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$56 A Night To Pitch A Tent? Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

$56 A Night To Pitch A Tent? Happy Memorial Day Weekend! May 21st, 2013 at 10:00AM: Since when did camping become expensive? I live in Chicago and have spent a ridiculous amount of time researching places to camp over the Memorial Day weekend in the last two weeks. If I had planned ahead, booking a campsite would be quick and easy but we tend not to plan very far in advance, which makes travel during holidays complicated and sometimes expensive. We wanted to camp at Devil's ...

48 Hours In Lisbon: In Search Of Coffee, Tiles And Sun

48 Hours In Lisbon: In Search Of Coffee, Tiles And Sun May 14th, 2013 at 12:00PM: All truth be told, Lisbon was never a city I had given any thought to. In fact, I couldn't even come up with anything linked to it. Give me a list of other European cities and there was at least one or two things that came to mind. Stockholm: Old Town and the archipelago. Paris: croissants, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. London: pubs, fish and chips and Big Ben. Venice: canals, ...

Dinner And Bikes 2013: An Annual Tour To Grow The Bicycle Movement

Dinner And Bikes 2013: An Annual Tour To Grow The Bicycle Movement May 8th, 2013 at 12:00PM: There's a lot of talk about bikes these days. From single speeds in New York City to nighttime tours in Guatemala City and the bike share in Paris, the discussion of bicycles as a real means of alternative transportation is taking hold in a big way. But talking about bikes in cycle centric hotspots like Portland, San Francisco and New York is only part of the step. As with anything, getting ...

24 Almost Perfect Hours In San Francisco

24 Almost Perfect Hours In San Francisco May 6th, 2013 at 10:00AM: A pair of hairy middle-aged Chia Pets are blasting Wham's "Careless Whisper" from a new age boom box. A cluster of Latino immigrants is fishing and drinking cans of Tecate just steps away from a male paddleball player in a tight speedo with a Taliban-style beard and his long hair pulled in a Samurai-style bun. A teenager with a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina tattooed on his chest is enjoying a ...

Forget Mykonos, Try Syros, Your Friendly Neighborhood Greek Island

Forget Mykonos, Try Syros, Your Friendly Neighborhood Greek Island Apr 30th, 2013 at 11:00AM: I arrived on the Greek island of Syros on the night ferry from Samos at 2:30 a.m., bleary-eyed and in need of coffee or a bed, maybe both. My sons, then 2 and 4, were still half-asleep, wondering why the hell we'd hustled them out of their tidy bunks in the middle of the night. We stepped over backpackers, most of them heading to Mykonos, Naxos or Santorini, who were still asleep in the corridors ...

How To Get Around Priceline's Annoying New Bidding Hurdles

How To Get Around Priceline's Annoying New Bidding Hurdles Apr 29th, 2013 at 11:00AM: If you're accustomed to bidding for hotels, flights and rental cars on Priceline, you may have noticed that in recent months the bidding process has become more cumbersome and time consuming. When your bid is rejected, you need to change some element of your offer before bidding again – the dates, the geographic area, the vehicle class for car rentals or the star level for hotels – in ...

The Budget Traveler's Guide To Cut-Price Restaurant Meals

The Budget Traveler's Guide To Cut-Price Restaurant Meals Apr 28th, 2013 at 1:00PM: Eating out three meals a day can do some serious damage to your travel budget, especially when you want those three meals to be as good as possible. Sure, you could self-cater to save a few bucks, but if you're a real foodie who wants to taste the best a city has to offer, how can you do it without breaking the bank? Filling up on street food or tracking down food trucks are two tried and ...

How To Deal With The Ridiculous New Airline Change Fees

How To Deal With The Ridiculous New Airline Change Fees Apr 27th, 2013 at 10:00AM: The big news in the travel industry this week was that United and US Airways raised the cost of changing tickets from $150 to $200. This means that if you need to change your ticket for any reason prior to departure, whether you got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport or your pet goldfish died, you're going to have to pay a little bit more. Gouging? Probably. Expected? Definitely. As ...

Condé Nast Traveler's 'Hot List': Too Rich For My Blood

Condé Nast Traveler's 'Hot List': Too Rich For My Blood Apr 26th, 2013 at 10:00AM: Condé Nast Traveler (CNT) released its annual "Hot List" of the world's "best new hotels" this week, featuring 154 newish properties in 57 countries around the world. CNT boasts that 62 of these hotels have room rates that start at $300 per night or less but is that really a realistic threshold for separating expensive hotels from affordable ones? I've been traveling the world for more than ...

Mucking About: Stepping Into The Unknown On The Banks Of The Ganges

Mucking About: Stepping Into The Unknown On The Banks Of The Ganges Apr 26th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Stair-stepped ghats hug the western shore of the Ganges River like a string of very old pearls, one after the other, fused together by faith and history and mud. The stairs link the mucky dung-spattered streets on land to the murky brown water of the holy river below, with riotous colors of fabric and flowers between. I was expecting more dead bodies in Varanasi – really, burning ...

