Category: Travel Blogs

10 Questions For (28): Sam Daams of Travellerspoint

Happy to present Sam Daams, a sort of millipede and co founder of Travellerspoint, whom I met for the first time in Berlin recently and whose company, humor, chatter and insight I learned to appreciate a lot there.

sam-daams-portrait

1) Who Are you?
I’m a Dutch/American living in Norway of all places. I grew up in the Solomon Islands and have lived in the Netherlands and Australia before settling here in Norway. Back in 2002, before social networks were all the rage, my brother Peter and me started Travellerspoint, an online travellers community.

I also own a more ‘traditional’ offline travel business with offices in Sweden and Norway focused at the youth market, specifically gap year type travels. In short, I guess you could say I work with travel all the time, yet travel shamefully little myself at the moment!

boarding-planeSam at a young age in front of a plane

2) What do you like about what you do?
The continuous feeling of helping people explore the world through travelling. When you get feedback on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ and you’ve been just a small part of that, it’s very fulfilling. I also love the fact that you can create something online that others use immediately. It doesn’t have to take months or years, run with an idea, put it up and see what people think. And when people start talking about it on Twitter/their blogs, there’s a sense of achievement which is hard to explain to those that have never run their own business.

The other thing I absolutely love is experimenting with functions and ideas. Thinking back, we’ve created some pretty nifty functionality over the years that wasn’t really being done anywhere else before that. Tying in Travel Helpers with our forums, letting users generate a customized PDF version of their own travel blog, Social bookings which let you connect with other travellers staying in the same hostel as you before your trip, branded blogs for travel businesses etc. They don’t always work, and sometimes you are too far ahead of the curve, but being an innovator and first mover has a definite advantage over time. If for no other reason than that you can sleep a little easier at night knowing you aren’t just ripping off the guy next door.

3) What don’t you like about what you do?
The hours. To be honest, I don’t think work ever leaves my mind. You are always thinking of something else to do or a task that you should have done 6 months ago. I hate the feeling of never feeling finished and always feeling like you should be doing so much more. You finish one thing, and the next just slides right on in. I’ve gotten slightly better in the past years at just letting go and realizing I’m not even going to get half the stuff done I plan to do, but it still frustrates me sometimes, especially when you come up with a great idea and leave it on the shelf too long so a competitor launches it before you.

One of the other things that is annoying about working with a lot of user generated content is spam. I’m sick and tired of another tour operator coming along and thinking that posting in a travel forum is going to give them some kind of leg up on the competition. Luckily we’ve always kept a pretty tight lid on it, so we’re not as inundated with spam as some other travel communities are that have just let it happen over the years, but it’s still annoying as can be.

4) Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.
At the moment my blogging levels are pretty pathetic to be honest. I’ll post something to my personal blog Sam I Am once a week at most and posts to the ‘official’ Travellerspoint blog are few and far between.

However I do tweet (does that qualify as ‘micro blogging’?) a lot as Twitter aligns much better with how my mind and concentration levels work. It also sits well within how my days are usually divided. Finally, I also find it’s much more a two-way stream than blogging, so feedback is instant. And some of the feedback you get on Twitter is really quite phenomenal. I am found at @samdaams by the way.

Mind you, as much as I love Twitter, I’m still undecided on the value-add for most businesses. It can work phenomenally for some, but for example for the Norwegian/Swedish travel business I can’t think of any way it could help generate more bookings other than perhaps increasing exposure of the company towards journalists and other influencers in the travel industry. There’s certainly a value in that, but it requires a lot of time and work which might be better spent elsewhere.

5) Your top 3 destination experiences you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
* Sydney in 2000/2001 for a number of reasons. For starters it was my first real experience with working in the travel industry, rather than just travelling (it was an internship for IEP, a subsidiary of BUNAC, which turned into something a bit longer). But it was also the Olympics, and living in a fantastic city with a number of fantastic housemates. I was living like a backpacker but working like crazy. I don’t know how I managed, but I have nothing but good memories from the period.
* Lismore in 1999. Again, this was part of my studies. Lismore in itself is rather ordinary, but that’s one of the great things about travelling and living abroad; it’s who you experience things with that makes the real difference! Great people, really relaxed classes and a lot of travelling to Byron Bay and surroundings whilst ‘studying’.
* The Solomon Islands. In fairness this was more home than a travelling destination, as I spent the first 12 years of my life here. But I can’t honestly think of a much better place to grow up. Walking around barefoot, surfing after a cyclone, shooting birds with a slingshot, swimming in caves, what more do you want as a kid?!

