Monday, October 1, 2007 

Tips For Air Travel With Your Kids/toddlers

Everybody loves traveling and an air travel with your kids could be a challenging experience. Going on a long vacation with your kids and planning your journey ahead of time makes traveling less stressful. Here are some tips to make your journey comfortable throughout your flight.

Purchase a seat for your kid. Although you are allowed to keep your kid on your lap during the travel, having a separate seat will be more comfortable for both of you. To keep your toddler engaged in some activity or another will ensure a pleasant journey. Bring some toys and games to keep your young one entertained and if possible have a portable DVD player and make him watch his favorite movies. Since food on planes is very limited, bring some nutritious snacks like fruits, milk, cheese, and natural juices for your toddler to have and avoid use of too much sugar to prevent hyper behavior.

Don't ever forget to bring spare diapers and change of clothes for your kid bring a bag to put his soiled stuffs inside it to prevent its odor spread all over the plane. Generally some of the passengers sitting next to us try to pacify our toddler when it behaves irrationally. Some others easily get irritated with their arrogant behavior case he may be, we should give him assurance that we are trying all possible ways to make him quiet. You need to schedule your flight timings with the bedtimes of your toddler. Ensure that you travel by direct flight to avoid unnecessary boarding in different flights with your kids.

You should be in a position to control your kids so that any misbehavior in plane is administered and controlled promptly. Speak softly and avoid rapping them in case of any arrogance. Ask the kids to play the games of their choice and keep them engaged. While taking off or landing give them something to eat and drink to depressurize their ears.

On such occasions they tend to become more uncomfortable and such small tips like chewing and drinking would help them to avoid facing such situations. Don't keep them under your control always. Let them loose for some time or leave the reigns free for them to enjoy the travel on their own way. It takes time and preparation to plan the perfect vacation. To find out further information on planning your next trip or vacation, log onto Internet, there are many travel and discount travel sites that are available. Today there are more discounts than ever on traveling.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Cathy Peterson -

Cathy Peterson writes about Tumi coupons and World Traveler Coupons

Google

 

Performance Tours For Educational Travel Groups

For the high school or junior high school band, orchestra, jazz ensemble or choir, an educational field trip is even more desirable if it includes a public performance for an audience. There are several components that must come together for a great performance tour. Selection of an experienced educational travel company is key to the performance tours success. There must be a performance venue set-up and the educational travel group must have permission to travel to and set up at the venue well in advance. The rest of the time the student tour group will be engaged in seeing some of the sights A good educational travel consultant will know exactly where to bring the student group.

Size of Performance Tour Groups
Compared to other student travel groups, the performance tours can be almost four times larger. For example, a normal size for a performance tour group is 80-100 or even as many as 200 participants, whereas the average high school travel tour is comprised of about 40-50 students. Large performance tour groups require one tour guide on each bus. Though some educational travel companies only provide one tour guide for approximately three to four busses, my company standards require one guide per bus.

Traveling by Plane with Musical Instruments
The educational tour company must have a list of instruments in order to make certain they all make it to the chosen destination. Students participating in the travel tour should provide the weight and dimensions of each instrument to the educational tour company and note oversized cases. The educational travel consultant will coordinate where the musical instruments need to be delivered at the airport, usually through cargo.

Desirable Skills and Abilities for Educational Travel Consultants on Performance Tours
A student tour group on performance tour should select the educational travel company carefully. It is highly desirable for the educational travel consultant to be experienced at bringing high school, junior high and middle school choirs, concert bands, orchestras, jazz ensembles, and more on performance tour.

There are several key functions a good tour director will execute on a performance tour and these include: directing the bus driver to park the bus at the proper location for unloading, dropping off a large student travel group, and finding the key person who works at the performance venue for collaboration. Specific on site functions include: coordinating the set up of the performance group, an assessment of the room allocated, electrical, instrument, amplifier, and microphone placement, and the position of keyboards and larger instruments on stage. If the staff of the educational travel consultants company possesses these skills and is cross-trained for marching bands, the company is ideal for any performance tour group. Educational travel consultants train professional staff specifically for performance tours and marching bands. Other companies need to provide this in order for performance tours to go smoothly, too.

