Food vacations, including vacations that seek great food and wine travel as well as best value restaurants, are becoming more and more popular. At Tripbase, we thought you gourmands might like to know where you can go for the best food vacations in the u.s., i.e., where to get the best value restaurants for your buck. We looked at thousands of food vacations destinations and considered tens of parameters, including the variety of best value restaurants (ethnic, American, and neighborhood places where the locals go), the actual number of best value restaurants (not including fast food venues) and the average costs of a meal (with service and one drink) as well as the number of top-rated chefs per capita, the number of chef-owned restaurants and the popularity ratings of the restaurants in a city in order to determine the best places in the u.s. for food vacations with best value restaurants.

Although twenty years ago it might have been difficult to find more than a handful of great u.s. cities known for their restaurants, that’s far from true today. Most American cities today offer a wealth of great restaurant options, but these are Tripbase’s top ten destinations for food vacations with best value restaurants. Here, you’ll find cities teeming with choice—from the dim sum in New York’s Chinatown to the deep-dish pizzas in Chicago—plus everything in between. Asian cities are well known for fresh, inexpensive seafood and digging into a plate of something scrumptious in Seattle’s downtown market or at one of Austin’s authentic Mexican restaurants won’t break the bank.

For more information about each great location regarding food vacations, including flight, hotel and car rentals as well as personalized travel recommendations, like where to stay and what to do as well as best value restaurants, visit the link on Tripbase.

Food Vacations and Best Value Restaurants

1. New York restaurants (New York)
2. Washington, D.C. restaurants
3. New Orleans restaurants (Louisiana)
4. Atlanta restaurants (Georgia)
5. San Francisco restaurants (California)
6. Chicago restaurants (Illinois)
7. Houston restaurants (Texas)
8. Boston restaurants (Massachusetts)
9. Seattle restaurants (Washington)
10. Austin restaurants (Texas)

Tripbase is still in development, but we’re working on improving our algorithms every day, so if you have comments and criticisms for us, we’d love to hear from you.

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team

Green vacations and eco friendly travel are becoming more and more popular thanks to the increased awareness about the importance of taking care of our environment and doing all we can as individuals to prevent global warming. So what can you as a traveler do to make sure your green vacations are to an eco friendly travel destination and not a place that tries to look ‘green’ but really isn’t? Check out the following tips from Tripbase about how to reduce your carbon footprint and then explore our top recommendations about where to go for the best green vacations. You’ll be on your way to enjoying a great green vacation.

According to the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), eco friendly travel is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” TIES recommends following these eco friendly travel principles:

• Leave a minimal impact
• Use local guides or tour services
• Try to stay in local, eco-friendly accommodations
• Support local businesses that promote sustainability. This also supports the local economy.

Although some environmental activists maintain that staying close to home is the best way to do green trips (one overseas return flight produces about the same amount of carbon emissions as a car does over an entire year), there are downsides to that school of thought too. For example, developing countries rely heavily on tourism for development and carefully managed tourism can help fight poverty and promote growth. In addition, traveling far from home can provide long-lasting educational benefits and allow you to participate in local conservation and education efforts—especially if you’re willing to volunteer. Try to make sure that the parks and beaches you visit are truly interested in sustainable tourism, and verify that your accommodation is helping the environment by planting trees, using fewer towels, saving water etc. by giving them a call and asking them what they do to promote eco friendly travel and sustainable practices.

Camping and house swapping are also great ways to do your small part to make your green vacations better for the environment.

Another thing you can do is plan an eco friendly travel adventure to places where you can camp and use the car and fuel minimally. That type of green vacation has the added benefit of allowing you to explore spectacular nature in a sustainable platform.

On top of this, one of the best things you can do is support countries and parks in which green vacations and eco friendly travel are taken seriously. Visiting those regions will ensure that your tourism dollars are providing funding for sustainable tours, green trips and ecotourism growth in the future.

So where are the best places in the world for green trips, green vacations and eco friendly travel? Tripbase looked at a number of parameters in thousands of locations to come up with a list of the best places for a green vacations. We looked at how well these eco friendly destinations fared when it comes to education, conservation and research programs as well as the number of eco friendly trips they offer and eco friendly accommodations they have. We considered nature travel to well-known spectacular national parks reputed for their sustainable practices and volunteer programs as well as more off the beaten path, remote locales. For more information about each destination and personalized travel recommendations in each eco friendly travel destination, click on the links below.

1. Corcovado National Park Travel Recommendations (Costa Rica)

2. Morne Trois Pitons National Park Travel Recommendations (Dominica)

3. Yosemite National Park Travel Recommendations (United States)

4. Chiang Mai Travel Recommendations (Thailand)

5. Yellowstone National Park Travel Recommendations (Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana)

6. Galapagos Islands National Park Travel Recommendations (Ecuador)

7. Etosha National Park Travel Recommendations (Namibia)

8. Denali National Park Travel Recommendations (Alaska)

9. Fiordland National Park Travel Recommendations (New Zealand)

10. Nassau Travel Recommendations (Bahamas)

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team

i.e., where to get the most for your money abroad this year

From exotic islands with pristine beaches and coconut palms to bustling cultural capitals, these international travel destinations top Tripbase’s list of recommended best international travel destinations in 2008 for value. So whether you want romantic escapes on idyllic beaches in a tranquil environment or places with great natural landscapes, culture, shopping, nightlife and dining, these are the places that will give you the most for your money—from Africa to Asia and South America to Europe.

We looked at many parameters for each of our thousands of locations in order to come up with our best international travel destinations for value in 2008, including accommodation options, affordable entertainment choices, what kind of discounts are offered to travelers, and average costs to travel (per day averages include hotel costs) in these destinations—to name just a few.

To read more about each location in our list of the top best international travel destinations for value in 2008 and find useful information, including flight, hotel and car rentals as well as personalized travel recommendations tailored to you, such as where to stay and where to eat and what to see and do while you’re there, visit the Tripbase location page by clicking on the link.

Best Beach Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Kingston travel recommendations (Jamaica)
2. Bali travel recommendations (Indonesia)
3. Cape Town travel recommendations (South Africa)

Best Asia Destinations 2008 for Value
3. Bangkok travel recommendations (Thailand)
4. Kuala Lumpur travel recommendations (Malaysia)
5. Beijing travel recommendations (China)

Best Africa Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Cairo travel recommendations (Egypt)
2. Essaouira travel recommendations (Morocco)
3. Tunis travel recommendations (Tunisia)

Best Central and South America Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Buenos Aires travel recommendations (Argentina)
2. Mexico City travel recommendations (Mexico)
3. Rio de Janeiro travel recommendations (Brazil)

Best Eastern Europe Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Warsaw travel recommendations (Poland)
2. Budapest travel recommendations (Hungary)
3. Dubrovnik travel recommendations (Croatia)

Best Middle East Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Istanbul travel recommendations (Turkey)
2. Amman travel recommendations (Jordan)
3. Nicosia travel recommendations (Cyprus)

In our next blog, we’ll share with you the Tripbase team’s recommendations for green vacations and eco friendly travel, i.e., where to go for the best green vacations in 2008.

Tripbase is still in development, but we’re working on improving our algorithms every day, so if you have comments and criticisms for us, we’d love to hear from you.