Giveaway :: Mother's Day At The Fairmont Whistler

[trip style = luxury]

{Editor's Note :: I've spent more hours at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler than any other hotel in the world. It's one of my happy places. With this in mind, I'm really excited to share this Mother's Day Package and giveaway with you! Good luck.}

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler Mother's Day Package

• Two nights in Fairmont accommodation (Either Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun of Mother’s Day weekend)
• Daily breakfast in bed or in the Wildflower Restaurant for two
• Special Mother’s Day welcome amenity
• Cost: $169 per person based on double occupancy, plus taxes
• Subject to availability

The Giveaway {a $338+ value} One lucky reader will win the above package with an upgraded Deluxe Slopeside room with views of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Non-transferable. Congrats Karen P, you're the tentative winner. Once you confirm via email, we'll email you with the details!

How To Enter

• You have to be a fan of Trip Styler on Facebook. If not, “like” the Trip Styler FAN PAGE on Facebook.
• Like this post...scroll-up, see the Facebook "like" button above.
• Complete your entry by leaving a comment below telling us you’ve entered! {see the ‘leave a comment’ link below}

Bonus Entry 1 – Join our email list {top right} and activate your email. New sign-ups only please. Bonus Entry 2 – RT the following on twitter: I entered to win 2 night #MothersDay package @FairmontWhistlr in #Whistler via @tripstyler Enter: http://goo.gl/XBwjq *For bonus entries, make sure you tell us you've completed each when you leave your entry comment below.

Details Open to residents of Canada and the USA 21 years or older. Entries will be accepted Apr. 30 – May 7th {until noon}, 2012. Winner will be chosen via random.org and announced after noon PST on May 7th. After prizing notification, winner has two days to make contact.

[photos via The Fairmont Chateau Whistler]

Fashion Friday :: Spring in San Francisco

Fashion Friday posts are published on the last Friday of every month by fashion blogger Heather

It's easy to leave your heart in San Francisco, as the saying goes, but with such amazing shopping, it's even easier to leave your chequing account. Having just returned from the City by the Bay, I couldn't wait to share a few of my favorite shopping and eating haunts {since you can't have one without the other}. Don't forget your walking shoes!

San Francisco mini neighborhood shopping guide

The Mission

I have a mad crush on the Mission, which has some of the best shops and restaurants in the city---not to mention the coolest park and the prettiest boys and girls on bicycles you ever did see. It's a neighborhood gentri-hipsterfied with coffee shops, thrift stores, juice bars and high-end furniture galleries. Shop around Valencia St at hippie-artisan boutique Gravel & Gold, taxidermy garden shop Paxton Gate and must-stop lifestyle store Voyager. Do yourself a favor and eat at any of the following: Delfina, Foreign Cinema, Four Barrel Coffee, Tartine, Bar Bambino and Bi-Rite Creamery.

Hayes Valley

Hayes Valley is a bit of a locals' secret just a hop-skip from the Mission and home to boutiques and delicious eats aplenty. Shop your face off at Steven Alan, Gimme Shoes, Flight 001, Welcome Stranger, Birch and Rand+Statler, and then eat/drink your face off at Biergarten, Smitten Ice Cream and Bar Jules.

Union Square

We can't discuss shopping in San Francisco without mentioning the epicentre of west coast shopping herself: Union Square. This department store heaven, which includes Macy's, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Barneys, Saks and Neiman Marcus, is also home to all of your favourite chains like Madewell, J.Crew, Zara, Diesel, H&M and Levi's. Refuel at Blue Bottle with delicious coffee and waffles before you, ahem, window shop at the likes of Kate Spade, Chanel, John Varvatos, Prada and YSL.

More Fashion Friday
Spring In Your Step
Scarf Tying 101
Celeb Travel Must-Haves
November in New York

[photos by @heatherlovesit]

Luxe For Less B+ Hotels

[trip style = budget conscious...with a taste for the high life]

{Editor’s Note :: Today is the second post in a two-part series about B+ luxe for less. Last week we carried on about B+ Destinations.}

"A" hotels, aka those that constantly grace Conde Nast Traveler and Travel+Leisure 'best of' lists, usually mean splurge. Steals rarely exist at these world-renowned, high-occupancy, fancy-pantsy accoms.

Hotel Luxe For Less - Two Rules 1/ Find luxury for trip style = budget conscious prices outside multinational hotel mainstays like Four Seasons, Ritz or Relais & Chateaux. 2/ Find luxury within high-end multinational hotel brands in less popular areas.

1/ Though I prefer smaller, boutique-y properties, mixing it up and staying at the biggies is important---even for loyalty program points acquisition as a means of stretching your travel budget. The problem: stay at hotel brands synonymous with luxury in resort areas or major urban centers, and your pocketbook is on a non-stop spend-a-thon at standouts like the Four Seasons Resort in Maui, the Fairmont Savoy in London, the Intercontinental Le Grand in Paris and the Banyan Tree Seychelles.

Go with an independent or less recognized hotel brand that's just as luxurious sans the glitzy brand name, and you'll travel like a king for jester prices. For example, on my recent trip to Thailand I stayed at two ultra-stylish and luxe properties in B+ destinations. Neither hotel was part of a major hotel group, yet both were regularly featured in international design mags and blogs. At the first property I had a beachfront, plunge pool villa with a daily champagne breakfast. At the second resort I had a huge, swanky room with the BEST hotel bed known to man and a 12ft rain shower. PS - both start around $150/night---a far cry from the A properties in nearby A destinations like Koh Samui .....

