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Archive for January, 2011

As fairy-tale destinations for lovers go, a romantic Santa Barbara getaway tops the list. From scenic Stearns Wharf and the beautiful Santa Barbara Mission to the tree-lined State Street shopping district and glorious sandy beaches, renowned wineries, spas and art galleries, a romantic Santa Barbara getaway is just what the doctor ordered. And Santa Barbara vacation rentals can help you create the special retreat for Valentines Day, anniversaries, honeymoons or that dreamy romantic tryst youll remember for the rest of your lives.

Travel writers have waxed rhapsodic about many romantic Santa Barbara activities but instead of a simple list of romantic tourist attractions (Ive included those at the end), these tips will help you create the ultimate romantic Santa Barbara getaway.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #1: How to compose your perfect Santa Barbara love symphony
Planning the ultimate romantic Santa Barbara getaway is easy. Romantic Santa Barbara offers a full orchestra of locales and activities at your disposal. All you have to do is compose the most romantic Santa Barbara getaway for your beloved. As with any great piece of music, the secret to a romantic Santa Barbara getaway is varying the pacing.

Mix slow leisurely beach walks (or art gallery walks, if you prefer) with high-energy activities like dancing. Start with lyrical passages like getting a massage at a local spa. Up the tempo with an invigorating horseback ride. Build to a romantic crescendo with a candlelit dinner at a fine restaurant. Then segue over to a passionate evening of poetry reading (or whatever else comes to mind).

One of the best ways to pull off a memorable romantic Santa Barbara getaway is to get a Santa Barbara vacation rental home. A musical masterpiece should be played in a venue worthy of it. But beyond a great showplace, picking the right Santa Barbara vacation rental home can inspire romantic activities based just on the location. A Santa Barbara vacation home gives you so much more opportunity to create great romantic moments than an anonymous hotel room.

Imagine your Santa Barbara vacation rental home just steps away from Shoreline Park and the sand, with easy access to Ledbetter Beach. When you stay at a Santa Barbara vacation rental you can enjoy a morning stroll through the park. There is also a childrens playground and seating areas for afternoon BBQs in the sun. Watch the surfers at the beach, take a walk through the harbor area, and enjoy the oceanfront atmosphere of beautiful downtown Santa Barbara.

The physical layout of a Santa Barbra vacation rental home is also important. For example, imagine the relaxing you can do on your own private rooftop patio with incredible views of Shoreline Park and the Pacific ocean in both directions. Each individual feature of a Santa Barbra vacation rental home is a piece of music waiting to happen.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #2: Set the stage for love
The best way to enjoy a romantic Santa Barbara getaway is to completely control your environment so that you can set the stage for love. Santa Barbara vacation rentals can help with this. A Santa Barbara vacation rental home costs half as much as a luxury hotel for more than twice the square footage, plus you have an outside oasis all your own.

With a romantic Santa Barbara vacation rental home, you can drop a trail of rose petals, light all the candles you want, even light a roaring fire in the fireplace. Almost every romantic Santa Barbara vacation rental home has a multimedia system to play any mood music you like.

One of the best ways to set the scene is to choose a romantic Santa Barbara vacation rental that fits your mood or style. If the sound of waves crashing on the shore causes insomnia, maybe youd prefer a home on a beautiful tree lined street in Montecito. Youll still be close enough to enjoy the beach, but youll also have easier access to shopping and fine dining. Instead of going out, maybe youd like to cook on a gas BBQ grill and relax with your honey in a hammock.

Santa Barbara vacation rentals offer concierge service to help you set the scene according to your specifications before you arrive. The dedicated Santa Barbara vacation rental concierge staff will have your favorite wines, food and flowers ready for you and will even arrange for your personally selected mood music to be playing when you arrive. This perfect “Wow!” moment is priceless. Prepare to pick your beloved’s jaw up off the floor.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #3: Rule your personal love nest.
With a Santa Barbara vacation rental home, you won’t have to worry about hotel conventioneers making lots of noise or crowding out all your romantic moments. You control the environment. Instead of a noisy hotel, imagine your own private villa with outside decks, including a “living roof” terrace, a fireplace, a fountain and 360-degree views of the ocean, mountains, Santa Barbara Harbor, Mission and Riviera. It is like having all of the beauty and amenities of a luxury hotel, but all the privacy of a private home.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #4: Enjoy Santa Barbara’s top flight hotel amenities at half the cost.
The San Ysidro Ranch has often been called Santa Barbara’s most romantic hotel. Take your significant other to the Ranch to walk the grounds and eat at their delicious and headily romantic Stonehouse restaurant. You can enjoy the ambiance of the hotel, but enjoy a beautiful nearby Santa Barbara vacation rental home for half the price.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #5: Have the best of Santa Barbara come to you
Once you arrive at a Santa Barbara vacation rental home for your romantic Santa Barbara getaway, you don’t have to leave it. You can have the best of romantic Santa Barbara come to you. Many of Santa Barbara’s finest restaurants will cater your romantic dinner in your very own Santa Barbara vacation rental home. Santa Barbara vacation rentals also offer in-home massage and spa treatment services.

