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Vacation
How I Successfully Saved a Ton of Money for My International Vacation
Saving up for an international trip can be hard to do, epically when you are trying to save for those unexpected events that seem to happen every month. I had traveled to many different states before my trip, but I had never been outside the United State before. The first thing I wanted to do was find ways to save for the trip while still being able to pay all my normal expenses.
Know your budget
I was planning on visiting Jamaica and a few smaller islands on the trip, but I knew that in order to do that, I needed to save money. The very first thing I did before I ever saved a dime was create a budget. It was important for me to know exactly how much I needed to save and at what point my time would be up. I set a goal for saving $2,000 before August, giving me an entire year to save. As long as I saved a little less than $200 a month after expenses, I would be fine. It's important to note though that I also decided to save an additional $500 for emergency funds in case something major happened while away.
Set a routine
Every week I would make around $400 after taxes. Not a lot of money by any means, but I knew that if I took out just $50 a week, I would reach my goal in no time. I cut out unnecessary expenses like junk food and movies and I tried to limit how many trips I made in my car to save on gas. If I worked any overtime, I would place it into my savings for my trip so that the goal would be meant even sooner. If it helps, set up a special savings account just for your trip and ask your work to direct deposit a set amount into it each month toward your trip. This way it's out of your check before you know it and you are not tempted to spend it.
Save on everything for your trip
The best way I found to save for my trip was to book things together as a single package. I knew I wanted to spend a week there and then take a flight home and so I used expedia to book round trip air fare that also included a week's stay at a hotel in Jamaica. This cut my overall expenses down by almost $400 and allowed me to have even more money to spend on entertainment and gifts while there.
- Savings tips for all international/overseas travelers
- Depending on where you are going, choose a time of year when tourism is down as hotels and other areas are likely to offer lower rates to entice visitors.
- Book flights during low travel times in advance to save money.
- Take only the bare essentials to save on luggage cost.
- Sell unused items on sites like eBay for extra money for your trip.
- Take permitted medications with you so you don't have to spend money on them overseas.
- By travelers health insurance for long stays to cover any unexpected medical cost.
- Use a travel site like expedia to book hotel's and flights together.
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Senator banned by Putin: But my Siberian vacation!
http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc...g?v=1395412694
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.
Indiana Republican Dan Coats found himself on a Russian sanctions list this week, and responded in the only way he knew how: cracking some jokes at Vladimir Putin's expense.
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5 Steps for Starting a Vacation Fund
5 Steps for Starting a Vacation Fund
One excellent way to start on the path toward vacation freedom is to start a vacation fund and pad it in ways that don’t involve too much sacrifice or discomfort. Here’s how:
Step 1: Open a targeted-savings account.
In order to give your vacation fund an opportunity to grow and thrive on its own, you’ll need to open a separate savings account. Start by researching various online and brick-and-mortar banks for a low-fee (or no fee) account with the highest interest rate you can find. Choosing to keep your vacation fund separate from your other accounts lessens the chance of the money accidentally getting spent.
Step 2: Look for ways to save.
If you haven’t been able to scrounge up the cash for a trip in the past few years, you probably need to find ways to rein in your spending. A good way to discover any self-destructive spending habits is to track all your purchases for a set amount of time – try a few weeks or a month – to see where your money is actually going. You might find that you’re overspending on food or other indulgences, or your kids are bleeding you dry. Whatever the culprit of your money woes, it’s important to identify it and make it stop once and for all.
Step 3: Make it automatic.
Once you’ve identified some areas where you could be saving more, it’s important to divert those funds immediately. You know the saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” right? Do this by setting up automatic bank transfers to your new vacation fund either once a month or on every payday. Making it automatic lessens the chance you’ll forget to save and allows you to “set it and forget it.”
Step 4: Squirrel away “found money.”
Most people come across “found money” at least once per year, whether it’s in the form of a tax return, an inheritance, a bonus at work or cash received for birthdays or holidays. No matter the source, any money that isn’t part of your regular income should be fair game and will be right at home in your newly-created vacation fund. So squirrel it away as fast as you can. Then try to forget it’s there.
Step 5: Keep your hands out of the cookie jar.
Once your vacation fund starts growing, it’s important to practice some self-restraint. Don’t touch your vacation fund unless it is an emergency, and you have no other options. Otherwise, you’ll just end up back where you started – with no vacation fund.
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If you are on vacation and can not see facebook, or youtube etc because it may be prohibited on the country so use this addon to Chrome, IE or Firefox: friGate - browser-based extension to access sites through proxy
It will help you to be connected with everything while you are on vacation to the country with some limitation concerning internet websites.
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The Tourist Trap Paradox
The Tourist Trap Paradox
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It seems like every traveler these days is after the most authentic experience everywhere they go. From Conde Nast Traveler to Lonely Planet, a plethora of travel writers want to give readers insider information on the most off-the-beaten path experiences - eat like a local, drink like a local, party like a local! They all seem to invalidate popular restaurants and events as "tourist traps" while simultaneously turning these hidden gems into the very same thing.
Recently I went to Dublin (for St. Patrick's Day, no less) and in reading reviews for different places, I was bombarded with comments about pubs and neighborhoods being packed with tourists and to be avoided, even when overall reviews were quite positive. So if a place is enjoyable by most accounts and it's so popular that people from all over the world go to visit it, why would it be considered a trap? Why would it be considered a negative thing? It's almost suggesting the city is putting on a facade for the tourists, pretending to be something its not.
What I found on that trip is that while many places were full of people from elsewhere, they were also full of actual Irish people, having a pint and singing and dancing a jig. From the old to the young, the professionals to the bricklayers, they were all enjoying the festival they're known for throughout the world. And they didn't even mind that they were sharing it with us. In fact, the Irish love meeting and chatting with strangers. And it didn't make them or the bars any less Irish.
This got me thinking. If a place is so popular that it sees millions of tourists every year, doesn't that become inherently part of a city's identity? Doesn't that accurately represent what you can expect to find in a given place? And why should that mean that locals can't enjoy the very attractions that bring people to their city in droves? I happen to live in Miami. Should I avoid the beach - arguably the best thing about the city - just because 12 months out of the year, it's full of out-of-towners? That would be pretty silly. Ultimately, when I'm not sitting in traffic on I-95 (talk about authentic!), I'm doing the exact same thing that people travel great lengths to come here to do - go to the beach and enjoy the nightlife. After all, the reputation had to have come from somewhere.
When I lived in Washington, DC, one of my favorite places in the city was the National Cathedral, considered by most to be a tourist attraction. As if only to be enjoyed once in your life, by people only passing through a place. But when I wanted peace and quiet, and to enjoy majestic architecture, I'd take a long walk to the cathedral and sit in there just to think. I played kickball in the National Mall, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. I ate cupcakes in Georgetown and I partied in Adams Morgan. Because there's no better way to get the most out of the place in which you live than to enjoy its most amazing experiences. The fact that it's also enjoyed by a group of spring breakers or a family of tourists from Michigan shouldn't negate my own enjoyment of it.
