Travel Tuesday: Tips and Tidbits

I’ve got a couple health- and fitness-related travel topics this week so without further fanfare, let’s get started:

The ‘Eyes’ Have It. . .

This one is for all you contact lens wearing travelers of a ‘certain age’ (40 is usually when the telltale signs start appearing):  the small print seems to be getting smaller and a bit more blurred each time you try to read your passport or credit card numbers and trying to read the small print on a map is more daunting than getting lost. . .could it be time
for those 'readers' on sale everywhere from grocery to book stores?


One more thing to add to that carry-on bag already is stuffed with documents, medicines, prescription glasses, contact lens case/solution and sunglasses?

I’ve worn gas permeable contact lenses for decades and in the last couple years even the ‘bi-focal’ types weren’t quite doing the job. . .that is until  my optometrist asked me if I’d try out a different type of lens. Another patient of hers, a flight attendant, had tried them and was singing their praises, so I agreed.

That was nearly a year ago.  I waited this long to write about them just to make sure they weren't too good to be true. I couldn’t believe the improved visual acuity - and comfort. (Their only drawback is that like all gas permeable/hard lenses I've worn, they do tend to dry out on long airplane flights.) The smallest of print (including those microscopic numbers on the back corner of the credit cards) are as easy to read as is seeing the far distant stuff. In fact, both of my distances are now a smidgen better than 20/20 -- a real plus when focusing the camera! 


It took a few extra visits to get the fit right because the lenses are weighted to keep the close-up at the bottom and distance at the top – so they have to fit the eye well.

If they are of interest and you are in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, I recommend my optomitrist Dr. Pamela J. Bingham at Market Optical in Seattle’s University Village.

And if you are elsewhere, talk to your eye care professional about “TruForm” rigid, gas permeable lenses.  (I read on the company web site that they even make multi-focal lenses!)


Serving up and Repacking the D2G. . .Diet to Go: 

Three years ago on TravelnWrite we sang the praises of the “Glycemic Load Diet” developed by Seattle cardiologist, Dr. Rob Thompson. We bought his book, tried out his eating recommendations and found the recipes were incredible good and it was a perfect fit for travelers.

So easy to follow when traveling that we called it the D2G; our Diet to Go. Some may even recall the guest post Dr. Thompson wrote for TravelnWrite. If you missed it, click this  link. 

My physical that year showed not only had I lost weight (13 pounds) but my bad cholesterol levels had dropped significantly, as had blood sugar and everything else that gets monitored - despite four-months of living out of a suitcase; drinking and eating on-the-road. (And I was no longer blaming cruise ship photographers for 'making me look fat!')

Fast forward. . .if you saw the post a few weeks ago, A Taste of the World, you know without me telling you that we – me, in particular – slipped off that D2G wagon. A big burger in Arizona, an Australian Pie in Sydney, a basket of bread here and a serving of French fries there and maybe just a tiny bit of dessert. . . The results of an annual physical a few weeks ago showed the bad cholesterol had skyrocketed and a few pounds had returned, despite a regular exercise program both at home and on the road.

So, the new year has begun with D2G once again, our traveling companion.

Instead of that deep fried bacon cheeseburger I told you about in December, take note of the above veggie burger on a whole grain bun with more veggies at the side and red wine (which is allowed on the D2G).  I had this at one of our favorite places, Todd English’s P.U.B. at Crystals in City Center, Las Vegas last week.


That’s it for this week’s Travel Tuesday – the day we share any  new tips related to travel.   How about you?  What new discoveries have you made for travel. . . Health and fitness?  Packing? . . .Ways to save money on travel?  Let us know in the comment section below or send us an email.

Disclosure:  We received no compensation for recommending the contact lenses, Dr. Bingham, Market Optical or the 'Glycemic Load Diet'. (Although if you order the book from Amazon using the link in the post, we make a few pennies; we'll get paid when we have $10 worth of pennies, about 2050 by my calculations.)  We simply think all are worth recommending! 

Linking up with Marcia Mayne's Inside Journeys Foodie Tuesday.

