Monthly Archives: June 2013

How to Travel like a Princess…on the Cheap

Many girls dream of traveling like a princess, but trust funds are hard to find. What’s a budget-minded princess to do?

Actually, luxe travel isn’t so unattainable with the right tricks. Trust me on this: I love to travel in style, but there’s no platinum credit card bankrolling my trips!

1. Find the Next Big Thing

One trick for finding value-friendly vacation destinations is scoping emerging locations on the brink of becoming the next hot vacation spot. Prices can be amazing since hotel inventory and services haven’t skyrocketed.

Amador CausewaybySaphira

Amador Causeway, Panama City by Saphira

So what’s the next big thing, you ask? Try Panama, home to some outstanding Caribbean beach resorts and spas as well as amazing bargains. Search for a fab Renewal Suite at The Westin Playa Bonita Panama for less than the price of a standard hotel room in the US.

Prepare to be shocked when you see what you can get for your dollar in terms of dining, excursions and spa treatments.

Of course you should head to the spa, right? At the current rates charged at The Sensory Spa by Clarins you can afford half a dozen spa treatments for the price of a single treatment in most US spas.

2. Give Your Camping Experience an Upgrade

There was a time when the words “camping trip” meant uncomfortable nights, air mattresses, doing without a restroom or shower and eating out of a cooler all weekend. It’s fun for some, but one thing was for sure: you’d come home with plenty of dirt under your nails and desperate for a bath.

These days of course gals who love the outdoors and comfort in equal measure don’t have to compromise on either thanks to the joys of glamping: glamorous camping. See what they did there? Clever huh?G

A luxury, pampered camping trip means you can enjoy the great outdoors without having to use an outhouse at the same time. Glamping definitely is not roughing it. You will find everything from Turkish rugs, velvet chaise lounges, to four-poster canopy beds.

Glamorous camping is even available in Peru. Glamping along Peru’s legendary Inca Trail to Machu Picchu sounds very much like what an Inca Princess would have experienced during their lifetime. The mystique of the region as you trek to the “Lost City” has an exclusive ring to it too!

3. High Tea WithOUT the Queen

There is nothing more refined than taking time for High Tea in the afternoon. You may not have the budget to stay at an urban castle for the entire night, but visiting for afternoon for tea makes one feel like royalty.

Lady Grantham herself enjoys a tea that closely resembles the one held most days at The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead.

Desserts fit for a Princess! from the Ritz Carlton Buckhead Atlanta by Kataries

Desserts fit for a Princess! from the Ritz Carlton Buckhead Atlanta by Kataries

The Lobby Lounge’s large fireplace is the optimum location to refresh for the afternoon like a proper lady. Don’t forget to point your pinkie!

4. Don’t Blow the Crown Jewels

Unfortunately, for all the non-princesses among us usually we have no choice but to accept that we’re going to have to stick to a budget during our trip. In this situation I prefer to book into a budget-friendly hotel but then head out to find what facilities and spas I can find elsewhere.

I know plenty of princess wannabes that stay at Disney World’s Pop Century budget resort but still feel like true royalty by making appointments at the nearby luxurious Blue Harmony Spa.  The lobby has large paintings of royalty, chairs you could sink into all day and a spa with a private hot tub.

5. Every Princess Needs a Castle

 

AshfordCastlebyMilwVon

Ashford Castle by MilwVon

One does not have to be a real life princess to sleep like one! How does a stone archways turrets and ancient castle charm feel for a place to lay your head? No princess should be without a castle, and the Ashford Castle in Ireland has made that happen.

The spectacular setting includes 350 acres of woodlands and gardens. The gray stone castle was once home to those who are practically Irish royalty, the Guinness family (yes the beer).

Riding and golf along with a stein of beer or two round out the most popular activities here. You can have a few drinks, since the castle rooms sometime go for as low as $139 per person per night. Most importantly, you’ll feel just like the “Princess and the Pea” in their large high rise beds with fluffy bedding.

 

Ava Roxanne Stritt

Ava_Roxanne_Stritt

Ava Roxanne Stritt

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ava is a travel writer and editor of the blog Spa Travel Gal. She believes that travel, spa and skincare experiences are not a luxury, but essential to a healthy body and mind. If her family needs to find her they just call the local luxury spa.

