Free Travel Tips

Overworked, overstressed? Unwind with a trip to Ojai, Calif. Courtesy: Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce.

There’s still time to enjoy a summer vacation, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Consider these 4 affordable ways to squeeze the fun out of the season.

1. Go back to school. College towns such as Ann Arbor and Charlottesville make for great affordable destinations year round. You might think that they’re dead come summer, but there are always a certain number of students who stick around, and the offerings—museums, art cinemas, funky restaurants, festivals—can rival those of a big city (at a small fraction of the price). Hotels ar Read more…

The political brinksmanship that led to the weekend expiration of the U.S. government’s authority to collect air ticket taxes continued this week, keeping the Federal Aviation Administration partially dark, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to ask airlines to provide applicable tax refunds to passengers and presenting many other questions. The immediate ramifications included FAA worker furloughs, suspension of various airport construction projects and new airline fare hikes. Because the price increases offset the removal of the ticket taxes, air travelers generally aren’t paying more, but airlines are realizing more revenue.

As of Thursday morning, a resolution was nowhere in sight.

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Although I’m currently living in Barcelona I have learned a lot about Andalusia and its capital Seville thanks to two of my friends that are from the south of Spain. Unfortunately, they both decided to return home, one of them quite recently, actually. As sad as it makes me to know they are not in close reach anymore, it’s nice to know I have apartments in Seville to stay at whenever I have the time to go there.

The people from Andalusia have the reputation to be very warm-hearted people and I can only confirm that. Als

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RANGERS have caught a 1.5 metre saltwater crocodile that bit a woman on the neck in a popular swimming hole in the Northern Territory.

Crocodile catcher Tommy Nichols said the saltie was spotlighted and caught in clear water at Berry Springs Nature Park on the outskirts of Darwin, the Northern Territory News reported.

The animal attacked the woman yesterday.

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“Route 66 Adventure Handbook” by Drew Knowles ($19.95, Santa Monica Press, 431 pages)

A certain nostalgic mystique is attached to Route 66. The most famous road in America inspired a hit song and a television show. A 40-foot stretch of asphalt from the route is featured in the “America on the Move” exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

The highway was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985, but even today, it remains one of America’s most traveled routes.

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Emirates will be the first airline to offer scheduled A380 services to Malaysia from December 1.

The Dubai-based carrier will operate daily flight EK346 with the superjumbo, departing the UAE at 0405 and arriving in KL at 1455, with return leg EK347 leaving Malaysia at 1930 and landing back in Dubai at 2230.

The news means Emirates will pip Malaysia Airlines to the post in offering A380 services from Kuala Lumpur.

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Responding to a flurry of court challenges and petitions from the industry, the Transportation Department postponed the effective date of key portions of its new consumer protection rules to Jan. 24.

The postponement affects the rewrite of DOT’s full-fare advertising rule, which was slated to take effect Oct. 24, and a number of other new rules slated to become effective Aug.

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