Car Travel with Pets

You really need to wear heavy leather gloves (the kind that go up to your shoulder) if you are going to try to get my cat Eddie into the Mini-Van, but many pets love to drive, almost more than their owners. While I've only had to take Eddie for a ride a few times, he has taught us a great deal about what can happen to the inside of a car, with a pet.

Pets are a joy to have with us, but they do have special needs to help them stay comfortable and us happy.

Pet Hair

Hair is the hardest item to clean off upholstery and carpeting. Trying to vacuum it up is a waste of time for the most part. The fibers weave into the carpeting and fabrics of our car, and grip.

What gets hair off the carpet and fabrics fast and easy is rubber or latex gloves. There is a product out there called the Pet Sponge, which works great too, but it is really made from the same substance. Just put on a glove, get it a little damp and run your hand across the pet hair area. Your glove will fill with pet hair, effortlessly. Rinse off, and go in for another swipe.

You might consider getting a Pet Pad for your traveling pet.

Heat

If you are traveling with a pet, get a sun shield. Seriously. I know we sell them, and this looks like a great place to put an ad, but the facts are, cars heat up way too fast, and much hotter than we realize.

From a cool just-air-conditioned state, it takes a car less than 20 minutes to reach 120 degrees sitting in the sun, even with the window 'cracked' open for fresh air. In summer times, or hot days, the interior can reach 150 degrees in the same amount of time.

Well made, reflective sun shields can reduce your car's temperature by 50 degrees. Leaving the window 'cracked' is still a good idea, but keeping the interior heat level down is much better.

Urine

Don't ask.

Getting the Urine out of the interior carpeting is a bit of a chore. Start with baking soda. Just pour it on dry and let it sit over night. Vacuum and repeat, letting the baking soda sit again. Vacuum up the last layer and then pour into the affected area Hydrogen peroxide. Let this evaporate, and then vacuum.

This won't remove any stain or discoloration, but it will get the odor out and neutralize the urine itself. From this point you can use a carpet or upholstery cleaner to remove any stain that might remain.

Comfort

Keeping pets comfortable and safe inside the vehicle is sometimes a creative challenge. We do have several car accessories for pets which can help you with some of the details.

Cargo Area Travel Liner: This is full comfort. The padded liner is cushioned and slip resistant, and allows your pet full access to the cargo area of your min-van. The liner is water resistant and tear resistant. Your pet can walk around on the textured fabric without slipping and sliding. The rear of your vehicle can get warm, so the fabric is breathable to keep your pet comfortable in any season.

Seat Covers: Same idea as the cargo liner, just a smaller space. The fabric and comfort are the same, and so is the ease of cleaning and the protection provided to your interior.

Pet Barriers: These barriers limit your pets movement, and with many pets this is a good idea. It also adds to their safety.

With pet barriers, windows can also be let down a little more, providing cooler conditions when you have to leave your pet in the vehicle while traveling. (it is still a very good idea to also use the sun shield I talked about earlier).

Organizer: Pets need stuff! Feeding dishes, snacks, leashes, collars, scoopers, and so much more. Pets need a lot of stuff, and keeping it organized is a good thing when traveling with your four legged partner. Leashes get tangled and "lost" quickly. Having a place to store these required items, for easy access, allows you more fun and less hassle.

Travel To Germany

Germany continues to gain popularity worldwide as a tourist destination for vacationers around the world. Germany’s unique culture, friendly people, and distinctive destinations are just a few of the distinctions that have made this beautiful country one of the hottest tourist vacation spots since 2000. Each year, the number of overnight visitors grows. In fact, Germany attracted over 2.2 million visitors from the United States alone within the first six months of 2006!

Travel to and from Germany with ease and in style can be a relaxing and pleasant experience in and of itself. Depending on where the visitor is coming from, Germany can be reached by boat, airline, automobile, or train. With all of these options available, there is a safe, convenient, and affordable option accessible for travel to Germany for every one!

