Unexplained orbs, stories of mysterious murders, cold spots of air, and eerie graveyards are starting to make their way into vacation travel itineraries. Guided ghost tours are growing in popularity in cities across the nation. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories you are told during the nightly tours are unique and fun ways to explore a city while on vacation. Tours are hosted by very knowledgeable guides, who can answer your questions regarding the city and supernatural. Our insider tip is to pack a camera; you never know what might develop in your snapshots!

Some Amazing Ghost Tour Options…

Philadelphia (hotel search) - Philadelphia is brimming with historic areas like Independence Hall, Washington square, and monuments such as the Liberty Bell. Accompanying these historic sites are stories of the macabre. Learn about gruesome Philadelphian storyteller Edgar Allan Poe and hear of apparitions of Ben Franklin walking the streets. Distinctive of Philadelphia is a special ghost trolley tour, which will wheel you around to 20 different haunted spots.

New Orleans (hotel search) - When the sun goes down, the French Quarter transforms into an entertainment playground of bars, restaurants, and live music along Bourbon Street. In the shadows lurk above-ground tombs with secret passageways and folklore surrounding voodoo practices, which combine to create a great backdrop for a ghostly adventure. Not only are there ghost tours, but you can also embark on a vampire tour. Sample stories of vampire-inspired crimes confirmed by police reports and city records.

Key West (hotel search) – After riding the conch train, visiting the Southernmost Point, touring the Hemingway House, and grabbing a drink on Duval Street, prepare to be spooked. Learn of stories about a doll (Robert) that seemed to come to life, a doctor who was convinced he brought the love of his life back from the dead, and a theater that is said to be haunted by children who tragically died in a fire.

San Francisco (hotel search) – There are ghost tours available in the Height-Ashbury, China Town, and Pacific Heights districts of San Francisco. Each tour will guide you through the streets of San Francisco at night, detailing strange occurrences. A ghost tour is a great way to spend the evening after seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz, and other top tourist attractions.

Austin (hotel search) - Get goosebumps as you listen to haunting stories and walk past historic buildings in downtown Austin. The Driskill Hotel is a remarkable building that dates back to 1886 and has been the source of countless mysterious sighting and unusual behavior. Young adults may opt for the haunted 6th Street pub crawl, which combines great tales of murder and mystery with stops at bars along 6th Street.

This morning the final votes were cast on which city would host the 2016 Summer Olympics.  After a couple rounds of voting the four final cities of Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro, were narrowed down to just two choices. 

The streets along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro erupted in jubilation when news broke that the International Olympic Committee had awarded Brazil the honor.   This marks the first time the Olympics will be held in a South American country.  Brazil will host two top-notch world sporting events in the upcoming decade, as the 2014 World Cup will also be hosted by Brazil, yet exact cities have yet to be selected.

We have put together a small snapshot of some of the must-do’s if planning a trip to one of the upcoming athletic super-events held in Brazil.

Sugarloaf Mountain – Ride a glass paneled cable car to towering heights above a scenic Brazilian coastline.

Copacabana Beach - A famous strip of sand, saltwater, hotels, restaurants, and dance clubs.

Christ the Redeemer Statue - Ascend a mountaintop in Tijuca Forest National Park where a famous 130 ft tall statue overlooks the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Churrascaria - Dine at a Brazilian steakhouse, where servers come to your table with large skewers of meat and trim you off servings and samplings of countless cuts of meat.

Samba - How could you visit Brazil without sampling the culture’s music and sounds?   There are various professional dance shows you can attend, or if your rhythm is as accurate as a metronome,  dance the night away at a Samba club.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West. Only allotting one day to explore Fort Lauderdale, I was advised by a local to purchase a Water Taxi pass.  For those unaware, Fort Lauderdale has acquired the nickname of “The Venice of America” because of the labyrinth of waterways and canals.  What better way to explore the offerings of Fort Lauderdale then by an open-windowed boat?

There are 13 stops along the roundtrip Water Taxi route, with each stop about 5 – 8 minutes apart. A one-day ticket costs just $13 and allows unlimited stops.  As you motor past canal-front mansions and million dollar yachts, your captain will educate you about which famous actors, infamous gangsters, and foreign royalty own each intricate house.  Keep an eye out for perched iguanas who like to sunbathe on the canals banks.

One stop I highly recommend is at the Las Olas Riverfront.  A great selection of eateries and shops flank a waterfront promenade. By presenting your Water Taxi ticket, you can even receive a discount on meals at various restaurants.  After exploring your stop, get back on the next scheduled water taxi and continue your journey of the canals.

