I?m sure you all know about Disney World?s amazing theme parks, but are you familiar with the myriad of fascinating activities for children offered throughout Walt Disney World that are either complimentary or offered for a reasonable fee to Disney resort guests? Here are some of the best:

? Snag a Bass On a Kid?s Fishing Excursion. 1-hour angling trips just for children are available from the resort marinas of Disney?s Contemporary, Polynesian, Yacht and Beach Club, and Boardwalk Inn and Villas. For miles of shore fishing head over to Disney?s Ft. Wilderness where cane poles and rods and reels may be rented at the Bike Barn in the Meadow Recreation Area. Fishing excursions are approximately $25 per child. Call 407-WDW-PLAY for reservations.

? Enjoy the Old West. Hayrides depart each evening from Pioneer Hall at Fort Wilderness for a 45-minute trip. Very tame, cowboy-guided trail rides are also offered, or younger children can opt for a $2 pony ride at the Fort Wilderness Petting Farm. Hayrides are $8 per adult and $4 per child; no reservations taken. Trail rides are $30 per person; reservations are required and may be made up to two weeks in advance by calling 407-WDW-PLAY.

? Sing-Along in Front of the Campfire. Families gather round the campfire each evening at Ft. Wilderness for a sing-along, marshmallow roast, and a Disney animated movie. Complimentary to all Walt Disney World resort guests.

? Watch the Electrical Water Pageant Parade. Nightly on the Seven Seas Lagoon is a delightful 1000-foot string of illuminated barges featuring King Neptune and his court of whales, sea serpents, and other deep-sea creatures. The free show can be seen from the beaches of Disney?s Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Wilderness Lodge Resorts.

? Ride Up Front with the Monorail Driver. Simply ask the Cast Member on duty. They will be happy to oblige as long as the front car is empty.

? Take a Spin on a Watermouse Boat. Rent one of these two-seater mini-power boats and zip around one of Disney?s lakes at 22 miles per hour. Kids love them, but they’ll need to bring someone along in the boat with a valid driver’s license. Available at the Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, the Yacht and Beach Club, Downtown Disney, and the Wilderness Lodge. Approximately $22 per half-hour.

? Dive into One of Disney?s Fabulous Themed Pools. You can?t do much better than a dip in one of Disney?s wonderful swimming pools. Children?s favorites: the Volcano Pool at Disney?s Polynesian Resort featuring a smoking volcano slide, underwater music, and sparkling waterfall, all with a superb view of the Seven Seas Lagoon; the Wilderness Lodge?s boulder-lined pool featuring waterfalls, rocky overlooks, water slide, and a nearby geyser; the eye-popping Stormalong Bay, a mini-water park complex that meanders between the Yacht and Beach Club, offering three acres of winding, watery delight including sandy bottom pools, a giant ?shipwreck? waterslide, a tidal whirlpool, bubbling hot tubs, a kiddie pool with its own slide next to the beach, and enough length to float lazily in inner tubes to your heart?s delight.

? Search for Buried Treasure on a Pirate?s Cruise. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, children ages 3-10 sail from the dock of Disney?s Grand Floridian Resort on a 2-hour supervised trip to a deserted island. $28 fee includes snacks, bandanas, and treasure. Call 407-WDW-DINE for reservations.

? Attend a Children?s Tea Party. A ?Wonderland Tea Party? happens Mon-Fri at 1:30 P.M. in 1900 Park Fare at Disney?s Grand Floridian Resort. Hosted by characters from Alice in Wonderland, the little ones play games, listen to stories, and drink apple ?tea?. $28. Strictly for children ages 3-10. Call 407-WDW-DINE for reservations.

? Take in a Character Meal. These extremely popular dining opportunities, offered at both the Disney theme parks and resort hotels, are a perfect way for your children to spend extra time with favorite Disney characters. Meals are offered in three ways depending on the restaurant: buffet-style, family-style, or pre-plated meals; regardless, it?s essentially all-you-can-eat. Characters work the room, stopping at each table to interact with guests, pose for photos, and sign autographs. Book priority seating early, particularly for Cinderella?s Royal Table, Epcot?s Princess Breakfast in Norway, and Chef Mickey?s by calling 407-WDW-DINE.

Cara Goldsbury is the author of The Luxury Guide to Walt Disney World: How to Get the Most Out of the Best Disney Has to Offer available at 800-247-6553, or www.luxurydisneyguide.com

When you get off the bus in the Andean Mountain resort town of Banos, Ecuador, you’ll see several people quickly moving towards you. Some of them will be the actual owners of the hotels in town, and others are working on commission. They’ll all claim to have the nicest and the cheapest hotel.

