Category Archives: Travel

Techniques for Choosing a Hotel: Granada

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I want to start this post by mentioning, in case we haven’t already: we are not budget travelers.  Do we like to save money? Yes, of course, but at this point in our lives we can afford to spend a little extra while traveling.  This doesn’t mean that we won’t consider cheaper hotels, free activities, and less expensive dining, but we definitely do not plan our trip around spending as little as possible.

And with that, I would love to share a little about our the trip-planning process – how Ryan and I choose our hotels.  There are so many different ways to start the search, so hopefully this will help a few people!  Here is an outline of the steps we took for our Portugal and Spain trip, and Granada specifically:

  • Determine which is the best neighborhood to stay (either reading Trip Advisor forums, other online travel forums, Rick Steves – books, shows, online, etc). In some cases there isn’t necessarily an advantage to staying in one area or another, so we do not always limit our search to one area.
  • Go to spg.com and see if there are any Starwood properties in the cities.  We have the Starwood American Express and are SPG members with points in the account, so it’s good to know the options.  We won’t always want to stay in one (many of them are huge hotels, and this isn’t always alluring), but there may be a deal that’s too good to pass up! (note: there are no Starwood properties in Granada)
  • Go to Trip Advisor and search for hotels and B&Bs in each city. If there is a specific area we would like to stay (see first bullet), start search focused on that area.
  • Start going through the top hotels (especially if there are hundreds of hotels for a particular city) and look through traveler pictures. If a hotel/B&B has some nice pictures, look at the actual hotel website and start making a list of potential hotels, taking in consideration the prices, views, amenities, etc.

It’s a pretty basic process, but can take a long time for some cities. We usually find one or two hotels that we really like, and it makes it easy for us to book. However, we’ve found several with Granada and I’m actually not sure where we’ll end up. Here are the hotels we’re looking at, with a few pictures:

1. Hotel Casa 1800 Granada

I mentioned this hotel in this post. The location is great – seems like it’s exactly where we want to be. Aside from the location, they have a “snack bar” for guests and free breakfast. However, the rooms are a little expensive, especially since they don’t look like anything too special. Apparently some of the rooms have a balcony (or the hotel has a balcony for all guests), but it’s not really clear which rooms have the balconies or the views. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

2. Carmen la Alcubilla del Caracol

This hotel is very close to the Alhambra, and some (or all?) of the rooms have balconies with views. The rooms like basic, but nice and clean, and the price is 120-140 euros, which is within our “budget.” The outdoor areas of the hotel also look very beautiful. The hotel website doesn’t list the specific rooms or availability, but I am interested in this hotel and will email to find out if there is anything for the nights we’ll be there. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

3. Solar Montes Claros

I found this hotel and instantly fell in love. The room I really like was the “Persia” room. It has a nice tub and looks very comfortable and cozy. The hotel has great views and while it’s not right in town, it’s nothing that we can’t handle. I sent an email a few weeks ago asking for availability, and it turns out they are completely booked already.  So this won’t be our hotel in Granada, but I wanted to include it in this post anyway. (All pictures taken from Trip Advisor.)

4. Santa Isabel la Real

This hotel still has availability, and luckily the tower room isn’t booked yet. I’ve included a few pictures below – look at that view! The hotel also serves breakfasts and gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s about $250/night, but it’s the best room in the hotel, so it just might be worth it. (All pictures taken from the hotel website.)

The decision: After spending a little more time reading reviews, we decided to book Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol.  In case other travelers are interested in the booking process, I emailed a request for information for the dates we would be staying.  I received an email back with the rates (120, 130, or 140 euros) and information about the rooms at each price point (FYI, all rooms have a view, but only some have a balcony).  There is also the option of adding a breakfast for each morning for 8 euros/person, which we are excited to take advantage of.  We can’t wait for Granada!

