New travel site Voyij.com offers comprehensive deals and user-friendly innovation

by Brenda Yun on

Launched just a few days ago, Voyij.com, the newest travel site whose crew brought SideStep to the world wide web, is hoping to bring fresh and creative deals, offers and sales for the flexible traveler. Voyij fills a void on the web that people want: the best bargains for travel. Users can explore and discover travel sales they never knew existed, independent of origin, destination, or dates. Voyij was developed to bring the “best of the best travel bargains” to users in the easiest, most time-efficient way.

Here’s how Voyij works: Simply enter where you are and Voyij will present the most comprehensive list of travel deals on the web at any given time. Not every destination or date is always on sale every day, but Voyij allows you to find what is on sale at the time you search. In the process, you can explore other, new travel possibilities from a variety of other places. It’s similar to Kayak, but offers more field options to get the kind of results you’re looking for.

In addition to finding new and unexpected travel possibilities, you can opt to select by criteria. Voyij provides complete filtering for what is important to each individual person, including travel dates, accommodation ratings, location, activities, price, and more. It is not uncommon for travelers to visit over a dozen sites before finding just the right travel deal to fit their travel needs.

Voyij does all the navigating for you. All you have to do is enter in your travel criteria. From one central hub, Voyij searches the web’s deals and sales to offer exclusive last-minute specials and promotional rates to bring its users the widest selection of offers from any one site.

I’m always looking for the cheapest fares from Honolulu to the mainland, and now I can find out when I can go that will provide the best deal rather than searching for arbitrary dates and destinations. It might take a little getting used to initially, but Voyij definitely has the potential to make travel that much cheaper, easier and more hassle-free.

Swine flu symptoms? Next holiday in Mexico is free

by Jamie Rhein on

It’s a bummer to get sick on a vacation. Anyone who has been holed up in a hotel with the chills or worse instead of out enjoying the trip that you paid for can vouch for that. Illness isn’t great for tourism either. Mexico tourism has hit the skids because of H1N1 virus, aka, swine flu. Folks in the Mexico tourism industry have begun to cook up ideas to entice tourists to head south. Here’s one.

In an effort to make amends, and woo tourists into thinking that a little swine flu is worth the risk, three hotel chains: Real Resorts, Dreams and Secrets are offering a screaming deal to anyone who has swine flu like symptoms within eight days after they get home from their Caribbean coast vacation. According to this Daily Mail article, if you arrive home and get sick, you get three years of free vacation fun in Mexico. The eight day limit, I suppose, is to keep people from blaming any old ailment they acquire days, weeks or months later on their beach holiday.

There’s a couple of hitches with this plan. The U.S. is still recommending that people not travel to Mexico unless they really have to and several companies have canceled trips. But, still, it’s a creative odd reverse of what is usually the case of what people want from a vacation.

Most people head to Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter, hoping to NOT get sick. In this case, getting sick is like hitting the lottery. I wonder how many people will be disappointed on the ninth day after they have returned home and wake up without one ache and pain–not even a twinge. Not only do you NOT win three years of free vacation, but you have to go to work. Most people will end up heading to work. Probably all of them. Mexico’s Health Minister has reported that out of the 2,000 registered swine flu cases, only two have been from Cancun.

Hey, college students: Here are 5 ways you can afford that next trip

by Aaron Hotfelder on

College can be a cruel time for would-be globe-trotters: It’s often the time when you most want to travel– whether it’s Spring Break in Mexico or a month in Europe– but it’s also one of the times you’re least able to. Why?

No money. Sure, it might be easy to take out tens of thousands of dollars of student loans to fund your trip, but you will pay for this, with compound interest, later. Better to find some creative ways to scrape together some cash so you can turn your dream trip into reality.

Here are five non-traditional tips that’ll save you some real dough:

1. Your campus bookstore is ripping you off big time. Please don’t tell me that you still buy and sell your textbooks at the campus bookstore. Why not just take your money and flush it directly down the toilet? (Or, hell, I’ll take it.)

Buying and selling your books online can save you hundreds of dollars per semester. (Half.com works best for me.) Another tip: As soon as you figure out what books you need for the semester, see if they’re available at your university’s library. Often you can check out textbooks for an entire semester and return them when the course is over.

