Archive for February, 2011

Escape the Snow in St. Lucia

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

This winter I tried out an all inclusive hotel for our family vacation in St Lucia. Unfortunatly we were to leave one Snow-mageddon when the airlines cancelled all their flights. We got to St. Lucia, saw the sites, and enjoyed the sun This is how we did it in the worst snowstorm of the century.

Febuary 2nd was the day of the worst snowstorm Chicago had seen in years. It was so bad the airlines shut almost all operation for that day. Luckily for my family, we were able to leave a day early. We purchased tickets on an airline instead of nonreving which is something many of us in the airlines are doing. The increase in taxes on our passes, blackout days, and extremely high load factors make it much more economical to buy tickets. But as I say, don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself at our Timetable

Our layover was in Miami so I called the Sheraton at the Miami Airport. I was able to get an airline discount on the room AND the staff was happy to drive us downtown to get a bite to eat. They were one of the best hotel staff I had the pleasure of meeting. The Hotel Staff suggested my family try Chilorio’s which is a great Mexican restaurant. It was very low key but the food and service was excellent. They also had free wifi so I was able to look up information for the next day of travel.

The Coconut Lodge has several crews that Layover and their crew rates are much lower than you could find on sites like Perx. The lodge has another great attribute, the is a family side and a couples side. The Family side has all you could want to entertain children from the standard zero depth pool to a “lazy river’, a water slide, and a kids club. The couples side had its own pool, spa and beach. Every night there was live entertainment from a steel drum band to a magician. There was also a talent night for guest and staff. There never was a night that there wasn’t anything to do. Even though the resort is on the southern tip of the island, removed from the towns, we didn’t feel the need to go into the town.

Volcano and Mud Bath for what ails you.

One of the places we did go to was the Volcano. Not only is it active, put there is a mineral bath that you can visit. The mineral bath is said to be able to relieve everything from arthritis to sunburn. It is also marketed as a mud bath that will make you look 10 years younger. The bath is heated by the volcano and the mud is actually volcanic ash. I met a man from Germany who said he spends his winters in St. Lucia and goes to the bath once a week. He swears by the bath and said his doctor can’t believe his improvement. Whether he was a plant or not I don’t know but I thought is was fun to visit.

Botanical Gardens

The other place we visited was the Botanical Gardens. Not only was there beautiful flowers, but a waterfall. There is also a mineral bath from another volcano. This bath boasts the Napoleon’s wife Josephine came her to bathe in the mineral water.

St. Lucia is a great place to go to avoid the cold and the snow. Now it is even more affordable with an all inclusive hotel that gives discounts to airline employees. The biggest problem now is how do you get there?  Use these tips to get the most out of your stay. To see more deals from around the world, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/

Like to Travel? Win $25

Monday, February 21st, 2011

It’s time for our annual Customer Appreciation Contest. As a thank you for your support of NonRev Website, we created a contest where the odds are in your favor. From now until March 31st, you can win a $25 Starbucks Card. All you have to do is tell all your friends about the NonRev Website Newsletter.

When your friends sign up, they will automatically be registered in our raffle to win a $25 Starbucks Card. The card can be used anywhere in the world Starbucks is selling Coffee. It can even be given to someone else as a gift!

But here is how you have a chance to win your own $25 Starbucks Card. If you tell another person about our newsletter contest and that person informs us that you were the one who told them, you could win your own $25 Starbucks card. The more people who say you told them about our contest, the more times you are registered, the greater the chances YOU could win! You can even tell your spouse and children, and your family could win both cards! Just forward this email to all you know and at the top of the email tell them to make sure they put your name in the box “Please Tell Us How You Found Out About Us.”

Use the following link to register http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/signup.html

Free Attraction – The First Human in Space

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first Human Being in Outer Space in the Vostok 1. He With this being the 50th anniversary of the first human to orbit the Earth, one of the best places to go to see what Russian Space Travel was like back then is at the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration under Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow. Although there are more artifacts at the Star City Cosmonaut Training Facility just outside Moscow, the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is very convenient to get to, open to the public and very Cheap.

The Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is under the huge statue dedicated to flight in Cosmonaut Alley. Cosmonaut Alley was constructed in 1964. To celebrate the Soviet Union’s achievments in space. Here you will find Statues to several Causmonats as well as a statue of the “Chief Designer,” Sergey Korolyov who remained nameless until after his death. The centerpiece is a Vostok Roket on top of a 100 meter titanium exhaust plume. The gigantic base has a mural carved into it depicting all of the contributions made by the Soviet people comulating with Yuri Gagarin Stepping into his spacecraft. Enterence to the park is free and it is one of several Free Attractions in Moscow. To see more free attractions in Moscow, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/cheapeurope/Moscow.html#Attractions  .

The Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is an awesome underground complex with the complete history of Russian Space exploration, The museum has a large collection of rockets, capsules, satalites, rovers, space stations, even Lika, the first dog in space. It goes back to the beginings in the 1900s when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky mathematically described how to escape gravity and use multi-stage rockets fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to travel to the stars before the Write Brothers Flew an Airplane. This museum is very new, reopened in 2009, and is very reasonable, around $3. You will not be disappointed by its 85,000 objects at this attraction. To see more information on the Russian Space Museum and other attractions in Mocscow, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/cheapeurope/Moscow.html#Attractions  .

So celebrate the first human in space by going to the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration. With so much to see and do, you could make a whole day of it. And while you are in Moscow, you can see the other Free Attactions.