The latest travel information plus insider event and sightseeing tips for New York City, Boston, Hawaii, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Bermuda.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Happy New Year from TheInsiderTravelGuides.com!
Happy New Year from TheInsiderTravelGudies.com, where you can get an insider's tour of Bermuda, Boston, Hawaii, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco! We thank you all for reading our online guides and making your travel plans with us this year. And throughout 2007, we hope you'll think of us again as your plan your next getaway, remembering that whether your idea of the perfect vacation is lounging on a tropical island or enjoying the glitz and glamour of the city, we've got you covered. Our travel guides provide tips on what to see and where to go, plus hundreds of original photos, a discount hotel guide (and for longer trips, our vacation rentals), airfare and car rental reservations, and other resources to save you money and help you on your way.
There are lots of web sites through which you can book your hotel reservations. For years, here at TheInsiderTravelGuides.com, we've partnered with one site or another as a service to our readers. Our goal has always been to provide one-stop-shopping for our readers: not only can you read about what to see and what to do on our site, but you can plan where to stay, too. For the most part, offering this service has worked out quite well.
Our first relationship was with TravelNow.com, run by a travel agency in the early days of the Internet. They were soon bought out by Hotels.com (and are currently part of its Interactive Affiliate Network), which was in turn, acquired by Expedia.com. We've maintained ongoing relationships with both TravelNow and its parent company and have generally been pleased with them. (In the interests of full disclosure, we should also mention that we've also had affiliate relationships with a number of travel sites, including CheapTickets.com and Hotwire.) Now, we've been asked to review another site: HotelReservations.com (please note that we are being paid for this review).
The first thing we noticed was the uncanny resemblance of HotelReservations.com's online interface, compared with the one we are familiar with at Hotels.com. We were further confused by the similarity in their "About Us" pages. At Hotels.com, it reads:
Welcome to hotels.com!
For more than 15 years hotels.com has been providing travelers great prices on the places you want to stay for both leisure and business travel. We make planning and booking your trip easy through the hotels.com expert lodging website and through our certified hotel experts available 24/7 at 1-800-2-hotels (1-800-246-8357).
At hotels.com we know the hotel experience is an important part of your trip. And that's why we want you to know before you go with our easy to use booking tools like side by side comparisons, virtual tours and our un-biased customer reviews from people just like you who have stayed at the property.
hotels.com offers more than 70,000 properties worldwide - from hotels to B&B's to condos to all inclusive resorts. hotels.com offers the information travelers need to book the perfect trip all backed by the hotels.com Price Guarantee, see details on website. hotels.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE). hotels.com WE KNOW HOTELS INSIDE AND OUT.®
At HotelReservations.com, it reads:
Welcome to HotelReservations.com! For more than 06 years HotelReservations.com has been providing travelers great prices on the places you want to stay for both leisure and business travel. We make planning and booking your trip easy through the HotelReservations.com expert lodging website and through our certified hotel experts available 24/7 at 1-800-447-4136.
At HotelReservations.com we know the hotel experience is an important part of your trip. And that's why we want you to know before you go with our easy to use booking tools.
HotelReservations.com offers more than 70,000 properties worldwide - from hotels to B&B's to condos to all inclusive resorts. HotelReservations.com offers the information travelers need to book the perfect trip all backed by the HotelReservations.com Price Guarantee, see details on website.
Are the two companies related? So far our digging hasn't uncovered any kind of relationship, but if one doesn't own or partner with the other, we would be surprised if "cease and desist" letters don't start passing between them soon!
The new Institute of Contemporary Art building on the Boston waterfront opens today with much fanfare (and 12 hours of free admission!). Much has been made about the fact that not only is this the first new art museum built in Boston in almost 100 years, but it isn't brick (as so much construction in Boston is these days) but features lots of glass. The Boston Globe has had a plethora about the ICA in the last week and their website features some nifty pictures. The New York Times has also has had complimentary things to say. But why just listen to the critics? Instead, we recommend you check out ICA yourself!
Bermuda-Online.org has a nice description of how Bermudians celebrate Christmas, noting that although the island country is British in many ways, Bermudians tend to follow the Americans' lead when it comes to the holiday, with visits from Santa Claus (rather than Father Christmas or Saint Nicholas) and imported turkey on the table. A few British traditions remain, of course, like Christmas Crackers and the celebration of Boxing Day on December 26th.
Before the missionaries brought Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands, the Hawaiians celebrated Makahiki, a time of great feasting, in the mid-winter. Just as other cultures added their "pagan" rituals to Christmas celebrations (can you say "Christmas tree"?), the Hawaiians incorporated Makahiki traditions into their Christmas celebrations. Want a sense of what Christmas in Hawaii is really like? Read the Hawaiian version of The Night Before Christmas and The 12 Days of Christmas and you'll see what we mean!
The New York Times today had a special ski section, including an article about skiing at Camelback, a mountain about an hour away from New York City and two hours away from Philadelphia. But here it is the first day of December and temperatures are expected to go up to 67 degrees in NYC and Philly, and 63 degrees in Boston, making us wonder if there really will be skiing at Christmastime this year. We experienced the same phenomenon last spring, when we complained here that the weather wouldn't allow us any skiing over Spring Break. Maybe there is something to this global warming thing after all...
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