ARAMARK Parks and Destinations in Shenandoah National Park is hosting family friendly events and programs – including culinary and special events programs – at Big Meadows Wayside, Skyland Resort or Big Meadows Lodge which officially open on March 23, March 29, and May 16, 2012. Additionally, guests visiting the park April 21-29 will receive free entrance in honor of the National Park Service’s fee free promotion to celebrate National Park week.

What’s on the agenda? Among other things, there’s an Easter brunch, games, crafts, story-telling, S’mores & Stories and home-made ice cream events. For the adults, the park is hosting an elegant vintner dinner. Here’s more:

Twilight Hikes will be offered Saturdays departing from Big Meadows Lodge. Prices are $10 per adult and $8 for a child.

Vintner Dinners include an elegant four-course dinner highlighted with wine pairings from a featured Virginia Winery. The Vintner will provide insight for the selected pairings. Priced at $359 for double occupancy, the package includes Friday night lodging, dinner for two people, etched wine glasses and Saturday morning breakfast. The dinners are available monthly beginning April 13, 2012 at Skyland Resort.

Cooking Demos feature the chef as he prepares one of his favorite items at Skyland Resort. Guests can pamper their palette indoors when the trails outside are too wet for their taste. Priced at $10 per person you can enjoy a delectable sample and take home the recipe. Demos are Tuesdays and Fridays at 3pm beginning April 6, 2012.

Virginia Wine Tastings are held Thursdays at 3pm beginning April 5, 2012. One winery is featured weekly and the tasting includes assorted cheeses plus a handcrafted glass to take home.

For a complete listing of events or to book overnight reservations at either Skyland Resort, Big Meadows Lodge or Lewis Mountain Cabins, please call 800-778-2782 or log on to www.visitshenandoah.com.

More National Park Information from SingleMindedWomen.com

National Parks: 6 Fun Free Family Vacations

Free Entry into all 392 U.S. National Parks in April

Affordable, Fun Family Vacation Ideas

As part of the ‘free week’, the National Park Service is hosting some themed activities.

On Saturday April 21, take the kids to National Junior Ranger Day at your favorite park. Children will take part in planned activities that educate them about park wildlife and conservation and in the end, they earn a junior ranger patch. Some parks are hosting their own theme days, including special events at Yellowstone, Lake Powell, and the Grand Canyon.

Don’t worry if you miss the free-entry week. The National Park Service hosts other free days throughout the year including June 9, 2012 for Get Outdoors Day, September 29, 2012 for Public Lands Day, and November 10-12, 2012 for Veterans Day weekend.

SingleMindedWomen.com Resources

• National Parks Week
• Earth Day
• National Junior Ranger Day
• National Parks Free Entrance Days

More National Park Information from SingleMindedWomen.com

National Parks: 6 Fun Free Family Vacations

Family-Friendly Activities at Shenandoah National Park

Affordable, Fun Family Vacation Ideas

Christmas has always intrigued me because of its internationality. As a traveler, I consider this time of year a particularly special opportunity to see how others celebrate, or don’t celebrate, the holiday. A Thailand volunteer vacation would very much be an alternative Christmas as the locals don’t celebrate Christmas. For a very different kind of holiday experience, consider a home stay with a local family or attend Buddhist ceremonies, or visit the Hill Tribe Village  — beautiful settings for an incredible Christmas adventure.

Travel to Teach is a non- profit organization that offers volunteer travel placements all around the world. They are based in Thailand and can tailor packages to individual needs. Christmas day can be spent having a blessing ceremony with monks, up on Thailand’s highest mountain with the Karen Hill Tribes, Elephant trekking or simply eating a traditional turkey dinner in the sunshine.

The volunteer projects are devised in conjunction with local schools and communities to service their needs.  Individual programs start from as little as $609 for 2 weeks and include all accommodation, projects, support, language and cooking lessons. Group projects can also be arranged. The advantage to being a single traveler is that you can join in on a group, and select your age or particular interest group.

Volunteers range in age from 17 – 73 and all participants must be fluent in English, have a desire to learn about other cultures and bring with them lots of enthusiasm. Consider a trip of varying lengths for anytime of your upcoming year that suits you best: http://www.travel-to-teach.org/thailand/volunteer-thailand.php

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Single Minded Women Say “Ohm” on Vacation

For most single minded women who work outside of the home, domestic pleasures are not all that common either. There’s something incredibly centering about taking a day off and just staying home. It reminds you of school days when that cold or tummy ache gave you a junior version of a mental health day. Yes, there are times when you can retreat to the pleasures of home, a warm bed and a day off.

