With a rating of 3.9 out of 5 based on 146 reviews from across the web, the Baymont Inn & Suites O’Hare is a highly recommended hotel on RealTravel.com.

An airport hotel, just adjacent to the O’Hare International Airport, the Baymont Inn & Suites of O’Hare offers guests convenience and quality service. Perfect for on-the-go, corporate travelers, the hotel provides all the amenities of home, including continental breakfast, wi-fi, and an onsite laundry facility. Described as “bright, sunny and newly renovated” this hotel is a great place to stay outside of downtown Chicago. Especially if you are looking to save money, and escape the high rates of downtown hotels, the Baymont Inn & Suites O’Hare offers a free shuttle that drops you off at the train station, and also provides guests with a one day pass to ride back and forth on the train. One Real Traveler comments, “The location was good, the shuttle service was fantastic for travelling on the train.” Guests are also encourage to take advantage of the free airport shuttle, that runs every half hour, at nearly all hours of the day.

Area Sales Manager for the hotel, Jodie Moore, explains that the hotel has a “commitment to service” and highlights the importance of “getting to know their regular guests so that guests can get the ideal out of their stay.” Moore goes on to tell us about an outstanding staff member named Ewelina, who found a guest’s cell phone in the elevator. Unable to contact the guest, Ewelina discovered that the guest worked for American Airlines, and quickly called the company in order to track him down. Eventually, Ewelina was able to connect with the guest and deliver his cell phone. Ewelina’s thoughtful actions portray the hotel’s dedication to its guests.

Stay at the Baymont Inn & Suites O’Hare, a “bright, sunny, and friendly hotel that goes above and beyond whether you’re staying for the long term, or just one night!”

Simply an R & R day by the pool. Just came in from a 2 hour swim/sunbathe which is sufficient in this incredible heat. Yet ANOTHER sunny day! I asked Claudia while leaving the restaurant this morning, “Do you think they ever have rain or cloudy days here?”, and an Australian women is passing us replied, “Every three months or so”……how wonderful is that? It certainly helps to keep us distracted from missing everyone at home too much.

Going to head out to the ‘Souks’ later (I think that is how it is spelled, it is a market type shopping plaza) to look around. Only a ten min. walk from the hotel. Have to get some exercise since I have not even ran for a tiny over two weeks now because of this brutal cold I’ve had since before I left Canada. Just finally starting to make it’s nasty exit today….finally.

Well, nothing too exciting for ya’ll today….but stay tuned! xo

Volunteer programs and projects

Despite the rich beauty and the bountiful resources that are available in Africa, there are a number of problems that continue to plague the continent. One of the main problems that Africa has is unstable governments and human rights abuse which are seen in a couple of countries. For example in the democratic republic of Congo, it is referred to as the rape capital whereby 1 in 5 women have been raped. But in the stable democratic countries in Africa, they have unique volunteer programs and projects available for whoever wants to volunteer. Depending on the country you go to you will find a project where you can be useful. The programs and projects include: orphanage work, teaching children in primary and secondary school; teaching English as a second language; Health/ Medical work; HIV/AIDS work; community development work; care for the disabled work; conservation work, working with wildlife; teaching basic computer skills; teaching sports; work on marine conservation projects and preserving habitats; help build homes. The opportunities are all different in the countries, like teaching English in Kenya is very different from teaching English in Ghana. The programs prices differ greatly depending on the living standards and the volunteer travel company you use.

Wildlife and tourism

There are over 50 million tourists who visit Africa to see the beautiful landscape and the wild animals. The most popular places visited are the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the azure waters in Mauritius, Cape Town in South Africa and the Maasai Mara in Kenya. In Africa there is the largest diversity of animals and plants. It the ideal continent to tour if you are looking at adventure tours. The ideal time to come to Africa is between Julys to December but unfortunately it is the high season. Africa boasts the great wildebeest migration where they move from Kenya and go to Tanzania across the Mara. Africa is the host of the huge five animals which are lions, buffalos, elephants, rhino and leopards. For bird lovers, there are ornithological tours which you get to see a great number of species and variety found in certain areas. There are a great number of beaches available to those who prefer lying on the coast. The tour prices range between the travel agent you are using and the season in which you select to travel.

