But is it cool and how does the sometimes snobby culture of the UK stack up against our European cousin’s perception of coach travel. Cary Grant has been quoted as saying “beats flying, doesn’t it”. In Spain companies such as subsidiary and Alsa, carries business people between cities. Coach travel there is “cool and acceptable” according to Mr Bowker (National Express chief executive).

Groups of lads on Stag dos may often use a coach to get themselves to that weekend trip or indeed a hen party for the same reason. It offers a convenient and easy way of traveling with out the added hassle and expense of flying. Coaches are also increasingly being used to operate your normal package holiday’s targeted at families or young professionals. It is often an alternative and cheaper method of getting to the Alps for a skiing holiday in Tignes or Alp d’huez.

You may be surprised that the UK coach travel sector has over 8 million customers annually with a turnover of £2.5 billion. Coach travel now offers many benefits over other forms of transport such as car and plane. Coach travel does not suffer from the taxation of APD (Air Passenger Duty) that was doubled in early February 2007 to between £10 and £20 on European flights.

This raises the question of environmental issues. A gallon of fuel will on pro-rata, take two people traveling by coach six times further than by car. A 300 mile trip on a coach carrying 85 passenger would generate 194kg in CO2 emissions. This would be 2.3kg per person. Compare that to a Boeing 737 doing the same journey, which would generate 6,930kg CO2 emissions or 36kg per person. 2.3kg CO2 Emissions Vs 36kg CO2 emissions shows there is a significant environmental advantage in using coach travel. This environmental advantage certainly creates an attraction for coach travel to a new generation of demographics outside the previous stereotypes.

Coach types and facilities
Coaches have come a long way since their conception it terms of comfort, style and their luxuries. This encourages different demographics to use coach travel as a means of getting to their holiday. Coaches range in size to cater for a variety of groups in the travel sector with everything from 19 to 85 seat coaches. This helps and encourages groups such as stag does and hen parties to use a smaller coach were as previously they may have used a number of cars. The concept of the executive coach has perhaps encouraged corporate group travel. It is now possible to get climate control, airline style folding seat back tables, WC, glazed glass for privacy and hot and cold drinks facilities.

Types of coach holiday and where to go
The only limitation with coaches is distance and their ability to cross continents. As such most coach holidays departing from the UK will have destinations of Europe or inbound for weekends away in the UK. This will be true across all demographics. If looking for ideas on where to visit you could try looking at ‘Trip Adviser’ or other smaller European destination guides such as ‘In Europe’. Coach tours come in a variety of forms. There are a good selection of package holidays to places such as Spain including the Costa Brava, Calella, and Cantabria. Younger and family holiday makers are also visiting events such as the German Christmas markets or Edinburgh at tattoo time. You can find holidays from many companies. You could use www.discoverBritain.com or if you are traveling in a group why not try visiting who are group travel organisers that will organise all your

Orlando flights and discounted airfares can be paid for with your credit card in a matter of minutes. Why not access the opportunity to travel to an exciting destination for some fun in the sun, some sand in your toes, and a whole lot of terrific photos on your memory disk? Plus, it’s possible to save money on your flight to Orlando by locating terrific flight bargains.

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Orlando is a hub of activity and everyone should visit it at least once. Book your Orlando flight today for the trip of a lifetime in the near future. Lots of cheap tickets are available. All you have to do is look. So, start looking today and find the dream price of your Orlando flight in minutes.

You may want to control your instincts this winter and ignore the budget airline advertisements plastered on multiple billboards.

Budget airlines for charging extra for services you may not know about. Customers could end up paying 30% more than the advertised sums as a result of extra fees such as credit card charges.

The companies bmibaby, EasyJet, Ryanair and Jet2 were analysed in a study by Which?, in relation to four destinations: Paris, Rome, Malaga and Faro.

All of these companies charge extra for credit or debit card use and also for checking in luggage. Flying to Paris with bmibaby showed a 25% increase in price when both of these services were used and for Ryanair it meant £50 extra across all of its routes.

EasyJet had the smallest luggage and credit card charges out of all of the airlines, though this still means £26 – £38 extra. Ryanair’s charges saw tickets at 8 – 29% higher than what was advertised, so make sure you aren’t fooled by these advertisements and are aware of the credit card charges before booking.

It has been argued that these are essential rather than additional services and therefore, airlines should not charge for them. A holiday without luggage seems ridiculous, particularly at this time of year where skiing necessities fill the holds of many planes.

Also, the main way to book budget flights is over the internet, which means that it is virtually impossible to pay through another method than credit card.

30% of Ryanair customers use Visa Electron credit cards or debit cards to avoid extra card charges.

