Travel

Surrounded by lush, green golf courses, the beautiful GreenLinks property lies within Lely Resort Golf and Country Club, and is conveniently close to the beaches of Naples, shopping, and exquisite dining.

Perfect for an avid golfer, Naples is a wonderful setting for a vacation. Named after the illustrious Italian city, Naples offers 17 miles of beach along the Gulf of Mexico and beautiful blue water, making it the perfect for water sports, sunbathing, and playing in the sand. Naples Municipal Pier gives way to 10 miles of charming white sand beaches. While in Naples, you may also want to take a trip to the Everglades National Park, or the Naples Botanical Garden.

As for amenities onsite, GreenLinks Resort has a conference center, heated pool, jacuzzi, two golf courses, two tennis courts, a fitness room, a clubhouse with a pro shop, fishing, chartered tours, the Flamingo Island Restaurant, barbecue grills, shelling, water sports, and a spa.

GreenLinks Resort condos feature a full kitchen including microwave, living room, dining area, two cable televisions with free HBO, DVD, high speed internet, telephone, a washer & dryer, iron & ironing board, a hair dryer in the bathroom, and a private screened balcony. Both the bedrooms and the balcony have ceiling fans. The condos are approximately 10 miles from the beach with taxi service.

Eagle’s Nest at Indian Point

Eagle’s Nest Resort is located in beautiful Branson, Missouri, on Lake of the Ozarks. Lake of the Ozarks is a part of Lake of the Ozarks State Park, the largest state park in Missouri. Located right on the lake, the resort provides many fun outdoor activities, and of course, picturesque views of the lake and surrounding area.

Known as the “Live Music Show Capital of the World,” Branson will always keep you occupied during your stay. There are plenty of outdoor activities such as golf, horseback riding, boat rides, hunting, and fishing. Branson’s Dinosaur Museum, Splash Country Indoor Water Park, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum, and Silver Dollar City are also places that you will want to visit during your stay. To enjoy all of the natural wonders that Branson has to offer, make sure to visit the caves and caverns in the area. You may also want to visit the numerous theatres and entertainment venues that have made Branson famous.

As for activities at Eagle’s Nest Resort, you can go tubing, golfing, fishing, swimming (in the lake or the pool), boating, waterskiing, caving, go karting, and parasailing. Your accommodations at Eagle’s Nest Resort feature a full kitchen with a dishwasher, a microwave, TV, VCR, telephone, decks with barbecue grills, and air conditioning. Also, laundry facilities are provided onsite for your convenience.

Branson is a beautiful and fun-filled city, with something to offer everyone.

Since we had such a good time giving away six free cruises with the Facebook Cruise Giveaway Contest, we thought it would be a lot of fun to continue the contests and giving. So, we are asking you – our customers, fans and friends – to submit your favorite vacation photo for a chance to win a vacation aboard a fun-filled cruise.

In order to enter the contest, you have to submit a photo along with a brief essay explaining the fun being had in your photo and why should win. You can do this on our “Photo Contest” tab.

The submission period is now open until August 31. We will then open up the voting for a two week period, which will end on September 14th. At that time we will pick the photo with the most votes as the winner. The winner will then have a year to claim their cruise vacation!

The winner will receive the following:

• Sundance Vacations voucher for a four-day, three-night cruise for two;
• Cruise leaves from ports in Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, or Los Angeles;
• Round-trip airfare for two (not to exceed $800 total) to port city;
• And one night’s stay in the port city.

So, grab your photo albums and pick your best vacation photo for a chance to win!

Winners must be at least 21 years of age. You can read the full Contest Rules eligibility requirements here.

Festa Italiana takes off this week on July 15th with three days of a fun filled celebration. The event is the largest Italian-American festival in America hosting many different concerts on 8 stages, 40 different food vendors and 18 amusement rides throughout Milwaukee’s Lakefront Festival Grounds.  To top it off famous jazz trumpeter Chris Botti as well as Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons headline the festival.

Along with the festivities, Sundance Vacations will also be there sponsoring a raffle with two chances to win. The winning tickets for three great prizes will be drawn after the fireworks on closing night at the Miller Lite Stage. If that wasn’t good enough, everyone who enters the raffle will be re-entered into a second drawing occurring at the end of the year, in which the winner will receive a 2011 Mercedes Benz automobile or $50,000 cash.

The three prizes people can win on the closing night include:

1st:  An Italian-manufactured Vespa S50 Sport scooter. This prize is courtesy of Reina International Auto/Vespa Milwaukee (Joe, Ignazio and Lorenzo Reina).

2nd: A man’s 14-karat yellow gold ring, set with a 1.00-carat champagne round diamond provided by Ted Glorioso of Glorioso’s Gold Imports & Diamond Center.

3rd: Roundtrip airfare for two to any destination where Frontier Airlines travels courtesy of Frontier Airlines.

Good Luck!

