Rural tourism has opened up this superb area of southern europe and it is
now possible to rent a villa in many outstanding and remote areas hither
too unexplored by the vast majority of tourists. To a large extent the
countryside has been unspoilt by the recent developments along the Costas
and there are still many out of the way and remote areas to explore. In
recognition of this several new air routes have now been opened up
with very reasonable flights into both Jerez and Granada airports.

The white villages, or “Pueblos Blancos” are a good starting point as in the main
life goes on in them much as it has done for centuries. Casares, Gaucin, Benaojen,
Estacion de Cortes, Cortes de la Frontera, to name but a few, are all
delightful places to spend a few hours ambling around, marvelling at
the architecture, the slow unchanging pace of life and sampling the
various tapas bars. During the summer months every village holds a tradtional
feria with music and dancing in the streets all night long.

Andlaucia is of course the home of Flamenco dancing and bull fighting. The oldest
bullring in Spain is to be found at Ronda, and whatever your feelings are
on this rather emotive sport it is an interesting building to visit as is the
adjacent museum. The old part of the town is also a lovely place to visit
with its amazing Tajo ( gorge) and wealth of old buildings. A train ride
from one of the white villages further down country such as Jimena or Gaucin,
is a lovely way to arrive at Ronda as the train passes through some beautiful
countryside not visable from the road.It also continues on upto
Granada which is a must for any visitor to Andalucia with its stunning
Alhambra Palace, old gypsey quarter and many other places of interest.

The wildlife in Andalucia is amongst the best now left in Europe with an
astonishing array of birds, both resident and migrant, it is particuarly
well blessed with birds of prey such as Griffon and Eygptian Vultures,
Bonnelli’s and Booted Eagles,Peregrine falcons, Red and Black Kites, to name
but a few. These magnificent birds are a common site soaring majestically above the
mountain ranges of Andalucia. It is also home to wild boar, mongeese and genets
most of which are not particuarly well appreciated by the local population
as they do alot of damage to gardens and live stock, however they are all
now protected by law. In the spring the countryside puts on a stunning
display of wild flowers, some of which are now quite rare in other parts of
Europe.

There is much unspoilt countryside where one is quite at liberty to walk
and camp, just being careful with fires in the dry summer months. Whilst
official footpaths and signposting are rather limited there are few real
restrictions as to where you can wander as long as you just use common sense
with regard to rubbish, fires etc. However always take water with you
as you can easily find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no natural
source of water nearby.

So take a holiday away from all the hustle and bustle, rent a private villa,
hire a car and just enjoy exploring this delightful region of Spain.

Article submitted by Ruth Polak the owner of http://www.costadelsol-vacationrentals.com. A web site specializing in holiday villas and
apartments on the Costa del Sol and in Rural Andalucia. You will also
find lots of information about Spain and Andalucia, in particular.

Countless hours can be spent queuing for popular attractions, but there are a number of ways that they can be avoided as much as possible.

Try to get to the park as early as possible. The lines are shorter in the morning when the park first opens, and understandably it becomes busier towards midday and the afternoon. It’s a good idea to plan out which rides and attractions you would most like to see, so that you can get to these rides whilst the lines are relatively short. It makes no sense to jump in line for the first ride that you see because they will more than likely have shorter queues than the most popular rides throughout the day.

Another option to avoid the long lines at Disneyland is to ride many of the popular rides later in the evening, whilst the majority of people are enjoying other entertainment. Disneyland provides entertainment from the moment the gates open until late into the evening so finding short lines for the rides you would most like to enjoy is possible. However, this of course means that you will miss the other entertainment that is put on in the evening, so it is probably best to keep this option as a last resort.

You could also consider purchasing FastPass tickets for the rides that offer them, but make sure you do this early. FastPass tickets can be obtained from machines located near the rides that accept them. The ticket doesn’t mean that you will be able to move to the front of the line immediately, but instead will schedule you an appointment for later in the day, at which time you will be able to avoid the queue and move to the front. In the mean time you are free to enjoy the rest of the entertainment and rides that the park offers.

