The rest of Q&A

Q – Dear traveltruth: We depart from SFO for Madrid and two weeks in Spain in the next three weeks. Our agent is quite good but not at all a “Foodie” In fact I think she believes that the Outback is gourmet fare. So wondering if you can help two hopeless food snobs. What are the best, at any price,  restaurants in Spain that we shouldn’t miss? Oh, and how do we book them, through our agent, directly, online etc?

A – The “Don’t Miss” threesome is El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Mugaritz and Arzak, both in San Sabastian. Martin Berastegui in San Sebastian is also a top pick. Are we saying that three of the best restaurants in Spain are all located in San Sebastian? Yes, and so are critics from around the world. If you are serious about food, make certain that you allocate at least three nights to the city.

Your agent should be able to request these reservations through her contacts handling operations for your trip within Spain. They will have much better luck then you would calling as a US tourist. You may get into one of these, possibly two, but you won’t get into all of them as they tend to book up at least six months in advance. Your agent is going to have to pull some strings. If that doesn’t work out, there may be an Outback in Madrid. Roaming a touch further to the east to the Barcelona area, there is a great villa at Castelldefels that has four bedrooms and five bathrooms with many room for twelve people. This particular villa has two pools and a spectacular view of the Mediterranean, plus a billiard table and a piano. With an excellent garden and wonderful verandah, this is often an excellent accommodation for a vacation in Spain. it is a short drive to Barcelona, with an almost unlimited amount of activities available for the whole family. To get best deals for pool table, Then read the article for more details.

After coming up with 101 things to do in Madrid, I figured I could go a little deeper. What are the things that anyone visiting Spain absolutely must do? I sat down, gave it some serious thought, and came up with 9 experiences. I vividly remember each of those experiences because of how they made me feel – deliriously happy, full of energy, in awe, surprised, or even anxious – but in a what’s-gonna-happen way. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or returning, these experiences should be on your Spain bucket list. Here are the 9 experiences you absolutely can’t miss in Spain, in no particular order. I saw the Alhambra in Granada thanks to UNESCO Challenge

Visit Barcelona

If you could only visit one place in Spain, it should be Barcelona. Travel to Barcelona for a singular cultural, historical and sensorial experience. it’s a throbbing, vibrant city directly firmly grounded in its rich heritage and searching to the longer term . A tour to Barcelona promises an eclectic palette.The second-largest city in Spain, Barcelona is situated on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula bordering the Mediterranean .

As you traveling in Barcelona, it’s interesting to notice that the town has its roots during a Roman colony founded way back within the 2nd century B.C.

You will be struck by the architecture of the town on your voyage to Barcelona. it’s the seat of Modernist Architecture and therefore the city skyline sports a dynamic and dramatic look courtesy the concrete creations of Master Antoní Gaudí and his contemporaries.You will surely discover the amazing history of Barcelona traveling through its lanes. Its Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance monuments are lovingly conserved, as are the labyrinth of narrow alleys.

Such curious mixes of the old and therefore the new make a visit Barcelona in Spain a very enriching and enchanting experience.In Barcelona, take a tour of los angeles Rambla. This busy boulevard houses a bird market, a grand 19th-century opera , a aquarium stocking an in depth collection of navy items including 16th-century galleys and a monument dedicated to Columbus .

Majorca is a popular family destination with resorts dotted around the island such as Palma, Cala D’or, Port de Pollenca and Alcudia. Alcudia, on the north coast, is famed for its hot summer sun and family friendly beaches which line the beautiful Majorcan coastline. People flock from all over Europe to spend some time soaking up the sun on these picture perfect beaches. Check out the La Alhambra website for more details on tours.

Alcudia Beach

A pristine, blue flag beach which stretches 3.4km around the coast of Majorca, Alcudia Beach is perfect for children; with clear shallow waters, fine soft sand and plenty of bars and cafes lining the promenade. If you’re lucky enough to be staying in one of the hotels that back on to this beautiful beach you’ll be just metres from the lines of sun beds and enticing turquoise sea, I’m even thinking about moving temporally to Alcudia, while visiting I saw some beautiful properties for sale in Alcudia near the beach and the weather is just excellent.

