Miami Culinary Tours
For Christmas my best friends and I all get each other an experience rather than an actual present. We’d much rather get the chance to spend time together, and the holidays are the perfect reminder to stop and enjoy the company of the people that you love. This year my friend Liz got us all tickets to Miami Culinary Tours (MCT). MCT is an award-winning Food Tour in Miami, Florida, that has several different options including a Little Havana Food & Cultural Tour, a Little Havana Culture & Bites Tour, a South Beach Food & Art Deco Tour, a Wynwood Food & Art Tour, a Coconut Grove Food & History…
B Bakery Bus Tour
When we went to London, I knew we had to partake in the longstanding tradition of afternoon tea, but it sounded a little stuffy and boring to me. Then we found B Bakery Bus tours. I love all things quirky, and what could be quirkier than having afternoon tea on one of the iconic red double-decker buses?!? The B in the B Bakery Bus stands for Brigit’s Bakery and along with tea you enjoy a good assortment of Brigit’s baked goods. The experience combines afternoon tea with a tour of Central London that takes you by Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St James’s Park, Hyde Park, The…
Christmas Time in London
Last year in October, we took a trip to London and I fell in love with this amazing city. Every time we go on vacation, I buy a Christmas ornament to commemorate our trip and London was no exception. I bought a (very expensive) red phone booth ornament from Harrods. I hated paying that much, but to make it authentic in my mind, it just had to come from Harrods. I was so excited to put it on the tree that year, that I told the kids I had to do it myself because if they broke it, I would be upset. I got on the step ladder, put it…
Is the annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card worth it?
Up until recently the only travel card I had was the United Explorer Plus card. It gave me extra miles for purchases, free baggage on United flights, and the ever-popular Excursionist Perk. I had perused the miles forums and noticed that all the experts were getting cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Amex Platinum, but I had trouble swallowing the idea of $550 a year annual fee. Recently though I took the plunge and it turns out, that in reality – the card isn’t going to cost me much more than my United Explorer card that has a $99 annual fee. Actually, it’s ended up costing me less. …
Desert Vibes
I am a very introverted person, and the thought of a group tour – especially one with the possibility of having upwards of 40 people in it, literally makes me break out in hives. I avoided them for a very long time, and then, I decided I wanted to visit Morocco. There are so many places that I would visit and plan my own itinerary – but Africa is not one of them. I had no idea what to expect and had heard so many horror stories that I thought it would be safer to visit with a tour. (After visiting I think we could definitely have done it ourselves,…
Award Travel’s Best Kept Secret – United’s Excursionist Perk!
So, you’ve jumped into the miles game and are ready to book an award flight on United. Before you book that ticket, are your origin airport and destination airport in different regions? If so, you might be eligible for a free flight. The United MileagePlus program separates the world into different regions to determine award prices. Here is a link to United’s current regions: As an example, Mainland USA, Alaska and Canada are all considered one region. The islands of the Caribbean are in another. Most of Europe is one region, while South America is split in half with Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guyana, Peru, and Suriname in one region,…
How to get great vacation photos!
You know those people who post pictures of their travels and you see beautiful, perfectly edited pictures that make you want to drop everything and go immediately to where they are? You know, the ones that have a different insta-worthy outfit for each location and the color precisely matches the food on their plates? Yeah, I hate those people. MY pictures on the other hand usually have 500 other tourists in the background, someone’s head is cut off, or everyone’s eyes are closed at the exact moment I take the picture … when I remember to take them. The reality is that unless your best friend is professional photographer (I think…
Hanging out in Hawaii
For our summer vacation this year, we decided to take the girls to Hawaii. We had enough frequent flyer miles to get all of us there, so we only had to pay the taxes on each ticket ($11.20). So, for a grand total of $56.00 we were on our way! Because it’s hard to find award availability for five seats, we booked early – and because we’re cheap, we gave it to the girls as a Christmas present lol! We told them we were going on a trip and gave them some clues to the destination which ended with them opening a box of leis. We decided to fly to…
36 hours in New York
I love Broadway musicals, and I try to visit New York at least once a year to see a few new ones. (OK, maybe I end up going more than once a year but we’re not going to admit that it’s an addiction lol). With the Tony awards coming up on June 9th, I realized I hadn’t seen any of the shows nominated for Best Musical, which immediately turned into a frantic search trying to figure out how I could make it to New York to see them before the ceremony. With things being very busy at work, D and I decided we could only go for the weekend. My…
An Afternoon in Old San Juan
Old San Juan Recently, my girlfriend Debbie and I decided we wanted to take another Caribbean cruise and began looking for one that stopped at island countries we had never visited before. In order to find a cruise that visited the more Southward islands in less than a week, we had to change our Port of Departure. We settled on Norwegian’s 7-Day Southern Caribbean cruise which began in Puerto Rico. (To see a review of the cruise, click here) We had never been to Puerto Rico before, so we figured why not! We flew into Puerto Rico on Spirit airlines the night before the cruise. We didn’t want to risk…
