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Travel Mezze - by khassandra

Travel Mezze - November 2008

Discovering Barcelona, Spain

November 30th 2008 08:52
Barcelona has always fascinated me. It's beautiful attractions, historic origin, the culture, it's people, all of these are very interesting to explore.

Barcelona has many interesting and magnificent tourist attractions. Some of these are illustrated below:

Port Olimpic
Port Olìmpic or "Olympic Port" was built up for the 1992 Olympic Games. It now contains a fancy marina with some nice public sculptures, along with a number of posh bars and restaurants. The Hotel Arts Barcelona is visible at any point in the beach which is housed at it's twin towers.

Port Olimpic


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Platja de Sant Sebastià
Barcelona's Platja de Sant Sebastià is the nearest beach to town which is close to the La Barceloneta neighbourhood. It is one of the best beaches in the city. From here you can find, palm trees, lifeguard services, children's plays areas, showers and disabled services.

L'Aquarium
This sealife aquarium is housed in an unusualy transparent building. It is one of Barcelona's most famous attractions and has a wide collection of marine life. It's collection includes sharks.

If you want to travel to Barcelona and want the best for your money, I suggest you visit Hotelsespanol. It is a Spanish site that provides access to last minute deals and pre booked discounts for this city. Very affordable and reasonable Barcelona Hoteles can be found at Hotelsespanol.


1898 Hotel Barcelona


La Rambla is an iconic and busy street in central Barcelona. It is popular with both tourists and locals alike. It is a 1.2 kilometer-long tree-lined pedestrian mall in the Barri Gòtic, it connects Plaça Catalunya in the center with the Christopher Columbus monument at Port Vell. In this area you can find street theatres, cafés and market stalls, it serves as the emotional hub of Barcelona.

La Rambla can be considered a series of shorter streets, each differently named, hence the plural forms Las Ramblas. From the Plaça de Catalunya toward the harbor, the street is successively the Rambla de Canaletes, the Rambla dels Estudis, the Rambla de Sant Josep, the Rambla dels Caputxins, and the Rambla de Santa Monica. Tourists can find Las Ramblas Hoteles if they want to stay overnight or even longer in this region. Source: Wikipedia.com

Hesperia Getafe Hotel Madrid


Madrid is the gateway to Spain. It is the capital and the largest city of the country. As the capital city, we can find here the seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch. Madrid is also the political center of Spain. In order to explore more what the city can offer, it is best to spend an overnight stay at a Spanish Hotel. Madrid Hoteles offer attractive packages and very affordable rates.

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How To Plan Your Vacation Wisely

November 27th 2008 15:32
All of us work very hard in order to earn enough for ourselves and for those married individuals, for the whole family. We strive so hard in order to reach that monthly target income so we could provide for our basic needs and buy the things we want to have. Some people love to travel. They save money for the whole year in order to make that dream vacation. They want to visit places they've never been to. Yes, we need time to relax and unwind sometimes. The time where we won't be thinking about that report deadline, that too demanding client of ours, meeting the target sales of the month, and many more stressful work related jobs. How I wish to spend a week in Boracay or enjoy the beaches in Hawaii and the Carribean. All of us have that dream vacation in mind.

Once you have finalized which place you decide to visit, the next thing is to plan and prepare for it. Passports, the necessary paper work, ticket reservations, hotel reservations, travel insurance, medical check-ups and certificates. The list goes on. I have a cousin who went on vacation to Hongkong Disneyland with her family last year. They live in the province and so they had to come to Cebu City (where I live) as the plane originates from here. When they were about to check-in, to my cousin's surprise, she couldn't find their passports. They left the passports at home. All four of them! (They have 2 kids) She got so mad as she told her husband to take charge of the passports and other necessary papers. They weren't able to push through with that night's departure to Hongkong. Her husband had to go back to the province in order to get their passports. Her husband had to take the overnight boat to go back then took the fast craft back to the city the following day. They finally pushed through to Hongkong but had to miss one day tour of the city and had to spend more for fare back to the province and city accommodation (they usually stay at the Golden Peak hotel when in Cebu). Also the missed tour. This could have been avoided if they had a checklist and rechecked everything before proceeding to Cebu.

Hongkong Disneyland

Image Source

After eating dinner, we proceeded to the Golden Peak Hotel. They love the place, the service and have already made some friends from there. The hotel is also just a walking distance to the Ayala Mall so it's an added convenience for her as she can just walk to the mall when she wants to buy something or the kids would want to play at the game zone.

She arranged their trip to Hongkong through her favorite travel agency and so far everything went well. Too bad they missed the first day tour. However, at least they really pushed through with the trip. They flew through Cebu Pacific Airline. This airline has the lowest rates most especially during off peak months. For your accomodation needs when on vacation, I find this site hotelscombined.com, very helpful in terms of best and low rate offers, accomodation choices and reliability. The site searches for multiple hotel reservation websites simultaneously and is very useful to help you find the lowest rates online instantly.

