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Archive for the ‘Luxury Travel’ Category

A century ago ocean travel was strictly for getting people and goods from one place to another. In the competition for passengers, shipping lines added luxury features that turned the journey from plain travel to pure pleasure. Ships like the Cunard Line’s legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 (the QE2) became a byword for sophisticated, luxury voyaging.

Luxury liners offer all the amenities and lavish indulgences you’d expect in a high-end, five star hotel, and more besides. Quite simply, there is no more comfortable way to travel; and, unlike a luxury hotel break, you journey to fabulous locations with no effort at all. There’s no traffic noise on the ocean and the unpolluted sea air is a well-known tonic.

Only one of the Cunard luxury ships still sails the traditional transatlantic route between Europe and New York. That’s the Queen Mary 2. Her cabins are spacious staterooms. The restaurants offer gourmet food. Entertainment is provided by august institutions, including musicians from the Juilliard School and drama by the RADA Company. There’s even a planetarium on board.

The Queen Mary may be the ultimate in ocean-going opulence but there are plenty of other luxury cruise ships out there. In fact, you will be spoilt for choice if you’re looking for an unforgettable luxury vacation. It’s also more affordable than ever before.

What makes for a once-in-a-lifetime ocean vacation? Fantastic accommodation, gourmet dining, and top-flight entertainment are all part of the ultimate luxury cruise. But unforgettable vacations can depend on other things too.

For the ultimate leisure experience, the round-the-world cruise takes some beating. Imagine circumnavigating the globe – three months of seeing some of the great sights our planet has to offer. This obviously isn’t a budget option but it is certainly a recipe for a vacation never to be forgotten. If you don’t have the time, you can do short luxury cruises on the top liners that will give you a flavor of the experience.

On a luxury cruise you can experience the kind of world-class service that you might think is normally reserved for royalty or the super-rich and famous. If your idea of luxury is not lifting a finger, and having every whim catered for, then this is the vacation for you. If the experience of ocean voyaging and the on-board relaxation is a priority, there’s also no better way to unwind than on a ship with a superbly appointed spa and highly trained staff to restore your equilibrium.

If the taxes for luxury cruises seem pricey, remember too that typically most services and activities are likely to be included. Every detail of your journey is given consideration. That means you won’t have any hassles to distract you from your world-class travel experience. You could say this is the ultimate luxury in the modern world. For all-round pleasure, a luxury cruise is just about impossible to beat.

Budget constraints often limit families and individuals from experiencing their vacations to the fullest. But with a little budgeting and research, you can enjoy a luxury vacation even on a tight budget. After all, you’ve worked hard all year long, and your vacation should be a relaxing, fun experience.

Here are some travel tips to help you budget for your global travel and vacations and find great deals on luxury resorts around the world.

Create a Vacation Savings Plan

Instead of trying to gather up enough money for vacation at the last minute, develop a savings plan at the start of each year. Save only $20 per week and you’ll have $1040.00 after 12 months. This can take care of the hotel bill and maybe more if you find a great bargain!

Save Money on Food

When you arrive at your destination, go shopping for groceries. Note: Be sure the hotel or resort provides a refrigerator and microwave or stove. Save your “dining out” money for a few really special evenings out. This will allow you to enjoy a few delicious meals instead of wasting dollars on fast food every day. One family-of-four meal at a fast food restaurant could cost $30 USD or more!

Reserve in Advance

If you know far enough in advance where and when you will take your holiday, you can book your hotel and flight in advance and receive savings. Phone the hotel or resort where you would like to stay several months ahead and ask them to mail their latest brochure to you. Often times the brochures will contain rates for certain dates along with coupons. You can take advantage of “early bird” or “off-season” discounts.

Get to Know Local or Online Travel Agents

Contact local travel agents in your area and ask to be notified when special deals arise. They are willing to help because they get paid a commission. Also, ask about brochures to various luxury resorts around the world so you can get an idea of where you would like to go.

You can also join with a travel group online to receive enormous discounts on four and five star luxury resorts in Europe, Asia, Greece, Egypt, Israel, and many other destinations. Whether you’d like to stay at a beach resort, ski resort, golf resort, or take ocean cruises, they will do the research for you using their years of expertise. For even more savings, you can also sell global travel and vacations or memberships to others through a travel group and earn money. This allows you to work at home with your very own travel business or at least pay for your own vacation!

Plan Activities Online

Once you know your destination, you can plan some of the more expensive activities online in advance to enjoy Internet savings. Popular amusement parks, museums, and entertainment venues often give a discount for ordering tickets online in advance.

Save on Air Fare

If traveling by plane, try bidding on tickets to get a good price or look for departure times that offer cheaper rates. Many airlines cost less during the off-seasons as well.

No matter what your travel budget, you can enjoy a great vacation if you do enough advance planning. Make the most of your holiday while spending less!

1) Stamina. Arrive early. Sounds like common sense, but when polled in 2010, most Americans admitted to starting off at least 3 of their last 4 journeys late. Whether you’re traveling by air, sea, bus or taxi- be early. Nothing starts a trip on a more frenetic note than having to catch your breath during the first leg.

