Rosebuds Blog

The well-prepared traveler packs high-performance clothing, the kind that is comfortable, durable and wrinkle resistant, if not wrinkle free. The last thing we want is to be sitting in our seat squirming in discomfort, whether traveling by train, plane or automobile. Then there is our destination, where a suitcase full of wrinkled clothing will delay our activities while we spend time with an ironing board or ordering laundry services. Little wonder that even clothiers such as Chico’s, J. Jill and Boston Proper offer lines of travel apparel. It is also little wonder that the website Travel Fashion Girl tackled the subject by publishing 7 Essential Travel Clothing Brands: The Female Globetrotter’s Guide. Here are the brands it lists as its 7 essentials, with a brief bit of commentary offered by the feature’s author … (click on the headline to continue reading)

You plan a seven-day vacation to go somewhere far away and enjoy something different, but two of those days are needed for travel to and from your destination, so your actual vacation time has been trimmed to five days. Then you get to your destination only to find yourself jet-lagged for the first day or two, giving you the traveler’s equivalent of a hangover, and suddenly your seven-day trip is reduced to just three or four days of truly invigorating vacation days. Such is the bane of jet lag caused by trans-time-zone travel. Jet lag throws off our sleeping patterns. We don’t sleep as well, are depleted of energy and cannot enjoy the fruits of our travel as robustly as we would like. We don’t live in a Star Trek era, so there isn’t a heck of a lot a traveler can do about travel time, but the effects of jet lag can be treated, (at least some experts say that’s the case). The remedy, according to some, is … (click on the headline to continue reading)

A common complaint among adventure and leisure travelers is a lack of time and money to visit the world’s many great places. So, for most people, one must be discriminating about the choices one makes. And after a location is chosen, the traveler will always get more out of the visit if he or she gets to know the destination. The good news: There is a plethora of information sources to get travelers boned up before the trip. The following listing is excerpted from an article that appears on the Global Goose website, which tackled the subject. Among its suggestions is that travelers … (click on the headline to continue reading)

Two recent airline mishaps that generated major national media coverage — United Airlines dragging a paying customer off a flight, and an American Airlines flight attendant getting suspended after going nose to nose with a passenger — might have some travelers thinking U.S. air carriers are in crisis. Think again. If we are to keep these isolated events in perspective, it requires staying focused on some key facts. Every day, more than 20,000 flights take off and land without incident in the United States, with more than 2.2 million passengers aboard. Those statistics come from the Federal Aviation Administration. What’s more, a study conducted annually by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Wichita State University produces an Airline Quality Rating report that measures industry performance in areas including on-time arrivals, mishandled baggage, involuntary denied boardings and consumer complaints. The organization’s most recent report, issued in April, says the airline industry produced its highest score in the rating’s 26-year history. Why … (click on the headline to continue reading)

Some 87 percent of global travelers use mobile devices while on the move. Millennials spend nearly 50 percent of their time watching movies and TV shows on devices other than a television, primarily laptops, followed by smartphones and tablets. Bottom line: Technologies are shaping the guest experience at hotels because tech devices are deeply embedded in travelers’ lives. Little wonder that a report from a research firm Local Measures focused on this topic for a new report about current and future technologies that will continue to shape and reshape the guest experience at hotels around the world. Technologies range from artificial intelligence, messaging apps and automated bots, to social listening and voice-controlled technology. Too many technologies to deal with this space, so we will focus on a couple of ways that technology is asserting itself in the lodging environment; namely, the check-in process and location services. The report deals with informal, self-service and futuristic check-in. Why the emphasis on check-in? The report stresses that … (click on the headline to continue reading)