Alan 
Casa Ellul Malta Hotel Review In a move to increase their footprint, Hyatt started a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a collection of independent properties under one loyalty umbrella. Hyatt members can book the SLH properties through Hyatt’s website and earn points and night credits. Hyatt members … Read more
Hyatt Regency Sofia Review Sofia, a city of 1.2 million, is the capitol city of Bulgaria. The new Hyatt Regency Sofia opened in September 2020 in the middle of the COVID pandemic. It is a brand new build with over 180 rooms and is a Category 1 property meaning rooms … Read more
Qatar Airways A320 OTP-SOF Qatar Airways flies from Qatar to Bucharest (OTP) and then on to Sofia (SOF) with their A320. It is possible to just book the OTP-SOF flight; and as I was wanting to get between the two, I decided to book it for 107€ one way. The … Read more
Grand Hyatt Athens Review If you want to stay at a Hyatt property in Athens, you have limited options. Now that SLH is part of the World of Hyatt, there are a few additional choices, but the only true Hyatt in Athens is the Grand Hyatt. The property is quite … Read more
Athens Olympic Museum Visit Athens has a brand new Olympic Museum that opened two months ago in May of 2021. It is a sleek look at the history of the ancient competition, the modern games, and Greece’s participation in the games. The focus is clearly on Greece but anyone with … Read more
Oryx Airport Hotel Doha Review On my way to Athens on Qatar Airways, I had a 13 hour layover in Doha. The week of my flight Qatar began allowing tourist visas, but the hoops that one had to jump through made it unrealistic for my quick layover. So I booked … Read more
NoMad Las Vegas Grande Suite Review I have now stayed at the NoMad Las Vegas three times; each in a different room type. Previously I stayed in a Salon Double and Atelier Suite. This stay I was upgraded to a Grande Suite. NoMad is a hotel within a hotel at … Read more
Caesars Rewards Diamond Status – 2021 Update Caesars Rewards is not what it used to be. Caesars Entertainment was purchased by Eldorado and it seems that they are cutting costs left and right. In my opinion, they are making visiting Caesars Rewards properties a lot less pleasant and appealing. Here … Read more
Understanding Omega Mart at Area 15 Las Vegas Growing up in Seattle, I had one of my birthdays at Entros, a precursor to Escape Rooms that allowed you to play through tech games in order to solve puzzles. Omega Mart, from the Meow Wolf art collective out of Santa Fe, … Read more
Caesars Rewards Free Night for Each 5,000 Tier Credits One of the benefits of Caesars Rewards is the ability to earn one free night in a Caesars Rewards hotel in Las Vegas or Atlantic City for every 5,000 Tier Credits earned during a calendar year. If you are signing up … Read more
Alaska Airlines adds flights to Belize Today Alaska Airlines announced details of their new service to Belize City. Belize becomes the 5th country that Alaska serves (USA, Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica); though in 2017 Alaska flew to Cuba and in the 1990’s Alaska flew to Russia. Starting in November … Read more
Andaz Costa Rica Suite Review I originally had booked a trip to Costa Rica for April 2020 with a free ticket I had won through Alaska Airlines. However, due to COVID, I ended up having to push it back a few times. Finally in April 2021, after being fully vaccinated, … Read more
Do Alaska Airline MVP Gold Elites get access to Alaska Lounges en route to Costa Rica? With all the excitement of Alaska Airlines joining oneworld today, one of the changes I am most looking forward to is access to oneworld lounges around the world. Currently I am an Alaska Airlines … Read more
Rio Las Vegas to become Hyatt(s) This came as a surprise to me. Apparently Rio Las Vegas, the off-strip Caesars property, is going to be transformed into a number of Hyatt hotels. Dreamscape purchased Rio from Caesars Entertainment in 2019 for $516 million (significantly less than the previous sale in … Read more
Winter Road Trip through the Southwest For my midwinter February break, I had planned a week in Costa Rica. As much as I wanted to travel internationally, COVID made me rethink my plans. This past summer I enjoyed road tripping around the Western USA but there were still places I … Read more