When you hear (or smell) Portico White Ginger, what do you think of?  

I am a frequent Hyatt guest, and am more than a little sick of that foul aroma, which is the standard offering for bathroom amenities at most Hyatt and Hyatt Place hotels.  Other Hyatt brands including resorts have different (and in my opinion, generally rather nice) products.  I know not everyone dislikes the White Ginger, but I'm happy to hear that it is finally going away.  Mere ...

I've never been that excited about hotel status or hotel upgrades. It's just a room, and a suite is just a bigger room - sometimes an apartment. Generally when my travel includes a hotel stay I'm usually working at a client site, visiting friends, or seeing the city. However, sometimes it's nice to have the points available to redeem at some of the great properties around the world including the Park Hyatt Tokyo, Hyatt Regency London and Grand Hyatt Santiago. And for that, having top status ...

Visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been near the top of my travel list for years, though getting there is not easy. There is no such thing as a tourist visa in the KSA and even obtaining a business or transit visa is difficult, or so I heard. Well, my experience was different.

This is just a teaser post--you won't read about the trip for another month or so--but I am enjoying a refreshing stay at the Park Hyatt Jeddah, had a good experience on Saudia, the Saudi national carrier and now a member of Skyteam, and have been impressed that Saudi Arabia--at least Jeddah--is not as conservative as I had imagined. Warm Arab hospitality and good food have made for a wonderful trip thus far.

Now I am going back to the pool...

OzFest 2012 (Canberra) - Introduction Lufthansa First Class, Denver to Frankfurt Lufthansa's First Class Terminal and LH901, Frankfurt to London Hilton Paddington Station London to Sydney, the Long Way, in United Business Sydney's Qantas Club & The Q400 to Canberra The Park Hyatt Canberra Touring Canberra Canberra's Qantas Club & The Beginning of a 13,000 Mile Journey

The drive from the Canberra Airport to the Park Hyatt took about twenty-five minutes, though most of ...

I happened to be checking on my Hyatt account online when I noticed a link to add to Passbook on my iPhone.

Passbook is a handy tool that is available for iPhone users running iOS 6.0 or newer.  More and more travel providers are adding Passbook access.  United, Starwood, and now Hyatt are some companies that I use frequently that use Passbook integration.  Seth wrote up a nice basic summary of Passbook here.  Users can get boarding passes, hotel ...

OzFest 2012 (Canberra) - Introduction Lufthansa First Class, Denver to Frankfurt Lufthansa's First Class Terminal and LH901, Frankfurt to London Hilton Paddington Station London to Sydney, the Long Way, in United Business Sydney's Qantas Club & The Q400 to Canberra The Park Hyatt Canberra Touring Canberra Canberra's Qantas Club & The Beginning of a 13,000 Mile Journey

Before I start this trip report, I want to offer my apologies for taking so long to write it. This past ...