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 This winter is turning out to be a great time for a weekend getaway, thanks to big sales at two of the largest hotel chains. Last week we posted about Hilton's mega January sale, which offers winter weekend savings of up to 33% across its chains.
Now Marriott has stepped up to the plate with a Global Rate Break promo that lets you save 20% on
weekend rates stay at many of its hotels—and claims to up the ante to a 40% discount at a few resorts. The deal applies to various Marriott, JW Marriott,
Renaissance, Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill, Residence Inn, and TownPlace
Suites hotels all over the world.
We checked rates at several properties and found that, indeed, the deal typically delivers a 20% price cut. At
Desert Springs,
the JW Marriott in the Palm Springs area with requisite pool, lawn games and kids club, we found rates of $327 a night for a room with two beds and a
balcony—down from the desert’s high season rate of $409. In Hawaii, the deal offered up the Kauai Marriott
for just $194 a night, down from $240.
But don’t get your hopes too high on the 40%-off lure that's said to be available at select resorts in the Caribbean, Latin America and
Hawaii. When we test-booked a stay at a handful of properties for a February weekend getaway, we couldn’t find any availability at the 40%-off rate. More commonly, we found that this deal led to a 20% discount.
The sale applies to weekend stays (Thursday to Sunday), and some hotels require a two-night minimum. You must book by
January 22 and complete your stay by March 21. Use promo code F5X when
booking online.
 There are many reasons why Ski magazine's readers have voted Mont Tremblant the No. 1 ski resort in Eastern North America year after year. The spectacularly-set Quebec mountaintop ski area boasts 2,100-vertical-foot slopes, a charming European-styled pedestrian village with ski-in/ski-out access, and a sledload of free family-friendly activities. More good news: The resort just introduced an offer guaranteed to lure families for a spring break getaway.
Book a two-night stay or longer at one of
Mont Tremblant's participating hotels and kids 6 to 17 can get five days of lift tickets for only
$85CAD ($82US). Lift tickets normally cost $40.82CAD a day for children 6 to 12
and $50.38CAD a day for teens 13 to 17. With this deal, kids can ski for $17CAD a day (yowza, only $16US!), which means a savings of about $24CAD
($23US) a day per child or $34CAD ($33US) a day per teen. With this deal, a family with one teen and one child would save $286CAD ($276US). That translates to a 65% savings on lift tickets, which warms our hearts as well as our wallets.
As always, there are a few restrictions: Discounted lift tickets are
available weekdays only, and you need to travel between February
22 and March 26. To take advantage of this deal, book by February 22.
 If your idea of a great January sale is less about linens and
more about getting away and having someone else handle the bedding, there’s a hotel chain promotion you will want to know about. The Hilton Worldwide
January Sale offers savings on weekend getaways (Friday to Sunday nights) of up to 33% at participating properties in North, South, and Central America, as well as in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. The savings differ from
brand to brand, but you can expect 15% off at Embassy Suites; 20% off at Hilton Garden Inn,
Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites; and 33% off at Hilton and Doubletree properties. The discount
is applied to the “best available rate” or "best available bed and breakfast rate," depending on the property.
This sale delivers tons of weekend destination options
for traveling families. Want a city break? Consider Hilton properties in San Diego (the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa is just one mile
from SeaWorld), Boston’s
super-convenient Back Bay neighborhood, or the family-friendly Doubletree Guest Suites in Washington DC.
Hoping to escape the cold? At the Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort, the January Sale offers nightly rates starting at $288 for a double room on February weekend. By comparison, the resort's best available bed-and-breakfast rate for that stay is $429 per night—which does indeed translate to 33% off your bill.
You must book before January 31, but you can travel anytime before December 26. As always, there are some blackout dates and other restrictions. The sale rates are
pre-payable and non-refundable, so you should be confident of your travel dates before booking.
 We’re thrilled to join forces again with other travel bloggers in the second annual Passports with Purpose fundraiser, an online raffle to raise funds for charitable organizations around the world. This year, 100% of the proceeds will help support American
Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC), an independent, nonprofit organization
dedicated to improving opportunities for the youth and rural poor in Cambodia. With your help, we can meet our $13,000 goal and build a school for underprivileged kids!
Here’s how it works: Each participating blogger is providing a different raffle prize. To see all the offerings, head to the Passports with Purpose web site. Make a $10 donation, and you'll be entered into a raffle for the prize of your choice. Donate $20 and you'll get two chances to win. The raffle takes place on December 21. Winners will be notified via e-mail on
January 5, 2010.