2/ You want to stay at the Four Seasons for Holiday Inn prices. We all do. It's possible. Vacationing at the Four Seasons Maui will set you back approx. $450/night. Alternatively, take a 45-min boat ride to Lanai {from Maui}, and choose from one of two Four Seasons properties {1 & 2} available for half the price. Banyan Tree is another example of an exquisite hotel group with a consistent hotel product and varied price points. Their first property in North America, located in Mexico's Riviera Maya, goes for a FRACTION of the price of their other properties even though the location and amenities are just as strong.

What are some of your “Brilliant B Hotels”?

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[photo by @tripstyler taken of the Banyan Tree villas in Mexico]

Roam+Board :: The LIT! Bangkok

[trip style = urban + budget conscious]

{Editor’s Note :: April’s destination focus is Thailand and today is the last Thai hurrah! Check out our spotlight on Bangkok, and other Roam+Board features on a modern, all-villa retreat and a swish and tech-savvy beach resort---both within a two- to four-hour drive of Bangkok. PS - I just stayed at The LIT! Bangkok and it's ultra Trip Styler approved.}

What The term calculated can have a negative connotation, yet use it to describe a near-perfect hotel experience and it's a positive. The LIT! Bangkok is cool, calm and calculated, a haven from the city's heat and hype.

Always smiling and gentle staff dressed in crisp white shirts and traditional Thai pants {a nicer version of the MC hammer pant craze} welcome and assist with your every whim; low-decibel ambient music sets the mood in elevators and hallways; the infinity pool and landscaping make you forget you're in a city of 8 million; and the design cues are right out of Vogue Living Australia.

Within seconds of arriving, I was promptly given a tour of my comfy, clean-lined room---complete with a sitting area, desk and marble bathroom that spanned the entire length of the space. Wearing my in-room raw silk robe, snacking on the included mini bar goodies, strangely, I felt at home though I was thousands of miles away.

The icing on the LIT!'s calculated cake? An included 10-minute foot massage that turned into 17 minutes of Bangkok bliss.

Where Bangkok, Thailand. Situated on a side street with food vendors and $10 massage parlors, the LIT! is a two-minute walk from the National Stadium Station skytrain stop and a two-minute cab from the Phaya Thai station {the airport express train's end point}.

When Bangkok is busy year-round. The "tropical cool" season is still hot and steamy spanning November to mid-January. The rest of the year is biz-nanas hot with intermittent rain and electric, short-lived storms.

Who/Why You don't have to stay at Bangkok's river-front, highfalutin towers to make you feel like you've experienced the high life in the Big Mango. You'd rather your voguish home base to be on a side street surrounded by local businesses.

Cost Rooms start at $105/night and include a 10-minute foot massage, a well-balanced breakfast buffet with fresh juice and killer coffee, wifi, bottled water and a daily mini bar allowance.

{Trip Styler Tip :: Upon check-out, it's common for hotels in Thailand to ask you to wait a moment before you leave while housekeeping inspects the room.}

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More Roam+Board Hotel De La Paix - Thailand X2 Kui Buri - Thailand Ecopod Boutique Retreat – Scotland The Saguaro AZ – Scottsdale Arizona Biltmore – Phoenix Llipimpac Guesthouse – Cusco, Peru From ice hotels to Anna Wintour’s steal-of-a-deal holiday escape, find all featured R+B properties here.

[photos by @tripstyler---see additional shots the LIT! Bangkok on Trip Styler's Instagram]

Tech Tuesday :: Pic Frames

[trip style = any]

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If a picture's worth a thousand words, what about a multi-photo, fancy-schmancy collage?

Camera phones, photo sharing platforms and social media are giving way to a new breed of amateur digital photographers who snap more photos than the Sartorialist and add more filters than a celeb photoshop pro. I'm not sure if Ansel Adams would join the revolution, or roll over in his grave. Likely, the latter.

Kill two, three, four, five or six birds with one stone using the following picture frame apps. Gather and create a photo montage of everything from your breakfast, to shots of the Grand Canyon from multiple vantage points. Here are two photo grid/collage apps I consistently use:

Picture Frames FREE - easily add photos from your iPhone into 18 different frame configurations - squeeze or expand the photo for best fit - add a border with varying thickness and colors - finish and save to your phone, email it or send to Facebook or Twitter - note: you have to opt out of two or three ads each time you use the app - available for iPhone, and here's a similar free photo grid app for Android

{Shot in Vancouver's Gastown district at the Acme Cafe}

PicFrame {$0.99} - easily add photos from your iPhone into 60 fully adjustable frame configurations - squeeze or expand the photo for best fit - add a straight or rounded border with varying thickness, colors and patterns - apply 18 different filters to each individual photo with the collage/frame - finish and save to your phone, email it or send to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Flickr - available for iPhone + Android {Shot in Vancouver's Gastown district at Save-On-Meats}

More Tech Tuesday Tingo "Money Back" Hotel Search 'n Book Instagram For Android A Nanny In The Clouds How To Make Animated Travel Photos Phoneography Google Traveler Tricks

[photos by @tripstyler using the above-mentioned apps]