Prepare your house and pets for your holiday

Your house and pets may not be coming with you on your holiday, but they do need to be prepared for your trip. You don't only have to think about someone who waters your plants; also try to arrange someone to take care of your pets in time. If you have a dog or cat, a pet hotel might be a good solution. You pay some money every day, but you at least know that your little friend will get its food and exercise every day. Be sure to make reservations in time, the summer period is a busy time for the people operating those hotels, and you do want your pet to have a good place somewhere.

If you decide to ask someone else to take care of your animals, make sure that it's someone who has experience with taking care of pets. Plants are not that big of an issue most of the times.

Aside from the plants and pets, you also have to lock your house and shut down all your electronics. Pull out the Internet, TV and radio cables and wall plugs so that nothing gets destroyed if your house gets struck by lightning, and so that you don't pay for equipment that you left on stand by. While the costs are generally not that high, you still save some money with it and you help the environment out a little bit. If you use gas to cook you should make sure to close the gas line. Close all windows to prevent theft, lock all outside doors and make sure to bring the keys to your house with you. If you have an alarm, you should make sure that you give the access code and the vocal code to the person who takes care of your house and pets. Put valuables out of sight as much as possible.

One final notice; clean your house before you leave. If you go on a trip of multiple weeks, you might end up with ants all over your house, you don't want that. Empty your fridge as much as possible.

With all that done, happy travelling!

Last-minute fun

By this time, most people have booked and/or planned their holiday for this summer, and have a pretty good idea of what they're going to do. There are, however, still some people out there who would like to go somewhere, but don't have an idea of what exactly to do. For them, there's a great and fun solution to their problem, called the last-minute.

A last-minute is not necessarily only a flight; there are also numerous hotels around the world, which try to get their full capacity by selling their rooms at the last moment for a lower price. You can take great advantage of that, turning their empty rooms into a win-win situation. You get to go on a holiday for a lower price; they still have some income from their rooms. Your local travel agency probably offers some packages to combine a last-minute flight with a last-minute hotel reservation.

So you save some money with it, that's nice. The real last-minute fun comes from a different advantage though. Imagine yourself sitting inside on a rainy summer holiday; you and your partner both have off for two weeks, but you were too late booking the hotel you wanted. You decided to stay home, and you regret it now. Then you read an ad by your local travel agent; a trip to Thailand is offered last-minute, but you have to leave in 4 days. You book the flight, and 4 days later you're in paradise for the remaining 1,5 weeks of your holiday. The surprise of the whole thing makes it extra nice, and it is definitely something that you should do at least once in your life!

Read the original news item and more at the Travel Approved website

5 unique places to visit in Europe this summer

For all those people who are planning on visiting Europe this summer, we have selected five places that are more than worth your time. While many Europeans have already discovered these places, people from other continents often stick to the standard tourist destinations. Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Venice and Athens are definitely great places to visit, but a trip of a few days to one of those regions will enable you to experience Europe on a different level. Even if you have already booked a holiday, finding accommodation in one of those regions will often prove to be easy. The five locations below are not in any order of importance:

1. The Lake District in Northern Italy
2. The Baltic States
3. Normandy, France
4. Prague, Czech
5. The Croatian coastline

1. The Lake District in Northern Italy is a beautiful place to visit. The Dolomite Mountains and forested hills surround most lakes, while small villages and big cities close by give you an insight in the true Italian life. While Rome is a historic and architectural landmark, the Lake District offers you the chance to cool down in one of the beautiful lakes, the hear the church bells on the other side of the water, to hike high in the Dolomite Mountains and to see a less touristy side of Italy.

2. The Baltic States are a fairly unknown place in Europe, and the same goes for the landscapes. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are not places where you go sunbathing; it are rather places where you go to relax, to explore, for a very affordable price. The former Soviet countries are not only a chance to see heritage from the USSR; the countries have developed their own national identity and offer beautiful landscapes and parks. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is a great place to see how Baltic people enjoy life with great music and food, and a great place to see different styles of architecture throughout the city. A visit to the Lahemaa National Park, also in Estonia, will allow you to see wildlife that is lost in most countries nowadays. The forested islands and authentic villages also draw a perfect image of nature and culture in harmony with each other.

3. Normandy is located in the northwest of France, and was the landing stage for one of the most important battles in World War II. Normandy is not as simmering hot as the Côte d'Azur, but shows you rather a rough side of the French coastline. The heritage from World War II found along the beaches in Normandy not only gives you a better prospect of the history of Europe, but also gives you the chance to see the place to which numerous movies and games have been dedicated. Dieppe and Caen are important regional and national cities of art and history, and are a great addition to a trip to Paris, which is not that far away.

4. Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is one of the most beautiful cities in the old Eastern Europe. Prague is another unique place in Europe, and when you find yourself crossing the Charles Bridge, surrounded by street artists and vendors, it will be hard not to feel the great vibe Prague offers. From this bridge, you will be able to see the Old Town on one hand and the Prague Castle on the other. Czech has a convenient weather during summer, and is not as hot as some of the more southern cities in Europe, The modern architecture combined with the castle and World War II Gestapo Headquarters building are only a glimpse of the variety the city has to offer, which is one of the many reasons Prague has earned its place in this list.

5. The Croatian coastline is by far not as well known as the Italian, Spanish and Greek ones. This is a shame; Croatia offers you one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. The 1,200 km of Adriatic coastline brings more and more tourists to Croatia, with numerous landmarks such as the Dubrovnik port town as ideal places to visit when you're tired of tanning for a few hours. Even though most people probably don't know the exact location of Croatia, the country is closer to the touristy part of Europe than you may think. With Italy just across the Adriatic Sea and Greece and Austria not too far away. The Croatian coastline makes for another unique place to visit, away from the hordes of tourists.

New Information at Travel Approved

Besides checklists and all sorts of other information for a holiday by plane, Travel Approved also offers you all the information necessary for a holiday by car. This involved a small restructuring of our Information section, and we hope that you like the result.

The information in our new Holiday by car section is not complete yet, but you can expect a lot of additions to this section in the near future.

We are working hard to make Travel Approved an even better source of information than that it is already, and you can help us out! If you have any useful contribution to our website, feel free to contact us through our Advice/Contact section. We greatly appreciate help of any kind.

If you would like to advertise on Travel Approved, we advice you to follow the same procedure or send an e-mail to info@travelapproved.nl.

Happy travelling!

Be prepared for your summer holiday!

As the summer holiday has arrived, I think it is important for everyone to think about what to prepare before leaving abroad. When going on a holiday, you want to avoid trouble and avoid forgetting things. This is why we came up with a reminder of the most important things to do before going on a holiday.

1. Passport: For most countries, the passport usually has to be valid for a period of 3 months after the return date.
2. Round-trip ticket: You almost always need your plane ticket to apply for a visa, preferably a round-trip or you have to show a proof of sufficient funds to come back.
3. Book your hotel and rental car if necessary, and make sure to get the rental certificate. You might need it to cross borders, or in case of accident.
4. Visa: Look up if you need a visa for the purpose of your visit. Usually, a tourist visa doesn't take long to receive, but make sure that if the visa is effective as soon as it is given to you, that you receive it as close as possible to the departure date.
5. Vaccinations and medications: If vaccinations are required for your entry at a certain destination, make sure to see your doctor or physician at least a month before departing, since most shots take about a month before they're effective. Also make sure to get the certificates to prove that you got the immunization.
6. Get the proper insurances (health, travel, car, etc.) and the certificates.
7. Plan what you are going to see, visit and do on your holiday. This way, you know approximately how much it will cost, what you will need for supply, clothes, laptop (if wireless Internet is provided in your Hotel), etc.
8. Print our checklists (carry-on and registered luggage) to make sure you don't forget anything. Since the checklists are for every circumstance, you should read it and cross what doesn't apply to you.
9. Call your credit card company to let them know when you are abroad.
10. Pack your luggage with the help of the checklists, and then weigh the suitcases.

Most important of all: don't forget your keys, passport, e-ticket, cell phone, cards and wallet.

Have a nice holiday!

What is Travel Approved?

As a first post on blogger, I think it's a good idea to tell all of you what Travel Approved is, and what we're all about.

Travel Approved is a new travel website that offers you all the information you need to go on a perfectly planned holiday. We offer advice and information for any kind of holiday, and TravelApproved.com is the only website you will need to prepare for your holiday in the best way possible. Next to all this, we also offer fully customized and personalized travel advice, where we plan your entire holiday from scratch, which is a useful service if you have bad holiday experiences or if you're short on time.

So why do we make a blog about our website? Well, we would like to give you travel updates from day to day, so that you are sure that you go on your holiday safely and fully prepared. Not only will this save you loads of money; it will also save you a lot of trouble and annoyance. If you spend hundreds or thousands of Dollars on a holiday, you want it to be perfect. That's where we come in!

We hope that you enjoy your stay at our blog and on our website, and we would like to wish you a perfect holiday!

Happy travelling