Quark Expeditions offers $1500 airfare credit for Antarctic travelers

by Kraig Becker on

The Antarctic travel season is now officially in full swing, with cruise ships carrying adventurous travelers across the Southern Ocean and around the Antarctic coastline. For many, a journey to the bottom of the planet is the trip of a lifetime and very high on the list of “must see” places. But a trip to the frozen continent can also be a prohibitively expensive one, which is why Quark Expeditions is currently offering airfare credits to help make the trip a reality for more travelers.

Quark, which is one of the top adventure travel companies in the world, is offering a USD $1500 credit per person for flights to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world and the launching point for most Antarctic cruises. The offer is good for all Antarctic travel booked with the company between January 16 and February 26, 2011.

Quark offers three unique itineraries for adventure travelers to choose from. They range in length from 12 to 20 days and each gives access to a variety of destinations and experiences on the Antarctic continent. For more details on this great offer, and to review the various itineraries that Quark has to offer, click here.

If Antarctica is high on your list of destinations, then perhaps this is the time to make a New Year’s resolution to visit that place at last. Let Quark Expeditions help make that dream a reality and take advantage of the $1500 credit in the process.

[Photo credit: Quark Expeditions]

How to find affordable ski deals this winter

by Amy Chen on

Skiing isn’t the most budget-friendly winter activity, but you can find affordable ski deals if you know when and where to book lift tickets.

Evan Reece, co-founder of Liftopia.com, reveals how to save on lift tickets at popular ski resorts around the U.S.

Buy lift tickets in advance and pick your days carefully.
If you buy a lift ticket through Liftopia at least the day before you plan to ski, you can typically save an average of 35 percent when compared to booking a one-day pass in person at the ticket window. Mid-week lift tickets are generally cheaper, and skiing on Sundays typically costs less than Saturdays. “Many customers will go up for the weekend and intend to ski both days, Reece says. “But they’ll end up being tired on Sunday. And faced with a four-hour drive, they’ll just say, ‘Let’s go.'”

Ski on Christmas Day.
When everyone else is preoccupied with opening gifts on Christmas morning, hit the ski slopes and save. Based on last year’s data, the average price of all lift tickets booked in advance through Liftopia for Christmas Day skiing was 39.7 percent less than what you’d pay at the window, Reece says. Other bargain days include New Year’s Day, Jan. 2, and Super Bowl Sunday.Seek out smaller ski resorts.
Rather than following the crowds to Breckenridge or Vail, venture to smaller ski resorts for a more intimate experience. Though you may sacrifice the big-name glitz and apres-ski scene, let’s face it: most of us aren’t skilled enough to take advantage of all the ski runs to justify an $80 lift ticket.

Look into combo passes with added value.
Some resorts, such as Keystone in Colorado, add in meal credits with the purchase of a lift ticket. For example, a one-day lift ticket plus a $15 lunch credit bought through Liftopia will save you about 11 percent when compared to buying the same package on-mountain. Even the resort food will taste better than “eating a smushed peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Reece adds.

Consider packages that bundle ski rentals and lift tickets.
Other than saving on checked baggage fees, many resorts now carry top-of-the-line rentals that are most likely newer and better than anything you have stashed in the garage.

How Liftopia Works: Tickets purchased through Liftopia are nontransferable, nonrefundable, and date specific. Or as Reece explains it: “You can’t buy a Friday concert ticket and expect to show up the next day.”

[Photo by Amy Chen]

Five chilling facts about Cyber Monday Shopping

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Okay, your goal should be NOT to conform to what you see below. The travel industry, riding something of a recovery this year, is set to come out with some solid sales on Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year. So, as you click among hotel, airline and online travel agency sites, it will pay for you to be aware of the biggest risks you face.

Despite the many risks associated with online shopping – and the fact that they have been shoved in the public’s face since the early days of internet commercialization – people still roll the dice with their financial security. When you get excited about cheap tickets or a real bargain on the excursion of a lifetime, take a moment to make sure you aren’t getting scammed. Your savviest purchase may be the one you never make.

So, what are the risks? Let’s take a look at five scary facts from web security firm Webroot:1. Don’t trust page one: a high placement in Google search results shouldn’t be a sign of trust. According to Webroot, 59 percent of survey respondents trust the results they get in the first few pages, up from 39 percent last year. Unfortunately, this placement is “a target for malicious links.” Interestingly, the number of people using search engines is falling: “48 percent of online shoppers frequently if not always use search engines to find gifts online, compared to 52 percent in 2009,” Webroot reports.

Solution: Watch brand. If you recognize the company’s brand, you can be more comfortable with the purchase. Also, watch where the link sends you. For an extra layer of protection, enter the company’s address into the browser yourself instead of clicking the link in Google.

2. Risky wifi behavior: 18 percent of shoppers are likely to use public wifi for holiday shopping, Webroot reports, up from 12 percent in 2009. This can be risky, especially with 23 percent of respondents feeling comfortable using free public wifi.

Solution: Do your online shopping at home or at work. Stealing wifi from your neighbor so you can toss your credit card number onto the web is probably pretty stupid.

