Sports Traveler Blog

I am very excited to release our newest Summer Games travel packages dedicated to follow Soccer (Futbol) through China during the 2008  Olympic Games. When you look at the soccer schedule for the 2008 Beijing Games it almost looks like a mini-World Cup as the rounds travel through the different cities in China. The Sports Traveler Staff has created a package to catch the most important matches leading up to the Gold Medal games in Beijing.

We start out in Shanghai on August 15th. Our staff will meet you at the airport and transfer you to the Holiday Inn Shanghai, a 4-star hotel. On the 16th we take you on a City Tour of Shanghai. That night the soccer action begins with the Men’s Quarterfinal Match at the Shanghai Stadium. On the 17th we do a little more touring of the Suzhou area and see the Master of Nets Garden along with a canal cruise. On the 18th we head back to the stadium for the important Women’s Semifinal Match. On the 19th we are there for the Men’s Semifinal Match to see who will face off in the Gold Medal game! Sports Traveler staff members will shuttle you to and from all the matches included in your tour package price.

On the 20th we are off to Beijing! Our staff takes you to the airport for the roughly 2 hour flight. For the most adventurous Sports Traveler’s among us we have also added an option to take a luxury overnight train into Beijing instead of the flight. You can see the Chinese countryside and wake up in Beijing.

Once in Beijing we take you to the Leisure City International Resort Complex. This 4/5 star hotel is brand new and and is part of the Hot Springs Leisure City Resort Complex featuring a Luxury Spa, Shopping & Business District, Water World, a Park, and a Sports area. It is only 15 minutes from the Olympic Green and Stadium.

While in Beijing we will see the Women’s Bronze and Gold Medal Matches on August 21st and the Men’s Gold Medal Match on August 23rd. In between on the 22nd we will tour the Great Wall and Ming Tombs. Again, all the match transfers are included in the price. Also, while in Beijing join fellow Olympic travelers at ‘Casa Americas’ - the private hospitality area including light food and beverages served throughout the day and nightly themed party evenings. Whether you are a fan of Team USA, Mexico, England, Brazil etc., every night is a different themed party celebrating the Games. Located just steps from the Olympic Green and hosted by our great partners for this spectacular event - Cartan.

A trip of a lifetime awaits! We invite you to join us on this exciting adventure. Call our offices at 1-888-654-7755 or view this package at: http://www.sportstraveler.net/custom/shanghaisoccerpackage.html

 I can’t believe I will be in China in only a few more months. This tour will definately be the highlight of my trip. We are planning a special Sports Traveler Radio (STR) podcast to be released next month highlighting this trip. And all of Team Sports Traveler will be blogging while we are in China. Stay tuned…

The time to make your reservations is now. Join us!

 -Anbritt

anbritt@sportstraveler.net

Thanksgiving Weekend is typically a big one at Sports Traveler. We are open Friday and Saturday so give us a call. Check out our office hours.

We have some great special offers going on this weekend.

• Free Shipping Thanksgiving Weekend!
  Purchase any Sports Traveler package online Nov. 21-25 or via phone and pay $0 for shipping. USA, Canada, International, it doesn’t matter - it’s free! Offer good on only travel package orders. Ticket orders are excluded. Sorry!
• $25 Sports Authority Gift Card with purchase of any college football travel package
  It’s our favorite store and we think you should go there too! Wrap up your travel plans to the Rose Bowl or other BCS Bowl Games and get a free $25 gift card for your favorite sports fan or use it for yourself! Get that great new jersey you’ve been thinking about.. come on you know you want it!

Happy Thanksgiving!    Go Cowboys!

-anbritt

anbritt@yahoo.com 

The Ohio State Buckeyes have now clinched a trip to the 2008 Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on January 1, 2008. Sports Traveler now has Rose Bowl Tickets and Travel Packages available including airfare from Columbus.

There is still hope that Ohio State may make it to the BCS Championship Game. If that happens Sports Traveler will transfer your trip deposit and reservation to the BCS Championship Game or you can just get 100% of your money back.

The Sports Traveler Best Bet Rose Bowl Tour is the Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort Package including a special New Year’s Eve Buckeye Yacht Cruise through Newport Harbor featuring open bar, hors d’oeuvres and entertainment. We all know how tough it is to try and figure out New Year’s Eve plans, especially when you are traveling out of town. This package gets into a great Buckeye Fan party plus gets you to the Rose Parade and the big game. A great deal!

