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Geotourism Challenge

March 27, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On February 7th I wrote about hotel chains that are stepping up to make a difference in the environment by adding recycling programs and decreasing their usage of water and electricity. Another amazing thing that’s happening around the world right now is Geotourism.

Geotourism is about more than an environmental footprint but also how a hotel or tourist hotspot affects the character, culture and future of the places they reside. National Geographic defines Geotourism as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.”

I was recently made aware of an amazing contest being sponsored by National Geographic and Ashoka (an organization that helps entrepreneurs in under developed countries). The purpose of the contest is that entrants nominate individuals and organizations that support Geotourism.

You can take part in the contest by:

• Nominating candidates or enter the competition yourself
• Comment on entries in the online discussion throughout the competition. Use the contest forum to help tourism innovators refine and improve their ideas or simply learn more about great organizations to support in your travels
• Vote for three Geotourism Challenge winners from a slate of finalists

As of today, there are 89 entries in 44 countries! To name to a few: the 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking in Nepal; The Centre for Research in Environment in Kenya; and the Arenas del Mar Sustainable Beach Resort in Costa Rica.

You can visit the Geotourism Challenge Contest to read about these amazing organizations or perhaps nominate someone you know

Coffee souvenirs

March 20, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Food and Drink, Shopping | Leave a comment

Tea drinkers are starting to take over but even tea drinkers appreciate the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. A bag or tin of coffee is a suitable souvenir for friends, family and business acquaintances. It doesn’t take up much room in your luggage and is an excellent way to enjoy the unique flavors of many countries.

Whether you travel to popular coffee producing locations such as Costa Rica, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Kenya, India, Ethiopia or to popular coffee drinking nations like Italy or Turkey, coffee is an inexpensive and simple gift to bring home.

Some of my favourite coffee destinations include:

Brazil – I am pretty sure is the largest coffee producing nation in the world, producing 35% of the world’s coffee according to Coffee Terms. Brazil beans are used in many Espresso blends. There really isn’t a better souvenir from Brazil – unless you are into football.

Costa Rica – The time I spent in Costa Rica drinking Tarrazu coffee was hands down my most compelling coffee experience. So much so, Costa Rican coffee is always in my freezer and I frequently order it right from Café Britt for gifts.

Hawaii – The largest of the Hawaiian Islands produces an amazing coffee bean called Kona. In the grand scheme of things, it is a very small producer of the world’s coffee, but it is very exotic and sought after. A cop of 100% pure Kona coffee (only available in Hawaii) is absolutely wonderful, especially when it’s accompanied by chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

Tips for buying coffee

  • Buy it at a grocery store or local shop. You will save a bundle

  • Wrap it in a tight plastic bag before you pack or everything you own will smell like coffee

  • If you have to keep it for a while once you get home, store it in the freezer

World SIM Card

March 14, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Communication, Gadgets, Leisure travel, Web/Tech | 1 Comment

If you find yourself traveling overseas a lot, then chances are you have a huge phone bill. Perhaps you have already heard about International SIM cards and how you can switch the SIM card in your unlocked cell phone for a local country card every time that you travel saving you a bundle on roaming fees.

Maybe your even a step farther and have a cell phone that you use only for International travel by buying a SIM card for that trip for that country. You are certainly ahead of the game if you travel one country at a time. However, if you spend a lot of time in several countries or even several continents – you are spending unnecessary time and money by constantly switching your SIM cards.

The World SIM Card from Brightroam is the ideal solution for international travelers roaming through more than one country. It covers over 160 countries and still gives you 50-80% savings you expect from Brightroam International SIM cards.

So if you’re an international jet-setter who travels everywhere all the time, your worldly knowledge has expanded to saving valuable time and money with one SIM card to keep you in touch.

More shutter action with Eye-Fi

March 7, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Communication, Gadgets, Leisure travel | Leave a comment

Do you take lots of photos while traveling and have no time to upload them to your laptop or the web? Check out Eye-Fi, a handy little memory card for your camera that also includes wireless technology so you can sync your camera to your laptop or the web without ever plugging it in.

Winner of MacWorld 2008 Best of Show and one of PC World’s 25 most innovative products, this handy little card will set you back $100 but its well worth it for the tech enthused. It’s very convenient for instantly moving photos off your camera onto your laptop for a presentation or slide show while traveling on business. However, it also offers technology to upload your photos directly to a photo sharing site like Shutterfly or a social networking site like Facebook to share with friends. See which photo destinations it supports.

It’s compatible with virtually all digital cameras accepting SD memory cards and will run on Windows and Mac operating systems. Find out more.

Environmentally Friendly Hotels

February 7, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Health and Wellness, Leisure travel | Leave a comment

Recently I was stuck in Boston for three days in a snow storm and I stayed in a hotel that won numerous awards for its “green policy”. It’s great to see that environmentally conscious hotels and resorts are popping up across the globe. Some of them go all out like the ones included in the Forbes Traveler article 10 Best Luxury Eco-resorts but for the rest of us, here are some other good things to look out for.

An environmentally sound hotel may include:

  • The ever-polite request to hang your used towels on the towel rack if you intend to use them more than once. Plus, the request to use your bed linens for more than one night. This saves the amount of water the hotel needs to use to change the linens in every guest room, every day.

  • Shampoo and moisturizer dispensers in the rooms save the environment from the thousands of little plastic bottles that they used to be packaged in.