For more information please check out http://www.festaitaliana.com

Festa Italiana

Because of the major gulf oil leak, some travelers may be leery of traveling these days down near the gulf coast. For fear that the beaches are covered in oil, tourism has been down. Along with the tourism being down, a lot of the fishing businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are currently not in operation as well.  How can they fish in oil? Obviously this is effecting the economy in certain spots, but is it all over the gulf like some think?

In an article published on June 14 on ABCNews.com,  Miami Beach Rep. Richard Steinberg is quoted saying “People outside of the U.S. look at Florida as one (beach) and don’t understand if there’s a little bit of oil in the Panhandle, they think it’s all over the state.” Despite fears, Sundance Vacations contacted a few of our customers who have been traveling near the Panhandle during this oil leak crisis. Pat Gerdeman, who traveled to one of our locations in Destin, FL ( located on the Panhandle just east of Pensacola, FL) during June 6-10, said that she ran into no problems while vacationing, the beaches were beautiful and tourism didn’t seem to be down. Asked if people were fearful in Destin, Pat felt that the media makes it out to be worse than it really is. Another customer who traveled near the coast said they also experienced a great time without being effected by the oil spill.

Here is a video update from last week about the beaches from Destin, FL:

Even though the Panhandle has had some oil creep onto the beaches, most of the beaches are still clear and clean. In the same article, we learn that “South Florida tourism officials are pushing for [a] campaign to clarify that the vast majority of Florida’s 825 miles of beaches are oil-free.” The article concludes with Steinberg worrying that all the media attention and recent presidential visit will put the wrong image in the heads of tourists. For now most of the beaches in Florida are clear, even in the Panhandle. Pensacola has been the only area to close portions of the beach.

As Florida battles the bad perception the oil spill may be giving it’s beaches and tourist areas, other areas such as Mississippi beaches remain open despite seeing oil on some of their beaches. The Mississippi Gulf Coast Official Website states that “With large amounts of oil and tar balls washing up on South Mississippi beaches Monday, state officials have issued advisories for two areas along the beach in Harrison and Jackson Counties.  These beaches are not closed and beach goers may continue to use these beaches, but the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and the Mississippi State Department of Health advise people to be aware of their surroundings while recreating.” Many other areas can not say the same such as in Louisiana, whose beaches have been devastated by the oil.

As the gulf oil leak crisis continues to leak oil without an end in site, gulf officials are doing everything they can to contain the spill and keep our beaches clean. Tourists can also help out by volunteering. Check out the following sites for more information on volunteering for the four northern gulf states:

http://www.volunteerlouisiana.gov/- Louisiana

http://www.volunteerflorida.org/ – Florida

http://211connectsalabama.org/ – Alabama

http://www.mcvs.org/ – Mississippi

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory?id=10914401

Now through the end of the summer or August 13, you can enjoy movies on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. Instead of spending your nights inside watching movies while on vacation, take it to the beach and enjoy a variety of movies all summer long. Games and activities will also take place on the beach prior to the start of the movies. The games and activities are set to start at 7:30pm est and the movies are set to go on around 8:30 on a 16 foot projector.

Movies on the beach are presented free of charge, so get there early to get a good spot on the beach.

The movies will be shown at  the beach at 27th Street in Ocean City, Maryland.

Here are a list of movies and dates:

June 28th- Monsters vs. Aliens
July 2nd- Kung Fu Panda
July 5th – Astro Boy
July 9th – The Spy Next Door
July 12th – Hotel For Dogs
July 16th – Surf’s Up
July 19- Shorts
July 23rd- Shrek the Third
July 26th- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
July 30th – Madagascar 2
August 2nd- Planet 51
August 6th  – The Bee Movie
August 9th – Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove
August 13th- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

For more information and a list of events go to http://ococean.com/events/family-movies-on-the-beach or call 800-626-2326

For those vacationing in Las Vegas this week, be sure to check out the Natural History Museum. The Luxar Las Vegas hotel donated The Treasures of Egypt display to the museum after it closed its King Tut museum.  The Treasures of Egypt is a huge display, 4,000 sq ft to be exact, of 500 replica Egyptian artifacts. Some of the replicas that can be seen include a replica gold painted sarcophagus which can be found on top of the tomb of King Tut, King Tut’s burial chamber and many more. There are also interactive displays as well.

Check out this user generated video of the display at the Natural History Museum

The newest property that Sundance Vacations travelers can enjoy offers an abundance of activities and relaxation opportunities for every member of the family. Located in Escondido, in southern California, the Lawrence Welk Resort Villas is comprised of 600 acres of family vacation fun.

Your two-bedroom villa includes a full kitchen, dishwasher, coffee-maker, washer and dryer, air conditioning, cable and telephone. With 1,370 square feet of space, your villa is the perfect place to relax after experiencing all the on-site activities the resort has to offer.

