#CAD conversion services Italy

[shalin-designs]

Affordable CAD conversion services from Shalin Designs. We offer a fast and reliable service that will get your files converted quickly and accurately. Contact us today to learn more!

[fifth--business-blog]

8 Budget Plan Friendly Trip Ideas for 2018

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

[manideep8]

3D Scanning Market - Forecast (2022 - 2027)

3D Scanning Market size is valued at $429.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a value of $704.2 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period 2022-2027. 3D scanning is the process of analyzing a real-world object or environment to collect data on its shape and possibly its appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital 3D models. 3D Optical Scanners are widely used in industrial design, engineering and manufacturing due to their ability to quickly and precisely capture the required data. They are also used in other applications such as healthcare, retrofitting heavy machinery, creating visual effects for movies, developing characters for video games and designing customized prosthetic devices. The adoption of efficient scanning technology is on the rise in healthcare applications due to enhanced medical facilities and improved awareness regarding hygiene. The average cost for 3D Structured Light scanners depends on whether it is Hardware or software and the services involved. However, as per Artec 3D the average price of 3D scanners ranges between $10000-$20000 approximately and the software ranges from $7000-$15000. This limits their adoption. The price range of the 3D scanners increases or decreases depending on the requirements of the end users for instance the device type, technology and other factors. As 3D LIDAR and photogrammetry scanners are highly deployed under major industry verticals such as Healthcare, Automotive, Industrial and many others, manufacturers need to spend significantly towards making advanced 3D scanners for fast conversion of 3D scan data into CAD models with an advanced set of tools for a flexible workflow. This eventually adds to the purchasing costs of the solutions, thus rising its pricing standards.

Report Coverage

The report : “3D Scanning Market Forecast (2022-2027)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the 3D Scanning Market report.

By Technology Type : Laser Scanners, Structured Light Scanners, Photogrammetry Scanners, Ultrasound Scanners, White Light Scanners, Optical Scanners, Modulated Light Scanners. By Type of Device : Handheld, Portable, Free Standing By End Use Device : Smartphones, Tablets, Professional Cameras, Hobbyist Cameras, Contract Photographers, Drones and Others By Application : Defense & Aerospace, Building Infrastructure & Utilities, Educational, Healthcare, Industrial, Sports and Entertainment, Insurance, Media & Advertisement, Environment, Exploration, Automotive and Others By Revenue Channel : Construction Managers, Architects, Engineers, Owners, Government /Public Bodies, Insurance and Others By Type : Hardware, Software and Services By Geography : North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Russia and Others), APAC(China, Japan India, SK, Australia and Others), South America(Brazil, Argentina, and others), and RoW (Middle East and Africa)

[igoldencnc2021]

