Can You Really Enjoy World Travel On A Mini Budget

Many people hold in their dreams to become a world traveler, or to at least go on at least one trip to a foreign locale. The reason most people do not act on their desire to travel abroad is of course financial. There are ways to enjoy world travel on a budget, but you have to know where to look and where to lay your concern when searching for the right vacation destination and flight.

Although in recent years there have been more students that request student loans and government grant so get through their college years, there is also a surge in the number of college aged students that take trips to foreign locations. These excursions occur partly because of a foreign studies program or missions trip that is offered by the school and often partially covered from the semester's tuition, but also because Americans, as a whole, are more apt to spend money that they do not have than they used to be.

In order to break down how students and adult travelers can travel abroad on a budget, we have to first separate the travel costs into categories. If you break down the trip into three categories and search for bargains in those three categories separately, you will be likely to find a good deal on each. The first category would be travel. The main portion of this category will likely be the trip to and from your destination, but you can also include transportation while on your vacation in this heading as well. For example, if you are traveling through Europe, you may be more likely to need several flights while on your vacation, whereas a trip to the Bahamas or Cancun would require only local travel.

Begin researching flight costs. You should do this at no less than three locations. Those three would be a travel agent, the internet (sites like Priceline and Travelocity), and the airlines themselves. At separate times, you may get the best price at any of these locations. If you think the first place you find a price for a flight is a great price, keep looking, you can always come back and get it in a few hours, after you have checked around. Also, if you are planning several smaller flights while on your vacation, there are great deals for short flights throughout Europe. These can also be researched on the internet or through your travel agent. If you are planning to rent a car, check with local companies in your home country to see if they can recommend a rental place in your destination, but also check with the locals once you have arrived and see where they recommend. Many times, the locals know better than anyone where to find a good deal.

Searching for a hotel can be done in much the same way as searching for your transportation needs. You should always check at least three separate places before committing. Know also that hotels in other countries are likely not the same as hotels in your own backyard. Many hotels may have community showers, while others will have private baths in each room or suite. Make a list of questions to be answered before booking any hotel. Once you have decided that the hotel you have selected is satisfactory in both appearance and price, then you should book the hotel to insure a room is available for you and your travel companion.

Finally, we come to entertainment money, or spending money as some would call it. You will inevitably want to spend money on your vacation, whether it be for meals or souvenirs for grandma. In all money spending situations, use your common sense. In foreign countries, it could be difficult to remember the exchange rate and know what you are spending on certain items, so an electronic exchange calculator is a great tool for your outings.

If you keep these suggestions in mind, you can enjoy world travel on a budget and still have a great time!
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By: Nancy Arlington -

www.MyWorldTravelSite.com provides free information on world travel. You can pick up tricks and tips for traveling the world no matter your budget! Check out our latest page on antarctic travel.

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Budget Travel For Martial Arts Karate Tournaments

Once martial arts competitors and coaches decide to follow one of the large karate circuits like NASKA or NBL, it will soon be realized that participation in this sport can be very expensive. Many years ago, I attended a seminar conducted by Charlie Lee and he said that the only main difference between many national and local competitors is that the national ones have the funds to travel. Ive been on both the NBL and NASKA circuits. Ive also dabbled in international overseas competition as well so Ive learned a few tricks over the years to help save some overall costs involved in competition.

Competition Fees

Most karate tournaments offer some savings through pre-registrations. With many promoters adding online registration capabilities recently, pre-registering is a snap. Of course, theres the risk of losing your entire fee if for some reason you dont show up at the event. Even if you have made commitments to attend certain tournaments, other circumstances can prevent you from going. For example, I have missed tournaments due to flight cancellations because of bad weather. It is also possible for flights to be delayed or missed due to reasons beyond your control. Of course, unforeseen emergencies at home can always cause trip cancellations. So even though one can save some good money over the course of a year by pre-registering for all events, it is a risk to take.

Hotels

Most tournament promoters also work out a special room rates at designated tournament hotels. These special rates usually range from about $100 to $125 which are quite good considering that most event hotels are top major chains like Hyatt, Sheraton, Hilton, etc. However, I have found that if one is willing to do some research, even more significant savings are possible with accommodations. I almost never stay at event hotels anymore. Instead, I will do research to find out hotels that are close by. The maps facility at the Yahoo site is wonderful for this. Just go to Yahoo and click on maps. Then enter the address and city of the tournament hotel. Do a search of other hotels close by and the site will show you where they are on a map as well as how far they are from the event hotel. I also use travel websites like Travelocity and Expedia to verify other nearby hotels. Many hotels are often much less expensive especially the ones that are one level lower in quality. In addition to the travel websites, I would also check room rates directly with Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Econolodge, Quality Inn), Holiday Inn, Days Inn and Motel 6 via their websites. The rooms at these chains are not as luxurious as those at major hotels but they are clean and comfortable. They are not the bottom of the barrel like some independent motels are. Rates can be 50% lower than even the tournament rates at the event hotels. My average rate for rooms has been about $50 and that often includes free breakfasts which event hotels seldom offer.

Many lower priced hotels are within walking distances of the tournaments. Even if a hotel is not within walking distance, a small cab fare is usually worth the room savings. Ive even stayed at airport location hotels and then utilized the free hotel shuttles of both the place I was staying at as well as the event hotel to get around. Of course, all this is not as convenient as staying at the event hotel but if you are willing to plan ahead a bit, good savings are possible. Of course for events where Im extending my stay for vacation purposes, a rental car will allow me to stay wherever I want.