A bankrupt hotel is obviously stressful for its owners and employees, but the situation can prove just as problematic for its guests. But with an estimated 1 in 5 hotels facing foreclosure today and few ways to officially determine a hotel’s financial health, travelers are increasingly at risk of booking rooms at hotels whose financial difficulties threaten to strain or limit the daily operations, standard amenities and guest services – or worse, result in abrupt closures.

Consider one traveler’s bad experience, detailed in one of Christopher Elliott’s recent columns:

“It was a disaster,” remembers Solomon, an artist who lives in Lampasas, Tex. “The staff knew their days were numbered and just did not care. Nothing worked and everything was dirty. There were bugs. We found out later that the exterior looked nice only because an outside company did the maintenance.”

Not every hotel on shaky financial ground will pass the problem along to guests, but some certainly will. Elliott offers up a list of practical tips and a video travelers can use to identify hotels that may be facing foreclosure, starting with any for sale signs you see outside the property. Other signs: oddly-low room rates, missing amenities and sudden personnel changes.

Definitely good tips to keep in mind before you book. If you’re willing to take a risk and don’t mind a few service snafus here and there, it may even be worth it to stay in almost-bankrupt hotel if you can secure an overnight rate that’s rock-bottom. But if you’re planning a special trip with optimal service and smooth-running hotel facilities, you’d be better off opting for a property that’s financially stable.

More travel advice…..

The Grand Wailea Resort on Maui is a perfect option for those traveling to Maui with children.  A trip to the resort pool can quickly morph into a day-long adventure.  A huge activity pool consisting of nine pools, at six different elevations, will keep a smile on any swimmers face. Sample the various water slides, lazy rivers, waterfalls, a rope swing, and the world’s only water elevator (don’t worry, you don’t have to hold your breath or anything).

The sandy beach that fronts the resort also provides hours of entertainment, as guests can rent kayaks, snorkels, and even jump on a huge water trampoline that is just off shore.  As you walk up and down the beach, keep your eyes out for celebrities, as I personally have seen the famous faces like Paris Hilton, and Magic Johnson.

Adults will enjoy the wide variety of spa treatments at the 50,000 square-foot facility which has been voted one of the top spas in the U.S.  If looking for something more active, book a tee-time at nearby golf courses, or walk/jog along the beachfront foot trail past neighboring resorts and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.

More Wailea hotels….

Call us eternal optimists, but we’re convinced that cheap airfares are there for the taking – you just need to know where (and how) to find them.

We’ve put together a list of our best tried-and-true tips for finding cheap flights to any destination, anytime of year using a variety of tools, many of which are available on our sister site Kayak.

Track fares like it’s a religion: Scoring a cheap fare should start long before the day of purchase. When you keep an eye on fare fluctuations over time, you’ll know when you’re faced with a fare that’s merely an okay deal and when you’re getting one that’s truly great. Of course, you could easily spend all day doing that (we should know). Save time by setting up a free Fare Alert tracker on Kayak for daily or weekly email notifications listing fares to and from desired destinations – and within selected dates – that meet or beat your desired price. Or decide for yourself when to purchase with Kayak Airfare History tools that uncover pricing trends. Click “show chart of airfare history” link from the tool box at the top left of the results page to get started.

Get used to off-peak travel: When traveling to a leisure destination such as St. Lucia, consider weekday departures. If you’re headed to a major city that also gets a lot of business travel, you’ll want to travel on weekends—preferably Saturday nights.

Be flexible: Airfares can vary several hundred dollars depending on the day of the week. Use Kayak’s Flexible Search tool to compare prices up to three days before and three days after your desired dates of travel. For the truly flexible traveler, the Kayak Buzz Calendar displays the lowest fare for every day of the calendar month of the search.

Search multiple weekends at once: If you know you need to travel on a weekend, but your dates are flexible, select the “weekend” option when you search flights on Kayak. You’ll be able to view tickets for numerous upcoming weekends and choose the fare that makes sense for your budget.

Consider a variety of airports and airlines: It’s no secret that frequent flier miles aren’t as valuable as they used to be. Consider flying another carrier if it means booking a great deal. Many low cost carriers fly into alternative airports (like Burbank or Long Beach instead of LAX). What they save in airport fees, they pass onto the consumer.

