Vacations Books

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE BEACH LOVER'S SOUL is somewhat different than other volumes in the series. It has what fans of the series enjoy about the books: tales written by a variety of writers, some professional, others celebrity, and some amateurs that reflect on life experiences. In the case of this volume, the stories generally stem from family vacations and outings to the shore. Since so many are culled from vacation memories and experiences either as a child or a parent, there are not as many stories that deal with life's challenges and difficulties such as losing a loved one, coping with an illness, or other losses that are often the most moving stories in other volumes. Of course this is a good thing since so many of the stories come from the writer's enjoyable experiences in life. Still, it's not all "Life is a beach" reading either. There are some bittersweet stories in then volume, but overall it is a volume that celebrates life, the relationships we have, the people who matter most, which is what made the series so popular in the first place.

For me, the book has a personal connection. Many of my favorite memories growing up took place when my family visited Cape Cod, still my favorite vacation destination, so as I read many of the stories, I was reminded of similar experiences in my own life. The beaches mentioned may be different: beaches in California, Florida, then Great lakes, Florida, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, etc, but the bonds of love and family seem universal in this book. I now live in a coastal community and while I'm writing this review and looking out the window on a dreary March day, I know that in a short period of time, the streets of my town will be filled with visitors, flocking to the beach, perhaps creating memories that will fill a similar volume in the future.

Perhaps this book will bring you back to another time and place, or inspire you to create similar memories with family and friends. It will certainly be an enjoyable read. It also contains some stunning photographs. There are glossy photographs from some picturesque shorelines in the United States, which along with the stories, can transport person back to a variety of vacation areas and give a good frame of reference while reading. So pick up this book and take a trip to the sea.

Love the pictures and always a great insperational read, bought the book for my sister in law, we both love the beach and out doors.

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever is as merry and timeless as Robert McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal. James and Eamon, best friends, go to visit Eamon's grandparents, Bill and Pam, at the beach for a week during the summer. During the day, Bill has the boys attend nature camp as he loves everything to do with nature, especially cold places with penguins. The boys don't exactly love camp. As a matter of fact, you never actually see the boys at camp throughout the story. You only see Bill driving them to and from camp with the boys making sarcastic comments in the backseat (see the endpapers for some pictures of the boys at camp). James and Eamon would much rather stay at Bill and Pam's playing video games, eating ice cream icebergs and banana waffles, and turning their blow-up mattress into a trampoline. In other words, they don't want to do much of anything. Heck, they don't even want to change their shorts throughout the week. For James and Eamon, the best week ever consists of an air mattress in the downstairs bedroom, fun food, and the company of a best friend. It's just that simple. Now, where do I sign up for a vacation like that?

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James and his friend Eamon are going to Nature Camp for a week. It's a day camp near Eamon's grandparent's beach front house where the boys spend their week. If you want to see what they did at camp all you need to read are the endpapers which are snapshots of their time at camp. Their best week ever happened at Bill and Pam's (Eamon's grandparent's) house.

Bill's a nice old guy who has traveled the world, loves penguins, and wants to talk about Antarctica all the time. The boys couldn't care less. Pam's cooking is better than anything the boys get at home, but probably because all she serves them is banana waffles. The boys stay in the basement, sleep on an inflatable mattress that serves as a fort, a trampoline, and a couch for their video game playing. They wear the same shorts all week long.

James and Eamon are boys, true boys, marginally overseen by adults, living the summer that boys dream of. Their week over, the boys look out over the ocean at night, feeling something they can't articulate. But they know what to do: they collect driftwood, small rocks and mussel shells and assemble a miniature Antarctica complete with penguins on the deck. They hug Pam and Bill and hope they can go to Nature Camp again soon.

Frazee knows boys. At the very least she knows these boys, and she knows that with boys everything is indirect. Bill asks them if they want to go see the penguin exhibit at the zoo, they boys say they'll think about it, and then they run away. They aren't trying to be rude, they're just boys doing what boys do, which is run away from conflict. I don't have a problem with this, because Frazee presents this with the same carefree attitude that boys bring with them. At the very end of their week when the boys don't know how to address their feelings of sorrow they do what boys do best: they build things, the express their feeling physically.