peter-and-sam-daams-in-front-of-their-solomon-islands-_house_rennellPeter & myself in front of our house in Rennell

6) Your top 3 accommodations you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
This is a rather tough one, since naturally a 4-star place should be better than a hostel, although I’ve had tons of great experiences and stays in hostels! Let me just name 3 of the more memorable that come to mind:

* The Sands Resort in the Mauritius http://www.sands.mu/) where we spent our honeymoon. Just lazying and enjoying fantastic food.
* An apartment in New York city that I found on Travellerspoint’s accommodation section. Sadly, it’s no longer available for booking, but at around 100 USD per night, and right around the corner from Central Park, it was fantastic value for money. The apartment was very modern and quite spacious.
* Hotel Sven Vintappare in Stockholm, Sweden. I’ve stayed here twice now, that’s how much I liked the place the first time. It’s in a great location, the staff are super friendly and it’s authentic, whilst being clean and modern.

sands_resort
Sands Resort

7) Your top 3 most memorable food / wine experiences to date and why?

* The food at the Sands Resort named above was probably the best I’ve ever had. I ate myself silly…
* Enjoying a cold beer and a BBQ on the porch of the little place we rented on the beach at Titikaveeka on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
* Some half cooked pasta meal at the end of hiking a full day in pouring rain in one of the rainforests near Lismore. We were all cold and wet and couldn’t get the cooker going for ages, but when that half cooked foot finally hit our mouths it felt like the best meal ever consumed.

sunset_cooks
Sunset Cooks

8) Your 3 worst destination/ accommodation /food experiences to date and why?
I’m really not one to complain about my travelling experience, no matter how bad it gets. The stories are just all the better when things go wrong, aren’t they? 🙂 But if I had to name three things, it’d be:

* not being let into Indonesia because I didn’t have a visa. That’s kind of embarrassing for someone running a travel business! Anyway, I was deported to the always lovely Darwin, spent a few nights there whilst sorting out a visa and new flight and was let into Indonesia a few days later. Wonderful country!
* the worst accommodation I’ve ever stayed at was probably a hostel on Times Square. Luckily it was only for one night, and my wife was forgiving.
* my worst food experience was in Costa Rica and (again) entirely my own fault (one might sense a theme here…)! I was in El Arenal and we decided to have some lunch at a little wayside restaurant before getting on a bus. Looking at the menu I saw “tongue”, which for reasons I can certainly not explain today, I took to mean the same as the Dutch word “tong” (that in itself is actually correct). Now that can mean two things in Dutch, the more common of the two on Dutch menu’s being a type of fish (the other being what you’d expect). Of course, when you are smack, bang in the middle of Costa Rica, you would be wise to assume otherwise, or at the very least ask the waiter. But unfortunately my friend and me did no such thing and ended up with two large ox tongues lathered in tomato sauce on our plates. I took an honest stab at mine, but really couldn’t consume much of it, try as I might. On a positive note, that story gets more laughs than my mates’ pizzas do nowadays.

9) Can you offer the readers 3 destination/ food / accomodation / things to do tips about the city you are currently living in?

Oslo is a great little city to travel around as it’s small enough to walk a lot of places, or else use the excellent public transport, which includes the ferries to the islands or Bygd’y.

* Head to the museums at Bygd’y, to which you can either take a ferry or the 30 bus. It’s pretty much a whole day’s activity if you visit all the museums which are close together so you can walk to each of them. You’ll get Norway’s history in a nutshell if you visit them all and they are not your typical boring museums either 🙂

* The Vigeland sculpture park is Oslo’s most famous sight and a must see on any trip here. But at least equally impressive is the mausoleum of Gustav Vigeland’s brother, Emanuel. It’s only open 4 or 5 hours a week on Sundays, and it’s hidden away in the middle of a residential area, but it’s a true gem! Very impressive paintings.

