Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hurricane Travel Tips



Hurricane Sandy, dubbed by the media as the “Frankenstorm” or “The Perfect Storm 2” is expected to be hitting the East Coast within the next few day. So what does this mean for your travel plans? Well, the one thing you can pretty much guarantee is that all travel into and out of the East Coast area will be affected.

The storm has already taken more than two dozen lives while moving through the Caribbean and its expected to hold its hurricane to tropical storm status as it moves through the Northeast.

If you plan on traveling in the expected impacted areas here are some helpful tips to make sure you are prepared for the “Frankenstorm”.

Flight Game Plan

If you are planning on flying in the areas that are expected to be hit by the storm, make sure you contact your airlines as soon as possible. Airlines usually update passengers when the storm gets closer. For you travelers that have flights with JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, or US Airways, consider yourselves lucky, the airlines are offering to $150 fee to reschedule a flight. Before you leave for the airport call your airlines and ask for the status of your flight by giving them your plane’s tail number. This way the airport can let you know exactly where your flight is and how long it is expected to take before it gets to it’s destination. If your flight is sitting on the runway in the middle of the storm, you can plan accordingly.

Hurricane Hotel Ideas

The storm is expected to hit the East Coast somewhere between the northern tip of South Carolina to southern Connecticut. Travelers with plans to stay within the expected storm area should try to get a head start on the rush for hotel reservations and plan to stay an extra night or two so you can avoid being caught without a place to stay.

Travel by Car or Public Transportation During the Storm

Travelers should also anticipate there will be delays with ground travel as well. Just like any other mode of transportation during the storm, it would be a good idea to book your rental car well in advance. Although the best idea, if possible would be to stay inside if at all possible and just wait the storm out for your safety and to avoid the hassle of closed roads, flooding and all the other obstacles a severe storm brings with it.

Cruise Itinerary During a Storm

When taking a cruise ship that is expected to dock in an area being hit by a hurricane make sure you stay up to date with your ship’s planned schedule. Cruise lines might have to change the scheduled port of call in the event of a hurricane, and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Every cruise lines itinerary change policy states that the cruise line can change its itinerary at any point at their discretion and won’t be liable for a refund if the need arises.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Fall is a great time of year to visit Rome




If you’ve always dreamed of visiting Rome, than there is no better time to make your dream come true than the fall.  Rome is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and every year millions of people visit from all over the world. Filled with wonderful treasures and masterpieces of Roman art and architecture, its no wonder why the Eternal City is such a popular tourist destination.

Traveling in the spring and fall are the optimal times of the year to visit Rome because of the unbearable heat in the summertime and August is usually when most of the city’s residents take their own vacations so most businesses are closed during the whole month. In the fall the days are still pleasantly warm and the nights are cool and comfortable.

When you visit Rome you need to make sure you have at least 4 days to see all of the sights, you won’t be doing your visit justice by running around and trying to cram all of your sightseeing into less than 4 days. As the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and you should try to cram all there is to see into a day either, you’ll wind up missing some spectacular sights.

“When in Rome do as the Romans do”, unless your are talking about driving. It is strongly suggested that when you are in Rome you take advantage of their public transportation or if you have extra money take a cab or hire a car, of course you can rent a car and drive yourself around if you have nerves of steel and the sills of a professional racecar driver.

When choosing where to stay in Rome it is a good idea to stay in a hotel that is in the heart of the city. You will be thankful you chose a hotel that lets you walk out the door and be within a short walk to the attractions you want to visit. A good rule of thumb is to stay east of the Tiber River and west of the Station Termini. Hotels in this area can be a little pricey but you can also find some great discounts on Travelope.com that will keep your stay within your budget.

You won’t go hungry in Rome.  The city is literally overrun with great places to eat.  Most restaurants in Rome will have outdoor dining and the meals usually consist of pasta, pizza, veal, chicken and some seafood, one thing you can count on is the food is fresh and plentiful.

Rome is the kind of city you want to take your time savoring. When you are planning your trip make sure you allow yourself enough time to take in all of the sights at a relaxed and enjoyable pace.

For great savings on your trip to beautiful Rome take a look at a couple of these great deals on Travelope.com

Happy Travels!!!

Destinations: Rome, Sorrento
By: Groupon
Posted: Oct 19, 2012
Ends: Oct 25, 2012
Travel On: Oct 19, 2012 - Mar 08, 2013


With Novotel ... Roman holiday scents!
Destination: Rome
By: AccorHotels.com
Posted: Jul 25, 2012
Ends: Dec 31, 2012
Travel On: Mar 05, 2011 - Dec 31, 2012
Do you think is possible to resist the charm of Rome? Great, is the irresistible call of the Eternal City. With Novotel discover an open air museum. This offer includes Late check...

