An article has been making the rounds about an upstate New York Hotel fining customers $500 for leaving a negative review for their hotel. Here is the original text that sparked the story: If your guests are looking for a Marriott type hotel they may not like it here. Therefore: If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us … [Read more...] about Is a $500 Fine for Negative Reviews a Brilliant Marketing Scheme?
Where is the Best Place to Live and Work Abroad?
For the past year I have become more and more fascinated with the “digital nomad” lifestyle. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a digital nomad is, it’s essentially someone who is able to conduct their work from anywhere in the world. Digital nomads will often live in inexpensive cities all over the world, soaking in the culture around them while doing enough work to … [Read more...] about Where is the Best Place to Live and Work Abroad?
Beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park Photos in HDR
My silence lately has had much to do with driving across the country to my new home in San Francisco. While there are many ways to get from Minnesota to the bay area, I chose a route that allowed me to see several of our national parks. While all parks were excellent, I was most excited to see Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Bryce Canyon is one of the most unique places … [Read more...] about Beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park Photos in HDR
Help Your Fellow Travelers With Hotel Wifi Test
I came across a cool concept the other day that I have not found written about often in the travel blogosphere. It is a service called Hotel Wifi Test and allows you to search for hotels with the fastest wifi speed. For a business traveler, this could be an excellent filter when it comes to searching for hotels in new areas. Rather than relying on the hotel’s description … [Read more...] about Help Your Fellow Travelers With Hotel Wifi Test
Using the new Google Flight Search to Find Travel Ideas
Last month Google announced on their official travel blog an improved flight search capability that allows you to see flight prices from your origin city to a number of destinations in map form. While I opened the blog post and watched the video right as it was posted, I am just now getting around to writing about this cool new feature for flight searchers. Here is their … [Read more...] about Using the new Google Flight Search to Find Travel Ideas
When is it Appropriate to Use Miles for a Domestic Award?
When it comes to redeeming your hard earned miles for flights, conventional wisdom is that you will get the most value for your points by booking flights in premium international class. This is true in most cases when redeeming miles for saver award tickets, because you can get anywhere from 2 to 10+ cents in value for each mile you redeem. … [Read more...] about When is it Appropriate to Use Miles for a Domestic Award?
Delta / SPG Crossover Rewards – A Nice Little Bonus for Doing Next to Nothing
If you are enrolled in the Delta and SPG crossover rewards program, you are probably aware of the benefits that are offered as part of the program. I wrote about the benefits of crossover rewards last year, so for now I will just mention that one of the big benefits of the program is that you have the opportunity to receive incremental miles from Delta and points from SPG based … [Read more...] about Delta / SPG Crossover Rewards – A Nice Little Bonus for Doing Next to Nothing
Happy Fourth of July!
In July of 2010 we watched the fireworks from a rooftop of an office building in Washington, DC. The surreal experience was perfect for experimenting with Fireworks photos as the colors decorated the national mall and lit up the monuments. Maybe 1 in every 10 photos turned out, but the ones that worked were pretty amazing. While I'm not sure when I'll be in our nations … [Read more...] about Happy Fourth of July!
Reflecting on Travel Stats for the First Half of 2014
A few days ago I looked the calendar and said to myself “holy cow, we’re already half way through 2014… I feel like I haven’t gotten anything done!” This is especially true for my life as a travel blogger - I have not done a great job of sticking to a regular posting schedule, and I’m not sure exactly when that will happen again. … [Read more...] about Reflecting on Travel Stats for the First Half of 2014
Things I’ll Never Use: Delta’s New “Upgrade with Miles” Option
While I have been living under a rock the past few weeks preparing to put my house of 10 years on the market, Delta came out with a new feature announcement last week that may be of interest to frequent Delta flyers. The announcement is that you can now upgrade your flights at the time of booking using your frequent flyer miles. Previously you were only able to do this using … [Read more...] about Things I’ll Never Use: Delta’s New “Upgrade with Miles” Option