Archive for March, 2009

San Antonio Texas - A must stop for any traveler!

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

I had the pleasure of an extended stay in San Antonio in 2008, which was extremely pleasant to say the least. I lived in San Antonio through two seasons, or approximately six months. This gave me the ability to get to know San Antonio. They are crazy about their basketball. The spurs are sacred to everyone, at least everyone that hangs out downtown.

The Alamo

San Antonio has a lot to like. Let us start with the weather. I personally cannot stand rainy or any sort of cold weather. San Antonio is hot, really hot. Though, the humidity is timid so when you see 100+ degrees on weather.com, do not fret. Suffice to say that it seemed as though the sun was always shining. It reminded me of Florida, because when it did rain, it did not rain for very long. If you plan a trip to Seaworld in San Antonio and you spot cloudy skies with a drizzle, 2 hours later it could be sunny without a cloud in the sky.

Now you may be asking yourself, I like to travel where there is actually water, not baron land. I couldn’t agree more. That was my first impression as well. While lakes are not as plentiful as in Michigan, there is Canyon Lake just north of San Antonio. It even has a party cove, that I am proud to announce really is a party cove. I personally visited this party spot on a sunny Saturday afternoon and there was great, scenery? The scene was definitely happening to say the least. There is also Medina Lake. This is a smaller, more quiet lake. As of late 2008, it was starting to turn into a party lake though and I heard through the grapevine that the water patrol was starting to crack down on things quite a bit. If you look at a map of San Antonio, you may notice Calaveras Lake on the south east side. You do not want to visit this lake, it is not for boating or swimming. The water in this lake contains certain things that you do not want to be swimming with. They may be microscopic, but word on the street is, you do not go anywhere near that lake for recreation.

Downtown San Antonio has everything that you will need to have a great time. I stayed at the Tropicano Holiday Inn in San Antonio because of its rating and location. It is right smack dab in the middle of everything. It is literally right on the River Walk. The River Walk is the hot spot of San Antonio. If you visit San Antonio, and you do not visit the River Walk, you will not get the full experience. The River Walk is exactly as it sounds. It is a beautiful river that winds through downtown San Antonio. It is wide enough to allow two boats to go down each way. The public is not allowed on this river, which is a good thing. There are boating tours though with the typical tourist type boat. The tour is an amazing experience and I highly recommend it.

On each side of the river are sidewalks that run the entire length of the river. There are two levels, one runs literally right next to the river. If you have kids who like to play tag or push each other, be careful because you are literally a foot away from the water. On each level the River Walk is lined with all sorts of shops and restaurants. Some of the best San Antonio Restaurants are located here. The Hard Rock Cafe is always a safe bet. I ate there when I was looking for a predictable experience. The club sandwich and shiner bock is always a winner. Be careful if you eat outside though, it is full of “flying rats” as my buddy says. There were quite a few birds jumping around and even up on tables. If you have a little kid next to you feeding them french fries, it only makes the situation worse.

If you are visiting any part of Texas and you are a fan of beer, I highly suggest Shiner Bock. It is brewed in Shiner, Texas and is absolutely delicious. Which brings me to my favorite San Antonio Restaurant. Dick’s Last Resort is not for everyone. The wait staff is sarcastic and full of jokes. Our waiter made me a hat out of butcher paper, and on the front he wrote “Hung like a Horse”, and in small letters next to horse, he wrote “Fly”. I wore the hat the entire time I was there. At least one or two people at each table in the restaurant had one of those hats on, it was a souvenir so-to-speak. The menu was great and the huge Shiner Bock draft beers were a pleasant accent to a wonderful meal. If you do not have fun at this restaurant, than you simply do not have a sense of humor! It is located right on the lower level of the River Walk. Stop by, if you dare.

