The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express is the reward credit card of the Starwood Preferred Guest and this is what you get when you sign up:

• Earn up to 25,000 Starpoints® – enough for two free nights at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the W Boston or any other category 5 hotel.
• Redeem Starpoints(R) for free nights at over 1,000 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 countries for free flight on over 350 airlines – all with no blackout dates.
• No annual fee for the first year and $65 thereafter.
• Stay 2 nights and get the 3rd night free at particiipating Sheraton(R) Hotels and Resorts worldwide.
• Earn 4 to 5 Starpoints for every dollar you spend at Starwood Preferred Guest Hotels and Resorts.
• Smarter Travel Editor’s Choice Award for Best Travel Awards Card for Domestic Use.

The 25,000 Starpoints bonus is a great way to start off because it immediately gets you two free nights at a category 5 hotel. Not bad!

Flexibility of Points

Starwood points are extremely flexible because their Starwood Preferred Guest Points work at a variety of places, including United, US Airways, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Hawaiian, Alaska and American Airlines. In addition to converting easily, you can also convert at very small amounts (as little as 1500) so you can reach those free flights even if you’re just a few points away. Finally, being able to convert small amounts has another benefit. Since many airline programs expire your miles if you don’t fly often enough, you can add miles to your account and reset that clock.

Why get the credit card of a specific airline when you can get one that gives you access to them all?

25,000 Starwood Starpoints Promotion

When you apply for the card, you can get 10,000 Starpoints after your very first purchase. Then, you can earn an extra 15,000 Starpoints if you spend $15,000 in six months – that’s a total of 25,000 points which can get you up to six free nights at a hotel. Best part? Annual fee is waived the first year.

There isn’t a better loyalty rewards credit card out there – take a look for yourself!

On our most recent trip, just a few weeks ago, we were able to stay at the Contemporary Resort. It’s an absolutely lovely resort with all the amenities you could imagine. One of the best parts was staying on the Monorail line, which makes access to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and some of the other resorts a little easier. We had dinner one night at Ohana at Polynesian, which was on the same monorail line. We were able to stay there at a relatively cheap rate because my wife was attending a conference being held at the Contemporary. I joined her a few days in and we took advantage of the rate throughout that weekend.

That meant we had access to the Extra Magic Hours and, as a result, some more favorite lines on the rides! Here are our five favorite rides at Walt Disney World:

Toy Story Midway Mania!

Our favorite ride in all of Disney World is one of its newest – Toy Story Mania located in Hollywood Studios. Since we get Extra Magic Hours at certain parks each day, we always take advantage of the Hollywood Studios extra time (last time we went, it was in the morning) to make a bee-line to this ride. We’ll usually get a Fast Pass when we first show up and then we wait in line, which inevitably will be listed at over 30 minutes long regardless of when we get there.

The ride is essentially a series of carnival games one after the other. You ride in a cart in pairs, armed with your 3-D glasses and a cannon fired by the pulling of a ball at the end of the string. You are shown a series of screens in which you try to hit targets, scoring points in the process. You shoot darts at balloons, you fire rings at Little Green Men, and much more. Worth the wait, which can get very long by late morning!

Aerosmith Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

This is another ride located at Hollywood Studios, near the Tower of Terror, and it’s a high speed roller coast that accelerates using magnetic technology. The rolle coaster is entirely indoors, near pitch black, set in a scene out of the highways of Los Angeles. All throughout the ride, you hear a soundtrack courtesy of Aerosmith created specifically for this ride. This is another popular ride so Fast Pass is usually how we get on and we’ve been on it almost every single time we’ve been to Hollywood Studios. If you love Space Mountain, this is basically that ride on steroids (we’re not fans of Space Mountain only because the cars rattle so much, not that pleasant a ride).

Safari at Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is a fantastic park because of how close to nature you’re able to get – and you can’t get any closer than on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. For this trek, you get into a huge “jeep” that takes you through the animal preserve at Animal Kingdom. You have the opportunity to see a variety of animals, including giraffes, zebras, warthogs, rhinos, and even lions. The best times to go are when the temperatures are somewhat cooler, since many of the animals will be resting during the day (especially the big cats). If you have flexibility, choose times when it’s cooler or earlier/later in the day just so you can see animals roam.

A close #2 to this ride is the sarcastic Jungle Cruise located at Adventureland in Disneyland. Ok, it’s not a close number two since on the animals are made of plastic on the Jungle cruise… but it’s still funny.

