Travel

Torrey Pines Reserve is a great place for a short and easy walk with nice view.
It was beautiful day in September 🙂

I had high expectations before flying on the Boeing 787 for the first time. The flight experience didn’t fall below. It might be hard to notice it in the picture but the Boeing 787 is very spacious. It’s more spacious than any other plan I have taken a flight on. The illuminated LED lights made me feel like I’m on aircraft from the future and the best of all are the significantly large windows with electronic daylight control which replaced the traditional plastic shades. Besides all the new additions, it always feels better to fly on new plane with clean white walls and new seats without signs of wear.

If you want to travel somewhere and spend the minimum possible, and your schedule is flexible, you should try Kayak Explore. On one screen, you can view the lowest price available for each destination, for the next 12 months. You can narrow results by season of the year, month, destination and more. Sometimes I use it for fun, just to see what is out there.

The regular searching tool on kayak.com is also good to know about. It’s similar to Google Flights when looking for flights but it also gives you the option to look for rental cars and hotels.

Me and 2 friends decided to go to Mexico for the weekend. I was amazed by the fact nobody asked us for our passports when we crossed the border to Mexico.
It’s hard to believe how the atmosphere in Mexico is different form California although it’s in the same geographical region. It’s the border that sets the sharp difference in culture and lifestyle.

We had good time staying at the hotel in La Fonda and chilling on the beach in front of it.  There were barely people on the beach at that time (the end of August). It felt really quiet and relaxing.

At night, we went to Rosarito, to eat in a restaurant and checked one of the clubs.

We had good time and everything went as we planned except getting back to the US. The waiting line to cross the border was so long that had to wait in the car for 7 hours until we arrived to the the border check point. During that time, if felt like drive-thru mall. The locals were walking around the cars in the line, offering food, souvenirs and other stuff.

At the end of June I had to go back to NYC to take the Monster to the Ducati dealer for replacing the deformed fuel tank. After having hard time to work with the dealer in NYC, I found Rockwell Cycles, a dealer in Fort Montgomery, about an hour outside the city. I took the bike there and was very happy with the service I received. I even got a ride to the local train station by one of the associates so I could take the train back to NYC after leaving the bike for service.

I found myself in NYC on 4th of July. Luckily my friend lives in a building with a rooftop in NYC where you can watch the fireworks. The police blocked some of the streets and only people with ID that shows address in that area were allowed to get in. My friend’s building was few feet away from where the police blocked the access so he came down to talk the officers and they let me in. Thanks to my friend, I watched awesome fireworks show!

I had a connection flight in Brussels so I could go to the city center for few hours.
I have been to Brussels in the past and remembered how good was the Belgian waffle with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. What I didn’t remember is that many merchants in Europe don’t accept credit cards for transaction of low amounts. Since I was traveling for only few hours, I didn’t come ready with euros so I had to look for a place where I can exchange US Dollars to Euros. That didn’t take long and only delayed my joy by 10 minutes.

I had to take a flight from Chicago O’hare International Airport. Everything was covered by white snow. The airport and the airline’s staff were working hard to clear the snow from the tracks and the planes. My flight and many other flights were delayed so I used the time to enjoy the lounge and watch the process of clearing the snow from the planes.

Everyone who knows me well enough, knows I fly often. In the effort of saving on airfare I was looking for different tools to compare availability and cost. One of the most useful tools that came to my knowledge last year is Google Flights!

Despite being a great tool it’s still new so many people have never heard about it. I’m not going to explain in details how to get the most from Google Flights since it’s easy to use and has been covered by other sources online.

Getting prices from major airlines for range of dates and advanced filtering options makes it comprehensive as you were travel agent. Some airlines (e.g. Southwest) and destinations not showing on Google Flights so to get more options and sometimes better price I also use Southwest website (Calendar view) and ITA software’s website. I plan and book my trips at least two weeks ahead and avoid last minute booking which usually cost a lot more.

Another thing you should know is that Google Flight doesn’t let you book the trip, instead it directs you to the airline’s website. In some cases you will find the same fare is cheaper on websites like Vayama, Orbitz and travelocity. Also you will sometimes find fares that were not showing on Google Flights results. So why not to use these websites instead? Because it doesn’t let you view search results for range of dates. Instead you will have to enter specific dates and perform multiple searches. If you are flexible with the dates of the trip you can sometimes save significant amount of money.

When you find a flight for a very low price, book it right away since the price will usually go up. If you are not sure about it yet, find out about cancellation policy. Most airlines allow you change your mind and cancel the booking within 24 hours (unless you fly the next day) so you can book the flight and have 24 hours to cancel if you change your mind or find any issue with the reservation you booked.