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Alaska travel guide

Have you visited Alaska before?

Last year I read Nora Roberts’ “Northern Lights” and fell in love with the spectacular Alaska. I am sure you know the feeling when a book makes you want to visit a certain place. That’s what this book did to me. Made me want to go there.

Alaska is one of the at-risk places to visit and you definitely need to do more planning and research before your vacation. But it also offers some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. Unfortunately, some of them won’t be here for too long. Make sure to visit Alaska before the icebergs are just a reminder of what used to be Alaska.

With the climate dramatically changing and reshaping the face of our planet, it only makes sense to take advantage of the cheap Anchorage flights this summer and plan the vacation of a lifetime.

You’ll also need accommodation, so hostels in Anchorage can represent a good choice, especially if you want to save money (which you can use to plan different outdoor activities). Hiking during the summer is excellent but it’s advisable to choose a guided tour. Fishing is also excellent here. You can also take day cruises to see the famous spots at Glacier Bay, Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound. You can also take wildlife viewing tours gray wolves, grizzly bears, orcas, lynx, moose, and hundreds of other rare and endangered species in their natural habitat.

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Argentina travel guide

Travel to Buenos Aires during Autumn

Autumn in Buenos Aires lasts between April and June. It’s the perfect time to invest in a Spanish class abroad. Or you can plan to make some money abroad by teaching English lessons.

Autumn allows you to travel like a local in Buenos Aires . The weather is warm and makes you want to explore the sights and check out the many markets in the city. You can shop for clothes (and find excellent bargains, too) or you can watch the Tango dancers early on Sunday mornings.

This period is also excellent for bargains. If you like football, then get a ticket ahead of time and watch one of the matches at the famous La Bombonera football stadium. Of course, it’s also the time when you can easily grab cheap fare to Buenos Aires . The city is easily accessible from North America, Europe and Asia. Almost all international flights land on Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza Airport, which makes finding a bargain really easy.

Non-stop flights from the United States depart from Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C. These are offered by the large airlines such as United, Continental, Delta Airlines or American Airlines.

With the flight booked, make sure to also look for Buenos Aires hotels . Just like in any large city, they range from dirty cheap to luxurious so choosing the right one for you is a matter of budget.

Budget wise, expect to pay from $1100 round trip per person (if departing from New York) in mid-June. As for accommodation, you can find rooms from $24 per night (2 persons, wi-fi in lobby). For $40 per night (2 persons) you can stay in the heart of the city (wi-fi in the room, TV, phone, safety box, AC).

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England travel guide

It’s Time to Get Back to England

Once upon a time I knew nothing more about soccer – or football, if you prefer – than players weren’t allowed to handle the ball. These days things are different. Even though it’s still not English football that I watch most of the time, however, it’s English football team names that jumped out at me the other day when I looked at a map of the country.

Zooming in on Sheffield to remind myself where it is in relation to York, I immediately saw Blackburn, Blackpool, Wigan, Bolton, Hull, Scunthorpe – and of course Manchester and Liverpool. The more I looked at the map of England, the more it looked like a big list of English football clubs. And that’s when it hit me – it’s been far too long since I’ve been to England.

Now, as much as I’d like to travel to the Champions League final (no matter who’s playing, but also – let’s be frank – to see Lionel Messi), I know that’s not going to happen this year. Flights to London Heathrow are routinely too expensive from my West Coast home, and I haven’t planned far enough in advance to combine one of the cheap fares from NY-London with some of the cheap flights to New York that occasionally come up for my local airport.

Not only that, I’m quite certain that all the budget hotels in London have been booked solid for ages in anticipation of a great Champions League final – and hotels near Heathrow are nowhere near close enough to the city or Wembley to make them reasonable options.

While I’d like to get back to England during the football season and catch a few games, the more important piece of business is catching up with old friends. The fact that my first thought when seeing Nottingham on the map was of Nottingham Forest and not the friends I made when I studied in that city is enough evidence to me that it’s time for a return trip.

photo by deBurca

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Las Vegas Los Angeles Things to Do

Vegas Road Trip for Memorial Day

As soon as you flip the calendar from April to May in the U.S., you’re charmed by the sight of a three-day weekend on the horizon. It may not seem like much, but sometimes all it takes is a weekend travel deal to make everything right with the world again.

If you’re looking for a nearby spot to spend a few days outside L.A., don’t overlook Las Vegas. Even if you’ve got plenty of sun in your neck of the woods, Vegas offers all kinds of fun stuff to fill a three-day weekend and it’s actually do-able as a road trip from L.A., too.

For those who aren’t familiar with the geography of the region, it’s easy to make the mistake that driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas wouldn’t be the best way to get from city to city. It’s also easy to assume that since Reno and Vegas are both in Nevada that it would take longer to get from L.A. to Vegas than it would to get from Reno to Las Vegas. Both of these assumptions, however, are wrong.

Reno-Vegas is more than 450 miles one-way, whereas L.A.-Vegas is only 270 miles. Yes, there are plenty of flights connecting Angelinos to Sin City, but if you like to drive and you’ve got a good road trip crew then that’s an excellent option – when everyone chips in on gas money, it’s much cheaper than paying for several plane tickets.

And speaking of saving money, one great way to do that is to stay in off Strip hotels in Vegas. The flashing lights and spectacular outdoor shows at the big casino hotels on the Strip are enticing, but there’s no reason to pay the high prices for rooms in those hotels if you can stay nearby in an off-Strip hotel for a fraction of the cost. Spend all your time in the fancy hotel casinos, restaurants, lounges, theatres, and bars if you like – but sleep cheap off the Strip.

Road trips don’t take nearly as much planning as a trip involving flights, so you’ve still got a little time to figure out a trip to Vegas for Memorial Day. Remember, however, that you aren’t the only one planning a Memorial Day trip, so don’t wait too long or all the Memorial Day travel deals will be gone.

photo by jdnx