2) Air Travel. Tired of traveling coach class? Then consider traveling with an All Business Airline. There are more and more of these options becoming available and believe it or not, their fares are cheaper most of the time, than the big brand airlines. What you get: Business class service throughout the airplane, larger seats, 12volt power, DVD rentals, TV, better food and service and bigger overhead compartments (real size space that can actually hold your business carry on.) And, most offer expedited TSA security lines to minimize the pat-downs.

3) Hotel. Used to be that 4 and 5 star luxury hotels would cost exactly what you would think they should. But nowadays, the business model is evolving. Research on the web search engines, luxury hotels on fifth avenue, or third party luxury hotel management companies and you will find the latest insider. These third party companies often own rooms inside brand hotels or manage rooms for owners of fractional, timeshare and condo hotels- thus they can set their own pricing independent of the large hotel. And thus, a much better deal for the consumer.

4) Rental Car. When booking, choose an economy or size down model from what you would normally reserve. Then, when you get to the counter, charm the employee into asking for an upgrade, free of charge. With rental car companies being hard quite hard by the recession, internal memos have gone out informing employees to offer upgrades whenever available. This way you get the car you want, at the price you want.

5) Overall Experience. Make it a positive one. Realize as you sit on the plane, that there are literally millions of people below you that may never get a chance to jet set to where it is you’re going. (Even if it’s the grand Hyatt conference room in Tucson). Remember to always give your blessings for where you are, remain grounded, centered and calm- and in the end, travel karma will come back to you. Most of the time, in ultra luxurious or surprising ways.

Luxury travel often appears to be out of reach for many families in our current economy, but the fact is, there are many great deals to be had. In fact, it is quite common for travelers to not only stay in luxury vacation rentals, they can often do so for just pennies on the dollar. When you know the inside travel secrets of the wealthy, you can begin traveling in style for as little as $100 a week.

So what’s the big secret to luxury travel? The answer is lies with unused timeshares. As you may or may not know, there was a huge timeshare boom in the 1980′s. Hundreds of thousands of timeshares were purchased during this time and that boom has fueled a vast amount of vacancies every single week of the year. These vacant timeshares can be rented by the week with absolutely none of the high costs of traditional ownership. Additionally, when you rent these luxury units, you are treated like an owner. What this means is that there are no timeshare presentations to attend. The great thing about these vacant timeshares is that they are often in 4 and 5 star luxury resorts, complete with gourmet restaurants, bars, swimming pools and a variety of on-site activities. And they are not exclusive to just the U.S., but instead, they are available world wide.

The great thing about these luxury rentals is the fact that they are larger than your traditional hotel room. This makes them great for extended stays and for big families that hotel rooms are too cramped for. But besides the price, they provide for greater value due to the fact that they are often far more cheaper than your traditional hotel rooms. Bigger families also find the value of these rentals to be increased because of the fact that most come equipped with refrigerators and kitchens, which saves them money from having to eat out for every single meal.

So why haven’t you heard about these “secret” insider deals of the travel industry? The answer is simple. Most vacant luxury travel rentals are managed by vacation clubs. These vacation clubs typically market only to affluent mailing lists of luxury travel buyers and timeshare owners.

Finally, you have decided to go on a vacation tour. And, when you call your travel agent, the first question that pops up is whether you are interested in a cruise package, a tour package, or a travel package. Now you are confused since you do not know exactly the difference between a tour package and a travel package. With various definitions and inclusions one gets to see in the net, it is of great importance for the travel-hungry people to be well informed in matters like these so that they can take the best decisions that suit their unique requirements and needs.

Definitions abound for the magical word ‘tour.’ When looking forward to your luxury travel vacation, do remember that the word ‘tour’ implies several different things. For one, a tour can be a guided trip that consists of a group of people travelling with similar aims. A package is usually termed as an offer that includes journey by planes, airport transfers, hotels, accommodation and vehicle or car rentals. According to your whims and fantasies, you may add some small excursions to some local places of attraction that include a group of people and a guide.

A package tour is usually found to have lots of takers as most of these happen to be really good deals. Holiday lovers get to stay in some of the best hotels situated near the destination, and in most situations, the comfort levels and standards are of the highest order. In a typical package, all the transportation cost is included, for instance, trips to and from the airport and short journeys to the local sites, and other guided tours. All the incidental charges like tickets for gaining entry into places and monuments of interest are also calculated while giving the final quote. This way, you will not need to pay fees for gaining entry into art museums, amusement parks or some entertainment shows.

Additional tours and excursions may also be purchased, and this usually comes at a reasonable price with discounts on it. Most of the tour packages offered by travel agencies and tour operators will include the price of meals during the day. So, one can say that a luxury travel vacation package includes in itself the various costs and fees associated with your travel, hotel accommodation, car rental and also the luxury taxes that are part and parcel of such packages. Some tour operators offer special discounts on breakfasts during a city tour.

There are certain benefits that accrue to you while booking a vacation package. In fact, it really depends on the destination and the time of going on vacations; for instance, peak season, off-season and the like; everything depends on your personal preferences. Now that you have a pretty good understanding of the facts, you can make a prudent decision by taking into consideration the aspects like where you are going and what you desire to accomplish during your vacation.