Travel Resources: Pinterest

Pinterest is an online pin-board: it allows for visual collections of information and links. Lots of people use Pinterest to find recipes, fashion, and humor. It also makes a great resource for travel. I use Pinterest for travel in three ways:

    * to keep a visual list of places I want to visit.
    * to research the places I'm planning travel to.
    * for general tips and tricks to make traveling easier.

A Visual List

This is a quick screenshot of places I want to visit- a large number of which I found by browsing Pinterest, but some of which I added through the "Pin It" button you can download from the program. I like this as a reference when I think "I'd really like to go somewhere with beautiful rivers/buildings/beaches." It can help to trigger places that I've forgotten I was interested in, or where I've forgotten that they have a river/building/beach I wanted to see.

Location-Specific Travel Tips

Any time I'm researching a location, Pinterest is a great place to start for "Top 10 Things to do in XX," "Best Places to Run in XX," "Best Food in XX," or "Don't Miss XX in XX" advice. These links contain information someone else has already evaluated, and are generally a little more helpful than a basic internet search on the same topic. I usually look for "XX travel tips" "XX food advice" and other searches along those lines.

General Travel Tips

 

One of my favorite (not-so) guilty pleasures is browsing Pinterest for "tips" of almost any sort. Travel tips are my favorite kind. I love seeing people's packing tips, money saving tips, and lists/tricks, and am constantly working on the goal of packing more efficiently and minimally. There are endless variations on ways to save money/time/effort, and I love seeing what people do. This is also a great way to find travel blogs- I like to browse the posts of bloggers who have helpful tips and tricks.

An Important Caveat

Pinterest is wonderful, but as far as I know, does not monitor the quality of the pins. This means that there are aggregator sites that repin lists to force traffic through their website. Once you click on a pin, it will list the URL that it links to below it. I recommend reading this URL to make sure it sounds legitimate before you click through. I haven't gotten any mal- or spyware that I know of, but it is a risk with untested links. Use basic internet safety protocols and your common sense.

Travel Resources: TripAdvisor

Trip Advisor is a giant in the travel world. It has reviews, rankings, forums, and lots of other resources to help you decide where to go, and what to do once you're there. I like to use Trip Advisor to vet trip locations: once I have an idea where we might go, I look at pictures of local attractions to see how interesting they look, and I'll check hotel reviews to decide where to stay.

A couple of tips:

    * Rather that use the someone tricky navigation to find your location, put "XX tripadvisor" into your browser as a search. It'll pull up the main page for that location much faster. This also works if you are looking for reviews of a specific hotel.
    * Don't get stuck just looking at hotels- check the vacation rentals and special accomodations too.

    * On that note, don't forget to look at restaurants and attractions in the area, where the reviews can be really helpful to determine if an attraction is worth the time, and what food options might be worth exploring. We really enjoyed the Denver Botanic Gardens, and Playa Flamenco.
    * Read the reviews and look at pictures: we often double check deals available through Groupon or Livingsocial against reviews on Trip Advisor. It may actually be too good to be true- I don't want to risk bedbugs, food poisoning, and really awful service. Better to get a heads up, so that we can decide where you can be flexible and where you're not willing to possibly compromise.

    * Search each location multiple times, using different filters, including the navigation bar (even if it is slow). We never would have found Casa Flamboyant in Puerto Rico if we hadn't done this, and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

Travel Resources: WikiTravel

WikiTravel is a crowd-sourced website that provides travel advice: the information is provided by users and publically editable. Each entry covers understanding the area, getting to the area, transportation within the area, attractions to see, activities to do, and places to shop, eat, drink, and sleep. Generally, the postings provide a little information about the quality of each place listed, and often tips to make the trip smoother or more interesting.

Other than the Naval History Museum in Hong Kong (which was well done, but not a "must see"), WikiTravel has never steered me wrong. It covers all major metropolitan areas that I have searched, and has brought smaller but interesting attractions, like the the Toronto Islands, to my attention. I highly recommend it when determining which attractions to visit.

I have never used it for restaurant or hotel recommendations, so I cannot speak to those. It can also be somewhat unweildy in very large cities because it breaks each city into districts which are in different entries. The main city entry does contain minimal information regarding the districts but it is helpful to know a bit about which areas you are interested in prior to researching large cities. As with all crowd-sourced websites, the quality of each entry varies with the poster providing the information.

Travel Resources: Yelp!

This is a short one, but very useful. My brother-in-law swears by using Yelp! for restaurants whenever he travels. We've tried it a few times, and it really does work for finding delicious, and often memorable food. No one wants to waste a vacation meal on mediocre or overpriced food. Check out a few reviews, or just look at the rating before deciding where to go.

Book Review: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

Title: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter (available here, or through your local bookseller or library)
Author: Jennifer Reese

Short Review: Worth the read.

Long(er) Review: I read this book based on a positive review on a website that I can't remember now. Guess that's how it goes when you toss something onto your Goodreads queue, since they don't have a place for you to note why it's on the list. I hope I remember where it was though, because the recommendation was spot on. Jennifer Reese has created an entertaining book, filled with analysis of which foods are worth cooking at home, and which foods aren't worth the time, effort, or expense.

