Day Trips

*We plan on doing a series of blog entries on off-beat places to go in the future.

There are certain advantages to being a local: you know the people who inhabit the area; you know the local history; and you know by heart the local "hot spots". However, you can only take your kids to the White House, for example, so many times until you yearn for something new, something out of the ordinary, something memorable. In today's blog we will be going over a few day trip ideas that can help you spice up your summer and help you break out of summer monotony. There are other things -- besides going to the Smithsonian -- to do in Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

Vineyards

Virginia vineyards may not carry the same cachet as those in Europe, but many of them have award-winning vintages. The harvest season for wines typically falls between August and October.

On the website, http://virginiawine.org.com/, you can search for different vineyards in Virginia; a cursory search brought over 156 wineries. They cluster on the eastern seaboard.

Not to be outdone, Maryland also has its own fair share of wineries. http://marylandwine.com/ lists them by name and by region. Maryland's lower Piedmont area (north of D.C.) is renowned for its wine.

Hot Air Balloon Rides

As you might have surmised -- it shouldn't come as a surprise -- we have devised a plan for a taking a balloon ride.

Delmarva Balloon Rides is a local company that specializes in hot air balloon rides. They are located at 1137 Little Creek Road, Chester Maryland, 21619.
http://www.delmarvaballoonrides.com/

Beaches

Virginia has over 5,000 miles of shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. Hence, lots of beaches. The most well-known of these is Virginia Beach with its 38 miles of shoreline. Colonial Beach -- in Westmoreland County -- has the second largest beachfront.

Maryland also has many beaches. Worcester County is the home of Ocean City -- an Atlantic Ocean resort city -- and is a popular destination for tourists. It extends over 9 miles from the southern inlet to the Delaware line. You can find more information at the Ocean City website.

http://www.ococean.com/

Hiking

Catoctin Mountain Park -- home of the presidential retreat at Camp David -- has a variety of lodging opportunities for visitors. It is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. You can find a lot of information, such as vidoes and maps, on their website: http://nps.gov/cato

Another famous park -- Shenandoah National Park -- is located 75 miles away from our capital. Entrance fees are around $8 per person in the summer. The website is: http://nps.gov/shen

*As always, if you need transportation to any of these places, we will be happy to oblige.

Oil Spill Aftermath

BP's oil spill might be old news -- considering that the initial explosion occured on April 20 -- but the effects, especially regarding travel, will likely linger for a long time. Today BP has claimed that it has capped off the well. This, hopefully, will stem the flow of oil so they can get to work cleaning up the oil spill.

For a bit of background information the source of the leaking oil lies less than a hundred miles from the Mississippi Delta in the Gulf Of Mexico. According to the NYTimes, for the first month of the spill the oil stayed mostly in the gulf. Starting in the last week of May waves of oil began washing into Louisiana's wetlands and beaches. Then, in June, oil landings were being reported to the states east of the epicenter -- Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida -- with varying degrees of oil. Heavy oil is located, particularly, south of New Orleans and on the Chandeleur Islands. In addition, the Coast Guard reported that oil had entered the Gulf's Loop Current and would carry the oil toward Florida's west coast and down the Florida Keys to Miami's beaches.

In the Panhandle some hotels have seen a 50% cancellation in hotels because of oil spill related concerns. However, the Keys and South Florida do the bulk of their tourism from fall to early spring so it shouldn't wreck too much havoc on their economy.

The future is always uncertain and it is hard to extrapolate accurately but a computer model released by marine scientists predicted that a ring of oil might encircle the entire Florida peninsula by the end of the month. Only time will tell.

The link below shows an interactive map of how much oil has been spilled.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/27/us/20100527-oil-landfall.html?ref=us

Summer Travel: Part II

There really are no secrets to securing a sweet travel deal, it mostly comes down to simple economics: supply and demand. If you are seeking someplace special to go this summer, timing your trip to coincide with days that are not during peak travel times can help you avoid long lines and other inefficiencies.



We have already surveyed the major Internet travel websites in older posting and would like to take the time to present a few new websites that might be of interest:

One interesting site, Couponmap.com, is a mashup that embeds Google Maps onto its website and automatically populates the map with a list of coupons from various companies.

http://www.couponmap.com/



Another interesting website, sidestep.com, is a traveler's search engine that is similar to other popular search engines. They aggregate their data and provide information on hotels, flights, cars, deals, vacations and cruises.

http://www.sidestep.com/


Making data driven decisions can help you determine where you want to go. There are many variables that come into play -- price, location, time -- but one, at least during this time of year, especially sticks out: temperature.


As you can see from the map, the tempertures that we have been experiencing are all within the normal range.

The map above shows the average weekly temperature. Good luck planning your trip.

Yuan

There has been a lot of talk in the news regarding the renminbi (also known as the yuan), the official currency of the People's Republic of China. American politicians have accused China of manipulating their currency; business leaders have lamented that its low value hurts their exports; and even economists agree with the above assessments. In today's blog we will cut through the rhetoric to see this debacle through a different lens; the lens of a perspective traveler.

The Chinese currency is currently under a floating managed exchange rate system and is pegged to a basket of currencies. What is causing all the commotion in the world's currency markets is that on June 19, 2010 China announced that it would allow greater flexibility in the value of the currency. Then, on June 21, the renminbi rose to a two year high which indicated that policy makers have heard the message. The underlying reason behind this decision is simple: Politics.

This weekend Toronto will hold the G-20 summit where finance ministers and central bank governors from the biggest economies of the world will gather to discuss the world economy. China, sensing that the major world economies will once again bash its currency, decided to preemptively take initiative to show that they understand the concerns of other countries.

