Want to go on vacation this summer, but don’t want to spend a lot of money to do so? Consider exchanging your home. What happens is you get to go on vacation where you want, and stay at someones home, and while you’re away, someone will stay at your home.

This way you don’t have to worry about paying for a hotel at all! You’ll be able to save your money for other things, such as souvenirs, or entrances to whatever it is you’re going to be doing.

It’s also a way to stay at a place where you’ll have a kitchen, so you don’t have to eat out for all of your meals. You’ll be able to stop at a supermarket, get the food you want, and eat in instead of having to spend your hard earned money on food for every meal. There’s still plenty of time to find something for this summer!

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Are you looking to get a vacation at a lower price? Well Priceline is now celebrating their 10 year anniversary. Because of this, they have lowered booking fees, meaning your trip will cost less.

This is going on through May 18th, and over 23,000 hotels are on sale.

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Going to Las Vegas anytime soon? If so, make sure you stop by Caesars Palace! They have just unveiled a Payard Chocolate Clock. During operating hours, it dispenses free chocolates every so often! It’s located at Payard Patisserie, so it should be easy to find. The clock is 13 feet tall, and is truffle inspired, looking like ribbons of melting chocolate.

It sounds like it would be an incredible sight…plus who could turn down free chocolate?

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This hotel was a real surprise - in a great way. We had stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last year, and had enjoyed it, so we expected a decent hotel. This hotel was a lot more than “decent”! The Holiday Inn Express La Jolla was really nice, and was a great surprise.

To start with, I made my reservations online, picking the cheapest price possible, which was a room with a king size bed that said it came with a refrigerator and a microwave, which we thought was great. We get there, and get our room, and it is absolutely amazing.

It’s more like a suite, and when you first walk in there is a nice sitting area with couch and TV. Then there is a full kitchen with the fridge, microwave, and even a stove! Then there was a really nice bathroom, and of course the bedroom with the king size bed.

It had obviously been another hotel, and Holiday Inn Express bought it at some point. But it was really nice looking.

They have free breakfast, which was really nice every morning. They had the usual cold stuff - cereal, bagels, fruit, etc… but also had different hot food each day which was nice. It was a great way to start the day.

If we’re ever back in La Jolla, I’ll definitely stay here again!

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Once we got our car, the first place we went to was our hotel, so we could check in. After a LOT of research on where to stay, we decided on the Howard Johnson Anaheim hotel. Why?

Here are our reasons:

• Reviews - All of the reviews I read (on both TripAdvisor as well as Disney Forums) mentioned how nice the Howard Johnson Anaheim was.
• Location - I knew it was within walking distance of Disneyland, so we wouldn’t have to pay to park the car there, or have to deal with parking at all. We could just walk. What I didn’t realize was how CLOSE it was! That made it really great.
• Price - It was one of the cheaper hotels in the area, so I was very happy with the price!

I’ll be honest. When I first started looking for a hotel that had low prices in the Anaheim/L.A. area, I saw the Howard Johnson Anaheim, but didn’t really consider it. I don’t know why, but when I thought of Howard Johnson, I originally thought that it was just a cheap place to stay, and wouldn’t be very nice. But after reading many different reviews, I saw that it had been recently updated, and was a really nice hotel. Who could argue with all of the reviews? It turns out they were right, and I’m glad I listened to them.

Also, originally I wasn’t sure if we should stay in Anaheim, or in L.A somewhere. I knew we were doing other things than just Disneyland, so I wasn’t sure where I should stay. But after reading how Anaheim is a nicer area, we decided it would be best to stay there. After driving all around the area now, I can’t tell you how happy I am with that decision.

I have to say I was very happy with the location of the hotel.

Once we left our room, less than 7 minutes later we were walking through the turnstiles at the gates of either Disneyland or California Adventure, whichever we were going to at the time.

It was also nice that there were a bunch of restaurants in the area too, as we would later find out we’d want to use them for dinner!

If I did go back to Anaheim, I would definitely stay here again. It was a decent, comfortable room, and the hotel was kept up well. The people working there were very friendly, and the location was perfect. The price was right as well!.It was also really nice to be able to walk back to our hotel in the middle of the afternoon if we needed a break!

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One of the interesting things I heard at Arthur and Pauline Frommer’s seminar at the New York Times Travel Show was that you should stay away from hotels. Hotels are very expensive, and you’ll end up paying a lot of money for a tiny room.

It turns out hotel prices are up 15% this year, hidden charges are also way up, making a hotel not the best solution when traveling. The most obvious question is then - Where should we stay when going on vacation? They had a few good answers…

The suggest you look into renting apartments, or homes from people in the area. There are many companies that will help you find an apartment to rent for a week or more if you’re going away. You will stay in a lot nicer of a place, and you’ll get extras such as a kitchen so you won’t have to eat out for every meal. According to Pauline, in London you can stay at a local residents place for just a quarter of what you would pay to stay at a “fleabag” hotel!
There are also other options. You can stay at a hostel. Back in the day they were called youth hostels and only young people stayed at them, but now people of all ages can stay there, and pay a lot less than what you would at a hotel.

You should also consider university stays. Many colleges have college apartments that they will rent out for very little. Of course this is usually easier when schools are on break, but it is an option!

House swapping is also becoming more popular. If you live in an area where people might want to visit, consider switching houses for a week or more. You’ll both get to visit someplace new, and not have to worry about paying for a place to stay. You’ll also have a kitchen, and other amenities you might not get with a hotel room.

While in some cases you may prefer to stay in a hotel, these are all great options if you’re looking for something less expensive!