Soarin’

Soarin’ (Over California) is located at Epcot and probably one of the most popular rides in the entire Park. It’s located at the Land Pavilion and the ride is essentially a glider ride throughout California. They call it a “multi-sensory attraction” because you get sights, sounds, and smells as you glide through famed parts of California on an enormous IMAX projection screen while sitting in a “glider” that lifts you 40 feet into the air. My description is not doing it much justice but the ride is worth the wait.

Peter Pan’s Flight

Peter Pan’s Flight is my wife’s absolute favorite ride at Disney World, especially that first “majestic” view you get over London. The trip itself isn’t much more than a few minutes and is located at Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. You ride a galleon that soars through the air, following the trials and tribulations of Peter Pan and his battle with Captain Hook. It’s another cute ride that almost anyone can appreciate.

Finally, while I’ve already listed five rides, one that it worth checking out (especially if you haven’t been in a while) is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at the Magic Kingdom (you’ll be nearby if you just took Peter Pan’s Flight). They didn’t make any changes to the actual ride itself but they added a lot of fun stuff in the area where you wait in line. These are things obviously designed to keep children occupied on one of the most popular rides in the Magic Kingdom.

What are your favorite rides at Disney?

(Photos: johnmcconnell, oldpatterns, clyderob, lyght55, expressmonorail)

How to Get There

Metro It!
The closest stations to the Tidal Basin are: Smithsonian (Orange/Blue Lines), Federal Triangle (Orange/Blue), L’Enfant Station (Orange/Blue/Green/Yellow), and SEU Waterfront (Green) is the closest to the events at the Waterfront. Here is a map of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (the Metro) to help you plan your trip.

Its a popular event, so DC is packed with tons of people I suggest that you take public transportation into the Mall. (The Mall is what DCer’s call the area of grass that is in between the Smithsonian Museums, that has the Capitol Building on one end and the Washington Monument on the other end.)

If you want to drive, you can park and take a shuttle provided by the Festival, here are some additional directions for parking. Just keep in mind that DC has some of the worst traffic in the states so it may be easier to drive to a metro station and take the metro from there!

Review

The main reason to go down to the National Cherry Blossom Festival is to see the cherry blossoms. They did not disappoint! Everywhere you look around the tidal basin is a sea of light pink that frames our world famous monuments. It was beautiful and well worth fighting the crowds to get some good pictures in.

However, the food offerings and the music selection left us wanting more! The line for food on Saturday at 5pm was easily 100 people long. There was only one tent serving food beside the tidal basin and nothing else in sight. (You could walk back up to the Washington Monument for some ice cream though… ).

Since we weren’t going to stand in the long line we decided walked down to the waterfront to listen to the live music and check out the other food offerings. Its a decent walk, maybe 20 minutes but it was neat to see all the fresh fish stalls and the boats. When we got down to the waterfront the food offerings were pretty slim. They had corn dogs and Safeway was giving out reusable grocery bags with raisins, a granola bar and some fruit snacks in it. That was it!

My friends stood in line at the restaurants along the waterfront for over 2.5 hrs waiting to be seated! But they said the food was good when they finally got it Also, they were able to see the fireworks from their spot in line, another bonus.

Summary

If you end up going to see the cherry blossoms, I recommend that you pack a picnic dinner and enjoy the sights of the tidal basin and the monuments from up near the Washington Monument. I think if you move down to the tidal basin after it gets dark you should be able to see the fireworks from there (make sure you’re going on firework night). This way you can miss most of the crowds, see the fireworks and, of course, enjoy the cherry blossoms!

For more information check out the official website for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Have fun!

Bang for your Buck
The Mac King Comedy Magic Show is a 70 minute show that you and a friend can enjoy for under $26! Not only will you be laughing so hard for the show but you also can get a free drink with each admission. I think it is the best value per dollar available on the strip.

One tip: When at the bar remember to ask for the type of alcohol by name, otherwise you’ll get the cheaper alternative. For example: “I’ll have a Bailey’s on ice, please.”

In order to get the cheapest tickets available, take a walk on the outside of Harrahs near a circle of vendors and sound-stage, called the Carnival Court. Normally you will find a Harrahs employee (or a Harrahs Show Girl) handing out coupons that make two tickets + drinks for about $26 after taxes. When we went in June, we just missed the employee but were able to find some half price coupons on the ground… a little dirty but well worth the discount!

