Milton Keynes is a city, a part of the unitary authority of the Borough of Milton Keynes, in Central-Southeast England, located 72 km (45 miles) northwest of London and approximately midway between Oxford and Cambridge. The name of this purpose-built, high-technology ‘new city’ is taken from the traditional Milton Keynes Village, which is still there, housing a lovely thatched pub, village hall, and a church.

The nearest international airport, Luton, is located about 50 km away, which is mainly used by low cost airlines, such as Easyjet and Ryanair. Birmingham International Airport is also located about a 100 km away. Most of the train services are operated by Virgin and Silverlink, and there are frequent services to London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and further north. National Express maintains long-distance coaches from London Victoria Coach Station and Golders Green Bus Station, and there are several other bus services to the Midlands and North. Stagecoach, on the other hand, operates a coach service running to Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford, and Cambridge.

Milton Keynes has over 350 dining establishments in and around the city, offering almost every type of local and international cuisine to suit all tastes and budgets. The Theatre District, for example, has everything from oriental cuisine to fast food chains such as Pizza Hut. Smaller, independent restaurants can be found in outlying areas such as Stony Stratford, Wolverton, and Fenny Stratford. Some of the most crowded and lively pubs and clubs are also located within this district, with venues offering a range of modern, thrilling, sporty, laid-back and friendly atmospheres. As for more traditional pubs, head along the Stony Stratford high street.

There are many places to 4hotels.co.uk/uk/milton-keynes.html stay in and around Milton Keynes from small, friendly bed and breakfasts through to the usual large hotels. You may even get to see the famous concrete cows when you visit this new town.

Being one of the major retail areas in Southeast England, Milton Keynes has an extensive variety of shops, markets and superstores. The Centre in Milton Keynes is one of Europe’s longest shopping centres, which houses a number of high street stores and smaller, specialist shops. Midsummer Place shopping centre, on the other hand, is a £150 million establishment which provides the city with an additional 430,000 sq ft of city centre shopping. More traditional shopping atmosphere can be found at the older towns of Stony Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Bletchley, Wolverton, Woburn Sands, and Olney.

The most visited tourist attractions in Milton Keynes include Bletchley Park, where code breakers during World War II were sequestered; Xscape, a sports and entertainment complex that features indoor snow slopes, climbing walls, bowling lanes, a multi-screen cinema and a variety of interactive games; Willen Lake, 180 acre lake and park, offering all types of watersports, high ropes course, adventure golf, play area, mini railway, pub and cafes; Gulliver’s Land, a theme park; National Hockey Stadium, where the MK Dons play home games; Milton Keynes Theatre, where travelling shows and long running productions are staged; the Bletchley Park museum of wartime cryptography; and the Milton Keynes Museum, which features the Stacey Hill Collection of rural life that existed before the foundation of the new city.

Some of the popular festivals and events in the city include Gardening Show, Free Events, Campbell Park Fireworks, Sherlock’s Excellent Adventure, Salsa Events, Slava’s Snowshow, etc.

Find 4hotels.co.uk/uk/milton-keynes.html Milton Keynes hotels, guest houses and bed & breakfasts in this 4hotels.co.uk/uk/ accommodation directory

New Technology & the Travel Industry

One of the new ways to market your travel business is by the use of email. Fast delivery is the key to a successful campaign. The first thing you need to do is to get permission to send these emails by having an opt-in describing the future content of your mails and the other is to have an opt-out in the actual emails that you send to prospective clients. You should follow guidelines set out by mailbox providers to ensure that your emails get past their spam blockers.

Have you ever heard the term SEO (search engine optimization)? If you haven’t, you should sit up and take notice, especially if you have your own web site. SEO is a broad term which encompasses various methods of optimization including conducting sometimes exhaustive keyword research and the improving hyperlinks that link back to your own web site. For a travel web site, the best back links would be from other travel related web sites.

If you have your own travel web site you should spend some time spreading your links across the internet by submitting your URL (universal resource locator) to as many travel and holiday web directories as possible. You can also link to other related travel sites and reciprocate this by linking back to them, though it is always better to have a one way link that points to your site.

