AAA Predicts an Increase in Memorial Day Travel

Despite rising costs of airline tickets, hotels and rental cars, AAA believes that there will be slightly more residents traveling over this year's Memorial Day weekend compared to last year.

AAA, which just so happens to be the nation's largest leisure travel organization, predicts that roughly 34.9 million Americans will hop aboard their chosen means of transportation and travel at least 50 miles away from home next weekend for Memorial Day. This estimate is a 0.2% increase (roughly 100,000 people) over the 34.8 million people who set out to travel last year. AAA defines the Memorial Day travel period as running from Thursday, May 26th until Monday, May 30th.

According to Chuck Mai, a spokesman for AAA-Oklahoma, "In 2010, Memorial Day travel experienced a gain of more than 14%. This year we expect to add slightly to that gain due to an anticipated increase in air travel and an improvement in the overall domestic economic picture. Many travelers have told us they'll compensate for higher fuel costs by cutting back in other areas of spending."

Some people, in Oklahoma at least, are deciding to stay closer to home or are even going as far as delaying travel plans for the weekend. Memorial Day has long since been considered the traditional start of the summer travel season according to AAA. Another factor is schooling. A rash of snowstorms back in February caused many schools to shut down for two weeks and those schools now have to make up that time by letting out two weeks later than usual.

Nancy Winn, a travel agent with Travel Leaders/Spears Travel, stated, "Schools are getting out late so that kind of messed up people's plans. So, many people are waiting until the middle of June."

Even though gas prices are more than $1 a gallon higher than they were last year, vehicle travel is still the primary route of transportation. According to AAA, nearly 9 out of 10 holiday travelers will be getting to their desired locations via motor vehicles throughout Memorial Day weekend.

The national average price for regular gas right now is $3.95 per gallon, compared with the $2.85 per gallon price of last year. However, gas is still lower in some areas. Around my hometown in Ohio gas has dropped to as low as $3.77 per gallon.

AAA conducted a survey of intended holiday travelers and found that 6 out of 10 stated that the increase in gas prices would not affect their plans to travel. 70% of the people who said rising gas prices would affect their travel stated that they would make up for that increase by economizing in other areas. The rest of the people polled said that they would simply take a shorter trip or travel by something other than car.

AAA expects around 2.93 million people to travel by air over the weekend, which is an 11.5% increase over last year's numbers. Air fares over Memorial Day weekend are expected to be 14% higher than this time last year with the lowest round-trip cost coming in around $201.

According to Tim Smith, a spokesman from American Airlines, "The busiest travel days will be Thursday and Friday, May 26 and 27, and Tuesday, May 31 when returning holiday travelers will be running into outbound business travelers. Load factors (percentage of full seats) will be in the high 80s and low 90s. Give yourself plenty of time."

AAA also noted that their Three Diamond lodging costs are up 5% from one year ago with travelers spending roughly $148 per night as opposed to the $142 of last year. Travelers to AAA Two Diamond hotels can expect a 10% increase in price with an average cost of $109.

What about you? Will rising gas prices, air fares and hotel costs put a damper on your Memorial Day weekend?

Source: Tulsa World - AAA predicts uptick in holiday travel despite higher costs

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Find a Warm Winter Vacation with Fodor's 80 Degrees

If you're tired of snow and sub-freezing temperatures, you may be thinking about taking a winter vacation to somewhere tropical, or at least somewhere warmer than where you are now. Well, Fodor's "80 Degrees" quiz will help you find your ideal vacation. As the website says, "tell us about your travel style and we'll recommend the perfect destination for you."

I decided to take the quiz, myself, to see what all the hoopla is about. To begin, you choose between "popular" and "off the beaten path," with three options in between, based on what your vacation desires are. Once you've picked either one (or one of the options in the middle), you hit "next" and you're given a number of other options. You can choose whether you'd like to "stay on a resort" or "go out exploring" and you can choose between "budget" and "upscale," depending on how much you'd like to spend. You then select who is going on the trip, with your choices being "just you," a "romantic getaway," "taking the kids" or "a large group." This completes Step One of the quiz.

In Step Two, you're given a list of activities and you are to choose how important each one is to you. The activities included are shopping, beautiful beaches, scuba diving, adrenaline sports, natural wonders, fine dining, excellent nightlife, casinos/gambling, golf, hiking, family activities, museums/historical sites, and snorkeling. Step Three is about lodging. First you decided how much you want to spend per night. The website gives a range of $150-450. Then it gives you optional amenities such as kitchen, pool, spa, children's programs, all-inclusive, and on the beach.