 This year, WeJustGotBack.com is offering a $100 gift certificate to Tots on-the-Go, an online shop stocked with all kinds of products
to make your your load lighter and your travels with babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers a whole lot easier. If you’ve got little kids,
you know how much schlepping and lugging and lifting it takes to get from point A to point B. Trust us: Picking the right equipment will make your travels ten times easier. The $100 gift certificate can be used toward any of the company's products and services (but can only be shipped to U.S. addresses). Here are a few of our favorites:
 The FlyeBaby is a portable,
hammock-style, fabric seat that creates a comfortable, secure place to put your
baby at home, on an airplane, at a restaurant, at the beach or pool. In other words, you'll use it over and over on your getaways. Best of all, it folds up and easily fits in a
diaper bag.
 The CARES aviation safety
harness is a bestseller at Tots on-the-Go. Instead of hauling a bulky car seat on the plane, pack this one-pound, belt-and-buckle
device. It provides kids who weigh between 22 and 44 pounds the same level of safety as a car seat, and it's certified by the FAA. Just fasten it to the airplane seat belt and you're good to go.
 The Líllébaby EveryWear is a lightweight, comfortable child carrier that offers fantastic flexibility in how you carry your child: front outward facing, front inward
facing, hip, or back. The best part? You can use it for a few years, since it accommodates kids from newborn to toddler.
Instead of lugging your bulky baby gear your next trip, consider
renting from Tots on-the-Go’s Tots Travel Rentals. The company will ship whatever you need—including crib, stroller, car seat, or high chair—nationwide to your
destination, or deliver to select areas on the East coast, including vacation
spots Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head.
We urge you to check out all the great raffle prizes at Passports with Purpose, be generous, and good luck!
 The only thing that tops a chain-wide sale? How about a chain of chains sale? Starwood Hotels and Resorts—which includes brands such as Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis and W hotels—is offering up to 50% off at hundreds of its resorts around the world. The rates are striking: sometimes as low as $79 or even $59 a night, depending on location. For banner US destinations, we typically found nightly rates of $99 and up. Sometimes the price breaks are kind of slim—like a $159 rate at the Walt Disney Swan in Orlando (a Westin), where regular rates can start as low as $189, so the deal works out to a 16% savings. But at other properties the savings can be whopping. Take the Sheraton Hotel Gunter in San Antonio, across the street from the famed Riverwalk, where the deal's $99 rate is a steal compared to the $265 we found for regular rates during the spring.
Compare prices and dates at various properties carefully. Plenty of hotels have blackout dates. At some hotels, this deal is only available through January 18, while other hotels are keeping it on the table for stays as late as April 25.
To get this deal, you must book by November 10. Use the promo code LTNOVN when booking online, or mention the deal when calling 888/625-5144. Rates are pre-paid and non-refundable.
 Little more than a decade ago, taking a Disney vacation meant heading to a theme park in Orlando, Anaheim or Paris. But nowadays, the company that Walt built can show you the world. You can sail with Disney Cruise Line to Alaska, the Bahamas, Europe or even the Panama Canal. Or take a VIP-style guided tour of the American Southwest, Europe, China, or Costa Rica with Adventures by Disney, all-inclusive vacations known for delivering one-of-a-kind experiences such as zipling through a Costa Rican jungle, pizza-making at a family-owned farm in Italy, or going backstage at Disney's The Lion King in London.
Right now, families have an exceptional opportunity to snag two premium Disney vacations for the price of one. Book a tour to one of Adventures by Disney's most
popular destinations and you'll receive a free three-night Disney Cruise to the Bahamas in an oceanview cabin. To take advantage of the offer, you need to book by January 15, 2010, and take your Adventures by Disney tour by October 2, 2010. You can take your cruise between January, 2010, and December 15, 2011.
More on Disney Cruise Line:
Disney 3-night Cruise to the Bahamas
 We're all about using money-saving resources to help bring travel costs down. That's why we recommend signing up to receive the weekly Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter, which highlights exceptional deals on airfares, cruises, hotels, and entertainment. To demonstrate just how great the savings can be, we plucked these three family-friendly hotel deals from the current edition:
- Save 57% off regular rates at the Capitol Skyline Hotel in Washington DC through January, 2010. This boutique hotel is located just five blocks from the US Capitol. Rooms usually run $199 a night, but this offer brings the rate down to just $85. The deal is available for Thursday-to-Sunday stays November to January, plus select midweek holiday dates.