File your request for a day off and plan your home holiday in advance. Think of the things you love to get when you’re on vacation: luxurious extras like nice sheets and towels, good wines, French-milled soap and get them for yourself. Imagine your home is your hotel and you are the guest.

Here’s how to get the best room in the house:

Buy new sheets and towels.

Great hotels are known for the high thread count on their sheets and for their deep, soft cotton towels. Go get one set of great sheets and some fluffy white towels with a deep pile. If you can splurge, buy a white terry cloth bathrobe that looks as if you’ve just come from the bathroom of a suite at the Ritz.

Light up your life with scented candles and incense.

Not just any old candle. Get one that smells great. New York-based Red Flower (www.redflower.com/) makes incredible scented candles that smell like real flowers, woods, and precious balms. My favorite is the jasmine which made me feel as if I were on holiday in Thailand right in my own bedroom. Pricey but worth it. After all, you’re on vacation.

Turn off the phone and internet.

No, you don’t need to “check in” at the office. Your friends can reach you tomorrow. You’re in flight, remember? An editor at Conde Nast Traveler once confided in me that to her, the ultimate luxury was not checking e mail. She’d take a day off from the web and felt as if she’d gone to Bora Bora for a week.

Order in.

Unless you love to cook, that is. It’s all about your pleasure. I have a friend who told me that when guests came over and asked for something to eat he’d direct them to his fridge—which was filled with take out menus, not food.

Get a really good bottle of wine or champagne.

The difference between a ten-dollar bottle of Chardonnay and a thirty-dollar bottle of something really good like Rully or Puligny Montrachet is huge. Play sommelier in your own house. Or get a split of great champagne but remember to use real champagne glasses. Drinking a good wine in a bad glass is a criminal offense in France.

Rent a guilty pleasure flick.

A three Kleenex box tear jerker, Gone With the Wind or if you’re really feeling adventurous, maybe an “adult film” or two. Think of it as “brain candy.”

Take down your memory boxes.

You never have time to look at them—do it now. Take out those old photo albums and dust off your old diaries. See how far you’ve come and how you’ve grown. Celebrate your progress in life with a toast to you.

Spend all day in bed and don’t feel guilty.

My most guilty travel pleasure of all time was spending an entire day curled up in a luxurious bed in Venice with the window open, watching the gondoliers go by. We always feel like we should be “doing something” on our day off, but why not take a real day off from doing anything? A day reveling in your new sheets with no phone to answer and no e-mails to reply to is something that millionaires often don’t even have time for but crave more than private jets.

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Volunteer vacations are holiday trips

“I have wanted to try a volunteer vacation,” wrote Virginia, a 57 year old tomato from Syracuse, NY commented after visiting my website, www.ImmersionTraveler.com and reviewing my book, Volunteer Vacations Across America. “My best friend is not into roughing it,” wrote Virginia. “She likes to stay in very comfortable accommodations and it seems to me that volunteering is equivalent to traveling on the cheap.”

No worries, Virginia, there are many options available to today’s volunteer traveler. Yes, there are some trips that come with rustic accommodations, but often other options are available. Check with the sponsoring organization. It’s not uncommon to have a few different suggested accommodations and price range for where you’d most like to stay, depending upon the location.

A rapidly growing trend among grass-roots to high end hotels offers short-term, “bite-sized” volunteer vacations, along with the opportunity to stay in comfortable to most luxurious surroundings. Hands Up Holidays offers travelers a mix and match package for travelers to select from a variety of locations, tours, volunteer opportunities, and accommodations to create the ultimate vacation experience that suits you best. These hotels partner with ongoing local projects, dates aren’t limited, trips can be personalized, a percentage could be tax deductible, and money benefits the local community.

Hands Up Holidays (HUH) helped me put together the perfect immersion and volunteer vacation in Costa Rica, currently a very popular destination for Americans since it’s relatively close by, with competitively priced flights, and accommodations for every budget. November through April are the driest months with a few extra hours of sunshine every day.  I visited during rainy season in June and it rained once a day, particularly in the Rain Forest; however it was still quite comfortable and lovely to visit.