The desire to travel like the locals live also contradicts the desire to experience the best of the best in a new place. Locals don't always enjoy the best their own city has to offer. Some of us work 9 to 5 and come home to order pizza and watch Netflix on a Friday night. That's not gonna be on anybody's list of things to do anywhere in the world. And yet, it's undoubtedly representative of what the people who live there are actually doing. When I travel, I do wanna see the clubs that I've read about and the restaurants that are booked months in advance. No one writes articles about the TGI Friday's in a suburb in Queens, and there's a reason for that.
The search for authenticity in travel is always going to be fundamentally flawed. No one place or experience is going to account for an entire city or an entire country's tastes and experiences. For every Miami local, like me, that loves enjoying the beach, there's one that hates it. There are always going to be people who like to spend their time in divey pool halls, while others prefer going to high-end clubs. It's all genuine, because it all makes up the spectrum of things that people do here. Even the ones only here temporarily. It doesn't make South Beach any less Miami. It doesn't make Mardi Gras any less New Orleans and it doesn't make the Temple Bar area any less Dublin.
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Beyonce Wears A Bikini, No Makeup On Vacation With Blue Ivy And Jay Z
Beyonce Wears A Bikini, No Makeup On Vacation With Blue Ivy And Jay Z
Vacation is great for so many reasons: rest, relaxation and makeup-free bliss just to name a few.
Beyonce enjoyed all three during a much-needed holiday with Blue Ivy and Jay Z in the Dominican Republic, E! News reports.
The "XO" superstar posted photos from the luxurious trip to her Tumblr page. In the snapshots, she can be seen fresh-faced in printed bikinis and playing with little Blue. In one shot, her and her husband are sipping drinks while overlooking the ocean.
Not only did the singer just wrap up the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour after more than 100 shows, but she also had a sixth wedding anniversary to celebrate. The happy couple looked very much in love when they were spotted at the bar at the Casa de Campo golf resort, E! News notes.
You earned it, Bey!
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Is It Safe To Take A Cruise? 8 Virus Outbreaks In 3 Months
Norovirus outbreaks have already struck eight cruise ships this year; is your cruise safe?
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Yesterday, reports hit the news of another Princess Cruise with a boatload of sick passengers. This time it was the Crown Princess, on a weeklong voyage along the coast of Southern California and Mexico, with an outbreak of norovirus.
The Crown Princess pulled into port in San Diego Thursday with more than 100 passengers and crew ill with the gastrointestinal bug, which spreads easily in tight confines.
Eleven passengers elected to disembark in San Diego (paying a $300 per person fee, according to an ABC news report) but the ship and its more than 3100 other passengers are now back at sea following the planned itinerary.
Also this week came the news that two consecutive trips on the Royal Caribbean ship Grandeur of the Seas departing to the islands from Baltimore were afflicted with outbreaks of norovirus, one of them affecting more than 100 passengers. What’s going on?
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2014 is proving a bad year so far for norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships. (photo credit: wiki media)
Cruise Ship Illness in the Headlines
It’s been a tough year so far for the cruise industry.
• In late February and early March, two virus outbreaks, one of them definitively norovirus, afflicted Holland America’s ships ms Maasdam and ms Veendam while on 7-day trips through the Caribbean.
• In early February a norovirus outbreak sickened more than 600 people, making it one of the biggest such outbreaks on any cruise ship in the last 20 years. That trip, a Royal Caribbean voyage aboard the luxurious Explorer of the Seas, was cut two days short.
• Just before that, the Caribbean Princess also had a norovirus outbreak that affected close to 200 people, and that trip also ended two days early, although Princess Cruises cited fog as the official reason for the early return.
In all, according to CDC data, epidemics of gastrointestinal illness have broken out on eight cruise ships so far in just the first 13 weeks of 2014. Of these, norovirus is the established cause of the outbreak in at least five.
For comparison, the CDC lists only 9 gastrointestinal outbreaks for all of 2013, of which eight were due to norovirus. (In other words, it’s a good guess that more of the 2014 outbreaks will eventually be attributed to norovirus.) However 2012 was worse, with 16 cruises experiencing disease outbreaks, all of them due primarily to norovirus.
It’s important to note that the CDC’s data include only cruise ships that participate in the agency’s official Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP); ships in this program are required to report the number of people who saw a doctor for gastrointestinal (GI) illness while on board.
While Princess, Royal Caribbean and Holland America seem to be having the bulk of the bad luck this year, they aren’t the only cruise lines coping with norovirus. in 2013, Celebrity Cruises had four boats infected with the bug and Cunard, Crystal, Prestige, and Lindblad Expeditions have all had problems with outbreaks too.
Like nursing homes, hospitals and other institutions that have grappled with norovirus in recent years, cruise ships are vulnerable because of the large number of people confined to a limited space while dining and mingling together, experts say.
The Navy prevents norovirus by immediately quarantining sick sailors, something that’s much more difficult for a cruise ship to require of its guests.
What Is Norovirus?
Identified as recently as 1973, noroviruses, which come in many strains, are now known to be the most common of all GI viruses, but it’s taken a long time to learn much about them.
According to the CDC, upwards of 20 million cases a year – more than half of all cases of stomach flu – are caused by noroviruses. It wasn’t until the 1990s, though, that virologists developed a way to test for norovirus, so it’s only in the past 20 years that we’ve realized how common they are.
Compared to other causes of food poisoning such as E. coli, listeria, and salmonella (all of them bacterial), noroviruses are fairly mild, usually limited to nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting.
Still, 570 to 800 people a year die from norovirus. nausea, vomiting and diarrhea as the most common symptoms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are about 20 million cases of Norovirus in the U.S. each year, resulting in 570 to 800 deaths. It usually clears up in one to three days, the CDC says.
Is My Cruise Safe?
Public trust in the cruise industry has been eroded by the recent virus outbreaks, according to a Harris poll just released showing that 54% of those polled said they were less likely to take a cruise than they were a year ago. The same majority rated air travel “much safer” than cruise travel.
The survey also offers a detailed look at consumer quality perception and trust across the seven major cruise lines.
More...
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Bill Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) is on Cambodia now for starting welfare projects in rural area:
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52 travel tips you really should know
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THERE'S an art to travelling well. Some little secrets you learn on the way, like making sure you find a map at the airport before you leave and always throwing spare plastic bags into your suitcase for dirty clothes. Here are 52 travel tips might be useful to make vacation at it best for traveling oversea:
1) Wash your clothes in the sink / shower. Use the hotel soap. Or take a little traveller sized bottle of laundry detergent with you. It's much easier than finding a Laundromat in a foreign country. And there are only so many times that you can wear the same pair of undies.
2) Learn how to use a needle and thread. You've only got space for a few items of clothing. Sewing a broken button back on will save you a lot of hassle.
3) Carry baby wipes / facewipes. This can be used to feel clean when there are no showers. Yes, sometimes there are NO showers.