However, Ryanair seem to have realised and are therefore intending to charge for the use of the Visa Electron as of the 1st of January. So, if customers use this credit card in the New Year, £5 will be added per flight, per person.

Ryanair claim that the card charges are used to fund their website rather than as addition personal income. They also claim that the change in policy with the Visa Electron card has been prompted by the fact that the card is being phased out in the UK. It has been confirmed that after the 14th of December, Abbey will not be issuing this card to customers.

Mastercard pre-paid cards remain the only loophole. These are now the only way to avoid a booking fee with Ryanair.

Pre-paid cards are the opposite of credit cards seeing as you put money on them in advance and then spend it.

However, there can be charges for even applying for one of these. The Tuxedo PAYG Prepaid Mastercard, for instance, charges a £9.95 application fee and a 3.5% ATM charge. So, if you are thinking about applying for one so you can evade Ryanair card-charges in the future, make sure you compare cards to find the best one for you.

Such a trip is not a prospect to please backpackers, or one that many families with small children would be likely to take (I left mine at home, and I am still paying). Even so I was taken aback by the mature homogeneity of the Swans, with their blue and yellow baggage tags, waiting in the lounge for the Panama charter to take off from Heathrow. The average age I would have guessed to be in the late sixties, 98 per cent were white and most were in couples. Almost anybody not fitting this profile turned out to be a musician, a lecturer or a member of Swan Hellenic staff.

One thing the Heathrow lounge dispelled was my fantasy of a Poirot-sized paddle steamer, in which Angela Lansbury and a dozen others gather in evening dress to listen to a descendant of Sir Mortimer Wheeler discuss his latest excavations with the help of a slide show. Minerva II, the ship used by Swan Hellenic, can carry up to 650 passengers – and usually does. There would be a lot of us.

We eventually embarked (isn’t that a wonderful word?), exhausted, at Colon after a very long flight, a dust-up with Panamanian customs and a humid coach journey across the isthmus from Panama City. As we got off the coach and checked in on the quay, the Minerva II towered above us, and I thought she was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Smaller than most cruise ships, more modern, and full of Oriental people in white uniforms, who – in almost colonial style – insisted on carrying bags, showing us to lifts and serving drinks.

The cabin was a very good size for one person, though might have been a little claustrophobic for two. There was a double bed, a small sofa, a decent-sized writing table, a TV, small fridge, a little bit of free booze, a dinky bathroom with a shower (no bath) and a pleasant balcony. And a couple of really neat touches: a pair of binoculars which could be taken on excursions, and three volumes of short stories beside the bed. On the pillow was a folded A4 copy of the Daily Programme, detailing what time everything was open and what time the trips would be leaving the next morning.

Setting out to explore the ship, I discovered the lounge, principal venue for lectures and concerts, and, next to it, the Mortimer Wheeler bar, sporting a large portrait of the Terry-Thomas lookalike legend who helped found the company in the Fifties, who was its earliest lecturer and (some say) its greatest Lothario. And, sitting at the bar was a theatrical knight with a Wheeleresque reputation, whose presence on board gave everyone something to talk about for a fortnight. One day I saw him greeting a crew member on the stairs. ‘Good morning!’ he thundered. It was 4pm.

A cruise ship is a gigantic hotel that follows you about. You travel to a thousand places and never have to unpack. This ship had a very good gym, where I used to work out while watching Honduran dockers at work 50 feet below me, an internet cafe, a library (complete with busts of Aristotle sculpted by members of the crew), several bars, a collection of paperbacks donated by past passengers which contained five copies of Wuthering Heights and four of Hard Times, and, of course, several restaurants.

The most unsettling aspect of cruising for a Briton is being forced to share your meals with strangers. For the first week you are simply shown to the next table with spaces, and you (and they) take social pot luck. I think this is a good thing, and I met several very pleasant and much-travelled people this way. I particularly liked the chap with a cravat who, with the help of the salt cellar and the sugar bowl illustrated an encounter with three elephants that had nearly been disastrous, before the animals decided to lumber ‘orf’ into the butter dish. The best anecdote was about a lady who, on a previous cruise, was unhappy with her cabin, and of whom it was said, ’she needed a suite. She was a big woman, she had hip problems and she was on her fourth husband’. All of which requires space. Least successful conversation was with a very old man who had been cruising with his wife for a month, and, in response to a question, turned to her and asked: ‘Help me out here dear, where have we just been?’

The printed list of guests (which discreetly omitted the famous thespian) revealed a different truth: every fifth person was a doctor. Apparently Swan cruises attract a hugely disproportionate number of retired GPs. Which is just as well because, with an age profile like this one, death or illness are never very far away. Though the company claims to lose very few passengers, the laws of averages combine to make final things happen.

