Jetsettersblog

The Hertz Corporation has expanded its car-sharing fleet in the greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. Hertz On Demand offers a range of cars — from electric vehicles, available at Union Station, and compacts to sedans and SUVs — available both in parking garages, outdoor spaces and in 23 on-street parking spots.

Hertz On Demand vehicles will be available in all eight wards of the District including Union Station, Adams Morgan, Connecticut Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Anacostia, H St. NE, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights, Takoma, Cleveland Park, Friendships Heights, Georgetown and South Capitol Street. As the program expands, additional locations will be opened throughout the city and surrounding suburbs, including Virginia and Maryland.

The Department of Transportation is investing $40.8 million in 58 projects that should improve access to America’s national parks, forests and wildlife refuges by putting visitors on buses or on bike trails instead of in individual cars.

Projects will also modernize aging transportation infrastructure. The money is provided by the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program.

The U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and local partner communities will receive FTA funds for the projects, which range from redesigning and widening the Nauset Bicycle Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts to purchasing new buses to transport visitors between Sausalito and the Muir Woods National Monument in California.

“By taking cars off the road and reducing harmful emissions and pollutants in our nation’s most natural and pristine settings, we’re helping Americans and visitors from around the world enjoy the parks, forests and wildlife preserves the way they were meant to be enjoyed,” said FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff.

Administered by the FTA in partnership with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service, the program funds capital and planning expenses for alternative transportation systems, such as shuttle buses and bicycle trails, in national parks and public lands. The goals of the program are to conserve natural, historical and cultural resources, and reduce congestion and pollution.

Grand Pacific Tours, the New Zealand Luxury Coach Holiday specialist, has just released their 2012/13 Luxury Coach Holidays brochure. The distinct cover of The Tiki, an important figure to the Maori of New Zealand, provides a unique New Zealand element and was specially designed for Grand Pacific Tours.

Grand Pacific Tours product portfolio continues to be clearly defined in three categories, offering an itinerary to suit all budgets and interests:-

• Luxury Coach Holidays
• Ultimate Small Group Touring
• Special Interest Tours including Festive Season Holidays

The Luxury Coach Holiday range of tours has been successfully operating since the company began in 1996. Travellers have the choice of 5 different tours, each offering something different, that vary in duration from 9 to 19 Days. All are inclusive of airfares, accommodation, most meals, extensive sightseeing and travel on luxury 48 seater two door vehicles.

The Ultimate Small Group Touring collection offers a premium experience on New Zealand’s most luxurious touring vehicle. Travel on a full size coach which normally houses 49 seats and has been reconfigured with only 20 luxury leather seats. Choose from one of four itineraries all including premium accommodation; a deluxe travel set and the intimacy of travelling in a small group environment providing a more discerning touring experience. This seasons Ultimate Tour programme was SOLD OUT!

For the first time, a selection of tours over the Festive Season are also included, offering travellers the choice to travel aboard the Luxury Coach, staying in deluxe accommodation or for a more intimate experience, travel on the Ultimate Coach with only 20 luxury leather seats, staying in premium accommodation.

Brief descriptions of the Special Interest Holidays are incorporated that are based around themes such as Lawn Bowls, Probus, Steam Trains, Aviation, Garden & Single Travellers Tours. A popular tour for Steam Train buffs is the newly released 10 or 18 Day Steam Train Journey, the standalone 8 page brochure incorporates nine unique Rail Journeys and coincides with the 100 year Anniversary of the TSS Earnslaw in Queenstown.

The itineraries can be viewed online and brochures can also be ordered via the website.

For more information contact Grand Pacific Tours on 1800 622 768 or visit www.grandpacifictours.com

Avis Rent A Car has been named the Official Rental Car Company of the PGA Tour. The new multi-year agreement provides Avis with the opportunity to promote its products and services to millions of golfers and golf fans around the world through PGA Tour telecasts and media assets.

In addition to prominent Avis logo placement on the LED scoreboards throughout the PGA Tour Regular Season, PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup and Fall Series, the program includes business development opportunities for Avis in addition to unique promotions. Avis will also have placement on the official PGA Tour website, tie-ins to television programming and national advertising opportunities in print and broadcast channels. PGA Tour tournaments are broadcast to approximately 500 million households, in 224 countries and territories, and in 29 languages annually.

The Hertz Corporation is holding its Hertz Global Sale, which featured discounts of up to 33 percent in 111 countries. Customers who live in Europe, the Middle East and Africa qualify for the same discounts in their home country. The promotion runs through Jan. 31 and is good for rentals picked up by June 30. To get the savings, quote “CDP: 754910” while making reservations online or by calling Hertz.

As part of the six-continent sale, many Hertz locations around the globe are also offering discounts on the Hertz Fun, Prestige and Green Collections, giving customers an opportunity to experience sporty, luxurious and environmentally friendly vehicles. The Hertz Collections can uniquely be reserved by make and model.