If you can’t find either then ask your hotel or within Harrahs. Many places will offer coupons for local attractions. Just don’t ask for coupons in the ticket line, they will probably not give you one

Audience Participation
When I went with a group of 12 friends, we were sure to show up 30 mintues prior to the show’s start. We were first seated in the tables in the middle of the theater but after a polite request were treated to some first class seats in the front! This put us in the prime location to be picked as Mac King’s helper. One of my friends was actually chosen and we had a great time watching her on stage! If you’re a little shy, just tell the ushers that you don’t want to go on stage and they’ll take care of it.

After the show Mac King waits outside the theater doors to take pictures, sign autographs and sell Magic Kits. Both times that I have met him, he has been really nice and friendly.

Break from Gambling
Last but not least, this is a best bet because it provides a nice break from the gambling! Plus you’ll probably feel like you spent your $26 on something worthwhile in comparison to how I feel after I lose $20 with a few hands of Blackjack!

Round-Up
If you’re heading to Las Vegas any time soon, check out the Mac King Comedy Show and let me know you think its a best bet!

The Details:
The Mac King Comedy Show is located at Harrahs in Las Vegas on Tues – Sat, with shows at 1pm and 3pm.

Ranch Tour

They offer two types of tours – a ranch tour and a waterfall tour. We opted for the Ranch Tour because it was shorter (3 hours vs. 4 hours) and slightly cheaper ($125 vs. $150). Looking back, I think going on either would’ve been fun though four hours is a pretty significant time commitment!

For our tour, we rode on a Rhino, which is a two seater side-by-side ATV made by Yamaha. We figured that since we were novices, it would be safer for us to use the Rhina rather than an the bomber. Also, since we wanted to take photos, we figured the Rhino offered better opportunities for the passenger to snap shots on the go. In a Bomber, where the passenger sits behind the driver, it can be a lot trickier to take photos.

Despite being almost two years ago, I still remember much of the tour. You start off with a little instruction and then practice. You driving the ATVs around a dirt covered area beside their office/trailer. The ATVs were pretty easy to drive, especially the wider Rhinos, and it only took a few minutes to become comfortable with the controls. After a brief introduction, we headed out to the ranch.

The tour consisted of driving from place to place as the tour guides gave some extensive island history, explanation of what movies were filmed nearby, etc. About halfway, you stop by the Hule’ia river where you enjoy some refreshments and then finish with a view of famous Kipu Kai. Kipu Kai is especially beautiful because it’s a private cove with private access, but you get to see it from above in all its splendor. The guides were really friendly, knowledgeable, and enjoyed having a good time. While I can’t confirm this, I’m pretty sure the tour ran longer than three hours but I never saw anyone check a watch.

Jim Driving the ATV – The ride gets you dirty, so you need the ranch provided helmet, goggles, and bandana.

Tips

If you do take the tour, here are a few bits of advice:

• Wear dark clothes – the dirt can stain lighter clothes.
• They advise you wear long pants and close-toe shoes – this is a must for safety reasons. You’ll be driving through woods and small branches might whip against your feet and legs, so keeping them covered is a must. We forgot to do that and it wasn’t an issue because of how the Rhino is designed, but if you are riding one of the others than I would wear long pants.
• Listen to their advice – ATVs are pretty safe but you never know, so learn how to drive them. The terrain isn’t challenging but again, you never know.
• Wear sunscreen – You’ll be exposed to the sun a lot and the uncovered ATVs will keep you cool with the wind, so you won’t even feel yourself burning if you forget sunscreen.
• Bring a point and click camera – ATVs kick up a lot of dirt, rocks, and all sorts of other crap. When we were done, uncovered parts of our face were covered in a red clay film. I advise against bringing an expensive SLR camera because you may regret it.

There are several ATV tour companies on Kauai and they are all comparable in price. We chose Kipu Ranch over others because it was so well regarded. It’s listed as #9 on Tripadvisor’s list of “things to do” on Kauai with a rating of 4.5 with 36 reviews. Kauai ATV Tours is another company, they have a rating of 4.5 with 12 reviews.

I think you’ll be happy with either, I mean it is Hawaii after all, but we went on Kipu and really enjoyed it.

