Iberostar Resorts has many locations in tropical places such as Cancun, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Cozumel. They are all-inclusive, which means that for one price, you get your room, as well as all the food and drinks you want. They usually also have multiple restaurants and bars that you can enjoy, all for the included price.

About 5 years ago, we stayed at one of the Iberostar’s in the Dominican Republic, and really enjoyed it. It was really nice, the food was good, and it was a great vacation. Now through February 5th, you can save up to $600 per person as well!

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• Warm Weather Destinations on a Budget
• Top Travel Bargains for the Year Ahead
• Walt Disney World will have Free Dining Select Dates through March 2012!
• Disney Free Dining 2008
• NYC Restaurant Week

While on vacation, we absolutely love taking pictures of everything we see. Since we try to go on a few vacations a year, that can add up to a lot of pictures. About a month ago, we decided that we were finally going to get a dSLR. We had talked about it for quite a while, and while we love our point and shoot camera, it just doesn’t get the best photos. Don’t get me wrong, they are nice pictures, but you’d never go “WOW” after looking at any of them.

While doing a lot of research online, we noticed that pictures that were taken with the Nikon D40/D60 were incredible. A lot of them had that WOW factor that just wasn’t there with a regular p&s camera. So, we decided to get the Nikon D60 Kit with 2 lenses, so that we would have the great zoom that we were used to with our previous camera.

While we haven’t taken it on vacation yet, we have been practicing for a while now, and the difference in pictures is just incredible. Just taking pictures of our cat is a huge difference. Before, it was impossible to get a good picture of her. Let’s face it, cats won’t sit still for the camera. Plus, even when she was sitting still, the picture just didn’t do her justice. Now with the Nikon D60, the pictures come out incredible. There have been many pictures I’ve taken of her where I just go WOW…which is exactly what I was looking for.

Once I go on vacation I will be happy to post pictures that I take with the Nikon D60, but so far I am thrilled with the camera.

The best part is, even though I just got it, I can take amazing pictures with it using the automatic settings. I’m hoping in the next few months to learn all of the manual settings so that by the time I go on vacation I can take even better pictures, but it’s great to know that even just out of the box, the pictures are incredible.

In case you’re interested, I found the best price on the Nikon D60 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 18-55mm VR Lens & 55-200mm VR Lens at B&H. It’s $649.95, and comes with free shipping. There is only tax in NY, so unless you live in NY, that is the final price. After all the research we did on it, we were very happy with the final price.

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• Take Better Sunset Pictures
• Aqua Hotels & Resorts – Cute Boutique Hotels in Hawaii – For Under $100?
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• Howard Johnson Anaheim – Great Hotel

We enjoyed driving through Balboa Park to get to the San Diego Zoo, so the next afternoon, before we went to the airport to go home, we decided to go back. It’s a really nice area to walk around, and they also have a TON of museums and gardens. We could have easily spend 2-3 days here, but unfortunately we only had about 3 hours.

After looking at the list of attractions, we decided to go to the Fleet Science Center. It was fun, there were a lot of attractions, although it was geared a little more towards children.

We did get to see a new IMAX film about dolphins, so that was a lot of fun!

If you do go to San Diego, you should plan to spend at least 2 days in Balboa Park. One for the San Diego Zoo, and a second for any of the other museums or gardens that interest you!

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Our last morning in La Jolla, we were able to go walk around. It’s a really nice area, and there are a few blocks that have a lot of nice stores and galleries. We were even able to visit the Peter Lik Gallery, so we were happy.

Within walking distance is also the La Jolla Cove, which was really pretty and nice to see. We took a LOT of pictures there! It was a really nice area though, and if we go back to La Jolla, we’ll definitely go back here to walk around!

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• Holiday Inn Express – La Jolla, California
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SeaWorld was a really nice drive from La Jolla. It was quick and easy, and we passed some really nice areas on the way.

We had a lot of fun that day, and got to see a lot of fish, penguins, dolphins, sharks, and more. While I knew it would be a fun day, I honestly didn’t realize how much fun it would be. The whole day was great, and the animals were really great.

The shows were a lot of fun as well. We were able to see the Dolphin Discovery, Pets Rule, Shamu Show: Believe, and Clyde and Seamore’s Risky Rescue. All of them were were really great, and we were impressed.

I hadn’t thought it would be a full day park, and figured we wouldn’t be there all that long, but we were there until they closed, which was at 6pm.

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• Griffith Observatory

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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• La Jolla, California
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The Flower Fields were absolutely amazing. First let me say that they are only open for a few months out of the year – this year from March 1st through May 11th. They are less than 5 minutes from Legoland, in Carlsbad, California, so it was easy to stop there after we finished up at Legoland.

