you are not assessed a fee for the operator, that person can really help guide you toward the best deal that fits your needs, try sites like www.expedia.com.


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This is for people who love to go to different locations during the holidays. Yes, you could still haggle for ticket prices in this high-tech world. After all, it's still people that's behind the computers. Talking personally is top 1, then a phone call is not that bad either.

Have a happy trip!

Photo Hotel Reviews Compare Promotional Images to Reality

Online hotel review service Oyster features a Photo Fakeout category in their blog that gives a reality check to hotel reviews, pitting a hotel's promotional images with actual photographs.

The only disappointing thing about Oyster's Photo Fakeouts is that there aren't more of them—and that this isn't the dedicated feature of any site we can find. Popular travel planning and review site TripAdvisor allows for user-submitted photo uploads, which are nice, and I've sometimes had good luck searching Flickr for the name of hotels, but it'd be great to see something like these Photo Fakeouts in an easily searchable database.

As weblog Of Zen and Computer points out, it's worth noting that pictures can be manipulated to look bad in much the same way as they can to look good. That said, sometimes the difference is clear and egregious, and it's nice to get a reality check before you book.

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I don't buy this much. Ever since photoshop's developed you could con any person to think that the place looks great eventhough its not. But lets see how this one turns out.