The Best Destinations!
Some interesting, good weather destinations for July - August 2013 Florida, USA; Tanzania Wildlife Safari; Rome sights, Italy; Côte d'Azur, France; Bryce Canyon, USA America | Europe | Africa | Asia | Australasia   Bugbog Pages   July - August are the busiest holiday months in the Northern Hemisphere but hardly the perfect time to travel, with tropical monsoon rains in parts of Asia, stormy weather in the Caribbean, excessive heat in north Africa and the Middle East and winter chills in the Southern Hemisphere, so choose your vacation destination with care!   Americas, July - August Beach vacations can get a bit hot in southern USA at this time but they're still a lot of fun in the sun and the water will be welcoming in California, Texas, Florida and all the way up the east coast to Massachusetts. Check USA best beaches for more information. Hawaii temperatures can reach 80-90F but this is not peak season for surf or prices so a pretty good time to see what it's all about with the family. This is also a terrific time to take a road trip around America's awesome canyons and national parks. Weather in much of the Caribbean is potentially stormy/cloudy and messy beaches but a handful of Budget Islands continue to get fine tho' hot weather through August, mainly the Dutch Antilles of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Mexican beaches get very busy during these months even if they are extremely hot, oppressively humid and are home to plenty of vacationing mosquitoes. In the rest of Latin America Brazil is about the only place that's good to visit at this time, especially animals in the vast Pantanal wetlands and the north country. Other South American countries can get very cold. Peru, for example, is very chilly in high tourist places and the Inca Trail may be blocked by snow on high passes.   Europe, July - August Europe in these months is brilliant though the far south can get unpleasantly hot and decent hotels get packed out in August, so try to holiday in July. If not, never mind, there will be crowds but book accommodation ahead and enjoy humanity! This is a great time for festivals, both inner city and out in the country, so check our European Festival listings for July and August if you fancy a cultural break. We are particularly fond of the lovely Chaumont International Garden Festival in France's Loire Valley (until 19 October). For English speakers London is a great choice with its world-beating free museums and invigorating life but other sensational cities of central Europe such as Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Rome, Venice and Florence are perfect for historic sights and pleasant strolls in balmy weather. Beach seekers can probably find bargains and a warm welcome in cash-strapped Greece or south Spain and the weather will be as good as it gets. However, forget Cyprus which is still dominated by Russians.   Africa, July - August North Africa will be unpleasantly hot in the summer season though good value beach holidays along Egypt's Red Sea coast should be easy to find and far from Cairo's troubles while Morocco's Atlantic Coast offers large stretches of sand backed by an interesting culture and reasonable prices. As for animal viewing, this is the perfect time for Tanzania and Kenya big game safaris or even the massive, beastly migration, while Namibia, Botswana and South Africa offer wonderful self-drive wildlife safaris.   Asia, July - August Over in Asia the monsoon rains will be falling, and/or heat and humidity will be high so concentrate on Bali's beaches and calm culture, or the exotic attractions of Tibet, Russia and Papua New Guinea.   Australasia, July - August In these months the weather in northern Australia is perfect, so Cairns, the Barrier Reef and Darwin are up for your dollar. Trouble is if you wish to also spend time in the south you may find Sydney and Melbourne to be surprisingly cold. New Zealand is into skiing season so if that's your passion, it's all downhill!   Whatever, wherever, happy holidays!
Special Deals and Vacation offers from Tour Operators: Encounters Travel (India, Africa, Mid-East) China Tour Deals (China) Trek America discounts (USA, Canada, Central America) Grand American Adventures (USA, Canada, Latin America) Adventure Life discounts (Latin America, Alaska, Antarctica, Arctic) UncoverTheWorld Specials: Egypt, Nepal, Thailand

The Best Value Tourist Currencies in 2013

Here are some great tourist destinations with currencies that have fallen even more than the pound sterling (as at 25/2/2013) and of course more than the euro or US dollar.
In other words travel there will be relatively cheap compared to this time last year.

