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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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If you’re looking to plan a trip outside the country, you might be looking for a website that will help make it easier. Vayama is just that, and more. You put in the location you’re leaving from, as well as the destination (or all of the destinations) that you will be stopping at on your trip. It will then search over 100 airlines to find you the best prices and itineraries. They even have a nice map that will shoe you exactly how your flights will work out.

I just tried it on a trip I’m hoping to take in the next few years and was surprised at how easy the site was to use, and how nice the map was. The next time I am traveling abroad, I’ll be using this site!

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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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Pictures are a great way to remember your vacation for years after you have come back. While you’ll always have your memories, sometimes after a few years (or even a few months!) you might be fuzzy on a few of the details. Did you get to see x, y, and z? Or only visit x and y, and you saw z on another trip. Lots and lots of pictures are a great way to remember your vacation. You’ll get to show others all of the great things you saw while on your vacation.

You’ll also get to go back and “live” your vacation over again any time you want. I love being able to go through all of my pictures of past trips, remembering what we did that day, and all of the great things I saw, no matter where I was. It’s also fun being able to show people the cool things you saw, since some things are so beautiful that words just won’t do.

One thing I enjoy doing while on vacations is to make sure I get some perfect pictures so that I can blow them up and put them on my walls. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much of a chance to get the perfect picture, but I have been able to buy some really nice prints of different destinations that I have been to, so that I can remember my vacation while looking at a perfect photograph of the destination.

Because let’s face it…sometimes you just can’t get the perfect picture. There are people in the way, or the sun is too bright, etc…So while most of the time you can take the picture yourself, other times it makes more sense to buy a poster and hang them on your wall. Then anytime you walk into a room you can remember the trip!

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When you go on vacation, you most likely will want to bring something back to help you remember the trip. It’s great to be able to look at something in your house, months after you’ve gone on a vacation and have memories come flooding back when you look at the item that you bought while away.

It doesn’t have to be expensive to get a souvenir that you will like, and that will help remind you of your trip. As a matter of fact, it’s most likely the lesser expensive items that you’ll use more often and will be more of a daily reminder of your trip.

The picture above is a great example. While I was in Walt Disney World in September of 2007, I bought a pack of 6-coasters at the gift shop in the Magic Kingdom. How much did it cost? $6.00. How often do I use them? Every single day. It’s great. Whenever I pick up my glass to get a sip of my drink while watching TV, I see one of the coasters, and it instantly reminds me of my Disney World vacation. I can remember picking them out, as well as how much fun I was having at the time, and for the rest of the trip.

Another great souvenir that I got was a spoon holder for while I’m cooking. It’s in the shape of Mickey ears, and cost a whole whopping $7.00. I use this a few times a week when I need to put the spoon down when I’m mixing things on the stove. It also reminds me of my trip, and didn’t cost much at all.

Don’t get me wrong, you can buy a lot of things that will remind you of your trip…I’m just suggesting that less expensive items that you will use often can really give you the most for your dollar, and help keep your vacation alive until your next trip!

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Everyone loves a vacation. You get away from the world, and have time to relax, and recharge. The stress seems to melt away, and when you get back, you feel refreshed. Well, sometimes taking a real vacation is just impossible. Maybe you can’t get off work, or you just don’t have the money to pick up and go away for the week.

The truth is though, you can go on a vacation over the weekend, and still get the exact same benefits. You leave Saturday morning, and come back Sunday evening. You will only have to pay for a hotel for one night, and you’ll get 2 full days of vacationing.

No matter where you live, there has to be something that you would find enjoyable within a 2-5 hour drive. Maybe it’s a city you’ve never been to that you want to, or an amusement park that would be fun. It could be a beach, or even just a small bed and breakfast. It could even be outlets you’ve never been to before. Whatever you consider fun and relaxing, that’s what you should do.

I’ve found personally that it helps if it’s someplace I’ve either never been before, or haven’t been in a long time. Also, I like to pick 2-3 things to do.  For example, living in NJ there are a million things I could do from Saturday morning until Sunday night.  There’s always going out to Hershey Park, Philadelphia, Boston, and the Jersey Shore just to name a few!

It might sound right now like that’s a really quick trip, but when you come home, you’ll feel like you were away for a longer time, and you’ll feel recharged, renewed, and more relaxed like if you had been on vacation for a week. It doesn’t matter what you do while you’re away, as long as you have fun and relax. I’ve done this a bunch of times, and a few months later when I think back upon them, I almost always think they were for longer than just the weekend!

It’s a nice inexpensive way to get away, and have all the same benefits of a long vacation, without having to spend the time or money!

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