Student travel groups on performance tour have different objectives, needs, and challenges than educational travel groups on tour for academic growth and enrichment. Although traveling with musical instruments is a concern, it is only one of the challenges a tour director may face on performance tour.
The best idea for any school group is to retain an educational travel consultant with experience in working with choirs, concert bands and orchestras, jazz ensembles and other types of musical performance groups that can be found in middle, junior high, and high school environments. By retaining seasoned educational tour professionals, the performance tour is bound to be a smashing success that educational tour groups can look forward to year after year.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: Howard Clemens

Howard Clemens founded Educational Travel Consultants in 1984. Over the last 24 years, Mr. Clemens has organized student travel tours for thousands of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. His company also specializes in performance tours to Washington D.C., New York City, and Orlando, Florida. Email him at info@educationaltravelconsultants.com or visit www.educationaltravelconsultants.com.

Google

 

Air Travel Consolidators: Are They A Better Choice?

Consolidators or wholesalers are companies that buy airline tickets at very low prices in bulk and then sell them off to public at a discount rate than the original price set by the airline. They are the cheaper means to buy airline tickets from, because even after they have deducted their profit on the tickets, they are still cheaper for normal people like us. You must be wondering why airlines sell tickets at low prices. Actually, not all flights are booked seat-to-seat by the passengers. Because of this reason the airlines or air travel agencies have to sell tickets in order to make a full flight. And of course everyone involved in this game makes a profit this way.

You might have heard of brick & mortar travels or B&M Travels as they are commonly called. They are the offline consolidators specializing in providing cheap airfare to their customers whenever the demand for a certain flight grows. Online consolidators are also available and they are becoming increasingly popular these days. They are called online travel consolidators. Many websites that you will encounter while searching for cheap airfare are of these consolidators or air travel agencies. They are there to help you out in finding the cheapest flight, whether its national or international, and they also advise you on choosing the right time for booking these flights.

Consolidators in the field of international air travel are the most helpful and useful source of saving a lot of money on airfare. Of course people are always looking for these consolidators or online cheap travel agencies to benefit from the services they have to offer. However, there are some points you should keep in mind before booking with one of these agencies. First of all, keep your options open. Consolidators all around the world offer different discount rates. Sometimes, you save only 10% and at other times, if you are lucky, you can even save up to 70% on your airfare! But it needs a little research and careful investigation before you can find such a consolidator. Furthermore, it also depends on the time of your flight and some other considerations including the destination location and the popularity of an airline.

Secondly, check the price of the airline ticket offered by your consolidator and see if it is inclusive of tax and other fees. Sometimes these companies list only the ticket cost and exclude taxes until the time of payment. This way they can advertise themselves quite cleverly, but do not fall in their trap. Check with other companies and compare their prices. Some websites let you compare prices only through a few clicks and a little information you provide. If possible, wait for a whole season and then see if the ticket rates have reduced. Then book yourself in advance to enjoy affordable and cheap airfare when the time is ripe.

You can tell the agent about the frequent flier program if you are enrolled into one. The consolidator will see if they find a matched price on one of the flights and will book you on it. If time is not of importance then tell your consolidator how flexible your dates are. They can find a good flight for you at the lowest possible price on a weekday or when there is little rush. This way you can travel safer and cheaper. Last but not the least, always check and double check you name and date of the flight and reservation after you have been handed over the ticket by your consolidator. Like every other business, there are traitors and dishonest persons out there so you need to keep an eye open.

Follow these steps and you will find a good consolidator very soon whether you are planning to fly national or international. Here are some consolidator websites to help you start your search from: Travelocity (travelocity.com), Hotwire (hotwire.com), Expedia (expedia.com), Cheap Travel (cheaptravel.com), and Airfare Choice (airfarechoice.com). However, do not rely on just these sites, as already said, keep your options open and keep looking for better and more reliable websites and consolidators to fly cheaper on your next trip.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
By: George Wood

George Wood is an accomplished author who has published a variety of fascinating articles about airfares & travel on a shoestring budget. Check out his airfare website that the airlines DON'T want you to see. Stop the big airline companies from fleecing you of your hard earned money, and discover cheap travel cheapest airfares to wherever your imagination takes you!

Google