Blog — Trip Styler
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Travel App Tuesday :: 5 Wifi Finders

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strategies for finding wifi abroad[trip style = any]

Knowing so many travel apps depend on wifi, today's Travel App Tuesday series involves human interaction and wifi hints versus dependence on an app.

Half the travel apps I have work in offline mode, and the rest require wifi to render fresh material. When outside of Canada, my iPhone's data won't work without wifi, which is one of the MANY reasons I appreciated my trip to Eastern Canada and the Maritimes last summer. I was able to get data from my carrier anywhere, any time. However, aside from local trips, I usually travel abroad so finding wifi is a massive consideration in how I travel as well as the hotel I choose.

Tips for Finding Wifi Abroad 1. Use a Human "Finder" Ask your hotel's concierge, front desk or housekeeper where to find wifi in the area. In Sydney, I had to initially rely on the hotel's concierge to find wifi given it was $30 a day at the hotel.

2. Buy a Starbucks Coffee In Canada, the US and UK, you can get free wifi at Starbucks. I can remember a surf trip to Oregon a few years ago where I became intimate with the Starbucks near my yurt because I had a ton of work to wrap-up over the long weekend...

3. McWifi Unless you count my copious consumption of McDonald's soft serve ice cream {and only McDonald's ice cream} while in Tianjin, China in 2001, I'm not a huge fan of McDonalds, until I discovered their newest McFeature, free wifi available in most major worldwide markets. Here are the McDonald's locations with confirmed free wifi: Canada, USA, Australia, UK, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, etc... Please let me know if other countries should be included in this list.

4. Is Wifi a Loyalty Program Away? One of the many reasons I love Fairmont Hotels is their complimentary wifi, but it is only free if you're a member of their loyalty program {also free to join}. It amazes me how many people pay between $15 and $30 a day for something they could have free, but how would you know unless you asked or googled it pre-trip?

5. An App for That If all else fails, which I know sounds ironic given this is a weekly app series, use a free wifi finder app when you're out and about to try and find wifi via the app's GPS and downloaded database of wifi locations.

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Other Travel Apps Every Tuesday we feature a new travel app. Don’t forget to peruse the other 70+ travel apps we’ve reviewed from travel first aid, to luxury and boutique hotel finders, to border waits and trip itinerary management. Here are the most recent:

 

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Dealing with Jet Lag

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jet lag strategies[trip style = any]

Whether your time change is 3 or 17 hours, dealing with jet lag is not fun---especially when sleep is so closely tied to health. Some people can sleep anywhere at any time, but if you're not one of the chosen few (I'm not!), here are some strategies to help you deal with jet lag. A special thanks goes out my elite travelling friends Kathryn and Christina {literally, they both have elite status} for contributing to this post...

{Sometimes I approach jet lag with fear and trembling because if I don't get enough sleep, I get sick within a day or two. Yet, recently I've learned to take a figurative jet lag chill pill . If I can't sleep on the plane, I either watch a movie and relax, or close my eyes and rest. When I was in NYC this weekend, I was still adjusting to a concert of time zones from Sydney to Vancouver to New York, as a result, one night I feel asleep at 5am. Thankfully, I didn't get sick and just "went with it" sleeping in until 10am.}

Jet Lag Strategies

  • Christina gets into her new time zone right away, switching her watch and phone to the new time as soon as she gets on the plane.
  • Close your window shade.
  • At all cost, try and sleep on the plane during night flights. Noise-cancelling headphones and a serene playlist are helpful for this. Kathryn, who travels back and forth between Vancouver and Hong Kong for work, told me that even if she sleeps on and off for six hours during a 14-hour flight, it makes a big difference.
  • Find out if the flight is full, and if not, select a seat in the back of the plane where less people are likely to book. You might score a three-seat section you could use to curl-up and get some zzzzzs.
  • If you can't sleep on planes, take the rest approach. Watch a movie or close your eyes and count sheep. {Trip Styler Tip: For a more natural approach, whether I'm at home, on the plane or in a foreign land, I take a calcium magnesium pill to help me sleep. No kidding, for me, it works better than sleeping pills because calcium has a calming effect.}
  • Drink lots of water on the plane to keep hydrated {though, I limit my water intake while I sleep so my rest isn't interrupted by hourly visits to the bathroom}. Normally I try and fill an empty water bottle post-security so I have a water with me at all times on the flight.
  • This one's a no-brainer, but avoid stimulants like caffeine inflight. Once you get to your destination {especially if it's morning}, go for it.
  • Even if you're tired when you get off the plane, try to follow the patterns of the new time zone as soon as you arrive, eating and sleeping as usual.
  • Don't think about what time it is at home.
  • Getting a minimum of 5 hours (for the bad sleepers out there) those first few nights is key to adjusting quickly.
  • I once read that Gap Adventures' CEO works out before and after flying on multi-hour flights. Working out energizes you for a flight, and if you're head-bobbingly tired upon arrival, can instantly wake you up.
  • Once home, after a rest day of sleeping in and getting laundry done, get back into your home routine as soon as possible.