The important thing to know about the Chinese exchange rate -- at least for travelers -- is that it is still kept artificially low. This means that everything you buy -- from food to hotels to clothing -- will be much cheaper than comparable products back home. Scholarly studies by both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund indicate that on the basis of purchasing power parity, the renminbi should be trading between RMB1.9 to RMB3.7 as opposed to the current exchange rate of RMB6.8123.

The recent appreciation of the renmibi is largely symbolic. If you were thinking about going to China, don't worry, things in China are still cheap.

Airbnb

With the recent recession a new breed of travelers have rewritten some of the rules on the right way to travel. Instead of staying at pricey hotels they stay with locals; instead of booking vacations through travel agents they cut out the middle-man and go solo; and instead of using old media outlets they use new websites that integrate the latest advances in technology. Today we will be profiling a new company -- Airbnb -- that has changed the way people travel.

Airbnb is a company founded by young, technologically oriented people who found a travel niche to exploit. By utilizing the best ideas of other travel websites, they have created a community of like minded people who enjoy traveling.

In order to truly understand what they do you should check out their website. http://www.airbnb.com/
Navigating through the website is intuitive. A simple search engine -- embedded on the homepage -- allows you to quickly search through all of the listed properties. After a cursory search of Washington D.C. accommodations I found that prices ranged widely: from $25 to over $1,000 a night. After viewing a few of the properties I started to become curious, what was it that led people to rent out their homes to complete strangers? Money? Loneliness? Excitement? This excerpt from one renter explains her motivation for renting out her room:
"I don't really need the $$$ to be honest, but thought it would be cool to host and meet people from all over. I traded my place for Obama inauguration tickets and it worked really well. Looking forward to hosting again!"

Safety, at least for some, is a concern: living with a stranger can sound kind of crazy. To help assuage any anxiety a review system is set in place that allows you to see what other people have to say. There truly is safety in numbers. On the flip side, if you would like to earn a bit of cash, or enjoy meeting new people, you can also become a renter. Posting a room is simple and easy.

Summer Travel

Summer is here again and that means one thing: Summer Travel. In today's blog entry we will be going over a few places that may be of interest to our clients.

Travel bookings are one of the largest compenents of e-commerce and there is a wealth of information online that can help you plan your trip. If you are looking to track down low cost airfare flights, metasearch websites --like fly.com or kayak.com -- can help you broaden your search by aggregating the search results from other travel sites. Kayak.com even helps you search for hotels and cars.

Many of our clients enjoy camping and we recommend that they check out the Virginia Campground Association (VCA).
http://www.virginiacampgrounds.com/

The map belows shows how they divide the state in six seperate regions: Shenandoah Valley, North, Chesapeake Bay, Southwest Blue Ridge Highlands, Central and Tidewater and Hampton Roads.

Niagara Falls

Another desitination that our clients find desirable is Niagara Falls. Peak numbers of visitors occur in the summertime as the weather permits Niagara Falls to be both a daytime and evening attraction. Floodlights also shine from the Canadian side for a couple of hours after dark.

Smithsonian Institution
http://www.si.edu/
Another popular and local summer attraction is the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum complex and research organization. It is composed of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

This iconic American memorial is visited by approximately two million visitors

GPS Devices

From time immemorial people have created ways to help them navigate. During the Age of Discovery portolan charts -- a precursor to modern day maps -- were developed based on accounts of medieval Europeans who sailed the Mediterrean and Black Sea coast. In contemporary times, with the advent of GPS, people are still trying to explore their environment; with varying degrees of success.

Many of our clients rent cars but they should take heed that putting blind trust in their vehicles could lead to trouble.

In a recent NYTimes article, a writer describes a scene that happens all over the world: a person blindly following the commands of a GPS device drives up the wrong end of a highway off-ramp. People tend to forget a simple premise: technology is not infallible. Having said that, there are few inventions in the history of transportation that have revolutionized the way people navigate more than portable GPS devices.

GPS or the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the name of a global navigation satellite system that is maintained by the United States government. It is available freely by anyone with a GPS receiver and provides reliable location and time in all weather anywhere on Earth. It was established in 1973 and was created by the American Department of Defense (DOD).

The importance of having a GPS can be summed up with a simple statistic: 18% of American roads change yearly. Places change. Luckily, all GPS navigators on the market today include pre-loaded maps and provide spoken directions and automatic rerouting if you miss a turn.

The five biggest GPS brands are Garmin, Magellan, Mio, Nextar and TomTom.

Garmin

Garmin is the biggest selling brand, with more than 50 percent of the market.
http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us

Mio

Mio was founded in 2002 and its corporate headquarters are located in Taipei, Taiwan.
http://www.mio.com/

Nextar

http://www.nextar.com/frontend/prodcat.asp?co=10000384
^^ The link above shows 5 of their GPS products ^^

Magellan

Magellan lays claim to developing the first commercially available handheld GPS receiver, the NAV 1000, introduced in 1989.
http://www.magellangps.com/

TomTom

TomTom was founded by Harold Goddijn, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen in 1991.
Market leader in Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs)
http://www.tomtom.com/howdoesitwork/category.php?ID=6&Language=1
They have a wide range of products including:

• Bike navigation
• Car navigation
• Built-in car navigation
• Mobile navigation

Other options

Another popular option to finding your way around is using a free online web mapping service like MapQuest. MapQuest is an American map publisher owned by AOL and

http://www.mapquest.com/