Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Say Hi to Me at the Chicago Seminars Travel Conference (October 18-20)

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Good afternoon everyone.  We are a few days away from the Chicago Seminars travel conference!  It is held every October near Chicago O’Hare at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove.  Tickets are $125 and still available.  Tickets include access to the conference (runs Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon), lunch Saturday & Sunday, coffee/snack breaks, and a complimentary drink at Saturday’s Happy Hour.  Here is the current schedule and speaker topics.  I won’t be presenting at the conference, but some of my favorite bloggers will be (Frequent Miler, Rapid Travel Chai, One Mile at a Time, Bald Thoughts, etc).  If you see me there, come say hi :)

Hopefully I will see a few Travel with Grant readers at the conference.  Safe travels to Chicago!

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Hotel Review: Best Western Chinatown Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar (Great Price & Meals)

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Good morning everyone.  After leaving Beijing, I spent 3 nights in Yangon, Myanmar on my 10 Day Asia Trip.  Myanmar does not have many chain hotels, so I checked on TripAdvisor and the Best Western Chinatown was a top pick and was only ~$50 USD / night.  A few weeks before checking in, I status matched from Hilton Diamond Elite Status to Best Western Diamond Select Elite Status.  This hotel is nothing fancy, but the breakfast and dinner were excellent.  The hotel also had a spa that offered 20% off massages in the afternoon and a sauna attached to the gym.  I wasn’t planning on writing a hotel review about this hotel, but after I checked out, I regretted not taking more pictures of the hotel.  Therefore, I am borrowing images from the Best Western website.

a tall building with many cars parked in front of it

Image source: https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-yangon/best-western-chinatown-hotel/propertyCode.99702.html

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Coco’s Private Beijing Tour – Visit Mutianyu Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square & Temple of Heaven

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are enjoying my 10 Day Asia Trip so far.  After my relaxing 1 night stay and filling breakfast at the Hilton Beijing Capital Airport, I set off to see as much of Beijing as I could before my evening flight to Yangon, Myanmar.  Luckily, I had arranged a private tour of Beijing with Coco’s Beijing Tours.  Why did I go with Coco’s Beijing Tours?  Because Greg the Frequent Miler used them on a recent trip to Beijing.  If this tour was good enough for Greg, it was good enough for me.  I reached out to Coco, stated that I only had 1 day in Beijing and wanted to see the major sites.

a screenshot of a tour guide

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a black and white logo

Hotel Review: Hilton Beijing Capital Airport (Beautiful Hotel Close to PEK)

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Good morning everyone.  As part of my 10 Day Asia Trip, I spent my first night at the Hilton Beijing Capital Airport.  This hotel is 5 minutes away from Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) and I took the complimentary airport shuttle to the hotel.  Before I arrived in Beijing, the front desk sent me a helpful email with directions on where to meet the airport shuttle.  When I originally booked this hotel a few months ago, I believe the price was roughly $190 USD, but I opted to use 40,000 Hilton Honors Points instead.  A few days before my trip, I checked the hotel prices and the price was down to around $120 USD or 36,000 Hilton Honors Points.  I ended up cancelling my points reservation and rebooking the paid rate.  Between paying with my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card, my Hilton Diamond Elite Status, and various Hilton promos, I ended up earning 9,450 Hilton Honors Points, which is worth $47.25 to me (I value Hilton Honors Points at 0.5 cents per point).

I’ve stayed at a handful of airport hotels, but this hotel was different… it was really nice!  The check in area was beautiful, my room was great, the lounge was refreshing, and the breakfast spread had many options.

a building with a large entrance

Image source: https://www.hilton.com.cn/file/images/20170908/20170908114846521EcmVbcJ.jpg

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10 Day Asia Trip Report Summary (China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal)

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  By the time you read this post, I will be flying Cathay Pacific business class back to San Francisco.  At the beginning of the trip, I flew Air China business class from San Francisco to Beijing.  For the last 10 days, I have been hopping around Asia and I visited these cities:

  • Beijing, China (1 night)
  • Yangon, Myanmar (3 nights)
  • Dhaka, Bangladesh (1 night)
  • Paro & Thimphu, Bhutan (2 nights)
  • Kathmandu, Nepal (2 nights)
a map of the world with numbers and a red line

Great Circle Mapper: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=PEK-RGN-DAC-PBH-KTM

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