Monday, October 1, 2007
Got To Get Away: Stretch Your Vacation Dollars
With the dollar receiving an old fashioned beating from the euro right now, vacations to popular European destinations like England, France and Spain have become quite pricey. Not to fret though, with a little planning, you can still enjoy your European vacation without breaking the bank.
Not flying across the pond for some R&R? You can still save cash by traveling smart, regardless of your vacation destination. Read on, oh wandering soul.
Prevent your wallet from getting euro-trashed
If youre heading to Europe, prepare yourself financially. While Paris and London are must-sees for the vacationing Yankee, they can put a hurting on your billfold. Vacations in Western Europe today cost 35 to 40 percent more than they did as little as two years ago. Why? Its all about the exchange rate. The euro rules the day over our weakened dollar, meaning youll have to pick and choose your spots when it comes to traveling abroad.
Before you book, research your options. Purchasing a vacation package (airfare & hotel) through an online travel broker like expedia.com or travelocity.com could save you big bucks. If youre planning on staying long-term in one place, look into renting a house or apartment. Its cheaper than a hotel room, sleeps more, is roomier, and youll be able to cook your own food instead of eating out every day. Also, many vacation packages will allow you to lock in a rate well before your travel dates. If the dollar continues to fall against the euro after you book, youll save big and look like a genius. If the dollar rallies, however, you lose.
Remember, Europe is more than just England and France. Consider visiting some of the Eastern Block countries like Hungary, Poland or Lithuaniayoull be pleasantly surprised. Gone are the Cold War misconceptions of these countries. Instead, travelers will encounter friendly natives, stunning views, and vibrant nightlife. Whats more, these countries have yet to adopt the euro, meaning your dollar will go a lot farther.
But if its Western Europe or bust for you, you can still ease the pain that the mighty euro brings. Book your trip early to ensure you get the flights and hotels you want. If you want to see a lot of Europe, consider a cruise. If youre on a budget, consider a short three or four day stopover and tackle only the sights you absolutely have to see. Finally, when traveling about the European countryside, always set a daily limit on your spending.
Destination: anywhere? Money saving travel tips.
Regardless of where you vacation, following a few simple rules will minimize the impact on your bottom line while maximizing your fun. Always remember to:
1. Shop around. Just like anything else, deals are to be had if you know where to look. Check online resources for the best deals.
2. Only use a travel agent for big trips to far away places. You can handle the details of a weekend getaway.
3. Travel in the off season. Find out when your desired destinations peak tourist season is, and dont go then. Off season prices are much more acceptable.
4. Flexibility is key. Changing your travel itinerary by just a day or two can save you big.
5. For cruises, book early to take advantage of big savings. If using an agent, get one whos a cruise expert. She can save you money and probably secure a few perks along the way.
6. When renting a car, only get the smallest possible one you can handle. Its cheaper and so is the gas. At the counter, ask for a free upgrade; it doesnt hurt to try. Always refuel your rental before you return it to avoid getting gouged by the return lot. Never rent a car at the airport, rates are better elsewhere. Finally, if you can understand the citys public transportation, use it instead of renting a car.
7. When on the road, carry a cooler full of drinks and snacks. By stopping at a grocery store and loading up on supplies (e.g., aspirin, water, sunscreen, film) before you wander the countryside, youll avoid being taken to the cleaners by roadside tourist traps.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Joseph Kenny
Joe Kenny writes for the Card Guide, a UK based credit cards site, visit today for introductory 0% balance transfers and start clearing credit card debt today.
Visit today: www.cardguide.co.uk/
Google
Not flying across the pond for some R&R? You can still save cash by traveling smart, regardless of your vacation destination. Read on, oh wandering soul.
Prevent your wallet from getting euro-trashed
If youre heading to Europe, prepare yourself financially. While Paris and London are must-sees for the vacationing Yankee, they can put a hurting on your billfold. Vacations in Western Europe today cost 35 to 40 percent more than they did as little as two years ago. Why? Its all about the exchange rate. The euro rules the day over our weakened dollar, meaning youll have to pick and choose your spots when it comes to traveling abroad.
Before you book, research your options. Purchasing a vacation package (airfare & hotel) through an online travel broker like expedia.com or travelocity.com could save you big bucks. If youre planning on staying long-term in one place, look into renting a house or apartment. Its cheaper than a hotel room, sleeps more, is roomier, and youll be able to cook your own food instead of eating out every day. Also, many vacation packages will allow you to lock in a rate well before your travel dates. If the dollar continues to fall against the euro after you book, youll save big and look like a genius. If the dollar rallies, however, you lose.
