Here’s a budget-friendly tip for families traveling to New Mexico this January…
KOAT TV-7 in cooperation with Ski New Mexico and nine (9) of its resorts ( Angel Fire Resort, Pajarito Mountain, Red River Ski Areas, Ski Santa Fe, Sandia Peak, Ski Apache, Sipapu Ski Resort, Taos Ski Valley, and Nordic areas- Enchanted Forest ) have joined the nationwide efforts of “Learn a winter sports month” this January 2009 .
For a price of $30.00 per day a youth 6-12 may contact any one of the eight cooperating alpine ski resorts and make a reservation for the program. The program starts on January 5, 2009 and runs through January 31, 2009. *Please note: The program is space available by reservation only.
For reservations - Alpine
Angel Fire Resort 575-377- 4383
Pajarito Mt.. 505-662-5725
Red River Ski Area: 575-754-2223
Sandia Peak: 505-242-9052
Sipapu Ski Resort: 800-587-2240 or 505-414-1550
Ski Apache: -575-464-3600
Ski Santa Fe: 505-992-5084
Taos Ski Valley: 575-776-2291
For reservations- Nordic:
Enchanted Forest: 800-966-9381
For nationwide information on discounts and promotions related to Learn a Snow Sport Month, visit www.winterfeelsgood.com
Source: Ski New Mexico
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
NEW: Guides to Affordable Getaways
Check out these picks at TripAdvisor.com for your best local getaways, all under a gas tank away. Just tell em’ how far you want to travel, and they’ll show you all the top places to eat, sleep and play!
VERY COOL!
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Spend your holidays with The Moorings and save $2000* on a crewed yacht charter departing from the British Virgin Islands December 19 or 20, 2008 on their Signature 6200 Catamaran - the ultimate in luxury. Four luxurious passenger cabins with queen size mattresses and en suite lavatories with showers provide accommodations for up to 8 guests. A grand saloon provides completely separate lounging and dining areas, as well as a full entertainment center and cocktail bar. Your private yacht is your personal all-inclusive resort, so sit back, relax, and enjoy! To take advantage of this special offer, book by November 30th.
*New full yacht bookings of 6 days or longer. Subject to availability. $2000 off 6200 catamaran only. Book by Nov. 30, 2008 - not combinable with any other offer. Other restrictions may apply. Please contact your Moorings Vacation Planning Specialist for additional details. 800-437-7880; http://www.mooringscrewed.com/
Source: The Moorings
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Island Vacations – Easy on the Pocketbook
See a National Wildlife Refuge
When vacationers think of islands, many envision far-off and expensive destinations. Yet, the National Wildlife Refuge System – a network of public lands that spans about 97 million acres – offers a range of island destinations. From Alaska’s remotest islands in the Arctic Ocean to the subtropical “Spanish Virgin Islands” of Puerto Rico – as well as others scattered across the country — the Refuge System’s islands provide essential habitat for a vast array of birds and other wildlife. They offer enhancement to visitors who venture off the beaten path to experience them. The National Wildlife Refuge System is composed of 548 national wildlife refuges, with at least one in every state.
Ohio River Islands Refuge, Pennsylvania
It’s only 35 miles from Pittsburgh, but a world apart. Phillis Island, in Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, is a popular stopping place for recreational boaters to picnic on the sandy beach, fish for bass or simply watch the river go by. In fall, hunters pursue waterfowl or archery hunt for deer that swim to the island.
Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge stretches 362 miles of the upper Ohio River, from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, with 22 scattered islands and three mainland properties. While most of the islands are accessible only by boat, Middle Island, near St. Marys, WV, has a bridge with road access. This is the most commonly visited island in the refuge, and the largest at 235 acres.
The refuge, created in 1990, aims to “protect the Wild Ohio” by conserving habitat for migratory birds, freshwater mussels and other wildlife along the river. “The Ohio River has been regarded as a resource for industry, not so much a resource for wildlife. Now we see it has multiple dimensions,” says Visitor Services Manager Janet Butler. The Clean Water Act of 1972 improved the Ohio River’s water quality, reviving wildlife populations on and along the river, and making it more appealing for recreation, she says.
The islands of Ohio River Islands Refuge are among thousands within the National Wildlife Refuge System. For more information about the Ohio River Islands Refuge see http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=51660
Here is a sampling of some of the Refuge System’s other island jewels:
Oregon’s Spectacular Coast
From nearly every viewpoint on the Oregon coast, colossal rocks jut out of the Pacific Ocean creating postcard images. These rocks are protected as part of Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge includes 1,854 rocks, reefs and islands and two headland areas spanning 320 miles of the Oregon coast.