If you have any tried and true jet lag cures or therapies, add your comments below!

[photo by ChrisDag]

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Spotlight :: Sydney :: Surf City Meets Metro Cool

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sydney city travel guide[trip style = urban] {more pictures below}

In Sydney there are two kinds of suits: well tailored pinstripe and tight fitting neoprene. People wear both, and like quick-change artists they transition from one to the other in a matter of seconds. After all there’s only so many daylight hours, so it's surf then work, or vice versa. To dispel any stereotypes, not everyone surfs and has natural bleach-blond hair, but, there are quite a few bombshells and hunks traipsing around in wet suits, bathing suits...and business suits.

Where else in the world can you run down an icing sugar-like beach and surf big swells, then hit up work for a few hours, and finish off your day with a beer and shrimp on the barbie? Speaking of which, when I asked some Australians about Paul Hogan's {aka Crocodile Dundee} iconic "shrimp on the barbie" saying, they laughed and said they cook sausage or chicken on the barbecue, but that it was a popular tourist campaign in the mid-80s.

With the juxtaposition of a splashy cosmopolitan city and the laid-back vibe of a beachy town, Sydney seems to do the impossible: achieve balance, and once you get beyond the city, you're more and more taken by the diverse land mass Australians have the pleasure of calling home. I just wish it wasn't so far away, but maybe that's part of its exotic allure?

Must-Dos must-dos + sydney

  • The Bridge Climb {more on this thursday!}
  • Opera House photoshoot
  • Manley surf n' brunch
  • Bondi beach day and drinky-poo at Icebergs, just bring your most fabutan beach cover-up, it's a fairly swish place...

Where to Stay Expect to pay $250+ for a 4- to 5-star hotel in City's CBD {city centre}, here are a few I suggest:

Where to Eat where to eat in sydney and outside of sydney

What To Know

  • Expensive - food prices are like London's and hotel prices are like New York's. I didn't totally expect this. A muffin is between $4-5 and a basic main at a nice-ish restaurant is $50.
  • "Internet Included" means internet is included but you'll pay extra for it. As mentioned above, the only two major hotels in Sydney with complimentary wifi are the Shangri-la and the Radisson.
  • Getting to and from the Airport - is easy via the train. For $15 each way you can easily and safely connect to Sydney's CBD.
  • Tipping - you don't really tip in Australia, but it's common and appreciated  to round up the bill {up to 10%}, for example, for $28 you could give $30, or for $95 you could give $100. We tipped a little extra to people who gave extraordinary service like the skipper and first mate of our Whitsunday Cruise or the pool bartender and server at qualia.

Australia Month Planning a Trip Up Australia's East Coast JetSet Jingles :: Australia Spotlight :: Syndey {today} Travel Trends :: Bridge Climbing {Thursday, May 19th} A Heavenly Hut and Hellish Ride :: Wilson Island {Friday, May 20} Tea, Tim Tams & Turtles :: Whitsunday Islands {Wednesday, May 25} Thirty-two and a Small q :: Hamilton Island {Monday, May 30}

PS - did you know that we have destination spotlights like this one for 30+ cities in the US, Canada and internationally?

{photos taken by @tripstyler and @nate_fri}

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Travel Trends :: Curated Lists

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curated hotel lists[trip style = luxury]

Recently I've noticed a slight obsession in the luxury travel market for websites that bring together curated, hand-picked hotels and resorts worldwide and promote them to haute holiday-hoppers who think W Hotels aren't that stylish and Sofitel properties are for sissies. These people are in search of unique properties in both commonplace and abstract destinations. Here are some curated hotel collections that will narrow your luxe boutique search when a vacation comes knocking at your door.

Boutique Hotel Collectives Tablet Hotels Tablet is a group of hand-picked, tightly edited hotels in destinations all over the world. The list is created and maintained by anonymous visits from travel experts, reviews by a team with “a low tolerance for boredom" and reviews by guests. There's no room for error either. If a hotel's rating falls below a 15 out of 20, the hotel is no longer part of Tablet.