A First Class Start to 2014

We quite literally had a first class start to the New Year when Alaska Airlines upgraded us from coach to those big cushy seats in the front of the 737 on our Jan. 1st flight to Las Vegas from Seattle.

It’s the section of the plane where the real cups of coffee are constantly refilled  and real food is served on real plates.

A real surprise.
A real treat.
A real reminder of why airline loyalty programs are still worth joining. (If you missed our article on other benefits a few weeks ago, click here.)

[Travel Tip:  The Scout had booked this trip an air/accommodation package on Expedia.com  The airfare was less than $200 per person round-trip, including taxes and fees.]

Our return from Vegas brought us back to reality – paper cups, one serving of coffee, and a package of nuts – ahh, but the memory remains of that New Year's Day  flight.

The unexpected upgrade was one of those ‘little things’ that are long remembered after a trip ends.

Sometimes those ‘little things’ fall into the ‘sad-but-true’ category, like this memory of Vdara, the hotel where we stayed as part of the package.

Vdara, is a condo/hotel, a part of the recently completed City Center development. To get your bearings, that small tower in the photo above is a side view of Bellagio, home of The Strip’s famous fountains.

Our room was a Vdara Suite, one of the smaller ones but at 810 sq. ft. plenty spacious for us and we had a killer view of the fountains next door.

[Travel Tip: We saved a tremendous amount eating breakfast and lunch ‘at home’ in the room. Had we needed them, it also was equipped with a washer and dryer.]

The kitchen (similar to the tale I wrote about The Cosmopolitan Hotel) was empty except here there was a coffee pot. (A make- or break-a-place item in my mind.)  However, with a single call housekeeping arrived bearing plates, bowls, flatware, cookware and utensils.  When I had called in advance to inquire about the kitchen I was told that in the beginning the kitchens were fully stocked but because so many items had ‘walked away’ with guests, they had to institute an inventory control system. 

[Travel Tip: The cost of our suite was just under $150 including taxes and booking fees; the resort levied a $28 additional resort fee per day for internet, telephone, use of the exercise facility and daily newspaper.]

We had daily maid service that couldn’t be faulted. . .and then on the third morning I thought the maid had forgotten to leave the wash (face) cloths in the bathroom.  We’d had had three – shower, sink and tub – each day.   I stopped her in the hallway and asked for one.  “Oh, they have to be ordered from housekeeping,” she explained apologetically.

Really?! I mean, really?! Without kitchen supplies for souvenirs could the guests now be taking wash cloths? I am struck with guilt when I forget to leave a plastic key that could be reused, the thought of taking property. . .hmmm. . .

As I said, it is those little things we remember when we come to travel. . .

That’s it for this Travel Tip Tuesday.  We’ll be back again this week and hope you’ll be traveling along with us.  You can follow TravelnWrite on Bloglovin and Networked Blogs or have posts delivered to your inbox. 

We’ve  just figured out Instagram and are posting travel photos there as well. Click the link to follow us there. 

Until next time, happy travels. . .
Jackie, The Scribe, and Joel, The Scout

Travel Tip Tuesday: How to Hit a Travel Jackpot. . .

. . .or here are some of our latest tips for saving travel dollars.

Our destination earlier this month was Scottsdale, Arizona. So, why then, did we fly to Las Vegas --some 300 miles and a near five-hour drive away – to get there? 

Easy answer: travel deals!

Here is the why and what we did to save some money while extending the trip a few days as well:

Airfare: 

Altered the routing without sacrificing the trip.

The airfare was already significantly less to fly to Las Vegas than to Phoenix when an Alaska Airlines internet promotion offered double airline miles on the Seattle-Vegas route; miles that counted toward frequent-flyer elite status.

Result:  Saved money and earned airline miles by altering our routing.  The mileage assures us that we will be MVP’s in 2014 (which means seat selection advantages, early boarding and best of all, no baggage fees for up to four bags between us!)

Car rental: 

Got more and paid less.

Finding a reasonably priced rental car these days – no matter what the destination – is difficult, especially at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. By flying into Vegas, we also got a much better car rental price than anything we’d found in Arizona. 