* If you visit in the summer, get a ‘engangsgrill’ (BBQ for one time use), some food & drinks and take one of the ferries out to one of the islands in the fjord. This is Oslo at its best!

kontiki_museum
Kontiki

10) Any Question(s) you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?

Is anyone still reading? 🙂

Actually, can I add a shameless plug for something cool? We just launched the Travellerspoint Foundation which will be lending money to entrepreneurs around the world through the fantastic micro loans site Kiva,. One of the first things we’ve done there is let contributors to our Wiki Travel Guide allocate the adsense earnings from the pages they contribute to, to the foundation. That money is then lended out via Kiva. We’ll also shortly be launching another initiative within the foundation to really help boost the loans we are making through Kiva.

My Observations
Very good story and not much to add or ask, apart from the fact who is the younger one you or Peter? Thanks Sam!
If you’re in for the unofficial story of the Travellerspoint Saga, have a look at this post of Sam 🙂

Exciting Twitterday at Travolution’s #travsummit

There was a really hilarious video about airline surcharges, but now it’s taken away from Youtube [ed July 2010]

Originally I was planning to attend the Travolution Travel Summit in London today. However, some wonderful guests from Down Under had booked in my hotel, so I couldn’t afford to hop over to London, but in between I could have a look into the stream and sometimes throw in a thought or question.

As Twitter is the trend in conferences nowadays – you see rows and rows of people with laptops, blackberries and Iphones Twittering away- you almost don’t have to attend them in Real life.

Just sift through under 1,000 tweets at Search.Twitter.com/#travsummit and you know almost all.Note my clever little trick in altering the number of Tweets in the search url from 50 to 100. So you have only to scroll through 10 pages of Tweets. Also remind that after a certain period Twitter seems to flush its search caches.

Some notes from the #travsummit stream some of which I have to check out more in depth:

  • On a personal note, if I would have attended, I would have been torn between Looking and listening, posting Tweets and making photos. At the next conference I will attend, I will be making photos only. I missed catching the faces today.
  • The word boring is becoming Cool. “Just keep your eyes on the ball” as Bill Marriott says it in an recent interview with startup Hoteliers Magazine and do what you are good at is a wise advice in the present economic circumstances
  • Everybody points to USG (User Generated Content), but it is my experience that only 40% of my guests produce USG in the form of writing into my guest book and only 5% write a review online.
  • Google top 5 tips for conversion: -No doubt. -Simple check-out. -Limit steps. -Limit warnings. -Quarantine check-out (thinking about redesigning my hotel website).
  • Travellers typically make 12 searches on 22 websites over 29 days before making their first booking says Google.
  • Home Away vacation rentals is growing very fast.
  • MS demonstrated an interesting huge new touchscreen Surface. Go see the Demo video taken at Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. European price approx UK PND 11,000.
  • Together with Photosynth (also from MS) Surface has some cool features

Other Travel Bloggers:

  1. Jeremy Head is one of the first posting about the summit at his Blog Travel Blather Travolution Summit: 7 things I learned today
  2. Worldreviewer is a good second who posts about the summit.
  3. Stephan Ekbergh posted about it
  4. Ben Colclough of Trailbeater posted about it
  5. I almost forgot Hotelblogs who devoted several blog posts on the summit:Business Leaders on Stage, Update from Ailines, Innovators in Digital and online Travel and some more

Latest Update April 22, 2009 17,00 hr … It took me almost 12 hours to find the video back. And at Travolution you will find more coverage. Rest my post further:-)

10 Questions For (26): Sheila Scarborough of Family Travellogue

Happy to present to you a social media canon Sheila Scarborough of -Yes! of what not? 🙂 – Sheila Scarborough.com, of Family Travellogue which is in the Bootsnall Travel Network and contributing to Perceptive Travel Blog, belonging to the Perceptive Travel Online Magazine. I believe I missed some:-)
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sheila-headshot-courtesy-korey-howell-photography
Sheila Scarborough
(photo courtesy Korey Howell Photography)

1) Who Are You?
I’m a writer specializing in travel, automobile drag racing and Web 2.0/social media. I also speak, teach workshops and consult with companies about how to communicate effectively using social media.

