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For as long as bed & breakfast hotels have been around they have offered their guests lodging at reasonable rates. It used to be that all you expected from a B&B was the basics, a firm bed, a shower and a cooked breakfast in the morning for a good price. Generally coming second to hotel accommodation, B&B’s rarely competed with a hotel for luxury and services offered.

However a new trend for travelers in the 21st century, particularly in North America, is to look at the B&B sector for their accommodation needs. There are various reasons for this turn-around, but the main one is that with the downturn in the economy people still wish to travel but now need to tighten their belts. Looking at bed & breakfast options makes economical sense.

The increase seen in the bed and breakfast occupancy comes from all sectors, the domestic market, international travelers seeking unique holiday accommodation and corporate travelers. As a result, more B&B’s, country inns and bed and breakfast hotels are updating their properties to offer luxury furnishings and provide additional services.  Read more...

You’ve seen the commercials, vast blue oceans, beautiful white ship, and people laughing. What a wonderful vacation, sailing the deep blue sea and visiting exciting ports of call. This is certainly a dream vacation, especially as you sit in your office cubical in the dead of winter and shiver while you answer complaint calls from clients.

Cruise ships are a means of travel with some substantial benefits. The key advantage of a cruise ship is that it does the “getting around” for you. They make it easy to visit several places in a single trip without the need to pack your belongings and sit in a car/train/bus/plane to travel to each one; your hotel room comes along with you, and even provides the transportation. Additionally, most meals are usually included in the price of the cruise.

Timing is Everything  Read more...

What if you could not only cut the cost of your next adventure vacation, but turn a profit from your travel as well? Even better, what if you could turn your adventure travel into a high-income business?

If this sounds too good to be true, let me just say that many people do this every day. Yes it takes work, and planning and persistence (the very things required to succeed in any endeavor in life) and don’t expect to get rich. But you can expect to become a high earner and get paid to travel the world – not a bad way to live if you ask me.

There are many ways to make money when you travel, but for now I am going to focus on the big three: 1) Travel photography, 2) Travel writing, and 3) Importing items abroad to be sold on online auction sites.

In this first article, I am going to concentrate on travel photography.

Digital cameras have revolutionized the world of photography and have opened the doors of profit to average people.  Read more...

Yesterday morning my last full day in Niagara Falls, Ontario, had arrived. After a packed schedule the day before that had included a wonderful presentation at the Imax Theatre, my up-close encounter with the Great Falls at the Journey Behind the Falls and an entertaining show at the Oh Canada Eh? Dinner Theatre, I got ready for another full day of explorations in Niagara Falls.

I already got a great start to the day when Kevin Kilpatrick, the gourmet chef and co-owner of Kilpatrick Manor, prepared an absolutely scrumptious breakfast for me: after a delicious fresh fruit platter with yoghurt and freshly made banana bread I feasted on “breakfast ravioli”, one of Kevin’s unique culinary inventions. This light yet tasty breakfast dish features scrambled eggs, bacon and old cheddar cheese surrounded by thinly rolled out pasta and a home made tomato sauce with garlic, white wine and leeks. Kevin, with his gregarious and outgoing manner, sat down with me and kept me entertained with stories from his international hospitality adventures in France when he and wife Nance were managing a large chalet in the French Alps.  Read more...

Auckland is NZ’s largest city and can provide a range of settings for your holiday. Whether it’s an urban getaway or a rural retreat you can be sure to find a luxury bed and breakfast that suits your needs.

However if you are looking for a luxury bed and breakfast in New Zealand, that offers something a little different, I’d recommend the Matakana Coast ‘Wine Country’ area, just under an hours drive north of Auckland City.

Many of the luxury bed and breakfasts along the Matakana Coast offer views of the wide sandy beaches, with the waves of the Pacific Ocean lapping at the shore. If you would prefer a secluded countryside or garden setting then this is definitely on offer too.

The beauty of luxury bed and breakfast accommodation is that it allows you (and your travel companion/s) to simply relax and rejuvenate in luxurious settings. You wake at the time that suits you, with breakfast cooked when you are ready (not when the kitchen / chef is ready!) and you can choose whether to mingle with other guests or not. With bed & breakfast accommodation you don’t have the ‘time’ restrictions you normally have with other accommodations; Your needs are catered for and you truly are treated like a guest in someone’s home.  Read more...

The race to the poles has been won and the seven seas and five continents have been mapped and plundered but the human hunger for adventure isn’t sated. While some people still crave virgin exploration, there are a lot of people who’d prefer something more achievable – an Adventure Holiday. On an adventure holiday you will have to work to achieve your goal, but you don’t have to risk death or frostbite to get there and you can be there in back in two weeks.

Explorers used to look upwards for adventure. Everest took some conquering, and Mont Blanc’s snows have made a worthy adversary in the past. But Kilimanjaro was recently conquered by a bunch of celebrities for Comic Relief, and the impressively titled highest mountains in the United Kingdom and Australia: Ben Nevis and Mount Kosciuszko, are ideal for a short holiday adventure. Ben you can summit in about nine hours, Kosciuszko you can do in about three – and during your Adventure Holiday you’ll have climbed one of the ‘Seven Summits’.  Read more...

Among the most unforgettable activities an entire family can enjoy together, with the added benefit of creating stronger bonds, is to go on a family vacation. Most families find that they have to put off this kind of adventure until they can save or find the money to pay for it. One way to get around this restriction is to research discount travel options; and, believe me, these are plentiful once you know what you are doing.

Here are two easy ways for a family on a budget to be sure they can always enjoy a yearly vacation together. First, scour the internet, or talk to their neighborhood travel agent to whom you’ve conveyed your requirements, to find the available discount travel deals which are being offered at prices that are significantly less than retail. The second option is, set up a vacation budget into which you save enough money for your family vacation throughout the year.

Nowadays, with the advent of the internet, it is easier than you can imagine to find those great deals for memorable family travel. In the last few years, with the help of the internet, families can now choose destinations, compare prices easily using the many travel services’ search engines, and realize savings of hundreds, even thousands of dollars on their travel expenses. For any one looking for memorable, discounted travel opportunities, the internet is the place to look, period.  Read more...

Of late we all come across many horrifying news like natural disasters etc. We have searched the safest places for all the travelers to visit. But remember, no place in the world is 100% safe and free of danger.

Andorra:
Andorra is a tiny place hidden in the eastern Pyrenees which is surrounded by spectacular and pristine valleys, mountains and scenery, bordering France and Spain. This is one of the oldest nations in Europe. This is one of the most peaceful places and people here live for an average of 83 years to 84 years because of the least stress levels. If you are a peace lover and if you like a place which is so quiet, then this is the right choice.

Greenland:
Greenland, Denmark is a peace loving city and has the least crime rate and ill-will towards foreigners is virtually unknown, as long as you follow the basic rules, common sense and etiquette.

Seychelles:
Seychelles may be the only safest destination in Africa but you have to protect yourself from mosquitoes that carry lot of virus. Although there is low threat from terrorism, the tourists should still be careful about the random global terror attacks.  Read more...