Cookie travels

Most parking spaces we’ve been to in Finland are in open spaces. For example when we went to Helsinki by road trip during our Christmas holiday, the place where we parked the car near the Olympic Stadium was a 24 hour parking area in an open space. So evidently there are no bollards to keep unauthorized vehicles out of the parking space. Entry was free for all. Although sometimes I could not help worry about security issues in these kinds of parking spaces but so far there are no untoward incidents, so I can say the environment is quite safe.

However, in parking spaces were you need to secure your parking area, a low cost method would be employing a parking barrier like the Round Post Top Lock Series by TrafficGuard, USA. This durable lightweight barrier can help control vehicle entry and exit in the parking area. The Round Post Top Lock Series is also a removable and collapsible safety bollard that can be locked at the top of the post. You a check the website for the benefits of using this product, the technical specifications and storage racks. A photo of the product can also be viewed at the website. And if you want to get the latest news and product updates, feel free to register.

In my previous post I mentioned about a golf course by the Yyteri beach. The golf course I was referring to is Yyteri Golf Links. If you want to play golf in a fairway that starts with Scottish links type followed by the Finnish forest fairways, while the sound of the sea whispers in your ears, then this is the place to have a round of golf. An exciting game awaits here as well coz you will encounter water hazards and the beach dunes as you play along. The 18th hole is right next to the sea bordered with green that ends at the the Club House terrace.

So if you want to enjoy the beach and a game of golf for the summer holiday, Yyteri would be a perfect place. Yyteri has also accommodations for you to select, so you can enjoy a night’s stay or more. One of them is the cottages at Top Camping Yyteri or a room at Yyteri Spa Hotel. You can definitely bring your family coz the beach is there for their enjoyment while you play golf at Yyteri Golf Links.

Yyteri Golf Links
Opening hours: 8.00-20.00
Karhuluodontie 85, 28840 Pori
Tel. +358 (02) 6308 320
Fax. +358 (02) 6308 325
Email: toimisto@yyterigolf.fi
Website: www.yyterilinks.com
(mostly in Finnish, only introduction is in English)

The other week I got an alarming news from my cutie sis in Prague that my dad was sick and had fever. The day before that, they still toured a museum and the next day he was suddenly sick. But thank God he easily recovered. Otherwise I couldn’t imagine their Europe vacation hindered by health condition.

Traveling can sometimes come with surprises. It’s good if it’s a recoverable surprise sickness. On the other hand, there might be medical expenses incurred by sudden illness or accidents. So make sure you have health insurance to help you cover these expenses before embarking on your journey in case it happens. You might not want medical expenses to add up to your travel budget.

If you don’t have medical insurance yet, you can get a quote from Advantage Medical Quotes. It is an online company that offers health care insurance quotes for traditional, supplemental, groups, catastrophic, self employed, best rates, savings account, and students. They can guide you in determining which type of coverage plan is best for you without you having to explore all the different types available. This company enables you to get the best deal by allowing you to compare rates from various providers. You don’t have to visit or call each of the different service providers and complete individual forms. All it takes is to fill out the quote form provided online and you will be directed through the process of receiving several health rates from a number of top insurance companies. Comparing rates has never been easier. So before your travel begins, make sure your insurance is ready.

Luggage is a very essential buddy for a traveler. The kind of luggage you need depends on what kind of traveler you are: frequent traveler, vacationer, business traveler, trekker, or a commuter. For any of this kind, there are luggages that can match your travel needs. To choose the right type of luggage there are luggage buying guidelines you might want to heed in order to avoid buying the wrong luggage and wasting your money’s worth. The most important aspect to take note is the luggage construction. We bought a luggage last year prior to coming to Finland and upon arrival the zip gave way. We didn’t check carefully the zip’s durability when we bought it so we ended up using it for once only. For a durable luggage, look for locked-stitched seams, big zippers, recessed wide-track wheels, fiberglass frames for lightweight, detachable and adjustable straps, a denier of 400 and above, and one with compartments for organizing things.

For our family travel or vacation we would usually carry medium-sized and larger sized wheeled upright luggage plus additional carry-ons. Our upright luggage is usually the soft-sided type. I’m not so much a fan of a hard-sided luggage coz it’s non expandable and slightly heavier, thus adding up to the baggage weight. I already find the 20 kg baggage limit not enough for the things to pack.

As I was searching for luggage, I found an American Tourister 2-Piece Upright Luggage Set at ShopWiki.com costing about 130 USD at Sears. This would be great for a short vacation. Easy to carry and has variety of compartments. If you are searching for anything and everything for sale, more products and better deal with a price comparison feature, drop by ShopWiki.com and you will experience how ShopWiki transforms online shopping.

I walked into a travel agency office last month for our Stockholm trip reservation and I was fortunate that this agency also accepts debit cards for payment. After typing my PIN number, payment was done. This payment method is good for travel agencies with store location coz walk-in customers are offered another payment option for their convenience. But for travel agencies with internet website which most if not all has, owners have to ensure then that their business can also handle online transactions. So if you want to put up a travel agency, one of the important aspects you must consider is being able to manage the different methods in which a customer or client can make a payment.

There are few ways to take care of this. Seeing that the common payment solution is thru accepting credit cards on website or debit cards with the use of a secure website to avoid stealing credit card information by hackers while the customer’s credit card information and three-digit security code is being processed online, other methods can also be looked into. Electronic Check Processing or ACH Check Payment Processor Solutions is another payment solution online business merchants should investigate. In this method, service providers can accept personal checks online while the check is being processed electronically. The processing works similar to processing a credit card payment but unlike credit card processing, the fees involve in ACH are generally free usually minimal unless you are faced with bounced check charges.

So if you are a first timer in this business and you want to know in depth about other payment options that best fits your business, you might want to get in touch with www.aplusmerchant.com. They can offer the best solution for your business so your travel agency can handle online transactions very soon.

I had a chat with my sis last Friday and I’m glad that she already got her Schengen visa. I actually knew about her flight to Europe but her domestic flight last night to Manila caught me by surprise. Gosh how time flies. That’s why the urgent buzz in my chat window. She was finalizing some of the stuff she has to bring plus some of our requests to Europe. I advised her to bring fewer clothes and leave her sweater so they can all be accommodated. She was worried about the cold weather in Finland. Few hours before she left the house we were still chatting. That was past 2AM already. She was busy repacking coz of the 20 kilogram limit on board the aircraft. The 20 kilogram limit was driving her crazy…LOL.

Our Finnish family friend related to us over lunch their recent vacation experience. It was not the usual vacation they had coz this time one of their sons was hospitalized after eating spaghetti, a case of food poisoning maybe. The family paid about 1,200 USD for their son’s hospitalization cost. The father told us that it was an additional expense for their holiday but they will try to get reimbursement from their insurance company for the medical expenses incurred.

To help shoulder additional cost such as medical expenses while on vacation, you might consider getting a health insurance if you do not have one yet. USA-HealthInsurance.com is a health insurance agency offering individual or family health insurance, short term health insurance, health savings account, Medicare supplemental, student health insurance, small business or group coverage, dental insurance, life insurance, maternity coverage and even international coverage. Since USA-HealthInsurance.com is a health insurance broker, they provide customers across the United States a broad selection of plans from every health insurance company, from Blue Cross Blue Shield, United, Kaiser & Aetna agents including COBRA replacement. They also provide free quotes so you can compare and review plans before purchasing health insurance online. You are assured to get an affordable health insurance Kentucky as well as in other states across the country. After you have done your review and comparison, I’m sure you will be able to settle on the best available quote there is. You can get a free quote online or call them toll free at 1-800-831-3270.