I'm on the fence between calling this a good picture book and a great picture book. It's heart is in the right place, the humor is dry and authentic, but I'm left feeling like their best week ever needed a little more of an anchor, maybe one or two more activities to solidify their week. Their days are taken up with Nature Camp -- which is never shown, and I'm fine with that -- but I wish they'd had more time at Pam and Bill's to build or create or invent some week-long project that could mirror the building of their summer friendship.

Will boys like it? Probably. Will they get it? Maybe. Does it matter? Nope.

I am a little surprised with TS being a Billion Dollar Industry there are no reviews here....except one plus mine. This book IS expensive, I guess I am lucky I bought it last week when it only cost 37 bucks. Now, I myself am a TS-salesperson and that is why I purchased the book. Now, there is not THAT many pictures in there, but the ones that there are are quite ok. It also features some nice brand-names like Marriott, Hilton etc. For credibility.

I bought the book because I want to use it as a selling-tool. I am not sure if I will actually bring it to the presentation or just read it and learn some facts....anyway, the book will make you appear more knowledgeable because you will be more knowledgeable. It's like a fact-book. It actually sold me on the idea that selling TS is a good thing because the facts are based on thousands of surveys, this is a Ragatz-study. Ragatz is (I think it's not named Ragatz anymore) a RCI consulting firm.
So I guess we are pretty much dealing with the truth here and it kind of verifies that most TS-owners really are quite happy. So bottom-line: selling is about credibility, so if you know more and can position yourself as an expert you will be more credible and like so sell more.

The book is actualy flat. A bit larger in format but flat, not too heavy, one could store it togehter in your case with your pitch-book. Not one hundred percent up to date, from 1998, but enough to throw some facts around and remind you - like so - what the benefits of TS-Owndership really are (I sometimes forget) and some general trends that will certainly hold true today.

This book has excellent,up to date information regarding basic criteria, if considering the development of a time share resort. In an easy to read format,it covers basic timeshare concepts (then and now),site selection,planning and design,marketing,and case studies with informative project data. It has beautiful color photos of popular,top rated timeshare resorts along with their site plans,room decor,floor plans and other amemities.

This book was on the summer reading list for my first-grader. It arrived quickly and he enjoys reading it.

All the Eloise books are great and my 2-year old daughter just loves, loves, loves, Eloise. This one is no exception!

This book was great on my family trip to the Grand Canyon. Not only did I learn a lot of history, but it was also very practical. It included things like safety, restrooms, facilities, when to go, and how much time to allot. It also offered reviews of camping accommodations and gave ideas on activities ranging from biking, nature walks, horseback riding, swimming, and tide pooling. My kids enjoyed everything I planned.

This book gets an A+ with one caveat.

First, for the parks included in the book, the reviews are comprehensive and detailed. After trying to plan my southwest vacation using just the web (and getting that "glazed over" look in my eyes), I found this book helped me immensely. It's become my "travel bible". He really does focus on the family part of "family vacations".

He presents a good arguement for the benefits of taking children on "natural" vacations, no matter what the age.

The one caveat...he only reviews 16 national parks! (There are over 300 in the National Park System). Granted, reviewing smaller parks that don't qualify for "family vacation" status wouldn't make sense, nevertheless I was disappointed to see that none of the South Dakota parks such as Mount Rushmore and the Badlands nor Glacier in Montana, Shenandoah National Park in VA, or any of the Alaska Parks were included. Obviously, this book is so good that it has left me wanting for more.

Before purchasing this book I would make sure that the park you want to visit is included.

As the Disability Host on BellaOnline, I recommend this book. It gives you complete information regarding accessibility and travel. You won't want to travel without this book.

You give up many things that you take for granted when you become disabled, but, with the help of this book, traveling doesn't have to be one of them. The editors make it easy to plan an out of town trip by letting you know some of the obstacles you will find on your travels. By knowing them in advance, you are better prepared to handle them calmly rather then letting them frustrate you and ruin everyone's trip.This guide gives me confidence to go places that are new and not worry on what I will find when I arrive.