And of course one of the most amazing parts of San Antonio is The Alamo. It is difficult to explain my feelings when I visited The Alamo. To read what actually went on there in detail is an emotional experience. You can checkout a detailed description of The Alamo and exactly why it is of such importance to our nation at Wikipedia. I am no historian, so to explain The Alamo would fall short of how spectacular it is. I will simply quote the commanding officer at The Alamo just after it was attacked by General Santa Anna of Mexico (this quote is on a plaque just outside of The Alamo in the above picture). It would be his last letter he would write:

To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World:

Fellow citizens & compatriots—I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna—I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken—I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch—The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country—Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis

Lt. Col. comdt

What I found amazing as well was the fact that the most famous picture of The Alamo, as pictured above, and which appears almost anywhere The Alamo is represented, is actually only a small part of The Alamo, the Chapel. But like the River Walk, you cannot visit San Antonio and not visit The Alamo. It goes without saying that The Alamo is the most important attraction in San Antonio, and maybe even Texas for that matter. So much so that the Republic of Texas will not allow any shadow to be cast on The Alamo by surrounding buildings.

In closing I will give a brief summary of the geography of San Antonio. People will constantly reference the “410″ and the “1604″. I would say 95% of people give directions by referencing these two highways. That is because they are circular highways that are the heart of transportation. The 410 loops just outside of downtown San Antonio, and the 1604 loops around greater San Antonio. If you visit, it is extremely likely that you will use both of them at least once. The airport is just off the 410 loop on the north side.

Every city has that area that you stay away from, and in San Antonio it is the south side. There are no attractions on the south side, so it is unlikely that you will ever go there. If you find yourself on the south side, do not worry. There are very few actual dangerous areas, and I use the term dangerous loosely. Personally I would have no problem driving around on the south side, but I wouldn’t be going to a movie there!

And that is it. If you have any specific questions about San Antonio, feel free to post a comment and I will answer them.

-Mr. Travel

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Traveling Network Update - 160,000 attractions added & a beta search tool added to the home page.

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

I have successfully added another 160,000 resources, mostly restaurants with a few banks and golf courses. I am well on my way towards 1,000,000 attractions by the end of 2009. At this rate, I will get there by the end of next month.

If only I had more server power! But servers cost money. At least the stock market jumped today. Cha-ching!

An important part of having a plethora of traveling data is being able to find what you are looking for in this data, quickly. If I am looking for a Quizno’s near my Comfort Inn hotel, I want to be able to quickly find one. It goes without saying that this is no easy task.

On the home page, you will see a beta version of the travel attraction search tool that I am building. It is rather basic on the front-end and the back-end, featuring four input boxes. One for a keyword, such as “pizza”, the other for the type of attraction you are searching for, the next is a state drop down, and the fourth is the city in which you are looking. When you click submit, it uses some fancy functions that I wrote back in my “search engine” days. I wrote an algorithm for a search engine, and after indexing seven million web pages, I realized that I was going to need significant investment capital to make a run at it. Either way, I can start to use some of that here!

My electricity bill was ginormous last month, I bet it is going to be even bigger this month. I have two computers running day and night parsing, organizing, optimizing, and inserting data. Ubuntu really is a fascinating operating system. I am a MAC guy myself, but I really enjoy the simplicity, but yet at the same time, the power of this operating system. I run it on all of my personal servers. I opt for a more robust operating system when deploying anything where security is a much larger concern.

Getting back to my search engine talk, I always considered major search engines like Google and Yahoo to be bloated. But don’t get me wrong, they have to be. What I mean by that is, on the whole, every person who visits Google or Yahoo is treated relatively the same. That means that me, as a “techie” may be served the same results as an iron worker. Even though we typed in the same term, let us say “computer certification”, I am probably looking for advanced certifications and the iron worker is probably looking for basic office certifications, or an equivalent. My point is that technology is coming to a point where it can know certain things about a searcher. It may be able to adjust the listings based on who the searcher is. Technology like this exists with plugins and services, but you have to set these up.

So what I am saying is, because I have a limited data set here at Traveling Network, that being Traveling Resources, I can cater to better results assuming I have the proper data and the person doing the searching is looking for that data. If you are a tourist looking for a deli in New York City, I have exactly what you need.

Arguably, Google is so talented that even with its seven billion plus pages, it can still provide more accurate results than I can, just shows you how talented Google is. But on the average, a powerful search feature on a niche market, statistically speaking, will always prevail.

Posted in Traveling Network News | 2 Comments »

Ways to save money on last minute hotel reservations.