A world first tour to the Goodwood Festival of Speed is offered by Australia’s leading niche tour operator Elite Special Event Tours.

It follows their unique concept in 2011 of participants driving a different English Classic car each day as they motor across the Cotswolds on their way to England’s largest motoring garden party. The Goodwood Festival of Speed in June which is held in the estate of Lord March, together with the Goodwood Revival Meeting held in September are milestone events on any car enthusiast’s calendar and an absolute must do on anyone’s ‘bucket list’.

Participants drive a different car each day with an E Type Jag, Healey 3000, Triumph TR6 and an MGB being just some of the cars on offer. Visiting quaint English country pubs, the Cotswolds for afternoon tea and traditional sights such as the city of Bath and Stonehenge, historic Salisbury and Winchester, there’s also ample free time to discover England at its best.

For those who would like to stay a little longer, the company also offers the option of attending the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone after the tour.

The tour is priced from $7890 per person for two people sharing a room and travelling together in one car, airfares are not included.

Travellers using cheap, privately owned vehicles will be targeted with information on how to camp responsibly this summer.

Most rental vehicle companies now actively recommend their clients stay in holiday parks, Department of Conservation (DOC) camping grounds or other designated camping areas.

But the New Zealand Responsible Camping Forum wants to ensure travellers who buy cheap cars or vans to drive around the country are also aware of the behaviour expected of them. So responsible camping information has been placed in car yards, internet forums and backpacker notice boards, as many of these vehicles are traded through the backpacker community.

For the second consecutive summer, the Forum is working with the Interislander and Bluebridge ferry companies which are handing out responsible camping brochures to campers crossing Cook Strait.

“Many of the visitors here for Rugby World Cup enjoyed camping while they were in New Zealand and received great welcomes from the communities they visited. We want to ensure that campers continue to be welcomed this summer and have great experiences on their travels,” Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) Advocacy Manager Geoff Ensor says.

Mr Ensor chairs the New Zealand Responsible Camping Forum which brings together New Zealand’s leading campervan companies, the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, local government representatives, government agencies and tourism organisations.

The Forum is behind the ‘Where can I camp?’ campaign which provides camping information to travellers hiring campervans or wanting to camp in New Zealand. It has also developed the www.camping.org.nz website which offers comprehensive information on camping in New Zealand.

The www.camping.org.nz website is receiving about 60,000 hits a year, and the most viewed pages are those carrying regional information.

“A key spin-off of the Freedom Camping Act has been that communities and councils are producing much better information, so that campers know what the local rules are. And they now have the tools to better enforce those rules, through the website and other information sources, and using fines as a last resort.”

For more information on the New Zealand Responsible Camping Forum, visit
www.tianz.org.nz/main/nz-freedom-camping-forum

Prince Harry’s Apache helicopter training courses in Gila Bend’s Air Force Auxiliary Air Field may have now finished, but that doesn’t stop visitors from coming out to Arizona to try some activities fit for a potential King.

Home to a range of thrilling outdoor adventures and amid to some of the most awe-inspiring scenery, Arizona has some of the best night clubs, polo matches and adrenaline activities like skydiving or world renowned river rafting.

Skydive in Arizona

SkyVenture Arizona is a state-of-the-art skydiving centre in Eloy, between Phoenix and Tucson. It offers visitors experiences in all levels, even for those who don’t want to jump of an airplane or use a parachute with its powerful wind tunnel. Arizona is the ideal place to skydive, with clear desert weather that allows over 340 flying days a year.

Prices start from $179 per person.

For more information visit www.skydiveaz.com

Colorado River Rafting

Sign up for a Grand Canyon Colorado River rafting trip – an ideal way to see one of the most popular natural wonders of the world while having the time of your life. Enjoy a side canyon exploration to Elves Chasm, Deer Creek Falls, Havasu Creek and the Little Colorado along the Canyon River.

For all river rafting experiences in the Grand Canyon visit http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/whitewater-rafting.htm

For Nightlife head to Scottsdale

Described as ‘a desert version of Miami’s South Beach’, downtown Scottsdale’s nightlife and entertainment district is getting hotter by the minute and is the place to be seen. For nightlife details Visit www.scottsdalecvb.com

The Royal Sport of Polo in North Arizona
If you’re a fan of the Royal Family’s favourite sport, pass by North Scottsdale to enjoy a game of Polo. Check out the 2011-2012 fall season, where you might find Prince Harry feeling more at home. For polo schedule and other information visit www.arizonapolo.com

Learn to be a fighter pilot – just like Harry

Thrill seekers looking for the ultimate experience should visit Flight Combat International in Mesa, Arizona where they’ll have the opportunity to fly a world-class unlimited category aerobatic aircraft, with a real military fighter pilot. Each flight is tailored to the individual’s requirements, ensuring a totally unique experience.

There’s also an option to go on an air combat mission or a high-flying aerobatic thrill ride. A wide variety of courses are offered year round, with prices starting from $755.00 for a Half Day Introduction to Air Combat Maneuvering. Visit www.flightercombat.com

For additional information on the above activities and Arizona travel in general, visit www.arizonaguide.com

How to plan that next RV Trip in a fast and easy way.