The age thing may also explain two other phenomena. The first was the positioning around the ship of jigsaws, which were replaced when completed. I had never seen that before. The second was that the cocktail bar was deserted by everybody, save the most dissolute, by just after 11 each evening.

One reason for this was the early departure of the excursions. A Swan trip is all about excursions. Every day in port the local buses with their guides would draw up on the quay and – over a couple of hours – virtually every passenger aboard would disembark (I love that word, too) and depart for a Mayan ruin, a nature ramble or an afternoon snorkelling. You’d be swiped out, using your special card, and, on return, be swiped in again. Compulsory ID cards hold no terror for the Swan passenger.

My voyage was along the Caribbean coast of Central America, where the main themes were the civilisation of the Maya, and the ecologies of the rainforest and the reefs. In Colon, Archie, the camp Panamanian guide, admitted that the town was ‘kind of trashy, and I apologise’, before pointing out the purple jacaranda, frangipani and yellow acacia trees, commenting on the years of General Noriega and delivering himself of some choice quotes on the subject of Panama’s relationship with the US.

In the forest of Costa Rica, Gloriana told our enraptured bus: ‘I live in a place where I open the door and a cloud walks in.’ That day we took a tram ride through the canopy of trees and spotted an ornate hawk-eagle. Driving through Belize City our guide told us that we were looking at, ‘one of the three sets of traffic lights in Belize’, adding: ‘It used to be four.’ Then he took us on a river trip where we saw kingfishers, kingbirds, alligators, straw-haired Mennonites in wide-brimmed hats or bonnets, and a wonderful wader with red legs, called a grey-necked woodrail. Then we alighted at a Mayan city in the jungle, with howler monkeys. At Uxmal, in Mexico, we scrambled for two hours over temples and ball-courts, watched by huge iguanas.

Some of the trips consisted of long drives and short visits and were a little disappointing. And there’s cruise syndrome, in which you always arrive on site too late or too early to see many animals or birds. Nevertheless the good excursions were thrilling. In Guatemala we started off with a speed-boat ride along the coast that was wet, fast and exhilarating. Then we arrived at the extraordinary town of Livingston, on the mouth of the Rio Dulce, where Africans had been ship-wrecked in the 1700s on their way to slavery. The result is the Garifuna culture which exists only in this one place. Backpackers love it.

The nearest anyone came to death on one of these journeys (apart from one or two scares involving irregular heartbeats) was when someone’s walking stick fell off the luggage rack on a bend. But I admired the indomitability of my shipmates. To see an 80-year-old insist, in 90 per cent humidity, on climbing the sheer face of a Mayan temple, is an inspiring thing. One of the Swan Hellenic representatives was apparently approached, near the end of the cruise by three old ladies. ‘We were booked onto the full-day trip tomorrow,’ explained one, ‘but my sister broke her arm this morning, so we’d like to change to the half-day trip.’

Oddly, this indefatigability seems not to extend to the very obvious fact that cruises take place on ships. I was struck by how many people got sick even when the boat moved around very little. And complained about it, too. This was despite the reassuring aural presence of the captain, whose clipped tones and odd, extended phrasing punctuated the trip. There’d be a bing bong followed by something like: ‘This is the kepten spikkin. We have turned 120 degrees to port and………now have the sea abaft our beam, and will shortly be mekkin for Perto Cortiz………..’ These very long broadcasts became famous on the boat, but it was also known that the kepten was a first-class seaman. In the Falklands, apparently, when a fuel barge tried to come alongside in a heavy swell, he… Well, another time, maybe.

One thing I ought to stress to people who have been on cruises, is that a Swan cruise is different. No one-armed bandits, no karaoke, no bingo. We had a young classical wind ensemble, the actors Anton Rodgers and Elizabeth Garvie did three splendidly high-class Radio 4 turns, and there was a Filipino night where the crew did Morris dancing with coconut shells.

But the real point of difference was the lectures. Every sea day there’d be up to three 45-minute talks by professors, lady canons or geographers dealing with different aspects of what we were about to see. It was a treat to see 300 lay people, some taking notes, being told that a particular Mayan architecture was ‘not straight pook, but a derivative of pook’. We discovered how the god Quetzalcoatl angered Lord Smoking Mirror and how Mayan kings used to offer up their own blood by making incisions in their manly parts.

All the lectures, I thought, were good, and some were better than good. The excursion guides, however, must have hated them. Instead of a coach load of ignoramuses they were faced off with a party of questing amateur archaeologists or naturalists. Some, like poor Miguel in Yucatan, barely survived.

These lectures, by the way, illustrating Swan’s eye for detail, were all repeated on the ship’s TV, and could be watched for up to three days after they’d been delivered. Rather a good touch, I’d say.

