How to Go on a Cheap Vacation

You do not have much money set aside and yet you want to take a vacation. If you are dying to take a vacation, there is probably a reason for it: your body needs it. Studies have shown that taking a break from work, often in the form of vacations, is the best way to reduce the stress in your life, which can actually help to extend the years you have left on earth. But your money situation is tight, and even though you want to go on a vacation, you are not sure if you can afford one. A cheap vacation is exactly what you need.

What Constitutes a Cheap Vacation

A cheap vacation is a vacation that is anything lower than the amount you have budgeted for your vacation. When you are thinking about going on a cheap vacation, you need to set a budget. If you only have $500 to work with, spending under $500, for you, constitutes a cheap vacation. If you only have $200 to spend, then anything under that is a cheap vacation for you. The less money you can spend, the better off you are. There are, fortunately, many ways that you can enjoy a cheap vacation without spending tons of money.

Look Around Your Town

Have you ever taken the time to look around your town? If you live in a larger city, or even a smaller one, you may not have noticed many things. You wonder why tourists come to visit and never take the time to see the beauty and interesting things in your own city. For a cheap vacation, grab a tour book and take a vacation in your own town! You can book a hotel, or stay home, and can find a lot of things to do that you never knew existed.

Book Far Ahead

For a really cheap vacation, book far in advance. Hotels and airlines are much less expensive when you book them months in advance. If you want to head to Florida for the holidays, for instance, booking in January of that year is not a bad idea, and can make it possible to turn your Florida trip into a very cheap vacation. Also, the more ahead you plan, the less expensive your trip can become. If you know that your airline fares will be expensive and are in relative close driving distance, meaning less than a full day worth of driving, try driving down, or even carpooling with another friend or family member! This will truly give you a cheap vacation.

Go Abroad

Often going overseas is the best way to get a truly unique cheap vacation. The value of a dollar is different everywhere, and where a person who is a native to the country may have to pay thousands of their own dollars for something, you may only have to pay hundreds, saving you tons of money and giving you a very unique cheap vacation at the same time.

A cheap vacation can be found almost anywhere, as long as you look around and are vigilant.

Six Keys to Really Enjoying Your Vacation

If you start with your briefcase and triple check that you have the power cords for your Blackberry and your laptop when you begin to pack for your vacation, you definitely need to read this article.

If you make a to-do list of the things you need to get done for work while you are gone, you better read on.

Even if you only plan to call in for your messages “a couple times a day,” you’ll want to continue reading.

The urge to work while on vacation has never been stronger. Our busy schedules and the constant availability of technology adds to the pressure we all feel. With contact so easy, and with the lines between work and home so blurred during the rest of our lives, it is easy to see why vacation can be a struggle for any of us.

If you want to put more balance in your life and vacation, read on. These practical tips will help you (and your family) enjoy your vacation more, guaranteed.

Choice

If you want to have a vacation that is more vacation and less work, it all starts with a choice. Am I willing to, and will I, leave the Blackberry off and not check my voice mail? While it is easy to make this statement, making the choice might be very hard. Hard or easy, in the end, it is as simple as a choice. If you choose not to work or be distracted by work-related items while on your vacation, you won’t be.

Urgent vs. Important

The ease of contact that technology brings us makes this choice even more clear. 30 years ago if you went on vacation it was harder to be sucked back into work because there weren’t so many easy ways to be in touch. With the cell phone, laptop, and internet everywhere, it is easy to assume that everything back at work is urgent.

Most of it isn’t.

The decision or mental "tug" to work while on vacation is about the urgent things in life. Your family (or your vacation in general) is quite likely more important to you, but it is the perceived urgency of the work that draws us back in. Remember what is really important to you. During a vacation is an especially good time to remain focused on the important; and not the merely urgent things in our lives.

Remove the Distractions

Leave your phone in the room; your Blackberry will be just fine in the drawer. If you leave the gadgets in your room all day instead of carrying them with you everywhere you go, you’ll be far less likely to check your messages while you’re in line for the ride or sitting by the beach.

