By BETH J. HARPAZ
The Associated Press

Remember the old song “500 Miles Away From Home”? Think of it as a challenge instead of a lament and you could come up with some good ideas for a road trip.

You can do it the old-fashioned way, calculating distances on a paper map using scale of miles and a ruler. But now there are online map-radius tools that show you at a glance which destinations are within a given distance.

One that’s relatively simple to use is at www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm.

Go to the Web site and scroll down to the “Options” form. Type in the city you’re starting from. Skip latitude and longitude and go to the “Radius Distance” section. Here the form automatically sets the radius distance to 1,000 kilometers, but you can reset by typing in the number of miles you’re willing to drive in the “miles” box right next to the kilometer box.

Now go back up to the location name and click on “Draw Radius.”

Scroll up to see the green circle on the map. Zoom in for a more detailed look at cities within your drive-to zone.

Depending on traffic and highway speed, most people can cover 500 miles in a day’s drive, so starting with that distance could inspire some interesting choices. Dallas, Minneapolis, Memphis and Chicago are well within the 500-mile radius of Kansas City.

Destinations at the edge of the circle may be farther than your maximum distance once you calculate actual driving routes. The radius tool measures distance as the crow flies without considering highways or terrain, so it’s good to check distances against a mileage calculator on MapQuest or GoogleMaps.

Checking out a few other starting points yields some great vacation ideas within a 500-mile circle: Dallas to New Orleans or Mexico; Minneapolis to the Atikaki Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba; Memphis to Panama City, Fla.; or Chicago to Toronto.

If you’re taking a week’s vacation, driving the first and last days to and from your destination is often an acceptable tradeoff to save on plane fare, and the cost savings of a 500-mile road trip versus flying can be considerable. A family of four is likely to spend more than $1,000 flying anywhere round-trip. Air travel also involves more than the cost of plane tickets; there’s transportation to and from the airport, food and other incidentals, and car rental when you land.

In contrast, with gas around $2 a gallon, driving 1,000 miles in a car that gets 25 miles per gallon will cost well under $100. Even counting tolls, food and a night in a motel en route if you can’t make the trip in a day, it’s bound to run less than plane tickets. If you’re ambitious, leave before dawn, and you can easily get to a destination 400 miles away by lunchtime. Leave at night and you’ll be in Amarillo by morning.

While using a map radius can expand your list of vacation spots, the appeal is partly psychological. Many people are not good at estimating distances, and knowing exactly how far away something is can make it seem more attainable.

Source : http://bestcarribeancruises.com/touristscruisers-do-the-stupidest-things/

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Here at Just A Guy Thing, we can’t tell you how to make money in this recession, but we can find ways of saving it. If you’ve been thinking about taking a cruise (and yes, there are some great cruises for singles if you happen to be one), we’ve got an inside tip: buy shares of cruiselines before you hop onboard.

The world’s two largest cruise companies have long offered onboard credit – that is, cash to be spent on the ship – to their shareholders. To qualify, you need only own 100 shares of stock in Carnival Corporation or Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. at the time of your cruise.

But while Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) traded around $45 per share and Royal Caribbean (RCL) sold for about $36, CCL is now about $22 and RCL and is trading at about $8 per share. With share prices so low, it actually makes sense to buy some stock, even if all you plan to do is use the ship credit.

“With RCL at $8,” said Bob Levinstein, CEO of CruiseCompete.com, “anyone traveling on a 14-night Royal, Celebrity, or Azamara sailing can get a $250 onboard credit just for buying $800 worth of stock. That’s better than a 30% return on investment, and there’s no requirement to hold the shares for any particular length of time.”

RCL also offers shareholder credits on shorter cruises: $200 credit for sailings between 10-13 nights; $100 credit for cruises of 6-9 nights; and $50 credit for sailings of five nights or less.

Carnival Corporation, which owns Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard, and Costa offers shareholders onboard credit (per stateroom) of $250 on sailings of 14 days or longer, $100 on sailings of 7 to 13 days, and $50 on sailings of 6 days or less.

Applications to receive these benefits must be made prior to cruise departure date, and certain restrictions apply. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean provide specific instructions on how to demonstrate your ownership to receive this benefit.

photo credit: jimg944

Taken from Justaguysthing

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Bermuda is a collection of islands consists of 150 volcanic islands located 500 miles from the Nort Carolina. Area
only 20 square miles and Bermuda Island is the largest.

Found by Spain in the year 1503, in developing the island by British settlers in early 1600 and the culture
until now.

Bermuda is still under the authority of England and head of state is the queen english. However, the government has
and the parliament itself.

Bermuda, the ability to attract tourists, and not surprising when you see the beauty of the islands.
Crystal clear water, soft sand and the blue sky banyangan.

Cultural mix with the English Caribbean.

For example, the problem of decency and conservatism of afternoon tea is still popular, the freedom of dancing and music gobey captures the essence of island life on Bermuda.

And while the old British values of politeness and neatness are appreciated by many of the native Bermudans, due to the climate of the area, the informality of Bermuda shorts are an acceptable part of business attire. Rather Ironically these Bermudan shorts are frowned upon by most cruise lines in certain parts of the ship, such as the dining room.

Thanks to the current fleet, enjoy oneself has a good climate for year-round cruise. But the peak season
is from April to October. But unfortunately it coincides with the hurricane season so that if the cruise stops moving storms to ship wine.

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