A Few Favorites in Solvang, California

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With Solvang as our home base for three days, Ryan and I spent plenty of time wandering around the cute European-like city.  If you plan on spending time in Solvang, there are a few places you should consider visiting.  No matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find something in Solvang!

Picnic foods.  Take a visit to Vinhus.  It’s located at the intersection of Alisal and Copenhagen in downtown Solvang.  Vinhus has a variety of items to offer – cheeses, meats, crackers, chocolates, wines, jams, and souvenirs.  Ryan and I love stopping here to pick up food for picnicking while wine tasting (there are so many wineries in the area that have beautiful areas for picnicking.  The two we stopped at this trip were Rideau [on our second day] and Bridlewood [on our way home], but the options are endless).  Aside from having a huge selection, Vinhus always has cheese out to taste!  This has often led to us buying a cheese we normally wouldn’t have tried.  It’s definitely worth a stop, even if you don’t plan on purchasing anything. 

Vinhus, Solvang, California, cheese shop

Here’s a look at the cheese selection offered at Vinhus.  We always try to stop here at least once a day while we’re in Solvang!

Oil and vinegar. We were so excited to stumble upon Santa Ynez Olive Oil before heading home on Saturday.  We first tried this olive oil and balsamic vinegar on our first trip to Solvang in October 2010.  The owner of the company had set up a free tasting at Firestone Vineyards and we fell in love!  We ended up purchasing a 6-pack of sample-sized olive oils (garlic, rosemary, and basil) and balsamic vinegars (traditional, blackberry, and raspberry).  We went back to Firestone this trip specifically for the olive oil tasting and left upon realizing that it was no longer there (it was on our way back to Solvang from a long day of wine tasting, so we decided not to stay for more wine).  Anyway, if you are in Solvang, definitely stop by the Santa Ynez Olive Oil shop! It’s just a few stores down from Vinhus, on Alisal.  All of the olive oils and balsamic vinegars were open for FREE tasting, and everything we tried was delicious.  We purchased large bottles of rosemary olive oil, basil olive oil, and white peach balsamic vinegar (for $15 each [250 ml bottles].  I believe the sample bottles were $4.50 each [60 ml]).  Enjoy!

Wine and beer.  Ryan and I visited the Wandering Dog Wine Bar for the first time on this trip.  Before leaving for Solvang, I found out that Wandering Dog has blind wine tastings every Thursday night and I was intrigued to see how it worked.  We stopped in around 6:15pm on Thursday and took a seat at the bar.  For $15 I was provided four different red wines (at least half a glass each) and a cheat sheet that had the four varietals, regions, vintages, and bottle prices.  I ended up only scoring a 7 out of 16, but I had a great time!  It made me feel a little better that the guy next to me only scored a 3, and he really seemed to know his wine.  The blind tasting is tough!  Ryan decided to go with a beer tasting – four beers for $10 (you could taste 4-10 beers [4 oz. each], costing from $10-$22 depending on how many you wanted to try).  The Wandering Dog also offers several wine tasting flights, starting at $10 depending on the flight.  This is also a great place to come, relax, and just enjoy wine by the glass.  It is a cozy place with a nice bar area and additional comfortable seating available.  It’s located on Mission Drive in downtown Solvang, so the location is great! It was also open late on Thursday and Friday while we were in town. 

Sweet treats.  There are so many bakeries and other shops offering sweet treats in Solvang.  This trip we only stopped at two, the Danish Fudge Kitchen and the Danish Mill Bakery, but we were tempted by many.  If you’ve never tried them, the famous  Danish Aebleskivers are worth a taste.  On our first trip to Solvang, we tried these sweet balls of dough covered in powdered sugar and raspberry jam at the Solvang Restaurant (they even have a to-go window in front where you can order your Aebleskivers without sitting down at the restaurant).  Whether you’re craving Danish pastries, fudge, ice cream, Danish cookies, Aebleskivers, or something else, there are shops all over Solvang that are worth a stop!