4 Axis CNC Router For Wood/Plywood/PVC/Carving/Milling/Cutting Price

This 4 Axis CNC Router adopts carousel automatic tool changer. And the spindle motor uses an imported spindle with the advantages like high precision, high speed, low noise and long service life. In addition, the imported square linear guide is used, so the accuracy is very accurate and the operation is very stable. It is better to process large piecework with large format work surface. Equipped with an Italy air-cooled spindle,it is easier to operate and use. In addition, equipped with a rotating device, the CNC machine can process cylindrical work pieces such as seat legs, stair rails and so on.Price:13350-17350$📷Main Features of 4 Axis CNC Router: ▷ 1300*2500mm, 1500*3000mm, and 2000*3000mm standard sizes (Special sizes available upon request.)▷Rotary axis 200mm （ 80mm-300mm for option）▷ 3.5kw high-frequency collet spindle (3.5kw/4.5kw/6kw/7.5kw  for option )▷Brushless microstepper motors ( servo motor for option)▷ Automatic tool calibration easy and accurate “Z” zero position▷ Multifunction Vaccum and Aluminum T-Slot table▷ Easy to use Mach 3 controller  with all industry standard CAD/CAM software (DSP or Nc-studio for option)How does a 4 Axis CNC Router work?Special design and typesetting software are installed in the general microcomputer to design and typeset graphics and text, automatically generate processing path information, and transmit tool path data to the single-chip through the USB interface or other data transmission interfaces.The CNC system receives the tool path data and completes the display After a series of functions such as interaction with the user, a specific algorithm is used to convert the input path information into numerical control information. The controller converts this information into a signal (pulse train) that drives the stepper motor or servo motor to control the engraving machine X, Y, Z Three-axis pass. Simultaneous milling can engrave various planes or three-dimensional graphic characters designed on the computer to realize engraving automation.4 Axis CNC Router Application:Wood furniture industry： Doors; Cabinets; Tables; Chairs.Wave plate, fine pattern, antique furniture, wooden door, screen, craft sash, composite gates, cupboard doors, interior doors, sofa legs, headboards and so on.Die industry： A sculpture of copper, aluminum, iron and other metal molds, as well as artificial marble, sand , plastic sheeting, PVC pipe, and other non-metallic mold.Multifunctional Atc Wood Cnc Router Machine Parameter： CabinetLNC CabinetBeamSteel GantryCountertopVacuum suction can suck and clamp the countertopRailTaiwan HINWINSpindle9KW HQD air cooling spindle ( swing 180°)DriveDongling 1.5KWFrequency conversionFuling 11KWVoltageThree-phase 380V/60HZMotorX/Y axis: Dongling Servo 1.5KW + SHIMPO reducer. Z axis: Dongling Servo 1.2KW + brakeRackTaiwan xinyue rackVacuum pumpWater-cooled vacuum pump 5.5KWLubrication systemAutomatic lubricationVacuum cleaner3kw double cylinder vacuum cleaner DescriptionParametersStroke1300*2500*200mmSystemLNC 4-axis system

[decisionforsight]

Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market

Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market Size, Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts to 2030

The visualization and 3D rendering software is a process of generating 3D model into a pixel perfect 3D photorealistic image by using computer software tools such as Sketch up, Blender, Auto-Cad, and Rhino. 3D rendering is the last step in an animation process in final appearance to the models and animation with visual effects including shading, shadows, texture-mapping, reflections and motion blurs. This software can have multiple number of benefits such as user friendly interface, improved visual communication, cost effectiveness, precise & accurate renderings, east to distribute, and easily marketable & sharable. The graphic’s engineer provides blueprints to the clients to influence the skill capabilities by designing environmental and product designs. These solutions help in real-time marketing, product designing and training among the several other applications. The Global Visualization And 3d Rendering Software market is expected at USD 3.6 billion in 2020 and will register to a CAGR of 20.5% during the forecast period.

Download Sample Copy of the Report to understand the structure of the complete report (Including Full TOC, Table & Figures) @ https://www.decisionforesight.com/request-sample/DFS020353 

Market Dynamics and Factors:

The growth of high definition 3D viewing experience, low cost, lesser time, user-friendly service provider interface and increasing need for innovative real time marketing are the major drivers for the growth of the global visualization and 3D rendering software market. In addition, increasing demand from real estate construction sector to frame unique architectural design of the buildings and also the emergence of building smart cities are some of the other factors which will drive the market during forecast time. Conversely, shortage of visualization infrastructure and 3D content availability are responsible to restrain the market growth.  Additionally, the use of this software in reducing the time in finalizing product images which create natural scenes for use in media or client engagement purposes are also boosting the growth of market during the next coming years. On the rather hand, the growth of high definition 3D viewing experience are creating immense opportunities for the key players in the global market over the years to come. However, increase in number of residents shifting towards urban areas and government investments on smart cities with smart infrastructure hub are considered to be the challenge for market in upcoming years.

Market Segmentation:

Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market – By Deployment Type

Cloud

On-Premises

Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market – By Application

Architectural & Product Visualization

High-End Video Games

Marketing & Advertisement

Videography

Cartoon

Research & Training

Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market – By Geography

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

U.K.

