Free Embassy Tours In D.C.

The embassies of nations from around the world will offer free tours, cultural programs, entertainment and refreshments in Washington on the first two Saturdays in May. (Thanks to Arthur Frommer for the heads up.)

On May 1, embassies from Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas will participate in the Around the World Embassy Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can hear live didgeridoo music at the Embassy of Australia, for example, or learn to prepare African cuisine at the Embassy of the Republic of Botswana.

On May 8 it’s the European Union’s turn. Embassies of its member nations will host the European Union Embassies’ Open House Day. Try some port wine at the Embassy of Portugal or listen to Hungarian folk music at the Embassy of Hungary.

And it’s all available at my favorite price — free.

Four-Night Caribbean Cruise, $213

At least a couple of online travel agencies are offering four-night Caribbean cruises on Carnival’s Imagination for $159, plus taxes and fees for a total of $213  per person, double occupancy.  That’s $53 per day, not the lowest rate I’ve ever seen but pretty close.

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Travelzoo Stockpiles Travel Deals

When you confront the question of where to travel for an outrageously cheap vacation, Travelzoo may have the answer.

Travelzoo specializes in travel deals the way Overstock specializes in remaindered merchandise. Every day the site adds new bargains: reduced hotel rates, last-minute cruises, airfare sales and discounted vacation packages.

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JetBlue To Start Hartford Flights In November

JetBlue will begin nonstop flights Nov. 17 between Bradley International Airport and two destinations in Florida: Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

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Kayak Makes Airfare Searches Flexible

There are plenty of Web sites where you can search for the best airfares, but my favorite is Kayak.

Habit has something to do with this, no doubt. Kayak was among the first fully featured metasearch engine for airfares. And it remains among the strongest, particularly for flights originating in the United States.

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Airfarewatchdog: An Essential Site For Budget Travel

I’m preparing a presentation on the five best Web sites for budget travel, and it’s not easy to choose them. I use dozens of  sites to search for bargains, and they all have their good points.

But there’s no way that I could leave Airfarewatchdog.com off the list. At its core is a powerful database of the lowest fares from airports around the United States and Canada to destinations both domestic and foreign. Just go to the home page and type in your airport’s city or code and you’ll get a list of bargain fares.

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Southwest Offers Double Rewards Credits

Do you have a lot of places to go in the next six weeks? If you go there on Southwest Airlines you can earn a free flight.

Southwest is offering double credit for flights before May 26, which means you can get a free flight after four round-trip flights if you complete them all by that time. Business select fares earn credit at a slightly faster rate.

If you have any Southwest flights coming up before May 26, be sure to sign up for this offer. You do need to register here.

Bag The Hotel, Save Money

The CheapOair blog recently had a nice roundup on the various ways to get free lodging when you travel, including couch surfing, home swapping and work holidays. My niece just spent some time in New Zealand on a sort of farm internship / holiday and some friends of friends were out couch surfing last I heard. Anybody else out there tried any of these options?

New York, New York In Las Vegas: $55

New York, New York on The Strip in Las Vegas has rooms at $55 a night on limited dates through the end of the year.

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Free Admission To National Parks

Half Dome, Yosemite

April 17 to 25 is National Park Week, with free admission to all 392 national parks in the United States and special events planned at many of them.

The low admission fees for our national parks are already a tremendous bargain. For example, the cost of admission to Yellowstone is $25, not per person but for all the passengers in a car and not for one day but for seven. Many other parks charge less. An annual pass to all the nation’s parks is just $80 and for people over 62 years old, it’s $10. Remarkable.

Yet even prices that low can be a barrier for our poorest citizens. And won’t it be nice, for a week, to think that as a nation we could support a robust national park system for all Americans to enjoy, as a benefit that we are happy to support with our tax dollars?

Some national park concessionaires are offering special deals at hotels and restaurants within the parks to coincide with National Park Week.