Communicate Clearly

If you do have to work at all while on vacation, set boundaries and gain agreement with your traveling companions. If there is a particular thing that you have to do, let everyone know what it is - they will more likely support you if they know about it and how important and/or time critical it is. Then do only that thing! Don't use that as an "opening" to work as much as you feel you need to.

Segment Your Time

I am writing this as the rest of my family sleeps. This allows me to be fully engaged in my vacation, and still finish something that truly needs to be done. If you must work, budget the time tightly, and do it when it least impacts those important people with you.

Have a Plan

Have a plan at work before you leave. Change your voice mail and email announcement to let people know you aren't in touch for several days. This will leave you with fewer urgent items on your return, and lower your anxiety level while you are gone.

Keeping these six things in mind will give you greater balance and help make your next vacation as refreshing and rejuvenating as it can be. Take these actions and you’ll have you best vacation ever, and you will return better equipped both mentally and physically to be highly effective back at work.

Potential Principle – When you are on vacation, you need to be on vacation! Recognize that while your work may be urgent, your vacation and the people you are spending it with are truly important. Keeping this in mind will help you have the vacation you deserve.

How to Choose a Florida Vacation Rental ?

Is a vacation rental villa right for me?

Whether you are seeking a magical Disney World Vacation or an active family holiday, a Florida vacation rental villa is one of the most flexible options available to you. Many visitors decide on a hotel or motel room. This can appear to be the cheapest option but has several disadvantages. As I'm sure you know if you wanted a suit of rooms in a hotel that offered all the facilities of a vacation rental villas, you would spend many hundreds of dollars per night! Limited space, limited bathrooms, neighbor noise etc - we've all been there! The convenience and space of a vacation rental villa not only make for a much more enjoyable vacation for everyone but when things go wrong these were an important factor for one of our guests when 3 of her 4 children became ill shortly after arriving. She was so pleased to have chosen a luxury vacation rental villa with the space and convenience of 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms as it meant that the whole family was not wakened when one member had to get up frequently during the night!

Convenience: Probably the biggest advantage of your vacation rental - you can come and go as you please and do what you like, when you like. You might feel like a day by the pool on your own when the rest of the family go out, and that's exactly what you can have - moreover, its you by the pool and no one else to share it with - bliss!

Location:

This is the another important one factor in choosing your vacation rental! Its important to choose a luxury vacation rental villa that is close to the attractions that you will be visiting frequently. First time visitors have little idea of the scale of the Orlando area and the whole thing can be more than a little daunting. Its made even more confusing by the vast choice of vacation rental villas available and the lack of clear details on their location. We know that this has resulted in some families traveling long distances to get from their chosen location - not ideal. That's why we have clear links to maps from our vacation rental villa details pages. We want you to be able to plan your vacation and spend as little time as possible in the car!

Quality:

We spent some time recently viewing and inspecting Florida vacation rental villas. The pictures on their web sites presented the villa very well in most cases but it soon became clear that they had been taken a very long time ago. Many of the villas were very tired, showed heavy wear and little attention to maintaining a comfortable environment for their guests. They were certainly far form the luxury vacation rental villas they were being marketed as!

These problems showed up much more in the properties where the owners had clearly taken little interest and were managed by property management agencies (Large or small, and who, in turn rent them to the large holiday companies). This is one reason why we update the pictures of our properties each year (several times a year in fact!). This gives our guests the confidence to know that what they see is what they will get. Whilst booking direct with the owner does not guarantee quality, it does give you the opportunity to ask if the photos on the site truly represent the condition of a particular vacation rental villa today.

Check in/out:

This is often overlooked as one of these things that has to be done but be careful. Check in and out is not usually at the villa! Its normally at the management company office where you have to wait in line with everyone else that booked through the same company. This means that you have to drive to and find the office from the airport. We know of offices that are over 15 miles from the vacation rental. Check the driving distances and times from airport to office and from office to your villa. (Be aware that if the office is in Kissimmee, it can be very busy and take a long time especially in the early evening). Note: We have an electronic access system so our guests can drive direct to their chosen luxury villa and let themselves in. The benefit of this system is clear - and you have no keys to lose or hand back.

