Holland. The Original Cool.

[trip style = urban]

Holland's been on my mind A LOT lately. My sister was just there, my dog's breed is Dutch and now this... The country of canals, cheese and cycling just came out with a two-minute video you NEED to watch.

Here are a few lines I love: "You call it organic and artisanal, we just call it food" "You call it boutique, independent, alternative, we call it the 9 Streets" "You call it exercise, we call it a way of life" {biking} "You call it green energy, we call it tradition" {windmills}

Video - Holland. The Original Cool. {Can't view this video?}

[photo via video]

Find Your Freedom {& An Aruba Contest!}

[trip style = any]

DON'T MISS OUR CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT---for a trip & travel voucher---BELOW!

As many of you probably know, I've been fortunate enough {read: I'm still in shock and awe} to partner with Expedia.com for the past few months. Along with nine other travel bloggers, my latest project is a co-leading a Twitter Photo Contest {details below}, a continuation of my solo Expedia video {highlighting a life-changing travel moment in Mexico} that recently kick-started one of Expedia's largest-ever campaigns: Find Yours.

About Find Yours Instead of focusing bikini-clad blonds sipping umbrella drinks on the beach and blue-eyed hunks carving figure eights on glaciers in Vail, my former advertising account exec self is o-v-e-r-j-o-y-e-d that Expedia is the first travel company to do away with the expected, and take the road less traveled {pun intended} speaking to the heart and soul of globetrotting. There's ALWAYS a reason we travel, find yours...

Expedia Find Yours Twitter Photo Contest ----> 2 Chances To Win WHAT YOU CAN WIN 1/ Four nights at the Bacati & Tara Beach Resort in Aruba. {This grand prize will be awarded to any tweet including the #expediafindyours hashtag and one of the participating bloggers' keyword hashtags, mine is #freedom} 2/ An $250 Expedia Voucher. {The Trip Styler prize awarded to a participating tweet with a photo and the #expediafindyours and #freedom hashtags}

HOW TO ENTER 1/ First things first; make sure you're following Expedia on Twitter 2/ Tweet a photo with the hashtags #freedom #expediafindyours from July 11 - 31, 2012. Note that your tweet MUST include a photo, as well as the #freedom and #expediafindyours hashtags to be automatically entered to win.  Full details here. Example Tweet: #Freedom on a ladder in Peru #expediafindyours @tripstyler - ow.ly/i/LfMh 3/ AND, please include @tripstyler in your tweet so I can retweet your travel photos!

Find Your Freedom Once you see the prizes and simplicity of entering my joint-venture Twitter photo contest with Expedia {above}, I know you may skip this paragraph in a moment of travel euphoria, but I'll pen it anyway. As one of 10 travel bloggers participating in Find Yours Twitter Photo Contest, we each had the choice of a word we'd use to associate with our tweets. I chose #freedom for two reasons. First---> for me, find your freedom is not just a word, it's a lifestyle. Second---> sometimes words can't describe the emotions associated with the freedom standing on a mountaintop in Nepal, watching a flock of flamingoes fly overhead in Bonaire, catching a wave in Oahu, or even eating a McOddity in who knows where. A picture's worth 1000 words, so from today until July 31st, tweet one or 1000 photos---whether it's your own photo or someone else's---that describe finding your freedom. Reminder, there are two prizes up for grabs.

Finding My Freedom About six years ago my husband and I took an inventory of our values knowing they are the foundation for every decision, action and reaction. We learned that one of our personal and shared values was freedom, and since then, we have been very purposeful about living this out, carefully weighing it and along with our other values every time we make a decision. Cue the violins: I would not be where I am today {which *I think* is a good place} if it weren't for freedom. This is why I chose it as the #expdiafindyours word for me and you.

Expedia's Find Yours Videos {I dare you NOT to get misty in the eyes} Expedia's Find Yours Anthem, crowdsourced from real stories online.

My Find Your Calling Story.

Dave & Deb's Find Your Harmony Story.

[photos by @tripstyler used for an expedia twitter program in which I'm participating]

Find Your Calling

[trip style = benevolent] {video is below}

Three weeks ago I did the opposite of what 99.9% of travelers do in Mexico {read: sip salt-rimmed margs on the beach}---I revisited a place that completely changed the course of my life.

When I was 15, I had the opportunity to visit San Felipe {a little town at the top of the Baja} on my spring break to help build a clinic. The project was significant because the fishing town is isolated and only reachable via a a three-hour, straight-as-an-arrow highway from Mexicali. Without a proper clinic in town, people were dying on the side of the road while trying to reach Mexicali for acute care.

Along with a team of teens from Vancouver, BC, I chiseled concrete, dug trenches and painted to help give the residents something everyone should have access to, but many in the world do not, basic medical care.

I went down with the idea that I'd help the 'poor people' in Mexico. After all, they lived differently than me: in houses constructed with plywood scraps, built on sand, and surrounded by fences constructed of barbed wire and prickly cactus. I could NOT have been more misinformed. I have the locals of San Felipe to thank for changing what I care about, how I spend my time and how I spend my money. To them, I am FOREVER grateful.