Playa De Muro Beach

Quieter than its neighbour Alcudia Beach, Playa De Muro Beach is a stunning 6km stretch of soft white sand. Split into three sections the beach nearest to Alcudia has the best facilities with shops, showers, cafes and bars. A little further out you’ll have all of the same facilities as the first stretch but is nowhere near as busy. The further you head east the less people and facilities you will see but more natural surroundings will appear, whatever you want from your beach days Playa De Muro Beach has it.

Q – I am traveling more and more lately, pretty much globally. This is business travel, but since I’m the financial guy at the company, I like to handle my own arrangements. I’ve been amazed at how much flights can vary in cost and was wondering if a corporate travel agent would be able to tell me when I should be planning on purchasing a ticket. I know that certain months must be better, but how do I find out precisely?  Great site but you need an App. Any plans?

A – As you might imagine, knowing precisely when fares will go up or down is not possible since such decisions are made deep inside the bowels of computer mainframes. Your Corporate Travel Solutions Provider will have some capability to tune you into a fare alert system, so you know when the fare is going down. But if you want to have the latest, smartest technology in your pocket, forget about your travel agent and download an App. called Hopper.

This new App., available currently on Apple products, tells you when you should book a ticket to a specific destination and how to get the best fare. You can see average prices by month and the app. has a notification feature if the price of your ticket spirals downward. There is money behind this project and the company is not shy about claiming that downloading its product is “like having a “super-fast, all-knowing travel agent in your pocket.”. From what we’ve seen, the claim has merit.

We are waiting for one of our technology guru clients to partner with us on an app design. But, quite frankly, we’d rather you read us on a larger screen. Smartphones are simply a ploy by optometrists to develop more patients.

Q – We just spent three nights at the JW Marriott in Dallas and absolutely loved the bed. We both slept like a baby and made up for the sleep we’ve been lost the past several weeks dealing with some issues at home. We’re back a week and my lovely wife instructs me that I am to order the bed. Do I call the hotel or some company that handles it for them?

A – You could contact the hotel directly and ask for Guest Services. But it is highly likely you were sleeping on an 800 coil Serta “Perfect Sleeper”. We would suggest you call a nearby mattress store that carries Serta products. They should be able to get it for you and deliver it quickly. By the way, the top sleep specialists in the nation have pretty much proven that you cannot compensate for lost sleep. The body just doesn’t work that way. Sleep is very much an independent, single event similar to pulling the handle on a slot machine in Vegas, but there are also betting apps which are extremely popular and people visit to go and make some money this way. What happened before has no impact on the event.

Virtually all of the major hotel chains have now gotten into the bedding business. For some, like the Four Season and Ritz Carlton brands, it has become a profitable side business. Our recommendation is to pass on the bed and use the hotels for their specially constructed pillows and duvets.

Q – Just back from a two-week jaunt around the British Isles. We stayed mostly at the better-known chain hotels but we also found some charming three-star places. I thought they were fine but my wife said she felt “itchy” during our last night in Edinburgh and wanted me to ask how we can tell if the hotel washes the sheets and the covers after each guest stay. I’m sure other people who use this site would like to know about hotel policies on changing the linen after each guest stay. The alternative is just too nasty to contemplate, and don’t make me think if the cleaning is for the bugs to, I do recommend the pest control olathe ks work, they will keep everything away.

Homeowners and business owners alike should be encouraged to develop a comprehensive pest control management program. Disease carrying pests can not only cause illness among your family members and even employees or customers, but certain unwanted creatures can destroy the structure of your home or office, contaminate food, and create an unattractive mess. In many cases, it can be very difficult to control a pest outbreak which is why it is always advisable to seek professional extermination or removal services.They have proper instruments and technology gadgets to do proper cleaning. To get more information about these cleaning gadgets you can go here.

Here is guide from the latest buzz b gone reviews. Before we can get into trying to understand whether biological pest control is the answer to the pest-control related environmental concerns, it would be proper to give ourselves a little background information on this whole pest control business; for the benefit of those who may be encountering it for the very first time. Now, pests are organisms (typically insects) that are injurious to the interests of the people who refer to them as such. Thus to farmers, the insects that invade and eat up their crops (whether in the fields or during storage), would be termed as pests.