One of the most important features a travel company needs on their web site is the capability for users to search for holidays, flights; cruises etc and be able to book them online. Any travel web site worth its salt now has these features and their number of sales reflects this. More that 80% of travelers who plan their holidays make their bookings online. See www.barrheadtravel.co.uk for an example. These back-end programs though are not for the novice web programmer to construct and unless you are used to producing server code I suggest you outsource for this complexity of programming.

Blogs are the latest thing to hit the internet. These can be a very potent marketing tool that can reach out to new customers. People love to be told travel stories and blogs allow you and others to post new content and update it quickly.

Podcasts are yet another way to reach your customers. Podcasts can contain video and audio so you could shorten or use sections of your promotional holiday video and make it available for download by the millions of people who own an iPod.

In brief, if you are in the travel industry, if you don’t embrace all the technology that is at your disposal, you may be left behind.

Dedicated to the travel industry, I always try to get the best holiday deals for my clients.

The drive from Embu to Meru has some breath taking scenery.

We turn to the mountain, climbing higher up the slopes. The country side is picturesque, with a green carpet of tea plantations, coffee shrubs and macadamia trees. The air is tantalizingly fresh. From the main road, it’s hard to imagine that there is fertile farmland so far up Mt Kenya.

The clear rivers

A river runs from the slopes, crystal-clear cold water gushing out of the forest, skirting the farms and down to the plains. It’s the Rupingazi. Near the indigenous forest, a trout farm has been set up by the Nyanjara Rivers Waters Association, not only an income generating venture to uplift their living standards, but also to save the mountain’s remaining forests.

It’s a holistic approach to managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest since farms wedge their way higher up.

The mega-sponge forests

But it’s these old forest that act as mega-sponges, providing the clean fresh water. It is, therefore, in the best interest of the community to look after the forests. I’m shown a story book in Kiswahili based on an elephant and a farmer and the problems they have to deal with in the end, the farmer realizes that the elephant also need a space to live, and that cutting down the forests is not beneficiary to anybody. In the larger context, it all boils down to good management. Further down the road on our way to Chogoria, a ribbon of a water fall catches my eye. It’s so beautiful that we stop to ask some people by the roadside what it’s called.

“That waterfall is called Ina. It used to be on a white man’s farm” they reply.
We decline. We have three days to go round the mountain to show the writer from Washington DC the community projects. We are on day two and hopefully, he will see the peaks of God’s mountain today.

Generating electricity

Again, we turn to the mountain at Chogoria to see a micro-electricity project called Baarani, an amalgamations of the two villages it will light, Baraimu and Mpiani. Chogoria is said to be the most picturesque route to the peaks. I can believe that.

At first, we can only hear the sound of the water. We walk down the slope to a dam and then a few steps away, a stunning waterfall called Owinga gushes over the rocks to crash at the bottom and continue its journey down the mountain. It’s the River Mara, which forms the boundary between Meru south and central. The waters of the river are helping the people to light up there homes instead of using paraffin or burning firewood for fuel.

Again, the water is from the forests of Mount Kenya and without the force of the flowing river, the turbine would not function. One of the members is John, licensed guide for Mount Kenya. He can’t remember the number of times he has scaled the mountain.” It’s easy to reach point Lenana. It takes only four days,” he says.” It’s the mountain’s third peak. But Batian is where you require technical skills.” It’s the highest peak at 17,058 feet, followed by Nelion, only a few feet lower.

Giant Lobelias and raffia

Back on the main road, we drive to Meru, home of the Meru people. The road from Embu to Meru is full of picturesque drives, bends and twists and wide bridges over yawning rivers, providing the country with its hydro-electric power. Elegant raffia trees grow by the banks, their leaves, reputed to be the largest in the plant kingdom, sweeping the skies. By the time we get to Meru, it’s raining heavily. After a cup of tea, we decide to drive on to Nanyuki before it gets dark. Had we had time, I would have loved to spend a few days at Meru National Park, about an hour-and-a-half’s drive from town. The road out of Meru is lined with the old forest, once filled of the famous massive Meru oaks.

