Welcome to the fifth edition of SINGLE PARENT TRAVEL e-zines - a continuing series of monthly newsletters created for the community of single parents who like to travel with their kids. Thanks to my featured articles on Frommers.com and the newly launched Web site - www.RelationTrips.com, the readership for this newsletter has more than tripled over the past week. I urge all my new readers to go back and peruse the four previous newsletters I published, which are archived on my new site: www.SingleParentTravel.net . Each of the previous newsletters has valuable information to help you prepare for your single parent family vacation.

Given the demand for single parent travel information, we decided to split off that page from my personal Web site and create a brand new Web site called www.SingleParentTravel.net. On this Web site you will find a new section called "Single Parent Travel Specials," which will feature special single parent pricing by travel suppliers (hotels, tour operators and cruise lines). Over the forthcoming weeks and months we will continue to enhance this new Web site and, when a new section is created or a new travel special is announced, we will send you a brief notice via email. Don't worry, we won't bombard you with emails, we promise. Do email us with your feedback, questions, and suggestions. They are most welcome. And thanks for letting us know some of the links were down. They're OK now and we are learning as we go.

Readers have asked me "IS THERE A WAY TO AVOID THE SINGLE SUPPLEMENT CHARGED TO SINGLE PARENTS?" The answer is both YES and NO. Let's talk about the NO first.

If you are traveling during high season, hotels and cruise lines are not likely to give you any breaks. For example, let's say you are traveling in July to Rapid City, South Dakota, the jumping off point for Mt. Rushmore. The "Wild West" Motel charges $80 for a double and $70 for a single room. Kids under 18 go free in the room. You, as a single parent, want to pay only $40 (half the double rate) and still have your kids go free in the room. Is that likely? NO. Why? The hotel needs to make most of their money during the summer, which is their busy time, so they are going to charge you the single rate of $70. They know the rooms will fill up during the summer and they cannot afford to cut room rates in half and lose expected revenue during the busy season. That would be bad business.

Let's take another example. You are traveling to Phoenix, Arizona during July, which is the off-season for Phoenix. You would like to stay in a resort hotel for several nights and have selected the "Cactus Resort." Rooms at this property, which normally sell for $350 a night in high season, now sell in the summer at $150 a night for a double rate and $120 a night for a single rate. Kids under 18 stay free in the room. Should you call the hotel and bargain for a single parent rate of $75 (half the double rate)? SURE. Why not? What have you got to lose, except the cost of the phone call, or better yet, email them! Are you likely to get the rate of $75? Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to try. The hotel, knowing that many of the rooms will remain empty, may offer you a special rate of $90 or $100, banking on the fact that you and your kids will have several meals at the resort hotel, not to mention innumerable poolside beverages and snacks. That makes for good business. (Be aware that if you try bargaining for a lower room rate, you may have bump up your request to a Front Office Manager or Director of Sales. Reservation agents may not be empowered to grant such discounts).

Are there ever Single Parent Specials where single parents really and truly pay half the double rate? The answer is YES! We are delighted to announce that Splash Resorts offers just such a bargain for single parent families. Splash Resorts are all-inclusive resort properties, ideal for families. The two Splash properties are located on the island of St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, and near the town of Playa del Carmen, the central point of the Riviera Maya, a fabulous vacation area, along the Yucatan coast, less than an hour south of Cancun. I will be featuring the Riviera Maya in a future newsletter. To learn more about these Splash Resort specials, which are in effect from now until mid December of 2001, click onto our Web site: www.SingleParentTravel.net and click on the Single Parents Special Section. There you will find booking and rate information. Should you decide to make reservations, please mention to the Splash booking agent CODE SPT. This will tell the agent you were referred by the SingleParentTravel.net Web site. Please note that SingleParentTravel.net is NOT paid to promote these specials, however it is important to track the referrals, so that SingleParentTravel.net has the data it needs to enlighten other travel suppliers about the growing importance of Single Parent Traveling Families, a long neglected market niche of the travel industry. SingleParentTravel.net will continue to advise you of any Single Parent specials we encounter. You are welcome to forward me any single parent travel specials you find and I will be happy to analyze them to see if they are true bargains or merely an excellent marketing campaign (i. e. a single room rate in disguise). Email me at globalbrenda@yahoo.com.

