When my husband and I were married four years ago, we did not take a honeymoon. We decided that we would use the money to buy a house instead. He surprised me at Christmas time with tickets to Las Vegas NASCAR. He said it would be the honeymoon that we never had, as we both love NASCAR and neither one of us had ever been to Vegas before.

We had heard all about the Las Vegas casinos, but we did not realize how much there was to experience, even for someone who does not gamble. Las Vegas is really an incredible city to visit and there was so much more to see there than we could have possibly fit in to our week.

The race was great and our favorite driver won. We think that we should go back every year to experience even more than we got to this time.

I would never have guessed that I would’ve taken a vacation in Turkey in my life.  But, a series of events occurred which resulted in finding myself writing this blog post from Icmeler Turkey.

You see, three weeks ago, I decided to go online to look for cheap holidays that would fit in my budget.  Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of money, but I really needed to get away from work and get a breath of fresh air.  It had been nearly 3 years since I last took a vacation and quite frankly I was burnt out.

While looking online, I found some cheap flights to Turkey that were much cheaper than any other destination in the world.  It had me intrigued, but honestly I didn’t know anyone that had ever gone there before.

After a bit more research, I learned of a nice beach resort, Icmeler, and it sounded perfect.  Not only can I spend my days on the beach, but I would also be able to experience life in another part of the world.  I booked tickets and reserved a room at a hotel that night.

So there you have it, that is exactly how I ended up in Turkey.  It has only been a couple of days, but it has been worth every penny.

One would think that, because we live in Orlando, that we would have been to Disney World many times. The truth is, though, that we have never been yet. We decided, when we moved here that we were not going to go until our kids were old enough to enjoy the experience. This year, we decided that it was time to finally buy them the Disney park tickets that their friends have been getting for years.

It was great news when my husband found out that he could get Disney World Hopper tickets at a substantially discounted rate through his work. If we had known this, we might have decided to go earlier.

We were equally surprised when my husband’s boss directed him to the website in which he could order the discounted tickets. It said that we should click for more info and we found out that there were many things, besides theme park tickets that we were entitled to a discount for. It was a great discovery.

One of the things I learned from my parents is that you should always plan ahead before you do anything.  I don’t plan ahead all the time, but when I do, things work out very well for me.

For example, when I was going to take a trip to Las Vegas, I made a point to find out if there were any Las Vegas hotel specials before I left.  I figured if I did that, I would be of the get a better rate than just walking into the door when I got there.

Most of the Las Vegas hotel promotions require a promo code which can be easily found online.  For example, if you would like to stay at the MGM Signature hotel, all you have to do is a search online for “MGM Signature hotel Las Vegas promo code.”  By performing such a search, you’ll find many sites that have the promo code that you’re looking for without ever having to leave your home.

Whenever I go on a trip that will require a hotel stay, I make sure to search for promo codes online and save myself a bucketful money.  Planning ahead sure pays off.

Instead of going on one of those run-of-the-mill vacations, I thought it was time to took a trip that was a little bit different.  Leaving the country is definitely in order, but the destination was unknown.

In order to make up my mind, I decided that I would go look online to see what other people suggested as a good vacation destination.  I figured that someone else had been in my situation but was able to find that one special place that ended up being the perfect exotic destination.

As it turned out, and up reading a lot of blogs, forum posts, as well as reviews of the many different destinations that people thought would be a good vacation spot.  From all these reviews I read, I decided to pick the one that was the most popular, which turned out to be the Seminyak Bali villas, a trendy resort on the island of Bali.

So the destination of my next trip has been decided and I look forward to experiencing Bali and all its wonders.

My wife and I were able to find a babysitter at the last minute so we were able to go on a quick holiday alone.  We haven’t done something like this since before we had children (many years ago), and it was going to be a welcome break.

We had decided that we would stay in one of the many Las Vegas Hotels, and check out the many things the city offered.  Now, it was our first time in Las Vegas, and we really wanted to see if the city lived up to the hype.

After partying all night at some Las Vegas Clubs (we are not that old), and checking out some art galleries during the day, we realized that we had made the right choice.  It was like the days that we were dating, and we had a wonderful time together.

But, the vacation couldn’t last forever - we had to get home to our kids.  I think that we are considering going back in the fall - we will need the break by then.

While traveling last summer, we had the opportunity to attend a festival in the city that we were visiting.  It was a cultural event of street performers and many different shows.

During the week that we were there, we were able to watch comedians, magicians, fire jugglers and stiltwalkers.  I had to explain to my child that the people on stilts were not giants.

Throughout the week, there were many shows that we went together as a family, and there were a few that we left our kids at my sister’s house.  Some of the material was just not appropriate for them, and we were sure to ensure that we only took them to shows that were appropriate to their age.  They loved each one that we took them to and the smiles that they had were worth every penny.

It was definitely an entertaining trip as we have never seen some of the sites that we saw on that trip.

For the past three years we’ve gone camping for our summer vacation.  We went to the same spot each year up in the mountains and spent a glorious week hiking,camping, fishing and just enjoying the outdoors.  But over the past year our health has deteriorated to the point where we won’t be able to go camping outside.  So instead of going camping, we have decided to stay over at hotels and do something we’ve always dreamed of.

Our choose one kids are still pretty young, so what we have decided to do is take a trip down to Disneyworld.  Our kids have always wanted to go there, and now that we finally are in a financial position where we can afford it, we’ve decided that it would be the perfect place for us to go.

I have been looking online to see if I can find a place where I can get cheap tickets to Disney World.  I have found a couple of websites that offer cheap tickets but what I will do is check with our travel agent to see if she can match the price before we him purchase them.

My children have been nagging me for a very long time to take them to the zoo.  Now, they want to go to a real zoo, not the local one that we have in town.  They are tired of the limited animals at the one we have in town - so I thought we could take them to see some real ones.

We have been planning to go to London, England for some time now, and I thought I might look up if they had a zoo.  Turns out they have a big one, with real animals (according to my kids), and we will be able to have time to check it out while we are there.

From what I read on the zoo forums, we will be there during busy season and may have difficulties getting in.  So, I ordered some London Zoo tickets online and they will be shipped to me before we go on the trip.

I can’t wait to see the looks on my children’s faces when they get to see some “real” animals - it is that part of being a parent I enjoy the most.

I don’t travel a whole lot, but one of my biggest fears about traveling is getting stuck at the airport.  This happened to me once before, when I went to the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988.

You see, I got off of my flight there in Calgary, and was hoping to catch a cab to my hotel.  Needless to say, I never made it to my hotel the next day as I was stuck at the airport because the cabs in the city were too busy.

So, when I learned that I was going to Newark, I had to call ahead to ensure that I had Newark airport transportation to my hotel in place even before I left on the trip.  I made the point to call three weeks in advance to book a ride just to be on the safe side.

I just called to confirm the booking today, a mere seven days before I go.  I just do not want to be stuck at an airport overnight again – that experience traumatized me.