Travel Q&A: Away.com Readers Need Your Help!
Here are Away.com, we receive dozens of questions each day from readers looking for help planning their travel. Can you help? Here are five recent submissions that we need help answering. If you have advice, we'd welcome your input!
Q: We're driving to Mount Rushmore in May 2010. What's the weather like at that time and does anyone know of any good local hotels? Answer this question
Q: We are planning a trip to the Boston area, including a couple of days in Martha's Vineyard. What's the weather like in early November? Also, any must-see towns and attractions between Boston and M.V.? Answer this question
Q: Is there anywhere to snorkel off the beach in Puerto Vallarta? I'm a relative newcomer to snorkeling so need somewhere safe and shallow in which to practice. Answer this question
Q: Can anyone recommend some kid-friendly attractions in the Mount Washington area of New Hampshire? Answer this question
Q: I'm planning a solo road trip from Tennessee to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Does anyone know of cheap hostels and good/safe camping? Answer this question
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October 06, 2009
Explore the Mountains of New York
Mohonk Mountain House in the Catskill Mountains region of New York state (courtesy, Mohonk Mountain House)
A mere 90 minutes north of Manhattan is New Paltz, New York, and the Catskill Mountains. Avid adventurers know the area for the "Gunks," one of the most popular rock-climbing destinations in the East. Families venture here in mid- to late October to take in the fall foliage. Start with a walk around Lake Mohonk and then book a room overlooking that same body of water at one of the finest family resorts in the country, the Mohonk Mountain House. Opened in 1869, this sprawling resort has the perfect vantage point from which to savor the changing colors. Not to mention, you get to slow down and appreciate the natural splendor on a hike, horseback ride, or paddle. All meals are included in the full American plan.
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October 03, 2009
Get a Free Day at Disney by Volunteering Your Time
Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World, Orlando (courtesy, Walt Disney News)
Disney has just announced a new "Give a Day, Get a Day" program that will reward up to one million people who volunteer a day of service in participating programs with a free one-day admission ticket to a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park. The program kicks off next year on January 1, but you can sign up now at www.DisneyParks.com.
Interested in giving back when you travel? Visit Away.com's Volunteer Vacations Guide to learn more.
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September 24, 2009
Top Five Tips From a Five-Month Family Road Trip
A family of five stuck together in an RV for five months? Most people shake their heads and have one question: "Why on earth would you want to do that?" When the economy started to falter, my husband's real-estate development company began to follow suit. Hard as it might be to believe, a feeling of excitement is what I felt, followed by a sharp stab of guilt. I quickly realized that the excitement was really just a feeling of overwhelming opportunity. With change, good or bad, comes opportunity if you look for it. Time is a precious commodity and we found ourselves in a rare moment where we actually had time, and we knew it may never come again. The moment seemed even more perfect because of the ages of our three children (11, 8, and 6). After eager thoughts of moving to another country were shot down by my husband, we arrived at a shared enthusiasm for hitting the road to explore all that this great country has to offer. An RV was our chosen method of travel. We created a website to help communicate about the experience at FamilyOffTrack.com.
After five months in an RV with a family of five, here are five tips that I'm sure can help any family road trip.
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September 16, 2009
Grand Canyon Railway Goes Green
The Grand Canyon Railway (courtesy, Xanterra Parks & Resorts)
Travelers will be happy to hear that the Grand Canyon Railway is now ISO 14001 Certified. Although I’m quite certain that the majority of people reading this know exactly what that means, I’ll explain. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) sets environmental standards, and the ISO 14001 standard applies to the environmental aspects of the train that can be controlled and influenced, ensuring environmental protection, regulatory compliance, and continual improvement. Grand Canyon Railway has taken a number of steps to be environmentally responsible and to earn this certification, which have included:
- Tripling the amount of recycled material in their property-wide recycling program, while decreasing the amount of solid waste generated;
- Using Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel in all the locomotives (much cleaner burning fuel);
- Educating staff and customers on energy- and water-conservation measures;
- Installing room sensors and timers in many areas to save on electricity;
- Decreasing water consumption by 10 percent from 2008 to 2009;
- And replacing all cleaning solvents with green chemicals.
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September 08, 2009
Win a Free Eco-Vacation to The Lodge at Chaa Creek in Belize
PARADISE, FOR FREE: The Lodge at Chaa Creek, Belize (courtesy, The Lodge at Chaa Creek)
We've just nominated The Lodge at Chaa Creek in Belize as one of our all-time favorite family resorts. Now here's your chance to discover for yourself why we put it on our must-visit list of the world's best resorts and lodges.