France

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

Japan

China

India

Australia

Rest of Asia Pacific

ROW

Latin America

Middle East

Africa

New Business Strategies, Challenges & Policies are mentioned in Table of Content, Request TOC at @ https://www.decisionforesight.com/toc-request/DFS020353 

Geographic Analysis:

North America being developed by always adopting advanced technologies, and dominates the largest share with CAGR at 23.9% for the growth of the global visualization and 3D rendering software market during forecast period. The dominant position in the market is attributed to the domicile of a large number of prominent players (Autodesk, Inc.) and presence of robust wireless connectivity in this region. Europe holds the second highest for the regional market which is attributed to the surge in demand for high level gaming interface, offering to ensure low-cost & on time image analysis, precision modelling, and virtual infrastructure. Additionally, Asia pacific is expected to fastest growing regional market, owing to rapid real estate sector, large investment of companies in research and development for better and accurate precision of the visualization of the images. However, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa region accounted less market share in the global market as compared to other regions due to slow Information and Communications Technology (ICT) spending and slow growth in real estate industry. LAMEA region are projected to witness substantial growth of the market attributed to growing creditable industries that are rapidly adopting the latest technologies over the upcoming period.

Competitive Scenario:

The key players of global visualization and 3D rendering software markets are Autodesk, Inc, Siemens AG, Luxion Inc., Adobe Systems Incorporated, NVIDIA Corporation, Trimble, Inc., Next Limit Technologies, Corel Corporation, SAP SE, 3D Virtualization, Act-3D B.V., and Webmax Technologies.

Connect to Analyst @ https://www.decisionforesight.com/speak-analyst/DFS020353 

How will this Market Intelligence Report Benefit You?

The report offers statistical data in terms of value (US$) as well as Volume (units) till 2030.

Exclusive insight into the key trends affecting the Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software industry, although key threats, opportunities and disruptive technologies that could shape the Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market supply and demand.

The report tracks the leading market players that will shape and impact the Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market most.

The data analysis present in the Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market report is based on the combination of both primary and secondary resources.

The report helps you to understand the real effects of key market drivers or retainers on Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market business.

The 2021 Annual Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market offers:

100+ charts exploring and analysing the Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market from critical angles including retail forecasts, consumer demand, production and more

15+ profiles of top producing states, with highlights of market conditions and retail trends

Regulatory outlook, best practices, and future considerations for manufacturers and industry players seeking to meet consumer demand

Benchmark wholesale prices, market position, plus prices for raw materials involved in Global Visualization and 3D Rendering Software Market type

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About Us:

Decision Foresight is a market research organization known for its reliable and genuine content, market estimation and the best analysis which is designed to deliver state-of-the-art quality syndicate reports to our customers. Apart from syndicate reports, you will find the best market insights, strategies that will help in taking better business decisions on subjects that may require you to develop and grow your business-like health, science, technology and many more. At Decision Foresight, we truly believe in disseminating the right piece of knowledge to a large section of the audience and cover the in-depth insights of market leaders across various verticals and horizontals.

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[dippedanddripped]

“A-COLD-WALL* has kind of gone through hyperbole streams of development in the last two and a half years,” says its founder Samuel Ross, who since the brand’s launch in 2015 has become as well known as the brand itself. What started as a British streetwear label with a new approach to commerciality has evolved into a multi-million dollar, service-based luxury company. The fundamentals around functional design, architectural form and a precise eye for detail and fabric that were present from day one are still there, everything else has changed. The evolution towards a more stripped back A-COLD-WALL* — one focused on reduction, technique and signature silhouettes — is noticeable.

“I think there were two points for the change. First, it was about a truth. Although I’m a voice in streetwear, I come from an industrial product design background. There’s always the more serious and conservative approach to this industry because there are simply more rules in place,” Ross explains. “So I think what’s happened is, I’ve just been a bit more honest with myself, in terms of my personal value system and making sure that the brand reflects that integrity.”

“Next to that, I came to fashion via streetwear at the age of 21. I’m about to be 30 next year in May. My perspective and value systems have evolved as I’ve also grown into full adulthood as a father, as an individual with a fiancé, who’s now buying property and is looking at MA courses,” he continues. “It’s a different chapter in life. And I’m very much about gracefully moving forward. There needs to be space for the new young generation to come into play. And my role now is to continue to mature as a designer and an intellectual within the fields I’m operating within. It’s not to cling onto streetwear. I need to pass the baton on.”

“You guys are kind of seeing me transcend into a new space as a designer, not just as a fashion designer. The fine arts world is where I’m gracefully moving into now. But this movement reflects the type of work that I’ll be making in fashion.”

So how does it all work?

With Highsnobiety, Ross exclusively shares the inner workings of his brand. From ideation to marketing. The A to Z of A-COLD-WALL*.

