Vacation Pacakges, Vacation Deals and Resort Packages...TravelApe.com Has it Now..

I'd like to take this time to offer a little introduction to the newest members and premiums offered by the wonderful Travel Ape. TravelApe.com the official site of Travel Ape is now offering a vacation packages and vacation deals section. Actually, I'm speaking out of turn. TravelApe.com had the Vacation Packages section for some tim but some new cities have been added, in addition to having added some new cities. These cities include Cancun Mexico, Branson, Williamsburg and Myrtle Beach.

The exciting thing I've noticed though is that Travel Ape really went out to find some great deals for vacation packages and vacation deals in these destinations. First for Cancun Vacation Pacakges I'm seeing a deal for $199 for a 4 day and 3 night package with additional premiums. That's a heck of a deal heading to Cancun Mexico. What's more it appears that several other packages will be offered going to Cancun that range somewhere in the $199 to $499 price for comparable trips that are regularly priced from $799 to over $1000. The deals are very good.

The next newsest group of packages for a destination they are offering are for Williamsburg Vacation Packages. What makes Williamsburg Virginia such an attractive destination for travel is it really is a simple place to get to from many sources and directions, plus it's a great family vacation. The deals being offered are on average for 4 Days and 3 Nights with great premiums that include free meals, tickets to local amusement parks, discounts on all kinds of stuff. The rates for the Williamsburg Vacation Packages that I saw ranged somewhere between $149 to $250 for the 4 day stays. The property where these deals are offered are the Westgate Historic Williamsburg Resort.

One last place that is worth mentioning is Myrtle Beach South Carolina. It goes without saying that many of the best golf vacation packages you could find probably are offered along with Myrtle Beach Vacation Packages. Once again as I observed for the other destinations, the pricing and the offerings are incredible. For anywhere from $165 to $250 you can find a 4 day and 3 night vacation package and mix in a premium that you would enjoy. Participating properties where you can find accommodations for these Myrtle Beach Vacation Pacakges are at the Springmaid Beach Resort, the Golf Colony Resort on Surfside Beach and the Wild Wing Resort of Myrtle Beach. I've checked out all the pacakges coming out and each has there own value. It really is up to the traveler.

We are proud here at TravelApe.com as well as having Travel Ape be a very happy soul. There will be more informaiton about great deals each day and we'll be adding packages to the destinations we currently serve.

 

 

Holiday Season Has it's Highs...and Lows...A Tip of the Hat to Those Who Help...

A current theme of Travel Ape's posts have been toward the Holiday Season. There is no doubt that the Season is upon us now, as I sit on the East Cost and it is officially Thanksgiving Day. There are many things to look upon as this season comes, especially when it comes to tradition. There are foods, and events that many of us look to each year. Of course there comes a lot of travel with the holiday's too, and Travel Ape would be remiss if he didn't at least acknowledge that to be the case. We travel to friends homes, back to our childhood homes to visit with parents and grandparents, or to go for a special getaway to either a sunny island or a ski vacation. 

To many though, this season brings with it a great deal of malaise. It's a time where people who have felt loss or are alone, where this feeling stings the most. No one deserves to be alone during this time of year especially and there are travel programs for singles, or elderly to take part. 

To that end there are some unsung heroes that help people dealing with grief, and having had spend much time on the road, Travel Ape would like to acknowledge these people and the organizations. 

In the West Coast, out of Los Angeles California there is the Hope Unit Foundation.  Founded by a group of ten people that were spurred into action by a feeling that cancer patients and to a larger extend terminal patients were not be treated for the grief associated with their conditions. The HOPE Unit Foundation did just that. They have been recognized in California for their outstanding work in this area and are a fabulous group. If you live, travel to or are even in need of help like this in Los Angeles check out the HOPE Unit Foundation. 