Remember, Europe is more than just England and France. Consider visiting some of the Eastern Block countries like Hungary, Poland or Lithuaniayoull be pleasantly surprised. Gone are the Cold War misconceptions of these countries. Instead, travelers will encounter friendly natives, stunning views, and vibrant nightlife. Whats more, these countries have yet to adopt the euro, meaning your dollar will go a lot farther.
But if its Western Europe or bust for you, you can still ease the pain that the mighty euro brings. Book your trip early to ensure you get the flights and hotels you want. If you want to see a lot of Europe, consider a cruise. If youre on a budget, consider a short three or four day stopover and tackle only the sights you absolutely have to see. Finally, when traveling about the European countryside, always set a daily limit on your spending.
Destination: anywhere? Money saving travel tips.
Regardless of where you vacation, following a few simple rules will minimize the impact on your bottom line while maximizing your fun. Always remember to:
1. Shop around. Just like anything else, deals are to be had if you know where to look. Check online resources for the best deals.
2. Only use a travel agent for big trips to far away places. You can handle the details of a weekend getaway.
3. Travel in the off season. Find out when your desired destinations peak tourist season is, and dont go then. Off season prices are much more acceptable.
4. Flexibility is key. Changing your travel itinerary by just a day or two can save you big.
5. For cruises, book early to take advantage of big savings. If using an agent, get one whos a cruise expert. She can save you money and probably secure a few perks along the way.
6. When renting a car, only get the smallest possible one you can handle. Its cheaper and so is the gas. At the counter, ask for a free upgrade; it doesnt hurt to try. Always refuel your rental before you return it to avoid getting gouged by the return lot. Never rent a car at the airport, rates are better elsewhere. Finally, if you can understand the citys public transportation, use it instead of renting a car.
7. When on the road, carry a cooler full of drinks and snacks. By stopping at a grocery store and loading up on supplies (e.g., aspirin, water, sunscreen, film) before you wander the countryside, youll avoid being taken to the cleaners by roadside tourist traps.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Joseph Kenny
Joe Kenny writes for the Card Guide, a UK based credit cards site, visit today for introductory 0% balance transfers and start clearing credit card debt today.
Visit today: www.cardguide.co.uk/
Researching Your Cruise Ship Options
Each year, a large number of individuals make the decision to book a cruise ship getaway. When it comes to vacationing aboard a cruise ship, you are presented with an unlimited number of options. There are a large number of cruise lines that operate numerous cruise ships. In fact, there are so many cruise ships available that many individuals, maybe even yourself included, do not know where to start.
The first step in planning a cruise ship vacation is making the decision to take one. Traveling aboard a cruise ship can be a fun and exciting experience, but it is not for everyone. Cruises ships often require residing in close corridors for an extend period of time. If you have a difficult time dealing with crowds or you are looking for an overnight vacation, you may want to reexamine your decision to schedule a cruise ship vacation.
If you have already decided that a cruise ship vacation is what you want, you will need to find a cruise ship that interests you. This is where many individuals develop a problem. As previously mentioned, there are a number of different cruise lines. Each of these cruises lines operates a number of different cruise ships. Each cruise ship is likely to travel to different destinations and offer different activities, services, and facilities.
When searching for the perfect cruise ship, you have numerous options. Many travelers automatically start searching for the cruise ship of their dreams. Searching for a cruise ship is, in a way, different than searching for a cruise line. If you do not have a preference as to which cruise ship line youd like to travel with, it may be easier to search for cruises based on themes, destinations, or onboard activities. A standard internet search is a great way to educate yourself on the cruise ships available.
If you prefer to travel with a specific cruise line, you will want to research that particular cruise line. You can visit the cruise lines online website to further educate yourself or else you can perform a standard internet search. If you are unaware of the cruise line selection you have, you can easily familiarize yourself. There are a number of travel websites that offer information and links to the websites of popular cruise lines. Performing an internet search with the keywords cruise lines, is likely to produce a large number of results.
In your search, it is likely that you will come up with popular cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruse Lines, Disney Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, and much more. Once you are able to view the online website of each cruise line, you can begin to search for cruise ships with reservations still available. When browsing through each cruise ship, you will likely be presented with standard information. This information may outline the activities available onboard, destinations, travel stops, and the cost of reserving a cabin.
The Disney Cruise Line is one of the most well-known and sought after cruise lines for individuals vacationing with a family. If you are interested in scheduling a Disney cruise, you will see that the two cruise ships used are named Disney Wonder and Disney Magic. Each ship has onboard Disney characters and beautiful dcor. The main differences between the two ships are the character statues found onboard.
Carnival Cruise Lines is well-known among frequent travelers. They offer a wide range of cruises; however, their main focus seems to be on fun cruises. When researching Carnival Cruise Lines, you will see that they have over 20 fun ships. These ships target cruise goers who are interested in socializing, partying, and having an adventure over the water. Popular cruise ships include, but are not limited to Fantasy, Ecstasy, Celebration Fascination, and Sensation.