Locality:

What we mean here is the area surrounding the villa. Careful examination of the photos of some villas will show where they have been doctored to hide undesirable features. One of the favorites is to block out the lower areas of screened pool enclosures to hide the fact that there are many others very close to the villa. We do not enhance our photos. Check carefully or ask if the pool area is overlooked.

Games rooms:

Some vacation rental villas advertise a games room with all kinds of entertainments. If this is something that you want to have in your villa, be sure to inquire whether it is properly air conditioned. The reason for this is that some owners have simply locked the garage door and installed a carpet and a pool table or foosball table and called it a games room. Its fine in December but impossible to use comfortably for much of the year.

Equipment:

Check whether the equipment you need is 'included' or 'available' and know the difference between these terms. Included usually means that the item is included in the rent for the villa. Its important to know that 'available' usually means that the item is available but you will be expected to pay an extra charge for it. For example, a gas barbecue will cost you between $35 and $50 per week to hire (+ sales tax). A cot, baby seat or stroller can be the same each! That can make a significant unexpected dent in your pocket - check unless the information is explicit!

Summary:

We hope that this guide helps you make your choice of vacation rental villa much easier. We think that vacation rental villas are exceptional value for money but there are some traps which we have highlighted. Whilst we realize that checking all these details might be a pain, we hope that it will help you have a much better vacation!

John and Julie Macrae have been involved in real estate investment in the UK and the USA for many years. Julie owns a chain of Estate Agents and property management agencies in the UK, John is involved in property management and overseas real estate sales.

Summer Vacation - Booking Options For Your Summer Vacation

We continue to see a large number of individuals, couples and families wishing to take the ever popular summer vacation. We also see the same trends, ranging from some people wishing to return to their favorite resort to travelers who wish to try something exciting and new (to them).

Another perhaps obvious trend is the increase in accessing the internet. Again, this varies from searching for more information on a summer vacation destination to using online travel and vacation services to make actual vacation bookings. Certainly, for some types of summer vacation this can be beneficial due to the online discounts that can be available.

So, when it comes to booking a summer vacation, what are the booking options to consider?

I know this is going to sound 'stupid' but before making summer vacation reservations, you will have to select the actual summer vacation destination. Without a destination in mind, it is impossible to make any bookings. When selecting a summer vacation, however, what are the important factors we need to keep in mind?

Whenever possible, I like to encourage people to think of their summer vacation as starting from the minute they leave their home to the minute they return and, in doing so, consider...

• traveling with children
• the age of the children
• traveling with senior citizens
• traveling with disabled family members
• likes and dislikes
• absolute needs and 'nice to haves'
• total cost of travel
• the 7 out of 10 principle

The 7 out of 10 principle simply means that if we cannot match 100% of our needs to a summer vacation choice, the more 'boxes' we tick, the greater the chance that we can select the summer vacation destination that will best fit your needs, thus ensuring we can have the best summer vacation possible.

Now, we can think about actual bookings and reservations.

I suppose the one option is to not to book anything at all. Exciting and fun - maybe. Yes, there are parks, motels, hotels, camping sites where it is not always necessary to book in advance. Despite the fact that reservations may not be required, I would always encourage travelers to make their reservations. Highly popular summer vacation destinations fill up fast. Apart from that, whereas it may be fun dealing with the uncertainty when we are on our own or a couple, imagine looking after three young children or elderly family members and not finding a place to stay.

At the other end of the booking option choices, some people prefer to use professional services such as travel agents especially if they are known to cater for certain summer vacation destinations or specialize in catering for certain groups. Others will use them purely from the viewpoint of convenience - make a decision, book the vacation, now let's get back to work!

The downside of this option is that these services can come at a price. So, for the budget conscious or for those looking for that something a bit different, this may not be the best option to take. If you have time, read some of the other 'summer vacation' articles which may help in deciding the best option for you.

With the availability of information online and the summer vacation booking facilities also available for anything from car hire and flights to bed and breakfast and five star hotels, more people are making their own reservations. For many it is a lot of fun doing the research, finding the best deals and developing their own unique summer vacation.

