I recently figured out that there are only really three steps to planning a vacation.  Now that might seem a little simplistic, but let me explain it to you and you’ll see what I mean.

The first step in the planning for cheap holidays (or expensive ones), is picking the destination.  For example, if you’re going to Icmeler Turkey, that’s it - you know where you’re going to go now.

The second step is arranging your accommodations, how you’re going to get there and how you’re going to get around while you are there.  Basically this step includes finding your lodging and transportation to and from the destination.  Continuing with our example, you might be looking for cheap flights to Turkey as well as a cheap hotel.

The third step is really not much of a step at all.  Simply put, step three is going on your vacation.  The first two steps to care of all the planning and step three allows you to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I figured that planning ahead for a trip to Las Vegas would give us the opportunity to find and take advantage of Las Vegas hotel promotions and keeps some money in my pocket.  Learning from my wife’s experience of working in hotels, if you just walk in and get a room you can expect to pay a lot more.

We already have a great deal on plane tickets and I thought if we would be able to get a better deal on the hotel rates that we would have some extra spending money while we are there.  So we have been going online to see if there are any promotion code that we can use to get a cheaper nights stay.

So far, we’ve been very successful at finding MGM Grand promotion codes and Mirage promotion codes but we haven’t been able to decide which one we would like to stay at.  They’re both fine hotels and it might end up that we both nights at each one of them.

We are going to sleep on it and make her decision tomorrow.  Though the trip is still far away I feel a lot better knowing that we almost have everything set up so that we can enjoy our trip and not be stressed out about it.

For most of my life, I have traveled around the world and seen many wondrous things.  The best part of it is that there have not been any mishaps, and for that I am thankful.

But this year, something happened on a trip that I had not planned.  You see, while on a trip to Mexico, I fell down and hit my mouth and knocked one of my teeth loose.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I had never done that before and I was at a loss and didn’t know what to do.  I needed a dentist, but I didn’t know of any in Mexico, and I didn’t know where to start.

But thankfully, I had my laptop with me and I did a search online for "Dentist Mexico" to find someone that could help fix my mouth.  That one search led me to a dentist office that was willing to help me out and fix what I had done to myself.

If I had not had the Internet, I don’t know what I would have done.  I guess I am just lucky that I was able to find someone to help, and from now on, I never travel without my laptop.

I have some friends that I would call world travelers.  You see, they’ve traveled many places and countries around the world and they seem to know the right places to stay irrespective of your destination.

For example, when they were visiting Bali, they stayed at the villas Seminyak, one of the most trendiest resorts on the island.  Not only were they treated like kings, but the photographs they brought back were some of the most amazing pictures of I had ever seen.

What was even more amazing was the ridiculously low price they paid compared to the luxurious room that they had.  I would’ve thought that they would have paid well over $1000 per night when in reality their cost was a measly $300.

All I know is that next time I go on a vacation, I will ask their advice on where to stay as well as where I can get the best price.  I hope that I will be able to share my grand tales of adventure that I experience on my next vacation.

I wouldn’t call myself a lucky person, but luck did strike me today.  You see, I have subscribed to a travel site that mails out a notice when there are seat sales for flights to exotic locations that you specify.

I thought that it would be a smart idea for me to join to save money on my dream vacation.  Not only that, but it would “force” me to take a step closer to my dream vacation - something I have been avoiding for years.

In fact, I have everything pretty much ready to go, except for packing the luggage.  So, when I received the email letting me know that I could get a discount on the airfare to Costa Luz - I had to take it.

In my haste, I forgot to check if my boss will give me the time off… but it should be okay - holiday, here I come!

Alright, I am not trying to run away from the law, just from life.  As I had mentioned before, I need to have a break, relax, and enjoy life.  Working all the time is not healthy, and being on vacation is (at least in my books).

Even though I like to let loose on my vacations, I like to plan ahead.  There is nothing worse than traveling somewhere and having no idea of what to do.  So, I have been collecting some guides on worldwide trips and tours, so that I can make an “educated” choice of where to go and what to do.

So far, I have some interesting candidates, but I am afraid I can’t share them with you.  When I go away, I only let one person know where I am, otherwise someone might be tempted to call me about work - and I wouldn’t like that at all.

It is getting to that time of year where I go away to relax.  Yes, my vacation time is coming up, and it promises to be very exciting.  Even though I have to work (yes, I am not wealthy yet), it is my vacation that keeps me sane.

Sure, going away means that I have to work some overtime each week to have enough money to go, but the end result is worth it.  In fact, just seeing some of the Las Vegas attractions that I saw on my last trip was worth every minute of overtime.

I just hope that I can get similar deals to the Las Vegas hotel deals I was able to get last year as it made the trip a lot more affordable.  I will have to talk to my travel agent to see what she can do for me.  But whatever the price, I know that I will love my time off from work.

I was in the airport the other day and I needed some help with a few questions I had. I did not have a lot of time, as I needed to be catching my connecting flight, so I knew that standing in line at the customer service desk was out of the question. I thought I would try and ask someone else who was working there and see if they could help me. The cleaning lady had no idea, so I moved on.

I hit the jackpot when I asked one of the employees of the Philadelphia airport transportation. He was very informative and was able to answer all of my questions. It was great because the lineup at the customer service desk had only moved up by three people at this point.

I made my connecting flight, feeling completely satisfied with the answers that I had been given. I needed to write a short note, letting the company know that I had found this employee to be particularly helpful. I am sure that he had a lot of things to do and was having a busy day, but he did not seem to mind that he had to stop what he was doing to help me out. That is a great employee.

I don’t know about you, but any contest I enter, I don’t win.  No matter how much that you want the prize, it is a fact of life that you usually won’t win.  I mean, if we did, we would all be rich and have everything that we want, right?

Well, it was my lucky day yesterday.  I entered a contest that the grand prize was a chance to travel Taiwan for a week.  Now, I have never been there in my life, so it will be a new experience for me.

But, before I go, I thought I would check out some of the best places in Taiwan to visit.  Sure, there would be a couple of tours around Taiwan as part of the prize package, but I wanted to see if there was something I truly wanted to see - who knows when I would be back.

So, I have a little list, but there is still time to come up with some other ideas.  It is only a couple more weeks before I get to go - and I can’t wait!

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Temecula, California.  I had a business seminar to attend there, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a couple days off and explore what the Temecula Valley had to offer.

While out for coffee, I picked up the RAAS Magazine (a local publication) and started to read, to see if I could find some sort of tourist attraction to check out.  I definitely loved the colorful and informative information found in the magazine.  They had a special about the Temecula wineries in the area - that is when I knew I found my tourist attraction.

I was able to use the Temecula maps in the magazine to direct me to the closest winery.  There, I went on a tour and sampled some of the most amazing wine I have ever tasted.  It was as though I was in heaven.

But with all good trips, they must eventually come to an end.  But, I am thankful that I had a most wonderful vacation - it was sure nice to get out of the office for a few days.