It’s time for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts to start planning their family’s Best Vacations Ever this summer.

Now is the perfect time to plan a family outdoor adventure! Fortunately, Pigeon Forge is full of activities and its action-packed Smoky Mountains are blessed with a variety of trails, white-water rafting, zorbing, as well as numerous adventures that are both challenging and rewarding for people of all ages. It’s a great reminder of why Pigeon Forge is the ideal destination for outdoor lovers in the summer months. From hiking and biking mountain trails to white water rafting, Pigeon Forge offers visitors more than just T-shirts and souvenirs.

Key BVE Destinations for Top Travel Personality Types

Whatever your pleasure or travel personality, you’ll find the ideal trait-matching Best Vacations Ever destinations to suite everyone in the bunch.

When you think about your actual personality traits, you can learn a lot about your inner travel personality as well and what destinations would bring you the greatest vacation joys. Are you more laid-back, calm, unruffled, or are you more of the adventurous, outdoorsy, thrill-seeking type? Perhaps you’re even a cross-personality type, a venturer, sophisticate or history buff who is somewhere right in the middle. Listing and adhering to those personality characteristics can help you find the best places to visit and the best way to travel—sometimes a true explorer finds it more exciting to drive instead of fly, admiring numerous destinations along the way. From adventurous to romantic to intellectual, all the different types of travel personalities lead to customization of your ideal vacations

Travelers flock annually to Central Florida for its year-round sunshine, beautiful nearby beaches, plentiful attractions and big-name theme parks like Walt Disney World® Resort, Universal Studios Orlando® and SeaWorld Orlando®. But the Sunshine Sate is not without reprieve from Mother Nature. Spring ushers in like a lion, and summer brings hearty afternoon thunderstorms—often welcomed for cooling high temperatures. Informed vacationers refuse to let rain spoil the fun. Thousands of travelers visit Orlando every year through Best Vacations Ever promotional vacation packages (800-656-2780), saving hundreds of dollars with complimentary accommodations for more fun money for extra activities. Visit bestvacationsever.com to arm your travel itinerary with Orlando MUST-DO activities. Here are a few of our favorite family fun activities for Orlando rainy days:

Downtown Disney is pouring with activities, and Disney Quest is an ideal retreat and family adventure zone for travelers on their Best Vacations Ever to Orlando.

Disney Quest® Indoor Interactive Theme Park: Located in Downtown Disney—and entertainment complex travelers don’t want to miss—is an interactive extravaganza with 5 floors of family fun, including virtual worlds, 3D encounters, cyber sensations and classic video games in the Replay Zone. Other other hotspots and restaurants are a skip away.

 

Old Town  Arcade: Old Town is a classic and retro pop-culture amusement park and outdoor shopping mall in Kissimmee. Outdoor activities and rides may be limited while raining, but indoor arcade is packed with power play and fun activities for everyone.

 

Visitors on an Orlando Best Vacations Ever can’t miss the upside down building of WonderWorks.

WonderWorks: Visitors step inside the inversion tunnel to be turned right side up before you take on more than 100 exciting, hands-on exhibits that make it an Orlando MUST-DO for all ages.

 

Orlando Science Center: Whether 7 or 70 years old, vacationers will enjoy hands-on fun, engaging interactive activities, movies, exhibits and much more.  Four floors inspire curiosity, discovery, exploration and education amid historic family fun adventure.

Downtown Orlando Ghost Tours: Ominous weather adds to the ambiance as vacationers meet a ghost tour guide on Church Street, at the former Historic Strand Hotel, who shares tales of Orlando’s shady past and hotbeds of paranormal activity, dating as far back as 1886, are unveiled. EMF detectors are provided, and cameras/camcorders are welcome, as no two trips are alike.

 

Chocolate Kingdom: Chocoholics and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fans will love this interactive journey as a personal guide and a Prince with his Dragon sidekick takes Orlando visitors through a Cacao Tree Greenhouse, a one-of-a-kind Chocolate Museum, a Mystical River of Chocolate and a Bean-to-the-Bar Factory.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: Orlando travelers of all ages will “oo and ahh” over the unbelievable facts and artifacts at the Orlando world of weird attractions.

Orlando is home to numerous shopping and outlet malls and centers for some serious retail therapy.

Shopping: There’s no better cure on a rainy day than retail therapy. Orlando satisfies every traveler’s cravings and budget with the Mall at Millenia, Florida Mall, top outlet malls, antiquing centers and much more.

 

Orange County Regional History Center: Vacationers can see pictures of and learn about Orlando 100 years ago, before Walt Disney World® Resort and other developments came into play.

