Taking off Travel blog

There’s never been a better time to save on summer travel. The realities of the credit crunch and economic recession mean that travel industry professionals are offering discounts on all their services so it could be the time to get a great deal. Here are our tips for making savings on your summer vacation.

Miles Of Miles

Sign up for a frequent traveler program. You don’t just get these from airlines, but from offsite airport parking firms, car rental companies, hotel chains and more. Many of the programs have their own credit cards and offer discounts on shopping and related travel products such as insurance. If you already belong to such a program, look out for the deals they offer from time to time. If you don’t, then sign up now - you may get a bonus for joining which will help you save on other parts of your trip. Read more »

Here’s 9 more utterly fascinating gestures and behaviors from around the world to tickle your fancy: Read more »

Quick: which sounds like a better vacation to you:

* Plan out infinite details, take a tour bus, rush from site to site, have a tour guide tell you where to go, stay in an American-style hotel, eat in regular restaurants

* Rent a local house, hang out with locals, buy local groceries, have lazy unplanned days of randomness

If you liked the second option, you’ll fit right in with the “slow travel” movement. Read more »

When you travel, you may think that if you don’t know the language, you can just communicate using gestures. BZZT! Knowing what gestures and body language mean in foreign countries can mean the difference between making friends and getting beaten up and it’s all too easy to make mistakes.

Take the quiz to find out how much you know about body language, gestures and foreign customs: Read more »

If you’ve ever had to schedule a business trip you know you can be deluged by confirmation e-mails for every detail, including flights, hotels, and car rentals. God help you if you have multiple destinations! Tripit.com promises to relieve the headaches of travelers by aggregating all the details of your trip into master itineraries, available to be shared with friends, accessed by SMS text messages and supplemented with additional information like weather, google maps, and more!!

Read more »