Online guide offers useful travel tips

Online guide offersuseful travel tips
Take only photos, leave only footprints.
That's a longtime motto of World Expeditions, trekking and adventure specialists.
The company has more tips as travelers are increasingly aware of their impact on the world's remote environments and cultures.
The tips are detailed in the award-winning "Responsible Travel Guidebook," downloadable at www.worldexpeditions.net. Click on the "Responsible Travel" link. For more information, call (888) 464-8735.
California shopstrade in whimsy
It's as if someone waved a magic wand and opened Whimsic Alley, Southern California's newest shopping and tourist attraction.
The place is more like a wizard theme park than the shopping center it is.
A Hollywood visual set designer developed the interior, and visitors to the Santa Monica shops say they feel as if they've been transported to a mystical London Street.
Quaint shops offer everything that a sophisticated or beginning wizard could want, from magic wands to wizard wear.
HP Wizard Store boasts it has more Harry Potter items than any store in the world. While not all shops conform to the wizard theme, all deal with whimsy.
For more information, visit www.whimsicalley.com.
Holiday cheer glowson North Carolina strip
The Southeast's biggest holiday display glows in Clemmons, N.C., about 75 miles northeast of Charlotte.
This season, viewers drive along an almost 4-mile route past more than 1 million colorful lights in 180 themed displays of which 70 are animated.
For those who would rather gawk than drive, tractor-drawn hayrides and horse-drawn carriage rides are available for additional fees and advance reservations.
For more information, call (336) 778-6300 or visit www.tanglewoodpark.org.
Boyds teddy bear store opens in bear country
The Boyds Collection Ltd. has opened Boyds Bear Country, the "World's Most Humongous Teddy Bear Store," in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Only the second Boyds retail store in the nation (the other is in Gettysburg, Pa.), Boyds Bear Country includes almost 60,000 bean-stuffed and resin bears, hares and other lovable critters within its 110,000 square-foot facility.
The location is a natural. It's just off the south end of Pigeon Forge's 5-mile parkway that leads to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the largest protected bear habitat in the East.
The store expects to have more than 1 million visitors each year.
For more information call (888) 654-6215 or visit www.boydsbearcountry.com.
Festival of Lightcovers 43 acres
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Thousands of lights throughout Oklahoma are drawing visitors nightly this holiday season.
One of the largest displays is in Chickasha, located in the southwestern section of the state. It takes over 1,000 volunteers to ready the Festival of Light, which remains on view through Dec. 31.
The 43-acre display includes a 16-story Christmas tree, lakeside displays and a bridge covered with 75,000 lights.
In Midwest City, just outside Oklahoma City, a Holiday Lights Spectacular includes 80 large displays making up more than a mile of lights and moving displays that wind through Joe B. Barnes Regional Park.
In Bartlesville, in northeastern Oklahoma, Fantasy Land of Lights has become a major tourist attraction.
For more information on visiting Oklahoma this season, call (800) 652-6552.