Top Picks: Vancouver Travel Show

[trip style = multiple]

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This past weekend I paid a visit to The Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show at Vancouver's recently-built convention centre {west}, which happens to sit right on the water. Gorgeous. Bonus, my fave Vancouver cafe and hotel are conveniently located right beside it: The Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel {see my review here} and Giovane Cafe.

The Goal I attended the convention with a four-fold objective: a) look out for travel trends; b) see which destinations and tour operators are currently targeting the Vancouver market; c) observe who was attending; and d) sleuth the booths that had it going on. With these goals in mind, here are some of the show's opportunities I wanted to pass on to you...

Honorable Mentions Northern Canada [trip style = adventure] Visiting northern Canada has always been on my travel to-do list, but it's been an I'll do that one day type of desire. Yet, visiting the show a few days ago, reps from the Yukon and Northwest Territories drew me in beyond the famous aurora borealis. Many Vancouverites don't think about visiting the North, yet it's as close as a 2-hour flight away. They say "North of Ordinary" and I'd have to agree. Where else can you experience arctic tundra and snow-capped peaks, 24-hour sunlight and an instant gateway to wilderness?

If anyone wants to weekend up North this spring or summer, here's a great taster: Air North is offering air and hotel packages for $575 {all in} including round trip airfare to Whitehorse and two nights accommodation.

Tacoma [trip style = weekending] In Vancouver, we're all about weekending in Seattle. The only time we mention Seattle and Tacoma in the same breath is when we're referring to the airport {ie. Sea Tac Airport}, but there's more to Seattle's southern sister than the airport, casinos and the Tacoma Dome. On my next trip across the 49th, I'm heading to the Museum of Glass. Located right on the waterfront, this contemporary building is famous for attractions like the Chihuli Bridge of Glass, its outdoor glass art, and live indoor glass blowing. Next time you visit Seattle, check out Tacoma, and if you go in mid-September, "do the Puyallup"...Fair.

Note: if you've ever been to Vegas and seen the glass installation in the Bellagio's lobby ceiling, consider this your taster for what you'll see at the Museum of Glass.

Philippines [trip style = sun] You hear a lot about Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but not much from fellow travelers about the balmy Philippines, comprised of 7,107 islands. I'd like to visit Samal island and stay at a pearl farm-turned-beach front resort, the Banaue Rice Terraces, and other locations soaked in natural beauty.

Iceland [trip style = adventure + spa] If this doesn't make you want to go to Iceland, I'm not sure what will: soaking in a geothermal pool by day, eating a gourmet meal in the eve and watching the northern lights by night. Nature and culture at its best. You'll also be interested to know that you can get a direct flight from Seattle to Reykjavik, and by flying IcelandAir to Europe, you can stop over for a thermal bath at no extra cost.

No Limit Expeditions [trip style = adventure] The above picture is taken of a tent on top of a Land Rover Defender, your partial accommodation for a No Limit Expeditions trek. Cool. Makes my walking trek to Machu Picchu seem pretty basic. Specializing in boutique overland travel in Central America and beyond, No Limit combines hands-on adventure with luxe lodges, gourmet fare and safari-style camps. They had me expedition + boutique + luxe lodge + gourmet... I'm so in. Check out upcoming journeys to Alaska, Guatemala and Belize.

PS - The Whistler Bungee exhibit was lively, fun and interactive. No, I've never considered bungee-ing, except maybe for a milestone birthday, but don't hold me to that.

[photo by @tripstyler of the No Limit Expeditions exhibit]

Travel Trends :: Get a Room

[trip style = urban + beach + sun]

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Unless you're booking the penthouse, you never know what type of hotel room you'll get until you check-in, go to your room and open the door. Until now. The newest evolution in our obsession with the fine-tuned details of travel is a website {so new, it's still in beta} that can suggest a hotel room based on your preferences and distinguish between the view of a concrete wall or a sunset-drenched cityscape.

The Seat Guru of Hotel Room Search A little while ago I wrote about Seat Guru in Go-To Travel Sites of 2010, indicating it was a fantastic resource to research the best seats on a plane---down to the most granular detail like if the tray table is in the armrest. Someone took a cue from the popularity of this site {owned by Trip Advisor} and decided to create a similar model for hotel rooms. Smart.

Not All Rooms Created Equal Room 77 is working on the premise that not all hotels rooms are created equally, and I'd agree having stayed in some ugly, mediocre and awe-inspiring rooms. Launching with 425,000 rooms in 16 major cities including London, Honolulu, Maui, Miami, Seattle, New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, Room 77 is setting out to create the world's first database of hotel rooms. Who wants to pay the same price for a room beside the elevator versus a quiet, corner space at the end of the hall? Not me.

Testing 1-2-3 Once you choose your hotel and desired room category, you can search by parametres like floor height, view, proximity to the elevator and connecting rooms. Doing a search in Seattle at a hotel I've stayed at a few times {The Fairmont Olympic}, I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of detail the website renders: room recommendations tailored to my search criteria, a map of the hotel, a picture of the view I could get, and some general tips for room numbers that could offer partial ocean views. Done and done.

Athough still in its infancy, this is a site I'll be adding to my Trip Styling arsenal, because even in beta mode, it's already a stellar resource.

{Travel Trends are published three times a month on Thursdays. Find them all here.}

[photos by Room77]

Travel Trends :: True Beachfronts

[trip style = beach]

Have you ever been dazzled by a resort's beachfront pictures only to get there and find out 'the beach' is either not what it looked like in pictures, or in a completely different location than it appeared? I have, on a few occasions, but more on this another time...

