Stay at a Leading Hotel of the World for $20!

by Abha Malpani on

To celebrate their 80th birthday, Leading Hotels of the World is running a promotion where you can stay in almost 100 of their properties around the world for US$19.28.

At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EST/Eastern Standard Time) on October 1, 2008, LHW will release a limited number of rooms in these properties for 80 minutes only, in which you can try to secure rooms for US$19.28. You can pre-register here.

It’s not clear what type of rooms will be up for grabs; rooms at LHW properties range from US$500-2000, so for $20, any room will do!

80 minutes is not long and I imagine tonnes of people trying to milk this offer, so let’s hope that LHW have their act together and their servers do not crash.

[Via globorati]

Museum Day: Get cultured and learn something for free

by Jamie Rhein on

If the ticket price of the admission to museums makes you hesitate before pulling out your wallet, on Museum Day, September 27th, the price is right. It’s free–not all museums, but many.

Several museums and cultural sites across the U.S. have been enticed by Smithsonian Magazine to not charge on the 27th to promote Museum Day.

You do need an admission card for free admission, but one pass will get you and a friend in the museum of your choice’s door.

If you use the drop down menu on the Museum Day Web site, you can find out which museums are free in any state. I checked out New York state and found dozens. Reading the list is one way to find out the variety of museums there are.

One museum that fits the historical site category caught my attention in particular. Huguenot Street is in New Paltz and is where I dressed up like a Huguenot when I was in high school and gave tours on what was called Huguenot Day. The house in the picture is one of the houses that is part of the tour.

I found out about Museum Day from Tom Barlow, my friend at Wallet Pop. He swears that I told him about it last week. Where was I? I have no recollection. Here’s the link to the Museum Day admission card.

Gadling Take FIVE – August 16- August 23

by Jamie Rhein on

If you kept up with Gadling this week, you’ve probably gathered some tips to help you plan your next trip whether you’re looking for the practical or the extravagant. For example,

  1. Aaron says that almonds make perfect travel snacks, something he knew about even before he read about it at the Happiness Project website that recently offered up vacation tips.
  2. Jerry found out from Mark Jolly, editor of globorati, that train travel is one way to go to travel green, and that train travel is having a comeback. There are other travel tidbits besides. If you missed this post, check it out.
  3. Scott pointed us towards a High Sierra luggage deal at Amazon.com
  4. Meg told us how to have the ultimate diamond and jewelry shopping experience in Manhattan
  5. And Anna pointed us towards environmentally friendly cities for a vacation. It may surprise you that Bangkok is on the list. It has a well-deserved spot.

Have a great weekend and enjoy watching the rest of the Olympics. I’m loving learning more about China from all of the side stories.

Fall fares on the way!

by Grant Martin on

Ah, the summer of oil is almost behind us. Looking at the fare charts right now, either there is a giant fare war going on or fall fares are starting to get loaded into the system. Either way, there are some pretty fantabulous fares on the market right now (take that, airline analysts!)

Much of the fare sales seem to be centered around Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, for some reason. So do you have a few minutes to take a look and see what’s out there? Good, here’s the easiest way to do it.

  • Farecompare has a neat little tool that I’ve talked about before that lets you sort fares by Price and Price Per Mile (PPM). Go to this link, plug in your city, select “North America” and click Find Fares. .
  • Sort those fares by either Price or PPM (a good metric in finding good prices for long flights), then scan down the list for city pairs that you like. Departing from Detroit, the second city I found was Los Angeles, for about 200$. Sounds good.
  • Farecompare’s availbility tool is kind of janky, so next, go to Travelocity, plug in the city pairs that you saw earlier and select “Flexible Search”.
  • The results should bring up something near the price that you found earlier. Click that link and Travelocity will bring up a dynamic calendar that shows you what dates are available.

Not finding the dates you want? Yeah, that’s the problem with the cheapest fares — often times they depart on Wednesdays or Tuesdays. But if you’ve got the time to plan far enough ahead or a few extra dollars you can work around most of these setbacks.

Happy travels!

Busch Garden Williamsburg give-a-ways: Season pass included!

by Jamie Rhein on

One wonderful detail about summer travel is that it can spill over into autumn and beyond–particularly if it comes in amusement park entertainment.

In the spirit of the summer is not over yet, and when it is, don’t stop the fun, Gadling has paired up with Busch Gardens Williamsburg for some give-away action. Williamsburg, Virginia, known for its colonial past, is steeped in American history.

Pairing a visit to Colonial Williamsburg with a visit to Busch Gardens Williamsburg (and Water Country USA) adds amusement park excitement and a step into Europe to an American history lesson.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg, with its European inspired theme, boasts rides such as: Escape from Pompeii–a water ride, Griffon, a roller coaster that has a 90 degrees, straight down drop, and The Curse of DarKastle, a haunted house. Rides are set in settings reminiscent of European countries. The photo is from Da Vinci’s Garden of Inventors.

Along with rides, there are animal attractions like Eagle’s Ridge, a sanctuary for injured eagles, and Jack Hanna’s Wild Reserve, a section where exotic and endangered animal exhibits highlight the importance of habitat preservation.

For people who aren’t particularly fond of rides–and those who are, there are shows to enjoy. Emerald Beat, an Irish step-dancing performance, is one of them.

Because Busch Gardens’ season extends past Halloween, certain events reflect the time of year as well. On two September weekends, Bud & BBQ “celebrates great food, great beer and great music.”

For Halloween, there’s Howl-O-Scream. It begins in September and runs through the last weekend in October.

So, dear Gadling readers, what can you win? There are four different prizes.

  • Prize 1 – Season Pass Voucher to Busch Gardens which also gets you into Water Country USA, the water park that is part of the Busch Gardens family– a $154.95 value and a Busch Garden’s T-shirt (T-shirt value, $10)
  • Prize 2- Season Pass and a Busch Gardens visor (visor value, $5)
  • Prize 3- Exxon Mobile Gas Card for $25 and a Busch Gardens T-shirt
  • Prize 4–Exxon Mobile Gas Card for $25 and a Busch Gardens visor

To enter, leave a comment below telling us why you need a longer summer vacation and what you’d do with the time.

  • The comment must be left before Friday, August 15, 2008 at 1 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.

See the complete rules here.

Good luck!!