Site Review Blog

If you read yesterday’s post about cheap European Airlines and are looking for somewhere interesting to go for a few days or even longer, then check out Short City Breaks.  Take a peek at the top 5 Cities to take a European break at.

We took the time to read the articles on the top 5 and they seem to contain a lot of general info about each city.  The cities would not be totally unknown to people from outside of Europe.  For example, Everyone has heard of Athens, and if you were considering visitng, you can get a bit of an Idea as to what the city and surrounding areas has to offer a tourist.

The website itself uses the Joomla CMS, so the content and navigation is well laid out.  The site is fairly new and at the moment has only a handful of articles.  I really hope that they can expand on what they have and provide similar information about a lot more European Cities.  The site could do with a bit of work on giving it a more unique skin, but at least they didn’t just use a default skin!

When we think of Berlin, we normally associate it with the Berlin wall that used to divide the East and West.  Part of the wall is still in place and has been painted in Murals.  The Murals and associated Memorial are only a couple of the overt 150 Museums in the city.  Well, I knew a bit about the Wall, but I didn’t know about the huge number of museums and the like until I read the article.

Visit www.shortcitybreaks.eu

For anyone planning to travel around Europe on a budget you wil want to try and find the cheapest arline tickets you can.  Now, in a market like Europe there is around 50 different Airlines in the budget category to choose from.  Now, to try and find where each airline flies to and from would be a real headache and take forever if it was not for a site like low cost airline guide find the cheap flights could take you weeks.

These guys are not trying to sell you a ticket on any airline, they are just trying to make it easy on you and give you a short list of which companies fly on the low cost airline routes around Europe.  How it all works is really quite simple and clever.  First, you simply choose your origin city, then select a destination.  Then, all the budget airlines who service that route will pop up.  By short-listing the airlines for a chosen journey, you can then simply pop over to their website and do your bookings (of course after you have checked out the prices of all on offer for that route).

Once again, I have found a site that won’t win any beauty contests, but what it provides is brilliant! - It is simple and fast to use and when you are looking for something in particular this is a good thing!  The site is focussed on making it easy to find cheap airlines and it does it very well.  They have even gone to the trouble to have the site translated into 7 other languages as well.  For a market such as Europe, they have researched their intended audience and made sure as many people as possible are able to use their site.

Even if you have no intention of ever travelling around Europe, take a look at the site.  A Great no-frills site that makes it easy to find cheap airlines.

Visit http://www.low-cost-airline-guide.com/

New York, The Big Apple, as it is commonly known is the most densly populated Major city in North America.  The population of this city is greater than more than half of the states in the whole US! Located on the shores of the Hudson and East Rivers in NY State, the tragic events of 9/11 put this city into the limelight on the world stage for all the wrong reasons.

New York is the Centre for Fashion and International finance, and with over 8Million people living there they have a huge range of National Sporting teams based there. So for you Sports Fans, looking for a holiday to the big Apple Look up New York sports tourism before you leave home.  With 2 Baseball Teams, a Basketball team, 2 hockey teams and 2 football teams your next trip to the Big Apple should include a game from your favourite sport.

New York is certainly a lot more than just the busiest city in America, with their world famous Central park, the Statue of Liberty and Times Square to visit on your vacation you will certainly keep busy between visiting The theatres and many Museums.

In the city that never shuts down, after you catch a Broadway show, you can grab a nice meal at Becco’s Italian Restaurant or any of the other fine Restaurants.

Now York Sports is one of several websites that are based on a similar sports based travel theme.  If you looked at the Chicago site in the last post, you would have noticed that the websites looked similar.  We will be keeping an eye out for the next city that is featured!

Visit  www.nyc-sports-travel.com

Chicago is located towards the Southern end of Lake Michigan in Illinois and is also known as the Windy City.  Chicago is also the home to many famous sporting teams with 2 Baseball teams, the Chicago White Sox who play in the American League and The Cubs who play in the National League.  The Chicago Bulls Basketball team were made Famous by Michael Jordan who led them to many championships.  The Chicago Blackhawks are the NHL Hockey Team, to round out the Sports for every season.  At Chicago Sports tourism you can find out a little more about the teams and thier famous sporting home grounds.

With so many famous sporting teams you are sure to find something that takes your fancy, but if sport is not your scene you are certainly not left out!  If you are into fine dining then you will find the Best restaurant in America in Chicago. Yes, that’s right in October 2006, Gourmet Magazine named Alinea as not only the Best in Chicago, but the best in the whole country!