From April to August, the rocks and islands are covered with birds. The majority of Oregon’s estimated 1.2 million seabirds, including 13 different species, breed on the refuge. “They pack on any available space during breeding season,” says Visitor Services Manager Dawn Grafe. Seals and sea lions also use the rocks as “haulout” sites for resting and pupping. Simpson Reef near Charleston frequently hosts 6,000 seals and sea lions.
The birds and marine mammals found on the offshore rocks, reefs and islands are extremely susceptible to human disturbance, so the rocks are closed to the public year-round. But visitors get phenomenal views of the refuge and its wildlife from many state parks and other open spaces along the mainland. Mainland sites with viewing decks overlooking seabird colonies include Ecola State Park, Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint, Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, Heceta Head State Scenic Viewpoint, and Harris Beach State Park. Coquille Point, a unit of Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, is also open to visitors.
One unit of the Oregon Island Refuge that is open to visitors is Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge, where people can see one of the few remaining stands of coastal old growth forest in Oregon and the state’s largest Sitka spruce, estimated to be 700 to 800 years old. Visit Cape Meares Refuge between April and June each year, and see the fastest animal in the world – the peregrine falcon – raising chicks along the rocky headland. A pair of peregrine falcons has nested on the refuge since 1987. Hikers can enjoy several trails that wind through the headland and old-growth forest.
Also open to visitors is Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, the best known island of Oregon Islands Refuge, which juts 235-foot out into the ocean. At low tide, visitors can nearly walk up to it and explore nearby tidepools while tufted puffins fly overhead. Spotting scopes are available so visitors can get close-up views of the puffins.
For more about Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, see: http://www.fws.gov/oregoncoast/oregonislands/index.htm.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Save money and change your travel life for the better with these 25 tips from the editors at Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine.
- There are companies that will ship your luggage (or your skis or your golf gear…) so you don’t have to schelp them to and from airports. Here’s the thing: Most simply ship via FedEx or a similar service. You’ll save half - or even more - by going directly to FedEx.
- When booking a hotel room, never mention your membership discount privileges (AAA, AARP, military, government, etc.) until after you’ve been told the room rate.
- If you arrive in Orlando without a hotel reservation, go to the Official Visitor Center of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau (8723 International Drive, corner of Austrian Row). Ask for the “Black Book,” a list of cut-rate offers phoned in by frantic area hotels with vacancies for that evening. Orlando’s Official Visitor Center is open every day of the year except Christmas.
- Upscale hotels charge for just about everything: Telephone calls, Internet, breakfast, sometimes the gym…. Most of their guests are traveling on expense accounts and don’t put up a fuss. But mid-range hotels tend to include that stuff for free. When you’re not sure, ask before it’s too late.
- If you can round up at least two other couples to share the cost, you can rent a luxurious villa in the tropics. Unusual Villa & Island Rentals (800/846-7280 or 804/288-2823, www.unusualviallrentals.com ) has a large inventory of multibedroom homes; rented by at least three couples together, they cost as little as $800 per couple per week, or $400 per person per week.
- Swapping your home or apartment for one in another city is always the least expensive way for large families to enjoy a vacation. Companies arranging swaps include HomeLink International (800/638-3841, www.homelink.org), Intervac (800/756-4663, www.intervac.com), and HomeExchange.com (800/877-8723, www.homeexchange.com).
- Tour operators that book packages with charter flights (such as Vacation Express, Funjet, and Apple Vacations) also sell just the flights - for far cheaper than regularly scheduled ones. The potential downside is that charter flights usually go weekly, and if you miss your flight or the plane conks out, you’re stuck. Consolidators, which sell discounted fares on regular airlines, are another resource. The best ones, like 1800FlyEurope.com and India specialist HariWorld.com, work out deals with the airlines that fly to a certain area.
- By joining the free Playbill Club at Playbill.com, you can find half-price theater tickets in New York and other U.S. cities without standing in line at a theater kiosk or waiting to buy tickets on the day of performance.
- Before you leave home, buy the sunscreen you’ll need at your local pharmacy, where it costs half the price charged at most resort gift shops. Invest in some basic snorkel gear, too, so you can avoid being overcharged for rentals.
- If you’re booked on an early-morning flight, look into the Park and Fly packages offered by airport hotels. Most include a one-night stay and free parking for up to seven days. The total cost is often less than what you’d pay for a week in the airport lot.
- It’s often cheaper to buy a ticket to London and then fly onward to other European destinations via a regional low-cost airline like EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) and Bmibaby (www.bmibaby.com).
- Prices for car rentals and hotels fluctuate, so never give up sniffing out a better deal. When you locate one, snap it up - and cancel the old reservation. Just make sure the cancellation policy won’t bit you in the rear.
- Bid low, score big! While Priceline is now a full-fledged booking engine, it’s most valuable for its bidding system. We like it for hotels in cities, but be wary of two-start hotels and below, and research neighborhoods in advance. BiddingForTravel.com has examples of successful bids. The law of supply and demand means you’ll do better at business hotels on weekends, at resort towns on weekdays, and anywhere off-season.