This onslaught of salesmen may annoy you at first, until you realize what it means. There are vacant rooms tonight, and there is real competition! They have tipped their hands, and you are in charge now. Let the contest begin!

When my wife and I were in Banos recently, we let an older woman drag us off from the bus station. She showed us two hotels she owned, and we preferred the second. We were told the room would be $12. It was clean, with cable T.V. and lots of hot water. We offered $6 per night, paying for four nights in advance. She agreed.

The lesson is clear if you want the cheapest hotel room: Negotiate! The owner knew we were ready to walk away, and that there were others waiting for our business. Unfortunately, most owners here in the U.S. would rather let you drive away than knock five bucks off the room rate. Even here, however, we have negotiated decent discounts by paying for several nights in advance. Of course we let them know that we’ll be looking elsewhere if they say no.

The Cheapest Hotel Rooms – More Tips

You can use the travel web sites to find cheap hotel rooms, but remember that they only give you rates for the hotels and motels that are in their system. I just did a search for Tucson, Arizona, for example, on several sites. One or two of the sites found decent prices on certain hotels, but I know of several nice motels in Tucson that are $15 cheaper than the cheapest rate they found. Use the internet as a place to start, or when you can’t get any other information.

Get coupon books at gas stations along the highways. We’ve often found good deals using these, and it’s rare that a manager won’t honor them. Usually only if they’re absolutely full will they refuse. Read the fine print, however, because they often charge more for certain dates, or for two people.

There are promotions done where if you mention this ad or just use the right words, you get up to 70% discount. Talk, talk, talk. Tell them if you’re a member of the AARP, AAA or whatever. Tell the person on the phone that you saw an ad in the Times, or whatever big paper they might have advertised in.

Get the receptionist to help you. Try asking what the magic words are. Some receptionists will tell you. You might also ask What do I have to say to get the cheapest rate? They will sometimes tell you, or suggest other options. Ask about the hotel too, of course. You don’t want ANY room. You want the cheapest hotel that has nice rooms.

Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 42, he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met in Ecuador. For travel stories, tips and a free Travel Secrets e-book, visit: http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com

Question of trust was always critical on the web and as generally known web today is one of the weakest place in regard to protection of someone?s privacy or rights. It affects almost all industries on the web and hotel reservation as well. This issue becomes more important while the industry expands. The percentage of internet-based hotel reservations was tripled in 2004 to 15.4 percent from 4.9 according to Andersen LLP. It is generally known that 85% of Internet users rely on search engines to find any information on the Web (e.g. MSN, Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, etc). But we have to keep in mind that being listed in the top search results at the major search engines mentioned above gives no guarantee at all that a certain company is really reliable. While search engines make their ranking rules more strict, there are still a good number of websites with false reputation that appear in the top search results at major search engines by using some tricks. To make it clear and help web-surfers to understand this issue from a professional point of view our team will give some major hints to which anyone should pay attention to find the right company. We will discuss some issues about travel industry, which can be helpful in understanding of major problems.

Most of the travel websites if not all of them provide only reservation service without giving any information or news about this fast developing industry on the web. According to the statistics, travel related websites generate a huge traffic on the web and of course it brings to a high competition in this industry. Every day thousands of new travel websites appear on the web but most of them after spending much efforts and finance, disappear from the web as easily as they appeared first. The reason – it is not an easy task to build quality, travel website able to provide not only quality service but also to present a wide range of products professionally. There are many travel websites providing so many information, partly useful and partly not since they don’t understand the market, its specific needs, needs of customers which finally brings to abundance of the information collected on the website thus making a trouble to a visitor to find easily what he needs. Other websites while having good hotel database still can’t organize their website in a proper way. If you visit this kind of website you can hardly find information about the city that you need. You have to spend a few minutes trying to find what you need among huge amount of text links. Hotel search must be organized as easy as possible divided by cities, countries, type of hotels with good advanced search boxes for the best discount hotel deals.

On some websites when you start searching for discount hotel deals, the engine gives you only a few results leaving you almost not a choice. Or you have to visit each hotel link separately resulting in spending much time. That?s why the most important in any industry on the web and especially in travel service is to collect information about all discount hotel deals in the best way and put them in front of the customer professionally to make his reservation procedure as easy and fast as possible. To provide this service a travel website team must be knowledgeable first and experienced through years not just a few days or months.