As mentioned earlier, as long as most of the boxes are ticked, it can then take no more than a few minutes to have the whole vacation from flights to accommodation booked within a few minutes.

Let's have a recap...

With overnight stays, most families may prefer the convenience and services provided by hotels and motels. Others prefer the outdoors staying in parks, camping sites. Although reservations may not be required, booking your preferred accommodation in advance, ensures that you are guaranteed a place to rest your family or set up your tent.

Researching online provides the opportunity to either develop your own unique summer vacation or to book a popular vacation destination at a discounted price. (You may want to weigh up this option against package deals where 'extras' may be included as part of the deal. These 'extras' may only be available to you at a price if organizing the vacation yourself). It's always worth checking these things first before making a booking commitment.

So, whether you choose to use the services of a discount travel company online, a professional travel agent, or you intend you make your own vacation reservations, you are encouraged to take the necessary and appropriate steps. Please don't assume that everything will just work out and run the risk of ruining your much deserved summer vacation. Book it!

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What You Need to Know about Vacation Rentals before You Go

That time of the year is finally here. You know what I'm talking about, the one or two weeks you get every year to escape from "real life" and just be you. Relax, eat and drink well, enjoy your family, catch up on some much needed sleep. But, before you pack up and head out, rethink the all-too-normal hotel stay. Believe it or not, you have options, one of which is the vacation rental.

Wouldn't it be nice to leave your own home, arrive in your destination city and settle into a "home away from home" for your next vacation? That's what vacation rentals are all about. These are homes waiting to be rented out by people on vacation. Each vacation rental owner will have different criteria in what type of renter they are looking for, each vacation rental house will vary in amenities, and each price will be dependant on the time of year and the length of stay. So, it sounds like a great idea, but how do you figure out how to make it all happen? Not a problem. Below you will find answers to frequently asked questions regarding vacation rentals. Read on, my friend, your next "home away from home" vacation rental is right around the corner.

Frequently Asked Questions on Vacation Rentals

What are the advantages of a vacation rental?

Do you ever wish your hotel room had just a little more personality? Yeah, I thought so. Well, renting someone else's home for your vacation might just be the thing you're looking for. Usually offering larger living spaces than hotel rooms, these vacation rentals are all about living like you were in your own home. They offer greater privacy than hotel rooms and most rentals have a kitchen area for cooking, which in the end will save you money if you prepare some of your own meals.

You'll enjoy several rooms, and maybe even different levels, instead of one big room where the whole family sleeps. Many owners will leave information on things to do and see in the local area. Vacation rental homes are clean, friendly, comfortable and inviting. This is because many of them aren't just rental homes, but also function as the owner's own residence for part of the year.

A majority of vacation rentals tend to be cheaper on a per night basis than their hotel counterpart. By renting directly from the owner you will avoid taxes, tips and other extraneous charges. However, there is a wide variation among costs based on a number of factors (see How Much Should I Expect to Pay below)

What are the drawbacks of a vacation rental?

Of course, there's always the other side of the coin. As vacation rentals are not usually monitored by a central managing company, you'll only know what you're getting yourself into when you actually arrive to your rental. Many owners require pre-payment, or at least a large deposit fee, before arriving. Therefore, if things aren't the way you anticipated after arriving, or if you find your dwelling unacceptable and decide to head to a local hotel, you may lose any money you prepaid. This is also true for last minute cancellations. There isn't usually a refund. You always run the risk of getting less than you expected, but, it's rare.

Most times, vacation rentals tend to be cheaper than an average hotel room per night. But, not always, so make sure you are comfortable with the price you will be asked to pay.

Another disadvantage to vacation rentals is the lack of a managing member on site to deal with any problems that you may encounter with the home or during your stay in general. Most owners get around this by having a list of emergency numbers, utility companies and other such items available to the renter should they need anything.

What amenities are included in a vacation rental?

Since every rental is owned by a different owner, each will include different amenities. Some come with swimming pools, hot tubs, others with golf packages, and horse stable privileges. In cities with tourist attractions, some owners include tickets to local attractions.

