Vacation | featured news

Families canceling vacations. Fishermen watching their profits burn up along with their boats' gasoline. Drivers buying only a few gallons of gas at a time because they can't afford to fill the tank. From all corners of the country, Americans are irritated these days by record-high fuel prices that have soared above $4 a gallon in some states and could top $5 by summer. And the cost is becoming a political issue just as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear.

Experts from Travelzoo, LivingSocial and JohnnyJet.com share strategies for stretching vacation dollars. If you don't know where you're going on vacation this year, you may not be indecisive.

President Barack Obama says members of Congress should put country before politics, set aside their differences and find ways to get people back to work. The president is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, but he recorded his weekly Saturday radio and Internet address earlier in the week while in Alpha, Ill., during an economy-focused Midwestern bus tour.

If it’s August, it must be time for that annual Washington political tradition: griping over the president’s vacation. Through wars and natural disasters, recessions and reelections, the getaway locales for America’s chief executive have been dissected by critics looking for symbolic reasons why the president shouldn’t go.

A relaxing cruise ship dream vacation was headed toward becoming a nightmare for nearly 1,700 passengers. The passengers onboard the MSC Opera, sailing in the Baltic Sea, nearly staged a mutiny when the luxury liner broke down, according to the Daily Mail.

The latest Travel + Leisure survey shows that there’s more to a great vacation spot than sunny weather.

Over the past decade, booking travel plans has become exponentially easier. Gone are the days when we relied on travel agents to book flights, hotels and car rentals. Why call an agent when you can do your own research quicker and more thoroughly online? And now, mobile devices, including the iPad, are making travel planning even easier, giving vacationers the option to book on the fly.

When Roger Bell takes a vacation, he normally flies to a national park or visits friends up north for two weeks. But like many Americans, Bell, a Woodstock, Georgia-based technical writer, lost his job in 2009.

Spanish police cleared off a stretch of beach for U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha to relax by the Mediterranean Friday after a busy day of sightseeing.

President Obama and his family leave Friday for a weekend getaway to Maine, but along with a little rest and relaxation comes criticism that the president is taking it easy with the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis in a critical phase.