My priorities were to immerse myself in the country, refresh my Spanish skills, enjoy a few adventures, and relax and chill out. Here were a few of my favorite HUH choices:

NBC’s Love in the Wild was filmed at the Arenal Nayara Hotel, Spa & Garden and Trip Advisor named it the most romantic hotel in Central and South America as well as one of the top five most romantic hotels in the world. I stayed there, with a female coworker, and must admit, it was simply a beautiful place with impeccable service. The ‘romantic’ side wasn’t overdone and I didn’t feel uncomfortable or out of place in a non-romantic situation, and would love to take my children there. They would thoroughly enjoy the whirlpool bathtub out on the deck surrounded by a magnificent garden looking out over the

Arenal volcano – Leave plenty of time to walk up the path towards the volcano and explore the park, followed by zip lining in the afternoon. Be sure to also visit the Hot Springs before moving on.

Proyecto Asis offers Spanish classes, volunteer activities in their animal refuge with animals native to Costa Rica, and cultural immersion programs appropriate for all ages, nearby Fortuna and Arenal, Costa Rica. During my four days of volunteering, I enjoyed a home stay with a local family, gaining insights into their lives with total immersion in the language, food, culture and day-to-day management.

Manuel Antonio National Park has beautiful white sand beaches, multiple islands and forests to watch dolphin and whale off the coast. It is the most visited national park in Costa Rica and has surfing, diving, and hiking, along with fascinating wildlife.

According to a happiness index survey that ranks 143 countries, Costa Ricans are the happiest, most content people on earth. Their attitude and philosophy of life is summed up in two little words that are used as a greeting, a good bye, to express pleasure, thanks, you’re welcome and even confusion or a misunderstanding: Pura Vida. Live the pure life. ###

Sheryl Kayne’s website is www.ImmersionTraveler.com and she has published Volunteer Vacations Across America and Immersion Travel USA are both available in E-books in all formats, for your Nook or Kindle http://tinyurl.com/3vcffwh.

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Photo credit: Flickr, alborath

The words “boot camp” have traditionally referred to military training. Juvenile boot camps for troubled teens are designed to instill structure and discipline; whereas software boot camp teaches non-nerds the essential programming and inner-workings of computers.

The newest addition to the boot camp family is the rapidly growing trend towards fitness boot camps, designed to whip the overweight and out of shape into lean machines.

“Most women today maintain such crammed schedules, we seek fast, measurable results that will work for the long term,” says Shelli Adler, a fitness boot camp instructor in New York City. “Programs vary from daily local classes in your neighborhood to fitness boot camp vacations.”

By learning about a few of the different kinds of programs available, you can take this information and begin researching offerings in your own location or consider traveling.

In Stamford, Connecticut, the Fairfield County Adventure Boot Camp (www.fairfieldcountybootcamps.com) offers a month of unlimited women’s boot camp classes for $299 which includes 20 one-hour sessions with certified fitness trainers, nutritional counseling and motivational training. Classes are held with working women in mind on weekdays at 5:45 a.m. or 7 a.m. Their motto is: Lose pounds and gain friends.

Premier Fitness Camp, Park City, Utah, has a similar setup to America’s Biggest Loser show (www.premierfitnesscamp.com) with a beautiful location and the emphasis on losing weight and learning to make sustainable lifestyle choices. This is a residential fitness boot camp, in five-star accommodations, priced at $2900 which includes: Roundtrip airfare in the USA; weekly personal coaching which continues after you return home; weekly massages, all meals, health assessment by a physician, and activities including hiking, circuit training, kick boxing, yoga, skiing, snow shoeing, and aerobics. Like the show, classes include men and women. Of course, the added bonus, is while you’re in Utah, you could also add immersion or volunteer elements to your time visiting the area.

“Extreme Fitness in Lavish Locations” (www.getawayfitness.com) offers packages for girlfriend getaways, or as they like to call them, “girlfriend sweataways.” Here the emphasis is on activity (prices vary due to location, starting at $199 per night) which includes five hours each day of intensive workouts biking, kayaking, strength training, core conditioning, Pilates and yoga, agility drills, and cardio kickboxing.

There are a variety of boot camp programs offered through health spas, like Canyon Ranch, or you can easily create your own fitness vacation by combining new experiences, like hiking, swimming, or cross-country
skiing, with new places, and giving back through volunteering as well.

I’ve interviewed women who have come up with all kinds of fascinating and interesting ways to get in shape and travel. Diane’s goal was to walk the Continental Divide, which took “five years of weekends and vacation days and was the biggest personal accomplishment of my life.” A group of New York State girlfriends decided to walk the Erie Canal, which they combined with visiting wonderful B&B’s along the way, learning the history of the area, and singing “The Erie Canal Song,” also called “Low Bridge, Everybody Down.”