Bordering the Dry and scraggy North

We drive around the shoulder of the mountain from where the crossroad to the northern dry lands turns. In the soft light of the day’s end, the hills of Laikipia and Samburu meld into hues of quiet blues, creating waves against the sky line. It never ceases to amaze me how dramatically a landscape can change from lush farms and forest to dry scrub and dry rivers of sand.

We begin to ascend the mountain road, past Timau with its pastures of rich farm land and the sheep all mowing the grass. The mountain is shrouded in clouds. If the sky had been clear this would have been the best area to see the towering peaks of the mountain. No show. Day two is turning to night and our guest hasn’t seen the peaks.

Community Tourism

Community tourism initiatives are interesting. It’s a great way to meet people, discover their land and enjoy the country side. It’s a fledgling industry and a break from the traditional tourist setup. Organisations here partner with local community in the management and conservation of the protected sites by using natural resources sustainably

There are camping grounds all around but if you would rather put up in clean motels like Embu motel, start discovering Kenya’s beaten track. Mt Kenya is a world Heritage Site.

Robert Muhoho
landmarksafaris.com landmarksafaris.com
If you haven’t scaled Kenya’s tallest mountain, give it a try.

Robert is a tour consultant in Kenya and has planned safaris for over 50,000 tourists in the East African region. He is a tour operations- major and has been involved in community tourism National tourism policy development in Kenya.

The hill of Tara is a famous for the panoramic views it offers up over Ireland. Situated in County Meath, the hill of Tara is 155m above sea level and on a clear day you can see over nine Irish counties and as far north as Antrim. Tara or (Teamhair in Irish) means lofty height and the meeting place of darkness and light. The hill of Tara dates back to prehistoric times and was called the seat of the High Kings in old documents.

From the hill of Tara an unbelievable twenty five other monuments can be seen and many more have since been discovered by modern technology using aerial photography and satellite images. Fires could be lit on the hill of Tara to signify important dates in the calendar or important events. These fires could be seen over a vast area ensuring the message is passed at terrific speeds across much of the land. Examples as to why the fire would be lit are the crowning of a new King or to mark the change of seasons and hence the important agricultural dates.

The passage tomb of Dumha na nGaill (Mount of the hostages) dates back to the third century BC and was excavated during the 1950s. There are more than 25 ring ditches on the hill of Tara, many dating back to the bronze age. In 1810 two large gold artefacts were found and are now in the property of the National Museum.

Recently the hill of Tara has been involved in some controversy as Government plans to build a motorway nearby have stirred many emotions. Firstly there is the need to develop proper infrastructure in Ireland and to provide Navan, the capital of Meath, with a motorway link to Dublin.

On the other hand, the motorway may damage the area surrounding this magical place and may damage other historical sites in the vicinity which have yet to be discovered. The problem is that no matter where you dig or build in Ireland you are bound to come across sites of historical reference.

Ronan Menton is the webmaster for a number of travel related websites and has been for some time in Ireland, associated with search engine optimisation in the Irish travel industry. He spends two months a year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and now sees it as his second home. Among the many sites he is currently working on are the following:

It seems the same seagulls have been following your train all the way from London, across the open green spaces of celtic countryside and past countless fairy tale towns nestled precariously over craggy sea cliffs. The gulls’ screeching mixes with the train whistles while echoing against the walls as you pull into Edinburgh’s busy Waverly Station on a perfect July afternoon. The scent of simmering roast beef hits you as you head into the windy streets of one of Europe’s most sophisticated captials where the population is well mannered in spite of a fast paced vibrant 21st Century momentum.

There’s a lot to see and you might as well start with the famous Royal Mile. Be prepared for a steep climb because the narrow streets leading straight up the ancient volcano are more like staircases. But the shopping here in Old Town is worth the trip to this rival to Princes Street. Plus there’s the added bonus of a tour of Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle will take several hours because you don’t want to miss the Stone of Destiny or the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI. The food is very good and reasonably priced in the castle restaurant and you can eat outdoors; weather permitting. Make sure you stay around for the 1 o’clock gun salute which is fired from the ramparts every day except Sunday.

