This year, May 12th through the 20th the tourism industry will observe National Tourism Week, a time to celebrate and promote how tourism and visitors from around the world support their respective communities. Even if you were not aware of National Tourism Week, you – as an avid traveler – have most certainly played an important role in the celebration, and in this week may benefit from related events. If you are unable to take time off for a paid vacation in this time, however, there are still ways to celebrate and be counted.

For nearly twenty-five years, the Travel Industry Association has observed this week-long itinerary of promotions, events, and advocacy designed not only to benefit destinations and businesses, but the visitors who patronize these places. If you are an avid traveler, you definitely want to stay alert of possible discounts and amenities available to you in this time. Communities around the United States generally participate in related National Tourism events, and this can mean big savings for the tourist. Here are just a few possibilities:

Day Trips: If you are unable to get away for a long period of time, consider taking a day trip or two to a nearby attraction or site of historical interest. Call ahead to see if any special discounts or incentives are being offered by state or national parks, amusement areas, or other tourist attractions in this time. Depending on where you live, you may be visiting in the off-season, and that can reap more breaks in cost.

Restaurant Discounts: If you happen to live in a touristy area, there may be a few eateries offering specials to coincide with this week. Ask around! You may be able to enjoy a nice dinner in a restaurant you don’t normally get to enjoy.

Tourism is but one of many industries that keeps our nation’s economy strong, and many opportunities await the local traveler during National Tourism Week. Take advantage of any offers that may come your way, and enjoy the trip!

Kathryn Lively is a freelance travel writer who has contributed to FlowCushion, the alternating air pressure flowcushion.com drivers seat cushion for travel, to the Currituck County Department of Tourism and Travel in the

A cruise along the European coastline, wouldn’t that be just a dream come true? If only you had the time and money to go on board a cruise ship and visit all those ports in the Mediterranean, to then go around the Iberian Peninsula to the North Sea up, up, and away almost to Siberia. It’s a dream, isn’t it? Wrong! If you are planning on traveling to Europe and you think cruising is the most expensive way, you are making a serious mistake.

There are many ways of getting to know Europe. You can go on your own, stay at a Bed & Breakfast, rent a car, have lunch at diners, and really spend serious money on overpriced European goods. Traveling on your own apparently seems less expensive, but if you write down everything you spend, you might be alarmed at the expenses. Let’s say you’re walking around London and you feel thirsty, wouldn’t it be terrible to pay for bottled water at a price three times what you pay at home? Paying a local tour guide is almost always more expensive and not always do they have understandable English. The best option for land traveling is going on a package deal if you want to save on a travel guide but that is about it. If you are going on a package deal you might as well go on a cruise!

Think about the advantages of a European cruise. All your food and drink is already paid for, so you won’t pay European prices on food and drink, you will pay what you would pay at home. When the cruise arrives at a city, you have a tour guide with good English. The only downside to cruises is the time limit for exploring the cities ashore, but the advantages totally overshadow this. If you take the total expense for cruising and divide it by the total number of days you will be traveling, the outcome might be much less expensive than land traveling.

So you should stop thinking that cruises are just for rich people because they are not. It is just a question of class and self-allowance. If you believe you can go on a cruise, you will because it turns out less expensive than land traveling.

There are two main routes on European cruises. You can take the cold Northern route, which is the Baltic Sea (Scandinavia and Russia), Norwegian fjords, the Arctic Circle, and British Isles. Make sure you take plenty of winter clothes, because out at sea is much colder than on land. It is a beautiful cruise, although it is more indoors. You can also take the Mediterranean course, which is probably more appealing. You get to know Barcelona, Southern France, Italy, and Greece. It is warm and pleasant there and you can go to the pool on the cruise ship and enjoy the outdoors. There are also possibilities of making a connection between both courses and get to know the entire European coastline.

It is just a matter of being wise with your money and knowing how to save up. It is not impossible to go on a European cruise, it is worth every cent.

