R2Travels - Blog

Summer Traveling on a Budget

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:45:30 +0700

The cold winds are here and the leaves are starting to fall reminding us that summer is truly over. Of course, we live in California so I use the word "cold" very loosely LOL but I figured I should try to do a recap of our summer adventures since I failed to keep the site/blog active.

I was really worried that we wouldn't be able to have any adventures this year at all since I lost my job in January and Dora is still building her business but with a little tightening of the belt and imagination we were able to get some traveling in. It's amazing what you learn when you are forced to look for alternatives to "regular" vacations.

Of course, we weren't able to take a passport trip (what I call our overseas/international travels) or visit a place on "the List" but we did take a few roadtrips and a cruise. Which brings me to a few $$ saving tips I learned along the way:

1) Rediscover the road trip. Even with gas prices the way they are grabbing a few friends and hitting the road is still one of the cheapest ways to travel. Especially if you use your own car vs renting (we did both this summer). This is mostly due to the fact that you share the expenses and can stock up on food/snacks @ costco BEFORE you leave.

Turning a family event (like attending a wedding) or business trip into a road trip by extending it by a few days is great too. You have to go anyway, might as well make a vacation out of it!

2) Stay with family/friends. I find cramming together on a pull out bed or in sleeping bags on the floor with friends can be MUCH more fun that being holed up in a hotel room on your own. Of course, this depends on how hospitable your friends are but that's why they're called friends right? If absolutely out of the question, you can always tap into the growing network of couchsurfers.

3) Take a cruise. The cheapest trip we took this summer was a 5 day Carnival cruise. Including a flight to San Diego and souvenirs - I spent less than $300!!! Since our vacations are usually jam packed with activities as we try to see everything, it was nice to be able to just relax on a ship for a few days.

Subscribe to TravelZoo and Carnival's own email alerts to take advantage of the BEST deals. Your food and entertainment (shows, dancing, etc) are included in the price of the cruise so your only extra expenses will be any of the optional excursions or souvenirs you buy. Of course, you can skip both and save even more $$.

A few things to note:

Internet access will cost you dearly - $20 for 30 mins.
Cell phone use will cost even more - with my AT&T plan $3/min for voice and $19.95/mb for data.
Drinks other than lemonade & ice tea are NOT included. If you must have soda, I suggest purchasing a "Fun Fountain Card" for $19 which gives you unlimited drinks for the duration of the cruise.

How has the economy affected your traveling? Got your own $$ saving tips? Leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you.

SUGGESTIONS NEEDED on how to be a tourist in your own town?

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:52:20 +0700

I'm asking NOT telling. It's been a while since I've blogged because, well, I have been taking any trips. I was laid off in January and am still looking for a job so, for now, all "non-necessary" spending has been put on hold. Unfortunately, that includes traveling.

But as with most travelers, after a few months of not traveling, we're getting really antsy and are in need of some adventure. I'd read somewhere that I can't remember or find again, some tips about being a tourist in your own home town. Ardith and I are looking into doing this so we've been googling "things to do..." in our home town of San Jose, CA. Most things include day trips to San Francisco but we'd rather stay in our home town.

First thing on my list is to visit ALL of our museums. Depending on the pricing, I'd like to do a couple a month. Ardith wants to do all the parks. But other than that, we're not really sure what else we can do. That's where you come in. Have you ever played the tourist in your own home town? We'd love to hear from you. If not, do you have any ideas or suggestions on what you think would be fun.

We look forward to your suggestions! - @Ruthe

Nobu (@ the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego)

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:29:57 +0700

On Monday, we'd planned to explore Coronado but we got in so late from exploring LA that we didn't have the energy to get up. We only left the room for lunch and Pinkberry LOL stopping in the shops along the way. Then it was back to the room for a nap. It was really nice to just lounge around. Sometimes we try to cram so much in on our trips/vacations that we forget to do this!

We finished the day with dinner @ Nobu. We've been to Nobu on our previous visits to San Diego and while delicious it can get quite pricey. However, this time we happened to be there on the first day of the San Diego Restaurant Week & got to partake of their special 3 course menu for $40!!!

For those of you not familiar with Nobu, it's a Japanese-South American fusion restaurant. The food is delicious and the raw fish lovers in my life swear by it. I, however, learned that I don't really like raw fish no matter how high quality it is. I think it's more of a texture thing but I prefer my food well done and crunchy! That said, Nobu is an experience not to be missed.