This isn't a book for the amateur cook- Reese assumes a fairly high willingness to get into the kitchen, but is very honest when one of the recipes is a hassle ( or a "pain in the *ss"). She introduces each recipe with a brief story that relates to the subject, and breaks down which recipes are more difficult or more expensive. She also tells stories about products that weren't good enough to justify a change from store-bought, or were just unreasonably time consuming (like goats).

Reese has a very entertaining voice, and the book has a good ratio of story to recipe. It's also nice to have an analysis of when it really isn't worth doing something unless it's fun: Reese rates some of her more complex cheese making as a hobby. You don't do it because it's cheaper or easier than going to the store, you do it because you enjoy the process.

If you enjoy cooking and reading about cooking, but have perhaps felt a little overwhelmed by the idea that everything is tastier and better for you if you make it from scratch, this is a great book.

*All opinions in this review are my own. I was not compensated for providing my opinions or provided with this book to review. *

Travel Resources: AirBnB

You may have noted in my first Brooklyn Itinerary that we stayed at a AirBnB in Park Slope. AirBnB is a website that allows verified hosts to post their spare spaces for rent (beds, bedrooms, suites, and entire living spaces). Verified guests then apply to rent the space, and the hosts can accept or deny their request. To become a verified guest you have to submit proof of identity (I used a picture of my driver's license), and both guests and hosts have an opportunity to post public reviews that other people can read.

We've now used AirBnB to find housing four times, and we've had truly unique and pleasant stays at all of them. Even better, it often offers us a cheaper option that is closer to the attractions we're interested in (the beach or restaurants in San Juan, the Botanic Gardens in Denver, and the wedding in Brooklyn).

That said, AirBnB may not be for you if you don't like unique spaces, and specific postings may not be a good choice based on style, amenities or personality. We've found reviews to be accurate and specific, but I have made a choice that I don't apply to any spaces with less than 10 reviews, just so that I can get a better picture of what's available. Depending on the space, you may be sharing your accomodation with your host. We've really enjoyed this aspect, and gotten to know interesting people with great recommendations about their cities, but you may not. That said, every host I've met has been very respectful of private space, and seemed receptive to the amount of socializing we're interested in.

It's also generally not a traditional B&B setup, in that some sort of cold breakfast may or may not be offered, we have not come across any postings that offer a hot breakfast, and it's going to be decorated according to your host's personal style.

For us, AirBnB is a great resource to find cheaper, more interesting housing in the area that we want to stay. It's a good resource for people who are interested in alternatives to traditional hotels, especially if you enjoy meeting locals.

* I have not been compensated for this review in any way. AirBnB knows me only as another customer, and all opinions in this review are my own. *

A Brooklyn Based Itinerary: Day Three

We really lucked out with our weather in Brooklyn- most of the weekend was gorgeous. However, the last day we were there it started to get warmer (and apparently it's currently really hot). We decided that the best way to spend the day was (1) inside or (2) near a large body of water. We did both.

We had a generally lazy start to the day, which I highly recommend for at least one day of any vacation. It really lets you relax. Then, we headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge. On the advice of some locals, we decided to avoid the "it" pizzeria (Grimaldi's) and went to Juliana's Pizza, right next door. Juliana's is owned by the same people who used to own Grimaldi's, and we were impressed. We had a simple cheese pizza (New York Style), with a spinach salad. The pizza was delicious, service was friendly, and we didn't have to wait in line at 11:30 a.m. Go hungry- the portions were generous, and we didn't have space to try the cookie/brownie hybrid ("Brookie") for dessert.

We then decided that it'd be worth stopping into the tiny Mexican restaurant on the other side of Grimaldi's, Gran Electrica. The space is very cute, and relaxing, and was a nice pause on an otherwise hot day. I can't attest to the food, but the drinks were fantastic. The bar specializes in tequila and mezcal, and the bartenders really know their stuff. I'm not much of a tequila drinker, so a bit of the selection was lost on me, but they also have a variety of mixed drinks. I had a Margerita de Pepino, which had cucumber and cilantro, and was absolutely delicious. The only thing that could have improved on the experience was a beach-side view.

 

Brooklyn Bridge Park starts at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge and runs south along the waterfront. It overlooks the Manhattan skyline, and would be a wonderful place to sit and just watch the view (or the people). It's a newer park, and the plants haven't grown in quite as much as in some of the other green spaces we visited, so aim for a day that's not quite as hot as ours. We were a little overheated after the full walk. That said, there were food vendors, and all sorts of activities that you could participate in (we saw tennis, kayaking in the river, basketball on an old pier, and napping in the sun). I'd recommend a visit just for the view (even if your trip is mainly in Manhattan).

We also stumbled onto Smorgasburg near Jerolemon Street, at the end of our walk through the park. This is a "food flea market" that's basically a collection of food vendors selling their products. The variety was pretty impressive, especially the "ramen burger," which looked surprisingly delicious. If I had the day to do again, I would have saved room to try some of the vendors- it looks like it's a great taste of up-coming food trends.

We spent an evening at a wonderful wedding, so I'll just skip to the morning before we left: we grabbed pastries from Colson Patisserie in Park Slope, and I could not recommend them more highly. They had traditional crossaints and more creative options I've never seen before. We also had a very good blueberry muffin and rhubarb scone. I'll be repeating this restaurant next time I'm in Brooklyn.