Tag Archives: San Diego

a heart made of coffee beans

Best of Bean Around The World

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Some things we do just go hand-in-hand. Maybe you like to travel and sample different beers around the world. Maybe you travel and ride famous roller coasters or visit Disneyland around the world. For me, travelling and drinking coffee go hand-in-hand. I’m not telling you anything about me you don’t already know, given I write a series called Bean Around The World! I’m a coffee snob who never misses an opportunity to support local roasters, sample local coffee houses, and get to know local baristas and other coffee fanatics wherever I travel.  Since the high summer travel season is upon us, I wanted to bring together all the blog posts I’ve written about coffee so you’ll have easy access to use them when you’re planning a visit to these places. I’ve covered quite a bit of caffeinated ground :)

Newly added in October 2018:

When you head to Scandinavia, you’re in for a real treat. Here are my recommendations for Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Newly added in July 2018:

1. If you like a combo of great coffee and wonderful pastry, try this place in Boston.

2. Madrid is a coffee drinkers paradise. See for yourself.

In Europe, the two places I’ve written about so far both hold a special spot in my caffeinated heart. Both Lisbon and Slovenia are places I fell in love with after my first sip. When you visit these places, do not forget to enjoy the very unique coffee scenes. Read about the Lisbon coffee scene here. Slovenia’s local coffee scene required two articles!

a cup of coffee with a design in the foam

Cokl Flat White

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a blue text with white background

Fun in America’s Finest City… Any Time of Year!

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The change of seasons is certainly one way to mark time. Many would say here in America’s Finest City AKA San Diego, the seasons are subtle and there isn’t much change of seasons. I’ve heard people label the seasons in funny ways such as “it’s either drink beer indoors or drink beer at the beach season”. We do get our June gloom, and in the summer when the AriZonies escape the heat, tourism does seem to pick up. In the month of January I’ve had people ask me, “Is the weather like this all the time?” And recently when some friends from Buenos Aires were in town and I was showing them around, they couldn’t get enough of the fresh air and sunshine. Continue reading →

a close up of ice cream

New Ice Cream Parlor Open in San Diego – Should you Try It?

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There was quite a buzz when rumors started that a new ice cream place would be coming to San Diego. I wouldn’t say San Diego is a big ice cream town at all. As much as I like great ice cream, I only enjoy gelato here because I’ve never sampled ice cream in San Diego that I thought was very good. Having grown up on the east coast, and having lived in many places where there are many choices for great ice cream, well, San Diego just doesn’t cut it as an ice cream city.

Last summer, it was officially announced. Salt and Straw, the Portland, Oregon based, family-run by two cousins, small batch ice cream shop would be opening up in San Diego’s Little Italy area. They finally did open just before New Year’s. Recently, I went down to Salt and Straw and spent a few hours talking with one of the managers about ice cream, the company, and its location here in San Diego. Before I give you the full scoop, though, let me first tell you about my relationship with Salt and Straw ice cream.

a sign on a building

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a sign with a face and text

​​7 Tips to Maximize your Fun at the San Diego Zoo

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Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I just got back from a great San Diego weekend trip and had an amazing time at the world famous San Diego Zoo, so I wanted to share some tips to maximize the amount of fun you will have at the zoo too.  I am no expert at seeing zoos, but I think some of these tips will help make your visit more enjoyable.  For those who haven’t been to the San Diego Zoo before (or in a long time), the zoo recently celebrated its 100th birthday and made many improvements over the last few years.  Without further ado, here are my 7 tips to maximize your fun at the San Diego Zoo (with 2 bonus ideas at the end).

1 – Buy discount San Diego Zoo tickets online.  The normal price for tickets is $52, but if you buy them through Groupon, you can get tickets for only $39.99.  This deal is only good through December 20, but I am sure the Groupon discount comes around often.  To super charge your Groupon purchase, sign up for Ebates and earn cash back on your Groupon purchase.

a screenshot of a website

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a black and white logo

PSA: Check Existing Hilton Honors Award Night Reservations for Price Drops & Rebook Online

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I am heading up to Sacramento for a wedding this weekend (sorry, no Sacramento travel meetup like last time), but I have a quick post to share that could save you some precious(?) Hilton Honors Points.  Back in August, my girlfriend and I booked a 2 night stay at the DoubleTree San Diego Downtown hotel for 39,000 Hilton Honors Points per night (78,000 points total).

Recently, I was looking through my existing Hilton reservations.  I decided to see what the current paid and points rate were for the same hotel on the same dates.  To my surprise, the price went down to 35,000 Hilton Honors Points per night (70,000 points total). I canceled the original reservation and 78,000 Hilton Honors Points were refunded back to my Hilton account.  I then rebooked the same hotel for the same dates using only 70,000 Hilton Honors Points. I know saving 8,000 Hilton Honors Points is not a tremendous amount of points, but that is 8,000 fewer points I need to MS for my next Hilton stay.

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