Heading out to the East Coast, a smaller area, but an organization that really has become a shining star in the area of grief counseling is the Alcove Grief Counseling and serves the greater Atlantic City NJ area.  The Alcove is located in the town of Northfield NJ, which is just outside of Atlantic City, but the focus of the foundation is to counsel children dealing with a loss in the family. A service that can't be heralded enough. The Alcove has been able to collect millions in grants and contributions each year due to its outstanding reputation in dealing with grief as it does with children. As any of us know, the Holidays can be a difficult time to deal with loss, but for children it is a sin that should not have a solution ready. The members of the Alcove provide this incredible service.

The city of New Orleans was stunned almost 4 years ago by Hurricane Katrina, and in large part as a community has not recovered. The Seasons Grief Center has been providing help in overtime since this terrible tragedy. Originally having been set up to deal with terminally ill patients and their families, Season's has extended their service to help out with many in the community that are dealing with loss of a life they had. A life that had been decimated to nothing. For that effort and so much more Seasons Grief Center of New Orleans has received much official recognition and awards for this effort. For good reason.

There are many other viable and worthy organizations that probably deserve recognition for the same reasons the ones mentioned above have been. Travel Ape welcomes any posts to recognize these worthy groups. In the spirit of this being a mainly travel oriented blog and web site, we'd also like to suggest for those of you Volunteer Travel. This is a great way to get away and see the world and also help people.  

There is no doubt that Travel Ape is a fun filled simian and absolutely enjoys the holiday season. Travel Ape also has a heart and knows that many are sad and need help. 

From all of us at Travel Ape, enjoy your up and coming holiday season, if you're lucky enough to have a good life, be thankful for all you have and if you're not, know that there is a world out there that does care. 

Gobble, Gobble and an Early Happy Thanksgiving Greeting with Travel Deals...

It may be a little early, but Thanksgiving salutations from TravelApe.com and friends. The Thanksgiving weekend is absolutely the biggest travel day of the year, and for goodness sake, not having a post about it here at Travel Ape's blog seems too odd.

There's lot's to do and there are traditions that track back over 100 years or generations for families and communities alike. There's high school football games about community rivals that go back decades. There are family gatherings that bring people across the country to see long lost friends and family once a year. This truly is a great day and doing so in a country that tried so ardently and against the history of humanity, embrace success, achievement, a sense of community and hopes for a better life to be thankful in this way. This truly is Thanksgiving.

A few places that people may be traveling to are Los Angeles, where the sunny shores of the California coastline can welcome an outdoor Thanksgiving feast.  Another great place for travel or if you happen to be coming to visit family is Miami Florida. Miami is graced with a high Hispanic community namely Cuban, and a lot of Thanksgiving food fare comes with a Cuban Flare. How about going to the Bayou and traveling to the New Orleans area. The influence on food is most incredible in the New Orleans area and variations on appetizers, to side dishes to even the Turkey itself is almost artistic. Just think Cajun with Turkey...The combination is a home run. 

One of the most unique dishes Travel Ape has come across is the Turducken. This is just a feast for the lover of great fowl. It basically is a de-boned turkey that is stuffed with a de-boned duck stuffed with a de-boned chicken. The basting and what goes on in an operation of cooking like this is beyond words. Succulent is all I can say.

Traditions go along with Thanksgiving like no other. Even beyond Christmas, because Thanksgiving is a true holiday of the people. Religious, or agnostic, liberal or conservative or anything in between, for a relative many of us that live in this country, we are lucky. Lucky beyond are stars. Further, comes with it an air of lightness, not of a solemn nature, of relaxation, not stress, with a step back kind of attitude and anticipation of what comes with the up and coming season.

From Travel Ape and his friends his family, he wishes all of you an upcoming Thanksgiving and continuing holiday season. 

Holiday Traditions in Travel..Rockefeller Center New York City Tree Lighting

It's that time of year once again. Well officially in about a week from now the Holiday Season will be upon us. For many, it already has started, and usually is heralded in literally the day after Halloween. One notices this as some radio stations dedicate their broadcasting 24 hours a day up and to Christmas Day with all Christmas Music.

