Why Travelers Are Upscaling

Why Travelers Are Upscaling

Author: Matthew Kepnes

Somewhere before my bus broke down in Australia, I was called a flashpacker. Despite traveling for 18 months, it was the first time I’d heard the term. A flashpacker is defined as a person, unusually in their mid 20s to early 30s, who travels like a backpacker but has more disposal money as well as electronics such as a camera or laptop. Flashpackers also expect better hotels and services.

Neither fully backpacker nor tourist, flashpackers are new to the traveling vocabulary. Flashpackers rest in hostels, carry a backpack, and find cheap transport but blow their money on meals, beer, tours, and parties. They usually aren’t going into a hostel without a reservation or wearing the same shirt for a week. A number of hostels are up scaling to accommodate the growing wants and desires of flashpackers and you’ll find them in all corners of the planet. Flashpackers still have no fixed voyage and all the time to meander around but don’t pinch every penny. They are backpackers with means.

Backpacking is not about a look, it’s a lifestyle. Just because a person doesn’t have a certain look, doesn’t mean they lack the will of a backpacker. It doesn’t make them less of a backpacker. It goes against the backpacker outlook to look down on someone because they travel a different way. Aren’t we supposed to be embracing different ways of life?

It all comes down to what makes a backpacker a backpacker. That’s sprit. The desire to explore new places and experience new people. Backpacking is about opening your mind to new things and looking differently at the world. It’s not about the stuff you carry. As your spirit is the same, what stuff you carry shouldn’t matter.

We’re all flashpackers, whether you like it or not. We may not be driving up to the hostel in a limo but we all expect a little “flash” nowadays. According to a Hostelworld study in 2006, 21 percent of people travel with a laptop, 54 percent with an MP3 player, 83 percent with a mobile phone and a whopping 86 percent travel with a digital camera.

Think about your last excursion- how many travelers did you see with cameras? Ipods? Laptops? I can’t remember seeing one person without a camera, and at least 3/4 of the people I saw had Ipods.

The truth is we all travel with expensive electronics now. We check our email and Skype our friends. We all have a camera and most of us have an Ipod. We are flashpackers and it’s not a bad thing. All this stuff allows us to stay better connected with our friends, our family, and helps us better document our travels. The key is to once in awhile to put down the camera, turn off the computer, and enjoy the culture you came to see.

The backpacker who set off with 1 shirt, a small pack, and two baht to his name is getting hard to find. Most of us have a little more income and expect a little more but we still carry his spirit. We still seek new cultures, exotic locales, and long term travel. We still look for cheap hostels and transport. We camp on that jungle trek. The difference is that now we also want a location to plug in our camera, check our e-mail, and take a hot shower. We just want to be pampered…once in awhile.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/why-travelers-are-upscaling-731744.html

About the AuthorMatthew Kepnes is a lifelong backpacker and recent flashpacker who has spent many years traveling around the world. Visit his website about how to travel the world and learn more about flashpacking.

A comment by SocialiteTravel.com:

Although we agree with Matthew above regarding the point that everyone is somehow related to the Flashpacking lifestyle, we also would like to point out that although everyone these days may carry some sort of electronic gizmo, not everyone travels with a “backpack”, and that my friend will categorize you as a “flashpacker”. Happy Hip Travels =)

Photo: mybackpacking.de

Encapsulated Luxury – The 9h Capsule Hotel by Fumie Shibata in Kyoto, Japan

Japan’s capsule hotels are often a strange concept to foreigners, but the idea is an ingenious way to handle city crowding and space constraints. The first capsule hotel in Japan was built in 1979 in Osaka. The new 9h Capsule Hotel will open in December 2009 in the Japanese city of Kyoto.

Capsule hotels provide guests a private sleeping area and communal amenities. While the concept has previously been utilized as a cheaper hotel option, the 9h capsule hotel adds luxury and refinement. The bed capsule will be made up with 4-star hotel linens and provides a Panasonic system that uses light to naturally and comfortably wake you up. Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S is the mastermind behind the 9h capsule hotel.

