04/24/2012
3:28 am
by: Harlan Miles

Key Aspects to Be Considered While Traveling Alone

When you travel alone, you are in charge of the entire trip and you can make decisions for yourself. You will also be able to derive unique experiences from your adventurous trip of traveling alone. Safety and security are your prime concerns while you are on your own but with a little caution and by being careful you can enjoy your travel explicitly.

Practice Personal Safety

1)    Having the basic knowledge about self-defense is quite important while traveling alone.

2)    You should research about the destination you are heading to so that you will have a rough idea regarding the attitude towards travelers especially if you are a female.

3)   It would be better to go in for a room which is not in the ground floor so that there will be easy access to the door.

4)   Only open your door to the people you know and in case you are suspicious, just refrain from opening the door.

5)    Have a good knowledge about the people who work for the hotel and do inform them when you come and go. Also, provide them with the emergency number of your family or friends.

6)    Get a hang of the area you are staying in and avoid going to suspicious places.

7)    Do not make a loud statement with your clothes and dress like the locals of the place.

Smilie: 8)   Always walk with confidence and never go anywhere feeling nervous or scared.

9)   Know your limits when you are drinking and make sure that you stay sober at all times.

Getting Comfortable on Your Own

10)Following your day to day routine at home in your new place such as starting your day with a cup of coffee will help you to get comfortable with the place.

11)In case you are staying at the foreign place for a couple of days, make sure that you use familiar objects to decorate the room as per your liking.

12)When you go to restaurants, always go prepared with books or with paper for writing letters.

Traveling alone is not an odd thing and you need not have to worry about doing it if you follow the above tips. Check out Orbitz coupon codes for great deals on hotels as well as for vacation packages.

Posted in Cheap Hotels Tagged , ,

02/26/2012
4:17 pm
by: Bradley Dennis

1 Tip to Surviving a Loud Hotel

Lots of times when we travel, whether it’s for vacation or business, we may encounter a not so pleasant hotel.  You pull up to this absolutely gorgeous hotel, but next thing you know you’re in a room adjacent to a bunch of drunk college kids, or you’re on the ground floor next to the air condition units, or for some reason it sounds like the people in the room above you are moving furniture around.  Either way it becomes impossible to sleep, relax, or do just about anything else.

Well, we’ve got 1 tip to help you survive a noisy hotel.

Portable Noise Cancelling Headphones

Just any pair of headphones won’t do.  You’ll need to find a pair of headphones that you can sleep in as well as listen to music or movies.  Typically we’d recommend some type of over ear headphones, but they won’t work in this situation.  With that said you’ll want to look at a pair of in ear canal headphones, such as the Yurbuds that are extremely soft.

Click here to see a great review of Yurbuds, or take a look at the video below.

It may take a few days to get used to headphones like this so make sure to pick up a pair for a burn in period prior to going on vacation.  You can use these headphones for working out, watching movies and even sleeping, which should be perfect for getting through any loud nights.

Posted in Hotels Tagged ,

02/11/2012
4:40 am
by: Deric Jarvis

Hotel Facilities: Dillard House

Dillard House is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of northeast Georgia. It’s an awesome place to visit! Facilities on the premises include a petting zoo, a swimming pool, horseback riding, tennis, and a wonderful restaurant that serves authentic southern food.

Many folks come to Dillard House just for the food. They use old traditional homemade southern recipes, and many of the ingredients are grown or raised on the Dillard House family farms. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served everyday – in a family-style setting. Big bowls and platters of food are brought to your table, and you eat as much as you like. When a container is empty, the friendly staff replenishes it.

One of the best things about Dillard House is the stables. We’ve ridden horses there numerous times, and the trails are simply gorgeous. Different trails and rides are offered for all different levels of riding abilities, so there’s something for everyone. If you’re a die-hard horseback riding fan, you can even take overnight camping trips on the Dillard House horses.

If tennis is your game, play a few rounds on the clay tennis court, which is located near one section of the Dillard House Hotel. On warm days, you can enjoy a refreshing swim in the sparkling swimming pool. For shopping, take the very short drive into Dillard, a small town with lots of charm. You’ll find antique shops, handmade local crafts, homemade goodies, Christmas items, home décor, souvenirs, and gift items. If you want to buy some gemstones, you’ll find shops just up the road. Perhaps you prefer mining for your own gemstones. You can do that, too, at local mines. After finding some precious or semi-precious stones, you can take them to a local shop to have them cut, polished, and made into rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, or pendants, for the perfect souvenir of your Blue Ridge vacation.