In addition to the competition, another problem, a visitor is having on the web today is a trust. We have to agree that it is not an easy to pay your hard earned money on the web without knowing anything about website. It is another problem web visitors are having today. You have to be very careful when you choose a website on the web. The best solution is to choose a website which is the old experienced on the web. There are many young sectors on the web where it is hard to find an experienced website. There are a few websites in travel industry that exist on the web for the last 10, 15 years. It is a good criteria to choose the right website. Another advantage of the experienced websites is that they know how to serve their customers since they have a good experience, they know different types of problems that may appear during hotel reservation and they know how to solve these problems professionally. That’s why the best choice is to visit this kind of websites or the ones that connected to them through affiliate links thus providing almost the same quality of service. When you visit a travel website pay attention to Customer Care section, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Cancel Reservation Policy, Confirming Reservation, Payment Issues and other Frequently Asked Questions section. Availability and detailed description of these sections gives another credibility to a website. Pay attention to the availability of the phone number with a live person to reply to any of your question. If you find subscription to a newsletter option that says that a website team builds a long and strong relations with their customers. A good website provides secure reservation thus protecting their customers from many problems on the web. BBB.org is a Better Business Bureau organization that provides information on over two million organizations and websites and it is advisable to check any website before you invest. When you visit a website and find BBB sign with a link taking you to the main base of this organization testifying that a website you visited has a long presence on the web and a reliable partner then you can stop this website and choose it as your travel provider. If this sign is not available it doesn?t decrease credibility of a website but its availability is preferable.

Finally, we have to keep in mind that a good, quality website is not the one that provides reservation service but rather the one that builds a strong relations with its customers, provides full service including solutions to the problems a customer may have. It is the best strategy any website should follow.

Have a good travel
www.AboutTrip.com

Rufat Kuliyev is the author of the articles on hotel reservations industry, trends, strategies and all kinds of news related to travel subject. By subscribing to a FREE monthly ezine Travel with a reliable partner you can receive all up to date news.

A rapidly growing economy and the so called Asian Dragon, Malaysia is located in the south-east Asia. Two parts form the entire region of this country. The very first one is Peninsular Malaysia which borders Thailand in North and Singapore in south. The second part is East Malaysia which features the states of Sarawak and Sabah that share the Island of Borneo with Indonesia. This country is popular as one of the most happening, pleasant and hassle-free destination in the world.

Diversified societies pervade throughout the region of Malaysia. Malay, Chinese and Indians constitute the social establishments. This country is an interesting fusion of vibrant and interesting culture and customs because of the presence of these diverse societies. You will find Chinese mostly in trade and Malays in government. As for visiting destinations in Malaysia, the Peninsular part of the country is more popular amongst the tourists. Divided into the East Coast and West Coast, by the Titiwangsa mountain range, both the regions have charming attractions. However west coast is more developed whereas East coast has a rustic charm.

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of the country and located on the west coast. It proves to be an ideal point to start the tour. It is a bustling city with lots of activities, shopping arcades and pleasant surprises. You can have a relaxing period in Cameron Highlands away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This place has maintained the charming and cool character of it since its inception. Many other islands and historical places like Langkawi Island, Melaka and Penang have excellent features to stun you. Visitors with adventurous attitude can turn towards the Sarawak or Sabah region which offers great wildlife adventures. As for staying in any part of Malaysia, you do not need to worry about this aspect at all. Malaysian Hotels have all the facilities to make your stay quite comfortable.

Niraj Singh is working as Sr. SEO in Binary Semantics Ltd. Gurgaon, India. He has 5 yrs. of experience in the field of Search Engine Optimisation. His expertise is in the travel domain make him specialist in the field of Websites related to Travels.

This ancient city, now the capital of Italy, is also Mecca for all Catholics and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy. Its nickname, ?the eternal city? emphasizes its long history and the important role Rome has always played in major European events. Modern Rome with its population of about 4 million is the biggest Italian city and the centre of the Lazio province.

Roman history began about 3000 years ago, when, according to some myths and legends, Rome was founded by two brothers ? Romul and Rem. This legend has a sad end ? Romul killed his brother and gave the city his own name. Since that time began the rise of the Roman Empire, which has reached its peak about 2 centuries B.C. The significant part of the attractions in the city is has to do with this period ? several centuries before Christ birth and several centuries after it. However the roman art of that time represent a copy of the art in ancient Greece. The gods and their images are the same, only the names have changed. But still, there are a lot of outstanding and unique objects and monuments.

The main symbol of the Roman glory is Coliseum. Today we would call it the central stadium. It has witnessed a countless number of the gladiators? fights and the deaths of the first Christians (though the latter it?s not a historically proofed fact). Coliseum wasn?t restores. Its ruins mean much more?

