TravelCommons

Tag: Chicago

  • Podcast #187 — Moving to a Non-Hub Airport; What Makes A Great Taproom?

    Podcast #187 — Moving to a Non-Hub Airport; What Makes A Great Taproom?

    The last episode recording in Chicago before we relocate the TravelCommons studios, and our lives, down to Nashville. We close out our threads on in-flight mask mandates and hotel housekeeping, and critique an academic paper about the moral hazard of frequent flier elite status. I talk through the changes I’ll have to make when flying out of a non-hub airport.… Continue Reading →

  • My Best Restaurants, Bars and Taprooms of 2021

    My Best Restaurants, Bars and Taprooms of 2021

    It’ll take travel guide books a while to catch up with all the restaurants and bars closures caused by the COVID lockdowns. To help fill that gap, here are the best places I’ve ate and drank at during my 2021 travels. I’ll update this after each trip, so keep it bookmarked. Chicago NoodleBird at Fat Rice, 2957 W Diversey Ave… Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #168 — Surviving Quarantine Theater; Traveling for Food

    Podcast #168 — Surviving Quarantine Theater; Traveling for Food

    Trying to recover from a long weekend of eating and drinking through the neighborhoods of South Philly. Our movable feast reminded me that food may be the one experience of a place left that can’t be easily exported and bought on-line. We talk about the FBI’s cybersecurity warning to work-from-home types using hotels for getaway offices, and are a bit… Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #143 — How Bad is Business Travel For Your Health; Make Layovers Fun

    Podcast #143 — How Bad is Business Travel For Your Health; Make Layovers Fun

    No long-distance travel this month. Instead, I”m getting back into regional jets, and waiting out a long delay in Cincinnati has me wondering about American Eagle’s flight scheduling algorithm. My flights into CVG cause me to think about the impact of losing hub status. CVG looks overbuilt, but MEM is spending money to shrink itself. A Harvard Business Review article… Continue Reading →

  • Video  – ORD Layover Excursion: a 6-Hour Tour of Chicago

    Video – ORD Layover Excursion: a 6-Hour Tour of Chicago

    A long layover can be an impromptu vacation or a mind-numbing marathon of CNN Airport Network shows. Inspired by my own 5-hour layover excursion through Frankfurt, I grabbed my iPhone and shot what I’d recommend you do and see on a long layover at O’Hare Airport. Using foot power and a one-day unlimited pass on Chicago’s ‘L” (subway/metro), this tour… Continue Reading →

  • “Now That I Have My Visa, Where in the US Should I Go?”

    As the US dollar continues to swoon, non-US friends, colleagues, and podcast listeners are doing the math and thinking it might just be worth getting fingerprinted and photographed by US Customs in exchange for a cheap holiday. The question I’ve been asked over the past 3 months is “Where should I go?” Not an easy question — the US is… Continue Reading →