The Catalina Island Conservancy (www.catalinaconservancy.org) offers a variety of volunteer programs to choose from. “My two teenage daughters and I went for a week of building hiking trails and planting new areas on Catalina Island,” says Marilyn. “I’m a movie buff and I only knew about the island from the movie and the song, but it was a place I always wanted to visit. Not only did I do something I never thought I could do, I lost 12 pounds in one week doing it and a big chunk of our vacation was tax deductible.”

When I needed a week’s break on a tight budget where I could relax, get some work done, eat well, and exercise, I rented a cabin on a Pennsylvania State Park (www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/recreation/cabins.aspx) for $200. I walked every inch of the park, did volunteer cleanups along the way, ate my favorite foods, photographed my adventures, and lost weight and felt better than I had in months. Fifty percent of fitness is feeling great about what you’re doing for you. Take a break, take care of yourself, visit a new place, connect with the surroundings and the people and enjoy a healthy, happier you.

Sheryl Kayne is a writer, adventurer, performer, educator, and public speaker. She is the author of Volunteer Vacations Across America and Immersion Travel USA: The Best and Most Meaningful Volunteering, Living, and Learning Excursions (Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton and Company). Sheryl would love to hear from you at ImmersionTravel@aol.com.

“If you’re going to travel as volunteer for a registered non profit agency, you can deduct the trip from your Federal Income Tax,” says Bonnie Lee, an Enrolled IRS Agent, and author of the upcoming book, Taxpertise.

“Say you want to go with a reputable group and build housing in Africa,” Lee explains. “There’s a place to fill that in on your income tax on “Schedule A” under “Charitable Contributions.”

What can you deduct? Airfare to and from the destination, accommodation (nothing unreasonable like staying at the Four Seasons while helping build grass huts), food, transportation. “Before you sign up with a program that calls itself a “volunteer vacation” you should have proof from that organization that it is indeed tax exempt,” says Lee. “And keep receipts for everything. Keep all the correspondence to and from that organization about the nature of the trip. You can spend some time sightseeing on your volunteer vacation, but keep expenses reasonable and realistically scaled to your volunteer duties. The IRS doesn’t like extravagant expenses. Build in a sightseeing day in the village you’re helping out. Go on a safari with locals. You can take a per diem or actual expenses for the time you are working with the organization but it must be reasonable.  The primary intent of the trip should be for the charitable activity, not combining your vacation with volunteer work.”

How to find a reputable organization and not just one that lists volunteer vacations but is actually a for-profit travel agency? Brian T. Mullis, of Sustainable Travel International says be cautious.

“Many tourism providers don’t have development experience or experience working with NGOs, (non governmental organizations) so it may be difficult for them to select appropriate partners and projects,” he explains. “In addition, voluntourism programs should not foster dependency. Tourism providers that offer successful voluntourism programs typically have a strong focus on rewarding project recipients for personal initiative and self-reliance. I suggest you do your due diligence to find the right voluntourism for you. Determine how they select appropriate partners and projects and what some of the net results of their work have yielded.”

All of which adds up to realizing that doing good takes a lot of work—even if it’s part of a life-changing holiday.

Like all travel experiences, volunteer vacations require detailed planning and a fair amount of insight into your own goals and experience. Here are some more tips:

Don’t overestimate or underestimate your skills to the organization you are planning to work with. They will take you at your word if you say you can speak a language or build a bridge—and others are relying on you.

Make sure you are aware of your living arrangements and are comfortable with them before signing up. If you have a deadly fear of insects and or dislike getting dirty, staying in an earthen-floored hut without running water might not be your best choice of experience. You don’t have to be Mother Teresa to make a difference. There are plenty of things you can do to change the world without putting yourself so far out of your comfort zone that you won’t be useful.

Make sure you’ve vetted the organization you’re going to work for thoroughly. Ask to speak to someone who has been through the program who is not affiliated with the organization but who is a regular traveler like yourself.

If you plan on taking the volunteer vacation off your taxes, talk to your accountant before signing up. He or she might have some good suggestions for record keeping or helping you stay on track with expenses. They may also help you determine the validity of the deduction.

Go to a travel medicine specialist before your trip, get a complete work out and any shots you need. Do this well in advance of the journey. Take care of yourself so you can help others effectively.

For more information on how real life and taxes work together go Bonnie’s website, www.taxpertise.com and get advice from Harley the dawg.

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This story is fiction but all the places and facts are real.  Michelle will take you traveling through the eyes of a single woman, and along the way she meets new and exciting people, discovers incredible things and visits amazing places.  Follow Michelle’s life of adventure, love and sharing.  Along the way you will grow to better appreciate this wonderful world we live in and hopefully be inspired to do some traveling yourself.  Enjoy!!

