Thank you for your interest in helping our 2006 Fundraising Drive.

You are welcome to contribute as much as you wish, or as little as you wish, to help continue and develop The Travel Insider website and newsletter.

No-one should feel obliged to contribute anything, and absolutely, please don't cause yourself any hardship or inconvenience if you do choose to contribute.  But if you can conveniently contribute, please do consider so doing.

How to Contribute

Instant Online Contributions

You can simply send a credit card or check account payment securely and instantly via Paypal.  You can chose between sending a single one-time payment, or creating a voluntary 'subscription' and creating automatic monthly or quarterly contributions.  Simply click whichever button at the bottom of the page you prefer.

I'll email you to then ask you what your appreciation gift choices are.

Mailed in Contributions

If you prefer, you're welcome to send checks to

The Travel Insider
17321 NE 31st Ct
Redmond WA 98052

If you're sending money through the mail, please be sure to include your name and address, plus email address and a note indicating which appreciation gifts you'd like so I can let you know your contribution arrived and send you the appreciation gifts you wish.

If you're contributing on behalf of your company, we're pleased to send you an invoice for a Travel Insider newsletter subscription to help ensure it qualifies for reimbursement.

Special Appreciation Gifts from Sponsors

Nine suppliers have very kindly agreed to provide valuable goods and services to you to encourage contributions and to reward you for so doing.  Please note that some of the items are in limited supply - when they have all been given away there will be no more, but we'll update this list to reflect that fact as soon as it happens.

The suppliers and items currently being offered are :

Mayer Nudell, Specialized Consulting Services

A free copy of the most up to date World Threat Map from Mayer Nudell,  a travel security consultant.

Mayer is a former US diplomat and an acknowledged authority on terrorism, crisis management, travel security, and related international political and national security affairs.  He has many relevant qualifications, much experience, and has won a range of industry awards for his work.  He has also co-authored two books on travel and security matters and teaches classes on Terrorism for the GSA's Interagency Training Center.

All people who contribute $10 or more will receive one of these via email.  These maps normally sell for $5 each, or a one year subscription is available for $50.

Uniglobe Accent Travel

A discount on a future cruise of $100 per cabin for cruises of 7+ days or $50 per cabin for cruises of 3-6 days.  This applies to all new bookings that are deposited prior to 31 December 2006.  You can travel on your cruise subsequently; to qualify all you need to do is book your cruise and get your deposit in by the end of this year.

Uniglobe Accent Travel is obviously a member of the massive Uniglobe franchise, getting them access to very good cruise rates to start with.  The agency has won various awards including a local Chamber of Commerce 'Small Business of the Year' award and a Uniglobe 'Agency of the Year' award.  Their owners, Jim and Marcia Cole, traveled with me to New Zealand last year, and you can be certain their agency will look after you and all your travel needs well.

All people who contribute $10 or more will receive a discount code entitling them to this discount via email.  Plainly this could be worth at least $50 or $100, and more if you're booking more than one cabin.

ProTravelGear.com

Pro Travel Gear - the people who design the award winning Plane Quiet and Solitude noise cancelling headphones - are giving you back your donation when you buy a set of Solitude headphones.  The discount amount varies depending on the level of your support to The Travel Insider (see below).  This applies to all new sales between now and 25 June.

Pro Travel Gear's headphones have brought a new level of high performance at affordable price to the market, and have won our annual Grand Prize and Best Technology Product awards for three years consecutively.  These awards are determined by your voting.  Their latest upgrade to the Solitude was just released this week (May 12) and offers an even better product than the first Solitude product, while still holding the same $199.95 price.

All people who contribute more than $20 will be emailed a discount code good for a $20/$30/$40 or $50 discount per set of Solitude headphones.  The more you contribute, the larger your discount, and if you buy two or more sets of Solitudes, you'll actually be massively profiting on the deal.

Telestial

Telestial are offering a wonderfully clever little credit card sized device for storing SIMs.  If you're traveling internationally and have multiple SIMs for your cell phone, this credit card sized piece gives you a suitable place to hold and protect your spare SIMs.

Telestial is the internet's leading resource for people when they travel overseas and wish to be able to use a cell phone in other countries.  They sell unlocked cell phones and a range of prepaid SIMs for use in over 150 countries, making it easy and convenient for you to make and receive calls pretty much everywhere in the world.  And, for those really out of the way places, they rent or sell satellite phones as well.