Air Travel to Germany

Air travel affords the world traveler speed and convenience. Germany can be reached as an air destination from major airlines located across the globe. The most accessible German cities by air include Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt. Germany’s own airline Lufthansa accesses over 75 countries, reaching more than 175 cities. No matter what continent the German tourist is located on, there is a flight headed to Germany nearby.

For the budget-minded traveler, there are a variety of no-frills air fare packages available. Some of the airlines to consider when flying affordably are Air Berlin, Ryanair, Germanwings, and Easyjet. For the most recent and up-to-date deals on airfare to Germany near you, contact your local favorite airline.

Travel to Germany on an Ocean Liner

For the traveler that isn’t in as much of hurry, or wants to combine their German vacation with another unique and memorable experience, visiting Germany by way of a cruise can be the perfect choice for relaxation and fun. The benefits of a cruise to Germany include avoiding the hustle and bustle that can be associated with flying and another option to reaching Germany from an overseas destination than via a plane.

Rates vary substantially with packages, but cruise lines typically offer great deals on packages and for the traveler that is available on a flexible schedule. In fact, some cruise lines can offer rates that come out to be pennies on the dollar when compared to premium air line rates!

Popular cruise lines that port in Germany are Norwegian Cruise Lines and Sea Cloud cruises.

Visit Germany by Train

European transportation is world famous for its efficiency, speed, and affordability. So for the budget-minded traveler, catching a train to Germany is an option that the traveler can’t afford not to look into!

But don’t discount the amenities available aboard trains! Packages offered by German rail travel can vary from the no-frills to the extravagant. There is truly something available for everyone.

Trains allow tourists visiting Germany to relax and enjoy the countryside without the added stress that can come with airline travel. Meeting new people and sharing the experience is a traditional aspect of vacationing in Europe and traveling by train affords the vacationer a unique opportunity to have the option of mingling with their fellow passengers if they want or to ride in privacy if they wish – something no long flights in a plane can present.

Why Should You Travel?

I think the most important thing travelling does is it broadens your outlook.

You see how similar people and their feelings are across the world. From South Korea to Spain I saw people complaining of mother-in-laws :-) We are bound by certain things I guess.

Another thing it does is it can make you more tolerant – to other people’s belief’s, their way of life as you see them in their own surroundings. So when you go back to your own country, you are more understanding of other’s cultures.

Another important thing it does is – It teaches you. It teaches you a lot. It teaches you what you never learn in school. To expect the unknown. Unknown place, people. It makes travelling a fascinating experience.

Travelling teaches you to be independent. To plan. To manage your plan. It helps you in professional as well as personal life.

I certainly became more organised when I started travelling on my own.

Travelling brings out the ‘real’ person in you. If you are not sure if you want to marry your girlfriend / boyfriend, travel with them for couple of weeks – you will find out the answer.

It teaches you to compromise. Your food habits, organisation skills, likes and dislikes, flexibility will become evident. When you go out of your known surroundings, you get to know much more the other person. Well, not just before marriage, I learned a great deal more when I travelled with my wife.

I started 'serious' travelling for professional reasons at the age of 23 (in 1994) when I went to Hong Kong/South Korea for a business visit for one month. I did not speak Korean and did not know anyone else who spoke Korean. Being a vegetarian compounded the problem as I struggled to get the message across in hotels.

But it amazes me how human mind works. On my second visit to the restaurant, I again faced the problem of what to eat. I took the paper tissue kept on the table and drew a chicken on it. Then I put a BIG cross on it. Then I drew a four legged animal and again drew a cross across it. Then it was turn of the fish and again a big cross.

Then I drew an Egg next to the chicken I drew earlier and put a BIG YES tick on it (like the Nike logo). Then something with leaves again a yes there.

The waitress could not believe what was going on, but at the end of it she was amazed and gave a huge smile that she understood.

She also called her manager to see this weired fellow's drawings and both of them laughed and put fingers on some menu options on the menu card. I ordered one of it and found that I indeed got an egg fried rice!

However later I got better. Next day, I requested one of my colleagues who could write a bit of english to write some common things for me in Korean (including one that said 'I'm a vegetarian - no meat or fish for me. Egg is fine') and later on only thing I had to do was to carry that paper with me and show the message.