1. Japan, the Yen is 14% down against the UK pound.

2. Argentina, the Peso is 12.3% down.

3. South Africa, the Rand is 12.1% down.

4. Gambia, the Dalasis is 11.8% down.

5. Brazil, the Real is 10.7% down.

6. Egypt, the Egyptian Pound is 8.6% down.

7. Sri Lanka, the Rupee is 5.3% down.

8. Indonesia, the Rupiah is 4.5% down.

9. Jamaica, the Dollar is 3.4% down.

10. Kenya, the Shilling is 2.8% down.

Saving money on low cost flights

Times are still tough for world travel with austerity budgets spreading and fuel/flight costs higher than ever, so consider a vacation destination that isn't long-haul and do some thorough research.

There are obvious downsides to flying with low cost airlines so check 'legacy' airlines, their fares may be competitive if you take in account all the extras (food, drink, baggage+!) and if you have problems you are much more likely to receive satisfaction.

Flight Tips

1: Book online and pay by debit card, (Ryanair may charge for this). If using a tour operator check they have ATOL insurance coverage. According to industry research the optimum time to pre-book is 8 weeks before departure.

2: Keep check-in baggage to the minimum, preferably zero, for cheap flights and ensure the airline knows how many bags you'll have. n.b. Ryanair will not permit musical instruments as hand baggage.

3: Eliminate any 'world care fund' or 'carbon footprint' contributions - they probably go straight into the airline's revenue stream.

4: If you already have travel insurance make sure the airline doesn't add it to your charge by default. If not, check offerings through a price comparison site, and consider multi-trip insurance if you take more than one holiday abroad in a year.

5: Check flight status before leaving home.

6: If you are planning to drive yourself to the airport, choose your parking area and book it well in advance to get the cheapest rate. Alternatively explore public transport options; buses are often fast and good value for couples, though not perhaps if travelling as a family.

7: Never change money at the departure airport - apart from a little emergency cash if essential. Check around before you leave for the best exchange deals; for example the UK's Post Office offers good value. If you forget and need some cash pronto, exchanges at your destination usually give better rates, assuming you don't arrive in the middle of the night.

8: Car hire costs differ dramatically place to place, so research will be required in this area too. If you're planning to head for a city first then drive around the country, it will be easier and cheaper to taxi or bus into town from the airport then rent a car after you've finished the city sightseeing.

Check consumer rights and protection against airlines and tour operators going bust, hotel overbookings, TripAdvisor fake reviews and more on our Consumer Protection page.

See our cheap flights comparison listings
UK Cheap Flight Comparisons | USA Cheap Flight Comparisons

Using bank cards abroad efficiently

Buy goodies or pay bills (checks) with credit cards when on vacation as they provide insurance as well as delayed repayment but don't draw cash out from ATMs with them (unless it's a new-wave, no-fee card). Interest starts accruing immediately and bank exchange fees in addition to the ATM fee may be unreasonable.

It's better to buy foreign cash at home from a commission-free provider though, of course when you travel you'll have to carry a fat wad around, so the best solution depends on the security of your holiday destination. If you travel a lot and want to get cash from an ATM do some research on transaction fees and get the lowest fee debit (not credit card) card you can find.

Gap Year travellers might consider also acquiring a prepaid Travel Money Card (aka Currency Card) which can be loaded with any amount of any currency before travelling and then topped up by family or friends while the Gappist is still in the big nowhere. Compare prepaid Travel Money Cards.

And of course never pay for anything abroad in your home currency (the exchange rate will be absurd), insist on paying in local currency.

To summarise, buy stuff abroad with a credit card, but try to pay off the balance each month before interest charges blow the wheels off your trolley; get cash from ATMs with a debit card.

Finally, don't go short of travel insurance if you're going to be participating in any kind of marginally dangerous activity, or even a non-dangerous activity in a third world location, that's NOT the way to save money! Use your brain while it's intact!