The FastPass ticket will give you a one-hour time frame in which to enjoy the ride. For instance if your tickets says “1pm to 2pm”, then you will be able to show up at the ride at any point between this time and move to the front of the line. Remember to keep your Disneyland ticket with you as you will need this to obtain a FastPass ticket.

FastPass tickets are currently available for the following rides:
- Indiana Jones
- Splash Mountain
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin
- Autopia
- Space Mountain
- Buzz Lightyear

With a bit of planning and by remember the tips I have provided above, you can make the most out of your visit to Disneyland. Your day does not have to be taken up by queuing in line after line!

You may think that a car repair is something you could handle. But it’s always a good idea to take the vehicle to a certified auto repair centre if you think that something is wrong. A regular check-up would ensure that the oil is changed when needed, brakes are monitored, and other such matters are taken care of. However, you should remember that a car repair isn’t something you can avoid especially if you drive long distances often enough. The cost not only depends on the nature of repairs, but also the availability of the parts, the make and the model of the vehicle, and finally how much you would like to pay for the car repair; the availability of tools and the number of hours required is also taken into account. Get a total auto repair estimate before you agree for the car repair. If you do your homework right, there is no reason why your car repair should be a nightmare.

You can travel to some of the world’s most interesting and beautiful locations and you will only pay for airfare, dining out and tourist attractions!

Now, you may have questions whether how this can be? The concept is so easy you just use a housing exchange service. You may not know that this service is widely used in Europe, Asia and Australia.

It is so simple like this. You just choose a country you want to visit, duration, and the exact time you want to go. Arrangements are made, and you exchange homes with someone else.

This is how it works and you can cut your costs up to 75 percent. By staying in a home, you’re not paying the high cost of hotels (which can run upwards of $125 a night) or dining in restaurants, saving you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars!

In addition, this is a big chance for you to live like the locals do. You can also enjoy total immersion into the culture, and rather than being treated like a tourist, you have the opportunity to make new friends and participate in your surroundings as a member of the community.

Many of you may be worry while being away from your home. With this service, you have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your home is being carefully looked after, your plants are being watered, and your pets are taken care of.

What you have to do is start searching through the Internet and find a company that you’re comfortable with. Sign up and join the housing exchange list. (Some companies have over 10,000 members!) Then, with a click of your mouse, you can find information of other, like-minded travelers, who want to visit your area.

Most of companies provide you pictures of the houses and the description about the houses as well. You can directly contact the owners to reach an agreement.

Here are some of the things you’ll want to agree on:

Total number of adults and children staying in the home
Use of the vehicle and it’s maintenance
What linen will be provided in house, and how will it be cleaned?
Care of pets
Long distance phone calls

Don’t worry though. Your housing exchange company can help you put together a list, and give you ideas for preparing for your guests.

Instead of going to a cold, impersonal hotel room, you go “home” and are welcomed by your next door neighbor, who gives you the house keys and invites you to dinner the next evening, telling you to call them if you have any questions.

You can have the vacation you’ve always dreamed about, and save thousands of dollars at the same time! Bon voyage!

Susan Wong is president of www.anaheim-hotel-reservation-online.com and CEO of www.hotelzzz.net, websites which provide information and resources about hotels and travelling.

So, why so black and why on a Friday? Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving used to mean one thing for retailers: it was the first day in the lengthy retailing calendar where a store could make enough money [move merchandise] to see yearly losses [for bookkeeping purposes represented by the color red] turn into gains [represented by the color black]. Supposedly, all the sales completed throughout the year were done at a loss until that one big day, Black Friday, whereby enough merchandise is sold to reverse course and to begin to turn a profit for the year.

Today, retailers don’t rely on just one day, even though some news reports still seem to indicate that the day after Thanksgiving is so vital to them. In reality, retailers have long since spread their reliance on Black Friday further out; now it is an entire season, Christmas, that ultimately determines whether a merchant turns a profit for the year or not.