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Valentine’s Day is a good excuse to spread the love and keep it up. Now that my daughters are off on their own, I continue the Valentine Volunteer tradition in a variety locally and sometimes further away. There are a number of websites that will help you match your interests and availability with local organizations in need of volunteers.

My mother doesn’t travel much anymore but she volunteers three days a week running the gift shop for a nursing home in Richmond, Virginia. Marsha, who lives in New York City, takes her miniature poodle, Chester, to visit senior citizens each week. If you have an afternoon or morning, consider assisting cleaning up or replanting a local park. For a day, you could respond to letters from prisoners, advocate for your favorite animal, or guide handicapped visitors through a museum.

I’m an animal lover but my lifestyle right now isn’t conducive to having pets of my own. Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah is located in the center of the Golden Circle: the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Lake Powell. Best Friends offers visitors a unique volunteer vacation year round. Animal lovers can visit the sanctuary, where you can stay on-site in cabins and spend the weekend volunteering at the Sanctuary taking animals on walks, feeding them or ‘borrowing’ an animal for an overnight visit in your cabin/cottage. There are 1,700 animals on-site at the Sanctuary, including dogs, cats, birds, pot-bellied pigs and horses.

Valentine’s volunteering can also be a great incentive to travel and one of the most amazing trips I’ve ever taken was to Brazil and the Amazon. I very much want to return to help save the pink dolphins. Beautiful and rare pink dolphins are found dead along the banks daily. Many current and new programs are organizing to educate communities, raise fines, and protect these animals and their habitats.

Fauna Forever Tambopata (FFT), is a wildlife research, conservation, and training project in the Amazon rainforest of Tambopata, Peru, an area with the highest biodiversity levels of any rainforest on earth. Home to endangered species such as the giant river otter, pink dolphin, harpy eagle, bush dog, black caiman, and jaguar, the region has thousands of species of plants and butterflies, and hundreds of species of birds and mammals. FFT participants choose a team that focuses on mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, or insects, and learn field methods and how to identify the species sampled. Volunteers also attend presentations by FFT staff and participate in discussions about the Amazon rainforest with conservation groups, government and grass- roots organizations, and communities.

When I think of Valentine’s Day as a loving and giving Volunteer day or extended activity, I feel warm and fuzzy inside, loved and loving myself, which is truly what this holiday, and most of our days, should be. Enjoy yours, to receive, do new things in new places, and give.

For more information:

VolunteerMatch.org

DoSomething.org

NetworkForGood.org

Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah

Fauna Forever

Sheryl Kayne is a writer, adventurer, performer, educator, and public speaker. She is the author of Volunteer Vacations Across America and Immersion Travel USA: The Best and Most Meaningful Volunteering, Living, and Learning Excursions (Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton and Company). Sheryl would love to hear from you at ImmersionTravel@aol.com.

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Despite being swathed in dirt, sweaty, and loaded down with gear, a ruggedly handsome similarly burdened trekker sends a smile and a look heavy with interest your way. Back at the resort, the same guy stretches out on a poolside lounge chair two umbrellas down from you and you can’t believe your luck. Meeting a guy while vacationing abroad is the stuff “Eat, Pray, Love” dreams are made of. And you’ve already got a couple of great opening lines to choose from: “Say, didn’t I see you in the jungle yesterday?” or “Aren’t you dying from all these mosquito bites?”

The vacation meet-up scenario may be perfect for a romantic whirlwind hook-up, a quick goodbye, and perhaps a nostalgic friending on Facebook weeks after you’ve unpacked your bags. But if you want to see said man again, and he happens to live on another continent, this is where things get tricky. From this point on, dating involves hefty expense, jet lag, and itineraries.

I met a lovely English bloke while trekking in Malaysia. After a few Skype chats, I simply had to see him again. I didn’t care that he lived in England or that apart from a brief chat over margaritas at a gorgeous resort in Borneo’s Sabah peninsula, we hadn’t spent any time together. We had never been in the same room alone together, but we started planning how and where to make that happen.

It could have been his place or mine, but as we saw it, we had the whole world to choose from. Our first date was a weekend holiday in Edinburgh. Our second was a ten-day tour of Peru including a 50km hike on the Inca trail. Our subsequent dates were Orlando, Florida, New York City, and Ottawa, Ontario. I’ll call them “dates”, but each trip was really a series of dates crammed into a short length of time. More accurately, our vacations could also be referred to as “megadates”, each with its own highs and lows. Here’s what we learned: