Mar 22nd, 2012 at 2:00PM: The Internet has brought us many ways to research and book hotels at prices much lower than the hotels' published rate. Aggregate sites like Kayak and Orbitz give you the best available rate (BAR) without pre-payment on a specific hotel, while "opaque" sites like Priceline and Hotwire allow you to bid for a room below BAR but the actual property remains hidden until after you book and the purchase ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
chicago posts
Find hotel deals with new booking site Guestmob
Mar 22nd, 2012 at 2:00PM: The Internet has brought us many ways to research and book hotels at prices much lower than the hotels' published rate. Aggregate sites like Kayak and Orbitz give you the best available rate (BAR) without pre-payment on a specific hotel, while "opaque" sites like Priceline and Hotwire allow you to bid for a room below BAR but the actual property remains hidden until after you book and the purchase ...VIDEO: Chicago dyes river green for St. Patrick's Day
Mar 20th, 2012 at 4:00PM:
Still recovering from St. Patrick's Day? Here's a time-lapse video of what you missed in Chicago, where thousands of people gathered to see the Chicago River as it was turned a radioactive shade of green (temporarily replacing its usual murky green). The tradition has been happening for more than 40 years to celebrate the holiday. It all went down at 10 a.m. on Saturday, just before the St. ...
Genghis Khan exhibit in Chicago the biggest ever
Feb 27th, 2012 at 3:00PM: A new exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago spotlights the world's greatest conqueror.
Genghis Khan brings together the largest collection of 13th century Mongol artifacts ever. The exhibition traces the career of Genghis Khan from his birth in 1162, to a noble but obscure family, through his conquest of an empire that was larger than the Roman Empire. In fact, it was the largest ever, ...Give Delta's New York LaGuardia shuttle service a try
Feb 24th, 2012 at 10:30AM: Those that travel frequently between New York's LaGuardia and Chicago's O'Hare airport know that it is among the more tedious routes to fly, particularly if you're traveling on a legacy carrier. Older, less comfortable airplanes, tiny overhead bins packed to the gills with carry-on luggage, and heavy flight traffic are all the norm, leading to plenty of stressed-out travelers.
It's for exactly ...Destination information tool promises increased travel safety, eventually
Feb 1st, 2012 at 2:00PM: Destination information from a trusted source can make for a rich travel experience and help keep us safe. Knowing where to go (and not go) in a city we have not traveled to before can be valuable information to have on hand. Trip Sentry, a new search engine for travelers, hopes to become the authority site for connecting people on the move with travel safety advice.
"Trip Sentry solves the ...Orbitz "Insider Index" predicts London, Chicago and Austin will be popular in 2012, looks at 2011 and 2012 travel trends
Jan 8th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
According to Orbitz's annual survey, released this week, London, Chicago and Austin are primed to be top travel destinations in 2012. The "Insider Index" used both travel experts and the OTA's booking and consumer search data to predict what they think will happen in the 2012 travel market.
Hotspots for 2012
London: London will mark its place in history as the only city to host the ...Most booked locations for MLK weekend getaways
Jan 5th, 2012 at 1:30PM: Want to know where to head for MLK weekend? Hotwire just announced the top 10 most booked destinations travelers are visiting over Martin Luther King Day weekend.
Several cities have historic significance, including Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. he received his B.A. degree at Morehouse College and where the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center was founded as well as Chicago, was the ...Largest urban park in the contiguous U.S.A planned for Chicago
Jan 4th, 2012 at 1:00PM: The Green Urbanist recently reported plans for the constructing of the largest urban park in the contiguous United States. Claiming Chicago as its home, this park project is reported to have $17 million in backing from the state of Illinois. The project aims to convert 140,000 acres of both under-used and post-industrial land into a public recreation zone. These acres lay along Chicago's southern ...Johnny Jet feature premiers on the Travel Channel, January 1st
Dec 30th, 2011 at 1:00PM: The last time I saw John DiScala – better known as Johnny Jet -- was at the JW Marriott tour in Chicago. Exhausted from a day long flight from Helsinki I wandered into a journalist's dinner at the freshly opened hotel and saw my old friend sitting among a group of eager young writers and polished senior management. As usual, he was lighting up the room and vivaciously engaging with the ...Radisson Blu debuts in Chicago
Dec 4th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Radisson has been a familiar name in hospitality in the United States for more than 100 years. But last month marked the first time that a Radisson Blu-branded property opened on U.S. soil. The Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel opened in Chicago on November 1, 2011, promising to be a major player on the Windy City's design hotel scene.
