Sections
This weekend, I’m helping to host a fun engagement party for one of my very best friends! It’s going to be so much fun getting together with a lot of our college friends, and getting to see Becca (the bride!) is always the best!
But, staying in town means that we’re not going on a fun trip. So, for weekends like these, when time is spent relaxing with friends and not traipsing around the world, it’s fun to have reminders of travel all around.
That’s why my weekend pick this weekend is goods from Rifle Paper Company, one of the best paper product lines that I’ve found.
I have their 2013 Cities Calendar hanging at my desk and [...]
So, I had an awesome Memorial Day weekend trip planned to surprise McCown to St. Kitts & Nevis:
But, I learned that I had to cancel very last minute due to a family emergency. In the days of cheap flights, hotels and cheap awards, cancellation and change policies have been getting stricter and stricter. When I learned that I wouldn’t be able to go, I just knew that there was no hope of getting any of the reservations refunded because it was so close to the date of departure (as in 12 hours before we were set to depart). Despite my pessimism, I started making the calls to see if a phone rep might have a little mercy and help me out. All told, I expected to be [...]
Note: A lot of info in this post refers to the 35% transfer bonus between AMEX Membership Rewards and British Airways Avios that runs until June 7, 2013. More info here: Deal Blitz Alert: 35% Transfer Bonus from AMEX to British Airways Avios. If you’re reading after June 7, 2013 you can still get some great value out of your Avios miles.
British Airways/Iberia Avios miles are [glossy term=”distance based awards”] distance based awards: on the surface, it seems like you’re getting a bad deal on award redemptions. But, as with anything involving miles, it opens up possibilities to find great values on non-stop short distance flights.
One partner [...]
American Express Membership Rewards has an ongoing special that will give you a 35% bonus on miles transferred from AMEX into British Airways Avios points.
This has been the first transfer bonus between AMEX and BA in many months, so I’d suggest everyone jumps on it before it ends on June 7th.
The bonus is hardcoded in the transfer rate
As a reminder, British Airways Avios are distance-based award:
And, you can book on member airlines such as American Airlines, Air Berlin, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, LAN…
We’ll have a series of quick posts on [...]
12 Cumberland St, Charleston, SC American, Beer Garden $$ – $8 to $20 for an entree
We had the opportunity to check out the much-anticipated Craftsmen Kitchen & Tap House on their opening weekend.
The much-talked-about restaurant has completely transformed what used to be that bar we all loved but never remembered, Johnson’s, into a awesome little beer garden restaurant. The actual “beer garden” portion is quite small, but they’ve got the authentic-looking Bavarian tables, so I’m sold on liking everything about it.
If you claim to be a beer garden, then you can damn well count on me sampling [...]
I’m not a super picky eater, so one of my favorite things to do when traveling is try new foods. I’ve found that plenty of the foods I fall in love with in another country happen to be available back home, but I’d just never branched out to try something I couldn’t pronounce.
For example, my very favorite Thai dish is something most people around here have never heard of… and it’s way, way better than Pad Thai, guys.
So, here’s a rundown of my favorite foods from other countries – and some suggestions for what to try on your next trip, whether it’s to one of these countries or to your local Mom & Pop ethnic [...]
OK, even though we don’t know where exactly we’re going on our honeymoon yet, believe me, I’ve been daydreaming a lot about it.
What’s not to love about a tropical vacation, really? Pretty blue water, white sand, fun drinks and warm weather…yes, please. But, probably my most favorite part about planning for our very, very fun trip is buying new bikinis! Here are a few of my favorites: A little bit tribal, a little bit girly, this one from Net-A-Porter will flatter any figure.Buy it here for $220: http://bit.ly/ZBSfxW
But, if you don’t want to break the bank with just one [...]
Always make sure to set a few reminders to double check your hotel bookings to see if any specials have become available since you’ve booked.
On our recent trip to Europe, I made a booking using Starpoints a few months in advance for a stay at The Westin Europa & Regina in Venice, Italy. I determined the Starpoints Cash and Points redemption to be a great value:
I booked a “Deluxe Room” for 8,000 points + $150 USD instead of paying 451 euros (appx $631 USD) for the same room. This yielded a return of:
An amazing return of 6.01 cents/point!
Not satisfied with the hotel though, I kept checking SPG.com for an opening at either the Gritti [...]
