Expedited Passports

If you’ve been waiting for the Mediterranean to become more affordable, why not get a fast passport and get cheap tickets with Alitalia’s latest sale? SmarterTravel reports that the Italian airline is offering great prices on flights from the US to Mediterranean countries including Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey.

Flights from Barcelona to Miami are available for as little as $661 per person, round trip. Flights from New York To Rome start at $804, and flights from Boston to Florence are $860. For $920 you can fly from Chicago to Venice, and for $941 you can fly from Los Angeles to Madrid. Flights from Chicago to Thessalonike, Greece are $1,207. However, given the situation in Greece right now, flying may be more expensive than to other destinations but room rates are likely cheaper. Meanwhile, $1,260 will get you to and from Istanbul.

The cool thing about these prices is that they are all-inclusive, including fees and taxes, so what you see is pretty much what you’ll get.

The sale is good for travel in September and October, which is fine if you have a passport. If you don’t have one already, though, you’ll need to apply for fast passport processing. Normal passport processing takes at least 6 weeks, and I don’t recommend that you cut it that close. For fast passport processing, you can request expedited service, which will cut processing time down to approximately 3 weeks.

For even faster service, you can make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency office if you are traveling in 2 weeks or less. However, a much more convenient option, especially if you don’t have a passport office nearby, is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport. An expediting company will personally deliver your application to the Department of State. Processing times depend on the level of service you select, and they can be as low as 24 hours.

Need a fast passport? Apply with us today!

If you grew up around trees, you probably have fond memories of hanging out with your friends in a homemade treehouse. If you’re in the mood for a little bit of childhood nostalgia (or you didn’t have access to a treehouse growing up and feel deprived), a new hotel in Sweden consists of designer treehouses that put our childhood hangouts to shame.

According to the Daily Mail, the Treehotel in Harads, Sweden consists of four treehouses, each about 13 to 19 feet off the ground. The treehouses are elegantly designed and furnished, and each has its own unique design and theme. For example, “The Nest” looks like a gigantic bird’s nest with whimsical round windows, “The Cabin” looks like an old-school hunter’s cabin, and the “Blue Cone” has a cone-shaped top. The coolest treehouse of all, though, is “The Mirrorcube.” With walls made out of mirrors, it reflects the surrounding forest so perfectly that you almost can’t tell it’s there.

Treehotel co-founder Kent Lindvall described the Mirrorcube house to the Daily Mail:

“It’s an interesting building. You cannot find anything like this in the world today. It’s absolutely unique. Everything will reflect in this – the trees, the birds, the clouds, the sun, everything. So it should be invisible nearly in the forest.”

Much more luxurious than your typical treehouse, all of the houses at the Treehotel have electric heat, incineration toilets and a super-efficient hand basin. The hotel owners offer guided hikes to check out the local flora and fauna, including moose, reindeer and bear.

Of course, before you head off to Sweden you’ll need to get a passport if you don’t already have one. Make sure to allow plenty of time, as it usually takes at least 6 weeks to get a passport in the mail once you’ve applied. You can cut that processing time in half by paying $60 extra and requesting expedited processing. However, you still need to allow at least 3 weeks if you go that route.

If you need your passport issued more quickly, the most convenient option is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport. An expediter can personally deliver your passport application to the Department of State for processing times as low as 24 hours.

Need to get a passport in a hurry? Contact us today!

If you’ve been putting off a trip to Europe due to the expense and the unfavorable exchange rate, now might be a good time to pack your bags and say “Bon Voyage.”  According to this press release from Hotels.com, the euro is trading at its lowest rate since 2005. Not only will you lose less of your money if you travel overseas, but there are also a lot more great deals to be had on lodging, even in traditionally expensive cities like Paris, London and Cannes.

In the press release, Taylor L. Cole, APR, director of public relations for Hotels.com, explains why you shouldn’t put off that trip to Europe any longer:

“With the large selection of European hotels on hotels.com, and many offering summer promotions, this is an ideal time to travel abroad. The Euro is down and the dollar’s gaining, so Americans traveling to Europe can get more for their money. Additionally, we’re seeing an increase in online searches for travel to Europe which demonstrates that travelers are catching on to the bargains.”