I grew up in a Navy family, and after college I served in the Navy myself for almost 23 years, aboard ships on both US coasts and in Japan. My shore duty assignments included a NATO command in the Netherlands (in Brunssum, near Maastricht) so I’ve enjoyed a lot of travel opportunities.

When I left the Navy, I decided to become a travel writer, and a journalist friend said, “If you’re going to be a writer, you need to have a blog.” So, in between pitching for print assignments, I started my BootsnAll family travel blog in February 2006, then later also joined the Perceptive Travel Blog to write about more general and cultural travel.

The drag racing work started when I got an assignment to blog from the track at the Gatornationals, a big race near my home in Florida. I fell in love with the action, the noise and the stories about the participants. Sports writing is a good mental change from travel writing, and I’ve also done longer motorsports-related articles in Texas Highways magazine and online with Automotive Traveler.

The social media work is the result of the skill set I’ve developed after three years of blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I have a Navy Master Training Specialist certification and spent a lot of time on instructor duty, so it’s very natural for me to teach and speak.

2) What do you like about what you do?
I love to tell a good story and to guide people to worthwhile destinations, especially the unexpected, less-glamorous places. I often say, “A monkey could write ‘My Secret Tuscany’ but it takes talent and effort to make some obscure back road or small town compelling.”

Blogging and other social media platforms are perfect for me because I love to connect people and tell stories to the widest-possible audience.

3) What don’t you like about what you do?
It is so difficult to make a living from creating Web-based content. It will get better, because the value will increase as the world continues to move online and to mobile, but if I did not have a military pension, I’d have never made it this far and I’d be stocking shelves at my local IKEA.

I am thankful that I stood all of those bridge and engineering watches aboard ship, at all hours of the day and night; those hours “bought” me the chance to live my dream now. Thank you also to my Sainted Husband, Chris, who has a steady job as a mathematics teacher.

4) Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.
I’ve been working with the BootsnAll Travel Network since August 2008 to transition my family travel blog to a new URL and template. Boots has done a lot with destination-based content, but not that much with a family travel topic, so we’re both excited about continuing to work together. We see no reason that independent travelers can’t continue to see the world even after they have kids.

The Perceptive Travel Blog is also doing really well; we like to highlight places and tell stories that you won’t find elsewhere. My only regret is that I’ve never had a chance to meet my co-bloggers in person (Nia Malchik in New York and Liz Lewis in New Zealand.) Some day….!

hong-kong-view-from-star-ferry-byteen-wolf
Hong Kong View from the Star Ferry by Teen Wolf

5) Your top 3 destination experiences you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
** Hong Kong (although now that I’ve visited Shanghai, I have to pause a moment before saying that. There’s a new competitor in my heart.) I’ve visited Hong Kong several times, and always loved its energy, business focus, bright colors and go-go people. The harbor view from the Star Ferry never fails to make me grin like an idiot.

** Chicago, because it is a no-nonsense town that appreciates and supports great art, architecture and public spaces. It’s like New York City, but not so full of itself. Chicago’s location on Lake Michigan, and the Chicago River running through the town, lend it an unexpectedly maritime flavor even in the middle of the Midwest. I appreciate big expanses of water next to a vibrant city (when will someone buy me a ticket to see Sydney?!)

** The Mayan ruins at Tikal, Guatemala. I was only able to spend a little time there, but it took my breath away. Jungles, monkeys, climbing ancient pyramids and looking back over the treetops; wow, what’s not to love?

6) Your top 3 accommodations you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
Actually, I don’t really care about hotels. That’s funny for me to realize, but I had to think hard to answer this question. I do not travel to stay in nice hotels or resorts, I travel to see the place where the hotel is located. As long as the lodging is clean and convenient, I’m happy. I drop off my suitcase and leave to go explore.

Here’s my best effort:

** The Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, Mississippi. Converted sharecropper shacks in the heart of Delta blues country, and the snazziest bottle trees I’ve ever seen. (Close second is the Bayou Cabins in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, because hosts Rocky and Lisa Sonnier are so genuine and I like being right on the Bayou Teche.)

