Travel Muse tips for taking a trip

In a year of uncertainty, consumers seem to know one thing for certain—they want to keep traveling! Regular coffees instead of lattes, more dinners at home and fewer visits to the spa—these are just a few ways people are cutting back in 2009 in order to continue to say “Yay!” to vacations.

To further stimulate the travel bug, TravelMuse (www.travelmuse.com) today released its Yaycations Calculator, a free online tool that helps consumers find hidden savings in everyday spending and discover the travel budget they never knew they had. TravelMuse is also offering individuals a chance to win a vacation with every trip planned using the newly enhanced TravelMuse Planner, which now features hotel and restaurant reviews and ratings, plus powerful mapping tools—making it even easier for consumers to plan and take their ideal trips. In addition, people can build, share and print a travel guide, personalized to their trip, to take with them on their vacation.

“Many consumers are making 2009 the year of the ‘Yaycation’ by embracing their right to plan and take vacations no matter what external forces may be in play,” said Kevin Fliess, CEO of TravelMuse, Inc., creator of TravelMuse.com—the online travel destination for finding inspiration and planning trips with friends and family. “The American vacation is a time-honored tradition, and people are continuing to find ways to travel, even if it means cutting out everyday items and activities. By combining compelling trip planning tools with comprehensive travel content, TravelMuse delivers a robust travel planning solution that enables consumers to assert their right to vacation, even in the face of challenging economic times.”

Show People the Money

Think it’s impossible to afford a vacation this year? Think again. Using TravelMuse’s one-of-a-kind Yaycations Calculator, consumers can find simple ways to cut back and put new found funds toward planning and taking trips. The Yaycations Calculator features 20 categories from coffee to clothing and more, where individuals can find super savings. For example, say someone usually drinks five venti lattes a week (~$3.50 ea.). Over a year, this can add up to more than $910! By making coffee at home, a person can save hundreds of dollars and put the savings toward travel endeavors, such as plane tickets across the country, a villa in Umbria (one week), or a weekend getaway for two. The TravelMuse.com Yaycations Calculator is available at http://www.travelmuse.com/yaycations/

“Travel is part of our cultural DNA—it’s in our blood,” noted Peter Greenberg, New York Times best-selling author. “We may deny ourselves other things, but no matter how tough times get, we will find a way to travel. Where there’s a will—especially to travel—there are many ways.”

Plan a Trip, Create a Guide, and Win a Getaway!

Once the Yaycations Calculator has “shown you the money,” the real fun begins with trip planning. Through TravelMuse, there are many ways to plan and take a trip, and even win a Yaycation getaway.

• Build the Perfect Trip. Start planning a trip using the enhanced TravelMuse Planner. Organize all of your travel research into one central location, and then add it to the Tripfolio—your personal and virtual manila folder to save all your favorite research items. The Planner combines compelling content for global destinations, powerful planning tools and a guided planning process to make planning vacations even easier. New planning features include:
  • Robust Mapping and Search Tools. Use proximity search to find nearby restaurants, hotels, attractions closest to a given location—and view search results plotted out on a map.
  • Hotel, Restaurant and Attraction Reviews and Ratings. Read hotel, restaurant and attraction reviews and ratings from TravelMuse and other Web sites, including Travelocity, TripAdvisor, Yahoo! Travel and more.
  • Customized Travel Guides. Create a personalized travel guide based on plans and itineraries created with the TravelMuse Planner. Build, share and print tailor-made travel guides to take on vacation with the information, maps and itineraries used to create a Trip Plan.
• Plan to Win! From now through June 15, 2009, anyone who registers on TravelMuse and creates a Trip Plan using the Planner can enter to win a getaway to any Kimpton Hotel, plus a $500 Visa Card to use toward airfare, activities or spending cash. Other prizes include Eye-Fi Explore wireless photo cards and copies of travel guru Peter Greenberg’s latest book Tough Times, Great Travels: The Travel Detective’s Guide to Hidden Deals, Unadvertised Bargains, and Great Experiences. There is no cost to enter and no booking required. The more trips planned, the more chances to win.