Another way to chop off half of your hotel expenses is to leave right after your competition is over. You will miss the evening shows but if you dont mind that, then you will have to stay overnight for only a single night rather than two. Over the course of a year, single night trips can result in significant savings.

Flights

Driving would be the most economical way to travel to tournaments but if the locations are too far, then flying would be the most realistic way to get there. One could also explore trains too. As for flights, one could wait for seat sales to purchase tickets. Another strategy is to fly in or out of different airports that are nearby the event city. There could be significant savings in prices for flights if you are willing to use alternative airports. Some cities have more than one major airport in the region. Alternative airports can reduce travel costs for competitors who have to cross the US-Canadian border as well. Canadians driving to US airports right across the border could save up to 50% sometimes for flights. Travelers should join all frequent flyer programs but try to stay with one or two main airlines if possible. Points do add up which can result in future free flights. Of course, points from hotel stays, car rentals and credit card use also help.

Transfers

As mentioned previously, I try to use free hotel shuttles whenever I can. If my hotel doesnt have a free shuttle and it is close to the event hotel, sometimes I would take the event hotels free shuttle and then walk to my hotel. I often use the event hotels shuttle to catch a ride back to the airport too. Just hang out at the event hotel lobbies so that you look like a guest and nobody should question your use of the shuttle.

Many cities where large tournaments are held have very efficient and safe transit systems right from the airport. For example, instead of paying for cabs or airport shuttles that charge, taking the local bus or subway train for about $1.50 will get me to the tournament just as easy.

So as you can see, there are different ways to take a bite off the overall expenses of karate tournament travel. You just have to do your research for every trip. As for meals, you could always stuff yourself silly for a very reasonable price at those Chinese buffets found almost everywhere.
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By: Clint Leung

Clint Leung is a lifelong martial artist with over 32 years of training experience in kung fu, tae kwon do, karate, kickboxing and martial arts weaponry. He has won Canadian and world championship titles (NASKA, NBL and WSKF). He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear (www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com) , an online retailer and designer of premium martial arts activewear. Free Spirit Activewear has martial arts info articles.

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The Art Of Website Maintenance

Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly.

If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out "what's new". The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don't find anything new, they may decide not to come back-which can be a blow to your search engine rankings.

So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don't want to waste time and money nitpicking at your site if you don't have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you've:

- Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website-and your potential clients-with your new capabilities.

- Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area.

- Completed a successful project. If you've just finished a project, include it on your website. Create an online portfolio, add a case study-build a section on your website to use as a place to show the world your success.

- Gotten more testimonials, or added to your client list. Including more feedback on your offering helps to build your credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each of your successful client projects. Updating your testimonials regularly will also show clients who have visited your site a few times that your offerings are "up to snuff".

- Written an article. Writing articles is a great way to keep your website up-to-date and to put more content on your site. Search engines love content-rich sites, and visitors will love to see the new information. So, if you write articles to educate your clients and promote your business, be sure to place them on your website as well. They're likely to be full of keywords related to your area of specialty, which will help your ranking in the search engines.

- Press releases. You should post all press releases and other information you publish about your company to your website. You never know who may be visiting, and you may get written up for your accomplishments.

- Changes in your business. Have you hired someone? Changed your business structure, and you're now required to notify the public of that? If so, you should probably review your website and evaluate how you can add that information.

- Yearly check-ups. You should do a basic check on your site at least once a year, to make sure that the content is current. Some things to check on include:

- Your copyright statements should be updated yearly

- Test and validate your links, to ensure that they still work

- Your time references should be changed. If your "About" page says how many years you've been in business, this is the time to change that!

- Your pricing and offerings-do you have new products or services? Have your prices increased over the past year?

Spotlight any major updates on your home page as well, so that people will learn of those updates as soon as they enter your site. The search engines will also discover the new update as soon as they enter your home page if you leave a bit of information, with a link to the full story, on the home page. That will act as a breadcrumb for the engine to follow-the engines will follow your link to learn more about it.

Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are great reasons to make changes to your site. If you make keeping your website current a priority, it will pay off with better search engine rankings and increased sales and leads through your website.

Once you've decided to make your changes, the next choice is how to go about doing that. There are two steps involved in maintaining your site:

1. First, decide whether you prefer to edit your content on paper or online. This can be done in a couple of ways. You can start by printing the pages that have outdated information and then updating that information on paper first. Or, you can copy and paste the outdated content from your website into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and then edit that file on your computer.

2. After you have updated your text content you can choose either to make the changes yourself or to hire a web designer to make the changes. There are several tools that you can use to make changes to your site yourself. We recommend an easy-to-use tool called Macromedia Contribute. It's fairly inexpensive, its simple to set up and learn, and it allows you to back up to older versions of your site if you make mistakes.

We suggest that you use this tool to make only simple text changes. More complicated changes-for example, to the overall design or navigation-are more difficult to make, and having a professional make those changes will save you energy and frustration.

If you are comfortable with a more complicated software program, then we recommend a professional-grade tool such as Dreamweaver. With a better software package, you'll be able to make some of the more complicated changes yourself.

By building more-and more current-information into your website, you will also begin to build trust with your potential clients, since they will have a snapshot of what's currently happening in your business and available to them. Your website can go a long way towards making sure that your online prospects know, like, and trust you-which can lead to more sales from your website.
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By: Erin Ferree

Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big visibility for small businesses. Her workbook, "Design a Website That Works", will walk you through all of the questions that you need to answer in order to create the best possible website. www.elf-design.com/http://www.elf-design.com/products-webWorkbook.html

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