Great Family Beach Vacation Ideas
Article by Neil Brooks
You can find a lot of good beach vacation spots all over the world, but there are only a few that stand out as some of my favorites!
On the Coast of Maui, you can enjoy a game of golf. The Kapalua Resort gives their guests lower golf rates than those who don’t stay at their resort; usually 25 to 30% discount. The Kapalua Resort includes the Kapalua Bay Hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, and the Kapalua Villas.
The Napili Kai beach resort is a low rise family resort that offers nice beach front condos. They give complimentary children programs for kids through the ages of 6 to 12 in the summer, and during Christmas and Easter. These condos are just seconds away from the beach, and include kitchen and laundry facilities.
If you prefer a more secluded setting, the Maui Prince Hotel can be found in a quiet area surrounded by golf courses and a sandy beach where kids can enjoy themselves all day.
Another cool family vacation idea can be found on the island of Molokai. Molokai is filled with empty beaches because of few tourists and no traffic lights. Most tourists visit for only a day, with some coming to the island for assuming they were going to a snorkeling site near Maui.
When you come to Molokai, don’t expect night life shopping; for Molokai is for those people who like adventure in the outdoors.
When planning a trip to the island of Molokai, remember that it is accessible only by airplane from Honolulu, or by ferry from Maui.
Another great family beach vacation idea is in beautiful Palm Beach Florida at the Breakers Hotel.
The Breakers Hotel sits along a half mile of sandy beach, and offers a golf course, a spa, and a pool area just for kids. And, there is s a family entertainment center with many different children’s programs. You can reserve up to five adjoining rooms in the Breakers Hotel while children under the age of 16 can stay for free as long as they stay in the same room with their parents.
Another super nice hotel in Florida can be found in Orlando at the Loews Hard Rock Hotel. This cool hotel offers plenty of white sandy beach space with amusement rides such as huge slides.
There are a lot of family beach vacation resorts in California, but the Hotel Del Coronado is among the most famous. This neat hotel offers many facilities for families, such as surfing, tennis, biking, and even lessons in kayaking.
Again, you can find a lot of different neat beach resorts around the world, but these are just a few that really stand out as some of the most fun!
Good planning and organization is required to make your family beach vacations the best it can be, so consider looking into beach carts with big wheels as they make it easy to transport your supplies across deep sand on the beach all in one load without dropping anything!
Question by HousewifeCE: What is a good Family Vacation Beach in Florida?
My family is wanting to take a vacation to Florida and don’t know where to go. We want a good beach with reasonable motel rates. A good place for a family. Don’t want a party spot. Help Please
Best answer:
Answer by wicked witch of east
you may try sarasota area or the anna maria island area. they are nice. crystal blue water and white sand. mostly just old people there so they are quiet and dont usually bother you unless you mess with them. during spring break the traffic can get crazy but other than that is good. Siesta key is a favorite park of mine. very large, clean and has large picnic area. it gets crowded sometimes right up next to the entrance but if you walk a bit or get there a bit early you can spead out and choose a nice space to claim. i recommend it
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Ideas To Make Your Last Minute Travel Affordable
Ideas To Make Your Last Minute Travel Affordable
When you discover that circumstances have arisen and you are in need of making last minute travel reservations, you don’t need to panic. Even though there are plenty of tales of people being gouged when they purchased air tickets at the last minute, there are just as many instances of people purchasing the cheapest airfares ever, even for same-day travel. Because the airlines want to fill up their seats on every flight, you might end up finding last minute tickets discounted by as much as 75%.
You might have noticed that there is intense competition in the travel industry and fierce battles between travel websites to capture your attention. That factor is actually good news for travelers who now have many more options than ever before in finding discounted tickets for traveling last minute. With a little time and research to compare the airfare deals on the different travel sites, you can walk away with cheap deals on airfares, hotel reservations and even car reservations.
Last minute travel can be risky and it can be quite a challenge, but if you are up for it you can usually get amazing rates that could even be considered a steal. There are a few travel tips for trying to find those last minute deals that will swing the odds in your favor of securing discount airfare. Following are the top ten tips to help you find incredible airfare deals on last minute flights.