Actually on the Beach A travel trend that's been brewing for awhile, and is now out in the open is true beachfronts, or website descriptions and pictures that accurately disclose the hotel or resort's beach situation. Now, there's even a website dedicated to this cause. The recently launched Beachfront Club is on a mission to tell the world about hotels and resorts that are actually on the beach, versus across the street, 20-mins up the hill, etc... The reason for this aggressive but impressive mission? One of site's founders is trying to make amends for times he photographed hotels in misleading ways to make them appear seaside through camera angles and editing.

The Beachfront Club Although the site is still in beta, according to this CNN article, it has mapped 7000 of the 10,000 hotels worldwide, it qualifies as on the beach. To give the site a little test run, I looked up a destination I know pretty well: Maui. Focusing on Wailea {Maui's manicured belle of the ball}, I was impressed with the major oceanfront hotels it accurately placed and the initial info associated with each. Its only error showed The Renaissance on the map, only problem is, it has been sitting eerily empty {with fencing surrounding the property} since 2007.

Being Up-front I love the idea of this website, and will likely use it in the future as a cross-checking resource when I'm researching a hotel and/or beachfront destination. Hotel description and picture accuracy is a big deal---even major reputable brands are guilty of mileading photos, etc... Met pet peeve is when they show pictures of white curtain-clad, cabana-like, bamboo beach beds dotting an empty, perfectly flat beach only to find these cabanas don't exist, the beach is overcrowded and it's not that flat, but that's a whole other topic for another time...

In the meantime, check out The Beachfront Club for a true beachy keen experience.

[photos from The Beachfront Club]

Travel Trends :: Retro Travel

Recently, I've seen a lot of attention paid to retro travel. I'm not sure if it's always a hot topic, or just top-of-mind as people long for the Coffee, Tea or Me? era. Nowadays, if you pine for all things retro travel {sans the in-flight smoking}, you have to book a first-class ticket on Singapore Air to get the gist of flying's yesteryear allure.

This past weekend on a rainy morning in Scottsdale {more on this next week}, I pulled February's Travel + Leisure out of my hotel room's magazine pile. Bonus! The perfect read to go along with my just-brewed Nespresso coffee. One of my favourite articles in the magazine was Last Days of the Stewardess because it was a gripping tale of flight attendant history, and I'm overly fascinated with all things retro travel, including tiki everything. Below are some fun facts about retro travel based on what I learned in the article...

Fun Retro Travel Facts {via T+L} 1930s Sky Girls, some of whom were initially registered nurses, dressed in clinical whites or military uniforms. They served meals, soothed nerves, pointed out highlights below, bolted seats to the floor and occasionally refueled the plane.

1940s Stewardess charm farms created a fleet of ladies with matching hairstyles and teeth ground into even smiles. And just like in Hollywood, there were height and weight requirements for the role. There was also a mandatory retirement by the age of 32. Ah!

Little Black Books Eastern Airlines provided men with little black books to collect stewardesses' phone numbers.

Designer Designed In 1965, Braniff Airlines' new uniforms were designed by Emilio Pucci. Now, uniforms look like they sound, bland. With the onset of celebrity chefs and celebrity everything, couldn't an airline partner with Heidi Klum's Project Runway to get stylish new uniforms? Turns out it's already been done by Project Runway Australia for Virgin Blue!

1980s After years of lawsuits, flight attendants won the right to gain a few pounds, let their hair go grey, get pregnant and be men.

2011 Aside from the still semi-glam Virgin, Emirates and some Asian airlines, the price of travel and cost of doing business in that sector has "forced flight attendants to get you from A to B safely and at the cheapest cost possible to you and the company," according to an open letter to the flying public written by a flight attendant.

Is Retro Travel Coming Back? I wish, but it's likely the majority won't pay the associated price tag, and those who do fly private jets or retreat to lounges prior to dashing into their first-class skybeds. Given that North American aviation has become very public transporty, complete with online ticket purchasing, computer check-ins and in-flight meal ordering via your personal console, I think people may start springing for mid-range niceties like upscale economy. For shorter flights, I bet most people will stick with bottled water and Starbucks lunch pack they buy before the flight.

I wish time travel was a trip style. I'd love to be beamed to 1960 and take a Braniff or Pan Am flight and experience the difference between then and now. As someone who mostly flies coach, I think I may want to stay in the 60s, but only if I could bring my husband, family, friends, pup, computer, iPhone and the Internet.

[photos via multiple web-based sources]

Travel Trends :: Prank Calls

Have you every had something weird happen to you at a hotel? This story definitely falls into the weird category. This week's travel trend is off-base to say the least. It involves a prank call, some hotel guests, an in-room sprinkler and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.

Recently, a bunch of businesses and restaurants, as well as guests in hotel rooms in North Vancouver, BC received calls from pranksters posing as fire inspectors or hotel managers instructing them to pull the pin out of the sprinkler, immediately setting it off and causing major water damage.

What likely convinced guests was the call's urgency: if they didn't pull the spinkler's pin, the room would supposedly explode within 60 seconds from a gas leak. {read more about it here.}

Although you might think, I'd never follow those hanous instructions, imagine if you'd just travelled for 36 hours, were exhausted, sleeping in a strange room, and well, you get the point.

Hotel Room Safety

• Go with your gut, if something sounds off, it probably is. Get a second or third opinion.
• Remember, anyone can call you at a hotel, so if you get a suspicious phone call, inform the front desk.
• Always cover the peephole.
• As soon as you get to the room, lock the door behind you, using the deadbolt and chain.
• When leaving the room, ensure the door is locked tight.

[photo: dynamic sprinkler systems]