Royal Caribbean is another one of the many well-known cruise lines in the world. They are famous for their international cruises. Just a few of their many cruise ships include Adventure of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, and Navigator of the Seas. With twenty-one cruise ships, you are sure to find what you are looking for with Royal Caribbean
Researching each cruise line and cruise ships, individually, may take time. If you are pressed for time you can seek the assistance of a travel agent. Whichever method of research you select, research is important. It is the best way to find the perfect cruise ship for you and your family.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: John Ugoshowa
John Ugoshowa. You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your ezinesas long as you have a link back to www.quickreg ister.net/partners/ For more information on Cruise Ships see the Cruise Ships section of Quickregister.net Free Search Engine Submission Service at:www.quickreg ister.net/partners/
Google
The first step in planning a cruise ship vacation is making the decision to take one. Traveling aboard a cruise ship can be a fun and exciting experience, but it is not for everyone. Cruises ships often require residing in close corridors for an extend period of time. If you have a difficult time dealing with crowds or you are looking for an overnight vacation, you may want to reexamine your decision to schedule a cruise ship vacation.
If you have already decided that a cruise ship vacation is what you want, you will need to find a cruise ship that interests you. This is where many individuals develop a problem. As previously mentioned, there are a number of different cruise lines. Each of these cruises lines operates a number of different cruise ships. Each cruise ship is likely to travel to different destinations and offer different activities, services, and facilities.
When searching for the perfect cruise ship, you have numerous options. Many travelers automatically start searching for the cruise ship of their dreams. Searching for a cruise ship is, in a way, different than searching for a cruise line. If you do not have a preference as to which cruise ship line youd like to travel with, it may be easier to search for cruises based on themes, destinations, or onboard activities. A standard internet search is a great way to educate yourself on the cruise ships available.
If you prefer to travel with a specific cruise line, you will want to research that particular cruise line. You can visit the cruise lines online website to further educate yourself or else you can perform a standard internet search. If you are unaware of the cruise line selection you have, you can easily familiarize yourself. There are a number of travel websites that offer information and links to the websites of popular cruise lines. Performing an internet search with the keywords cruise lines, is likely to produce a large number of results.
In your search, it is likely that you will come up with popular cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruse Lines, Disney Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, and much more. Once you are able to view the online website of each cruise line, you can begin to search for cruise ships with reservations still available. When browsing through each cruise ship, you will likely be presented with standard information. This information may outline the activities available onboard, destinations, travel stops, and the cost of reserving a cabin.
The Disney Cruise Line is one of the most well-known and sought after cruise lines for individuals vacationing with a family. If you are interested in scheduling a Disney cruise, you will see that the two cruise ships used are named Disney Wonder and Disney Magic. Each ship has onboard Disney characters and beautiful dcor. The main differences between the two ships are the character statues found onboard.
Carnival Cruise Lines is well-known among frequent travelers. They offer a wide range of cruises; however, their main focus seems to be on fun cruises. When researching Carnival Cruise Lines, you will see that they have over 20 fun ships. These ships target cruise goers who are interested in socializing, partying, and having an adventure over the water. Popular cruise ships include, but are not limited to Fantasy, Ecstasy, Celebration Fascination, and Sensation.
Royal Caribbean is another one of the many well-known cruise lines in the world. They are famous for their international cruises. Just a few of their many cruise ships include Adventure of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, and Navigator of the Seas. With twenty-one cruise ships, you are sure to find what you are looking for with Royal Caribbean
Researching each cruise line and cruise ships, individually, may take time. If you are pressed for time you can seek the assistance of a travel agent. Whichever method of research you select, research is important. It is the best way to find the perfect cruise ship for you and your family.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: John Ugoshowa
John Ugoshowa. You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your ezinesas long as you have a link back to www.quickreg ister.net/partners/ For more information on Cruise Ships see the Cruise Ships section of Quickregister.net Free Search Engine Submission Service at:www.quickreg ister.net/partners/
How Publishers Can Deal With The Rising Challenge Of Duplicate Content
Duplicate content and, particularly, exactly how it is viewed by the major search engines is a hot topic of debate and opinions vary widely. As if this were not enough, the extent of the problem as far as articles is concerned is to a certain extent on whether you are publishing or writing articles. Here in this brief article we are going to examine the problem from the perspective of the publisher.
There is an enormous quantity of duplicate content floating around now and there are clearly occasions when it is appropriate to use it. For instance, if you have a website talking about American history you may decide to include details of the Declaration of Independence and post sections of it, or perhaps the text of the whole document. Obviously in this case it would be ridiculous to rewrite it to escape any duplicate content penalty.
