A collection of hotel reviews, destination guides, tips on points & miles, and general thoughts on travel.

Since 2005, we’ve been curating travel itineraries by reading other blogs – This is our contribution to fellow travelers trying to maximize their time and money to explore off the tourist trap path. Our reviews are honest, detailed, and cover topics that we find are often missing. If you like our content, don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of the page.

Review: Hyatt Ziva Cancun All-Inclusive

My husband hasn’t had the best experiences at all-inclusive resorts so we have avoided them during our travels but we decided to give the Hyatt Ziva in Cancun a try due to the positive reviews and to redeem an expiring Hyatt Globalist free stay we’d earned. This post will outline my experience as a first-timer…
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Visiting Canada: Visa vs eTA to Enter

As a Canadian living in Vancouver, I do recommend visiting my city, as well as other cities and town in Canada. While Canada is a Commonwealth realm country, most visitors will need a visa and/or an eTA (Electronic Travel Authorization) to enter the country; only U.S. citizens are exempt from both. This post will provide…
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Tripadvisor 101: Finding What You Need

Whether you’re self-planning your trip or working with a travel agent, you will want to conduct some research to compare different options in the hopes of choosing the one you’ll enjoy the most. While the internet has made the task of researching easier, it has also made it more daunting due to all the various…
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Review: Cathay Pacific’s The Pier Business Class Lounge at HKG

Maxine and I have been fortunate to experience first class and business class lounges across the world (including the Emirates First Class Lounge at DXB – Dubai Airport) but if there is one lounge that tops our list, it’s Cathay Pacific’s The Pier, Business Class lounge at HKG – Hong Kong International Airport. During our…
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Airplane Food: Top 10 In-flight Meals

Last updated: May 8, 2020 In the Bon Appetit article “Anthony Bourdain Thinks You’re Crazy For Eating Airplane Food“, Anthony Bourdain answers questions about what’s acceptable to eat aboard a flight, which in fact is nothing at all…unless you’re on a long flight and in that case cheese and lots of port (emphasis on lots…
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Books to Read Before Going to Sri Lanka

Overview: Reading literature from the country you are going to visit is a good starting point to immerse yourself into the culture and can even help you to plan other aspects of your trip. Since we knew little about Sri Lanka, we found a few books to read other than the usual travel guides. Here…
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