Travel

The world shrinks each passing day, with greater and greater communications technologies, and speedier travel methods. Along with the changing scene of traveling has come a somewhat surprising spike in last minute travel for vacations or other short trips. The Internet has made huge numbers of great deals on last minute travel greatly available to people across the world, making a quick and easy weekend trip a viable option, instead of something more out of a romance movie.

If you’re looking for a good way to bring a bit of spontaneous romance back into a relationship, then last minute travel can be one of the best routes available to you. Pick a favorite place, or some place brand new that you’ve never gone, and get tickets a day or two before the weekend. Surprise your significant other with the last minute travel plans, and then have a weekend of exploration and passion based on spontaneity. Of course, you’ll want to be careful that such last minute travel plans won’t be entirely unwanted by your significant other; after all, it wouldn’t be a good idea to spend money on such travel plans, only to find out that your significant other had no desire to go with you. But if you have a relationship that can sustain a little spontaneity, then last minute travel plans might be the perfect source of reinvigorated romance that you need to put a little bit of pep back into your relationship.

Last minute travel plans can also provide a good way to meet with a loved one you haven’t seen in a while, again provided that such a visit wouldn’t be intrusive or unwanted. While it’s often better to try to plan such trips in advance for the sake of all parties involved, the cheaper cost of some last minute travel options can allow for trips that would never otherwise have been possible. It is, of course, paradoxically possible to plan a last minute travel trip, in that you can plan to try to get such a ticket at the last minute, but in such a case you have to be prepared for failure. The inherent nature of last minute travel plans means that you always risk not being able to get a ticket for the trip you want to take, when you want to take it, and instead, you may wind up having to go another weekend. But if that risk is worth the reduced cost, then last minute travel deals are your way to go.

Such deals are not without their flaws, of course. Last minute travel deals are most often deals because you’re often buying those seats that are least comfortable, and hotel rooms that no one else booked, often for a reason. Last minute airfare can put you in the middle seats, which are generally considered the least comfortable available seats. If traveling with a partner, then it’s entirely likely that your last minute travel plans will require you to sit in different sections of the plane, as the tickets will likely be for whatever seats are available. Once you get to your destination, if you want to stay in a hotel that’s a bit nicer, it’s going to incur a greater cost, as well, which is something that most last minute travel deals don’t necessarily take into account. Getting a room in some place other than the lowest-budget places that are most often used for pricing last minute travel deals will often cost a significant amount more than you expected to pay. Of course, with the reduced cost of the travel, it could potentially be worth it to spend the money on a nicer hotel, depending upon your opinions. The final flaw of importance with last minute travel plans is that they are generally non-refundable. This simply refers back to the previously discussed issues, of making sure that the plans are actually viable, and won’t be frowned upon either by your significant other travel partner, or those whom you had intended to see at your destination.

The growing prominence of last minute travel deals is becoming a very interesting development, if only because it raises questions for what the future of travel might look like. In some ways, getting tickets for travel and hotel reservations has become something of a risk/reward style game, in which you attempt to purchase tickets at the last possible moment, so as to minimize costs as much as possible. With the advent of automated scripts and the like, it is entirely possible that the use of an automated process to purchase travel tickets at exactly the moment when they reach the best possible, last minute travel deal could become commonplace, assuming that it was not deemed unlawful early on. Other possibilities for the future of travel are a bit more far-fetched of course, relying on technology that does not exist and perhaps falls best under the domain of science fiction. But these could include anything from space planes, which focus more on traveling very high up into the atmosphere and using the earth’s own rotation to speed up travel, to alternate fuel sources that might allow for plain tickets to cost significantly less.

These alternate possibilities for travel in the future could actually see the diminishing value of the last minute travel deal…or, alternatively, they could see last minute travel deals becoming tremendously valuable. If the price of the average ticket were to decrease enough, then theoretically, the price of the last minute travel ticket should similarly decrease, unless the price of the main ticket simply made a price cut on last minute deal unfeasible. Furthermore, if travel speeds increased, then one could imagine systems becoming implemented more akin to those of constantly running buses than scheduled planes today, wherein you could purchase a ticket for a plane in the airport, and simply go to the terminal and wait until the next plane got in. If you didn’t manage to get on the next plane, you would be able to get on the subsequent plane, as there would likely be significantly increased frequency of planes, thereby making all travel, essentially, last minute travel.

The future of travel deals aside, you would do well to take advantage of present offers in last minute travel, as these offers often allow for trips that you would never have believed affordable to fall within your grasp.