The Las Vegas  Fox Rent-a-Car also allowed the addition of a second driver for no additional fee; meaning I could also drive without paying between $140 – $210 extra to do so. Our like-new Toyota Corolla cost $281 for two-weeks. (Upon the return because a computer snafu caused a huge line and much confusion, they refunded $100 of that price as well!)

Result:  We had a round-trip scenic drive that took us past Hoover Dam just outside Vegas and then through the picturesque towns of Kingman and Wickenberg, Arizona.

In addition to loving the wide open spaces through which the route took us, we also had an option of spending a couple of nights in Vegas after returning the car. . .a double win, in our book.



The Unexpected Bonus

So, how many credit cards are too many?

We fly Alaska Airlines almost exclusively and the frequent flier miles earned from this carrier has taken us round-trip to Europe several times on its partner airlines. (Our miles took us round-trip to Amsterdam in Business Class on this KLM flight to the left).

While awaiting our flight back to Seattle last week, we were approached by the “Alaska Airlines credit card man” offering us a signing bonus,you might say, of 25,000 miles, for applying  for the card.


Brushing off his offer, we told him we each already had an Alaska Airlines credit card.  To our surprise, he replied, “That doesn’t matter. . .get another one.  We have people who’ve gotten the maximum – five cards so they can use the companion tickets.”

One of the ways we earn Alaska miles is using their credit card: one mile= $1 in spending.  The other plus of their card is the $99 companion ticket offered each year in exchange for the card’s fee of $75. Those companion tickets come in real handy at times, for example:

The ticket prices to Honolulu, Hawaii in January are enough to topple a palm tree.

The ticket cost for our upcoming trip came up at $882 for the first ticket, $41.56 for taxes and fees; total $924. 

The companion ticket: $99 plus taxes and fees of $39.29 for a total of $138.29. (And for you skeptics out there, even if I add in the $75 credit card fee, the price barely tops $200 – a considerable savings indeed.)

Result:  We both applied for credit cards. We each will receive 25,000 miles (which gets us that much closer to a European flight) and also will have two more companion tickets to use each year.

It has been awhile since I put out a call for tips on travel deals from you.  Have any new tips to share? Add them in the comment section on www.travelnwrite.com or shoot us an email and I will add them in.  And then come back on Thursday when we'll take a hike through the real ‘Old West' !

Travel Tip Tuesday: Armchair Travel ~ Conducting Novel Research

Because our days were so uncharacteristically lovely in the Pacific Northwest this summer, we’ve been uncharacteristically content to travel by ‘armchair’. 

This mode of travel has taken us to far-away places and provided some novel (pun, intended) research for our upcoming fall trip which will take us to a part of the world we’ve never been before. 

Regulars here know that our travel compass had to fight the strong magnetic pull of Europe in order to get us headed off to Oceania, or, as it is also known, the South Pacific.

The Solstice's path across the Atlantic Ocean

We’ll be aboard the Celebrity Solstice for 19 nights as we travel from Honolulu, Hawaii to Sydney, Australia. It will be our second voyage on this Solstice-class ship that carries some 2,850 passengers and 1,253 crew members. 

Our first took us across the Atlantic Ocean so it is only fitting that the Solstice introduce us to the Pacific as well.

Waikiki - Honolulu, Hawaii

So we’ve been busy researching with some fun ‘reads’ including:


“The Bat” a murder mystery by Oslo-based writer Jo Nesbo, whose character Inspector Harry Hole (no joke) has traveled to Sydney to investigate a murder. This book, purchased from Costco, tipped us off to an area of town – a restaurant, in particular that we want to visit while there.

“The Moon and the Sixpence,” a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, sparked by the life of Paul Gauguin.

“Best South Sea Stories,” a collection of South Seas fare from the likes of James Mitchener,  Jack London, and Herman Melville.

“The Descendants” by Kaui Hart Hemmings, set in Hawaii (a movie of the same name based on this book starred George Clooney.)

And a few true stories always add to the research:

“Six Months in the Sandwich Islands,” by Isabella L. Bird, written in 1875!