Chicago is not only the best of Sports and the Best dining, but also the home to many Museums.  From History to Nature to the Arts there is a huge varitey of Museums for you to wanter thru.

One of the not to be missed trats for tourists to Chicago is the view from the Sears Tower Skydeck.  From the 103rd Floor of the tallest building in North America you can see for over 50 miles in all directions across four states.

Visit www.chicago-sports-travel.com

Who hasn’t heard of Las Vegas? I don’t think that there would would be too many people who haven’t! Who hasn’t contemplated a Vacation in Vegas either to try your luck in the Casinos, seeing one of the Many Fabulous shows or just to see how the other half live.

Las Vegas is located approx 300 miles inland from Los Angeles, California in the State of Nevada. and about 200 miles from the Grand Canyon.  Las Vegas is the ideal base for your Vaction, with a lot of great attractions within easy driving distance.  Even without leaving Las Vegas, there are so many things to see and do you could spend several days exploring.  Now before you think that you cannot afford to stay, you will probably be surprised that there are a lot of Hotels that are at the budget end of the pricerange.  Hey, but you only live once, so why not treat yourself to the very Best!  By taking a look thru all of the reviews of the Hotels, you are sure to be able to find one that suits your lifestyle and Budget.

You don’t want to drive? then no problems.  Browse over some great Airline ticket and package holiday Deals to Las Vegas.  If you cannot spen a week, you might find a deal for a few days from somewhere close to you.  Enjoy a couple of nights, grab a show or enjoy the Las Vegas Nightclubs.

Getting Married? then why not check out the wedding chapels in Las Vegas, and once you are married, stay for your honeymoon.

Visit www.las-vegas-nv-online.com

Everyone loves to take a vacation, and the time leading up to the chosen departure date can either be great for or even a bit stressful.  In the end your holiday all comes down to the planning and by taking a look at the travel blog you can get a little bit of an insight into not only some ideas to help your planning, but also ideas on some great things to do.

A blog is only as good as the writer’s knowledge and passion of the subject, and you won’t be dissapointed here. The blog has been going since January 2004 and has hundreds of posts.  I know that it can be fun to plan and research the place you are choosing to go to on your vacation and often you will go somewhere that a friend or relative recommends.  Well, a blog is a bit like a friend you have never met in person, but can discuss things with by leaving comments on the posts.

There are heaps of different categories listed that the articles have been sorted into.  just as an example things like hotel info, travel gear, travel insurance and wedding and Honeymoon travel.

You might wonder how someone can write something every few days for years about travel.  I was a bit intruiged as well but found the answer.  Not only do they write intersting travel related articles, but they hold regular contests as well.  At the moment, the winter travel planning contest has over $1000 in cash prizes.  Entry is simple, just follow their guidelines and submit your planned travel itinery for your chance to share in the Prize money.  The whole contest Idea is great, as reading thru what other people have planned for their holiday can give you Ideas for your own vacation.  We are going on vacation in a couple of months time, and so far have only planned some of it, after reading some of the previous entries I know I need to finish my own planning.

Visit www.travel-plan-idea.com

Typically when we think of taking a holiday, we are looking for some sort of escape from our everyday life.  We do things like going to Vegas, taking a cruise or heading to a Pacific Island.  There are cases when you might consider somewhere other than the popular choice destinations for your next vacation and this interesting website about Dark Tourism might give you some insight to alternatives.  There are a whole range of different types of grief tourism, from seeing an old battlefield, Disaster area (both natural and man-made), Holocaust and many more.

You are probably wondering why anyone would want to go to some of these places, like I was, until I read a little on the subject.  The most common theme to me is that for some people, visiting the site of some of our worst atrocities allows the healing to begin.  You may have lost family or close friends to some horrific event and just visiting the site for yourself can sometimes help.

There are literally hundreds of destinations that could be considered to be on the list.  Everyone would probably be aware of 9/11 and a lot of the western world were affected in some way by those events.  New York, and the whole freedom of the Western world took a turn from this event, and ”Ground Zero” is a site that attracts a lot of visitors and probably will for several years to come.  This website has several countries listed and information on some of the locations you might want to research or vist.

One of the most fascinating types of grief tourism is thanatourism. Like you, I didn’t even know what the word meant until I looked!  Well, it is the description of an ancient sky burial ritual of Buddhists in Tibet.

The website is well laid out and easy to navigate.  The articles are well researched and provide a fascinating read even if you would not consider taking a vaction to some of these places.

Visit www.grief-tourism.com