Travel Trends :: Choose Your Own Adventure

[trip style = active + adventure]

{Editor's Note: In observance of Good Friday and Easter Monday, no posts will be published, but we'll be back in biz Tuesday to Friday next week!}

Over the past few years, aside from user-generated content, one of the buzz words marketers use is customization---customizing  your frozen yogurt, customizing your car, customizing your home, customizing your crocs, and why stop at bedazzled crocs? Now you can customize your next trip style = adventure by choosing your own travel adventure.

The just-launched Kumutu was started as a centralized place to find, compare and book travel adventures worldwide based on user-generated reviews. Really, it's a place where you can choose your own adventure, like the books you used to read in elementary school, but now you're trying to choose between kayaking with orcas just outside Vancouver, BC or going on a Tanzanian Safari.

Searching by activity or country based on your dates, it's easy to narrow down what might inspire you. Given the site is still in the toddler stage, I look forward to a few months from now when more adventures come into the system and there's greater choice!  For now, check it out, then keep it in your back pocket for the next time the great outdoors beckons you to explore.

Travel Trends :: Your Extended Backyard

[trip style = weekend getaway]

During the economic slowdown, every travel publication was touting closer to home travel as a way to still enjoy getting away, without spending epic dollars for an epic trip. More recently, the go local trend has influenced everyone from foodies to travelers to embrace treasures within 100km {or so}, versus seek them out in the rest of the world first. As always, there's a time and place for local weekend getaways and international globetrotting, but this week's travel trend comes from close to home: it's a call to explore your own backyard, literally.

Recently a new site launched by a BC resident for BC residents, encouraging local travelers by way of discounts and inspiration to travel near versus far. backyardbc is its name and local travel is its game. Aside from Hotwire's go local search, I'm glad someone has brought this type of program specifically to BC. With hotel options spanning across the province and catering to different trip styles and budgets, it's fun to browse what's available and see what grabs you---just don't start with the website's "Vancouver, Coast & Mountains" region, the results are a little leaner than other areas.

As the site brings on new hotels, the offers will get more diverse, but for the time being I encourage you to start your backyard search with Vancouver Island, one of the site's 6 searchable regions. With just over 20 hotels spanning from Tofino to Victoria, the options are discerning. Here are a few gems I found:

• The rustically elegant Wickaninnish Inn {$40 off Best Available Rate (BAR)}
• The remote April Point Resort and Spa {15% off BAR}
• The woodsy seaside Tigh-Na-Mara Resort {10% off BAR}
• The mod & green Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa {10% off BAR}
• The quietly confident Inn at Laurel Point {10% off BAR}

Trip Styler Tip :: with all this talk of locals rates, don't be shy to ask hotels in BC or Washington if they have preferred rates for BC residents. Many do, but just down publicize it.

PS - Local blogger Miss604 and backyardbc are running a joint promotion giving away one hotel stay every Tuesday for the next 10 weeks. Don't miss it.

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[photo via backyardbc of April Point Resort & Spa]

Travel Trends :: Rewards Programs

[trip style = any]

This week, Expedia.com launched a loyalty program, not surprisingly called Expedia Rewards, to award people who book travel {multiple times} via their website. The program's claim to fame: earn free travel in as few as 3 trips with no blackout dates, and no loyalty limitations to a single hotel brand or airline. No word yet on an Expedia.ca program. With Expedia leading this time-tested travel trend, I wonder if Travelocity will follow suit?

Two, No Three Times Up until recently, if you booked with a travel service like this, you may have received rewards at your hotel if you had pre-joined their program, but now you conceivably get rewarded twice---actually 3 times if you use your travel credit card to pay for the transaction.

Canada's Go-To Travel Site For many people, Expedia is the go-to online travel booking service they use. Why? It's been around since the early days of web-enabled travel booking, it's dependable, and comes with a user-friendly layout and transaction experience. People in Canada like it so much that Expedia.ca commands 13% of all Canadian Online Travel Agency visits---combine this with Expedia.com's visits and their share is 17%. To put this into perspective, FlightNetwork.com is the next closest competitor at 4.85% of visits.

Trip Styler Tip Although I'm a huge evangelist for being loyal to 1-2 airline alliances and 1-2 hotel programs for collection and accumulation of points for free flights and stays, there is value in joining other travel loyalty programs along the way. Yes you'll have a bunch of logins to remember, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Why? The added perks. For hotel stays it might be a one-off benefit like free wifi, a 'welcome' amenity or special check-in desk, but isn't that worth it for the 3-minutes it takes to create a profile and future earning potential towards free travel? For example, though my hotel loyalty is with Fairmont, my second choice is the Starwood Preferred Guest program because of the number and variety {W Hotels, Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, Le Meridien, etc...} of properties worldwide. To put this into perspective, if you stay at a Fairmont once, and join their loyalty program before you get there, you get free wifi and a host of other benefits. Stay 10 nights or 5 stays and you also get free workout gear, use of golf clubs, dining and spa vouchers, etc...