ALACHUA, FL — The RV Trip Wizard is a visual planning tool designed to help Recreational Vehicle owners, and renters, overcome the often difficult task of how to plan long, multi-stop trips. The visual manner in which the system works makes trip planning fast, easy and fun.

Richard Hill, a partner in the company and long time RV’er said, “A few years ago my wife and I made a 7,200 mile trip around the USA. It took us about two and one half weeks to do all the planning. That long planning time was the motivation behind the development of the “Wiz”. That same trip can be planned in about 30 minutes using RV Trip Wizard”.

RV Trip planning can be a tedious task. There are numerous reference books, software packages, websites and applications that do help. But the RV’er often finds the information provided in a particular resource limited to those campgrounds affiliated with the publisher of the resource.

The “Wiz” overcomes that problem by presenting more than 39,000 campgrounds and other points of interest (POI’s) regardless of affiliation.

Click for Fishing Adventures

What makes the “Wiz” truly unique is that it accommodates the fact that most RV’ers are members of several organizations that offer various levels of discounts. The system allows the user to list and prioritize their memberships, which are then highlighted with special icons during the trip planning process.

A preference file is stored with information about the user’s RV size, mileage, and current average fuel cost. This enables the system to choose the best routes and to compute estimated trip costs.

Because RV Trip Wizard has been designed by RV’ers with years of trip planning experience the “Wiz” offers a revolution in RV Trip planning. Adapting technology licensed from Google, it makes the trip planning process easy, fast, and effective.

A typical user experience is as follows:

A starting point is chosen and an online map of the area is displayed with all the campgrounds in the area. The user simply drags the map to the area where they want to go and then clicks on an icon of interest. Information about the campground appears which shows the number and types of sites, hook-up information, recreational facilities, ratings, prices, and much more.

If that campground is not of interest, the user just clicks on another icon to see its information. When the desired campground is located it is added to the trip. For each leg of the trip, miles driven and estimated costs are displayed.

The process is repeated until the user wants to save the trip, which may be recalled at any time. Modifications are equally simple to make and a printed outline is available at any time.

An unlimited number of trips can be created, saved and recalled whenever desired.

RV Trip Wizard TM includes the ability to down load a trip to a GPS. It also allows planning bicycle or walking side trips, and additionally, the website provides many other features, including, links to useful resources, a forum, and much, much, more.

The system is accessible from all PC’s, MAC’s, tablet computers and smart phones.

There is no software to buy, maintain, or update. Subscription includes a 15 day free trial and is available at

www.rvtripwizard.com

Subscribers can participate in an affiliate program that offers rewards for referring others who become subscribers.

RV Trip Wizard, designed by RV’ers for RV’ers, is a Florida based partnership devoted entirely to making trip planning easier and more effective for RV enthusiasts.

RV Trip Wizard is site based RV Trip planning tool designed specifically for RV trips.

Complete information is available at http://www.rvtripwizard.com/

From April 13 to Oct. 21, Germany’s Romantic Road will add the Romantic Road Coach, which links the Romantic Road with the international airports in Frankfurt and Munich and offers the most convenient way of travelling along the route. The hop-on/hop-off coaches allow visitors to create their own individual itineraries for Germany’s oldest holiday route and determine their own stops along the way.

As there are no direct rail links and only a few towns and villages that can be reached by train, the hop-on/hop-off concept, tried and tested across the world, offers a real solution for planning a journey on the along the Romantic Road. At just under 400 miles long, the Romantic Road is the longest hop-on/hop-off route in the world. In its 28 towns and villages from the River Main to the Alps, visitors can discover a great variety of both well-known and lesser-known sights and historic monuments of bygone eras.

The road is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites — the Prince Bishop’s Residence in W¸rzburg, the Limes near Dinkelsb¸hl and the Wieskirche church in the Pfaffenwinkel, together with medieval towns like Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nˆrdlingen. The more than 2,000-year-old city of Augsburg, and Neuschwanstein, the most famous castle in the world, are found on the way from the River Main to the Alps.

From April 13 to Oct. 21, the coach departs daily at 8 a.m. from Frankfurt and F¸ssen, and at 10:30 a.m. from Munich. Depending on the direction travelled, it goes first to the official start and end of the holiday route at the W¸rzburg Prince Bishop’s Residence, then continues on to the spa and health resort of Bad Mergentheim and from there along the vine-clad hillsides to Weikersheim. The journey can be interrupted as often as the client likes and tickets are valid for six months.

You can also book a package (EB Tour), which includes not only the journey and the program of visits, but also accommodations in a hotel in the relevant town centers as well as transfer to and from the coach stop. All trips come with a non-cancellation guarantee on the part of the organizers. There are also special cycling and hiking packages available, where luggage is transported and an emergency number supplied in case of problems.