Destination: Rome
By: AccorHotels.com
Posted: Jul 25, 2012
Ends: Dec 31, 2012
Travel On: Feb 01, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012
Novotel will give you a guided tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel! This offer includes Guided tour Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel Guided tour Vatican Museum...

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Spooky Travel Destinations for Halloween



With Halloween right around the corner what better place to spend this spookiest of holidays but at one of Halloween’s most recognizable destinations in the world, Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Originally known as North Tarrytown and made famous by the Washington Irving story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, the town officially changed it’s name to Sleepy Hollow in 1996 to honor the famous story of the Headless Horseman that chased people through the town donning a Jack-O-Lantern head and scaring the bejeebers out of all the timid townsfolk.

Sleepy Hollow’s history makes it a popular destination for Travelopers all over the world, and the town offers plenty of ghoulie and ghostly fun for the holiday.

The events run through the whole month of October and some of the festivities include:

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze which is the area’s biggest Halloween event, with over 4,000 creatively hand carved pumpkins that are set against the spooky backdrop of the 18th century buildings of Van Cortlandt Manor.

Horseman’s Hollow is the premier attraction of Sleepy Hollow which takes “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” to the extreme. The Historic Philipsburg Manor transforms itself into a live telling of the famous tale with ghost, ghouls, and witches and of course the town’s most famous celebrity, himself The Headless Horseman.

Washington Irving landmarks are a huge attraction and there are several of them. Even though its been 150 years since his death changed the small farming community into a busy modern suburb, there are several landmarks that are closely associated with the author. One of the most popular Irving landmarks is the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where the author is laid to rest and which is also the cemetery identified in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

There are a bunch of festive things to see and do during October in the lovely and famous little town of Sleepy Hollow, New York, specifically during the Halloween holiday the town goes all out to welcome visitors.  Travelope offers several travel packages and separate deals to get you there and make your stay a memorable experience.

Happy Halloween Travels!!!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

New Deals from CheapCaribbean.com and BudgetTravel.com

Travelope is now gettings deals from two additional sites:

CheapCaribbean.com - experts in all inclusive vacations to beautiful Carribean

BudgetTravel.com - an excellent site with many eye-opening and money-saving articles on getting the most out of a travel budget

Both sites provide many great travel deals which are now also listed on Travelope.


Monday, August 27, 2012

Looking for best hotel deals in Manhattan

I am visitng New York in september and I was looking for a nice hotel to stay in for a couple of days.  Using Travelope and Email alerts has been a great time saver.  I have been getting new Hotel deals from Travelope almost daily for about a month.  But with so many deals to choose from, I still couldn't find THE ONE hotel that would make NYC even more special.

I went to Kayak, Orbitz and other sites directly, but in most cases either I already saw the deals through Travelope or the deals were not applicable for my travel dates.

At the end I stumbled upon a Hotel Price Comparison site called http://www.hotelpricescompare.com/.
What an awesome idea and site it is.   It collects/aggregates hotel pricing data from all the popular sites as well as smaller travel sites, so that you can run one availability search and get the best price from all the sites.

Using this site I was able to find a great hotel at an awesome price.  It was not even discounted, since it was on one of the smaller travel sites that I would never visit directly.

NOTE TO SELF:  See if they have an API, so we can integrate it within Travelope.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Flash ... ah aaaaah. Now best travel deals can find you even faster.

One issue that always comes up when building sites with high usage is speed.

In short time, number of active deals on Travelope has grown from 500 to 4500.  And it is growing every day.

As we add more and more deals we make sure that it doesn't slow down the site.  In a release last week we have made some major improvements in speed of the site, so travel deals can find you even faster then before...

Almost as fast as Tom Hanks in Flash Gordon outfit:



Enjoy and happy deal huntin!!!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Over 4K active travel deals now on Travelope

Over the last five month we have been adding new deal sources to Travelope almost every week.



This week we broke through 4K active deals.  Wooo hooo!!! Bring out champagne. It is time to celebrate.

We are currently aggregating 300 new travel deals a day.
Many popular destinations like New York, Orlando, San Francisco now have over 50 deals each, so there gotta be something for everyone.

Make sure you subscribe to email alerts to not miss out on any of the deals.

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