4) Learn how to say "no thank you". Most travel advice columns will tell you to learn how to say "hello", "yes please", "thank you" and "do you speak English?". But in some countries you really want to be able to say "no thank you, please leave me alone". Think about the crowded market places in Asia. Knowing how to say "no thank you" in their language is going to give you a lot more peace.
5) Grocery stores are a traveller’s best resource. Cheap food, local flavours. Find the nearest one to your hotel and you will save yourself a heap of cash. Have a picnic lunch every day.
6) Keep an emergency stash of money. If you lose your wallet you will still need to eat. An empty Chapstick is a fantastic secret hiding spot.
7) Learn how to drive a manual car. Stuck at an airport after your flight has been cancelled? You could drive. You will be smacking your head on the desk if they only have manual cars.
8) Roll your clothes when packing. No creases and more clothes fit into your suitcase.
9) Always keep a stash of spare plastic bags for dirty clothes / shoes. Smelly socks will make your clean clothes stink. Always.
10) Learn how to swim. You never know when you might need to on the spur of the moment.
11) Learn how to pack light. You do not need to take 20kg for a week of travel. You CAN wear trousers two days in a row or more. The less you have to carry, the happier you will be travelling. And if the French Metro goes on strike on the day you need to get to the airport - you will thank us.
12) Know how much it should cost in a taxi. Carry a card with the hotel address and a map. Ask for taxi drivers to use the meter. Make sure they are legitimate taxi drivers.
13) Always carry a hard copy map of the city you're going to. Save your phone charge for when you really need it.
14) Make sure your bank cards work. There is nothing more annoying on holidays than spending hours on the phone to the bank back home.
15) Carry tissues that can double up as toilet paper. Plus carry a hand sanitiser.
16) Pack sandals or thongs for use in showers. Showers can be gross. You don’t want your feet to touch the floor.
17) Learn how to change a tyre. Murphy's law says if you don't know and you head off on a road trip, you're bound to get a flat.
18) Be prepared to sleep anywhere. Ear plugs and eye patches will help block out the light.
19) Learn how to take a decent photo. Don’t come home with a bunch of Instagram selfies. Memories fade and you'll want something to remember the scenery by.
20) Pack smart. Put necklaces in straws so they don’t get jumbled.
21) Learn basic first aid. This is just a great life skill, if nothing else.
22) Get folders for travel documents and itineraries. Keep them organised so you don’t have to mess about digging through pockets in your bag at the airport check-in.
23) Use public transport. It's fast. It's easy, it's cheaper and it will give you a better travel experience. Get a map, learn the different ticket types and if you are heading to London – organise an Oyster Card in advance.
24) Use little bottles for everything. It takes up less room. If you use plain bottles make sure you label them with a pen that won’t wash or rub off. Mistakes can and do happen. Moisturising your hair is not a good look.
25) Buy and wear good walking shoes. Blisters are not fun and high heels don’t work on Europe’s cobblestone pathways.
26) Ask the locals for advice, tips. The best beach probably isn't the most popular one. The locals can help you find those secret spots you will rave about.
27) Eat where the locals eat. Just like number 26 - the same goes with restaurants. Ask the locals where they eat. Go there instead.
28) Peg clothes to the outside of your backpack as you walk around in the sun to dry them after washing. Cheap and easy!
29) Know where the embassy is. Seriously. Find it on your map. Don’t think just because you are in a "safe" country you won’t need it. All it takes is a quick Google search, write down the address and put it in a safe place.
30) Register your details with DFAT. OK, this one is obvious but surprisingly so many of us don’t actually do it. In cases like Boston or London, DFAT will be the place your family will turn to. Make sure they know where you are.
31) Be aware of the local laws. Don’t get drunk on the streets of Dubai or expect to chew and spit gum in Singapore. You’re leaving Australia - don't expect our law system to follow you around the world.
32) Get your vaccinations if you need them. Yellow fever is not fun. You will kick yourself if you could have prevented it and you didn't.
33) Scan your passport and travel documents. Give copies to family/friends. If you lose your passport or travel documents, this backup will save you a lot of heartache. It will also help your family to find you in the event of a disaster.
34) Learn a few phrases of the local language. Speak to the locals. Experience their culture. Don’t just wander through it.
35) Know the scams of each destination. 'Thai driver want to show you his best restaurant?' It’s probably his mate's. Get on the internet and work out the scams so you don’t become a sucker. Then refer to number 4.
36) Learn the art of haggling. Haggling saves you money. Be bold. That extra $4 will buy you a coffee.
37) Learn the basic geography of the country you are visiting. There’s nothing worse than a traveller who has no idea where they are travelling.
38) Learn how to use a compass. Sounds extreme but it could help in a crisis.
39) Learn how to use chopsticks. Don’t look like a tourist asking for a fork. Chopsticks are a must.
40) Get travel insurance. It's obvious, but probably one of the most important items on this list. The French always go on strike meaning your flight could easily get cancelled and accidents do happen, particularly if you want to ride a scooter in Bali. Get travel insurance.
41) Allow relaxation time to get over jet lag. You don't want to be on the go for six weeks straight. It should be a holiday. You should relax at some point.
42) Keep a change of clothes and basic toiletries in your carry-on. If your luggage gets lost you will be very glad.
43) Travelling via Singapore? Pack your swimmers in your carry-on and take a break in the outdoor rooftop pool at the airport while in transit. You will feel 100 per cent better getting on the next flight.
44) Research the airports you are travelling through so you can a) find the fastest way through and b) use the facilities. Don't just sit at the boarding gate.
45) Take a jumper on the plane. It is cold. It has air conditioning.
46) Take thick socks for the plane. Cold feet will stop you sleeping.
47) Take Imodium and panadol/nurofen. The cuisine of other countries can be harsh on the tummy.
48) Find out if the country you are going to sells tampons. Some countries don’t. Or they are really hard to find. Even places you wouldn’t think of - like Athens.
49) Check if the drinking water is safe. That includes brushing your teeth, ice in cocktails and drinking water in the shower.
50) Be aware of altitude sickness. Give yourself time to adjust between altitudes, drink a lot more when you are high up.
51) Know the local road rules. Even in New Zealand the rules are different.
52) Be respectful. Pay attention to how local women dress to work out how you should.
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While on vacation to any destination, without doubts camera is the most essential equipment to bring along, capture interesting places, people or scenery. But nowadays advance technology makes smartphone and tablets with the ability to take high quality pixel pictures as close as normal camera. My preference still be with camera, especially using a Digital SLR camera. Currently i'm owning a Canon EOS 70D which i bring wherever i'm travel.
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How to Find Vacation Ideas on Pinterest
Are you deep into the planning process for your summer vacation? It is that time of year, and if you have not booked your vacation yet, now is the time to get started. One website that I really like to use to help with the vacation ideas is Pinterest. So how can you use Pinterest to find some great vacation ideas? Below are a few tips that may prove to be helpful.
Search for location
If you go to the search area on the Pinterest website, and type in "vacation ideas", to help you get creative. This is perfect if you are struggling with some creative ideas for a family getaway. Everyone needs some time to kick back and relax. The search will bring up ideas from different parts of the country, and different parts of the world. If you want to focus on one pacific area of the country then type in the name of the state with the keywords, and it should be pretty simple to see pages of ideas.