This book takes to over twenty residences in a variety of settings. The author has divided them into five categories: rural, waterside, mountain and hillside, woodland and urban escapes. Each residence is shown with several luscious photographs and accompanied by copy describing various aspects of the owners idea of an escape, details of the restoration or building and descriptions of the residence itself. My one complaint was that it seemed a bit uneven with regard to depth of coverage given to each residence. The layout includes larger photos with lots of thumbnail photos, making it a jam-packed feast for the eyes without being busy. The photos are so lovely you can almost fall into the pages in a dream

GREAT coffee table book, or just to look through and DREAM of being able to "escape" to one of these havens. The photographs are so full of detail you can practically feel yourself sinking into the pillows.

Helpful information with each entry as well; all in all, very well worth the cost...

Our family likes to keep journals whenever we go to Disney, but this is the first journal we've found that lives up to the magic. It's filled with all kinds of things to fill out, including where we went, what we saw, what we had to eat, etc. We really liked the sections that asked what our favorite moments of the day were, we found that when we looked back on the day to think of our favorite moments that we were able to relive the magic all over again! The fact that there is so much to fill out is great, that way you won't forget a thing. Highly recommended!!

All catered toward a trip to Disney, with spots for what you did, what you ate, what characters you saw, etc. Expected it to be a little more colorful, though.

This book takes place while the Hooples are going on vacation. After their car "blows-up", and they get stranded, and miss the Phillies game, they feel bad. But it's not too late to make everything right! P.S. I know this book is out-of-print, and I got it from my school. Just try to get your hands on this cool book ASAP!

I recently pulled this book off my shelf after many years. I remembered it was one of my favorites from when I was little, but I couldn't really remember why. So, while I was cooking dinner one night, I read it again. It didn't take long to remember why I loved it.

It's the story of a family driving from New York to Philadelphia for a summer vacation. There's mom and dad, Alvin, Annie and her stuffed friend "Lambie". Alvin, a boy who's probably about 9 or 10, is the main character. He has a wild imagination that amazes you and makes you laugh. For example, he talks, as the family drives past some cows in a pasture, about how brown cows give us chocolate milk, black cows give us licorice flavored milk, and the white cows, who give us white milk, have to stay in the barn during the day, so they don't get sunburned--or else they'd give us strawberry flavored milk!

But, this isn't just a boring car ride about the things the Hooples see on the side of the road, the family has many unplanned adventures. From the daring rescue of Lambie to the tour of the inside of a semi-truck, Hooples on the Highway is a great book that will activate the imagination of any child, and light up their parents' eyes as well.

I remember reading this book when I was a child, and I loved it. Two kids who decide to go off on a short space jaunt instead of joining the rest of their class in a "boring" end-of-year get together get kidnapped by aliens and taken to another part of the galaxy. There, the are the only humans around, and it is precisely because of this that they have been chosen for a clandestine mission to rescue the emperor's daughter. It seems ridiculous that anybody could fall for a couple of kids in monkey suits pretending to be "gifts" for the young princess... But when none of the other races know what humans are, let alone what a real monkey is, it's amazing what you can get away with. The cover shows the very memorable "slime beast" gladiator scene which was great as well.

Good memories for me all around in this book; a very light sci-fi for kids, and very entertaining at that. I would buy it for nostalgic reasons if I could find it anywhere.

This book captures the imagination of readers at all levels. It depicts wonderful word choice, and can be described as one of those books you just can't put down.

Two students choose to skip the end-of-the-year school picnic, and take a trip by themselves into outerspace looking for rare stones. They are kidnapped by aliens and taken to a planet which is not part of their own friendly galaxy. The kids survive a "circus," an alien version of the ancient Roman Gladiators. Afterwards they are sent to the emporer who then dresses them up like monkeys to infiltrate an enemy planet and rescue his daughter. You'll have to read it to find out how they get back to Earth.

This book is very hard to find, but it is worth the search!