Aebleskivers, Solvang, California, Solvang Restaurant

Aebleskivers from Solvang Restaurant.  They were delicious!

Souvenirs and knick knacks.  As with sweets, souvenirs and knick knacks can be found all over Solvang.  There are so many different shops selling hats, socks, t-shirts, candles, jewelry, books, wine accessories, home decor, ornaments, magnets, kitchen items, antiques, art, clothing, and more!  We don’t usually do too much shopping in Solvang, but we do love to stop in a few favorite stores while we’re there.  I love Jule Hus (located on Mission Drive) for the year-round Christmas spirit and Pearls of Provence (located on Alisal) for browsing through Provincial fabrics, serve ware, and other home accessories.  

Jule Hus, Solvang, California, Christmas store

A quick look inside Jule Hus

There is so much to do in Solvang and this post only covers the surface.  I found this site to be a great resource in learning about what to do, where to stay, activities in the area, etc.  One thing to note is that Solvang generally shuts down fairly early in the evening.  If you like to be out late, check out which places stay open into the night (Solvang Brewing Company and Sort This Out Cellars are two that come to mind).  If you’re looking for an enjoyable California getaway, Solvang might be the perfect place to visit!

Independence Day Fireworks in Solvang, California

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Kristin and I are in Solvang, California, one of our favorite destinations in California.  Kristin just blogged about the plans for this trip in late June.  We returned to Solvang for the third time in two years because we enjoy the unique Danish ambiance, excellent wine, and temperate climate.  Although our vacation was planned starting on the 4th of July to take advantage of turning a midweek holiday into a 5-day weekend, Independence Day celebrations were not a priority in our trip scheduling.  We knew we would likely see fireworks, but too our surprise, the 4th of July Celebration and Fireworks Show in Solvang was a trip highlight!

The show is put on each year (this is the 19th annual) by the Rotary Club of the Santa Ynez Valley.  Admission to the event is $5 for adults, and free for children 5 & under and for service members.  In addition to fireworks at 9pm, gates open at 1pm with plenty of all-American food booths, live entertainment, games for children, and raffles.  The event truly has a “small town” America feel, despite the many tourists that visit the area.  

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Strategy for Booking Airline Tickets to Europe

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Deciding on a time frame for booking airline tickets to Europe is always difficult.  It is tempting to book soon after the trip is initially conceived.  Locking down the flight details allows travel planners to start working on the more creative trip details: hotels, connections, and activities.

We have been incredibly lucky with our timing in purchasing tickets for Europe.  Of the 3 flights we have booked in the past three years, 2 were booked at their lowest price for the desired carrier and schedule, and the last is within $50 of its lowest price.  Here are our tips for maximizing your savings:

  1. Decide on priorities.  Before researching, decide how important schedule and carrier preferences weigh against ticket cost.  Frequent flyer affiliation, number of stops, and a convenient schedule are important considerations.  We generally limit our search to carriers that are part of Star Alliance (which allows us to earn United Mileage Plus miles) and a maximum of one stop. More stops introduce more risk of missing connections and add to travel time.  If these criteria are not important to you, then you can widen your search.
     
  2. Setup price tracking.  If you decided schedule and carrierare important to you, visit yapta.com and add the flights of interest to “My Trips”.  Yapta will create a graph of the price of the flight over time and alert you when the price goes up or down.  This is the only site we’ve found where you can select specific flights (times and airlines) and track the price over time.  If schedule and carrier are not important, you can just track the route you plan on taking on kayak.com or a similar site.  This will give you the lowest price, but may be with an undesirable carrier.  For example, we could have flown to London for $200 less, but we would have flown with Aeroloft through Moscow.  Tracking on kayak.com would just give us the price of the Aeroloft flight, which we we didn’t want in the first place.  Using yapta allowed us to track the flights we actually wanted to take.
     
