Category: Blog Articles
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Do These 7 Things BEFORE You Leave
Getting ready to depart on vacation, it seems like there are a thousand things to do. Why not make it 1,007 and tend to these additional items before you step out the door to catch that flight or tour bus? Contiki Vacations came up with the following list and we think they are right on…
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5 Ways to Avoid Getting Ripped Off in Europe
Usually a Yankee in Europe sticks out like a sore thumb. While it’s very rare that we find ourselves the victim of a violent crime, petty theft, pick pocketing, and purse snatching are another matter completely. Imagine YOU were a European thief. Wouldn’t the prospect of an unwary American wandering aimlessly around your neighborhood fill…
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Best. Beach Books. Ever.
While literary quality is very much a matter of taste, snobbish English teachers who are ALWAYS right notwithstanding, we thought readers might find the following list of the best beach books ever inspiring enough to down a few this summer. The list was borrowed from NPR and based on a survey of 16,000 people who…
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Time to Start Making Summer Beach Vacation Plans
Everybody likes to think they got an incredible deal on their summer beach vacation. The problem, when it comes to hitting the prime vacation spots around the world is that they are normally quite pricey. Your choices are 1) be quiet and pay it or 2) find a place an independently owned establishment that’s just…
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4 Questions to Ask Before You Buy Travel Insurance
With Osma bin Laden dead, perhaps martyred, does the earth suddenly become a very dangerous place for Americans to travel, especially in predominantly Muslim countries? Maybe. Maybe not. There’s no way we can answer that question. Too many variables. But you can take a close look before you buy travel insurance for your next trip…
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Here's a Tip When Traveling in Japan – Don't!
The rest of the world may have gone “tipping mad” but traveling in Japan brings a welcome respite from the tedious (and costly) custom. Upon entering the United States, one is presented with a lengthy list of required tips that should be dispensed to those who wait on us. Does any of this sound familiar?…
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Airport Survival for the Business Traveler
If a group of reasonably intelligent people were to sit down and design a system which behaved perfectly in every respect, the odds are low that the end result would be an airport. And it’s the business traveler who knows better than most how order can so quickly deteriorate into chaos in that environment. Frequent…
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Terrorism is Nothing New When it Comes to Planning a Trip Overseas
Guess how many have been killed by Muslim extremists? None. The human brain is an anxious beast. It loves to ignore the best and anticipate the worst. It is absolutely convinced that blood will literally be flowing in the streets of Paris the moment your airplane’s wheels leave the ground in America. When it comes…
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Hotel Maids Beware if Bert Kreischer's Been There
A recent blog by AOL Travel posed the hypothetical question if this made Bert the world’s worst hotel guest? While Mr. Kreischer might be a very, very bad one, he’s got his work cut out for him in besting the rock band Van Halen, the members of which made a career of laying waste to…
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Creepy Travel in the Catacombs of Paris
To the unaware, the Catacombs of Paris seem ripped from an Edgar Allen Poe nightmare. Not a cemetery exactly, this underground complex of tunnels and rooms is called an ossuary (site that serves as a final resting place for human remains) and holds the skeletons of about 6 million souls. How does something like this…