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Tweet Along With CheapOair & Win Some Great Holiday Prizes
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Nov 24, 2009 in Travel
Travel Blog Exchange 2010 Is Coming To New York City
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Oct 21, 2009 in Travel
This past July travel bloggers from around the world flocked to Chicago, Illinois in order to celebrate, interact, learn, and network at the first ever Travel Blog Exchange. This event covered such topics as “what is the difference between travel journalism and blogging” and “using your trip video footage to become a vlogger” just to name a few. In addition, some speakers at this past summer’s event included travel experts such as Christopher Elliott and Wendy Perrin.
Unfortunately due to scheduling issues I was unable to attend TBEX 2009. But from what I read online and heard first hand from people that were in attendance, it sounded like a hell of a good time in the Windy City.
But I was given some great news last week as it pertained to Travel Blog Exchange 2010. The event is coming to New York City and yours truly is going to be a member of the organizing committee! I will be joining a “rock star” group of travel junkies that include:
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Michael Yessis from WorldHum
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Mike Richard from Vagabondish
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Pete Myers from Euro Cheapo
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Kelley Ferro from TripFilms
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Annemarie Dooling from Frill Seeker Diary
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Shanna Quinn from Galavanting
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Angela Berardino from Turner PR.
Clear these dates on your calendar – June 26 and 27, 2010. Now while the venue is still being decided upon, be sure to take advantage of the early bird ticket prices currently being offered by TBEX10. If you register by January 1, 2010 it will only cost you $40 (the fee jumps to $80 after January 1). That price covers two days at Travel Blog Exchange 2010, two breakfasts, two lunches, and lots of time to mingle with many travel experts.
For full details, news, updates, and to purchase tickets to Travel Blog Exchange 2010, which promises to be bigger and better in the city that never sleeps, be sure to click here.
Plus follow @TBEX10 on Twitter and stay tuned for updates right here as well. See you in New York!
Sinful Travelers Confess Their Deepest, Darkest, & Downright Bizarre Secrets
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Oct 6, 2009 in Travel
Step right up!
The other day I was conversing with a friend of mine who is just about as obsessed as I am with gallivanting throughout this planet. It seems that when one of us is on the road, the other is planning the next “big” adventure and vice versa. One day over a few adult beverages at a local pub we got onto a topic I like to call “travel confessions.” This is when you get some travel nerds together and try to shock them with stories of odd occurrences on the road, places that as a serious traveler you have never visited, and possible habits you picked up while bouncing from one locale to the next.
My friend, who swears to have been just about everywhere, told me that he has no intentions of ever visiting London, England. He says it just looks like a real “boring city and expensive place to visit.” I was taken aback, not only because London is such a popular travel destination, but that this guy had recently become obsessed with the Manchester United football team. I figured someone who loves to travel for sports and concerts would eventually wind up landing at Heathrow Airport and then check out London en route to Manchester for a game.
It was my turn to share a few secrets or to squash some assumptions that people just believe since you call yourself a travel junkie and a nomad. Well for starters, I have yet to visit two “must visit” countries – France and Germany. Yes it pained me to tell my pal and some others sitting with me that I have yet to walk by the Eiffel Tower in Paris or raise an over-sized beer in Munich. But I swore that both were on the top of my list of countries to check out within the next few years…I promise!
Another confession that will probably make many hotel owners out there frown is my love of hotel key cards! I have a shoe box full of those digital door openers from all over the world. They are like mini-souvenirs that remind me of the many great places I was lucky enough to visit.
But enough about me. I decided that the only way to get over being such a guilty global navigator, was to reach out and ask some other travel experts to join me in a group confessional. Below are some uncensored secrets, habits, and revelations that they felt compelled to get off their chest. God have mercy on their sight-seeing souls.
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First up in the confession booth is Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor and “Travel Guru” at Travelzoo.com, who revealed to me that, “When it comes to hotels, I always check-out with 2 things: amenities and stationary. Amenities are something hotels identify with, and even advertise, especially the upscale hotels. So this started years ago, when my traveling really began to pick up and I found myself forgetting where I’d stayed. Those little shampoo and shower gel bottles were miniature mementos of stays at great hotels. Somewhere along the way, I started passing them on to my mom, who lives in L.A. but travels little (by comparison), as souvenirs of cities I’d visited. Today, she has hundreds and hundreds of amenities from cool hotels all over the world. She gets them faster than she can use them and files them away in neatly organized cabinets.”
Saglie continued, “As for the stationary, I get a kick from mailing letters or bills inside hotel envelopes. I think it adds a sense of intrigue for the person opening it on the other end. Plus, I haven’t had to buy envelopes in year.I also figure the hotels get some nice PR out of it, so it’s a win-win, no?”
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Lonely Planet’s Andy Murdock also feels the need to snatch hotel items when he travel. Murdock confessed, “I like to swipe hotel room pens – I’m always in need of a pen and often seem to lose or forget them, plus I like finding them in a drawer years later and remembering where the pen and I first met. I think you can tell a lot about a hotel by the pen they provide: some hotels put a lot of thought into it and pick out a pen that writes well, has an interesting design, and suits the hotel’s look and feel; others don’t give it a moment’s thought and just buy thousands of ultra cheapo ballpoints that aren’t worth taking with you. The pencil hotels are the most mysterious to me because they invariably fail to provide a pencil sharpener. Be wary of pencil hotels.”