Search for place to stay
Once you decide on a location that you want to visit you will need to find a place to stay. You can then search for hotels on Pinterest, and look at videos that may also be attached. You may also need to review some of the websites to see what people feel about the hotels that you are thinking about staying at. If the location is not within your budget try to look for deals that you may be able to find online.
Plan your meals
Pinterest is also great for finding locations where you want to eat. You can actually plan out all of your meals just by using this site. Be specific with your search terms. Put in the name of the area that you will be visiting, and take your time looking through all of the pins. Some of the pins may be spam, so you will want to make sure that what you are looking at is real. In a separate window type in the name of the location that you found, and verify all of the information you read on the pins.
Help from friends and family
What's really nice about Pinterest is that you can have family and friends help you with your planning. This can especially be healthy if they have been to these areas before. Of course this does not mean that you have to go with your families recommendation, but it's nice to have as many ideas as possible.
You can set up a separate vacation page and have them add pins to the page.
Travel with your information
What is really nice about Pinterest is that you can travel with the information. You can pull up your pages on Pinterest when you arrive at your vacation location. This is a great way to keep track of where you want to eat, and other places you want to visit.
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Helpful Lessons for Renting a Car in Italy
Helpful Lessons for Renting a Car in Italy
After a nine hour flight, we finally arrived at the airport in Rome, Italy; we spent the better part of an hour waiting for a rental car, and I had already learned several important lessons. After five days traveling and experiencing different cities, these are the tips I wish I would've known before my trip.
Lesson #1: If you're going to rent a car in Italy, make sure you can drive a stick
This thought didn't even cross my mind when we were planning on renting a car. I didn't even think about it until we were handed the keys to the car and I quickly realized I wouldn't be doing any of the driving that trip. Thankfully two people in our party were able to drive a manual, but we definitely got lucky that that was the case. Either specifically ask for an automatic when making the reservation or plan ahead and learn how to drive a stick.
Lesson #2: Your car choices will likely be - black hatchback, black hatchback or black hatchback
When walking through the rental car parking garage, I looked around and noticed something; although they had several different car brands available, they had a very limited selection of vehicles. If I would've known ahead of time the chances of getting a black hatchback, I would have packed much smaller luggage.
This is a two-for-one tip - make sure you only take luggage that will fit in the rental car…which will likely be a small black hatchback.
Lesson #3: Driving is a free-for-all - stay alert and aggressive
Although we arrived in Rome during morning "rush hour", immediately upon leaving the parking garage we knew we were in a different country and our rules of road no longer applied. The lane lines are seen as more of a suggestion than requirement, turn signals are optional, and the speed limit is often seen by locals as a minimum speed. My only suggestion is to stay alert and try and go along with traffic as best you can. At least, in Italy, they drive on the same side of the road as we do in the United States.
Lesson #4: RENT A GPS WITH THE CAR
This last one is by far the most important lesson learned. Driving around Italy, through the Tuscan hillside or weaving through the streets of Florence, can and will get confusing (especially when the signs are in Italian); the only way we made it back to the villa each night was thanks to our trusty GPS. It will cost you a small fee for peace of mind and it is definitely worth it.
Many of the Italian cities we visited were within an hour of each other, which made renting a car a great way to get around; but I would've been much more prepared if I had been aware of these few tips.
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Five Free (or Almost Free) Ways to Have Fun in Hong Kong
Five Free (or Almost Free) Ways to Have Fun in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a beautiful and expensive city to visit. Filled with high-priced hotels and multiple outlets of the world's top designer brands, it's certainly easy to spend money. The city is also home to many wonderful activities that cost little or no money. Here's a list of my top five free (or almost free) things to do in Hong Kong: Walk around. This may seem obvious but many visitors to this fast-paced city often spend too much time going from one site or activity to another. Walking is free and the city is so compact that exploring specific areas is easy. The double-decker trams are also a cheap option at $0.30 per ride and several lines (North Point to Western Market especially) cut right though the popular tourist areas, offering their own version of a hop-on, hop-off tour.
Bird Market. Our family has always enjoyed this uniquely Chinese experience in the heart of Kowloon on Yuen Po Street. With personal space at a premium in this tightly packed city, birds are a popular pet. This market is a world of birds and everything to do with them. In addition to all the vendors, many residents bring their own birds down to hang out.
Star Ferry. For only $0.32 per ride, the Star Ferry gives passengers a tremendous view of the skyline of Hong Kong Central going one way and Kowloon going the other way. It's a great way to get across Victoria Harbour from one part of the city to the other and also a fun way to experience the city with locals (who take it to get back and forth as well).
Eat street food. Aside from some incredible Michelin-starred restaurants, the city has great street food too. Try the Causeway Bay neighborhood and just follow the crowds. There are many shops and stands serving all kinds of dim sum and other delicacies. The Temple Street Night Market in Kowloon is also a good place to find stall after stall of exotic offerings.
Visit the Peak by bus. Visiting Victoria Peak above Hong Kong and looking down at the city and harbor is one of the highlights of any visit. Instead of paying $10.50 to take the tram, pay $2.50 to ride the number 15 bus from Central to get to the top. Instead of eating at the tourist filled, over-priced restaurant at the peak, take a picnic lunch and enjoy the view.
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Cheap Family Vacation Ideas
Cheap Family Vacation Ideas
A large family will keep things to the minimum when it comes to vacations. Expenses that come along with any vacation have always been something for me to think about before making any type of plans for a trip. This situation has made it necessary for us to think about going on specific vacations that would stretch our money as far as possible. The following cheap family vacation ideas are some of the most cost effective ones I've experienced, while still being fun for the whole family.
Local Lakeside Camping
Camping has always proved to be the least costly for my family to engage in. You can scout out a lake campground where fishing and swimming are good, and let your trip take it from there. We have a huge tent which sleeps all of us very well and keeps us warm at night. We usually keep our road trips local which makes camping easier and less costly too. There have been a couple of times that someone suddenly became ill and we had to high tail it back to the house with a sick child, so if you have younger kids, this sort of trip works very well.
Historical Preserves
We live in Wisconsin, where historical sites are in abundance. A couple of them are quite large and can take a couple of days to cover completely. This is where your tent will come in handy again. Scout out a nearby campground not far from the historical site and set up your camping gear there. These historical places usually are located in a small town which can also be part of the fun your family encounters on the trip.
Cabin Resorts
I've found some nice resorts in upper Wisconsin which have very nice cabin facilities and other nearby local attractions that are situated in the small town where the cabin resort is located. I've created some great family memories in small town ice cream shops and other small towns where some of our cabin excursions were located. Provided you purchase your food at the local grocery store and cook it in your cabin, you'll be well under one thousand dollars vacationing this way.
