If you’ve recently booked a trip, you might want to take a look at your luggage. Sometimes when you don’t use it for a while, you forget about the shape its in. Having problems carrying your luggage, or are there other issues, such as places it has worn out? Will the zipper work? Is it still big enough?

If you realize that you have been wanting to get new luggage, but keep forgetting…or just didn’t want to spend the money, now might be the time to look at getting new luggage for your next vacation.

Luggage online normally has up to 70% off their luggage. On top of that, through Thursday, February 12th, they have an additional 20% off your entire order.

This will really help your wallet, and you’ll still get some great luggage!

Rick Steves is a great resource when it comes to travel. He has written many guidebooks, leads tours, and even has his own travel products. Since he travels often, he knows a lot about packing for a vacation. Here is a short video where Rick Steves shares his packing tips.

At the end of August, we went up to Canada for a vacation. First we spent a few days in Toronto, and we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Toronto. I can’t tell you happy we were with the hotel, and it was for 2 reasons. First of all, the hotel was really nice. Everyone was friendly, and the hotel room was really nice. Everything looked new, and our room had a small balcony that was nice to look out of at night. Our breakfast was included, and it was a huge buffet breakfast, which kept us full for hours!

The other thing we really liked about the hotel was it’s location. It is on Yonge Street, which is one of the main streets in Downtown Toronto. We were able to walk almost everywhere, and were thrilled with that. We couldn’t have asked for a better location. Here is a picture we took of the hotel from down the street. You can see how it’s right next to everything else.

We were also really happy with the price. For the price we paid, you would think that we would have been far away from downtown…but we were within walking distance of almost everything. Granted, it wasn’t a 2 minute walk to most things, but it was walkable, and we enjoyed walking everywhere and getting to see everything in our paths. It was a really fun few days, and we got to see a lot of different things, and had a lot of really great meals!

If we go back to Toronto, we would definitely stay here again.

A vacation is always a wonderful thing, but sometimes you don’t have the time - or money to take a nice long vacation. What’s great is that you can take just a short vacation, and not go very far…and have it seem like a real vacation.

How is that? Well, what is something that you usually look for in a vacation? Something new, something fun, and something to keep you busy, right? You have a lot more fun when you’re doing something than when you’re just sitting around. Well, Great American Days has a really cool website where you can get a gift for someone (or yourself) that will give them an amazing outing. You can take a cooking class, learn how to make your own perfume, go scuba diving, swim with sharks, and more. This website will help you find something unique either for yourself, or for a gift.

If you combine it with a one night stay at a nearby hotel, it can be an amazing mini-vacation that will be remembered for years to come.

While it may sound like this whole website is full of expensive options, they actually have quite a few inexpensive and realistic choices. You can even get 10% off your purchase with this link, which will really make the gift even more affordable!

If you live in the NY/NJ area, you might be interested to know that the New York Times Travel Show is only a few weeks away! This year it’s about a month earlier than the past few years, and will be going on February 6th - 8th at the Jacob Javitz Center in NYC. If you love to travel or even just dream about traveling, you will probably be interested in going to the Travel Show.

The main part of the show is the exhibitors. There are booths upon booths, and if you want to travel anywhere in the world, you’re likely to find a booth for it. They have whole sections on the USA, Europe, Cruises, Caribbean, Africa, Canada, and more. You will be able to talk to people that really know these destinations, and will be able to answer any questions you have.

While this is a great reason to go, there are also speakers that you can listen to that are included in your ticket (which are only $15.00 each). The speakers are mostly well known people in the Travel business, and you’ll know at least a few of them. This year Rick STeves, Arthur Frommer and his daughter Pauline, Samantha Brown, and Andrew Zimmern will be there, and those are just a few of the many speakers you will get to hear talk.

The whole thing is just a whole lot of fun, and I speak from experience. I’ve been going for quite a few years now, and have had a great time each and every time I went. If you love to travel, I really recommend you stop by the Jacob Javitz Center to visit.

When you’re getting ready to go on a trip, one of the things you might neglect to think about is your luggage. You think about the hotel, airline tickets, clothing, etc…but until it’s time to pack, somehow luggage is never in your mind…or at least it isn’t in mine!

The worst is when your old luggage gets ripped or ruined on a trip, you say you’ll get something new…but then since it’s at least a few months until your next trip, you completely forget about it until the night before you leave when you take the luggage down from the attic.

If you’re planning on going on a trip soon, and you need luggage, Luggage Online has an additional 20% off on their entire site right now. Considering they usually have 70% off regular prices, an additional 20% off makes it even better!

This is going on through tomorrow night, so you have time to look and decide. Shipping is free if you spend at least $100.

United Vacations currently has vacations on sale, starting at $299. You can book now through September 5th. These vacations include both airfare as well as hotel rooms. The $299 is for airfare and 2 nights in a hotel in Las Vegas. There are also many other destinations included in the sale (starting at $599) such as Orlando, Puerto Vallarta, and more.

Looking to find the best prices for your next vacation, but don’t want to spend the time searching yourself, or going to multiple travel agents? How would you like it if they came to you!

At Tripology, you enter in the details about the trip you want to take, and then up to 3 travel agents will come to you with their quotes. It’s nice and easy, and you know you’ll get the best price!

If you’re not sure where you want to vacation, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money, consider signing up for the FREE Travelzoo newsletter. Every Wednesday morning, you’ll get a list of their Top 20 deals.

These deals can be airfare, hotels, packages, cruises, car rentals, or more…and are always different. So if you’re not sure exactly where to go, this can help you find a great deal on a great vacation!

The best part is that it’s free, so you can just sign up, and spend a few seconds every Wednesday reading it until you see what sounds like a perfect vacation to you!

A few months ago I was very fortunate enough to get a cat. Halley (yes, named after the comet) is a great cat, and I’m thrilled to have her. But…we love to travel. So the question becomes, what do you do with your cat while you go on vacation?

Before getting a cat, I had always assumed I’d just leave the cat at home, and have someone come and check on her every other day. They’d give her canned food at that time, as well as clean out the litter box. If I were to go away for a whole week, I’d only need someone to stop by about 2-3 times. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Well, that was BEFORE we got Halley. This cat LOVES to eat, and I think would be very, very upset if she only got her canned food every other day. She always has water and dry food out, but she doesn’t really care for the dry food as much.

The second problem is that when she’s bored, she gets into trouble. We have seen it happen ourselves. For the first month she was here, she didn’t even notice that on our coffee table we had a tic-tac-toe board with little pieces on it. One afternoon she was bored, and a half hour after that all the pieces were all over the house.

So I’m not really sure I trust leaving her in the house for a week alone, since someone would only be in the house for a few minutes every other day. Even if it was every day, I’m not sure I trust her.

I could always put her in a kennel, but most of them seem to be for dogs! I found a total of 3 places within a 45 minute drive that I can take her. One is PetSmart. They have a PetsHotel where you can keep your cats or dogs while you go away. While I haven’t visited it yet, it looks like they are kept in cages, and aren’t played with - but are both fed and litter box cleaned daily. It’s only $14.00, so it’s the cheapest option, but I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that. The other two places just board cats, and one is $26.00 a night (which there is NO way I’ll pay for her to stay…and would you believe it costs extra for them to play with her???) and one which costs $18.00 a night.

I will go visit the 2 lower priced ones, but I’m really confused. What would you do in my situation? Has anyone boarded their cat with good or bad results? Has anyone left their very friendly cat (she is ALWAYS in the same room with us….she even sleeps on my pillow with me!) alone for a week with good results? I’d love to hear any suggestions, as I have no idea what we should do, as this will be an ongoing problem since we love to travel.