Travel Easy

When you are traveling to Europe on a three month backpacking safari, buy every single Frommers, Foder's, Let's Go, Rick Steve's and Lonely Planet guide you can find. For the rest of society, who only plans to spend a weekend or a few days at a given destination, the book will likely be a waste of money. Therefore, with your extra ten minutes to spare after you have printed our your boarding pass, check out Trip Advisor and see what recommendations they have. Since it is user-generated content, there is likely to be some polar extremes of people who either LOVED or HATED a given restaurant or activity; however, there tends to be more reliable reviews than citysearch.com and a little more realistic than opentable.com (sorry not every restaurant has great ambiance and wonderful service). I appreciate their Top 10 lists so you can make sure you are hitting "the best of" when you have a limited time frame. So take a couple minutes to check out TripAdvisor before the next boondoggle weekend so your decisions can be a little more informed.

Take a Break

Wouldnt it be nice to have an extra 4 hours added to every day? Think of all the hobbies you could take up and books you could read. You could finally plan that trip to Asia you have been dying to take. Unfortunately, Mother Nature isn't going to cooperate any time seen; however, REI Adventures, an arm of the REI outdoor gear company, now has a slew of multi-sport vacations around the globe. It will only cost an arm (as opposed to the typical arm & leg combination), and you will get to meet some interesting people. The trip to Laos & Cambodia sounded amazing, but there are plenty more local trips to appease all your hiking, trekking, cycling and climbing inclinations.

Recycled Beauty

Another weekend wedding awaits you... Wouldn't it be nice to avoid the using that nasty hotel iron that reminds you of all the reasons you turn down a hotel bedspread? Make life a little easier with the use of a Garment Bag from Posh Yachting. Made from recycled sails, you can feel a little less guilty about the carbon footprint while looking sharp. The bags are very durable for all of you extreme travelers out there, or the ones who are always late that make traveling look extreme. You could even get a duffel if you are in the matching mood.