** The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) cabins in Bastrop State Park, Texas, near Austin. These small stone “Hobbit cottages” were built in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, but they are beautifully-maintained and have charming hand-carved fireplace mantels with nice sayings like, “Old Friends Are Best.”

** Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu, Tokyo. Give me a good futon and fresh-smelling tatami mats, and I sleep like a log. The bath looks out over the Asakusa Kannon temple and the pagoda is beautifully lighted at night. Bliss.

7) Your top 3 most memorable food / wine experiences to date and why?
** A sunset Mai Tai at Honolulu’s Sheraton Moana Surfrider hotel, near the banyan tree that was planted in 1904 on Waikiki Beach. Watch the sun’s rays play over Diamond Head, and wonder why you don’t live in Hawaii.

** A gin and tonic in the InterContinental lobby bar in Hong Kong, on Kowloon side so I can watch the nightly laser light show on the spectacular buildings across Victoria Harbor.

** A Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait near Jawad’s grocery store in Manama, Bahrain. It was so absurd to be eating one of my favorite fast food ice cream desserts on an island in the Persian Gulf (or Arabian Gulf, depending upon your political perspective.)

8) Your 3 worst destination/ accommodation /food experiences to date and why?
** A bad drinks/appetizers experience at Inn of the Anasazi bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I think we hit on a bad night or the staff was all in a bad mood or something, but it was a perfect example of an expensive place that didn’t deliver on service. If you charge me an arm and a leg, you’d better make it worth my while.

** The Waxahachie, Texas American’s Best Value Inn. I was covering a drag race and had to get lodging at the last minute. This place was gross in just about every way, and I wrote a blog post rant about why it is apparently impossible to find a decent, clean room for one person for US$50/night. Most commenters on the post told me that I got what I deserved, but US$50 is a lot of money for some people. Should only the well-off get decent hotel rooms?

** London. It took several trips there before I stopped resenting how much money I had to spend to do the most basic things. It was not fun to look at every price tag and have to mentally double whatever number was listed. I thought I was clever enough to “go cheap” in just about any big city, but London put me to the test, particularly when the kids were with me.

9) Can you offer the readers 3 destination/ food / accomodation / things to do tips about the city you are currently living in?
** Enjoy swimming in or near Austin. Try a dip in spring-fed Barton Springs Pool, Hamilton Springs Pool or go inner-tube floating in the clear, cool Guadalupe or Comal Rivers.

** Watch the Mexican freetail bats fly out from under the Ann Richards Congress Ave bridge at sunset from May to November (the world’s largest urban bat colony “hangs out” under the bridge.) Then, go eat Mexican food at Guero’s, Maria’s Taco Xpress, Chuy’s or Fonda San Miguel.

** Come visit us in the fall for the three-day Austin City Limits Music Festival in Zilker Park (it’s better for music fans than South by Southwest Music, in my opinion) or the Texas Book Festival. The Book Festival in particular is a little-known event outside Texas, but it is extraordinarily well-run and has so many wonderful speakers and presentations, all held in the Texas Capitol buildings.

sheila-and-tommy-at-keukenhof-the-netherlands

10) Any Question(s) you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?
You’re Dutch, so I’ll bet you’d like to know what I thought of living in the Netherlands.
** I love Zuid-Limburg, the “Dutch Alps” region where Brunssum is located. It is the prettiest, greenest area, with lovely little distinctive villages. It’s too bad that so many never leave Amsterdam to see the rest of the country.

** Most underrated city – Rotterdam. Love the cutting-edge architecture and even the tourist cruise of the amazing harbor facilities.

** One of my favorite memories – Taking my son and daughter (on separate trips) to visit the Waddenzee islands of Terschelling and Texel. They were so relaxing, but I did miss the chance to go wadlopen (mud-walking between the islands when the tide is low.)

** What I think about the Dutch – They are brutally frank and honest. I like that a lot. They speak multiple languages without apparently breaking a sweat; I am embarrassed that I can only speak bad French. They close stores and take Sunday off to be with family; they know when to stop working. They are very picky about having clean windows and house entrance areas; I always felt like the neighborhood slob because I kept forgetting to clean mine.

** What I miss most – Fietspads (bicycle paths.) The Dutch have a whole system of bicycle lanes, many with their own stoplights and signage, so you aren’t sharing the road with cars. It makes cycling so easy and safe, unlike in the US when I often feel I’m taking my life in my hands to ride anywhere.