Yogi Bear Campgrounds
You can get a campground site for your own tent, or a cabin for a decent price, at any local Yogi Bear Campground facility. These are nice because you can get the camping feel along with the poolside feel should you want a little of both while keeping your cost at a minimum. My kids were especially fond of this type of thing when they were young, so if you have young kids...it's a great option.
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Google+ Stories thinks it can top your vacation slideshow
Google+ Stories thinks it can top your vacation slideshow
Google+ expands automation with the new Stories and Movies features, which create digital travelogues of your vacation.
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Google+ Stories automatically curates your photos and videos into a travelogue, while adding map, hotel, and restaurant locations.
It takes a special kind of dedication to curate hundreds of videos and pictures from a vacation into a usable digital record, a talent that Google thinks it's figured out how to do better than you with its new Google+ Stories and Movies.
The Google+ social network launched Stories and Movies on Tuesday to automatically curate vacations and stay-at-home adventures for you. The features are available now on the Google+ website under Photos, More, and then Stories, with an update to Android app coming later this week and iOS to follow "soon."
"No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We'll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place," wrote Anil Sabharwal, director of Product Management for Google+, in a blog post published this morning.
Features like these are part of Google's attempt to differentiate Google+, the second-largest social network after top dog Facebook. Google said in October that Google+ had 300 million "in-stream" or active users, people who check out their Google+ feed, and that people uploaded 1.5 billion photos per week. The company declined to provide more current usage numbers. Facebook claims more than four times the users, at 1.2 billion.
Google+ has struggled of late, with its founding leader and longtime Googler Vic Gundotra abruptly departing the company. However, if there are any ruffled feathers over his departure, he's not letting them show.
"I love Google+ Stories. When software can automatically weave my photos, videos and places I've been into a beautiful travelogue, that's a plus. Congratulations to the Google+ team!," he said as he re-shared the news on Google+.
Google+ Stories will notify you within 24 hours of your return home from a vacation that a Stories package is ready. It will choose the "best" photos and video highlights, so that duplicates and blurry shots are limited, then pull in the names of cities and places visited. Stories will pull in travel maps and use the names of hotels, restaurants, and airports visited in the captions.
Users will be able to customize a story after it's been built, and share them beyond Google+. Their default setting, as with all Google+ uploads, is private.
While Stories curates an entire trip into a presentation-ready package, Google+ Movies creates a highlight reel of not just your video clips but related photos, incorporating a soundtrack, special effects, and transitions as well.
The Stories and Movies features are an expansion of year-old Google+ automation tools that launched at Google I/O 2013, including an "auto enhance" feature to automatically correct photographic flaws, "auto highlight" to remove bad photos from view, and "auto awesome" to create animated GIFs on the fly.
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12 Breathtaking Places In Wales You Need To Visit
12 Breathtaking Places In Wales You Need To Visit
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1. If you’re arty, visit Portmeirion
2. If the sea is calling you, visit Llandudno.
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3. If you’re a festival goer, visit Crickhowell.
4. If you’re an island lover, visit Anglesey.
5. If you’re a bookworm, visit Hay-on-Wye.
6. If you want to relax, visit Llandrindod Wells.
7. If you’re travelling with kids, visit Tenby.
8. If you’re outdoorsy, visit Beddgelert.
9. If you’re a Romantic, visit Tintern.
10. If you want breath-taking landscapes, visit Llandeilo.
11. If you wish to be at one with nature, visit Betws-y-Coed.
12. If you want drama, visit the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
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A Brief History of Every Official World Cup Ball Since 1930
Every year, the World Cup is played with a new ball. That makes it unique—after all, few other sports reinvent the wheel every four years. But this element of uncertainty is also exciting, and it means that soccer ball technology has come a long, long way since the 1930s—when World Cup balls were still inflated through tie-up laces.
After The New York Times published an awesome interactive on the history of soccer ball design this weekend, we decided to take a look at each ball in succession—drawing from World Cup Balls, an incredible encyclopedic website that the NYT sourced from. There, Peter Pesti collects and describes how ball technology has evolved over the generations.
The difference between the leather bladders of the 1930s and the high-performance materials of today are pretty stunning.
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Lots of people on Twitter think this happened at Glastonbury
Lots of people on Twitter think this happened at Glastonbury
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It didn’t.
It happened a couple of years back in San Francisco at the annual Bay to Breakers footrace. In February 2009, city officials and race sponsors announced major changes to the race regulations. The regulations included an official ban on floats, alcohol, drunkenness and nudity. You can probably see why, although it doesn’t seem to have worked.
However, lots of other amusing things have happened.
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Travel Talk: How to travel on a budget
Let me take a wild guess and say that lots of you readers out there have shrinking travel budgets. Gas prices are going up. Airfares were supposed to be easing a bit, but I sure as heck don’t see evidence of it. What to do? Think creatively and be ready to make some compromises.
Length of Stay: If you have your heart set on an elegant stay at a Ritz – or perhaps a week or two in London or on the easy-to-get to and very lovely island of Bermuda – one of your first options is to shorten your stay. Never, you say? Not worth it? Well, it depends on where you’re going and how you book it. Back in the days when offseason airfares to the capitals of Europe were running $500 to $600 including taxes and fees, Bud and I would do the occasional “extreme weekend” to Rome, Paris or London. We would catch a red-eye Thursday night and fly home Tuesday afternoon. That left us four full days to explore the city. We maximized our time by starting with a hop-on/hop-off bus tour the first morning (easy stuff after a night in the air), which really helped us focus the rest of our time. I can honestly say that by the time we boarded our return flight, we always felt we’d been there a week. The key here is arranging your arrival time – get to your destination early in the morning and depart as late as you can – given obligations at home. You can always rest up at home (for free!) before you go back to work. This works for Florida, the West Coast – anywhere!
Lodging: Your second option for cutting costs is thinking long and hard about lodging. Must you really stay at the Ritz, or would another accommodation do? Specials abound these days, and can be built around getting you to stay an extra night for free (pay for three, get the fourth free), adding in breakfast or a “club floor” upgrade (free food is huge!), or tossing in local tours and attractions. Yes, it takes time to find these, but the results can make the difference between doing a getaway or not. Use your favorite discount booking website (or try one of my new favorites, quickbook.com). Loyalty programs associated with hotel brands such as Sheraton, Marriott, Intercontinental and many more are also a good place to look. Sign up for email alerts and have them email you when they have a special. And if you have a timeshare anywhere on the planet, try trading your week (or using one of those extra or bonus weeks) through your membership – Interval International (intervalworld.com) or RCI (rci.com). A fan of vrbo.com or homeaway.com? Look for minimum stays (often three to five days) rather than weeks or multiples. Check the availability calendar and make the owner an offer.
Destination: Lastly, think about compromising on your destination. Hankering for English countryside? Think Bermuda. Always wanted to visit France? Try Montreal and Quebec. Looking for glamor? New York City. History? Why not Boston – who says you can’t have a fabulous weekend as a tourist and be close to home? Like a game of cards? We gave up on Vegas years ago (flying time and airfares got to be a drag), but love our weekends at Foxwoods – just two-plus hours and $25 worth of gas away!