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Sean O’Neill, Senior Editor for Budget Travel, felt compelled to express to me that while he may be a world traveler, there is just one kind of vacation he has avoided. “I’ve never taken an ocean cruise!” he exclaimed. “I feel silly about having left this off my travel to-do list. For millions, it’s an essential experience. But I’ve been turned off the idea ever since I read a Harper’s essay by David Foster Wallace, in which he ridiculed cruise-going. Sometimes I worry that I’m missing out. But I never worry enough to actually do anything about it.”
I must admit that I too have not gone cruising on vacation. Just not my thing. Next up is another troubled traveler that just needs to get something off her chest. I must warn you though that confession is a tad bit on the R-rated side.
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Adena Harford, who runs the blog at tripwolf.com, told me that, “I kind of got into not using toilet paper in India.” I asked her to please explain that exactly that meant. She continued, “Let’s see – well, first of all, we noticed only the tourists stop at little stand to buy toilet paper – and that there is a faucet and a bucket in every bathroom stall. I was secondly inspired by Jack Kerouac’s idea that most (western) people think they are so clean, but they are actually going around with dirty assholes because we only wipe them with paper. So well, I got into using the water and faucet, and truly felt like I was cleaner than usual – we all referred to it as ‘going local.’ Like, have you ‘gone local’ yet? Sorry if this story was a little TMI.”
Hmm…
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Moving right along we have flight attendant extraordinaire and travel blogger Heather Poole. Heather once told me on Twitter that she does in fact collect hotel “Do Not Disturb” signs, but her confession today was about someone else…or so she says. “I once knew a flight attendant who washed her panty hose in the hotel room coffee pot. NAST-AY!”
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Where Ive Been’s Katy, who is both the Community Manager and #traveltuesday initiator on Twitter, shockingly told me , “Alright, my travel confession is…I always remove my shoes on flights. Even when I have EXTRA smelly feet. Hee hee hee!” She also confessed that as a young traveler she used to steal the blankets on long, transatlantic flights. But in Katy’s defense she expressed, ” Come on, I was 10 years old!”
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Monica Wong, who runs the travel blog “A Pair of Panties & Boxers” confessed to me that, ” When I was studying abroad in Shanghai, I took a weekend trip to Hangzhou. I initially planned to stay for one night but I fell in love with the sunset at the West Lake. I wanted to see it again so my boyfriend and I stayed an extra night. The only problem was we only brought one change of clothes. Which meant, we only had one pair of underwear. We had to wear it twice. Inside out, of course. That incident gave birth to the name of my blog.”
Geez, these confessions are just getting dirtier and dirtier. For shame you travel experts…for shame indeed! I am going to clean up this confession booth and will be back with part 2/3 of travel confessions tomorrow! In the meantime be good you sinners.
Deals…Deals…And More Deals! Plus I Love Twitter & Yapta Loves Me.
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Mar 26, 2009 in Travel
JetBlue: Wednesday the lowcost carrier Jetblue announced a sweet deal to frequent flyers in the Northeast. Simply purchase three roundtrip flights between any of the cities below through June 17, 2009 and receive a fourth trip on the house. The list includes such cities as Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Raleigh and Buffalo. You must be a registered trueBlue member in order to enjoy this offer (It is simple and free to join on their site).For full details click here and get jetting!
United Airlines: It is getting warmer and the spring airfare deals are aplenty. United is offer a deal with a long window of opportunity to get in on some low fares. Simply book by April 6 and travel by August 12 to cities like Denver, Salt Lake City, Houston and Los Angeles for as low as $49 each way! Click here for more details.
Southwest Airlines: Wanna Get Away? Well with the unbelievably low deals currently advertised with Southwest, you just might. Fares are as low as $49-$99 each way to such destinations as Las Vegas, Nashville and West Palm Beach to name just a few of the many cities offered in this sale that ends April 6 for travel through August 14. Click here for more details.
IcelandAir: If you are looking to get out of the country in April or May, then look no further than Iceland. As you might have heard, unless you live under a rock, the country is in financial disarray. The bad news for Iceland is great news for U.S. travelers. If you book by March 31, you can grab fares for as low as $437 roundtrip (plus taxes/fees). Departing cities to Reykjavik include New York, Boston and Minneapolis. Other destinations on sale through IcelandAir include European cities Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Click here for more details.
Twitterific:
- Tweet…tweet…tweet. Over 200 followers and counting.
I have to admit that when I first heard about this new internet phenomenon Twitter I was skeptical. I mean why on earth would someone use this website? Well I caved, signed up and tested it out. Within days I had people following my tweets (text updates) and even made some friends in the travel industry due to it. Plus traffic to The Brooklyn Nomad has steadily increased since I introduced myself to the rest of the Twittering world. If you have not checked out what everyone is tweeting about, click here. To follow me simply check out my Twitter profile.
Yay For Yapta:
Finally, I mentioned earlier how I made some friends through Twitter. One of them includes the people over at Yapta.com. This stellar website, which stands for “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant”, was nice enough to mention us in their March 23 blog update on the site. That is not all my friends, just hours ago I received my very own official Yapta t-shirt in the mail. I will wear it proudly as I am a true travel geek. Thanks guys!
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