Here are a few links to help get you started:

Vacation Home Rentals

Home Exchange -Live like a local

Home Away

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If you book your trip to Las Vegas, Nevada now through February 21st, 2008, you can get $75.00 off your hotel when you travel through July 31st, 2008. If you were planning on going to Las Vegas, this is a great way to cut costs on your trip. We recommend staying on the Las Vegas Strip, so you won’t need a rental car, and can just walk everywhere you want to go. You’ll get a good workout, but you’ll be able to walk to many of the hotels and casinos that you will want to visit during your trip.

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The Palazzo is the newest Hotel/Casino on the strip, and is having it’s Grand Opening the weekend of January 17th-19th. This hotel is adjacent to the Venetian, and is also owned by the same company.Every room is a suite, and from looking at the pictures on their website, they look incredible! You will have many choices of what type of suite you would like to stay in, ranging from luxury suites, fortuna suites, and even concierge suites.  Of course, note that this is obviously a luxury hotel…so if you’re looking for a budget vacation, stay somewhere else, but be sure to visit!
If you’re looking for some good food, there will be plenty of new restaurants for you to enjoy with 14 different restaurants to choose from at opening. Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse will each have restaurants here, as well as a French steakhouse, sushi, and even a Grand Lux Cafe.

If you’re looking for entertainment, starting in April they will be showing “Jersey Boys”, a show currently on Broadway that tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I saw this in NYC, and thought it was great!

If you’re looking to shop, this will also be a great place to go. They will have around 60 different shops including a Barney New York, the first on the Las Vegas Strip. Even better, their stores will be connected to The Grand Canal Shoppes of the Venetian, which also has some really nice stores. So you will be able to shop 2 hotels worth of stores at once.

So for those that love Las Vegas, and enjoy going to all of the hotels, casinos, restaurants, and shows on the Las Vegas Strip, be prepared to check out one more!

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While I have mentioned TripAdvisor in the past, I do think that it is worth a look at every now and then.

Any time you are ready to book a trip, you should go there first. Why? They have many reviews for almost any hotel! It’s nice to be able to get at least a few opinions of people that have stayed at the hotel you are considering booking.

This is something that we do before we book anything, and it has been worth it!

It will only take a few minutes, but you will be able to find out if your vacation will be great, or if your vacation will be ruined by a hotel that is falling apart, or service that is non-existent.

While you’re there taking a look at hotels, you can enter to win a $5,000 trip. Who wouldn’t be thrilled with a free vacation? Good luck!

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The rumor is now confirmed.  Yesterday, Disney started the free Disney dining plan offer.  This is the third year in a row they are offering it at this time. If you want to go to Walt Disney World between August 26th and September 22nd, and stay on Disney property (and purchase at least a 1-day park ticket per person), you can get free dining added to your stay.  You can book this deal until June 24th, or until they have no packages left.

I have mentioned the dining plan in the past, but to review:

Each day you get two full meals, plus a snack. One of the meals is a quick service meal, and the other is a table service meal.  All tips (18%) are also automatically included, and will be given to your server…so dining really will cost nothing in Walt Disney World!

A quick service meal is the type of place where you go up to the counter, order your meal, and bring it to the table yourself. With that meal, you get an entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage.

Your snack includes your choice of popcorn, frozen ice-cream novelty, popsicle or fruit bar, single piece of fruit, single serving bag of snacks, 20oz bottle of soda or water, or a medium fountain soft drink.

Your table service meal includes an appetizer, entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage.

You can also use the plan for some character dining meals, or signature restaurants (although these usually use 2 table service meals).  You can use them in any way you want. At the beginning of your stay you get all of the credits, and you can use them as you like.

For example, if you are staying 4 nights, when you check in you will get 4 quick service meals, 4 snacks, and 4 table service meals for each person staying in the room. So if you want to eat 2 snacks one day, you can, and just not get a snack one of the other days. You can use either the quick service or table service for lunch or dinner.

Here are the restaurants that are currently part of the dining plan.

If you were to pay for the dining plan, it would cost $39.00 per day, per adult.  (I don’t remember offhand how much it is per child.)  So you can see, this can add up to be a huge savings!  We did this in September 2005, and loved it so much that yesterday we booked a trip for this September!  Many of our table service meals came out to over $100, and that’s not even counting what the tip would be.   We had some really great meals, and it was just a really relaxing vacation.

Also included in the package are complimentary airport transfers via Disney’s Magical Express, extra time in the theme parks, and complementary guest transportation between the parks and resorts.  You also get a certificate for a free 5 x 7 print from Disney’s Photopass, a free round at either Disney’s Fantasia Gardens or Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Courses, a $15.00 certificate for Planet Hollywood and a commemorative luggage tag. 

Also, since this is the time many kids go back to school, it will probably be a lot less crowded then normal.  The last time we did this, there were absolutely no crowds.  We walked right onto 95% of the rides.  The only ride out of our entire stay that we had to wait for was Soarin’ which was very new at the time.  Other then that, there was never a wait, and many rides we were even able to stay on and go on twice in a row if we wanted.

We recommend making reservations for your favorite restaurants ahead of time, as they will get crowded with this plan.  We had reservations last time, and were always seated promptly.  The most we had to wait for a table was 5-10 minutes.

It was a really nice relaxing vacation, as it wasn’t crowded and everything was included!

If you want to book it, there are multiple ways to do so. You can book on Disney’s web site, you can go to your local AAA office, or you can book with any other travel agent (including us). Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, since we did this two years ago.

Over the next few months, we will be posting hints, tips, and other fun things to do at Disney, to help you have an even more amazing trip.  For example, did you know that in Epcot you could make and take home your own little robot?  Or are you wondering what has changed since your last visit?  We will let you know all of that, and more.

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