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If you are always on the lookout for tips and bargains, love to travel, and love to tweet even more, you should definitely check out the Ultimate List of Twitter Travel Accounts just published at BestTravelDeals.net. This very comprehensive list shows the twitter user name for airlines, airports, trains, subways, rental cars, hotels, cruises, pet travel, booking sites, travel guides and reviews, travel tips, and travel blogs.

A while back I wrote about HotelPal, the great iPhone app that lets you find last minute accommodations based on your current location and budget. Now a similar iPhone app, Superbreak, is available for Europe.

The application allows users to search for a hotel by date, location, or specific hotel name, and searches can also be conducted using geo-code technology, allowing customers to find hotels near their current location. All 7,000 of Superbreak’s UK and European hotels can be booked through the app and it can handle the whole booking process from start to finish.

Search settings on the iPhone app

Property Information

Although I have not personally tested the app (I haven’t been in Europe recently), the screen shots of the app are so similar to those in HotelPal that I have little doubt it functions in quite the same manner, Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the time I arrive at a destination without preconceived notions, but Miami Beach was steeped in expectation. Thanks to the popular TV show, CSI Miami, I imagined exquisitely preserved art deco architecture, tropical weather, oiled body-builders with rippling muscles, exuberant Latin culture, and colors vivid enough to make your eyeballs hurt. It was none of those things.

Palette of pastel colors adorn Miami Beach's famoous art deco architecture

Just my luck, when I finally had an opportunity to visit Miami Beach, the temperatures plunged into the low 50′s. I was not the only one unprepared; tourists everywhere shivered in shorts and sleeveless tops. Even the Holiday Inn Oceanfront, where I won a free night’s stay in a contest held by Travel Wonders of the World blog, had a hard time coping. Housekeeping had set my room’s thermostat at 50 degrees and it was ice cold. Even turning up the thermostat had little effect. Since south Florida temperatures are normally much higher, the hotel has both “room air” and “facility air;” the room air could be turned off but the facility air could not. It took a portable heater and extra blankets – which the hotel graciously delivered – to remedy the problem.

The frigid weather also nixed my plans to lie on the beach, although plenty of souls heartier than me ventured out in the middle of the afternoon, when temps soared to the high 60′s. Not to be deterred, I put on my warmest available clothes and walked along the oceanfront, searching for the Miami Beach I envisioned. Rather than long legged, exotic women in skimpy bikinis I found families; instead of sugary Read the rest of this entry »

Remember playing tag when you were a kid? Slapping someone on the back and yelling, “Tag, you’re it!” Well, I’ve just been been ‘virtually tagged.’ My friend and fellow travel blogger, Shannon Lane, was ‘tagged’ to participate in the meme known as My Three Best Travel Secrets (a meme, which rhymes with cream, is a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet). From what I understand, the game was started by Katie of Tripbase.com, the lovely folks who awarded me second place in the category of best North/South American blog of 2009 in their annual Travel Blog Awards.

After sharing three great secrets about her home state of Louisiana, Shannon ‘tagged’ me to be next in line to divulge my best travel secrets. My first reaction was, “Only three?” How could I possibly narrow it down to only three. Should I talk about little known secrets in Sarasota, Florida, such as the $40 annual membership to GWiz Science Museum that provides FREE admission to over 300 other science centers throughout the U.S. as well as other attractions around the State of Florida? Or about my list of little-known coffee shops around the country that let me work on my laptop all day for the price of a cup of coffee, like Sippin’ Internet Cafe in Key West, Pastry Art in Sarasota, or Rev Coffee in the Atlanta area?

In the end, I decided to reveal my secrets for booking last minute accommodations and transportation around the world without breaking the bank. Frankly, I detest being locked into definite travel plans. My preference is to book the first night at a destination (two nights at most), and then wing it from there. Fellow travelers are always eager to share secrets about spectacular, little-known towns or sites they have visited and not being locked into reservations allows me to take advantage of these tips, but it also means I am often looking for last minute bookings, which can be frustrating as well as expensive. However I do have a few tricks to help with this process, which I’ve detailed below: Read the rest of this entry »

I first learned about HotelPal from my friend Anil, who publishes the travel blog foXnoMad.com. This free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allows users to search for accommodations at more than 100,000 hotels, inns, resorts, and B&B’s worldwide, making it’s among the most complete hotel databases available anywhere.