Let a Santa Barbara vacation rentals concierge team arrange to bring the very best of Santa Barbara to your door. Although Santa Barbara has a lot of outside activities to enjoy, sometimes it is the inside activities that visitors remember best from a romantic Santa Barbara getaway.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #6: The way to a lover’s heart is through the stomach
If your honey is a foodie, you don’t have to book a worldwide cruise. Santa Barbara has cuisine from all over the world. You can sample an English breakfast, then an Asian lunch and finally a seven-course French dinner. While some of the area’s finer restaurants (such as the Four Seasons Biltmore) may require reservations well in advance for your romantic Santa Barbara dinner, you can often get an equally romantic lunch reservation the same day.

To make sure your gourmet trek is flawless, engage the Santa Barbara vacation rentals concierge to make all the arrangements. Not only will the concierge know all the best places, but they might be able to get you a deal or an elusive reservation at the impossible-to-get-into restaurant your beloved would love to try.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Romantic Santa Barbara Getaway Tip #7: Surprise is on your side.
One of my favorite romantic Santa Barbara getaway stories is about a husband who secretly booked a Santa Barbara vacation rental home as a surprise for his wife. The husband asked one of her friends who lived in Santa Barbara take her out to lunch, while he secretly checked into the romantic Santa Barbara vacation rental home. After lunch the friend followed the husbands instructions and asked the wife to look at a Santa Barbara vacation rental home the friend said she was interested in buying. When they walked in to inspect the property, her husband was there and announced to his shocked wife that he was surprising her with a romantic vacation.

Don’t feel you have to cram every activity into one romantic Santa Barbara getaway. There’s one thing better than your first romantic Santa Barbara getaway, and thats returning to your Santa Barbara vacation rental home for your second romantic Santa Barbara getaway.

Helpful links for romantic Santa Barbara getaways:

Santa Barbara’s Top 10 Places To Swoon Over: http://www.lovetripper.com/issues/issue-44/santa-barbara-top-10.html

Amour Along the American Riviera:
http://www.lovetripper.com/issues/issue-44/santa-barbara-romantics.html

Santa Barbara Romantic Attractions and Things To Do for Couples:
http://attractions.uptake.com/california/santa_barbara/romantic/182341388.html

101 Free Things To Do In Santa Barbara:
http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/101-free-things-to-d-351/

Santa Barbara Nude Beaches:
http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/clothingoptional/l/bl_nb_ctysb.htm

Fun Things For Couples To Do In Santa Barbara:
http://www.essortment.com/travel/funthingscoupl_tuil.htm

Santa Barbara Romantic Things to Do:
http://www.eromance.com/travel/things-to-do-in-santa-barbara.html

Life happens in the moment and so can travel. Last minute travel is a reality of the modern travel age -once held standards of planning certain amounts of time in advance have gone out the window. Whether you need to meet with your operations team in Paris or attend a matinee in London with your mom, there are several steps you can take to ensure that your last minute travel is easily planned.

First, you can prepare ahead of time, even for last minute travel. Although the timing of your travel may come as a surprise, the travel itself does not have to be. If you fly certain routes frequently, become familiar with which airlines serve those routes and what the frequencies of their flights are. Another way of preparing ahead of time is to have any documentation and information necessary to both book and embark on your travel swiftly and easily.