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

save money on hotel reservations

Recently I found myself in Clearwater Florida in need of a hotel room.

Because I was on the road, I did not have access to a wireless connection to research a hotel. I quickly pulled up Google Maps on my cell phone and found a few hotels within 5 miles from where I was located. From here I logged 3 potential options.

I have traveled a fair amount so I knew the type of hotel I was looking for. Comfort Inn’s are generally a great option because the price and availability. In my experience, they are generally between $80-110 no matter the location or time of year, with a few exceptions. Holiday Inn is always a great bet as well. There are some higher end Holiday Inn’s that can be expensive.

When you are trying to get a last minute deal, it is important to understand the limits of a negotiation.

Keep this in mind, with last minute reservations, especially when they are only for one night, this can be considered icing on the cake for a hotel. If they have 80% occupancy at 6pm at night, the chances of them filling the last 20% are highly unlikely. That means that if you call and request a room, they are more likely to give a discount because the cost of your stay is less on the average. That is to say that having you stay at their hotel is not going to increase their cost of operation more than $30 on average (considering the cost of cleaning the room, continental breakfast, electricity, and water). This amount should be adjusted for the type of hotel. I am assuming a Comfort Inn type hotel, with a cost of between $80-100 a night.

Once you understand the position you are in, it will give you leverage when negotiating a rate.

Here are a few quick tips that you must always remember when negotiating a last minute hotel reservation:

  1. Never pay the first price the hotel quotes.
  2. Always be courteous to the customer service representative.
  3. Always ask for a discount, always.
  4. Ask about any specials that may be running (9 times out of 10 their price listed online is cheaper than what they will quote in person, ask them to match their Internet rate).
  5. Be personable. Share your situation with the customer service representative.

A customer representative is much more likely to give you a discount if they like you. That is why you must be courteous and personable with them. Remember, they have the ability to give you the discount and to make your stay extremely comfortable.

When I was traveling to the east side of Michigan, I spoke with a customer service representative at a Comfort Inn just north of Detroit. She seemed in a cheery mood, more than normal. My purpose of the call was to reserve a hotel room, but I took out the time to ask her why she was full of cheer. It turns out she was just engaged. So after some small talk, I built up a report with her in under 5 minutes. I was able to secure a jacuzzi suite at the hotel for three nights at $79 a night. Normal rate was $149 for the suite.

The most important is to simply ask for the discount. Timing is very important. The hotel representative will most likely ask you to suggest a rate. The answer to this question is extremely important. Never ask for more than 50% off their quoted price, unless the customer representative is family or your name is Nick Naylor. The discount percentage I ask for is generally proportionate to how the conversation is going. I almost always ask for at least a 25% discount, but I will not ask for a 50% discount unless the conversation is going very well.

Some levers for negotiations are as follows:

  • Other hotels with vacancy
  • Internet rates
  • Knowledge of THE hotel

I will leave you with this piece of advice, getting a discount is generally as easy as asking for one.

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Posted in Travel Tips | 1 Comment »

Tips For Flying in 2009

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

piggy

I must admit, I get pretty excited about vacations. Who doesn’t? One of the things that excites me most about vacations, is the flights!

I rock out with my iPod, laptop, and copy of my favorite book at the time. I also have my favorite beverage if possible, or a bottle of water. Usually you have to pick something that can be drank even if it is not cold, and water fits the bill.

I enjoy flying because it allows you to experience forces above that of gravity, light turbulence, see the earth from 30,000 ft up, and because you meet someone new on every flight. Think about it, you’re experiencing something that was impossible just a century earlier.

But in all honesty, I do thoroughly enjoy meeting people on the flight. I have fond memories of conversations that were sparked due to me not being able to get away from a person who has something in common with me. That sounds a bit odd, but it is true in the nicest sense of the meaning. You are stuck next to someone. This can be bad, but in my experience, it is generally a great thing. Read my recently posted travel tips for flying to learn how to make the most of your flight and how to avoid the not-so-pleasant situations you can find yourself in on a plane. After all, those ‘economy’ seats are only so wide…

Have you watched the movie Before Sunrise? I am Jesse looking for my Celine.