Most vacation rentals come with the essentials: TV, equipped kitchen, towels, linen, and everyday appliances, but it never hurts to ask these questions when searching for the perfect place. Be sure to understand exactly what you are paying for before sending in the payment.

What types of rentals are available?

Pretty much any type of dwelling that you would want to live in during your vacation is available somewhere. From studios in downtown Manhattan to a villa in the south of Spain, you'll be able to find what you're looking for. The range of available options is mind boggling. Additionally, each week, month and year there are new possibilities as owners put their homes up for only certain weeks or months of the year, the choices are constantly changing.

Are vacation rentals only available in the US?

Vacation rentals are available worldwide. They can be found in every state of the US and almost every country in the world. Don't be fooled by their different names, though. Vacation rentals are also known as holiday cottages, tourist rentals and holiday rentals. If you are looking for one in Europe, the Italians call them agriturismi, while the French say gites. If you are in Germany you will be looking for ferienwohnungen (yep, try to say that three times fast with a bratwurst in your mouth!)

Regardless of what you call it, though, a vacation rental is a great option for those getting ready to take a few weeks off from reality and enjoy the good life a bit.

How do I find a property?

There are several ways to go about finding the perfect vacation rental for your next trip. Check with your local travel agent to find someone in your area that specializes in finding owners and renters and getting them together. Another option is the yellow pages. Finally, there is a wealth of information on the Internet. Type in a search for "vacation rentals" and over 13,300,000 websites can be found just on http://www.google.com alone. Some websites only list vacation rentals in the United States while others specialize in vacation rentals worldwide. There are some sites that will allow the potential renter to look for a residence by specific search criteria such as a particular destination, certain number of bedrooms and types of amenities that are included in the property.

Most of the vacation rental services on the internet are only the "go-between" or the "classified" section of the newspaper. They take no responsibility for the truth or correctness of the ads that are listed on their sites. So, do your homework by making phone calls, speaking with the owner and asking specific questions. Make sure you feel comfortable with the answers, if not, move on to the next rental, there are plenty.

If you're not comfortable with the whole renter/owner thing, there is another way to rent a vacation home. Some companies exist that strictly buy and rent out homes to vacationers. They offer a bit more security so that you feel you are truly getting what you bargained for (although nothing is ever 100% fool proof). Additionally, sometimes these agencies will give you cancellation insurance. In other words, if you cancel before arriving, they may be able to refund a portion of your deposit or payment instead of keeping it as most owners do if a cancellation occurs. With some agencies you'll find that you pay a higher price than going directly to an owner. This is how the agencies make their profits. There are always pros and cons to each scenario. Ensure you know which one works best for you.

How much should I expect to pay?

This is a tough question to answer. The amount you pay will depend on what country or state you are visiting, number of days you are staying, and type of house you are renting. Some owners offer package deals including tickets or sightseeing events along with the rental, others include bonus days if you stay for a certain length of time. There are other owners who may offer free or add-on house cleaning service with your stay while some go to great efforts to ensure you have everything you need, even additional items such as a crib, highchair or wheelchair. Each vacation rental will be entirely different than the next. Your best bet after deciding on your destination is to review multiple rentals to determine which is better suited to your needs and overall budget.

Are there any hidden fees?

Hidden fees usually only emerge after you have arrived. These may include extra for phone calls, house cleaning service, extra person fees, excess heat and air-conditioning bills, pet deposit, computer access... etc. Again, be extremely thorough when interviewing the owner of your prospective vacation rental. Ask about any "extra" fees, or if the house is "all-inclusive". Do you have free access to all the pantry and food items? How about the laundry supplies? All utilities? It never hurts to ask!

Vacation Rentals

In summary, cover all bases by asking lots of questions. Getting your agreement in writing is also a very smart idea. After these basics are out of the way you will be ready to take off for your home-away-from-home vacation rental. Try one this year and see for yourself that vacation rentals can be a fantastic means to really getting the full enjoyment out of your next vacation.