Another Ancient Rome landmark is Roman Forum. It was commercial and political centre of the city, where the main historical events took place. Today it?s a museum under the sky.

Pantheon ? a temple, devoted to all Roman gods is also an outstanding monument of the Roman art. It was built abou 125 A.D.

Constantine Arch of the IV century A.D. is the most famous triumphal arch and it is in rather good condition. It?s one of the latest symbols of the roman power.

The biggest and the most powerful pagan city, Rome later became one of the most important Christian centers as well. Vatican, the residence of the Pope, is located inside Roman borders, but it?s the state, though the smallest one in the world. Holy place for all Catholics, Vatican receives a lot of religious travelers from all over the world. The centre of the state is St Peters Basilica, which is the largest church in the world. Renaissance epoch is also strongly connected with Rome. Greatest artists, architects and sculptors of that time lived and worked here. They left a lot of masterpieces, which we still can enjoy.

The Sistine Chapel in Vatican ? is the leading historic, artistic and religious monument of the Renaissance was built 1475 and1483. It?s the Pope?s chapel and a place where the new Pope is being elected. Due to the beautiful frescos of Michelangelo it is also a very popular museum. Trevi Fountain was created in XVIII century on demand of the Pope Clement XII. It?s richly decorated and represents the statue of Ocean on the big shell, which is a chariot.

Piazza di Spagna began to develop in XVIII century and later become one of the city?s most popular places. Spanish Steps ? a long staircase, connecting the square with the Trinita’ dei Monti church.

For booking a hotel in any part of the world, please, go to http://www.hotelsrates.net

As the second largest city of Western Europe, Paris is known as the City of Lights for its well-lit displays in the late hours, which calls to visiting tourists from around the world. It is the home of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and many more vacationer attractions.

What can you see in a weekend in Paris? If you?re visiting Paris for only a short while, try these suggestions on the top hot spots. You can?t miss these!

Visiting Popular Attractions In Paris

Rising up over 300 meters tall, this steel structure, the Eiffel Tower, can be seen throughout most locations around the city. Elevators lift visiting tourists to the top to get a bird?s eye view of Paris. As it is lit up in the evening, it is one of the most beautiful sights in the entire city. Guided tours add to the thrill as you get to peek into history on how it was made and what it means to the French today.

The opera building, Op?ra de Paris Garnier started its history back in 1862 when its construction began. It took over ten years to complete, because an underground lake was discovered under the location and was completed in 1875. Tours and shows continue to operate through this attraction for those visiting Paris, though now mainly used for ballet performances since the construction of Op?ra de Paris Bastille, another distinctive entertainment tourist spot.

Visiting Museums In Paris

One of the largest and most famous museums is the Louvre of Paris, and visiting it is none other than an opportunity of a lifetime. With over 300,000 wonderful artistic works, you simply cannot see all of it in one day. An entire weekend could be spent simply gazing at the thousands of painting, including Leonardo da Vinci?s world famous Mona Lisa.

For something more exciting for children and families, try the Centre Pompidou. It not only contains a museum of modern art, but a bookstore and a library among other things. The museum, featuring the works of artists like Matisse and Picasso, holds one of the largest collections of cubist, surrealist and abstract art.

Photo Opportunities for People Visiting Paris

You don?t need to be Catholic to appreciate the majestic architecture of Notre-Dame. Its construction was made to fit a monumental scale, and plans were made to enlarge it even before the cathedral was completed. While not the biggest, it is the most famous and one of the grandest cathedrals in the entire world.

Commissioned by Napoleon in 1806, the Arc de Triomphe, it is engraved with the names of the generals that commanded his troupes. It now stands as a monument to the era and a popular photo spot for tourists visiting Paris. The Arc also features an observatory to take in surrounding views.

If you?re still looking for something that will arouse the attention of the entire family, try the Jardin du Luxembourg, a 224,500 square meter park. An octagon pond called the Grand Bassin is located in the center of the park. It is here that children can rent toy motorboats for a fun afternoon. You can also check out the puppet shows, chess games, it?s many statues and it?s two famous fountains, the Fontaine de Medicis and the Fontaine de l’Observatoire, at the north and south ends of the park.

Obviously, these are not the only tourist spots, but upon visiting Paris, these are the most popular and are certainly not to be missed. Most of these locations offer regular guided tours, some at little to no cost. Call your travel agent and make arrangements to visit these locations.

Fionn Downhill is President of Four Corners Hotels offering discount hotels around the world. http://www.fourcornershotels.com/index.php/FR–Paris