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Saturday Travel Shot: Boston, Massachusetts

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jan 2, 2010 in Travel

A lovely day for stroll in Boston, Massachusetts

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Are You Ready For Some Travel?: Five Great Football Stadiums

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sep 11, 2009 in Travel

Ah crisp, cool weather has arrived in New York, the sun is setting earlier, leaves are already starting to fall off some of the trees on my street, and I even wore a sweatshirt outside today in the park. That can only mean one thing…football season is here!

The NFL is back and kicked off last night with the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers squeaking out an overtime victory against the Tennessee Titans. Honestly one of the main reasons I love football is that its the perfect excuse to get away with drinking a few beers and eating some unhealthy food at 1pm on a Sunday.

What’s more, it is also a great reason to travel. Yes I usually always find a way to incorporate everything I enjoy into travel. While I prefer to wander the globe in search of  amazing food, historic sites, unique hotels, and the occasional concert, one other thing I love to do is visit an away game and tailgate with the “enemy.” It is definitely a worthwhile road-trip experience that everyone needs to try at least once in their life. With that, here are my top five favorite football stadiums (in no particular order):

Lambeau Field: Green Bay, Wisconsin

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Lambeau Field is home to the legendary Green Bay Packers. Each year thousands of “cheese heads” fill this historic stadium, which was the first built exclusively for an NFL franchise. It is also the longest continuously-occupied stadium in the NFL, giving it more memorable moments than any other stadium in the United States. Witnessing a game at Lambeau has often times been dubbed by Packers fans as somewhat of a “religious experience.” It is without a doubt in my mind the second best reason to visit Green Bay, Wisconsin. The first? That would be the abundance of cheese.

Soldier Field: Chicago, Illinois

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Located along Lake Michigan in one of my favorite cities is the Chicago Bears’ home Soldier Field. Named after American soldiers that have died in wars, this stadium recently underwent a second rebuild in 2003, making it one of the newer stadiums in the NFL. At a seating capacity of 61,500, it also makes Soldier Field the smallest stadium in the NFL. Either way this city is football crazy and they prove it on a weekly basis when they arrive hours before game time and pregame in the extremely chilly Chicago weather.

Gillette Stadium: Foxborough, Massachusetts

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As much as it pains me to admit this as a New York sports fan…I really like Gillette Stadium. Home to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, this fairly new stadium, which is starting it’s 8th NFL season, has already hosted many memorable pigskin moments. Some of those include 2003 and 2007 AFC Championship victories and the coldest game in franchise history, with temperatures dropping to a frosty 4 degrees (-10 with wind chill).

Heinz Field: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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The Steel City truly is home to some of the most die hard and rabid fans in all of football. Pittsburgh is home to wild tailgate parties, vocal fans in the stands, and an incredibly superb stadium. Built on the site of the old Three Rivers Stadium, the eight year old Heinz Field has a picturesque view of downtown Pittsburgh in the backdrop and the Great Hall is one of the best concourses in the NFL. When in Pittsburgh, be sure to check out Peppi’s for their enormous sandwiches, awesome cheese steaks, and of course the widely popular and delicious Roethlis-burger.

Giants Stadium: East Rutherford, New Jersey

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Did you really think a lifelong “Noo Yawka” would leave out the stadium that is home to the recent Super Bowl winning New York Giants (and occasionally that other team which will remain nameless). I mean many of my football memories have occurred in the swamp lands of New Jersey. As bias as this may seem coming from a local, I have  to admit that the New York/New Jersey crowd knows how to put on one hell of a tailgate in the parking lot. Football weather in these parts are usually not pretty (think cold with a mixture of brrr), so there are plenty of grills fired up and adult beverages to go around. Giants Stadium holds 78, 741, making it the third largest NFL stadium (behind FedEx Field and Cowboys Stadium). It is set to be demolished in 2010 to make room for the new Meadowlands Stadium.

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Sales, Sales And More Sales: Airlines Looking To Lure In Fall Travelers

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jul 28, 2009 in Travel

With the summer travel season almost over (sigh), it is time for the airlines to look towards fall travel. Now while fall has always been a soft season for the travel industry, it is going to be especially hard this year to convince people to spend money that many just do not have. Everyday we see on the news or read in the papers about thousands of job losses per month. Many people I know have been given the pink slip this year and the last thing they want to do is spend big moolah on a plane ticket.

So the airlines have all been announcing sales for later this year and I have to admit many are looking pretty nice. Here are just a few that have caught my eye over the last week or so.