“It’s not a reintroduction, but it’s the first time people are going to have a deep dive and see material constructional quality,” he says. “Pre-Spring 2021 is a really good place to start that off on because it’s about design that can integrate into the modern wardrobe. It’s conscious design, it’s functional design. It’s not seasonal for you to wear. I mean, the biggest change I’d probably say is, we’ve moved completely away from decoration and embellishment, and it’s all about function, shape, and form. It’s a completely different psyche.”

The six stages of creating an A-COLD-WALL* collection, strap in.

Manifesto

I typically start by building a 25-page manifesto, which is pretty much like an amalgamation of keywords that capture the zeitgeist from my perspective. Typically it’s related to lands, terrain, and urban architecture as a whole so form, shape, color, and sound.

So, that happens every season. It’s pretty much like this mixed media document, you could say, of still images or notes of prose and poetry and color, anything which feels relative to what I believe the market wants and where A-COLD-WALL* should be going. Typically, as the collections have moved forward, they’ve become looser and more abstract.

For the most part, the manifesto is [inspired by] past collections as I’ve developed enough concepts to tie us over for another four to five years. There are probably 10 to 12 different books with pages and pages of loose files that I’ve developed over the last half decade. I mean, from a conceptual perspective, they’re fine. It’s now taking them and looking at how they can be integrated into a working product, which can serve the user and this is where the research comes into play. For the most part, we’re looking at dramatic shapes and forms. It’s about finding that midpoint of how a reference point actually improves based on what’s already in the market. And how we can add our opinion as a brand to such a category.

Sketches

The manifesto then informs the sketching process which I typically go straight into. It’s pretty much based on lucid forms and new shapes. There are literally pages and pages and pages of sketches, notes and annotations. It’s where the actual blueprints of a collection are built. Historically, when I got into sketching, I tended to overdesign a collection. Now it’s just a process of actually reducing and stripping back designs that may not be relevant, or we may not need for the season. So I sketch in, say, week two, and it probably won’t change much to what you see on the runway. It’s almost like the raw data of the collection.

After this, it’s about perfecting, refining, reducing, and stabilizing the concept. To a certain degree, although I have a great team, I kind of work in isolation. It’s interesting because, typically, I operate a bit differently from our in-house design team. I usually start with form and sketch and then we go into research. It’s almost like I lead by concept and simultaneously brief the design team. After, I present a collection to them and we work together to actualize it.

CAD

I don’t really touch the digital CAD (computer-aided design) format until two to three stages later, as I like to work on the concept by hand and material. At this point, I’m having deep discussions with the team. The concepts and silhouettes are in place. How do we now make sure that this product or this color palette, or the size of whatever actually speaks to a consumer’s needs? How can we offer them something which is both comfortable and rational? Because we’re not necessarily in the phase of hyper experimental embellished ideas anymore, it’s more about meeting a midpoint between exploration and function.

To get a sketch into a CAD we’ll probably do around three to four rounds, because it’s not just about the design, it’s also making sure that the merchandiser is getting what they need from it. Making sure the commercial team is going to be able to get the level of marginality they need from the proposed design, and the production manager is able to actually source the materials and hit the deadlines we need to reach. So although it’s a simple CAD, there are still four to five different individuals within the business focussed on it.

My job at this point is to look for faults in the product. I’m ensuring that my team is deep diving into all of the product details. I’m sure for anyone who’s in an arranging room with me, it’s not fun because this is where I’m tearing down ideas to get the product where it needs to be. They aren’t comfortable conversations [however] they’re open conversations, and they’re from a [group] perspective. By now, I’m embodying what the consumer is going to think and what the likes of the LVMH group are going to think because they’re who we’re pegging as our competitor.

Fabric Swatches and Color Selection

As soon as the technical designs and CADs are complete, and the functionality is agreed upon, we go into fabric selection. This is where we’re sitting down, usually with my team or two others, and we pretty much go through around 400 different swatch books strictly selecting fabrics. We see what equates to the price we want, the color sensitivity, and the MOQ (minimum order quantity) we need to reach.