So, go out, meet some fascinating people, see the world. And your world will not be the same again.

Travel eBusiness Models

Travel eBusiness Models is owned and operated by Sabre Holdings – a products, distribution and technology solutions company focused on the travel industry. Their consumer direct and business direct side of the business is Travelocity. Travelocity has several million registered users and booked $4.9 billion worth of travel business in 2004.

At the time of writing, Travelocity is the second most popular brand in the world in the Internet travel marketplace. Travelocity.com is also the 386th most popular website in the world, whilst the British version, Travelocity.co.uk is the 4884th most popular.

Travelocity was established in 1996 as a subsidiary or Sabre Holdings and was the first travel website that allowed users to browse, reserve and book travel-related products online.

Initially Travelocity appeared to be extremely ‘community orientated’ – regularly arranging offline meetings and presentations for ‘do-it-yourself travellers’.

In 1998 Travelocity changed direction and became more ‘travel deals orientated’. They did this by incorporating the availability to book flights, hotels and car hire directly from their home page.

In 2000 Travelocity became more aware of the need to market themselves as a brand. This resulted in 2002 with a complete re-design of the website to make it more user-friendly and encourage return visitors.

Travelocity’s present day website (designed in 2004) ‘look and feel’ is starting to rely more on a higher percentage of graphics. This offers website users a more visually appealing experience, although it does rely on the user being more likely to have a slightly faster Internet connection than they used to.

Travelocity Position

Travelocity.com is a fun, friendly, informative, useful and easy to use website. In addition to this it is professional and reliable. This demonstrates that Travelocity is comfortable to try and be a ‘love all, serve all’ Internet Travel Portal.

Travelocity is however a company with an aggressive stance. It does not form strategic alliances with other companies in order to promote affiliate-marketing programmes. In addition, it regularly seeks out potential competitors to buy.

In 2000, Travelocity purchased another early web travel company, Preview Travel, whilst in 2002 it purchased Site59.com – a New York based travel business that specialise in late bookings.

On 12th May 2005 it was announced that Travelocity had agreed to buy lastminute.com for £577m – creating Europe's biggest online travel retailer. Part of the reason why Travelocity wants to gain dominance quickly in the Internet Travel Marketplace and grow by acquisition is that it understands that the market is growing and evolving quickly.

It wants to be the first choice in the majority of consumers’ minds for future travel purchases. This is therefore one of their major strengths. Whether or not their decision not to evolve by forming strategic alliances may thwart this aggressive growth strategy is yet to be seen.

To a certain degree, opportunities within the Internet travel marketplace for Travelocity are still limitless. They can still expand to cover more countries Internationally, they can still improve upon their overall marketshare and they can still expect both Internet users and the amount of Internet users willing to book online to increase significantly.

Travelocity Core Competences

Travelocity are striving towards ensuring that their brand is the most recognised and trusted available in the Internet Travel marketplace. Their most important core competency is to offer an integrated, easy-to-use and intuitive website that keeps people wanting to come back to it much more that any competitor in the field.

Travelocity Competitive Advantage

Travelocity have recently introduced their Bill of Rights onto their website:
Customers have the right to…

1) Get what you booked
2) The best overall value in travel
3) Accurate and objective information upfront

4) Find what you’re looking for quickly and easily

5) A straightforward presentation of your options

6) Speak with someone and get help anytime

7) Be inspired by your travel company


These seven key customer issues have been highlighted to demonstrate why Travelocity believe that they are better than the competition. Travelocity want their brand to represent trust, reliability and service and therefore define what they believe their competitive advantage to be.

The Merchant Model Conclusion

The merchant model is without doubt the most competitive Internet business model for the travel industry. The two main worldwide competitors – Expedia and Travelocity have chosen to focus upon price and service level differentiation respectively. It could be argued that Expedia however focus on their value-adding activities – their existing infrastructure in order to derive their core competencies of efficiency and price. Travelocity on the other hand rely upon their ‘bill of rights’ core competency in order to drive their ‘value adding activities’.