Well, they would say that…but they also provide a list of sample room rates that look pretty tempting. A four-star room in Barcelona for $73 a night, anyone? How about a room in Capri for $84?

If you want to take advantage of these deals, now ’s the time to go. You’ll need to apply for a passport renewal if yours is expired, of course. As you plan your trip, remember to allow enough time for your passport renewal to be processed.  If you apply with normal processing, you’ll need about 6 weeks, while applying for expedited processing from the Department of State can cut processing time down to 3 weeks.

If you find a truly irresistable last-minute deal, you can also use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com to get your passport even more quickly. An expediting company can get your passport renewal application processed in as little as 24 hours, with no need to travel to a passport agency office.

Apply for your passport renewal today!

Every year in August, crowds of tourists and locals pour into the streets of Buñol, Spain, for La Tomatina, a festival that is otherwise known as the world’s biggest food fight. The festival takes place every year on the last Wednesday of August, but the action starts with partying and drinking the night before. When the sun comes up, the tourists who couldn’t get beds in town start to pour in for the “Ham Up a Greasy Pole” Contest, in which contestants try to climb a greased wooden pole to reach the ham on top.

To prepare for the big food fight, approximately 90,000 pounds of very ripe tomatoes are trucked into the town square, the epicenter of the combat. At precisely 11:00am, the fun begins, as locals and tourists alike begin pummeling each other with the tomatoes. Traditionally, women wear white to La Tomatina- I wonder if Clorox or another detergent/bleach company has considered a corporate sponsorship? Men have it easier, as they are traditionally shirtless.

No matter what you wear to La Tomatina, you should expect it be absolutely saturated with tomato juice and sauce by the end of the fight, which lasts for an hour. Clean up involves hoses and, if you’re staying in another town, waiting in line for the showers in the local train station.

If you’d like to attend La Tomatina, you’d be wise to apply for an expedited passport if you don’t already have one. Generally, if you apply with standard processing, you can expect to wait at least 6 weeks before receiving your passport in the mail. If you apply for the government’s expedited passport processing, you’ll still have to wait at least 3 weeks, and that’s cutting it close.

If you need to get your passport more quickly, the most convenient option is to use a private passport expediting company. An expediter, like RushMyPassport.com, can hand-deliver your application to the Department of State, resulting in processing times as low as 24 hours, without the hassle and inconvenience of making an appointment at one of the Department of State’s passport offices.

Apply for your expedited passport today!

Every child knows the stories of Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. If you’ve already done Disney, you might consider getting a US passport renewal, grabbing your kids, and heading to Germany to drive down the Fairy Tale Road to take them to the scene of these enchanting stories.

The New York Times just ran a feature on the  Fairy Tale road, which connects the real, historical homes of the Brothers Grimm with sites that fit the descriptions of the settings of classic fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.For example, the Dornröschenschloss Sababurg is an old castle near where Kassel, where the brothers Grimm collected many of their fairy tales. When the brothers were alive, the castle was deserted and surrounded by masses of briars and wild roses, just like in Sleeping Beauty. Nowadays, of course, there’s the obligatory museum with a gift shop where you can treat your own little princess to a souvenir.

Then there’s Rotkäppchenland, which roughly translates to “Little Red Cap” land in English.   Long ago, the people inhabiting this valley wore clothes that indicated their ages and social position.  Little girls wore red caps-hence, “Little Red Riding Hood.”

In addition to the New York Times article referenced above, Weather.com also has an excellent guide to the Fairy Tale Road that can help you plan your trip.  But if you want your trip to have a happy ending, check the expiration date on your passport, and make sure to apply for a US passport renewal well in advance if necessary!

It takes about 6 weeks to get your passport renewed if you apply with normal processing, and about 3 weeks if you request the government’s expedited service. Also, don’t forget that your kids need passports too, no matter how little they are.

If you’re about to leave the country and looking for a fairy godmother to get you your passport on time, don’t despair! You can either make an appointment at a regional passport agency office or use a private passport expediting service like RushMyPassport.com. An expediting service is much faster and more convenient-there’s no need to make an appointment at a passport agency or wait in line. The expediting agency delivers your documents directly to the Department of State for you, for processing times as low as 24 hours. It’s like magic!

Apply for your US passport renewal today!

For the past several years, traveling to Europe has been an expensive proposition. With the euro worth more than the dollar, US travelers would lose an irritatingly large portion of their trip budget at the exchange counter.

Now, the euro is falling, which means that traveling to Europe is becoming cheaper than it’s been for quite some time.  Is it time to apply for your passport renewal and book a flight?

Perhaps so.  Jaunted notes that for the euro, “a continued slide is more likely than not,” but the US dollar faces significant challenges as well. Jaunted concludes that “if you’ve got some money and time lying around, now is a very attractive moment to hop across the pond.”

Of course, to do that you will need a US passport. If you’ve let yours expire waiting for an affordable European travel deal to show up, now would be a good time to apply for that passport renewal.

Passport renewal usually takes about 6 weeks if you choose the standard processing option. If you choose the government’s expedited passport renewal option, there’s a good chance you’ll still be left hanging for at least 3 weeks.

Of course, sometimes the best travel deals are last-minute deals, like this special on flights to Europe from Aer Lingus. Fortunately, you can still take advantage of deals like this, even if you can’t afford to wait 3 weeks for your expedited passport renewal.

To get your passport even more quickly, you can make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency office (assuming, of course, that one is located close to your home). However, this can be time-consuming and inconvenient, plus many people live to too far away from the nearest office to make this option feasible.

The fastest and most convenient way to get your passport renewal done quickly is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport. RushMyPassport.com’s experienced passport specialists will personally deliver your passport renewal application to the Department of State, for processing in as little as 24 hours.

Apply for your passport renewal now!

Thinking of Tuscany, it’s easy to get lost in a daydream of bright sunshine, fields of sunflowers, excellent wine and adorable quaint villages. However, if you visit Italy during the summer “high season,”  the reality is often quite different. Those adorable quaint village squares? Packed with tourists.  Museums and monuments? Packed with tourists. Local vineyards? Packed with tourists.

In today’s New York Times,  Danielle Pergament writes that a guest at her wedding, which took place in Tuscany in the summer, described the region as “beautiful, hot and full of Americans.” This is an apt description of high tourist season in Italy.  You’ll still enjoy yourself, but you won’t leave feeling like you’ve experienced the best that Tuscany has to offer.

To avoid the crowds, your best bet is to get a fast passport and leave now, before the tourist season kicks into gear. As a bonus, the New York Times article notes that Tuscany actually gets more colorful in the winter-instead of the parched gold of summer, the fields turn a vibrant green.  You’ll also enjoy better food, as most of the local delicacies are actually in season in winter and early spring, and cheaper prices for just about everything.

To visit Tuscany, you of course need a valid US passport.  You’d better get a fast passport, too-Italy’s low season ends this month, so you need to leave ASAP if you want to take advantage of low prices and experience fewer crowds.

Normally, it takes at least 6 weeks to get a passport. If you apply for a fast passport using the government’s expedited service, you can expect to wait at least 3 weeks. If you want to leave the country sooner than that, the easiest and most convenient option is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. With an expediting company, you can get fast passport processing, in as little as 24 hours, without having to make an appointment or drive out of your way to get to a regional passport agency office.

Don’t wait-apply for a fast passport today!

For most people, there’s no place like home on Christmas. But what if you want to travel, to experience Christmas somewhere new and different?

London is an especially magical place to spend Christmas, and right now, Virgin Atlantic is having a sale on fares  to London.  You can get to London from New York City for just $512 round-trip, while $526 will get you there and back from Washington, DC.  On the West Coast, $642 will get you round-trip tickets from either San Francisco or LA. See more fares and additional details on Smarter Travel.