HotelPal app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Immediately, I downloaded it and browsed around the interface. It seemed fairly easy to use: I simply needed to choose a hotel, type in my billing info, and tap “Book Now.” This week I finally had an opportunity to test it out during my tour of the Tampa Bay area. While my experience with the application was excellent, I found myself using it in a totally different manner than the developer intended.

Because I prefer not to be locked into structured itineraries, I rarely pre-book accommodations before leaving home, and this instance was no different. I left Sarasota at 4:30 p.m. in order to have plenty of time to find a hotel, check in, and still on time for my 8 p.m. Yo-Yo Ma concert this past Wednesday. Once I was in the neighborhood of the concert hall, I whipped out my iPhone, opened HotelPal, and clicked on “search.” The iPhone’s GPS automatically determined my geographic location and returned a list of nearby hotels and Read the rest of this entry »

I am absolutely blown away! A while back I entered a contest being hosted by Travel Wonders of the World, one of my all-time favorite travel blogs. Travel Wonders had partnered with Priority Club Rewards, the program that allows members to accrue award points for stays at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza, IHG, or Intercontinental Hotels, offering readers an opportunity to win a night at one of 4,300 five star hotels located in more than 100 countries.

View of Holiday Inn Miami Beach Miami from the oceanfront boardwalk

To be eligible to win, I needed to do the following: Read the rest of this entry »

This is no joke. TripAdvisor, one of the Internet’s most trusted sources for member reviews on attractions, accommodations, and restaurants, asked their members to reveal the cheapest, most comfortable lodgings around the world. The following is just a sampling:

Shiva Guest House in Kathmandu, Nepal

The Shiva Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. Average price per night: $9. Member comment:

“The guesthouse is right in the center of Bhaktapur, rooms with great view on Durbar Square. Breakfast at rooftop with excellent view on city and Himalaya’s. In times of festivals quite noisy in rooms at front side. The guys really make you feel at home.” Read the rest of this entry »

Exquisite lobby of Chicago's Palmer House

The seeds of my love affair with Chicago’s Palmer House were sown back in 1969. An anxious and giddy teenager, I was thrilled that the famous hotel had been chosen for my senior prom. I vividly recall stepping into the opulent lobby, with its Tiffany 24-karat gold chandeliers, majestic “Winged Angels” (the largest bronze statues ever made by Tiffany), and its magnificent domed ceiling painted with Grecian frescoes. I was the ugly duckling, suddenly become a lovely swan. I was Cinderella. My handsome, tux-clad prince offered his arm as we promenaded through the glittering lobby and up the staircase to the ballroom, where we danced the night away.

Although I no longer live in Chicago, I recently attended a conference in the Loop and spent a few extra days in the city. Memories came flooding back one afternoon when I turned a corner and found myself in front of the Palmer House. I stood on the sidewalk, debating whether or not to go inside. Perhaps it would be best to remember it the way it was on that fairy-tale night. But the temptation to revisit my past was too strong; I stepped through the front entrance and mounted the stairs to the lobby. And just like that I was 17 again, rendered speechless by the exquisite surroundings.

With all the time I spend in the Florida Keys, I’ve become somewhat of a travel expert on these tiny islands, so when Addison Schonland of IAGblogPodcasts asked if I would be willing to share some of the least touristy but most worthwhile attractions and beaches in the Keys with his blog audience, I jumped at the chance.

As any reader who has spent time on Hole In The Donut knows, for years I had a love-hate relationship with Key West. I loved the island, but after a couple of days, I hated the drunken tourists, the crowds, and the round-the-clock noisy revelry of DuVal Street. It was only recently that I finally started to discover the Keys – almost as if I had to pay my dues in order to be let into the secret places that no one tells you about. And that’s what Addison wanted me to reveal to his listeners. The podcast is 22 minutes long, but worth a listen:

IAGblogPodcast: Barbara Weibel on the Florida Keys