Related Loyalty Pays The Wild Web of Airline Affiliations The Wild Web of Hotel Affiliations

[photo of Expedia Rewards graphic]

Travel Trends :: April + May Lowdown

[trip style = sun + beach]

Depending on what area you're in, Spring Breakers are sizzling in the sun or shredding on the slopes right now. Yet, starting in April---only a few days away---these same hot {and cool} places will be posting off-season prices at significant savings. Mark your calendar, this low season lowdown is sure-fire travel trend happening every year at this time, and in the fall.

Planning Ahead Sometimes vacation time is not flexible, combine this with high season travel and you're handing out $$$ like an ATM. Been there, done that and feel your pain. But, if you have any hint of flexibility, consider planning ahead to take advantage of low season fares in April and May. Whether you vacation avec or sans kiddles, an extended weekend, Easter break or May Long could work in your favor both financially and time wise.

Sample Deals & Where to Find Them Right now I'm drooling over the travel savings I see. Since I'm headed to Oz in less than a month, I can't act on impulse and book any travel between now and then, but maybe you can? With this in mind, here are a few low season travel treats.... Trip Styler Tip :: Mark your calendar. I have. Each year in mid- to late- March, hotels, airlines and online travel agencies heavily discount sunny and ski trip styles for April and May travel.

Overall Deals Expedia.com - save up to 44% off. Book by Apr 20, travel by May 15. Escapes.ca - save up to 50% off. Book by Mar 31 for escapes Apr - June.

Hawaii Expedia.ca - save up to 40% off. Book by Apr 6, travel by Apr 30.

Vegas Allegiant.com - 3 nts/4days, flight, hotel and show tickets from $350. Book by Mar 27, travel May 1 - Aug 31.

London AirCanadaVacations.com - 4nts/5days, flight, hotel, breakfast, transfers, airport lounge access from $1500. Book by Mar 31, depart May 5, 11 or 12.

[photo by @tripstyler, taken in Laguna Beach, California]

Top Picks: Vancouver Travel Show

[trip style = multiple]

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This past weekend I paid a visit to The Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show at Vancouver's recently-built convention centre {west}, which happens to sit right on the water. Gorgeous. Bonus, my fave Vancouver cafe and hotel are conveniently located right beside it: The Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel {see my review here} and Giovane Cafe.

The Goal I attended the convention with a four-fold objective: a) look out for travel trends; b) see which destinations and tour operators are currently targeting the Vancouver market; c) observe who was attending; and d) sleuth the booths that had it going on. With these goals in mind, here are some of the show's opportunities I wanted to pass on to you...

Honorable Mentions Northern Canada [trip style = adventure] Visiting northern Canada has always been on my travel to-do list, but it's been an I'll do that one day type of desire. Yet, visiting the show a few days ago, reps from the Yukon and Northwest Territories drew me in beyond the famous aurora borealis. Many Vancouverites don't think about visiting the North, yet it's as close as a 2-hour flight away. They say "North of Ordinary" and I'd have to agree. Where else can you experience arctic tundra and snow-capped peaks, 24-hour sunlight and an instant gateway to wilderness?

If anyone wants to weekend up North this spring or summer, here's a great taster: Air North is offering air and hotel packages for $575 {all in} including round trip airfare to Whitehorse and two nights accommodation.

Tacoma [trip style = weekending] In Vancouver, we're all about weekending in Seattle. The only time we mention Seattle and Tacoma in the same breath is when we're referring to the airport {ie. Sea Tac Airport}, but there's more to Seattle's southern sister than the airport, casinos and the Tacoma Dome. On my next trip across the 49th, I'm heading to the Museum of Glass. Located right on the waterfront, this contemporary building is famous for attractions like the Chihuli Bridge of Glass, its outdoor glass art, and live indoor glass blowing. Next time you visit Seattle, check out Tacoma, and if you go in mid-September, "do the Puyallup"...Fair.

Note: if you've ever been to Vegas and seen the glass installation in the Bellagio's lobby ceiling, consider this your taster for what you'll see at the Museum of Glass.

Philippines [trip style = sun] You hear a lot about Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but not much from fellow travelers about the balmy Philippines, comprised of 7,107 islands. I'd like to visit Samal island and stay at a pearl farm-turned-beach front resort, the Banaue Rice Terraces, and other locations soaked in natural beauty.

Iceland [trip style = adventure + spa] If this doesn't make you want to go to Iceland, I'm not sure what will: soaking in a geothermal pool by day, eating a gourmet meal in the eve and watching the northern lights by night. Nature and culture at its best. You'll also be interested to know that you can get a direct flight from Seattle to Reykjavik, and by flying IcelandAir to Europe, you can stop over for a thermal bath at no extra cost.

No Limit Expeditions [trip style = adventure] The above picture is taken of a tent on top of a Land Rover Defender, your partial accommodation for a No Limit Expeditions trek. Cool. Makes my walking trek to Machu Picchu seem pretty basic. Specializing in boutique overland travel in Central America and beyond, No Limit combines hands-on adventure with luxe lodges, gourmet fare and safari-style camps. They had me expedition + boutique + luxe lodge + gourmet... I'm so in. Check out upcoming journeys to Alaska, Guatemala and Belize.

PS - The Whistler Bungee exhibit was lively, fun and interactive. No, I've never considered bungee-ing, except maybe for a milestone birthday, but don't hold me to that.

[photo by @tripstyler of the No Limit Expeditions exhibit]