RV Travel Tips

RV Travel Tips For The Beginner And Seasoned RV Enthusiast

There’s never been a better time to take up the RV life. Whether you’re a weekend wanderer, a snowbird or a full-timer, there’s an RV to suit any travel budget and any taste. With baby boomers starting to hit retirement age, more and more people are taking to the road with their motor home, RV or travel trailer. The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association recently reported that nearly 8 million American households have and RV, motor home or travel trailer and that there are as many as 30 million RV enthusiasts in the US.

Seeing the country in an RV offers many benefits to the traveler looking for an affordable and exciting way to spend quality family time. According to one study, a family of four can save up to 74% traveling by RV instead of more conventional ways. And with more than 16,000 public and privately-owned campgrounds in the US, there’s a site to fulfill everyone’s vacation fantasy, whether it’s an oceanfront view, hiking trails, casino gambling or tennis.

RV travel is easy to learn, and once you’ve got the hang of it, there’ll be no going back! Here are six helpful tips that will come in handy for both the beginning and seasoned RV enthusiast:

Map it Out

A large part of the RV appeal is the exhilarating freedom of the open road to go wherever you want, whenever you want. But it helps to have a solid travel plan in place. If you know where you’re heading, you can determine the best route, which offers the most interesting places to see. Look in travel guides, contact tourism boards in states you’ll be passing through, and search on the Internet. Make sure to have the correct road maps with you; a GPS system is a good idea as well, especially if you’re new to this kind of travel. If you’ve carefully designed the route you’ll be taking, it makes it easier to do spur-of-the moment things like checking out that oddball museum you just spotted on a roadside billboard!

Have A Checklist? Just Checking

During your pre-trip prep, in addition to working out what needs to be in the RV, put together a thorough checklist of things to do when setting up at a campground. There are the basics, like finding out where all the campground connections are, making sure your RV is level and properly hooking up your water, gas and electric systems – but don’t forget comfort concerns, like making sure you’ve packed your favorite CDs and DVDs and those new lawn chairs. Equally important, you should have a second checklist of what has to be done when you break camp, both in terms of setting up your RV for departure (quick hint: when you think the job is done and everything is ready, check again).

Be Prepared - Have A ‘Just-For-The-RV’ First Aid Kit

Always make sure you have a fully stocked, up-to-date, just-for-the-RV First Aid kit, and keep it in an outside storage compartment. It should include basic medical supplies (bandages, ointment, OTC pain reliever, insect repellant, scissors, etc.) and items like a flashlight, paper and writing implements, and a disposable camera in case you have to take photos of an accident site. If you don’t feel up to the task of putting one together yourself, an extensive range of ready-made First Aid kits are available for purchase. Also include an emergency supply of must-have medications and a list of important contact names (family members, doctors, insurance agents etc).

Camping with Kids

If you’re traveling with children, make sure to set aside time during the day for outdoor activities, as even the roomiest RV can be confining for kids. And give each child his or her own space in the RV, no matter how small, for personal stuff and toys and games. RV traveling is a unique opportunity for your children to see new and different places and faces. There are often plenty of other kids at campgrounds – but be sure to walk around a new campground with your children when you first get settled there. They need to know which campsite you’re in and how to find it from other places on the grounds. If you’re also taking the family pet, check beforehand to see if they’re allowed at the campground

A Little Help From Your Friends

When in doubt, ask your fellow RVer. However well-traveled you might be, odds are there’s someone you’ll meet along the way who has been somewhere you haven’t, solved a problem you haven’t yet encountered, or spotted an out-of-the-way delight you’ve never heard of. No matter how much research you’ve done, there’s bound to be a campsite you haven’t read about, a storage system that has escaped your notice – or a funny anecdote that you’ll laugh about for years to come. The new folks you meet may or may not become close friends for life, but they’re an important part of the journey.

Traveling As A Hobby

There are many people who use traveling as a hobby, for many suit case packers it is a hobby, there are many who prefer to travel to different places around the globe through out the course of the year. It is can understandable why traveling can be a hobby, because many people love traveling regardless of the long waits at the airport or long traveling hours. People who love traveling not only travel to get away from their hectic daily lives, they travel simply because they want to learn about the variety of cultures, races and nationalities. Traveling can also be very educational.