“The Cruise of the Snark,  A Pacific Voyage” by Jack London, about his own journey across the Pacific, first published in 1911.

“Blue Latitudes – Boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before,”  by writer Tony Horwitz, published 2002.

We can’t get enough ‘novel research’. How about you?  What destinations have novels led you to – or what have novels taught you about destination? What was your favorite armchair trip this summer?

See you back here later this week; we do appreciate the time you spend with TravelnWrite!

Travel Tip Tuesday: That Little Black Dress

With the turn of the calendar page a couple days ago and pouring rain this morning, we realized that our 'travel season' is just around the corner.

That means ‘packing the suitcases’ – those small roll-aboard-sized bags with which we travel in the air or on land and sea -- is also just around the corner.

We have used the same Travel Pro roll-aboard bags for years.We find these small bags are much easier to haul up and down and over uneven European sidewalks and subways (some with long flights of stairs). And they are much easier to get into the narrow rail car doorways and over the grated ramps of Greek ferries. And they must be packed light enough that I can carry my share of the load.

These, now battered, accessories have seen us through our month-long overland sojourns and cruises of varying lengths.

In the photo to the left, I posed as ‘bag woman’ with those trusty travel companions as we set off for Greece last spring: our two roll-ons, my Baggallini purse and tote; and a Travel Pro shoulder tote.

We will be taking the same gear on our 19-day Celebrity Solstice cruise from Honolulu to Sydney this fall. This will be the longest cruise we've been on and 12 of the days will be 'sea days' -- those wonderfully relaxing days spent on the ship.

Cruise ship ‘formal nights’ and our ‘small suitcases’ are not a match made in travel heaven.  But we’ve met the challenge. Here’s how:

The Scout packs a suit, dress shirt, tie and shoes and is set.

((Tie and belt are rolled and tucked inside the dress shoes to save space.)








And I have ‘the little black dress’ that I purchased at Chico’s,  (a U.S. women’s apparel chain)  a couple years ago:



I tuck in a few scarves, necklaces and tops and I am set for those formal affairs without ever wearing the same thing twice.

The scarf/shawl (pictured above and to the side) is a sequined affair that I bought at at Italian street market (8-euro) and the glass necklace was a souvenir from Rhodes, Greece.

(Scarves and necklaces are my preferred choice of souvenirs these days. They take up little space and can be used both while traveling and back home.)




That same little black dress on another formal night – this time another Chico’s top and a necklace purchased in Madrid -- turn it into a kaleidoscope of color.



Another Chico’s top (I am what they call a 'Chico's Chick')– a poncho of vibrant primary colors (it folds up as small as a scarf) is how I accessorized that little black dress on a Mexican cruise.



And for those other ‘country club casual’ dress code times on board, I’ve relied on the basic black or white pants and accessorized it with a few tops – the kind that can work with either.

One example is this top I found at Kirkland’s 1 Best Kept Secret, a designer label sample shop (with fantastically low prices). I can wear it with those black and white pants:

An afternoon cocktail party last fall aboard Celebrity’s Silhouette was a casual affair: those white pants worked well in the Adriatic Sea and a hand-washable top finished off the outfit.



On another evening, a black shawl replaced the black jacket that I use on shore excursions and ‘dressed up’ a bit, the black pants:


Speaking of shore excursions, when in Europe we’ve usually worn those black or dark colors for which Europeans are known. 

Again, by using a few scarves, I can wear the same basic black outfit and it always looks a bit different – and scarves take up much less room than do tops and blouses. On our upcoming trip we'll be heading into Australia's spring/summer so I plan to wear the whites more often than the dark colors:




That’s it for this Travel Tip Tuesday – sorry you had to see so many photos of us, but I couldn’t think of another way to illustrate this post.  I promise I’ll stay behind the camera in future posts.

Other posts related to packing tips can be found at: 
Bagless Lady
 Pickpocket Prevention
Tuck these in your suitcase

Note: We are often asked for our packing tips and that's what prompted this post. We were not paid or otherwise compensated for the brand name references – we buy, we use, and IF we like something, then we recommend it.

