When traveling, you’ve probably heard that you should be extra careful with your belongings. No one wants to lose their passport or money while having a good time on vacation. Most of the time you hear about people wearing money belts, or something else under their clothing. I recently found PacSafe purses, which seem like they will be a perfect solution for when I travel. I will report here after I use one on my next trip abroad, to let everyone know how I liked it. I have a feeling I will, since all of the reviews seem positive.

It looks just like a regular purse, but has a lot of anti-theft features so that it would be a lot harder for someone to take stuff out of it while you’re walking around. Below is a video showing exactly what their features are. If you’re interested in seeing more of the bags they have, (they have many sizes and styles), eBags.com has a large selection.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Many people know about the Entertainment Book, which can help you save money at restaurants as well as retail stores…and buy them for the area in which they live.

What you might not realize though, is if you’re going away that an Entertainment Book for the location you will be visiting can also help you save a lot of money on your trip!

It usually takes just one or two of the coupons that you have to use to more than pay for the book. Also, not only will you find discounts for the restaurants in the area you will be vacationing, but you will get discounts at stores, attractions, and will even find travel discounts in the book!

You’d be really surprised how much you can save with an Entertainment Book, even if you’re just using it for 1-week!

For the entire month of May, all Entertainment Books will only cost $9.99! Just using one coupon can make up the money you spent for the book, and you’ll already be saving.

When you travel, no matter where you go, there is almost one thing that always happens. You have to wait. You can be stuck in an airport waiting for them to call your flight, you can be on that 9 hour flight that doesn’t feel like it will ever end, you can even be sitting in a car driving to your destination. No matter how you travel though, there will always be time that you don’t have anything to do.

A lot of people like reading books, watching DVDs, or even listening to music while waiting. Have you considered listening to books or podcasts though?

These days almost everyone has an mp3 player. You can easily download some of your favorite podcasts, and listen to them on your trip. Sometimes you can even find a podcast about your destination, so you can listen while you’re on your way to your destination!

Even better, podcasts are free, so you can just download them and go! You can get great entertainment (and learn a lot as well) without having to spend any extra money. Sounds good to me!

Here is a perfect example. Here is a list of podcats by Frommers.com. You’re sure to learn something great from them! Just taking a quick glance, they have a podcast about taking better pictures, saving money in Washington D.C., standing up to the airlines, and a lot more. You can be sure that the next time I travel I will be downloading some of these podcasts and will be bringing them with me. What a fun way to pass the time!