South Beach in Miami is the most famous tourist destination for youngsters perhaps, for its night life. The pulsating music of Latin beats along with the toxicsating aroma of Cuban cuisine from the road side cafes makes this destination irresistible for any connoisseur of food, music and carefree life.

Even if you are one of those people who plan for every trip at the very last moment, you have nothing to fear when it comes to getting your hotel reservations done for South Beach hotels. You just need to go online, choose the kind of hotel that seems most suitable to your budget and go ahead with the booking. You have the option of taking your pick from a long list of luxury resorts and hotels, medium budget accommodations, those that are extremely pocket friendly and places that offer special discount packages.

The prices of rooms on per night per person sharing basis can range from anywhere between $ 20 and $ 800 depending upon your choice. While even the cheapest hotels will offer you the luxury of the view of the beautiful South Beach, the high end accommodations come with a number of other conveniences that can make your trip truly memorable. Rooftop swimming pools, bar and lounge, private luxury suites with excellent room service, 24hrs-internet access and a number of other amenities makes the money spent on these luxurious accommodations worth it.

The hotels listed in the "standard" category or the medium budget accommodations too are equally competitive. You can get almost all the facilities that are offered by the luxury destination at these hotels, only at cheaper rates. Whether it is a twenty four hour reservation desk or room service, a swimming pool, a bar or a concierge, these hotels have it all. Most of these hotels also boast of their excellent restaurants.

It would not be wrong to say that a large variety of choices makes selection more difficult. Advertisements are meant only to guide; one must keep one's requirements and budget in mind and carefully select the accommodation. So, choose the best to make your stay at South Beach a truly memorable experience. …

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A promotional video is easily the fastest, most effective and most affordable way of promoting your business. Yet despite online videos proving to be the fastest growing medium on the web, why are so few business taking advantage of this potential goldmine?

There simply couldn’t be a better time to consider having a promotional video created for your business, hotel or organisation. The official statistics demonstrate that whilst searches for promotional video based information are rising rapidly, other forms of media such as text based website content are remaining fairly static.

YouTube, the web’s most popular repository for free video content, is the third most visited website on the planet. No other online medium gives you as great a chance to reach out to your prospective customers, to sell your product or service in a visually compelling way and to communicate more information more effectively than a promotional video.

Yet here’s the thing – very few people are doing it!

Why is this? Simply put, relatively few people have caught on to the fact that a promotional video is a huge opportunity, and with far less competition than within standard text based searches, you stand much more of a chance of being found than relying on two lines of text that might be buried within millions – or even billions of results.

When compared to other online forms of marketing, a promotional video has many advantages, including:

• The ability to bring your business to life in three dimensions

• The ability to create movement and personal interest

• The ability to use video editing techniques, including music, to generate a mood or atmosphere

• The ability to combine multiple forms of media, including video, audio, text, pictures and animation

Statistics demonstrate that once someone begins watching a short video online, they tend on average to watch the whole video. This is in direct contrast to the proportion of people who read everything on your website, which is very low indeed. Effectively you have an actively engaged visitor with whom you can communicate in a way that is much more comprehensive than any other.

While on the subject of statistics – here are two more:

• 75% of visitors to a website stay less than 30 seconds

• 33% of visitors watch an online promotional video to the very end

Let’s consider how these two statistics compare. Let’s say you receive 1000 visitors to your website. 750 of those will leave before they’ve been there for 30 seconds, which means that almost certainly they will not have read everything you have to say about your company. 250 of your visitors are likely to stay for longer than 30 seconds – but will they read everything, look at all the pictures and take on board your important messages?

Now if you have a promotional video on your site, on YouTube, Google Videos or elsewhere, of your 1000 visitors 333 of them will stay with you for 3 minutes. Not only have …

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The title of this entry suggests that I eat at the restaurant in question quite often. Actually, I do not. I was at the hotel for four nights, but only ate at the restaurant twice. That's how I survived it without compromising my gluten free diet.

The point of this article is not to rant against the hotel, but to illustrate what can go wrong at a restaurant, and how to deal with it and remain gluten-free.

The Problem with the Restaurant

I was a hotel attending an intensive course to help me with the direction of my life and my business. Because I have a gluten allergy and given that there would be no time to look for food outside the hotel, and anticipating challenges in finding food to suit my allergy requirements, I mostly bought my own food. I ate at the restaurant twice, and this was not a happy experience.

Because the course I was attending involved a lot of people, they had a buffet arranged for us. Before buying tickets for the buffet, I told the hotel staff what my allergies are, and asked if I could be accommodated. I was told this was possible.

Luckily, I only pre-purchased the dinners. When I showed up at the buffet, it turned out that I could really only eat the salad! The first night, Cindy, a really service super-star, was able to arrange an alternate meal for me. The second night she was not there, and the staff came up with something that technically I could eat, but really was pretty unsatisfactory.

Bringing My Own Gluten-Free Food

Breakfasts and lunches did work really well because I bought my own gluten-free food.

I do not eat gluten, but I can eat oatmeal. I brought a one-cup immersion heater to boil water, and added that to a bowl of instant oatmeal. Adding walnuts and almonds made it a pretty good and complete breakfast.

For lunch, I bought rice cakes, and canned meat (which I found at an Italian store in my home town). The cans have pull-tabs, so they are easy to open, and do not stink like fish, so that worked very well.

Planning for Next Time

I have another similar trip coming up in March. This time I will bring dinner as well as breakfast and lunch.

I have not planned my meals yet, but I have purchased a single-burner electric stove which I can fit in my suit-case. Some camping pots and implements will complete my kitchen. I will probably have rice with something out of a can – not exciting but better than restaurant food. If I can, I will try to come up with something interesting, but it will all have to work as airplane luggage, so there will be challenges. I'll add more when I have worked out the details.

More About Immersion Heaters

A few people have been asking what an immersion heater is. You put it in to a cup or mug …

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Florida is the most famous for it beautiful sun soaked white sand beaches with the clear blue water of the sea touching the shore rhythmically. Irrespective of the age group you belong to, the work you do, your likes and dislikes, you can not help but get enchanted by the scenic beauty of Florida. At a place like this what can be more enchanting than a spacious and tastefully decorated room with a patio or verandah overlooking the beach.

The entire tourism industry of Florida thrives on the presence of the beaches here. Therefore, it is no surprise that the entire beach line is dotted with a number of hotels, resorts and motels. You will find tourist accommodations that will suit all sizes of holiday budgets. Yet, the majority of the accommodations are expensive and then, extremely luxurious.

A number of these hotels can accommodate even those tourists who are visiting on less than extravagant budget. These hotels offer you the beautiful gardens from where you can soak in the breathtaking view of the sea and the powdery white beaches. You can also rent cottages which are fully furnished and at times they also provide you with the luxury of a Jacuzzi and / or a swimming pool. A number of hotels provide you with bicycles so that you can pedal your way through the beautiful places in this idyllic setting.

Some of the hotels are strategically designed with large windows so that the guests are not left bereft of any chance to soak in the exhilarating beauty of Florida even while they are within the concessions of the hotel. These hotels are more often than not surrounded by small establishments which offer exquisite Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Lebanese, Caribbean and Indian delicacies. The fact that the beach is a few steps away from your hotel room makes your stay very refreshing and relaxing indeed. …

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