And now some tips, if you haven’t cruised before. First, you know all that stuff about the dress code in restaurants? The bastards mean it. I shall not easily forget having the one word ‘JACKET!!’ hurled at me when attempting to enter the Grill improperly attired.

Second, choose a cruise that visits small ports. You get better, less touristy guides, more imaginative excursions and the locals are actually pleased to see you. We were the first cruise ship to use the Honduran port of La Ceiba, and the news was in the local newspaper.

Third, rainforests are so called because it rains.

Fourth, choose journeys that have as few days at sea as possible. A day at sea is a bit like visiting a gym where all the members suddenly turn up. The crew don’t enjoy it, the deck chairs are taken and some truly alarming sun-bathing takes place. One lady, who should have known better, occupied a lounger half-naked, a towel over her head and her legs horribly akimbo.

Fifth, you don’t have to eat the food. Swans reckon that the average cruiser puts on a stone during the voyage. This is unnecessary, given that there is a very good gym and that the food is not that special.

Sixth (and this may get me into trouble), I did not come across a single person who had paid the full brochure fare. Discounts are universal and seem to start at 40 per cent. This means that cruising is far cheaper than it looks.

As it happens I went free, and one lady, on being told this, accused me of being ‘in the pocket’ of Swan Hellenic. I tell you this because I loved this trip. I loved practically everything about it. I made some good friends on board, saw fabulous places, slept and ate well and was never bored (excepting the man who couldn’t recall where he’d been). And I thought the ship was magnificent. Had I paid, it would have been worth every penny.

One last experience indicates what the others thought. With a day to go it turned out that the charter company suddenly wasn’t able to fly us all home. Some of us would have to wait another 24 hours. A bing bong announced that Swan would give the volunteers a free night in the Bahamas plus £200. I was standing by the desk when the announcement was made, and heard a sound like thunder. The deaf could hear, the lame threw away their crutches and the crippled ran to book their places. Everyone wanted to stay.

Factfile

David Aaronovitch travelled with Swan Hellenic (084 5355 5111; www.swanhellenic.com) on the ‘Mysteries of the Maya’ cruise. The 15-day itinerary departs from Panama and calls at Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, USA (for Key West) and the Bahamas. He stayed in a deluxe cabin with private balcony which costs £4,438 pp based on two sharing. Fares start at £2,786 pp for a standard inside cabin. Price includes all meals, return flights from London to Panama, transfers and excursions. The next tours will be in 2006, but fares and itinerary should be similar.

If you liked the sound of that, try these…

Hebridean Spirit (01756 704704; www.hebridean.co.uk) has a one-week Scandinavian cruise that makes stops in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The cruise departs from Bergen, Norway, where you’ll see the Renaissance Rose Garden, take tea and waffles in Baadehuset, and visit the Norwegian Viking Ship museum. Then you’ll glide past the wild southern fjords towards Oslo to see the modernist Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park, then on to the fairy-tale castles of Frederiksburg, Denmark, before flying home from Helsingborg. The cost of £3,460 per person (sharing a double) includes meals, flights, shore visits, use of the gym and steam room, and drinks. Departs 14 July.

For a twist on the typical Caribbean cruise, sail aboard a fully restored clipper. It has huge billlowing sails and an intimate private yacht feel though it has 114 rooms, an Edwardian-style library, piano bar and spa. The two-week ‘Windwards Cruise’ with Kuoni (01306 742222; www.kuoni.co.uk) starts and ends in Barbados. You spend two days there at the beginning and five days at the end at the Accra Beach Hotel and Resort. In between it sails to St Lucia, the tiny volcanic islands of Iles des Saintes, the white beaches of Antigua, old colonial mansions of St. Kitts, waterfalls and jungles in Dominica and cosmopolitan Martinique. Prices from £2,175pp in January, including Heathrow flights and all meals aboard the ship but not in the hotel.

Classes on the history and archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Roman Empire and religions and crusades are among those given on a cruise next March with Swan Hellenic (0845 355 5111; www.swanhellenic.com) from £3,024 pp for two weeks. From Aqaba, Jordan, you visit Sharm el Sheik and Alexandria in Egypt, Benghazi and Tripoli in Libya, and Sousse and Tunis in Tunisia.

Shipmates aboard the small Black Prince can enjoy a jazz music cruise that grooves its way round the Shetland Islands and several ports in Norway, beginning and ending in Greenock for £995 for 12 nights, departing 8 June; or take a wine-themed cruise, from £549 for 8 nights, departing 10 March 2005 from Liverpool, calling at La Rochelle, Bilbao, La Coruña and Oporto. Both Fred Olsen trips are bookable with Cruise Traders (08000 960060; www.cruisetraders.com).

