Speaking of Golf In Orlando

GolfOrlando.com is offering a 5-Night package called "The Recession Beater" that looks like a fantastic winter golf getaway.

At rates starting at $336 per golfer, you get five rounds of golf, one at each of these Orlando golf courses:

• Sanctuary Ridge Golf Club
• Stoneybrook Golf Club
• Eastwood Golf Club
• Diamondback Golf Club
• The Golf Club at Bridge Water

All courses are located within a short driving distance from the hotel.

Also, five nights accomodations at the Quality Inn Plaza, Orlando, which has a very respectable AAA rating of 3.0. The hotel has over 1,000 guest rooms, three outdoor pools, video game rooms, business center, on-site restaurants and much more. According to TripWiser.com, it is located near Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Sea World, and Wet 'N Wild. Kids with an adult get free breakfast and dinner buffets at the hotel.

Wise Trip Planning with TripWiser.com

Let's say you've decided to take the family to Orlando, Florida on your next vacation. You know there's lots to do in the area, but aside from Walt Disney World, you aren't sure about the specifics. What can the kids do? Mom and Dad? Golf?

Your new one-stop-shop for planning the trip can be TripWiser.com. Founder and CEO David Reichman has, from the company's beginning, designed a site built on trips already taken, places already visited, restaurants, hotels, golf courses already reviewed and rated by travelers just like you. If you want an entire itenerary, you can pick from hundreds of them that have already been experienced by other travelers, or pick and choose your own.

With a simple search on TripWiser for the term "Orlando", I found everything I wanted. The search returned a 7-day itenerary called "Take a Swing" that included golf at four top courses, Universal Studios, festivals, Ripley's Believe it or Not, recreational parks, art museums, everything for every member of the family.

That same "Orlando" search gave me a selection of restaurants with ratings and pricing, the same for hotels, and other Things to Do ideas.

Travel sites abound on the Internet, but none are as easy to use at TripWiser. None will provide you with such detail. Not only does TripWiser have the travel information you need, they have user blogs for just about every travel specialty you can imagine; a road trip blog, road trip planner, adventure travel blog, family travel blog, California road trip blog, motorcycle road trip, you name it.

I discovered the site a year or more ago and I'm now kicking myself for not having explored it in depth back then. Simply put, it's a great travel find. I can't wait to explore more of TripWiser.

College Football Coaches Tee It Up at Reynolds Plantation

You won't see any good golf there, but you'll see a great destination golf course; Reynolds Plantation. Golf Vacation Insider describes tomorrow's event featuring college football coaches. Should be fun to watch, http://twurl.nl/6vmpc6.

My year of getting published: Win a Copy of Organic Explorer New Zealand...#links#links#links#links

One of the most beautiful places on earth, even though it is home to Frank Nobilo (Golf Channel commentator and former PGA Tour golfer (and actually very good at both).
My year of getting published: Win a Copy of Organic Explorer New Zealand...

More than No. 2 at Pinehurst

Pinehurst No. 2. It's where Payne Stewart won the Open in 2000 in dramatic fashion, and site of so many other great moments. It's one of those courses, like Augusta National, St. Andrews, and Pebble Beach, that all golfers have on their list of "Top Places to Play Before I Die." Deservedly so, but there's so much more to Pinehurst, six more courses, to be exact.

Pinehurst No. 1 was built in 1898 and, despite it's just over 6,000 yard layout, is challenging. No place for anything but a straight drive, Donald Ross has made sure of it.

Pinehurst No. 2 and No. 4 hosted portions of the 2008 U.S. Amateur. There's also the Jack Nicklaus-designed Pinehurst National that deserves recognition.

If it's your first trip to Pinehurst, you certainly want to play No. 1. As one of golf's "pilgrimage destinations," my goal is to keep returning to Ol' Caroline until I've finished them all.

Sharing Travel Experiences

Potentially the best way to find out if you will like a place you've never been is to hear what others say, see their pictures, vicarously explore the places they went. None of that was possible a few years ago, at least it wasn't easy to find.

The Travelpod blog makes it easy to do all those things and more. If you're wondering what the new golf course near Hilton Head is like, chances are a Travelpod user has been there.

Avoid Spending the Holidays in an Airport

Here's a great article on how to avoid increasingly ubiquitous airport hassles. Tip: Take a deep breath and remember the reasons it takes so long to get through busy security checks. Airline problems, themselves, are another story.

"How to Avoid the New Holiday Airport Hassles
Traveling home for the holidays just wouldn't be the same without crowded airports, delayed flights and long waits in the terminal. This year, the annual purgatory that travelers experience will be even more profound..."

Read the full Smart Money article here