Around the Royal Mile you can buy everyrthing from kilts to knitwear, puppets, and St. Andrews golf balls. Shops include the Royal Mile Woolen Milles, Designs on Cashmere, James Pringles, Celtic Knitwear and the Shetland Connection make over- packing your suitcases a pleasure. For a more moderate budget there’s Ness, where you can get Scottish authenticity without maxing out your credit card.

Princes Street is considered to be one of nthe most beautiful shopping districts in the world. With its nstunning panoramic view and Princes Street Gardens it has such highlights nas the Old Waverly Hotel, the Sir Walter Scott Monument, and the famous stores Jenners, Waterstone’s, and Hector Russell.

But plenty of mystery still envelopes Edinburgh’s streets of quaint Georgian and Victorian houses which strongly resemble well designed stage sets. This is after all, where former resident J.K. Rowling got the inspiration for her Harry Potter masterpieces. Better squeeze in that ghost tour quickly since dusk falls around 10 P.M. during the summer months. And nighttime will only last for a few.

If you’re a dog lover you will want to see Greyfriars Churchyard. Even the smallest Scottish child can recite the story of little Bobby, the Skye Terrier, who devotedly kept vigil there beside his master’s grave for fourteen years. While Lassie cornered the market for in brains and resourcefulness, the beloved Bobby wins for faithfulness. Expect a tearful trek to the monument for him near the churchyard.

Rounding out your trip you’ll want to visit the National Portrait Gallery, the Ocean Terminal where the Royal Yacht Britannia is docked, the Writers’ Museum, and the Edinburgh Photo Library. If you still possibly have any time left, stop by one of Scotland’s most popular attractions, the Edinburgh Zoo.

Copyright 2006 Karen Brown

Karen Brown is a travel agent and web publisher.

The sea retreated as she broke the grip of the tumbling waters. Soft swells revealed an ever-lengthening expanse of smooth, mocha-colored skin. Warm rivulets of salty water ran down her from long wavy auburn hair. She had been swimming hard against the retreating tide. The breeze rustling the palm fronds she watched along the beach felt like the gentle breath of angels.

“Here’s an Agua de Pipa with ice”, I offered.

“Just what I need. I’m parched”, she quickly responded as I held out the dark brown ball that was a chilled, wet coconut.

A hole had been sliced into its top to admit a long yellow straw. She sipped for a few seconds that seemed like an eternity to her salt-cracked throat, the sweetness contrasting the Pacific’s salt. Whirling abruptly, she dropped into the blue wooden lounge chair next to me, throwing a cartoon character towel across her dripping torso. Her feet buried themselves in the moist, warm sand. Shade from the blue and white canvas beach umbrella blocked the late morning Acapulco sun. Raggedly clad vendors plodded their way along the beach hawking chili-powder-sprinkled mangoes, cheese-filled roast platano slathered with sweet cream, and clear plastic bags of brightly-colored soft drinks. Straws protruded from their twist-tied tops.

“Would you like a nice, relaxing neck and back massage?”

Looking up, the face of a middle-aged black woman appeared. Her sun-bleached brown and black hair in neatly-done dreadlocks. “Only 10 pesos to do your head and neck.” Stepping behind me she began to massage my neck and shoulders briskly. The scent of perfumed coconut oil adding to the sensation. “A full body massage is only 50 pesos”, she added.

Much drier now from the sun, heat and towel, my wife chimed in, “Go ahead and get one. I’ll treat you for Father’s Day.”

Together they made me an offer I didn’t refuse. The Rasta woman spread our large cartoon character towel on the crystal sand. I prostrated myself on its moistness and in moments began to drift wonderfully away to the sensation of a thousand magic fingers on my sun-tanned skin and the aroma of perfumed coconut oil.
Getting to Acapulco

Getting to Acapulco is pretty simple; from Mexico City, it’s a six-hour, 230-peso bus ride from the South Terminal (Terminal Sur – metro stop: Tasqueña) on frequently-departing Grupo Estsrella Blanca buses. The ultra-deluxe buses feature one or two full-length movies, extra-wide, plush, reclining lounge chairs and a freshly made sandwich and cold beverage of your choice handed out as you board. Buses take the non-stop toll expressway directly to the coast. Second class transport lines (180 pesos, 6 ½ to 7 grueling hours) still use the old route through the mountains passing Cuernavaca, Taxco and Chilpancingo, Guerrero state’s capitol city.