Typically you split the fabric and materials into two different sides of the brand. One side [connects with] the left brain and the other with the right. You’ve got your more commercial aspects on the left and then you’ve got your more artisanal, sensitive fabrics, which will be on the right. So for the left brain of the fabrics, which are more commercial, more accessible, we source between Portugal, South Korea and China, primarily. For the right brain, which is really the design tier and the artisanal side of the brand, we pretty much only source within Portugal and Italy. It’s super important at this point to connect the two.

I still work on 95 percent of all of the print graphics myself. The inspiration really depends. With jersey, there tends to be a theme for graphics, which I evolve throughout. But again, I’ve spent so much time as a print developer for Hood By Air and other brands I worked under that I do print very well, therefore it’s something I still develop with my own hand, specifically for the upcoming season.

Sampling

In our research process we’re assessing the market and seeing what works, what potentially hasn’t worked, and how the DNA and language of A-COLD-WALL* can then move into a space which maybe wasn’t articulated so well by competitors. The biggest point of difference in the brand’s offering here is that there’s this process of taking high concepts and distilling them into functional goods and functional products.

When we look at the bags for example, there are about five revisions in regards to each prototyped sample before the final product is out. I think there needs to be a real understanding of intelligence in products. Something that doesn’t make a product work for me is when the quality of the fabric isn’t on point. And then it’s about the functionality and the intelligence of the product. ‘Does the feeling and aura of this product communicate the intelligence of the wearer that we’re targeting?’ If it doesn’t, it has to go back into development.

And, as I said last season for Fall/Winter 2020, there were two hard resets of the entire collection because what was coming back just didn’t resonate with what I wanted to communicate with our consumer. This season we won’t need to do as many hard resets because the DNA and the future of the brand are aligned. It’s really about making sure the product that comes back [from production] respects the end consumer.

Reaching the Audience

We now sit in a space of modern luxury, so the expectation of our products and the price point often equates to what LVMH or Kering will be selling at. That means the product needs to be very well thought out and articulated to be understood.

I’ve been building up personas in-house in the past year. We now speak to three different personas. Those being the artisan, the conscious professional, and the modern luxury consumer. One is more centric to say a Veilance, Stone Island, CP Company or Nike ACG, while the artisan, for example, might be more extroverted in their opinion and choice of color and silhouette. All three, however, are completely relevant and it’s super important we’re able to serve all. So here’s this underpinning, and almost wired framework, for every product being allocated to a persona. And it needs to meet the immediate requirements of that persona. The silhouette, color, construction, hand touch, messaging, all need to ensure that there’s the underpinning values of A-COLD-WALL* in every product. Those being brutalism, architecture, industrial design and color sensitivity.

If you look at the M-65 jacket for example, that was targeted to the conscious professional. But now the M-65 is synonymous with the brand so how does the M-65 silhouette we propose exist in the conscious professional, but also apply to the artisan, and to the modern luxury consumer? And that’s where the fun begins because you start looking at silhouette and function and embellishment and texture to kind of spread the existence of a signature product to different consumers and to different demographics.

I think the main point is how strategic and how stringent this is. I’m here to produce a really serious body of work here. It’s not all fun and games. It’s about making really good products that can compete.

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Architectural Designing Services

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Our Architectural service includes:

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3D Rendering.

Architectural Drafting

Site, Location and Building Layout.

Floor Plans, Elevations, Flooring details, Sections, Roof Details, Wall sections, schedules of door and window..

Interior detailing such as furniture layouts, fixture layouts, electrical devices layouts etc.

Landscape Drafting.

Architectural As Built drawings for the Construction Documents.

Working Drawings from Blue prints, hand drawn sketches or conceptual sketches.

Paper to CAD conversions for all types of Buildings.

Architectural 3D

Photorealistic Exterior Views for any type of Building with the real life environment such as vegetation, effects of different lighting conditions (sunlight and shadows), landscape, human activities etc.

Photorealistic Interior Views for any type of Building including Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Storage Room, Corridors, Reception Area, Office Work Place, Garage etc.

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Photomontage Images which integrate the new view of the building with the existing photograph of the site.

Architectural Animation Walkthrough

Virtual Walkthroughs showing the smallest details of the interior and exterior such as building material, landscapes, vegetation, lighting, shadows etc and moving objects such as escalators etc.

