Remember back when you were in school and summer vacation ended, the first project was always to write a short essay “what I did this summer”. I thought I’d go back to that essay again and talk about our vacation at an all inclusive vacation resort in Jamaica.

This was a first for my wife and I. We’d never been to a hotel where all meals, all activities, and all drinks were included in the per day price. I was also surprised to find that there was no tipping allowed so this vacation was truly an all inclusive vacation.

We flew into Jamaica and took a bus, no charge, from the airport directly to the resort where we were greeted and offered a cocktail while we checked in, no charge again. The porter loaded the luggage and showed us to the room as he explained everything about the resort to us and mentioned that if we wanted to eat in one of the on site fine dining restaurants and not in from the buffet, we should get on the phone and call for a reservation now since it was getting late. No tip accepted.

So far this is pretty good for a penny pincher like me. I’m saving money at every turn. Anyway, we strolled around the resort and found out where the restaurants, bars, lounges, showrooms, pools, and beaches were. I stopped for a drink at several refreshment stands along the way and was happily served at no charge.

Going to an all inclusive vacation resort turned out to be my favorite way to be on holiday. We slept late, spent time on a beautiful beach and in the warm Caribbean water, lounged by the pool, had all the cocktails and soft drinks we wanted and ate some very good meals. It was a relief not having to carry cash or charge to our room everything we ate, drank, or the shows we went to.

I gota tell ya, that all inclusive vacation resort we went to was the best vacation trip I’ve ever been on!

Southern California is a pretty well-known vacation destination and there are a great many hotels to be found. Some travelers are on business trips and are looking for mid-price hotels with easy access to the local freeways and airports.

We’re talking mostly about vacation travelers here, and for them you’re looking at a much wider range in quality and price. In either case, here is a good website intended to help you find good hotel deals. The site offers information about places to visit in Southern California and a lot of other useful material, but certainly will help both business and vacation travelers. You can use this website to find package airline and hotel deals also, which is convenient.

Another good site with helpful insight into hotels near major tourist attractions is the SoCal Vacation Guru. It does not specialize only in lodging options but also covers other aspects of a trip to Southern Calfornia, discussing Disneyland, Universal Studios, beaches, etc. The Guru offers wisdom about many areas of vacation planning.

If you are interested to hear what others are thinking about travel in general, you might visit Travel Talk. This has lots of input on a very diverse spectrum of travel-oriented topics. You can find subjects ranging from trips to India to driving trips by yourself to careers in the travel business. So it’s not going to help you much in finding a hotel in southern California, but you might find something useful. Hit the other two sites presented above for SoCal hotel information and insight.