Balochistan, The Unluckiest Corner Of The World

Balochistan, The Unluckiest Corner Of The World Apr 24th, 2013 at 10:00AM: The earthquake that shook Iran and Pakistan last week has already been overshadowed by fatal tremors in Sichuan, China, a few days ago. Perhaps not surprising given that both places are in seismically active areas, but both of these disasters are repeats of far more deadly earthquakes that occurred in the last decade. In 2008, the Great Sichuan Earthquake killed almost 70,000 people, while a ...

International Budget Guide 2013: Asuncion, Paraguay

International Budget Guide 2013: Asuncion, Paraguay Apr 22nd, 2013 at 11:00AM: Why is 2013 the year to get to Asunción, Paraguay's, lovely, riverfront capital? Because this landlocked tropical nation sandwiched between Boliva, Brazil and Argentina is modernizing at warp speed. Tourism is still a rarity (expect curious looks, especially if you venture into the countryside – and you most definitely should), but the city offers enough inexpensive, low-key ...

Free Art: Exploring The Graffiti Of Barcelona

Free Art: Exploring The Graffiti Of Barcelona Apr 18th, 2013 at 9:00AM: You could go to Barcelona and see Sagrada Familia, and the contemporary art museum and all of the Gaudi houses, but if you head to the capital of Catalonia and don't take some time to simply peruse the streets and check out the graffiti, you'll miss out on some of the best art and creative inspiration that the city has to offer. I, for one, am not usually a fan of graffiti, but done well, ...

10 Offbeat Things To Do In Chicago

10 Offbeat Things To Do In Chicago Apr 17th, 2013 at 10:00AM: If you've never been to Chicago, or you've only visited during the winter, which tends to last roughly from early fall through late spring, you have to see the place in the summer. As soon as the weather gets warm, the city's residents flock to the lakefront and the place buzzes with live music, street festivals and places to dine al fresco. The typical tourist itinerary includes stops at the ...

Deals For Tax Day: Hotel And Restaurant Specials Around The County

Deals For Tax Day: Hotel And Restaurant Specials Around The County Apr 15th, 2013 at 12:00PM: It's tax day, which, for many Americans, marks their least favorite day of the year – unless, of course, you're Uncle Sam. Whether your wallet is hurting or you're flush with a little bit of cash from an unexpected refund, we've got a list of hotels and resorts around the country that are offering special deals and packages designed around the "holiday." Get A Deal in DC The JW ...

International Budget Guide 2013: Oaxaca, Mexico

International Budget Guide 2013: Oaxaca, Mexico Apr 15th, 2013 at 11:00AM: If you are seeking an authentic and affordable taste of Mexico, look no further than Oaxaca. The southwestern Mexican city has come a long way since the political protests of 2006, where non-violent activists clashed with corrupt government officials and militia in the streets. The protests led to a renewed sense of self-awareness and confidence for the city, and today, Oaxaca is once again ...

Travel And The Azerbaijani Unibrow

Travel And The Azerbaijani Unibrow Apr 15th, 2013 at 10:00AM: The unibrow is the face of travel. Let me explain. I recently took a trip to Azerbaijan. I strolled the streets of Baku, which are flanked by plus-sized Beaux Arts palaces, the ground floors of which usually house a designer shop. I ate enough grilled meat to keep a slaughterhouse in business. And I sat in smoky bars nursing Turkish beer. It was all very nice. But what struck me the most ...

Holiday Inn Or Hampton Inn? Trying To Decode Priceline's Star Ratings System

Holiday Inn Or Hampton Inn? Trying To Decode Priceline's Star Ratings System Apr 14th, 2013 at 10:00AM: I'm a cheapskate and a risk taker, so Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" bidding tool was made for me. Over the years, I've bid on and gotten three- and four-star hotels in cities all over North America and Europe for an average of about $75 per night and as little as $35 using the free-re bid system outlined here. I love the deals but for me, part of the fun is the serendipity of seeing William ...

Layover Report: Where To Eat At Miami, Lima, And Bogota International Airports

Layover Report: Where To Eat At Miami, Lima, And Bogota International Airports Apr 13th, 2013 at 11:00AM: I just returned from three weeks in Bolivia and Paraguay. In that time, I had 12 flights, five of which were required to get me from my home in Colorado to La Paz. Now why, you may ask, in this age of expedited air travel, does it take so many connections to travel 4,512 miles (or nine hours by air)? Budget, baby. I'm also horrifically flight phobic, so for me to fly various Third World ...

International Budget Guide 2013: Hong Kong

International Budget Guide 2013: Hong Kong Apr 11th, 2013 at 11:00AM: Hong Kong may be the most expensive city in the world to set up an office, buy a luxury home and open a retail location, but it also offers surprising values for the budget traveler. For every five-star hotel, Michelin-starred restaurant and luxury emporium, there is a budget guesthouse, hole-in-the-wall noodle joint and back-alley marketplace waiting in the wings. Don't believe us? Check out ...

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