3. New site, new password: are you planning to jump on a deal from a company you haven’t used before? Well, this is the point of many of the Cyber Monday travel deals you’ll see: companies want to lure you away from your ol’ stand-by sites. Do take advantage of the hot promotions, but be smart. Using the same password everywhere is like hiding a house key under your doormat.

Solution: Use a new password every time you create an account with a travel website. Also, be one of the 72 percent of online shoppers who uses a “complex” password – i.e., a mix of letters, numbers and symbols.

4. Social should be personal: 26 percent of respondents to the Webroot survey indicated that someone else had used their social media or email accounts to send friends messages in their names. With travel companies increasingly turning to social media platforms to market their deals and bolster their brands, expect a lot more interaction this year … which brings hefty doses of risk with it.

Solution: Take a look at your sent messages from time to time, and look at your Twitter stream from the perspective of another user. Make sure you recognize everything you’re putting out into the world.

5. Look for safety: 52 percent of Webroot’s respondents don’t check to see if a site uses SSL, and 50 percent don’t look for the padlock in the lower right corner of the web browser. This is like not twisting the doorknob after you lock it.

Solution: pay attention to where you make purchases online. In addition to getting comfortable with the company website, you also want to be aware of the security in place. If something feels off, play it safe: don’t buy. No deal is worth the consequences of risky online purchasing behavior.

[Via Insurance Information Institute, photo by InfoMofo via Flickr]

Do Thanksgiving deals make hotels more appealing than staying at home?

by Amy Chen on

I’m going home for Thanksgiving for the first time since moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York City. And rather than agreeing to sleep on the futon, I’m springing for a hotel room. Does choosing to stay in a hotel make me a bad person since the whole point of the holiday is to be with family?

As much as I love my family, I’m not too crazy about the idea of my 9-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew rousing me out of bed at 6 a.m. every day. And though my sister tries her best to keep them occupied until I’ve woken up, the guilt — and their adorable pleading (“Will you play with me?”, “Are you still sleeping?”) — inevitably drives me to get up with the rest of the family.

To be honest, I didn’t plan to stay at a hotel over Thanksgiving. But as a Kimpton InTouch loyalty member, I received an e-mail blast several weeks ago for weekend deals. When I discovered that the deal wasn’t blacked out over Thanksgiving weekend, I ended up booking three nights at the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco’s Union Square for $109 per night. Is the extra sleep worth that much money? In my case, yes.
For my last night, I found a last-minute deal at Sonoma‘s Farmhouse Inn: $177 (regularly $295-$375). Unfortunately, the online deal required a minimum two-night stay. Since I had already prepaid my Sir Francis Drake hotel reservation, I decided to call up the inn to see if there were any other deals. It turns out that if I was willing to take a smaller room, I could book the $177 rate for just one night. Done. Looks like I’ll get my turkey and a little wine tasting, too.

So you see, I didn’t intend to stay at a hotel over Thanksgiving. But at these low rates, how could I resist all these Thanksgiving deals?

Though staying in a hotel will be a lot more comfortable than sleeping on the futon, maybe I will miss the chaos of staying at home (and the convenience of opening the fridge to pick at the leftover turkey).

%Poll-56023%

[Photo by Amy Chen]

Five ways to protect your wallet on Cyber Monday

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Cyber Monday is around the corner, and the travel business is getting ready to hit you up with some great deals. If all goes as planned for them, you’ll rush to pry open your wallet and book your next trip at a fantastic discount. Ready? Well, not so fast …

There are a lot of other people who want access to your credit card, too. But, they don’t want to give you anything in return. The scammers will be out in full force, and it’s incumbent upon you to protect yourself.

Jeff Horne, threat research director at web security company Webroot, has a few ideas for how you can keep your cash safe on Cyber Monday – and all the time, frankly. Let’s take a look at five recommendations from a guy who’s in the business of knowing what the online bad guys are up to:
Horne recommends the following actions:1. Horse’s mouth: don’t click a link to make a purchase. Instead, go straight to the site. This will protect you from the risks associated with malicious links. If an airline, hotel or online travel agent offers up a deal, just go straight to the company to buy it.

2. Password discipline: don’t use your mom’s maiden name on every site where you have an account. Mix it up a bit to add some protection for your online shopping activity.

3. Pay attention: Horne suggests looking for the “signs of security,” such as “https” in the address bar. Make sure that the travel company is putting some security measures in place to protect you. In addition to keeping the thieves at bay, it also shows that a company is interested in taking care of you, making it worthy of your purchase and your loyalty.

4. Choose carefully: use a credit card instead of a debit card to stop payments immediately if something goes awry. Also, your risk will be limited to available credit, rather than the entirety of your bank account. PayPal users: monitor the account from which PayPal draws to make sure it isn’t compromised.

5. ‘Tis the season: if you get a “confirmation” email that doesn’t have a tracking number, delete it. If you aren’t sure about whether a purchase has been confirmed, go back to the travel site where you made it and view your order history.

[Via Insurance Information Institute, photo by TheTruthAbout via Flickr]