Getting Around Acapulco

It’s ridiculously easy to traverse the city. In fact, if it got any easier, you’d have to be carried around on the wings of angels. The main thoroughfare, Costera Miguel Aleman, follows the crescent-shaped shore virtually from one end to its other several kilometers away. Blue taxis are abundant costing ten to fifteen pesos for most destinations within the city. Blue and white city buses follow “La Costera” too and are a bargain 3 pesos. Even bus lines that venture up the rolling slopes of Acapulco’s residential districts pass briefly along “La Costera”, mostly near the Zocalo. Green and white city buses wind their way up and over the cliffs to locales outside but near the city and set you back a whopping 5 pesos for a journey of 30 to 40 minutes. We’ll be taking a day trip to “Pie de la Cuesta” later in this series.

Be sure to check out my other articles in the two continuing series: Teaching English in Mexico and Traveling in Mexico. If you would like more information, have questions or comments, the author can be e-mailed; see address below.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an ELT Teacher Trainer, English language learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. He has published more than 350 articles and academic papers and presented at numerous EFL teacher training and TEFL conferences throughout North America, South America and Europe. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: mailto:lynchlarrym@gmail.com lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Ah summer time in Galway, breathe it in, get a breath of that country air, breathe the beauty of it everywhere, get a look at that clear blue sky. Summer days spent lying on the grass down at Spanish Arch, not a care in the world…

There are plenty of attractions to catch the eye in Ireland during the summer. June, July and August sees a host of music festivals including electric picnic, oxygen and the midlands music festival but it’s out west in Galway where the best Irish summer festivals are happening.

Things seem to go a bit quite towards the end of may and early June with many of the students leaving the city but its not long before the town is buzzing again with the prospect of a fun filled summer.

The Galway arts festival kicks off on the 17th of July. The festival offers the best in music, theatre and dance, visual art and comedy. Street theatre also plays a major part in the festival providing wonderful entertainment for the summer shoppers. The organizers have gone all out this year bringing in some of the finest national and international acts including such homegrown talent as Bell X1 and David Kitt and major stars such as Lambchop and David Gray.

The biggest festival in Galway has to be the Galway races. The Races become more popular every year with record-breaking crowds thronging the city. There is hardly an empty bed or empty bar for that matter to be found in the city. The festival attracts punters from every walk of life. There are big time gamblers willing to risk the shirt of their back as well as the more casual gambler who is likely to stick a pin in the form guide and risk a euro or two on the result.

For those who just cant get enough gambling there is the option of a trip to Salthill to try your luck in the casinos. One armed bandits or slot machines as some people call them are only too willing to take your money .The Galway Race festival lasts for 7 day and runs from July 31st to August 6th.

The oyster festival, one for the food connoisseurs among you takes place in September. This event has proved hugely popular over the years bringing many new faces and strange accents to the city. The pride of the Galway oyster festival is the Native oysters called “Ostrea Edulis”. I’m told the oysters go down particularly well with a few pints of Guinness. Not being an oyster eater myself I will have to take their word for it.

Another treat for the artistically minded community in Galway is the film fleadh. This event gives local filmmakers a wonderful opportunity to showcase their talents. The festival also attracts many international filmmakers as well as their famous leading men and women. In the past such luminaries as Jim Sheridan, Woody Harrelson, Sir Richard Attenborough and Michael Moore have attended the festival

So Galway for the summer then? Have I convinced you? Go on you know you want to…:-)

Kevin Gallen
carhireguru.com carhireguru.com

Booking airline tickets online is gaining in popularity. Its easy, instant, and can get you the best deals if you know how to. The internet is a thriving marketplace for anything a person needs and there are websites that specialize in selling discounted airline tickets such as discountairfare.com. The advantage of such sites or directories that feature tickets from multiple airlines is that the websites have in place advanced technology that will even combine tow different airline flights to get you the best possible air fare. All a customer needs to do is fill a simple form outlining his travel plans and instantly the website will feature multiple options to select from.