‘A comfortable place to rest … 1 hour shower, sleep for 7 hours, have a one hour break / total 9h.’ Guests can spend up to 17 hours in a single stay – the price for one night is ¥4900 ($54,-). (dsgnwrld) Via: Jessica Marcel

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References: dsgnwrld, designerblog.it

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In-Room iPods – The Upper House Ditches Paper Directories

Dog-eared hotel guides and room service menus covered with coffee stains and ripped out pages are a thing of the past at The Upper House, Hong Kong’s newest boutique luxury hotel. Guests open the drawer of their spacious, six-foot wooden desks to find nothing but an iPod Touch instead.

The wireless device has been completely customized by The Upper House. A quick finger-tap and you’re neck deep in all the hotel’s secrets; from the hours of the stylish Sky Lounge to the availability of complimentary mountain bikes.

It gets better—The Upper House application is interactive, encouraging guests to finger-flip through a menu and then order room service. A quick phone call from the kitchen confirms your order, just in case.

Finally, the addition of typical iPod apps like weather and stock information make this innovative gadget a must-have for any traveler in a foreign city. In-room iPods are the way of the future: efficient, eco-friendly and stylish.

This post was created on a Samsung Netbook as a part of a sponsored campaign with Samsung.  Via: Jacob Courtade – HotHotelReviews

References: upperhouse, trendhunter

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Jessica Simpson’s New Travel Beauty Show Thing

Jessica Simpson of newlywed fame and many subsequent sad tabloid covers is making a comeback of sorts, again in the reality television genre — this time as a traveling reporter on all things beauty. With Jessica as host, she’ll travel around discussing beauty regimes of women in other countries and how the concept of beauty ranges from country to country, woman to woman. The series beings sometime in 2010, but she’s already jetting around and filming spots for the show.

She’s having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to some of the travel sans her usual five-star accommodations. A few weeks back she tweeted “WTF?!? Do I really have to sleep like this?” and posted a photo of her mosquito net-draped bed while filming in Uganda. However, she seemed to get into the swing of things quickly, posting the next day: “LOVED my first day in Uganda meeting incredible women filled with spirit.” A big part of the show will be following JSimp as she tries out foreign beauty treatments. She’s already been to a fattening hut (in Uganda), and a geisha house in Japan. Next up—Morocco. The Price of Beauty, will eventually air on VH1, but you can live vicariously through her tweets, here.  By: Bryce Longton – BlackBook

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Chilean Luxury Hoteliering – W Hotel’s First South American Accomodations in Santiago

W Hotels will officially open their first property in South America (the W Hotel Santiago) on November 17, 2009.

The W Hotel Santiago is a modern take on the varied Chilean landscape by New York designer Tony Chi and Chilean designer Sergio Echeverria. Chilean exports such as copper, wine, and fruits and vegetables are incorporated into the design of the W Hotel Santiago to create an authentic sensory experience.

Inside W Hotel Santiago you’ll find Gerber Group hotspots Whiskey Blue and rooftop bar Red2 One as well as restaurants such as the Asian-inspired Osaka and modern French dining at NoSo and Terraza. The W Hotel Santiago also offers an intimate Tea Library, modern wine bar and WET, a heated rooftop pool on the 21st floor.  Via: Marissa Liu – HotHotelReviews

References: starwoodhotels, designscene.net

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Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Introduces El Mayordomo

Concierge service is rewarding, but common; let’s face it, Best Western has concierges. Butler service, on the other hand — the round-the-clock ask-and-it’s-done white-glove kind, that’s still something special. The Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Retreat & Spa in Los Cabos, Baja California has just added butlers to its list of amenities, and they’re free… well, whenever you book an ocean view suite.