If you are planning a vacation for the whole family, the following tips will help a lot:

Low Fare Flights: 3 Secrets To Get The Lowest Airfare Available
Budget Travel - Season and Destination are Most Important
16 Steps to Handling Luggage
Tips to Notice Travel Fraud

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A Rio De Janeiro Travel Guide

November 24th 2008 14:51
By Razvan Jr

Where to stay:

1. Caesar Park Hotel - One of Rio de Janeiro's most luxurious and expensive hotels, the Caesar Park boasts a fabulous location on the famous stretch of the Ipanema beach. All the hotel’s rooms are spacious and look great after a very recent renovation. They are equipped with bathtubs, a suit rack, and a well-lit workspace. The standard rooms are those from the 5th to 10th floor, looking out over the side street. The superior rooms also face the side but are located from the 11th floor up. The exquisite deluxe rooms provide a full ocean view which is breathtaking.

Rio De Janeiro
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2. Excelsior Copacabana Hotel - A member of the famous Windsor Hotels chain, the very pleasant Excelsior is situated on a wide corner which offers excellent and unique ocean views. Rooms either have a side view superior) or a full ocean view. All of the hotel rooms are quite nicely furnished, spotless, and well maintained. The best rooms are the deluxe suites of course which take up the entire corner and offer both side and full ocean views. These suites also equipped with spacious bathrooms, a relaxing Jacuzzi tub, a flat screen TV and a comfortable king-size bed. The hotel also offers free local calls, free parking and an excellent breakfast buffet, what more could a visitor want?

3. Casa 6 - A small and clean hostel with quite a few private rooms, with shared or private cozy baths. It is on a very charming street with other hostels and boarding houses, and an easy walk to the beach, making it a perfect solution. The simple rooms get a lot of natural light and are very well maintained by the employees, and the owner has a wealth of information about the surrounding neighborhood. Although it is a quite pleasant spot, it is the location that draws most travelers here.

Where to eat:

1. Confeitaria Colombo - This establishment is the ultimate example of Rio’s sophisticated cafe culture reminiscent of Paris or Vienna. The huge and elegant space opens up to a canopy of stained glass that washes filtered light onto huge mirrors. Their dark, carved frames are of the same ornate style as the opulent wood-and-glass cabinets towering above the counters.

2. Doce Delicia - This colorful and modern restaurant is located in Leblon (with another branch at Rua Anibal de Mendonca 55, which is in Ipanema) and serves dishes like salmon in soy and ginger sauce, design-your-own salads (with ingredients like palm hearts and papaya) and quite tempting desserts like a chocolate mousse cake which is as delicious as it sounds.

3. Espirito Santa - This restaurant was opened recently in 2005, by the famous chef Natacha Fink which uses little-used indigenous ingredients like jambu root and graviola fruit to create a new and rather unique kind of Brazilian cooking. Some of the dishes include a filet of namorado (some sort of white fish), baked in a Brazil-nut crust and served over grilled fresh hearts of palm.

What to do:

1. Corcovado – Here you can spot the very famous Sugarloaf Mountain, the island-pocked Guanabara Bay and the breathtaking beaches outlining the coast like links of white sausages. Even better than this, you can make fun of the inevitable sightseer aping the statue’s outstretched arms for a photo. “Turistas chatos” means “annoying tourists” in Portuguese, should that phrase come to mind when in the near vicinity of that area.

2. Blue Man - This store sells sungas which is the Brazilian version of the famous American Speedo. Its bathing suits tend to be on the more provocative side and the stores’ other offerings make it easier to show it all off. Bill Clinton and Anthony Hopkins made headlines when they bought bikinis there back in 2001, although it was not clear for whom they purchased them.

3. Tumbao do Malevo - This open-air bar is situated under a tree canopy. It is not uncommon to see its patrons, still sandy from the beach, sampling fresh fruit caipirinhas while a group of musicians played mournful, shuffling chorinho music. You won’t find this anywhere else in Rio de Janeiro.

About the Author:

A. Romijn currently manages the website - www.riobrazilpenthouses.com where visitors can obtain information about available Rio penthouses at affordable prices.

Article Source: www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

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Tips to Notice Travel Fraud

November 24th 2008 14:12
Author: Tom Tessin

You need to be extremely careful while you travel. There are lots of different means that the people may scam you. Big cities are all prone to scams than the smaller cities. Few reasons for these scams are first time travel, unfamiliarity, barrier with language & differences in culture


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It's Time To Unwind and Have a Vacation

November 14th 2008 14:52
We work almost day and night. We work hard so we could make ends meet and have some extra money for other needs. Yes, it is part of life that we can't ignore. However, there are times that our body tells us we need to have a break. We have to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

When planning for a vacation, our common problem is to arrange our trip, organize flight details, find accommodation, schedule city tours and to process the necessary paper work is draining. We always search for the best price possible. I'm sure you will be happy if you know you can book your hotel and transportation from the owner itself, no more agencies and middlemen that would want to get their commissions, making us pay more


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10 Must-Dos When In Dublin

November 14th 2008 14:14
by: Steven Cronin

Few places around the world lend a friendlier hand than Dublin. The Emerald Isle offers wonderful hospitality, complemented by its warm and friendly hosts. A cosmopolitan city, Dublin is rightly proud of its rich heritage, but also presents a modern face in keeping with contemporary culture


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