The main advantage of online booking is that you will be able to comparison shop with wasting time or resources. Here are a few tips to booking discount tickets online:

1. The cheapest tickets are available about 21 days in advance. So firm up travel plans early and log on to see what your options are. Discount tickets are to be had in both low cost airlines as well as in full fare airlines. The earlier you book the more options you will get to choose from.

2. Keep a tab on special sales announced by airlines. Periodically many airlines publish special offers or fare tables valid for set periods of time. So, you can take advantage of such special promotions.

3. Never use a single online site for purchase of tickets. According to travel gurus, it is advantageous to use multiple travel sites to gauge the best deals possible. Use a comparison search engine this will enable you to study several options simultaneously. Examples of such tools are Sidestep and Qixo.

4. In case your date is not a fixed one and you have flexibility then use sites like BestFare.com which has advanced fare finder tools that will throw up a wide array of flight options on different days along with fares.

5. There are web directory sites that ease travel by bringing to one stop many leading discount ticket websites. Using such sites will minimize hassles and find you the best deals possible.

6. If you are not a snob or fussy traveler then consider flying low cost carriers. Some of these are however not listed on travel sites. You will have to log on to the airline websites or use their toll free numbers.

7. If you are a frequent traveler then consider signing up for email notifications sent by sites like Orbitz, Exepedia, or Travelocity. This means even if you miss advertisements or press releases you will get information on tab on the best deals.

Travel by airplanes is easy and affordable if you know how to get the best.

Be a wise traveler. Before you even begin your quest find out what the average price for your proposed trip is and get an approximate idea of how low tickets are sold for on that sector. Once you have some figures decide I would like tickets for x or y amount and aim for tickets closest to your range. As soon as tickets fall to the range go ahead and book tickets.

Barry Allen is a freelance writer for 1888airlinetickets.com 1888airlinetickets.com , the premier website to buy airline tickets reservation, airline flights, cheap airline tickets, best travel deals, to check plane ticket prices, discount airline tickets, online booking for air fairs, online travel planning and many more. He also freelances forCar Rental Site 1866carrental.com 1866carrental.com

That perfect destination of your dreams; a destination where the sun, sand and beer are in abundance is nearer to you than you ever imagined.

Welcome to the amazing world of Florida key resorts, an ideal tropical destination within continental US offering the same world class Caribbean experience. The incredible appeal of a Florida key resort lies in the fact that it has got something to offer for everyone! Whatever may be your expectations with your holiday destination, at Florida, you would for sure see that personifying.

How to get there?

The islands of Florida key lie south west of Miami. Fly down to Miami, as it acts as the gateway to Florida key islands travel, the islands in fact span a total distance of 110 miles connected by a series of bridges and causeways.

Where to stay?

Now that’s one thing, you would be never short of options. The beautiful Florida key shores are dotted with several resorts to suit every pocket. Right from expensive five stars club resorts to moderately expensive and economy hotels.

Some of the best keys to stay:

• Key largo
• Islamorada
• Marathon key
• Big pine key
• Duck key with its incredible resort hawkscay

What can I expect?
One thing you can be certain of, when staying at a Florida key resort is that most of them have very beautiful interiors with private pools, gymnasiums and saunas. Interestingly many of the resorts also offer spa treatments. Moreover, many resorts in the Keys have their very own private docks and ramps while some other special ones even have their own private water- front and mini islands.

For the taste buds

While at Florida key resorts, your taste buds will definitely be on an overdrive especially if you are a sea food aficionado. Perfectly done conch chowder, blackened fish, oysters, salmons the platter is really unending. That’s why if your apprehension regarding holidays at Florida Keys is regarding dining options, its time you start concentrating on the fun!

Entertainment options:

The free spirited atmosphere of the keys would in itself ensure that there are no dull moments while you stay there. Driving down the overseas high way through the keys is a huge attraction in itself. For those of you willing to partake in specific activities, the choices on offer are truly galore. Sample this:

• Scuba diving and snorkeling
• Sailing, kayaking
• Deep sea and back country fishing
• Shopping

Or SIMPLY sunbathing on the magnificent beaches, the choices are truly endless.

hawkscay.com/ Florida Keys…Multiple destinations rolled into one!