Your attendant clocks in the moment you arrive and tends to the minutiae of any resort stay like dinner reservations, spa appointment, and dry cleaning. Yet the role of steward entails more than that: he will unpack your luggage, run your bubble bath, coordinate in-suite dining, plan an entire day trip and make sure your bed is turned down and your shoes are shined when you return. If there are enough of you for a cocktail party, he can arrange that as well. And anything else in between, so we’re told.

Although Pueblo Bonito says “no request is too large or too small,” there is one thing you can’t ask your butler to do: take care of your children — the Los Cabos property has been designed exclusively for adults. With your own butler, though, it will give you chance to be kids. Arthur would be proud…

by Jonathon Ramsey – Luxist

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How to Tip Like a Local

In the states, I’m pretty good with the whole tipping thing. Restaurants are a slam dunk, taxis are easy, salons and spas — not so bad, and I usually manage to deal with the awkward handing off of a few dollars for baggage handlers, hotel employees, and delivery persons. But once I’m on foreign soil, I’m rendered clueless. Do I tip like an American? Is it rude to hand out cash? Are there situations where I should tip when I’m not doing so? Generally, I err on the side of tips, but since I prefer to travel like a local, and therefore conform to the general tipping customs of any country I’m in, I’m a big fan of Conde Nast’s latest PDF: Etiquette 101: Tipping Guide. Covering more than 35 major countries across every inhabited continent, it describes in detail who, when, and how much you should be tipping.

The guide deals with tipping customs for restaurants, hotels, and drivers and guides, and includes detailed rules about tipping in local currency vs. the dollar vs. something else entirely. Note: in Singapore you’ll get screamed at by cabbies if you try to flash a greenback. The best part of the whole guide is the “P.S.” section tacked on to many of the countries. This is where you’ll get information on how to not get fleeced and when to expect poor customer service. For example: actively dissuade squeegee-wielding Mexican boys with a shake of the head, don’t bribe Filipino cops with anything more than about $4, don’t expect anyone to go out of their way to make you comfortable in the Caribbean, and the Japanese are indeed very polite. The PDFishness of this document allows for a print-and-carry for your next trip, but if I might offer a suggestion to Conde Nast Traveler, why not make this an iPhone app? From a cursory glance, there’s plenty of tip-ulators being offered, but nothing about traveling and tipping. That would make this information a whole lot more useful. For now though, download here.  By Bryce Longton – BlackBook

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Tweeting Travel: Customer Service in 140 Characters or Less

Twitter is having a curious effect on big corporations. The time lag between a customer needing service and getting it is getting shorter and shorter. When a single tweet can bounce around the internet and land in the CEOs lap in a matter of seconds, people start paying attention. Being a customer in the travel industry has never been more of a pleasure. For example, before Twitter, Jessica Gottlieb wouldn’t have been able to do much about her two kids sitting on the tarmac, not taking off, on a recent Virgin America flight out of JFK. But through the wonders of the interwebs, she was able to tweet out the following missive to her almost 10,000 followers.

Dear Virgin Air, my children have been on the tarmac for one hour with 90 more minutes to wait. I am at JFK gate b25. Pls RT.

It’s that last bit that’s the most interesting, the Pls RT, because Re-Tweet is exactly what happened, and within minutes Virgin had phoned Gottlieb to reassure her that her kids would be fine. “They contacted the gate agent manager and explained to us the entire weather situation,” she says. “Within 20 minutes of that conversation, the plane took off.” That’s some fancy and fast customer service if you ask me. In the past you might have gotten an apology some weeks later through a blog posting or email campaign, but this kind of instantaneous feedback is amazing. This is a game changer for travelers, social-media-wise. Southwest Airlines lists nearly 70,000 “fans” on its Facebook page, while Virgin Atlantic has close to 20,000 and American Airlines has more than 10,000. JetBlue leads the pack on Twitter, with well over 700,000 followers. Southwest has more than 100,000 followers. Join up and tweet—it can’t hurt. Unless you get sued.  By: Bryce Longton – BlackBookMag.com

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Summer Beach Paradise in Fort Walton Beach

Paradise Found - Fort Walton Beach, Fl.