Now it’s your turn. What are some of your travel fashion packing tips? Please tell us in the comment section below or send us an email.  Hope to see you here again soon ~

Travel Tip Tuesday: The Importance of 'Trip Advisors'

A few years ago a travel agent friend of my mine – after reading one of my posts -- simply screeched, “How COULD you recommend people read TripAdvisor?!?!  That is nothing but people’s opinions!”

Alderbrook Resort and Spa proudly displays its TripAdvisor rating 

No, I thought, it is travelers opinions – many of them so current they’ve been posted within days of their stay and our research.

With TripAdvisor, however, the key phrase is ADVISOR. We use the site to help us make a decision; it doesn’t make the decision for us.

Hotel Electra Palace - Athens   The pool, our room and our balcony were stellar!

Take the Athen’s Hotel Electra Palace where we spent our last night in Greece, for example.  We booked it while on the road, just a few days before our arrival because of the great -- for a big city – rate of $204USD.

But we didn’t book until we’d checked maps to make sure of its location and TripAdvisor. (We found a 1,000+ reviews of which more than half were ‘excellent’ and another 300+ were ‘very good’.). And those contributing ‘Trip Advisors’ didn’t steer us wrong! We will definitely stay there again.

In the last few years we’ve noted not only a growing reliance by fellow travelers on the website, but a similar reliance by restaurants and guest accommodations on all user-review sites, such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google Reviews. 

Have you seen the “Find us on TripAdvisor” or “If you liked (your stay, your meal) please write about your experience on TripAdvisor,” notices as you’ve traveled? Stickers on doors and windows, certificates on display?

The growing importance of web sites was illustrated well at this restaurant in Heraklion, Crete.  While it was eye-catching and made us laugh. . .we didn’t eat there because we had another favorite place just down the street.


Another restaurant outside Plakias, on Crete’s southern coast, also boasted of its Trip Advisor recommendations, but we’d decided to eat there long before we noticed this sign.

(You can probably tell by the looks of this vegetarian meze plate why we chose to eat there!)

When planning a trip what resources to you use? Have a favorite 'go to' source you want to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Travel Tip Tuesday: Do-It-Yourself Room Service

There is nothing we like better when traveling than to sip that first cup of morning coffee in bed or while sitting on the deck enjoying the view from our room.  Just grabbing a few more minutes of lazy relaxation is a perfect start to a day.



On our recent trip to Greece that’s how we pretty much started each day. At the Hotel Manessi in Poros, Greece we were up early to watch the waterfront come to life each morning – cup of coffee in hand.

Most of the places we stayed in didn’t have room service options but they had something even better: a pot in which to boil water, cups, saucers and spoons.

We were at the Corelli Suites in Elounda, Crete when I took the photo below and to the right.

Not only was this do-it-yourself room service convenient, it also saved us a couple hundred dollars over the course of our month-long stay.

Good coffee – no longer just the Nescafe powered stuff – can be found in upscale coffee bars throughout Greece. In the places we visited, the cost was about $2US a cup for coffee and  $3US for a cappuccino.

Don’t get me wrong, we did visit any number of those coffee houses for a java jolt in the afternoon, like the one pictured above in Heraklion, Crete, but morning was the time for ‘home brew’.


Doing Do-It-Yourself Room Service

We brought a pound of Starbucks ground coffee, the individual filter holder and filters in our suitcase.  As we used the coffee and filters, it made room in the suitcase for souvenirs like honey and spices. We did replenish the Starbucks (yes, Starbucks has come to some places in Greece) but bought a smaller quantity to use up before our return.

Note:  When we take road trips that begin in Kirkland, I always stick our hotpot and two cups into the car.  Two years ago, while staying at an upscale Vegas hotel, that didn’t offer in-room coffee, we saved having to dress and go to the coffee shop (where two coffees were $10US) by simply using our do-it-yourself room service pack.
 
Do you use do-it-yourself room service?  If so, what tips do you have for us on this Travel Tip Tuesday?  Please add a comment below or shoot us an email and we will make sure we publish them in a future post.

