Deal of the Day

» » Deal of the Day

Posted by Friday, December 30, 2011, No Comments

Hilton’s Q1 promotion has been announced: 1,000 points/night and 5,000 points/weekend

Alitalia is offering 50% off “classic” reward redemptions. This means that roundtrip from the States to Italy is only 25,000 miles! You can transfer from AMEX or SPG.

You can stay at the Wyndham Grand in Rio Mar from only $399/person incl. air for 4 nights.

You can enter to win a trip for two to the new Trump Toronto here

You can enter to win a free 7-day cruise from Princess Cruises!

TripAlertz is still giving $5 for every person that you invite. You can use my link if you want to join or you can use on of the links in the comments.

Here is this week’s Top 20 from Travel Zoo

Related Posts

  • Mark

    Shannon I've been considering a week or two in Paris this March and found http://www.airbnb.com via a tech blog (TWIT.com). They seem to have a great variety, good search and reviews.

    I'm not affiliated with AirBNB or TWIT and have not yet used the AirBNB site to book.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the post Shannon. My husband and I also like the budget and social benefits of hostels so I will take a look at hostelworld for our next big adventure.

  • Anonymous

    Or you can go to
    http://www.hihostels.com/
    I have stayed at many of these. They are affordable often ate great locations, safe and you get to meet a lot of people who are interested in interacting and seeing the city with you. However, it is often a younger audience and some places may only have 6+ ppl room available. If you don't feel comfortable sharing a large room with strangers, it's not for you. Even the one on 891 Amsterdam Ave in NY is great if visiting Manhattan.

  • HC

    I've stayed a few times at St. Christopher's in Paris. I really enjoy hostels. I have a lot of hotel points, but hostels are just more fun to me. I guess being a solo traveler most of the time I can enjoy them more than others might. But, hostels are my preferred place to stay no matter where I am. Hotels can have such a stale, anti-social atmosphere to them.

  • Anonymous

    This is perfect. I was just thinking about how I need to start planning my sleeping arrangements for when I go to London/Amsterdam in March. Thanks!

  • Anonymous

    Shannon, you really should have somebody proofread your copy before you post it. :) As to hostels, they're typically much noisier and not amenity-rich, and are often not in the best parts of town either. I recommend B&Bs as a less expensive alternative to hotels. TripAdvisor is an excellent resource for both.

  • IPBrian

    My wife and I went to Paris recently and used AirBnB. We found a great little apartment for 10 days for just over $1100 US. Not a bad deal and a great location!

  • poorgradstudent

    I LOVE airbnb. I've stayed at few different places so far in London, Brussels, and Amsterdam – all were great. You can choose to rent the whole apartment or just a room. Either way, it's sometimes nice to have a little more space to relax and a kitchen of sorts. (I get a little if you sign up through this link and later book anything. I'm not affiliate, just a friendly fellow traveler with them).
    http://www.airbnb.com/tell-a-friend?airef=2vajz0fa9dzz5

  • Anonymous

    I have used Hostelworld.com many times. Since we are older (50 yrs old) and like a quiet stay, we pull up reviews from people of similar age to see what they say about the hostel. We also pull up reviews from people in their 20s because if they say the hostel is a great, fun place, we know it's not a good choice for us. Beware of hostels with only a few reviews. Also, only take places with the highest reviews because lots of people are too generous with their reviews.

  • HC

    A few words on St. Christopher's in Paris. You'll have to take the subway virtually everywhere, which was always fine by me. Short walk to the Crimee subway stop from the hostel. Never felt unsafe in the neighborhood either.

    In the times I have stayed there I have found the wifi to be really disappointing. I had a tough time actually determining where the hot spot was. It doesn't seem to be in the lounge where the computer is. I think it's in the Belushi's Bar area near the canal.

    They do have storage in your room that you can use a lock (Make sure it's a lock that's pretty big. About this size: http://www.plumbersurplus.com/images/prod/6/Master-Lock-175DLH-rw-99082-164137.jpg

    They do have a luggage storage room available on the 1st floor if you get in too early for check-in or leave too late after check-out. However, this room is just a wide open room. General luggage storage if you aren't checked into your room is not free if you want to make sure it's secure. The luggage room has lockers, but you have to pay a few euro to use them. Rates are based on how long you plan to need one. So, luggage storage is either in the cage under your bed that you can lock yourself, in one of the pay lockers in the luggage room, or on the floor in the luggage room that is not at all secure.

  • Anne and Kirk

    Another great way to save is to rent an apartment – that way you don't have to eat all of your meals out. We'll be in a studio apartment in Florence, Italy over New Years – one of several apts we've rented there through the years.

  • HC

    One more word on hostels: http://www.hostelbookers.com is another option for booking, in addition to hostelworld. hostelworld.com charges a $2 service fee unless you pay for their $10 Gold Card, or whatever they call it. I don't believe hostelbookers.com has that fee. But, I also haven't explored it yet to see if it has as many options as hostelworld.


Sapphire Preferred


Ink Bold 25k + 25k


Delta Gold SkyMiles Card 30,000 Miles


SPG Amex 25k


Premier Rewards Gold Card
tripbase awards badge