Holidays in Naples sounds like a great idea! Amazing beaches, spectacular sunsets, nature, great restaurants and shops can make your winter getaway a lot of fun.

There is a lot to do in Naples, FL and several attractions including close by Everglades City, Naples ZOO, The Pier, the 3rd Street with many great restaurants and 5th Avenue in Downtown. For shopping you may want to visit the Coconut Point Mall and other Outlets around Naples.

Enjoy hiking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and boating. Naples it is a perfect destination to spend holidays and escape from cold during winter months.

Naples, located on Gulf of Mexico is a popular destination in winter months as the weather is great. In December and January Naples is packed with tourists and rates go up around this time, but you can still find some specials.

Are you looking to book a beach or golf resort? It is possible to find less expensive accommodations and spend Christmas or New Year’s in this beautiful town.

How can you get the best Naples offers and deals during the busiest time?

Several websites offer discounted hotels’ rates and allow you to search through huge number of hotels, resorts and seasonal rentals. Look for last minute offers, destinations of the month, week and etc.
Check out what others think or have experienced by reading their reviews and customers’ ratings. Most of the travel sites allow you to find out even more on social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube may be great sources of information. You can find a lot of photos, videos and links to the latest travel deals. It is a great way for people to obtain and share advice on travel experiences and ask questions.

If you want to stay in 4 stars hotels, close to the action, check out these discounted Naples hotels.

• Hilton Naples, 4 stars hotel for under $200 around Holidays
• Inn on Fifth, for under $200!
• Gulfcoast Inn Naples located in the heart of Naples for $100/night.

If you are on a budget, check 3 stars Naples hotels deals below $100:

• La Quinta Inn & Suites Naples Downtown for $70/night, close to Fifth Avenue and all the main attractions.
• Port of the Islands Resort and Marina has rates from $107/night

Look for best place to stay in Naples!

There are several popular sites like expedia.com or hotels.com where you can look for a place to stay, but you may find better deals on sites like viscape.com which are “smaller” sites and often take less commission and give you a better price. Do your research online before you pay more than you should.

What the heck is a slow loris, you ask?  After you see this video a few times, I think you might even want one.  Who needs a cat, when you can have something this cute?

Slow loris monkey; found in the jungles of Indonesia

You can find these little creatures in jungles of Indonesia.  Sadly, these cute little guys are on the endangered species list.  The very thing that makes them cute — besides being furry and cuddly — is their eyes.  But unfortunately their eyes are what makes them fall victim to poachers.  Their eyes are used in modern medicine.  And since these little creatures are slow, they are no match for defending themselves.  Their only defense is a non-lethal venom in their saliva that they use to ward off predators.

If this video inspires you to meet these cute, cuddly creatures in the wild, consider visiting the beautiful island of Bali, Indonesia, where you can see these little guys in the trees.  I call Bali the “cheap Hawaii.”  Its just as beautiful as Hawaii, if not more beautiful.  But its super cheap.  Seeing is believing.  Just check out these Bali vacation rentals to check pricing.

A few years ago, I got to spend a summer in Indonesia when I went over for a language study program at the University Gadjah Madah in Jogjakarta.  Bali is one of my all time favorite places.  I’d highly recommend it for anywhere from adventure travel to celebrating a wedding or honeymoon.  Here is what other Viscapers have to say in the Bali travel guides and reviews.

Did this little guy make you go “awwww”?  Have you been to Bali?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Did you know that roughly 20% of travelers have been inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it in a film?  That’s right.  Film locations inspire vacation destinations for nearly 20% of travelers.

Viscape’s Top 10 movies list for 2010 unveils this year’s top “location vacation” destinations.  In a prior blog post Top 10 movies in 2010 (Part 1), we shared the most popular movies within the past decade that have screen-spired travelers to visit new places.

As we continue the countdown, I think you may be surprised by some of the top movie picks and their respective screen-spiring destinations.

Which is your favorite?  Is there a movie that screen-spired you to travel somewhere that was not on your travel radar?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

Drum roll, please!  Now here goes the rest of the list, starting with #8….. Continue Reading…

With the movie awards season well underway, roughly 20% of travelers have been inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it in a film, according to research released today by travelsupermarket.com.

-Film locations inspire vacation destinations for nearly 20% of travelers

-30% of under 20s likely to visit a place after seeing it on film

-This year’s top ‘location vacation’ destinations:  London, Paris, New York, Rome, Morocco, Tybee Island & Savannah, Georgia, New Mexico, and Tenerife, Spain.

For the respondents who had been “screenspired,” the most popular destinations within recent years are:

-7% to visit New York City – as featured in countless films and TV programs including Sex and the City 2 due out this year

-8% to visit New Zealand – as featured in the “Lord of the Rings”

Sunset in Phuket, Thailand; photocredit: mst7022

-7% to visit Thailand – as featured in “The Beach”

-United Kingdom is the ‘location vacation’ of choice, inspired by films Harry Potter.

-England, France and Italy location spots featured in best-selling novels like Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” have inspired travelers to retrace the spots filmed in the movie. Continue Reading…

Think Caribbean.   And what comes to mind?  Turquoise waters.  White sandy beaches.  Salty air.  Soft sand that melts at your feet.  Cool ocean breeze.  And coral reefs full of rainbow fishes waiting to be explored.