***************
Best wishes,

Sheila

My Observations
Thank you for being my guest Sheila. Impressive lady! I loved Todd’s Iphone video stream of your SXSW performance together with Pam. Much less formal than our ITB09 sessions in Berlin. Having lived in The Netherlands is a great plus:-) You have a standing invitation, whenever in the neighborhood, and provided I didn’t sell my boat, for a private boat tour The Hague – Rotterdam (Center and Harbour) – The Hague. Boat’s top speed 30 kn and cruising speed 22 kn. Distance The Hague – Rotterdam Center 31 nm. Thanks again!

10 Questions For (25): Kayt Sukel of Travel Savvy Mom

Happy to introduce a writer, travel blogger, photographer and army spouse to you: Kayt Sukel of Travel Savvy Mom whom I recently met at itb09 in Berlin:

IMG_9510
Although I prefer to publish very sharp photos, her smile on this one is sooo gorgeous…!

1) Who Are you?
Who am I? This kind of philosophical question might be better answered by someone a little more self-aware than I! But honestly, I think the difficulty lies in the fact that I wear several different hats. The explanation of who I am changes a little bit depending on the audience. I’ll try to define the big ones here.

Most in the travel community know me as Travel Savvy Kayt, a travel blogger and contributing editor for Travel Savvy Mom (Travel Savvy Mom). I blog about traveling with my just-turned-four-year-old, Chet, and also review family-friendly accommodations across the globe. We’ve most recently traveled to Jordan, Israel and Sweden, to name a few, and we regularly hop back over the pond to explore our official home country, the United States. Our next trip is to Sorrento, Italy and then we’ll return to the states for a few weeks. We’ve been traveling together — and usually just the two of us — since he was only a few months old. I can’t imagine ever stopping.

Professionally, I am a freelance writer, consultant and essayist based in the tiny village of Bedesbach, Germany. I most often cover neuroscience, technology and business topics with a dash of parenting and travel stuff thrown in for good measure. Before I came to Germany, I worked as an information technology consultant. My background is in neuroscience and usability engineering — I know, I know, a totally weird combination — and I helped companies make their websites and web applications both usable and useful for their user base. It’s actually harder than you might think. I still do a bit of this kind of work on occasion, too. But mainly, the focus is on the writing. My work has appeared in the Washington Post, BrainWork, American Baby, National Geographic Traveler and the AARP Bulletin — and hey, I’m always looking for new clients. Just sayin’.

And then, third, and perhaps the most surprising to those that know me personally, I am a military spouse. Not only a military spouse but a former Family Readiness Group (FRG) leader and active volunteer in the military community. My husband is an Officer in the U.S. Army and currently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I just started a new blogging endeavor for Military OneSource’s Bursting With Pride (Bursting With Pride) about how to make the most of long, back-to-back deployments. And most importantly, how to achieve your own dreams even when you might be following a Soldier all over the planet.

2) What do you like about what you do?
The biggest thrill? I’m always learning. I may be writing about epigenetics one week and then a great hotel in Istanbul the next. On Monday, I may be interviewing a Nobel Prize winner and then talking to the head of a destination management office on Wednesday. I love that I can wake up each day and be doing something a little different. The other upside to my freelance life is that it gives me the option to be a mostly stay-at-home Mom to Chet. And, of course, the flexibility to travel at whim is also a huge perk for us.

3) What don’t you like about what you do?
I hate to repeat the sentiments that some of your other 10 question folks have uttered but I suppose I have to: It just plain stinks that so many fantastic print publications are folding. These days, I have to work a lot harder and smarter to keep my freelance business up. So far, so good but it makes me sad to see so many great outlets that appreciate good narrative journalism and experiential essays about travel go the way of the Dodo. It makes my blogging seem that much more important.

4) Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.
Travel Savvy Mom is a website/blog geared at offering travel advice for Moms by Moms. Our main goal is to offer recommended family-friendly accommodations across the globe. We don’t actually print negative reviews — we just put our name on places that we thought were fantastic. We also write about great destinations, travel products and advice for traveling with children. It’s a lot of fun.