Posted in Hotel Facilities Tagged ,

01/27/2012
8:08 pm
by: Bree Hogan

Are Disneyland Hotels Pet-Friendly?

Contiguous with the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, there are three Disney-owned and operated lodging choices:  Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand California Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. Sadly, none of those accommodations will welcome you if you enjoy traveling with your pet.

photo taken near Disneyland Hoel

The good news, however, is that other options are available.  In fact, there are several pet-friendly hotels near Disneyland – many of them with locations almost as convenient to the park as the Disney-run options – and they happily roll out the welcome mat for you and your furry friend.

As you might imagine, most hotels and alternative lodging accommodations have stipulations in place that govern whether or not a pet is welcome.  Typically, these rules include (but may not be limited to) your pet’s weight and breed.  If your pet passes those criteria, you will then be asked to sign an agreement to cover any damages your pet might cause, and you will also likely be asked to pay an additional, non-refundable per-night charge just as if the pet were an additional guest.

For our money, the best pet-friendly accommodations you’ll find around Disneyland are those you will find in the “suites” or “extended stay” offerings.  You will probably want to look for options that have hotel-like amenities, as well – things like free breakfast, a fitness center and wi-fi, for example – and, perhaps, additional benefits like laundry facilities.  

Photo taken near the Disneyland Hotel, by lorenjavier, via flickr, Creative Commons

Posted in Pet Friendly Hotels Tagged , ,

01/26/2012
7:35 am
by: Bree Hogan

Having Your Bachelorette Party at a Hotel

You might live in an area that features world-class hotels, but chances are you’ve never stayed in them yourself. After all, there’s really no reason to book a room in a city where you already live. Whenever you have an opportunity to find an excuse to spend time in a five-star hotel, you should definitely take advantage of it. That’s exactly the opportunity a bachelorette party represents, and having a hotel room as your home base takes things to a whole new level. It provides you with an incredible degree of luxury and takes a lot of the stress out of the planning situation. So if you have an upcoming bachelorette party in your future, consider looking into some of the best hotels in your area right now.

Every bachelorette party needs a good central location where everybody gathers. Usually it’s done in either the bride or maid of honor’s home. While this might be convenient for some setups, there are so many more opportunities when you use a hotel room. For one, you don’t have to worry about cleaning up the mess that you make. It can also be a nice neutral location that allows for design and decorating opportunities. Obviously you will be using any accessories to permanently mark the room, but there’s no reason why you can’t just things up to follow a theme.

bach party

It’s not uncommon for people to need time to warm up when it comes to a bachelorette party and the various activities and games. Having a hotel room gives a chance for everyone to share the common excitement of being in such nice accommodations. You can stock up the room with drinks and snacks, and it will be the perfect place to play a few warm-up games before you get down to the real action. And if the hotel happens to be connected to a nice restaurant, you can certainly choose to start off there and moved to the room later.

A good hotel room can really come into play if you want to make your bachelorette party a surprise event. Obviously the bride will be able to guess what’s going on if you choose to take her to a familiar home. But with a bit of planning and careful organization, you can have everything set up and ready for the surprise of her life. You just need to ensure you have the right bachelorette party supplies and games waiting when she walks into the room. And remember, this will serve as your home-based but there’s no reason why you can’t extend the night with other activities as well. You might just end up going to a nightclub, a psychic to cast some magic love spells, or a karaoke bar. Whatever you choose to do, it’s nice to have a place where you can return to wind down the evening while the bride gets a chance to open her gifts.

Posted in Hotels Tagged , , , , ,

12/19/2011
6:53 pm
by: Edward Petersen

Finding the Right Hotel for Your Vacation

Who doesn’t enjoy vacations? The opportunity to get away from your dead end job in order to spend a few days in paradise is something most people look forward to. It’d be sweet if you could just build a home based business and make money at home, that way, you could be on vacation a lot longer since all you need is an internet connection. Now when it comes to vacations, there is one thing that most of us look for, cheap deals. Whether it’s deals on flights, rental cars, or hotels, we want to spend as little as possible. Let’s look at hotels. Here are some things you will want to consider.

Hotels are rated on a five star rating system with 5 stars being the top, although there is one in Dubai that is rated a 7 star but we won’t get into that. When searching for a hotel, the first thing you want to do is to go to sites like kayak.com to quickly find the cheapest rates. Once you have that, you can then go search for reviews on those specific hotels.

Although the goal is the save money, keep in mind that staying in a bad, stinky hotel can lower the quality of your vacation. Sometimes it’s better to just spend a little bit more in order to ensure you have a decent place to sleep.

Posted in Hotels