An exotic luxury car rental is a great way to add some excitement to your next trip. Instead of renting a boring Toyota, van, or other vehicle you can rent a BMW, Jaguar, or other fun automobile. You will liven up any business trip if you rent a customized luxury motor vehicle.

Stop Playing it Safe

Instead of renting that plain four-door sedan on your next business trip, try renting a personalized luxury vehicle. Most luxury rental shops will meet any customer’s specifications for a luxury car. If they can’t find a automotive vehicle that will suit your needs, then they will probably know someone who will have the vehicle you’re looking for.

Once you find a customer friendly luxury rental shop you will probably want to keep going back there for all your rental needs. Vehicle customizing can also be done for some customers. If you want something special left in the car for your date, like roses or chocolates, some rental companies will include that in the price of your rental.

Renting an exotic car is definitely a great way to relieve some stress and feel like you’re young again. And for those of you that are still young and can’t afford to buy your own luxury vehicle, renting one is a great option.

When to Rent an Exotic Vehicle?

Most people rent exotic cars for a variety of different reasons. Some want to customize their own vehicle and are getting ideas from their rental car. Other people rent a luxury vehicle for special events like weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. But you don’t need a special occasion to rent a custom luxury car.

You can rent an exotic car for a date with a new girl or just a night on the town. Renting a luxury car is a fun way to spice up any evening. You don’t have to worry about high car payments or the daily upkeep of a luxury vehicle. Instead you can just go have fun with the car for one evening.

Don’t waste another day wishing that you could drive a luxury exotic vehicle. Go rent one today and feel the power behind such an awesome car. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy driving such an exotic car.

Spend some time calling around and checking the prices from many different companies. Some will be able to provide you a much better price than others. You may also consider looking on the Internet for companies in your area that do customized car rentals or exotic car rentals.

Once you have found a company that looks like they are the right one for you, make sure and check with the Better Business Bureau and other local groups to verify the reputation of the rental company. There are some illegal companies that can get you into a lot of trouble if you are caught driving one of their vehicles. So do your research and only rent from well known repeatable luxury car companies.

A custom luxury car is the dream of almost everyone, but even if you know which car you want — what is the best way to get it? For numerous articles and resources designed to get you in your dream car NOW visit us at: http://www.customluxurycar.com/

Injuries are a part of life, but there is no reason to pay for the ones that are not your fault. Yes accidents happen, but why should the victim be penalized for something that they would normally have been able to avoid if more care was taken. Here are some types of personal injury where the only move to be made is to pick up the phone and call a lawyer.

Car Accidents – this may be the one type of personal injury that keeps personal injury lawyers in business. While there are accidents that are totally unavoidable, someone is still always at fault. If you are not that person, you may have to use a personal injury claim lawyer in order to get the car fixed or replaced and to cover any medical costs that were incurred because of the accident.

Work Accidents – everyone is always scared to go after their employer for fear of losing their job, but if they are neglectful, they can be sued. For instance, you work at a hotel as a server and there is a constant puddle in the middle of the floor because of a defective pipe on the dishwasher. This ‘puddle’ has been brought to management’s attention time and time again and nothing is ever done. If someone were to slip and fall because of the wet floor, the workplace can be sued.

Drugs – there have been plenty of cases were prescription medicines were not abused, but that something tragic has been the result. Drug makers are 100% liable when this happens and are held accountable for damages to any patients that have used them. While these cases can be filed alone, they are also commonly filed as class action lawsuits.

Product Liability – companies go through great lengths to test their products to make sure that they are safe, but sometimes things slip through the cracks. It is unfortunate, but it is still their responsibility. A recent example of this is a children’s walker that when closed, risked severe damage to fingers if they were to get caught in there. It is not something that happens every day, but they were liable for the injuries.

Airplane Accidents – these are horrific when they happen, but someone is usually to blame. Maybe a mechanic did not check what they were supposed to or the airline was using illegal parts. Any cause that can be proven to show fault on the airline makes them liable. This is a very involved type of lawsuit where an attorney who specializes in personal injury will be needed.

Medical Personal Injury – we all like to think that we can trust our doctors and 99 out of 100 times this will be the case. However, they are not infallible and if an injury is caused due to medical negligence, damages can be recovered. This is another field that may require an attorney with specific knowledge in medical malpractice.

These are only a few of the types of personal injury, but they are probably the most common. Personal injury lawsuits can be a very funny thing and if the attorney is not skilled and experienced, the results can be much less than what you are entitled to. Make sure that you are using a reputable attorney that can deliver everything that they promise.