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JetBlue: “The But Wait, There’s More!” sale is offering up cheap fall travel on more than 56 destinations that the low-cost carrier serves. Some of the great fares include:

  • Long Beach and San Francisco for $39 one-way
  • Fort Lauderdale and Nassau, Bahamas for $29 one-way
  • New York (JFK) and Boston for $49 one-way
  • Chicago and Long Beach for $109 one-way
  • Austin and Orlando for $99 one-way
  • Plus many more! Book by Wednesday August 5, 2009 for travel between September 8 & December 16, 2009

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To see where else you can Jet to this fall and for full details and restrictions, visit JetBlue.com.

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Southwest Airlines: “It’s On” at Southwest as they prepare for fall travel with a summertime sale that ends this week. Some of the great fares include:

  • Albany and Orlando for $99 one-way
  • Austin and Chicago for $99 one-way
  • Burbank and Las Vegas for $49 one-way
  • Denver and San Francisco for $99 one-way
  • New York (LGA) and Baltimore for $49 one-way
  • Plus many more! Book by this Thursday July 30 for travel between August 18 and November 18, 2009

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For more information on this sizzling Southwest sale, plus rules and restrictions, check out Southwest.com.

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Virgin America: To see what Sir Richard Branson and company has “On Sale Now” for fall travel, check out their website. But in the meantime here are some fares VA are offering customers:

  • San Francisco and San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or Orange County for $49 one-way
  • Seattle and Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Orange County for $69 one-way
  • Boston and San Francisco or Los Angeles for $119 one-way
  • New York and Los Angeles or Las Vegas for $119 one-way
  • Washington DC and Los Angeles or San Francisco for $119 one-way
  • You must book by Tuesday August 11 for travel between August and November 18, 2009

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For full details on this VA sale, check out VirginAmerica.com.

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New Routes Coming To An Airline Near You

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jul 9, 2009 in Travel

JetBlue is just one of the many airlines that will be introducing new routes later this year.

JetBlue is just one of the many airlines that will be introducing new routes later this year.

It seems like every week I come across new routes debuting soon at an airline. So I figured why not throw up some of the more noteworthy offerings that might be coming to your area airport in the near future.

Alaska Airlines:

*Austin (AUS) and San Diego (SAN) starts September 2, 2009

*Seattle (SEA) and Houston (IAH) starts September 23, 2009

*Seattle (SEA) and Atlanta (ATL) starts October 23, 2009

Frontier:

*Tulsa (TUL) and Denver (DEN) starts August 2, 2009

JetBlue:

*Boston (BOS) and Baltimore (BWI) starts September 9, 2009

*Barbados (BGI) and New York (JFK) starts October 1, 2009

*Saint Lucia (UVF) and New York (JFK) starts October 26, 2009

*Kingston, Jamaica (KIN) and New York (JFK) starts October 30, 2009

Porter Airlines:

*Boston (BOS) and Toronto (YTZ) starts September 14, 2009

SouthWest:

*New service to Boston (BOS) starts August 16, 2009

*New service to Milwaukee (MKE) starts November 1, 2009

United:

*Los Angeles (LAX) and Pittsburgh (PIT) starts September 2, 2009

*San Francisco (SFO) and Pittsburgh (PIT) starts September 2, 2009

US Airways:

*Charlotte (CLT) and Honolulu (HNL) starts December 17, 2009

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JetBlue Offers “Cheep” Seats Via Twitter

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jul 6, 2009 in Travel

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Just another reason to love Twitter. Starting today JetBlue is offering a great new way to score cheap airfare via the interwebs. When you follow the low-cost carrier’s new JetBlue Cheeps Twitter page, you will be notified of insanely low weekend airfare.

The first group of “Cheeps” were announced this morning at 10am EST and they were pretty damn sweet.

  • Boston to New York, New York to Nantucket, and Fort Lauderdale to Nassau for $9 one-way
  • New York to Chicago and Boston to Washington Dulles for $19 one-way
  • Orlando to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico for $29 one-way

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But before you hand over a few bucks to go Jetting around the country, realize that these prices are before tax and you still need to fly home at a regular price. But if you were to plan say a Boston-New York weekend escape, you could fly one-way and take one of those cheapo transportation like Megabus or Boltbus the other way. Also there is a limited amount of seats available with each “Cheeps” deal, so you will need to be quick with plucking a seat online.

In any event, it is definitely another reason why airlines like JetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin America “get it” by using sites like Twitter to interact with their customer base. Something the “big boy” airlines like Continental, United, and US Airways seriously are lacking in this media age.

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