- Save 50% off peak rates at the luxurious Fairmont Banff Springs in Banff, Alberta. The hotel is offering
rooms at a reduced rate of $188 (CA$195) a night for minimum
two-night stay, plus guests get their third night free. This works out to an average of only $125 a night.
- Get a two-bedroom waterfront villa at Spinnaker Resorts in Hilton Head, South Carolina, for just $99 a night, plus free golf greens for four people (a $145 daily value) and several other perks, including discounted tennis and tennis lessons.
Note: Book-by and blackout dates vary with each offer. Travelzoo Top 20 deals sell out quickly, so act fast if you're interested.
 Every October, awesome earlybird ski deals begin popping up
all over. But time is ticking. These act-quick opportunities are a dime a dozen
right now, but they typically dry up by Thanksgiving. Here are some of
the best we’ve seen so far:
Planning ahead pays off big at Copper Mountain, a family-friendly resort in the Colorado Rockies (see our review).
Book two nights and at least one adult three-day lift ticket before
November 30 and your third night is free, plus you get a free kid’s
lift ticket for each adult ticket purchased. If you can book by October
31, Copper sweetens the pot with up to $25 a day in resort credit.
Book a four-night stay at Steamboat Springs by November 25 and get 20% off lodging and lift tickets.
Book before October 15 at Mont Tremblant, voted the No. 1 ski resort in eastern North America by SKI Magazine readers, and you can save up to 35% on a three-night stay, plus get three days of skiing for just $135.
Book a three-night winter stay at Lake Tahoe’s Resort at Squaw Creek
before November 15, and you’ll get free lift tickets to three classic
Tahoe mountains: Squaw Valley USA, Alpine Meadows, and Homewood
Mountain Resort. To book the “Ski Free 3” deal, call 800/327-3353 and
mention promo code S3FREERSC.
More Ski Deals:
More Snow, Less Dough: 10 Ways to Save on a Family Ski Trip
 The new school year got off on the right foot with our Onlineshoes.com giveaway. Congratulations to our two randomly-selected winners: Meg Hutchings of Newark, Delaware, and Steven Trieber of Boston, Massachusetts. Meg and Steven each won a $150 gift certificate to Onlineshoes.com, a great place to pick up some rugged Merrell footwear for a family hike this fall. Happy trails!
Don't forget to check our current giveaway. One lucky reader will win a family vacation on Florida's Amelia Island.
 Sometimes you don't know exactly where to head on your next family vacation, only that you absolutely, positively want to play on a beach. Or hike in the mountains. Or be within striking distance of some first-rate golf courses. That's a perfect time to check out Deal Finder, a tool from the smart folks at FareCompare.com. Deal Finder helps you find cheap flights from your home airport to destinations based on your interests.
The upside: This tool reminded us in some ways of Airfarewatchdog.com, one of our all-time favorite fare-finding sites, in that both sites suggest destinations you might not have otherwise considered based on flight prices from your home airport. But while Airfarewatchdog.com simply pumps out a roster of airfares to a list of cities, Deal Finder goes one step further. After plugging in your departure airport, you click on a category, such as "Family Fun Destinations" or "The Great Outdoors," and Deal Finder generates anywhere from 15 to 30 filtered suggestions, ranked in order of airfare price, from least expensive to most expensive.
The downside: When we tested Deal Finder, the results tended to focus on major destinations without any surprises, and in some categories we thought the cities were too skewed toward regional pockets. (In comparison, one of the aspects we love most about Airfarewatchdog.com is that it pulls a wide variety of off-beat destinations and smaller-sized airports into the mix.) With Deal Finder, the roster of "Family Fun Destinations" was a mixed bag of all the big-name usual suspects, with everything from Orlando to Cody, Wyoming, to San Diego. (Read: Fun but expected.) Inexplicably, the "Great Outdoors" category steered us firmly west (Colorado, Montana, New Mexico), while seemingly dismissing the myriad natural beauty spots east of the Rockies that were closer (with presumably less-expensive airfare) to the New York-based departure airport we were using in our test.
Verdict: Deal Finder is a solid addition to your arsenal of money-saving travel tools. It's intuitive and fast and we love that it churns out solid destination ideas while making it a snap to gauge and compare airfares to different cities. While it's not likely to give you any out-of-the-box suggestions, it can surely play a useful part in your travel-planning process.
Note: If you have yet to discover FareCompare.com, take some time to explore it. The site is a gold mine of helpful information about flying and advice on how to find great deals.
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