5) Your top 3 destination experiences you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
This question is very difficult for me. How can I pick just three? Honestly, I think one of the most annoying things you can ask a travel writer is, “What is your favorite place?” My stock answer to that question is “the next one.” And I mean it, there’s something I love about planning that next amazing adventure…

But if I must choose just three, I suppose I’ll just go with the places that I’m yearning to return to this morning. Please understand — this could change in the next 10 minutes but I’ll try my best.

Petra, Jordan was all that I hoped for and more. I remember telling my father after seeing “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” that I would go there one day. It’s an amazing place and incredibly well-preserved. And I love that there was no let-down in the experience.

If I want a lazy, layabout kind of beach vacation, I can think of no better place than Mauritius. Sure, the Caribbean is nice but Mauritius just has its own funky Hindu-Creole pulse that you cannot help but be moved by. You just step off the plane and immediately feel relaxed even if you aren’t sure exactly where to find your hotel. What more could you want?

And finally? There’s just something about New York City for me. It’s everything and anything rolled up in one small island. I always feel powerful when I walk the streets of this city I once called home. And its siren call coaxes me back there at least once each year.

6) Your top 3 accommodations you’ve ever stayed to date and why?
Just last month, Chet and I stayed at a fantastic holiday apartment in Bayerisch-Eisenstein, Germany. Honestly, I haven’t stopped talking about it. Margaret and Martin own several houses in the village under the mantle of Bavarian Forest Holidays. Not only was the apartment, Haus Sterr Maria, both child-friendly and homey, it had all the modern amenities. But the thing that really made it for me were the small touches. Margaret and Martin were always available for good advice. The cupboard was stocked with real crystal wineglasses – I know that sounds crazy but as my son doesn’t actually drink wine, why should I be forced to drink good wine from a plastic cup? And the village was just one of those amazing little Bavarian places that creep right into your heart. I can’t wait to return.

The Kempinski Duke’s Palace in Brugge, Belgium is one of my favorite hotels. It’s luxurious, centrally-located and also very child-friendly. But the best part for me were the hidden nooks and crannies — the property, an old Ducal palace, has remained true to itself. Take some time to explore and you can walk up an old turret and find some little hidden alcoves that are perfect for a game of hide and seek.

Finally, the property that I will probably always measure others against is the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok, Thailand. My parents took me there when I was about 13 years old. I remember being just amazed at the hotel’s beauty. And the service? I remember that a butler was trying to help unpack my things and I thought he was trying to steal my walkman. Yeah, I was that kind of teenager. But I soon learned that I didn’t have to lift a finger during our entire trip if I didn’t have a mind to. It was my first taste of a real luxury hotel and the experience will stay with me always.

7) Your top 3 most memorable food / wine experiences to date and why?
After living in Atlanta, Georgia for several years, I can still say that my absolute favorite restaurant of all time is Agnes and Muriel’s. It has the funky, 70’s style kitsch decor that makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. Somehow the joint has managed to capture this eclectic city’s history and potential future with its wacky display of Barbie dolls, Harb Alpert album covers, crocheted tea cozies and red velvet cake. And then the food? The chef somehow manages to give old Southern comfort food favorites a modern twist. I definitely recommend the Mac and Cheese fritters (it’s macaroni and cheese that’s been deep-fried!) and the fried chicken. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven. Or maybe that is just my arteries talking. No matter – you’ll love it.

When on the road, I’m a huge fan of roadside vendors. There’s just something amazing about stopping for a glass of fresh pomegranate juice or perhaps a little shoarma on your way. Not only do you get to try fantastic local foods but it also gives you the opportunity to get your nose out of your guidebook, stop and just look around for a few minutes. Some of the best people watching I’ve ever done, especially in the Middle East and Asia, has been leaning up against the side of the building while munching on a little something I’m not quite sure I can identify.

And for wine, there’s no beating St. Emilion, France. This little town in the heart of the Dordogne can be a bit touristy, to be sure. But the wine makes it all worth it. Sit in a cafe — any cafe — near the monolithic cathedral and just enjoy a glass of the local. It’s an ideal way to spend a gorgeous spring afternoon.