1) First/Appetizer Course
Top - Salt and Pepper Squid - Flash fried squid dusted with Japanese seven spice
Right - Sashimi Salad - Organic greens served with Tasmanian Ocean Trout sashimi
and signature house dressing
Bottom - Spicy Seafood Soup - Spicy clear soup with white fish, shrimp, scallop, squid,
clam and mushrooms
Left - Edamame (NOT part of the restaurant week menu)

2) Second/Main Course
Top - Black Cod with Miso - Alaskan Black Cod filet marinated in sweet miso sauce
and broiled (served with a side of rice)
Bottom - Ribeye Wasabi Pepper - Grilled Prime Ribeye of beef with Wasabi Pepper Sauce
(served with a side of rice)
Left - Assorted Sushi - Six pieces of chef's choice nigiri and one spicy tuna roll

3) Third/Dessert Course
Top - Blood Orange Parfait - Blood orange sorbet over soba crumble dressed with citrus mint salad and cardamom foam
Right - Suntory Cappucino - Layers of coffee and Suntory whiskey creme brulee, coffee crumble,milk ice cream topped with whiskey foam
Left - Mochi Ice Cream - Green tea and lychee ice cream each wrapped in sweet rice pastry

"LA"

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:12:48 +0700

We've spent the first two days of our little vacation driving to and from the LA area. Since it's @tamtak's first time here, we've done a few of the tourist things like the Walk of Fame and City Walk. Like the central or downtown areas of most cities Hollywood Blvd is long. crowded and dirty. The only difference is that instead of the "normal" street performers (the gold and silver painted tinmen or beat boxing kids) you have people dressed up like Marilyn Monroe, Spiderman, Barney the purple dinosaur, Darth Vader, etc standing outside and around the Kodak theater offering to let you pose with them for photos for tips.

Today, we drove to (or more acurately through) Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. Our destination was Rodeo Drive but a little "special event" had traffic backed up and re-routed everywhere. It was the Golden Globes which apparently were being held at the Beveryly Hills Hilton. It was interesting to see fans and protestors alike lined up for about half a block behind barricades just to watch and yell at cars with tinted windows driving past.

When we finally made it to Rodeo Drive, it was nearly 5 and most shops were already closed or closing. We walked around and found ourselves at the Coach store. It was over. As a flagship store, they had items we'd never seen and we were there for a couple of hours shopping.

After buying all of our Coach "souveniers" we had dinner at Mr. Chow - it was around the corner from the shop and one of the ladies at the shop recommended the food. The food was ok and the service superb. You can order from a menu if you want but they prefer to "take care of you" by bringing out dishes from the chef. That was a fun experience. However, the tables were so close together and they crammed so many people in that you were literally just a couple of inches away from the guests at the other table. The waiters spent a third of their time, pulling out tables into the pathways to let people in and out of their tables. Way too close for comfort for us!

On the road again...

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:09:44 +0700

We'd been itching for a trip, had some vacation time we needed to take and gas prices are lower than they've been in a long time = road trip! However, our travel money is virutally non-existent right now so we had to find a way to do it on the cheap. Since we have a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego at our disposal, this was the obvious choice. One of our traveling buddies (@tamtak) has joined us and kindly provided the car so here we are in SoCal on a mini -- 5 day -- vacation. It's @tamtak's first time here so we're hoping to make it a memorable trip even though we're trying to keep to a tight budget. Let's see how that goes.... LOL

What the heck is Ceedo and why do I keep tweeting about it?

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:56:32 +0700

I blogged about Ceedo Personal on my "tech" blog a few days ago because I'm a new fan of the software AND I'm giving away FREE activation codes to it. If you follow me on Twitter (either @ruthe or here on @r2travels), you've also seen me tweet about it several times. However, what I've found, is that no one seems to know what Ceedo is. None of my friends did and only after I raved about it did they want to check it out. My sister didn't think it was cool until she SAW me using it on the three different computers we have here at home. So I wanted to try to explain it a little better, especially for my fellow #twavelers, because I think you would really benefit from using Ceedo.

Let me start by telling you what Ceedo is. It's software that you install onto a portable USB drive. Once it's installed, you can use it to install virtually all of your other software onto the drive - making them portable. For example, on my 1GB Kingston DataTraveler I have the following programs installed:

1) Adobe Air (so I can run my Twitter apps)
2) TweetDeck
3) Twhirl
4) Pidgin (a multiplatform Instant Messaging program)
5) Mozilla Firefox w/ Google toolbar (this brings my Bookmarks/favorites to my drive from google)
6) Mozilla Thunderbird (email client that pulls in all 3 of my email accounts)

What does this mean? Well, it means that I can now plug in my portable USB drive -- which by the way fits in the palm of my hand -- to ANY Windows computer (say at an internet cafe in Bali) and have all of those programs immediately at my disposal. The computer I'm plugging into (aka the "host computer") does NOT need to have any of these programs already installed nor do I need to sit there and install the programs just to use them. Doesn't that sound great? No more wishing that you had all of your favorite programs on the computer you are borrowing from a cafe or friend because you WILL have them with you.

This is handy even at home. Think about it, every time you buy a new computer what do you do? You spend hours if not days, reinstalling all of your favorite programs/bookmarks and configuring each of these to your preferred customizations. But what happens if your computer breaks down and you are on a loaner? Or if you, like us, have multiple machines at home do all of them have all the same programs installed? All of these little but time consuming inconveniences are a thing of the past with Ceedo.

