Loyalty Pays

Make Yourself Known We live in a culture that tends to choose price over loyalty.  But, affinity pays and can often provide significant value in relationship with a travel-related company. Spread yourself---or your stays and/or flights---too thin and you'll have zero relationship with any company making you virtually anonymous. Who wants that? Loyalty makes you known.

Price-Chasing within Reason One big reason travellers (including myself at times) veer away from a reciprocal relationship with a travel provider is price and/or experience related. Juggling price versus loyalty between airline networks or hotels is a balancing act, but the payout is worth it. For example, later this year I'd like to go to Australia. I really want to fly VAustralia to get to and from Down Under, but I'm going give up that dream for practical, loyalty influenced reasons. I'll likely fly with Air Canada a) because its price is comparable (within 10%) to VAustralia's, b) it's a direct flight, and c) the total trip is worth 14,000 miles---which is just 10,000 miles short of a free domestic flight---too bad the political Turks and Caicos/Canada partnership hasn't gone through yet! Travel Tip: if you are a price-chaser who wants to become more loyal, choose the travel provider which offers you the best rewards, then always seek it as an option first. If your stealthy DIY travel skills find you a price outside of your flight or airline loyalty, use the 10% rule. If it's only 10% more to fly or stay within your loyalty program, then take the hit, but if the percentage differential is larger, you may end up going for price.

Choosing Loyalty Because of flight and hotel price wars, nowadays, choosing loyalty over price can be a sacrifice.  Given that traveling for pleasure is price-sensitive and discretionary, most companies understand and appreciate your attention. A few years ago I abandoned my price-chasing tendencies and started narrowing my focus, choosing a primary airline and hotel group to invest my time and money while on the road. I chose the Star Alliance flight network because Air Canada is a force to be reckoned with at my home airport, and they have multiple partners worldwide. My hotel choice is Fairmont because of their benefits, locations and service. Narrowing my focus and thoughtfully balancing price and loyalty was a bit painful at first, but I quickly learned the benefits of choosing loyalty outweigh the drawbacks. Travel Tip: airlines and hotels know loyalty is discretionary, as such, they reward enthusiasts with savings, gifts, upgrades and other freebies.

Loyalty Pays Based on only a few years of investing in one flight alliance and one hotel group, I've already reaped the benefits. Earlier this summer I travelled across Canada using air miles accumulated from flying Air Canada and its partners---a ticket that would have cost me about $1000 to book. With Fairmont, because I've accumulated enough stays to reach the second of three tiers, I enjoy free gym access, free internet, free addidas workout clothing, dining and spa vouchers and upgrades. On top of this, half the time I get upgraded without even using a certificate or inquiring about the possibility.

When your Loyalty Goes Unnoticed Sometimes you need to remind companies about your allegiance. Recently I stayed at 4 different Fairmont properties during my get to know Canada better trip. Due to these and other stays in 2010, when I'm not automatically upgraded at check-in, I inquire about the possibility---and I'm not shy to do so because of the concerted effort I make to stay at these luxury hotels. If all else fails, here are some best practices for contacting travel companies with your woes.

Don't forget, when it comes to travel: value comes in the form of loyalty.  Loyalty = savings, preferences, extras and puts a face to a name.

Don't Travel Without....

One too many times I've left home without my list of trusty travel helpers and regretted it! Now, in addition to consulting my packing lists, I keep a small package of must-have items in my suitcase so I don't forget anything for my next trip.

When you're in a foreign country, or even in your own country on another coast, there's an arsenal of items that are nice to have on-hand to lessen the inconvenience of travel and bring a little home abroad!

Here are my go-to items, as well as a few suggestions from friends. I hope you find a few packing gems you never thought of before!

Toiletries Baby Powder If I could think of one miracle product for traveling it would be baby powder.  Use it to: refresh second-day hair, aerify the inside of shoes or freshen your underarms.

Eye drops Recycled plane and hotel air leaves eyes bloodshot and tired-looking.  Use eye drops to refresh your peepers.  My friend Christina never leaves home without her drops!

Sunscreen Unless you're headed to Hawaii where there's a beloved ABC store on every street corner, bringing sunscreen is a must! Here'a a tip for those traveling with a carry-on, bring a small, concentrated (70 - 100 SPF) screen and mix it with the hotel's lotion for easy coverage. I've done this before and haven't been burned.