  • Individual recycle bins in guest rooms for bottles and plastics

  • Room lights that are activated by the room key so that they are shut-off when the room is unoccupied

Hotels are also more eco-friendly if they purchase products and foods locally and take into account the surrounding environment in their architecture and style. Check out these websites to see some hotel chains that are making a difference:

Drive on the right (or left) side of the road

February 7, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Road and Rail Travel | Leave a comment

Most travelers have experienced driving on the opposite side of the road – on purpose that is. At first it seems quite simple, you head out of the car lot and just start driving, that is until you have parked for a while and then hop back into the car and instinct takes over.

I was recently in Ireland and the rental car was equipped with ten different stickers posted in strategic places reminding me which side to drive on. If your car isn’t overloaded with such sticker reminders, here are few tips for keeping you on the right (or left) side of the road.

Find out beforehand! About a quarter of the world drives on the left, most at some point in history were British colonies, with the exception of Japan and a few others. Knowing which side of the road you’ll be driving on ahead of time will prepare you for the trip. Check out this handy chart: Table of Countries Showing Drive Direction

The Centre Line: Unless you are in an imported specialty car, the driver always sits on the side of the car that is nearest to the centre line. So if you look out your driver’s window and notice the sidewalk, you’re driving on the wrong side.

See some additional International Driving Tips from Durant Imboden’s Europe for Visitors

Sleeping in airports

January 31, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I found this website and I just couldn’t resist writing about it. It’s dedicated to the time old tradition of sleeping in airports. We’ve all done it due to flight cancellations and/or weather. Then there’s the times you can’t be bothered to find a hotel for a stopover that seems short enough to simply pitch a tent in the waiting area.

Sleeping in Airports was created with the budget traveler in mind, the person who chooses to sleep in airports rather than shell out money for an airport hotel, but I think it offers valuable information for anyone who needs to catch some zzz’s between flights. It includes an extensive international listing of airports and their sleep-worthy attributes and pitfalls. Many of the entries are written by a community of travelers.

Send meaningful postcards

January 28, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Communication, Leisure travel | Leave a comment

Postcards aren’t big enough for long winded individuals like myself and are frustrating for unenthusiastic writers, but people still love to receive them. They are a stunning portrayal of a land far away where the recipient can take a moment to reflect on something far from normalcy. Simply put, it’s a nice break from another bill or advertisement in your mailbox.

Here are some tips on how to have an enjoyable postcard experience from purchasing to writing:

Purchase – Where to purchase postcards completely depends on your own style and taste. You can be a bargain shopper and find your postcards in a local convenience store, there is likely to be a good variety but not necessarily great style. Hotel gift shops typically have a good selection of cards and its a short jaunt from your hotel room. However they are likely the same ones that are at the convenience store at twice the price. I like to pick up postcards at places that I visit so that when I write about how stunning the Eiffel Tower is, I can say that I bought the card at the base.

What to say – A simple “Wish you were here” is a tried and true greeting. It says everything it needs to – I was here, I was thinking of you, and so I sent this card. However, I think it’s even better if you can take a moment to say why you wish that person was there. Perhaps it’s because you know they would have loved the food you ate last night, or the architecture in the Forbidden City, the lights of Paris etc.. Taking an extra sentence to personalize something you have experienced that they would appreciate. It adds an extra sentiment.

Conversation Starters – Another way to make a postcard last, mention something you did or are planning to do. It will open the postcard up for discussion so that next time you see that person, they can ask how the Louvre was, or whether or not you made it to the Taj Mahal as planned.

Addressing – True planners print out address labels ahead of time. It works well if you have 50 to send. I like to hand write the address on the spot just because it makes it look more spontaneous and I rarely send that many postcards at once. Also, plan to purchase stamps when you purchase the cards and stick them on right away. That way you won’t lose them and you’ll be more willing to take the time to write , after all, they’re already stamped!

Welcome to Ready to Roam

January 24, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

As a traveler you are inundated with websites, blogs, forums and journals telling you where, when and why to travel. For the majority of us those questions are already answered by work and family. I need to be in London next week for a conference. We are traveling to Barbados in November for a holiday. We aren’t looking for the place or reason to travel – we simply are travelers with expectations and ambitions. We want to acquire information, links and advice on making our trips remarkable.

I paired up with Brightroam to develop a blog where we share tidbits of knowledge on travel secrets for the person who already knows where, when and why they travel but is always interested in learning how to save time and money, improve their worldly skills and impress the locals.

Timezones

January 21, 2008 by Brightroam Blogger in Air travel, Communication, Gadgets, Web/Tech | Leave a comment

Yes it seems simple, time zones are pretty straight forward. But when you’ve travelled 23 hours and have no idea what time it is, it can be difficult to know what time it is back home or in another country you need to call. I used to have a fancy little business card that had all the time zones on it and a moving circle to line up the zone you’re in and the one you’re calling. In today’s world of technology, it’s a lot easier to find the info you need online.

Here are some handy time zone converters:

Here’s how I keep track of it at home:

I have the time difference (in hours) between my home town and the time zones of my friends and family recorded in my Outlook address book. For example, my friend Ema lives in Bahrain, in her contact information, I have a note – 7 hours ahead of Toronto. That way when I look up her number, I always know what time it is in Bahrain. You can do the same thing on your cell phone address book.

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