With all that of note, the Holiday season is full of tradition. Either on a per family scale or to a larger degree with things like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the White House and one of Travel Ape's favorites the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center New York City. Several years ago when Travel Ape was just a small simian, his uncle took him up to New York City and he attended an official Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting. A day he's never forgotten and if time, his schedule and location permit he tries to make his way to the actual event. 

 The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center is located in the area between 47th and 50th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues. The text link provided in this paragraph offers directions, schedule and more information about this years tree lighting ceremony and event. 

Over the next month during this holiday season Travel Ape will be posting more info about other holiday happenings and traditions across the United States. If there are any that you want to specifically comment about or post, we welcome them here.

From Travel Ape and the rest of us here, we wish you Peace in this up and coming Holiday Season. 

Dawson Street Pub in Manyunk Very Disappointing ...

Travel Ape and I like to try and maintain a sense of youth and in doing so while traveling if we can take in some of the local entertainment we do it.

A few weeks ago, my friend and I happened along into Manyunk Pennsylvania. There was a birthday party, he asked me to tag along, I felt obliged so I went for the ride. We spent the weekend there so we could make a little bit of a trip of it. I digress. We asked around to see what local watering hole might be a decent place to sit back, relax and maybe even take in some music. We were told about Dawson Street Pub.

Without to much hoopie-a-do I'll get right into it. It appears that this place, Dawson Street Pub is living on borrowed time. Maybe at some point this was a place to be, a place where the never before acts of some soon to be new phenom in the world of music got their chance but I didn't see it. To start the door person was rude. No personality and noticeably enjoying the little authority they had. Second, the bartender that I can remember was bad at their job...it's not brain surgery making a Tom Collins...better stated, I could have counted the drink I got as one of my required 8 ounces of water, b/c it was totally watered down. Third, the entertainment was suspect at best and the noise in the place is carried terribly. Last, the regulars, and you can pick them out like a man wearing a pink shirt in a room full of black shirts, are idiots.

I would not recommend Dawson Street Pub at all. Don't waste your time. There is plenty to do in the Philadelphia area, this shouldn't even be on your list. 

Spirit Airlines making note improvements..

I was on the phone with our friend Travel Ape this past weekend. For those of you who may not have noticed our blogs and our official posts haven't happened in a few weeks, so I hope you sadly missed us and are happy to have us back. Well regardless, Travel Ape happened to be sitting in the Fort Myers Airport in Florida on his way to Atlantic City NJ via a Spirit Airlines flight. The topic of discussion was started, "Hey how bad was your flight?". Which Travel Ape responded "You know what I was startled by how fast and courteous the service was"...I was startled by the response.

Well sure enough I looked into the observation a little further and Spirit has made a concerted effort in both speeding up flights and improving service. The product of which is a combination of two. For example, a flight from or to Atlantic City - Fort Myers Florida had been tracked on average somewhere near 2 hours and 45 minutes. At last tracking, Travel Ape's same flight was in the range of 2 hours to 2 hours and 15 minutes. What's the difference? First off, there has been an initiative to get the time between flights sped up. If you take a flight on Spirit you'll notice the team and militant effort of the flight crew moving people out, personally helping out with loading and unloading luggage and cleaning up waste left from last flights. Second, again peeping into the background a little, Spirit has made some significant changes in their flight plans. That translates into flight paths that basically take a lot less. Not really sure the semantics that go into flight plans but why this took so long to address or adjust doesn't make sense. The only thing I'm happy about is that Spirit Airlines is just better to fly on considering flight times are considerably less. 

Well kudos to Spirit Airlines. No doubt shorter flights equate into less fuel used and of course this tracks back up to the consumer with cheaper fairs. In a time where less has to mean so much more, it's nice to see that capitalism still means striving for adjustments that meet market demand. Check back often for many of the deals that Spirit Air has to offer.