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Travel Dollars and Sense

Do you feel like you’ve just won the lottery after scoring a super deal on a flight, hotel room or rental car? Sadly, these days, it seems like you need lady luck or divine intervention to snag a decent deal when traveling. With sky-high gas prices and astronomical airfares, you’re not crazy to think that the deck is stacked against you when it comes to finding deeply discounted rates. Fortunately, there are ways you can stretch your travel dollar without ending up with a pulled muscle, including: Bundling: These package deals combine flight, hotel and rental car fees, so you … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel: Tips For a Smooth Flight

A year ago this week I was on a flight to Hawaii to spend Christmas with my family. (We actually flew out on December 23rd.) I prepped, planned and packed like a pro, but the brutal reality of flying during one the busiest travel weeks of the year is that you are at the mercy of the airline… and the nation’s air-travel system. If you are planning to take flight this week (or anytime between now and January 6th) you run a good chance of being delayed, missing a connection, or otherwise experiencing some type of travel inconvenience. While there … Continue reading →

Tricky Turkey Day Travel

If your Thanksgiving holiday travel plans call for you to board a plane to grandma’s house in the next few days, know that you will have lots and lots of company. The Air Transport Association (ATA) is estimating that roughly 27 million passengers will take to the skies beginning tomorrow and continuing for the next 12 days. The ATA is also anticipating an average of more than 2.5 million passengers a day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday and Monday after the holiday. So, what does that mean for you? To begin with, you can expect longer-than-usual lines … Continue reading →

Travel Updates: More Unique Turkey Day Travel Destinations and No More Lost Luggage

For the past few weeks I’ve been providing alternative destinations for those of you who are fed up with spending Thanksgiving Day passing the potatoes to your pea-throwing younger cousins and having to share a sofa bed with your second cousin’s snoring Saint Bernard. This next Turkey Day destination will have you flying far, far away from Aunt Lucy’s creamed corn—-all the way to the other side of the Atlantic. Italy is a great place to celebrate this all-American holiday with some new friends. Specifically at the Bauer Hotel in Venice. That’s where you’ll find Francesca Bortolotto Possati, the owner … Continue reading →

Seasonal Travel: Spending Thanksgiving in New Mexico

My parents met and married in Albuquerque, New Mexico and subsequently spent a number of Thanksgivings in the land of hot air balloons and roasted chilies. They now live in the land of pineapples and big surf. Hawaii is a popular holiday destination, but you’d be surprised at how many visitors descend on New Mexico during the long Thanksgiving weekend. Many hotels and resorts in the area are offering Thanksgiving packages, which include elaborate turkey spreads, but it is New Mexico, so don’t be surprised if your meal features a Southwestern accent. Common holiday dishes such as green chili and … Continue reading →

Unique Thanksgiving Travel Destinations

In my previous blog I mentioned that not everyone is planning to load up the family to go over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for a lavish turkey spread this Thanksgiving. In fact, some families forgo the entire conversation-over-cranberry sauce tradition all together and opt for an extended holiday weekend shushing down the slopes in Colorado or feasting on pheasant in Hawaii. If you are looking for alternative locales to spend your Thanksgiving holiday consider some of these options: LAS VEGAS The glitz and glam of Sin City may be the antithesis of grandma’s chatskie-filled dining … Continue reading →

Turkey Time Travel

Welcome to November. It’s the first day of the second to the last month of the year. Thanksgiving is exactly three weeks away. And you know what that means… let the travel nightmares begin. Thanksgiving is undeniably one of the busiest travel times of the year. However, not everyone is loading up the family to go over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for a lavish turkey spread. Some folks use the extended holiday weekend to go skiing, while others take their family reunions on the road and let hotel chefs whip up their Thanksgiving meal. If … Continue reading →

Will You Be Traveling On The Fourth?

Independence Day falls on a Wednesday this year, but according to AAA the fact that the holiday falls in the middle of the week is not stopping Americans from adjusting their vacation plans accordingly. In fact, the barometer of travel says they expect families will be hitting the roads, rails and skies in record numbers. Will you be on the move next week? If so you will be joining a record 41.1 million other American who will be traveling sometime between June 29th and July 8th. According to AAA, that’s 0.8% more than the 40.8 million who traveled last year. … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel: This Is It!

For the past five weeks I have been sharing travel tips with you in a series called “Holiday Travel.” Well, the countdown we started more than 45 days ago is in its last days. Brace yourself fellow holiday travelers—we may be in for a wild ride. According to travel guru AAA, a record 64.9 million Americans will be hitting the highways, the rails and the sky during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, crowding the nation’s airports and roadways like never before. AAA says the number may even surpass 65 million depending on the weather. Either way, the projected … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel: Dollars and Sense

Forking over cash to pay for your vacation is often just the first of many times you will be dipping into your wallet for your family trip. If you are traveling domestically, but especially if you are traveling internationally, there are some tips you should consider employing to help ensure that you don’t get ripped off. Here are a few: · Educate yourself. Spend some time learning about the currency of the region in which you are visiting. In most cases, it’s really not that different from American currency—typically there’s one “big” denomination made up of 100 smaller denominations. If … Continue reading →