One of the best things that we had on our trip was the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook. It is an excellent guide that helped us discern which activities, beaches, hikes and restaurants were the best to enjoy during our vacation! In fact, it was so useful that when we arrived on the Big Island we went to Costco and picked one up!

I recommend that if you are headed to Hawaii, get it in advance so that you can use it to plan you trip!

The book is broken up into eight sections:

Introduction
The introduction is as it sounds like, a basic review of the history of Hawaii and a little about each of the eight islands.

The Basics
This is a helpful section to read before you depart on your trip, it includes packing tips and car rental suggestions.

Sights by Geographical Region (e.g. East, West)
Since the sights are broken up into regions we planned our day based on the sights in a particular region. We also took a look at the dining options in that area to figure out where we wanted to eat! This allowed us to reduce the amount of driving and allowed us to optimize our fun for the day!

Beaches
This is a must-read for both beach-lovers and non-beach lovers alike! It gives a short section on each beach, divided up by geographical region. I really liked this section because as a non-beach lover I was able to determine which beaches I wanted to check out. The best beaches are highlighted with a “Gem” beside their review. This allowed us non-beach lovers to enjoy the most beautiful beaches that Kauai is known for but avoid those that are just best for sunbathing!

Activites
Other than Island Dining this was section that we referenced the most during our trip! It covers everything from hikes to golfing to helicopter rides. It provides a really good background on which big ticket items (like a helicopter ride) are worth it and how much they will set you back!

As a note, we found that they rating of hiking trails was a little off, a hike that was rated as “moderately difficult” was actually relatively easy. But, if you’ve been spending your vacation lying on the beach drinking Lava Flows then maybe a hike that would normally be easy becomes pretty hard!

A word of warning: some of the hikes that we wanted to try had notices of visitors who died/were severely injured when trying to following the hikes outlined in this book. We decided to use our best judgement and didn’t go on those hikes.

Adventures
Now if you’re like me and hang gliding (from the Activites section) seems like an adventure I wondered what this section could outline! This section starts off by stating that this section is for the serious adventurer. They cover great but hard hikes, long kayaking trips and scuba diving.

Island Dining
My favorite part of the book is the “Island Dining” section. Wow, was it great! It lists most places on the Island and gives the really good spots the “ONO” grade. We were able to try some out of the way places that we would not have found without the book! The places outlined in this section can range from the roadside stand to the very fancy. Try them all, don’t shy away from some place because its located off the side of the highway, we found that those were some of the best!

Places to Stay
With prices of food in Hawaii being very expensive we were happy to stay in a condo during our first week in Kauai. This section provides reviews of hotels and condominiums and suggest that you spend some time looking at their on-line reviews. Since they can provide much more in-depth information that in the book.

Overall Review
We loved our time in Hawaii and The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook made it possible!

Image Credit:

Appetizers

To start, Martha and I shared their fun Cheese & Wine Flight and their Medium Rare Espresso Rubbed Loin of Lamb. The wine flight was fun, you had a plate of three cheeses (a chedder, a brie, and a cheese started started with a “T”) paired with a chardonnay, Brut Champagne, and Green Pointe Shiraz (I believe the pairing was in that order too). The loin of lamb was cooked well and despite being able to see the char, I was surprised I didn’t really taste it. I think the blackberry lamb jus was a nice mild flavor that worked well with the pickled shallots.

I opted for a glass of the 2006 Norton Malbec and it was delicious. I’m not a wine aficionado, which is exactly how I like it to be because it means I can enjoy budget wines without being picky or noticing flaws, but I would buy a few of these bottles to drink at home. Fortunately, the bottles themselves cost only $8.99 at the local store!

The next time we visit, I think the Teriyaki Ribeye Carpaccio or the Pepper Seared Ahi Tuna, given how well they did the lamb, might make good choices.

Entrées

Martha had their braised boar entrée, which had a fancy name that escapes me (the menu on the website is a little outdated). It was braised boar tossed with sun dried tomatoes, plums, and noodles. She loved the richness of the dish because the savory flavors of the braised boar married well with the sweetness of the dun dried tomatoes and plums. Only one complaint, some of the noodles stuck together and were a bit underdone.

I had their Short Rib entree, which was an enormous short rib seated on a bed of kale and chips of bacon. It was delicious and that’s not the wine talking. While we never cook with kale at home, I enjoy the texture and you make anything heavenly when you cook it with bacon!

