Year-Round Discounts and Freebies for Service Members and Veterans

Sesame Place (by Steve Ward)

In honor of our brave men and women in uniform (and such veterans as my father) a few ways in which members of the tourism community salute your service:

• A 50% Discount at Carefree RV Resorts: The discount is valid year-round for Sunday through Thursday night stays. There are Carefree RV Resorts, 35 in all, in California, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas. To learn more, go to CarefreeRVResorts.com
• Complimentary Admission to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place: This one is for active members of the military only and includes free one-day admission for them and up to three members of their immediate families. Register with owner Anheuser-Buch's "Here's to the Heroes" program.
• Motel and Hotel Discounts of 15% to 30%: These are available at Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Wyndham Hotels, Wingate, Travelodge, Knights Inn, Super 8, Ramada and Amerihost Inns with the use of the member ID number 61386. I'd suggest going to HotelsCombined.com, an excellent travel search engine, to make sure you're getting the best rate, before you use this discount. (The group rates secured by discounters may end up being lower, especially in the case of 15% discounts).
• Dollywood Offers a 30% Discount for one-day admissions for active and retired military: The offer also applies to spouses and direct dependents. To learn more, click here. The offer is good through January 1, 2011 (but is likely to be extended).

Beyond these, active duty and retired military should look to the AFRC resorts available across in Florida, Hawaii, Germany, Virginia and Korea which provide rest and relaxation at a reasonable rate. To learn more about these, click here.