Taking off Travel blog

We’re all looking to save money on business trips and vacations. With travel budgets slashed and family finances often in disarray, it’s more important than ever to cut the cost of vacation travel.

Flexibility Is Key

Being wedded to the idea of traveling on certain dates can be a problem, as the best fares might not be available then. Instead, be flexible about the dates for your trip. If you’re attending a business conference, you might have to be in a particular place on a particular date, but consider tying that in with other meetings so you can travel at a reduced rate. Taking your trip mid week is often cheaper and including a weekend night hotel stay can also help you save. Find out more in How To Cut The Cost Of Your Next Business Trip. Read more »

If you’re a travel blogger on Twitter, then you probably already know about Travel Tuesday. It’s when travel bloggers highlight their favorite travel tweeple and things with the hashtag #traveltuesday. It’s been a long time coming, but Park Ride Fly USA now has its very own Travel Tuesday Twitter list. As I write this post, it’s got 31 members, but I’ll be updating it every time I find someone I would recommend to other travel people. Here’s the list.

I met the following people through my involvement with the location independent/digital nomad community.

• ManVsDebt
• codymckibb
• BrooklynNomad
• gotpassport
• ozlemercan
• PluginID
• BizBackpacker
• Technomadia
• almostfearless

Read more »

It’s been a while since we last looked at some of the stories making headlines in the travel industry, so here’s our first travel news roundup of 2010.

Travel Oscars – Are You In?

Are you ready to go to the Oscars? There are no films involved, but if you’re in the travel business, then the World Travel Awards are where you want to be. You can nominate yourself in one of 998 categories covering a wide range of regions. It’s a good way to strut your travel stuff and stand out from the herd or, as President and Founder Graham Cooke, says: “winning a World Travel Award is an excellent way to stand up and be counted at time when marketing budgets are tight”. Nomination forms are available here. You’ll need to get yours in by January 31. Read more »

Sometimes as travelers we can get stuck in a rut. We find ourselves going to the same places and doing the same things — or doing nothing at all. Sometimes we don’t even realise that we have lost the thrill of exploring the new which is an essential part of a great travel experience. Let me give you an example, borrowed from the lives of two friends of mine.

Stuck In A Rut

My two friends had been visiting the same Caribbean island for more than 10 years. They had found a hotel they liked and had explored the island on their early visits and it pretty much got into a routine. Then they discovered that their usual all-inclusive hotel was closed for renovations and would not reopen in time for their annual visit. They were offered an alternative but because it had a different atmosphere from the homey ambience of their usual hotel, they decided to forego that and book their own accommodation. Read more »

This is going to be a great year for travel for me. After visiting Mexico, Chicago, and Bahrain last year for business, and racking up additional travel miles on visits to Nottingham of London and Florida, I couldn’t wait to see what trips could be on the agenda for 2010. And boy am I happy. This year I will be travelling to Las Vegas, Chicago and on business. And I have no idea yet about holiday plans.

Will I see the Great Wall this year? I certainly hope so.

Of course, there’s always a fly in the ointment. All three trips between April and June, but I prefer to focus on the positive. That is, but I’m going to 3 great destinations, two of which have never seen before. Last year I had typical business trips were all I saw was the hotel. This year I will try to change that, by taking some of the guesswork out of trip planning and by doing lots of research to find out what’s close to where I’m going to be.

Read more »