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For more information please Contact us

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[ashishtriton]

EUROPE 4D PRINTING MARKET 2019-2028

An analysis by Triton Market Research has concluded that the European 4D printing market will expand at a CAGR of 22.66% during the forthcoming years 2019-2028.

The countries evaluated in the Europe 4D printing market are:

•         Italy

•         The United Kingdom

•         Germany

•         Russia

•         France

•         Spain  

•         Rest of Europe

As per the European Union, several developments are witnessed in the area of additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing and 4D printing, of components of car interiors. For instance, in Germany, Aachen University, Fraunhofer, the University of Düsseldorf and the University of Hamburg have joined hands for developing government-funded projects. In 2019, a European specialist healthcare investor, GHP (Global Healthcare Opportunities), raised approximately EUR 975 million, the largest healthcare fund in the region. This fund is expected to be utilized for the growth of untapped market opportunities in the industry of medical technology. Since 4D printing finds its applications in medical technology, the increasing amount of funding is likely to aid the regional market growth over the coming years.

https://www.tritonmarketresearch.com/reports/europe-4d-printing-market#request-free-sample

In 2018, the EU set a new emissions measurement system that led to additional costs, as a number of old models were recertified. 4D printed engine components are anticipated to improve combustion, volume efficiency and power output. Hence, the new emissions measurement system has offered an opportunity to the automotive producers for the development of 4D printing market.

CT CoreTechnologie Group is a company providing computer-aided design interoperability solutions and services. It offers a wide range of products, including 3 Dimensions evolution, data conversion software, analyzer, among others. It also provides products like a 4D additive manufacturing software suite, that is able to read CAD from 24 different formats. The company is headquartered in Germany and has a vast geographical presence.

 A few names in the 4D printing market are CT CoreTechnologie Group, Autodesk Inc, ExOne, EnvisionTEC Inc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP, Stratasys Ltd, Organovo Holdings Inc and Arc Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES).

[seobacklinkswebsite-blog]

CHEAP HOLIDAY IDEAS: 4 BUDGET VACATION DEALS

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, however I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone. Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal yet let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Important tips:

 When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity. Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders! Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have! ” — but it offers just as many places to travel. I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough! Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place. There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought. We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll in no way fully understand the place we call home. Driving across my country (the U. S. ) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country. If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country. Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks The great outdoors presents a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i. e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more. You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed. There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul. Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking as well as overnight solutions for RV owners! Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance) Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms! But , if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals. Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal. The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world! ) Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise companies also offer amazing low fares for early birds. Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages compared to booking online. After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat. Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap! ). Ditch Brazil and also take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

[melissagarcia8]

Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

READ THIS —> How to Become a Housesitter

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.

Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much more intuitive and user-friendly. You can also search multiple cities and countries at once, making this a must-use platform when looking for budget flights.

AirTreks – If you’re looking to plan a multi-city trip, AirTreks offers great deals for round-the-world adventures with multiple stops.

***

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Five Destinations Under $30

Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar

10 Best Places to Travel on a Budget

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

The post Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/8-great-alternative-budget-vacation-ideas/

[fifth--business-blog]

8 Budget Friendly Getaway Concepts for 2018

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

[joshuamshea84]

Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

READ THIS —> How to Become a Housesitter

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.

Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much more intuitive and user-friendly. You can also search multiple cities and countries at once, making this a must-use platform when looking for budget flights.

AirTreks – If you’re looking to plan a multi-city trip, AirTreks offers great deals for round-the-world adventures with multiple stops.

***

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Five Destinations Under $30

Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar

10 Best Places to Travel on a Budget

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

The post Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/8-great-alternative-budget-vacation-ideas/

[tamboradventure]

Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

READ THIS —> How to Become a Housesitter

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.

Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much more intuitive and user-friendly. You can also search multiple cities and countries at once, making this a must-use platform when looking for budget flights.

AirTreks – If you’re looking to plan a multi-city trip, AirTreks offers great deals for round-the-world adventures with multiple stops.

***

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Five Destinations Under $30

Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar

10 Best Places to Travel on a Budget

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

The post Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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[vidovicart]

Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals

Updated: 11/8/2018 | November 8th, 2018

While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.

I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.

Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.

So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?

What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?

Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:

Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist

How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.

We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.

We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.

We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!

If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.

Be a traveler in your own town!

Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.

Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!

Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally

Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.

I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!

Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.

There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.

We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.

Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.

If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.

Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks

The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.

You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.

There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.

Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!

Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)

Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!

But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.

Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.

The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)

Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.

Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.

After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.

READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)

Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box

Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!

Travel counter to the prevailing trend.

Zig when everyone zags.

If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.

Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.

The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!

READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!

Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour

Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.

Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.

My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.

Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter

Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.

READ THIS —> How to Become a Housesitter

Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight

Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!

Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:

Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.

Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much more intuitive and user-friendly. You can also search multiple cities and countries at once, making this a must-use platform when looking for budget flights.

AirTreks – If you’re looking to plan a multi-city trip, AirTreks offers great deals for round-the-world adventures with multiple stops.

***

Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!

Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!

Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:

Five Destinations Under $30

Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar

10 Best Places to Travel on a Budget

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

The post Cheap Holiday Ideas: 8 Alternative Budget Vacation Deals appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

[tremendouslyshyfury-blog]

Mafiaboy

On February 7, 2000, Calce targeted Yahoo! with a project he named Rivolta, meaning “riot” in Italian. Rivolta was a denial-of-service attack in which servers become overloaded with different types of communications to the point where they become unresponsive to commands. At the time, Yahoo! was a multibillion-dollar web company and the top search engine. Mafiaboy's Rivolta managed to shut down Yahoo! for almost an hour. Calce's goal was, according to him, to establish dominance for himself and TNT, his cybergroup, in the cyberworld. Buy.com was shut down in response. Calce responded to this in turn by bringing down eBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell.com via DDoS over the next week.

In a 2011 interview, Calce claimed that the attacks had been launched unwittingly, after inputting known addresses in a security tool he had downloaded from a repository on the now defunct file-sharing platform Hotline, developed by Hotline Communications. Calce would then have left for school, forgetting the application which continued the attacks during most of the day. Upon coming home Calce says that he found his computer crashed, and restarted it unaware of what had gone on during the day.  Calce claimed when he overheard the news and recognized the companies mentioned being those he had inputted earlier in the day, that he had "started to understand what might have happened".

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police first noticed Calce when he started claiming in IRCchatrooms that he was responsible for the attacks. He became the chief suspect when he claimed to have brought down Dell's website, an attack that had not been publicized at that time. Information on the source of the attacks was initially discovered and reported to the press by Michael Lyle, chief technology officer of Recourse Technologies.

Calce initially denied responsibility but later pleaded guilty to most of the charges brought against him. His lawyer insisted the child had only run unsupervised tests to help design an improved firewall, whereas trial records indicated the youth showed no remorse and had expressed a desire to move to Italy for its lax computer crime laws. The Montreal Youth Court sentenced him on September 12, 2001 to eight months of "open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the Internet, and a small fine.

Matthew Kovar, a senior analyst at the market research firm Yankee Group, generated some publicity when he told reporters the attacks caused 1.2 billion USD in global economic damages. Media outlets would later attribute a then-1.45:1 conversion value of 1.7 billion CAD to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Computer security experts now often cite the larger figure (sometimes incorrectly declaring it in U.S. dollars), but a published report says the trial prosecutor gave the court a figure of roughly $7.5 million.

While testifying at a hearing before members of the United States Congress, computer expert Winn Schwartau said that “Government and commercial computer systems are so poorly protected today they can essentially be considered defenseless - an Electronic Pearl Harbor waiting to happen.” The fact that the largest website in the world could be rendered inaccessible by a 15-year-old created widespread concern. By this time, the internet had already become an integral part of the North American economy. Consumers lost confidence in online business and the American economy suffered a minor blow as a result. Former CIA agent Craig Guent credits Mafiaboy for the significant increase in online security that took place over the decade.