There isn’t much to say about The Flower Fields, except “wow”. I wasn’t sure what to expect before I got there, but I was really impressed. When you first walk in, there is a large area with a bunch of different types of flowers that are all beautiful.

What really got to me though, were the fields of Ranunculus flowers. The two sections I saw were very different. One section had flowers that were almost all fully blooming, and they were picking some of them. The other section was just starting to bloom. It was amazing to look at, and I would have stayed even longer if I could have.

If anyone is going to be in Southern California anytime between March and May, I really recommend visiting The Flower Fields!

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• LegoLand California – For Less

After we checked out of our hotel in Anaheim, we started towards San Diego. When we planned our trip, we knew that Legoland was on the way, and loved the idea of seeing all of the amazing LEGO creations…so we bought 2 tickets (actually, we technically got them for free…see how we did it.)

It was nice and easy to get to – right off of the highway in Carlsbad, California. I will say this. It is a park definitely designed for kids. We knew this going into it though, so we weren’t surprised or disappointed. Almost all of the rides are kids rides, and adults going alone wouldn’t enjoy them. But we weren’t going for the rides. We had been to the Lego store in Disney many times, and loved the cool displays they had of a sea dragon, a family, and a lot more – all made out of LEGOs. The idea of an entire park of stuff like that really interested us, so we figured we would check it out. We also knew they had MiniLand, which took US cities and recreated them in miniature.

We had a good time walking all over the park. One section where we spent a lot of time was MiniLand USA. MiniLand has a mini version of Las Vegas, Florida, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. It was incredible the level of detail they had for everything!! It was a lot of fun to look at.

We also enjoyed walking around the rest of the park, because everywhere you went, there were more cool LEGO creations. I even had to take my camera out when having lunch, because the restaurant had many cool characters in there as well!

If you really like LEGOs, you’ll enjoy Legoland, even if you don’t have kids. Of course kids will enjoy all the rides, but we still had fun.

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• LegoLand California – For Less
• Carnival Splendor – Great for Families!
• Overall Thoughts on Disneyland
• Disney for Adults
• Nickelodeon Universe – Coming Soon to The Mall of America

We really wanted to visit Griffith Observatory to see the Planetarium, and their exhibits. We had heard there was a nice view as well, but weren’t sure exactly what to expect.

When we got there, we were really happy with the view! We got some great pictures of the Hollywood sign, as well as just a great view of the Los Angeles area. The Griffith Observatory had recently been renovated, and you could tell. It was really nice, and in great shape.

The exhibits were all really interesting to look at, and the planetarium show was a lot of fun. It was definitely a great side trip, and I’m glad we went!

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• Back from Southern California
• Howard Johnson Anaheim – Great Hotel
• The ruins of Lamanai, Belize
• Can’t afford a vacation? Why not try to win one
• La Jolla, California

I have one word when it comes to Universal Studios Hollywood. Small. I was surprised at how small it was. I knew it wasn’t even close to the size of Universal Studios Orlando (especially now that it also has Islands of Adventure)…but it was pretty small.

We still managed to have a fun day though.

The first thing I have to say is that I was NOT impressed with the parking attendants. They offered 2 types of parking. “General” parking is $11.00, while “Preferred” parking is $20. That’s fine, but when they told me about both, they mentioned that it was a long walk if you took general parking, and they had no shuttles. Well…we still took general parking, and boy are we glad we did!

Talk about close parking. We were right in the middle of CityWalk, and it was maybe a 5 minute walk to the front gate of Universal Studios Hollywood? I mean give me a break. I have no problem with giving me choices…but don’t make it sound like I’ll be on a 20 minute walk up hills if I don’t take you up on it!

We had a fun day here, and I think we both enjoyed the Studio Tour most of all. Shrek 4-D was fun, although I was surprised that the seats moved. It was a nice touch that Disney hasn’t done with any of their 3D shows, so it was nice and different.

The different shows were fun too. We watched the Waterworld, Special Effects Stages, Universal’s Animal Actors, and Backdraft. They were all entertaining, and we would do them again.

Terminator 2: 3D was also fun, since it had been a few years since we had seen it back in Orlando. Unfortunately, the Simpsons Ride wasn’t open yet (it does open soon though), but it will be open by the next time we go to Universal Orlando towards the end of next year.

I really liked walking through CityWalk. They had a lot of restaurants – both nice sit down casual restaurants as well as fast food, so you could have whatever you were looking for. It was a fun day, and we’re glad we went.

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• New Rollercoaster for Universal Studios Orlando
• Orlando, Time for a New Theme Park!
• Universal Studios Orlando – Free Park Tickets
• Howard Johnson Anaheim – Great Hotel
• Southern California City Pass