Southwest has just relaunced thier Friends Fly Play Stay Free Promotion.  They are offering free companion fares to Vegas and Orlando through September 28 valid on travel from September 5, 2009 to January 10, 2010.  There are also deals available for free 2nd nights at particpating hotels and attraction discounts. So get your friends and family together and start planning you Vegas and Orlando getaways!

If you haven’t already heard about Jet Blue’s Cheep Deals you are missing out on some great last minute airfare deals.  Every Monday morning Jet Blue announces last minute one way fares for Saturday through their twitter account.  Seats are limited and can only be booked by midnight.  Fares usually start as low as $9.  This morning they announced this weeks Cheep Dealsand there are some great fares to take advantage of for Labor Day Weekend.  For $9 you can travel from Portland to New York City, from New York City to Nassau, or from San Francisco to Long Beach.  For $29 they are offering fares from Washington, DC to Fort Lauderdale or New York City to Sarasota.  For $39 they are offering fares from Austin to New York City, New York City to Las Vegas, Boston to New Orleans, or Boston to Seattle.  Book fast- these fares are only available for a limited number of seats! Stay tuned for more great fares every week- follow Jet Blue on twitter @JetBlueCheeps and Best Travel Deals @bestraveldeals.

I’m a big believer in Karma and as such I’m always looking for little ways to help others. I’ve researched Eco Tourism and I’m always torn. As much as I love to help others, but on the other hand my precious vacation time should consist of lounging poolside –when I’m better established and have more time and money with which to travel, I will most definitely dedicate more time to trips with a volunteer focus.

Well, it seems my karmic conundrum is solved. Now through December 20, 2009, Sage Hospitality is offering a “Give a Day, Get a Night” deal. With this deal, complete 8 hours of community service and receive a complimentary stay or a 50% discount on hotel rooms at 53 locations!

Make sure you volunteer at a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization. For a list of locations, check out the Sage Hospitality page. I’m looking forward to continuing my community service with the added travel perks. This takes me one step closer to my goal of helping others and enjoying my own personal vacation time. Sage Hospitality has many locations in the the Midwest (a large number are in Colorado) and Las Vegas. If Florida is more your cup of tea, check out the Hilton Garden Inn in Orlando – it’s in the SeaWorld International Center. Or stay in Waterbury, CT at the Holiday Inn. No matter where you stay, your good deeds are worth more with this deal.

Grandstand at the Saratoga Race Track

Every week Best Travel Deals will be featuring a photo of the week.  To launch the photo of the week we wanted to share a photo we captured this morning of the grandstands at the Saratoga Race Course.  The Best Travel Deals crew spends our summers in Saratoga Springs and this morning was a great morning to grab breakfast at the track and watch the horses warm up - clear skies and no humidity.  This is a big week for racing in Saratoga with the Travers on Saturday.  If you haven’t been to Saratoga yet this summer there’s still time.  Check out our video “Saratoga Springs 4 Days for $400” for tips on how to visit on the cheap.

If you have a great travel photo that you think should be considered for photo of the week please share it on our facebook page.

Delta Air Lines has launched its new full-flat seat on all flights between London Heathrow and Atlanta, New York JFK and Detroit.

It will be introduced on flights between Heathrow and Minneapolis by September 2009.

The new BusinessElite cabin is being installed on international flights served with Boeing 767-400 aircraft.

It features 77-82 inch, 180-degree full-flat beds in a one-two-one configuration and gives every passenger direct aisle access.

Since I am a travel lover and will be a new mom in November I am now on the lookout for ways to incorporate my love for travel into my soon to be changing family.  I just discovered an interesting travel idea from the Franklyn D & Pebbles Resorts- “vacation nannies”.  This is an all inclusive resort in Jamaica where upon arrival families are assigned their own personal vacation nanny for the duration of their stay.  A vacation nanny is supposed to serve as an assistant to herassigned family throughout their stay- babysitting the children, helping to arrange activities, and keeping the suite clean and organized.  Vacation Nannies are available to families every day from 9 am to 4:40 pm.  If you require nanny services  in the evenings you can hire them for $6 per hour.   They are currently offering a Fall Family Sale promotion with rates up to 60% off.  I must admit the idea of a stranger caring for my child in a different place does make me a bit uneasy, but according to FDR site all of the vacation nannies are highly trained.  I do know friends that have hired nannies at other resorts and loved the services, so I would be willing to try this.  Has anyone ever stayed at the FDR & Pebbles resorts? What do you think of the “vacation nanny” service?”

