Singles tours growing in popularity

Singles tours are becoming very popular for people who want to travel and meet other singles. Many travel companies have started to specialize in singles vacations, catering to those single, seperated, divorced, or widowed. The best part is there is no pressure, just enjoy your vacation and if you meet someone who strikes your fancy you’re in luck!

There is a singles vacation to fit every budget and schedule, from weekend trips to Jazz Festivals and golfing weekends to week-long or longer trips to such exotic locations as Turkey, Morocco, or Egypt. The Connecting - Solo Travel Network has compiled a list of “singles tours, singles cruises, singles travel clubs, hospitality organizations, any and all single-friendly holiday ideas” that will give you a broad sample of the opportunities available for singles travel.

Singles cruises are a great way to relax and enjoy your vacation while making yourself available for romance. Singles Cruises.com have a page What are Ad-Lib Singles Cruises? where they describe their free-form singles cruises without organized singles activities.

For Seniors and Women Traveling Solo the BBC has put together a Safe Travel Tips page to help make your trip as safe and fun as possible. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be sure to have a great trip.

Travel To Thailand

A friend of mine saw the earlier post on Travel to Asia and sent me an email telling me about his plans for early next year to visit Chiang Mai, Thailand . He included a link he found to be very useful planning his vacation in Thailand. I took a look at the sites to learn a little bit about Thailand and thought the site was so good it was worth writing a site review.

The Guide to Thailand is a good site where you’ll find everything you need to make your visit to Thailand a success, from destination guides to city maps to even Thai language flash cards that you can use on your trip to Thailand. One look at the Thai alphabet on the sample cards they have and you will quickly see how valuable the flash cards can be.
I found some interesting ideas from the Guide to Thailand site and thought I’d share.
While visiting Thailand you can enjoy some of the finest luxury spas in the world. Conde Nast Traveller readers chose four of Thailand’s luxury spas in the world’s Top 25 most luxurious spas. The Mandara Spa at JW Marriott Phuket, the Chiva-Som International Health Resort, the Banyan Tree Spa in Bangkok, and The Oriental Spa.

The Thailand beaches are world famous for their beauty, and something rare in most places; undeveloped sandy beaches. The Guide to Thailand site has a list of the beaches by region, as well as descriptions of the areas and contact information for hotels and attractions around the beaches.

Last but not the Thailand Guide is a traveler’s friend by offering a wide selection of maps of Thailand, from complete views of the country to local hotel maps directions in Bangkok. The Guide to Thailand is really your one-stop guide to Thailand.

Educational Tours and Travel

Lying around at the beach is a great way to spend a vacation, but if you want more from your vacation why not think about taking an educational tour? Educational tours and travel allow you to travel and learn, from languages to history and culture, to sports, or cooking and crafts and more. About.com has a fantastic educational vacation resource site full of information and links to some of the best learning vacations around.

Maybe you’d like to work on an archaeological dig assisting in research on the Pueblo Indians near the Mesa Verde National Park? The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center offers one-day sessions featuring hands-on activities and tours of their archaeology laboratory and excavation site for as little as $50.

Or maybe you would find learning art surrounded by beautiful Italian landscape more to your tastes? The International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture in Montecastello di Vibio, Perugia, Italy offers short-term instructional sessions designed “for adults with some background in art who want to create more time in their lives to paint and draw, or to pursue their interest to a deeper level.” Continuing education courses of three or four weeks are available in the summer.
These educational travel and tour ideas are just a sample of the ideas offered on the About.com Educational Tours and Travel site.

Asian Travel

I was lucky enough to get to visit Japan about 15 years ago, and even though I haven’t made it back one of my favorite daydreams is taking a long vacation and touring the beautiful countries of Asia. While I save up my pennies for the trip I read some of the fantastic websites catering to Asian travel.

One of the best sites on Asian travel you’ll find is Things Asian: Experience Asia Through the Eyes of a Traveler. There you will find stories and photo essays from travelers to Thailand, Korea, China, Malaysia, Japan, India, Indonesia, and more. I can try to describe the site to you, but set aside a couple of hours and discover for yourself the richness and detail the writers offer in their tales of the Far East.

After you read the wonderful stories at Things Asian, make sure to visit ASIA Travel Tips.com, where you will learn the details you’ll need to know to make the best of your trip to an Asian country. The diversity of the topics is incredible, from the process of renting a cellphone in Thailand to tips on buying electronic goods in Hong Kong. If you are planning a trip to Asia you can’t miss this site.

Another excellent site with tons of useful information about the countries of Asia is About.com’s Asia For Visitors. With country-by-country guides from Afghanistan to Vietnam you can’t help but be prepared for your trip when the time comes. One of my favorite things about Asia For Visitors is the expanded links, where the editors have compiled country maps, travel guides, accomodation details, and even photography archives.

Visit the top travel destinations, skip the crowds

It’s always good to read about the hottest travel destinations when it is time to plan your vacation, but sometimes it seems like everyone else does the same thing, with hordes of tourists descending on any recommended travel destination. That’s not always a bad thing, but sometimes quaint vacation spots lose their cozy feel when too many people are around.