If this is your first time planning an all-inclusive trip to the Caribbean, you might be looking for some helpful tips and tricks to get the best deal, find the best resort and more. For help with planning your first all-inclusive Caribbean vacation, please keep reading on.

DO know what a stay at “true” all-inclusive resort should give you. If you are traveling from the United States and if you aren’t a big traveler, you may have never stayed at an all-inclusive resort before. Unfortunately, some are better than others. In fact, you will find some hotels and even motels that claim to be all-inclusive when they really aren’t. A true all-inclusive resort gives you lots of things to do and see right onsite but most of it was already included in the cost of your stay. For instance, a great all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean will have a handful of included beach activities and land activities, multiple onsite eateries, and more!

DON’T forget that there are many all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Whether you visit a travel website or plug “all-inclusive Caribbean” resorts into a search engine, you will see many choices. There are even more out there. This is important to know because you don’t want to choose the first all-inclusive resort that you come across. You want to view them all, eliminate those that aren’t the perfect fit, and then compare all of your favorites to find the best deal.

DO make the decision yourself. It is fine to do some research online and read about the top rated all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean or look into a resort that a friend of a friend recommended, but you want to make the decision yourself. What is unique about the Caribbean and all-inclusive resorts is that they aren’t all the same. You can find a large selection of different onsite restaurants, activities, entertainment, and more. You literally have the ability to find the resort that seems as if it was built for no one else but you. However, before that can happen you must know what you want and need to get from your travels.

DON’T gather information from a third-party travel website. Now this isn’t to say that you can’t book your travel plans through one of these websites, but when it comes to information gathering you will find the most accurate and up-to-date information on the website of the resort in question. Moreover, you are likely to see a larger selection of pictures. When it comes to deciding which resort you want to choose, this extra information can help you make the right choice.

DO consider including your airline reservations in with your all-inclusive Caribbean travel package. Most resorts will let you decide. If you were to dissect the cost of a travel package line by line, you would likely see that the costs of your flights are very similar. Basically this means that you can get a good deal by saving time and automatically including them in with your travel package.

DON’T choose a resort that is jam packed with inclusions you could careless about. Of course there really isn’t any harm that comes from staying at a resort where there is a lot to do and see. The thing though is you want to ensure it is stuff you want to do and see. Even though you don’t pay extra for inclusions, you did technically pay for use ahead of time. So if you don’t care about golfing, you don’t need to choose a resort with an onsite golf course.

DO examine nearby activities…just in case. What is nice about staying at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean is that you can stay right onsite and have the vacation of your dreams. These resorts are designed to let you do and see everything you could imagine right on the property. This can save you travel time and travel costs. However, you might not know if and when that urge to get out and explore will hit. There are benefits to familiarizing yourself with nearby attractions and activities so that you aren’t left blindly driving around an unfamiliar place.

1. Purchase a package. Buy airplane tickets, hotel, and car rental together and often you can save when comparing individual prices.

2. Flying one way is great but also usually the most expensive. You can save money by opting for connecting flights.

3. Check neighboring cities. As an example, if you are planning on flying into Orlando, FL, be sure to check out prices for flights to Tampa instead, as these flights are almost always less expensive and usually not too far out of your way.

4. If you are not traveling out of the country, consider flying on one of the smaller airlines for the major carriers as you will usually save on the purchase price this way.

5. Be sure to use the Internet to check out last-minute discount fares on the airline’s main website. Start looking midweek for the upcoming weekend.

6. Be patient and wait for an excellent price to come up. But when you do see a great price go ahead and purchase it, so always have in mind what your definition of a “good price” is so you’ll be ready to grab it at a moment’s notice. You never know when those awesome prices will show up.

7. If possible, you should be flexible with your leaving and return dates. Sometimes if you just adjust your dates by as little as one day you can get a cheaper price. For example, leave Wednesday and return Sunday instead of leaving Tuesday and returning Saturday.

8. If possible, book your tickets directly at the airline’s main website. If you use a travel agency, even one online, they will charge you an additional fee. It will also be much more simple to correct any problems if you are dealing directly with the airline itself instead of a travel agency. Believe me, I speak from experience on this one!

9. Mornings are sometimes the best time to check for tickets, and Saturday and Wednesday mornings are good days to take a look for some great prices. And don’t feel you have to stay over on a Saturday in order to get a better price. In the past this was thought to be helpful but not so much anymore.

10. Don’t forget to sign up for frequent flyer miles. It’s quite surprising how often people don’t take advantage of this perk. Even if you fly different airlines, sign up for each airline’s frequent flyer program. The miles add up faster than you realize.

11. Flying one way? This doesn’t always work but be sure to check for round-trip prices as well as one-way since there are times where it is actually cheaper to fly round-trip.