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19 Reasons The Philippines Should Be The Next Country You Visit
19 Reasons The Philippines Should Be The Next Country You Visit
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1. Because this is what peace of mind looks like.
2. Because these are shades of blue and green that don’t even exist in the rest of the world.
3. Because there is no sound as calming as waves washing onto a secluded beach.
4. And nothing more relaxing than the cool shade of trees on a hot, sunny day.
5. Because the entire world glows a perfect orange for every sunrise and sunset.
6. Because every time the sky looks majestic and magical…
7. The ocean reflects it.
8. Because every dramatic turn of the landscape is more breathtaking than the last.
9. And even its manmade additions are awe-inspiring.
10. Because of every perfectly salty sea-breeze…
11. And every dip into a cool, still pond.
12. Imagine laying on this grass for hours, letting the noisy, bustling world turn without you.
13. Imagine being surrounded by this absurdly perfect sky…
14. Or being on this boat, afloat in a haven of peace and quiet.
15. Or on this swing, perched over a perfect view for miles ahead of you.
16. Because this is the ideal meeting place for the old and the new, for the modern and the traditional.
17. Because you can spend the day in paradise…
18. Yet re-enter the 21st century whenever you want to.
19. And, when you do, you’ll be surrounded by the warmest, kindest, and most generous people in the world.
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How Presidents Take Vacation
How Presidents Take Vacation
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Obama tends to take a winter break in Hawaii, where he was born and raised, and a summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard. In between, he plays basketball and has been known to do some skeet shooting at Camp David.
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Johnson relaxes in his pool with his grandson Lyn and the First Family's new dog, Yuki, in 1968
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JFK began competitive sailing in his youth. The president often snuck away for a bit of solitude on the Honey Fitz, his 92-foot power yacht on the Potomac. But being a talented sailor, his favorite was the Manitou, a 62-foot sailing yacht he first spotted as a young senator.
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10 Surreal Places That Make India The Most Beautiful Country In The World
10 Surreal Places That Make India The Most Beautiful Country In The World
1. Nubra Valley
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2. Chettinad
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3. Zanskar Valley
4. Andaman & Nicobar Islands
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5. Suraj Tal Lake
6. Ghats in Varanasi
7. Lake Pichola
8. Sandakphu
9. Athirapally
10. Allepey
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The Australian city of Melbourne has once again been listed as the most liveable city in the world
Melbourne named world’s most liveable city
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Melbourne is ranked as the world’s most liveable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for the fourth consecutive year. The organisation’s annual EIU’s Liveability Ranking put the city of around four million residents in the Australian state of Victoria at the top of its list. In a wide-ranging assessment, based on criteria such as stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, Melbourne out-ranked 139 other cities around the world.
The news was welcomed by the city’s officials.
Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper: “To be named the world’s most liveable city for four consecutive years is a great honour and a testament to the enviable lifestyle that Melbourne’s offers.”
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Is Iceland's volcano erupting? Scientists are still waiting to see
Is Iceland's volcano erupting? Scientists are still waiting to see
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A volcano on Iceland buried beneath a thick glacier may or may not be erupting — after a week of ominous rumbling in the region. But scientists now disagree on what, exactly, is happening.
Early on Saturday August 23, officials thought they had detected a small lava eruption near Iceland's Bárðarbunga volcano, which is buried underneath the massive Vatnajokull glacier in the center of the island. But later in the day, scientists disagreed as to whether magma had actually reached the surface or not.
Here was the initial announcement early on Saturday morning: "It is believed that a small subglacial lava-eruption has begun under the Dyngjujökull glacier," the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. "The aviation color code for the Bárðarbunga volcano has been changed from orange to red" (red means an eruption is either imminent or in progress).
By the evening, however, officials were less certain. "Presently there are no signs of ongoing volcanic activity," the IMO reported. "The aviation color code for the Bárðarbunga volcano remains red as an imminent eruption can not be excluded." Among other things, the IMO noted that overflights had not detected any changes on the glacier — and there wasn't the sort of flooding you'd expect if magma was melting the glacier:
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Some background: Since August 16, scientists have been tracking thousands of small earthquakes in the vicinity of Iceland's Bárðarbunga volcanic system, which is covered by the country's massive Vatnajokull glacier. The earthquakes were a sign that magma was on the move.
Then, on August 23, scientists thought they'd detected "subglacial" eruption under the Dyngjujökull icecap in the northern part of the glacier. That would mean that lava is coming out of the volcano and beginning to melt the ice from below.
By evening, however, they were less sure. Overflights detected no signs of change on the glacier, and there no signs of floodwater draining from the glacier. Still, in light of the earthquake activity, the IMO couldn't rule out an imminent eruption and has kept the "red" code for Bárðarbunga.
the source
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Top Most Famous Cities In The World for family vacation
Top Most Famous Cities In The World for family vacation
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Top world’s famous cities for family vacation or even a wedding in another country? StuffKit.com gives you a comprehensive list of the top famous cities in world. You will be guided through a city’s famous attraction, historic destinations and scenic wonders. With travel information, weather conditions, and more travel tips that will make your journey an adventure you won’t forget. Start here and learn more about the Top Cities in the World. This is where you journey begins. These cities located in Africa, Asia, Curope, Middle East, North America and South America.
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How to return to the office after summer vacation
Before Returning to the Office:
1. Create a Task List
"Employees should write down where each project stands and the immediate steps they need to take once upon return. No one wants to stress during a break, so plan everything ahead of time," Gimbel said. "Coming back to a to-do list will allow you to hit the ground running."
2. Scan Emails
"The employee may resent the fact that they have to work outside of the office, but at the end of the day, the pros outweigh the cons in dedicating an hour for managing an inbox or checking voicemails," Gimbel said.
Upon Returning to the Office:
1. Get to the Office Earlier
Gimbel suggests at least an hour earlier on their first day back to get organized.
"That way they are prepared to meet as soon as their managers get in to recap anything they’ve missed," he said. "Employees have to be laser-focused, which means putting phones away and not constantly checking social media updates or looking at the trip’s photos. They shouldn’t set themselves up for distractions."
2. Consider the Week Ahead
Before going home that first day, employees should create an agenda of what the rest of the week will entail, he suggests.
3. Consider Office Social Dynamics
It’s important that employees are empathic to their teams who may have picked up their slack while out, he said.
"It wouldn’t hurt to write a quick thank-you note to team members who did work on their behalf. Appreciation goes a long way," he said.
4. Stay on top of Updates
If the employee works directly with clients, they should make calls to each when they return to simply catch up and recap where projects stand, regardless if coworkers filled them in or not, Gimbel said.
5. Use the Energy!
With the exception of diverted planes due to belligerent passengers, hopefully your vacations allow you to rest and recharge.
"Being on a vacation revives an employee who may have spent months at the office without taking a trip," Gimbel said. "Bring that fresh energy into the office and apply it to current projects."