A – Well you better contemplate it. Hotel cleanliness and night security are two of the issues that are never addressed in hotel or online hotel sales ads expert of you are booking through a premium platform like StayPromo, then you can be assured that all these factirs are considered when they research for deals.

Here are some generalizations and facts that will help you understand how hotel bedding changes are handled by hotels:

• Price dictates everything. The vast majority of hotel chains do not change bedspreads or duvets regularly. The norm is to change them four times per year.
• In most chain hotels in the mid-range to low price category, sheets are not changed automatically each evening. Housekeepers are taught to “eyeball” the bedding, only making changes when they deem it necessary. The number of pieces maids assign for cleaning is carefully monitored.
• Multi-colored bedspreads and duvets are generally a tell-tale sign that the hotel is trying to hide dirt and stains. Hotels that clean duvets after each guest stay like The Ritz Carlson, the Peninsula, and the Four Seasons chain, automatically clean all duvets and bed covers after each guest checks out.
• Sometimes hotel chains maintain stricter cleaning standards at their higher-end brands. Marriott guarantees its covers are changed between guests at its JW Marriott and Renaissance hotels.
• Large three and four-star chains such as Hilton, Sheraton, and Westin ask maids to “look carefully” at bedding each day, removing bedding for cleaning where necessary.
• Some hotel chains, according to Travel + Leisure magazine’s Peter Jon Lindberg, do a regularly scheduled “Deep Cleaning” of each guest room on a regular basis. For the majority of hotels in the United States, a “deep cleaning” takes place every three months.
• When questioned about their bedding cleaning practices, most hotels respond that they clean their bedding on an “as needed” basis.
• Many countries have a higher standard of living than the United States and that tends to translate to higher hotel room cleaning standards. But hotel bedding in underdeveloped countries may have lower standards. Sometimes, as in most of southern Africa, the availability of inexpensive labor and the lower cost of laundering services, combine to elevate room service standards.
• The fact, that no one can ever put in print, is that five-star hotels tend to attract a clientele that has better personal hygiene practices. Every blue light test by investigative reporters in hotels around the country has produced unusually high percentages of toxic materials and insect-borne bacteria. The best defense against getting ill is to stay at the very best hotel that you can afford and to know their cleaning practices before checking in.

Q – My wife and I really appreciate your approach and so we come to you with a question that’s been on our minds for months. You could say we are frequent world travelers. As COO of a large company based in Boston, I travel overseas an average of two times per month. We take three weeks of vacation every year, always enjoying top grade accommodations and services. I am a seeker of high-end services, hate skimping, but the accountant in me demands that I ask “How exactly do you get the best pricing on a top-end hotel room or suite? What is the secret? Is it online, web site, calling direct etc? 

A – The goal of this game is make the consumer feel that he//she has the best rate whenever and wherever they book. In fact, any price that you receive online or from a travel agent is likely to be high because any advertised or available onside pricing is, essentially, being offered to the general public. Hotels do not want their rooms sold online so they routinely require high cancellation policies and assign online bookers some of the worst rooms in their inventory. Hotels want you to book with them directly but they have to offer the same pricing to anyone who contacts them. They cannot offer pricing that will alienate their regular guests.

The bottom line is that anytime anyone quotes you a hotel price, online or offline, you can be pretty certain you are not getting the best price. The best hotel prices are secret, they are never shown to the guest. These room prices are called “Contracted Rates” and tour operators in the country where you hotel is located have negotiated special pricing available through the tour operator or wholesaler. So when you visit Spain and you have arranged a complete itinerary using a Spain-based tour operator, through your travel consultant, you will receive your itinerary with the hotels and it will all have one price. The confidential rates, lower than what you could ever find elsewhere, are incorporated into the itinerary. In that way the hotel fills lots of rooms at the lowest possible price without upsetting the majority of guests who did not book through an in-country wholesaler and, consequently, paid more for their room.