From now until August 26th, you can book a trip to somewhere tropical with JetBlue for as low as $29. For travel between September 8th – November 18th, these flights leave from a handful of  major cities such as Orlando, FL, New York City, Buffalo, NY and Portland, ME to tropical locations such as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. For $79 each way, I can fly from JFK in New York City to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Live upstate? You can get the same fare from Buffalo, NY.

Live a little south? Check out the $59 flight from Orlando, FL to Cancun, Mexico. I plan on giving myself an early Labor Day present of tickets from JFK to Puerto PLata, DR for $89 each-way. Not in the practice of giving Labor Day presents? This is the year to start. Just remember to read restrictions closely as there are some blackout dates. And don’t forget the sunscreen!

We spend our summers in Saratoga Springs, a great place to be in the summer especially during track season. Everyone with an interest in horse racing will be focused on Saratoga Springs this week with the burning question – Will Rachel Alexandra run in the Travers? She didn’t run Saturday in the Alabama so she’ll work again this week and hopefully by Wednesday the world will know if she’s running in the Travers.

If you’ve never been to Saratoga Springs during track meet it should go on your list of places not to miss. While it can be very expensive to visit Saratoga during track season, it doesn’t have to be unaffordable. We’ve put together a short video – Saratoga Springs on the cheap – 4 days $400. The $400 includes lodging, meals and entertainment for two people. There are a lot of free and low cost things to do in Saratoga Springs during August and we couldn’t include them all but we will be sure to blog about them in the future. If you haven’t made plans for next weekend, consider heading to Saratoga Springs, NY. It’s a gem of a city and the most exciting place to be on August 29^th. We’ll be there – stop by and see us if you make it to the track, we’ll be in box B15.

Here’s a link to the video – would love to hear your feedback – so far three 5 star ratings.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BestTravelDealsNet#play/all/uploads-all/0/MkU5D0kevz0

Update – 8/24 – Rachel will not be running in the Travers but will run in the Woodward.  Rachel is so impressive, the purse for the Woodward was raised to $750,000 (from $500,000). Mine That Bird and Summer Bird running in the Travers and Rachel running in the Woodward, what an exciting week in Saratoga.

One of the most popular vacation destinations in Chile is a small adobe village in the middle of the Atacama Desert called San Pedro. It has become so popular that this tiny square-mile village of 1,500 is surrounded by 12 hotels and about twice as many hostels. The town features an impressive archaeological museum of pre-Colombian artifacts and a beautiful adobe church that sits prominently in the main square. But the main attraction here isn’t the culture; people come here for the landscape.

San Pedro has been inhabited in one way or another for the last 11,000 years by the Atacama people and is known as the archaeological center of Chile. It’s easy to see why people have consistently been coming back here millennia after millennia, as the area is famous for having one of the world’s most unearthly landscapes. Through the Cordilla section of the Andes, just south of Licancabur Volcano, you come across Moon Valley which has been photographed innumerable times and used as the set for space scenes in film and TV for its startling resemblance to the surface of the moon. Sharp, jagged rock burst out of the ground at random and the mountains are cut with shockingly vibrant and defined strata that stand out against the reddish-brownish sand that persists throughout the valley.

Moon Valley

Just SE of Moon Valley is Death Valley, one of the best spots for dune boarding enthusiasts. It’s possible to book a tour and lessons out to the dunes in the town, which has its upside for various reasons: 1. You ride out there in a car. 2. Often times they bring along an ATV so you don’t have to walk up the dune once you’ve hurled yourself down it. 3. There’s no possibility of getting lost in a place called Death Valley. However, if you’re confident of your map reading skills it’s a far cheaper endeavor to rent a bike and a board and get out there yourself. Just be sure that everyone in your group wears a backpack so you have someway of strapping the board to your back, otherwise there’s going to be one very unlucky and unhappy backpack-wearing member of your group hauling everyone else’s boards and probably plotting to throw you off the dunes once you get there.

