With Christmas coming I was excited to stumble across this great-looking book, perfect for the Eurail enthusiast. It would make a great gift for someone heading to Europe during the holidays or celebrating their graduation with a Eurotrip adventure.

Europe by Eurail 2009: Touring Europe by Train is hot off the press and ready to help you plan a Eurail journey in the new year. It contains route information, timetables and plenty of advice from seasoned Eurail pros.

Looking for gifts for other travelers this Christmas? Get the free “Gift ideas for travelers” download from Indie Travel Podcast to browse through heaps of great ideas. If you really want to splash out and celebrate, you can buy Eurail Passes for next Spring at heavily discounted prices.

Christmas should be a time to give, so we’re supporting Passports with Purpose. This charity fundraiser is in support of Heifer International and is run by a small group of travel bloggers. It’s well worth a look.

Sales finish 30 November!

These discounts are available for a limited time and are valid for travel in March, April and May 2009. If that’s when you’re travelling, get in now and save yourself some cash! You’ll also get Free shipping on orders of $399 or more.

With a hat-tip to hostelbloggers, The Independent and SABMiller Breweries are giving away a European tour worth five thousand quid! With an extra thousand pounds to spend along the way. The trip takes you to seven countries – The Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary and Holland.

Entry is as easy as 200 words on the city you’d most like to visit. I’d recommend

a) Choosing a city from the prize-tour countries.
b) Polishing your writing — competition will be fierce.
c) Not over-doing the beer angle; too cliched.
d) If you can point to your travel blog in the application it might score in your favour.

If you win, you have to visit SABMiller breweries in each country. You might even get to drink some beer too.

Enter now. Good luck! And make sure you let us know when you win.

Until the end of September you can get a free bookon top of purchases of AU$60 / UK£25 / US$40 / EU€40.

Visit the Lonely Planet site and pick up three books for the price of two. It’s a genius idea and a great way to prepare yourself for future travels, stock up on gifts for travellers, or just get a healthy dose of of travel ideas. You’ll get free delivery too, so what are you waiting for?

Lonely Planet: Pick a book for free is only valid until the end of September.

Time is running out on this special offer on Lonely Planet Guidebooks.

It’s been some time since Lonely Planet was a kitchen table operation but their advice is still good. Their guidebooks are aimed at budget travellers and contain great advice on hostels, food picks and city and cultural guides.

For your Eurail adventure we recommend Europe on a Shoestring. This covers every country in Europe along with Morocco and Turkey just in case you head that far afield. It tries to provide general advice for popular places and does it quite well.

If you’re after more detailed information consider buying their city or country specific guides to fit your itinerary.

This 30% off deal only lasts until August 20 and will not be extended so buy now.