  3. Book refundable hotels.  In many popular destinations, the best hotels fill-up fast.  We’ve found that some of our first choice hotels fill-up before we even plan on buying our flights.  As long as these hotels are refundable, there is no risk in booking hotels before flight reservations are finalized.  If airfares within our budget do not show-up for the dates we have booked, we can cancel our hotel bookings and get a full refund.
     
  4. Select a reasonable price target.  Choose a price that fits your budget.  Don’t be too aggressive with your target unless necessitated by your budget.  A target that is too aggressive could mean you wait too long and either don’t take the trip at all or end-up paying more because of a last minute decision to disregard your target.  Use your flight tracking to watch for sales.  If the price starts creeping-up, consider booking immediately and disregarding your original target.  Although there are occasionally last minute sales, don’t count on them.  Expect to book 3 or more months ahead of time to be safe.  For our three flights to Europe in the fall (September or October), flights bottomed-out in the following timeframes:
     
    1. September 2009 (LAX-FRA-VCE, CDG-FRA-LAX on Lufthansa) – Booked in Early May (4 months prior) for $750 per pax
       
    2. September 2012 (LAX-EWR-LIS, MAD-EWR-LAX on Continental) – Booked in Late February (6 months prior) for $1130 per pax
       
    3. November 2012 (LAX-LHR, LHR-LAX on Air New Zealand) – Booked in June (5 months prior) for $995 per pax, bottomed-out late June for $950 per pax

We are already tracking potential flights for next year (with the same dates, but this year), to better understand the possible trends.  It is always difficult to lock-in the lowest price, but we’ve been fairly lucky with the strategy outlines above.

Little Denmark

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In just over a week, Ryan and I will be in Solvang, California for a few days of relaxation and wine tasting!  While it’s not really called Little Denmark, Solvang is a sister city to Aalborg, Denmark and it definitely has a European feel.  The city of Solvang is small (2.4 square miles, according to Wikipedia), with a much smaller, walkable downtown area made of a few streets in each direction.

I am fascinated by the Danish-style buildings, the Danish fashion worn by some shop owners and sold in shops around town, their shop front design is very nice and the small town feel.  It’s a cute town that’s great for a weekend getaway (or longer!) since it’s only about 2 hours away from Bakersfield!

Here are some of the things I’m most looking forward to during our trip:

1. Walking around downtown Solvang.  During the day this will involve stopping in the Danish shops, gift shops, bakeries, and two of my favorites: Jule Hus (for everything Christmas) and Vinhus (for wine, cheese, and other snacks).   I also noticed their glazede shop fronts. And once everything is closed at night, it means enjoying the quiet area and the white Christmas lights that are strung on the trees year round.

2. Wine tasting.  Downtown Solvang has several wine tasting rooms.  This is very convenient since they are all very walkable (spread out in the dowtown area) from our hotel and other hotels in the area.  On previous trips we’ve enjoyed tasting wines at Mandolina (Italian varietals) and its sister tasting room, Lucas and Lewellen.  I’m looking forward to visiting the Wandering Dog, which has blind tastings on Thursday afternoons, and Sort This Out Cellars, which has live music on Friday and Saturday nights and is open until 10!

3. Relaxing at the pool and hot tub at the hotel.  While many of our vacations are full of activities, this long weekend away allows for relaxation time.  There are not many establishments that open really early or stay open late, so the beginning and the end of the day are perfect for relaxing at the hotel.  We’re staying at the Hadsten House, which has a pool and hot tub.

4. Wine tasting (again).  There are several wineries outside of Solvang, in the neighboring cities of the Santa Ynez Valley.  Some of them are reminiscent of Tuscan villas, like Melville Vinyeards, and some are up in the hills and boast gorgeous views.  For a different wine tasting experience, we love going to the “Lompoc Ghetto” – it’s a group of warehouses that have been turned into wine tasting rooms.

And to finish off – a few pictures from our trip in October 2010.  We will return with more pictures!