-anbritt

anbritt@yahoo.com

Sorry for the delay in posts. Our company has been growing so much that we kinda let the blog thing slip. It’s too bad too because we have been traveling so much and have so many great Sports Traveler stories to share. We are back so watch for more great Blogs to come!

Some quick Sports Traveler updates:

• Our RSS Newsletter feeds are back! Subscribe now and stay up to date on all Sports Traveler News!
  http://sportstraveler.podshowcreator.com/feed.aspx?feedId=451
• Special Offers on College Football Packages! Book now and get a $25 gift card to Sports Authority. This offer is good now through Nov. 30th! View this special offer: http://www.sportstraveler.net/custom/college_football_main.html
• STR - Sports Traveler Radio has a great new preview series running: Planning your trip to the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. Part I was one of our all time biggest downloads. Tune in now online: http://www.sportstraveler.net/custom/sports_traveler_radio_STR.html
  or subscribe to this feed on your iTunes instantly:
   http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=165035812 

- anbritt

anbritt@yahoo.com

The road to the Super Bowl in Miami continues with the final 2 deciding games - the AFC Championship and NFC Championship games taking place January 21st. Game tickets and packages are available for the games in both Chicago and Indianapolis.

Reserve Super Bowl packages in advance of everyone else with fully refundable deposits. If your team wins Sunday and heads to the Big Game, you are all set and ready to go. If your team loses you get a full refund. Deposits are only $500 per person.

Choose from any of these great Super Bowl Packages:

» Holiday Inn Golden Glades - 3 night hotel, ticket and transfer package
» Don Shula’s Hotel and Resort - 4 night hotel, ticket, and transfer package + free golf
» The Alexander Resort - All Suites South Beach - 3 night hotel, ticket, transfer package
» Doubletree Suites Key Biscayne - 3 night hotel, ticket, transfer package
Airfare is not included. Full payment will be taken after AFC/NFC Championship Game .

So whether you are a Chicago Bears Fan or New Orleans Saints Fan.. or an Indianapolis Colts Fan or New England Patriots Fan -  Don’t risk price increases and sold out availability after the Championship games. Book early and save your place to witness Super Bowl XLI.

 -Anbritt
anbritt@sportstraveler.net

Nick and Angelo have not left our STR radio studio for days all for the love of our Sports Traveler Radio podcasts! Tune in and listen to STR to get great downloadable Bowl Game Preview Shows and find out what to do when you are there. There is a show for each game: The Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and the BCS Championship Game.  We still have tickets and packages left for all these games too!

My highlights from the shows are:

The BCS Championship and Fiesta Bowl Show: A great interview with Doug McKenzie from the Phoenix Conventions and Visitors Bureau. Doug gives important information about where the best restaurants and best bar districts are located in the Phoenix area. The city is very spread out so plan on renting a car. 200 golf courses in the greater Phoenix area, so pack the clubs. And don’t miss the Camelback Mountain. Hike it or drive it for your best desert photo opp.

Rose Bowl Preview Show: Pasadena sounds fabulous! Learn all about the Rose Parade, cool places to eat, and where to hang out whether you are a Michigan fan or USC local. Leanne Lampe from the Pasadena CVB tells you all about it.

Sugar Bowl Preview Show: Our returning friend Mary Beth from the New Orleans CVB tells us all about what The Big Easy has in store for us as the Sugar Bowl returns to the city. There are a lot of free events going on all over, all within walking distance to each other.

Orange Bowl Preview Show: Is anyone actually going to the Orange Bowl? We hope this podcast will be a motivating tool to move some sports travelers down to the game. A great interview with Jeff Purinton, Director of Communications and Media Relations for the Orange Bowl Committee. This is really a great event that any football fan will enjoy… lots of parties, sunshine, warm weather, and a pretty good game too.

One of our clients had a great idea… Buy a Sports Traveler Package Gift Certificate from us and an iPod (from apple.com, not us), download the STR show onto the iPod to let the person know which event they are going to for their Christmas gift! 

~Anbritt
anbritt@sportstraveler.net

For all your Summer Games enthusiasts…. We are happy to introduce our Sports Traveler Exclusive Travel Packages for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. We have been hard at work on these new programs for many months, taking into account the many emails and conversations that we have had with our clients from both the Athens Games in 2004 and the past Winter Games early this year.

