If you are looking to plan that 2010 getaway, now might be a good time to check airfare. Virgin America, SouthwestAirlines and JetBlue have all announced some pretty good sales this week.
Virgin America is offering discounted seats if you book by January 11 and fly between January 7 – March 10. There are even a few select seats available through June 20. A three day advance purchase is required. Some one-way fares include:
San Francisco to Las Vegas – $39
Seattle to San Francisco – $59
Boston or Washington DC to Los Angeles or San Francisco – $99
New York or Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles or San Francisco – $109
For more information and fares, check out Virgin America’s website.
Southwest Airlines is offering “3 Days of Deals” with some pretty decent deals. Hurry because you only have until this Thursday January 7, 2010 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time to grab a seat on sale. Travel is good through May 14, 2010 and a 14-day advance purchase is required. A few one-way fares that caught my attention include:
Chicago to Long Island – $80
New York to Baltimore - $59
Denver to San Diego – $92
Milwaukee to Ft. Lauderdale – $101
For more information and fares, check out Southwest’s website.
Finally, if you are looking to “shake up the new year” and jet for less, check out JetBlue’s first sale of the new year. What is great about this sale is that you can either purchase tickets or use your TrueBlue points. You must book by January 13, 2010, travel by March 24, 2010 and blackout dates do apply. Some of the one-way fares that stood out include:
New York to New Orleans – $84/$89
Austin to Orlando - $79/$89
Fort Lauderdale to Nassau - $29
Boston to Chicago - $67/$79
For more information and fares, check out Jetblue’s website.
There have been all sorts of spooky airline deals coming in this week leading up to Halloween. Three airlines in particular have given passengers plenty of reasons to hop a plane and fly like a bat out of hell across the country.
AirTran: The low-cost carrier wants you to skip raking the leaves and get packing. With fares starting as low as $39 one-way, you will have enough cash leftover to pay the neighbor’s kids to finish cleaning the lawn.
You must book by November 10, 2009 and travel is valid through February 10, 2010. Some sample one-way fares include:
Chicago (Midway)-Cancun: $84 (plus tax)
Memphis-Atlanta: $69 (plus tax)
Washington (Dulles)-Tampa: $69 (plus tax)
For more information, additional routes, and prices check out AirTran.com.
Virgin America: Fly across the country for only $62? That is “BOO-tiful” my frightened friends. This sale is so “spooktacular” that it is only good for travel this coming Halloween weekend.
Tickets must be purchased by 11:59pm on October 29with travel occurring on either Friday October 30 or Saturday October 31. Some sample one-way fares include:
San Francisco-Las Vegas: $31 (plus tax)
Seattle-Orange County: $31 (plus tax)
New York, Boston or Washington (Dulles)-San Francisco or Los Angeles: $62 (plus tax)
For more information, additional routes, and prices check outVirginAmerica.com.
Southwest Airlines: The “LUV” airline is at it again with another great sale. This time some seats are priced lower than many airline’s checked bag fees. Talk about a touchdown. Nothing scary about this deal…so boooooooooo-k now.
Tickets must be purchased by October 29 at 11:59 Pacific Standard Time. Travel is good between December 2-16 and January 5-February 10, 2010. Some sample one-way fares include:
Los Angeles-LasVegas:$25 (plus taxes)
Chicago (Midway)-Nashville: $50 (plus taxes)
New York (LaGuardia)-Orlando: $75 (plus taxes)
For more information, additional routes, and prices check out Southwest.com.
I have officially filled this year’s quota of awful Halloween themed word play with this article.
A tourism video can do a lot for a particular destination. From the informative to the chic and stylish to the downright bizarre, each locale has its own unique way of doing some self promoting. One thing is for sure with all these videos, they are definitely putting a lot of money into them. I mean most look like trailers to some new blockbuster movie.
Below are just a sampling of some tourism videos that caught my attention online. Enjoy.
Montreal: Sexy, smart and fun. This video hits the nail on the head when it comes to what tourists will experience in this great Canadian city.
Australia: I am not sure what the Aussies were trying to pull off with this weird ad. Interesting to say the least.
China: I feel like I should be chomping on a big tub of popcorn and a giant soda in a dark theater when I watch this video. Can not wait for the sequel!
Peru: Now this is the quintessential tourism video in my opinion. I mean they provide you with everything you need to know about Peru in a little over five minutes. Well done.
Las Vegas: Zzzzz. Pretty lame by Vegas standards. Also very predictable. Bikini clad women in a hot tub or pool. Check. A bunch of cool dudes rolling the dice and high fiving. Check. We get it. Yawn.
Well it is about time. That was my first reaction when I visited the website Oyster Hotel Reviews (which launched earlier this year). For years now I have been telling people that hotel websites and companies like Travelocity, Priceline, and Expedia have been kind of deceitful and misleading to the basic travel customer.
These sites will showcase properties with those stock photos that include absolutely perfect lighting, scenic touch-ups (like a deserted beach instead of a crowded one), and at times fake or altered window views. This is obviously done to woo customers and generate sales. While there is nothing wrong with trying to garner new business, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of travel writers like yours truly. I prefer to honestly show people what they are spending their hard earned cash on when they take that next family getaway or business trip.