Of course, if you are part of that one small, but significant part of the population who must rouse themselves up at 5 a.m. one day after eating Thanksgiving dinner and schlep over to a local retailer to wait on customers for twelve straight hours then the day is, understandably, black to you. Happy Black Friday!

Copyright 2005 — Matt Keegan is The Article Writer who writes on a variety of topics including: advocacy, automobiles, aviation, business, Christian themes, family, news, product reviews, travel, writing, and more. Samples from his portfolio are available right online.

This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors. There are a few sites in my favorites and bookmarks that I consider poorly designed. I still have them, because they have information I want. Lucky for the site owner that their content was that good! But one day I will find another site with the same information and a better design. Then guess who will be in my favorites and who will be left out? Maybe your content is great too, but don’t take chances on a poor design. Think how much more repeat traffic and referred traffic you will get if you have both great content and great design.

Design Taste Varies - OK, design is a matter of taste and target audience to some degree. What looks good to one visitor may not be so great to another. Here we have the old adage of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. But there are solid basics that go into good site design. Creating a distinctive visual style and applying it consistently is the best way to bind a series of subjects and web pages together.

Layouts - The layout of your site is an important design element. A webpage is a document, plain and simple. It is like formatting a letter, an outline, a report, or an advertisement. Establish a layout grid and a style for handling your text and graphics, then stick with it to build a consistent rhythm and unity across all the pages of your site. Make it easy to follow, pleasing to the eye. Learn to use tables and nested tables, lists, and even well designed frames for controlling layouts.

Color - Color has a lot to do with target audience as well. What appeals to a teenager may not work with a target audience of baby-boomers, and so forth. But anybody can appreciate color coordination. Color coordination can be learned. Yes, it’s a lot easier if you have a natural “knack” for these things, but you can learn basic color coordination techniques that make the difference between “tacky, yuk!!!” and “soothing to the eye”.

Safe Colors - Everyone does NOT have 16 million colors on their computer. Learn to use the websafe 216 colors. Notice that’s 216 colors, not 256 colors. This is a matter of video card capability and you are at the mercy of the viewer’s personal computer system. Your best bet is to stick to 6 x 6 x 6 bit color resolution (216 colors) to cover the majority of Internet users. The 216 color palette gives you plenty for design options. Sure, not as many as 256 colors or 16 million, but still plenty to accomplish what you want or need to do with color.

Page Load Time - Now I’ll be the first person to admit that I have made *personal* web pages which have large graphics or music .wav files and other things that take awhile to load. The point here is, they are my personal websites, *not* my professional or commercial websites. I may use these long loading pages for demo-ing several techniques, or chatting with friends and other developers, but never never never for professional site design (unless my client insists, in which case I do not use their site as a demo to other potential clients!). This doesn’t mean you have to give up everything on professional sites. It just means take it easy, use only one high-load-time element or two, learn to compress your graphics properly, and if you’ve got that much “stuff” then break it up into more than one page.

Don’t Overdo IT - A typical mistake among developers is to overdo it when putting together a website. Try to use extras in moderation. Some common things that get overused are:

• graphics

• background images

• bevels and other graphic tricks

• excessive frames

• text scrolling, animated .gif’s, page fade-ins

Too much of something just comes off as being “cutsie”, tacky, or unoriginal…but used properly it can add just the right touch. Learn to use things that compliment your site’s content, and not to overdo it with extra techniques and tricks.

Readability - Make your pages as easy to read as possible. Black text on a white or off-white background is the easiest to read. There are plenty of hard-to-read pages that use backgrounds the same shade as the text (dark text on a dark background and light on light), or what I call the “neon” look with bright color on bright color.

Learn to use the tag and give your readers a font that’s easy on the eye. I always think it’s such a shame to see a site full of great content and then left in the default Times New Roman font. Use a sans-serif font - arial and verdana are good choices, then put “sans-serif” generic font in your last html tag attribute to cover anyone that may not have a specific font you listed as a first choice or second choice.