Calculate baggage fees before you go: Unexpected airline fees can drastically change the cost of a seemingly cheap airline ticket. Before you purchase an airline ticket, use Kayak’s Baggage Fee Calculator to determine how much that airline ticket really costs. Just click on the “calculate baggage fees” link located in the tool box section on results page, enter number of bags and Kayak will instantly calculate the fee and update the final price. For other fees, visit the Kayak Airline Fee Chart.

Have faith: Deals do exist. Travelers just have to know where to look. Blogs and subscriptions to travel newsletters are often the best bet. Kayak’s Weekly Deals newsletter delivers the best and cheapest deals on land, in the air and by sea. Or visit Kayak deals to search the site’s extensive database of deals.

Staycations are, like, so last summer, according to the Annual Summer Travel Survey by our sister site Kayak.com. Of the 4,100 people in this year’s survey, an impressive 95 percent said they plan to travel this summer. And while travelers remain concious of the economy, more than 41 percent of respondants said the recession would not affect their summer travel plans in any way.

Why the enthusiam for travel this summer? For one thing, lower airfares and frequent fare sales are making it more affordable to fly in ‘09, while an abundance of travel deals are taking some of the burden off lodging at resorts and hotels.

For summer trips, major U.S. cities and European countries are among the most popular destinations, while domestic beaches and the Caribbean are close runners up.

Even though they plan to travel this summeer, travelers say they are embracing all the cost-saving strategies they can find. To help travelers stay on top of extra fees and find the best deals available, Kayak has launched new tools that include a baggage fee calculator to instantly add additional fees and update airfare prices on its search results page, a hotel rate calendar that shows the average daily rate over the last two months for any of its 197,000+ hotels and an option to select the airports you want searched when you look for airfare.

Along with its own travel tools, Kayak offered up the following tips and reminders for recession-proofing your summer 2009 vacation:

- Try a cruise if you’re looking for a serious bargain

- The Caribbean offers many deals during summer months

- Visiting Europe is much cheaper this summer now that fuel surcharges are gone and the dollar is strengthening against the Euro and British Pound

For more ways to save, try Kayak.com tools such as Kayak Flexible Search, Weekend Search, Buzz Calendar, Airfare History charts and Fare Alert tracker.

Keep reading the TravelPost.com Insider’s deals section for more ways to save on your summer 2009 travel….

For travelers during the down economy, it’s becoming more important than ever to research hotels carefully before booking. Who knows, you might find out that your hotel has halted a partial renovation to drum up extra cash, a trend the New York Times reports is growing among hoteliers.

And when that happens, one floor can make all the difference in your stay. Take the Hotel Vertigo in San Francisco, for example. Formerly the York Hotel (as TravelPosters’ uploaded photos reveal), the property offers the smartly renovated rooms shown above on its fourth floor, while the third floor remains unchanged. Yes, rates for yet-to-be renovated rooms are apparently lower, but many travelers don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks for a better room.

So how’s a traveler to know what to expect? Our two favorite methods:

- Reading hotel reviews before you book

- Calling the hotel directly to ask whether the hotel is undergoing renovations or has temporarily closed any facilities

Keep reading the TravelPost Insider for more recent travel news….

The National Parks Traveler blog reports this week that there are some special spring lodging deals afoot in Sequoia and Olympic National Parks, as well as the Lake Powell National Recreation Area.

They range from $109 and $149 rooms available for a handful of April and May dates at Sequoia’s Wuksachi Lodge to an Earth Day vacation promo at Olympic’s Lake Quinault Lodge that treats guests to a reduced rate of $109 in exchange for volunteer help cleaning up the surrounding rain forest. You’ll want to check the lodge’s web site for details on that. And there are yet more deals to be had at the Kalaloch Lodge and Lake Powell Resort.

You’ll find all the details on the National Parks Traveler blog, as well as on each lodge’s individual web site.

Continue reading for more travel and hotel deals….

Travelers, you’ve got until April 3 to pay $75 a night at The Jane Hotel in Manhattan’s West Village. On that day, rates at the New York micro-hotel – where rooms are about the size of a closet and feature free w-fi and 350-thread-count sheets – jump up to $99 per night.

Touted as a budget-friendly option for travelers willing to sacrifice ensuite bathrooms and square footage, The Jane mimics the college dorm experience with public bathrooms on each floor, but ups the ante with such in-room amenities as DVD players, 23-inch flat screen TVs and iPod docking stations.

Even with the rate increase early next month, the hotel’s under-$100 nightly rate is sure to be an attractive one for many visitors to the Big Apple and is reportedly already a hit with youg international travelers and business travelers looking to save.