So that is why Oyster has become one of my new favorite online travel resources. Unlike hotel review websites like TripAdvisor which rely heavily on customers feedback, Oyster is actually paying professional writers to go and check out various properties (anonymously) and provide readers with detailed reviews, pictures and feedback. I love it!
As a self-professed hotel nerd, I found this website to be a great place to check out various places to stay in my own backyard of New York. In addition to the Big Apple, Oyster currently offers hotel reviews in Aruba, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Jamaica, Las Vegas, and Miami. They plan to debut Los Angeles and San Francisco in November and even more cities in 2010.
So who writes for Oyster Hotel Reviews? Over the last 19 months, experienced journalists that have worked for such publications as the New York Times, The Village Voice, and Conde Nast Traveler have all gone undercover (fake mustache and all) to various hotels in order to properly evaluate each property in great detail.
One of the great features on the site is that readers can search through the hotels by category, price, special amenities, and various other features chosen by the Oyster reporters. Oyster includes “best-of” list as well for each location. Taking a look at the New York hotels section, I was able to browse through a wide range of options that included “Best Value Hotels”, “Best Happy Hour Hotels”, “Pet-Friendly Hotels”, “Quietest Hotels”, and my personal favorite “Thanksgiving Parade Views.”
While the website is still in the early stages and has many cities to add both domestically and internationally (Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Montreal, London, and Dublin instantly come to mind), it is truly a breathe of fresh air in what has become quite a stagnant state of affairs when it pertains to online hotel review sites. I was kind of getting tired of reading about good hotels receiving 1-star reviews from disgruntled customers due to inane reasons like bad weather upon arrival or because the man at the front desk did not smile wide enough when handing over the key card.
In addition to the great hotel reviews on Oyster, the website provides detailed area guides and absolutely stunning photography of the properties and destinations. I spent a few hours one day just looking at their collection of amazing shots taken in Miami before even diving into the actual hotel reviews!
I highly recommend checking out Oyster Hotel Review. Oyster has become such a favorite of mine that I even plan on using some of their photography in upcoming hotel reviews that I showcase right here on my site.
Well yesterday’s article was pretty revealing. I mean we had some very sinful travel experts get a lot off their chest. In fact it got so bad that I needed to close down the confession booth for 24-hours. But I am back with even MORE travel confessions.
I will try to keep it a little cleaner today I promise. When most travelers confessed to me, one topic seemed to come up quite a bit and that was “I have never been to…”. Below are some places that these vagabonds have yet to mark off on their “to see” list.
Johnny Jet, a man you would think has touched every inch of this planet, has yet to make his presence felt at the Grand Canyon.
Nomadic Matt is another globe-trotting individual that has also seen most of the world. He also runs one hell of a travel blog. But Matt confesses that he has not yet rolled the dice in “Sin City” Las Vegas.
Stephanie Yoder of Twenty-Something Travel visited Amsterdam, but skipped the Red Light District. That is like going all the way to New York and not trying pizza! Stephanie also mentions here why she has yet to walk the streets of Paris.
Have you ever visited a popular destination and wound up being extremely disappointed? You’re not alone. Two such travelers shared their dismay with a certain Italian destination that millions of vacationers flock to each year.
Andy Murdock of Lonely Planet told me, “I’ve only been to Venice once, and all I wanted to do was leave as quickly as possible. It was the height of summer so it was hot, filthy, smelly and just crammed full of tourists and hawkers selling tacky trinkets at every turn, and the geography makes it really difficult to escape the hordes. I hate telling this to people because they’ve either been and loved it and try to convince me to go back and give it a second shot, or they haven’t been and hold romantic notions of the city that I don’t especially want to dash because of my one bad experience. Maybe one day I’ll return off-season, but for me it’s like an expensive restaurant that everyone else loves but gave me food-poisoning: why should I spend the money and effort to go back when there are so many new places to try, not to mention places I would love to return to?”
Gary Arndt ,who runs the extremely popular travel blog Everything-Everywhere.com,also did not enjoy his time in Venice. Arndt confessed, “My first reaction when I arrived in Venice was ‘Wow. This looks just like EPCOT Center!’.”
Spendthrift Shoestring’s Alex Robertson Textor fessed up and told me, “I’ve been to 98 countries/territories, but I’ve never visited Sydney, Tokyo, Mexico City, or Orlando — or a cruise ship.”
The Elite Travel Gal herself Stacy Small has been to many great cities around the world, but one seems to keep getting away from her. Small told me that she has never been to New Orleans. “I had a few trips planned,” Small stated. “But I always had to cancel due to inclement weather!”
Mike Barish, contributing travel writer to Gadling.com, expressed that, “It took me 30 years to get to Paris. Still haven’t been to London. Yet I’ve been to India twice.”
Sarah Schlichter from IndependentTraveler.com told me that she likes to keep it simple for accommodations and that, “I never stay at luxury hotels. They’re too pretentious, and I don’t feel like I belong there. Give me a B&B or a mid-priced guesthouse any day.”
Wow! The confessional’s line is out the door. I am going to have to shut it down for today. Check back tomorrow for part 3/3 of travel confessions.