Second, you can more easily deal with the woes of last minute travel by remaining as flexible as possible when making your plans. You may need to make yourself available and open to the idea of alternative modes or routes of travel to ensure that you get to where you need to be, when you need to be there. If you have easy access to train routes, they may be very viable alternatives to plane routes that may fill up faster. If you do not set your mind on achieving a direct flight, you will discover that connecting flights may not add very much travel time to your itinerary, but could save you money. You can also remain flexible by shopping around loyalty to one carrier may help you to gain points or miles, but may rob extra cash from your pocketbook at the same time.

Next, make your travel planning easier by booking as much as you can at one time. Many websites offer the option of booking airline, hotel and car reservations in one itinerary, showing you many options to evaluate at the same time. These are most commonly available through widely-used discount travel websites, but are also available through many airline websites as well. Most major airlines have travel components to their websites that allow all-in-one booking in a flash.

Finally, do the obvious and look for packages. Again offered more commonly by widely-used discount travel websites, these packages are also often offered by major airlines. Last minute travel packages are often offered because airlines, hotels and car rental agencies would rather arrange for their excess inventory to be utilized at discounted rates to generate some revenue rather than not utilized at all.

So the next time you want to ensure that your travel is easily planned, remember the four easy steps of gathering knowledge ahead of time, remaining flexible, using all-in-one sites, and utilizing last minute packages. The days of ensuring that all travel is planned weeks and months in advance to find the best rates and to ensure you plans are actually feasible are gone. Travel has not only become easier to facilitate, but also much more common to participate in. Pack your bags, and enjoy!

Cruises are extremely relaxing, but they can also be very expensive. Luckily, using both online and offline resources, you can find deals that make a cruise possible, even if you have a shoestring budget. How can you ensure that you find a great cruise without spending tons of money? Here are some simple tips for finding the best cruise deals.

Look for Online Cruise Deals

The Internet is a plethora of travel resources. You can find sites specifically for cruises, sites that offer cruise packages (which include airfare, hotels and onboard amenities) and many more.

All major cruise companies have official websites, which are good places to start. Often, when theres no middleman, you can get the lowest fare for your cruise. However, this isnt always the case, so shop around. Travel-based websites could offer even better deals than youll get directly from the cruise company.

Work with a Travel Agent to Find Cruise Deals

While the Internet is an excellent place to find travel deals, sometimes, you can still get the best deals if you book your cruise vacation with a travel agent. Travel agents have offices all over the country, and there are likely a number of choices in your area. Ask for sample prices and shop around. Travel agents get better prices if they sell a certain number of tickets, and they pass those savings on to you.

Look for a Cruise Package

Sometimes, a company may offer a cruise package that is more expensive than deals youll find elsewhere. But when you compare all the additions that are included in the package, it could be the cheapest option. Look for a package travel deal that includes your flight to the port, hotel accommodations surrounding the dates of your departure and return, a rental car if necessarily, meals while on the ship, activities and more. A cruise that initially looks like the cheapest option may be expensive when you start adding up the other costs. Packages are usually the best deals.

Consider an Off-season Cruise

All cruise destinations have an off-season. The weather might not be as good, and you might not have as many activity options, but in general, you can save hundreds of dollars by traveling during the off-season. There are a few places where off-season cruises arent available. For example, Alaskas weather is much too stormy for winter cruises. If this is the case for your location of choice, book travel time at the beginning or end of the season, when rates will be slightly lower.

Ask about Cruise Ship Discounts

Sometimes getting a better price is simply a matter of asking. Whether youre booking your trip through a travel agent, working with an online third-party site, or purchasing your ticket directly from the cruise company, there are always hidden discounts if you know where to look. Keep in mind that everything is negotiable. If you upgrade your cabin options, are they willing to throw in free access to dancing classes while on the ship? If you pay for it in advance, can you get a discount on trips to ports? Think outside of the box and dont be afraid to ask.

Choose an Affordable Cruise Ship Cabin

Cruise ship cabins usually fall within three price ranges. The most expensive cabins will be on the top deck, with windows and maybe even a balcony. Suites are also found in this price bracket. The second price range has rooms on lower decks. These also have windows, but usually do not have private outdoor space. To save the most money, book a room from the third price level in the interior of the ship. These rooms are usually smaller, and you wont have a window. But on a cruise, you wont spend much time in your room anyway.

Avoid Hidden Cruise Ship Costs

Lastly, for the best cruise deals, do your homework and find out about the potential hidden costs. For example, on some cruise ships, youll pay extra to have your meals included, but you still have to pay for drinks. That doesnt just mean alcoholic beverages. If you want a soft drink or even water, you could pay a few dollars for every glass.