Sorry for the long explanation, but your question required it. Bottom Line: If you actually know the price of your room and have seen it in writing, you are likely paying more than you should.

Q – My wife and I have been following traveltruth for the past eight years. And we always thought we could take anything you said to the bank. But this last story about flying monkeys, horses, and pigs is stretching our credulity. I just can’t believe that any airline is going to let any of these animals into the passenger compartment of an aircraft. And I say this as a certified private pilot. Please retract the story as it demeans the trust we’ve placed in the information that appears here. I’ll grant you this – it’s a good story.

A – Actually, we were being entirely serious and stand by our story. In fact, the photo that accompanies the piece shows a women with a rather hefty pig who was boarded by US Airways at Bradley Field in Connecticut. The pig made a rather huge mess in the aisle soon after boarding and the flight attendants requested that the owner clean the floor before they continued boarding. That resulted in the woman, with her pig, departing the plane. We can’t make this stuff up.

New Department of Transportation regulations instruct airlines to accommodate pre-approved animals that provide “emotional support” to be boarded in the passenger compartment following recommended guidelines.

Q – We will be leaving for London next week flying on United, with a United connecting flight to Lisbon. We just noticed we have four and a half hours between flights. Any suggestions as to where we should eat or shop in the Terminal would be appreciated.

A – You need to get specifics from your travel agent. Our guess is that you are flying British Airways from Heathrow to Lisbon on a code-share with United. That means that BA will actually fly the plane. United flights usually arrive at Terminal 2. We would recommend the new Perfe3ctionists Café which is headed up by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. (Don’t expect to see him in the kitchen. Most celebrity chefs with outposts at an airport limit their appearances to the departure gate)

For shopping we would recommend the new John Lewis store and the boutiques belonging to Cath Kidston and Ted Baker. There are often delays coming into Heathrow. Believe us, the time will pass quickly.

Q – My wife and I have just spent several hours on the phone trying to actually book seats using miles, miles we’ve earned by being loyal customers. I used to fly for my work so I am in a position to see how the damn airlines have cut and cut the seats they allocate to mileage customers. I’ve about had it. I want to find one or two airlines that still have some portion, some molecule of customer service in their DNA. Is there any way to know which airlines we should fly because they still have some integrity in their frequent flyer program.

A – Airlines have integrity. What they don’t have, however, are policies that reflect a proper appreciation of their best customers. Consumer Reports, one of the organizations whose journalistic standards we greatly respect, tried using frequent flyer miles to book seats on the five most popular US routes. They tested nine major airlines over a period of several months. They found major differences between the carriers.

Delta claims it offers more Frequent Flyer seats in its ads. In fact, the Consumer Reports testing indicates that claim is accurate. Southwest was in second place.

The airlines requiring the most miles with the highest fees were Spirit Airlines and US Airways.

Additional advice from Consumer Reports: Book your mileage seats as early as you can. If you can’t find what you want by going online or by speaking with an airlines reservations agent, contact the “Frequent-Flyer Service Desk”. Every major airline has one.

Q – Do you happen to know which country has the most travelers, meaning residents who travel abroad. The question came up over dinner last night and the answers ranged from the United States, France, and England. Also wondering why you no lo longer answer questions about restaurants. We used to find that part of traveltruth really interesting.

A – In the case of England and France, those are good guesses if you are considering the percentage of citizens who leave the country each year on vacation. Given that only 29% of Americans have a passport, we’re near the bottom of the list of industrialized countries in terms of overseas travel. The answer is that China now sends more citizens abroad than any other nation. Bloomberg BusinessWeek estimates that a staggering 116 million Chinese tourists will travel abroad this year and they will spend upwards of $155 billion.

Perhaps most amazing is the fact that this represents a one year growth rate of 20% among Chinese who leave the country for vacation, making the Chinese the most significant tourism market on earth.

There has been no deliberate attempt to devote less coverage to worldwide restaurant recommendations. We respond to questions asked of us. We think that some of the better consumer travel magazines such as AFAR, Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler are doing a much better job of late featuring hot, new restaurants within their area of coverage. Some of the best restaurant advice can be curated from the blogs of the better Concierge teams at top-rated hotels.