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Dream Vacations You Can Actually Afford
Dream Vacations You Can Actually Afford
What is your dream vacation spot?
http://youtu.be/fNU7Wjjmojo
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Leslie Mann Is Going on VACATION as Audrey Griswold
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Leslie Mann has been cast in the hotly anticipated Vacation sequel as Ed Helms‘ big sister Audrey. In the classic National Lampoon’s movies, Audrey was played by Dana Barron, Dana Hill, Marisol Nichols and Juliette Lewis. Mann most recently started in The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton, This is 40 with Paul Rudd, and Paranorman with Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck and many more. Alongside Helms, Christina Applegate will play Rusty’s wife, Debbie, and Chris Hemsworth has been announced as Audrey’s husband, Stone Crandall.
While there aren’t a lot of details out there on the full plot of the upcoming film, Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo will reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold in cameo appearances. The feuding siblings storyline will be taken over by Rusty’s two young sons who are being played by Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins. In addition to these new cast members, Charlie Day has been tapped for a role as the rafting guide the family meets, and Victorious’ Elizabeth Gillies has been cast in a small role.
Here’s hoping that Helms’ and Mann’s comedic chops will bring the sibling rivalry back to life between Audrey and Rusty though, and they should have great backup in their on-screen loves. Hemsworth’s comedy skills may be less well-tested, but Applegate is sure to compliment her on-screen husband. It’s just not a Vacation without some sarcasm and love-hate between the kids, no matter what their ages.
The movie has been written and will be directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Thought we’ve seen them team up on screenplays before - Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone – this will be their first time directing a feature. You can learn more about their process on the Nerdist Writer’s Panel episode they were on earlier this year.
You can also hear more about Vacation in today’s Nerdist Podcast. Ed Helms is back for another visit, and Vacation, Rusty and his theories on a Griswold dark secret are all on the table for discussion.
the source
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WEEKLY DIGEST 2014, September 14 - 21 for VACATION
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WEEKLY DIGEST 2014, September 28 - October 05 for VACATION
Companies offer employees vacation before they start. “Every other company he was talking to was asking, ‘How soon can you start?’ ” says Freedman, co-founder and CEO of 42Floors, a San Francisco-based commercial real estate search engine. Freedman wanted the guy, but he didn’t want him coming in haggard and beleaguered. So he made him a job offer with one stipulation: The candidate had to take a two-week paid vacation—before his first day. Delighted and relieved, the candidate accepted.
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Normal people vs me after a vacation.
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Rick Snyder finally finds a teacher who supports him: his neighbor at his vacation home
11-year-old girl goes on vacation alone, horrifying parents around the world
Justin Bieber Declares Shirtless Vacation Over, But Why?
Win a Seven Day Vacation to Disney World. Contest Expires: November 2, 2014
18 Reasons Why Fiji Has To Be Your Next Vacation Destination
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Creative Travel in Portugal: Pottery, Painting, Weaving, Cooking & More!
I have really come to love “my” Portugal. The people, the soul, the culture of this land, last but not least its beautiful, melodious language, have completely drawn me in. Already in my first article about creative travel in the Algarve region, I have shared with you some alternative travel tips in this sunny southern district of Portugal. Now, the time has come to dive even deeper. We will therefore go on a journey into the interior of the Algarve, the small town of Querenca, also known as “Aldeia da Querenca” in the local language. Even though Loulé too is a small town counting only 30.000 inhabitants, travelling into a historic village located on the nearby hilltops is another experience altogether. I have come here with my local expert guide Susana, who works as part of the “TASA” project developing creative travel in the Algarve through a series of workshops named “Painting with Earth Colours“. Part of this experience includes landscape walks learning more about the history and culture while interacting with the land as a first-time visitor.
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Most Beautiful Places I to Visit in New Zealand
Ohh New Zealand, I always miss this place, Last year I visited this place and found it most beautiful place I had ever seen in this world. Check out 10 most beautiful places I visited in New Zealand.
Napier
This is the first city on my list. This city become popular and distinctive after 1931 earthquake leveled this city. You can see oriented art deco in this city. You can see many natural as well as man-made aesthetics.
Punakaiki coast
This is island located in west coast of the New Zealand. It feels like we are at the edge of the world. The beaches are rocky, violent and lush with vegetation. This place is used for service of the hordes. The most striking feature of this coastal is rock formation known as pancake rocks.
The Waikato River
This river spills out of Lake Taupo. This river is an unreal blue in color. This river is like a shape of a swimming pool. When I hiked a few kilometers along side, I finally reached to Huka Falls. You can have a view of taupo’s bungee jump from here which is situated above a picturesque bend in the River Waikato.
read more here
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Where should I go on vacation?
Where should I go on vacation?
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Go to the link above and answer to those 7 questions and you will know
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Americans taking fewest vacation days in four decades
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Feeling buried by work, like you can't find time for a few days off, like your entire work-life balance is out of whack? If you're an American worker, it just might be.
A new study has found that U.S. workers forfeited $52.4 billion in time-off benefits in 2013, and took less vacation time than at any point in the last four decades.
American workers turned their backs on a total of 169 million days of paid time off, in effect "providing free labor for their employers, at an average of $504 per employee," according to the study.
Titled "All Work and No Pay: The Impact of Forfeited Time Off," the study was conducted by Oxford Economics for the U.S. Travel Association's Travel Effect Initiative, which studies the impact of forgone vacation time.
"Americans are work martyrs," says the U.S. Travel Association (USTA). "Tied to the office, they leave more and more paid time off unused each year, forfeiting their earned benefits and, in essence, work for free."
According to the study, in 2013 U.S. employees took an average of 16 days of vacation compared to an average of 20.3 days as recently as 2000.
"The economic potential of returning to the pre-2000 vacation patterns is massive: annual vacation days taken by U.S. employees would jump 27% (or 768 million days), delivering a $284 billion impact across the entire U.S. economy," according to the USTA.
Based in Washington, D.C., the USTA is a national, nonprofit organization representing all components of the travel industry.
Does this describe you?
read more here
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Asian Inspired Luxury on Dubai's Iconic Palm
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Imagine a unique destination set on a man-made marvel on the Dubai coastline that entices one and all with a distinct blend of serenity and splendour. Offering an urban escape, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa is a wondrous place where a decadent experience awaits at a Palm Jumeirah hotel unlike any other.
Perched on the eastern crescent of the iconic Palm Jumeirah, an archipelago of islands connected to the mainland, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa is a remarkable resort inspired by traditional Thai architecture in an Arabian setting. A 45 minute drive from Dubai International Airport and within easy reach of a plethora of exciting attractions including Aquaventure Water Park, Mall of the Emirates, Ski Dubai and Dubai Marina, this resort is where one can savour moments of bliss surrounded in unimaginable magnificence.
Designed with true Asian flair, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa offers enchanting beach side accommodation, complemented by cuisine from Asia as well as the Mediterranean served at four speciality venues. Unwind in one of three turquoise swimming lagoons, enjoy a session at the tennis courts or gyms, or indulge in a choice of treatments at Anantara Spa. The resort also has a ballroom, six meeting rooms, a kids club and teens club, all adding to the splendour of this idyllic beach side resort destination on the Palm in Dubai.