Traveling is hobby for those who are very adventurous, since traveling is about adventure. Adventure because Travelers do travel to unknown places.

We find there are people so crazy about just going and spending their time all around the globe in fact they take up traveling as their job. It is passion for them. It means a lot to them when they have to go to places study the region, country whatever and then move on.

Writers usually love to travel. We find many travelers love to write, because of their experiences, they love to share what they have seen and experienced with other people and hence they write and write.

Readers love to read about Travelers and the different places they travel to and the many experiences they have encountered…Altogether it is just fun!

If we think about this world, and the amount of people living in it, it is just unbelievable! We have many small and big countries with different kinds of people. There are many cultures woven together and much more and so it is fun to experiment on all of those things.

We also find travel lovers, would not settle down in one place they tend to migrate from one place to the other all the time along with their families. Travel lovers are also known to be very patient and they persevere a lot. Traveling although can be a hobby, but as much as it sounds exciting there are equal amount of troubles involved in it, it is important that we know how to overcome them, and so travel lovers are said to persevere too through all the troubles.

Hence due to all these reasons Traveling does take a crucial place in one’s life and is a hobby.

Costa Rica Caribbean Travel

If you're considering where to go on your next vacation, try the world of great tropical adventure called Costa Rica.

A Costa Rica Caribbean vacation lets you explore active volcanoes, see wild animals, see lush rain forests up close, and swim and lounge on great beaches. Costa Rica is one of the few ultimate paradises that have been left untouched on planet Earth. There are no military bases or nuclear power plants, and Costa Rica has lots of culture. In addition, Costa Rica is a tropical climate, so there's no winter to contend with. Costa Rica is a democratic society and is one of the most peaceful in the world. Its last civil war occurred in 1948. Since then, it has abolished armed forces and has also avoided despotic dictatorships, military coups, terrorism and any other forms of conflict so common in other parts of the world.

In addition, Costa Rica has a very friendly country. Costa Rica Caribbean travel provides a friendly, warm welcome no matter what part of the country you wish to visit.

Costa Rica means "rich coast," but Costa Rica has far more to offer than just its coast. Costa Rica is a country of incredible natural beauty and it contains many species of animals not present in many other parts of the world. Some of these animals are very rare and can only be seen if you go to Coast Rica.

In addition, plants are very diverse and beautiful as well. There are well over 10,000 species of vascular plants and many gorgeous flowers. In addition, almost 2000 tree species have been recorded in this beautiful Latin American country. Visiting this astonishing country should give you an incredibly exciting Costa Rican Caribbean travel vacation, with such unusual and innumerable flora and fauna to view in its natural habitat.

In addition to land mammals and birds that anybody interested in ecology would love to see, Costa Rica also has approximately 835 species of fish. 700 of these are saltwater fish. Anglers and fishers should have a wonderful time fishing in Coast Rica's clear blue waters, as they challenge themselves to see if they can catch any of these unusual fish species.

Now, let's focus for a minute on the northwest region of Coast Rica, called Guanacaste. Most Costa Rican Caribbean travelers go there these days because of its ever-changing scenery and the many activities offered. There are many tours you can take; no matter what your interests, you should find something you like. With these tours, take an close look at all of its exotic trees, plants, flowers, animals and fish. For an experience you'll never forget, a Coast Rica Caribbean vacation is just the ticket for you.

Whatever your interests, you should find something you like to do on your Coast Rica Caribbean travel. Some of these will depend on the region of the country you go to. In the rain forest, bird watching walks with English-speaking guides who are experts in identification themselves should let you see exotic species up close, while horseback riding provides another view of your Costa Rican Caribbean travel vacation

Another option is to take a canopy tour, which is a popular tour in every region of Coast Rica. However, to best experience Costa Rica's precious rain forest, avoid tours that go through areas from the north towards the west. In these areas, climates are drier so that vegetation is not as lush as it is in other areas.