Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Sheraton Lisboa Hotel: The Great, the Good & 1 Thing that Could be Better!

It had been a while since my last Sheraton stay in Europe. The timing of this trip was perfect for the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa in Portugal, and I’m glad to report it turned out to be a great hotel choice. I don’t give too much credence to what people write about when they review hotels online, but I do glance over them just to see what people have to say. I often find it’s better to create my own experience and see for myself. There were a few things people mentioned online that I’ll address in this review, just so you’re well informed.

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Image source: https://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=292

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Adios Amigos! I’m Traveling Around Central / South America (LPB, UYU, GUA, SAL, MGA & LIR)

Hola amigos!  My friend Jim and I am heading south of the border (and hemisphere) for a few days and visiting the following cities around Central / South America:

  • La Paz, Bolivia (LPB)
  • Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia (UYU)
  • Guatemala City, Guatemala (GUA)
  • San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL)
  • Managua, Nicaragua (MGA)
  • Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)

If you want to see those cities plotted on a map, here is the Great Circle Mapper view. I left out the flights to/from San Francisco, the airline routing, and bus ride, otherwise the map would be too messy.

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Amazing Photos! Snow in the Sahara Desert

These past few weeks, the weather has wreaked havoc for travelers all over the world. But in the Sahara Desert, unusual weather patterns are producing some amazing sites. These photos are beautiful. Take a look!

snow covered hills with snow

Image source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/09/576747323/photos-the-sahara-desert-painted-white-with-snow

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NOT All Dreamliner Configurations Are Created Equal

We gather miles and points and look forward with excitement to booking an award ticket. We’ve even got enough in our stash for a business class ticket… for TWO! We have our eye on a route and airline and we’re excited because they fly a Dreamliner 787. Maybe we’ve flown a Dreamliner before and can’t wait to fly it again, or maybe it’s our first time and we’re stoked. If this is you, and you either have a Dreamliner flight booked or hopes of booking one in the future, and you actually LIKE the person you’ll be flying with and want to share a fun Dreamliner experience with them, this post is for you. Why? Because not ALL Dreamliners are the same! And I don’t want you to have the same disappointing experience I recently had.

I’m a Dreamliner fan and given some routing choices, I will even position myself in a city to fly the Dreamliner. I wouldn’t consider myself an aviation geek, but I do enjoy flying different planes and seeing what they have to offer. Over the past few years, I’ve become enamored with the Dreamliner, so recently I positioned myself to Calgary, Canada just to fly Air Canada’s Dreamliner to London.

I found out something startling… at least startling to me. All Dreamliners are not the same in the way each airline designs the interior. Up until this point, all the Dreamliner flights I’ve flown had similar designs, so this potential difference in design never occurred to me. But Air Canada’s design has two major flaws.

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Hotel Review: Bellagio Fountain View Room Upgrade & Fountain Music Channel

Good morning everyone.  This past weekend, my girlfriend and I made a short trip to Las Vegas.  During the weekend, we visited 4 lounges (the SFO Centurion Lounge once, the LAS Centurion Lounge twice, and the OAK Escape lounge).  When we were not in a lounge, we spent most of our time at the Bellagio Hotel (there are a few MGM AMEX Offers ending soon, like $50 off $250).

During the online checkin process, I was presented with a few upgrade options from our standard”Run of House” room.  One of the upgrade options was to a Fountain View room for $50/night.  Since the Bellagio fountains were a big reason why we stayed at the Bellagio, I decided to surprise my girlfriend by upgrading us to a Fountain View room.  Our room was on the 20th floor and left of center looking at the fountains, Las Vegas Blvd and Paris Las Vegas across the street.  In this post, I will show you how to get the most out of your Bellagio Fountain View room in 5 easy steps.

Step 1: Rearrange the furniture (couch or chair) in the hotel room to get the perfect view of the fountains.

a woman sitting in a chair looking out a window at a city

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