Celebrating 20 years

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Gap Adventures is offering a chance to win $40,000 in travel and travel related gear. The contest invites participants to submit an itinerary for the trip of their dreams, anywhere in the world, for as long as 16 days.

To enter, just log on to www.createyourownadventure.com and click on the “Get Started” button. Choose up to three countries to include in your itinerary, name your tour, and select the duration, highlights and activities. Then tell the judges why your adventure is like no other and deserves to win (Tip: The website says: “We’re looking for trips focused on sustainable adventure travel that provide life-changing experiences”). Once you’ve entered, get all your friends and family to vote for you, since the winning entry will be determined by a combination of user voting and a panel of nine judges, comprised of some of the most influential leaders in the travel industry. Read the rest of this entry »

Since starting Hole In The Donut in late 2006, I’ve received several awards and my site has risen significantly in the ranks of travel blogging. Well, now it’s time to take a crack at the grandaddy of them all, the 2010 Weblog Awards, more commonly known as the “Bloggies.” Each year, the Bloggies ask readers to nominate and then vote for their favorite blogs in categories ranging from best travel blog to best gossip blog.

Unlike other contests and award programs, readers don’t have to register or join ANYTHING to participate in the Bloggies. The only requirement is an email address and a willingness to nominate at least three of your favorite blogs. Upon receipt of your nominations, the Bloggies send a confirmation email; you need only click on the link in the email to complete the nomination submission. You will also have an opportunity to vote for the winners once the finalists are chosen.

If you would like to nominate me (and at least two other bloggers), please visit The Bloggies nomination site. Several categories could be appropriate for my blog, including best travel webblog, best writing for a weblog, best photography for a weblog, or best-kept secret weblog, but please feel free to nominate me in whatever category you deem appropriate. And thank you so much for your support.

EarthTV.com, which broadcasts live video from more than 70 worldwide camera locations on six continents, has announced a contest that offers entrants a chance to win new Vivitar underwater digital cameras. Entrants need only register on earthTV and earn “miles” (i.e. points) by clicking on various worldwide camera shots; every click gets you closer to a prize. The armchair traveler who has collected the most miles by October 16 will be declared the winner. Random winners (regardless of miles) will also be picked to win prizes. Read about the details on the EarthTV.com contest page. Read more about the prizes here.

Win one of these cameras simply by watching travel videos at earthTV.com

From New York to Hong Kong, from Paris to Sydney, earthTV.com broadcasts live video from more than 70 worldwide camera locations on six continents. The launch of earthTV.com in North America followed the worldwide success of earthTV Network, which reaches more than 2 billion television viewers globally by providing live programming to over 50 TV networks in over 200 countries, including The Weather Channel, NHK and Sky TV. earthTV.com is a fascinating site for travelers, technologists, or anyone who wants to see the rest of the world from their computer.

Frequent Flier Program

American Airlines is giving away one million frequent flier miles! The contest celebrates recent changes to Aadvantage, the airline’s frequent flier mileage program. For the first time ever miles can be redeemed for one-way travel. In addition, the online Aadvantage system now allows fliers to mix the class of service on different legs of a trip (for instance, flying out first class and coach on the return) and to book multi-city routes.

To enter, just watch an online 150-second film, Pioneers of Flight: Soaring with One-Way Flex Awards. (If you’re not a member of Aadvantage you’ll have to sign up first – it’s free, by the way). After watching, you’ll be able to register to win one of ten 100,000 American Airlines AAdvantage mile prizes. I’m already making a travel wish list……

Three Vermont businesses are calling all boomers, zoomers, red hats, seniors, silver foxes and really cool people over the age of 50 to participate in the “Vermont to Fabulous Las Vegas Virtual Challenge” contest. Because they are located in Vermont, home of the beautiful Green Mountains, where people love to love to bike, row, run and walk, Cabot Creamery Cooperative (of cheddar cheese fame), Concept2, and the Vermont Department of Tourism thought it would be fun to design an online challenge that revolved around healthy lifestyles, the pursuit of good eating, and exercise.

Stoweflake Resort

It’s easy to participate. First, create a log-in name and password on the homepage. This is a virtual contest, so you won’t see the other contestants involved – and although you will exercise, you won’t actually walk, run, row or bike to Las Vegas from Vermont. Simply log the minutes of physical activity you do each day to move along the map towards Vegas. Play tennis for an hour? Give yourself credit for an hour of walking or running, depending on how vigorous the game. Or if you play a round of golf, log those hours played as walking. Players earn poker Read the rest of this entry »

People travel  for many reasons. Some yearn to see the world’s greatest sights. Others want to learn about exotic cultures. And as I recently learned, there are even people who travel specifically to ride the world’s greatest waterslides.

Barclaycard Waterslide recently offered a challenge: produce a YouTube a video demonstrating your love of waterslides. The best video wins an around the world trip for two to visit the five craziest waterslides ever built. The winner will ride the three-mile long Schlitterbahn in Texas; the world’s highest waterslide in Aguas Quentes, Brazil; a loop-the-loop waterslide in Aqua Magis, Germany; Dubai’s Wild Wadi slide, where riders achieve speeds of up to 50 mph;  and the slide in the biggest waterpark in the world in Chimelong, China.

The deadline for submission has passed and now all that remains is the voting. Its up to you to decide which waterslide film you rate above the rest and who you’d choose to walk away with the grand prize.

Some of the 41 finalists produced videos featuring elaborate waterslides constructed from materials ranging from Legos to plastic tubing. One contestant built a slide that travels through open windows between two floors of an apartment building. Others took an animated approach, and one creative young man used a Slip ‘n Slide. See the finalists and cast your vote at Barclaycard on YouTube. But hurry, because voting ends April 5th.

Just a quick note of thanks here. My blog placed seventh in the travel category at DivineCaroline.com, due in large part to all the wonderful readers who voted for me. Please accept my heartfelt thanks. Writing this blog is my passion and it would be meaningless without you.

A few weeks ago, Hole In The Donut was nominated in the category of best travel blog over at Divine Caroline.com, a really great online woman’s magazine (I especially like them because they have a lot of content about travel). I excitedly emailed all my friends, and asked them to vote for me if they were so inclined, which resulted in an initial flurry of votes. But now I am stalled at 35 votes. The top site has 111 votes as of this writing and I certainly don’t expect to be able to beat that tally, but I would absolutely LOVE to be in the top ten!

So, where am I now? I am currently in 11th position, at the top of page two. In order to get into the top ten, I need at least three more votes. The contest ends on November 30th, so there isn’t a lot of time left. If you would be willing to vote for my blog, navigate over to Divine Caroline’s voting page and click on the button to the right of my blog that says “VOTE.” If you are not already a member of Divine Caroline, you will have to register, but it is free and you are given the opportunity to opt out of receiving any correspondence from them at the time you sign up. Thanks in advance to those of you who are willing to help, and a HUGE hug to those who have already voted for me.

It seems I jumped the gun the other day when I asked everyone to go to the website where they could vote for their favorite story and automatically be entered for a chance to win a week at a spectacular resort in Martinique. The contest actually launched today and I notice that all the votes for the best story were set back to zero, so perhaps they were just testing prior to going live. The site is now back up again and voting has recommenced, however the story that previously had more than 200 votes has already received 49 votes the second time around, so I need some votes if I have a chance of winning. Click HERE to go to the contest site, or just click on the Martinique ad on the right hand side of the blog. The name of my story is “The Power of Suggestion,” and I hope you think it’s good enough for your vote.