Its hard to go to the Caribbean and not find a lot of great beaches.  So, as you can imagine, it was tough to pick the best ones.  Nearly every island has amazing beaches except for Saba, which has rocky shores and Dominica, where most beaches are black sand beaches, absorbing the hot sun.  But even if the white sands are absent in Dominica and Saba, these islands are tropical paradises not to be missed as well.

So, here goes the list.

#10 The Beaches of St. Maarten/St. Martin:

Grand Case Beach, St. Martin; photocredit: blueseahorse

With its 39 white sandy beaches, this island is like mini-Europe, divided about equally between France and the Netherlands.  Orient Beach is perfect for wind surfing, kite surfing, and swimming in the ocean on horses.  On the other side of Orient Beach, nudists frolick in their clothing optional beach area.  Maho Bay Beach offers up beautiful white sand, casinos and the best nightlife on the island.  Our top pick:  Grand Case.  Not only do you get great views of gorgeous turquoise waters with a view of Anguilla on the horizon, but you can indulge in gastronomical excess of fine French cooking.  Want to know a little secret?  The French say the food in St. Martin is better than in France.  Mmmm.  I’m getting hungry now.  Wanna go?  Find St. Martin vacation rentals.

#9  The Beaches of the Dominican Republic:

Playa Bavaro, Dominican Republic; photocredit: spaceritual

This island is rich in diversity with the highest mountain in the Caribbean and some of the region’s most gorgeous white sand beaches. Whether you prefer all inclusive resorts of the Eastern side of the island in Punta Cana and Bavaro or the raw beauty of the North Shore, there is something for everyone.  Our favorite picks:  Bavaro Beach and Cabarete.  Bavaro Beach offers and eclectic, young vibe energy and the softist sand that melts around your feet.  Cabarete’s horseshoe white sand beach is perfect for year round kite surfing, wind surfing, and surfing,  The beach is divided into three areas to accommodate each sport and hosts world class events each year entertaining top athletes who compete in these sports.  Experience these beaches via a Dominican Republic vacation rental. Continue Reading…

Wayne Newton - Entertainer at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas

The “king of Las Vegas” Wayne Newton may not not be the king of his own castle soon.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, motorsports mogul Bruton Smith is suing Newton and his wife, claiming that they have failed to make payments on on a $3.35 million loan.

The Newtons asked Smith for a personal guarantee to obtain $3.75 million from Bank of America, which was to be secured by Continue Reading…

Were you wanting to go to the Winter Olympics but couldn’t find affordable accommodations in Vancouver?  If you weren’t able to go, Viscape’s got you covered.  By the time the Olympics are over, 3.5 billion people will have tuned into various parts of the Vancouver Olympics either by television or mobile device.

Vancouver Olympics snow sculpture 2010; Tim in Sydney

With ratings up 22% over the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, the Vancouver Olympics even surpassed American Idol for viewership.  The International Olympics Committee predicts that this Olympics will be the most watched Olympics ever.

What accounts for the huge ratings increase?  With the Olympics taking place in the North American time zone, its easier for the United States and Canada to track the events.  With stellar performances of Olympic athletes like Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White, these champions draw in the viewers.

American skier Lindsey Vonn celebrates her Vancouver gold medal for the giantslalom; photo credit: AP

So who’s winning? Continue Reading…

Seeing is believing.  And that’s why when we saw this video about a cat warding off a bear from a pet friendly vacation rental, we couldn’t help but reflect on how your pets can be an asset on your vacation.  Check out this video about a cat fiercely go after a bear.  The bear is rummaging around for garbage.  Is it a happy ending?  Gotta see the video to find out.

You not only get to capture memories of your pet on your trip, but you can also see them in action, test their grit Continue Reading…

The Sundance Film Festival is abuzz with “The Runaways,” starring new breakout star Kristen Stewart, who plays a young Joan Jett, when she started her rock band at age 16, named you guessed it – The Runaways.  The high octane coming of age drama portrays real life punk Joan Jett who runs away from home to start an all-girl rock band and snort cocaine with her friend portrayed by Dakota Fanning.

Kristen Stewart, Joan Jett, and Dakota Fanning at the movie premiere of the "Runaways" at Sundance; LA Times/Genaro Molina

In another family drama, “Welcome to the Rileys,” Stewart plays another runaway role, Mallory, a stripper-hooker with a porn star’s wardrobe.  Both character’s shock quotient Continue Reading…

Its Day 2 of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.  If for some reason, you weren’t able to land a deal on a Park City vacation rental and couldn’t make the event, we’ve got you covered.

The big news coming out of the event is that Google launched an online rental service for 2010 Sundance movies.  Google’s interest to to offer a paid service for $3.99 to watch the movies for up to 48 hours on YouTube, David Eun, Google’s vice president for content partnerships, said yesterday in an interview.

The uber popular video-sharing site YouTube is looking for additional ways to drive revenue.  With movie studios paring back distribution into movie theaters, its harder for filmmakers to get distribution deals with theaters that carry their independent films.  Of the 9000 movies that were submitted to Sundance last year, only 53 were distributed to movie theaters.

The Cove - a feature film at 2010 Sundance Film Festival available on YouTube

YouTube’s movie rental service will allow independent filmmakers to set the price, and to a certain degree, become the studio themselves, maintaining 100% of the rights and profits.  Its a win-win for YouTube and the filmmakers.  At the event, filmmakers indicated that this is a much better solution than ad-supported access to Sundance movies, which often don’t meet their monetization needs.

At a press conference, Google announced its partnership with the Sundance Film Festival, making these five films Continue Reading…