Posted by rlashea on July 14, 2010
Situated in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park, the Orlando Museum of Art plays host to a wide variety of art works, from those created by local painters and photographers to those created by internationally-renowned artists. The museum’s Festival of Trees is an event held during the early part of the holiday season each year.
Orlando Museum of Art
Opened in 1924 with the mission of collecting and preserving works of art, and showcasing them to residents and visitors of central Florida, the Orlando Museum of Art maintains that same vision today. Ten to 12 exhibits are showcased at the museum each year, and 13 off-site exhibits throughout the city are sponsored by the museum annually. Aside from the art collections and exhibits, the Museum of Art also provides educational programming for the local community.
Permanent Collections
Aside from the rotating temporary exhibits that come through the museum doors each season, the Orlando Museum of Art hosts three permanent collections: American Art, Art of the Ancient Americas and African Art. American Art at the museum includes 18th century to modern artwork by American artists and photographers, such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams, while the Ancient Americas are represented by ceramics, jade carvings and other hand-made items, dating from as far back as 2000 B.C. The African Art Collection includes wooden masks, ivory carvings and beadwork from all across Africa.
Festival of Trees
Taking place over nine days in mid-to-late November, the Festival of Trees is only one of a number of special events held at the Orlando Museum of Art throughout the year. During the festival, holiday villages, including the Gingerbread Village and Toyland Town, are erected inside the museum, and a variety of live entertainment is offered, such as performances by local school choirs and ballet recitals. The museum is also adorned in holiday décor, such as wreaths and, of course, trees. The designer trees and wreaths displayed are available for sale to museum visitors.
Attend the Festival
Admission to the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art can be purchased at the museum upon arrival. General admission for the Festival of Trees, as of the 2009 festival, was $10 per adult and $6 per child. An opening night party, featuring a selection of fine foods and entertainment is also held each year. A ticket for the 2009 party was $100. Party guests also get the first opportunity to pick and purchase the trees and wreaths on display.
Other Things to See
Home to the Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Studios Florida, Orlando is a tourism Mecca. Other area theme parks include Sea World, Busch Gardens, and Discovery Cove, which attempts to mimic the experience of an island vacation by offering tropical a variety of settings and experiences, including beaches, snorkeling in coral reefs and swimming with dolphins. Orlando’s International Drive, home to Discovery Cove, Sea World and Universal Studios, also offers a host of additional activities for tourists, such as indoor skydiving, mini golf and a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.
Posted by rlashea on July 13, 2010
In the center of Manhattan, just blocks from the shopping of Fifth Avenue, Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square serves as the tourist hub of New York City. Aside from being the site where the ball drops each New Year and home to Broadway’s theaters, Times Square offers a host of restaurants, specialty stores and souvenir shops. Despite Times Square being the busiest place in New York City with an estimated 15,000 people passing through each hour, according to the Times Square Alliance, parking can be found right in the middle of it all if you know where to look for it.
Find out if your hotel offers parking. Many of the hotels in Times Square provide either an on-site parking garage or parking at a nearby garage. Whether Times Square hotels offer on-site or off-site parking, they usually also offer valet parking, though you may not have in-and-out privileges when you park through a valet, so you should make sure that you won’t want your car again until you leave.
Compare prices at the parking garages in Times Square if your hotel doesn’t provide parking. The Best Parking website offers a map of the Times Square area that lists all of the area’s garages and contact information (see Resources.) The site also provides a tool for calculating the rate for each garage.
Look for street parking. While street parking can be difficult to find in the heart of Times Square, many side streets around Times Square do offer street parking. Street parking can either be metered or free, depending on the street, but always goes quickly and the spaces left are usually a tight fit.
Drive down the street before you park your car, or walk down the street once you have parked, and look for signs regarding the parking laws on the street. Many streets allow parking only some days of the week, or only during posted hours. If you leave your car on the street outside of the permitted parking times, your car may be towed.
Be prepared for the cost of parking your car in Times Square. Times Square parking can range greatly in cost, but are often higher-priced than parking garages in other cities and throughout the rest of Manhattan. The cost to park your car can exceed $100 for a 24-hour period at many garages.
