Edinburgh is one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, draped across a series of rocky hills overlooking the sea. It’s a town intimately entwined with its landscape, with buildings and monuments perched atop crags and overshadowed by cliffs - in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘a dream in masonry and living rock’. From the Old Town’s picturesque jumble of medieval tenements piled high along the Royal Mile, its turreted skyline strung between the black, bull-nosed Castle Rock and the russet palisade of Salisbury Crags, to the New Town’s neat grid of neoclassical respectability, all columns and capitals, porticoes and pediments, the city offers a constantly changing perspective. And it’s all small enough to explore easily on foot.

One of our favorite hotels in Edinburgh is the Tune Hotel Haymarket, which is directly across the road from the entrance to Haymarket Rail Station and centrally located to all the main attractions in the city. Tune Hotel Haymarket is just a mere 15 minutes’ walk to Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street which is the main shopping street in Edinburgh. Other attractions include Edinburgh International Conference Centre (only 7 minutes’ walk away), Murrayfield Stadium and Edinburgh Zoo is just a short 8 minutes’ drive away.

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The Hilton Atlanta is another hotel that boasts a central location in the heart of downtown Atlanta. It’s within a walking distance of some of the best attractions in the city, including the Georgia Aquarium, CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is just a 15 minute drive from the Atlanta hotel.

Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead is set within the upscale uptown neighborhood of Buckhead. Renovated guestrooms include state-of-the-art Internet access, and sleek flat screen HDTVs with Roomlinx interactive iTV. You can also enjoy views of the Japanese Zen Garden.

Atlanta hotels are everything you can possibly want and more.

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Last Minute Travel is giving away free hotel nights at popular locations across the country. To qualify, just follow @LMTTweets on Twitter and RT (re-tweet) the contest Tweets as instructed. Then, those who follow and RT will be entered into a random drawing for those free hotel nights. We’ll have a new RT promo about every two weeks, so be sure to check back for new hotel packages and additional chances to win.

Our first week will give away a 2 night stay at the Hilton Orlando located in Downtown Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort. We choose Orlando because it has so much to offer both families and business travelers. Beyond the must-see theme parks, there are dozens of roadside attractions, air tours, and dining opportunities. At Last Minute Travel we have the deals on Orlando transportation and activities that you won’t find anywhere else like our Orlando Superpass.

Learn more about Orlando at our destination guide for the city.

For complete “Travel Temptations” official sweepstakes rules click here.

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A quick trip to Good Day LA from Lauren Volcheff, Last Minute Travel’s Vice President of Marketing, and we were able to share some great tips for securing deals on last minute summer vacations. Here’s the clip:

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Wondering who the people are behind LastMinuteTravel.com? We are a swiftly growing division of Travel Holdings, Inc.

Travel Holdings - By The Numbers.

• 16 years in operation
• 32 locations serving 97 source countries across 6 continents
• 400 employees providing support in 23 languages
• $40 million invested in proprietary technology since 2002
• 17,000 direct hotel contracts
• $2.5 million in sales per day
• 3.5 million passengers/year resulting in 1.19 million bookings including 3.99 million room nights and other services such as flights, cars, cruise, activities and transfers
• 36% growth in sales year to date 2010 and 480% growth in the last 5 years*
• Positive EBITDA of 5.4% and growing

With numbers like this Travel Holdings, and LastMinuteTravel.com, are poised to provide you excellent travel options for years to come. There is a lot more to come.

*All numbers are from 2009, except this fact from May 2010

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I noticed this morning that one of those ‘Private Sale’ websites is having a flash sale for The James in Chicago. A beautiful luxury boutique with an apartment living feel right off the Magnificent Mile, The James provides the personalized feel that’s perfect for a getaway or a business trip. When I did a quick price comparison with our rates, I noticed that if you book with us you can still save 20% off the price offered to their invite only members. (Valid February 2010 and most nights in March 2010)

There are two ways to book, you can visit LastMinuteTravel.com and search our “Undercover Hotels” for 5 star Chicago Luxury hotels. We have a couple with very good rates. Or you can join the Last Minute Travel Club where we have private sale prices all the time and you see all the details up front before you book. If you spend two nights at The James, you’ll save more than the club membership, plus you’ll get 5,000 TripleDip loyalty points when you become a member and access to all the great discount travel prices on the club.

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With the news this week that Delta and Continental have raised the price of their baggage fees (again), it’s time to look seriously at alternatives to checking in luggage.

Loyalty has its rewards - many airlines will wave or discount baggage fees for its rewards club members. Check and see if you have enough points to qualify. If you’re close, consider taking some last minute travel and joining the world of Frequent Flyer hypermilers. You know those folks who think nothing of booking an extra flight to France to keep that Elite status. Well, they share their secrets on websites like FlyerTalk.com and FrequentFliers.com

Pack fewer things - If everything fits in your carry-on luggage, then there are no fees. Once you get over only having two pair of shoes on your trip, you can follow the advice of other travel experts who have learned to whittle down their packing list. Some good places to start are websites like Onebag.com and Travelite.org.

Ship it - Even if you are able to fit everything into your carry-on luggage, there are still certain items you can’t carry through security. For that you can use the USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate box. You can fit a lot of clothes and travel kit items in the 12″ x 12″ x 5-1/2″ flat rate box. The cost of 2-3 day shipping is less than $15, which is less than the cost of checking that extra bag. Just make sure you’re not shipping anything the USPS prohibits and that your destination will hold packages for future arrivals.

Leave it there - Are you a frequent visitor to one destination? Use a service to store your goods and deliver them to your hotel for your arrival. In Orlando you can use Owner’s Locker. They pickup, store, and deliver whenever you come to play at the theme parks.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/ / CC BY 2.0

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