Finally, if a course “requires” a textbook’s new 12th edition (cost $140), buy the book’s 11th edition (cost $2.99). The book’s page numbers will be different, but the content will probably be very similar.

2. Suckle at the government teat. If you work at least 20 hours per week and make less than $1,200 per month– the exact requirements depend on your state– you might be eligible for food stamps, a form of federal assistance that can provide you with hundreds of dollars per month to spend on groceries.

Nowadays, food stamp recipients don’t use actual stamps but a type of debit card, so that no one but you (and maybe the cashier) has to know that you’re suckling at the government teat.

3. Selling your plasma is not that embarassing. Nothing signals financial desperation quite like donating plasma. But if you’re saving up money for a trip, an extra $70 per week ($35 for donating twice per week) can really come in handy.

What’s involved in donating plasma? On your first trip, you’ll have to fill out lots of paperwork, receive a physical, and take a drug test. (Note: “Negative” is, paradoxically, a good result.) After that, you’ll sit back for an hour or so, watch the plasma drain from your body, and feel the cash roll in. For those of you near a major airport, eight plasma donations might just buy you a round-trip ticket to Costa Rica. Adiós, sangre!

4. Shopping at Aldi, Save-a-lot, and Price Rite is not that embarassing either. For the poor college student with $11 a week to spend on groceries, these stores are, for lack of a better term, the bomb-diggity. Canned goods, milk, and snacks are ridiculously cheap, and you won’t notice a drop in quality. Admittedly, these are no-frills places– not an olive bar, exotic fruit, or free sample to be found. But you’ll save a ton of money.

5. Here, have forty-five bucks. An investment site called Sharebuilder has an ongoing promotion that gives you $50 for signing up for their service and spending at least $5. I’ve done this, multiple times, and it works like a charm. And so far, the police have not come knocking on my door. (Well they have, but not for this.)

I’d suggest plugging “Sharebuilder promotion code 2009” into your favorite search engine, then doing some research. The money takes 4-6 weeks to arrive, but it’s free money, so quit yer bitchin’.

Have any more money-saving tips for poverty-stricken students? Leave ’em in the comments.

World’s tallest water ride open for thrill seekers at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari

by Scott Carmichael on

Several days ago I wrote about Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, in Santa Claus, Indiana. At the time of writing, I knew they had some cool rides, but it wasn’t until I took a closer look at their site that I noticed they just opened the highest water ride in the world – The Pilgrims Plunge.

You really need to see the video to get an idea just how insane this thing is – 10 passengers at a time will drop 135 feet down a water slide, at over 50 mph.

After the jump, a second video showing the ride. Holiday World is now home to two record holding attractions – the park is also where you’ll find the top “air time” wooden coaster in the world.

Gadling Take FIVE: Week of May 2–May 8

by Jamie Rhein on

Sometimes a Gadling post grabs one’s attention and you think, “Gaad!”

  • That’s what I thought when I read Scott’s post about the flesh eating bacteria that killed a man while he was on a cruise. I’m heading off on my first cruise in August. Naturally, a flesh-eating bacteria cruise story has impact.
  • There are other posts that make a person ponder about life in general. That’s what happened when I read Tynan’s post on coping with travel disasters. His method is a make lemonade out of lemons version which serves him well.
  • As you may have noticed we’re starting a new series on budget travel. This one involves places to drive to from somewhere else. Here are budget destinations so far: Scott has the scoop on Santa Claus, Indiana (from Chicago); Grant’s a whiz at Ann Arbor, Michigan (from Detroit) and Catherine knows about Puget Sound and San Juan Islands ( from Seattle.) There’s much more coming. Each of us have favorite spots that don’t cost a lot, but offer a wonderful time.
  • If you’re looking for an interesting, blogging way to fund travel, check out Aaron’s post on Roads Scholarship. Think of it as a paid internship.
  • For anyone heading to New York City, Jeremy’s post on fun and games offers a unique way to take in the urban scene through Bocce Ball, chess and more. As he points out, immigrant groups have brought their games with them to the Big Apple adding an international mix to what visitors can enjoy.