African Culture

When you really want to visit and experience Africa then you should see the African culture. With over 1 billion people; 3000 tribes with the Bantu being the largest; 1000 languages, and 1000 folk religions. Africa is stated to be the cradle of mankind with most of the early man being found here. And with the oldest civilization being Egypt, there are many unique and beautiful cultures in Africa to see from sharing a meal in Morocco with a family and doing chores in an orphanage in South Africa. Most African cultures are welcoming and love seeing new people. There are many cultures and tribes which vary from each other across the continent. For example the Zulu are the largest tribe in South Africa; Luhya is the second largest tribe in Kenya. These two differ greatly not only in language but in how they do most of the things but they also share some common habits.

for more information on volunteering in africa visit Volunteer Capital Centre

My first impressions of Accra: The first two things that I noticed (I’m sorry to be negative at first) were the smell and the noise. Taxis and tro-tros (the equivalent of minibuses that you find everywhere in Africa), I swear, just honk their horn for fun sometimes. Even as I type this I can hear all the honking outside the window. Also, the first night I spent in Accra our neighbours thought it was a great idea to blast music all night. It was Friday night, after all. The real problem is that there’s no real windows here – just shutters. So you can hear EVERYTHING that’s going on outside.

The reason for the smell is the open sewers along the side of the road. And men will suddenly just begin peeing into the sewers without caring who’s around. The sewers downtown are at least covered, but the ones on the smaller streets aren’t at all. I swear one of

these days I’m sure I will fall right in one as I try to avoid a tro-tro coming at me. They’re usually like a foot wide and 3 feet deep. Every time I get splashed I cringe because I’m not sure if it’s clean water from a woman washing her clothes or dirty water from the sewer. Lovely.

OK so now that I’ve done the bad things with Accra, I’ll give you some of my better impressions. One is that Ghanaians are reallllly friendly. Not in the friendly-because-I-want-you-to-give-me-money sort of way, or in the friendly-because-Canada-is-a-nice-country-and-you-should-marry-me-and-take-me-back-there way. (Although I’m learning that there are lots of those too) But I’m shocked at how many people will just do things just to be nice here. Both girls and boys ask for your email address so that they can email you later to see how you are. Everyone in a tro-tro will help you get where you’re going and make sure you get the right change back. We were looking for an MTN booth (phone company) so that the other girls could purchase sim cards. We asked a guy who was selling books at the market if he knew where one was, and

he led us like 10 minutes away. We offered to give him a tip and he refused. And he didn’t know the people at the MTN booth (he didn’t even go in) so it’s not like he was doing a friend a favour or anything. I think most people just take pity on us poor foreigners that have no idea how things work here yet. Another time this girl walked with me for about 10 minutes to show me where to catch a tro back home, and even offered to pay for my fare. Weird. I had heard that Ghanaians were really friendly but I guess I didn’t really believe it!

Another awesome thing in Accra, especially compared to South Africa and Nairobi, is safety! There are no large walls with barbed wire or three locks to open to get into the house. Like I said, the windows don’t even close, they’re just shutters. And we don’t lock our doors (I am paranoid because of South Africa though and always lock my bedroom door just in case). And everywhere is like this, it’s not just that our house is unsafe or something. And there is no worries walking around at

night. It’s really nice!

So there you go. The goods and the bads of Accra so far.

Oh and a word on funerals here: Not like Canadian funerals, to put it mildly. When someone dies they shut down the whole street. They put up tents, get these large sound systems and speakers, have a dance floor, have a buffet, etc. Then they party all day and all night, usually on a Saturday (though there are other events all week). The women use the same fabric to make themselves dresses for the event (a new dress for each day of the week). We had one going on last Saturday right outside our house and they made us come out so that they could laugh at the obrunis dancing badly. The picture I posted is not of the one on our street, but it’s the same idea.

Part of the trip: Ghana

On Saturday we went to Makola Market, which is the biggest market here in Accra. It was pretty crazy. I’m obviously not a large shopper, and obviously they want you to purchase things. So the two didn’t mix well. Ah well, at least I saw it. And if there is something I need I know where to find it. It seems like you can get pretty much anything you want there – clothes, shoes, CDs, DVDs, appliances, food, etc. On Sunday there was a soccer game happening between Accra and Kumasi (the next biggest city in Ghana). There were six of us white girls and obviously we stood out. One advantage to being a clear minority here – you can spot your white friends from a mile away. It’s hard to get separated. Ghanaians, of course, are large soccer fans and everyone went wild when Accra

scored. I felt bad for the Kumasi fans – I think it’s the equivalent of wearing a Calgary Flames jersey to a Canucks game…After the game we went out for Chinese (very multicultural of us) and the power went off twice…luckily they have a generator. Apparently power cuts are frequent and something to get used to here. So far we’re doing okay though.