8) Your 3 worst destination/ accommodation /food experiences to date and why?
On a trip to London a few years ago, we stayed in a city hotel that was absolutely horrifying. Super cheap but horrifying. The room was tiny, cramped and had no separate bathroom. So when you turned on the shower, you had the choice of jumping in really, really quickly and suffering ice cold water or waiting a few minutes for it to heat up to lukewarm and soaking the bed. It was pretty awful.

For a night-long lay-over in Beijing, I stayed in a small hotel that I’m pretty sure was actually a brothel. Between the neon lights everywhere and the scantily clad women, I felt a little out of my element. And when random men started coming up to me and speaking rapidly in Chinese, I got a little scared. But, of course, that might have been just as much about the Chinese concept of personal space. Or lack of it.

Did you ever see the moving, “Flirting with Disaster?” In it, Ben Stiller talks about why he’s not a good B&B person. I actually love B&Bs — adore them, in fact — but there was this one Vermont that was straight out of that movie. The old lady who ran it was mean, gave you an allotted bathroom time, liked to bang on the ceiling with a broom if you walked on the creaky floor after 9:00pm, and served me half an individual box of Frosted Flakes as my breakfast. It was a treat.

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St Emilion with its Church by Frbou

9) Can you offer the readers 3 destination/ food / accomodation / things to do tips about the city you are currently living in?
I don’t live in a city — Bedesbach is a sleepy little village nestled into the hills of Rheinland-Pfalz. If you are looking for some city life, you need to drive an hour to the city of Trier. It’s a great town with some fantastic old Roman ruins like the Ponta Nigra and even some nightlife. It also has a gorgeous Christmas market each year. It’s the perfect size, in my opinion — everything you need but not too overwhelming.

Locally, I can highly recommend the Gasthaus Born. This restaurant is about a 2 minute walk from my house and it’s my own personal German Cheers. The Borns work hard to make every one of their guests feel right at home. Everyone knows our name, they have this fantastic dry Riesling and you can get some great traditional German fare.

And finally, I’d recommend the local Draisinen Tour that goes through our village. There is a lot of railroad track in Germany that is no longer used by the Bahn. Instead, local areas now use it for the draisinen — little open train cars that are powered by bike pedals. There’s room on the back for a cooler of your favorite German beer and you can spend the day experiencing the stunning Rheinland-Pfalz countryside.

10) Any Question(s) you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?
I suppose the question that I’m most asked (after what is your favorite destination) is “How do you do it?” People seem to make a big deal about me being an Army spouse. But the answer is simple, and like everything else, you just do. What else can you do but make the most of the hand you’ve been dealt?

My Observations
Thank you for being my guest Kayt. I really loved to get to know you better in Berlin and what a wonderful combination of functions you have. Hope to see you soon again! We share at least two passions: Photography and St Emilion. I was there once, but its wines are among my favorites.

Travel agents and Their Perks – Old Media vs New Media?

out-50

This Tweet inspired me to this post.

  1. Darren Cronian posts a provocative Familarization Trips in the Travel Industry Should be Banned
  2. Today Times Online posted this post: Should travel agents travel to learn? -Times Online

When you look at Darren’s post you see a lot of debate by the sheer number of comments.

Now what made Times Online post this and gladly announcing it on twitter? I have the suspicion that they thought “Hey, nice debate!”, let’s get a piece of the cake and replicate it on our site.

If I would be Darren, I wouldn’t be glad with the post. By it’s sheer volume Times Online undoubtedly will draw away part of the discussion from Darren’s site.

Moreover the Times Travel post is nothing more than one huge quote without adding any thought of their own. So I tweeted that there could be a copyright issue here.

One of my followers already commented “Bad Case of Lazy Web”

Another one commented “Darren should be glad with this media attention”.

What would you say?

P.S.: Oh and yes my thought on the question: Travel agents should be allowed to familiarize themselves with destinations, despite the economic downturn and the lay offs. It is simply part of their work.

Update after 8 comments
It turned out that Darren had asked Times Online to help out and they courteously did so by directing the answers and comments to Darren’s blog: Click their final link, which isn’t very obvious. My assumption was incorrect, at least in this instance. Sigh: It is hard to keep up with Twitter as a blogger:-)