Be Flexible: While not always the most convenient for you, if you are able to take a flight a day earlier or later than your original plan, then you can often get very cheap airfare deals. Airlines depend on those travelers who have very little flexibility and they soak them with full-priced plane tickets. Taking an early morning or late night flight can also help you enjoy cheap airfares.
Shop Around: Many times people are in a panic when trying to arrange for last minute flights. Spending an extra 20 minutes on a couple of other travel websites might yield discounts that can save you a bundle. Don’t just grab the first deal you see available.
Check with the Airlines: Some airlines don’t post their best fares for last minute flights on the travel websites, or even on their own site, while other airlines only post last minute flight rates on their own website. Checking directly with the airlines could uncover those last two seats on the flight you want, but didn’t show up anywhere else.
Get Travel Alerts: Prices for last minute seats can even vary on the same flight! The airlines want every seat occupied and many of them use email travel alerts to accomplish this end.
Subscribe to Travel Newsletters: Many travel related sites offer regular newsletters and some have options that will inform you of special last minute deals. These sites regularly search the internet for the best deals on last minute flights and will send an email when they have found one that meets your criteria.
Check with Travel Agents: Internet booking has hurt many travel agents and has cut into their income. Many times, they can use their connections and pass the savings on to you to help you out with your last minute flying situation. If you find one who goes out of their way for you, then consider using them for future travel bookings.
Package Deals: Sometimes, you will find a package deal for air tickets and hotel reservations that will fit the bill for your last minute plans. Most packages are priced for double occupancy, so check the fine print. If traveling alone, then this tip won’t help much in most instances.
Saturday Updates: Be sure to check all of the airline websites on Saturday mornings. Airfare deals are often updated and occasionally special deals are posted at the end of the week. Many special rates are for a limited number of seats, so Saturday morning is a good time to be able to jump on a deal.
Mid-week Flying: If your last minute situation allows for it, then try to book your flight for Tuesday or Wednesday. These are routinely the slowest travel days and the days when there will be more empty seats for the airlines to fill. Often you can save at least 25% on your air tickets just by shifting your departure day to the middle of the week.
Look Around: When your last minute travel is taking you into a major metropolitan airport, check out the cost of flying into nearby, smaller airports. Often a different landing field will be closer to your final destination and can save you some time, as well as money on last minute flights.
A whole world of information about last minute travel eagerly awaits you from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our discount airfare blog.
Categories: Last Minute Travel Tags: Affordable, Airfare, goo, ideas, Last, Minute, Travel, Travel Agents
Holiday Ideas To Beat The Credit Crunch
Holiday Ideas To Beat The Credit Crunch
Holidays Ideas to beat the credit crunch
We are going to consider some holiday ideas to beat the credit crunch, because despite the economic gloom research (from Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance) reveals nearly 28 per cent of the adult population will book a holiday between Christmas and the end of February 2009. Even for those of us on a miniscule budget there are still ways to get away, but you have to be that bit more canny and flexible.
First principle is decide on a budget and stick to it. Get an overall budget that you want to spend by the time you’re back. There are so many ways to do travel: packages, all inclusive, no board, full board, separate flights and accommodation and types of holiday too many to mention in one place, that this is the only way to make some rational choices where cost is a driving factor. Once you have an overall budget then break it down, for example:
Flights (& airport taxes + supplements) or ferries Airport parking or transfers or airport hotel Accommodation Food & drink (don’t forget with the fall in Sterling these are going to be 25%-30% up on last year – take the upper figure as it may slide more) Recreation and trips (car hire) Souvenirs + duty free travel insurance (New clothes or other essential to buy before you go – sunscreen) Hidden charges and extras
This will help you compare radically different types of holidays and force you to think about the total cost of different options.
It is also worth point out: don’t assume there will be better bargains later. I haven’t heard any tour operator crowing about how well bookings are holding up in the current conditions. This may mean that sphincters are starting to twitch and they want to fill some places now to avoid a huge glut of unsold holidays later. They will also have taken out some capacity, and things could still be busy at peak times. So start hunting now there are plenty of bargains.
Holiday Bargain Ideas
There are obvious ways of saving money on going away – such as going for less time or downgrading - but why compromise when you can try and get a bargain. In these times haggling is the new black so bear in mind people will expect to negotiate and that makes it easier.