Palm Jumeirah Hotel official Website
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Portugal-Alentejo-Odeceixe
Portugal-Alentejo-Odeceixe
The Odeceixe beach, located at the northern end of the county of Lagos, has the particularity to contain a river beach, because it is limited to the east and north of the Ribeira Seixe, which makes a natural border with the Alentejo. Has so sea bathing and river.
The brook, which includes the largest watershed in this county, determines the dynamics of that beach, not only by the amount of sediment that "feeds", but also by the energy of the floods, which in very rainy periods may affect the shape and the size of this beach.
The Beach Odeceixe falls just on the edge of a valley dominated by this river, culminating sandwiched between towering cliffs of shale and greywacke, characteristic of this region.
The beach has a high landscape quality and biodiversity can be enjoyed in a landscape of rare beauty and huge top of the cliffs. These are prime habitat for birds, providing excellent conditions for bird watching, as the white stork, the peregrine falcon or a crow-peas-red. It is indeed in this Natural Park, the only place in the world where it is possible to observe the storks nesting in sea cliffs.
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Great Vacation? Don't Brag to Your Friends
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Your friends don’t want to hear about your excellent adventures.
While you may have gotten great pleasure from an epic event — sipping a rare wine in Burgundy, watching a Himalayan sunrise — that pleasure is all your own.
A recent study in Psychological Science says that despite the thrills people receive from an extraordinary experience, few anticipate its potential social cost: exclusion by friends who would really rather not hear about it.
Harvard researchers found that when people socialize, those who had the same experience, no matter how mundane, enjoyed chatting about it together. Those same people might well exclude the person who thought others couldn’t wait to hear all about his or her most unusual one.
“It’s a timely question, given how much people are sharing and bragging about their experiences through social media,” said Cassie Mogilner, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, who looks at the happiness that people derive from ordinary and extraordinary events. “This suggests that people may be rolling their eyes at all those posts about amazing vacations.”
Reasonable people may disagree about what distinguishes an ordinary experience from an extraordinary one. Gus Cooney, a Harvard graduate student in psychology and the study’s lead author, defined an extraordinary experience as one that is “both enjoyable and unique.”
Before beginning the study, the researchers asked 76 participants to rate the quality of short movies. From that data, the researchers picked a high-rated film — one that left viewers feeling great — to serve as the proxy for an extraordinary experience. They picked a low-rated film, one that left viewers feeling “not very good,” as an ordinary experience.
To measure the social consequence of an extraordinary experience, the researchers then asked 68 new subjects to watch one of the movies. The researchers held 17 sessions, with four participants each. One person was shown the superior, four-star video, the “extraordinary” experience. The other three, each watching alone, saw the lackluster, two-star video, an “ordinary” experience. The group convened afterward to chat.
As it turned out, the people who had seen the best film didn’t enjoy the postfilm socializing.
“Our subjects thought they would be the star of the interaction, and they were surprised they were left out of it,” said a co-author, Daniel T. Gilbert, a Harvard social psychologist who writes about happiness. “They didn’t understand why everyone else wanted to commiserate” about the bad movie “rather than hear about their great one.”
the source
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Unlimited vacation? Not always as cool as it sounds
Only 1 percent of companies have discretionary time off polices, SHRM says
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It's like the new "It Girl" work perk: Take as much time off as you want, as long as you get your job done.
But it may not be quite as cool as it seems.
Pioneered by tech start-ups and other small, niche businesses, these so-called "unlimited" vacation policies are now being tried out by a few bigger fish. Tribune Publishing, which owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, is the latest company to switch from giving employees a set number of days off to "discretionary time off."
The idea: Treat salaried employees as "responsible, trustworthy adults" who know what's expected of them and who deliver results.
"The policy is intended to give [them] greater flexibility in taking paid time off and allow them to make appropriate work-life balance decisions for themselves," said a Tribune spokesman.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson put it more bluntly in a blog post where he unveiled a similar company policy: "If working nine to five no longer applies, then why should strict annual (vacation) policies?"
Hard to argue with that.
But it's too early to say how beneficial these new "discretionary time off" policies will actually be for employees.
As it is, Americans only take three-quarters of their allotted time off, said Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits at the Society for Human Resource Management.
One reason we shortchange ourselves: Some people worry they'll lose their job or miss out on a good raise or promotion if they use all their vacation days, especially when they have a bad boss or an employer that uses layoffs as a go-to management tool.
So a take-all-you-want vacation policy may not mean you end up taking more time off than you used to. You might even end up taking less.
Is that the goal of these new policies? Tribune says no. "Employees can use the same amount of time going forward as their annual vacation allotment — and even more, if needed," the company spokesman said.
But both Virgin and Tribune make it clear that your performance better be up to snuff before requesting those days off.
"It's your responsibility to have an open discussion with your supervisor about your time off and its impact on your performance. As always, future career opportunities are assessed based on your performance and potential," Tribune's management wrote in a memo to employees published on JimRomenesko.com.
Branson wants employees to take as much time as they want, but said he assumes "they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred percent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business -- or, for that matter, their careers!" [Italics added.]
Arguably, that is a lot of pressure to put on an employee who was just kind of hoping to spend a week at the beach. Especially since many of us already are given way more work than we can finish in a day -- and can't ever seem to catch up, said Cynthia Shapiro, a former HR executive who wrote "Corporate Confidential."
While some companies may do a great job of encouraging employees to take time as they need it, Shapiro said, she worries other employers may use it as a way to cut costs and get more out of their employees.
One way companies could save: You won't accrue vacation days that, if unused, the company would pay you for when you quit or get laid off.
Right now, only about 1% of companies offer unlimited vacation policies, according to SHRM. So it's too soon to say if it's a trend. But if these new vacation policies prove successful - either by improving employers' bottom line or by creating happier workers -- it may not be long before other businesses give them a try.
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Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto. When You Read What Mexico Had Planned, You May Never Vacation There Again
Attachment 11096
Enrique Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico, has lectured the United States over our immigration laws for years. He has praised California for their lax laws regarding illegals, while he attacked Texas for daring to protect their border. He has decried those in America against the illegal invasion of our southern border. His actions and vocal opposition to American sovereignty and rule of law makes the program implemented by his country even more hypocritical and incredulous.
The National Immigration Institute (INAMI) in Mexico implemented a program that would require any visitor who was in Mexico for 7 days or longer, or who was going for paid work, to pay a fee of nearly $30. This applies to those crossing by foot, not yet applicable to car, through port of entries in Otay, San Ysidro/El Chaparral and Puerta Mexico Este.
The rationale behind their decision is even more astounding.
Rudolfo Figueroa, a representative of INAMI in Baja California said, “We are doing what should be done. Foreigners who enter Mexico have the obligation to register; if they will be in national territory for more than seven days, they have to pay the right of non-residents.”
Yet Mexican officials have for years demanded an open border policy by the United States. While the program was canceled, it is incredible that it even existed in the first place.