Finally, in Step Four, you have to decide on the logistics of the trip. You decided how long you're willing to travel and how many connecting flights you're willing to take, and then it gives you an option of destinations including Florida, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize or you can select "I am a United States citizen without a passport." Once you've made all these decisions, click on "get your results" and you're provided with your top ten matches.

For what it's worth, my top spot was the Florida Keys and the website provides you information about your assigned destination. It shows how the destination matches up to the activities you've chosen, things you can do while you're there, explains the logistics of getting there and even recommends hotels in the area.

Don't like your selections? That website is easy to navigate and starting over is easy to do. If you do like your selection, you can visit Fodor's online guide to the vacation spot and start planning your trip to 80 degree weather! Fore more information and to take the quiz yourself, visit Fodors.com/80degrees.

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Top 10 Family Summer Vacation Destinations

Although the evil winter is doing it's best to stay as long as possible, the bequtiful, warm, and joyous time of summer is fast approaching. The kids are off of school for 3 months, the das are long and beautiful, and everybody is happy. But what will you do with all the spare time? Most people tend to go on vacation. Spending a week or two away from home, work, and the day to day hassle of things is perfect for any family, plus it gives you a chance to spend time with your family. Because of my extreme love for vacations and family bonding I have compiled a list of the top family vacation spots. Enjoy.

Cancun, Mexico - When you typically think of Cancun, you probably think of a honeymoon or a crazy spring break party. This may be the case sometimes but in the summer, Cancun is one of the top family destinations for a fun and relaxing vacation. Families can enjoy numerous atractions like a Wet 'n Wild waterpark, swimming with dolphins, pirate cruises, Xcaret Park, and even tours of the ancient Mayan ruins.

Aruba - Aruba is probably one of the best places to go if you have kids for one main reason: Tons of things are free! Arub has Island-wide perks for families like kids under 12 get free daily brekfast, play for free and even get to stay for free. Kids under 12 can also enjoy free snorkeling, dinners, and a free sail/snorkle cruise. With so much free stuff, it almost sounds too good to be true.

Nassau, Bahamas - Nassau has something for each and every member of your family no matter what age. There is gambling and golf for the parents, water sports like jet skis, water skiing, wake boarding, surfing, and others for the older kids, creative and fun programs like Camp Junkanoo at Raddison Cable Beach and the Discovery Chanel Camp at Atlanti Paradise Island for the younger kids. And when you are all done with that, you all as a family can go to one of the many beautiful beaches to relax.

Wyndham Hotels - Although the Wyndham Hotels are not an actual geographic location, they do have 6 hotels throughout the Carribean with fun for the whole family. Some features include the wacky SpongeBob Summer Splash Parties with SpongeBob games like family limbo and jellyfish tossing(note: no real jelly fish are used and none were harmed in the playing of this game; I love animals). Kids under 12 also get free daily breakfast. Any hotel you choose will prove to be fantastic fun for the whole family.

Jamaica - Jamaica isn't just one of the best places for family vacations, but also for anyone looking to take a vacation. There are many different things to do in Jamaica like go to one of the many beaches, climb beautiful watrerfalls, swim with dolphins, and tour the many shops and bazaars.

Turks and Caicos - This tiny island with it's crystal clear waters and white-sand beaches is a perfect getaway for the whole family. The island has venues for teens, a spa for the parents, and nightly entertainment for the whole family. Turks and Caicos also offers events like fishing, whale watching and even sports the third largest coral reef in the world.

Oahu, Hawaii - Hawaii offers some of the best family vacations in the world. Specifically in Oahu there are things like sand castle competitions and lei making crafts for kids as well as various beaches that provide fun for the whole family. Also, with all of the resorts at Oahu, kids under 18 stay for free, which makes these affordable hotels even more affordable.

Williamsburg, Virginia - Although it is not a tropic paradise, Williamsburg offers amazing fun for the whole family. Williamsburg offers the Bush Gardens amusement park as well as the water park Water County USA. There are also a few beaces in Virginia, namely Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg offers a walk through Colonial Williamsburg, a village set up just as it was in Colonial times.

Grand Cayman Islands, Bahamas - The Grand Cayman Islands are some of the most beautiful places to visit, especially for a vacation. There are tons of things to do on the islands like take a catamaran ride in the ocean, jet ski, swim, take a pirate cruise, visit the beautiful beaches or even set on an excursion to a perfectly preserved coral reef where you can swim/snorkle around and view the reef and even swim and feed hundreds of friendly stingrays! The Grand Cayman Islands are a perfect place for the whole family.

Orlando, Florida - Orlando is the Holy Land of family vacations. Orlando has a total of four Walt Disney Themed Parks including Disneyworld and the Animal Kingdom as well as the Disney Resort. In addition to the Disney Parks are two Universal Themed parks, Sea world, and Discover Cove. With so much to do you will never have a dull moment.