Therefore if you are booking accommodation – haggle. Go online get a price then try a phone call to the hotel. Even if they will not drop their rate will see if you can get an upgrade . they may chuck in breakfast or some other goodies. Ask about transfers to/from the airport?
Big Tip: from first hand experience. Don’t make the mistake of concentrating on only one element such as accommodation. We looked at loads of villas, found one we liked on an island we liked and booked it. Then we looked for flights – these were eye wateringingly expensive, even on a budget carrier. Especially true at peak times. It more than wiped out any saving we’d have from doing a package. The same goes in reverse, just because there are cheap flights don’t assume you can go and find cheap accommodation. However as a rule of thumb the price of flights goes up nearer to the time of the flight and the price of accommodation goes down, so if you are going to bet then book flights first!
Holiday ideas – Think laterally
Instead of going with a big operator – look out for villas or holiday cottages advertised locally – by the owner. The price to you is going to be lower where you are not paying for the profit margin and marketing of a big operator. Bear in mind however there are more risks – you will have to pay in cash and have much less comeback if anything is wrong. A friend got an excellent villa in Florida for his extended family from an ad in the local free magazine, just down the road from Disney and it all went without a hitch. Also look out for adverts on noticeboards or on the intranet at work.
Major crunch busting holiday ideas
With the pound plummeting and many more out of work or feeling vulnerable this could be an excellent time to find out the delights of staying in Britain and Ireland.
It could be a really good year to acquaint the kids with camping. Its adventurous and fun and the kids get into it really easily. We’ve already been out and bought a tent at the end of last season and some sleeping bags so we were able to get a really good bargain. The two kids are always talking about when are we going to go camping. With air mattresses to cushion the old bones you don’t need to suffer (too much). You can always start gently with a long weekend away.
This could be a chance to pass on all those camping skills you learnt in the scouts or guides. Even if you didn’t (learn any), The Adventure book for boys (and girls) is all the rage now.
If you have slightly older children another major crunch busting idea is cycling or walking holiday. Don’t laugh its not as daft as it seems. The Youth Hostel Association runs hundreds of establishment all over the country (250 locations in the UK alone) but especially in our National Parks (but also Cities). I thought that these were just for teenagers/youths, but that isn’t true. Anyone can join for a modest annual outlay (£22.95 will cover 2 adults and all children at the same address) and the accommodation is cheap, clean and generally everyone is very friendly. It is a great experience for kids. If you are forever moaning that your teenage kids never get out and do any exercise then don’t dismiss these they can be great family oriented holidays. Let the kids plan some of the outing and even navigate – a great way to learn these skills
If you still want to go abroad the International YHA has over 4000 establishments at exceptionally good value for money prices and your UK membership will cover you for these too.
Fix your holiday Outlay before you go.
One of the best ways of keeping to a budget is to know exactly what all you main outlays are going to be up front. Therefore from this point of view an all inclusive or full board holiday is a really good bet. This also removes the exchange rate risk from you and puts it with your tour operator. Generally speaking when booked as a package you will get a really good deal and it should be impossible to come near it by going out locally. It has the potential downside that hotel catering may not be as good as you would wish or that there aren’t enough restaurants on the complex, or sufficient variety in the menu. However, most hotels/operators will bend over backwards to please if you have specific requests and you will have saved so much that you could still go out to eat a couple of times.
Save money on Food/ dining
If you don’t go all inclusive or full board you can save money by not eating at a restaurant at lunchtime. Take a cheap pique-nique set (plastic plates and glasses don’t weigh much if you’re flying) and buy stuff from supermarkets . If you like a glass of wine it also means you can buy a bottle or two for the evening and have something handy to drink from.
You will find many more holiday ideas, for all pockets, for singles, couples and families on Findholidays4u . We have a mass of consumer information and tips about travel generally. Generate you own unique list of holiday ideas by entering your needs and requirements. You can also visit the blog and join the discussion.
This video shows some of the highlights of Phoenix23′s first trip to LA to record the first part of their album at Sunset Sound with Carl Verheyen in 2008.
Categories: Holiday Lets Ireland Tags: Beat, Cheap Flights, Credit, Crunch, cycling, goo, Holiday, ideas, tot, Tour Operator, Travel, travel insurance, utube