12. If you plan to travel on a holiday, be sure to book your tickets well in advance. For one thing, you will have a difficult time getting the seats and dates you want if you wait until the last minute, but you also will save on ticket prices by purchasing early. However, be sure of your itinerary because if you have to cancel or change your travel dates you’ll likely end up forfeiting any savings you had made.

13. Make sure you always book your flights at least 3 weeks in advance. This will get you the best prices. The earlier the better in this case. Never buy tickets within 7 days of your planned departure if you can help it, as you will usually pay a significantly higher price.

14. Consider traveling on the so-called red eye flights. Check with your travel agent to see if you can save with these late-night flights. You can often save as much as 25% or more off the ticket price this way. You’ll miss out on seeing the scenery you might see during the day but you’ll be more likely to snooze your way through the flight and time will go by faster.

If you are a veteran cruiser or just curious about cruising, the year 2006 will be introducing many new cruise ships for you to consider when planning a cruise vacation. Call your travel agent and ask about the cruise lines and their new cruise ships and then book a cruise vacation. Here is a cruise review of the new cruise line additions.

Holland America is introducing the Noordam. This new cruise ship was launched on February 22 and has been getting very good cruise reviews. It will be the last cruise ship of Holland America’s Vista-class series.

However, it is the first to be designed for the cruise line’s “Signature of Excellence program.”

The Noordam can accommodate 1,848 passengers. For this new cruise ship, there have been some design changes to enhance the cruise vacation. The new designs were focused mainly on the public areas and staterooms, the meeting point of many cruise travelers.

They have made additions to the very popular Explorations Cafe. As veteran cruise travelers are well aware, it is a coffee bar/Internet cafe, game room, and library.

NCL America’s Pride of Hawaii is the newest cruise ship for 2006 by NCL America. It is the sister vessel of the Norwegian Jewel and offers an excellent cruise vacation.

For the cruise line, Pride of Hawaii marks the first new build from the hull up.

It launched was in June. This cruise ship will accommodate 2,224 passengers. It will be another cruise ship in NCL America’s “Freestyle Cruising” concept being offered for your cruise vacation.

The Pride of Hawaii’s interior decor will be, of course, Hawaiian.

This cruise ship will be departing weekly on Mondays for your cruise vacation and travel the islands, calling Honolulu home.

In December the Norwegian Pearl is set to sail in the Caribbean in the winter months and Alaska in the summer months for your cruise vacations. One of their innovations is the Bar Central concept. It features a martini bar, a champagne bar, wine bar, and a beer and whiskey pub all connected.

The Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas was launched in May in time for summer cruise vacations. Cruise reviews call it the most innovative cruise ship for RCCL so far.

This 158,000-ton cruise ship has a capacity of 3,600 passengers. It will actually be 10,000 tons larger than Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. It will be the largest cruise ship to be built so far.

The Freedom of the Seas has an added feature that other cruise ships do not. It actually has a place to surf on the top cruise deck. This is a new and unique amenity for RCCL’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship. Other cruise lines have virtual golf or movies under the stars but no one has a surf park. The cruise line has built the largest rock climbing wall ever.

Following its launching, the Freedom of the Seas will sail seven-day cruise vacations to the Caribbean from Miami.

The Crown Princess, Princess Cruises christened in June. The Crown Princess is expected to accommodate 3,110 cruise travel passengers with 1200 crew.

Princess Cruises lines redesigned the Skywalker’s Disco, which gained popularity from cruise passengers on their cruise vacations. They also have the Lotus Spa which has been expanded on the Crown Princess.

New pastries and snacks will adorn the International Cafe. Crown Princess will have the first ever wine and seafood bar of the entire cruise line.

Expansions were made to other popular features like the Wheelhouse Bar, Sabatini’s Trattoria, and the Sterling Steakhouse.

Crown Princess cruise vacations will sail roundtrip from the Red Hook terminal in New York. This cruise vacation will make stops in the Eastern Caribbean, Bermuda and Turks and Caicos.

MSC will launched their new cruise ship MSC Musica on July 01. Musica is an Italian ship that will bring MSC into the ranks of big cruise ships. It is expected to accommodate 2,550 passengers.

One of its outstanding features will be that a full 80% of its 1,275 staterooms will be outside rooms. In addition, 65% of these staterooms will have verandas.

It will also feature a large spa area. The Musica’s cruise passengers will also have several dining options. They will enjoy a three deck high waterfall and many different entertainment venues.

Musica will sail the eastern Mediterranean from Venice.

The Costa Cruises’ new ship the Costa Concordia is owned by Carnival Corporation based in Miami, while Costa cruise lines is based in Italy.