Summer in Scottsdale? Say, Spa-aahh!

The  air was thick – a 111-degree blanket enveloped us – as we made our way across the expansive grounds of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess to the resort’s Well & Being at Willow Stream Spa, an air-conditioned 44,000 square-foot oasis of health and beauty. A place so large, there’s a greeter who escorts you to your destination within its spacious confines. It’s like a resort within a resort.

 

The Well & Being concept -- introduced just last January -- combines health, wellness, nutrition, integrative medicine, skin care and fitness. Folks here say they are the first luxury resort in the United States to implement such a comprehensive approach.

So health-serious are they, there’s a full-time doctor (a real M.D.) on staff at the spa. 

We toured the facility that offers a demonstration kitchen and workout areas as well as some 30 treatment and consultation rooms, (some of which open  to the patio pictured above). We watched a class doing exercises on surf board machines while a video of waves was projected on a large screen behind them.

 

One feature neither of us were inclined to try was the Aerial Yoga where yoga poses are done (think upside down yoga) with the support of these suspended cloth slings (which, they say, allow for greater stretching).

Say Spa-ahhh. . .

Following the tour I headed to the large and luxurious dressing/locker room and, while sipping some Prickly Pear lemonade, suited up in a fluffy robe and slippers. I was about to have my first-ever facial. Rose Marie, an aesthetician who’s worked here for 11 years, introduced me to its wonders.

Because I’d never had a facial before  I chose it over a list of seemingly endless spa treatments.  Mine, a 90-minute treatment, began with an up-close and personal face photo (Brace yourselves! The images on that computer below are me and quite frightening). The two images, Rose Marie said, show sun damage and capillaries – I think they showed age as well!

The ‘reality show’ was followed by applications of  the ‘lotions and potions’. It was a botanical bonanza that included, but not limited to, an aloe cleansing, mists of lavender honey and rose geranium, a sweet cherry enzyme peel and a carrot seed soothing serum.  . .you get the idea. . .

 

One thing to keep in mind about spa treatments in resort settings like this one, is the cost of the treatment gives you access to all the other spa amenities and features on the day of your treatment (come early, stay late; a resort within a resort). 

Here those amenities include: steam rooms, saunas, a eucalyptus inhalation rooms, a private rooftop pool, and a three-story therapeutic waterfall, inspired by the real thing in the Grand Canyon, Havasupai Falls.

If you are like The Scout and not ‘in to’ spa treatments,  you can purchase a day pass here to use the non-treatment facilities.  (Free access is included with those booking the Fairmont Gold option).

TravelnWrite regulars will recall we nabbed a good deal on November’s Black Friday for our stay here last December. The new spa concept was introduced about a month after our visit. Now that we’ve tried it, we can’t imagine a stay that  didn’t include significant time at their Well and Being Willow Stream.

The Scottsdale Spa Experience

Whether a long-time spa enthusiast or a newbie to the spa world, summer in Scottsdale is the time you’ll find both great hotel rates and good deals on spa packages and treatments.

To see a few of this summer’s deals: click on Experience Scottdale’s link:  Summer Spa Series

For information about the Well & Being at Willow Stream Spa, www.scottsdaleprincess.com or call 480-585-2732.

An example of their Seasonal Offerings is this, one of  their June specials:

• 45-Minute Treatments Monday - Thursday
  Need a quick mid-week spa fix? Choose from these 45-minute energizing spa treatments designed for the person on the go. Available Monday – Thursday all day long. 45-minute Energizer Massage or Customized Facial. $129 each

That’s it for this week’s Travel Tip Tuesday!
If you have a tip about spa treatments or where to find deals that you’d like to share with other readers, please write a comment in the section below or send us an email to travelnwrite@msn.com   Small print: We want to thank the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for hosting our spa visit and treatment.

If you’ve not yet signed up to receive TravelnWrite posts, please do so on the blog’s home page, top right hand corner.  If you want to follow us on Facebook, click this link!  And, as always, thanks for stopping by today!