posted by Charles H. Russo on Jul 1
London offers a dazzling range of hotels for every taste and temperament. There are shiny mega hotels, mini boutique hotels, and swanky business hotels, all catering to the fussiest of travelers. Hundreds of hotels promise something special — perhaps the best location, acclaimed restaurants, a superb spa, or maybe some whiz-bang technology in the rooms. But when you???re jetlagged, lost, and dragging luggage through the rain at 7:30AM after a red-eye, there???s nothing more important than prompt and intuitive service in a peacful place designed to be as much like a home as like a hotel.
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posted by Charles H. Russo on Jun 17
I have been waiting for the day when one of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees goes postal. How the deal with so many idiotic travelers is beyond me. Granted some of them have transformed there minuscule amount of power into some God like reign, but still, how can one handle the mess of holiday travel?
Until recently my thoughts of disgruntle TSA staff were nothing more than a Nostradamus like prediction, but upon reading the Vagabondish Blog I became a little concerned. Am I the only one that thinks this much contraband around TSA staff is scary?
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posted by Charles H. Russo on Jun 15
If you passed by WRI’s stand at the last ITB in Berlin, you certainly saw it! The Dublin firm Web Reservations International (WRI) is about to launch a new online travel website that claims to “revolutionise the travel industry and pit it against internet giants such as Google.”
WebReservations International is a well know actor of the online travel industry. They bought the famous Worldres in 2005 and is now at the head of the following major online brands: hostelworld.com, worldres.com, hostels.com and trav.com. Hostelworld provides the hostels product of RyanAir’s website (whereas Expedia provides the hotel product).
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posted by Charles H. Russo on Jun 8
Anyone who reads this blog knows that here at iTravel iShop, we are big fans of cupcakes. Why? Just like dumplings, cupcakes are small packages of goodness and warmth. Our latest delicious cupcake find was the Hummingbird Bakery inSouth Kensington, but if you???re looking for some DIY cupcakes with anAlicein Wonderland theme, check out this giant cupcake pan from Sur La Table. The pan allows you to make one monster cupcake and pile on as much frosting as you???d like. Its also a mere $27.95 and would make an idealChristmas present.
posted by Charles H. Russo on May 29
Beach Vacations
Beach resorts can be perfect for your next family vacation getaway. Some of the best resorts are in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Hawaii.
Mexico
Los Cabos is one of Mexico’s most popular vacation destinations. It is located at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. Los Cabos features luxury hotels, championship golf courses and some of the best sport fishing in the world. Other activities include snorkeling, scuba diving, surfing, kayaking and much more.
The Caribbean
The Cayman Islands offer many things for many people. 99% of the travelers visit Grand Cayman Island. It is easy to see why people go here. Of the islands this island offers the most when it comes to resorts and hotels. The fabulous snorkeling and scuba diving is not to be missed. When diving, you will think you are in a pet shop aquarium. The fish are abundant and the stingrays are gentle and fun to watch. If time permits, rent a Jeep and cruise around the Island.
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posted by Charles H. Russo on May 18
Rooftop at the soon-to-open Gansevoort South.
Happy Halloween…lets talk hotels…WHICH exclusive New England resort that recently sold out for big money is gearing up for an oh-so-polite power struggle? Media darling and always booked, it doesn’t turn a profit, and the new owners aren’t ‘avin it, ‘enry — not at least long term they’re not…
…WHICH big, expensively PR’d rebranding effort isn’t bearing fruit? Everyone’s talking about the fact that nobody’s talking about the host of faded hotel and resort properties snatched up, revamped and relaunched by a deep-pocketed investment firm as part of a new high-end collection. Joke’s on them, media doesn’t care; may have something to do with the fact that nothing they’ve done seems in the slightest bit innovative…
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posted by Charles H. Russo on May 18
500 RSS Subscribers:
I am pretty happy to announce that Blog on travel finally passed the psychological barrier of 500 subscribers to its RSS feed today (via feedburner). It has been quite a long way to achieve this, you can see this in the graph below that shows the RSS Subscribers of this blog from the very beginning:
Thank you very much for all readers of this blog for adding our RSS feed to their favorite blog reader! If you aren’t subscribed yet, please do it now by clicking this RSS link or by submitting your email on the right sidebar of this blog (you will receive a confirmation link by email that you have to click).
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posted by Charles H. Russo on May 15
Ask anyone in the travel biz - Kenya is a premiere destination.
Hiking. Safari. Sultry coast. Epic sex.
Okay, so that last one isn’t exactly advertised in the brochures, but it’s true - there’s a trend (dontcha know!) in middle-aged western women traveling to the country’s beach resorts to take up with randy local lads in the market for a new pair of shades.
The tourism board is feeling a bit frowny about the whole thing, according to reports.
posted by Charles H. Russo on May 15
I’m not gonna lie. I saw this virtual laser keyboard on an episode of CSI. Being a bit of a computer technology junkie, my jaw dropped. From the moment I saw it I was amazed. This virtual laser keyboard is perfect for business travelers, travel writers, and other people who need a portable keyboard.
Slighty larger than a zippo lighter, the virtual laser keyboard is easily portable and a great addition to any portable office. The virtual laser keyboard can be connected to Smartphones, Blackberrys, PDA, PCs, and Macs.
The virtual laser keyboard projects a full size keyboard onto any surface. It works by using optical technology to recognize which key you hit based on the interuption of the laser. The coolest part about the virtual laser keyboard, it comes complete with real “clicking” keyboard sounds! The bad part, it costs up words of $170.
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posted by Charles H. Russo on May 12
Here is an interesting interview of Thomas Owadenko that Loic Le Meur just uploaded on his blog. Thomas is the CEO of the new travel 2.0 site called Trivop.
Trivop.com is a very good example of a good use of web 2.0 in the travel industry. It is a platform of video reviews of hotels (located in Europe and then in the future in the US).Like I said in the past, the future of hotel reviews is strongly connected to the future of online video; we previously saw the impact of a simple video uploaded on youtube to report a poor hotel room in Madrid. We also saw Tripadvisor launched a video uploading feature on their website to follow this (hotel) trend.
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