- When renting a car, photograph any damage the car may have before leaving the rental agency; a digital camera records the date and time of each picture. The documentation will end any debate over responsibility when you return the car.
- Be sure to check baggage weight limits before you leave home. Low-cost airlines like Ryanair charge $8 per pound or more for excess baggage - a particularly nasty surprise when you probably spent less than half that amount on the airline tickets themselves.
- So, you’re halfway through your vacation and your digital camera’s memory card is full. Now what? Go to an Internet café and upload your pictures to smugmug.com. The site offers unlimited photo-storage space for $40 per year.
- Local specialty foods make great souvenirs, and grocery stores are the best and least expensive place to find them. Chocolate-covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii, beautiful tins of tea from England, pots of mustard from France, and bottles of infused olive oil from Italy are just a few examples.
- Before you book a room over the phone, check the hotel’s site for its “Web-only” rate. It’s often cheaper than the best quote you’ll get by calling reservations because you’re paying for the room up front and the cancellation policies are more rigid.
- If you’re traveling overseas, be sure to check the fine print concerning passports before you leave home (go online or call the country’s embassy). To enter Tahiti, your passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your date of departure; South Africa requires at least two blank (unstamped) pages for entry.
- Don’t assume that because you rented a four-wheel-drive SUV, you’re free to go anywhere you want. Most rental agreements do not cover dirt roads and if you get stuck, you’ll have to pay for towing and any damage done to the vehicle.
- On your computer, delete your cookies occasionally. If you look for flights one day and then go back a few weeks later to see if prices have gone down, the cookies stored in your system may direct the site to go back to the original search (and price) rather than starting again from scratch. Deleting your coolies makes the website think you’re a new visitor.
- Make a color copy of your passport and laminate it. Tucked in a book, purse, or paperback, a copy of the first page of your passport is tremendously useful when completing forms or registering at hotels. If it’s lost or stolen, no big deal. You still have the real McCoy safely stored away.
- Bring a cooler on road trips. Collapsible ones can be packed in the outside pocket of your checked suitcase; hard-sided ones can be filled with clothing and used as an additional piece of luggage. Stocked with ice, drinks, snacks, and picnic items, the cooler will save you time and money on the trip.
- Palm Beach (PBI), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), and Miami (MIA) are a short drive from one another, yet the fares to reach them can be dramatically different. Before booking a flight, research all area airports. For New York, try LaGuardia (LGA), Kennedy (JFK), Newark (EWR), and Islip (ISP). For Los Angeles, try Burbank (BUR), L.A. International (LAX), Long Beach (LGB), and Ontario (ONT).
- All cruise lines offer shore excursions, but you can book directly with the tour companies ahead of time and save money. Unlike with ship-sponsored excursions, however, the ship will leave without you if you’re not back onboard in time.
Source: Arther Frommer’s Budget Travel
Stumble It!
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Leave those out of date, bulky travel guides at home and let your iPod, iPhone or Mobile take you on a tour around one of the worlds greatest capitals. The London Travel Guide, available to download for free at www.londontravelguide.com, neatly packs over 400 pages of info together with a host of impressive features onto your favorite mobile device.
Unlike a paperback, the guide can be regularly updated so users have the most up to date information about each attraction, including entrance fees, phone numbers and websites. iPhone and mobile users can simply click on the phone number of the attraction to call them up, or use the website link to go directly through to the attractions site to find more information.
Accessing the London Travel Guide could not be any simpler. Coolgorilla designed the iPod version to be downloaded as a podcast via iTunes and the iPhone and mobile versions have both been optimised so visitors can access the information over the handset’s web browser.
Once downloaded, users have access to a range of rich content on London’s most popular tourist attractions. Coolgorilla used its eye in the sky to create aerial footage and spectacular views for the guide that most tourists and even Londoners do not get to see. The London Travel Guide also contains intriguing facts about each attraction and the reviews are not just practical but candid too.
“A recent road trip through California got me thinking about how we could improve on the traditional, paperback travel guide,” said Roy Forsdick, Managing Director of Coolgorilla. “By using the content rich features available on iPods and mobiles we can help travellers get the most out of their visit to London. Also, since software isn’t exposed to the same reproduction costs as hardcopy publications, we can distribute the guides for free!”
Coolgorilla is already working on similar travel guides for a number of other cities including Paris, Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, due to be released later this year
About Coolgorilla
Coolgorilla is a successful developer of applications for the iPod, iPhone and mobile phones. The company has created a variety of travel related applications including the hugely successful lastminute.com talking phrase books.
For more information, visit http://www.coolgorilla.com/
Source: Sonus PR
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".