Via: Kirby Collins

Located in Okalossa County, Florida, Fort Walton Beach is a fishing and beach resort phenomenon. Named one of the Top 100 places to live, it is also teeming with visitors all spring break and summer long. Fort Walton Beach has 24 miles of powder soft beaches to walk upon while you enjoy things such as the sun set, fishing, swimming in the ocean or catching some waves. Families can enjoy one of the beachside parks and the elders can hit up one of the many golf courses for an 18 hole game. There’s so much to do, and what there is to do is only limited by your imagination, so follow me as I describe to you some of the places you can enjoy and leave your mind to wonder.
 
Your vacation destination is here, or perhaps it’s a place you’d like to live? Once you visit, you won’t want to leave! Let’s start off with the beaches, and as I mentioned before, there are 24 miles of beach stretching east to west. Rated the one of the Top 10 safest beaches in the Country, this beach allows jogging, swimming, sand castle building, tanning, fishing, wind and kite surfing as well as board surfing. It’s the perfect place to kick back and get some rays while the sun is setting on the west coast. Along the beaches, there are four renovated beach front parks and six mini parks, all including showers, benches, bathrooms and ADA accessibility.
 
It’s time to get some food, as you will need energy to continue to enjoy these extensive activities. The best place you can head for the most variety is the Wayside County Park, also know as, The Boardwalk. Facilities at the Boardwalk sit on the largest stretch of public beach in the area. It includes a 400-seat seafood restaurant, a two-level beach club, a dueling piano night club, a children’s playground, beach volleyball, 3 beach accesses with showers, 6 public pavilions, picnic tables and public restrooms. Two places to eat that will catch your eye are The Black Pearl and The Crab Trap, both specializing in sea food, but also offering a variety of steaks, burgers, salads and sandwiches. In the mood for Japanese style sea food and steaks? Then head a bit more towards the mainland to Okinawa Japanese Steak and Seafood House for the best in shrimp, steak, chicken and scallops, all under the roof of this Four Star establishment! How about some French-Italian-Thai style meals? Then stay beach-side for Mulhollow’s Bistro 215, where the name “fusion cuisine” comes into play with a wide assorted menu to please all three tastes; tastes such as seafood on sandwiches, seafood on salads, seafood sauteed and blackened, Thai and Italian style pastas, as well as throwing a grilled to perfection steak on almost anything that you can think of as well.
 
Well if you don’t want to wine and dine, how about catching your own dinner? Besides the beaches, there is a little, or should I say, rather long secret I should tell you about. If you’re on the beach, you shouldn’t miss it. It’s the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier, and “Large fish are what we’re famous for”, say the local fishermen. The pier originally opened in 1972, at a grand total length of 962 that stretched out into the Gulf of Mexico; however, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1998, with a new length of 1262 feet. This new length allows for a chance at catching even larger fish that prefer the deeper water farther off shore. The size and number of fish caught here compete with and have even beaten fish caught off shore in boats around the same area. Here’s the deal about this place: you don’t have to bring a thing with you! So if you’re on vacation and didn’t bring the rod and reel or a bucket for bait, you can rent them all here for $7-8 depending on the size of the fishing rod. But if fishing isn’t your thing, then perhaps site seeing is. Head out to the end of the pier to see 8 miles of ocean, east, west and south for 180 degrees in all three directions. Come watch Dolphins jump; see fishermen catch tarpon weighing over 100 pounds, as well as tuna, king mackerel, cobia, and dolphin. Watch in awe pelicans and seagulls beg for food or steal a fisherman’s catch; spot the boats floating around or see surfers from the back as they catch monster waves off of the beach. If that fisherman’s catch begins to look good enough to eat raw because you’re starving, then don’t worry, there are plenty of snacks and drinks all located on the pier.
 