Secure your Social network!

Travelers logging onto social networks while abroad should ensure that they properly log out before leaving an internet café or similar because in some areas of Africa, East Europe and India it's not unknown for a watcher to access a tourist's Facebook (or similar) account after they leave and send a desperate message to family members about an accident/hospitalisation and needing money urgently. Money transferred disappears into a mystery account and no one's the wiser.

Cheap Phones when travelling

Using data abroad can be expensive but most UK and US networks offer prepaid European travel data bundles –15 MB daily for a modest fee for example. In addition networks are obliged to cut you off when your monthly data bill reaches €50.

To keep data bills as low as possible, iPhone users should install Onavo. Fire up this app in a new country and it keeps you updated as to your usage and compresses data heading into your phone, thereby squeezing perhaps 50 per cent extra out of any data bundle. The app is free from iTunes for now, but charges are planned. An Android version is scheduled for release later this month. For now, the 3G Watchdog app tracks your data use; it's free from the Android Market.

Unfortunately, you could eat up a few megabytes just finding your hotel on Google Maps, so these tricks still don't exactly enable seamless home-and-abroad smart phone use.

To avoid data bills altogether, switch roaming off before you leave. On an iPhone, push the data roaming slider to off at Settings>General>Network. Android users should uncheck data roaming at Settings>Wireless & Networks >Mobile Networks. This eliminates some of your phone's functionality, but it doesn't hobble it altogether – and has the odd benefit, such as extending battery life. Instant access to a local map is one of the smart-phone's key benefits for travel, and all is not lost if you're without a web connection.

Android users can pre-download a map covering a 10-mile radius from anywhere: enable the 'Download map area' feature via the Labs tab in your Google Maps app and follow instructions. For iPhone users, an app called ForeverMap gives offline access to zoomable European country maps. Destinations outside Europe should be available soon. Download whatever countries you need over Wi-Fi before you leave. Any onboard map should work in tandem with your device's inbuilt GPS to guide you as you walk without using data.

If you're downloading a travel guide app, make sure that it also includes 'offline maps'.
- Time Out publishes iPhone apps, with a range of eight cities.
- Apps from Spotted by Locals are written by locally-based writers with a real insider voice and offbeat cities among 33 titles.
- Travelfish's eight apps are the best for Asia.
- The best Android traveller apps are in the DK Eyewitness Top 10 series covering 10 cities.
Source: Telegraph newspaper, UK.

The cheapest foreign phone options are

1 - Skype phone by internet via wifi on a laptop/smart phone/or even iPod Touch, costs are tiny tho' sound quality can be erratic. We're especially impressed by international video calls from a iPod Touch 4 in a wifi zone to a PC via Skype, incredible sound quality and pretty good pictures. USE WIFI WHERE POSSIBLE.

2 - sign up with the new breed of cheap international calls providers.

3 - get a 'world' sim card at home or buy a new sim card on arrival at your destination and change the card over. The main drawback is number will be new and you may have to own an unlocked phone (either get your unlocked or buy an already unlocked extra phone), but it's convenient and you only pay for what you use if you buy the right package.

4 - check out new generation phone cards to call just about anywhere.

'The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page'
St. Augustine

Bugbog is an independent travel guide that helps plan holidays - whether it's beaches, wildlife safaris, adventure travel, exotic vacations or European tours - quickly and efficiently. We provide guides to the world's best destinations, with key tourist information, festival dates, large photos, health and safety advice, maps, videos and thousands of useful exit links.

We summarise the best times to go, good and bad points of different great holiday destinations and give you an idea of what they look like with a mass of pictures in various photo galleries as well as some informative and scary stuff in World Videos.

Bugbog is not attempting to be a detailed reference, but rather a concise and inspirational guide for fast, informed destination decision-making. Use us, then buy the guide book!

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