Golfers will enjoy the two public courses at the resort, Oaks Golf Course and Fountains Golf Course, which was recognized by Golf Digest in their ranking of “Best Places to Play.” Between the The Fountains Course, measuring over 4,000 yards from the tournament markers, and The Oaks Course, a picturesque par three course, golfers of all ages and skill levels won’t have to go far to find the ideal golf outing. In addition to the scenic 36 holes of golf, the resort also has two practice greens and a chipping green.

A very unique feature of the resort is the 339-seat Welk Resort Theatre which features Broadway-style stage musicals. The theatre offers matinee luncheon buffet and evening dinner buffet seating, as well as performance only seating. Performances are put on 52 weeks a year, so no matter what time of year you go you’ll be able to enjoy live entertainment.

Lawrence Welk Resort Villas has a lot in store for those looking for fun in the water and poolside lounging. There are five recreation facilities on the resort. Combined they offer guests six pools (including a 7,000 sq ft lagoon-style pool), two water slides, a lap pool, a kid’s interactive splash zone and a number of hot tubs.

In addition to the water activities, there are two exercise rooms and four lighted tennis courts also on-site at the resort.

The on-site Canyon Grille offers you amazing dining for every meal of the day, with your choice of inside or outdoor seating. If you’re looking for a more casual bite to eat, there’s a Pizza Hut Express on-site, as well as a convenience market.

Of course, if you still have the energy after all the excitement and activities at the Lawrence Welk Resort, San Diego is a mere 30 miles away. With its Pacific Ocean beaches, an assortment of attractions, bustling nightlife in the Gaslamp Quarter and an abundance of dining, San Diego is only a short drive away.

Some of the attractions in or near San Diego: San Diego Zoo, Southern California Wine Country, miles of beautiful beaches, Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland, San Diego Wild Animal Park and Birch Aquarium.

Whether you’re looking for golf, sun, sights, live entertainment or a combination of all the above, the Lawrence Welk Resort Villas is the perfect get-away with something to ensure every one finds what they are looking for in a vacation.

Out with the old, in the new – this is our motto as spring arrives and we gear up for beach season. In the spirit of spring cleaning, we have launched a set of new social media communities designed specifically with our valued customers and supporters in mind. Our goal is to provide a place where you can swap tips with fellow travelers, get your questions answered, show-off your photos, and tell us what made your trip special.

We are excited to announce our official social media profiles and we look forward to connecting with you on a daily basis!

·         Our official Facebook Fan page is the ultimate platform to share your vacation experiences and memories. Post photos and videos from your trips, connect with other vacationers to exchange recommendations, and receive travel tips to ensure a smooth journey.  Become a fan to stay connected and be the first to receive Sundance Vacations updates. 

·         Our official Flickr page is also a great hub to share vacation photos and see all the incredible vacation destinations Sundance Vacations can take you.

·         For your viewing pleasure, Sundance has a new official YouTube channel! Check out our vacation videos and become a subscriber.  You can also watch videos of our sweepstakes winners and see what you can win by entering a Sundance Vacations’ contest.

·         You can also connect with us on Twitter @TravelSundance to receive vacation tips, travel promotions, and more. Traveling? Tweet us a picture of your trip and let us know what you are doing.

We will no longer be updating our other social media sites, so be sure to join our new official communities to keep up with the latest news and promotions. We have some exciting announcements in the works you won’t want to miss!

We encourage you to log on to our new official sites and share your own vacation memories today!

The Sundance Vacations travel community is elated! The U.S. celebrated a major victory recently when President Obama signed into law the first-ever national travel promotion and communications program to attract more international travelers to the U.S. This is a major step in addressing America’s decline in attracting overseas visitors to the U.S. during the past decade.

According to the US Travel Association, “The Act is in response to worrisome evidence that the U.S. is losing ground to other countries in the global travel market. The U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors in 2009 than in 2000, and the failure to simply keep pace with the growth in international long-haul travel since 2000 has cost the U.S. economy an estimated $509 billion in total spending and $32 billion in direct tax receipts, according to the U.S. Travel Association. The Travel Promotion Act will counteract this trend by creating a campaign to promote the United States as a premier destination and explain changing travel security policies to foreign visitors.”

“By signing the Travel Promotion Act, President Obama has acted to support the power of travel to serve as an economic stimulant, job generator and diplomatic tool,” said Roger Dow, president & CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “This program will create tens of thousands of American jobs and help reverse negative perceptions about travel to the United States.” (US Travel Association Press)

Oxford Economics estimates that a successful national promotion will yield $4 billion in new spending annually, create 40,000 new jobs and generate $321 million in new tax revenue each year. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the Travel Promotion Act would reduce the federal deficit by $425 million over ten years!! For more information about the Travel Promotion Act, please visit www.poweroftravel.org or www.ustravel.org.

Sundance Vacations couldn’t be more excited! We welcome all international travelers to visit the plethora of Sundance Vacations properties located throughout the U.S, Mexico, and the Caribbean. What is your favorite Sundance Vacations property? www.sundancevacations.com