Okay onto the internship part (the whole point of me coming). So far it’s going pretty well. Everyone was super welcoming when I showed up. Apparently they’re very used to having interns. But the office is pretty small and I’m the only intern right now so I’m a bit lonely…I’m also a bit bored. I am supposed to be reading and learning the next couple weeks before I decide which direction I’ll be focusing on. On the whole I’ll be researching human rights abuses against kids and youth, particularly in the justice system. But honestly I’m not sure how I will go about this and my supervisor is a bit vague so I’m a bit nervous. But I think once I begin writing reports and maybe following along some of my colleagues I will have more

to do and get a feel for things. Like I said, they constantly have interns and the last intern they had wanted to extended their stay, so I’m sure it will be good in the end.

This weekend most of my roommates are planning a trip to a place called Cape Coast. I’m so excited to get out of the city!!

Part of the trip: Ghana

So here is our route….

Depart Belfast 17th October 2010 shiney new backpacks a piece heading for Heathrow. Hang around Heathrow for a few hours then onward to Delhi, India (against many friends views that this is a very bad idea). This section of the route will be mostly planned by Orla!! We spend 3 weeks in India where we will travel south and make our way up the west coast to Mumbai for a flight to Bangkok, Thailand on 7 November.

The next 2-3 weeks after 7 November is Elaines main planing section. Plans for this section are to see a good bit of South East asia – bangkok, cambodia, vietnam and laos.

When we reach Northern Thailand around 23 – 26th November Julie will take on the main planning. From northern Thailand we hope to travel right down through thailand stoping at the islands in thailand, then on through malaysia to singapore where we need to be for 10th December. We fly from Singapore to Bali on 12th December.

Bali will be mostly planned by Stacey. Hopefuly do a lot of relaxing in Bali!! We stay in Bali until the 19th December when we fly to Sydney.

Sydney plans so far are stay in hostel (BASE) 19 December till 4th January where by this point we will assess the funds situation and plans may have to sort out work!!

The time is flying by now need to get the last bits all sorted then we ready to roll!!

Woop Woop

I’m going to use this to keep you all informed as to where I am & what I’m up to whilst traveling – assuming I a) have time & b) have world wide web access!

Me & Dawn have our flights to & around Australia, a couple of 2 day tours & most of the hostels booked for the first few weeks (whilst Dawn is with me). Still mnot booked ANYTHING for New Zealand yet! ah well! Tempted by a Stray buspass but need to select which…

We fly out next Friday so I’m beginning to worry about what I’ve forgetten to purchase or plam… Out to find plug adaptors today!

Anyway, feel free to pass this address on to friends & family as I anticipate I shall forget to email it around to everyone!

Lets see how it goes shall we?!

The day itself was cool, overcast and in some parts rainy. It’s nearly like I never left home. And the coming week pretty much forecast more of the same. The receptionist at the hostel kindly pointed out that the previous three weeks had been nearly perfect, with the temperatures hitting around the 30 degree mark. Thanks mate. Not really what I wanted to hear after 23 hours of flying, and facing another 7 hours of sitting around in miserable weather. But really, I probably shouldn’t have expected the weather to be any different.

London for me was always going to be a stopover. I had been here before and it had never really appealed to me. The city itself is far too large, costly and filled with people who seem to be stressed 24/7. And you know it’s odd, for a country and town that’s supposed to be prim and proper and somewhat known for the necessity of politeness and manners, all this seemed to be thrown out the window when you’re trying to walk to streets or get on the train. People push past you without even acknowledging it and even a hand to apologise and people walking in the opposite direction will NEVER move out the way but rather walk straight at you and anticipate you to move. Yep, once I had done what I needed to do I was on my way to Edinburgh.