On another note, I had promised in last month's newsletter that I would write about additional ways to hand over travel responsibilities to your kid(s) so that you, the single parent, do not have to carry the entire "responsibility burden." Last month the newsletter discussed ways for your older kids, age nine or ten and above, to become skillful map readers and navigators, freeing you to focus on your driving or just enjoy the sights as you stroll around town. What about the younger children, age eight or nine and younger? What can they do to ease your single parent travel burden and made them feel they hold a responsible part in the success of the trip? Here are a few ideas:

LOCATE THE SAFETY EXITS
From the time my son was four years old I made him responsible for locating exit doors on planes and in hotels and theatres. I explained the importance of his job and he took it to heart. Every time we checked into a hotel, he would always remember to look down the hallway and count the number of doors to the fire exit. Although we have never experienced a hotel fire, it is nice to know that I have one less thing to worry about when I check in. Kids, less encumbered with responsibilities, are more likely to focus on a single task.

LEARN THE NAME OF THE HOTEL
My first major trip traveling as a single adult with my two kids was to the Knoxville World's Fair. My kids were then four and eleven years old. Fearful of separation in a large, crowded area, I made sure both my children knew the name of our hotel and had them repeat it back to me every so often. We witnessed one six-year-old child get lost, a memorable object lesson for my young son. Thereafter, whenever we traveled, without being prompted, my son memorized the hotel name as soon as we checked in. If you are traveling in a foreign country, have your child carry with him the cover from a set of matches. (Don't give your child the matches; that's inviting disaster).

Big kids benefit from this object lesson too. While I was working for a major European student tour company, our headquarters in Philadelphia received a phone call from the Pan American Airways office in downtown Rome. It seemed a high school student from one of our groups to Italy had wandered off by himself on a free afternoon, gotten lost in the city, and didn't know the name of his hotel. He did remember that he had flown on Pan American so he walked into their office and explained his problem. After checking his flight information, the airlines were able to verify his group information and called our office in the U. S. to get the name of his hotel. Although the student rated a poor grade in the memory department, he certainly deserved an "A" for ingenuity.

COUNTING LUGGAGE
Little ones can be responsible for counting luggage every time you make a move - arrival at your destination via airplane, checking out of the hotel, leaving a train or bus. The first couple of years my little son bordered on becoming "Mr. Annoying," as we had to stop cold in our tracks while he did a formal luggage count (usually a total of three bags and two small backpacks). But it made him and his older sister acutely aware of the importance of not leaving things behind.

FINAL ROOM OR COMPARTMENT SEARCH.
When you feel your child is ready, let him or her be responsible for the final room search before you check out of the hotel or leave the train. Kids are good at this. Once they are shown how to properly search a room for items that are left behind (under beds, in drawers and closets, behind the shower curtain) you can count on them to do a suitable search and relieve you of that burden. Of course, until they are tall enough, you will have to check the shelves in the closet!

As the years went by and my son reached his pre-teens and later his teens, he automatically took on more responsibility for the luggage and I was happy to be relieved of this burden as well. When we did curbside check-in at airports, he would stay outside with the luggage until the porter actually picked it up and took it inside, so I didn't have to worry about curbside theft. When we traveled on buses throughout third world countries he would watch the porters load the luggage on top or inside, making certain the luggage was tied and secured properly. At times he even got up on top of the bus and helped the young men, making friends along the way. I am sure his efforts saved us from some lost or damaged luggage.

Only once did I challenge my son's "Baggage Master" authority and then it was to my regret. We were in Bolivia and had just disembarked from a hydrofoil which had transported us from Isla del Sol to another interesting hotel on the banks of Lake Titicaca. Unable to book the hotels separately, we had signed up for a four night package that included the transfers, porterage and a guide, along with the two hotels. As my son prepared to remove the luggage from the hydrofoil so we could take it to our room, the guide stopped us and said, "No, the porters will remove the luggage and bring it to your room." Conscious of his duty, my son then positioned himself to watch the porters do their job. The guide came over to me and insisted we go and enjoy ourselves in the hotel and that our actions made him lose face and look like he wasn't doing his job. When I told this to my son, he was thought it was a bad idea. Torn between offending my son and committing a cultural faux pas, I chose the former. I asked Greg to back off and then walked over to the guide and told him I held him personally responsible for our luggage.

About twenty minutes later my son came running up the stairs to our hotel room, yelling that our luggage was on its way to Quito. As requested Greg had left the hydrofoil dock but shortly thereafter only to see half our bags being carted away in a big red pick up truck. The two of us, with smoke coming out of our ears, stormed into the hotel lobby, to find our guide. He was shocked and apologetic and did address the problem immediately. Our lost luggage arrived back at our hotel and was delivered to our room about 3:00am that night. After that the guide never questioned my son when Greg stood watch over our luggage and I resolved to do the same.

Next month I will talk about how you and your kids can meet the locals when you travel, whether your destination is the U.S. or anywhere in the world.

POSTING MESSAGES
Feel free to send me your comments, queries or feedback to me directly at: globalbrenda@yahoo.com or to the list directly at: SingleParentTravel@yahoogroups.com. Please note that comments sent to the list must pertain to single parent travel.