By the same token, if you come across a well written article that would be of value to your audience you might feel that it is fitting to publish it on your website. Here the writer clearly holds the rights to the article and will normally only allow its use providing it is not altered in any manner and that he is credited for the article by adding his 'about the author' paragraph at the foot of the article.
In both of these cases you will clearly be adding a page to your website that is going to be viewed as duplicate content by the search engines and will present you with problems as far as ranking high in the search results is concerned. But does this matter?
Many webmasters now have become obsessed with achieving high search engine rankings and have forgotten about the true purpose of a website which is to provide a resource for your visitors. If at this point you are expecting me to say that the primary purpose of your website is to make money for you then some re-thinking is needed.
One problem for a lot of webmasters is that while they want to use their website to make money the search engines could not care less whether you make money or not (putting to one side the issue of their own in-house search advertising programs) and are going to rank pages in their search results depending upon how relevant each page is to the search term entered and whether or not they think that the page is going to give the searcher the information that he requires.
Obviously, if your page is considered relevant and placed highly in the search results you are going to receive traffic and therefore make money and herein lies the key.
Your objective ought to be to build a website that provides valuable content for your audience and that is designed to have them staying on your website and navigating from page to page and will also have them adding your website to their favorites menu and coming back on a regular basis.
To a large extent this means that you need to provide fresh and unique content on a regular basis which you will need to write yourself or outsource to other people to write for you. It is this unique and fresh content that will be indexed by the search engines to provide you with your free search engine traffic. However, there are two other things that you have to consider.
First of all, for your website to have 'authority' and to command the attention of your visitors it will need to provide both width and depth in covering your subject and here referring to and quoting or publishing the work of other people can be extremely helpful.
Second, despite the fact that the search engines rank pages rather than websites, there is no doubt that they are also evaluating your website as a whole and giving weight to your individual pages to a certain extent on their value as a part of your overall website.
The bottom line is that, while the majority of your website should be made up of fresh and unique content, there is without doubt a part to be played by using well written and relevant articles from other writers wherever these add weight to the overall message that your website is conveying.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Donald Saunders
WebMarketingCentre.com provides information on article writing and article submission and is also an article directory where you can pick up a free online article for your website or ezine and to which you can submit articles on a wide variety of topics including articles on cancer and much more.
Google
There is an enormous quantity of duplicate content floating around now and there are clearly occasions when it is appropriate to use it. For instance, if you have a website talking about American history you may decide to include details of the Declaration of Independence and post sections of it, or perhaps the text of the whole document. Obviously in this case it would be ridiculous to rewrite it to escape any duplicate content penalty.
By the same token, if you come across a well written article that would be of value to your audience you might feel that it is fitting to publish it on your website. Here the writer clearly holds the rights to the article and will normally only allow its use providing it is not altered in any manner and that he is credited for the article by adding his 'about the author' paragraph at the foot of the article.
In both of these cases you will clearly be adding a page to your website that is going to be viewed as duplicate content by the search engines and will present you with problems as far as ranking high in the search results is concerned. But does this matter?
Many webmasters now have become obsessed with achieving high search engine rankings and have forgotten about the true purpose of a website which is to provide a resource for your visitors. If at this point you are expecting me to say that the primary purpose of your website is to make money for you then some re-thinking is needed.
One problem for a lot of webmasters is that while they want to use their website to make money the search engines could not care less whether you make money or not (putting to one side the issue of their own in-house search advertising programs) and are going to rank pages in their search results depending upon how relevant each page is to the search term entered and whether or not they think that the page is going to give the searcher the information that he requires.
Obviously, if your page is considered relevant and placed highly in the search results you are going to receive traffic and therefore make money and herein lies the key.
Your objective ought to be to build a website that provides valuable content for your audience and that is designed to have them staying on your website and navigating from page to page and will also have them adding your website to their favorites menu and coming back on a regular basis.
To a large extent this means that you need to provide fresh and unique content on a regular basis which you will need to write yourself or outsource to other people to write for you. It is this unique and fresh content that will be indexed by the search engines to provide you with your free search engine traffic. However, there are two other things that you have to consider.
First of all, for your website to have 'authority' and to command the attention of your visitors it will need to provide both width and depth in covering your subject and here referring to and quoting or publishing the work of other people can be extremely helpful.
Second, despite the fact that the search engines rank pages rather than websites, there is no doubt that they are also evaluating your website as a whole and giving weight to your individual pages to a certain extent on their value as a part of your overall website.
The bottom line is that, while the majority of your website should be made up of fresh and unique content, there is without doubt a part to be played by using well written and relevant articles from other writers wherever these add weight to the overall message that your website is conveying.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Donald Saunders
WebMarketingCentre.com provides information on article writing and article submission and is also an article directory where you can pick up a free online article for your website or ezine and to which you can submit articles on a wide variety of topics including articles on cancer and much more.