You are only limited by the size of your portable drive. I installed the 6 apps mentioned about and a few games on a 1GB drive before running out of space. I just ordered a 16GB drive (still palm or pocket sized) from buy.com so I could install more programs. A commentor on rutheraves uses a 120 GB hard drive with over 20 different programs running on it. Now, it doesn't matter what computer I use or who is logged in (for shared computers) I have all of my programs available in less than a minute which is less time than having to log someone off of a PC.

One of the VPs @ Ceedo read my blog last week about their product and kindly offered FREE activation codes for the readers of RutheRaves. This is a $39 value and is a resource that I think all travelers should have so I wanted to extend the offer to my r2travels family as well.

To learn more about Ceedo, visit their website. To get your FREE copy, please visit RutheRaves and leave a comment so that the Ceedo guys can see who are benefiting from their generous offer.

Happy Traveling and thanks for reading! --Ruthe

Win a $500 travel gift card from cheapoair.com

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:54:14 +0700

Twitter, Facebook, or Blog it to enter. @erinannie wants to get to 1,000+ entries - let's help her out. Who knows one of us may win in the process!!! See the CheapOair blog for details.

Travel and Tech/Gadgets

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:26:34 +0700

There was an article in the LA Times recently about the "best cell phones for foreign travel." I believe all of them were PDA-type phones that could also be used to access the internet, email, text, take photos/videos, and even act as a modem for a laptop. This isn't surprising considering that we live in an age of blogging, tweeting, and live video streaming but it got me thinking about the technology that I just can't live without even during foreign travel.

I travel with several different gadgets but do my best to keep them at a minimum because the worst thing is having to travel with unnecessary luggage. Here is my MUST HAVE list, I'd like to hear about yours.

1.) Cell phone - I've got the Samsung Blackjack II. It's a windows mobile phone so it syncs my calendar, contacts, and all of my email/chat accounts in addition to being my mp3 player and emergency camera. It can also server as a cellular modem for my laptop if I can't any other way to get online.

TIP: get it unlocked by your carrier (AT&T offers this for their customers) BEFORE you go abroad and you can buy a cheap SIM card when you arrive for local calls/texting to save on roaming charges. I did NOT do this and my roaming charges for a month long trip to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Hong Kong was close to $300!

2.) Ultra Mobile PC - I've got the Samsung Q1 Ultra tablet. In addition to being a full on PC, it comes equipped with Bluetooth/Wifi, an SD card reader for quick photo dumps so we don't need to carry a bunch of SD cards, and 2 USB ports that I can use for charging Dora's ipod and cellphone devices. And because it's dimensions (WDH) are 9.0x4.9x0.9 inches it fits nicely in any of my purses or carryons without added bulk/weight.

3.) SteriPen - for disinfecting water from suspicious sources.

4.) Cameras - a Nikon D60 SLR for all the important pics and a Coolpix for quick "snaps."

How about you? What are your must have tech/gadgets when you travel?

-Ruthe

Could I sell it all to travel the world?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:34:17 +0700

Through twitter I have met and been impressed by people, even families (like @almostfearless and @soultravelers3) who have sold everything and are traveling the world. Then I look at my current financial situation and even taking a year off to travel like @guysaroundworld seems unattainable. That's got me wondering - how do you decide you CAN do that? Then, once you decide - what is involved and how long does it take between the decision and your very first trip? And of course, how do you (or maybe you don't) make income while traveling?

I would love to hear from anyone who's experienced this first hand on any of the above: how you came to your decision, what did it take to sell all your belongings, did you really sell all your belongings, did you make enough to fund your travels outright, what supplies did you need to buy, how long did it take to get to the first trip, etc. please share!!

Fave travel planning sites?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:37:56 +0700

I got my latest PC World mag today which featured an article called, "100 Incredibly Useful Websites." To my surprise they included six travel planing sites which was kind of exciting from a tech rag! I'd only visited 2 out of the 6 myself so I thought I'd share

www.tripit.com - planning revolving around itineraries for you schedule junkies. Allows for collaboration and integrates maps/directions unlike my current fave travelmuse.com. However, the UI (oh that's user interface - sorry my techie side is showing) is not as slick and easy to use as travelmuse so I'm not converting just yet.

www.kayak.com - expedia.com combined with user input. The UI looks nice but I'll have to remember to try this when booking my next trip.

www.tripadvisor.com - I currently use tripadvisor soley for their "cities I've been too" app. I love being able to *pin* the places i've been, am going, and can give advise on. I've yet to use their other features but the article said their user reviews are extremely helpful.

www.roadsideamerica.com - I'd never heard of this site either but I love the concept. It's a guide for roadtrip attractions by state. We love taking road trips but that's kind of been put on hold of late due to the cost of fuel. still nice to know this site is out there.

www.planeteye.com - this one is interesting and I am planing to play with it a little more. seems like a viable alternative to travelmuse.com but not quite as easy to use. which means travelmuse had me planning a trip within minutes and this site is taking longer than that to understand. however the UI looks good and the "travel pack" premise is worth exploring.

www.lonelyplanet.com - I think of this as one big review site but it's never really enticed me to explor further. however, it seems really good if you're prepared for in depth discussions with people who have "been there."

What are your favorite travel sites? Please share!

- Ruthe