Once you’re there, you can enjoy traditional activities like ice skating and watching the English National Ballet’s traditional performance of The Nutcracker. Pantomimes are another popular English pastime during the holiday season-these are humorous theater performances where men often play female characters, and vice versa. There’s also the Great Christmas Pudding race, where contestants dress up and compete to see who can run around Covent Garden the fastest while carrying a large Christmas pudding.

It almost goes without saying that London is an excellent place to do some Christmas shopping. Plus, the atmosphere is almost guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit.  An enormous Christmas tree lights up Trafalgar Square, and Christmas carols regale people passing by with traditional Christmas songs to raise money for charity. Plus, there are lights everywhere-see this post on Write On! for some excellent pictures!

Before you take off for London, you will have a final piece of Christmas shopping to take care of in the States-obtaining a passport.  If you don’t have one already, you may have trouble getting one before your plane leaves- Christmas is only 2 weeks away, and the US Department of State advises you t0 allow at least 3 weeks to receive your passport if you choose the government’s expedited processing option.

Your best option at this point for obtaining your passport in time is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. We make obtaining a passport easy by helping you complete the paperwork and gather the necessary documents, and then forwarding your application directly to the Department of State. This puts your application on top of the stack, resulting in processing times as low as 24 hours.

Apply for your passport today!

Do you love beer? Do you really, really love beer? Then you need to get a passport immediately and head to Austria, home of the Starkenberg brewery/beer resort (h/t Matador Nights).

What makes Starkenberg so special? Well, apart from the ability to tour the brewery (which includes an old castle) and taste the wares, Starkenberg is the home of the bierschwimmbad. You may be asking yourself “What is a bierschwimmbad, and why would I want to fly to Austria to swim in one?”

A bierschwimmbad is basically Homer Simpson’s dream come true: a swimming pool filled with beer! Starkenberg claims that beer is great for your skin, and that Cleopatra often bathed in beer in addition to her famed baths of milk and honey.  They also say that “it provides the whole body with relaxation and recovers frayed nerves.” I’ll bet it does!

You probably shouldn’t actually DRINK the stuff in the bierschwimmbad, though. Starkenberg advertised the baths as being quite beneficial for dirty skin, open wounds and psoriasis. Stick to swimming and get a fresh bottle from the brewery to enjoy poolside!

Of course, to get to Austria, you will need a valid passport.  Getting a passport can require a good deal of waiting-anywhere from 6 weeks or more for regular service to 3 weeks for the government’s expedited service. If you want to get a passport more quickly, the easiest way to do so is to use a private passport expediting company.

With an expediting company like RushMyPassport.com, you get personal, friendly service from the representative assigned to handle your case. You get help filling out the passport application and gathering the required documents, and then we hand-deliver your paperwork to the Department of State for processing times as low as 24 hours!

Ready to get a passport? Let us help!

If you’ve ever wanted to celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas in Europe or experience springtime in Paris, now is a great time to book a flight.  Air France is running a special on flights across the pond from several different US cities, and prices start at $47o round-trip. For that price, you can catch a plane from New York City to Lisbon, Portugal. For $574, you can fly from Washington, DC to Geneva, Switzerland, and for $576 you can fly from New York to Nice, France. You can even fly all the way from Los Angeles to Paris and back again for just $758.

Smarter Travel has more details about the special and more sample fares. To get these prices, you have to book by December 3rd, but you can travel anytime through December 16th or from January 6th through March 28, 2010.Some blackout dates do apply, so make sure you read the offer information carefully.

Of course, if you want to travel to Europe soon, you will need to get a passport,  quick! Passport applications can take anywhere from 6 weeks for regular processing to 3 weeks for the government’s expedited processing.  If you need a passport quicker than that, the easiest thing to do is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. With an expediting company, you can get your passport quick, with processing times as fast as 24 hours. Plus, you don’t have to make an appointment or drive down to a regional passport agency office. All you have to do is send your documents to us using the shipping label and information we provide you, and we’ll hand-deliver them to the Department of State. Getting a passport in a hurry has never been easier!

Need to get a passport, quick? Apply with us today!