2007 Top Travel Destinations

Conde Nast Readers' Choice Awards 2007
While Conde Nast is more of a luxury travel magazine (I normally prefer the budget travel), their readers have spoken and made their choices for the best travel destinations of 2007.
The categories are Top Cities, Top Islands, Top Transportation, Top Hotels and Top Resorts, and are divided up by region.
Yes, Vancouver, Victoria and many of the BC Resorts rated highly in the Americas surveys.

So where are the best hostels and best cheap flights?

Best current advice on traveling around Europe on a budget

10 Ways to Keep Europe Within Reach

By MICHELLE HIGGINS
New York Times article featuring great suggestions on some new ways to save money when traveling overseas to Europe. There are some great websites for getting to Europe, and for traveling around. as well as advice about how to save money on food, bank transactions, and transportation. Bon voyage!

Today's Link source: popurls.com

How to take great travel photos

How to Take Travel Pictures Like a Pro

Summer is coming, and lots of people will be taking time off to go traveling to exotic destinations. Fodor's has lots of great ideas and tips for taking pictures when you're traveling.
There are tips from choosing a camera, filters and planning your itinerary to composition, lighting, and taking pictures of people, city vistas and churches.

Of course, the tips just might come in handy for photography buffs, even when they're not on vacation.

Today's Link source: del.icio.us

Self-Guided Walking Tours in Vancouver

Vancouver : Walking Tours Frommers.com

Walking is great! I like to walk. It’s even my name: Chris Walks.

I also feel that walking is best way to explore and get a real feel for a place. You get to experience the people, the buildings, the businesses and the flows of the community. You notice things and discover the secrets that you would otherwise just drive right past. If you're in a different culture, then you notice lots of tiny differences from your own. Walking is free. It's good for your health and the environment.
Today's link is from Frommers, the travel guide publishers. Their website is very well done, and seems very informative, detailed and well designed. It's not just a teaser for their books. For many cities, they have multiple walking tours, including maps.

If you’re visiting (or just exploring) beautiful Vancouver, these are some great routes for trekking round the city. Frommers has three different walking tours of Vancouver: Downtown & The West End, Gastown & Chinatown and Yaletown, Granville Island & Kitsilano. You might not need any guidebook or escorted tours if you can see it all on your own. The Vancouver tours are so good, I'm inclined to use Frommers walking tours whenever I travel. What a great budget travel site!

The Best Budget Travel Resources

Contrarian Travel Resources

Do you want to have some amazing international traveling experiences, at prices that you can actually afford?

Tim Leffel is a travel writer that has published some great books about budget travel. His schtick is that he's not into the usual "travel porn" that passes as travel journalism. He isn't swayed by the massive budgets and packaged travel. The best deals and the best experiences are often had by people that travel independently, and are flexible about their travel choices.

Today's link is the updated link page that he maintains for his most recent book, The Contrarian Traveller.

So, why is the site so great? Tim knows where to really find the best sites for last minute travel deals, the best magazines and websites for real travellers, and great, affordable restuarants, while avoiding all the massive PR Hype machine surrounding the travel industry.