Internet Tourists

Tourist attractions can take many forms, but very few expected Boo the Ninja Dog to become as much of a tourist attraction as he has. And yet, in Kyoto, Japan, tourists have come running to see the 9-year-old Pekinese in his ninja costume, complete with a sword strapped to his back. Boo the Ninja Dog roams the city unhindered, and tourists often set out with the goal of finding him in the city. He has been seen in such varied places as the grounds of Kiyomizudera temple, or Nijo Castle, according to Chieko Hara of asahi.com. Both of these sites are major tourist attractions; obviously, Boo knows how to play to his tourist audience well.

Boo’s owner, a 66-year-old man named Atsushi Nishi, was quite fortunate to have stumbled upon such a perfect idea for attracting the attention of tourists. He first put Boo into his ninja outfit for an annual period costume period called the Oharame Jidai Gyoretsu in 2008. Boo’s outfit was a hit, so Nishi decided to let others bask in the ninja-dog’s glory. And bask tourists have, as they flock to Boo with cameras and smiles.

The popularity of Boo the Ninja Dog is attributable both to the brilliance and humor clothing the dog in ninja costume, and also on the somewhat unpredictable nature of the Internet. If it weren’t for tourists seeing the dog, taking pictures of him, and making them available for others to find and enjoy, Boo’s popularity might not be such as it is today. But with the Internet making the world smaller and smaller, it is easy enough for individuals in American tourists to find out about ninja dogs in Kyoto before they have even come to Japan, so that when they do arrive, they make it a point to seek the ninja dog out.

Using the memetic nature of the Internet to attract tourists is difficult, as memes are very difficult to actively control, or even to begin. But Boo clearly represents a success case of a meme being spawned to draw in tourists, something for which Nishi and Kyoto itself must be grateful. It is entirely imaginable that in the future, countries and cities the world over may implement similar techniques to call tourists to their locations, as memes are often significantly more powerful methods of attraction than any tourist agency, brochure, or website ever could be. Much as Kyoto clearly has ample tourist attractions all on its own, Boo the Ninja Dog could easily have been the Internet meme necessary to tip several tourists over into coming to the Japanese city.

The story of Boo the Ninja Dog shows, if nothing else, the power of the Internet to spread knowledge and stories which can lead to some real world effect. When tourists can be affected so much by an Internet meme, spread only through photos and stories of Boo’s appearance, it makes clear the Internet’s power to affect the real world through shared information. One can only hope that in the future, the example of Boo the Ninja Dog will be followed to bring other fun and entertaining elements of the real world to digital tourists the world over.

Travel Deals

In the economy of recent times, it’s more important than ever before to make sure that you’re getting the best possible deals on anything you purchase, especially travel. Travel deals are often some of the more maddening deals to find, if only because when looking for them you can find a tremendous number of different websites, each proclaiming that it has the best to offer, each one adding one further voice to the tumult. There are a few sites and sources for travel deals that are quite useful, and worth taking a look at when you’re on the prowl for a good travel deal.

Travelzoo.com
Travelzoo.com offers a unique feature, in that it takes the top 20 travel deals from a number of different sources, and puts them up for all to see. It generally only does 20 deals per week, but it’s still a very useful compilation site, a place where you can go to get a general idea of some of the best travel deals available for you to choose from. A lot of the time, these focus very much on travel deals for potential vacation spots, such as a trip to “Cancun with an all-inclusive suite resort“, or a “Caribbean 6-night all-inclusive vacation w/airfare.” It’s unlikely that this site would be of a great amount of use when you’re looking for more of a business trip, although it’s still worth a shot, as some of the deals do go to major cities where you might need to conduct business. But if you’re looking for a good travel deal to get your vacation off on the right foot, then travelzoo.com is the place for you. You can also sign up for the website’s newsletter, to get news of the travel deals sent to your email, instead of having to go to the website itself.

Shermanstravel.com/top25
Shermanstravel.com is a good compilation site for information on traveling, including some good stuff on hotels, destinations, trip ideas, and even some useful tools for comparing rates. But for travel deals, you’ll want to go to this top 25 section, which, like travelzoo.com, is a listing of the top 25 travel deals to have cropped up recently. They’re different from travelzoo’s list, of course, making both worth checking, and each of them includes a small description that’s more than likely to get you interesting in booking the travel deal. You can sign up for the newsletter here, too, to get the travel deals sent to your email address. Once more, it’s likely not terribly useful for business flight deals, but for vacations, it’s indispensable.

Kayak.com
Kayak.com looks like a rather plain site when you first see it; it doesn’t really compare to some of the flashier travel sites out there. But it’s got it where it counts; kayak.com will help you to spot all the best travel deals by comparing the deals of hundreds of travel sites, all at once. It acts basically as a compiled search engine for travel, and it’s invaluable whether you’re looking for travel deals for a business trip or for vacation. Don’t judge it by its plain-ish exterior; judge it by all the time it’ll save you.

Whenever you’re looking for travel, just keep in mind that between these sites and all the others out there, you should always be able to find a great travel deal for whatever you want to do. Good hunting!