"The reception has been amazing," says Fred Khoury, Director of ...Chicago's loop in HD
Nov 19th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Want to spend a lazy day riding around on an architecturally-scenic elevated railroad in Illinois? Now, you can. Watching this high definition video by Michael Salisbury, listening to the dreamy, relaxed sounds of Boards of Canada, you will be transported to The Loop in Chicago. Glance out your window at the commercial style architecture, the impressively complex rail tracks, and some of the ...
Super Mario flashmob takes over the Chicago, Illinois, Magnificent Mile
Nov 10th, 2011 at 5:30PM: On Wednesday, more than 90 costumed Super Marios took over the streets of the Chicago, Illinois, Magnificent Mile. Around lunchtime, the flash mob broke out into dance in front of the John Hanock Center in an effort to promote Ninetendo's new video game, Super Mario 3D Land.
As you can see in the video, one man really enjoyed Nintendo's marketing efforts (although he had some trouble getting ...
Affinia Hotels launches Tender Loving Comfort movement
Oct 22nd, 2011 at 12:00PM: This week, Affinia Hotels launched their new Tender Loving Comfort movement in New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago. The program is based on deep-customer service as well as the body language of guests. In fact, earlier this year the company partnered with body language expert Patti Wood to train hotel staff to know how to respond to body language cues.
Tender Loving Comfort staff and hotel ...Host and experience budget-friendly local tours all over the United States
Oct 20th, 2011 at 12:00PM: HipHost, a new "peer-to-peer marketplace for socially-hosted local tours", not only gives travelers a way to experience new cities from a local's point of view, but also gives people an opportunity to make extra cash.
Anyone who wants to share their local knowledge can be a HipHost and design a tour based on anything they find interesting. Some tour topics include art, culture, fitness, ...Serial public art around the world
Oct 17th, 2011 at 4:30PM:
Public art exhibitions featuring a common sculpture that is multiplied and then embellished by various artists have been popping up in cities worldwide since 1998. Artistic director Walter Knapp first came up with the idea and convinced artists to dot Zurich, Switzerland with a collection of artfully-decorated lions. Within a year, Chicago businessman Peter Hanig had taken the idea and ran ...TripAdvisor launches free Mobile City Guide apps for Android users
Oct 12th, 2011 at 1:30PM: On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, TripAdvisor launched their free Mobile City Guide apps for Android users. The apps cover twenty popular destinations, some of which include Paris, New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London.
Benefits of using the app include:
Reviews of restaurants, hotels, and attractions
Suggested city itineraries
Interactive walking tours
Historical and cultural ...Got goat? A cultural exploration of the other red meat
Oct 10th, 2011 at 11:00AM: There are goat people, and then there...aren't. We're like dog people, except we can't carry the objects of our obsession in our purse. There aren't city parks dedicated to goats.
I grew up with goats because my brother and I raised them for 4-H. When we got our first dairy goat in the mid-'70's, my mom tapped her inner hippie, experimenting with making yogurt from the prodigious amounts of ...Chicago named most mustache-friendly city in America
Sep 29th, 2011 at 4:00PM: Chicago has recently been named the most "mustache-friendly" city in the United States by the American Mustache Institute (AMI). The research came in response to a "long-existing pattern of social and professional discrimination against Mustached Americans".
Apparently, Chicago is leading the way in providing an ideal living and working environment for Mustached Americans. In fact, Dr. Aaron ...America's 25 most expensive restaurants
Aug 11th, 2011 at 5:30PM:
What recession? Bundle just released a list of the 25 most expensive restaurants in America, and you'd never know the economy was still faltering. Your average diner would definitely require a stimulus package to pay the check.
Topping the list is The French Laundry, located in Yountville, in the Napa Valley. Chef/owner Thomas Keller's three-star Michelin restaurant is ranked among ...Cuba: Nine US cities cleared for charter flights
Aug 1st, 2011 at 1:30PM:
Nine US airports have been approved for charter flights to Cuba, Reuters reported this morning. The Cuban travel agency Havanatur Celimar made the announcement on Friday.
The US government forbids commercial flights between the United States and Cuba, so all air travel between the two countries has to proceed on charter planes. The Obama Administration has already removed all restrictions ...