What I really needed to do was get a National Insurance Number. I had signed up with this bureau that had a postal address to get things sent to me. Once I had called up whoever I needed to call I had to play the waiting game for the forms to get sent out. To fill in the time I did all the tourist things around London I had already done with a French guy named Ezekial I met at the hostel. Now I’m not going to really cover everything I’d done in detail, basically because I wasn’t paying much attention to what I was doing and only really wanted to pass time, I will give a quick rundown of the markets. Portobello market (Notting Hill) is pretty cool as long as you go on the weekend, lots of antiques and second hand stuff going around. It is also incredibly long and seemed to go on forever. I remember walking down to another train station that happened to be on a completely different line that I took in, and needed to get back to my hostel. This train station also happened to be closed for the day. Now at the time this was obviously a big pain in the ass. I’m not going to berate the London tube system too much as it is actually a fantastic system that can get you around pretty much anywhere in London quite easily. But still, what a pile of shit. Anyway back to the markets, Camden market was great, full of cool alternative clothing and heaps and heaps of food. All the food vendors here offer you a small free sampling of their food to compete for your business. Had I not already eaten and known this tiny fact, I probably would have turned up with a beer in hand and gone on a free Indian/Asian tapas tour. And finally onto Borough market. Borough market is nearly like your Queen Vic market of London. All of it is food related, though mostly takeaway food rather than fresh food for cooking. They seemed to have every type of food, and at decent prices. Meats, burgers, fish, potato’s, cheese, chocolates, paella… really too much for me to remember. It’s pretty much a food junkie’s heaven.

One last small story, after my new mate Ezy had left to go back home I was pretty much on my own again. For some reason all the people I shared my dorm with were pretty much snobby foreigners. Now I know what you’re probably thinking, they’re obviously going to be foreigners you’re in a completely different country. No, I mean the kind of foreigners who don’t talk any English unless they need something from you, but mainly the worse kind of foreigner, the Spanish. Don’t get me started on the Spanish. Anyway, so I’m on my own and I decide to go on a 3 hour walking tour. And I had managed to avoid the rain to this point with ease. Until now. I’m pretty sure for the majority of the walking tour it rained, and not lightly, it really bucketed down at points. Credit where it’s due, a lot of the people on the tour actually kept on going I guess mainly because we couldn’t really get any wetter. It turned out to be an interesting and memorable day though.

Anyway, by this point now the forms for my NIN had come in and I’d filled them out and shipped them off. It was time to move on to Edinburgh.

NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways Corp. stated Wednesday that it will begin offering service from New York and Boston to the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean in February.

On Feb. 17, it will begin flying daily to Providenciales, the most populous of the islands, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

On Feb. 19, it will begin weekly Saturday flights from Boston Logan International to Providenciales. That service will end in April and run in following years only in peak tourist season — November to April.

JetBlue anticipates to begin selling tickets for the new Turks & Caicos service in October.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Airline passengers flying coach aren’t the only ones who face hassles when traveling. Minka Kelly, a star in the popular “Friday Night Lights” TV show and girlfriend of New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter, reportedly gave up her first-class seat for takeoff and landing in order to be with her dog, Chewie.

Kelly was sitting in first class on a New York-to-Los Angeles flight on Tuesday with her 5-year-old pet in a carrier at her feet, according to the New York Post.

A Delta Air Lines flight attendant reportedly told the 30-year-old actress that there was not enough space for her dog’s carrier, and that it had to be moved to the plane’s baggage compartment or another part of the plane.

“I called my manager’s assistant to make sure she arranged everything and went through certain steps to make sure the dog can fly,” Kelly told the Post.

Kelly later took up an offer of “a wonderful, wonderful woman next to me said, ‘My parents are flying coach. My father will switch seats with you if you want,’ ” the Post reported.

The actress and her dog sat in coach for takeoff and landing, returning to her first-class seat for the rest of the flight.

Delta refused to comment on the specific incident, but spokesperson Susan Elliott stated passengers travelling with pets as carry-on have room to store approved carriers in all classes in the cabin.

Reposition yourself for great deals

Travelers ready for a voyage on the high seas can book a cruise without sinking their savings accounts. It’s reposition season, meaning you can find deals for as tiny as $35 per day. Full story

Readers share funny pics from their travels Travelers on board for paperless boarding Tourism showing signs of life in the Big Easy A heavy footprint on national parks

Delta charges passengers $125 to fly with a pet as carry-on for domestic flights. “Your pet must be small enough to fit comfortably in a kennel under the seat directly in front of you. Maximum carry-on kennel dimensions are determined by your flight,” according to the airline’s Website.

Elliott stated bulkhead seats — located behind the partitions dividing the plane into different sections — sometimes do not have as much space for storage, but noted it’s difficult to know since Delta operates so many “different variations of aircraft.”

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