[forextutor-blog]

New Post has been published on Forex Blog | Free Forex Tips | Forex News

!!! CLICK HERE TO READ MORE !!! http://www.forextutor.net/forexlive-asia-fx-news-why-yes-the-usd-does-seem-to-have-got-the-memo/

ForexLive Asia FX news: Why yes, the USD does seem to have got THE memo

Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 17 May 2017

USD/JPY

S&P affirms Australia’s rating, outlook remains negative

BOJ Governor is meeting with PM Abe

The Asia session wrap is on its way, but here is one to be going on with

Meanwhile … EUR/USD to new high, USD/JPY to new low

More on Australian wages – rising at their slowest pace on record

Westpac longer term view of the AUD/USD, to 0.65

NYSE plans to add a delay of a fraction of a second for incoming and outgoing orders

Australia – Wage Price Index (Q1): +0.5% q/q (expected +0.5%)

PBOC sets USD/CNY central rate at 6.8635 (vs. yesterday at 6.8790)

BOJ JGB buying operation today – in same amounts as prior

House Oversight Committee chair wants Comey memo by May 24

Australia – Westpac Consumer Confidence Index (May): -1.1% m/m (prior – 0.7%)

Japan data: Machinery orders for March +1.4% m/m (expected +2.5%)

Gold surging … “MOAR political disarray please!”

USD/JPY down, EUR/USD up … CAD lower (oil too)

USD/JPY continues its slide – memo may be subpoenaed

NZ data – PPI for Q1: Output 1.4% q/q (prior 1.5%) Input 0.8% q/q (prior 1.0%)

USD/JPY nudging (breaking) the overnight low

Welcome to your daily ‘latest leak from Washington’ post

ICYMI – Japan data yesterday was soft. Not positive for Thursday’s Q1 GDP

Forexlive Americas FX news wrap. Dollar the weakest of the major currencies today. Housing weaker.

Economic data due from Asia today … here is what the RBA will be watching

Trade ideas thread – Wednesday 17 May 2017

Private oil inventory data out – oil price drops

Reports the White House is on a secret service ‘lockdown’

Nasdaq gains. S&P and Dow down marginally.

There was one big news story driving markets in Asia today, the NYT piece on the “Comey memo” – in brief:

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.  

There was more to follow, chair of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz, (Utah Republican) has requested the Comey memo from the FBI – and broader information (all memoranda, notes, summaries, recordings relating to communications between Comey & Trump). He wants this by May 24th.

What followed still further was much confirmation from one side, and denial from the other. Whichever side of the fence you’d like (or perhaps you’re a trader with leg wherever its profitable 😉 ) the market perceived this as yet more doubt that tax cuts, fiscal stimulus and such can be enacted.

The result:

S&P500 mini futures trading in the ‘overnight’ on Globex: dropped around 0.5%

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan: also dropped around Nikkei down 0.4% (lower now)

On currencies the USD was broadly weaker, down against the yen, EUR, CHF, GBP

Gold surged to above $1,244/ounce

GOLD

USD/JPY is sitting near its session low as I update, down 100+ points from its high in early US trade on Tuesday. EUR/USD ticked higher during the session, above 1.1100, then above 1.1115 and its near a session high as I post. Political risk seems to have shifted away from Europe since Macron’s win in France (though I suspect we may be not quite concerned enough on Italy, but maybe that’s yet to come) and more to the US.

EUR/USD

USD/CHF has traded small but steadily lower, GBP/USD is higher. NZD/USD also up a little.

AUD and CAD are two stinkers, though. USD/CAD gained. Oil dropped on the inventory data in late US time (official inventory data will follow on Wednesday morning), given the CAD an excuse to lose some ground. It has recovered somewhat, from USD/CAD above 1.3615 at one stage its back now under 1.3600.

AUD/USD … its lower on the session around 0.7420. Wage data (for Q1) today shows wage growth trickling along at a record low level, which hasn’lt helped. Monthly consumer confidence data affirmed the weaker readings on the weekly consumer sentiment, dropping again for May. News also from S&P that while they’ve reaffirmed Australia’s AAA rating the’ve also left the outlook at negative.

The People’s Bank of China set USD/CNY reference rate at its weakest since mid-February (stronger yuan).

Regional equities:

Nikkei -0.65%

Shanghai -0.10%

HK -0.24%

ASX -0.97%

Still to come:

Due at 0430GMT from Japan, March final Industrial production

the preliminary was -2.1 % m/m, prior (February) was 3.2%

& +3.3 % y/y, prior 4.7%

ForexLive Asia FX news: Why yes, the USD does seem to have got THE memo ForexLive Asia FX news: Why yes, the USD does seem to have got THE memo http://www.forexlive.com/feed/news $inline_image