Making your spouse feel special and cared for isn’t that tough as it seems to be while you are at this treasure trove…the amazing Florida Keys. After all your plans to take her there would itself mean that you love her and care to see her smile like she has never before.

To know more about Florida Keys and accommodation options you can check out hawkscay.com www.hawkscay.com.

Author is a business writer. He has completed his Master of business administration and currently assisting Hawkscay. Visit the website for more information about hawkscay.com florida keys resorts.

When traveling on vacation do you have to trudge through crowded airports? Depending on where you are coming from and where you are going the answer is a qualified No.

We took a cruise from Los Angeles, California to Vancouver, British Columbia on the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas (Review here) and a one night cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington on the Norwegian Cruise Lines Norwegian Star and had to get home to Portland, Oregon. Most people just go straight with taking a plane and don’t think about what their alternatives are. Well, In Washington and Oregon along the I-5 corridor one option is Amtrak’s Cascades.

Our choice, travel 45-60 minutes from the cruise terminal to SeaTac then spend 1-2 hours trudging through and around the airport, an hour and a half in the air, then another 30 minutes waiting for our bags or travel 10 minutes to the Amtrak station, wait 15 minutes for our train, spend 3 and a half hours on the rail, grab our bags and go. When the time going by air is compared to the time going by rail it is almost a coin flip, while the actual travel time is longer by rail the additional time in airports and getting there outweighs the same actions by rail. So we opted to take the train, and we did not regret our choice and from now on when we need to get to Seattle from Portland we will always take the train.

The Amtrak Cascades travels a scenic route through the Pacific Northwest from Vancouver, British Columbia to Eugene, Oregon past Mount Saint Helens and over the Columbia Gorge. Amtrak Cascades service is financed and operated in partnership with the states of Oregon and Washington, giving residents and visitors to the Pacific Northwest a viable alternative to air travel.

The beauty of the option is where the train station is located in both Seattle and Portland, unlike airports, which are usually located in an out of the way location the train station is right downtown, this is true in almost every location that Amtrak goes to.

Once we debarked from the Norwegian Star we exited from the Seattle Cruise Terminal at Pier 66 and grabbed a taxi right in front. There was an “unofficial” porter working the cabs, a nice young man that appeared to be working just for tips helping people get cabs and their luggage loaded, I don’t know how the cruise lines and taxi drivers view these helpers but he did earn a tip helping us get quickly settled with a cab. The driver took us directly to the train station which was a 10 minute at most drive from the cruise terminal.

We checked our bags with Amtrak baggage handlers and waited for our train, shortly before the train arrived Amtrak personnel assigned us seats and the train arrived on time. When the train arrived everyone headed to their assigned cars in a leisurely pace. We boarded, found our seats, and were settled in a matter of minutes. The train then departed on time.

Each car has monitors in the ceiling that initially show where in the trains route you currently are, once the train passed the last Seattle/Tacoma Metro area stop they started a movie on this screen.

During the ride from Seattle to Portland I was able to use my cell phone to do business on the internet the entire trip, every seat had a power outlet to allow you to plug in your computer and work, which is definitely something you could not do on a plane.

At one point we walked from our car to the lounge car which serves offers food and beverages from the Pacific Northwest including meals, sandwiches, beers, and microbrews.

The trip was quiet and restful, we had incredible views and were able to relax for the full trip. Once we arrived in Portland we walked into Union Station to baggage claim and our bags were ready for us, out the front door and into our ride. The trip was much easier and enjoyable then any plane trip would have been.

Tom Truxton lives in Portland, Oregon, is the father of 4, poker player and with his wife operates a home-based travel agency and website. Planning a vacation or cruise and don’t have an agent? Use Tom and his wife as your personal escape planners, visit them at timeenoughtravel.com/ timeenoughtravel.com. You are invited to sign up for our newsletters that include travel tips & tricks, news, specials and humor by visiting our timeenoughtravel.com/media/newsletter/subscribe-3.html signup page. Tom can be reached via emailing mailto:Tom@TimeEnoughTravel.com Tom@TimeEnoughTravel.com or calling 503.922.2655.