A renowned expert in spa and luxury travel, Ava is featured in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Spa Week, Fox News, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, among many other publications.

You can follow Ava on Twitter, Facebook and Google+

Celebrate the End of Party Culture in Vang Vieng

Travel blogger Stephanie Yoder of TwentySomething Travel explains why she doesn’t miss this former “amusement park for western imperialism.” Find out why she will continue to visit – and why the past is nothing to write home about.

Ask any veteran backpacker in South East Asia and they will tell you it’s the end of an era. Vang Vieng, Laos, the former capital of party tourism in the region, a seven days a week blow out bash along the sleepy Nam Song river, is no more. The bars have been shuttered, the zip lines torn down and the drugs banished by the Laos government. The party is over.

Personally, I say good riddance.

Green Cliffs by SeenThat

Green Cliffs
by SeenThat

I visited Vang Vieng in March 2011 at the height of the backpacker boom. The town’s reputation had proceeded it throughout the region in whispers and knowing glances, absurd stories and the ever-present “In the Tubing” t-shirts. For many people this seemed to be THE reason to visit Laos.  Of course I had to check it out for myself.

I arrived on a dusty school bus packed with other backpackers. The formerly sleepy Lao village had all the hallmarks of a town grown too fast, crowded with guest houses, sunglass shops and pizza places. Cafes full of hungover twenty-somethings blared Family Guy and Friends re-runs on an endless loop

The main attraction for the thousands of shoe-stringers who flocked here each year was tubing along the river. Or, more accurately: getting completely wasted at the riverside bars that line the banks, luring backpackers with free shots and thumping pop music. The place was complete and utter lawless hedonism: $1 cocktails, “magic” mushroom pizzas, opium tea and more.

Heaven for backpackers? Maybe for some, but I left unimpressed.  While I did enjoy eating some western food, tubing down the river and drinking a $3 bucket or two, I couldn’t get over the sleazy dubiousness of the whole place. I was relieved to hear about the changes made by the government. I know some backpackers must be reacting with indignation, but here’s why they are wrong:

First of all, tourists in Vang Vieng were literally DYING. Drowning, overdosing, breaking their necks on unsafe swings. Not just one or two either, almost 30 backpackers died in 2011. Tragically it seems that drugs, fast running water and zero safety precautions are not a safe combination. This alone is reason enough to shutter the insanity.

Secondly, I’ll get up on my soapbox and say it: this is BAD travel.  Really terrible travel: western imperialism and sense of entitlement and a local hotspot grown totally out of control. People didn’t visit Vang Vieng because they were interested in travel, they simply saw it as an amusement park for rich foreigners.

I saw some of the worst kinds of tourists while I was in Vang Vieng. Laotians are a very modest people, yet young Australians paraded around in nothing but bikinis all day long. Spoiled kids threw trash on the ground, littered the river with beer bottles and were rude to the locals. Whatever local culture Vang Vieng might once have had has been destroyed and paved over with cafes that play Family Guy all day long.

Vang Vieng by SeenThat

Vang Vieng
by SeenThat

Some will argue that the party crowd brought much needed business to the local economy. Yes, but at what cost? Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world, obviously the people there are going to earn whatever money they can get, but do you think it’s right that they have become reduced to drug dealers and party facilitators?

Finally, let me let you in on a little secret: Vang Vieng is still there. You can still visit. You can even still tube down the Nam Song, relax and take in the beautiful Karst mountains. There is trekking, rock climbing and caves to be explored, local villages, temples and an organic farm.

Nam Xong by SeenThat

Nam Xong
by SeenThat

There is still plenty to see and do here. Without the massive drug and party culture dominating the town, they have a unique chance to reinvent themselves as an eco-tourism destination. Did you love Vang Vieng? Go support it now.

rsz_stephanie_yoder
Stephanie is a girl who can’t sit still. Since graduating she has spent her time either roaming the earth or saving up for her next trip, until finally quitting the rat race for good to become a full time writer, blogger and owner of Twenty-Something Travel.

You can follow her travels on Google+ Twitter and Facebook