JourneyEtc

Portland, Oregon is not a large city, but it’s still a popular vacation destination due to it’s beautiful landscape and many fun activities. Like any good city, Portland offers activities that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their tastes or interests. There are literally thousands of things to do in this great city, but below you will find some of the best things to do in Portland, Oregon.

1. Sight-see

While sight-seeing is a common activity in every vacation destination, it’s especially prominent in Portland. There are so many beautiful sights to see in the downtown area, and thankfully, most of them are not crowded or overrun by tourists. There are many gardens and gardens scattered around the city, and visiting one can be a great, peaceful way to pass the time. Also, Portland as a whole is very bike-friendly, with many trails and places for bikers to ride. So if you’re a bike enthusiast, taking a spin around the city is highly recommended.

Whether you’re a novice skier or an expert, a good ski trip can be one of the best experiences of your life. For more than a hundred years, people have been traveling all over the world, just to ski or snowboard. If you are planning a trip and enjoy skiing, check out the best ski destinations in America below.

1. Aspen, Colorado

Aspen has always been a popular destination for winter sports enthusiasts, and for good reason. Located in central Colorado, Aspen has several ski resorts to choose from. While none of them are exactly “cheap”, there is enough variety in Aspen that you can have a good time there on virtually any budget. Of course since it is a major tourist attraction, resorts in the Aspen area will almost always be busy, especially at the prime of the ski season. If you’re looking to save some money and/or avoid the crowds, then going on the offseason or near the end of the season is advisable.

With L.A. Live finally nearing completion, Los Angeles is truly becoming the entertainment capital of the west coast. An entertainment center supported by an extensive network of theaters, bars, and restaurants, L.A. Live is an entertainment mecca like no other, and truly an impressive sight to behold for any tourist.

Anchored by the Staples Center, home of four different major sports teams, L.A. Live consists of an outdoor shopping area, a world class theater, numerous clubs, restaurants, movie theaters, and mall stores – it even boasts two separate five-star hotels on the same property and even luxury condominiums starting at over $1,000,000 each! As if that weren’t enough, as a testament to it’s worldwide clout, L.A. Live is also the proud home of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame museum, which, for the budget traveller, is open free to the public.

One of the great vacation ideas that has been around since before the automobile was invented is the taking of a good road trip. There are a great deal of variables that make one road trip very different from the next one. There are really only two essentials when it comes to taking a road trip; the first one is a road or route, and the second one is some kind of vehicle to propel you down the road. The rest is entirely up to you.

Problem: You don’t have a suitable vehicle to take a road trip with.
Solution: If you don’t have a vehicle, or the right vehicle, to take a road trip with, there are options available to you that you may not even think of. In many regions, towns are spaced as close together as two to ten miles, if this is the case then you can take a bike road trip. Ride from one town to the next and then return by the same or different route. Another option is renting a car, or better yet renting an RV.

A driving trip with the kids can be a great family experience. However, sometimes sitting in a car for the better part of a day can get to the kids. Planning in advance can help make the trip go quicker. Obviously the age of your children determines what to take, how to plan, etc. Here are some ideas to make that driving experience more enjoyable.

Entertainment:
Cars, and driving trips are very different from when we were children: Most cars have air conditioning (remember the howling noise and wind from open windows). Good music on the radio, etc. We recommend that your kids bring some of the following electronics: radio, cassette, or CD with headphones, hand-held videogames (including Sega, Nintendo), flashlight (for reading at night).
If you have a van, you can purchase or rent a TV-VCR which can run off the car’s battery. It’s a great way for kids to pass the time watching videos. Just be sure that the TV-VCR is securely fastened so it will not move in the event of an accident. Cracker Barrel Restaurants, located throughout the U.S., have rental programs for cassettes and videos: Rent it at one location, drop it off at another. Blockbuster Videos also offer a long-term rental program.

On 14th of September the current year edition of the World Expo will end in Zaragoza, Spain after three months of exhibitions, shows and entertainment.

It was a success, without any doubt, attracting even more visitors than initially evaluated. And succeed to do an even more important thing: growing the awareness on the global problem of water.

The name of the theme was officially : “Water and sustainable development“. Very generous theme, which has been treated very deep by the 200 participating countries. The King of Spain himself, Juan Carlos, expressed in the opening speech the deep concern on environmental problems and the necessity to think to the next generations. The biological clock of our planet is ticking, there is no way back.

Think only to this little thing: 1,2 billion people worldwide have no access to clean drinking water!