My secret is to look at past issues of travel magazines and travel websites to see what their top travel destinations were 3-4 years ago and choose from the older vacation hot spots. The travel information and the “what to see” and “what to do” will still be up to date, but the crowds will be visiting whichever travel sites the magazines recommended this year.

For instance, the USA Today Weekend Magazine Top 10 US Travel Destinations For Fun listed:

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Iowa State Fair, Des Moines Iowa
3. Times Square, New York, New York
4. Cedar Point Amusement Park, Sandusky, Ohio
5. Cape Cod, Massachusetts
6. River tubing Texas, Texas Hill Country, west of San Antonio Texas
7. Audubon Zoo, New Orleans Louisiana
8. Disneyland, Anaheim, California
9. National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington DC
10. Telluride, Colorado

Now that I’ve told my secret for visiting the top travel destinations while skipping the crowds I’ll have to think up a new tactic.

Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, this year’s hot travel destination

Mexico’s Riviera Maya, or Mayan Riviera, is one of the hottest travel destinations this year. Almost anything you want from a vacation you can find on the east coast of Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. Whether you want to relax on the sunny beaches of Cancun or tour the 3000 year old Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, you will find plenty of fun in the sun .

Cancun is internationally known for it’s fun party atmosphere, and people of all ages can let loose and have a good time in this beautiful beach location. Visitors have an unbelievable selection of luxury hotels and all-inclusive resorts available, and the world-class restaurants and attractions are never too far away.

If you enjoy watersports you can’t miss Cozumel, where beautiful coral reefs beckon you to don your mask and snorkel for a swim. Kayaking, snorkeling, deep-sea fishing, or just laying on the beach are all options for visitors to the beautiful island of Cozumel.

Just across from the island of Cozumel lies Playa del Carmen, on the mainland of Mexico about 40 miles south of Cancun. There are so many fun things to do it would be almost impossible to fit them into a single vacation. 10 minutes south of Playa del Carmen is Xcaret, an incredible eco-park with an aviary, botanical gardens, and offers the opportunity to swim in the underground river cutting through the limestone. Enjoy a jungle adventure at Aktun Chen, where you can see monkeys and lizards and beautiful birds, as well as take a guided trip underground in the caves.

That’s just a sample of the fun in the sun you enjoy when you visit Mexico’s Mayan Riviera.

Exotic Singles Cruises

According to Match.com over 3 million of their members are age 45-59, their fastest growing segment (see Online dating attracts the after 50 crowd ). With so many boomer singles there is a growing number of services for finding love and romance after 50. One of the more exciting options is the growing singles cruise industry, where you can enjoy budding romance in exotic locations.

There are singles cruises to suit every schedule, from 3 day singles cruises from Miami to the Bahamas, to 7 day or longer cruises on the Baltic Sea or Cancun and the western Caribbean. Whether you enjoy just relaxing by the pool or shaking your booty in the disco, the modern singles cruise can’t be beat. Scheduled activities make meeting your shipmates easy, including cocktail parties and mixers, fun games, group excursions, and mingling while dining.

For more information on exotic singles cruises, check out these sites.

Singles Cruise information on upcoming singles cruises

Cruise Reviews excellent general cruise resource site with reader’s reviews by cruise line and individual ship

About.com Singles Cruises links to information to make taking your singles cruise more enjoyable

WiFi hotspot directory sites

It’s surprising how important the internet has become in our lives now, from keeping in touch with email to news and shopping. With the growing network of wireless internet (WiFi) providers, it is easier now than ever to get online wherever you go.

Many good WiFi hotspot directory sites are available now, and I have a list of the best hotspot directories at the After50 Technology site. If you travel with your computer, make sure to add these hotspot directory sites to your favorites.

European Vacation Travel Sites

Now that Spring is almost here that means summer vacation is fast approaching. I don’t know about you, but I start planning my next vacation as I’m traveling back home from my latest vacation, but some people still haven’t decided where to enjoy their summer vacation.

Each year over 12 million Americans visit Europe, seeing such sights as castles from the Middle Ages, the canals of Venice, the sunny beaches of Spain and Greece, to the spectacular mountain views of Switzerland. With so many options, every one of them promising to offer a good time, how do you decide?

Fortunately there are some excellent websites available to help you make your vacation plans.

One of the best sites is by Rick Steves, the travel book author and PBS travel show host. You can find his recommendations at his Best Destinations Europe site, where for 2006 his recommendations span from Ireland to Italy. He visits every location he recommends personally, so you get a first hand account of what you’ll find when you reach your European travel destination.

Another fantastic site to help plan your European vacation is Durant Imboden’s Europe for Visitors, full of articles with travel advice. The information at Europe for Visitors is thorough, too, from the information you expect such as hotels, restaurants, and what to see and do, but also how to pack, how to manage your money, to passports and personal safety. If you want to know the things that will make your trip to Europe as simple as possible your pre-trip planning must include a visit to Europe for Visitors.

Last but not least is the official European tourism site Visit Europe, with detailed travel information on all 33 nations that comprise Europe, from Austria to Turkey. For each country you will find a calendar of events, weather information, and useful tips and advice to help make your vacation more pleasant.

Enjoy your vacation, and don’t forget to send a postcard.

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