Pills No one wants to be searching for medication while trying to enjoy their trip. I've purchased allergy and cold & sinus pills is Paris, Cuzco and Nairobi.  Afer paying way too much for the pills (that weren't always effective), I've resolved to always bring my own stash.

Conditioner Most hotel conditioners have the consistency of water. The only hotel conditioners I trust are at Westin and Double Tree hotels. The rest just don't cut it.

Wipes or Sanitizer Germophobe or not, this one is obvious and it is my top travel priority other than my passport, bathing suit and comfy shoes.

Band-Aids Usually travel means a lot of walking, whether in long corridors at the airport or around your destination. Unless I'm doing all my walking in my running shoes (which isn't my norm), it's almost guaranteed I'll need one or several band-aids for blisters.

Miscellaneous Sewing Kit Invariably, almost every time I travel, a button comes loose or a hem gets pulled. Most of the time you can get a sewing kit from your hotel, but if not, consider bringing one in your trusty travel kit.

Scarf Oh scarf, how much do I love thee for travel.  Thee can be used as a fashion accessory, blanket on the plane, make-shift bathing suit cover-up, and so on... My husband brings a slightly more manly light cardigan as his 'scarf.'

Tide Pen If you're prone to spilling food on yourself like me, this will come in very handy until you can properly wash the garment.

Documents Recently a ferry reservation I'd made was mysteriously gone when I checked-in. Adding to my frustration, it was not recorded in my Tripit app's initerary (because it was not one of 500 approved suppliers), so while in line, I either had to pay an additional $180, or search my email for 10 mins to find the booking number. I normally travel with online and printed itineraries, but this time I'd failed to print that booking number. Ah, the one time! I was also reminded it's always a must to travel with colour copies of your IDs (which I do), as well as emailed versions in the event you lose the hard copies.

Small Bills or Coins I never travel without small bills or coins (twoonies in Canada) for tipping hotel personnel, etc...

Ear Plugs My friend Nicole noted that ear plugs are "totally a must for me, it is one of the first items I confirm I have when packing--more important than so many other things!"  I couldn't agree more.

Hat/Sunglasses Similar to sunscreen, these are important unless you want to purchase a hat with a giant Florida logo on the front. Non, merci.

Small Clutch Bringing a small clutch for evenings out will look better avec your party outfit, and fly under the radar versus carting around a big purse.

Batteries My cousin is leaving for a trip in 7 days and she already knows she'll be bringing extra camera batteries to capture every moment.

Other Some additional items friends mentioned were: your own lotion, plastic bags, eye mask, travel neck pillow, travel packs of tide, headphones, power chargers, universal power adapter, flip flops and bathing suit even if you think you won't need it.

Find more items like these in the packing resources below!

Related Content Go-To Carry-On Toiletries Choosing the Best Type of Carry-On Travel iPhone Apps :: PackingPro The Art of Carry-On Travel Going Away? Packing and To Do List Using Hotel Room Amenities like MacGyver

Beat the Heat in Sonoma

[trip style = wine tasting + weekend getaway + sun] {more pics below}

Sipping on a lime- and cucumber-infused water I realize it’s already 6:45pm. Having just returned from a full day of wine tasting, I'm lounging poolside catching the tail-end of the Sonoma sun. {An account of my trip to the Napa Valley over this weekend last summer}

Embracing the Heat Although temperatures in the Napa Valley can reach 40-degrees Celsius during the summer, it's still a worthwhile time to visit the USA’s most famous wine region. With a few minor adjustments to packing and planning, we mild-mannered Vancouverites can beat---and even embrace---the Napa heat.

A Work-Around Because Napa is inland, the temperatures are a little more extreme than Vancouver’s. While the sometimes intense midday heat makes you wish you were sipping an ice-cold mojito, surrounded with spritzers by the pool’s edge, the mornings and evenings provide a cool retreat.

Mild Mornings Embracing morning’s milder temperatures allows you to counterbalance wine tasting and start the day by walking to a local café for breakfast, hiking to perfect picture-taking vistas or biking on Sonoma’s back roads to wineries like Ravenswood, Sebastiani and Gundlach Bundschu.

Save It for the Afternoon Save the wine tasting for the afternoon when you can sip chardonnay to your heart’s content in an air conditioned tasting room. Once you hear the next winery calling your name, dash for the car and amp the air conditioning until the next vineyard’s tasting room. Although this sounds like a bit of a process, you have to love a region where rain isn’t even part of the locals’ summer vocabulary.