Sand Dunes

Dune Boarding

Atacama is also known for its geysers. One of the most amazing things you can do whilst here is to take a tour out to Geyser del Tatio just before the sun rises, when the air is still cool, and watch the vapor explode up out of the earth through vents dotted around the landscape. From there, only a short distance away lies the thermal springs of Puritama where people go to soak up the restoring minerals found in the water.

Just 55 km south of San Pedro is the largest salt flat in Chile and the second largest in the world. During the winter months shallow waters cover the flats and the best time to visit them is just before sunset. As the sun goes down it casts a purple and pink light against the Cordilla mountain range that is perfectly reflected in the still waters above the flats. The view, the altitude, and the winding down of the day make it the perfect time to enjoy the national drink of choice, the Pisco Sour.

Salt Flats

Lagunas Cejas are only 18 km from San Pedro and are perfect for a refreshing dip even amongst non-swimmers. Since the lagoons are located in the same area of the salt flats, and the whole area used to be a lake that evaporated 8000 years ago, the lagoons have about 40% salinity producing the same floating effect that the Dead Sea is famous for. Another reason why the lagoon is so popular is for its proximity to the Andean Flamingos Reserve, a few kilometers west at Laguna Chaxa. Every now and then a flock of brilliant bright pink flamingos fly overhead on their way home and the effect against the electric blue sky is shocking.

Floating in the laguna

Once the sun has gone down and the moon is up, some people say that’s the best time of day in the Atacama Desert. At the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory, a submillimeter astronomical observatory federally funded by the US government, you can sign up to star gaze through some of the best and most technologically advanced telescopes on earth. However, without a single city light for hundreds of miles in any direction, the night sky is just as beautiful when viewed with the naked eye.

The cheapest way to do all the activities above would be to rent a car and read a map and just do it, which is 100% possible due to numerous rental agencies in town that rent midsize sedans for about $25 US a day. However, the down side to that is that you’re missing interesting information about the landscape, geological features, and cultural customs that comes with a guided tour. The best way to get the most for your money is to head to town, find a tour agency and bundle the activities and sights that you want to do. If you can get a group of people together who want to do the same things that’s even better because almost all the agencies offer group discounts. Furthermore, if you stray off the main street, Caracoles, where the majority of the agencies are and stick to the little side streets, you’ll find agencies that are willing to go a lot cheaper than their better-located competition.

Finally, researching a place to stay before you get there can be a little tricky as most of the hotels and hostels are not registered with popular booking websites like hostelworld.com or hotels.com, so the best thing to do is to go to www.sanpedrodeatacama.com and browse their registry of accommodations which is all encompassing. Since the town is in the middle of the desert most hotels do have quite high rates, but don’t let that deter you because most of the hostels in town offer great quality; they offer private rooms with bathrooms and decent breakfasts. The main difference between hotels and hostels in town is the presence of pools in the former. Other than that, the hostels are like small hotels for small budgets.

London Theatre Week 2009 is fast approaching. With deals being offered at 32 top venues on classics such as Hairspray and Phantom of the Opera, there’s something for every theatre lover.

Thanks to  lastminute.com, you can purchase discounted tickets, meal deals and discounted hotel stays (or just the theatre tickets!) to make a night of it. Get your tickets fast – London Theatre week starts on Monday, August 24th and lasts through September 4th. Prices range from £15, £25 and £35.And £1 of each purchase goes towards 95.8 FM’s Help a London Child fund which helps the young victims of abuse and homelessness.

With the plethora of theatrical productions that the West End is known for, from lighthearted Hairspray to intensely dramatic Phantom, London Theatre week is an excellent excuse to book a last minute London vacation. It’s getting into the tourism off-season so the throngs of tourists will be disappearing. The restaurants and cultural haunts will be all yours!