This will be the largest cruise ship to join the Costa Cruises’ fleet. It will be launched late this year on July 14. It is expected to accommodate 3,000 passengers.

The Costa Concordia will have an European theme for its interior decor. All the room’s names will be European inspired. They will have the Grand Bar Berlin, Cafeteria Helsinki, and the Milan and Rome dining rooms.

A unique amenity to the Costa Concordia is a Formula 1 driving simulator for cruise passengers to enjoy on their cruise vacation.

This new cruise ship will sail year round in the Western Mediterranean. For those taking their cruise vacation on this ship, they will make ports of call in Spain, France, Italy, Gibraltar, and Malta.

So much to choose from! Check out other cruise reviews of these new cruise ships to find out on which cruise ship you will spend your 2006 cruise vacation.

Happy Cruising!

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

Mary Hanna has traveled the world by Air and Ship while writing eBooks, Software Reviews and Practical Articles on Internet Marketing, Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at: http://www.CruiseGold.com, http://www.CruiseTravelDirectory.com and http://www.CruisingTips.com

Had France played with slightly more self-confidence the carnage could have been worse. Not since the Lions tour to New Zealand has an international team gone in talking such a bullish game only to be emasculated so swiftly. After 11 minutes France were 13-0 ahead and cruising; had they gone for the jugular the final margin would have dwarfed England’s previous nadir across the Channel, a 37-12 hiding in 1972. Unless France slip up horribly in Cardiff this Saturday, this year’s championship trophy now looks set to end up in Gallic hands.

For England, who finish their campaign at home to the triple crown-chasing Ireland at Twickenham, the repercussions stretch way beyond one disappointing weekend. On this evidence the road to next year’s World Cup in France will be a boulevard of broken dreams unless Robinson can weld up an exceedingly wobbly chariot in a short space of time. “We were awful today,” the head coach acknowledged. “We played poorly in all aspects of the game from the first whistle. We knew coming here that it was about silencing the crowd. Today the band played.”

There were some extenuating circumstances for England to cling to. Matt Dawson, Mike Tindall, Steve Thompson, Lee Mears and Tom Voyce were hit by a gastro-enteritis bug on the eve of the game and Dawson was so ill yesterday morning that Andy Gomarsall had to be flown over as emergency cover after the management failed to track down their preferred option, Bristol’s Shaun Perry. Ultimately Gomarsall was not required and Dawson lasted almost an hour but, by the time he went off, England were already a long way up the proverbial creek.

In terms of grim portents, the first quarter was eerily reminiscent of the fateful first Lions Test in Christchurch. England were not merely bad, they were off the bottom of the scale. Of all the grounds in the world not to gift the hosts a lead, the glass-rimmed Stade would be right up there. At the moment they needed to be tight and precise, English generosity flowed like an unattended beer tap.

The game had barely been going 40 seconds when Frédéric Michalak hoisted a high ball which unaccountably fell between Jamie Noon and Josh Lewsey. The bounce did favor the French but they had runners in support as Florian Fritz scooted over untouched. Dimitri Yachvili’s conversion was followed by a penalty against Joe Worsley for holding on to a loose ball which had landed on him unexpectedly, and the mood was set.

Charlie Hodgson, in particular, was guilty of a litany of high-profile howlers before departing with a tweaked hamstring at half-time. His tally of knock-ons, missed tackles, failed line-kicks and flawed goalkicks, however, simply mirrored the uncertainty around him. Only the captain Martin Corry and the lineout, under Steve Borthwick’s expert stewardship, stood up to consistent scrutiny. After Hodgson had struck a post with what should have been a routine penalty attempt, Yachvili kicked another penalty and “Allez les Bleus” rang out.

Either side of half-time, as France sat back slightly, the visitors did at least start to see some ball; Hodgson chipped over one penalty and his replacement Andy Goode did likewise within three minutes of the restart. With France’s tactical kicking consistently putting the dim into dimanche, it seemed England might even claw back some respectability. But from the moment Lewis Moody knocked-on a priceless turnover ball with men outside him, the game was clearly up.

Sure enough Michalak started to jink, the unfortunate Lewsey spilt another garryowen and, from a quick tap penalty by Yachvili, Damien Traille beat the desperate English cover – with assistance from Fritz – to score a second ludicrously soft try after 67 minutes.

By this stage the cavalry had arrived, Lawrence Dallaglio replacing Worsley, but it made no real difference. Yachvili chipped over his fourth penalty before Goode summed up the afternoon with a hopeful long pass which was expertly intercepted by the alert Christophe Dominici. Who said the English can’t throw a try-creating pass in midfield?

Asked if this had shaken his faith in England’s prospects, Robinson muttered: “It tests your thought processes.”