Robin Whitney
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#OnTheRoad On Instagram: Gadling At SXSW In Austin, Texas
Each year, thousands descend on the city – adding upwards of 300,000 to Austin's population – to discover new music, attend industry panels, tackle food trucks and realize that they too can pull off a pair of cowboy boots.
Throughout this week, I'll be riding the whirlwind of all-day parties and food truck treats – and maybe even a few eye-of-the storm moments, documenting some of the beautiful landscapes of Ladybird Lake and Barton Creek Greenbelt, where lucky locals indulge in an awe-inspiring oasis busy with a different kind of crowd – wildlife.
Snap a photo worth sharing? Mention @GadlingTravel in your own photo AND use the hashtag #gadling, and your photo will be considered for our Photo Of The Day.
[Photo by @germanustariz on Instagram]
Budget Justice: How To Survive On Spirit Airlines
Like many others, I operate on a shoestring budget, more often than not, out of stubbornness. I prefer to call it budget justice, a principle of savings that guides people like me to needlessly circle the block for a free parking space only to miss the event that got me into my car in the first place, or, worse yet, to time and time again book flights on Spirit Airlines, the ultra low-cost carrier known for luring in customers with absurdly low air fare and then assaulting them with excessive fees, uncomfortable cabins and culturally offensive advertising.When faced with the choice of true comfort or the perceived value from Spirit, I will always choose Spirit. Fortunately, my experience has prepared me with some survival techniques for the ultimate budget justice. Here's my advice.
Book without bait
Spirit is almost always running a promotion to get you to the site in hopes that as you book you'll concede to one of their many aggressive offers before checkout. When enticed with low fares, it always helps to first double check for promo codes on Retail Me Not. If I missed a promo by a few days, I zoom over to Orbitz, where the deal might still be alive; there, I'll have a higher chance of finding the best fare.
While booking, read each page carefully, and just say no! Decline to choose your seat, decline to check your bag, decline to carry on, decline to rent a car, a hotel, just about everything. You'll be glad you didn't take the bait to extend your relationship with Spirit any further than you had to.
Human Hammocks And Howler Monkeys: Visiting Costa Rica's Jaguar Rescue Center
"Why don't they like me?" my travel companion huffed in frustration, abandoning what he had hoped would be a welcoming hand gesture toward a group of rehabilitated baby howler monkeys. Maybe they sensed our initial apprehension. After all, we had been nervous to visit the Jaguar Rescue Center, given the world's alarming amount of faux sanctuaries that operate more akin to zoos and tourist destinations, but many locals in Puerto Viejo, a small beach town in the southern Caribbean of Costa Rica, spoke highly of the experience in Playa Chiquita, telling of the daily free-range policies where the animals may decide for themselves if they are ready to leave.So we rented bicycles in town: cruisers – the kind with large baskets and banana seats that position the rider as almost a parody of leisure (our uptight go-go city bikes would never forgive us for crossing over). Truth be told, the lazy cycling on stretched lanes along the Caribbean with backpacks snug in our front baskets seemed like perfection when compared with the pre-traumatic stress of avoiding car doors that so often invade Chicago's bike lanes.
No – here things were different. Here, tranquility was the goal. Costa Rica sinks into the bloodstream like a rich dessert – best enjoyed slowly.
After a 20-minute ride down a sun-drenched road dotted with open-walled cafes, vegan restaurants and yoga schools, we rolled into the Jaguar Rescue Center for an 11:30 a.m. tour.
Recycled Canvas Airsickness Bags Answer Fliers' Eco-friendly Demands
Airsickness bags have long provided a comfort and security for nauseated travelers.Catering to those for whom turbulent airflow inspires gag flow, the easy-access (and decorative), paper bags are available beneath most airplane seat trays ready to conceal even the worst bile deposits of pukey-passengers – but at what cost to the environment?
Enter new, eco-conscious company Up, Up and UpChuck, which plans to roll out environmentally friendly canvas bags to aid air-sensitive fliers. The Upchuck airsickness bags follow suit amongst green companies switching from paper to canvas. "It was an obvious move," says Founder and CEO Ronald Pearson in a release. "Clothes stores and grocery stores are banning paper and plastic bags to better the environment and it seems only right to answer this noble consumer demand in the air as well."
The reusable Upchuck airsickness bags are made from 100 percent recycled cotton canvas and offer reinforced flat bottoms with overlapping seams. With nanotech-treated fibers, the material resists absorption as does any queasy traveler's stomach lining. Designers have even partnered with Up, Up and UpChuck to offer on-trend totes for chunks (the 2012 debut line features graphics by Ed Hardy and Zac Posen).
There are a few hiccups (and belches) in the UpChuck release, however, as some early testers have noted the inconvenience of the canvas airsickness bags being labeled "dry clean only."
"Our eco-minded passengers have different priorities," counters Pearson. "We are hoping our customers will adopt new mottos -- 'fly clean only' and 'fly green only.'"
Look for the airsickness canvas bags in airports at the end of this month.
[Flickr image via gthills]