So there you are, ten wonderful locations to take the brood this summer. With all the resorts, beaches, theme parks, and attractions, you will definitley have a great time no matter where you go.

Naples, Florida

Just a few weeks ago was my first trip going to Florida where I was going to be doing a lot of the driving. For many people they would rather just sit in the car and relax but for me it is different. I like to be the one in control and to know exactly where I am at and where I am going. Out of the 17 hours that it took to get down to Naples, Florida I drove 14.

We left around 2 p.m. on a Monday afternoon and arrived at my grandparents the following morning around 6:30 a.m. It was long drive going straight through. We were trying to get there as soon as possible. So we made only short stops and to get gas go to the bathroom and back on the road. Out of the whole drive down we made only four stops. It was very worth it once we got there for all the driving we had done.

We would be there about a week. It had been cloudy and rainy in Naples the week before but it was going to be in the 80’s all week which made it very nice and perfect weather. The ocean was still a little chilly at only 60 degrees so it was a little cold to actually get all the way in.

Where my grandparents live you have to be at least 55 to own a house. At times I felt a little out of place being so young. The people there are some of the friendliest people I have ever met though. Between the meeting hall where they hold bingo tournaments and have many dinners set up and the pool outside with the shuffle board tournaments going on it was a very good trip.

It is very different driving down the road seeing palm trees everywhere. I would love to be able to have a palm tree in my front yard. Also the chances of a hurricane hitting and taking everything away there are many people that live down there that have another home in another state and only spend the winter months down in Florida.

The drive home was a little more relaxed. It took a couple more hours than it did for us to get down there to get home. When you leave Naples it takes at least 6 ½ hours to get out of Florida and into Georgia. We ended up stopping and staying the night right before Atlanta, Georgia on the way home which made it a lot easier of a drive.

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Traveling By Air... not this time

I don't mind driving, I actually enjoy it. Every family vacation I'm the designated driver and we usually take my Expedition so that the whole family (Me, my wife, our daughter, and my mother and father) has room to relax and we have plenty of space for luggage and a cooler. It really makes the trip pleasant.... for awhile.

The problem is when we start talking about 12+ hours in the car. My 2 year old daughter does well as long as she is entertained, but 12 hours is a lot for a little one. So, when we decided we'd be making a trip to Cape Corel, Florida this year I jumped online to find airline tickets. We were flexible on dates so I was able to find round trip air fares anywhere from $380 a person, to as low as $160 a person. This excited me, until I did the math... $160 times 5 people (we need a separate seat for my daughter now...)... is still $800. Which isn't bad except when we land: we need a car. A 10 day rental on a decent sized vehicle (which we need to hold all of our luggage), is another $500 or more. That brings the total for the trip to $1,300. That's also assuming we can get each person to only pack 1 suitcase... which is doubtful. Assuming we need 2 or 3 extra pieces of luggage on the plane, that's an extra $100 or so. We're now at $1,400 at least.

So next, I looked into driving. From Middletown, Ohio to Cape Coral, Florida is around 1,100 miles. Assuming gas is at $2.50 a gallon and my truck drinks it at a rate of a gallon every 14 miles... it will cost $392 in gas, round trip. That's $1,000 less than flying. Even considering any incidentals like more stops for meals, etc, we'd still save a fortune.

So... in this rough economy... how can I really justify spending $1,000 more on a trip than I have to? I can't. And that is why this year we will be driving to Florida and using our savings to enjoy activities that we otherwise might not have done.

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Vegas Vacation

Two weeks ago on Nov. 14th two friends of mine, my fiancé, and I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, also known as Sin City. We flew out from the Indianapolis Airport via AirTran and took a direct flight, which was great to avoid layover times and the hassle of changing planes. A week prior to the trip I had an occurrence at work where a customer of mine was interesting in renting a projector which would connect to their Microsoft Surface. When I initially received this request I was a bit confused as to what exactly a “Microsoft Surface” was until I did a bit of research. It turns out that several hotels in Vegas use the Microsoft Surface and I decided then that I would have two missions while on my trip. One being to win tons of money, and the second was to find an actual Microsoft Surface. On one of my outings I found a little boy playing with a projected image on the ground and once I got a bit closer I realized he was trying to catch a fish. Once he touched the “fish” they would scatter and the “water” would splash all around him. He was playing with a virtual fish tank and he was interacting with it by using a Microsoft Surface. This was seriously one of the coolest things I had seen on my trip and would highly recommend this product to anyone going to a tradeshow or convention that would like to catch people’s eyes.

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