Our last stop will be for the nightlife. Stick around the beach for an awesome night at The Swamp, featuring live music from local and nationally recognized bands like Hoobastank, Trapt, Salavia, Fuel, Cracker and Papa Roach. An enormous dance floor makes it an endless night as the live DJ’s place dance, trance, techno, pop, hip-hop and R&B. Drink it up and dance it down, for what a better way to end the night here at Fort Walton Beach, than to dance it all away.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/summer-beach-paradise-in-fort-walton-beach-865317.html

About the Author:
For your fun in the sun try  Fort Walton Beach  on Florida’s Panhandle. With it’s soft white sand and emerald green water, its known as one of  Best Florida Beaches  and a great place for your summer getaway.

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Santorini Travel – Greece

Jet Set to Santorini - SocialiteTravel.com

Santorini Travel – Greece

Author: Thomas Werd

Santorini is a small archipelago of the volcanic islands situated in the southern Aegean Sea. The archipelago is circular in shape, which is located nearly 200 kilometres southeast from the mainland of Greece. It is also called Thera, which is located among the Cyclades Islands that are in the centre of the Aegean Sea. Along with Mykonos, Santorini Island is the most renowned holiday destination in Greece. The archipelago was also known as Kalisti and Strongiliand and it was the place of one of the most active and the largest volcanic eruptions; however, what remains present day is a subaqueous volcano and a caldera.
 
Santorini Island consists of one of the most awesome landscapes in the world. The conventional villages of this island, which are constructed on tall cliffs, provide an exciting view over the subaqueous volcano. This breathtaking view will definitely make you excited. By seeing such beautiful sites, you must not miss Oia, which is the site endowed with the most renowned and surprising sunsets.
 
Various excavations on Santorini Archipelago reveal human cliff dwelling dating back to 3,000 BC and they show that the cultures such as the Minoans (Cretans) lived on this island. There are two young islands situated in the centre of Santorini Island, which are called Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni. Nea Kameni is a 425-year-old island; however, Palea Kameni is a 2,000-year-old island.
 
Hiking is one of the most popular amusements in Greek tourism. Santorini Greece Hiking is the most time-consuming excursion tour, which may consume about 3 hours. This hiking starts in Fira, the capital of the island, and ends in Oia, the wonderful village. Sea excursions are some other popular option for tours on this island. Visiting Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni by boat is a marvellous way to cruise the caldera and seeing the beauty of the high cliffs that surround these islands will make the trip a memorable one.
 
The Santorini Island is esteemed as one of the loveliest islands and it has many beautiful beaches. The most popular beaches of this island are Kamari, Monolithos, Perissa, and the Red Beach. Kamari, Monilithos, and Perissa have endless and extensive black sand with deep-blue water though the renowned Greek Red Beach is comprised red and black volcanic rocks. These beaches are located on the eastern part of the island and they are some of the main attractions of Santorini Island since they are in the prime area of the island. The Red Beach is situated in a peaceful area, which attracts many tourists all over the world. This beach is the most popular beach of this island. You can find many popular bars, beach-bars, cafés, hotels, and taverns in this island.
 
Santorini Archipelago is also popular for its scintillating nightlife. You can find almost all kinds of popular nightlife activities in the prime touristic localities such as Fira, Kamari, Oia, and Perisa. Oia is the most reliable place for newly married couples. You can find many decent bars, cafés, and clubs during night. Some of the popular accommodation-providing hotels and apartments are Aeolos Villas, Reverie Apartments, Smaro Studios, Tamarix Del Mar Five-Star Luxury Hotel & Suites, Villa Odyssey, and Villa Rena.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/santorini-travel-greece-849660.html

About the Author:
For more information about the beautiful Greek islands, check our  Greece Vacation  guide, or more about  Santorini .

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