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Roadmap for Navigating Our Site
SouthernTravelNews.com™ covers:
Travel to or within the U.S. South. We cover travel to and within these states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
- Cruising from southern U.S. ports on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines. A sister site SouthernCruising.com™ (launching in late March) also provides content about cruising and U.S. and Caribbean ports of call.
Consider SouthernTravelNews.com™ as a “work in progress.” Many excellent, original features were created for our soft launch on Feb. 28 (official launch on March 20). Other articles will be added on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in the coming months.
SouthernTravelNews.com™ has contracts with 40 professional freelance travel writers for original content to run in 2007 and 2008. News from state tourism offices, convention and visitors’ bureaus, cruise lines, ports and local travel suppliers will be added daily, as appropriate.
So keep checking back. Over time the site will have a robust portfolio of stories you may access – all for free. At any time you may search the site for articles of interest. Articles that are no longer displayed on the main pages will go into an archives for retrieval via search. So just search for Mobile or Memphis to get all the articles on those topics.
Keep in mind, we don't plan to list all travel resources or information about a specific destination or cruise line. You may get that from the excellent state and local tourism bureaus as well as the cruise lines themselves.
Our goal is to offer an eclectic portfolio of stories to entertain and assist in your travel planning. (Please read our Reader Information for suggestions on how to take this information in context with other reader planning options.)
Following is an outline of our features.
The Front Page
– Daily Headline News
– Daily Travel Blog
– Top Story
– Photos of the Week: a slideshow of travel photos changed once weekly.
– Navigation logo button that links readers to SouthernCruising.com™
– Links to Dedicated State Pages
– Links to Travel Sections (themed travel topics)
– Reader Trip Reports
– Reader Feedback Link for readers to provide comments and blog questions, upload trip reports and photos, or just sound off.
State by State
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
Travel Sections
Hot Deals & Packages
Airports & Seaports (coming soon)
Americana & Nostalgia
Antiquing & Flea Markets
Aquariums & Zoos
Attractions
Book/DVD/CD Reviews
Casinos & Gaming
Civil War Sites
Cruising & Waterways
Dogs, Horses & Critters
Ethnic Heritage
Fairs & Festivals
Family Travel (coming soon)
Food & Wine
Gardens
Homes & Plantations
Hotels & Resorts
Luxury Travel (coming soon)
Museums & the Arts
Music & Entertainment
Outdoor Adventure
Planes, Trains & Cars
Quirky Stuff
Romantic Getaways (coming soon)
Senior Fun
Shopping
Spa Vacations
Tees & Greens
Theme Parks
Tours & Packages (coming soon)
Travel Tips & Gadgets
Walking & Driving Tours
About Us
Here is where you go to read an overview of our editorial mission, editor and writer experience and credits, and details about how professional travel journalists may query us. We also provide e-mail contacts for the news media, advertisers and travel suppliers.
Events & Festivals
In a few weeks, this page will include a sampling of festival information. We'll expand this section to more full-bodied details at a later point.
Books/DVD and CD Reviews
People who travel often buy a guidebook to take on vacation or a business trip. Others enjoy watching a destination-focused DVD. Some pick music from a particular locale to re-live memories of a favorite trip.
Consequently, this site will soon offer a page dedicated to book, DVD and CD reviews. Click either the top banner header or within the Travel Section. We also feature links to Amazon.com for your convenience in purchasing any of these products.
Downloadable Photos
We field a collection of travel photographs that you may find interesting. You are free to download these for personal use. Linking is prohibited; that's bandwidth theft. Commercial use is also prohibited; these photos are copyright protected for that purpose.
How to download? With a PC, just put your mouse cursor on the photo, then make a left click and then click “save photo as” to save to your computer. With a Mac, just double click.
Again, please do not link in any way to any photos on our site.
Reader Information
Check here for our privacy policy, how to contact us, and other policies/information for readers.
Feedback
We appreciate your feedback. Access the reader feedback form either at the Reader Feedback tab in our top banner or near the bottom of the main page. Ask general questions, provide responses to a travel blog we've written, or upload your own reader trip or cruise reviews and photos for possible use on our site.
Or, sign up for our free weekly e-zine. Each Friday you'll receive an e-mail that summarizes important news and features from our Web site; it also will provide hot deals and editorial information NOT found in this site.
For more information about our use of blog and trip report feedback see the Reader Information tab along the top banner. (We do not pay for any reader submissions of trip reports.)
Links
Need more detailed travel and tourism information – visitor guides and maps -- about a particular state? Here you'll find state tourism office information including Web links, phone and fax numbers and addresses.
Seeking local tourist bureau or travel supplier contact information? That’s usually listed within the article itself.
That said, local convention & visitors bureaus, ports or cruise lines that wish their site link (only the Web link not full contact information) to be added to this page will be accommodated IF they similarly agree to link to SouthernTravelNews.com* or SouthernCruising.com* on their Web site. For details email us at links@southerntravelnews.com.
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