Kiwi Collection Kiwi Collection hotels is a curated list of properties aimed at 'people who care where they stay' with options that veer more towards luxe than boutique hotels, with properties like Shanghai's recently redone Fairmont Peace Hotel or the Viceroy Anguilla Resort. Similar to Tablet, if a hotel's rating falls below a pre-determined threshold, the hotel is out, a perk I appreciate given a terrible hotel stay I just had in Sydney {not part of the collection}. With 2,200 hotels in 128 countries, I'm sure you'll find something to suit your fancy and trip style!

Mr and Mrs Smith For this selection, I need to give credit where credit it due: while I was in Australia, my third stop took me to Wilson {my review here}, an island at the base of the Great Barrier Reef with only 6 tents, gourmet food, secluded beaches, baby turtles and friendly reef sharks {more on this May 20th}. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting two couples from the UK who both mentioned a boutique hotel finder they'd used to find the stylish shipwrecked island.

Mr and Mrs Smith is a boutique and luxury hotel finder with a particular focus on Australia and Euro properties. They say it was created for romantic and swanky couples escapes, but I think anyone can be inspired by its hundreds of listings worldwide. For those of you who are most interested in the North American options, there are 85 with well known indi-popular properties like the Ace Palm Springs and Portland, Clift San Francisco, Chateau Marmont LA, Calistoga Ranch Napa Valley, Delano South Beach, and so on.

Join one of their three membership tiers to take full advantage of what a relationship with Mr and Mrs Smith has to offer!

An App For That StayHip is a boutique hotel finder that mixes budget conscious and luxe boutique options in 400 destinations worldwide. Perfect for when you're lying in bed staring at your iPhone or you're on the go.

{Note that I've put this trip style as 'luxury' because unless you're staying at the reasonably priced Ace in Palm Springs, boutique properties are usually on the more expensive side of travel.}

Related Content Shh It's {Semi} Private :: Private Travel Sale Sites Big or Boutique Hotels? Get a Room :: The World's First Hotel Room Search

[photo by @tripstyler taken of Qualia at sunset. Qualia is part of Mr and Mrs Smith's listings for Austraila.]

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A Royal Honeymoon Hideaway

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fregate villas seychelles + royals[trip style = uber luxe + royal]

Yesterday morning when I read initial, what almost seemed like leaked reports about Kate and Will's honeymoon I was disappointed. I know they are the hottest Royals since Shy Di, meaning cameras and opinions follow them e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e, but after sharing their wedding with an estimated audience of 2 billion, couldn't people just give them a break? Just for a few days?

Initial Reports Yesterday morning, reports indicated someone from tourism Seychelles {an Indian Ocean archipelago off the east coast of Africa and a destination on my travel bucket list}, confirmed The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were indeed returning to the destination, albeit not likely to the same resort, where they vacationed post break-up in 2007. At this point, I can't tell if the initial info leak was a big no no {and someone's gonna get it}, or if it was all part of the plan. Either way, now that the cat is out of the bag, will a bazillion paparazzi storm each of 115 islands in the Seychelles in search of the pair? I hope not, though I suspect US weekly and OK Magazine will post honeymoon bathing suit shots, like, asap!

Why If I'm so keen on the couple having a media break, why am I writing about it? Since the story's out, and is timely and relevant to aspiring jetsetters, I felt I could talk about it. After all, I'm sure we all want to know what constitues trip style = royal!

Trip Style = Royal Where does a Prince and Princess honeymoon? Prior to the wedding of the century, speculations swirled about destinations such as Kenya {where Will proposed}, Necker Island {Sir Richard Branson's vacation home island}, Jordan, the Caribbean and Lizard Island in Australia {a place we almost stayed, though I think they would have been more secluded here}.

At the time of writing, no one knows exactly where they are honeymooning, but here's what Canada.com reports: "the couple are said to have chosen an exclusive private island {in the Seychelles}, with only a handful of secluded 4,000-a-night villas. Described as a "Robinson Crusoe" island, each villa has its own personal chef and butler." USA Today thinks this masked island might be Fregate, a private, eco-minded retreat 4-degrees south of the equator with only 17 villas.

A Prediction Over the next few weeks, the Seychelles will suddenly reappear on every travel editor's hot and must-go destination list. There will be ''royal" vacation packages, t-shirts and an endangered animal will likely be named after one of them. Would you splurge on an uber-luxe royal-esque retreat in the Seychelles?

[photo by Fregate Island of Fregate Island Villa, Seychelles}