*Note - Most parking garages in New York City do not allow you to park your own car. Generally, New York City parking garages have less space than parking garages in other large cities, and many use special lift mechanisms to park cars above each other. When you take your car into a Times Square parking garage, be prepared to leave your car and keys with attendant.
Posted by rlashea on July 12, 2010
The Austin, Texas city motto may be “Let’s Keep Austin Weird,” but the majority of hotels in the city are the same cookie cutter chain hotels offered in other cities throughout the U.S.
The most notable exception is The Driskill, a landmark hotel from 1886, located in Austin’s downtown.
Before picking an Austin hotel, you may want to compare a few to find out which hotel offers the best accommodations for your traveling party.
Use a travel booking website, like Kayak.com, to compare Austin hotels based on price and star rating. Simply type Austin, TX into the city box. Enter the dates of your visit to Austin, the number of rooms and guests and click “Search.” If you check the boxes next to the other travel sites listed on the page, like Expedia
and Travelocity
, Kayak provides you with results from the other travel sites as well.
Compare the hotels in a certain section of town or hotels that are near a specific attraction. Kayak.com and Expedia both offer the option of searching for hotels by attraction. When you type Austin into the box on Kayak, a list of attractions in Austin come up automatically, including the University of Texas and Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. On Expedia, when you click on the “Hotels” option, you can select “Attraction” from the “Find Hotels Near” box.
Read the fine print to uncover hidden fees at the hotels that you are considering for your Austin stay. Even hotels that have the exact same price may differ in price when additional fees are factored in. Downtown Austin hotels are likely to have a parking fee, for instance, while hotels outside of the downtown area may provide free parking. Some hotels may charge for Wi-Fi access, while others offer it for free.
Evaluate the amenities that each Austin hotel offers. If you are traveling by air to Austin, you may want a hotel with an airport shuttle. If you plan to spend your nights in Austin’s 6th Street Entertainment District, you may want a hotel in the area or one that provides a 24-hour shuttle to the district.
Check out traveler reviews of the hotels on the Sherman’s Travel website or on TripAdvisor.com. Sherman’s Travel also offers an expert review of each hotel, alongside the user reviews. These reviews can be especially helpful in determining factors such as the hotel’s cleanliness and the noise level in the guest rooms.
Posted by Nick on July 8, 2010
Zip line tours are popular in places like Hawaii and Costa Rica. But you don’t have to have a rain forest to ride a zip line. In fact, if you are taking a vacation in Florida you can find a few zip line tours in the Sunshine State as well.
If you’re vacationing up in the Florida Panhandle, you can get in a little zip lining at the Baytowne Adventure Zone in Destin. Located at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, this 60 foot tall zip line ride crosses over a lagoon. You can take this zip line tour for just $18.
In central Florida, there is more than one zip line tour you can take. In Sanford, you can ride a zip line at Zoom Air, which is located at the Central Florida Zoo. Don’t worry though – the zip lines do not go over any animal enclosures. And zoo admission is not required to ride the zip line. There are two treetop level zip line courses, which you can do during the day or at night. Prices are $23 and $40 for the courses.
Florida EcoSafaris is located in the greater Orlando area of St. Cloud, Florida. They also offer day and night zip line tours. The zip line tours at Florida EcoSafaris have a cost of $85 and feature 750 ft. long rides that are 55 ft. above the ground. You’ll see all sorts of wildlife over the natural terrain as you zoom by at 25 mph.
Currently, there are no zip line tours in Southern Florida.
Posted by Nick on June 6, 2010
If you are interested in an adventure filled vacation, the ACE Adventure Resort in New River Gorge, West Virginia. This resort is like no other. Ace Adventure Resort covers 1,500 acres and offers plenty of outdoor activities for vacationers.
The Travel Channel named ACE Adventure Resort as one of their “Extreme Resorts.”
Some of the extreme activities travelers can enjoy include rock climbing, white water rafting, zip lines, mountain biking, ATV rides, kayaking and horseback riding.
Lodging accommodations include chalets, log cabins, tents and ranch houses. Dining options include the Lost Paddle Bar & Grill, the Lakeside Dining Lodge and Lunch at the Bear’s Den.
Camping packages start at $129. Have a look at the video below for more information on the resort.