More Than a Room If you want to see more than just a tasting room, many wineries offer tours of their production facilities and vines. Being indoors, the production portion of tours is cool, yet walking through the pinot or zinfandel vines is a little more toasty. If you can stand the oven-like conditions for an instant and want to get up close and personal with the grapes, most wineries offer umbrellas while some of the bigger players have roofed, open-air vehicles.

Poolside Retreat Depending on your affinity and tolerance for wine, after a few sequential tastings, you may want a pool break. The poolside scene from 5–7pm offers fewer crowds and soothing, milder rays. And if you’ve been tasting cabernets all day, it’s nice to have a late siesta before another glass at dinner.

Good Parking Spot One night I abandoned my 5-7pm poolside rule and went out for dinner at 6:45pm. I made the mistake of dining outside and later realized why I got parking right in front of the restaurant in high season. Although surrounded by calming water features, grapevines and the allure of open-air dining, I couldn’t enjoy my dinner on the patio because the heat was still intense. Case in point, I’d been at the pool the night before until 7.

Lesson Learned The next night I strapped on my party shoes and went out at 8pm. Being a glutton for punishment, I risked sitting outside. The risk paid off. Dining alfresco at the right time was a perfect way to top off an excellent day in wine country. Oddly, that night I didn’t even want wine with my gastronomic indulgences.

Sonoma Travel Tips Stay – The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa or El Dorado Hotel Eat – The Girl and the Fig and El Dorado Kitchen Do – Consider navigating to wineries near your hotel by bike. Most major hotels rent bikes to guests for $25/day. As of yesterday, guests of Fairmont properties in the USA (and Canada) can use on-site BMW bikes for free. Sonoma's back roads may be off the beaten track, but the wineries are worth a visit.

Trip Styler Tip: Whether biking or driving to wineries, if traveling as a pair, share tastings so you can winery-hop without indulging in too much nectar.

Photos Grape vines

Biking to wineries in Sonoma

Grapes at Beringer Winery, the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley

The courtyard at my favorite winery in Napa: Michel Schlumberger

Wine barrels being aged and stored

Related Content Wine Touring 101

Vancouverites: Get your Tourist on!

[trip style = staycation + sightseeing] {more pics below}

Sometimes it's fun to be a tourist in your own city. It provides the sense of getting away and getting lost in the beat of your own city without a road or plane trip. I get it, staycations seem lame, but they don't have to. If you want to make the experience seem all-the-more authentic, strap on a fanny pack, grab a map, showcase your camera, and sport some sunglasses, a hat and runners. With this in mind, I've compiled a list of summer activities that will re-invigorate your love for Vancouver.

[Note to actual Vancouver tourists: most Vancouverites don't escape from the city in the summer. Unless they head for the mountains, lakes or islands nearby, the city is too beautiful and too fun to leave when the weather heats up.]

Whether you're an actual tourist or a local, here are some neat things locals do in the summer:

Do

• Start your day off right at Granville Island. Drink freshly squeezed juice, sip a cappuccino, grab a croissant or doughnut and become part of the weekend-visit-to-Granville-Island ritual.
• Vancouverites are known for embracing an outdoor lifestyle. That's why we live in a place with the ocean and mountains within 15 minutes of the city. Stanley Park's seawall is a big part of this. Take advantage of the park's 400 hectares and cycle or walk oceanside past marinas, lakes, totem poles, forest, boats and beaches. Muster-up a little extra energy and go past Stanley Park into Coal Harbour toward the new Vancouver Convention Centre to check out the green roof and gaze at the larger-than-life art pieces {see pics below}.
• If you're an arty type, or just want to dip your toes into the city's blooming art scene, check out the Vancouver Art Gallery, gallery row on South Granville Street or real estate mogul Bob Rennie's personal art collection (free) in historic Chinatown.  Richard Jackson is the current featured artist showing until September 25, 2010 (you must sign up ahead online). Apparently, Rennie's collected enough art to host continual, unique 3-month shows for the next 20 years.  The gallery design alone will blow your socks off.
• If all you want to do is relax, spend a day at the Vancouver's newest and most fabulous hotel spa at the Fairmont Pacific Rim.
• After a long day of traipsing all over the city, chill out and catch a flick at the Scotiabank Theatre downtown, or indulge in a free outdoor movie experience on Fridays at the Hastings Race Track, where 80s blockbuster movies will be resurrected for the occasion.