Wikitravel has a nicely organized list of tips for flying as well. Some of them are no-brainers, but some of them are things you could possibly forget about until it is too late.

Undoubtedly the word feat will become associated with flying for many reasons. Many people fear what they are not in control of, and flying is one of those things. Unless of course you are the pilot, but then again, you are still only in so much control over the airplane. There are plenty of tips out there to help with the fear of flying. The best recommendation to overcome the fear is to prepare yourself as much as possible and/or bring money for drinks.

Personally, I have no preference of airlines. Call it ignorance, but I have flown on all of the major airlines and found them all to be equally pleasing. It should be noted that I always carry-on, and I always bring my own food/drink. But I do find myself picking Northwest or Delta if price is not a factor.

Always remember, book as early as you can, perform research to obtain the best flight possible, and check-in early online.

Oh and if you didn’t use Kayak.com to book your flight, give it a try. That may sound like a shameless plug, but I assure you, you will thank me after the first time you use the site.

-Mr. Travel

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Posted in Traveling Do's and Do Not's | No Comments »

A travel blog without a reference to Kayak.com, is not a travel blog.

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

How did we live without Kayak.com?

More importantly, how did we save money without Kayak.com?

a-kayak-big-orange

Kayak.com is simply the best tool for traveling that exists on the web today. You’ll notice I added them as one of my favorite links on my travel links page, in the first position I might add.

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of aggregated content. In fact, that is what my website is all about.

Kayak aggregates offers from all over the web, standardizes them, and presents them in an easy to use interface.

I was recently looking for a flight from Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) to Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR). I will not fly on turboprop airplanes, nor will I depart earlier than 10am (generally I am not a morning person). I had over a dozen options within one minute of searching with the above requirements.

Furthermore, I signed up for email alerts for that specific flight. I had an account in less than 10 seconds (they only require you to give email and password).

flight-times

no-turbo

kayak-tools

Here are a few excerpts from their about page, which sums up the type of company they are.

Kayak has been named “Best of the Web” by BusinessWeek, “Best of the Web” by Forbes.com, “50 Coolest Websites” by TIME Magazine, “Best Travel Search Engine” by the Associated Press, “Best Search Aid” by Travel + Leisure Magazine and “Best of the Web” by US News & World Report. See all our awards or read what the media is saying about us.

Kayak was started by founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia who believed in a better online travel experience. They hired a crack team of geeky engineers who brought expertise from all over the Web, finagled a couple ducats out of General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. Along the way, Kayak redefined the way people search and purchase travel online.

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Traveling Network Resource Update

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

I have been working tirelessly on compiling points of interest for TravelingNetwork.com.

I currently have over 300,000 restaurants that have been added to the Traveling Network staging database. Once I verify the integrity, the data will be pushed to production.

I expect my electricity bill will be astronomical because I have two servers running 24/7 processing and inserting the data into my staging database. My air conditioner has been running non stop. It doesn’t help that I live near Miami either.

I am well on my way of accomplishing the goal of posting over 1,000,000 resources to the database by the end of 2009.

My next hurdle will be allowing these resources to be available to all of my visitors without any negative affect on the performance of the website. How does one make 1,000,000 resources able to be searched by any string and report back accurate results in milliseconds? This problem becomes exponential. Imagine if I had 20,000,000 points of interest.

I have also just posted a link to some traveling websites that I use frequently. It was important not only for me to make these public for you, but for me personally as well. Before I had to visit Delicious to access all of my bookmarks. Since I am on my website 24/7, I figured it would be beneficial to my visitors and myself to post the links here.

I have also continued work on my popularity index. This is essentially a large ranking system that takes everything, and I mean everything, into consideration. I have extensive experience in the past with visitor rating systems and I am utilizing everything I have learned from that into Traveling Network. When you search for hotels in new york, or restaurants in grand rapids, the order in which the listings show up will be due to this popularity index.

The beauty of this index is as the site grows, the index becomes more accurate. With spam protection and rating coefficient adjustments, the index will maintain its integrity and become a reliable source for decision making. The true beauty is in the automatic nature of the index. But I won’t get into that here!

Oh and did I mention I will be posting tens of thousands of Golf Courses by the end of next month? I love to golf.

-Mr. Travel

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