Red Envelope Holiday Giveaway

We didn’t know this when we visited but they are running a fun little holiday giveaway. During December, every time you dine at Iron Bridge your party will be given a red envelope. You can’t open it except on a visit between January 1st and February 11th and inside there will be a prize. They say the prizes range from free glasses of wine and food to dinner for two, every month of the year in 2010. You can find out more on the website.

Overall, we were very pleased with our visit and will definitely go back (especially since we now have a red envelope to use!). Our bill was helped out by a Restaurant.com voucher we bought with one of their 80% off sales (so we bought a $25 gift certificate for $2), so if you’re going to visit and aren’t sure if you’ll like it, I recommend picking up one of the certificates.

I’ve never been to a “wine tasting bar” but I thought the idea was very clever and very cool. Here’s a shot of the inside taken by Nightclub.com:

There is a seating area in the middle, a full bar to the left, and then plenty of wine on the right. In the above photo, the photo is taken as if you were sitting at the bar and looking at the wine sampling area. You start by getting yourself a card that gets you access to the wine machines. The cards are $5 (they have a smart chip inside), reloadable in $25 increments, and our group of four shared a single card (since only two were locals, no sense in out of towners to get their own cards). Then you just walk up to one of the machines, stick your card in, and decide how much wine you want. You can choose among a 1 oz. tasting, a 3 oz. tasting, or a 5 oz. tasting.

Here’s a look at one of the chilled wine machines:

It was a cool experience, we enjoyed a lot of wine, and I definitely see it as a fun place to go if you’re a wine enthusiast. You can sample all manner of wines without committing to a full bottle. If you’re not a wine enthusiast, you can still sample a few wines (to see if there’s something you’d like) and then order something up at the bar. Afterwards, you can hit up a craps table.

The Almara House is a nine-bedroom bed & breakfast approximately ten minutes away from the main activity in Galway. If you don’t have a car, waiting for the bus can be a pain because the stop is uncovered and comes every fifteen to thirty minutes.

Breakfast

Each night you’re asked to select a starter and main entree for the following days’ breakfast. Breakfast also included coffee/tea and toast, with a selection of jellies and butter. Both mornings I had a yogurt granola starter, called something I can’t remember, which was delicious.

The first day I had myself the full Irish breakfast, which consisted of two rashers (bacon), two sausages, an egg, black pudding and white pudding. Of all the meals, it’s the largest by far. I wanted to try a full Irish breakfast at least once and what better place than at a Bed & Breakfast right? (anywhere you go, a full irish Breakfast would run you close to 8-9 euros, so it’s a pretty good value too)

Black & White Pudding

When we were planning our trip, I had people recommend, laughingly, that I give the black and white pudding a try because of what’s in it. Unfortunately for them, I kind of enjoyed the two because they were something different. It’s one of those instances where I wasn’t revolted but pleasantly surprised, but I didn’t I enjoy it enough to order it again.

If you don’t want quite so many rashers or sausages and not a fan of pudding, get the medium because it’s a rasher, a sausage, and the egg. Still good, just not as stodgy.

The second day I opted for the same starter but for the sausages and chili sauce. It was three breakfast sausages and a bit of chili sauce, exactly as described. It was good but I had to load up on a few more pieces of toast.

Rooms

We were in Room 6, which was towards the front of the house. It gave us a view of the backyard, which had some nice landscaping and a little fountain. Our friends were staying in room 9, right across the “hall.”

The room itself was nice but felt a little small because the queen sized bed dominated the room. The room only extended about a foot and a half from the foot of the bed and then you had about two to three feet to each side. This wasn’t a problem because we didn’t spend much time there, except to play a few games after coming home from the pub.

One feature I wished they had was access to the living room or some other larger area we could spend some time in. The dining room was always set up for breakfast so we couldn’t really hang out in there and we weren’t sure if the living room was available.

Overall, I was very pleased with our stay at the Almara House. It was conveniently located on the bus route of the Number 9 bus which took us right into the city. While we didn’t take advantage of the nearby Papa Johns or Supermac’s, we did think about it a few times after a couple pints at the pub.

Benefits:

• Exceptionally friendly
• Free wi-fi
• Self-serve coffee and teas on the 2nd floor
• Generous breakfasts
• Fairly priced, award winning B&B

Drawbacks:

• No larger rooms to congregate