All people who contribute more than $20 will be offered a choice of a free SIM holder or several other items.  The SIM holder has a retail price of $5.95.

Mobal

Mobal are offering two different incentives.  The first incentive is a life-time global roaming SIM that can be used with a GSM cell phone to provide cell phone service in 140 different countries around the world, and with no need to ever make prepayments, and with no expiring balances in your account that you might otherwise lose.  The lifetime SIM would normally cost you $5.

Their second incentive is a 900 MHz GSM phone, complete with one of their global roaming SIMs.  These phones are reconditioned units and will operate in much of the rest of the world.  It is hard to put a value on these phones, but obviously it is a very generous offer from Mobal.

Mobal is the only company offering lifetime SIMs that essentially never expire (most SIMs need you to buy recharges for them every six months or sometimes more regularly) and with their excellent world coverage and convenient billing to a credit card only if and when you use your SIM, they offer a great solution for world travelers.

All people who contribute more than $20 will be offered a choice of a free global roaming SIM or several other items.  All people who contribute more than $40 will have the free 900 MHz GSM phone added to the range of products they can choose from.

Travelpro Luggage

Travelpro are offering a free QuickCheck travel document/ID holder - a convenient pouch that can hang around your neck, with places for boarding passes, passport, ID, and a zipped compartment for money.  This saves you juggling a dozen different things as you go through airport checkpoints.

Travelpro invented the modern wheel-aboard suitcase, with their first bag being released in 1989.  In the 17 years since then, they've made many enhancements and have massively increased their product line to cover just about any type of luggage requirement you might have.  Their luggage is widely available in retail stores and on the internet.

All people who contribute more than $20 will be offered a choice of a free QuickCheck or several other items.  The QuickCheck travel document/ID holder has a retail price of $5.99.

Passport Travel Newsletter

Passport are offering a three month free subscription to their internet based newsletter.

The Passport Newsletter is a well established monthly newsletter with a half monthly supplement that details upmarket travel destinations, hotels, activities, etc.  A quick perusal of their May issue showed it to be a detailed 10,000 word publication with three articles of strong personal interest (the Orient Express, Whisky on the Scottish island of Islay, and an update on St Petersburg), all of which were well written, comprehensive, and up to date.  Subscribers also get access to a massive database of past articles and reference material.

All people who contribute $10 or more will be given this free three month subscription, a $25 value.

Clipper Gear Micro Light

The Clipper Gear Micro Light is a convenient slim LED light that can be affixed to your cell phone or other object you take everywhere with you, giving you a beam of light any time you need it.

All people who contribute more than $20 will be offered a choice of a free Micro Light or several other items.  The Clipper Gear Micro Light has a retail price of $4.95.

Great Alaskan Toursaver

The Great Alaskan Toursaver publisher is offering free copies of their book.

The Great Alaskan Toursaver book is crammed full of savings and bargains for people traveling to Alaska on vacation.  They have lots of two for one discounts - for example on Glacier Bay cruises, plus discounts on hotel stays, tours, even discounts on drinks of coffee.  In total there are over 140 offers that - if you were to take advantage of them all - offer over $20,000 in savings.  If you (or a friend) are planning a trip to Alaska this year, then you absolutely must have one of these.

These books are being offered to people who contribute $100 or more.  The retail price of the book is $99.95.

Solarsharky Design Services

Solarsharky are offering two hours of their internet design services to be used any way you wish - creating a banner, optimizing a logo, reviewing/critiquing a website design, or whatever else you might require.

Solarsharky is the company that did all the design work for my website.  I can't speak too highly of their service and the high standard of their work.  They've subsequently done projects for several friends and colleagues, all of whom are as pleased by their work as I am.

The two hours of their time is being offered to people who contribute $150 or more.  Their casual hourly billing rate is $65/hour (reduces for project work) making this a $130 value.

Appreciation Gift Award Table
 

How to Donate

Choose either the 'Donate' button below to make a single, one-time contribution of any amount you wish, or if you prefer, please choose one of the 'Subscribe' buttons from the table below to create an automatic and voluntary monthly or quarterly contribution (which can be instantly cancelled at any time by a single button click on the 'Cancel Subscription' button at the bottom).

Automatic Monthly or Quarterly 'Subscription'

If you wish to subsequently cancel your subscription, simply click this button at any time.

Many thanks for your support.  It really does help.