 

The Titanic Experience: Visitors can check out the large collection of artifacts and exhibits commemorating the first and final voyage of the Titanic.

 

Specialty Performances: Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba and Blue Man Group are just two of Orlando’s most mystical, magical and entertaining specialty performances vacationing travelers can enjoy in Orlando.

 

Visit bestvacationsever.com for more MUST-DO Orlando activities and call a Best Vacations Ever travel representative at 800-656-2780 to book a promotional family fun vacation package in Orlando with free accommodations that increase your travel fun money.

What are some of your favorite Orlando rainy-day activities?

 

Did you know that numerous studies show that planning a vacation can heighten anticipation and people enjoy it almost as much as the vacation itself?  Studies also prove that a vacation can reduce stress levels, helping you discover new things, strengthen relationships, refresh your attitude and relax. That’s why Best Vacations Ever encourages you to plan an affordable and amazing family vacation with free accommodations by calling 800-656-2780 for better health today!

Getting Physical
Europeans are already packed and on holiday. It’s a yearly must-do! Americans consider it a luxury, given work, traffic, costs of living and airfares that make a vacation seem impossible. But if you really want to stay healthy, vice president of innovation at Cedars Sanai Dr. Glenn Braunstein says,Take a vacation! Stress is bad for your mind and body” and it can have have the following harmful effects:

•    Cause irritability
•    Make one tired & unfocused
•    Hinder the body’s ability to fight infections
•    Lead to unhealthy behavior
•    Load up on fatty foods & smoke
•    Consume too much alcohol

Travel Planning Boosts Happiness
Scientists in the Netherlands found that people were just as happy planning as much as enjoying the actual vacation—the anticipation and planning also boosted happiness for up to 8 weeks. Locale and length are not important. Go to a far-away destination or enjoy a local-resort staycation. Research destinations and picture yourself enjoying all the exciting adventures or just lying on a pristine beach with the stress reducing, planning anticipation, health benefits, and travel savings of free accommodations with a Best Vacation Ever promotional vacation package.

Avoid Heart Problems
Doctors will tell you the harmful long-lasting effects stress, especially as it releases a dangerous hormone called cortisol. A study of 13,000 middle-aged men showed that men who skipped consecutive vacations were 30% more likely to suffer heart attacks than those who vacationed yearly—even missing one increased risk. A Framingham Heart Study found skipping vacations was just as bad for women, who are at risk of heart problems as early as age 21 now. A Wisconsin study showed women who took vacations twice per year were less likely to develop coronary heart disease, and become tense, depressed and tired—plus, the odds of marital dissatisfaction decreased.  

Plus, if you’re in some exotic destination, the odds are slim that you’ll end up sitting around in your hotel room. Being on vacation sparks interest and gets you out doing all kinds of physical activity that improve your health like walking, hiking, golfing, running, ziplining, climbing rock walls or falls,  bicycling, jogging, swimming, taking pictures, sightseeing, shelling, surfing, wading in the surf, snow skiing, partaking in watersports and so much more.

Even just relaxing on the beach is good for you (with SPF). Being outdoors exposes you to the Vitamin D of the sun’s rays, which health reports show helps prevent Cancer, Bone Disease and Depression, and Controls Insulin Levels, Balances Hormones and helps Promote Weight Loss.

Improving Productivity
Remove yourself from the stressors that can have harmful effects like work burnout. Work places encourage vacations because they want relaxed, refreshed, more productive workers. So disconnect from the office, turn off electronics and “unplug.” Another study shows stress is reduced up to 5 weeks after the vacation return. Booking your trip and airfare in advance helps you avoid any stressful last-minute travel planning. Call 800-656-2780 to book an incredible, health-improving and affordable promotional Best Vacations Ever package with free accommodations that saves you hundreds of dollars off your travel budget for much more fun and a lot less stress.

How has a vacation helped you reduce stress and improve your health?

Tis the holiday season and the time of travel. Heed these top tips to help reduce the stresses and hassles of holiday travel so you and your family have your Best Vacation Ever!

Heading to Grandma’s this holiday season or taking the family on a much-needed vacation? Travel analysts say this 2012 holiday travel season is gearing up to be the busiest in nearly a decade. Traveling over the holidays is already notoriously busy, expensive and stressful, but there are still deals to be found, provided you shop carefully and plan ahead. Looking for a last-minute getaway, check out our many promotional vacations to a wide variety of destinations with free accommodations by calling    1-800-656-2780, and you just may find what you want under the tree this year, along with your Best Vacation Ever! But if you’re getting ready to travel this holiday season, take a deep breath and heed some of these top tips to help reduce the stresses of holiday traveling:

  1. AVOID PEAK TRAVEL PERIODS: The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the critical