Eat

• Breakfast
  • The irrefutable local faves are brunch at Yaletown's oceanfront Provence or breakfast at Crosstown's Cafe Medina.
  • For something a little more casual, visit Thomas Haas in Kits or North Van.  Famous for his chocolates, this chef extraordinaire also makes the best pastries I've ever tasted. Channel your inner Parisian and sip a cappuccino and savor a flaky croissant, then walk it off....
• Lunch
  • Combine art gazing and eating at The Vancouver Art Gallery's cafe with a beautiful outdoor patio.
• Dinner
  • Located in historic (and in Vancouver that means 120 years old) Gastown, Boneta offers an open, funky space and excellent fare.
• Dessert
  • This is a bold statement, but potentially rivaling Italy's gelato, locals flock to Mondo Gelato (recently renamed "Gelarmony"... weird) for their dose of heaven - I mean gelato. You just must.

Pictures (pardon the cell phone pics!) New Vancouver Convention Centre Walkway

The Lego-like orca at the new Vancouver Convention Centre

The slightly ironic rain drop at the new Vancouver Convention Centre

The Richard Jackson art installation at the Rennie Gallery

Another Richard Jackson installation at the Rennie Gallery

Boneta Restaurant in Vancouver

My Own Backyard

[trip style = sightseeing]

A Taster Today I'm leaving Vancouver on  jetplane. My two week get-to-know-my-own-backyard trip will take me to Ottawa, Montreal, Moncton, St. Andrews by the Sea, Halifax and Charlottetown.  Although this whirlwind adventure doesn't even get me close to exploring all the wonders of Canada's East Coast, at least it's a start, a taster per se.

No Passport Required Traveling sans passport is weird, yet refreshing. The last time I was in Eastern Canada (not including airport visits) it was 1992 and I was in grade 7. I went with my French Immersion class on a trip to Quebec.  It was a cool -25 degrees celcius, and the St. Lawrence River--or fleuve Saint-Laurent--was partially frozen.  My french class stayed in a dumpy hostel in the shadow of the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac (really?) and given the absence of my parents, I may have eaten McDonald's every day for lunch.  Both my lodging preferences and eating habits have changed since then.

Why am I going? Since most of the travel I do is international, I want to be able to tell people more about my own country, not just the small pockets I've visited to date. It's semi embarrassing when I meet tourists who've seen more of the country that put the North in North America than I have, but it's a big place. It's the second largest country in the world with a population similar to California's.  Speaking of California, ironically, last time I was there my friend pointed out George Stroumboulopoulos (Canada's famed late-night, gen-X talk show host). The fact is I'm proud to be Canadian, so I want to visit more of this mammoth land mass and meet more of my neighbours before I venture off to foreign soil again.

Ottawa for Canada Day One event I'm super excited about is participating in the Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa (Canada's Capital). I think it's kind of a propos--something I can check off my life list or that would my make my grade 4 teacher proud. For as long as I can remember, I've always watched Canada Day celebrations on CBC. The colours that stood out were red, white and green. Red for the mounties in uniform leading their horses in formation; 'white' for the Parliament buildings and Steven Harper's hair (and I mean no disrespect, running this country has got to be stressful, especially in light of the recent G20 rukus) and green for grass where the horses march and the parliament buildings sit.  I'll get to see all this with friends who live in Ottawa! Bonus.

How am I going I booked this trip using Air Canada Aeroplan miles.  Twenty five thousand miles plus $125 in taxes got me an economy ticket from Vancouver to Moncton with a week stop-over in Ottawa.  My husband and I wanted to fly as far as we could within our domestic points allowance to maximize the opportunity.  So, we're going coast to coast.

Although I'm an enthusiastic ambassador for Canada, I don't feel totally authentic in that self-imposed role, not yet at least. I have so much more to see: the 100,000+ lakes in Saskatchewan, Toronto in its cosmopolitan glory, Ontario's Muskoka region where all the design mags' editors have cottages, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, The Northwest Territories and so on.  Canada, I promise to see more of you in the future.  It's not you, it's me.

PS - research shows that people scan the written word, but pay special attention to the PS line, so, if you're more of a picture than word person, I'll post pics along the way.

--- Get more travel tips and updates like this by subscribing to RSS or email. ---

[photo by Steph & Adam]