All packages are fully customizable to suit your specific travel ideas for this exciting event. We look forward to working with you to customize your tour. Some ideas that we can suggest are tours of The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square. Private Guided Tours to these locations and many others can be added onto your travel package.

Check out our Exclusive Summer Games Packages or call 1-888-654-7755 to get started with a reservation specialist.

Ah, the Bowl season. The controversy continues with the BCS. With Michigan making a quick jump to the Rose Bowl and Florida jumping into the BCS Championship Game, fans have had to make some unexpected changes in their travel plans. And for some fans, their teams bowl bid turned their travel plans into no plans at all.

Michigan fans traveling to the Rose Bowl can expect great availability for packages and tickets and not many fellow Wolverine Fans joining you in Pasadena. Sales for the Rose Bowl have been modest at best as it seems that most Wolverine Fans are choosing to stay home in the winter weather of Michigan rather than travel to California. Why the change of heart? Well, it seems Michigan fans are just plain ‘Bummed Out’ over their team not being in the Championship game.

Florida fans on the other hand are more excited than ever. The unfortunate thing for Gator fans is there is not much availability left in Phoenix for the Championship weekend. They can thank the Ohio State fans for having the early jump on buying up all the hotel rooms and packages. Airfare are running $700+ from most Florida cities and Sports Traveler is not offering any chartered air packages like we did for the Ohio State Fans. Gator fans have now been reduced to Last Minute Travelers with all the headaches of finding cheap airfare and leftover availability.

SPORTS TRAVELER RECOMMENDATIONS:
(1) Book your BCS Championship package or ticket as soon as possible. Waiting will end up costing you more. There will not be any 11th hour discounts as most everything is already close to selling out.

(2) Stay an extra night or two. Checking out on the 10th or 11th, rather than the 9th will open up cheaper flight options and more availability. An extra night may only run $100 extra a person and could save you several hundreds of dollars on flights. Our full service travel desk can assist you with any airfare request. Call 1-888-654-7755.

-Anbritt
anbritt@sportstraveler.net

With a the BCS Championship game almost a full 7 weeks away from the date the Ohio State Buckeyes qualified for their chance at a National Championship, fans may think that time is on their side for making reservations and buying their tickets. But my best advice is for fans to try to get their plans finalized the sooner the better. The reason: Availability.

Sports Traveler has already seen some packages sell out and ticket prices are beginning to go up. The demand for this game will be high and fans should be prepared for additional price increases in the coming weeks as those coveted National Championship tickets continue to go up. 

Fans near to or in the Columbus area should consider an Air Included Ohio State travel package. Chartered airplanes have been reserved for fans departing Columbus, Ohio for 2 or 3 night stays in the Phoenix area. The area is laid back and full of beautiful desert scenery in every direction.

Land Only travel packages are also available. These packages will be in short supply as most tour package hotel inventory is being held for the Air Included packages which are expected to be in higher demand.  If you are not traveling from Columbus, you should book your land only package right away. Tonight’s first look at airfares from our travel desk look high. Many non-stop fares starting well over $1000 but some 1-stop fares were starting at $400. Sports Traveler has a full service travel desk to help assist you with air travel and rental car. Call 1-888-654-7755. Airfares will continue to climb in price, the longer you wait.

~Anbritt
anbritt@sportstraveler.net

The SportsTraveler.net website is just about ready to go for Team Bowl Game ticket and travel packages. How it’s going to work:

• Ohio State Buckeyes fans:
  BCS Championship game packages will go onsale this week with refundable deposits (if the unthinkable happens.)
• A small deposit will be due to reserve the package, the dollar amount will vary depending on the package you choose. You must use a major credit card when placing your reservation.
• After Ohio State is officially selected to the BCS Championship game, your credit card will be charged for the remaining balance on your travel package. If Ohio State doesn’t get selected, you get your entire deposit refunded back onto your credit card.
• If you reserve online, you will only be charged for the minimum deposit. For personal assistance call our reservation hotline at 1-888-654-7755.

Additional team travel packages for the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl to be posted shortly. Stay Tuned to our blog or visit our site at www.sportstraveler.net

 ~Anbritt
anbritt@sportstraveler.net

Go OSU!!