Another common charge that most people dont consider is the cost to get off the ship. If you want to go on any port excursions, you might have to pay extra. All inclusive cruises arent always as all inclusive as you think.

By doing a little research and working with the right travel agent or online resource, you can find a cruise deal that fits your budget.

If you know where to look, you can find some amazing deals so you don’t need a lot of money to travel well. There are many sources that are online and offline that the cost conscious traveler can find great travel deals. With all of the places to take advantage of discount opportunities, limited offers, and little known secret tips from fellow travel gurus, you would be hard-pressed to not find a good bargain. You can learn from the many lessons these travel gurus have to share so you can use this knowledge on your next trip. So where are the top 5 places to find some great travel bargains?

1) Web pages and travel websites

There are many specific online providers who focus only on the hottest deals for vacation packages and discounts in other areas of travel, such as airfare, or hotel. These sites have access to the unsold inventory of many special travel packages. Another place to look for sales and last minute fares are with online discount fare operators and brokerages.

2) Travel specialists portals

These portals are like a clearinghouse of last minute travel deals. Many of these sites are set up like reverse auctions such as priceline.com where you set your price, but you have to be completely flexible as to when you can travel. In order to get your desired price, you will sometimes have to accept multiple connections and/or odd travel times.

3) Travel newsletters

There are a number of industry travel newsletters, magazines, email lists and ezines that offer insider travel tips, such has how to book cheap seats and score cheap hotel rooms. You can also learn from these sources what kind of pricing to expect for these different locations. Using the information from these sources is a great way to do some comparison-shopping and to get the opportunity to travel to places that were normally out of your reach before.

4) Your booking agent

If it’s between getting a sale and getting nothing, your booking agent can be a great source for discount and last minute deals. If you mention you will only travel with last minute deals then you can communicate to them that they check the specials and limited availability options only.

5) Resort, time-shares and other promotions

These are great places to get last minute travel information. Many of these places are associated with tourist boards and other information centers that know about last minute and typically unpublished travel deals. You can get a great deal beyond relying only on seat sales.

These are the five best places to look for discount last minute travel. Most of these places are not new; it seems to be the case that since most of us are so focused to look for deals online, these offline places are not considered when looking for travel deals. Start out with a few destinations in mind and search through these resources to discover what would be the best way to find discounted deals on airfare, hotels, and other vacation packages.

Cruising has become one of the favorite ways of going on a vacation and there are a number of dedicated cruise liner companies and on-line cruise holiday web-sites that help you plan your cruise vacation trips. All the major on-line cruise sites and cruise liner companies offer early booking discounts and you can save a lot this way. It is always good to book your tickets as early as possible to get discounted cruise deals.

Depending on the season, the cruise ship and the itinerary you can get discounts up to 20% to 60%. If you are totally flexible regarding your departure date, the destination and the cruise ship, you can save a huge amount even on your late bookings. A few of the major cruise destinations are Stockholm, Fiji and Tahiti, Hawaiian Islands, Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Mediterranean, Helsinki, Copenhagen and many more. The Carnival Cruise Line, Silver Sea Cruises, the Royal Caribbean International Cruises, Princess Cruises, the Celebrity Cruises, the P&O Cruises, Thomson Cruises, the Costa cruises and the Cunard Cruises are some of the most popular cruise liners names. All these liners provide a range of discount cruise deals and are known for their quality and service.

Check for inaugural cruises as they offer a range of discount cruise deals to attract more and more passengers. As a part of their promotional offers, these inaugural cruises come up with attractive discount cruise deals and packages. Inaugural cruises are a great way to go on a cruise vacation at a reduced cost and also avail all the on-boards luxuries and comforts. If you wish to go on a cruise vacation during the off-season, you are at great advantage as all the cruise liner companies offer discount cruise deals. Repositioning cruises are also a good option to cruise for less money.

Always be careful while choosing any of these discount cruise deals and don’t just go for any package if it shows the lowest cost. It is important to read the fine print and the terms and conditions of the cruise deal so as to make sure no hidden charges are there and to avoid any confusion on the ship.

It is always better to get travel insurance by yourself instead of taking the insurance provided by the cruise ships. If you have any doubts, it is advisable to call up the cruise liners and get necessary clarifications.