Expedia recently got wind of my story, so I went back to San Felipe with a camera team. It is my HIGHEST honor to have revisited the place that disrupted my worldview and changed my course. The just-launched two-minute video is part of Expedia's new campaign: Find Yours.

Eighteen years ago, I found my calling---something I do quietly behind the scenes, but is probably one of the most important parts of my life---find yours.

Can't view this video?

ps - stay tuned, behind-the-scenes photos of San Felipe to come on Friday! And, one other video has been made about Dave & Deb finding their harmony, check it out!

Sunday Night Armchair Travel

[trip style = staycation]

Each Sunday this fall, fasten your seat belts and sit back and relax for two hours of armchair travel in one night! Sure to transport you from the comforts of your couch to the craziness of destinations like Caracas, travel vicariously through the ladies and gents from the Jet Age and eager-beaver, round-the-world racers. Here is your Sunday night, in-flight entertainment:

Pan Am ABC - Premiers Sunday, September 25th, 10pm We've been waiting a long time for Pan Am! I first told you about the show in April when it hadn't yet been given the official go-ahead from flight control network execs, but with a steady landing the coffee, tea or me era is making a comeback! I can't wait for a window into the days of glam galavanting, smoke-filled cabins, Pucci-designed uniforms and bottomless in-flight cocktails.

The Amazing Race CBS - Premiers Sunday, September 25th, 8pm Phil and 11 soon-to-be travel-savvy teams are back at it for the show's 10th anniversary year. Vegas cocktail waitresses, a father-son boating duo and young cancer survivor and his girlfriend are just some of the teams recently announced for season 19. Phil recently told People "I'm not sure we've ever had a season like this where there are so many proven athletes," which includes former Olympic snowboarders, former NFL player and 60+ year old triathletes. We'll find out soon if there's an equal international playing field!

PS - There's a new Canadian travel show starting September 15th at 8.30pm in BC called Restless Josie. Combining adventure travel with some of the world's most dangerous sports, Josie interviews and films leading athletes on and off their jobs surfing, freeride mountain biking, rodeo events, kite boarding, rock climbing and wakeboarding in different locations.

Related Posts A Pilot About Pilots Shows That Make You Want To Go Travel Trends :: Retro Travel

[photos abc + cbs]

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Tech Tuesday :: Rico Suave

I'd like to introduce you to Rico, the pantless spokes-muppet-squirrel for Air New Zealand wearing nothing but a crisp white shirt and a Saturday Night Fever-inspired purple polyester vest. He's been around since fall 2010, but continues to heat up the internet and garner millions of views with his saucy brand of advertising rhetoric expounding the benefits of the airline, its home country and culture.

Gen X and Yers, you're supposed to listen to him, but not take him too seriously as he delivers humour-ridden key messages about his preferred airline. With two little fang-ish teeth, oversized bright green googly eyes, fur like my old teddy bear and a tail much longer than his entire body, his semi-cute looks let him get away with A LOT of free-spirited chatter.

Rico's chochy-meets-cute look says it all, he's suggestive, he's spicy and even though he speaks with a Spanish accent, he's born in New Zealand---a culture where advertising takes a few more liberties than in North America, hence Rico's less regulated internet {vs more regulated TV} platform. In case Rico's genre of humour-meets-advertising is offensive to you, don't forget that it comes from the Airline who's done flight safety videos with body painted flight attendants, a streaking grandma and Richard Simmons.

Love or hate the airline's furry fiend with a penchant for r-r-r-olling his Rs, Air New Zealand is all about attention, and they do it well. Really well, always staying on message, aside from the innuendoes. In their words {thanks a recent social media strategy video} "when you're a little airline from the bottom of the world, you have to throw out the marketing rulebook of you want to get noticed on the international stage."

Every time I watch one of these videos I'm a little shocked {which is the point} by who {think Lindsay Lohan and David Hasselhoff} and what they feature in a segment called "on the skycouch"---a play on the Airline's revolutionary fold-out seats-turned-beds in Economy. Yet no matter what celebrity raps or chats with Rico, I cant stop laughing.

Kudos to Rico for making me laugh---sometimes to the point of crying---and constantly reminding me that New Zealand is a country on my travel bucketlist I'd like to visit by way of a Skycouch!

{Trip Styler Tip :: Air New Zealand, flies direct to Auckland from Vancouver and LA. Note there are multiple other departure points with Air New Zealand's Star Alliance codeshare partners.} 

Starring Rico, Videos Rico with Giulinana Rancic

Rico with David Hasselhoff

Rico with Snoop Dogg

Rico Expressing His Love For Kim Kardashian

PS - check out this funny {as always} travel tech interview with Rico by ZDNet Australia. Order your meal via personal touchscreen, message other passengers and use your cell phone in-flight. Wow, what a concept, especially in comparison to planes with overhead monitors every 30 seats.

Related Sweet and Saucy Travel Videos Sassy Flight Safety Videos