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to european-cruise.guide-for-you.com/ European Cruising
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Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, has some of the most spectacular lakes, glaciers , forests and wildlife . The high mountain peaks lush green valleys, alpine forests and gushing rivers have inspired many a poet and artists. There are a so many adventure treks in himalayas which attracts to tracker for adventure tour in himalayas. Some adventure treks for trekking in himalayas are given bellow:

Markha Valley Trek: Trekking along the Markha River through “Little Tibet,” one of the world’s highest inhabited plateaus, you take in spectacular views of the Great Himalayan, Ladakh and Zanskar ranges.

Har Ki Doon Trek: Har-ki-Dun is situated in the Western Garhwal Himalayas, at the base of Fateh Parvat. This cradle shaped valley, South-east of Jaundar glacier is surrounded by dense forests of pine, deodar and other coniferous trees. It is totally covered by a blanket of blue and purple flowers. The surrounding forest is rich in wild life and exotic birds and forms part of the Govind Wildlife Sanctuary & National Park. The main snow clad peaks visible from here are Swarga-Rohini, Bandarpunch and Kala Nag.

Dodi Tal Trek:: Dodi Tal lake in Garhwal Himalayas – mysterious, alluring, and simply beautiful !
It is at an elevation of 3024 meters above mean sea level, north of Uttarakashi. Crystal clear waters are surrounded by dense Oak Woods, Pine, Deodar and Rhododendrons.

Valley of Flowers:
The snow on the Himalayas add majesty to the mountains and the innumerable flowers add to its beauty. This famous spot is not very difficult to reach. When the sun shines hot on this field, thousands of flowers bloom here. Tourists from all over the world come here. This valley was unknown till a British mountaineer Frank Smith first discovered this place.

Vinita Negi

If you are know more about adventure treks in garhwal then you can find complete information on himalayas treks with trekking routes at here: trekkingingarhwal.com/ trekkingingarhwal.com/

Memphis, in Shelby County, is the largest city in Tennessee. The greater Memphis area, with a population of over 1.2 million, is the biggest metropolitan area in the state, after Nashville.

The Memphis area initially belonged to the Chickasaw tribe. Europeans came much later, with a Spanish explorer named Hernando de Soto who is believed to have been in the area in the 1540s. By the late 17th century, French explorers such as Sieur de La Salle and René Robert Cavelier constructed Fort Prudhomme in the neighborhood. This was the first European settlement in what was to later become Memphis.

Notwithstanding the settlements, Memphis as we know today was an uncultured area for the greater part of the 18th Century. By 1796, the Memphis community was the extreme west point of the newly inducted state of Tennessee.

Memphis was integrated as a city in 1826, deriving its name from the ancient Egyptian capital. At the culmination of the Battle of Memphis in 1862 (part of the Civil War), the Union forces wrested Memphis from the Confederates.

Yellow fever epidemics that started in the 1870s decimated the population. In 1897, Memphis’ uniquely shaped pavilion was a significant part of the Tennessee Centennial exhibitions. The city was the hub of civil rights issues throughout the 1960s, significantly as the place of the sanitation workers’ strike. Also, it was in Memphis that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Memphis has a humid continental climate, with four clearly different seasons. The summers are hot and the winters are cold. Spring and autumn can be erratic and prone to harsh weather, identified with thunderstorms and strong gusts of wind. Summers can be very humid due to the city’s proximity to the Gulf of Mexico; the temperature, though, is bearable. Winters are a stark contrast, and are liable to be freezing cold. There is an abundance of rain to sustain the greenery of the city. For more than 60 percent of the year, the sun makes its presence felt in Memphis.

e-Memphis.com Memphis provides detailed information on Memphis, Memphis Real Estate, Memphis TN, Memphis City Schools and more. Memphis is affiliated with e-MemphisHotels.com Downtown Memphis Hotels.