Tag: travel stories
-
Podcast #129 — Airport Fight Club; The Bourdain Effect
Difficult to do a travel podcast without talking about this month’s incidents on United and American Airlines. The videos that hit social media were damning, but as more of the facts came out, the stories around each incident became more complex. On a much lighter note, we also talk about the explosion of food tourism, called by some “The Bourdain… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #129 Uncut — The Video Version
Pulled out the GoPro again for the recording of the latest episode. The GoPro is a bit too far from me for good audio, so I cut in the podcast audio from the Zoom recorder when it was available, hence the change in audio quality. I’ll post the final audio on Saturday. Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #127 — Critiquing My Top 10 Travel Tips; Reviewing VPNs
In this episode, I talk again about digital security on the road, especially the use of a VPN. I review three VPN products, including NordVPN which is giving away a year’s subscription to a TravelCommons listener. I dig into the process of generating the Top 10 Holiday Travel Tips listicle I do every couple of year, and follow up on stories… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #126 — Beating the Traffic; Rethinking Carry-On Luggage
Seems like I’ve been doing as much driving as flying since the last episode, so I’ve switched from apps that track flight delays to those that help me dodge traffic backups. I talk, yet again, about buying pay-as-you-go SIMs while traveling, but the need to do that may be ending. And I’ve reshuffled my carry-on luggage as the airlines have… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #125 — Uber Driver Stories; Overseas for the Election
Back from 10 days in Tuscany where, among other things, we thought we’d avoid all the noise of the US presidential election. We succeeded… almost. One of my latest travel hobbies has been to quiz Uber drivers for their life stories. It makes for interesting rides to and from the airport. We also continue the ongoing thread about travel safety.… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #124 — Craft Beer Hunting; I Hate Rick Steves
My son joins the podcast to talk about hunting down craft beers. I then talk about a few “a-ha” moments from my recent trip to Scotland, my on-going struggles with bitch tweeting, a VPN hardware product that could come in handy, and why I’ve come to hate the Rick Steves travel juggernaut. All this and more at the direct link to… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #122 — Data-Hungry Phones; Dramatic Iceland
Watching Iceland makes its Cinderella run in the Euro 2016 soccer tourney got me thinking back to my March trip there. It is one of the hot travel destinations — maybe too hot? Could be, but the descriptor I keep coming back to is “dramatic.” And it seems that on every trip I make out of the country, I get… Continue Reading →
-
Podcast #121 — TSA Lines, My Luggage is Where?
After two vacations to Europe and some full-contact business travel in-between, I found my way back into the TravelCommons studios. I talk about these recent trips — the awful timeliness of an American Airlines‘ regional jet partner, an incredible string of lost luggage, a meaningless baggage strip tease with Wow Air, and being surprised to still find some quirks when… Continue Reading →