The Lodge at Chaa Creek is currently running a Nature Adventure Sweepstakes [PDF download] to award five lucky winners to the chance to win a free vacation to its award-winning eco-lodge, which is nestled deep in the rainforest of Belize's interior Cayo District. In 300 words or less, tell them why you want to visit Chaa Creek. The contest ends October 30, 2009. If you win, don't forget to send us a postcard!
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August 27, 2009
Swine Flu: Health Update for Travelers
Commuting to work on the Metro this week, the headline on the front page of The Washington Post was impossible to ignore: "Swine Flu Could Infect Half of U.S." As schools around the country, indeed the world, get ready to return to classes for the fall, doomsday scenarios surrounding the potential effects of the H1N1 virus appear to be ratcheting up day by day.
As someone who is planning to travel to the U.K. in December with two young children, it also got me thinking about what this all means for travelers. Do we really have to take the Joe Biden approach of swearing off public transport until the scourge passes? Does it make more sense to hunker down and mitigate the risk? Given some of the scarier estimates and scenarios, I decided to do some research on what we already know about H1N1 and what health experts are predicating for the next few months.
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August 20, 2009
Guide to the World's Best Resorts & Lodges
Cayo Espanto, a private luxury all-inclusive in Belize (courtesy, Cayo Espanto)
For the past 12 months, I have been neck-deep in one of the toughest assignments a travel editor can expect: Scouring the globe for the world's best destination resorts and lodges. I know, it's a hard job gazing at images of unspoiled, faraway places (like the one above), but I wasn't alone for my journey. We assigned a crack squad of travel writers with clips in publications including National Geographic Adventure, Travel+Leisure, and Lonely Planet to track down the cream of the crop, including their selections for the best family resorts, beach resorts, national park lodges, all-inclusive resorts, and six other distinct travel categories. One year later, with my list of must-visit places in a state of morbid obesity, we're excited to announce the launch of Away.com's new Resorts & Lodges Guide, featuring 200 of the world's ultimate destination-resort experiences. If you're looking for inspiration about where to stay next, this is the place to start.
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August 14, 2009
Dreaming of Gold in Park City's Utah Olympic Park
A young clinic-goer preps to run the freestyle jump (courtesy, Utah Olympic Park)
Next February, the glow of Olympic competition will alight upon Vancouver, British Columbia, for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but you don't have to wait until then to get into the competitive spirit. The Utah Olympic Park just outside of Park City, Utah, hosted the Winter Games back in 2002, and today serves as both the training facility for the U.S. teams and one of the country's more alluring activity-centric locales, especially for families, during the warmer months of the year.
The facility boasts a spectacular interactive museum, the ski jump ramp—where you can peer over the ledge and get that vertiginous rush that comes from seeing what these astounding athletes willingly ski—and a variety of fun, low-adrenaline rides like the zipline and the Quicksilver alpine slide. But speed freaks will definitely want to hop on the Comet, the Olympic bobsled. Dubbed the "fastest minute of your life," you'll tear through 15 curves at speeds of 70 miles per hour, pulling close to four G's. But don't worry—Olympic athletes handle the steering and the brakes.
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August 12, 2009
Beach Bytes: Free Fun in Atlantic City
Atlantic City, with boardwalk in background (courtesy, Atlantic City CVA)
Can you have fun in Atlantic City without spending money? You bet! Atlantic City beaches are free and have designated sections for surfing, fishing, kayaking, and windsurfing. Grab some sunblock and spend a day on the sand, in the water, or on the city's lively traditional boardwalk.
A premier destination on New Jersey's coast, Atlantic City is a sizzling summer spot for family fun, especially attractive because of all of its low-cost offerings. The city's boardwalk has long been an entertainment center, with varying dynamics over the years as it grew into a gambling city, a convention hub, and an important golf destination. The boardwalk provides a central point for accessing piers, hotels, casinos, shopping, dining, antiquing, and entertainment lining the beach.
The city offers a lot of great, free, and fun events over the summer, including the Atlantic City Air Show, “Thunder Over the Boardwalk,” on August 19. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds headline the show, which begins at 11 a.m. The airshow will include the U.S. Army Parachute Team and dozens more aerobatics, demonstrations, and flybys. If the boardwalk is crowded, the aerial acts will be easy to view from anywhere along the beach.
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