Tag Archives: IHG Hotels

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Trip Report: Holiday Inn Gare de l’Est, Paris

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Bonjour everyone,

We spent our first three days in Paris at the Holiday Inn Gare de l’Est, an 8-story, 207-room hotel that was renovated in 2015.

Location: The hotel is in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement, directly across the street from the Gare de l’Est SNCF station and right on top of the Metro station of the same name, and a few minutes’ walk from the main Gare du Nord station (offering easy access to intercity and international trains, and Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly (ORY) airports. It’s about a 10-15 minute train ride to the main tourist attractions downtown.

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View of Gare de l’Est from our hotel room. Photo by Yagrel Ruber.

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Travel Hacker Meetup @ Mountain View In-N-Out (Saturday September 17 from 12-2pm)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I am organizing another meetup next Saturday afternoon at the In-N-Out in Mountain View that is at Grant Park Plaza (named after me, of course).  There is another In-N-Out in Mountain View, don’t go to that one by mistake.

  • Where: In-N-Out Burger, 53 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040 (Google Maps)
  • When: Saturday September 17 @ 12-2pm

In N Out Mountain View

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Holiday Inn Club Vacations Las Vegas Timeshare Presentation: 3 Nights for $199 or 4 Nights for $200

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Good morning everyone, I have yet another timeshare presentation / vacation package to share.  This is in addition to the 5 Nights Hyatt Residence Club Ka’anapali Beach Timeshare Presentation and the Westin Vacation Package on Maui that I wrote about a few weeks ago.  This time, the location is Las Vegas at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Desert Club Resort.  The deal is for 4 days / 3 nights + 10,000 IHG Points (~$70 value) for $199 + taxes/fees + 2 hour timeshare presentation.  But… if you act fast, you can get an extra night for only $1.  That’s a total of 5 days / 4 nights + 10,000 IHG Points (~$70 value) for $200 + taxes/fees + 2 hour timeshare presentation.

IHG Vacation Club Las Vegas

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2016 Eurotrip Travel and Expense Summary

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Good afternoon everyone, here is a summary of my 2 week trip to Europe from January 2016.  Here is my planning and booking process: Hotel & Flight Bookings for LHR, CDG, NCE, MUC, VCE, and DUB.  Here is a visual representation of my intra-European flights.  I also flew from SFO-LAX-LHR on American Airlines and DUB-SFO on Aer Lingus (not pictured).

GCM Eurotrip 2016

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Hotel & Flight Bookings for LHR, CDG, NCE, MUC, VCE, and DUB

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Good morning everyone, happy TGI Friday!  First, I wanted to thank everyone for voting in my poll (Reader Feedback Needed: Which Blog Posts Should I Write First?).  I was busy this week with 2 free movie screenings in SF (13 Hours and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) and the SF Travel Hackers Meetup, but I’m finally getting around to writing about my upcoming trip to Europe.  That was the overwhelming winner and since my trip starts tomorrow (1/16), I better write about it before I fly out of town.

Blog Topic Poll 1-14-2016

I will share my thought process and booking experience with my flights and then about my hotels.  Since I planned most of this trip back in March/April/May 2015, I was able to find award space to/from SFO very easily.  Here is an overview of my paid and award flights:

  • SFO-LAX (AA First) and LAX-LHR (AA Business) = 50,000 AA miles + $5.60 in taxes/fees
  • LHR-CDG (British Airways economy) = 2,500 BA Avios + $57.50 in taxes/fees
  • CDG-NCE (Air France economy) = $56.76
  • NCE-MUC / MUC-VCE (Lufthansa economy) = $99.99
  • VCE-LGW-DUB (British Airways / Aer Lingus economy) = $138.60
  • DUB-SFO (Aer Lingus economy) = 25,000 BA Avios + $106.76 in taxes/fees

GCM Eurotrip 2016

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